Ideologies Catch Me If You Can, a x-men: evolution fanfic

Disclaimer: None of the mutants belong to me. Anything familiar you read below is most probably not mine either.

A/N: I suck in writing action sequences so I try to avoid them whenever possible. So if you expect some kick-ass events happening, ya'll have my permission to imagine it all in your heads. Sorry.

Previously on XME…When Team Blue reached the island where their teachers/guardians were taken as prisoners, their plans of rescuing them crumbled when they found out that their powers were negated. What's worse, they were separated from each other due to an attack by a robot whose purpose in life was to capture &/or destroy mutants. Jean Grey was one of the first to be caught. On the upside, Rogue and Remy took a step forward in their relationship.

Chapter 8

"Sir, our radars have detected a disturbance in Sector 7. A barge of some sort is heading straight to the island."

A man behind the massive oak desk placed his hands on the table. He sighed and bowed his head, as if in thought. "And the occupant?"

"There are at least five of them. And we believe them to also be possessors of the X-Gene, sir."

A cold, hard smile appeared on the face of the soldier's superior. "Good. Send the Sentinel at them. I want them captured alive, if possible."

"This is all your fault, Summers!" Pietro grumbled for the hundredth time that hour.

Scott was just thankful that Pietro didn't have his super speed so he didn't have to endure the silver-haired boy's complaint at a hundred miles per hour.

But he never wished for his eye beams so bad as he was right now, wanting to shut Pietro up with it.

"And why are you still wearing those stupid visors?" Pietro demanded as he whirled around to face Scott.

Scott froze. Then, his right hand involuntarily went to finger his glasses. He never wanted to admit it, but those glasses served as some sort of obscure security blanket for him. Before he got his glasses, his powers were haywire. He can't even open his eyes, but since he got them, things seem to get better. He was adopted by the Professor, he began to lead the X-Men, he started living a normal life, sort of. He didn't want to admit it, especially not in front of Pietro, but the thought of removing his glasses was terrifying.

"Well?" Pietro tapped his foot impatiently. "Are you going to remove it now?"

"My glasses are none of your business, Maximoff," he told him as he began to walk again.

"And where are we going again?" Pietro demanded. "For all we know, you're leading us around in circles."

"Look, Maximoff, why don't you go your way and I'll go mine?" Scott snapped.

"Fine."

And with that, the two went on their separate ways.

"Lance?" Kitty asked groggily. "What's happening?"

"We're under attack." Lance said as he ran into the women's quarters. "Wanda, wake up. We need you."

Kitty was hurt that Lance immediately went to the Scarlett Witch to ask for help.

"What can I do?" Kitty asked him as she joined him and Wanda on the deck. Kitty gasped when she saw a metallic robot swiping away at Evan. Then, it let out a green goo that enclosed Evan and quickly solidified.

Lance extended his arms and tried to shake the ocean floor. It resulted in a tsunami, engulfing the robot and violently shaking their boat.

Moments later, the robot surfaced.

This time, Wanda let out her hex bolt.

The robot froze.

Kurt ported in with Bobby.

"Another one's coming in!" Lance called out.

"I got it!" Bobby said as he iced up and concentrated his powers on icing up the incoming robot.

"There's another one." Lance said.

"Can't hold it much longer!" Wanda cried.

"Lance!" Kitty repeated. "What can I do to help?"

Lance looked at her for a moment. "Can you phase the whole boat?"

Kitty bit her lip. She never tried phasing anything that large before. But she nodded determinedly.

Wanda screamed as the robot she was holding with her powers broke free. It launched the green gook at her.

"Wanda!" Lance cried out. "Alright." He shook the ocean floor again.

"Incoming!" Kurt called out as two missiles launched itself at the boat.

Kitty grabbed on hull and concentrated with all her might. The missiles went through their boat!

"Great job, Kitty!" Lance called out.

"Thanks," Kitty grinned at him then promptly fainted.

Rogue sighed as she straddled the world between sleep and wakefulness. Stretching luxuriously, she took her sweet time in waking up. Peaceful slumber often eludes her, as her sleep is often plagued with nightmares, so during the rare times it comes to her, she treasures it and prolongs it as long as she could.

And then the weirdest thing happened.

Her pillow moved.

Rogue instantly snapped awake, but kept her eyes closed. Someone else was in her room with her. No one in the Brotherhood, not even Mystique, was dumb enough to be in such close proximity to her when she was sleeping.

She realized that whoever was with her, she was using that person as a make-shift pillow.

Then, with movement that would've made Quicksilver jealous, Rogue was suddenly up, pulling with her whomever was invading her personal space. And in a blink of the eye, she had thrown that person over her shoulder.

