Thanks for the reviews everyone! It's been a while so this is a long chapter to keep you all happy! Someone asked when the ROMYness is coming into play. Give me chance, eh? We're only 9 chapters in and Rogue has only known Gambit for a few days! Slowly but surely is the key.
Chapter 9
Whilst the X-Men had gone to visit the President, Gambit had been left with the jet. Not that he had been asked not to come; he just didn't feel comfortable standing in front of the President like that. He had his reasons. He just didn't vocalise them to the group. The darkening skies produced by Storm continued on over even where Gambit was, and as he meandered in a quiet portion of the city he stood and watched the skies thoughtfully as the clouds passed over the bright cobalt heavens.
With the jet safely hidden, Gambit had no real need to stay on watch with it. He slowly set into a walk. He was in a quiet part of the city, an area of long alleys by almost silent buildings. It probably wasn't all that wise to wander around such an unfamiliar and suspicious place, but Gambit could rarely stay in one spot for too long. The now stormy skies rumbled threateningly above him, sending down a few cold droplets of rain. He slowly looked up towards the sky, eyes following a sudden flash of forked lightning. Storm was certainly living up to her name as the few droplets grew into a rapid fall of sharp rain that caused everything a few inches from the tip of your nose to turn into nothing but a blur through the pattering downpour. The wind had grown too, bitter cold gusts howling and whirling through the alley way Gambit was currently stood in.
He glared fiercely at the skies above him, muttering a wretched, "Damn you, Storm," as he stood drenched in the freezing rain. And as if in reply, the rumbling heavens emitted a nasty hiss of lightning. Gambit slouched off down the dark alley, the rain now not possible to wet him any further but it still continued, regardless. Gambit peered off into the distance, trying to make out the now blurred and murky shapes through the heavy rain. It took a good while of scrutinising to notice that the shapes along the alley were in fact now becoming distorted and rippled in the rain, but the blurred shapes were actually moving of their own accord.
Naturally, Gambit felt no particular urge to be worried. After all, it was very unlikely he knew these people coming up, he was up in Washington. He didn't know anyone in Washington. As far as he was concerned, they were just a couple of usual humans probably running to find shelter after being caught in the sudden downpour. However, the closer the figures came, the more Gambit realised that they weren't running. In fact, they looked as unperturbed as he was about walking through a dark cold alley.
"Well, well, well," murmured a voice through the vertical fall of cold rain. Gambit suddenly turned a few degrees colder. He recognised that voice. "Look what we have here, Jacques. It be Gambit."
"Finally stopped runnin' ain'tcha?" sneered a second voice out of the darkness.
Slowly, the small group of figures materialised in front of Gambit. Three of them. And none of them looked particularly happy to see him. Their smirks were not friendly. "I'm not runnin' anywhere," said Gambit defensively with a pang of pride.
"Oh, so ya leave us in a crisis that you caused whilst ya conveniently disappear up north?" said the third, a woman.
"Hardly a crisis," said Gambit dismissively. He spoke and acted with an utmost calm, but those blood-red eyes of his were carefully watching the three. What he felt and what he showed were two different things. If the X-Men were quick they could kick these sorry asses all together.
The woman had narrowed her eyes, "Jean-Luc is goin' crazy with anger, Gambit. You messed things up big time for the Guild, all because you are a filthy liar, and most of all, disloyal."
"We know what you did Gambit. None of the other members of the Thieves Guild took off without returning from New York. No.. the one who disappeared was you. You knew how important that contact was Gambit. And because of you, they don't trust no more!"
"I even heard they were plannin' some sorta revenge. All cos of your mistake. You ran away from da Guild, Gambit, now we is here to kick ya out for good!"
"Well I've seen them," interrupted Gambit, now folding his arms as he glared at them, "They don't want revenge on nobody. And they don't think I did anythin' wrong either. They're gettin' on fine without the Guild's help anyway, they got the X-Men on their side now."
"Bah, the X-Men!" cried Jacques, in a tone that heaved with dislike, "We wanted the Morlocks on our side! They got dem some good fighters, LeBeau, we coulda took on them humans ourselves if they came. But now we gotta barricade the guild, security's gone up top notch. Cos of you, we don't have that anymore.. "
"You've been followin' me for a while haven't you?" said Gambit boredly, "Shame, I thought the Morlock sewers would be the last place you'd expect to find me."
"Ya, cause we though dey would chop ya head from ya shoulders. Especially that Marrow, she's a fiery one. But cos they don't know what ya did.. it's in our hands to finish ya off."
Jacques raised his fists slowly, glaring through the rain to Gambit. Gambit unfolded his arms, looking cautious now. "Hm, three against one. Hardly fair it is?"
"Not meant to be fair. It's supposed to be easy," snarled one and the three quickly moved forth, but Gambit suddenly wrenched back the opening of his trench coat revealing his Bo staff slipped in his belt.
