Storm whistled to herself with amusement as she held the box at arm's length and went off to search for Remy. She thought she had heard him calling for her a little while ago, but she had been to busy cackling like an actual witch to find him.

She felt positively evil carrying that box.

The only problem was that she had to find Remy so that she could fully appreciate the evil, dammit. She had looked through every room of this place, but couldn't get her hands on him… unless… nah. No way… but, maybe…

Storm cocked her head thoughtfully before heading towards the elevator to check out a hunch. But… no way, that was just crazy. Remy wouldn't be caught dead in the med lab. She was just checking.

She went back to whistling and smirking as she petted the box fondly. "You, my little box," She whispered to it. "Are going to make so many years of suffering 'Stormy' worth it."

She cackled like a mad woman when she peeked inside the box for the third time in the short trip.

She was going to enjoy this to much for her own good.

The elevator doors opened.

"Well, last I checked, Bobby, y' don' really have any say in whose half naked arms she finds herself in, now do you?" Remy's voice drifted out of the med lab.

Whoa. Did not see that one coming.

"You sonova-" Bobby's voice growled.

"Bobby! Language." Storm snapped as she entered the room, slightly stunned by seeing 1) Remy there 2) Remy there, shirtless 3) Remy there, shirtless, and bleeding 4) Remy there, shirtless, bleeding and actually seeking medical attention. Sure, there were other interesting things about the room, like the fact that Rogue and Bobby were in the same room for the first time since Remy had punched Bobby's lights out, but she was really more concerned with her friend that was in a place that made him so horribly uncomfortable, obviously injured.

She almost forgot about the box… almost…

"Are you alright?" She carefully placed her secret weapon box off to the side as she went to Remy's side. "Honey. when did this happen?" She checked out the hole in his shoulder. It had obviously scabbed over at one point, but some form of abuse had coaxed it back into an unhealthy amount of blood loss.

"Dat happened…" Remy looked around as if a good lie was going to fall out of the sky. "When Rogue punched me?" He ventured.

"Good try." Storm gave him a pat on the head for effort before patching him up quickly. Rogue stood off to the side apprehensively, obviously worried something might go wrong. Bobby slouched against the back wall, taking in everything through his black eye.

"Ow!" Remy protested as Storm taped the gauze into place a little bit rougher then necessary.

"It you could stop getting stabbed for about a week and a half I wouldn't-." Ororo suddenly realized what she was saying. The memory of all the blood he had lost last time flashed to the front of her subconscious. She stood back and looked over his chest, picking out one scar in particular. It was much larger than the others and it covered a lot more important areas.

Remy followed her gaze.

"Looks a lot better, no?" He tried to crack a joke, but he knew as well as she did how damn close he had come that night. Storm's fingers unconsciously reached out and traced the raised tissue.

"It was so bad." She mumbled absent mindedly.

"Aren't you seeing this?" Bobby burst out abruptly at Rogue. "He's practically seducing her right in front of your eyes!" Rogue jumped at suddenly being addressed and Bobby fumed, obviously just barely restraining himself from taking action. "He's a womanizing man-whore! I don't even know the guy and I can see that! He's gonna hurt you, Rogue. He's going to hurt you a lot."

"Homme." Remy's eyes darkened. A deck of cards suddenly appeared in his hands, being shuffled coolly. "Y' gon wan' t' take dat back righ' 'bout now."

"Remy," Storm's voice held warning tones.

"Non," Remy stepped out of her grip and up to Bobby. The difference between the two was almost humorous. Remy towered over the younger boy, his sleek, wiry muscle was tense with anticipation of the next move, but still looked cool and collected. Bobby had inflated himself as much as possible to look more intimidating to the darker, taller, and all around more daunting man in front of him. "If de boy wants t' start something'." Remy's smile was slow and spine chilling. "I'd be more than willing to end it."

The challenge had been set.

Bobby pretended to not consider for a moment, but his pride had been hurt. Bobby Drake lived for his pride

"Danger Room." Bobby sneered as he turned away. "Ten minutes."

Storm saw Remy clench his fists around the gloves that covered his hands.

He always wore gloves.

"Well, this is appropriate." Ororo chirped, breaking the tense silence of Rogue and Remy as she snuck over to her box.

"What is?" Remy asked tiredly.

