Chapter 6: Revealed
The concert was sold out, and had been within 4 minutes of the tickets going on sale. As Remy looked around at the packed hall from the balcony, he decided that had been no mean feat. Then too, the whole thing was being televised as well. It was definitely going to be a big night.
With Thieves Guild on the balcony was Gothic Romance, while Dazzler was back stage – they were the first act. Remy had been thrilled to bit to see Rogue again, and it was all he could do to keep from kissing her in front of his bandmates. Rogue hadn't actually told him not to tell them she could control her powers now, but she hadn't told him he could either, so for now he'd be discreet. Nevertheless, that hadn't stopped him from all but pulling Rogue into his lap.
"Welcome," said a deep voice over the noise of the crowd, "to The Brotherhood Band Bash! Where six bands all handpicked by The Brotherhood themselves..."
"Ooh we were 'handpicked'," Remy said to Rogue with a grin.
Rogue chuckled.
"And now to start the show," the voiceover continued: "Dazzler!"
The crowd cheered as Dazzler appeared on the stage. The girls gave them a moment to calm down, and when they didn't, Alison held her hands up in the air.
"Hey what a welcome," she said. "I'm Ali," - more cheering - "and these are my friends; Lorna on guitar," - another pause for cheering - "Domino on keys," - again, more cheering – "and behind me on the over-complicated drum kit is Spiral – the things you can do with six arms, right?"
The women grinned at the response from the crowd and soon began to play. Their performance was accentuated by Alison's light show and a handful of songs later:
"Okay well, we've gotta go but..." Alison paused and grinned as the crowd expressed their disappointment, "but before we do we're going to play one more song, and you get to choose which one. So I'm going to list them off, so you know what the choices are, and then the second time I call them out, yell for the one you wanna hear. Okay so the songs are; 'Roller Blades', 'A Bottlecap At A Mile Away' and 'I Slept With Remy LeBeau (And Damn If I Wouldn't Do it Again)'. Who wants to hear 'Roller Blades'?"
There was moderate applause for 'Roller Blades' as well for 'A Bottlecap At A Mile Away'. 'I Slept With Remy LeBeau (And Damn If I Wouldn't Do it Again)', however, got nothing short of thunderous applause.
"How did I know?" Remy muttered.
Rogue snickered. "You know you only brought it on yourself. That song is going to follow you around for the rest of your life."
"I'm surprised you're taking it so well," he said.
"What? It was written – and a hit – well before we started dating," Rogue replied with a shrug. "That said, they may have to write a sequel to it."
"Oh yeah?"
"Yeah; 'I Slept With Remy LeBeau (And Damn If I Cannot Do it Again)'."
Remy laughed.
Alison, Domino, Lorna and Spiral sang their final song, and then joined the others in the balcony while the second band was playing. When the third band began, Remy, Henri, Theoren and Emil were given the call and they headed backstage in preparation. As the fourth act took to the stage, Rogue, Pietro, Wanda, Pryo and Kurt were also called, and they too headed backstage.
Finally Thieves Guild took to the stage.
"Good evening everybody," Remy said. "Are you all having a good time?"
Cheering followed.
"All right," he said, grinning. "I'm Remy."
He then had to stop while cheering followed his name and the names of his band.
"Theo's on guitar, Henri's on bass and Emil's on drums. The first song we'll be playing for you tonight is one you might find familiar; 'Candra'."
When the Thieves Guild finished their set, the host occupied the audience while the roadies removed the excess Thieves Guild equipment and replaced it with Gothic Romance's.
"Hey-hey," said Wanda as her lips met the microphone centre stage. "It great to be here tonight. We're Gothic Romance; Quicksilver's on keys, Nightcrawler's on drums, Pyro's on bass, The Rogue's on guitar, I'm the Scarlet Witch, and this first song we're gonna play for you is 'Femme Fatale'."
