I wrote this chapter a year ago, but just didn't find the time to post it. Also, I forgot my sign in password. Silly me. So here's another chapter. The next chapter is started. I will post it as soon as I get it finished.
Chapter Nineteen: Defending a Girl's Honor
Rogue returned home within an hour. She was about to go up to her room to start her homework when she heard Pietro's voice call out to her.
"Hey, Rogue, how are you and Freddie boy doing?" he asked. He stood in the doorway with a smug look on his face.
"Why are ya so interested?" she asked as he flipped a coin in one hand, while using his arm to lean up against the door opening.
"Because I know you're both lying," Pietro said and he zipped next to her just as she tried to climb the stairs, but he blocked her way. "I saw you run into that bathroom, and then that x-freak went in after you."
"That doesn't prove anythin'," Rogue said and tried to move his arm, but he wasn't budging.
"I heard everything you said," he said with a laugh. "Mystique would love to hear what I know. She would love to know her golden girl is nothing but a slut."
"Shut the fuck up, Pietro," Rogue said, bringing up her gloved hand to hit him, but he grabbed her and twisted her arm around her back. "Let go of me!" She screamed.
Pietro slammed her against the wall as she tried to break free, but he was way too fast. "Maybe you're lying about others things too, like your powers."
His mouth was close to her ear and his skin was so close it almost touched. "Why don't you find out, asshole?"
"Not until you confess," he said concentrating on not touching her but still getting as close as possible. He let his guard down, and Rogue was able to move her left leg. She moved it slightly and tangled it around his leg and jerked it until he lost his balance.
She quickly removed her glove and as he fell unto the stairs she touched his exposed arm. After that she knew exactly what he knew and had every intention on confronting him about it.
Just as Rogue knocked Pietro out cold Fred walked through the front door. When he happened upon the scene he had a look of shock and concern on his face. "What happened to him?" Fred asked looking down at Pietro's unconscious body.
"He knows," Rogue said, looking sullenly at Fred. Her lips trembled a little, but he looked more freaked out than she did.
"What are we gonna do?" he asked. He scratched his head as if he were trying to find the solution. Then an idea popped into Rogue's head and look the on her face brightened.
"Blackmail him," she said, but Fred looked confused. "For now, take sleeping boy up to his room, and make sure he can't get loose until we have a chance to interrogate him.
A short time later Rogue was in her room pacing when she was startled by a rapping on her door. She had been in deep thought and the noise made her jump. "Rogue, open up." She was relieved that it was Fred's voice.
She looked out the window to see Lance and Todd driving off. It was a relief having them out of the house, because it would give her and Fred a chance to work on Pietro while Mystique was out. There was a PTA meeting that night and she would not be back until late. She walked over to the door and opened it.
"He's waking up," Fred said with fear in his eyes. "If he tells..."
"He won't," Rogue said and swiftly walked towards Pietro's room. She saw the door was cracked, and the speed demon was tied up on his bed. They were special ropes that even he couldn't get out of. She could see him struggling and she wanted to feel sorry for him, but after the dirt she picked up on him she couldn't feel very much empathy.
"Hey, lowlife, have a nice nap?" she asked sarcastically as he tried to move his legs out of the ropes. They were so thick and tied so tight that he couldn't move a muscle. "Ya want us to turn ya loose?" All she got was a whimper, since his mouth was tightly gagged as well. "Be a good boy, and that might just happen." She took the gag off him, but in no way, did she do it gently.
"Get me out of this, you bitch!" he screamed at her as soon as his mouth was free.
"Not until we get a few things straight," she said and stuffed one of Fred's old gym socks in his mouth to keep him quiet so she could propose the deal. She could hear him gagging, even though the sock was only partway in his mouth. "What ya think ya know... forget," she said but Pietro just gave a scowl. "Ya tell Mystique anything, ya goin' to juvy."
She teasingly took the gag out of his mouth in hopes of getting his answer. To her surprise, he didn't even attempt to shout at her. She figured that he didn't want that smelly sock in his mouth again.
"You have nothing on me, cornpone," he said and spit at her. She slapped him in the face after that insult. She was wearing her black leather gloves and it the impact stung his face.
"Ah know everything ya did, Speedy," she said, but he merely laughed at her while turning his head away from her. "Nothing to say?"
He then turned back looking confident. "If you're talking about that business with Spikeboy..."
"No, ah'm talking about that," she said interrupting him. She found out about that weeks ago during their training session. She just never said anything about it, or how a mysterious man got him out of that whole mess. There was something else she picked up, something more recent. "Ah'm talking about your little fencin' operation you got goin'. Let's see now: 16 car stereos, and the 10K in merchandise lost in the robbery at the electric store hit last week. How about the bank heist three days ago?"
"You can't know about that, and you can't prove it even if you did," he said in a frantic voice.
"Ah may not be able to prove it, but it wouldn't take much to get Vince and Eddie to squeal," she said and Pietro looked surprised as she voiced the names of his accomplices. "Those boys are afraid a mutants. That's how you got them to work for you in the first place. Now, if they're afraid a what you can do, just how scared are they gonna be when the know what ah can do."