"HAHAHA!" She cackled as she tore the lid off the box and shoved it in Remy's direction.

He paled.

"You've got to be kidding me."

There were very few men that could pull of a leather outfit. Even less than that who could pull off a leather outfit with a giant 'X' stitched onto the front. And an even smaller number than that who could pull off a leather outfit with a giant 'X' stitched onto the front and a blood stained trench coat.

Remy LeBeau was one of those men.

Girls literally wavered in their step to watch him stomp down the hallway and tailed after him like lovesick puppies.

Not that he was really concerned with that at the moment. He had a jackass to kill.

News of the soon to be brawl had spread like wild fire (thanks to the ever talkative Jubilee) and it slowly dawned on the mansion that no one had any idea what the new guy's power was. As it was common knowledge that Bobby Drake owned the Danger Room's face, and not yet knowledge at all that new guy was an X-man, all bets placed were against new guy.

"Remy," Rogue rushed down the hall toward him. "You aren't actually goin' to fight him are you?"

"Oui." He said curtly, glaring straight ahead, tugging slightly at the collar of the suit. Damn leather. Damn leather to hell.

"But you don't even know Bobby's power!" She protested, shooting a glare at the swarm of girls following him. "Get someone else tah stalk ya crazies!" She barked.

Remy smirked slightly at her fired up expression as he fiddled with the deck of cards in his fingers. She was too cute when she was angry.

"Look, chere," Remy said fondly, wrapping his arm around her waist and pulling her forward with him. "Y' need t' calm down." He played with the white pieces of her hair as they entered the elevator together.

"But you're hurtin'." She looked slightly pained. "An' he saw yah!" She shook her head and batted away his hands. "If I know anything' 'bout Bobby Drake, it's that he's gonna do anythin' tah win. That includes hittin' and injured man where it hurts."

A warmth that he knew he didn't deserve wrapped around him. She cared. Genuinely. She cared if he was hurt.

"As I remember, river rat," Remy smirked at her. "Y' did the same thing t' me about a half hour ago."

She turned red.

"That was different! I was hittin yah fo' yah own good!" She snapped.

Remy chuckled as the elevator doors open on the lower levels, revealing the chrome and steel underbelly of the X mansion. He flicked the cards from one hand to the other in a snake-like motion.

"Why cards?" Rogue asked suddenly.

Remy chuckled again, sifting through the deck.

"There's nothing that leaves the imagination free enough to contemplate sin than a deck of cards or a beautiful woman." He held up a single card to her. "An' since I would never hurt a beautiful woman-."

Rogue looked at the card that she had taken from him as he disappeared out the door.

The Queen of Hearts.

"Mr. Gambit isn't gonna get hurt, is he?" Jamie tugged at the cuff of her pants, successfully pulling her out of the trance she had worked herself into while staring at the card.

"No, sweetheart." Rogue grabbed under his arms and hoisted him into her lap so that he would have a better view of the Danger Room, which was pretty boring right now with Storm going over the rules for Remy's benefit. The booth, however, was filled to the brim with excited students, the promise of action bringing them together. "He knows what he's doing."

Truth be told, Rogue wasn't sure. She hadn't seen much of him actually fighting someone. She saw a few seconds of him defending himself against Logan and maybe a instant or two of him defending himself against Riptide (which obviously hadn't worked out as well as it could have) But she had yet to see him actually fight someone.

She knew that using the Danger Room outside of the instruction time was promoted , especially in one-on-one combat, so Storm hadn't really put up a fight against it, even though Remy's shoulder was torn up. Rogue hoped she knew what she was getting him into.

"Alright gentlemen," Said headmistress addressed the two men down in the Danger Room. "Bobby, keep this clean. No cheap shots, no hitting below the belt." She directed her stern look at Bobby, who snickered. "And, Remy," She turned to the other man, who was leaning on his bo leisurely, grinning like the patron saint of sin. Everyone in the booth rolled their eyes, expecting another 'fight clean' or maybe even a 'don't kick him while he's down'.

Storm sighed and put her hand down gently on his shoulder.

"Don't kill him." She begged.

The people who bet against the new guy were starting to get a little nervous.

"Logan's going to hate that he missed this." Rogue commented.

Storm had explained the rules to him, so Remy was pretty clear on the 'hard light' concept. What he saw would hurt like what he saw. Which also meant that it would charge like what he saw.

