AN/just so you know, when I'm writing this, I'm seeing and hearing the 1992 animated series characters. (before the new animator in the fourth season thereabouts. I never liked that new animator, too... cartoony compared to the previous one.) Well, except for the characters that weren't actually in the 1992 animated series... So, just see and hear those in your mind's eye/ear any way ya like. Anyway, this isn't really following any comic storyline, so consider it slightly AU. Thanks if you're still reading the story, I know I totally suck for never updating. --Zandra
XX
Kitty peered over the bush she and Kurt were behind. The old warehouse where this Sinister guy was supposed to be didn't look big enough to fit all that genetic-science-whatsis crap that the Professor had talked about. Oh well, she should focus on the objective. 'Port in with Kurt, find Rogue, and 'port out. This should suck a little bit.
XX
Remy stared at the girl. She had been muttering under her breath for a few minutes now. Trust all de beautiful ones t' be shit crazy, he thought to himself. But Rogue wasn't crazy, she was talking to the people in her head. Er, that came out wrong. She was talking to her psyches, the people she had absorbed, although he didn't know that. She was trying to find one in particular, grasping at straws to try and make a plan to get out. She had absorbed Sinister once, she was sure of it. Whether or not she could dig through his memories for anything useful was to be seen.
Rogue's eyes flashed red, and she swore under her breath.
"Merde!" Remy said. "Y' eyes, dey looked like- like-"
"Yeah, yeah, bayou boy. Ah know. Hey, ya wouldn't happen to know which base this is, wouldja?" she asked him as her eyes faded back to their normal emerald green. Remy's face was horror struck as he stared at her eyes, which seconds ago had been exact replicas of Sinister's. "Well, ya just gonna gawk at meh all day, Cajun?"
"I... You!... I t'ink we're somewhere in Nevada..."
"Crap. Well, unless the Prof or Jeannie are usin cerebro, Ah guess--"
BAMF!
Rogue and Remy looked over to the entrance of the hall, where the sound had come from.
"Kitteh! Kurt!" she exclaimed.
"Rogue!" they yelled in tandem.
"Gambit. Now dat we have all been introduced, mind gettin' us out o' here, mes amis?" Remy addressed the newcomers. As Kitty was about to reply, Ruckus appeared behind Kurt.
"NIGHTCRAWLER!" Rogue warned him. He spun around just in time for his elbow to connect with the purple-clad man's half-open mouth. Ruckus stumbled back and was about to open his mouth again when Kitty phased her hand through his head, effectively knocking him out.
"Well, crud, If he heard us, then--" she started.
"VERTIGO! Disable them at once!" Sinister could be heard from the end of the hallway.
"It's been grand, but I think ve haff overstayed our welcome," Kurt said. He pulled Kitty to him, teleported into Rogue's cell, and then directly to the blackbird.
"Kurt!" Rogue protested. "What the hell! Ya just left Gambit there!"
"He vas not nearly as high on my priority list as the two of you."
"Kurt Wagner, ya 'port us back there raight now, do ya hear me?" Rogue said with her accent thickening in anger. Kurt knew there was no talking to her when she got like this. So, her grabbed her arm and BAMF!ed out over the orders not to of Storm, Cyclops, and Wolverine.
XX
Back at Sinister's lab, Remy was watching with interest and horror as Sinister and his men scrambled around to try and get them back.
Before his eyes, there was a puff of blue smelly smoke and there appeared the stunning southern beauty and the blue-furred teleporter.
"Chere! Y' an y' friend came back fo' dis Cajun!" he announced merrily.
"Yeah, now shuddup an' grab on." she replied hastily, as he had alerted sinister and his current band of marauders to their presence. Remy grabbed Kurt's tail and they were all back at the Blackbird.
"Trippy," he commented.
"Who the hell is this?" Wolverine demanded.
"No tahme ta explain, Logan. Go, Scott! Ah know they'll be aftah us!"
As Scott fired up the jet, Logan grunted, "Fine, but you owe us an explanation."
XX
Back at the mansion, Hank came out with a stretcher for Remy, and everyone else went inside. Kitty and Kurt stayed back a bit.
"Nice night, eh Katzchen?" Kurt asked as he looked up at the stars that had been out for a while. Jeez, it had been breakfast ten minutes ago, where had the time gone?
"Well, yeah, if you think day-long rescue missions are fun," she said with a smirk. He smiled back down at her and casually draped an arm around her shoulder. She leaned into him and smiled.
When everyone was back in the mansion, in the war room for a run-over of the mission, Xavier started talking and Kitty and Kurt mostly didn't listen. They glanced at each other from time to time, as they didn't want to be called out for all-out gawking.
"We need to find out some things," Charles continued. "Why would Cain be working with Sinister? He has never worked with anyone before now. And just what Did he want with Rogue? Who else, if anyone, is involved?"
"And, the most confusing thing, don't forget, Chuck," Logan piped up from where he was leaning on the wall. "Why was this so damned easy?"
Xavier gave a sigh. "Yes, that is a concern. Did we truthfully take Essex by surprise? Or is he merely toying with us?"
