Thanks rogue1984 and ShyFX for the reviews!
kmf's stuff: don't worry, the action's gonna start very soon.
curt's crap: Pack up your Zippos, playing cards and other matters of mutant battle paraphenalia.
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Chapter Three
"Oh, Remy. Where you been? You stayin' this time?" Bella sat down gracefully in a plush red wingback chair. She gestured for John and Remy to take a seat. A bit out of his element, John sat down on the chaise lounge. Remy draped himself across another chair.
"I been about," Remy replied to her first question.
"Who's ya buddy?"
"I'm John -- Pyro," John supplied. Bella's dazzling grey eyes scrutinised him hard. He saw the recognision flicker in her eyes, but instead of illuminating upon it, Bella turned back to Remy.
"How long you gonna be stayin' then?" she asked once more, arching a slender black eyebrow.
"Till we can't stay no more."
Bella sat back and sighed. "I'll hide you while I can, Remy -- but you know there's some in my family that don't like you too much."
"You still countin' him as family, eh?"
"Remy -- he's my brother..."
"Yeah, I know p'tite belle. But you gonna help us?"
"Remy LeBeau -- when have I ever turned you down?" Bella smiled. "Let me get y'all som'thin' to eat. I'm imaginin' y'all didn't take no plane." With a flourish of burgundy robes, Bella set to wherever the kitchen was located.
Remy leaned back his head to look over at John. He was twirling a playing card round in his hand. "She done turned me down a good number a times," he remarked, and immediately John knew that he wasn't talking about times that he had needed to be kept safe or helped out of a rut. John smirked and shook his head. He may be out of place here, but he was going to like working with Remy LeBeau.
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Bella was good at safekeeping, but that didn't stop the media from reporting all they could. John and Remy lounged in one of the guest rooms, watching all the reports of "The Pyromaniac's Escape." Every channel it seemed had John's face on-screen and a reporter going on about him.
"Youse a popular man," Remy smirked one time when they had gone through every local channel to find John's face gracing every screen.
"No shit, Remy," John gritted out, unintentionally igniting a fireball in his hand. He winked it out after staring hard at it for a time. He had a bad feeling about this.
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John had left to get some fresh air. Twelve days of nothing but this house was getting to him. Bella's back balcony was fairly secluded. He could walk out there without being noticed. It didn't help much – the air was humid and pressed in upon him. Giving up on that plan, he headed back inside, in search of something to eat. But as he passed the parlour, he stopped. Two men were in there – one being Remy. And the atmosphere was charged.
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He had found the bastard when he had come back in from a stroll with Bella Donna to her father's house. He was sprawled on the chaise lounge, all too smug. On instinct, Remy had charged a card, only to have his anger spike at Julien Boudreaux's self-satisfied smile and the realisation that he couldn't evaporate the snake, as much as he wanted to.
Gritting his teeth, Remy had sat down and stared, trying to unclench his jaw enough to demand what Julien was doing in his sister's house. And then John walked down.
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John was looking between the man lounging on the couch and Remy. Both seemed to hate each other with a passion. No one moved for a long while and then the man on the couch spoke.
"I done called the cops, Remy. Heard you a wanted man -- you and him." -- he nodded his head towards John. "Figured it would getcha away from my sis. They'll be here any minute," he said, tilting his head to the side and glancing at John. John glared at the man, flicking his flamethrowers and allowing the fire to form a ball in his hand. He held it up for the man to see and bounced it a couple of times. Remy smirked, knowing what came next. Deciding against frying the guy completely, John simply sent the fire at his shirt. The shirt immediately caught on fire and he let go of his control as the man fell to the floor screaming.
Remy was suddenly on the move, walking towards the door. He followed after watching the flames go out.
"If I ever see you again, I'll fry you so fast you won't have time to scream." John warned him, voice low and menacing, before stepping out of the house with Remy and following him to a car. The older man quickly picked the lock, jumped in the drivers seat and somehow got the car started. John didn't have time to ask how he'd done it as the car sped off faster than he'd ever gone in a car. He turned around to look behind them just in time to see the cops pulling up to the house. With a sigh, he realized they hadn't seen the car driving away. And the two had been too far down the road for the cops to even consider that they might be the fugitives they were searching for.
"Where to now?" John asked, turning to look at his new partner in crime.
"Well, mon ami, I don' know, but where else is better than New York, y'know? I hear they got a whole world a people like us up there, now," the older man informed him. After hearing the name New York, John realized it was going to be another long drive. Remy slowly began to let off the gas and he relaxed slightly.
"I take it he wasn't a friend of yours?" John asked, knowing he was being rude again, but not really caring at the moment.
"Julien ain't no damned friend a mine, low-down bastard. He be Bella's brother -- and all too close on her," Remy stated. After a moment of silence, John leaned forward and began messing with the radio, thankful it actually worked. The two lapsed into a more comfortable silence with a radio to listen to, even though some of the news reports included them.
(The lyric in the page break is from "Image of the Invisible" by Thrice.)