Chapter Eleven
Disclaimer: Sadly I do not own Buffy the Vampire Slayer, due to Joss Whedon getting there first, the X-Men and the rest of universe belong to Marvel. The idea and interactions for the most part are mine.
Last time: "Oh you know, it had its ups and downs," he said. "But what I'd like to do right now is curl up on the couch and watch some TV. Either of you want to join me."
At the mention of the words watch TV, all of the X-Men seemed to get a bit green and quickly made excuses and departed.
"Was it something I said," Alex asked the now empty room.
Now:
He called out to Storm to stop a minute, mostly to find out what had happened.
A few minutes later, Alex sat down on the couch and was laughing loudly. "You were all transported to a place to be stars of your own television shows," he said between laughs.
"I don't see how that could be amusing Alexander," Storm said sternly. "We were in danger and could have lost our lives."
Alex held his hand up to try and put a stop to her anger. "Remember where I come from, my lady," he said. "You all are the stars of a television show."
Storm looked at him a moment as her lips twitched in amusement, "I can see the humor of the situation, but it still was quite distressing. Especially considering that creature Mojo appeared to be as hygienic as a sewer rat."
Pulling her down so she was sitting on his lap, Alex wrapped his arms about her waist and held her tightly then said, "I understand your revulsion, but don't worry about him. From what you have said, he has other issues to worry about now."
Storm leaned forward and kissed him softly on the cheek then stood up, "Thank you Alexander, but I still would rather not watch television. I think I will spend some time in the solarium and relax."
As he enjoyed watching her walk out of the room, Alex decided that perhaps watching TV at this time might not be the best idea. Then grinning maybe some training with the new toy Forge made him would be better. Heading to his room and changing into the armor, putting on the duster and grabbing the saber hilt he was ready to head to the danger room, before he got out the door his phone started ringing.
Setting down the hilt, grabbing the phone, flipping it open and answering, "This is Alex."
"Hello Alexander," the female voice said.
Blinking in surprise that he hadn't given her his number so how did she know it to call. Then realizing who it was who was calling him he mentally smacked himself.
"Hello Natasha," he answered. "To what do I owe the pleasure of hearing your voice?"
He could almost hear the smile in her voice when she replied, "A simple request that if you are going to fly through New York City in the future, please contact the Helicarrier so we know it isn't a threat of some type. There were quite a few people who were annoyed to learn you have a car that flies."
"Fury flipped his eye patch didn't he," Alex asked without a sliver of remorse.
"I believe he was secretly amused, while at the same time frustrated none of his information sources had revealed this tidbit," she said. "I was also asked to pass along his thanks for helping Iron Man."
"Not a problem Natasha," he said, "Tell Nick, I'm sorry for giving him a head ache, but he may want to get in contact with Richards and Stark to come up with some way of detecting Skrulls. They are playing a very long game."
"I will do so," Natasha said as she ended the call.
He knew Nick was listening in and would be going crazy over the next few days, weeks and months getting something in place. While this seemed to be primarily the X-Men's universe, there were things that led him to believe it was almost an amalgamation of various cartoons and comics from that time period. Knowing there was nothing more he could do, he grabbed his saber and walked down to the danger room to practice.
Seeing the room was already being used, he walked up the stairs to the control room when he heard a scream of pain.
Sprinting up the stairs he made it to the control room and saw Gambit just sitting there, while Cyclops appeared to be getting blasted by several threats all at once.
"Gambit," he shouted, "Snap out of it."
Hitting the emergency override switch, he saw Cyclops collapse to the ground as Jean rushed in to tend to his injuries.
"What the hell Gambit," Alex said then looked at the man. He was sitting in the chair in an almost catatonic state.
"I need to go home, mon ami," he said with no inflection in his voice. "They going to kill my brother."
Alex stepped back a moment and grabbed the Cajun by the front of his coat and looked him in the eyes, then nodded. "All right, I can understand that. Just don't do anything stupid and I feel it fair to warn you, the cavalry is following shortly behind you," he said.
Gambit nodded and left the room to get to the hangar and head back to the swamps.
Alex shook his head and walked toward the infirmary, running into Rogue along the way and bringing her up to speed on the latest issue for the team.
