Open door. Cringe at house band. Look around slowly, take in the contents of room.
Did he always look this... tired? I didn't think he'd ever get old... Hell, I didn't think any of us would live this long, let alone survive long enough to get gray hair...
Pull out chair, sit down, Order food. Smile, Nod, Thank waitress.
"It's been a long time, Remy."
Glance up, smile.
"Too long, cher."
I always loved his accent... Not that I'd ever tell him that. He'd never let me live it down.
"What've you been up to, sugah?"
"This'n that... Not much, Gambit ain't as young as he used to be."
If that ain't the truth... He's got wrinkles now. Wrinkles! Not that I should talk... I'm not as fit as I used to be either...
"None of us are, Cajun, none of us are..."
Fifteen years earlier:
Gambit.
"Eliminate that, Mon ami!" Three streaks of red fly from the Cajun's hands, the kinetically charged playing cards hitting the black and green robot squarely in the shoulder. The arm is sheared off and falls to the wet ground with a rather disappointing "Flump" as the marsh already begins to swallow up the scrap.
The robotic voice sounds again, a beam of green energy searing from the robot's eyes, striking a blue-furred beast hulking in the background.
"Class A mutants... Eliminate."
Wolverine.
"Dammit! When the hell'd they start camouflaging you overgrown tin men anyway?" A veritible black and gold blur charges at the metal monster, leaping upon it with metal claws of his own, protruding from the back of his hands. They tear through the thick metal skin of the robot, of the Sentinel variety, leaving three long furrows across its chest.
"Class A mutants... Eliminate."
Cyclops.
"We have to end this fast, before anyone else gets hurt!" One of the ones fighting off the Sentinel drops to one knee and brings two fingers to the side of his ruby-coated visor, a beam of similar colored energy lancing from the visor to strike the Sentinel in the lower abdomen. A mild explosion follows, bringing the robotic giant to it's knees.
"Class A mutants... Eliminate."
Beast.
"You would at least think that during the upgrade they'd improve their vocabulary a bit." The last remaining X-Man on the scene pulls himself into a tree and hurls his furry blue self at the Sentinel, reaching into the holes made by the previous attacks. Reaching in and pulling out a handful of wires and circuts he flips back, landing in a half crouch as the lighted eyes of the Sentinel go out, and the giant sinks to the ground.
The man known as Wolverine stands and dusts himself off, retracting his adamantium claws with an audible Skint. "That was one tough tin can."
"That's one way to put it, Logan. However, I believe it wise to move on before anything further happens regarding us fighting off rather large, deadly robots." Beast, aka Hank McCoy, stands from the crouch and looks around, raising a questioning eyebrow towards the man in the visor.
"Good point, Hank. Let's move." Cyclops nods to the trench-coated man named Gambit and jogs forward through the woods, a decrepit mansion looming ominously ahead in the impending dusk of the setting sun, a faint mist settling about the swamp.
"If that ain't the truth, Cher, then I don' know what is..."