Everyone in the room fell silent at that.
XX
"Well, Gambit, I am going to have to splint that leg. And I cannot do that if you won't go into the medlab," an exasperated Hank told the stubborn young mutant clinging to the door frame.
"NON! No labs, no labs o' any kind!" Remy replied petulantly.
Hank tried unsuccessfully for about the twentieth time to pry the man's hands away from the door. Finally, he decided to just sedate him. He left through the doorway Gambit was clinging to and returned with a shot which he promptly stuck in the lean mutant's neck.
"Hey!" Remy gasped before the sedative made his hands loosen on the doorway. "Bâtard," Gambit huffed before he passed out. Hank chuckled.
"Scott will certainly not have much fun trying to be authoritative with you, my young friend," he said as he gently scooped Gambit off the floor and brought him into the medlab.
XX
"There ain't much to explain," Rogue said. "Ah woke up, he was there realigning his leg, we talked for a few moments, then Kurt an' Kitteh showed up."
"Why'd you make Kurt go back there for him?" Logan demanded. "Kurt could have gotten hurt, and that guy isn't our responsibility!"
"Whaddaya mean, 'not our responsibility?!' How could ya, in good conscience, leave someone in that monster's clutches when ya know ya could save 'em?!"
"We do it all the time, you know Sinister's got his clone playthings."
"But as we all know, Sinister has yet to create a sentient clone. Gambit is most certainly sentient, an' most certainly not a clone!"
"All right, you two," Scott butted in. "What's done is done. Wolverine, drop it. Rogue, Kurt you're restricted from missions for two weeks for disobeying direct orders from your team leaders."
Kurt nodded. Rogue pouted but didn't say anything. Hank walked in.
"Our new Cajun friend has a cast set. Now, may I ask where you all were, how he got here, and how he was injured?"
"Sinister," Rogue replied.
"Oh."
BANG! CRASH!
They all looked at each other and headed for the medlab.
XX
When Hank walked into the room he saw the young mutant fighting the restraints hank had the forethought to put on him.
"Let me outta here!" he demanded. "I don' do fuckin' labs!"
"As I recall you telling me. And, may I ask, why are you already awake? That same sedative would keep a small horse asleep for three hours," Hank said.
Logan had finally gotten a good look at the kid, and provided the answer. "Remy's got pretty damn high metabolism. Part of his mutation."
"You know this man, Logan?" Xavier asked at the same time Rogue breathed out, "Remy."
His name tasted good on her lips.
"Yeah, we ran into each other couple a years back. He's a thief, and he was hired by the American government to take something from Weapon X."
"What?" Kitty asked.
"His DNA," Gambit replied. He had stopped thrashing long enough to realize who was in the room. "Bonjour, monsieur claws."
"Hey, dickhead." Gambit disregarded the comment and his eyes fixed to storm.
"Stormy! How 'ave y' been, chère? Keepin' in practice a bit, I hope."
"How many times do I have to tell you not to call me that?" she asked over Kitty's and Jubilee's snickers. "And no, you incorrigible scamp, I have given up thievery."
"Well, if yo' have forgotten the basic pick-pocketin', lock picking, and safe-cracking skills, I may have t' ship y' off t' N'Awlins so mon père can give yo' a reteachin' course an' a good scoldin'," he replied merrily.
"The Thieves Guild, Ororo? You, really?" Wolverine asked.
"Yes, really, Logan. And I think Jean-Luc would hardly have time to teach such menial things to a reformed thief. Isn't that more your brother's job?"
"Henri? Non, He's too busy learning the whole guild handbook an' other t'ings like dat," Remy replied with a cheeky grin.
"I thought you were supposed to take the 'throne' after your father?"
"Yeah, well, there was Julian at m' weddin', an' our duel, an exile an all dat."
"Oh, my. I always did suspect that boy had feelings for Belladonna unbecoming of a brother," she replied cynically. "how are you taking it all?"
"I miss Tante Mattie's beignets! Her crepes! Her COOKIES!" he wailed dramatically. "Good t'ing dey all started comin' outta N'Awlins for holidays. I don' t'ink I could stand it if dey didn'!"
"Well, Jean-Luc stepping out of the guild house for anything other than business at all should show you how much he cares, if you ever doubted it."
By this time, everyone except Storm had left the room.
"So," he started. "Mind getting' dese awful t'ings off me, Stormy?" he begged, gesturing with his eyes to the restraints on his hands.
Storm smirked. "Gladly."
XXXXXXXXXXXXXX
AN/um, not much Kurtty in this one, eh? Yeah, well, there will be some, but I'm gonna go ahead and change this story to a Romy. Don't worry, there will still be Kurtty in it, but I don't wanna disappoint people too much. I don't write the story. It writes itself, I swear. It uses my hands and my computer for its own devious purposes of getting online publishment. (Is that a word? Meh.)
PLEASE REVIEW I WILL DO THE FUNKY CHICKEN IF YOU DO! … On second thought, as a reward for reviewing, I will NOT do the funky chicken. Trust me, the latter is the better option. --Zandra