Disclaimer: All X-men characters are created and owned by Marvel. I am gaining no profit for this.
Ch. 4: I Only Have Red Glowing Eyes For You
Scott stood outside of the Danger Room. Actually, he was more like impatiently pacing. Jean had summoned Gambit almost an hour ago. How long did it take for that jackass to get his uniform on? He was just about ready to go up to Gambit's room and drag him down there, whether he was dressed or not! Scott sighed. He knew he shouldn't be so upset. Gambit hadn't known about the simulation until about an hour ago, but still the man should at least have some courtesy.
Jean put her hand on Scott's shoulder and halted his pacing. "He'll be here any minute."
Scott glared down the hallway where Gambit was supposed to appear. "He'd better."
Right then, almost as if on queue, Gambit came bounding down the hallway. He seemed very perky, but Scott noticed that the leap in Gambit's bound could have been much faster. After two final strides, Gambit had fallen into formation next to Wolverine and Jean. "Good mornin'! I see everybody miss Gambit, non?"
"More like good afternoon by now Gambit." said Scott, "I already briefed everyone else, so you'll just have to settle with a shortened summary of today's program."
"No prob' mon ami." Gambit flashed one of his well-known lopsided grins. Gambit had actually heard the entire briefing. A few years ago, he had rewired all the comlinks throughout the mansion so that he could turn any one of them on from his room without letting anyone know. While Scott had been rambling on about his stupid simulation, Remy had been up in his room doing a few warm-ups.
"Basically, this simulation is going to test everyone's skills. It's a little over the top, but I think we need to be prepared for everything." Scott began to speak to everyone and moved his gaze from Gambit to all the others. "Be ready for scenery changes and unknown weapons. The Danger Room is going to be running at its highest combat levels today so be careful. And remember the emergency end program code is 'zinfandel.' Alright?"
He glanced back at Gambit and was immediately angered by what he saw. Gambit had taken his cards out of his pocket listlessly shuffling them in his hands. His complete focus seemed to be on those cards. Normally Scott wouldn't bother to waste his time in scolding Gambit, but it was his first day back in the Danger Room after three months of recovering from pneumonia. He just couldn't believe that Gambit still saw everything as just a game. Well, he would show him who was in charge. "Gambit!!"
Remy was slightly startled out of his stupor and stopped playing with his cards. He looked up at Scott and shrugged. "Wha'?"
"I hope you were paying attention. Do you know what the emergency end program code is?"
Gambit turned his head to the side so that he could get a good look at everyone's faces. They all looked a little annoyed, even Logan. "Dis de one?"
Gambit lifted his hand up to shoulder level. Then promptly lifted his middle finger as high as he could. He aimed it straight at Scott.
"Not funny Gambit. Either leave now or quit the bullshit." Scott was glaring directly at Gambit. He was so mad that he had no doubt that he could burn a hole through his visor and directly into Gambit's heart. But he still wanted to run the simulation even more, so he waited for Gambit's reply.
"Fine. Gambit cause no mo' trouble." Normally Gambit wouldn't have backed down so soon. Things were different now. He was fighting for a place on the team. If he wanted to stay he would have to learn to follow orders. For now.
Scott let his body relax again. He quickly stretched his neck and then continued with his speech. "As I was saying. The code is 'zinfandel.' Use it only if there is an emergency. Ok finally, you are all working together to achieve one goal, however, I have divided you into teams. Team Blue will be Rogue, Beast, and Angel. Team Yellow will be Jean, Wolverine, and Gambit. You are not competing against each other, just assisting each other. You are broken up in teams so that you have less people to look out for. Alright, if there are no further questions, I will head up to the control room…"
"What exactly is the objective?" Logan asked.
Scott opened his mouth to give a detailed description, and then realized that he didn't know. He hit himself inside. He knew he had forgotten something. Think Scott, think! Ummmmm. He looked at his team, who in turn looked right back at him.
"That's a good question Wolverine, but it is not important today." He noticed that Rogue was about to protest but he quickly cut her off, "If you absolutely need an objective, come up with something yourself."
With that being said, he quickly turned to his left and quickly marched toward the control room.
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He was covered completely in black. He even had a black hood that covered all of his face except for his eyes and mouth. On top of that, he wore a pair of goggles to conceal his eyes. At that moment he was using one of his gadgets to open the main control box. It basically controlled all of the Danger Room systems, which was why he had to get into it. His employer wanted to have full control of it and that was why he had been sent.
