Rogue and Fred both pulled the guys off of each other. It seemed like Pietro hadn't bothered to get away since he was the one asking for the fight.
She flew herself and Remy across the room. "What were ya thinkin' pouncin' on him like that?!" Remy wiped the blood away from his mouth where Pietro had gotten a quick punch in. Rogue cradled his face in her hands. "Remy," she saw in a low voice. "Why did ya do that? He's harmless, all talk. An' if he was actually tryin' he could get a thousand punches in on ya befoh ya could even get one."
He snorted, agreeing with her. Pietro may not have been ready, but he did get a few good punches in.
Tabitha snorted and rolled her eyes. "Men."
"You said it," Rogue sighed dropping her hands from Remy's face and turning away. "Sometimes Ah think there's only one thing they're good foh."
The blond smirked. "And opening jars."
Rogue held up her hands and smiled. "Super strength, remember?"
"Oh. Right."
"Ya know Ah think the Amazons had the right idea."
"Amazons?" Tabitha frowned.
"Warrior women of ancient Greece. They kept men as slaves." Rogue grinned wickedly.
"Oooh. I like them already."
"Anyway," Rogue turned her attention back to all the males present in the room, pointedly at Remy and Pietro. "If y'all're done showin' off yoah manliness?" she snarled.
Pietro put his hands up. "Done. Promise."
"Good. Ah was afraid Ah'd hafta kick ya out an' that wouldn't be the 'merry' thing ta do." She smiled despite her foul mood. She had her mouth open to say more, but she heard the front door slam open and then close.
"Gumbo, keep yer ass downstairs!" Logan shouted on his way up the steps.
Remy's eyes went wide, alight with glee. "New booze..." He almost drooled.
Lance heard that and smiled as well. "Is anyone up for an excavation in a couple minutes?"
Rogue, with an mental effort, kept her hand from connecting with the backside of both their heads. "Are you serious? Remy, you've been drunk twice in the last twenty-four hours. Lance, Ah didn't know you drank, but ta hell with it-"
Pietro coughed into his hand "Soft." Both Todd and Fred mirrored his action. Tabitha just shrugged. Rogue's gray-green eyes narrowed at the taunts.
"Give him twenty minutes to at least hide it," she relented. "Ah mean he went ta all that trouble to get it foh us. The least we can do is let him think it's safe foh a while." She smirked suddenly. "And then, Ah'll watch ya'll get drunk an' then when you're drunk an' Ah'm not..." She trailed off and hummed with an innocent expression, rocking back and forth on the balls and heels of her feet. The guys began to glance at each other nervously. 'Let 'em sweat about THAT for a while. Hehe. Ah'm so bad. Soft mah ass.'
About fifteen minutes later, the group of seven was in the dining room, and Remy had gotten tired of waiting. Rogue was about to put a freaking leash on him since he was whining so much. "Y' don' understand what bourbon is t' me dough, chere..." he said for the fourth time. "It's in m'blood."
"Ya damn right it is. From last night," she rubbed his shoulder harshly with her hand, damning herself for falling in love with a teenage boozer. She turned to the Brotherhood. "So what's the plan?"
"Well," Tabitha said, speaking for the boys as they continued to huddle. "We're assuming Badger still isn't onto our presence here, so me and Toddy and Freddy can surprise the hell out of him, while Pietro and Remy sneak in. Lance and you will be back up. Sound fair?"
Rogue nodded. "Good 'nuff. Wait, tell me why Pietro and Remy are teamin' up again? They just tried ta beat the hell outta each other, or was Ah imaginin' it?" She didn't see the logic of that part of the plan.
"Rogue, babe," Tabitha said, slinking up by her and placing her arm around the goth girl's shoulders in a friendly motion. Rogue just stared at her neutrally, not completely comfortable with the action, or the 'babe'. "Quicky will get in there... well, quick, but Remy knows his way around the room. He also knows the good stuff. The guy's a natural born thief, for God's sake!" Remy grinned at the compliment.
Todd looked up from the huddle. "Are we ready to go?"
Rogue shrugged, not really interested. "Whatevah."
"Dun, dun, dundundun, dun, dun, dun duuun dun..." Pietro began humming the Mission Impossible theme.
Remy glared at him. "Is dat really necessary?"