"And good morning to you too, chere," Remy, with his training, though surprised, had landed on his feet.

"Gambit?" Then, the events of the previous day came tumbling down on her. Right. The two of them were hiding in a cave from a tin can. They must have fallen asleep after darkness had fallen.

Remy smirked. "And here Remy was thinking that his chere was mumbling his name beautifully in her sleep."

Rogue reddened. "I was not!" Defensive position quickly abandoned, Rogue's hands flew to her waist. She glared at him.

"Well, now that we caught up on our beauty sleep, how about we take care of the bottomless pit, henh?" He asked, patting his stomach.

Rogue frowned, but internally, she was relieved that they were finally off that particular topic. "How about we ignore your stomach and come up with a plan to save Irene and the others?"

"Hard to think on an empty stomach, cher." Remy said as he patted the trench coat he had discarded earlier because of the heat, and the fact that the sea water had not been merciful on it. "Ah, here we go." He pulled out an unopened bar of chocolate. He tore open the package and divided it into two. "Here."

Rogue easily caught it. "Thanks," she muttered, but already, the wheels inside her brain were turning, trying to come up with a plan to save their teammates. "Do you think they escaped from the tin can?"

Remy shrugged as he quickly demolished the bar in two hungry bites.

"So what now?"

"We'll find out soon enough." Was his cryptic reply as he stood up gracefully. He also pulled her to her feet, then made sure he stayed between him and the entrance of the cave.

"Remy?"

"Shh."

And then, Rogue felt it. The slight tremble of the ground underneath her. Impulsively, she clutched Remy's shoulders.

Another tremble. Stronger this time.

"Remy?"

"It'll be fine, petite," he whispered soothingly to her. He almost took out his cards from his coat, only to remember that without his mutant powers, they were just ordinary playing cards.

Another tremble, one that made bits of the earth from the ceiling fall down.

The next tremble made Rogue lose her balance a little.

And the next…

Rogue screamed as a large metal head broke through the cave entrance.

Fortunately, the cave opening couldn't accommodate the whole of the robot's body so it had to destroy mounds of earth, which promptly collapsed on the robot, giving Rogue and Remy time to escape.

"Do we have a plan?" Rogue asked as she blindly followed Remy deeper into the cave.

"Oui." Remy said. "It's run for our lives."

Rogue rolled her eyes. "Great."

"Look!" Rogue pointed to a spot where sunlight pilfered into the cave.

"Got it, chere." Taking his bo staff from his coat, he quickly unfolded it and jabbed it upwards. Bits of earth fell down. And at Remy's second attempt, the whole created on the ceiling became large enough for a full-grown person to climb through.

"After you, chere." Remy bowed grandiosely.

Rogue snorted as she jumped up and grabbed the edge of the hole to pull herself up. Remy the pushed her through.

"Hurry up!" Rogue called at him from the outside as she went down at all fours and extended a hand to him.

Though he knew that he could climb through the hole in his sleep, Remy took the offered hand.

And afterwards, when they were both standing safely outside, Remy playfully kissed her uncovered hand.

"Merci, cherie."

Rogue simply shook her head. "Let's go. I have no desire to go one on one with that thing without my powers," she began walking away.

Remy agreed with her but didn't say anything.

Then suddenly, a large metal hand burst through the ground.

"Roguey!"

The hand grabbed hold of Rogue's leg.

"Remy!"

"Hold on, petite," he called to her as he tried to pry open the grasp with his staff.

But the hand was already pulling Rogue downwards.

Remy grabbed Rogue's hand with both of his hands.

"Too late, Remy." Rogue told him. "Go find the others."

"But petite,"

"No sense having both of us captured," she told him. She was scared but she didn't want to admit it. "You better rescue me, Cajun,"

"Never could resist a damsel in distress," Remy threw her a careless grin before reluctantly running away.

"Let me go!" Jean Grey struggled as two men took her from her prison cell.

"Shut up. He's waiting for you." One of the guards said as he cuffed her hands.

"Who's he?"

"You'll know soon enough." The other said.

"Ouch!" Jean glared at the guard as she was half-led, half-dragged outwards. And the corridors toward her destination just about broke her heart.

She saw the Professor, strapped in a bed. Irene, sitting quietly on a bench. Mr. McCoy, gripping the bars, looking at her with sorrowful eyes. And Wolverine…he no longer was the larger than life animal that he was. And the next cell made her stop.

"Kitty?" She choked out

"Jean!" The younger girl cried out as he ran to the bars to grip it. "We're sorry, Jean, they attacked in the middle of the night. We were caught by surprise."

"Where are the others?"

"Let's go," the guard said as he dragged Jean along.

