Authors Notes: A double update to make up for the short chapter of five. Oh and as for the Shakespeare comments, that just because I haven't read much of his work, I'm sure he has his audiences but I am not one for reading them (I prefer to see them performed).
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Chapter Six: Mutant Crush
Acolyte Base.
She was hanging onto a rope as she stood on the branch of a tree, high above the river with several voices calling out. Her perspective wasn't as it should be, her arms too short and height not quiet right, as if she was a child again.
"Come on Rogue! Ya can do it!"
"Go for it petite!"
Looking down at the figures of her brothers and cousins Rogue took a deep breath and jumped-
"Get up!"
With a cry Rogue bolted up in bed, kicking a leg out towards the intruder in her room but it was caught before it made contact with a rather sensitive area of the male lower body. Fragments of her dream still floating around in her head and piecing them together she remembered it was the first time she broke her leg when she had jumped into a shallow part of the river that the loving boys in her family forgot to warn the six-year-old about.
"Mornin' to ya too chèrie." Remy said bitterly, holding her foot in his hand at his hip level. His hair was in a mess around his head, not looking at all happy about being there and as if he had just rolled out of bed. Shooting a look to her bedside clock Rogue realised she was right, he must of gotten out of bed to wake her as Remy LeBeau never got up before 10 in the morning. Suddenly the time hit her, she was going to be late.
"Oh merde!" Jumping out of her bed Rogue rushed towards her bathroom, spinning the dials of the shower on as she heard Remy walk up behind her.
"Ma thoughts exactly." He grumbled, rubbing the heel of his palm against one eye. "Next time set ya alarm not so loud Angel, some of us like to sleep."
"'ey! If Ah 'ave to wake up at dis 'ell of an 'our so should yah!" She snapped. Neither of them were morning people, at least not until they had some caffeine in their systems.
Waving her off Remy grumbled as he left the room, cursing as he hit his toe against the corner of a book left lying on her floor and slamming her bedroom door behind his exit. Growling back her own profanities towards him Rogue forced herself into the water despite the temperature not being quite right.
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Bayville High.
Slouching down in her chair and playing with one of her pens Rogue stared aimlessly off into space as the teacher talked and handed out books to each in the class. She had made it to school just as the last bell sounded, breaking several speed limits on her bike doing so.
"All right, for this drama exercise you'll each be doing a scene with a partner. Since a few of you haven't chosen partners I'll be pairing you up myself. Taryn, you and Paul are going to do Laura and Jim from The Glass Menagerie." Handing a green covered book to each teen as he said their name. "And that leaves you," Next passing one to Rogue, only making her slump deeper into her seat as he neared her. "And you." Then Scott. "You two will be doing Shakespeare's Henry V. I've marked it. Henry and Katherine, daughter of the French King."
"Lots a luck Scott," His blonde haired friend Paul spoke up. "I don't think Miss small, dark and sullen has even said two words. You're going to have to play both parts yourself man."
The class laughed along to his comment as Rogue glared at him, causing Paul to quickly divert his eyes from her and sit rather awkwardly in his seat.
"All right class, all right." The teacher called out to settle them down again. "Now, I want you to get together with your scene partner and rehearse. You perform on Tuesday."
Turning in his seat Scott put on a smile and raised his brows above his glasses. "Sounds like fun."
"Yeah," Rogue answered, her voice full of sarcasm as she rolled her eyes at the idea of the project. "As fun as fallin' off a cliff."
Seeming to recover from the first glare Paul directed his words to Scott again. "Oh yeah, she's just playing hard to get."
Resting his chin in his palm Scott did his best to ignore his friend. "Shut up Paul."
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Sitting around their usual table in the cafeteria the Xavier students were picking at what could be considered food since it came from the school menu, several comments going around that the meal had growled at them or moved during them poking it with a fork. While the jocks and cheerleaders of the school with their gold, red and white uniforms huddled together in one corner the two Brotherhood boys took up their seat not that far from the X-Men, Lance trying to ignore Todd complaining about being hungry and wanting to go looking for bugs. As Freddy lumbered into the cafeteria and bumped aside a kid to get to the front of the line Kitty picked up his presence, pointing him out to Jean next to her.
"Is that humungous guy the one you and Logan, like, went to see Saturday night?"
"Yeah, Fred." She confirmed then continued with a smirk. "He's ok, when he's not ripping the lockers off the wall."
Raising a hand to her chest in shock Kitty's eyes went wide. "He's the one who, like, did that? Freaky!"
Spotting the final member of their table forcing her way rather violently through the doors Scott waved a hand to gain her attention before calling out. "Hey Rogue."
"'ey." She muttered, dropping heavily down into the seat next to him.