Gothic Romance finished their set, at which point the crowd decided that incessant chanting of "Brotherhood! Brotherhood!" was necessary. There were not at all disappointed when, in a burst of smoke and pyrotechnics, The Brotherhood finally took to the stage. The only sign that any other band had performed that night was that Kurt's drumkit was left, if moved slightly over to the side and a cloth draped over it.
As lead singer, Magneto was up the front with his guitar, to his right was The Juggernaut, also on his guitar. Destiny was at the keyboard, Mystique on bass and Sabretooth was on the drums.
Two-thirds of the way through The Brotherhood's performance, the door to their balcony opened.
"Lorna Dane?" said the man at the door.
"Oh right, thanks," Lorna replied, and followed him out.
Remy came to the conclusion that she was off to get ready to do the number with her father. He turned his attention back to the concert and didn't notice a moment later when Kurt teleported himself, Wanda and Pietro out. He did notice when Rogue gave his hand a squeeze and let go, and he looked at her curiously.
"I, uhh, have to go," she said awkwardly.
"Ahh," he replied.
As Rogue departed, Gambit frowned slightly. Pyro was the only member of Gothic Romance still with them.
"Hey Pyro, where are the others?" he asked.
But if Pyro heard him, he didn't reply. Remy shrugged it off and went back to enjoying the music. Just when Remy was wondering if Rogue had gotten lost on the way to the toilets or something, the latest song came to an end and Magneto addressed the crowd:
"I hope you've all been having a good time tonight," he said. "We've got one last song for you…"
He waited while the crowd expressed their disappointment.
"It's new, and to help us out with it, we decided to ask my daughter, Lorna Dane of Dazzler, to join us."
There was some cheering as Lorna walked on stage, her guitar over her shoulder.
"Then I decided it wouldn't be much of a family affair if her brother and sister weren't here as well," he went on. "So we invited the twins Wanda and Pietro Maximoff to join us. You may know them better as the Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver from Gothic Romance."
The reaction from the crowd was half excitement, half shock as the pair strutted onstage. On the balcony, Remy swallowed hard as he and the rest of his band looked around and noted the absences. A second keyboard was brought in.
"And just to make things interesting," Magneto went on, "we decided to have a second drummer, so we invited Mystique's son Kurt Wagner, better known as Nightcrawler, to join us."
Excitement marginally began to overcome shock as Kurt took to the stage. The cloth was removed from his drum kit.
"And after all that, it didn't seem fair to leave out Mystique's daughter, Anna Marie Raven," said Magneto. "Better known as The Rogue, also from Gothic Romance."
The crowd cheered as Rogue sauntered on stage, also armed with a guitar like Lorna.
"Hey," Henri said, nudging Pyro, "why aren't you down there?"
"Heh, if you're looking for the sixth Brotherhood kid, mate," Pyro replied with a grin, "then you're talking to the wrong person. I've never even met him."
The song that followed could have been a chaotic mess, but what emerged was a rock symphony. Everyone got a chance to shine and play off the others. And it was all music; not one of them felt the need to jazz up the moment with mutant powers or pyrotechnics. It was incredible.
As the song came to an end and the room erupted in thunderous applause, the stage momentarily disappeared in smoke. A little unnecessary in Remy's opinion, but -
"Ladies and gentlemen," said a new, unfamiliar voice over the sound system, "a special treat for your encore tonight; a guest appearance by the Haters of Frivolity!"
As the smoke cleared (and the audience began to panic), Remy could see about a score of extra people onstage, surrounding the musicians. One of them had Magneto's microphone and it was he who was speaking.
Pietro was feeling sick; for some reason everyone and everything was moving fast and he couldn't catch up. Magneto and Lorna were feeling disconnected from the world around them.
"You should all be ashamed of yourselves!" the man lectured everyone. "How can you honour these people just because they know how to make noise? How much money did you spend on tickets tonight, when you could have done something worthwhile with it and donated it to cancer research?"
Disruption followed then as Sabretooth and Juggernaut decided they weren't going to take this standing there like wimps and promptly attacked the members of the HoF around them. Mystique joined in. Wanda attempted to, but for some reason she couldn't create any hex bolts and Kurt discovered he couldn't teleport. Destiny merely sat quietly behind her keyboard. Rogue, however, in the confusion managed to grab a microphone.