"That damn swamp rat," she groused, "why didn't he ask for help?"
"Because Rogue," Alex said with sincerity, "He still doesn't feel like he belongs and is simply waiting on the team to abandon him."
Rogue stopped in the hallway when Alex's words hit her, she looked at him and he nodded, then pushed open the door to the infirmary to see how Scott was doing.
"What's the prognosis Jean," he asked.
"I'm fine," Scott said as he tried to get up.
"Don't even try it," both Jean and Rogue said as they held him down.
Jean then said, "You are to remain here at the very least overnight to ensure you heal properly. Aside from severe bruising and some minor burns, you are lucky that Alex was able to shut the program down quickly. If it had ran longer you could have been severely injured or killed."
"I hear we're going to be hunting a Cajun," Wolverine said as he entered. As he looked at Scott he added, "Looks like he got a few licks in before he left."
"Can it Logan," Alex said. "We can track Gambit easily once we get down there."
They looked at him incredulously, until he sighed and held up a small device with a screen on it, "I slipped a tracker on him before he left the control room and warned him the cavalry was coming. So hopefully he doesn't do anything too stupid before we arrive."
Wolverine snorted, Rogue shook her head and Jean sighed as they followed Alex to the Blackbird.
An hour later they were over the Louisiana swamps to where Gambit's small plane had landed.
"Call it a hunch Wolverine," Alex said, "But I think we're going to have to trust my tracker."
Wolverine nodded as they reached the edge of a patch of land, "They went by boat."
"Jean," Alex asked, "Can you and Wolverine head to where Gambit was raised? They might have some answers. Rogue and I will follow the tracker to where he is and make sure he hadn't done something stupid yet."
Wolverine replied, "No bet."
Alex smirked at him and agreed.
"Boys," Jean and Rogue grumbled as they split up.
While they flew through the swamps, Alex kept an eye on the tracker and one ahead of them, "Right over here Rogue."
She set him down on the ground in the tree line as they looked at the dilapidated plantation house.
"I can see why Gambit wanted to leave here," Rogue said.
Alex simply nodded and looked around, "There are a bunch of guards, now while it might be fun to crash in there we need to do this quietly."
He pointed toward a tree that a guard was leaning against and grinned. He slowly crept over to the assassin when he was ten feet away he reached into his belt and pulled a small dart and a tube to use as a blow gun. He took another step and was about to bring it to his mouth when a sharp crack was heard, looking down at the stick he'd stepped on, he cursed. The assassin turned and Alex blew the dart, his aim was true as it struck the man right in the larynx. Moving quickly he grabbed them guard and pulled him back into the swamp.
"Now then," Alex said to the paralyzed guard, "That little dart there will keep you incapable of moving or speaking louder than a whisper for about an hour. Sadly this means if any critters here in the swamp get hungry you won't be able to move. Now we could leave you here on the ground or stick you in a tree if you cooperate. Blink once if you understand."
The guard blinked and Alex smirked, "Will anyone notice you are missing?"
The guard blinked twice and Alex sighed.
"Why are you lying to me," he asked sadly.
The guard blinked repeatedly as Alex pulled a knife from his boot and ran the blade along the man's thigh, until he stopped right at the man's crotch and applied some pressure.
"What do you think a little blood in the water will do after we leave," he asked.
Tears were coming from the guard's eyes as he moved his mouth trying to plead for his life a whisper coming from his lips, "Not lying, unimportant."
"Do you have a radio," Alex said as he toyed with the knife.
"Belt," the guard replied.
Alex quickly hit the guard in the side of the head with his fist knocking him unconscious then removed the radio and hooked it up to an earpiece so he could listen for any communications.
"Rogue if you would be so kind can you put our willing informant up high so he'll be safer," he asked.
"Sure then Alex," Rogue said with a shudder as she lifted the man and hung him over the swamp in a higher tree branch.
As she landed both communicators chirped, Alex answered, "Go ahead."
"Apparently Gambit exchanged himself for his brother and the Thieves' Guild's Tithe," Jean said. "According to his brother, Gambit and Belle were engaged to be married some years ago, but he left prior to the wedding. This was her way of getting him back."
"Married," Rogue said sadly. "I didn't even know he'd been engaged before."
