Once again sorry for the delay. I hope you all enjoy reading this chapter as much as I did writing it. Let me know what you thought of what I call "The Confrontation." Thanks for all the wonderful reviews. I appreciate every one of them and look forward to them. They aren't the whole reason I write, but they sure are a nice icing on the cake.

Once again, I own nothing except the raw (sometimes very raw) idea.
Enjoy:
WarKnyte

Chapter 5

Gambit looked down at his bed in the hotel, scanning the objects laid out and carefully choosing the ones he would need for his nighttime excursion. He had several high-tech devices to be used in defeating different security systems. He passed these by since he didn't know what kind of system or systems he would be encountering. In these uncertain situations he preferred to travel light and stay flexible. When you brought along a lot of different equipment you tended to want to create situations use it, and that could get you in trouble. In the end he finally decided to take his retractable metal Bo staff, which collapsed fit nicely into the segmented leather sheath on his thigh. He also took along two decks of his signature playing. You never know when you might run into someone you can play a hand wit, he quipped to himself. He loaded one deck into the wrist "sheath" he had made to allow him maximum speed on the draw and placed the other one in his coat front pocket. Topping it all off with his worn, he preferred to call it "broken in," dark brown duster he stored everything else in a plain suitcase and carried it outside with him.

His first day here Remy had scouted out an old abandoned home to be his base of operations. He had selected it after carefully going through and making sure that no one had used it for the last few months, and had found the perfect hiding place for his tools under the stones of the fireplace. After dropping his suitcase off, he slowly made his way toward the Xavier mansion. By now it was about a quarter hour past midnight, and he wanted to give them all a little more time to get to sleep.

Arriving at the mansion about a half hour later, he climbed a tree outside of the wall and looked out over the grounds. Spotting several surveillance cameras almost immediately, he smiled wryly. Lotta good dat'll do ya, he thought. It took a few more moments for his trained ears to pickup the telltale, almost ultrasonic, hum of laser trip wires, confirmed after he slipped onto the carefully manicured lawn by the faintest hint of ozone in the air. That could complicate things a little, but shouldn't be too much trouble. He moved carefully, his red on black eyes shining softly in the sliver of moonlight escaping through the clouds. An excellent night for t'ieving. A cool breeze blew lightly across him, rippling the grass but not enough to cut through his black body suit and mask.

He made it to the side of the large boarding house without incident and peered in one of the huge ground floor windows. The place seemed to be deserted as all of the inhabitants slept peacefully. Checking carefully, he concluded that the window had no alarm hooked up to it. He pulled out a playing card and slipped it carefully between the two halves, working it upward to release the latch. As soon as that was accomplished he pulled one open just enough to let him slip inside and turned to latch it as soon as he was inside.

He heard a small creak and the soft snap of a light switch being turned on at the top of the stairs. One of the students made their sleepy way down the stairs and turned to the kitchens. The traitorous window chose that moment to squeak open just a bit more, and they whipped around quickly, almost tripping in their half awake state. Gambit watched, holding his breath as they came closer. He didn't recognize them, and he was pretty sure he hadn't met a demon at school that day. That was the only thing he could think to describe this particular mutant. He had glowing yellow eyes and a barbed tail. His body was covered with dark blue fur and when he yawned Gambit could see fangs in his mouth.

Gambit's eyes widened as he heard the young boy mumble in heavily accented English about the injustice of a curfew. This "demon" was Kurt, the German kid he had met today. He let Kurt slip into the kitchen before he left the safety of his hiding place in the heavy curtains surrounding the window. He paused for a moment, debating what to do. Finally curiosity won out over caution, and he quickly made his way up the stairs. Hiding until he saw Kurt enter his room, he went to the opposite end of the hall and opened the door. Inside he saw Jean sleeping by the soft glow of a night-light. After a quick look around her room he left, closing the door softly behind him. Smirking he turned to the next door. That evening had been fun, Jean clutching to him as he rode around town on his motorcycle, feigning interest as she pointed out landmarks and points of interest he had committed to memory days before. That had been all business, even though he had enjoyed the look of consternation on Scott's face when he had mentioned his bike.

