Gambit listened to every single word. "That's a mighty interesting story Cheré." he said with a smile. Rogue felt it was fair enough that Gambit answered her question since she answered his. "Alright Gambit, how did ya know the code for these cells if ya were trapped here yourself?" Gambit lowered his head, afraid of the reaction Rogue would give to his answer.
Well," He started off, "Ah was..." "Save it!" Rogue cut him off. She took the glove off of her hand and tapped the side of his face with her index finger. She didn't touch him for too long because she didn't want him to faint. She absorbed his memory and saw exactly what happened.
"You imbecile! You're working with magneto!" She shouted in anger. "Well ah was, but not anymore! Ah couldn't let ya get hurt Cheré." he said innocently. Rogue had to give him the benefit of the doubt since she did have his memory of speaking with Kitty and Pietro and him trying to rescue her. Then she had an instant rewind. Kitty and Pietro! She thought bewildered.
Rogue blinked rapidly. "Kitty and Pietro!" she reiterated out load this time. "Yes ah had a talk with em'. Ah was actually kind of surprised to see em' here with each other." Gambit explained. "They were here?! Together?!" Rogue shouted.
Gambit gathered some sense. "I would love to answer your question right now, but we gotta get a move on before da' others come back." Gambit grabbed his staff that was left inside of the cell he was in. While he was there, Rogue stopped in front of another glass cell. Inside, she saw and recognized the boy.
Gambit saw as Rogue was attracted to the person inside. He walked over to her and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Ya know who dis' is?" He inquired. "Yeah ah do. His name is Forge. Ah found this secret lab unda' the school basement While ah was in there, I stumbled across a contraption that was in there. Ah didn't know what it was until Kurt showed up and ah accidentally sent him to anotha' dimension with it." "Ya don't say." Gambit said with intrigue.
"So why is he here?" Rogue asked. "Magneto heard about him and forced him to build some machines to help Magneto reform the world." Gambit the spoke on a recurring situation. "But seriously Cheré, we have to move." "If Magneto needs him for his evil plans, then we need to get him outta here." Rogue commanded.
Before Gambit could say anything, Rogue used the kinetic energy she managed to steal from Gambit a few minutes earlier. She fried the control panel similar to the panel on her cell. Although the cell was opened, Forge was still affected by the neural-paralysis gas. Gambit hauled him over his shoulders and the two made a break for it.
Gambit knew his way around the lair, so it wasn't hard to escape. The only thing Gambit was worried about, was the other members of the acolytes showing up. While they were running out, Forge came to.
His groaning alerted them. Gambit lowered him from his shoulders. Forge stood weakly holding his throbbing head.
Rogue took action. "Hey you! Remember me?" She asked roughly. Forge was too dizzy to really think straight. But Rogue's make up was enough to identify her. "Yeah. I think so. You're Rogue. Right?" "Good so ya remember. Do ya have any idea how to get off of this island?"
Forged looked around straining to make out his surroundings. "I guess if I move fast enough, I could forge a boat out of that table over there. And maybe some few other pieces of metal." Gambit spoke up. "How long will it take for those satellites of yours to be put together?" "It depends. But I'd say like half an hour to make sure the other satellites are aligned accurately." "Then dat should give us plenty of time." Gambit went over to the table and kicked it over. Forge welding immediately and as fast as possible.
Just about 25 minutes later, they completed the boat. Forge was impressed with his timing. "Now the thing is getting it out there on the beach " Said Forge wiping the sweat from his head. Rogue and Gambit had an idea.
They walked out to the tunnel where the metallic spheres enter. It led out to the edge of the cliff. The entrance door was round so Gambit drew a circle of kinetic energy on the edges. "Alright everybody. Stand back!" Gambit yielded to them. The door blew off, landing face down on the inside of the tunnel. "Now jus' load the boat on and we're home free." Gambit said brightly.
The base of the cliff jutted out, so they were able to use the round piece of metal as a sled to slide all the way down to the beach. It was bumpy, but it proved to be amusing to Gambit and Rogue. Forge was holding back the urge to regurgitate.
The second they touched the sand, was the second they jumped off and moved the boat into the water. "Ya know ah have to say it's a good thing that Magneto uses metal." Rogue exclaimed. "Good point Cheré." Gambit complimented.
They climbed in the boat and headed for home. Rogue was unsure about one thing. "How do ya know which way home is?" Forge had an answer. "When Magneto was forcing me to build the satellites and telling him where to put them, I was able to locate where we were and the coordinates to make it back. That's how I tried to escape the first time."
