Kitty's eyes lit up as she gazed over Rogue's shoulder. "Who is that sitting with Roberto and Sam?" she demanded practically standing in her seat to get a better look.
Rogue glanced quickly over her shoulder spotting the two men and the new guy sitting with them. She remembered seeing him out front yesterday when she'd gone after Kurt for using her brush again. Turning back to Kitty she picked up her lemonade and took a quick sip "He's the new guy Logan brought in. A Cajun, I think he goes by Gambit"
"He should go by Gorgeous." Kitty said dreamily sitting back down and resting her chin on her folded hands.
Despite her best intentions not to, Rogue found herself glancing towards the boys' table once more. He was certainly handsome, she had to give him that. Tall and lean with sexy tousled hair, sharply chiseled cheekbones and eyes that glowed a deep captivating crimson. Eyes that had flipped up to regard her curiously while she had been checking him out. Feeling the blood rush into her cheeks she averted her gaze so quickly her hair swished around her face as she pivoted back towards her best friend. Grimacing at her lack of tact, she focused on peeling the label away from her lemonade bottle and not on the eyes she could feel boring into the back of her head.
Seeing her discomfort, Kitty pounced "Oh my God, You think he's hot don't you"
It amazed her how Kitty could make her feel like they were still sixteen. It might have something to do with her love of gossip or maybe the way the tiny woman near shrieked when she was excited. Feeling the heat in her cheeks raise another notch, Rogue hissed "Would you be quiet, they'll hear you. Besides how would Petey feel about you eyeing other men?'
Kitty rolled her eyes, choosing as she often did to ignore her. "They're both staring this way. Oh look he's asking about you" she exclaimed delighted.
"Would you stop that" Rogue resisted the urge to smack her best friend and instead spun the top from her lemonade bottle watching intently as it made lopsided circles against the table.
"Why?" Kitty seemed genuinely confused by Rogue's animosity "You should go talk to him"
"Are you out of your God damned mind" she gaped at her while Kitty grinned and flicked her ponytail over her shoulder.
"Why not? You're single, he's new here. It's just being courteous."
"Kit! Take a good long look at him. A boy like that ain't got no use for a gal he can't touch. One of those boys'll tell him all about my mutation and that'll be the end of that, so quit making a fuss" She couldn't help herself from glancing back once more. He had canted his head down and was watching her lazily from beneath heavy lids. As their eyes met, his lit up with a warm glow and he smiled a slow sexy smile that made several breaths slam together in her chest as she attempted to calm her frantic heartbeat. She jerked her flaming face back towards her own table, determined to keep her eyes faced forward.
Unfazed, Kitty took a sip of her coffee, her eyes alight with mischief "Yeah, well maybe he's up for the challenge" she quipped trying to hide her grin.
"What?"
"He's headed this way" Kitty informed her sounding just a little too smug. Hating herself for falling for Kitty's bait she glanced back again and saw the new guy making his way through the crowded room towards their table. Panicked, she flew out of her chair nearly upsetting her lemonade and mumbling "I just remembered, I have to do this thing for uh, Logan. Talk to you later" and with that she raced out of the dining hall leaving behind a shocked Kitty and an intrigued Cajun.
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"What's her story?" Remy asked gesturing to the woman leaving the cafeteria. She had been seated angled away from him so he hadn't noticed her at first, but at a prompting from her friend with the ponytail, she had turned to look his way. It was the angry southerner from yesterday. The one with the hairbrush and a killer arm. He had been struck by just how pretty she was now that she wasn't yelling or throwing projectiles. Large green eyes dominated a heart shaped face that was framed with those platinum stripes. She also had the most endearing black mark at the corner of her mouth, an innocent little fleck that made him think of deliciously naughty things. Instantly his attention had been captivated. Sam had told him her name was Rogue, and he'd been hoping to introduce himself when she'd up and left. Undeterred, he'd settle for learning about her for now and introducing himself to the pretty little minx later.
Roberto laughed at his enraptured expression "Forget it my friend. Never going to happen"
"Boyfriend?" he questioned. Roberto shook his head grinning. Remy frowned "Girlfriend?"
Roberto laughed again. "No, no. You've got it all wrong. Look, Rogue's hot alright, but trust me you're never getting in there."
Remy swiped a fry from Sam's plate smiling smugly, "I think you may be underestimating my gift with la femme"
Roberto swallowed his mouthful of burger "Nope, I just know that girl is never going to date anyone, ever."
Rolling his eyes at his friend's melodrama, Remy bit "Why" he drawled.
"Her mutation" Sam offered throwing a french fry at Roberto, which he promptly caught and stuffed into his mouth.
