DISCLAIMER: I do not own the X-Men.
Logan and Carol were in the kitchen, talking and sipping coffee.
"So you really don't remember me?"
"I told you, I don't remember anything."
"Well, I'm sorry to hear that."
"Join the club, doll."
Just then, Gambit bounced into the room.
"Mornin'!"
"Hello, Remy."
Wolverine just grunted. He wasn't much of a morning person. Not much of a people person, either. And the fact that he didn't trust Gambit, especially around Rogue, who was like a daughter to him, didn't help at all. Logan glared at the young man as he happily went about his business, smiling. He grabbed three donuts and a bottle of soda, before leaping onto the counter to eat.
"Kid, don't put your ass where I eat."
Remy smiled. "Oops. Adieu, mes Amis." He shoved the bottle of soda into his pocket and put the remaining donut in his mouth, then jumped out of the window, landing on the tree outside and climbing away.
"Gumbo's a regular monkey, ain't he?"
Carol laughed, and Logan broke his normal sullen demeanor and smiled back.
Saturday mornings were nice and slow, and the three girls enjoyed them to their fullest. Rogue used this particular Saturday to catch up on the novel she was reading. Jubilee used it to torture Kitty.
"Ow! You pulled my hair again!"
"Sorry, chica... you should hold still." Jubilee was sitting on the edge of her bed and Kitty was on the floor, having her hair braided. Jubilee reached into the small baggie that she had.
"Oh, crap. Hey, Rogue! Do you have any ponytail thingies?"
Rogue peeked up from behind her book. "What are you, twelve?"
A flying Barbie doll answered the question for her. She rolled her eyes and reached into her bedside table, pulling out a little box and hurling it back at Jubilee.
"Thanks, babe."
"Don't mention it." She went back to reading, and Jubilee decided to stir things up a little.
"So... how's Bobby?"
The book immediately fell and Rogue sighed. "Ah think you know the answer to that."
"So, it's over?" Kitty chimed in.
"Ah don't see how it couldn't be. He's such an asshole."
"He's a hot asshole."
"You want him? Ah know Ah sure don't."
"I'll take him"
"No, Kitty, I called him first!" Jubilee pulled Kitty's hair.
"Ouch! That hurt, you bitch!" Kitty jumped up and lunged at Jubilee, pinning her to the bed. Jubilee pointed her hands at Kitty's face and started to send sparks right up at her, which forced Kitty to phase, freeing Jubilee from her grasp. Jubilee flipped backwards and rolled into a fighting stance. Kitty jumped onto the bed and struck a "Karate Kid" pose.
"Woooooaaaaaaahhh!"
Rogue was watching from her bed, and she picked up a pair of shoes, hurling one at Jubilee and another at Kitty. Jubilee dodged the shoe easily, and Kitty phased through it, causing it to smash into the headboard of Jubilee's bed. The loud noise made Kitty look behind her, which gave Jubilee the upper hand. She jumped up and landed on top of her friend, pinning her to the bed.
"Phase your way out of this!"
"Jubes, that's a dumb line... You know that she can... and will."
In response, Jubilee shot sparks off at Rogue, who leapt up from her bed and walked over.
"Don't make me do it..." She reached out towards Jubilee, who noticed at the last second that she wasn't wearing gloves, and sent off enough sparks to almost singe Rogue's hand, thus driving her back.
"That hurts!"
"What, and having the life sucked out of you doesn't?"
"Speaking of suck..." She grabbed the pillow off of Jubilee's bed and raised it above her head. As she brought it down onto her friends, a pack of playing cards fell out and hit her on the back of the head.
"Ow!" She smacked Jubilee with the pillow then went back to her own bed. "Who the hell keeps CARDS in their pillow?!"
Jubilee raised her hand. "I do."
Kitty kicked her off and took her place next to the bed. "Finish whatever you were doing, Jubes."
Jubilee situated herself above Kitty and continued to braid her hair.
