Chapter 3
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Rogue idly gazed at her own reflection in the window by her seat on board the X-Jet, contemplating the impromptu meeting of the team a few hours ago. There had been great debate as to whether or not the X-Men should look into the incident in New Orleans. It could be mutant related, but then it could just be some nut job that had a fetish for explosives. That of course led to the debate of whether or not it could be Gambit who caused it.
Cyclops was all for going down there and blasting Gambit through a wall then turning him over the authorities. Jean agreed with him, as did Nightcrawler, who still hadn't forgotten about Gambit kidnapping his sister back in the day.
Colossus however, did not believe that Gambit would be so openly violent with his powers, at east not intentionally.
"That was Pyro's job. Gambit was far more subtle than to go around blowing things up at random."
"Oh sure, go on and defend your old Acolyte buddy! Maybe he called ahead and told you to make sure we didn't suspect him!" Cyclops retorted.
"Scott that's enough!" Xavier said firmly. "You know as well as I do that Colossus would do no such thing. He has proven himself an X-Man as much as you have." Cyclops hung his head and muttered an apology to his teammate. Xavier turned back to Piotr. "Anything you can tell us about Gambit's behavior patterns would be most helpful to us Piotr, we need to know if this deems intervention."
"Da Professor, I want to help in anyway I can." Taking a deep breath, he continued. He told them about various quirks Gambit seemed to have, like the time he spent the whole day in close quarters with Pyro, and had begun to get the same insane look in his eye. "It was like if he spent too much time with one person, he would start to think and act like them." Piotr explained. There had also been incidents where something would explode, but Gambit would be on the other side of the room.
"Is it possible that he had more powers than what he told Magneto?" Xavier inquired.
"I suppose it could be. I do not really know the extent of his powers, other than the blowing up of things."
"Isn't this, like, jumping to conclusions? We don't even know if the explosion was mutant related, let alone if it was Gambit. I mean, this may be just some random..." Kitty trailed off in her statement. It was at that particular moment that another breaking news flash came on the TV. The same reporter was back, saying there had been three more albeit smaller explosions making their way out into the more residential areas of the city. At one of the explosion sites, the charred remains of several playing cards had been found, but the authorities hadn't felt they were of any significance.
That pretty much ended any debate.
So now, here she was, sitting in the jet, waiting for their impending arrival in New Orleans. The Professor decided to only send a few X-Men down, so as not to provoke Gambit, just in case he was hostile. Cyclops, Jean, Colossus, Shadowcat and Rogue were on their way to confront a past enemy, and in one particular case, a past friend.
Rogue took a quick glance over at Piotr. He had a small smile on his face, the normally stoic Russian actually seemed excited at the prospect of seeing his old friend from his Acolyte days. Rogue smiled to herself, she had heard a few of Piotr's stories about his days of running around with Gambit and Pyro. Gambit had actually gone out of his way to get Piotr a Russian to English dictionary, just to help him out. It was a stolen dictionary, but it was the thought that counted.
Sighing, Rogue turned back to the window. She didn't know what to think about the whole situation. She hadn't seen him in five years, but strangely enough, se had heard from him. A few times, a letter had appeared with her name on it, with no return address. The note inside had always been a stream of consciousness that had words like "miss you" and "been too long" strewn throughout. It had been an odd thing to receive, but nice at the same time. Though it did suck that he hadn't included a return address so she could send him something. Sighing again, she sat back and awaited their arrival.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Inhale...in with the good.
Exhale...out with the bad.
Build it back up.
Brick by brick.
Focus, it's almost done.
A few more minutes.
Almost...there.
Finished.
A pair of eyes opened, revealing their firey depths. Taking one last deep breath, Remy LeBeau felt his mental shields shift back into place.
This slip had hit him fast, one minute he had the control, the next, he felt them start to crumble, and things started blowing up.
It was always some emotional trigger that caused it. Intense anger or fear would cause a little crack in the mental blocks he had created for himself. Walking around downtown today, he'd almost killed people. All because he let his emotions get the better of him. Sitting outside under the massive oak tree and meditating had become the only way he could get a hold of himself.
"Feelin' better?" A voice broke his train of thought. Looking up. He saw his brother, Henri, watching him a few feet away.
