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Disclaimer – I don't own X-Men Evolution but you already knew that…
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The truck hadn't hit him twice. It ran him over, repeatedly. Gambit woke up several hours, laying on his back in the X-Jet. A dull ache throbbed between his temples. He felt rather tired, and drained of energy.
"Hey." A pair of brown orbs stared down at him, glimmering with concern. "Are you all right?" Shadowcat was kneeling down next to him, hovering above him with her fidgeting hands placed on her lap.
"I've been better." He mumbled; sitting up as he mentally went through the last events that he could remember. The last thing he remembered was talking to that Southern girl with the different colored hair. "What exactly happened?"
"The mutant you encountered had a rather unique gift." Charles, who sat up front, said.
"Yeah." Shadowcat said softly, standing up and moving to a seat. "She, like, totally knocked you out."
Gambit ignored her. "Where is she?" He looked around only to see Wolverine and Scott in the cockpit, and the Storm sitting behind the Professor, and Jean was placed next to Storm.
"She went AWOL." Shadowcat answered casually as she tried to buckle her X-buckle. "Mr. Logan and I just got there as you fainted."
"I don't faint." The Cajun said sharply, feeling offended by the words. "The petit' fille knocked me out." He got to his feet and lowered himself in a chair. He coughed loudly before asking, "So, what was her so called 'gift'?"
"I'm not certain." Xavier admitted, making Gambit's lower jaw fall; the, oh so powerful telepath wasn't certain? Stop the press; we have a headliner here! "I believe she has the power to absorb life energy, rendering the person she touches unconscious."
Gambit shot Shadowcat a look. "Told you I didn't faint."
***
Remy realized how much he hated having a conscience. As tired as he was, the second he set foot back in the institute, he went straight to his bedroom, fell prone on his bed and closed his eyes. Seconds later, against their will, they popped open. He couldn't help but to think about that Southern girl. He could still feel her fear and confusion. For once in his life, he had a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach knowing that she was still out there, possibly in the woods and more than likely still afraid, confused and now lost.
The exhausted young Acadian dragged himself out of bed and forced himself to walk down the hall. Right as he was about to knock on the heavy oak door of Charles Xavier's office, the telepath's voice sliced through his thoughts. 'Come in, Remy.'
Remy shuddered; he hated it when he did that. He walked into the office, nearly tripping over the rug as he did. "You recruit every damn mutant you detect but you let this one get away?" He didn't bother to explain himself, or what exactly he was talking about; the guy was a telepath, a prying telepath at that, therefore he already knew.
"We came unprepared." The Professor did the distracting temple thing with his hands.
"That's all?"
Charles smiled up at him. "In the while you've been here, this is the first time you've shown interest in something."
Oh, how he wished to charge up Xavier's wheelchair. "I got weird vibes from 'er." And all of a sudden, he felt like he was talking to a shrink. "It was almost like I was connected with her emotions."
"That's odd."
"You're tellin' me." He sighed, running a hand through his messy copper colored hair. "I bet we're goin' to hear about everyone being found unconscious in the whole Caldecott area tomorrow."
"I don't find that humorous, Mr. Lebeau." Charles said, sounding like a stern parental unit.
Remy merely shrugged as he made his way out of the office. "Either do I."
***
The next morning Remy woke up feeling like the Energizer Bunny visited him during the night; he no longer felt exhausted. The first thing he did was blow up his alarm clock, accidentally of course, and then take a shower. He exited out of the bathroom, only wearing a white towel wrapped around his waist.
"Good morning." Kitty passed him, smiling brightly as if it would cheer him up and make him all perky. She was already dressed for the day.
"What's so good about it?" He asked, stopping in front of her. Small drops of water dripped down from his soaked hair.
Kitty's tongue went numb at the sight. "N-nothing. See you at breast—breakfast." With a red face, she zipped down the hall before he could even blink. He just smirked and walked off, in search of his room. Hey, it was a big place and he was forgetful.. finding his room he might walk into a few other's. Just use your imagination.
***
Meetings.
Remy was surprised that they weren't called 'X-meetings' seeing as how Xavier loved to throw the letter 'X' in front of every word imaginable. It was like he had an OCD with it. The Cajun decided to worry about that later.
"I called you all here to talk about what had happened last night." Of course the Professor glanced over at Remy when he had said that. "After much thinking, I've decided we should head back."
"Are you sure? She sounds pretty powerful." Kitty looked almost nervous, but there was a sly smile on her lips as she looked over at Remy. "I mean, like, she made Remy faint."