"Where were you?" He questioned her. "We were just in the same class."
"Darkholme wanted to chat." Came the reply with a roll of her green eyes.
"It seems she wants to talk to you a lot." Jean commented rather snidely as she took a drink from her straw, not practically sure of the girl that the other three seemed to taken to so quick. There was something not right about her.
Smiling sweetly over at the telepath Rogue batter her darkly covered eyelashes at her. "Guess Ah'm just special den Jeanie."
"So when we going to rehearse?" Scott asked, changing the subject.
Making a face at the idea of the project she leant back heavily in her chair so it rested on its back two legs. "Uck, who cares?"
"Rehearsing?" Jean asked, her eyebrows suddenly shooting up toward her hairline.
"Yea', got some stupid drama piece for Speech."
"Hold on," Kurt held up a hand before looking to Scott. "You and Rogue? Ack! Now dat iz a ztrange combination, ja?"
Glaring over at him Rogue's chair legs slapped loudly against the floor as she leant across the table towards him. "W'at yah mean bah dat?"
"N-nothing!" He stumbled over his words as the other three started laughing at his misfortune, but Kurt being Kurt quickly turned it to his advantage with a grin. "My friendz, you've got to invite me to da rehearzalz!"
This gained a laugh from all as Fred finally exited the food line, passing right by their table at that moment. Growling at the thought they were laughing at him he stormed to one of the far tables, the chair and table collapsing under his weight and sending the pile of food on his tray slingshoting across the room, right onto the faces of the football players and cheerleaders. Jumping to his feet and searching the cause for the green food remains to be covering his face and jacket Duncan gave a growl as his eyes landed on Freddy.
"Bad move blob boy." He growled as swiped some of the mess off the arm of his jacket and him and his two goons headed towards the mutant boy.
Seeing the enviable happening Jean held a hand up for Kitty to stay seated. "Uh, stay here Kitty, this could get messy."
"Yeah, 'cause, like, that hasn't already happened." She shot back with a laugh as Jean stood, everyone's focus now on Fred as he struggled to get to his feet, their laughter doing nothing more than enraging him.
"Dis is not goin' to turn out good." Rogue quickly ducking as someone screamed out 'Food fight!' and food items started to get flung around the room, including Duncan getting hit directly in the face with what seemed to be the remains of a hamburger.
The whole room turned into hysterics, as half the people ran for the door and the other half ducked under the tables, including the two X-Men boys as the joined Rogue on the floor, Jean electing to throw up a telekinetic shield that protected her but did little to help Kitty as she took a full on hit to the head. She quickly phased out after that as Scott found Rogue under the table the Brotherhood had claimed and making her way to the door.
"Well dis is fun." She muttered sarcastically to him.
"He's going to hurt someone." Scott said as he looked back out on the scene, the majority of the room clear now as Jean tried to calm the giant mutant.
"Well yah da 'ero, Ah'm gettin' out of 'ere before Ah end up with mayo in mah 'air lahke Kitty did." Sending him a wink she army crawled to the door, tumbling out in time to miss something impacting with the other side of the door. Instead of leaving she stood there and peeked through the glass doors, letting out a snicker as Jean slipped on a piece of cake and sent a brown streak all the way up the back of her pants. "Nahce look Jeanie."
After several tense moments, including at one point where Scott had to blast a table to pieces to keep an out of control Fred from hitting Jean with it Scott exited with a less than happy look on his face about having to leave Jean alone with this guy. Moving off to the lockers Rogue quickly opened up hers and grabbed her books for the next class.
"Well dat was interestin'." She said, casting a look around the edge of the metal door to him.
Rubbing a hand over the back of his neck Scott let out a sigh. "You could say that."
Suddenly Rogue's locker was slammed closed, showing Ms Darkholme standing behind it. "What's going on here?"
"Nothin'." Rogue answered instantly, her eyes narrowed. She was seriously starting to get a dislike for this woman. Maybe it was a redhead thing.
"We were just talking Principal Darkholme." Scott supported her.
"Then you had best stop your talking and get to class. Have I made myself clear?"
"Oui Mademoiselle." Rogue muttered with a roll of her eyes and started to walk away before Scott called out to her.
"Hey, don't forget, in the park after school! And bring the playbook with you."
"Ah know, Ah know." She huffed with a wave of her hand over her shoulder, "See yah den." Before disappearing around the corner.
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"Pardonnez-Moi? I cannot tell, w'at is 'like me'?" Rogue said in a perfect French accent, dropping her Southern one for the time being as her and Scott sat across from each other at one of the parks picnic tables.
"An angel is like you Kate, and you are like an angel." Scott answered back.
