Chapter 4: Persons Revealed
Across the hall and on the other side of the door, Rogue was shivering. She had just used her powers on a person that was potentially a non-Mutant. No wonder the Professor didn't want her to part of the team on missions. Even on some thing as simple as house watching, she messed up. Not to mention after being so close to his body heat-it was almost like he was radiating it-she was physically cold. No human could do that.
/ Exactly! No human radiates that much body heat. An' the dark glasses? Maybe he's like Scott. An' Gambit? It's gotta be a code name. / So she hadn't given herself-or the X-Men-away. She smiled at her discovery.
Meanwhile, 2700 feet in the air, Scott was ranting. Everyone that occupied the plane, which weren't many due to the upcoming summer holidays, could easily hear them.
"Who is this guy, Storm? No, no, don't answer that. I want to know what he's doing there and what he's gonna do to Rogue. And why the security system failed."
Wolverine snorted at the last question. There were a hundred reasons why it could have failed. /Scooter's ability of stealth is non-existent./
The brown-haired and eyed, 6' black-and-yellow-uniformed 23 year old stomped to the front of the plane where Storm and Wolverine were piloting.
"Get us there now."
Wolverine took an eye off of the controls. "Calm down boy-wonder. Rogue's a tough kid."
He mentally awarded himself a point for reinforcing their relationship /GOD. Their relationship? Wolverine doesn't do relationships./ as an older brother/younger sister or father/daughter type.
" She can take care of herself. She don't need some pumped up superman that comes to her rescue every time she breaks a flippin' nail."
/At least that's what I keep telling myself/ In truth, he was more scared than the younger man about her, but he knew what he said was true. The Wolverine had trained her himself between his short, frequent road trips. A sinking feeling of guilt hit his stomach. Maybe she didn't know as much as he thought. He had started teaching her after he came back for the first time. He had only stayed away for a week before convincing himself that if he wasn't with her, then he couldn't protect her. The sessions had been rare, centered on his frequent trips, leaving Scott to fill in the gaps. He mentally paled at the thought.
"Wolverine is right, Scott," Storm said gently. "I trust Gambit. He helped me when I was younger. I am sure nothing more than a bit of a verbal spar will come to her."
Wolverine inaudibly growled. /That better be all or I'm going to have to do some major gut slicing when we touch down./
He flipped the controls to Storm and turned to face Scott.
"Listen prima donna, don't get your panties in a twist just cuz some guy realized that Rogue was worthy of a second look and assumed you knew that too. As for her letting him in, he musta said sumthing. Streaks ain't no blonde." /Just don't go realizin' that there's more to those hockey games and outings I take her on./
A chorus of whistles came from the back of the plane. The Junior X-Men had been eves dropping and they knew exactly what Wolverine was saying.
The blue-and-yellow-clad Havok nudged the black-and-yellow uniformed Sunspot and Iceman. "Have you seen the rack on that girl? I'm tellin' you, it pays to stake out the hallway at 8:30."
It was common knowledge that the Bitch Queen, as she was known to many, was very prompt about her comings and goings to shower.
Before Logan could get up and knock some heads together, the 5'8" blue- furred X-Man bampfed to the three younger guys and knocked their heads together with a whispered "If I EVER here you talk about my sister that way again..." before bampfing to a safer distance as Jubilee, Shadowcat and Psylocke jumped the boys. Suddenly, there was a jumble of black, yellow, blue, and lavender variations of uniforms fighting in the enclosed area.
The red-haired Jean laughed in the rear of the plane as the freshmen girls taught the freshman guys and senior guy about being "male chauvinistic pigs." She felt they deserved whatever they got, and would have joined in if she hadn't felt too old or that Scott wouldn't approve. After an exhausting mission that had turned out to be another simulation, the entertainment was welcoming. But if it didn't stop she knew someone would get hurt. She was feeling trouble from the cockpit and broke the commotion up before seeing what was wrong.