"Speaking of cards, did you see the new guy?"
Rogue had picked up her book again and was only halfway interested in the conversation. "LeBeau."
"No, Danvers," Jubilee rolled her eyes sarcastically. "Yeah, LeBeau. He's pretty tasty."
"Don't you think of anything else?" Kitty teased.
"Huh? What did you say? I was lost in Pete's eyes"
"Don't even start..." Kitty looked up at her and glared.
"Fine, fine... while we're on the topic, did you see the new guy's eyes?"
"Yeah, talk about weird."
"I know! They're creepy."
"They're scary!"
"They're beautiful." Both of the girls looked over at their roommate in shock. Rogue put down the book again. "What? They are."
A smile spread across Jubilee's face. "Oh, really?"
Rogue threw another pillow at Jubilee, who set fireworks off in the general direction of her friend. Rogue picked up the book. "Let's not talk about this anymore, ok?"
"At least not while you're in the room"
"Shut up, Kitty."
"She has a point, Rogue. You know we'll talk about it as soon as you leave. Isn't it better to get it all out?"
"It's best to never say it, Jubes."
"That's too much to ask of me, and you know it. So when ya gonna ask him out?"
"Good God, Jubilee! Ah just broke up with Bobby yesterday."
"Out with the old, in with the new..."
"Ya really ain't helping, Kitty."
"Don't listen to her, yes you are."
"Don't join the dark side."
"You're such a dork."
"Takes one to know one, sugah."
"GUYS! Stop it. Now who's acting like they're twelve?!" Kitty served as the voice of reason.
"She started it."
Kitty and Rogue screamed at the same time. "Jubes!" In response, Jubilee stuck her tongue out and went back to braiding Kitty's hair. Rogue made a triumphant face at Jubilee and went back to her book. A couple of minutes later, though, she put the book down and sniffed the air.
"D'you smell that?"
"Jubilee... did you set the something on fire?"
"I don't think so..." They all started to search the room, and Rogue finally pinpointed the source of the smoke.
"Wait, it's coming from outside." They all ran to the balcony, to see what was happening. Usually, when smoke was coming in, it meant that someone had tripped the security system and shorted the wires. This time, however, the three were surprised to see Remy sitting in the tree just below the balcony, smoking.
"Speak of the devil."
"'Ello, Chere... Lovely morning, non?"
"How long have you been out here, Swamp Rat?"
"Long enough."
Jubilee and Kitty giggled, and Rogue glared. She turned on her friends, and herded them back into the room, slamming the doors behind her and leaving Remy outside alone.
"Remy can play de game."
He swung down and into the open kitchen window. As much as he would have loved to hang around all day, he had a danger room session to get ready for.
"All I'm saying, Mr. Summers, is that you've been under a lot of stress lately. Perhaps you misinterpreted the dream."
"Dr. McCoy, I'm not going crazy. I swear, she sent me a message."
"You watched her die. That's never an easy thing. But the bottom line is, she's dead."
"I'm telling you, she isn't. And when the Professor comes out of there, he'll agree."
The two were standing outside of Cerebro, where the Professor had been searching for Jean for a good five hours.
"Why is it taking so long?!"
"What, for you to change out of your jammies?" Logan, what a comedian. He snickered at Scott's unkempt look and headed into the control booth of the Danger room, followed closely by Storm, Carol, Jubilee, Kitty, Bobby, Colossus, Rogue, Nightcrawler, and Gambit. Hank patted Scott on the shoulder.
"I'd better go in and help run the simulations. You come and get me when you've heard from him."
"Ok. Since this is the first session with our two newest members, we're going to take it a bit easy on them. But don't expect this to happen often. Get your tails down there."
Logan loaded up the program as Hank walked into the room.
"I can run this if you wish to participate in the session."
"Why don't you go have some fun, Doc?"
"Thank you for the offer, but I'm a bit out of practice. I'll just sit up here if you don't mind."