"Ah'm all for Shakespeare 'nd all dat mais dis is kahnd of mahnd numbin', 'nd sappy. Ah prefer Macbeth, much more violent."
Shrugging a shoulder he gave a smile over to her. "It's not that bad… once you have the extra notes to tell you what he's actually talking about."
"Oui, mais 'ow many people back in 'is tahme knew 'bout all the mythological references 'e made? Or da new words 'e made up just for 'is plays? 'e 'ad suppose to wrote dis for da common people as well as royalty." Rogue shot right back, her own smile in place as she leant across the table towards him.
"Common people?"
"Oui, da lower folk yah walk all over." The same joking tone in her voice as was in Scott's as his own form leant more into the table during their conversation. A puff of smoke and the 'bamf' that went with it interrupted as Kurt appeared right beside them, crouched down on their table, image inducer in place with Rogue's presence there.
"Whoo! Tender moment here? Zorry to interrupt."
"Ah swear, yah lahke an annoyin' little brother." Rogue said with a smug grin as Kurt stuck his tongue out at her in response.
Curious with the subject being brought up Scott forgot about the interruption. "You got any siblings?"
"Yea', an older brother, 'enri, mais Ah got annoyin' cousins w'ich be just lahke dis one 'ere."
"Ahh," Waving his hand in front of Scott's face to get his attention Kurt drew it back to him. "Ve have a problem. Jean's been nabbed."
Shooting to his feet Scott snatched the front of Kurt's shirt and pulled him towards him. "What!"
Holding up his hands in defence Kurt quickly explained the situation. "Eazy on da exquisite coztume mein freund! Volverine's on da zcent, but I'm zuppozed to collect you."
Releasing his teammate the X-Men leader hit his fists against the table, "Blob! If he hurts her I'll…" Trailing off when he felt a hand on his arm.
"Ah'm sure she'll be Ok Scott," Rogue tried to reassure him. "Bah da way 'e's been lookin' at 'er durin' da day Ah'm not sure 'e's trahin' to 'urt 'er."
Giving her a quick nod in return Scott turned back to Kurt. "Teleporter to maximum Mr. Wagner."
"Aye captain!"
"Wait!" Rogue cried as Scott rested his own hand on Kurt's shoulder as the mutant got ready to bamf them away. "Ah can 'elp."
"No." Shaking his head Scott gave her gloved hand a quick squeeze. "It's ok, this is our job, I don't want you getting hurt."
"Ah can 'elp." She stressed. "Dere is no guarantee yah can take dis gahy down, didn't yah see da sahze of 'im? Mah absorption will." Seeing he wasn't convinced she kept going. "Ah promise, Ah'll only trah and fahght 'im as a last resort, if everything yah got fails. Ah want to 'elp yah."
As Scott seemed to think this over Kurt tapped a finger against his watch, careful not to deactivate it. "Tick tock, ve're running out of time."
"Ok. You can come, just be careful."
"Don't worry," Rogue said with a smile. "Ah'm tougher dan Ah look."
"Let's hope so." Once again Scott turned to Kurt, still gripping Rogue's hand in preparation for the teleport, "Two to teleport. Engage." Before the three of them disappeared.
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Arriving outside the warehouse where Professor Xavier had told the team that it was where Jean was being held over their communicators Rogue slammed against the door of Scott's red and white car as it slid to a stop, a motorbike resting not to far away from where they parked.
Rubbing her shoulder tenderly she looked to the now uniformed Cyclops, having stopped at the mansion on the way to the warehouse to pinpoint where they were going. "Dat was some rahde." Seeing he was too distracted to answer she took to looking around their surroundings, including the door to the building being completely shredded and its remains scattered all over the floor. "Ah guess da party's in dere."
"Lets go." Cyclops ordered as he rushed towards the structure, leaving Rogue to vault over the car door and follow him, but a hand held out in her direction stopped her from getting much closer. "Wait here, let me make sure it's safe."
Giving a roll of her eyes Rogue did as he said, watching Cyclops march up to the door, hand to his visor and ready for a fight. Blowing a strand of white hair off her face in frustration – if only he knew what she was capable of then he wouldn't make her stay behind – she was distracted out of the sulk at the sound of voices inside, sneaking just a bit closer to hear them.
"She's my friend!" Blob's voice echoed out of the ruined doors. "You can't take her!"
Moving even closer to catch a peek around Cyclops' shoulder Rogue spotted the massive teen pinning down an unconscious Wolverine with his huge bulk. Adjusting the dial on the side of his visor Cyclops let out a warning stop of red over the top of Blob's head, drawing the boys attention away from the out cold mutant.
"We're just giving her a way out." Cyclops spoke, "Through you if necessary." Before adjusting the ruby quartz to a higher level and letting loose another beam, right at Blob this time.
