Disclaimer: I don't own the X-Men. Ilehana Xavier belongs to Corrinth. All other characters belong to me.
A/N: Thank you to all my reviewers out there; you really are all stars.
Scene 16Logan, Remy and Ilehana stalked through the docklands like predators, searching for any clue that Mercury might have passed this way. And all the time, Wolverine could not shake the humming in his bones, and that horrible sensation that they were being watched.
The metal in the docks was hers to command, it ran from bulkheads, leaving holes through which water began to seep to sink great hulks of vessels. It dripped from cranes and vehicles, running in rivulets over the dirty ground to join with more metal from pins and casings, structural girders and abandoned waste. Always, she was careful not to take too much from one source, not to alert anyone to her presence. Always she kept one eye on her quarry, knowing they thought themselves the hunters here. It irked her that Blaze had not come for her herself, but in the end it didn't matter. It was enough to know she had been right. Her paranoia, her metallic nature of suspicion and unrest may well have saved her life. It would cost them theirs.
She raised a hand, feeling the temptation of metal where there should have been none. What black magic was this? A man with metal claws? And more than that, metal through his whole body, metal like she had never felt before, singing to her with a low hum as he walked below her. She stood on the edge of a great concrete pillar that supported the freeway flyover, ignorant of the cars passing behind her, but aware of their potential as weapons if she needed them. She would not need them for him.
Wolverine stopped dead in his tracks, lifting his hands and claws, a look of confusion crossing his face. The metal in front of him slowly began to change, its texture softening, glistening, like ice when melting. And then he screamed, dropping to his side and roaring his agony. Gambit and Ilehana spun around on the spot, just in time to see Logan's claws bending back around in new and contorted patterns, tying themselves in knots, stretching and unravelling. Gambit could only imagine what Mercury was doing to Logan's metal-infused bones. Why hadn't they realised this before bringing him on this mission!
Ilehana didn't even make it to her partner's side, the metal that had been sneaking up behind them suddenly binding her wrists, ankles, waist and throat, anywhere it could get a grip. She struggled, trying to employ her shape changing ability to weaken the bonds. Instead she felt her bones crunch under the stress of the metal, tried for a smaller sized creature than a bear in the hope of wriggling free. Vixen began to take a wolf form, but too slowly so Mercury had time to compensate. Gambit tried to run to her aid, to blast away the metal that bound her, but metal grabbed him too. Desperate, he was forced to apply his power to the bonds around his own chest and ankles, the explosion knocking the breath out of him and sending him gasping to his knees. It was just the chance to finish him that Mercury was looking for.
Out of nowhere came the roar of a powerful car engine. Mercury barely glanced around at the thunderous noise, before she took a hasty double take at the silver-grey Aston Martin DB7 GT racing towards her like a nightmare, a possessed demon creation. Mercury abandoned her attack on those below in the docks as she realised belatedly that the car was not driving past her; it was aiming straight for her, through the crash barrier at her and then over the edge of the flyover. There was only one person she knew crazy enough to drive like that. Blaze.
Teeth gritted, barely acknowledging the Speedo maxing out, or the screeching traffic around her, Blaze's eyes focused only on one thing. Mercury was responsible for the death of one man she'd cared for, she was not going to get the chance to repeat the event. The engine throbbed as Blaze held the revs high, sliding in towards the Armco barrier along the outside edge of the flyover. Nothing below her but the docks, and they were a very long way down... Blaze didn't notice, squinting through her sunglasses as the setting sun glinted off the swell of the sea and the sheen of the car bonnet.
With a crunch, the car sliced into the barrier, sparks and paintwork flew, and then the car was airborne and twisting into a sideways roll. Mercury screamed, a metallic scream like a nail on a blackboard as she raised her hand to try and stop the approaching car. But there simply wasn't as much metal as she needed to compensate for the speed. Even as the engine fused, she knew she was not going to be able to stop the car. Blaze recognised the moment when the engine gave up under Mercury's power, eyes hazy and red she flung her own mutation into action. In the second the car tumbled upside down, carried by its own momentum over the barrier and towards Eloise, the petrol tank caught fire.
Gambit and company looked up as they were released from Mercury's clutches, just in time to see Mercury caught by a speeding car that was dreadfully familiar. Blaze! She was going to kill herself! Flames were everywhere, Gambit lost sight of Mercury as she was flung from the flyover into space. And then the Aston Martin was falling, still tumbling upside down, caught in a wheel of flame, to land with a crash on its roof on the docks not too far away. A second later, the car exploded from the inside out, showering the whole area in shattered carbon fibre and glass. The explosion flung the X-Men backwards, the heat baking the dirt and smoke from the burning fuel to them. There was no sign of Mercury... Or of Blaze...