In the next room he saw Kitty lying peacefully in her bed. Gambit's eyes moved around the room and almost popped out of his head as he saw Rogue sitting at the window. Heart pounding he stood frozen, staring at her lit by the moon's silvery light. After a moment he realized that she was asleep, her breathing deep and even. He walked slowly toward her, hardly even realizing what he was doing. She had fallen asleep in a pair of pajama bottoms and a tank top. She wasn't wearing her usual makeup, and he noticed for the first time how vibrant her skin tone was.

Gambit, ya fool, what ya doin' in here? Get out before someone catches ya. Despite his internal remonstrances, he stood gazing down at her. She shivered in her sleep and without thought he reached down and lifted her from her chair, his skin protected by his gloves and the long sleeves of his duster. Carrying her to her bed, he tucked her in carefully, pushing back an errant strand of hair. Shaking his head he slipped quietly from the room, closing the door resolutely.

"Merde!" he whispered savagely under his breath. This wasn't like him, to be so distracted on an assignment. He was here for a reason, to find out about these two adult mutants that Essex had somehow forgotten to tell him about. With this firmly in mind he quickly scanned each of the remaining rooms in the hall, finding only the students he had met that day and an empty room. Just as he was about to enter this last room he heard the deep rumble of a motorcycle pulling up outside. Great, one o' de adults comin' home after a late night. Prob'ly dat unsavory character I saw dis afternoon. He ran to the back of the hallway and found a door with stairs leading up, probably to an attic. He crouched silently by the door, straining to hear any sound.

Wolverine opened the front door and got approximately three steps into the mansion before he smelled it. Someone had broken into the mansion, and not very long ago. The scent was definitely masculine and peculiarly familiar. He had smelled it somewhere before but just couldn't place it. He popped his claws with a distinct schnict and an unconscious growl filled the silence of the mansion. Sniffing carefully he tracked the scent of the intruder, following his path from the window and up the stairs to the hallway.

Here he paused. The intruder's scent was all over the hallway, going to and from each room. He had been here within the last five minutes, so there was more than a good likelihood that he was still here in the house. Stalking forward on nearly silent feet he tried to determine where his prey might be hiding. Making his way slowly down the hall the smell grew steadily stronger until he stopped right in front of the door leading up into the attic where Ororo stayed.

Gambit heard the soft rumbling growl getting closer to his door and backed silently up the stairs. His luck was with him and none of the boards were loose to creak under his weight. He reached the top of the stairs without incident and was about to turn around to take in his surroundings when a loud roar sounded from down the stairwell and three shiny blades appeared, shearing through the expensive wood of the door.

Without hesitating Gambit drew a card from the deck held in place at his wrist, charged it with energy, and threw it at the door all in one smooth motion. He was already halfway to window, cursing himself again at being caught even though he couldn't for the life of him figure out how, when the explosion rocked the mansion, . Another card took care of the glass doors leading out onto some sort of balcony. It was a long drop down to the grounds. Sometimes, I hate my life, he thought wryly as he looked for some other way to go but straight down. The roof was steep, but given just a little time...

Another enraged roar, much closer this time, and a woman's shout from another room in the attic that he had failed to notice decided him. He was out of time and out of options. Spinning around he took two long steps into the room, his hand going to his bo staff as he saw a short figure come barreling up the stairs after him. Catching his pursuer (Mus' be dat Logan Jean was tellin' me about) off guard Gambit snapped his staff to full length, clipping him in the chin in the process. He followed up with two sharp blows to his legs, knocking him down. For an instant their eyes met, and Gambit knew he was in real trouble. He had stared down all kinds of people, from rent-a-cops at the mall to the professional assassins of the New Orleans Guild. This man was more dangerous in his own way than any of them.

Without another thought he turned and ran back to the window, scattering two more cards behind him for good measure. He felt a small tug on his duster and shrugged out of it without slowing down. When he got to the balcony he threw his staff ahead of him like a javelin and followed it into the night air, diving into nothingness. Dis is not my finest hour, he decided as he tried to find a soft spot to land. He hit the ground rolling and came up with three more cards charged and ready. He saw his bo lying a few yards away and ran, stooping quickly to retrieve it as he made his way to the stone wall surrounding the mansion.