"Lucky I came prepared!" Gambit whipped out his staff, only just managing to brandish is ready before he felt a sudden few punches snake towards him and make heavy contact across his face and torso. It was clear that Gambit wasn't the only one armed for he felt the grisly trickle of warm blood running down his face as he blindly swung his staff round. With blood obscuring his vision, he only knew he was collided with something when he felt his staff bluntly stop and hit something hard. The accustomed yell that followed also proved it was successful.
However, the retaliation was fiercer after Gambit's defence and from the force of numerous hits, Gambit fell back against the wall behind him, this being the only thing keeping him standing as the tirade of murderous revenge was hailed upon him. Gambit tried to raise his staff, but he buckled under strike in the stomach, tipped with a power that could only be a mutation. Whatever the power was, it seared a boiling pain into his gut. As he doubled over he only received more strikes, mainly to his head, which only made his eyes bloodier and him feel more sluggish.
Whilst he gasped for breath as he lay slumped and winded against the wall, he felt himself suddenly gaining some strength as his rising anger suddenly peaked and with a furious boil of determination he swung his staff round, striking one of them across the head which sent them colliding into the other two. Then suddenly, out of nowhere, two metal bins rose out of the darkness and soared eerily through the pouring rain before they glowed luminous pink and raced at the three attacking him, pushing them back away from him in a sharp swift shove. Free of hits, Gambit stumbled away, coughing quietly as he spit up blood. He looked round slowly, glaring at the three mutants who were pinned against the opposite wall of the alley by the two bins that lay horizontal across their waists, trapping them. Without any movement of his own the pink glowing bins suddenly exploded and the agonised screams were drowned out.
Gambit had managed to stagger to a safe distance were the blast happened, and it only caused him to tumble forward under the force, falling down into a murky puddle of increasing rain water that had never wavered it's falling during the fight. As the blast subsided an eerie silence came upon the scene, only broken by the quiet pattering of the falling rain that hit the surrounding puddles. He pulled his face up from the wet concrete, feeling grit and dirt mix in with the blood on his face. He felt numerous wounds on him, quite a few of them bleeding. A mixture of mutations and human weapons had delivered a horrific effect on the outlaw.
The sky above flashed brightly the rumblings soothing the bright light as the storm slowly began to calm it's abuse..
The President leant forth on his desk slowly, watching the wheelchair bound man with a mixture of curiosity and fear on his face. The man, whilst old and disabled emitted a strong sense of power. There was no indication that he was weak. He carried himself in a proud way, in a hero's way. However, as powerful as Charles Xavier may seem, it wasn't him President McKenna feared, it was the leather-clad people grouped behind him. Each of their expressions were surly and displeased, and each of their appearances left you in no doubt that they could defend themselves. President McKenna slowly looked around the group, the room dark, it's only lighting being the occasional flashes in the sky. It was then he noticed a blue skinned mutant watching him curiously, and he instantly started, rising to his feet as he glared imperiously down at Charles Xavier. The assassin!
"Mr. President, please sit down," offered Charles politely.
"I'd rather stand."
The President then noticed how across the room, two men shared wry glances. A rough burly looking character and a tall young man wearing what could only be described as a visor. It was surreal how similar their real visit was turning out to the one in their heads.
"It is in my knowledge, Mr. President that William Stryker is still in employment with his private works for the Government. Also, I'm sure you are aware of the strange phenomena that occurred last week. The two are connected."
"Mr. Stryker has my trust," said the President carefully, still standing behind his desk.
"He is the reason why this Registration Act is being planned, Mr. President. Our defence against his attacks has been screened as a wrong accusation about ourselves." Slowly, Charles Xavier moved his chair even closer to the desk and watch the President solemnly, "Last week, William Stryker broke into my school with armed forces, kidnapped six of my students. He had previously captured myself and Cyclops," Scott was gestured to, "and proceeded to confine all of us in his secret facility in Canada. Alkali Lake."
But the President frowned, "Alkali Lake doesn't exist anymore," he said quickly, "It was closed down decades ago. That was before my time as President."
"As you will know, Stryker was instructed to close down the facility when the then President did not authorise his experimentation on mutants."
"And the accusation has gone unfounded! But after that allegation, he had no choice to but close it down!"
"It has not," answered Charles, all the more sharply, "He continued to work underground, in secret, continuing his experimentations and so fuelling his hatred for mutants. Did you know what happened to his family two years before he came with the original proposal of opening the experimentation facility?"
The President had now sat down in his chair, looking agitated and weary. He picked up his empty whiskey glass and stared morosely at its glass base. "His wife and son committed suicide. I know."