"Suit yourself."
The room was suddenly transformed into a large field, with trees bordering on one side and a lake on the other.
"Great! A picnic." Jubilee started to look around. "Who's got the basket?"
"You're a moron." Kitty said it before Rogue had the chance to.
"Dis don' seem too much like a fighting simulation to Remy..."
"Just wait for it, Swamp Rat. Logan has a twisted sense of humor."
"Da. We will see the whole thing in a moment."
As if to prove Colossus' point, a large white van drove up. The entire team assumed fighting stances, as the door of the van slid open. Seconds later, a large troupe of Girl Scouts rushed out of the van.
"That's...unusual." Carol suggested.
The girls rushed around the field, playing different games. Some of them acknowledged the presence of the team, while others ignored them. Jubilee walked up behind Kitty and Rogue and pointed to a group of girls playing soccer.
"Think they'll let us join?"
"Ah hope not."
They turned around, as Storm spied some new arrivals on the scene.
"We've got company."
Sure enough, a large cluster of gigantic robotic sentinels was headed out of the woods
"Let the fun begin." Jubilee rolled up her sleeves. Colossus turned himself into the organic metal mammoth that he was most effective as, and Remy pulled out a handful of cards and his bo staff. The sentinels headed towards the Girl Scouts, who were now cowering in fear. As the giant robots corralled the girls, the team jumped into action. They picked off one of the sentinels rather easily, and Carol and Colossus carried it over to the edge of the field, creating something of a barrier where they could put the children to keep them out of the line of fire. With Cyclops sitting the exercise out, Storm was in charge.
"Ok. Rogue, Jubilee, Nightcrawler. Get the kids behind this sentinel. Everybody else, lets take the rest of these guys down." She flew into the air, summoning the largest, most powerful lightning bolt that she could. It struck the first of the sentinels, causing it to teeter slightly. Carol grabbed Kitty and flew her up to the top of the sentinel. With a nod, she let go of the younger woman, who phased through the sentinel, shorting it out. As it started to crash down, Carol intercepted it and threw it into the woods. Rogue, who was herding the children towards the first sentinel with Jubilee, turned to her friend.
"She's good."
"Oh yeah."
"What ah wouldn't give for powers like that."
"I hear you, babe."
They reached the safety of the hulking sentinel just as Nightcrawler teleported the last of the children out of the field.
"If you two wish to join in, I will be able to take care of the Kindern." Rogue and Jubilee nodded, and headed out to see what they could do. As they ran onto the field, they immediately saw Remy and Colossus engaging one of the sentinels. Remy was sending cards at the back of the sentinel, trying to disable its battery pack. Colossus was repeatedly striking it at the joints, wherever the weakest point that he could reach was. Nearby, Bobby was trying to ice up a smaller sentinel, but it kept on breaking free. Jubilee and Rogue headed over to him, and Jubilee did her best to distract him while Rogue went over to Bobby and kissed him, holding on long enough to borrow his powers, but not long enough for him to pass out. Once the transfer was complete, Rogue and Bobby iced the sentinel up at the same time, which was enough to take the sentinel down. The smaller sentinel skidded across the ground, knocking the legs out from under the larger sentinel that Colossus and Gambit were working on. Gambit was the first to notice that the larger sentinel was about to crash down on top of Bobby and Rogue. Bobby noticed seconds later, and leapt out of the way. Gambit hurled himself under the falling robot, grabbing Rogue and rolling out just in time.
As he stood Rogue up to make sure that she was ok, a cold gust of air hit him, followed by a hard, cold mass.
"What de..."
It was too late for him to get out of the way, and the ice blast hit him full on. He was knocked unconscious, and the last thing that he heard was Rogue's scream.
"Bobby! What the hell?! Logan, end the simulation. Now!"
A/N: Didn't take too long... I wanted to make sure I got this up before I'm unable to post for the weekend... But still, I love reviews!