HEY everyone!
I know my last update was in NOVEMBER and I apologize for that!
Could NOT think of what to do for this chapter
But I like where I went with it and hope you do too.
R&R! and enjoy!
:))
Explosions of Every Kind Chapter 15: Up in Smoke
Through the thick veil of choking smoke Gambit raised his bruised head and saw, to no avail, nothing but blurred darkness. However, he could hear the piercing shouts of citizens fleeing the burning building and beyond that he could make out a familiar voice, a friend's voice.
"Mate!" it screamed out, "I'll save ya, ya stupid bloke."
Pyro scrambled across the street to the smoldering accident. The flames flicked and tossed in all directions as if dancing to an inaudible beat. Pyro clapped his hands together above his head and commanded the flames to the right, then to left. Then, one by one, he began to extinguish them.
When the task was done Pyro buckled to his knees and took many deep, cavernous breaths. With the flames gone the smoke began to clear and Pyro helped his old friend out of the car.
"And people say I'm insane," he quipped, although Gambit could hardly hear him over his roaring headache.
"Wait-" the Cajun was able to stammer out, "the others get the others."
As they began to stumble across the street with Gambit leaning on Pyro's good shoulder and dragging his left foot with every other step he tried to turn around but Pyro grabbed his friend hard and kept their current path.
"You're better off without her, mate."
"Mon ami y'couldn't be more wrong," he whispered hoarsely, still coughing up ash.
Scott was the next to brutally awake amongst the rubble of their car. Upon seeing Gambit being assisted across the street by his Aussie friend Scott immediately misinterpreted and took him as their enemy again. That is until his vision had cleared enough to see Gambit fighting Pyro to turn back. He felt a twinge of remorse for being so quick to pass him off as their opponent once more, especially after everything he'd done for Rouge, who still lay unconsciously slumped over in the back seat.
Scott attempted to depart from his cherry convertible only to find that his left leg had been crushed in the collision and was most likely broken. He reached his sooty arm behind him in an endeavor to shake Rogue awake. Her clothes had been slightly torn in the crash from shards of glass that had flown every which way when the windows shattered. With all that shaking Scott had only succeeded in turning Rogue's unconscious body over to reveal her pale white face that had been stained with blood under her small curved nose. Scott's most logical explanation was that when they hit the building Rogue's head had smashed into the passenger seat and given her a bloody nose. Even if that was so, it still looked worse than it really was.
"Rogue," he coughed, still trying to wake her up, "Rogue!" He had to be very careful where he laid his hand on her because of the pallid exposed skin.
Realizing she wasn't going to stir anytime soon Scott had decided to yank at his leg until it was released from under the dashboard. Of course this action caused him unfathomable pain and he shrieked against the feverous sky as the pain shot throughout his entire leg and then some.
"Gahhh-ahhh-ahhhhhhhh!" To anyone within a mile it'd have sounded as if a young man was being tortured through some heinous new method of torment; however he was eventually able to free himself. Scott slumped over the edge of the car and smacked the ground with a heavy thud. After he'd pulled himself up to his feet he reached over the compressed door and took hold of Rogue's body, yanking her out of the crushed car.
"I got you," he kept repeating to her unaware body, more to reassure himself than her, "I got you."
From the other side of the road, Gambit was in a frenzy arguing with Pyro to go back and help them. They argued and argued until at one point Gambit had decked Pyro with his arm that wasn't currently distraught and dangling, giving him a black-eye. It was at that moment that Pyro agreed and dashed back across the street to Rogue and Scott.
"Give me the Shelia," he panted to Scott.
"Yeah right," Scott bickered, "I'll keep her with me, thanks."
"Mate, you can't walk," Pyro pointed out.
Reluctantly Scott handed Rogue to Pyro and he lifted her up the same way Gambit always had and her body rolled into his chest. Scott, refusing to accept an acolyte's help, hobbled across the street lagging behind the other two a bit.
"Here mate," Pyro huffed, handing Rogue off to Gambit who sat on the sidewalk hunched over against a brick edifice. Rogue now lay slouched over on Gambit's lap, still unconscious and unaware of their situation thus far. Gambit rested uneasily against the hot brick, his only comfort being able to softly stroke the hair of the girl in his lap. When Scott arrived all three were slumped down, torn, bloody and covered with the black ashes of a once roaring fire.
"What now?" Gambit asked, not raising his eyes from Rogue.
"He'll be coming back," this was the first time any of them had heard Pyro's thick Aussie accent have a grave and sullen undertone.
All of a sudden, Rogue's eyes began to flutter open and as she groaned she raised her hand to her spinning head. The first thing she saw when her vision cleared was the seam of Gambit's dark blue pants and a dirty sidewalk. She immediately tried to lift herself up but hadn't the energy and fell into Gambit's chest, causing him to grunt in the pain of soreness.
"Sorry Cajun," she spoke almost too softly for him to hear.