Of course it had taken him quite a long time to get to that little box. Before he could gain control, he had to actually get onto the mansion grounds without being noticed. He had first planned to use one of his gadgets. It was sort of an invisible missile. Wherever you shoot it, once it detonates, it freezes all security systems for about six minutes. It's also completely silent and can only be seen on infrared. The only problem is, someone inside might notice the six-second freeze. And he certainly didn't want to be noticed.
Instead he chose a less complicated plan of infiltration. A few weeks ago, he found out that all dry cleaning was picked up by Rick's dry cleaning service van. He also learned that it made deliveries every Wednesday morning at 7AM. Therefore, he just set up a harness at the back end of the van and secretly rode it onto the mansion grounds. While the delivery boy went to the front door, he snuck off to a more private location. His employer had a great layout of the place, so he knew where to go without being detected by security cameras. His uniform was actually very unique as well. He had laced small sensors throughout the entire suit, so that whenever he passed any silent alarms, they wouldn't go off. He was completely invisible to all technology. Which made it very easy for him to sneak into the Danger Room and plant a small canister into a weapon port.
He had actually arrived a day early, so he climbed into an air duct and spent the night there. That was probably the least exciting part.
Now after almost an entire 24 hours of waiting, he was getting on to his final task. Take control of the Danger Room when told to do so. About 12 minutes ago his boss had called him and told him to complete his mission. There was a small popping noise and the door to the box opened. It was all over, now that he had it open. It would only take a moment for him reroute the system to his control.
He reached down to his belt and touched a button on his comlink. "Sir, I've gained access into the Danger Room. I'm waiting for your command to launch the weapon."
"Very good. Hold until I give the word."
"Yes sir. Mathen out."
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Ch. 5: Sinister Plot
Snkt! Wolverine extended his claws so that he could rip through the missile that was heading straight for him. He stood his ground with his fists clenched. Swoosh! The missile was directly in front of him. Just at the last second, he shifted his body to the side so that the missile passed directly to the side of him. He reached his right hand out and as the missile passed his claws sliced it to shreds. It crashed a few feet behind him and then exploded. Wolverine retracted his claws and wiped his brow. He had to hand it to Cyclops; this was a very difficult simulation. There was another explosion and Wolverine noticed that everyone had regrouped near the center of the room. Well, the simulation was difficult, but not impossible. Wolverine ran over to back up his team.
Gambit had noticed that only a few seconds after the simulation had started, both teams had kind of separated. Jean hadn't really given any orders yet, so why wait. Gambit was helping Beast fight of some Danger Room robots at that very moment. Cyclops had done something to them to make them a little tougher to beat. But Gambit wasn't going to give up that easily. Just then, a robot came lunging toward him. He didn't hesitate for a second. Gambit pulled out two cards and charged them. The robot was almost upon him. He threw on card at its feet, which made it lose its balance, but it hadn't been stopped. As the robot was falling face forward, Gambit delivered a hard kick to its head. He quickly stuck the second card into its mouth, picked it up over his head, made a spin and threw it as far as he could. Gambit turned to see it head straight for Rogue. "Look out chere!"
Rogue noticed just in time and delivered a powerful uppercut to the flying machinery. It exploded before it even landed on the ground and a lot of shrapnel fell on Rogue. Since Rogue was invulnerable she wasn't injured, but she was pretty pissed at Gambit. She angrily marched toward him and picked him up of the ground by the collar. "Wha th' hell is'a matter with you, swamp rat! Watch wha yo doin!"
With that being said, she dropped him back on the ground. Gambit looked up at her. "Sorry petite. Gambit jus' a lil' out uh practice."
Rogue stared at him for a second and then turned to get back into the action. It was odd though. Gambit normally would have flashed her a big grin and used some kind of line on her. Maybe he was just being careful because he had known how mad she was at him in Antarctica. Even stranger though she really wished that he would have been sly with her.