"Wait! Wait!'

Rogue frowned as the redheaded guard slipped her ration of food for the day.

"Eat up." The guard told her. "If you know what's good for you." Then, he walked away to continue his rounds.

Rogue would've ignored the guard in not for the familiar way he commanded her to eat. Frowning, Rogue took the container of the food and dug through it with her fingers. Not to be disappointed, she discovered a slip of paper within it. She read its contents. A smile spread across her face.

Then, she began to eat the food. She would certainly need it.

And later, when the guards went to get her, she was feeling a bit more energized than when she was brought in.

The redheaded guard once again made his second round for the day. His first round was with old prisoners plus the telepath and the soul vampire. But last night, the Sentinels had brought in six new prisoners, the ones they captured from the boat. They were his second round.

His lips thinned as he saw two of the newer ones. One of them looked normal enough, but the other, he was covered in blue fur and looked like the devil himself.

The normal looking one gripped the bars of his cell. "Let us out!" He demanded when the guard slipped what seemed to be food under his cell.

"Shut up." The guard said. "And save your strength. You'll need it."

The boy looked at him with confusion in his eyes. Then his eyes widened. "You are—"

The demonic-looking boy fell over in shock.

The guard smirked.

The boy took a step back and nodded. "Whatever."

"Rogue?" Jean gasped as she was brought into a large office of some sort. On the floor was an unconscious Rogue.

"I strongly suggest that you keep from doing anything drastic if you don't want to end up like your friend down there." The man behind the large desk proclaimed.

"Who are you?" Jean demanded.

"Trask." He replied as he stood up. "Bolivar Trask."

Remy stalked outside the place where they were keeping Rogue imprisoned. He had followed the robot from a safe distance after it had captured Rogue.

Then, he noticed someone lurking in the shadows.

He was good, but Remy was better. He grinned when he saw who it was.

"Boo."

Hands automatically raced to his visor. He lifted it up, but no beams shot out.

"What are you trying to do? Glare at Gambit to death?"

"Shut up, LeBeau." Scott grumbled as he returned to his original position. He saw three robots that night and decided to follow them. And they led him here.

"Alright, Fearless," Remy slouched next to him. "Any plans?"

"For now, we wait."

"Why don't you take a seat, Miss Grey?" Trask asked politely.

Jean wasn't given a choice as one of the guards placed a heavy hand on her shoulder and forced her to sit down.

"What do you want from us?" Jean demanded.

Trask grinned. "From mutants generally?" He rubbed his hands in anticipation. "Well, research, mostly. After all, we want to know what humanity is up against."

"Mutants are not against humanity. We are human!" Jean spat out.

"Really?" Trask seem amused. "Well, we're not sitting idly by to test that theory," he shook his head. "We won't stand for it. It's better if we make the pre-emptive strike."

"That why you abducted all the adults with your robots,"

"With my Sentinels, yes. They would protect humanity from menaces like you. And after we're done with our research, then, we simply eliminate the threats on humanity."

Jean's eyes widened. "Genocide?"

"My Sentinels would be programmed to search and destroy all aberrations of humanity," he smiled serenely. "Now, back to your question."

"You pig," Jean spat and was immediately silenced by the heavy hand of a guard slapping her.

He continued as if nothing happened. "You wanted to know what I wanted from you." He grinned. "I read Destiny's Diaries. I guess I just wanted to get to know the two major characters in her prophecies. Her prophesies that is now avoided thanks mainly to my Sentinel project."

Jean closed her eyes and tried to tune him out.

"I wanted to see the two most powerful beings in the future." Bolivar Trask turned to Jean and Rogue. "I cannot believe that you are the two women Destiny described in her diaries. One would destroy the world. The other would save it. Finally. I have the two most powerful beings in the future at my disposal."

Gambit, seeing his chance, was able to slip inside the facility despite the heavy guards. He didn't even wait for Ol' One-Eye's approval, certain that he wouldn't get one.

Soon enough, he found himself in the bowels of the place, the cells where they kept their prisoners.

The first cell just about broke his heart.

In it was a small kid, no more than eleven. He was thin and shackled and had a shock of brown hair. And his skin displayed bruises and scars, telltale signs of abuse.

Gambit, having grown up on the streets, would not stand for it.

"Petite?"

The kid's eyes flew open and showed signs of terror.

"Shh, petite," he soothed him. "Remy's not one of them. Remy's here to get you out."

"R-remy?" Came the weak and raspy voice. "Who's Remy?"

"That be my name," he smiled at him as he began to work on the lock of the kid's cell and then at his shackles.

"M-my name's Jaime."

~tbc

P.S. Happy New Year to all! =)