The public and emotional spanking seemed to calm Bobby down. He and Rogue weren't fighting as much, though there was definite tension. Bobby made an effort, even setting a date night later in the week. The team watched as Rogue and Bobby left, each wanting to shake their head.
"I could just throttle him," Jubilee muttered. Gambit couldn't agree more.
"I hope they can work it out," Kitty said diplomatically.
"Iceboy's gotta mature out a bit first," Logan said. They didn't have much time to contemplate it though. Storm came in looking grave.
"I need everybody to suit up. Jubilee, you'll be on babysitting duty," Storm said.
"Damn it," Jubilee muttered.
"There's a dead mutant in Philadelphia, a friend of mine works with homeless mutants and found one dead in their shelter."
"It's tragic, but we aren't mutant CSI, what does this have to do with us?" Kitty asked.
"It could be a freak accident, but she doesn't think so and neither do I. Apparently, the dead girl was a very powerful mutant, beaten to death," Storm said and looked at Gambit, who felt chilled. "It may be a coincidence but if someone is targeting mutants, we need to know."
They filed to the jet and Gambit felt himself experiencing the fluttering of a nearly foreign feeling for him: anxiety. The flight to Philadelphia was short, giving Gambit no time to think through his misgivings. He wasn't sure why Storm had brought the whole team. Like Kitty said, this wasn't what they did. The mutant was beaten and broken. Kitty winced at the blood pooled around the mutant, barely dead longer than an hour. According to Storm's friend, the cops hadn't yet been called, so they X-Men could leave no mark of their presence.
Logan noted similarities between Gambit's wounds and the mutant's, which unnerved them all. According to Storm's friend, the dead mutant girl had had strength nearly to rival Logan's, but since her healing factor was still developing. Someone was able to mortally injure her. None of them liked the sound of that. Storm's friend thanked them for looking, even though she acknowledged she didn't reall know what they could.
Back at the mansion, Storm set Kitty to the task of searching for any sign of activity in violent hate groups. Hours in, Kitty was forced to give up. There were signs of the usual tough talk and protests, but nothing that hinted to murder. Gambit reached out to his Guild contacts but all was quiet. Frustrated, but satisfied that they exhausted all the options they could, Storm had to concede that it was probably a freak coincidence.
Life resumed, and while everyone had the murder in the back of their minds, they pushed it to the side of their thoughts and pressed on. Gambit and Rogue were having some progress with their beginning self defense class. The kids had started out with the basic idea of slapping to get the job done. It took Gambit what he thought to be entirely too much time to teach them how to throw a punch.
"Okay," he said, standing in front of the class, who as assembled in the danger room. "We're going t' do a practical exercise today." The young students shuffled nervously. The scene changed to a dojo style gym.
"There are going to be swarms of enemies, starting small and weak, and growing in size and intensity," Rogue explained. "Last mutant standing wins."
"No powers," Gambit added.
The class of twenty spread themselves out, making sure they could see all around them. The first wave of enemies was a rather ugly group of large spider-like creatures slowly flowing at them. They were all fairly successful, which Rogue and Gambit were relieved about. The next were simulations of a person about their size. Most took care of it easily but a few couldn't, they were sidelined.
Next were two people about their size. This cut the number down to half. Gambit nearly ground his teeth together. Another thing to work on. With nine kids left, the attackers got more and more skilled. When there were four attackers of various heights and stalls, only three students were left. When it came down to two, a boy and a girl, the number of attackers grew to five.
When he thought Gambit and Rogue weren't looking, the little boy kicked out and when he brought his foot to the ground, he used his mutation to send an electric shock out to the girl, dazing her. The only reason Gambit saw it was his enhanced vision. His eyes narrowed. The slightly electrified girl was dazed and was quickly overpowered and subdued. The automated attackers disappeared leaving only to the boy, Johnny, standing. Gambit whispered to Rogue before addressing the class.
"All of yo' did very well. There are some things t' work in, but overall good job," Gambit told the class. He turned to the smug Johnny and still slightly hazy Adrienne. "Don't ever do dat again," he said coldly.
"What?" Johnny asked.
"Yo' know what."
Johnny's eyes slid to Adrienne. "I didn't do anything wrong."
"Yo' attacked your classmate t' win, dis is not acceptable. Yo' are training t' work together eventually, as a unit. Yo' don't attack team members."
"That wasn't the lesson," Johnny said. "The goal was to survive."
