Hey everyone

Only about 2 weeks later and I've got chapter 14 up!

I really hope you like it :)

Explosions of Every Kind Chapter 14: Plans Go Astray

A piercing white light awoke Scott and Rogue, disoriented and betrayed the two X-men struggled to move, only to realize they were strapped down onto a table.

"So how is my dear old friend?" a familiar voice rang out, "Treating you well is he?"

"What do you want Magneto?" Scott spat out.

"Oh, nothing really," he answered, "You see boy, I'm actually quite a simple man."

"Get to the point," Scott said.

Rogue was to upset to speak; she had her eyes fixed on a certain smoking acolyte leaning against the back wall.

"Well Cyclops," Magneto continued, "I find it hard to believe Charles would send two, juvenile X-men out on their own against me." He took a pause for dramatic effect. "Here is my proposal: you do what I say and I'll return you to Xavier unharmed."

"And if we don't?" Scott interrupted.

Magneto smiled, "I not only exterminate mankind, but all the mutants that get in my way. See Scott, if you two agree to help me with your optic blasts and her control over anyone she's ever absorbed, I will spare each and every mutant, the human-lovers and all."

"What y'gonna do wit' us if we say no?" Rogue cut in sharply, not taking her eyes off of Gambit.

"Why I'm not sure, perhaps Gambit should decide the punishment, after all he so cleverly caught the two of you," Magneto bragged. For the first time in the conversation Gambit lifted his eyes off the ground and meet Rogue's. "What do you think Gambit?" Magneto questioned.

The look in her eyes made his voice choke, but he tried not to let Magneto notice. "Dere's always de mutie haters downtown," he offered sullenly.

"Son of a bitch!" Scott yelled to Gambit, "You'd give Rogue to mutie haters? You're lower than low! And always were!"

"Enough!" Magneto bellowed. "Now," he turned to Scott and Rogue, "will you help or hurt your own kind achieve supremacy?"

"We ain't gonna help y'bucket head," Rogue declared, "An' if y'do take us downtown Ah want ya t'make Gambit watch."

Magneto nodded gravely, "Suit yourself," he said then walked away. However, Gambit didn't follow. He waited until he was gone then ran to the table holding Scott and Rogue.

"Chere," he whispered. She only stared at him with an icy glare, not intending to respond. "Chere," he whispered again, undoing her restraints. "I had no choice. I had t'make him t'ink I was workin' fo' him." As he undid the last of her bindings she stayed lying on the table and merely turned her head away from him. Next, he undid Scott's, pleading, "I ain't a mole mon ami."

"Likely story," Scott snorted, walking around to the other side of the table and offering Rogue his hand to help her stand up.

"If I was workin' fo' him why'd I jus' release you, huh?" Gambit asked.

Rogue leaned over close to Scott's ear and whispered, "It's another trick."

"No," Gambit implored, "I have a plan. We can destroy dis place from de inside out."

"What is this, some kind of trap?" Scott quarreled.

"No, no. I had t'act as I did," Gambit entreated. He took Rogue by the hand and attempted to speak directly to her. "I would never harm you Rogue, never." She ripped her hand out of his and looked away as if he wasn't even there. "Rogue, Rogue!" he pleaded, grabbing her by the shoulders and shaking.

Rogue simply turned her head to Scott, not making eye contact with Gambit once, and said, "We should leave while we can."

"Agreed," he replied, catching on to what she was doing.

As they began to walk away, Gambit felt like he was losing her and there was only one solution he could think of. Gambit reached out, snatched Rogue's hand and spun her back around into a kiss. He cupped her face with both his hands and whispered, "Absorb meh, see de truth," just before he lost consciousness.

Gambit collapsed to the floor with a thud as Rogue's mind went reeling with images of the acolytes, of Magneto, of the Institute, but mainly of herself. She shouldn't have been surprised at that but couldn't help it. Absorbing someone's memory bank like that was a bit overwhelming. She felt the shock and panic of that moment when Magneto burst into the institute, she felt the fear of being forced away from what she loved (these were Gambit's feelings about her of course.) Rogue saw his memories, heard his past thoughts, and absorbed that dark hatred he had burning for Magneto.

Taking in a deep breath, Rogue whispered out Gambit's name. "Ah'm sorry, Ah'm so sorry," she softly sobbed.

Scott knelt down to feel for Gambit's pulse, realizing how much he meant to her. "How long you think he'll be out?" Scott asked.

"It was a long kiss," Rogue acknowledged, placing her fingers to her lips. Scott propped him up in a chair with his legs crossed resting on the table to make it appear as if he had just fallen asleep.

"Now we wait," he said.

"And plan," Rogue added, not being one to waste time.

Almost an hour later, Gambit's eyes began to flicker open. "Ouch, Chere y'give quite a headache," he tried to tease.

She glowered at him, "It was y'r blame fool idea t'up an' kiss meh."

"Well it worked didn' it?" he defended. He couldn't get a smile out off her.

She turned to Scott, "First, we should hack into their network, an' then focus on gettin' out unseen."

He nodded, "Gambit, you got a pass code for this place's main hard drive?"

"Oui mon ami," he replied.

"Good, 'cause Ah doubt the Prof will be happy wit' us when we return. But maybe we can bring some useful information back wit' us." Both men nodded.

Sneaking past the innermost area into the meeting room Rogue had discovered the night before, Gambit went straight for the wall of computers and quieted them all before he put in his password. "What y'want t'know Cherie?"

