Disclaimer: Don't own Gambit; do own pretty much everyone else.
A/N: Please read and review?
12
"Gambit, Sal van…" Electra had the world's worst timing. Her powers were ready to electrocute both Remy and Blaze the minute she saw what was occurring on the balcony. Blue lightning crackled around her, diffusing her form and lighting the danger in her eyes. Gambit practically dropped Blaze on her rear as he let go of her guiltily. Electra raised her fists and with a banshee screech hurtled towards the redhead. The orbs of electricity around Electra's fists threw forked lightning at Blaze. For a second the two female mutants were joined in a parody of puppet and puppet master. Blaze jinked and danced, screaming as Electra's power sheared through her body like lightning striking a tree. She dropped to her knees, but Electra still didn't stop. Gambit grabbed Electra around the neck with an arm and pulled her away, breaking the attack.
"Leave her alone!"
"Why?" Electra roared. "Shit Remy, what's the little pretend mutant got that I haven't?"
"She ain't pretendin'. If you do that again she'll kill us all!" Gambit was right. Electra peered round him to see wisps of fire like ghostly orange lights darting around Blaze. The fire elemental's head snapped up, her dark eyes illuminated from within by a dangerous red glow.
"Go…" Blaze murmured, not quite able to focus on Gambit or Electra. "Now, please…" Her attention turned inwards as she fought for an illusive control and she said nothing more. Gambit forcefully pushed Electra back inside the apartment and shut the sliding glass door.
"Gambit, why…" Electra started to whine.
"She had somet'ing in her eye," Gambit lied.
"But your hand was…"
"What did you want?"
"Um, Sal van Hyre is here with the schematics."
"Bein," Gambit dismissed Electra and went through to the kitchen where Electra's contact was waiting.
"Did you tell Blaze we're doing a job without her?" Electra griped. Gambit didn't answer.
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If Blaze had suspicions that Gambit was moonlighting and working with Electra, she never brought it up. Gambit kept trying to stop, to call it off with Electra in more ways than one. The blue-haired power-freak just made everything so easy for him. She had the connections to get work and the talent with complex security systems to pull the jobs off. In contrast Blaze was keeping her nose surprisingly clean, keeping any thievery she did indulge in not only below the police radar but below Gambit's as well. The only things he was certain about was that she hadn't invited him to come on to her again, and that she was still seeing the same mystery guy.
The last thing Remy had expected when out and on the piss with Electra was to run into Blaze and her boyfriend. He saw Blaze first, leaning on a wall in the nightclub. She hadn't seen him. Remy went to talk to her, but stopped a dozen feet away when a blond man with blue eyes and broad shoulders swaggered over to the redhead.
Blaze smiled at the man, touching him intimately, inviting him to start kissing her deeply. Gambit watched in grim fascination as the couple all but made love against the wall of the building. He lost sight of them briefly when a gang of youths shouldered him out of their way on their trip to the bar. When he looked back to where Blaze had been, she was no longer there. Gambit frowned, rubbing his brow with the back of his arm. Now he'd lost Electra too, and he hadn't even got a drink.
"Long time no see mon Ami," Blaze drawled over his left shoulder, making him turn on the spot. "How's my replacement?"
"Petite…" Gambit began, not liking the tone in Blaze's voice.
"This guy hassling you Blaze?" the blond placed his hand on Blaze's bare shoulder and gave Gambit a look that could kill.
"He wishes," Blaze shook her head. "Gambit, Lance, Lance, Gambit."
"Nice to finally meet you," Lance didn't sound like he meant it as he shook Gambit's hand. "Blaze tells me you're a bit of a card shark. I'm not too shabby at poker myself, maybe you fancy a game?"
"No problem Ami," Gambit postured confidently, "Lead the way." He gestured to a low table and a pair of sofas in the opposite corner of the room.
"I'll get some drinks," Blaze sighed, and left them to it. She passed Electra on her way to the bar, but both women blanked the other. By the time she reached the bar, Blaze was aware of being watched. A big black man supping on a bottle of beer looked her over coolly as she placed her order. When Blaze asked sarcastically if she could help him, he laughed.
"Join me in a toast," he said. "Thanks to you and your friends, today Fallon went down for a very long time."
"You're a cop?"
"I'm Gus," he shook Blaze's hand. "Nice to meet you Blaze. I wondered what my partner was throwing his career away for, now I know." He spoke with such a friendly smile it disguised the insult, but not totally. Blaze frowned, feeling a tingling at the back of her skull.
"Stay out of my head, telepath," Blaze snapped, grabbing the drinks and pushing off the bar. Gus shook his head slowly, smiling. The seed of an idea had already been planted in the redhead's mind whilst they had been talking. Gus would see to it that the thief broke Lance's heart and set him back on the straight and narrow.
Gambit gave an inward groan as yet again fate dealt him a pathetic hand. Of course he was cheating, but even cheating could only improve things so much. Outwardly he kept his poker face straight, even as Blaze turned up with three beers. Electra was draped over the back of the sofa Remy was sat on, sipping an alcopop through a straw like a little girl. Blaze sat next to Lance, pulling an appreciative face when she saw the amount of cash being bet on the table.
Much to Gambit's obvious chagrin, Lance won. Blaze didn't notice. She had felt those eyes on her again and was scanning the crowds in the club to try and locate their source. A sweep of glistening steel grey hair… Blaze stood, transfixed, trying to get a better look. Lance looked up, concerned, and then followed Blaze. Gambit wasn't so foolish as to leave so much cash unattended, scooping up notes and playing cards and stashing them in his trench coat pockets before following Blaze and Lance. Electra trailed behind like a lost duckling, frantically trying to work out what was going on.
It all happened in slow motion for Blaze. She pushed through the clubbers on the dance floor, her vision distorted by the heaving wall of bodies and the pulsing lights. The air was hot and smoky, heavy with humidity and music. Her head pounded with the bass as the DJ did his thing. Still she felt eyes on her, and had glimpsed metallically bronzed skin to her left. She turned to look closer as at the same instant the crowds suddenly parted and Blaze saw who it was who was watching her.
From super-slow to lightning-quick, Blaze barely had time to register that it was her old friend turned enemy Mercury, before all hell broke loose. Flicking her long grey hair back over her narrow shoulders, Mercury lifted her hands, eyes flickering with insanity. All across the room, metallic objects dissolved and became liquid at Mercury's request. The steel barrier running between the bar area and the dance floor in a space-age sweeping curve buckled and heaved. Mercury gestured that the alloy leap from the ground and surge through the air in a torrent of deadly metal soup. From the look in her mad eyes, she fully intended to thrust the liquid down Blaze's throat and lungs, drowning her. All of Blaze's vision was filed with the shimmering silver death. Though a small rational part of her knew it was a stupid thing to do, Blaze screamed.