"And if yo' choose t' survive by betraying or hurting others, yo' miss de whole point of being taught by de X-Men," Gambit said, voice still cold. He spoke to the class. "Let dat be a lesson t' all of yo'. Being a backstabbing little shit will get yo' nowhere fast."
"Johnny, detention with Logan," Rogue said, cutting off Gambit. "Also, when we say no powers, we mean it for a reason. Leaning to hone powers offensively or defensively comes later, this is basic hand to hand. Adrienne wins, class dismissed." The class filed out, Johnny sullenly sulking away.
"He should be throttled," Gambit muttered.
"He's just a kid, he'll learn," Rogue said.
"Or he'll just stay de way he is and become a bully. He's going down de wrong path fast."
"Funny to hear about the wrong path from you," Rogue joked.
"Isn't it?" Gambit smiled. "In all seriousness though, I'm a thief, not a thug. I know thugs, I've worked with dem, but yo' can never trust dem. If he doesn't turn things around, he could easily end up in de wrong crowd, or dead."
Rogue sighed. "We'll have to do what we can for him. But sometimes we do lose people."
"It's true," Gambit said, nodding sagely. "Yo' can't save everyone."
They left the danger room and walked up to the kitchen for lunch. They grabbed their lunch of sandwiches (Jubilee was on kitchen duty) and took a table. "Yo' okay chère?" Gambit asked. "Yo' have been quiet all day."
"Yeah, I'm fine," she said. She hesitated for a second before adding, "Tomorrow's my anniversary with Bobby."
"Oh," Gambit said. "And dat's a bad thing?"
"No," she said. "I don't know if he remembers."
"Ah, not going t' remind him?"
"Nope," she said. "It's been enough time that he should remember on his own."
"Speak of de devil," Gambit said and nodded to the door. Bobby's eyes narrowed at he saw Gambit. He came and purposefully kissed the top of Rogue's head before sitting down.
"Hey Rogue, I was wondering what you were doing tomorrow night?" Bobby asked. Rogue's head perked up.
"Nothing, why?" she asked, obviously thrilled at the prospect of her long term boyfriend remembering an important anniversary.
"Well a few of us are going to check out this monster truck derby in town, wanna tag along?" Bobby asked.
Rogue's face became cold and she venomously hissed," Not even if you paid me." With a few slams, she grabbed her dishes and stormed away as Kitty and Jubilee sat down.
"What's up with Rogue?" Kitty asked.
"Ask Ice Dick," Gambit said before he too departed. He heard the girls groan as he left. Rogue was in a rather bad mood for the rest of the day, and no one but Logan and Gambit knew why. They weren't telling, either, as if by some unspoken conspiracy they were both content to watch Bobby fall on his face. Gambit made many valiant attempts to brighten Rogue's mood, from odd faces, to explosive juggling.
Rogue feared he might have taken it too far when Logan thundered into her room, demanding to know where the 'good for nothin', god damn Cajun' was. Alarmed, Rogue said she didn't know. It wasn't until he turned around that Rogue saw the cause of his irritation. A dozen or so small, high powered magnets were stuck all over his back, most in places where he couldn't reach.
Rogue was shocked into laughter, which of course was Gambit's whole point. Logan growled and stalked down the hall, sending kids running out of his way. Gambit swung in through her window a few seconds later, landing softly next to her. She turned, amused expression on her face.
"You really are crazy," she said.
"Was dere any doubt?" Gambit asked with a smile. That odd feeling of tugging forgetfulness hit him again, and his smile turned to a slight frown.
"What's wrong?" she asked.
"Nothing is wrong exactly," Gambit said. "I just got dis nagging feeling dat I forgot t' tell yo' something."
"You'll think of it."
"Probably just a dirty limerick," Gambit agreed.
Storm called an emergency meeting that night, dragging the bewildered X-Men to the war room. "It wasn't a freak accident," Storm announced.
"What?"
"The murder?"
"There was another attack," Storm said. "The mutant was attacked two miles from here." Silence met her statement.
"From here?" Kitty finally gasped out.
"Yes," Storm said. "Someone anonymously called the cops and just said someone was being attacked. The cops scared the attackers off."
"Well we can ask the mutant who did it!" Bobby said excitedly, but Storm shook her head.
"The mutant died at the hospital."
More silence.
"Did dey say anything?" Gambit asked.
"He told the medics he was coming here, to deliver a warning."