(An: A lot of people seemed to like that I killed off Belladonna. Glad to be among like-minded maniacs. –nods-)

"So are ya with us?" asked Rogue.

"I still don't get who 'you' are," Remy said.

"Ah give up," said Rogue, throwing up her hands. "Logan!"

The hairy guy came over, smirking. "Yeah, Stripes?"

"Yah're the senior membah, ya explain," said Rogue.

"All right, Gumbo-"

"M' name's Remy!" he interjected indignantly.

"It's Gumbo now," said Logan. "Anyway, like Rogue said, we're the X-men. Our leader, Xavier, heard you're having a little... problem controlling your powers. What we want is for you to get in the nice jet so we can take you back to the mansion and help ya out."

"Help m' how?" asked Remy.

"Like controllin' your powers," said Rogue. "Idiot."

"Play nicely with the other mutants, Stripes," said Logan.

"Curl up and die," was Rogue's response.

"But first, Gumbo-"

"It's Remy!"

"Gumbo," said Logan, nodding. "A little explanation. What was the reason for the mob?"

"Oh, dat," said Remy, looking uncomfortable. "It's sort of a long story..."

"So is everything," said Logan. "We need to know so we don't have lawyers or something nasty breathing down our necks."

"Ok..." Remy rubbed the back of his neck, avoiding the curious gazes of the gathered X-men. "Um, it goes like dis.

"In N'awlin's, dere're two Guilds, de Thieves and de Assassins. Dey hate each other. Dey fight all de time.

"Lately, t'ings've been getting' worse. Dey're after each other all de time. Killin', riots, it jus' don' stop. Somehow, de heads of bot' Guilds got de idea dat havin' an inter-Guild marriage would stop all de problems. Had somethin' t' do with some obscure law- I din' understand it.

"What I did understand was dat I was de 'lucky' one. I got stuck in an arranged marriage wit' de daughter of de head of de other Guild- Belladonna." He began to look more nervous now.

"I still don' understand what happened. De weddin' was supposed t' be yesterday. I felt kind o' sick, but I jus' wanted it t' end. I did... somethin' t' de ring when I was holdin' it... I tripped... de entire church collapsed. It was a really big boom- like what I did back in de alley. When de dust cleared Belladonna and m' brother were dead.

"I ran. De Assassin's followed m'. I guess now dey're dead too. All in a day's work, suppose," he finished with a kind of grim humor.

"Aren't arranged marriages, like, illegal?" asked Kitty, looking disgusted.

"We're thieves, petite, y' t'ink we care?"

They had been so caught up in Remy's strange tale that they almost didn't notice the small jet that landed next to theirs.

-

Mr. Sinister prided himself on his smile- not quite evil on first glance, but still bad enough to make people wary.

The subjects, all six X-men and the intriguing new addition, were lined up by their jet. "Convenient," he murmured.

The pilot didn't say anything; he was a mute because he had dared to comment about Mr. Sinister's state of mind.

As he gazed down at the lined up X-men, he smiled.

-

The X-men might've continued to ignore the new arrival, if a man hadn't stepped out and thrown a small bomb at them.

(Mwa-hahah! A cliffhanger! And I'm aware that it's shorter than usual. I had to fake this chapter. The next one'll be better.)