On the other side of the rapidly rising stream, M'Zee spun around and held his groggy team mate close, deflecting the kinetic mud bombs with his weathered carapace. Undeterred by the attack on its mistress, the rush of dark seawater reached the top of the crater and splashed at the feet of the two mutants, who quickly backed away. A gurgling sound stopped them in their tracks—the ground behind them was already submerged except for a narrow ribbon of dry grass leading back to the processing plant. Rogue begrudged her enemy a little respect: Dancing Water was herding them away from the highway.
"We need to get to high ground," Rogue strategized, grabbing Gambit's shoulder as much for support as to steer him to safety. "Don't touch any puddles—it won't take much water for her to make a portal. Ah don't need ta tell you how badly this night'll end if she teleports us to the Red Skull."
"We could take 'em. Think of the look on Captain America's face if you catch the bad guys wit'out the squad's help!" Gambit huffed as they bolted for dry ground. "Sure you don't want a boost?"
Rogue shook her head at the egotistical notion, though she had to admit it was a tempting prospect. Right now she was more concerned with not drowning.
"Keep your powers and memories to yourself, Gumbo. Ah don't want to know what's going through that thick skull of yours!"
"Actually," Gambit quipped, "I was jus' thinking dat this reminds me of Boston. Only now we got Ursula the sea witch trying to kill us instead of 'Kali the Destroyer'." (1)
"Ha! Yeah, we never really did do normal couples counseling, Ah suppose," she replied, amazed by how he managed to hop and run at the same time without both boots, his lopsided gait almost as awkward as her own inebriated gallop.
"Not unless you count Emma's psychic conneries (bullshit), and I am definitely not ever doin' that again." (2)
Not touchin' that one with a ten foot pole, she inwardly frowned, changing the subject. "You seriously need to lay off the Disney movies, ya nerd."
He made a disbelieving 'phhfft' sound between breaths and glanced back at the water, which had now become a tsunami. It made an made an eerie rumbling sound as it swallowed everything in its path.
"And who are you t' be callin' me a nerd, lil' Miss Br'er rabbit nightgown?" (3)
"That was a gift! From Rachel! Which you wouldn't even know about if ya hadn't been snoopin' around the mansion, you…you…Br'er Fox!" Rogue swatted at him, tripping onto the access road in the process.
"Yeahh…sorry, not sorry," Gambit ducked away from the slap, grinning happily at the memory which had plagued her earlier.
Wanting to reassure himself all was well when she had first joined the Avengers, he hid in the shadows of her bedroom's balcony and observed silently as she lounged on her stomach, sprawled enticingly across the bed in only her yellow nightshirt and a rather tight pair of boyshorts. Like an overgrown kid, she was kicking her feet back and forth absentmindedly while watching 'Fried Green Tomatoes' for the thousandth time; when she softly yelled 'Towandaaa!' along with the movie, he had to slap a hand over his mouth to stifle his laughter so as not to give away his position. He stayed until the movie was over and she'd shut off the light. Blowing an invisible kiss in her direction, he slipped over the handrail and slunk past Stark's security cameras before leapfrogging over the high brick wall. His loneliness had faded a little with the warmth of knowing she was content in her new home.
"Less mouth, more runnin', Gumbo—these guys are relentless and if we cain't get away from this water we're gonna end up as Nazi stooges!" Rogue barked, interrupting his reminiscence as they tore across the pavement.
By the grim set of her jaw he sensed she was going to be in full 'Cyclops' mode now that the wave was so close they felt its spray on their necks.
Even with everything that's gone down in the last year, she's never been such a cynic. What the hell happened to make her so miserable? He wondered as they ran side by side.
As they neared the administrative building, a shallow puddle bubbled ominously. Moving at such a quick pace, they were nearly on top of the giant turtle as he sprang up from the ground with his mangled arms spread wide. Dancing Water was riding piggyback, her tentacles wrapped around M'Zee's shell, clinging to the great turtle's neck like a drunken monkey.
Faced with imminent conflict, Rogue dropped and rolled under one set of swinging claws. Gambit chose the high road, springing upwards to cartwheel over the other. With inhuman speed, the New Orleans native twisted into a seamless roundhouse kick while his partner lashed out a swift punch to the back of the heavy reptile's kneecap.
Dancing Water hadn't been expecting a coordinated attack. She cried out in shock as a boot heel connected with her semi-solid skull, and M'Zee's stumpy legs buckled under the Avenger's brutal hit. He toppled forward, vanishing into the twelve foot wall of water along with his leader.