"Y-you w-wouldn't," he said stuttering out the words. "Y-you c-couldn't... rat out a teammate...?"
"I saw everything little dirty job you pulled off since ya been in Bayville when ah touched ya," Rogue said, looking him straight in the eye. "Deny it, Speedy."
She stared him down so hard he had no choice but to confess. "Okay, it's true," he said with a whimper in his voice. "If you tell Mystique..."
"Ah won't tell and neither will Fred if you keep your mouth shut," she said as Fred stood by the foot of his bed. The only other person in that house he feared more than Mystique was Fred Dukes and now Rogue.
"Okay, okay, I won't tell," he said as Rogue looked over at Fred.
"Freddie," Rogue said. turning to the big kid who had his eye on Pietro the entire time. "Look in the loose floorboard in the closet. You'll find a metal box," Rogue said as Pietro's panic rose.
"No, Rogue, don't do it, please" he said as Fred ripped the floor out, after having trouble removing the floorboard. There he found the box, just where she said it would be.
"What do we have here," Fred said as he opened it after ripping off the lock. It revealed a substantial wad of cash tied in two fat rubber bands.
"Hey, that my life savings," he said as Fred handed the large pile of money to Rogue.
"The animal shelter is about to get a big donation," Rogue said and put the money inside her jacket pocket."
"There's over $2,000!" Pietro screamed. "You can't take that! It's mine! I earned it!"
"Off of stolen goods," Fred said and came and stood next to Rogue. "That wasn't a nice thing to do, Pietro."
"We're the Brotherhood, and we ain't nice," he said just as Fred raised his hand, but Rogue stopped him from attacking.
"Now, from now on you're going to be a good little boy," Rogue said as Pietro turned away from her. "You're gonna stop stealing, be nice to the kids at school and never tell anyone anything about me."
"Fine," he said with a pout as Fred just growled at him. "Now, get me out of this."
"Do what you want with him, Fred," Rogue said and walked towards the door. Fred Dukes formed a smirk on his face which made Pietro swallow hard. "Ah got an errand to run."
Rogue left the room, leaving Blob and Quicksilver alone.
"Come on, Freddie, don't do anything rash. You know I was only foolin'," Pietro said but it didn't look like Fred was buying it.
"Yeah, right," he said and made a fist and punched him in the face. It was only tap, but a tap from the Blob would make him feel like he had been hit by a semi. Pietro screamed out in pain, to the point that he was almost crying. "That was for Rogue."
"Hey, she don't need you defending her, Blob boy, not after..."
"As far as I'm concerned, she took it easy on you, but I won't," Fred said and raised his fist to hit him again.
"Wait!" Pietro shouted. "I know why you're doing this, Freddie boy." He chuckled after his last word. "You don't like her dating that X-Man, and I know why. You want her for yourself." Fred lowered his fist until his arm hung limp at his side. "Admit is Freddie. You want her." Pietro hummed some stupid little kid's rhyme about Freddie and Rogue getting married.
"Shut up!" he yelled and slapped him so hard that he smashed the headboard and freeing the speed demon.
"Thank you, loverboy," he said and took off. It was out the room before Fred knew what happened. After the thrashing he gave him, he was running slower than normal, but too fast the catch.
Fred just stood there wondering if he was right. Rogue was the only girl in school who even talked to him, but she would never think of him in that way. He wondered if any girl ever would.
Rogue walked the two blocks to the animal shelter to drop off the wad of cash she pitched from Pietro. Getting rid of that money would be the best thing to do. Someone might figure out how Speed Boy got that money and he could spend the rest of his teenage years behind bars. Until the money was long gone, she wouldn't be able to rest.
She reached the shelter in no time and walked in without even looking around. She saw a girl in the waiting room with two small kittens in her arms. They didn't look more than a few weeks old. She recognized the girl as the one she had a confrontation in the bathroom a few ago. Her name was Kitty pride, the X-Man with that weird phasing power.
"But you have to take them," she pleaded with the woman as the reception desk. "I only rescued these two little ones from a boy trying to use them as target practice. I can't keep them."
"Without a donation, we can't take them," the woman said which made Kitty groan.
"Just what I get for trying to do a good deed," Kitty cried out. "Look all I got is three dollars left out of my allowance, and my parents won't give me any more money until next week."
"I'm sorry, Miss, but the minimum is $10, and that doesn't even cover room and board."
"Ah got it covered," Rogue and came up to the desk. "Will this be enough?" she asked and placed the two rubber band wads on the counter.
The woman's eyes grew big, but wouldn't touch the money Rogue had given her. "How much is that?"
"More than enough to cover two little kittens, and find 'em a good home," Rogue and walked back to the entrance door and exited.
She stayed outside the shelter for a few minutes and thought about the events of the day. Having Fred know her secret was one thing, but with Pietro knowing she wondered how long it would be before Mystique figured it out. She may have been a psychotic mess but she wasn't stupid. She was about to walk towards the ice cream shop to get a snack when she heard a voice call her name.
