"While the mansion's asleep, Riptide will creep." Riptide chuckled to himself as he easily hacked onto one of the computers and started scanning through the profiles of the students of the Xavier Institute, slowly scrawling down names on his arm in tiny lettering under the list 'People Cajun Likes'

1. Hot brunette w/ white streak (Power of absorption through skin contact)

2. Headmistress w/ white hair (Power to control weather)

3. Kid I met in the hallway (Multiplies)

4. Kid I met in the hallway's girlfriend (Shape shifts)

5. Chick with the yellow jacket (Fireworks)

6. Intimidating Russian (Metallic armor in place of skin)

7. Guy with wings (Flight)

8. Claw dude (Are they even friends?) (Healing factor)

He looked over the list and smiled. Eight people were more than enough to get the job done. Seven people if you took out the girl with the white streak who was not, under any circumstances, allowed to be harmed. 2-8 were expendable, but Gambit and the girl were irreplaceable.

"I should have killed you when I had the chance, LeBeau." Riptide mumbled to himself as he erased the computer's memory and shut it down. "To bad Harpoon beat me to the punch, you cocky bastard. You should have kept your mouth shut. You should have just let them die, but noooo, you had to save the girl. And look where that got you. Speared in the chest. How the hell do you survive something like that?" He continued to ramble like a crazy man confined by himself for to long. Which wasn't far from the truth. Riptide thrived on action and violence, the idle task of waiting left him in a drought of either and it was making him restless. Two more days and he could satisfy his thirst for blood. Two more days and he could take down this entire building.

The very idea made him smile.

A slow creak of a door being opened drew his attention away from the computer screen. The hunter inside of him stirred and he blood lust became evident as he followed the noise stealthily down the hall out side of the computer lab.

If one thing could be said of Emma Frost it's that she's a vindictive bitch. This instance in her life was no exception. No one turned her down and got away with it unscathed. This Gambit fellow simply needed to be shown exactly how imperfect this creature he had awarded his affections to actually was.

Not that she really wanted him anymore, it was a matter of pride. And for Emma Frost being rejected for a woman that couldn't touch was a crushing blow that she was not going to take lying down.

The difference between her and Bobby Drake was while Bobby Drake would confront someone outright to defend his pride, Emma would sneak and cheat and sleaze until hers was avenged. And vengeance was a dish best served with lots of screaming and perhaps some permanent mental damage.

She creeped down the hallway, cringing as her door creaked when she opened it.

"Damn it all to hell!" She snarled under her breath, her voice slightly tinged with a British accent.

She stood still for a moment, frozen in the hallway, waiting to see if anyone had heard her and was willing to investigate. She was just thankful that the prissy tabby cat known as the Wolverine was out, or she would already be in major trouble for being outside of her room so late at night. After a few moments of tense silence, she continued down the hall to outside of Rogue's room.

She tapped her finger nails on the wood of the door for a moment, evil smile curling across her lips before she held her hand up to her temple as she began to concentrate on the mind she could sense on the inside of the room. There was an odd ripple in the psychic aura around her, as if there were someone else in the room she couldn't detect, but she didn't allow that to phase her as she hacked into the runaway's mind.

Flashes of a dark nightmare corrupted her thought process as she probed Rogue's thought.

"Ah!" She gasped and held her head. There was so much blood in her nightmare. So much rage and hate. "Uhg," She shook of the creeps in her skin and set back about her task. "Scary monsters."

She wasn't even aware that the monsters plaguing Rogue's mind weren't even the scariest monsters or nightmares in that room.

She was concentrating to hard on revenge to hear the footfalls traveling down the hallway towards her.

"All done." She sang after a few hard minutes as she reeled back in her telepathy and hoped that she could be there when Rogue discovered all of the new places he mental walls had been relocated to.

Emma laughed to herself airily and turned to go back to her room, nearly colliding with a broad-chested man with white hair and sharp eyes.

Before she could scream out in fright, his hand was at her throat, cutting off all oxygen.

"Tut, tut," He clucked his tongue at her. "It's not safe for little girls like yourself to be wandering around by yourselves."

She clawed at the fingers around her pale neck to no avail.

He squeezed.

Plot monster goes 'Rawr'.

Short? Yes. Essential? Ab-so-damn-lutely. Scale from 1-10, how mad are you going to be if I just killed Emma off?

Next Chapter is written and so fantastically epic I couldn't with clear conscience pair it in the same text grouping as Emma's bitchyness. Hell, I'm so damn excited about the next chapter I'll probably post it tonight! *wriggles around in her chair with excitement* EPIC I TELL YOU! EPIIIIC!