Like shot from a cannon, the two troublemakers were off again, skidding in the gravel as they rounded the corner of the structure. The wave crashed to the ground, doubled back on itself, and defied the laws of physics to pull a ninety degree turn, following them toward the dilapidated fire escape at the rear of the building. Just as they were nearing salvation, both of the gigantic holding tanks burst open with a catastrophic "CRACK!", their frothy contents gushing forth from the shattered concrete to join the chase. Gambit sprinted past Rogue.
He turned around so fast she couldn't counteract his movement.
"UP!" he commanded, roughly hooking her by the belt loops and using momentum to heft her body a near-vertical ten feet in imitation of the X-Men's much-loved Fastball Special.
Catching hold of the rungs, she gasped from the stabbing pain in her damaged arm and instinctively hunched her shoulders, shielding her head from the pounding breaker as it smashed the rickety ladder against the brick wall.
"Remy!" Rogue choked, frantic, swiping the sodden mop of hair from her face.
Half submerged, he was barely holding on to the rusty metal with one hand as the water swirled aggressively around his waist, trying to take him with it as it receded. A determined M'Zee rose from the depths of the whirlpool with murder in his beady eyes, slicing through the current as though it were nothing more than air.
"You leap about like a frightened toad! Do you know what turtles eat, little man?" he demanded, clicking his weathered mandible in a menacing fashion.
"Do you know what Cajuns eat?!" Gambit shouted angrily as Rogue reached down and grabbed his hand with her good arm. "Hey fille, you inna mood for a lil' Caouan?!" (4)
"Ah dunno, sugar, he looks like he'd be too chewy for—"
A concentrated blast of water, easily on par with the skin-shredding capability of a water laser, nailed Gambit in the side and ripped him from her grasp.
Superbly quick reflexes saved him from a broken leg but not from torn ligaments as M'Zee snapped him up in midair, his sharp beak sinking deep into the muscle of Gambit's left thigh. Screaming in agony as the mountainous thug violently shook him like a chew toy, the thief punched helplessly at his opponent's face. M'Zee promptly spat him into an eddy by his groggy boss as a whirl of shadow appeared at her side.
"NO!" Rogue bellowed.
She dove haphazardly over M'Zee and her ex-boyfriend to bodily tackle Dancing Water, taking a blast to the shoulder.
Both of the girls submerged with a loud splash. The glittering vortex dispersed in a flare of light. Without Dancing Water's control, tons of water rolled downhill to rejoin the crashing surf, taking Gambit along for the ride. The salty brine stung his blistered ribs and the wound on his leg garnished the enormous wave's crest with crimson as it tumbled and rolled him over the sand towards the ocean inlet.
After being ignominiously deposited in a divot left by the tide, he lumbered to his feet, hacking up brackish liquid and pulling the bo-staff from his remaining boot. Alarmed, he scanned the horizon for the henchmen and his ex-girlfriend. There was no movement other than the slide of water over beach pebbles.
Suddenly, the two women surfaced about twenty feet away, the brunette hanging on to the assassin's toga for dear life whilst they stumbled and sloshed through shallow whitecaps. Rogue was on the defensive rather than absorbing the completely opaque woman's liquid controlling ability, dodging most of her opponent's wild, uncoordinated punches, keeping her too distracted to summon another portal. It took Gambit a moment to realize she was intentionally taking a beating: Dancing Water was as tipsy as Rogue was drunk. Stealing her powers would almost certainly render Rogue catatonic.
A large, round shadow detached from the rubble of the holding tanks, glancing towards the fighting women before locking eyes with Gambit—there was a sense of fear in M'Zee's squinty stare that hadn't been there before. Instantaneously, the X-Man and the soldier sprang into action, one limping and the other lurching towards their respective companions, who were hissing at each other in alley cat fashion as they traded blows back and forth.
Rogue finally saw an opening and firmly seized Dancing Water by the throat. A curious thing happened then: The water witch's cloudy skin lost its sheen and turned into a dull peach color. Her tentacles dissolved into a spindly pair of legs. And her flowing locks melted into stringy strands of ochre-shaded human hair.
"What? How..?!" she shrieked in disbelief.
"Ain't so tough now, are ya?!" Rogue snarled savagely, gripping the woman by the shoulders. "Yer little Goat faced girl really comes in handy!"
Without further preamble, she headbutted Dancing Water as hard as she could. The sharp bang of forehead colliding with nose echoed hollowly across the shoreline.
Damn near knocking herself out from the sheer force of the blow, Rogue released her grip and staggered backwards, a cloudburst of stars popping in and out of her range of vision. Her attacker collapsed in a dazed heap on the wet sand and faded back to a watery appearance. Gambit was by Rogue's side in an instant, yanking her out of the way before M'Zee could pound her into a skunk-striped afterthought.
