# Shades of Heroes Series Part 4: Time is running out for the X-Men, the option of negotiation has long passed, and so hard action and tricky alliances are needed to bring the crisis to an end, one way or another…AU to X3#
Disclaimer: AU to X3! Not making any money from this. Corrinth owns Stifle and Vixen, Blaze is mine, Marvel retain all rights to all other characters, all knowledge of US military comes from watching Stargate SG1!
Above and Beyond: Scene 1"That can't be right…"
Gambit opened one red-on-black eye lazily. At the front of the X-Jet Wolverine and Xavier's British field agent Stifle exchanged a worried glance. Whatever it was did not look good. Dell Tucker looked over her shoulder in an action that sent the beads in her braided chestnut hair clattering. Seeing that Gambit was awake she looked past him to where the fourth member of their team was drowsing. Gambit took the hint, stretching weary muscles as he undid his harness and got out of his seat.
"I'll wake her Cherie," he told Stifle, "You jus' keep dis plane in the air, okay?" Stifle nodded just once and then went back to work.
The final member of the team had withdrawn as far as possible into the back of the main section of the jet. Dressed like the others in her X-uniform, she'd pulled her feet up into the seat with her. Her arms were wrapped around her stomach, protecting a wound inflicted by Juggernaut back when all of this was only just beginning. Her face was half-hidden behind long red-gold curls like the trailing branches of a weeping willow. Even sound asleep Blaze's body language was defensive. Gambit had a sneaking suspicion as he took a knee in front of her that not much would change when she woke. He touched her arm, and her eyes opened. As soon as they'd focused they were full of questions.
"We gotta problem," he told her calmly. Blaze tucked her hair behind her bejewelled ears and put her feet to the floor.
"Only one?" she replied snidely as she unbuckled herself and stood with Remy following suit. The Englishwoman had to stretch to reach the overhead compartment and fish out a ration pack for breakfast. She didn't retrieve one for Gambit. "Keep your pants on Rem," she told him as she shouldered past to go to Logan and Stifle. "Though I guess that's a novel concept for you…"
Gritting his teeth, Gambit slowly shook his head at his twenty-five-year-old teammate's slender back. This was gonna take some riding out. She was bad enough after purely accidental encounters between them when they'd forgotten that they weren't seeing each other anymore. This time not only had he deliberately seduced her, it had been for her own good, and it had worked even better than he'd thought. Yet the walls he'd made her build to kick out her empath boyfriend were now sat solid between Gambit and his best friend.
"Try rebooting the launch system…"
"Where are we? We need to find a landing site."
"I'm scanning for possible sites now…"
"Ahem?" Blaze cleared her throat, "I hate to interrupt, but what's up?"
"You wont believe this," Wolverine growled, fighting with the controls as he dropped the jet out of the sky by a few thousand feet. "We're running out of fuel. Fast."
"The good news is we're not over the Atlantic anymore, so we wont get a dunking. But we are going to have to land," Stifle spoke sensibly as Gambit took station behind her.
"You could drop the intake," The Cajun offered helpfully, "Loose a li'l speed but make the juice last longer, non?"
"We did that already," Logan pointed out. "Over Newfoundland when you two were sleepin' like babies. Now we're runnin' on fumes. I'm takin' her down before she realises it and packs up on me. Everybody buckle up."
"Wait!" Stifle tapped a bleeping console, making everyone look at what she had seen. "What's that?"
"Not again," Logan growled to himself as he realised which console it was Stifle was tapping. "We've got company folks."
"Unidentified aircraft, American Airspace is closed to all craft barring US military fighters. Turn around now or we will be forced to open fire," the fighter pilot sounded calm as he spoke to the X-Men from the comfort of his cockpit. It wasn't his ass that was about to get blasted out of the sky. Logan made a growl in the back of his throat and didn't respond, except by taking the jet even lower. There was a nice landing site just a hundred or so miles away. They could make it, if the fighter jets would just give them that chance. The fighter squadron didn't reissue the threat. They fell back to mark and lock on to the unidentified plane, weapons primed and ready.
"Open the hatch!" Blaze demanded, already opening a storage locker and tugging out what looked like abseiling equipment.
"What?" Logan snapped his head round to look at her incredulously. "Why? Blaze no! You'll be sucked out, and the drag will make landing impossible."
"You're always boasting you're a better pilot than Cyke," Blaze goaded. "Prove it and land this heap. Just let me deal with the company." She pulled the harness on over her hips as she spoke, fastened it tight and clipped the rope securely onto a bracket in the floor of the jet.
"You heard de lady," Gambit patted Logan's shoulder amicably, and helped himself to a harness as well. Blaze glared at him as he copied her idea, but it seemed to be the deciding factor in the argument.
"You're both nuts," Logan grumbled, but did as he was told and opened the hatch. Instantly the suction nearly dragged the two X-Men in the harnesses out. Anything not secured down in the body of the jet was sucked right out into the open air, spiralling away from the craft's underbelly. Despite herself Blaze let loose a yip of fear as she saw the ground flashing by so very far beneath them. Then the noise of the jets that were marking them dragged her eyes upwards. There were four of them, four dark shapes in the bright morning sky. As she formed her firepower, they unleashed theirs.
Faster than Blaze could launch an attack, a glowing ace of spades flashed past her and impacted with the missile. The explosion claimed the first of their assailants; he was unable to pull up in time to avoid the debris.
"One down!" Gambit announced by Blaze's side. She narrowed her eyes and threw back her arm. Rolling it forward again with speed she threw her fireball like she was bowling in a cricket game, yelling into the wind, "This one's mine!"
The pilot of the second jet saw the fireball coming and swore, swerving out of the way. The second one hit his wing and ruptured it, sending the jet spiralling out of control. He ejected, but Blaze and Gambit were already focused on the missiles released by the two functioning crafts. They exploded them in unison, dual sets of fireworks illuminating the sky. Blaze overreached when throwing the next whirling ball of fire into the air. It impacted the fuel tank of the second to last jet and blew it out of the sky. Gambit's target followed it, plummeting to the now not so far away ground. Blaze felt herself slipping as Logan groaned, tugging at the unresponsive controls.
"Argh!" she screamed, suddenly airborne and only restrained by the harness rope. The D-ring clasp rattled against the hoop in the X-Jet's floor, straining as the drag tried to suck the girl loose of the vehicle. Logan, unaware of Blaze's distress, plunged the X-Jet into a final dive. Blaze felt herself lifted upwards in the updraft, and the rope couldn't take much more of the extenuating forces. She tried to twist and grab the rope, but her hot hands only made the rope start to blacken and burn.
"Gotcha!" Gambit yelled, grabbing her wrist and pulling her in. Stifle, who had been watching their progress from the co-pilot's seat, hit the controls and closed the ramp behind them. Normal pressure was restored as Gambit and Blaze both tumbled to the floor in a heap.
"I wanna do that again!" Blaze laughed, exhilarated. Gambit shook his head and gave the girl a brief embrace.
"Shall we?" he asked, indicating to the nearest seats. Blaze nodded and happily exchanged abseiling harness for the safer option of seat and seat belts.