"Why? Is it annoying?"
"Yes!"
"Well, then I think it is."
Remy lifted his hands as if to strangle Pietro.
"Oh, yeah, this is a WONDERFUL plan..." Rogue drawled sarcastically.
Remy wrapped an arm around her waist and kissed the top of her head. "I'll behave, chere. Promise." He exchanged a quick glare with the white-haired boy and then returned his attention back to Rogue.
"An' what do ya want as a reward if ya don't kill him tonight?"
"You in dat French maid's outfit," he grinned.
Rogue laughed and pushed away from him. "Get outta here already." Tabitha smiled as she led the way for Todd and Fred out the door, seeing as how she knew a little bit about the mansion from her whole... three weeks there.
Outside the dining room and by the foyer steps, a grinning Logan stalked up the steps and awaited everyone to walk right into his own dastardly plan.
Tabitha looked around. "Where IS he?!"
"Yeah, we're supposed to be distracting him, yo!"
"I've got a baaad feeling about this," Fred muttered.
They heard grumbling coming from one of the rooms. It was bedroom. They slowly opened the door and discovered most of it was about "kids" and highly uncomplimentary. It was coming from the closet.
"Hey, Badger! Guess who's heeeere," Tabitha sang out. There was no reaction and the monologue continued. She looked at Fred. "You go first."
He nodded and gulped, nervously opening the door, Tabitha and Todd hiding behind him. Opening the door he found... a tape recorder?
"Huh?"
"Wait... If that's a recording then where's..." Fred trailed off and the three of them looked up in unison, too late to get out of the way of the net.
The bottom edges of it was drawn together with a rope before they could escape and the three collapsed in a heap, thankfully with no one squashed. Logan stepped from behind the curtains, laughing, and tied off the ends to one of the bedposts, away from where they could reach it.
"Mommy?" Todd whimpered.
Fred tried ripping apart the net only to find he couldn't.
"The fibers are woven through with adamantium, bub. Even Rogue couldn't get out of that. Now to go save my liquor..." He walked out, chuckling.
After a moment Todd spoke. "You realize we just violated one of the classic horror movie rules: Never EVER open the closet door when there's a psycho on the loose."
"Yeah, well, hindsight's a bitch," Tabitha said pouting.
"Pietro and Remy are so screwed..." Fred observed.
"Yep."
"Well... I say we make the best of a bad situation, yo... I've got a lov-el-y bunch of coconuts. Deedly dee. There they are all standing in a-"
"Todd," Tabitha interrupted calmly.
"Yeah?"
"If you don't shut up I'm going to have to hurt you."
"Okay."
"C'mon, Remy. We're getting the booze."
"Who said y' c'n boss me around? I t'ink it should be de ot'er way around, homme."
Pietro just scowled and waited up for him. He did let Remy walk ahead, and watched carefully as he slunk up the steps.
Rogue watched them go. "Did we just send them into a death trap?" she asked Lance when the others were out of earshot.
"Most likely."
"Ahh." She nodded, her lips pursed. "Should we do somethin' ta stop 'em?"
"Why should we?"
She shrugged. "You up foh cider?"
"You bet."
Remy pointed out Logan's door with a quick motion. Pietro nodded, all professional now, slight jealousy aside. He thought of that and scowled to himself. Remy pretended not to notice, but smirked to himself while facing the door.
He knelt down, pulling a custom made door pick out of his pocket. It was the heavy duty stuff, considering Logan wasn't the most trusting person. Remy reached for the doorknob, and amazingly, it turned without him having to bother with the lock. Remy looked at Pietro with furrowed eyebrows, curious. "Dis isn' right..."
"Whaddya mean 'dis isn' right'?" he mocked. "The door's open, let's get us the stuff and go!"
Remy stood up to stop Pietro, but decided against it. He knew a trap when he saw one. "I'll go in first, jus' follow my lead."
"You're the one who's scared of this guy. I'LL go in first."
Remy nodded solemnly, mentally laughing at Pietro for being so blind. He even waved him in. "Careful, dough, homme."
