Alright, here's my latest X-Men story...i love the universe and have been dabbling with several ROMY stories, but I've liked this one best and have stuck with it the longest, so I wanted to post it and get some reactions. I have a pretty longterm story worked out in my head and just need to get it on paper, so I'm hoping that starting to post will motivate me to keep writing =)


Arrival
"I'm one of those regular weird people." -Janis Joplin
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Rogue jerked in her seat when she felt a hand on her shoulder, and she snapped her head up quickly to look up at a very startled stewardess. Somewhat sheepishly, she plucked the headphones from hear ear to eliminate the quiet music that had lulled her to sleep.

"Sorry, sweetie...it's just about time to land..."

Rogue nodded quickly and threw in a smile as an apology to the older woman. Obediently, she turned off the iPod and stashed it away in her purse to comply with the no electronics policy. This left only the muted nose of the airplane's cabin to occupy her ears, but it was only for a short while.

She was a little nervous as the plane prepared to land. Not because she was scared of flying - she was far too used to it from missions on the BlackBird - but because this was her first solo job. She was excited though, too, and happy to really be contributing to the team again.

She had recently been gone from the mansion for quite some time. She had planned to go away to Scotland to work with geneticist Moria McTaggart. Hank was brilliant and had been interested in studying her mutation to help her control it, but with all of his responsibilities in and out of the mansion he had limited time to do so. Professor Xavier had been the one to suggest the trip, so she had been hopeful that Dr. McTaggart might really be able to help.

She had been on her way to Scotland when everything had gone wrong...

She'd been attacked before she could complete the journey, kidnapped and taken to a remaining faction of Stryker Labs. Many tests had been performed on her there. Things had been done that scared her and most of it she still did not understand. It had all been perfectly horrifying, but she and another captive had been able to escape. Unfortunately she had been pretty drugged-up when they made their get-away and by the time she made it to Westchester she didn't know just where she'd come from, so she didn't have much to tell the Professor as far as where to go to save the other prisoners and finally end what remained of Stryker's legacy.

She didn't even know how to get in contact with her fellow escapee - he had split once she was in New York - and she refused to tell the professor who he was. Her companion had been extremely wary of this "school" and the "professor" when she explained where she'd come from and had made her give her word that she wouldn't get him roped into their business. While she very much wanted to help the other captives, she took this promise seriously because she owed her escape companion far too much to betray him.

Her refusal to talk about him had not gone over well with many of the X-Men. Scott, in particular, became somewhat icy with her when she wouldn't divulge absolutely everything. He assured her that he understood the idea that "a promise made should be a promise kept," but he also felt this topic was too important for her to be keeping promises to someone she barely knew.

Logan, too, bad been disappointed she couldn't/wouldn't reveal more. He had a great vendetta against Stryker, after all, and hearing that the entire operation had not been destroyed years ago at Alkali Lake was a distinct blow to him.

If anything good was to be said about what had happened at Stryker - and Rogue hesitated very much to call any of it "good" - it was that something the workers had done had stopped her toxic skin from being outside her control. The on-switch of her mutation could be turned off, now...she didn't know how, she didn't know why, but she was ruefully grateful for it.

Hank had been most fascinated and had insisted on running some tests. He still had no definite explanations and Rogue was hesitant to participate in further medical testing...she found Hank's labs uncomfortable and distasteful these days after so much un-wanted lab time with Stryker employees...

Rogue shook these thoughts from her head as the plane finished taxiing to a stop. She joined the rest of the passengers as they shuffled around with their bags into the isle to slowly make their way to the terminal. She found herself getting antsy; she was excited to get there and be greeted by Logan.

Once she had recuperated upon her return to the mansion, Logan had taken to training her. This was to get her back up to snuff, and she had happily dove into endless exercises to serve as a distraction from all of her thoughts and memories. It was during these trainings and danger room sessions that she began to find she could tap-into some of the powers that belonged to the dormant psyches in her mind. It had started with Magneto's power, which was most prominent because of his strength and the length of their contact - she also suspected it was because Logan's metal skeleton had been a temptation to the latent display of the power...

The Professor hypothesized that now her mind and body wasn't unconsciously focused on not draining the life from everyone around her it was now aware of the potential powers within her.

She and Logan had put in countless training hours, learning how to focus on Magneto and his power. It was always Logan she trained with, since he could heal in case anything were to go wrong. She'd learned to control Magnet's power rather well even though it exhausted her if she used it too much. She had a lot of difficulty using Logan's power, her body just didn't seem to want to put itself back together of it's own accord...it was slow going when she did manage to get it to work. She had become adept at drawing forth Jubilee's power, too, but had nowhere near as much control and skill as Jubilee herself.

'We're badass, firework-throwing bitches, now…who's gonna mess with us?' Jubilee had cheered once Rogue started to be able to show some control control with the mini fireworks.

Not long after this, Logan had left the mansion.

Everyone had always known it was only a matter of time - he just couldn't seem to settle in one place for too long. He headed South to look for what remained of Stryker Labs where Rogue had been kept. She knew they had to have been South of Missouri because the first place she remembered being conscious of where she was during the scape had been in just after St. Louis on the way home, and she knew it had been quite hot where they'd been kept. This information was enough for Logan to make a go on and try to make more headway.

Rogue had considered going with him but knew he'd do better on his own - that was just his way. So she had not seen him for quite some time now and was excited for that to change. He agreed to meet her there in the Big Easy to help her get settled. He couldn't stay long because had to head West to meet someone, but he was coming from Florida so he had time to stop in Louisiana to make sure her trip started smoothly.