"All t'ings considered, yeah." Rubbing his forehead, he waited for the 'responsibility speech' to spill forth from his brothers' mouth.
"Good. Mercy and I need you to watch Haley today." Was all he said.
"What?" Remy stared at him. "Are you nuts?! Didn't you see de news? I kinda caused some serious damage today!" Remy took a good look at his adoptive brother. Tall and strong, with jet-black hair and piercing blue eyes, he was certainly a force to be reckoned with. Henri had never agreed with his fathers abuse and exploitation of his little brothers mutant powers, and after he had moved out his his fathers home and into the city, Remy had always found a place to get away from his power hungry father.
"Look, I'm not blamin' you for dis. Dese t'ings happen sometime. I remember back when your powers first showed up and Tante Mattie tried duct taping oven mitts on your hands just to keep you from incineratin' everyt'ing you touched." Henri laughed to himself at the image of his twelve year old brother sitting a the dinner table sulking about barely being able to hold his fork in order to eat.
"Yeah, those didn't last too long though." Remy then recalled when the mitts had been charged up and the second-degree burns his hands had received. He never blamed Mattie for it, she had just been trying to help.
"So, ya wanna tell me what caused it this time." Henri asked, taking a seat on the grass.
"I was headin' down to the bank to make dat deposit like you asked. On de way, I saw a kid in an alley, diggin' through a dumpster. He was wearin' ragged clothes...looked like he hadn't eaten in days." Remy stopped; memories of his own childhood spent the same way haunting him to this day.
"Ah, okay, makes sense now." Henri paused before continuing. "So what happened next?"
"De kid saw me and took off. Don't blame him; adults freaked me out den too. I went into de bank, stood in line, t'inkin' about that kid...and den all de light fixtures blew." Remy started picking at blades of grass and putting them in a pile. He had felt such an unbelievable sadness at seeing another child resorting to dumpster diving just to stay alive. Hopefully, he didn't have worry about all the sick grown-ups, men and women alike, who enjoyed the 'company' of young children. Remy had seen a lot of kids go that route when he had lived on the streets, but that was the one thing he'd never do. Although, judging by the way the kid had bolted after seeing Remy stand there, the boy most likely hadn't been so lucky.
"So then you came back here?"
"Yeah, after I got past de mob. Had a few more accidents on de way back."
"Dey bad?"
"Nah, just little ones."
"Ya got in all under control now?"
"Yeah."
"Good, 'cause I still need ya to watch Haley today." Henri said, getting up and brushing off his pants.
"Why do you want me to do it? Where's Mattie?" Remy asked, getting up himself.
"Mattie is at one of her church t'ings. And Haley wants to spend de day with her favorite Oncle."
"Well, what's in it for me? Am I getting paid like a good little babysitter?" Remy asked with a smirk.
"What's in it for you is that you get to act like a four-year-old for the entire day." Henri smirked back.
"Deal." Remy laughed as they headed into the house.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
AN: Oh, man. That first part was a bitch to get out, but the Remy and Henri part just wrote itself! I love when that happens. I am so bloody tired; they're adding an addition to my dorm building, and the construction is going on right outside my window! And they start at like 7 in the morning!! I should get some sort of compensation for putting up with this!! Oh, and if any of the accents I write seem a little weak, it's because I'm having a very hard time typing them out. I've taken 5 university level English courses, and it's killing me to type out "dis, dat, dese and dose" But, I shall try my best to have some semblance of a Cajun accent were needed. Anyhoo, on to the shout outs"
Peace215: Constructive criticism is always appreciated, so thank you! I know my summary sucked, which is why I changed it and added the word "romy" to it! Now people will read it! I'm so bad. :p
Ishandahalf: Crack bunnies eh? A friend of mine has a bunny, I wonder if she gives it crack? I should ask her. Thanx for the review!
Mysterious Fan Girl: Here's your update! Read more! :p
Alyxanrdria: Aw, thanx for putting me on your alert list! I feel so special! Here's the update you've been waiting for. Which reminds me, I'm currently waiting for an update of this really great story called "Sombody Else's Song". Gee, I wish that author would update soon. *hint hint" :p
Alrighy then, next chapter, we have Remy playing babysitter, and the arrival of the X-Men! Stay tuned!