"Careful my ass." There was a panicked scream scarcely a second later. "Ahhhhhhh!!!!!! It'sFreddyKruegarmeetsthehomicidalhermit!!!!!! Runforyourlife!!!!!" There was a flash of white that Remy could barely follow before Logan burst out of the room, claws unsheathed. Remy let out an undignified yelp and did as Piero had suggested.
"SO YOU THOUGHT YOU'D SWIPE SOME MORE OF MY LIQUOR, DID YOU, GUMBO?!?! PREPARE TO BE SLICED AND DICED!!!!"
Rogue was seated on the same counter in the kitchen that Lance was leading against. They were both sipping cider. There was a faint sound of a terrified scream and then a roar.
Rogue laughed into her cider mug. "It slices, it dices, it make julienne fries. Please welcome home the Wolverine."
Lance snickered along, taking a nice long gulp of cider. "Three... Two... One..." Suddenly, the white flash came to a halt and Pietro was panting, eyes wide with fright. He saw the looks on their faces and narrowed his eyes. He pointed at them accusingly.
"Youknewthiswasgoingtohappen!" he sputtered.
"Of course we did, silly," Rogue giggled, yes, giggled. She was in too good a mood to bother hiding it. "Did you really think that Logan would allow his booze to get stolen twice in a single day?" She rolled her eyes. "And you act like the smart one."
"Where's your partner in crime?" Lance asked.
"Yeah, where is Remy?" Rogue echoed, anger edging her voice. She knew Logan wouldn't hurt Remy... well, maybe he would. The worry showed in her eyes. "You didn't just leave him there, did you?" She hopped off the counter and suspended herself a couple inches off the tiled floor so she could look down on Pietro. She'd seen Jean do it a couple times and it worked, so why not her?
Pietro cringed slightly. "Hewasrightbehindme,Iswear!!"
As if on cue the door swung open and a less than calm Remy ran in then slammed it shut again, backing away from it as if all the demons in hell were behind it, taking his eyes off it only long enough to glare at Pietro. "Y' left me back dere t' be gut'ed like a fish, homme!"
"Hey,betteryouthanme!"
Remy was about to offer a scathing retort when two sets of metal claws came through the door. He and Pietro froze like deer in the headlights. The wood was smashed inward and Logan stuck his head in smiling, ala Jack Nicholson. "Honey, I'm hoooome..."
"RUN!!!!!!!"
They took off again, yelling bloody murder. The door slammed open. "The prof's gonna make you pay for the door, you know that, right, Logan?" Rogue commented idly.
He paused in his headlong rush and grinned. "Yeah, but did you see the looks on their faces?" Then he took off again, laughing maniacally and yelling death threats.
Lance gave Rogue a look and she shrugged. "Hey, he has ta get his kicks somewhere."
"Right, of course..." Rogue and her sense of humor.
"So, should we be worried about where the other three fifths of your team is?"
"Figuring Mr. Shining is already chasing Remy and Pietro? I'm not sure."
"Do we bother to find them?" Lance shook his head. "My thoughts exactly."
"Damn, this sucks, yo."
"We know, Toddy. You've only said that four times in the last two minutes."
"An' considering we've been here..." Fred counted on his fingers dumbly. "Um... A real long time."
"Try about five or six minutes, Freddy."
"Right."
"Seriously, I don't see why I can't sing. It's not like we have any games to play in here or somethin'."
"Todd, did anyone ever tell you about your singing?"
"No."
"Let me be the first, man. You sound exactly like a Toad should sound singing."
"You cut me deep, Blob. There's only one thing I hafta say to that."
"What's that?"
"99 bottles of beer on the wall, 99 bottles of beer! Ya take one down, and pass it around, 98 bottles of-"
"No!!" Tabitha shrieked. Not caring about the enclosed space they were in, she sprouted out cherry bombs from the annoyance of that damn song.
Rogue was once again back on the counter with Lance leaning against it. They both cringed with the numerous pops and explosions, plus the girlish screams of Todd. "Told ya we didn't hafta worry."
The was another scream, this time from downstairs. "Noooo!!!I'mtooyoungandgorgeoustodie!!!!"
"Gee, I wonder who that was..." Lance drawled sarcastically.
"Hmm... I wonder," Rogue replied with equal sarcasm.
"Man, no wonder you guys always kick our asses. This is pathetic."
"Yeah... but 'The Brotherhood of Pathetic Losers' doesn't have quite the same ring, ya know?"