"Why Graydon Creed," she said, holding the microphone with one hand and holding the other arm outstretched towards him. "Long time, no see. Why don't you come over here and give your little sister a hug?"
Remy sat down hard even as Graydon yelled: "We're not related!"
"Huh," mused Pyro, "so that's Mysty and Sabey's kid."
"Denial!" Rogue sang.
It was at that point the the microphone was wrested away from her and she was pushed to the ground, but Rogue didn't care. She'd exposed him for what he really was; a jealous, unmusical child from a highly musical family. Remy wasn't nearly so forgiving.
"What those dirty -" he began.
"Whoa there, Remy," Henri said, grabbing his brother before he could hurl himself off the balcony in a misguided attempt to wreak vengeance. "You're going to get yourself hurt or even killed doing that."
There was a bang and Sabretooth hit the ground. The stage fell silent but for Graydon's laughing.
"Oh, I believe I forgot to tell you," Graydon said. "We've got mutant power dampeners all over the place. You can't heal... heh, and with injuries like that, I don't think you're going to last very long Sabretooth."
"It's true," Alison whispered. "I can't light anything."
Pyro pulled out his lighter and Remy fished out a couple of guitar picks. Pyro tried manipulating the flame and Remy attempted to charge the picks but neither had success.
"Door's locked too," Theoren said from behind them at the door. "There's nothing we can do."
As Graydon launched into a lecture on frivolous pursuits, Remy frowned and looked at the group.
"Power dampeners are short range and restricted access," he said slowly. "Which means they probably only have a handful at best, and they've put them in strategic locations."
"So?" asked Domino.
"So," Remy said, eyeing the balcony space critically, "there's probably one just outside in the hallway."
"But the door's locked," Pyro pointed out. "Fat lot of good knowing that does us."
"When the time comes, remember the name of your band," Remy said, turning to look back at the stage.
"Huh?" asked Alison.
"That's what Destiny told us the day we met," Henri said.
"Thieves Guild," Theoren said to Remy. "Alzheimer's already?"
"Hardly. So, Emil," Remy said slyly, "think you can pick the lock?"
"Yes!" Emil cheered, locating a paperclip in his pocket. "Vindicated! And you guys said learning to pick locks would be a waste of time. Ha!"
"I can disable the dampener," Remy went on.
"You can?" asked Spiral.
"Oui, I hate the things," Remy said.
"That's 'cause his mutation gives him extra stamina," Henri said with a smirk. "Power dampeners are a mood killer."
"Explains so much," said Alison.
"There's probably a dampener on either side of the stage," Remy said, smiling slyly. "We're going to have to sneak down there and take them out."
"Right, once Sabretooth has his healing factor back, he'll be safe," said Henri. "We should do the one of the left side of the stage first."
"Agreed," said Remy. "There's probably an overlap in the middle, but hopefully Sabretooth is far enough to the left to be able to heal."
"Got it," Emil said smugly, turning the door handle to prove his point.
"Let's go," said Remy.
"We'll go with you," said Pyro.
"No, you guys better stay here and make sure the balcony looks occupied," said Theoren.
Emil opened the door a crack and peered out. "Okay, hallway is clear and I see the dampener."
"Bon," said Remy.
He slipped out the door and his band mates followed. He knelt down by the dampener while Emil, Theoren and Henri kept watch down the hallway. Remy pulled off the panel and, using a guitar pick, tripped a mechanism in the back. A moment later, he'd removed one of the wires which he shoved into his pocket and closed up the panel.
"Bingo," said Remy, holding up his charged guitar pick.
"All right, let's go," said Henri.
While the Thieves Guild was busy making their way backstage, Alison and Pyro discreetly tested the return of their powers.
"Doesn't think guy ever shut up?" asked Domino.
"Apparently not," Spiral said.
"The longer he babbles the more time the guys have to disable stuff," Alison said.