Alex sighed and grumbled softly about stupidly noble thieves and getting in over their heads.
Jean continued, "The tithe is apparently made every ten years to a being known as the External. It is set to happen in thirty minutes and both guilds need to be present."
"So they will probably bring Gambit with them," Alex said. "Ok Jean, we'll follow them to the tithe and hopefully figure out a way out of this mess."
Rogue looked at him hopefully as she squeezed his hand, "Do you have a plan?"
"Nope, not even an idea yet," he said. "But don't worry; I will come up with something before we get there. " Holding one hand up and pressing the other against his ear, he grumbled, "They are heading there now. I think it might be easier to follow them from above."
Rogue nodded and grabbed him under the arms and took off into the sky as the Assassin's guild began their trek to the tithing place.
Alex tapped his communicator and said, "They are on their way."
"Acknowledged," Jean replied.
When the both groups had gathered, Alex sighed as he heard Gambit shout, "It's a trick, they gave you a false tithe!"
"You tricked us," one of the thieves shouted as he pulled a gun from his coat.
"Stupid thieves," a masked assassin snarled. "You should have checked what you were given."
"Rogue let's go," he said as they dropped from the sky. "Keep Gambit's apparent missus occupied and I'll try to stop them from killing each other."
Rogue punched the woman and said, "Gambit's too good for you, you bitch!" As she was about to follow up a pair of assassins attacked her from the sides stopping her attack.
Alex dropped down and ran toward Gambit as heard him scream in pain as there was a golden glow on his finger.
"I could have sworn I told you not to do something stupid," he said to Gambit as he reached him.
Gambit winced and shrugged his shoulders, "I know, but it seemed like a good idea at the time."
Thieves and assassins were fighting all around them as Alex reached into his belt and pulled out a small rectangular device and pointed it at the ring, a concentrated laser fired from the tip, slowly melting the gold.
"No," the blonde assassin yelled as she fired a blast of energy from her hands at Alex's back.
Gambit shouted, "Look out!"
Alex quickly turned and pulled the saber hilt from his belt and activated It causing he energy beam to reflect away from him. "That wasn't nice," he said.
As Alex was about to attack her the External rose from the swamp and intoned, "Ten years have passed, the time for the tithe has come, where are the tithes?" She looked down at the box on alter and growled, "THIEVES,YOU BRING A FALSE TITHE! YOU WILL BE SENT TO OBLIVION!"
Rogue flew down and tried to explain, "The assassins and that blonde bimbo stole the real tithe."
The External glared at Rogue and blasted her with energy from both hands, sending her flying back into a tree.
"INTERLOPERS," the External shouted, "YOU WILL ALL BE DESTROYED!"
Wolverine attempted to attack and was stopped in midair, then raised high up into the sky. Rogue was flying back and changed direction to catch him before gravity took hold again. Alex finished up with the ring and helped Gambit stand.
Jean broadcast mentally, 'Stop! See the truth.' She then showed the being what had taken place prior to her arrival. The assassins saying the thieves should have checked their tithe to make sure it was accurate instead of taking their word.
The External stopped and looked in disgust at the Assassins Guild and said, "You would defile the tithe. Thieves as the wronged you decide their punishment."
"Destroy them," Gambit's brother cried out only to be silenced with a punch to the mouth from Gambit.
"Bobby shut up," Gambit said then turned to the External while pointing at the blonde, "Take her powers, but keep her alive."
"So be it," the External said, then bathed the woman in a soft glow, before disappearing back into the swamp.
"Remy," the woman said, "Don't leave me."
"I'm sorry Bell," he replied. "This isn't my home any longer."
As he walked away with the X-Men he stopped and looked at his brother, "Never contact me again. I am an X-Man and never coming back."
Upon arriving at the Blackbird, Alex was shocked as Gambit thanked them for coming.
"No problem Cajun," Alex said as they boarded the jet to fly back home, "You are family."
AN: Some of the stories during this season were fun, especially when they can be effected by chaos boy so differently.
Apparently I created a little confusion by moving Mojo ahead in the season so people thought I skipped some fun episodes. I didn't as you read and the others are coming in the next few chapters. Sorry about the confusion, but since nothing plotline wise really happened in that episode I moved it forward to use as showing what happened while Alex was in NY.