TBC...
She flew herself and Remy across the room. "What were ya thinkin' pouncin' on him like that?!" Remy wiped the blood away from his mouth where Pietro had gotten a quick punch in. Rogue cradled his face in her hands. "Remy," she saw in a low voice. "Why did ya do that? He's harmless, all talk. An' if he was actually tryin' he could get a thousand punches in on ya befoh ya could even get one."
He snorted, agreeing with her. Pietro may not have been ready, but he did get a few good punches in.
Tabitha snorted and rolled her eyes. "Men."
"You said it," Rogue sighed dropping her hands from Remy's face and turning away. "Sometimes Ah think there's only one thing they're good foh."
The blond smirked. "And opening jars."
Rogue held up her hands and smiled. "Super strength, remember?"
"Oh. Right."
"Ya know Ah think the Amazons had the right idea."
"Amazons?" Tabitha frowned.
"Warrior women of ancient Greece. They kept men as slaves." Rogue grinned wickedly.
"Oooh. I like them already."
"Anyway," Rogue turned her attention back to all the males present in the room, pointedly at Remy and Pietro. "If y'all're done showin' off yoah manliness?" she snarled.
Pietro put his hands up. "Done. Promise."
"Good. Ah was afraid Ah'd hafta kick ya out an' that wouldn't be the 'merry' thing ta do." She smiled despite her foul mood. She had her mouth open to say more, but she heard the front door slam open and then close.
"Gumbo, keep yer ass downstairs!" Logan shouted on his way up the steps.
Remy's eyes went wide, alight with glee. "New booze..." He almost drooled.
Lance heard that and smiled as well. "Is anyone up for an excavation in a couple minutes?"
Rogue, with an mental effort, kept her hand from connecting with the backside of both their heads. "Are you serious? Remy, you've been drunk twice in the last twenty-four hours. Lance, Ah didn't know you drank, but ta hell with it-"
Pietro coughed into his hand "Soft." Both Todd and Fred mirrored his action. Tabitha just shrugged. Rogue's gray-green eyes narrowed at the taunts.
"Give him twenty minutes to at least hide it," she relented. "Ah mean he went ta all that trouble to get it foh us. The least we can do is let him think it's safe foh a while." She smirked suddenly. "And then, Ah'll watch ya'll get drunk an' then when you're drunk an' Ah'm not..." She trailed off and hummed with an innocent expression, rocking back and forth on the balls and heels of her feet. The guys began to glance at each other nervously. 'Let 'em sweat about THAT for a while. Hehe. Ah'm so bad. Soft mah ass.'
About fifteen minutes later, the group of seven was in the dining room, and Remy had gotten tired of waiting. Rogue was about to put a freaking leash on him since he was whining so much. "Y' don' understand what bourbon is t' me dough, chere..." he said for the fourth time. "It's in m'blood."
"Ya damn right it is. From last night," she rubbed his shoulder harshly with her hand, damning herself for falling in love with a teenage boozer. She turned to the Brotherhood. "So what's the plan?"
"Well," Tabitha said, speaking for the boys as they continued to huddle. "We're assuming Badger still isn't onto our presence here, so me and Toddy and Freddy can surprise the hell out of him, while Pietro and Remy sneak in. Lance and you will be back up. Sound fair?"
Rogue nodded. "Good 'nuff. Wait, tell me why Pietro and Remy are teamin' up again? They just tried ta beat the hell outta each other, or was Ah imaginin' it?" She didn't see the logic of that part of the plan.
"Rogue, babe," Tabitha said, slinking up by her and placing her arm around the goth girl's shoulders in a friendly motion. Rogue just stared at her neutrally, not completely comfortable with the action, or the 'babe'. "Quicky will get in there... well, quick, but Remy knows his way around the room. He also knows the good stuff. The guy's a natural born thief, for God's sake!" Remy grinned at the compliment.
Todd looked up from the huddle. "Are we ready to go?"
Rogue shrugged, not really interested. "Whatevah."
"Dun, dun, dundundun, dun, dun, dun duuun dun..." Pietro began humming the Mission Impossible theme.
Remy glared at him. "Is dat really necessary?"
"Why? Is it annoying?"