Back at the mansion, Rogue was hearing strange sounds from the room across the hall. / Is that talking? Great. He's ah spy. Just what Ah need. / Rogue opened her door slowly then opened the next one quietly.
Inside, the stranger was talking softly to...someone?
Gambit had spent too much time practicing theft to not hear her enter. "Didn't someone 'ver tell Chere dat curiosity killed de cat?" He quickly through his phone into his beat up leather bag.
Rogue smiled. Logan was always telling her that when she watched him tinker with his bikes. She hardened her voice. She didn't want him to think that she wasn't barely more than tolerating him. "What are ya doing? Ah just remembered that Ah hadn't shown ya the mansion yet. Ah told Storm that Ah would."
He turned a fraction of an inch, just so she could see him better. "An' Chere always be keepin' 'er word."
Not wanting to fight...well not much anyway, she didn't respond. Rogue fought with herself to show no emotion. It wasn't that she was upset that he was finding ways to torment her and become one of the others, but that he was doing it so soon.
/ Guess Ah really do ooze bitchiness./
He couldn't look at her. Looking her in the eye made it harder for him to lie. Out of the corner of his eye...yeah, that he could do, but look her directly in the eyes, those green orbs...that he couldn't. He laughed to himself.
/Remy guess he's already gotten a bit too close this time./ For some reason that didn't bother him.
Rogue looked like she was going to say something when a load rumble shook the house. Whatever she was going to say changed. "They're back."
/ What a stupid thing ta say. Of course he's know they're back. / "Do ya wanna come an' meet the others?"
Gambit looked from the girl in front of him to the mess on the bed. He should probably not go with Rouge and spend more time getting his things in order and doing a perimeter sweep, but going would improve his status in the X-Men. / Non ta mention Remy'd be shown ano'ter good view. / He nodded shortly and madder sure nothing that could incriminate him was in sight before following her trim figure.
Scott met them halfway, still steamed. "Rouge, you got some explaining to do."
Across the hall and on the other side of the door, Rogue was shivering. She had just used her powers on a person that was potentially a non-Mutant. No wonder the Professor didn't want her to part of the team on missions. Even on some thing as simple as house watching, she messed up. Not to mention after being so close to his body heat-it was almost like he was radiating it-she was physically cold. No human could do that.
/ Exactly! No human radiates that much body heat. An' the dark glasses? Maybe he's like Scott. An' Gambit? It's gotta be a code name. / So she hadn't given herself-or the X-Men-away. She smiled at her discovery.
Meanwhile, 2700 feet in the air, Scott was ranting. Everyone that occupied the plane, which weren't many due to the upcoming summer holidays, could easily hear them.
"Who is this guy, Storm? No, no, don't answer that. I want to know what he's doing there and what he's gonna do to Rogue. And why the security system failed."
Wolverine snorted at the last question. There were a hundred reasons why it could have failed. /Scooter's ability of stealth is non-existent./
The brown-haired and eyed, 6' black-and-yellow-uniformed 23 year old stomped to the front of the plane where Storm and Wolverine were piloting.
"Get us there now."
Wolverine took an eye off of the controls. "Calm down boy-wonder. Rogue's a tough kid."
He mentally awarded himself a point for reinforcing their relationship /GOD. Their relationship? Wolverine doesn't do relationships./ as an older brother/younger sister or father/daughter type.
" She can take care of herself. She don't need some pumped up superman that comes to her rescue every time she breaks a flippin' nail."
/At least that's what I keep telling myself/ In truth, he was more scared than the younger man about her, but he knew what he said was true. The Wolverine had trained her himself between his short, frequent road trips. A sinking feeling of guilt hit his stomach. Maybe she didn't know as much as he thought. He had started teaching her after he came back for the first time. He had only stayed away for a week before convincing himself that if he wasn't with her, then he couldn't protect her. The sessions had been rare, centered on his frequent trips, leaving Scott to fill in the gaps. He mentally paled at the thought.