"Jason Stryker was a mutant, Mr. President." The way the President had abruptly looked up, it was clear he did not know this. "Jason was once a student of mine. He was progressing well, learning to control his powers of the visual mind. That was of course until William had had enough and brought his son out of the school and out of my care. Without my ongoing help, his health deteriorated and the powers he had been working so hard to control were taking over him. Because of his father and his refusal to accept that I could not cure his son of his mutation, Jason Stryker lost control of his powers, which were unleashed onto his parents. An agony of which caused his mother to kill herself. However, Jason Stryker did not commit suicide. William took him to Canada, to his base, and did what he did to every other poor soul who was taken there. He experimented on his own son and used him as a weapon against us."
The President had gone very pale, "Why should I believe you?"
"Because I can prove it to you." Charles briefly closed his eyes, and the President was suddenly staring at him as visions ran across the eye of his mind.
"That's Jason Stryker?" he whispered fearfully, his knuckles at the edge of the desk gripping tightly.
"Was," came the solemn correction. "William Stryker has experimented on many mutants, including Wolverine." Wolverine glared at the President, who met his gaze. "He tried to start and end a war last week, Mr. President. It was only me and my X-Men who have managed to so far subdue him. But he is still alive and working more desperately than ever to eradicate all mutants. Without the Registration Act, he cannot hurt us in public. Anything he may do, and has done so far is worth several life sentences. When the Act is passed, he will be cleared and he will stop at nothing to kill my students and I first."
"I authorised his visit to your school, but I did not authorised any attack. I explicitly told him I did not want violence."
"Then he has abused your trust, Mr. President. He is now planning a second attack on the world of mutantkind. It won't be a simple or as clean as he hopes, mutants will defend themselves, resulting in a horrific war of humans and mutants. I have to ask you Mr. President, please do not allow the Mutant Registration Act to be passed. It would – "
But Charles was suddenly interrupted by a distant explosion and a cloud of smoke rose out of distant buildings. It was tainted an odd pink. He immediately frowned. Gambit..
The President had spun to the window as the explosion sounded and he slowly turned to look solemnly down at Charles. "I'm sorry, Professor Xavier. But my side of the agreement has been sealed. It is now out of my hands. The Mutant Registration Act is going to be passed and it is too late to cancel it. However, this does not mean I authorise murders in my country of any kind." He suddenly narrowed his eyes, a power emitting from him that gave the reason as to why he was the President in the first place, "Whilst the Act is passed I will not tolerate terrorism. And I will not tolerate lies and deceit by my close workforce. Mr. Stryker will be searched for and arrested. The MRA is to help us as a country, not drive us apart. For now, Mr. Xavier, stay away from Stryker."
"Very well, Mr. President. We will be in touch once you have Mr. Stryker. Good luck."
And with a second flash, the mutants in the room disappeared and the skies above slowly cleared as the rain eased away. The bright blue sky returned with its dazzling sunshine and the President's office was doused in warmth once more. The President turned to his telephone, picking up the receiving before pressing a button harshly, "Jackie? Summon me the General of the US Army immediately. We have somebody to find.."
The X-Men reappeared at the side of the Jet, and all were curious to Xavier's worried expression. They had the President on their side now, wasn't that a good thing? "Professor? What is it?" asked Storm gently as she watched him.
"Gambit.. Gambit's in trouble." He quickly looked round at the X-Men, "May be dangerous, all of you go. South through here and go left twice. Find him!"
The X-Men shared anxious expressions before they all began to run past the Jet and down the alleyway. The followed the directions given, and zigzagged through the narrow walkways. Large puddles had collected the heavy rainfall of Storm's. As the mutants ran, the puddle quivered and splashed beneath them angrily. The last corner was rounded, still smoking slightly from the earlier explosion. With Storm in the lead the group sprinted down the alley, hearing the pained grunts from someone. They abruptly halted as they found Gambit lying on the wet concrete. His formed was bruised and bloodied as he lay in the puddles. As the X-Men reached him he looked up slowly, managing a weak laugh.
"Took ya long enough."
Storm crouched besides him, pushing his hair back from his face as she studied the severe wound across his forehead, "What on earth happened?" she whispered quietly. She slowly glanced to Jean, who was studying the injury at Gambit's abdomen.
"It looks like an attack; this is not someone defending themselves. Several people got him." Jean slowly looked up, "Gambit, do you know who did this to you?"
Gambit gave a quiet gasp, watching her for a moment before he managed a slight shake of his head, "Non.. Gambit have no clue who they are. Dey.. dey wer' humans.." He gave a louder wince as he laid, eyes squinting painfully through the ongoing run of blood across his face. He made a weak sort of sigh before his head dropped back into the puddle, his pale features relaxing and eyes drooping shut.
Thanks for reading the chapter. A lot of information was revealed here and you might be getting some thoughts whizzing around your head! I tried really hard on this chapter, so please review.