Despite her dizziness, Rogue snatched the bo-staff from the Cajun's hand and hooked her left arm around his in a smooth movement reminiscent of their earlier do-si-do swing. Though the ex-lovers frequently suffered from verbal miscommunication they had fought together for years: Each could flawlessly read the other's moves. He whipped her around much as a matador would flag a charging bull, ducking under the leathery monster's rebound punch to bring her into a prime position for retaliation. M'Zee missed his mark, but Rogue did not, using the momentum from Gambit's evasive maneuver to stab the staff vigorously into his ear hole as he passed by.
Roaring in pain, M'Zee went down like a literal ton of bricks—just in time to receive a handful of kinetically charged sand in the face. Billions of tiny specks ignited explosively, and suddenly the 'unstoppable force' was no longer so unstoppable. Suffering from a loss of equilibrium and sight, M'Zee swung his burnt and blackened arms recklessly, hoping to connect with something, anything.
He tripped over Dancing Water as he tried to stand, sending them both sprawling. She screeched from being stepped on by several hundred pounds of teammate and raised her hand, begging the ocean to heed her call.
"Oh no ya don't!" Rogue snapped, viciously aiming a cowboy boot at her enemy's hind end while Gambit lit up his other shoe and chucked it at M'Zee.
Unfortunately, the force of the kick sent Dancing Water tumbling right into the stream she'd conjured. Her flailing body merged with the water and an offshoot jet flowed over M'Zee's cowering form, unfortunately just as the Cajun's unorthodox choice of projectile landed on the turtle man's shell. Fuschia light mushroomed outwards and abruptly sucked back into the hastily summoned portal; the idiot had accidentally teleported the results of the explosion as well.
"DAMN IT!" Rogue glared defiantly at the rapidly dispersing bubbles, a scrap of Dancing Water's outfit clenched in the fist at her side and the other brandishing Gambit's bo-staff. "We had them!"
He looked sharply at her, surprised to hear her so upset. And nearly swallowed his tongue.
Oblivious to the shredded camisole and bra hanging in tatters from her mud slickened skin, her proud stance was backlit by the moonlight reflecting off of the ocean, reminding him of a recently stolen work of art currently decorating the foyer of the Guild's New Orleans headquarters. She looked just like the statue of the woman pirate Anne Bonny, her exposed breast at odds with a fierce and wild expression—one which promised a free knuckle sandwich to any and all comers who should underestimate her resolve.
"Well...shit. At least that charge o' yours ought ta do some damage ta their stupid base," Rogue grunted, suddenly tired as she turned to acknowledge her partner. The odd mix of appreciation, lust and amazement on his face startled her. "What?"
"Jesus, chere! I was jus' kiddin' about going skinnydipping!" he grinned bawdily as he swiped his bo-staff from her and leaned on it for support, taking the weight off of his crippled leg.
"Huh?"
Rogue squinted at him, flummoxed by the random remark and intensity of his amused stare. The adrenaline rush was quickly fading. Her arm ached, pulsing with a rhythm to match the throbbing in her temples, and she was starting to feel her bloody nose and many cuts and bruises.
And the cool breeze from the ocean, against her naked skin.
Gasping in shock, she clapped her palms over her breasts. Gambit burst out laughing. The victorious gleam vanished from her eyes, replaced by humble chagrin as she managed a flustered smile, her posture becoming more wobbly by the second. He sidled up to her, smiling in return, and silently offered his hand.
"C'mon, vous magnifique bête (you magnificent beast). Let's get outta here."
*Submits new chapter and looks around, wondering where everyone went* Hello? Did y'all give up on me?
A good friend of mine pointed out something terrible the other day and as a result I have been working on this story non-stop for about 8 hours now, despite the fact that I have a jillion chores that still need to be done. After listening to me vent for an hour about how pissed I was over Remender's Godawful portrayal of not just Rogue, but everyone in Uncanny Avengers, and how much it sucked to have a crappy Thanksgiving and wait 8 patient months for Rogue's anti-climactic and poorly written return, she said, "You know... your story has taken just as long..."
0.o
This thing needs to be FINISHED.**edit: Only took me 3+ years, yikes**
1) X-Men v2 #81Rogue and Gambit reunited- but will it be in Death?!
2) X-men v2 #172, Bizarre Love Triangle part 2: Temptation. Holy epic backfire, Batman.
3) For you non-'Muricans, Br'er Rabbit and Br'er fox originated in folk tales from the deep south and were memorialized in Disney's 'Song of the South' cartoon in 1946. I hope no one thinks I'm racist— I just always liked the clever way that Br'er Rabbit always outwitted the Fox.
4) Among Creole communities, Turtle soup is known as Caouane. In New Orleans, it is a specialty of several neighborhood and classic Creole restaurants, incliding Commander's Palace, Brennan's, and Galatoire's.