"Hey, Rogue, wait up!" She turned back to Kitty waving her arm in the air. Rogue was confused. Why would someone like Kitty Pride want her for. "I want to tell you something."
"Hey, what?" Rogue asked confused.
"I just wanted to say that it was nice of you give that money to the animal shelter," she said with a sweet smile on her face. "So why did you do it?"
"It's my good deed for the year," Rogue said, trying to play it off as not being a big deal.
"Come on, I know you're not as tough as you look," she said, not Rogue could see a look of innocence in her eyes. She couldn't remember a time when she was innocent, but she decided to humor the girl.
"Are you sure about that?" Rogue asked her, but Kitty looked like she didn't know how to answer the question. "I thought so. Now, here's a question for you. Did you really save those kittens?"
"Well, yeah, some crazy kid was shooting bee bees at them. I just couldn't stand by and let that happen. You believe me, don't you?"
"Ah don't have any reason not to," Rogue said and took a few steps towards the park. She had forgotten that she was heading the ice cream shop."
"Yeah, wait, I was wondering if you'd like to hang out or something. I was on my way to mall, and shopping his more fun if you have something to go with. We could make fun of all the bad fashions."
"You'd wanna hang out with me?" Rogue asked skeptical.
"Why not?" Kitty said holding out her hand. "Tara had a study date with Quicksilver, so what's the big deal if we hang out together, unless you don't want to."
"Well, I had shoppin' t'do anyway, so why not," Rogue and smiled for the first time since her run-in with Pietro.
Fred didn't have time to worry about Pietro getting away from him, because he had someone else that he needed to see. He knew that Wolverine and some of the older kids at the X-mansion hung out at the local poolhall on the weekends, and even though it was a Friday it was still early evening, which was technically the start of the weekend. He was worried about Rogue and didn't want to see her get into any more trouble than she was already in.
He remembered what Pietro said about the real reason he was helping Rogue. Did he truly want her for himself? He like nothing more than to have a girl like Rogue, of all the Brotherhood she was the nicest, and the only one of them who could beat him in a fight, granted it was after she 'borrowed' everyone else's powers, but when it came to hand to hand combat she was so much more skilled than the others.
Still, he wanted to make sure Gambit wasn't taking advantage of her, so he had to have a little talk with him in secret. Fred was a big guy, so walking the few blocks to the pool hall wasn't a problem. Most kids at school thought he was lazy and had no self-control when it came to food, but it was a little more complicated than that. His mutation was the reason for his size, and he ate as much as he did because he had to. Behind what others thought of as fat there was pure muscle.
He would give that X-Men a good dose of what his powers could do, if for no other reason than to protect Rogue. Finally, he arrived at the poolhall, so he walked in thinking he would see that Cajun Casanova right when he walked in, but to his disappointment he was nowhere in sight.
So, he didn't make himself look like an idiot he walked up to the bar like any ordinary patron. "Can I get a soda?" Fred asked and pulled out a few dollars out of his pocket.
The bar tender just gave him a funny look but pour him a glass of cola without saying a word. Fred sat there feeling foolish for even coming in there. He gave up the whole idea of finding Gambit and confronting him when he heard that familiar Cajun accent. Fred looked around and saw him coming out of the bathroom with one of his X-buddies. Someone stirred up the anger in him at seeing the guy Rogue had been secretly going around with.
"Hey, X-Man," Fred said while walking towards him with his drink still in his hand.
Remy looked up with a confused look on his face. "Talking to me, Dukes?" Remy asked.
"Yeah, I got something to talk to you about," Fred said trying to look intimidating which wouldn't be hard to do with most of the kids he went to school with, but this guy didn't seem fazed. If anything, he looked confused.
"What would you have to talk to me about?" Remy said with her arms crossed over his chest.
"Rogue," Fred said with made Gambit's eyes spark a bit.
"What about her?" Remy asked but Fred hesitated. "Somet'ing happen?"
"She got found out," Fred said which made Remy go pale. "Don't worry. It wasn't Mystique. It was Pietro."
"He do somet'ing to her?" Remy asked looking anxious.
"No, more like she did something to him," Fred said as Remy directed him to sit at one of the tables. "She...ummm... kind of blackmailed him"
Remy chuckled at that. "Sounds like somet'ing my chere would do."
"We tied him up, but he got away from us," Fred said, looking embarrassed. "Rogue found out some dirt on him, but that doesn't mean he won't shoot off his mouth.
"I'll take care of the speed demon and Rogue," Remy said and got up from the table. "Don't worry about it."
"You love her, don't you?" Fred asked with a little disappointment in his face.
"Yeah," Remy said and walked off. Fred just sat there holding onto his drink tightly, so much so the glass shattered in his hand.
"Hey, what do you think you're doing?" He heard the bartender scream from across the room. "Those glasses cost money."
"Sorry," Fred said and held up a five dollar bill. He left it and the shards of glass on the table. He swiftly walked out the entrance door hoping he would never have to come in there again.