Disclaimer: Don't own the X-Men. Do own both Blaze and Raven. Golan belongs to Star and is used with permission.
08
Rogue-as-Blaze waltzed into the next day's briefing on Gambit's arm, a healthy pink glow to Blaze's cheeks. Her eyes sparkled and she could hardly look away from the Cajun. She was addicted to his smell, his taste and his touch. It was strange sitting in Blaze's usual seat next to Remy, but not so strange that she didn't think she could get used to it.
Scott and Jean were still away, and so it was Storm who cleared her throat as delicately as a spring breeze before she began. Under the table Gambit's fingers entwined with Rogue-as-Blaze's, and somehow Rogue knew his mind was still on last night's encounter and not on today's work. Blood rushed to her cheeks again, and she was grateful for Blaze's long locks. A slight dip of her head and she was obscured from view almost, protected from the lie she was living…
There was a whoosh as the doors slid open again and Blaze-as-Rogue entered. Marie found she didn't dare meet her own eyes as the body that Laura was confined to slumped into a random chair, infused with melancholy. Mournful eyes, bloodshot from lack of sleep and puffy from crying locked onto the 'couple' at the table. Jubilee and Shadowcat exchanged worried glances. If looks could kill Gambit and Blaze would have probably just gone up in smoke. But Storm was ready to begin and so both X-Men held their tongues. The only other team members present, Logan, Golan and Kurt remained manfully oblivious.
"This mutant's name is Splice." Storm began, bringing up a 3-D image in much the same way that Cyclops had with Genie. With the appearance of perhaps a nine-year-old girl and big green eyes Splice hardly looked hazardous. Wolverine opened his mouth to point this out when the image changed abruptly. Splice's eyes whirled, her skin wrinkled and sagged and she aged grossly. Manicured nails grew into twisted yellow claws and hair grew grey and knotted in seconds. Shadowcat voiced her disgust wordlessly at the image, a sentiment shared by the other X-Men.
"She's holding a local magistrate hostage and demanding a ransom for his release." Storm continued. "In the past she's had dealings with Mystique amongst others, and we know she will show no remorse if her demands are not met." Storm addressed Wolverine directly, eyes levelled at the father of her child. "Logan take Gambit, Blaze and Rogue. Without Cerebro's help we don't know if she has back-up or not but local law enforcement has not been able to deal with her."
"No problem." Logan nodded, pushing back his chair and cracking his neck. "We don't got all day lovebirds, c'mon. Rogue, you up for flyin' the jet?"
"Sure Logan." Blaze replied with Rogue's voice, rubbing her brow with the back of her hand. It took her a moment to conjure the strength to drag herself to her feet. Staggering heavily around her chair Blaze felt like she was drunk. Stumbling over her own tired feet she slipped, but strong arms fortunately caught her before she hit the deck. Her gloved hands ran down Gambit's arms as she steadied herself against him like it was the most natural thing in the world to do. Desperately she sought his fantastic eyes, looking for answers in his concerned, friendly gaze that she could not find in herself. But there was nothing there, no mirror for the swell of unnameable emotions that rose inside of her like bile.
"Rogue are you alright?" Storm asked kindly, helping Blaze back to her feet as the woman in Rogue's body struggled to break eye contact with Remy. "I may have made a mistake putting you forward for this mission…"
"I'm fine Ororo." The lost soul swore, stubbornly pushing past Remy and stomping off towards the hangar under the basketball court. "We'd better get goin'."
"Don't worry Stormy." Gambit gave Ororo a grin and a wink. "You let Gambit take care of Rogue."
"Oh yes?" Storm enquired with a sweet smile and a raised eyebrow. "And who exactly is going to look after you Gambit, when Blaze decides she can do without your brand of 'taking care' of Rogue?" But Gambit only laughed and was gone, jogging to catch up with his teammates.
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"Get the magistrate!" Wolverine bellowed as he charged, claws slicing through the back of his hands with a smooth sluicing noise.
"I t'ought we s'posed to be rescuin' him, not slicin' him up." Gambit quipped, charging a card and following Logan at a purposeful jog, both women behind him. Splice glanced up suddenly as they entered her den, a small storage shed under the red brick arch of a railway bridge in a backwater part of Chicago. Her eyes bulged as Wolverine heaved the tiny woman away from her hostage and flung her forcefully out of the door.
Blaze-as-Rogue went to untie the bound and gagged captive, taking his thanks with a pinch of salt as he rubbed his tender wrists. Some part of her felt that magistrates just weren't her kind of people. Taking his unlikely rescuer's advice, the magistrate made himself blissfully scarce.
"Hey Petite," Gambit began again as he and Rogue-as-Blaze stepped back outside, seeing that Storm had been overcautious in sending four X-Men. "Look like we found us a bad guy small enough for you to pick on."
Rogue didn't get the chance to come up with a reply to that. Splice scowled, leaping to her feet as Wolverine overshadowed her. Her skin wrinkled and her eyes sank as she lunged for Wolverine like an enraged Scottish wildcat. Logan hollered in pain as Splice sank her pointed teeth into the X-Man's arm, clawed at his uniform with those overgrown yellowed nails.
At the instant Wolverine hollered Splice jerked away suddenly, twisting and wrenching herself free. She wove between the bodies of the other X-Men lighting fast, heading back up the muddy gorge to the railway bridge. As the teammates watched the tiny woman leaped up off the ground, putting all her weight into wrenching open another two shed doors.
Deliberately Splice then turned back to the X-Men and smiled a toothy smile, blinking and scratching her patchy grey hair as though she had fleas. Gambit took a first step forward to recapture her, until another pair of blinking green eyes brought his feet to a halt. Another Splice, identical to the first in every way stepped out of the doorway to the right. Seconds later the door to the left also spat out a Splice duplicate and unexpectedly the X-Men weren't quite so sure of themselves.
"Okay, what's going on?" Rogue-as-Blaze asked as Gambit turned back to his teammates briefly. It was a mistake as he and Wolverine, also a few steps further forward from the girls, were overrun by hundreds of swarming Splices like biting bullet ants…