~Leishy
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Rogue idly gazed at her own reflection in the window by her seat on board the X-Jet, contemplating the impromptu meeting of the team a few hours ago. There had been great debate as to whether or not the X-Men should look into the incident in New Orleans. It could be mutant related, but then it could just be some nut job that had a fetish for explosives. That of course led to the debate of whether or not it could be Gambit who caused it.
Cyclops was all for going down there and blasting Gambit through a wall then turning him over the authorities. Jean agreed with him, as did Nightcrawler, who still hadn't forgotten about Gambit kidnapping his sister back in the day.
Colossus however, did not believe that Gambit would be so openly violent with his powers, at east not intentionally.
"That was Pyro's job. Gambit was far more subtle than to go around blowing things up at random."
"Oh sure, go on and defend your old Acolyte buddy! Maybe he called ahead and told you to make sure we didn't suspect him!" Cyclops retorted.
"Scott that's enough!" Xavier said firmly. "You know as well as I do that Colossus would do no such thing. He has proven himself an X-Man as much as you have." Cyclops hung his head and muttered an apology to his teammate. Xavier turned back to Piotr. "Anything you can tell us about Gambit's behavior patterns would be most helpful to us Piotr, we need to know if this deems intervention."
"Da Professor, I want to help in anyway I can." Taking a deep breath, he continued. He told them about various quirks Gambit seemed to have, like the time he spent the whole day in close quarters with Pyro, and had begun to get the same insane look in his eye. "It was like if he spent too much time with one person, he would start to think and act like them." Piotr explained. There had also been incidents where something would explode, but Gambit would be on the other side of the room.
"Is it possible that he had more powers than what he told Magneto?" Xavier inquired.
"I suppose it could be. I do not really know the extent of his powers, other than the blowing up of things."
"Isn't this, like, jumping to conclusions? We don't even know if the explosion was mutant related, let alone if it was Gambit. I mean, this may be just some random..." Kitty trailed off in her statement. It was at that particular moment that another breaking news flash came on the TV. The same reporter was back, saying there had been three more albeit smaller explosions making their way out into the more residential areas of the city. At one of the explosion sites, the charred remains of several playing cards had been found, but the authorities hadn't felt they were of any significance.
That pretty much ended any debate.
So now, here she was, sitting in the jet, waiting for their impending arrival in New Orleans. The Professor decided to only send a few X-Men down, so as not to provoke Gambit, just in case he was hostile. Cyclops, Jean, Colossus, Shadowcat and Rogue were on their way to confront a past enemy, and in one particular case, a past friend.
Rogue took a quick glance over at Piotr. He had a small smile on his face, the normally stoic Russian actually seemed excited at the prospect of seeing his old friend from his Acolyte days. Rogue smiled to herself, she had heard a few of Piotr's stories about his days of running around with Gambit and Pyro. Gambit had actually gone out of his way to get Piotr a Russian to English dictionary, just to help him out. It was a stolen dictionary, but it was the thought that counted.
Sighing, Rogue turned back to the window. She didn't know what to think about the whole situation. She hadn't seen him in five years, but strangely enough, se had heard from him. A few times, a letter had appeared with her name on it, with no return address. The note inside had always been a stream of consciousness that had words like "miss you" and "been too long" strewn throughout. It had been an odd thing to receive, but nice at the same time. Though it did suck that he hadn't included a return address so she could send him something. Sighing again, she sat back and awaited their arrival.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Inhale...in with the good.
Exhale...out with the bad.
Build it back up.
Brick by brick.
Focus, it's almost done.
A few more minutes.
Almost...there.
Finished.
A pair of eyes opened, revealing their firey depths. Taking one last deep breath, Remy LeBeau felt his mental shields shift back into place.
This slip had hit him fast, one minute he had the control, the next, he felt them start to crumble, and things started blowing up.
It was always some emotional trigger that caused it. Intense anger or fear would cause a little crack in the mental blocks he had created for himself. Walking around downtown today, he'd almost killed people. All because he let his emotions get the better of him. Sitting outside under the massive oak tree and meditating had become the only way he could get a hold of himself.
"Feelin' better?" A voice broke his train of thought. Looking up. He saw his brother, Henri, watching him a few feet away.