"Yes!"
"Well, then I think it is."
Remy lifted his hands as if to strangle Pietro.
"Oh, yeah, this is a WONDERFUL plan..." Rogue drawled sarcastically.
Remy wrapped an arm around her waist and kissed the top of her head. "I'll behave, chere. Promise." He exchanged a quick glare with the white-haired boy and then returned his attention back to Rogue.
"An' what do ya want as a reward if ya don't kill him tonight?"
"You in dat French maid's outfit," he grinned.
Rogue laughed and pushed away from him. "Get outta here already." Tabitha smiled as she led the way for Todd and Fred out the door, seeing as how she knew a little bit about the mansion from her whole... three weeks there.
Outside the dining room and by the foyer steps, a grinning Logan stalked up the steps and awaited everyone to walk right into his own dastardly plan.
Tabitha looked around. "Where IS he?!"
"Yeah, we're supposed to be distracting him, yo!"
"I've got a baaad feeling about this," Fred muttered.
They heard grumbling coming from one of the rooms. It was bedroom. They slowly opened the door and discovered most of it was about "kids" and highly uncomplimentary. It was coming from the closet.
"Hey, Badger! Guess who's heeeere," Tabitha sang out. There was no reaction and the monologue continued. She looked at Fred. "You go first."
He nodded and gulped, nervously opening the door, Tabitha and Todd hiding behind him. Opening the door he found... a tape recorder?
"Huh?"
"Wait... If that's a recording then where's..." Fred trailed off and the three of them looked up in unison, too late to get out of the way of the net.
The bottom edges of it was drawn together with a rope before they could escape and the three collapsed in a heap, thankfully with no one squashed. Logan stepped from behind the curtains, laughing, and tied off the ends to one of the bedposts, away from where they could reach it.
"Mommy?" Todd whimpered.
Fred tried ripping apart the net only to find he couldn't.
"The fibers are woven through with adamantium, bub. Even Rogue couldn't get out of that. Now to go save my liquor..." He walked out, chuckling.
After a moment Todd spoke. "You realize we just violated one of the classic horror movie rules: Never EVER open the closet door when there's a psycho on the loose."
"Yeah, well, hindsight's a bitch," Tabitha said pouting.
"Pietro and Remy are so screwed..." Fred observed.
"Yep."
"Well... I say we make the best of a bad situation, yo... I've got a lov-el-y bunch of coconuts. Deedly dee. There they are all standing in a-"
"Todd," Tabitha interrupted calmly.
"Yeah?"
"If you don't shut up I'm going to have to hurt you."
"Okay."
"C'mon, Remy. We're getting the booze."
"Who said y' c'n boss me around? I t'ink it should be de ot'er way around, homme."
Pietro just scowled and waited up for him. He did let Remy walk ahead, and watched carefully as he slunk up the steps.
Rogue watched them go. "Did we just send them into a death trap?" she asked Lance when the others were out of earshot.
"Most likely."
"Ahh." She nodded, her lips pursed. "Should we do somethin' ta stop 'em?"
"Why should we?"
She shrugged. "You up foh cider?"
"You bet."
Remy pointed out Logan's door with a quick motion. Pietro nodded, all professional now, slight jealousy aside. He thought of that and scowled to himself. Remy pretended not to notice, but smirked to himself while facing the door.
He knelt down, pulling a custom made door pick out of his pocket. It was the heavy duty stuff, considering Logan wasn't the most trusting person. Remy reached for the doorknob, and amazingly, it turned without him having to bother with the lock. Remy looked at Pietro with furrowed eyebrows, curious. "Dis isn' right..."
"Whaddya mean 'dis isn' right'?" he mocked. "The door's open, let's get us the stuff and go!"
Remy stood up to stop Pietro, but decided against it. He knew a trap when he saw one. "I'll go in first, jus' follow my lead."
"You're the one who's scared of this guy. I'LL go in first."
Remy nodded solemnly, mentally laughing at Pietro for being so blind. He even waved him in. "Careful, dough, homme."
"Careful my ass." There was a panicked scream scarcely a second later. "Ahhhhhhh!!!!!! It'sFreddyKruegarmeetsthehomicidalhermit!!!!!! Runforyourlife!!!!!" There was a flash of white that Remy could barely follow before Logan burst out of the room, claws unsheathed. Remy let out an undignified yelp and did as Piero had suggested.