Remy thought back but couldn't come up with anything that stood out. Whatever her mutation, it wasn't immediately obvious.
"It's her skin." Roberto told him between mouthfuls of burger "She touches you and sucks your energy, your memories even your powers. Knocks you flat on your ass after only a couple seconds and you wake up hours later with a killer headache. Kind of a buzz kill huh"
Remy considered that a moment "She can't control it?"
"Nope"
He whistled. That was a bitch of a mutation. Thinking back on it, he realized that he had only seen her in gloves and long sleeves. Roberto was right, he didn't stand a chance there. It was too bad, she'd been a damned pretty thing. Brushing the girl and her enticing little mark from his mind he brought his attention back to his friends.
An untouchable girl wasn't something he was looking for. Not when there were so many lovey creatures at the mansion just begging for a little Cajun charm.
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Forge hurried as quickly as his metallic leg would allow him. His own creation, it was far more advanced than anything the hospitals could offer, though it still made moving quickly a challenge. Normally he would just COM. whoever it was he was looking for, but Logan had a bad habit of misplacing his equipment and this was too important.
After nearly running down an annoyed looking Rogue(How was he supposed to know she would be racing out of the dining room?) he finally made the last turn to the war room. Logan was scanning through page after page of missing mutant profiles. They were beginning to suspect that the missing cases were linked and the deeper they dug, the more sinister it appeared. It made Forge very happy to stay at the mansion and tinker away at his various projects.
"Didn't I give you a new COM. last week" he asked Logan, letting his irritation at being dragged away from his tech lab colour his voice.
Logan only smirked at him "Must've lost it" he rumbled. They both knew he hadn't. Repressing a sigh and tapping away at his tablet, Forge brought up the pages that had alerted him in the first place.
"We may have an issue here"
Logan sat upright peering at the tablet in front of him. The pages had been coded, though not very well. It had taken next to nothing to crack. Sitting in front of them was a webpage. A mass email recruiting like minded people to their cause.
That cause was the "Friends of Humanity". A mutant hate club. Publicly ,they fought to oppress mutant rights and argued the pros of the Mutant Registration Act. The Act would force all mutants to register their names and exactly what they were capable of so the government could keep an eye on them. It was left unsaid, but had been hinted at that those deemed "too dangerous" for society would be locked away for "safety". The Professor was away right now arguing against the invasion of privacy and the danger to all mutants if the Act were to be introduced.
Forge held back a shudder. Locked away, simply because of the gift you were born with. It was a terrifying new world they were living in. One that seemed capable of turning on them at any moment. Apparently things weren't moving quickly enough for the "Friends". Though publicly they kept to the law, there had been awful rumors lately. Tales of armed men and women going into mutant neighborhoods and causing havoc. Vandalism, thefts, assault; all of it extremely violent, and now mutants were missing. Yet, nothing could be officially brought back to the FOH members. On the surface they appeared to be as straight laced as a group of bigots could possibly be.
"I hacked into their chat rooms. It's all in code, but I think there's going to be an attack soon."
"Can you shut down the site?" Logan asked.
"I could, but they'll only reopen it again somewhere else. I think it's a better idea to watch and see who is going to this site. Maybe get an idea of when and how many"
Logan nodded. "Keep an eye on it, let me know if anything comes up"
Forge nodded grabbing his tablet and heading back towards his lab. If there was info to be found on this group, he'd find it.
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After Forge left, Logan grabbed his cell phone and quickly sent off a short message. Minutes later his new team arrived, minus Colossus.
"I need you three to check something out for me tonight" he passed out a sheet detailing their first mission.
"A mission? Already" Sam questioned quickly scanning the sheet in front of him.
Roberto whistled "Damn, he's trying to kill us" he muttered.
Gambit raised an eyebrow but said nothing.
"Wheels up in ten" Logan told them and Roberto and Sam made double time racing to get their gear.
"Trial by fire?" Remy questioned as he incinerated the piece of paper with their instructions.
Logan bit back his grin. "You'd best hurry Cajun, that jet is taking off in nine minutes with or without your skinny ass."
"Why Logan, I didn't think you'd noticed" with a grin and a quick salute Remy loped down the hallway.
The Cajun wasn't wrong. It was a trial by fire. Though they had yet to train together, he wanted to see if they could work as a team. He needed those three to trust each other implicitly. That being said, what he wouldn't give to be a fly on the wall during their raid tonight. Logan cracked the metal plated bones in his knuckles his grin spreading wider.
They were going to hate him for this.
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Where is Logan sending the boys, what is happening with the missing mutants, will Rogue and Remy ever actually speak?
What? You think I know. I'm just along for the ride