"Where he plans t'attack, an' Cajun," she said, "this ain't no time for y'r Chere this and Cherie that. Got it?"

"Dere's always time," he paused, and then added, "Cherie."

She rolled her eyes teasingly at him.

"Will you two stop flirting," Scott whispered over his shoulder because he was guarding the door, "You'll have plenty of time for that at home."

"Hard not to," Gambit declared.

"Jus' get back t'work," Rogue commanded.

"Here dey are," Gambit said as a list of buildings appeared on every screen.

"Print 'em off an' let's go."

As they exited the conference room, Pyro was sprawled out on the broken down couch watching a cartoon. "Ahahaha, hey blokes come watch this!"

"Merde, we're going to hav'ta fight," Gambit whispered.

Rogue nodded and didn't plan on being subtle about it. She folded up the list and tucked it away in her back pocket. Next, she retrieved the igniter sitting out on their dining table that was taken away from her when they were captured, and fastened it to her right arm. "Give meh a minute, boys," she whispered then closed her eyes. Two minutes later, her eyes burst open and were set ablaze with Pyro's powers. A sinister smirk crossed her lips and she said, "Now!"

Scott blasted through the couch to catch Pyro off guard. Pyro tumbled to the floor then hauled himself to his feet, laughing. "Finally!" his Aussie accent awfully thick, "Some real entertainment." He paused then saw Gambit was with them, "You! Mate, I thought we were friends. But no, you succumbed to that Shelia," Pyro spat out with distain in his words. "And speaking of that Shelia, she's got one of my igniters!"

"That's right bonehead," Rogue smiled, and shot a constant stream of fire onto the living room furniture.

Pyro just laughed as he clapped his hands together and the fire began to twist and turn into a bird of prey that came soaring at the three of them. "What now baby?" Pyro cackled.

Rogue smirked, "This!" she shouted as she too clapped her hands together, turning the bird of prey into a dragon and sending it towards Pyro.

"Wha- How can you do that? Gambit! How can your girlfriend do that?" Pyro was baffled and because of that was seared by Rogue's dragon.

As Pyro ran to find some water to put himself out, Magneto appeared; very unsatisfied that Gambit really was a defector. "Disappointing, Gambit."

"My apologies, homme. I found somet'ing worth fightin' fo'," Gambit retorted.

"Oh, you mean her?" Magneto pointed towards Rogue nonchalantly, "Who would have thought that Gambit could be taken astray by a woman. Well, stranger things have happened, right? Just a pity to lose such a good thief."

"This speech have a point coming or do you just like listening to yourself talk?" Scott asked.

Magneto stared at Scott, "I was hoping we could settle this dignifiedly, without fighting."

"Fat chance," Rogue whispered to herself.

"But if we cannot," Magneto continued, ignoring Rogue, "so be it." He lifted his hand up into the air, spread apart his fingers then hoisted them forward, thrusting the TV at them. Gambit reached into his pocket and threw a charged card at the TV causing it to explode.

Magneto simply shook his head in disappointment. With another flourish of his hand, the metal tiles beneath their feet came alive and encircled them in a cocoon. Scott blasted a hole in it, but the metal repaired itself before they could escape. The walls of the cocoon were constricting tighter and tighter around them. Rogue shut her eyes tight then grasped the two guys by their shirts, transporting them out of the enclosure.

"Impressive," Magneto commented as he sent metal rods flying at them. Each X-man jumped and rolled out of the way, but the shafts followed and soon had them pinned against the wall.

As Magneto drifted over to give them a "victor" speech, Cyclops blasted him through the opposite wall of the warehouse and the metal bars all fell to the floor. "Let's go!" he yelled.

Rogue had collapsed to the floor when the bars dropped, and was panting for breath. She managed to get onto her knees at what time Gambit swept his arms under her and hoisted her up against his chest. "We can take a break later, Chere."

Running outside Rogue forced Gambit to put her down, and as he did he decided to charge the entire warehouse. As it glowed a bright crimson Gambit yelled, "I guess y'r right mon ami, I am a traitor!"

Rogue snatched him by the arm as he started to sprint for the car, "Gambit, no! A blast lahke that could kill or injury everybody within miles of this place."

"Rogue…" he began.

"Take back the energy, now!" Rogue demanded, "Ah ain't playin'."

The hatred in Gambit's eyes did not dissipate as he placed his hands on the building and withdrew all the energy back into his body. His breathing became heavy and arduous. "Dere, nobody goin' t'die t'day."

Regrettably, that little mishap had given Magneto enough time to recover from his head injury and witness the three leaping into Scott's car. An evil grin made its way across Magneto's lips. He allowed them to zoom away as if they were in the clear, except when they were only a block gone Magneto manipulated the metal end of the seatbelts, tightening them around each of their necks, tighter and tighter.

"What's happenin'?" Rogue gasped breathlessly.

Scott had lost control of the car while he tried to tear the seatbelt away from his neckline, and the vehicle was headed straight for an apartment building. Just before they collided, Magneto released his grip on their seatbelts, but it was too late. They had crashed into the high-rise head on and all lost consciousness instantaneously except Rogue. She struggled to lift her head up and saw that the engine was leaking gas. Just as her eyes blurred and she blacked out she saw a fire commencing from the residence spreading along the ground towards the puddle of deadly gasoline.

Thanks for reading and reviewing!

I'm always open for suggestions if you want to give any

Until next time :)

Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN XMEN/XMEN EVOLUTION