Disclaimer: I do not own any of the X-Men/Marvel/WB characters, some of these lines are not even mine but taken or paraphrased from various cartoons and comics I've read. What can I say, but I suck with dialogue. Just have some story in my head that won't go away so I'm writing it down. I don't get any money for this, only a mild break in boredom.
St. John is not, by any means, a typical Australian or even a representative of Australians, so please do not journey to Australia expecting to find a whole bunch of trouble-making people to play with matches with. Especially in the forests there 'cause if you burnt those down I would have to hunt you down and beat you with a stick (just kidding but I would be enraged beyond words).
thoughts
A/N: I was going to start back up on the next day at Rogue's work since that is what this fic is supposed to revolve around but I realized there were too many loose ends that I couldn't fit into that chapter so I wrote this short interlude. Plus, there's more Wanda/John fun and who could say no to that?
NINE TO FIVE: Chapter Seven - An Interlude with Ice Cream
"I really did a bang up job at wreaking the place," Wanda said as she and John righted one of the couches, each with one hand while balancing a bowl of ice cream in the other.
"None better. Although Sabertooth is a close runner up." John flopped down on the couch. "This is actually our second headquarters. While at our last one, Remy brought home a girl from the pub one night. Toothy had entered the kitchen the next morning to find some cute, dumb blonde in her underwear and a baby tee eating the last of his lucky charms. Let's just say he was a little more than fuming, more about his cereal I think, than Remy bringing a girl home. Well, he trashed the place then Mags had this big meeting about how the secrecy of our base had been compromised and how, because of Remy's stupid action, we had to pack up and leave. I think Mags didn't want to fix it up again. Like that girl could have found the base again. She couldn't find her way out of a cardboard box."
"Now give her a little credit, homme," Remy interjected from his position, still stuck in the chimney. After taking many humiliating photos of Peter in the ditch, who had eventually demagnetized and was now sleeping peacefully dreaming of one special kitten, Wanda and John had the difficulty of figuring out how to prove that Remy was actually in the chimney. Eventually, they decided to remove the few bricks from in front of his face. They were going to help him out after that, but Wanda got hungry, so they got an early morning snack instead. "She had enough sense ta turn you down at de bar."
"How long would you like to spent in the chimney tonight, 'homme?'" John mocked.
"COME ON! I have ta go ta da bathroom!" Remy pleaded.
Wanda took another bite of her chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream (A/N:Go Persephone and her culinary caper story!) and remained seated on the couch next to John. "I figured out where Magneto's base was, and I didn't even have to be hit on by a slimey Cajun in a bar."
The firebug turned back to Wanda. "How did you find it, anyway? I mean, we're out in the bloody boondocks with not even a McDonalds for twenty miles. I would have never picked this place if I had a say."
"Magneto really needs to either make up some better aliases or get and unlisted number."
"You mean you just looked his 'Top Secret Headquarters' up in the phone book?!" John exclaimed.
"Yes, exactly," Wanda confirmed then took another bite of the delicious substance in her bowl before she went into a further explanation. "First I hexed the book to open to the right page, but then all I had to do was figure out what stupid name he came up with."
"What was it?"
Wanda put her spoon in her bowl and shifted her weight so she could pull a piece of paper out of her back pocket. "Here, I bet even YOU could figure out which one he came up with."
John scanned the ripped out phone book page. Nothing caught his eye on that side, so he flipped it over. "No way," John mumbled as he saw it then checked the address. "Yep, that's it," he managed to get out before he burst out laughing and almost dumped what was left of his ice cream on his lap. Wanda found herself smiling again, almost laughing with John this time. What is wrong with me tonight? I wonder if he drugged the ice cream? Then Wanda looked at John rolling around on the floor still in his smurf boxers and the tattered tee with ice cream threatening to spill all over the place. Man, I am paranoid. Wanda decided not to stop smiling this time.
"What? What is it?" Remy called from the chimney. John said something between laughs, but Remy couldn't make it out.
"What?!" Remy repeted. John tried to calm himself down and took some deep breaths.
"Caesar, comma, Magnus!" John managed to get out before he burst out in laughter again.
"Yah, dat sounds like Mags alrigh'," Remy chuckled. He couldn't do much more being incased in brick. He had thought about charging the chimney up to get out, but the realization that brick shrapnel was not fun stopped him.
"You never told me where Magneto was. Recruiting more idiots to join his parade?" Wanda inquired as she finished her last spoonful. Maybe this trip won't be an entire loss if they can tell me where he is. I could really surprise him before he crumbles before me.
"Like he would trust us with that valuable information," John answered. "I know he didn't go off recruiting because since the Angel incident he takes one of us with him."
"Yeah, Rogue told me about that," Wanda said. Rogue and Wanda weren't great friends being on different sides of the good guy/bad guy fence, but they did occasionally talk about music and the idiotic, hypocritical, conformist tendencies of the world and how it made them sick. They were on the same wave length when it came to that.
At the mention of Rogue's name, Gambit's ears perked up, not that anyone noticed. He knew better than to ask the witch about her friendship with the current object of his affection. John would never drop it if he did. He tuned back into John and Wanda's conversation, though he was disappointed that Rogue's name was not mentioned again.
"You met Mags right after the Angel fiasco, right Remy," John asked his trapped teammate.