Over across the other side of the room, Jean was trying to hold off a few holograms with laser guns. Wolverine had bounded over to help her and now he was slicing their guns to pieces. One of the holograms appeared with a little girl in his hands. He was holding a knife to her throat. Jean knew it wasn't real, but she knew she would have to find a way to save her. "Wolverine stop! You have to watch out for-"
Everything went silent. Jean didn't understand. Her mouth was moving and she was still trying to speak, but no sound would come out. Scott must have done something to the sound waves. She put a hand to her hand and tried to contact Wolverine. *Wolverine I need you to get behind the one with the little girl. Alright?*
*Ok Jean. Just a sec. I'm almost finished with this last goon.*
Jean turned back toward the hologram with the little girl. She was planning on lifting her out of the way while Wolverine attacked the hologram. But something out of the corner of her eye caught her attention. Weapon port 27 opened up and out fell a small silver canister. One side opened up and a thick green gas shot out from it. Something wasn't right. She looked up to the control room and saw that Scott hadn't noticed the canister yet. She was about to call to him but then remembered to speak telepathically. *Scott, why are you using gas? I thought it was too dangerous to use in a simulation? What is it?"*
Scott heard his wife's question and noticed the green gas that was progressively filling the entire room. *I don't know Jean. I didn't put that there. Stop the simulation we'll find out what it is.*
*Scott I can't the code won't work if the program can't hear it!*
Scott kicked himself inside. He should have thought of that. Oh well, he could shut the program off from the main control panel. He lifted the plastic covering off of the emergency end program button. He punched his thumb down hard onto it. But nothing happened. Scott started to panic and began repeatedly pushing the button. Still nothing happened. He looked up to check on the team. He was shocked at what he saw.
The gas had spread through the entire room. He looked for Jean and found her sprawled out on the floor. Her eyes were wide open and Scott immediately panicked. *Jean! Jean can you hear me!?*
*Scott! I can't move!*
He scanned the rest of the room. Everyone was down except for Wolverine. Kind of. The gas was definitely affecting him, but since he had a fast metabolism he was still able to struggle a little on the ground.
Suddenly, without any warning, a tesseract opened in the middle of the danger room. Out stepped someone Scott was definitely excited about seeing. Sabretooth. And behind him stepped out two other people he didn't recognize. A very muscular woman and a man completely dressed in black that was holding some sort of gun.
Wolverine noticed the new visitors as well. He struggled to his feet and gave a menacing growl. Sabretooth took a step forward and waved mockingly at Wolverine. His reaction was not very pleasant. Wolverine jumped to his feet, unsheathed his claws, and ran roaring at Sabretooth.
A shot rang out and a small puff of smoke came from the gun that the other man was holding. Wolverine had immediately halted in his tracks and looked like he had been taken off guard. A large metal dart was lodged in his stomach. Just as he was about to pull it out, the man took out a remote control and pushed a button. A small stream of electricity went through Wolverine's body. He fell to the ground in agonizing pain. Now his goose was really cooked.
Scott had stared helplessly at the whole situation, but he'd be damned if he wouldn't help a teammate. He noticed that the smoke had dissipated and none of the intruders were wearing masks, so he figured it would be ok to break the glass. He picked up his chair and threw it towards the large window. It shattered. Scott grabbed the side of his visor and let a blast out toward the man with the gun. It worked. The man took a direct hit on the shoulder and was thrown across the room.
Scott was just about turn his aim towards Sabretooth, but a small sharp pain hit the back of his neck. He reached his fingers behind and felt something sticking out from his skin. He winced as he pulled the alien device out and stared at it. It was definitely some sort of dart.
"Surprised to see me Mr. Summers?"
He knew that voice. Scott turned around to see Sinister standing right in front of him. "You and I have some unfinished business" He grinned evilly at Cyclops.
Scott felt the worst fear he could ever feel in his life. Painful memories were filling his head. How did he get in here…?
Then the whole world went black.
TBC
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Author's Note: Hey readers! Thanky very much for the reviews. The next chapter is finally going to introduce my original character. She is really cool. I promise. I still wanna keep her special abilities a secret, but I do wanna get you guys caught up on a few things. First of all her codename is Hellfyre. It was originally spelled Hellfire, but the Orange Pop Messiah informed me about the Hellfire Club, which I didn't know anything about. Hellfyre is not in any way involved with the Hellfire Club. I didn't want to change her name but I didn't want to confuse anyone. Got it? Ok second of all, I promise to put more Remy action in here somewhere, I'm still trying to get comfortable writing his accent. Ok keep reviewing, it makes my day!