Wildcard
By Jon Emery
Pairing: Bobby/Remy
Author's Note: Takes place after X2, this is my take on how Gambit becomes a part of the team.
Three teenagers tried to make their way through the suffocating crowd, travelling in a line and clinging to each other's arms in order to not get lost. This may have, at some other time, seemed unusual – but not only was this New Orleans, it was Mardi Gras.
Rogue, Iceman and Jubilee had been sent by the Professor to New Orleans, to find a mutant with potentially destructive powers. Xavier seemed to think that he posed a serious threat to the human population, which would subsequently harm their attempts to show the human world that mutants were not dangerous.
Of course, this would all have to occur during the largest, loudest, and most impossibly lurid festival of the year. While Jubilee seemed to be enjoying herself immensely, Rogue appeared nervous – she disliked crowds for the simple fact that they implied body contact, something which she couldn't afford. She just wanted to find the mutant, and get the hell out of there.
Bobby was nervous too, but for a different reason. He didn't have to worry about draining the life from a whole mob of people like Rogue did. His worries were solely focused on the task at hand. This was their first mission unaccompanied by one of the senior X-Men, and he was anxious to prove himself. Apparently the mutant was about their age, which was why the Professor had sent them instead of the usual team. He reckoned they could use their 'natural empathy' to win over the renegade, or something like that.
The mutant was called Remy LeBeau, and was said to be a major player in organised crime down in New Orleans. They were currently unsure of what his mutant ability specifically was, which just made Bobby more nervous. They didn't even know how they were meant to find LeBeau; Xavier had simply given them a list of clubs that the mutant had been known to frequent.
The first place, La Lune Jaune, was a fairly quiet and dark bar that Bobby was sure attracted the shadier side of New Orleans' clientele. When it became pretty obvious that no mutants were welcome there, 'after what happened with that other one' (who Bobby took to be LeBeau), they quickly moved onto Genesis, a gay bar that provided Jubilee with much entertainment, but merely produced a look of distaste in Rogue. The third and final location, The Lion's Den, resembled from the outside possibly the roughest place Bobby had ever willingly approached. Thinking over and over again how stupid he would look in front of Xavier and Cyclops and Storm if he failed, Bobby led Rogue and Jubilee into the Lion's Den.
Moving to the beat of the music, drunk out of his mind, Remy almost let himself go. He could feel the wants and desires of everyone in the club, could see himself through their eyes, tinged with lust. Allowing himself an inner smile, he began to make his way out of the gyrating throng.
"Baby, no..." groaned one man, holding onto Remy's arm. "just one more song."
"No can do, homme," Remy replied. "Gambit got places to be." And with a charming smile, he had left the dancefloor. Deciding to get a final drink before going back to l'hôtel, he leaned against the bar.
"Whiskey, chere." He winked at the barmaid and turned back to face the room. Taking the drink without a second look, he knocked it back and was on his way out when Pierre, the guy he had been dancing with earlier, grabbed the back of his jacket.
Bobby knew the mutant as soon as he entered the club – olive skin, red hair, and a manner so blatantly sexual that every eye in the room kept darting back to him. Bobby could have admired this view all night, had a human not attacked Remy.
"Y'think y'can just do that? Do that to me?" Remy had no time to answer before he was punched hard in the face, the blow nearly knocking him off his feet. Instead he used the force of the blow to spin round and kick Pierre in the face, at the same time pulling a card from the pack in his jacket's sleeve. Letting his own energy flow into the Jack of Hearts, he flicked it towards Pierre and dived backwards – just as his makeshift bomb exploded. The resulting flames engulfed the front of Pierre's shirt, and would have left him badly injured – but as Remy watched, he saw the flames and the card's incinerated remains turn to ice. Mutant, he thought. Spinning around, he saw three strangers standing in the entrance – a blond young man, a Chinese girl and a young woman with a white streak in her dark hair. Remy only had to take one look to tell they weren't human.
"LeBeau!" The young man shouted over the noise. "Come with us!" He held out a hand, gloved in leather.
Remy looked back, looked back at the suddenly violent crowd and the terrified but furious Pierre. The Lion's Den had been his place for so long, but he knew he could never come back now. Turning to face the newcomers, he took the man's hand.
TBC – I'm unsure how to continue this, suggestions very much appreciated.