History Before The X-Men
By Twilight Anime Love 21
Scarlett LaChance had always stayed at least three steps ahead of her enemy, just enough to turn the game on them and make her getaway. Her father, Lumiére LaChance told her that her recklessness would be her downfall someday. She could remember the cooing French her mother would sing to her when her father pushed her too hard during training when she was young.
"Mére, am I weak?" She remembered asking her sickly mother on the bed.
She would curl up to her side and listen to her mother's heartbeat.
"Never. You are a strong one, mon bébe cherié. You will someday take over the LaChance Guild with pride." Her mother would say as she smoothed her daughter's hair out.
She would have taken over the Guild if it weren't for the fact that Essex caught her group off guard when they were hunting him down, she would have run the Guild with a gentle but strong iron fist. She should have seen it coming. Her namesake's luck had run out.
She truly thought she had died and had been sent to limbo. Essex had the gall to pump her full of adrenaline before sewing her eyes shut, probably to teach her a lesson from the last time. Then he injected whatever the hell it is that plunged her into the darkness. She was just floating there. In the darkness with no one to speak to. Her dear friend Renegade was the first to be injected.
"Spade, trust Me." was the last words she spoke.
Trust her? I've trusted her for many years and she doubts my loyalty? Scarlett thought to herself.
She hated the fact that after all these years of running around with Renegade, Renegade gave her all open doors to leave her. Yeah. Her life as a thief was great. She was the best thief in her guild. No one could own up to her. She raked in the cash and she cracked into heavy security places where some thieves wouldn't dare try to. But when she was with Renegade, Azazel and even Blaze, she knew she was doing something for the greater good.
They were so damned close! They had managed to take out the guards, some scientist wanna-bes and she faced off against a henchman that was twice her size. She managed to take him out in less then five seconds. They were so close! It wasn't until Renegade stopped in a corridor and her light blue eyes turned dark-gold in the dimmed lights. They had widened to horrific propositions.
"We need to get out! NOW!"
They had been compromised. Renegade had lead the group back to the outside and ordered for them to split up and get away as fast as possible. She remembered running through the forest jumping up to tree branches and jumping from branch to branch. Then a sharp pinch struck the back of her neck. A Sedative.
"Maudit sois-tu, Essex!"
He took her off guard once. She wouldn't dare let him catch her off guard again. But she did. She hated being in a dark place if she doesn't know the layout. She was just floating there.
"Are you just going to wallow here in pity, LaChance?" she heard that damning British voice.
She turned and saw her teammate and friend. She wouldn't admit that he was her friend though.
"If it isn't the assassin." She groaned as she saw the blond haired man.
"I truly must be in hell, if I'm seeing you. Great." She laughed.
Blaze only rolled his eyes.
"Do you want to wake up or not? I could leave you here and come back for you later." He said as he crossed his arms.
"Wake up?" she furrowed her brows.
"What are you talking about, homme?" She asked with confusion.
She was dead…right?
Blaze shook his head and smiled at her, an actually gentle smile. For the moment, they forgot the game that they played of Assassin vs. Thief. It took a moment to get through her head that she was still alive!
"But wait…I know you have a telepath stored in your mind somewhere. How are you able to communicate with me? You can't just enter my mind. " She asked, knowing that her powers don't let telepaths in her mind.
He wiggled his fingers and smiled.
"You know how." He said in a know it all tone.
Scarlett rolled her eyes. He had come a long way from a cold-hearted killer to the slight jokester and friend (Though she would not admit it) that she knows now.
"Yeah, yeah, your powers suck the life out of everything. But how you managed to do that…" She was going to say.
"I had practice. Thirteen years of it." He said as a matter of factly.
She froze. Thirteen years? She was asleep for thirteen freaking years? Where the hell was her Prince Charming to wake her up then?
'Screw Prince Charming. I can save myself.' She thought as she floated closer to Blaze.
"Well?" she said cocking her eyebrow. He smiled wickedly. She knew he was holding something back.
'I wonder after all these years, Renegade knew of her husband's little games?'
"Okay, dites-moi. Maintenant!" She said with a growl.
"You are currently in a tank of water. With wires and tubes attached to you. And I don't know if you have noticed, your eyes are also sewn shut." He said with a blank face. She sneered at the emerald-eyed man.
"Non! Vraiment?" She said sarcastically.
He chuckled at her.
"Let's get you out of here. Don't panic if you wake up in water and blinded." He said as he reached out his hand.
"Any funny stuff and I'm telling Renegade." She said strictly as she grabbed his hand.
He nodded.
