Disclaimer: I do not own and am making no money from the X-Men. Vixen belongs to her creator Corrinth. Blaze is mine. That is all.

Scene Nine

"Blaze?" Jean asked.

"When we first met Morose," Blaze explained; her voice husky and strained. "Angel was still my boyfriend."

"Whoa, who'd of thought you and Rogue had such similar taste in guys," retorted Tabby who had been oblivious to Rogue's revelation. "I mean, it must be the only thing you've got in common."

"Tabby shush," Kitty insisted, throwing a pillow at the blonde.

"Look at me Rogue," Blaze addressed the Southern belle. "Look at me!" Rogue deliberately did nothing of the sort, but Blaze carried on regardless. "You and Warren dumped Remy n' me because you thought we were cheating on you when we weren't. Now you're telling me that you kissed Warren? That you cheated on us! Do you even know how much of a hypocrite that makes you?"

"Ah seem to remember ya'll gave me permission, so long as Ah didn't have my powers!" Rogue snapped back. "You said Ah'd get no competition from you 'til my powers came back."

"I was being nice," Blaze argued. "I didn't mean you could kiss my boyfriend! I wanted you to get with Remy so he'd be happy and not jealous of Warren!"

"Hey calm down," Jean tried to rationalise. "It's all turned out alright, hasn't it? You said yourself Blaze, it's good between you and Gambit."

"That's not the point," Blaze fumed. She got up from Tabby's bed and for a moment everyone thought she might somehow attack Rogue. Instead Blaze marched to the window and threw it open to the night. She sat on the sill and peered down below, before starting to climb out.

"Where are you going?" Tabby asked.

"To the payphone," Blaze replied, "to call Gambit. I'm not staying here with her. I'll get him to borrow the X-Jet and come pick me up."

"Blaze you heard what Marjorie said about Barrow after dark!" Jean protested.

"I'm pyrokenetic," Blaze responded flatly. "If there's anything out there, I'll just set fire to it, alright?"

"You're two storeys up!" Kitty pointed out urgently.

"Not a problem," dismissed the former thief. Then Blaze disappeared into the night.

Blaze made her solitary way back to the phone booth without incident. The only thing she wished was that she'd brought her coat. Not only was the night chilly, but also her purse was in her coat pocket. With no money to make the call with, when she reached the phone the first thing she had to do was pick the lock on the coin box. The lock gave quickly with a bit of prodding and poking with a fiery probe. A cascade of coins tinkled out of the chamber and onto the floor. Blaze caught a handful, picked up the receiver and started dialling Gambit's cell phone number. Then, suddenly she froze. She put the received back and hung up, just as Gambit answered on the other end. Something was very wrong in Barrow…

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"Well I'm not going after her," Jean decreed. Shadowcat pouted, turning her pleading gaze onto Tabby.

"We can't just let her storm off like that guys, what if something happens?"

"She can take care of herself," grouched Rogue. That seemed to make Tabby's mind up more that Kitty's pleading.

"C'mon Kitty-Cat, we'll go after B ourselves," Boom Boom decided, lurching to her feet and grabbing Kitty by the elbow.

"If we're not back in twenty minutes," Kitty told Jean, "you'd better come after us." Together the two girls went to the exterior wall, and Kitty used her powers to slide them down to the ground outside. No one saw them, not even a cat. The streets of Barrow were utterly deserted. Not another living soul was seen on the way to the phone booth. When Kitty and Tabby got there the booth was likewise deserted. Shadowcat threw up her hands in annoyance.

"Now where'd she go? I thought she was going to use the phone!"

She's been here," Tabby decided, pointing to the coin box. "That lock's been damaged; someone's set fire to it to get inside."

Kitty reached into her jeans pocket and pulled out some change. She fed coins into the slot and hit the redial button on the console. It only rang twice before Gambit picked up.

"Whoever dis is, you better not hang up dis time!"

"Hang up?" Kitty asked, "then you've not just, like, talked to Blaze?"

"Shadowcat?" Now Remy was completely confused. "What's goin' on? What do you mean, did I jus' speak to Blaze? Where are you Cherie?" There was a click as Kitty hung up, and back in Bayville Gambit swore loudly. Across the other side of the bar's pool table, Logan raised a bushy eyebrow and smirked, "Does your mamma know y'know words like that?"

"Somet'ing weird goin' on wit' the girls," Remy explained. "You t'ink we should do somet'ing?"

"I think my dad wants them to have to work together," said the blonde woman who stood next to Logan, diligently applying chalk to a cue. Ilehana Xavier was the telepathic, animorphing daughter of the Professor, Wolverine's better half and now it turned out a bit of a pool shark as well. "It would be counterproductive to go bail them out." Gambit did not look convinced, so Vixen smiled. "Don't worry Remy. I'm sure Blaze will forgive you. And if she doesn't then you have my permission to blame it all on Logan."

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In Barrow, Kitty put the phone down and turned to Tabitha.

"She didn't speak to Gambit, she just hung up."

"Then where the heck is she?" Tabby demanded, hands on her hips. "Blaze!" she shouted, "get over here you scrawny, pyrokenetic mpmmff, mpmhmmf, mphhffb…"

A warm hand had slapped itself across Tabby's mouth, cutting her off mid-flow. With her free hand, Blaze put a finger to her lips and shushed Kitty. Then she pointed to the darkened doorway of a shop. All three girls jogged across the street to shelter in the doorway. Kitty had barely opened her mouth to ask for an explanation when Blaze cut her off with an urgent whisper.

"Look! Up on the roof there," she pointed to the hardware store, which sported a large free-standing sign on kits flat roof. Kitty frowned, squinting to try and make out what Blaze had seen.

"Barrow's Barrows?" Tabby had missed the point and was reading the store's name from the sign. Blaze rolled her eyes and addressed the problem, "No, behind the sign, there's something up there."

"I see it," whispered Kitty, the immediately wished she hadn't as whatever it was moved from cover…