"You okay Logan?" Ilehana gasped, brushing her bedraggled hair out of her face and trying not to notice the torn state of her uniform. Shape shifting in clothes was not a good idea, not that she'd had chance to change. He nodded his reply, kneeling back to lean on his heels, wincing as he examined his claws. They seemed straight enough now... Hesitantly he pulled them back, and then extended them again. It seemed the pain he was feeling was only the same as usual. Slowly he shook his head, trying to get a grip on what had just happened, but he felt it might just take a while...
Gambit just stood there. For a moment at least he stood exactly still and watched Blaze's precious car burn. Or what was left of it. Blaze could survive any fire without getting even blistered. But the car was a total insurance write-off, an achievement in itself given how much it was worth. There was no way anybody inside that car could have lived through that impact. The car was crushed by its own weight, unrecognisable as the beautiful machine it had been. And Blaze had been driving it...
"No..." He ran forwards, guarding his face from the sheer volcanic heat with his arm. But the car wasn't done exploding, forcing him back the second he got anywhere near close. "NO!"
"Gambit, don't!" Ilehana grabbed his shoulder, tugging him back. "If she was in there, there's nothing you can do..."
"She might be hurt! She might be..." He gasped, fighting Ilehana's grip.
"There is no-one alive in that car, Remy." Ilehana told him more forcefully than she meant to. "Don't get yourself hurt."
"Hey, we gotta live one!" Logan called out suddenly. Both X-Men spun and sprinted to Wolverine's side. But it was Mercury, not Blaze, who lay on her back on the ground. "Looks like some of these crates broke her fall, but she's unconscious."
"We need to get her back to the mansion." Dr Xavier decreed, assessing her newest patient deftly. "She's not in too bad a way, considering, but her shoulder's dislocated and her left arm broken at least once. I wouldn't doubt she's bleeding internally too. I'm going to call Scott and ask him to bring the jet..." Logan just nodded, eyes drifting to where Gambit was storming away in revulsion.
"Want me to go after him?"
"No, leave him." Ilehana advised carefully. "Just watch he doesn't do anything stupid." Her eyes glazed over as she reached out to the mansion. Logan stood and folded his arms across his chest, hawk-like eyes observing Gambit critically. Still the car burned. Sirens troubled the very edge of his supersensitive hearing, the hubbub on the freeway after Blaze's crash a buzzing irritation. Logan's stomach churned at the smell of the burning fuel. The Firefly might just have saved their lives, but the cost was way too high...
In cold fury Gambit wrenched a packing crate into his hands, feeling his muscles tear with the action and not caring. He charged it with his power, the whole object glowing orange and brilliant, roared his grief as he launched it away from him to explode near the car, sending the flames flickering with the force of the new blast. It couldn't be! Blaze could not be dead! She's not dead, damn it! She can't be... Can she...
He choked on the polluted air, gasping for breath, eyes narrow but unseeing. He couldn't tell if he was crying or not, couldn't feel anything but empty. A soft hand on his shoulder would be Ilehana, come to tell him it was time to leave. He turned angrily to tell her he wouldn't leave without Blaze.
She looked about as bad as he felt, face pale and dusted with ash, hair messy and charred around the ends. But Blaze was alive. Somehow, against all the odds, she was alive! Gambit just stood there for a second or so, unbelieving, jaw slack and unable to breathe. She protested with a small squeak as he swept her into a hug, kissing her forcefully on the lips, and then dropping her abruptly in consternation.
"What the hell was you thinkin'!" He roared, before scooping her into his arms again, unable to decide between the two courses of action. "Why, Laura? Why you do that? Idiote..."
"Couldn't let her hurt you..." Blaze mumbled into Gambit's shoulder before detaching herself and turning to look at the remains of the Aston. "My poor car... I'm so sorry... I wrote it off..."
"You damn well nearly wrote yourself off Chere!" Gambit exclaimed, grabbing her shoulders and making her face him instead of the car. "Who cares 'bout the damn car! Don't you ever, ever do anythin' like that ever again!" With each 'ever', he shook her slightly, making her frown.
"You thought I was in there?" It dawned on her slowly, as if it was the most stupid thing she'd ever heard in her life. "I got out on the freeway, it just took me a minute to climb down here, it's a bit of a drop..."
Gambit just stared at her. "A bit of a drop?" He repeated slowly, "Of all the..." but his train of foul language was masked by the sudden arrival of the X-Jet. Blaze shook her head at him, smiling as she put her hand to her ear to indicate she couldn't hear him. He scowled right back at her, up until she stood on her tiptoes and kissed him suddenly, pulling away equally quickly and legging it to Scott's chosen landing site, Gambit only a few paces behind.