"I don't like just standing around here waiting, though," said Pyro. "I think I should burn something."
"No," Alison said firmly. "While he's lecturing, no one's getting hurt. You start burning stuff and they'll know their plan has already started to fall apart."
"I guess."
"For now we'll have to wait," Alison went on, and rubbed her hands together. "Ahh, but when the time comes, I think we should be able to manage a few distractions."
Fortunately, the Haters of Frivolity didn't guard any doors they could lock or that were empty, and it was only when the Thieves Guild reached the wings that they found trouble. Just outside the door were two guards, and as soon as they spotted them, they ducked back around the corner.
Remy pulled out three guitar picks and charged them up. He grinned at his friends and gestured around the corner. Henri nodded, Emil grinned and gave him two thumbs up, and Theoren gave him a look as if to say "why do you have so many guitar picks on you?" to which Remy's face responded with "you know I always have way too many picks at concerts."
Remy flicked the guitar picks down the hall. He'd had some reasonable practice with throwing picks after years spent throwing pick to fans at the ends of concerts (the reason why he had so many). One pick missed them entirely, but the second hit one guard in the side of his head and the third blew up in the face of the second. While the pair were dealing with temporary sight and hearing loss, the musicians jumped them and shut them away in a nearby room.
"See how you like it," Theoren said smugly to the locked door.
"Alright," Henri said, "now sound carries fairly well in the wings -"
"We know this," Emil said.
"Then you also know that anything we say could be heard by the people onstage," Henri said patiently. "We have to be as quiet as possible."
"Well, there's only one way in," said Theoren. "We might get seen just walking through it."
"Right, so we have to be careful."
"I'll got first," Remy began but Henri put his hand on front of him and shook his head.
"No, I will," Henri said firmly. "Those red eyes of yours will stand out in the dark. Besides, you're the only one who can disable the dampeners."
"And you're the one who's married," Remy pointed out.
"I'll go," Theoren cut in then. "Not time to stand around bickering."
The group fell silent then, as Theoren cautiously opened up the door. He poked his head through, glanced around, then stepped inside. The others waited until Theoren waved at them and then they followed.
They were in a very short corridor at the back of the left wings. There was a gap between the end of the corridor and the curtains that marked the boundary of the stage. Directly facing them was one long black curtain that ran along the back of the stage, behind which they would have to walk to get to the other side. In front of it were four additional black curtains, all parallel. Between each curtain there was another member of the Haters of Frivolity, looking through the gap towards the stage.
In the bulk of the room were a variety of musical instruments and other equipment from the various bands that had been on that night. It was easy to spot the dampener because it was the only thing with lights on in the dark room.
Quietly Emil started sneaking across. At first they couldn't figure out what he was doing, but then he stopped behind the back curtain. He faced towards the front of the stage and made a pushing motion with his hands, grinning at them. They got the message: if the guards noticed Remy fiddling with the dampener, Emil would distract them by pushing over the guy in the gap in front. No doubt Emil was hoping if he pushed one down he could push them all down. Remy rather suspected they weren't close enough together for the domino effect to work very well.
Remy sneaked over to the dampener. He kept low, staying behind the equipment as much as possible. He stopped behind a drum kit (Spiral's by the looks of it) and reached out for the dampener. With his tongue sticking out of his mouth, he carefully removed the panel.
With his eyes on the guards, Theoren crept across the stage to join Emil. Henri stayed where he was until he saw the lights go out on the dampener, and he too, crept across. Remy followed suit, well pleased he'd been able to disable it without drawing attention to himself. The musicians then walked behind the long black curtain to the right side of the stage, careful to make sure the curtain didn't ripple with the breeze they created as they walked by.
On the left of the stage were Destiny, Rogue, Lorna, Mystique and Sabretooth, while Magneto, Kurt, Pietro, Wanda and Juggernaut were on the right. Graydon was centre-stage, still rambling on, no doubt enjoying having not only the attention of everyone in the room, but also the attention of the home viewers.