"Now you are going to feel a pulling. This is actually the first time I'm attempting to bring someone to life, rather than killing them." He said quickly.
"What!?" She shouted.
Then she knew no more.
Blaze's face contorted in pain and pulled away from the glass and stumbled back. His forced himself not to bring his hands to his body. It was tingling with charged energy that he wanted to release but he shoved that back into the mental box in his mind.
"Blaze, are you okay?" Storm asked as she placed a hand on his shoulder.
"I'm fine. Spade should be waking up…she'll be pissed but hey, at least she's alive." He said as he leaned back against a cylinder.
His hands twitched again, but he flexed them a few times just to push and pull in the feeling of kinetic energies from exploding up the containers. He hated Spade's powers. How she managed to handle them, he will never know.
Gambit was noticing the strange behavior of the tall blond man. He has been acting strange since he was awakened. This was a rescue mission, but there was something more to it than just that. His empathy was picking up pain from Blaze. He doesn't show it but Gambit could feel it from him. His empathy abilities were picking up a lot of things. Annoyance, worry, hatred, and something else he couldn't place. The list goes on with this guy. Gambit would have to keep an eye on him. He's not usually this suspicious of people he had just met, but as a thief, he was trained to notice the small things, from body language to his empathy powers. Blaze continually clenched his fists together. He was feeling something. Gambit didn't know what. He then stepped closer to Rogue and bent over.
"I don't trust him." He whispered quietly in her ear.
Rogue frowned and tilted her head back slightly.
"I don't trust him either." She replied.
At least it was the two of them that felt like something is off.
Gambit focused his eyes on the tank and the woman in there was thrashing about. She was hitting the all sides of the tank then bumped into the glass.
"Should I go in there and phase her out? She looks like she's drowning!" Kitty said worriedly as she was about to run up to the tank.
"Don't worry, Spade, is resourceful. She'll get out on her own." Blaze said without any emotion.
Gambit wanted to punch the man. His teammate is in danger of drowning and he's not helping?
"Um, what is she doing?" Kurt asked as the woman was ripping off the breathing apparatus and pressed herself against the glass.
Her eyes may be sewn shut, but she had a wicked and malicious smile on her face. She pressed her left hand onto the glass and a blood red glow surrounded it.
"Shit, she can't be serious." Blaze muttered.
She brought back her hand and hit the glass. They next thing they know, the red glow spread out like lightening as the glass shattered into a million pieces and the water crashed out of the tank and the woman was also flushed out and fell to the floor face down.
"Fils d'un-" The woman swore in French.
"Had a nice bath, Spade?" Blaze chuckled.
The woman was soaking wet and pushed back her hair showing her pale face and if her eyes were not sewn, Gambit imagined that she would be glaring at Blaze by now.
"One of these days Blaze…" She muttered as she unsteadily got up.
Storm went over to the short woman, and steadied her.
"Spade, be careful." She said calmly. Spade tilted her head.
"I know that voice. Stormy is that you?" The woman asked as she smiled up at the weather witch.
Storm huffed at the nickname.
"Don't call me that." Storm said well naturally.
"Blaze told me it's been thirteen years, I don't look old do I? Je n'aimerais pas savoir que ma beauté a été réduite." The woman laughed.
Gambit understood the translation. The woman looked no older than late twenties early thirties if that.
"You look like you are in your sixties. I see a lot of wrinkles around your face. Sorry to say," Blaze smiled charmingly, "Maybe your eyes are your best bet to find a decent man one of these days." He chuckled.
The next thing Gambit saw was the woman's leg shot out and effectively kneed Blaze in the gut.
He was on the ground breathing hard on his knees.
"Last I checked my skin was nice and taunt. And you don't make fun of a woman's age, imbécile. " The woman smirked.
"Nice to know that you still have your reflexes, Spade. Just as dangerous as ever." Blaze said as he stood back up and winced.
"You know, you could have broken a rib. I'm lucky you are tiny." Blaze said smiling.
The woman, Spade, smiled back brightly but dangerously.
"You're lucky I only had enough energy to kick you in the gut. By the way, that was for yanking me out of limbo without warning." She said charmingly.
"You're welcome." Blaze glared at the small woman.
The woman stood up straight and squinted her eyes.
She was a decent height, 5'5 at the most. Her hair was long and it reached to the middle of her back. Gambit would have to admit that she was really pretty. She had a heart shaped face with a cute nose. She has high cheekbones and almond shaped eyes. If her accent had anything to with where she came from, she was definitely from France. Her eyes would have to be either a blue or hazel.
"So Storm, you finally decided to find us?" Spade said as she rolled her shoulder and stretched her body out.