"Wolverine is right, Scott," Storm said gently. "I trust Gambit. He helped me when I was younger. I am sure nothing more than a bit of a verbal spar will come to her."
Wolverine inaudibly growled. /That better be all or I'm going to have to do some major gut slicing when we touch down./
He flipped the controls to Storm and turned to face Scott.
"Listen prima donna, don't get your panties in a twist just cuz some guy realized that Rogue was worthy of a second look and assumed you knew that too. As for her letting him in, he musta said sumthing. Streaks ain't no blonde." /Just don't go realizin' that there's more to those hockey games and outings I take her on./
A chorus of whistles came from the back of the plane. The Junior X-Men had been eves dropping and they knew exactly what Wolverine was saying.
The blue-and-yellow-clad Havok nudged the black-and-yellow uniformed Sunspot and Iceman. "Have you seen the rack on that girl? I'm tellin' you, it pays to stake out the hallway at 8:30."
It was common knowledge that the Bitch Queen, as she was known to many, was very prompt about her comings and goings to shower.
Before Logan could get up and knock some heads together, the 5'8" blue- furred X-Man bampfed to the three younger guys and knocked their heads together with a whispered "If I EVER here you talk about my sister that way again..." before bampfing to a safer distance as Jubilee, Shadowcat and Psylocke jumped the boys. Suddenly, there was a jumble of black, yellow, blue, and lavender variations of uniforms fighting in the enclosed area.
The red-haired Jean laughed in the rear of the plane as the freshmen girls taught the freshman guys and senior guy about being "male chauvinistic pigs." She felt they deserved whatever they got, and would have joined in if she hadn't felt too old or that Scott wouldn't approve. After an exhausting mission that had turned out to be another simulation, the entertainment was welcoming. But if it didn't stop she knew someone would get hurt. She was feeling trouble from the cockpit and broke the commotion up before seeing what was wrong.
Back at the mansion, Rogue was hearing strange sounds from the room across the hall. / Is that talking? Great. He's ah spy. Just what Ah need. / Rogue opened her door slowly then opened the next one quietly.
Inside, the stranger was talking softly to...someone?
Gambit had spent too much time practicing theft to not hear her enter. "Didn't someone 'ver tell Chere dat curiosity killed de cat?" He quickly through his phone into his beat up leather bag.
Rogue smiled. Logan was always telling her that when she watched him tinker with his bikes. She hardened her voice. She didn't want him to think that she wasn't barely more than tolerating him. "What are ya doing? Ah just remembered that Ah hadn't shown ya the mansion yet. Ah told Storm that Ah would."
He turned a fraction of an inch, just so she could see him better. "An' Chere always be keepin' 'er word."
Not wanting to fight...well not much anyway, she didn't respond. Rogue fought with herself to show no emotion. It wasn't that she was upset that he was finding ways to torment her and become one of the others, but that he was doing it so soon.
/ Guess Ah really do ooze bitchiness./
He couldn't look at her. Looking her in the eye made it harder for him to lie. Out of the corner of his eye...yeah, that he could do, but look her directly in the eyes, those green orbs...that he couldn't. He laughed to himself.
/Remy guess he's already gotten a bit too close this time./ For some reason that didn't bother him.
Rogue looked like she was going to say something when a load rumble shook the house. Whatever she was going to say changed. "They're back."
/ What a stupid thing ta say. Of course he's know they're back. / "Do ya wanna come an' meet the others?"
Gambit looked from the girl in front of him to the mess on the bed. He should probably not go with Rouge and spend more time getting his things in order and doing a perimeter sweep, but going would improve his status in the X-Men. / Non ta mention Remy'd be shown ano'ter good view. / He nodded shortly and madder sure nothing that could incriminate him was in sight before following her trim figure.
Scott met them halfway, still steamed. "Rouge, you got some explaining to do."