"Merde! I did not faint." He nearly broke his chair.
"There's a frightened girl out there and we need to find her. She hasn't used her powers since she encountered Gambit, but I believe she's still out there."
"Of course she's out there. The world ain't that small of a place."
"I meant in Caldecott Country, Gambit."
"Oh. I knew that."
"X-Men, suit up. We have a mission to complete." Scott and Jean eagerly bounced out the room, ready to go. Kitty mumbled a few inappropriate words, with a few likes thrown in-between as she dragged her feet out of there. "Remy, I would like to have a word with you." Xavier didn't wait for him to say anything. "Ororo and I are going somewhere else, to pick up a new student. Wolverine will be in charge of this mission."
"Why you tellin' me that?"
"I just hope you'll behave."
Remy gave him a mischievous smirk. His halo laid neatly over his horns. "Don't I always?"
Yeah, right.
***
"That man lives one sad, pathetic life." Gambit mumbled as he adjusted his gloves.
"I heard that, bub." Wolverine warned with a growl. "Try anything remotely funny and—" Here came the sound of his Adamantium claws ejecting from his forearms and out through the top of his hands.
"Well. It's good to know I'm so trusted." He remarked, slowly reaching into his pocket. Wolverine turned around, and right as he brought his three claws up to Gambit's neck, Gambit reached out, two charged cards were tucked between his fingers. His hand was only inches away from Wolverine's head while the Canadian's metal claws were nearly touching the skin along his neck.
"Not a smart move, Gumbo."
"True. You penetrate my neck; I blow off your head. Lets see your healing factor save you from that."
"Will you two cut that out?" Jean Grey asked on her way out of the jet. "You two act like children."
"She has a point." Cyclops said with a shrug as he followed her out. Gambit rolled his eyes.
"She has him whipped and leashed." His body tensed up when Wolverine retracted his claws.
"That she does." Gambit smirked as Wolverine left the jet. Maybe the oversized stuffed animal, Wolverine, was finally beginning to trust him. When Wolverine's head popped back in the jet ordering him to come on, that they didn't have all day, Gambit chuckled; Maybe not…
***
"Find anything?" Shadowcat asked with a tired yawn as she dragged her feet through the leaves.
"This is the place where I got knocked out?" Gambit asked obviously as he stared over at the scorch marks on a tree.
"Where you fainted? Yeah." He shot her a look. "Yeah, yeah, yeah. You got knocked out. But this is the place."
Gambit suddenly kneeled down and picked up a small silver object. It had caught his eye when the sun reflected off it. "What's this?" He asked, standing up. Shadowcat walked in closer, and laughed.
"It's a ring, smarts." She took it from him and examined it. "By the looks of it, it's a pinky ring. It doesn't look too expensive but there's a small 'R' carved into it."
R.
R.
…
R.
R.
Remy.
Rogue.
'Rogue.' He realized, remembering the name she had told him. "It's hers. The mutant's from last night."
"How do you know?" Shadowcat asked, giving him a weird look.
"I don't." He answered quickly, shoving the small ring into his pocket. "Hey, what do we have here?" He bent down, picking up his sunglasses. "You guys left these here?"
"Opps. Sorry." She didn't sound really apologetic. "Lets get back to the jet. We're not going to find anything."
Before he could even say anything, she started walking off. Gambit looked around once before walking off himself.
***
"We found nothing, Wolvie."
"Watch it—"
"Gumbo?"
"Bub."
"Someone needs to expand their vocabulary."
Scott rolled his eye. "Did you find anything, Wolverine? Jean nor I could find anything."
"Maybe that's because you guys were screwing each other against a tree." Gambit mumbled, only to receive a glare from Jean.
"I did find a new scent." Wolverine said, followed by a loud sniff. Gambit winced; He hated that.
"Who's?" Shadowcat asked, even though she really didn't care. She just really wanted to get home.
Wolverine let out another whiff, most likely to see Gambit wince and get all twitchy. "Mystique's."
"Ain't she that temperamental blue woman?" Gambit asked, making a face. She gave him the heebie-jeebies. "What would she want with the girl?"
"I don't know. But I have a feelin' we'll find out."
Gambit's face deadpanned. "Oh joyous."
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A/N Oh wow. It really tickled me that people reminded me to update my other crapwork. That amuses me, GREATLY! I just updated Changes. Isn't that good enough? GODDAMMIT.. I HATE THAT MILKSHAKE SONG! :|