When she wandered out through the airport, she didn't find Logan waiting so she quickly turned her phone back on to see if he was just running late. She did find that she had a voicemail, but it ended up being from Scott:

'Hi Rogue, hope your flight went well and I hope you get this before you start searching the airport for Logan. He's not going to be able to make it. His contact out West is trying to skip-out on him, so he's getting out there as fast as he can. Storm and I have gotten your rental car set up so that you don't have to deal with it, and you already have the information for the hotel, so you'll still be fine. I'm sure Logan will call you himself once he has a second to slow down, but he told us to tell you good luck. Let us know when you get there and call if you need us. Be safe.'

Rogue shot Scott a text to let him know she'd landed, unsurprised his last words were to be safe. He had misgivings about her going on this mission alone…he'd almost given-in to Bobby's pleas to go along with her, but Storm had won the argument when reasoning that Bobby couldn't afford to miss an undetermined amount of class.

Rogue narrowed her eyes at the thought of Bobby. She was getting to the point where she couldn't really even stand to talk to him much. He was interested in her again, and she knew better than to think it was a coincidence that his renewed interest coincided with her having control of her powers. He had been willing to forget all about Kitty back when Rogue took the cure, but it wore off after a few weeks and then he'd been fawning over the other girl again. She'd broken up with Bobby and he hadn't seemed too busted-up about it at the time. He and Kitty didn't work out, so -of course - when she returned with control was when he'd regained some interest...

Idiot.

She pushed him from her mind and headed to claim her baggage, bummed Logan wasn't there to chat with while she waited. She'd been very much looking forward to seeing him again - he was a special friend to her.

She managed alone, however, and grabbed her dufflebag when it came around the carousel. The only part of this she'd never done before was rent a car; once there, however, it was all straight-forward and she was soon heading into New Orleans in a car much nicer than necessary - of course Scott would rent her a nice car. For all the things he was strictly practical about, cars had never been one of them.

After checking into her hotel, she grabbed several guest information pamphlets from a table to take to her room to investigate.

She was being sent to New Orleans to track down someone Storm was looking to recruit. He was allegedly an old friend of Storms, but Rogue felt this was a strange way to get in touch with a friend.

'Well, it's been a while,' Storm had chuckled when Rogue voiced this. 'We haven't stayed in constant contact…but he owes me, so he'll come along when you find him.'

Rogue had also wondered why Storm wasn't the one to come down, but understood Storm had classes to teach. So it fell to Rogue to track him down and tell him it was time he pay it forward and make good on whatever favor he owed Ororo Monroe.

Going through a stack of directional brochures, Rogue found she was close to the French Quarter, which didn't surprise her since Storm had made all of the arrangements. She had a map of the French Quarter and committed the necessary areas to memory so that she could find her way around without looking too much like a tourist.

From Storm, she knew she should center her search in and around Bourbon Street.

"That's his sort of night life," Storm had told her.

"Check the darkest, seediest places first," Scott had added in an angry mutter.

Storm had given her some starting places but told Rogue she might have to start asking around and trying to charm news out of people who worked there or appeared to be regulars. Apparently Storm wasn't confident in her recommendations of where to start because, as far as Storm knew, her friend had not been back to his hometown of New Orleans in quite some time.

Storm had admitted to being surprised and slightly dumbfounded when Professor Xavier announced that he had found the man in New Orleans using Cerebro. She had sheepishly even asked him to check again, which he had condescended to do, but the answer was still New Orleans. Sensing something had changed in the few years that has passed without contact, Storm wasn't confident that she knew just what was going on.

'Of course, if you make a big enough stink about looking for him, he might find you,' Scott had pointed out.

Scott's ominous comments had made Rogue uneasy, but Storm had silenced him with a few pointed looks and assured Rogue that she'd be okay. Scott had scoffed when she said her friend wasn't as bad as Scott made him out to be, so Rogue wasn't sure exactly what to think. She let herself rely more on Storm's assessment, however, since Scott could be uptight about who he did and didn't like. After all, Scott ruefully tolerated Logan while Rogue held a firm affinity for him.

Since she was thinking of Storm's friend, Rogue pulled a paper from her backpack that was simply a headshot of who she was looking for.

She tried not think it looked too much like a mugshot, though Scott's scattered comments on the man made her think it could be…

Remy Lebeau had a chiseled face framed by dark hair that fell down around his chin. She wished there was more to the picture to give away his build or approximate height...she didn't want to miss him in a crowd.

However, Storm had assured her, with a smile, that she likely would not miss Remy LeBeau in a crowd...

Rogue gazed at the picture a little longer before sitting it with the brochures and changing her clothes. She knew it wasn't too late to miss the New Orleans nightlife, but she still just changed into sweats and a t-shirt to get ready for sleep. She was too tired from a day of traveling to stay out late, and it would be nice to get a feel for the French Quarter in the day time before venturing in at night. New Orleans could be a dangerous city, and she was going about it alone so she wanted to be as prepared as possible. She was nervous about it, though not altogether scared since she had her powers on her side….she just didn't want to have to make a ruckus around here…

She let herself forget about it and crawled into bed to watch TV before sleep. For now she would rest, a lonely mutant in a big city likely crawling with mutants, and tomorrow she would begin the search of that city for one mutant in particular


Alright, I hope that was an adequate introduction. I have quite a few chapters written already, so hopefully I should be able to update again soon =]