"Blaze was the one that sent out a mental scream to Professor Xavier." Jean spoke.
The woman stopped stretching and cocked her head in the direction of Jean.
"Blaze sent…ah, nice going there, Montmorency, you actually got help for once." Spade said sardonically.
"You are the most annoying thief I have ever come across, you are lucky that I never shot you in New Orleans." Blaze said as he rolled his eyes.
"And you are the most infuriating Assassin that I have ever met. Though, you would have shot me if it weren't for the fact that Renegade was with me." Spade smiled.
"No doubt about that." Blaze said as he stood back up.
Gambit's eyes widened. A Thief and an Assassin on the same team? And if they have been teammates for the past 13 years or more, there should have been blood shed a long time ago. He would have to keep a close eye on them. A very close eye.
"Azazel." Spade said.
"He's probably on the same floor as Renegade." She said as she wringed her hair out of the water.
"Which floor is that?" Storm asked.
"The fifth floor is the experimentation floor. We need to get there." Spade said as she took a ponytail holder from Storm.
"And what's in that room?" Wolverine asked.
"Ghouls, of course. Essex always stocked rooms of experimentations with ghouls. This is the 4th floor. Less Ghouls but they will strike." Spade said.
"Let's go back to the elevator then." Cyclops said as he turned around.
Unfortunately, it wasn't going to be easy.
"Uh…what that behind us?" Shadowcat said as she pointed to the four pairs of glowing eyes.
"RUN!" Blaze shouted and grabbed Spade by the hand and started running.
Everyone else followed.
"I could handle them, bub!" Wolverine shouted.
"I know you could! But these ghouls would regenerate." Blaze shouted.
"Can't we confuse them? Split up?" Nightcrawler asked.
"NO! Stick together!" Spade shouted.
Cyclops turned and blasted a red beam at the eyes, hearing an earth-shattering roar.
"Now you just pissed them off!" Spade shouted.
"The elevator!" Colossus shouted as the group picked up speed.
They all managed to get inside the large elevator before they saw the first Ghoul. It was the size of a small car. Flesh was hanging off it, its teeth were serrated and its maw was large. It looked like a deformed tiger. It roared loudly before the doors closed.
Only heavy breathing filled the silence.
No one spoke as the elevator descended.
TAL21: ROAR! I am the CHAMPION! I had Katy Perry's 'Roar' playing while i was writing this chapter. 2000 plus words a day is getting hectic for me! I was seriously considering taking the day off but nope. I pushed through! I will not let NaNoWriMo take me down! You got to meet Spade and ain't she just a little spitfire and kick ass character? She's French, she's fiery, and she don't need no man! :D So her background came out and a little bit of Montmorency's. What happened in New Orleans? How the heck can an Assassin and a thief work together? Well, you guys won't find out until later chapters. XD But you guys get to meet Azazel in the next chapter. If you haven't figure out who he is yet, i wonder how you guys got through the X-Men world without any idea who he is. It won't be easy writing him, that's for sure, but hey, that's what NaNoWriMo is all about! The challenge! Now for the SHOUT OUTS!:
Scarletnightcrawler: It's a concept that i came up with while i was reading a lot of the X-Men: The Movie fan fiction. Then i started to watch X-Men: Evolution, and i expanded it a bit more. And now here i am! And yes, they should have delved a little more into Kurt's past. :)
Yuki: I could say that i was surprised that you came to the conclusion that fast, but i'm not spoiling it for the other readers. But i betcha that you are wondering how Spade and Gambit are connected. Right? :P
ZellaStorms: Like i said, novel writing takes a lot out of people. Don't worry about it and just write. I believe if you just write stuff down and wonder how it would fit in a story, write many different scenarios about it. Chaos Writing works WONDERS! And I'm glad that you are excited to meet the rest of the characters. it's going to be fun writing about them! :D And I agree that the producers should have done another season. I remember watching the Dark Phoenix Saga in the 90s and I LOVED it! Shame that they didn't make it. And as for the Romy goodness, i wished that they put more in there. There should have been more Rogue and Gambit! :D
TAL21: That's all for the shout outs! I hope to see you guys tomorrow and i hope that you enjoyed this chapter! We get to meet Azazel next chapter and it's going to be fun and interesting of how he works out! Essex is one bad, bad man. But what else is on the 5th floor? Let's hope that our heroes don't run into anymore ghouls. i hope to see you guys next chapter! REMEMBER TO REVIEW AND LEAVE OPINIONS! I'd love to hear from you guys!
Question Time!: What do you think happened in New Orleans with Spade and Blaze?
REMEMBER TO KEEP ON READING AND WRITING! :D