All around him the grounds seemed to come to life as lasers and all sorts of nasty things lit up the night around him. He threw his cards one after the other with uncanny accuracy, always seeming to stay one step ahead of the automated security systems. He was almost to the wall when a flash of lightning struck just in front of him, forcing him to dive to the side. With a slightly sick feeling he turned around, staff held slanted in one hand and a pair of cards in the other. Dis is not too good. Now Gambit gotta face de X-men.



Rogue was awakened from a pleasant dream by a shout of rage seemingly from just outside her room. She had only barely registered this when she was jolted to full consciousness by a huge explosion. She yanked the door open without even bothering to respond to Kitty's screeched "What's going on?" She found the hall a complete shambles, with Logan lying in the splinters of what had apparently been the door to Ororo's attic. Other doors down the hall opened and she saw Scott and Jean looking up and down at the destruction. She opened her mouth to ask what was happening, but was cut off abruptly by Wolverine's sharp gesture for silence.

"I want all of you kids to get your uniforms on. We've got an intruder, and he's packing firepower. Go!" With another animalistic howl of rage he ran up the stairs.

Rogue and the rest of the students wasted no more time. In short order they were assembled again in the hallway ready to do battle. They were about to head up the stairs when they heard a loud crack of thunder from outside.

"Let's go!" Scott said, leading the way outside through the main door, all the others following. Jean and Rouge reached the lower floor ahead of everyone, flying out into the grounds as the doors opened as if by magic. Outside they found Wolverine advancing on a solitary figure, Storm still floating on the breeze. Soon they were all spread out on the lawn facing down a black clad man with a staff and what looked like playing cards with Storm the only one still flying.

"What do you want here?" Scott asked authoritatively, stepping forward slightly and placing his hand to his visor.

"Jus' lookin' around de place. Dis such a fine mansion, it remin' me o' back home." Gambit replied, trying desperately to think of a way out of this situation.

"And just where do you come from?" Professor Xavier's voice came from behind them all. The students parted to let him through to the front. He was dressed in pajamas with a blanket draped over his lap, but he didn't look as if he had been woken up. Obviously he had been up late again.

"I jus' came up from Nawlins to visit, t'ought I'd take a look aroun' de town. I see dey got all sorts round here." His eyes still hadn't left Wolverine. They watched each other, waiting for the other to move, instinctively knowing that this would be the catalyst.

"I see. And what is your name?

"You can call me Gambit, monsieur, dat's enough for now." Gambit tensed slightly, knowing that the longer he delayed the more in control they were of the situation.

There was a gasp from above and Storm suddenly landed in between the him and the X-men. "Gambit?" she asked incredulously.

Gambit's eyes flickered to her face, then he did a double take, staring hard at her. "Chere," he asked in a near whisper, recognizing his friend from years before, seemingly come back from the dead, "is dat really you?" Unnoticed, his cards fell from his limp fingers as he took a step toward her.

That was the moment. With a savage cry Wolverine leaped at the young man. Gambit barely had time to back pedal to the wall before he felt a searing pain in his left arm. He had managed to avoid one set of claws, but the innermost claw on the other hand pinned his arm to the wall.

"No!" Storm screamed running forward.

"Wolverine," Xavier barked as the enraged man lifted his arm to strike again, still holding the thief to the wall, "let him go."

"Dat's a good idea," Gambit ground out, teeth clenched with pain and, it seemed, concentration. "Ya'll be lettin' Gambit go right now, or your friend be goin' boom."

A slow realization dawned on Wolverine's face as he felt energy coursing along his metallic bones, spreading throughout his entire body, slowly building. In his mind he saw the cards begin to glow in the boys hand, exploding violently when their energy was released. Growling fiercely he sheathed his claws and backed away from the dangerous young man. "Round one to you boy. I don't think even I could survive what I think you almost did to me. Next time, though, you won't get the chance.

Gambit saluted with his good arm, then turned to Storm, a small smile on his face. "Good to see ya alive, chere. I t'ought ya were dead. Mebbe I come visit again sometime. Right now, I tink ya betta get yo friend to a hospital." With that he jumped up easily and caught the top of the wall, swinging himself over and disappearing into the darkness.