Unfortunately, Pyro had been right and floating down the soiled sidewalk a cloaked figure approached them leisurely.
"How heroic Pyro," Magneto mocked.
"Hey now-"
Magneto waved off whatever Pyro was about to say and continued, "Well 'X-men' this seems to be quite a pickle you all are in. I wish I could help, I really do."
"Enough!" Scott cried and blasted Magneto into a nearby building. This occurrence gave the three of them time to scuttle to their feet and into disoriented fighting stances. As Magneto hovered back to them Gambit tossed three playing cards at him but unperturbedly he levitated a trash can lid in front of him to block the blasts.
Rogue, hanging onto Gambit for support seeing as she had not yet found her bearings again, said, "Two can play at that game." She closed her eyes tight but just as she had entered her own mind Rogue's body almost collapsed to the hard concrete beneath their feet. She whimpered about as her head reeled. "Ah…Ah…mah head," she whipped it about before her knees buckled beneath her. Gambit lunged forward and caught her before she collided with the ground.
Holding her tight he breathed, "Rogue, Rogue can you hear me?"
"Light-headed…" she whispered.
"Don't worry, I've got ya," he spoke in a low voice into her ear.
"Little help!" Scott yelled, blasting at Magneto over and over again.
With Rogue's arm around his neck Gambit reached into his trench coat and pulled out six playing cards, "On the count of three."
"One..."
Scott blasted at Magneto and banked right to avoid it.
"Two…"
Scott blasted at Magneto and banked left to avoid it.
"Three!"
With Magneto positioned perfectly in the middle both Scott and Gambit shot him with all they had. The powerful blast of glowing crimson sent him soaring backwards and far from sight.
Pyro, knowing where his place was in this feud, nodded to his friend then ran after Magneto.
"Take her," Gambit demanded, leaning Rogue carefully onto Scott.
"Where are you going?"
"T'get us a ride home," Gambit hoped into the first convertible car he saw and without delay started sparking to wires together. A few moments later, he drove up to Scott, with Rogue clinging about him in a desperate attempt to stand up, in an antique glossy jade muscle car with black leather seats. "Put her in de back."
Surprisingly to Scott, Gambit gave him the wheel but he would soon figure out why. The vehicle went like a bullet down the street and away from that city.
A few miles onto the expressway and it had started to downpour. They couldn't get the top up in time and, even though it was up now, all three of them and the leather had gotten soaked. Gambit, after having uttered many French curses wormed his way from the passenger's seat into the back of the car, hearing his clothes squish against the ruined leather the whole time.
He gently lifted Rogue's head and seating himself down laid it back in his lap. Once again, he took his brawny hand and soothingly caressed her white and auburn locks until she awoke.
"Still raining?" She smiled looking up into his face.
He knew he was meant to look out the window into the dark and dripping sky for her answer, but didn't want to take his eyes off of her. So he said, "Most likely. But dat's not what I want t'talk 'bout."
Rogue stared at the drop-top of the car, knowing exactly what he wanted to talk about but not wanting to herself. "Ah just haven't mastered it yet. Don't worry," she tried to be light-hearted but when she looked at the expression on his face it implied otherwise.
"Dat was more than jus' not masterin' Rogue." She knew he had something else to say but was holding back. "Maybe…maybe dis thing y'do has limitations."
For some reason she was angered by this notion and turned away from him saying contemptuously, "Or maybe it was the car crash Ah had jus' been in."
"Rogue," he tried to stroke her hair again but she whipped away, "y'collapsed… I don't want t'see y'get hurt again, especially if y'know how to prevent it. I'm jus' afraid y'r goin' t'push y'rself t'far and next time maybe you won't jus' collapse."
She was silent, listening to the rain fall on the car's roof.
"Rogue," he continued hesitantly, "I can't do this wit'out you."
She rolled back over to peer up into his grave, yet honest face. "Do what?"
"Live."
He could feel her breathing hitch and wanted more than anything to kiss her and not let go. And he had a sense that those were her feelings too.
"I don' want t'see you kill y'rself-"
"Remy," she whispered, "Y'once told me y'loved me… Did y'mean it?"
"Of course I did," he was so shocked at the question he only mouthed his response, but somehow Rogue knew what he had said.
"Remy LeBeau, Ah love y'too."
Time seemed to stop. The rain no longer fell, or at least they could no longer hear it. Scott and the entire front half of the car seemed to fade into the black of the dreary night now.
It was almost three a.m. when the stolen vehicle drove up to the gates of the institute. A shrouded figure loomed just behind the gates in the dawn of a fresh, showery day. Scott, being the only one awake, knew exactly who was waiting for them.
Pulling up by the form he unrolled his window and joked with a nervous laugh, "You like my new car, Professor?"
Chapter 15 ladies and gentlemen!
Thanks for reading and reviewing :)
chapter 16 will come...eh...well... I DON'T KNOW
Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN XMEN/XMEN EVOLUTION