He turned his grin to Bobby.

"Y' ready f'r this, boy?"

Bobby smirked right back. "Are you?"

Remy laughed as the scenery around him changed in a sweep from the metallic playground to a dirty city street. "It's what I do."

"Ready?" Storm's voice called from the control room. Remy and Bobby set their stances.

"Yeah."

"Oui."

"Have at it." The voice cut out and Bobby immediately sprang into action by shooting ice spears at Remy.

Oh dear, He thought sarcastically as they bore down on him. If only I had some sort of super agility with which to avoid your silly ice spears… Oh, wait, I totally have super agility.

He crouched to the ground and then sprang back up, flipping in the air so that he landed behind Bobby at the other end of the street, charged staff first.

Bobby was thrown into one of the walls of the building next to him, shocked.

"What the hell was that?" He iced up the ground in front of him in a panic.

"That," Gambit twirled the staff around in his fingers expertly. "Was the beginning homme." He slammed the staff down into the floor again and all of the ice shattered, blowing up into Bobby's face.

Bobby covered his eyes expertly and decided that he was quite done was this 'losing' shit.

Remy's eyes widened momentarily as the teen that stood out of the smoke was not the flesh and bone one that had gone down in it.

A grin split Remy's face as he looked at the Iceman.

"Be that chargeable ice I spy?" He chuckled.

"I SAID NO KILLING HIM!" Storm screeched over the intercom.

"Don't get y'r panties in a bunch!" Remy snapped, ducking under some ice daggers. "I'll just mortally wound 'm."

"The hell you will." Iceman spat as he played a dirty trick.

Gambit rolled out of the way of the ice barrage aimed at the back of his knees and pulled a deck of cards out of his sleeve.

"Oh," Iceman mocked as he set up making an icy spike. "What are ya gonna do? Paper cut me to death?"

Gambit's demon eyes sparked. "Didya think the staff just blew things up?" He held three cards in between his fingers. "No, homme," The cards started to glow pink. "Dat was me."

Bobby was blown sky high.

"Y'know boy, y' ain't very good at dis 'survivin' thing." Remy commented as he moseyed over to where the kid fell, kicking him lightly in the side. "Wakey, wakey…"

Bobby reached out like a snap and froze Gambit's trench coat solid.

"An' playing dead don't suit you well." Remy charged the coat to thaw it, but wasn't moving quickly enough.

Bobby round housed him in the jaw before he could move his arms.

"Ya know, I knew Marie would go out and find someone else after she left here." Bobby kicked him while he was down. "That I would have to fight a little bit to get her back." He kicked him again. "But I honestly didn't think he'd be such a loser." Again. "What was your name again?" He cocked back his leg again.

Remy's boot made contact with his jaw.

"What's my name?" He growled as he drew himself to his full height. His eyes flashed with murder. "I go by a couple of t'ings."

A charged card landed by Bobby's side. He scrambled to get out of the way in time.

Boom.

"Le diable blanc, for one." Another card went sailing after Bobby.

Boom.

"Remy LeBeau, sometimes."

Boom.

"Experiment number 952643, for a while."

Boom.

"Pawn."

Boom.

"Killer."

Boom.

"Monster."

Boom.

"But, if y' can't think o' anythin'," He cornered Bobby against a building. The boy was panting and bleeding. He held a glowing card out in front of himself. The light reflected off of his eyes in an evil way. "Y' can just call me, Thief. Simple, easy to remember, describes me to a T." The card started to spastically frazzle with all of the extra energy it had been pumped full of. "Come back and fight me after y' make a few deals with the devil."

Remy threw the card over his shoulder, showing mercy to Bobby. There was another explosion and that half of the street came tumbling down.

Remy turned away and started to swagger/limp away from the wounded pride of Bobby Drake.

Bobby Drake lived for his pride.

Remy never knew about the ice spike aimed at his wounded shoulder until it hit him.

BA-ZAM.

Goodness, I am just Satan this week :3

Note- this chapter is better when re read and listening to some kick ass music (Like Ignition by TobyMac… just sayin'…) That little bit where Rogue asked him why he used cards was actually a part in Evolution (not exactly like that) and I thought his answer sucked. So I re-wrote it. The end! … Not actually…