Magneto and Pietro were still feeling disoriented from the disconnection of their powers, Juggernaut was nursing injuries (something he hadn't dealt with in years), and Kurt and Wanda were holding themselves with dignity, refusing to show anyone that they were at all nervous about the situation.
Destiny and Rogue remained silent where they were sitting. Rogue was waiting for the next opportunity to get the upper hand, whereas Destiny just seemed to be waiting.
Lorna caught her breath sharply, and then quickly recovered herself like she hadn't done anything. She could sense magnetic fields again, and it was certainly a relief to be in tune with the world once more. She started scanning, looking for metal sources she could use. While she wasn't exactly in a position to be picky, she didn't really want to wreck anything she couldn't fix later. At the same time, she looked at her family and friends, wondering if any of them had gotten their powers back too.
Mystique was holding Sabretooth, his head resting in her lap. Her face was stiff but inwardly she was worried sick about her lover. He was still bleeding badly and although she'd made some attempts to stem the flow, it wasn't enough. Still, was it her imagination, or was he breathing easier now?
The right wings were a mirror image of the left wings as far as layout was concerned, and the Thieves Guild were already aware of this. There was no one in the little corridor opposite, and as they reached the end, Emil – being the one in front – peered cautiously around the corner. After a moment he stepped away from the back curtain and gestured for the guys to follow.
There wasn't as much equipment on this side of the stage as there was on the other. However, where it lacked in instruments, it made up for with suspicious dark, wet splotches on the ground, and where it lacked in guards there were two bodies instead. One was a member of the Haters of Frivolity, but they couldn't identify the other guy at all; whoever he was, he was lying in a particularly big puddle and had three knives in each hand.
Remy immediately got to work disabling the dampener, trying not to step in any of the dark stuff he strongly suspected was blood and didn't want it confirmed.
"And now, just to enforce our point – the same point you've been ignoring all these years," Graydon said darkly, "we are going to have a burning."
Pyro snorted. Not if he had anything to do with it.
"Starting with all the 'musical instruments' on stage," Graydon continued. "Boys?' If you can bring the ones backstage on here too."
"That little prick," Domino snapped. "If he lays one finger on my –"
"And since voices are considered instruments by those who sing," Graydon said nastily, "we'll just have to burn the singers too."
The crowd descended into chaos.
"Ali?" Spiral asked with a glance at her.
"Hit it, girls," Alison replied.
Remy got the dampener turned off just in time to hear Graydon say: "Why don't we start with your guitar, Rogue?"
"Right," Rogue drawled, "like I'm going to let you anywhere near my baby."
Abruptly Magneto could sense magnetic fields again, and as he was reconnecting with the world, Pietro felt everything slow down to what he perceived as normal speed. Juggernaut smirked, feeling his strength return.
"I think not, little man," Juggernaut said smugly.
That's when they voices of Spiral and Domino start to sing. With it came Alison's light show and Lorna smirked, knowing that Alison could convert sound to light, and preferred to work with something with a steady beat. Although Lorna couldn't make out words, she had a pretty good idea what they were singing and joined in.
"Stop it! Stop singing!" Graydon bellowed.
The lights went off in his face, though, and the faces of the other Haters of Frivolity. Exploding guitar picks came flying through the gaps in the curtains, just to add to the chaos and the musicians on stage took advantage of the disorientation of the Haters to apprehend them. The crowd joined in with the singing, and it felt crazy to Lorna that the music could be used not only to dissolve the previous panic in the room, but also as a taunt and a weapon against the Haters of Frivolity.
The whole thing ended fairly quickly after that. The other benefit of being televised live was that the police knew exactly what was going on, and when it was safe to move on in. They located a few more dampeners and Haters of Frivolity on the way, including a number of dead and dying who had to be rushed to hospital and were apparently the handiwork of the armed man the Thieves Guild had found in the right wings; Rogue's bodyguard, Wolverine. Once the dampener was down he healed up, just as Sabretooth did, and neither was worse for wear for any blood loss. The Haters that were still healthy were arrested.