Disclaimer: I am making no money from this, just enjoying a sense of escapism from an ordinary life

Scene Six

There was a distinct tang of dust and mould in the office behind the police line. The room was trashed. Water ran down one wall making it thick with green slime. That cool underground smell of a place where daylight never touches made Blaze wrinkle her button nose in disgust. She was a sun-loving creature; cold and damp were amongst her least favourite things.

With the delicacy of a walrus, Gambit heaved a desk over and away. It thudded across the floor with a resounding crash. He passed it and strode to the wall behind it. Blaze didn't understand what was so great about the wall, until Gambit found a hidden catch and clicked it. The wall panel opened up, creaking, revealing a computer monitor that suddenly burst into life. Immediately it demanded a password that Remy obligingly typed in on the keyboard. In the system, Gambit quickly used key controls to navigate the complex menus.

"I'm impressed," Blaze commented. "Looks like you've done this before."

"Once or twice Cherie," Gambit agreed, pulling up the schematics on the Sentinel. A few more commands and the wall spat out a DVD recorded with all the information Slade would ever need. Gambit tossed the disk to Blaze who caught and pocketed it. He was about to restore the computer back to how it had been when they first heard company arrive. Blaze stole back to the door and peered out into the darkness. Sure enough there were torches and the green glow of night vision goggles on the other side of the chasm. A torch beam fell on Gambit's abandoned rope, and then flicked across to the office door. Blaze ducked back behind the wall so it didn't land on her.

"Is there another way out?" she asked Gambit as the secret panel shut again over the computer.

"Non," Gambit shook his head, "We got company."

"Yep," Blaze peered back round the doorframe, "Got any ideas?"

"Guess we gonna have to try an' sneak past…" Gambit was grasping at straws and he knew it. Sneaking past would involve swinging across the chasm again on the rope that they didn't even have the end of any more.

"I've got an idea," Blaze went to the wall and placed her hand on it. Then she placed her other hand flat on it as well. Cautiously she probed with her extraordinary power. Finding what she wanted, a fissure in the earth that could be widened and extended, she pushed her fire into the rock. Around her hands the rock started to warm up, turning a dull red, reddish orange and finally a bright yellow-white when the rock started to melt. She wasn't Magma, not at one with the rock or even totally understanding what she was doing. But she'd melted rock before when she'd found she was trapped beneath it and couldn't see how this was any different.

Burning and melting her way forwards, Blaze built a tunnel running upwards at as steep an angle as she could. It was hard work but the energies she had absorbed as Fire Guardian were sufficient. Gambit, who was the cause of the landslide where Blaze had been buried alive, followed behind. He was careful not to touch the hot rock with anything but his booted feet. When Blaze punctured through the surface like a needle through cloth, Remy turned round and looked back the way they had come. Sounds of pursuit echoed up the shaft. His eyes glinted coldly as he raised a charged ace of clubs. It impacted further down the tunnel and caused the cave to collapse, protecting their escape.

Blaze had already left the tunnel and was there to offer Remy a hand out. Together they ran quickly through the deserted industrial buildings back to Blaze's silver two-seater convertible. The clock on the dashboard showed they were running dangerously late.

"Buckle up," she ordered; revving the engine, "This is going to be bumpy." The car lurched forwards with that, spraying mud and gravel up behind the wheels. The race to meet Slade before he blew up the school was on.

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The bridge was busy, too busy to hope to drive onto it to meet Slade. Perhaps that was what Slade had been planning for. Blaze and Gambit ditched the car and ran onto the structure, dodging the traffic as it slowly crept across the water. Of Slade there was no sign.

"Where is he?" Blaze gasped hysterically. Gambit shook his head, raising his hand to keep the sun from his eyes and he looked upwards over the suspension bridge's towers.

"Right here," Slade wound down the blacked out electric window of the black executive car he was in. He was sat in the back. Who the driver was Blaze couldn't see. "You have the schematics?"

"Yes," Blaze handed over the DVD. Slade put it into a laptop and checked the information quickly.

"Very well," he raised a trigger remote so Blaze could see it. She thought he was going to hand it over to her. Instead she looked on in horror as he pressed the big red button. In the distance there was a sudden boom from the direction of the school. A great grey mushroom cloud billowed into the air. "Goodbye Blaze, it has been a pleasure doing business with you again."

"No!" Blaze cried out, but Slade's car was already pulling away. Gambit charged a card to blow Slade away. Blaze grabbed his arm to stop the Cajun. "Rem stop! Not here, there are too many people. C'mon, we have to get to the school!"