Chapter 4 – A Visit
"Rogue…" he whispered. He saw her gentle eyes staring back into his.
"Gambit…was your name." Her eyes became watery.
"Please…"
"No. To me, you'll always be Gambit, not anyone else." His face was so close to hers, but she fought the temptation of getting any closer. She walked away and went to the table. She pressed the switch, to reveal a speaker on the corner.
"This is John." The voice came out of the speaker.
"Hey, where are you guys?" Rogue asked.
"We're on our way back to the jet." He answered.
"Alright. Don't take too long." Said Rogue.
"Is it suffocating in there?" he joked.
"Shut up." She hung up. In about five minutes time, they arrived.
"Hey you two, let's welcome our newest recruit, Jasmine Hanks." Scott let her through first.
"This is Marie Wood." Jean introduced her.
"Please, call me Rogue. But if you insist, you can call me Marie." She smiled.
"And this is Remy LeBeau, Gambit if you're his enemy of course." Jean showed her the handsome guy by the window.
"Welcome. Hope you like it here, and in the institute." He smiled.
"Here, I'll show you where you're going to rest." Rogue smiled.
"Thanks." She returned a smile. She followed Rogue through the automatic door near the cockpit and into another room. "If you don't mind me asking, is there something troubling you?"
Rogue looked at her strangely. "Please don't tell me you're like Jean."
"I'm sorry…what if I just said I have almost the same abilities?" she apologized.
"I guess that's okay. Well, for a recruit, you're good at this. Yes, something is troubling me." Rogue sighed.
"Don't worry, I won't ask anymore." Jasmine put her bags aside.
"Thank you." Said Rogue. "Well, I'm going outside to meet with the rest." She left her in the room as she unpacked.
"Hey Rogue, get over here." Scott called.
"What's up?" she wondered.
"Well, Jean's got her counterpart already, we've got four more to go." He said. "Which means, I'm going next."
"So who's staying this time?" Rogue asked.
"My counterpart is well, pretty much elusive. And it's a guy thing, no offense to you ladies, it's just this is a man to man thing." Said Scott.
"Your point?" Rogue wondered.
"I'm taking Remy with me. I'll leave John with the both of you." Scott answered.
"You're leaving me with girls?!" John complained.
"What a wuss…" Rogue muttered.
"Hey don't worry, they don't bite…hard." Remy chuckled.
"Funny." John said plainly.
"In that case, we're going now to get a head start." Scott said. "We got our communicators…"
"Sure thing. Good luck." Jean waved as they left the jet.
"So who's the kid?" Remy asked as they walked down the streets.
"Richmond Sawyer, eighteen. This kid can burn any metal you give him, even with just a tip of his finger."
"Impressive. So what's the difficulty of recruiting him?" Remy asked.
"Let's put it this way, his dad left him two years ago." Scott replied.
"Harsh. He took it really hard huh?"
"Yup. His dad had a problem with him being a mutant. So his mother kept it on low profile, till Professor contacted her. This kid's gone through a lot."
"Taxi!" Remy yelled at a driver. The cab pulled over.
"Where to?" he asked.
"5th Boulevard, Central District." Scott closed the door shut.
"I bet you thirty dollars they'll come back before two hours." John smirked at Rogue.
"You're kidding, they'll take the whole night if they wanted." Rogue laughed as she got a book from her bag.
"Come on, thirty bucks, I need money." He stuck out his hand. Rogue eyed him suspiciously.
"Fine, thirty bucks." Rogue shook his hand as Jean came in with Jasmine.
"What are you two betting on?" she asked.
"That Scott and Remy will come back before two hours." Said John.
"You better have money in your pocket." Jean smirked.
"Okay you can drop us right here." Scott told the driver as they pulled over in the corner. "Thanks." He paid him as they got off the cab.
"Apartment or what?" Remy wondered.
"Not so sure." Scott lead him to an apartment just halfway to the next stop light. "This should be it." He knocked on the door.
"Yes may I help you?" a fair skinned woman with medium height opened the door.
"Um, are you Mrs. Sawyer?" Scott asked.
"Yes, are you from the institute?" she asked.
"Yes Ma'am." He replied.
"Ah, I thought so. Please, come in." She opened the door wider and led them to the living room. She quickly brought out some snacks. She then noticed that Scott was still wearing his 'shades.' "Oh dear, you can remove your sunglasses. It's not bright in here."
"Um, it's okay Mrs. Sawyer. I have to wear these, for my eyes." Scott smiled.
"Oh. Well, don't mind me, just a little worried." She then sat down in front of them. "So, we have to talk about my son isn't it?"
"Yes Mrs. Sawyer, is he here?" Scott asked.
"He should be arriving any minute, he has art classes." She looked at her watch.
"Art classes?" Remy wondered.
"Yes, to keep his mind off things that just make his day go bad." She replied. "Nothing like a lefty doing art."
"If you don't mind us asking, has your son been burning metals for quite a long time?" Scott asked.
She gave a weak smile. "Well, you'll soon find out sooner or later." She sighed. "You see, my husband always worked in the construction site. And boy, my son always loved hanging out around there since he was maybe seven. Then, when he turned sixteen, high school life really affected him. People would make fun of him out of just a simple little mistake. And, he'd be so mad that he had to release his anger somehow. So one day, I was talking to my husband in his office, and we saw Ricky outside near the new shipment of pipes. We knew something was troubling him, and suddenly, we just saw him holding the metal pipe, and it melted in his hands. It didn't even hurt him." She took a deep breath. "Once my husband kept noticing how he could do extraordinary things, he felt like he was an abnormal kid, someone not worth paying for. And he left." Tears welled up in her eyes as she spoke.