"All t'ings considered, yeah." Rubbing his forehead, he waited for the 'responsibility speech' to spill forth from his brothers' mouth.
"Good. Mercy and I need you to watch Haley today." Was all he said.
"What?" Remy stared at him. "Are you nuts?! Didn't you see de news? I kinda caused some serious damage today!" Remy took a good look at his adoptive brother. Tall and strong, with jet-black hair and piercing blue eyes, he was certainly a force to be reckoned with. Henri had never agreed with his fathers abuse and exploitation of his little brothers mutant powers, and after he had moved out his his fathers home and into the city, Remy had always found a place to get away from his power hungry father.
"Look, I'm not blamin' you for dis. Dese t'ings happen sometime. I remember back when your powers first showed up and Tante Mattie tried duct taping oven mitts on your hands just to keep you from incineratin' everyt'ing you touched." Henri laughed to himself at the image of his twelve year old brother sitting a the dinner table sulking about barely being able to hold his fork in order to eat.
"Yeah, those didn't last too long though." Remy then recalled when the mitts had been charged up and the second-degree burns his hands had received. He never blamed Mattie for it, she had just been trying to help.
"So, ya wanna tell me what caused it this time." Henri asked, taking a seat on the grass.
"I was headin' down to the bank to make dat deposit like you asked. On de way, I saw a kid in an alley, diggin' through a dumpster. He was wearin' ragged clothes...looked like he hadn't eaten in days." Remy stopped; memories of his own childhood spent the same way haunting him to this day.
"Ah, okay, makes sense now." Henri paused before continuing. "So what happened next?"
"De kid saw me and took off. Don't blame him; adults freaked me out den too. I went into de bank, stood in line, t'inkin' about that kid...and den all de light fixtures blew." Remy started picking at blades of grass and putting them in a pile. He had felt such an unbelievable sadness at seeing another child resorting to dumpster diving just to stay alive. Hopefully, he didn't have worry about all the sick grown-ups, men and women alike, who enjoyed the 'company' of young children. Remy had seen a lot of kids go that route when he had lived on the streets, but that was the one thing he'd never do. Although, judging by the way the kid had bolted after seeing Remy stand there, the boy most likely hadn't been so lucky.
"So then you came back here?"
"Yeah, after I got past de mob. Had a few more accidents on de way back."
"Dey bad?"
"Nah, just little ones."
"Ya got in all under control now?"
"Yeah."
"Good, 'cause I still need ya to watch Haley today." Henri said, getting up and brushing off his pants.
"Why do you want me to do it? Where's Mattie?" Remy asked, getting up himself.
"Mattie is at one of her church t'ings. And Haley wants to spend de day with her favorite Oncle."
"Well, what's in it for me? Am I getting paid like a good little babysitter?" Remy asked with a smirk.
"What's in it for you is that you get to act like a four-year-old for the entire day." Henri smirked back.
"Deal." Remy laughed as they headed into the house.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
AN: Oh, man. That first part was a bitch to get out, but the Remy and Henri part just wrote itself! I love when that happens. I am so bloody tired; they're adding an addition to my dorm building, and the construction is going on right outside my window! And they start at like 7 in the morning!! I should get some sort of compensation for putting up with this!! Oh, and if any of the accents I write seem a little weak, it's because I'm having a very hard time typing them out. I've taken 5 university level English courses, and it's killing me to type out "dis, dat, dese and dose" But, I shall try my best to have some semblance of a Cajun accent were needed. Anyhoo, on to the shout outs"
Peace215: Constructive criticism is always appreciated, so thank you! I know my summary sucked, which is why I changed it and added the word "romy" to it! Now people will read it! I'm so bad. :p
Ishandahalf: Crack bunnies eh? A friend of mine has a bunny, I wonder if she gives it crack? I should ask her. Thanx for the review!
Mysterious Fan Girl: Here's your update! Read more! :p
Alyxanrdria: Aw, thanx for putting me on your alert list! I feel so special! Here's the update you've been waiting for. Which reminds me, I'm currently waiting for an update of this really great story called "Sombody Else's Song". Gee, I wish that author would update soon. *hint hint" :p
Alrighy then, next chapter, we have Remy playing babysitter, and the arrival of the X-Men! Stay tuned!
~Leishy