This seemed to do little more than anger him as apart from raising his giant arm to block the strike hitting his face Blob ignored it, instead picking up Wolverine's body and hurling it directly at Cyclops. Flinging herself out of the path of the two X-Men both when flying backwards outside past Rogue, colliding with Wolverine's bike and knocking them out cold, Cyclops' visor falling to the ground.
"Merde." Swearing under her breath Rogue threw a glance back inside the warehouse to see Blob lumber deeper into the depths to what seemed like a room in the back of the building.
As a filing cabinet flung telekinetically by Jean hit him just below the face Rogue hesitated before rushing in to help, lingering over the two males. Biting back a growl she tugged off one glove and tapped a pale finger against each of their faces, gritting her teeth as their personalities swept into her mind and suppressing their powers so they wouldn't show physically. Forcing the red glow from her eyes and the bones claws to stay up in her forearm Rogue marched into the building just as Blob raised a large piece of machinery over his head, ready to throw it directly at Jean.
"Leave 'er 'lone, yah yahoo!" She yelled, hoping to cause enough of a distract that Blob would forget about the redhead and focus on her. It worked.
"What ya gonna do to me? Make me wear bad makeup?" With that he gave a grunt, throwing the piece of metal at Rogue instead.
Dodging easily to one side a smirk crossed her face as she crouched close to the ground, "Yah 'ave no ahdea w'at mah powers be, do yah?" Before gracefully raising to her feet and walking directly towards him.
"No. 'Cause I don't care!" He yelled, taking a swing at her once she got close enough.
Ducking out of the way with ease Rogue snapped her ungloved hand up as he brought his arm back to swing again, slapping her palm against his fleshy upper arm and letting her powers loose. Raising her voice for only him to hear her smirk darkened in the same manner she had seen Bella's back home do. "Mah power is yah power, yah can never beat meh." Angling her body back in just the right way to use his bulk against him Rogue threw him over her shoulder as she hit the ground behind her, rolling back to her feet to face him once again.
Landing heavily in a pile of left over metal parts both of the mutant females held their breath as they waited for any sign of life. A moment later the rubble went scattering as Blob launched himself back to his feet. "Ha! I got too much power, even for you! You can't hurt me, I'm the Blob!"
"Nah, yah just garbage dat wanted a date. Now tell yah w'at," Rogue grinned as she stole a line that Lupin had used last New Years Eve while getting rid of some guy from the personal VIP booth the LeBeau children had rented out for themselves in a high end bar for the night. "Ah'm takin' yah out!"
This seemed to cause the large boy to snap as he came charging at her, only to fall to the ground again as a well place kick to the throat sent him sprawling and gasping for air, not getting enough into his lungs to let him get back to his feet. Strolling casually up to him Rogue slammed her knee up into his face, a faint crack signalling the breaking of his nose before his eyes rolled up in his head.
"No one messes with da Rogue 'nd gets 'way with it sugah." Rogue announced to the unconscious teen before looking to the back room that still held a tied up Jean. "Ah'll get Wolverine to cut yah loose."
Just getting a nod in return from the obvious shocked telepath Rogue turned her back to her and jogged out of the building, finding Kitty and Kurt bent over their slowly recovering team members.
"Jean will need to be cut loose once yah up 'ng goin' 'gain Wolverine."
Looking over the Goth as she retrieved Cyclops' visor from where it fell on the ground the older man lifted himself to his feet and ventured back into the warehouse, throwing a curious look back out at her once spotting Blob. Kneeling in front of him Rogue handed Scott his visor back, helping to place it back over his eyes as he held his head.
"Dere yah go. Yah Ok?"
"Yeah, I am." Scanning the scene his mouth dropped open upon seeing the result of the fight. "You took him down?"
Sending him a smirk Rogue quirked an eyebrow at him. "Don't sound so shocked sugah, we Southern girls know 'ow to fahght too, yah know."
Returning the smile as he stood a bit wobbly on his feet he reached down to help her up out of her crouch. "You are like an angel, Kate."
"Mah name's not Kate. 'nd Ah'm no angel."
"But you helped us." An approaching Jean said, followed by Wolverine as she rubbed her arms from where the metal bar was wrapped around them and pinning her to the chair. "Why?"
"Jeanie, Ah thought we were friends, dat's w'at friends do. At least dat was w'at Ah was brought up to believe. Yah needed 'elp, so Ah 'elpped."
"Exactly." Scott added as he took her hand, placing something in her palm. Upon opening her fingers to see what it was Rogue found a thin long tube like object about the size of a pen with the red X of the X-Men stamped on it. "It's a communicator." He explained. "Just in case you need our help."
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