"I'm sorry." Remy said.
"It's alright, what's gone is what's gone." She said as she wiped her eyes. Suddenly, a teenage boy walked in with a gray backpack walked in. He was tall, had deep blue-green eyes, and had dark spiked hair. "Oh honey, just in time. You remember the institute I told you about?"
"Yeah. What about?" he wondered as he put his bag down.
"Well, we have some visitors from the institute to talk to you." She smiled.
"I'm Scott Summers." He shook Ricky's hand.
"And I'm Remy LeBeau." He shook his hand too.
"Ricky, you're familiar with the Xavier Institute right?" Scott asked.
"Yeah, my mom's told me about it." He replied.
"It's passed almost an hour…" Rogue chuckled.
"They'll be here, you'll see." Pyro nodded his head. Suddenly, a knock was on the door.
"Did you hear that?" Jean asked.
"Hear what?" Rogue and Pyro said together.
"That knock." The knock was heard again, this time by all of them.
"It can't be Scott and Gambit, it just can't be." Said Rogue.
"You're broke aren't you?" John laughed.
"Rogue's right, it can't be them. And it's not the bet, I feel something…" Jean said slowly. "John, you think you can go up on the roof and check who it is?"
"Sure." Said John.
"I'll go check on Jasmine. Rogue, keep your eyes peeled." Rogue nodded as Jean went in to get Jasmine. John went up the ladder opposite the sleeping quarters near the cockpit, opening a squared latch on the roof. He got up and on the roof of the jet. He slowly crawled to see who was in the door. As he slowly peeked, OUCH.
"Well isn't this a pleasant surprise…" A young man jumped up onto the jet and met face-to-face with John. "St. John...."
"What do you want Pietro?" John asked.
"Oh nothing…just my dad has…well, let's say he's still pissed that you quit on him." He smirked. "That goes for old Remy too."
"Things like that never change. If you're looking for Spike…"
"Don't worry, I'm not looking for that ass." He smirked. "You know something, and we want it."
"What?" John gave him a bad look.
"Oh let me make things a bit easier, instead of it, let's just say, her." He grinned evilly. Before John got to speak, "Oh come on, you know who I'm talking about. You in particular should know…"
"Shut up." John curled his hand to a fist.
"Don't make it so hard on yourself, you know about dear Hailey." Pietro laughed. "Just tell me where she is, and we'll leave you alone."
"Where's John?" Jean asked as she came with Jasmine.
"I think he's up on the roof, having an unfriendly conversation." Rogue said worriedly.
"I need to call Scott." Jean ran to the table to contact Scott.
"It's Scott." He answered.
"Scott!!! You better get here quick!!! I think we got someone from the Brotherhood talking to John up on the roof!!!"
"Brotherhood?!" Scott wondered. "We'll be right there."
"What is wrong?" Mrs. Sawyer asked.
"I'm sorry, but we'll give you more time to think about going to the institute, right now, we have to go back to check on our fellow friends." Scott apologized.
"Take me with you." Ricky said suddenly.
"You serious kid?" Remy asked.
"Yeah. I'm willing to go." He stuttered a bit.
"Is that okay with you?" Mrs. Sawyer asked Scott.
"Yeah…sure. Go get your things, we gotta go now." Scott nodded. Ricky ran up the stairs and in less than two minutes, he was back with his belongings all packed.
"I love you honey. Take care." She kissed her son.
"I love you too mom. I'll call you." He smiled as they left his house.
"Taxi!!!" Remy yelled.
"Come on, just one place name and we'll leave you guys alone." He said.
"One place name…up your ass." John smirked. He threw a fireball at Pietro, which missed him barely. Pietro ran towards him in a split second and gave him a hard punch in the face. He was about to throw another punch, but John had caught his fist just in time and began to burn his hand.
"Awww shit!!" Pietro let go. "You better watch your back!" He jumped back down and dashed through the streets instantly. About thirty seconds later, Scott and Remy arrived with Ricky.
"St. John!!" Remy yelled.
John wiped the blood dripping from his lip. "What?!" Scott shook his head as they met inside.
"Okay what the hell happened to you?" Scott wondered.
"Quicksilver." John responded as he took the ice pack from Jean. "Thanks."
"What does he want? Spike's not here." Jean crossed her arms.
"Magneto's got something in for my counterpart, and he sent out his son to do the bloody work." Said John.
"I knew something like this was going to happen." Jean sighed.
"You think we should call the Professor?" Remy asked.
"You're right." Scott pressed the button on the speaker and waited for an answer.
"Yes X-Team one?" he answered.
"Professor, Quicksilver paid us a visit. Seems like his dad wants something from John." Said Scott.
"Just as I thought." He sighed. "Scott, how many counterparts have you picked up so far?"
"Just two. Jasmine Hanks and Ricky Sawyer." He replied.
"Listen to me. Recruit them as fast as you can, but keep John's counterpart last. Magneto will try to track you down, don't take Hailey next, it's much to dangerous." Said Professor Xavier. "You keep those recruits safe, don't let Magneto get to them, don't ever."
"Yes Professor." Scott nodded.
"All of you have to be careful, you don't know if someone may be watching you." He said.
"Alright Professor." Scott turned off the speaker.