"SO YOU THOUGHT YOU'D SWIPE SOME MORE OF MY LIQUOR, DID YOU, GUMBO?!?! PREPARE TO BE SLICED AND DICED!!!!"
Rogue was seated on the same counter in the kitchen that Lance was leading against. They were both sipping cider. There was a faint sound of a terrified scream and then a roar.
Rogue laughed into her cider mug. "It slices, it dices, it make julienne fries. Please welcome home the Wolverine."
Lance snickered along, taking a nice long gulp of cider. "Three... Two... One..." Suddenly, the white flash came to a halt and Pietro was panting, eyes wide with fright. He saw the looks on their faces and narrowed his eyes. He pointed at them accusingly.
"Youknewthiswasgoingtohappen!" he sputtered.
"Of course we did, silly," Rogue giggled, yes, giggled. She was in too good a mood to bother hiding it. "Did you really think that Logan would allow his booze to get stolen twice in a single day?" She rolled her eyes. "And you act like the smart one."
"Where's your partner in crime?" Lance asked.
"Yeah, where is Remy?" Rogue echoed, anger edging her voice. She knew Logan wouldn't hurt Remy... well, maybe he would. The worry showed in her eyes. "You didn't just leave him there, did you?" She hopped off the counter and suspended herself a couple inches off the tiled floor so she could look down on Pietro. She'd seen Jean do it a couple times and it worked, so why not her?
Pietro cringed slightly. "Hewasrightbehindme,Iswear!!"
As if on cue the door swung open and a less than calm Remy ran in then slammed it shut again, backing away from it as if all the demons in hell were behind it, taking his eyes off it only long enough to glare at Pietro. "Y' left me back dere t' be gut'ed like a fish, homme!"
"Hey,betteryouthanme!"
Remy was about to offer a scathing retort when two sets of metal claws came through the door. He and Pietro froze like deer in the headlights. The wood was smashed inward and Logan stuck his head in smiling, ala Jack Nicholson. "Honey, I'm hoooome..."
"RUN!!!!!!!"
They took off again, yelling bloody murder. The door slammed open. "The prof's gonna make you pay for the door, you know that, right, Logan?" Rogue commented idly.
He paused in his headlong rush and grinned. "Yeah, but did you see the looks on their faces?" Then he took off again, laughing maniacally and yelling death threats.
Lance gave Rogue a look and she shrugged. "Hey, he has ta get his kicks somewhere."
"Right, of course..." Rogue and her sense of humor.
"So, should we be worried about where the other three fifths of your team is?"
"Figuring Mr. Shining is already chasing Remy and Pietro? I'm not sure."
"Do we bother to find them?" Lance shook his head. "My thoughts exactly."
"Damn, this sucks, yo."
"We know, Toddy. You've only said that four times in the last two minutes."
"An' considering we've been here..." Fred counted on his fingers dumbly. "Um... A real long time."
"Try about five or six minutes, Freddy."
"Right."
"Seriously, I don't see why I can't sing. It's not like we have any games to play in here or somethin'."
"Todd, did anyone ever tell you about your singing?"
"No."
"Let me be the first, man. You sound exactly like a Toad should sound singing."
"You cut me deep, Blob. There's only one thing I hafta say to that."
"What's that?"
"99 bottles of beer on the wall, 99 bottles of beer! Ya take one down, and pass it around, 98 bottles of-"
"No!!" Tabitha shrieked. Not caring about the enclosed space they were in, she sprouted out cherry bombs from the annoyance of that damn song.
Rogue was once again back on the counter with Lance leaning against it. They both cringed with the numerous pops and explosions, plus the girlish screams of Todd. "Told ya we didn't hafta worry."
The was another scream, this time from downstairs. "Noooo!!!I'mtooyoungandgorgeoustodie!!!!"
"Gee, I wonder who that was..." Lance drawled sarcastically.
"Hmm... I wonder," Rogue replied with equal sarcasm.
"Man, no wonder you guys always kick our asses. This is pathetic."
"Yeah... but 'The Brotherhood of Pathetic Losers' doesn't have quite the same ring, ya know?"
TBC...