Remy mumbled something indicting an affirmative response but refused to elaborate. At that moment he was reminded of his life before Magneto, and he realized that he could never have Rogue. She would never want me after finding out what I've done..
~~~~~~FLASHBACK~~~~~~~
"I need you to get this mutant for me," the pastey man with the crew cut jet black hair handed him a folder.
Remy opened the folder. Inside was a large, professional picture of a tall, muscular man, with blonde hair, blue eyes, and dressed in a very upper cut type fashion. After memorizing his features and build, Remy turned the picture over and underneath were several very blurry pictures that looked like some type of large oddly shaped bird and some newspaper articles from the New York Times and the Weekly World News about angel sightings in Manhattan. Underneath that was a short biography on Warren Worthington III.
"Dis is de last one, right?" Remy asked as he shut the folder and pocketed it in his trench coat. "After dis my debt to you is paid off an' I'm a free man."
The pastey man in the lab coat turned back to his computer screen. "Yes, yes, this is the last mutant I need for my project." But you won't ever be free of your debt to me Remy LeBeau. I own you, now and forever.
Remy was too anxious to get this job over with to notice his debtor's choice of words. Remy silently disappeared from the room and got on the next train to New York.
He had been tracking Warren Worthington III for several days, planning his move, before Rogue, Scott, and Magneto got there. He watched silently from the shadows the whole time. That was the first time he saw Rogue, and he was mesmerized. She was determined; she wouldn't quit. She challenged Magneto to a one-on-one! One of the most powerful mutants in the world was given a run for his money by a girl he figured no more than eighteen. It wasn't only that, she had so much spirit, yet he could tell that she felt so alone, an outcast, just like him.
After Magneto had given up on "recruiting" Angel, he noticed a pair of glowing eyes in an alley way watching him. He recognized them to belong to a henchman of the man who had developed and sold him the advancement mutant machine (A/N: I don't know what it was actually called but the thing from the caldron that he used to advance mutations). With the loss of Angel, Magneto decided to offer Gambit a position.
"Are you still working for Dr. Essex?" Magneto asked the thief in the corner.
"Oui, almost got my debt paid off d'ough. Gettin' da bird-boy is my last job," Remy responded.
Magneto laughed. "Dear boy, he will never release you of your debt! You are a fool to believe so. Come work for me instead."
I can't believe this. Which crazy man do I choose? The one who wants to kill all the humans and take over the world and try to kidnap me if I say no or....Essex. I never really did like humans much, specially after de almost wedding. 'N anythin's gotta be better dan Essex."How you gonna get Essex to agree to dat?"
"I have my methods. So is it a deal?" Magneto held out his hand to Gambit, who took it.
~~~~~~~~END FLASHBACK~~~~~~~~~~~
Remy blinked and with nothing better to do, tuned back into John and Wanda's conversation.
"I think he mentioned something about an Etch-a-sketch fair, but I wasn't payin' any attention," John said. "You'd have to ask Petey to be sure. I'm positive he didn't mention where it was, although there can't be too many of those, can there?"
A plan was already forming in Wanda's mind. "Yes, I can look up etch-a-sketch conferences on the internet tomorrow." She thought a little more about her previous statement. "Why the hell would he be at an etch-a-sketch fair?"
"Apparently that's how he makes all of his money," John said, him finishing off his ice cream now. Wanda still looked confused but forgot about it the moment a kool-aid dyed Sabertooth entered the room.
Sabertooth drowsily staggered across the room and pushed open the swinging door to the kitchen. When he emerged a few minutes later, John stealthily had the camera set up so he could take a picture of him exiting the kitchen without him noticing. Wanda could barely hold herself in when he came out with a bowl of lucky charms, which are now keep in bountiful supply, a plastic spoon, and technicolored fur.
"Why aren't there any metal spoons anymore?" He grunted to no one in particular.
"I d'ink Petey left dem outside," came a response from the chimney.
Sabertooth looked at Remy's face amidst the brick chimney. "How did he get in the chimney?"
All Wanda could do was raise her hand. She was afraid that if she opened her mouth she would never be able to stop laughing.
The big cat glanced at Wanda and realized that something definitely wasn't right. Then he remembered that he didn't care. He had his lucky charms and his bed was getting cold. He grunted in response and walked back to his room without looking at a mirror.
As soon as they heard the door shut, all three burst out in laughter.
"You do know dat tomorrow, when Sabertooth realizes dat he is tie-dyed, you're dead."
John shrugged. "I don't plan on being here. I think I'll take a trip to town. Maybe to visit a certain red witch, huh Wanda. What do you say we go out tomorrow?"
"John-dear," Wanda said mockingly, "I wouldn't date an imbecile like you if Magneto could ONLY be killed after I went on a date with you."
"Boyfriend, huh?" John raised his eyebrow.
"No," she said. Wanda changed the subject before she could change her mind, "I think it is about time we got Remy out of the chimney."
John was a little crushed and didn't press the subject further. The walked over to the fireplace. "Now how in the world do we do this?"
A/N: Ok, I need some feedback. Would you guys rather have John know all along that Magneto is Wanda's father or just have him be clueless until her dad catches them somewhere? So far I've been careful to make sure that Wanda addresses her dad as Magneto, and it is before The Toad, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, so it could be possible that he doesn't know. What do you think is believable and what do you want to see?
I also need suggestion for a dream Rogue is going to have in the next chapter.