"So about the satellites. Even if he would have succeeded in his plans, was there a way to stop it?" Rogue asked. "Actually yeah. You see, I installed a hidden panel at the base of the machine used to collect power from two mutants. I designed it with high molecular density to become unaffected by intangibility. If you press the reset button, the machine will power down and then self destruct within ten minutes." "Well that's hopeful." Rogue said with a bit of relief.
The X Men
School was out, and kids were running out of the school by the dozens. Scott couldn't wait to go down to the derelict construction site. "Surely Logan would understand if we dodge target practice for today." He said to himself as he was walking out to his car.
Jean and Rogue were already there, waiting. "Hey Scott!" Jean called out to him. "Hi Jean. I see everyone isn't here yet. Where's Kurt and Kitty?" "They didn't come out yet. They're probably off goofing around or something." Jean insinuated. "Well if they are, then they need to hurry up." Scott said, becoming a little impatient.
Mystique was standing there in the form of Rogue. She thought to herself. I'm just happy with the fact that I discovered just how competitive Summers is from my last infiltration at the mansion. It makes this whole thing so much easier. Using his own obsession against him. She was stirred from her thoughts when Kurt and Kitty came over.
"Hi guys!" Kitty yelled. "Like, I'm going to go home with Kurt. I want to hurry up and finish my assignments so I can go to the beach." Kurt added, "Yes! And I'm going too. Sorry Rogue, but Kätzchen is right. We do need a real break. And maybe afterward I can finally go out on a date with Amanda!" He ended happily.
Mystique didn't like the sudden change at all. Kitty could see the uneasy look on her face and quickly said, "Hey guys! Did you like, hear that the bathroom like totally fell through the kitchen at the brotherhood?!" Mystique jolted in a complete shock and began to boil underneath. Kitty saw her express change and then thought to herself. Looks like I got under your skin this time.
Jean, Scott and Kurt had their mouths ajar. Jean spoke first. "Seriously! How did you hear about that?" The question caught Kitty of guard. Uh oh, I didn't think about that! She panicked. She was trying to conjure an explanation as quick as possible. "I..uh, called Wanda last night to thank her again. Yeah that's right. And...I like, asked how she was doing and she told me what happened." She smiled sheepishly.
While everyone was captivated by Kitty's explanation, Mystique managed to slip away. When she was far enough, she blew off some steam. "Ooh! Those irresponsible delinquents! Can they stay in my house for one day and not tear it apart! As soon as I get back, I'm going to have their heads!" She was soon interrupted as Pietro zoomed in front of her.
"Alright Mystique hand over the stuff so I can get back." He demanded. Mystique grabbed Pietro by the collar and yanked him down toward her face. "I just heard that you and your bum friends just wrecked my house!" She screamed at him. Deep down inside, Pietro was trying so hard not to laugh. His face was turning pure red trying to suppress the laughter. "When you get through dealing with Pryde, I'm going to deal with you!" She screamed at him.
Pietro was losing his battle with himself so he unloosened Mystique's grip and then said, "Um, Mystique. Could you hold on to that thought, I have to go somewhere right now. But I'll be back before you know it." He ran off as soon as he finished what he had to say. Mystique just put her hands on her hips, waiting for him to return.
Pietro ran down the block from the school and became drunk with laughter. He was laughing so hard that it appeared as though he had lost his mind. After all that's been happening that day, a good laugh was all he needed to cheer him up.
Mystique didn't have to wait much longer as Pietro had come back. "Sorry about the sudden dismissal but I left the tea kettle on." he lied. "So where's the syringe?" he said in a cheery voice. She reached into her pocket and gave it to him. "Remember what I told you. This is something you cannot fail!" she said strictly. "No problem. The idea seems easy enough." Pietro put the syringe in his pocket and darted away. Mystique then made her way back over to the group.
Scott called to her. "Hey Rogue! Where did you get off to?" "Oh, nowhere important." She replied and got in the back of the car.
Jean pulled Scott to the side and whispered in his ear. "I have an idea of where she was. She probably went off to have a secret meeting with her secret sweetheart." "I didn't think of that. Maybe she did." Scott agreed.
Kurt and Kitty had already left. When they teleported to the mansion, Kitty ran upstairs as fast as she could. Kurt saw her as she anxiously climbed the steps. "Kitty are you okay? You seem to be in such a hurry!" "Huh?" She said pausing halfway up the stairs. "Like, I'm just trying to get my work done so we can go to the beach faster. And maybe I'll invite Amara, Jubilee and Bobby." "That sounds like a good idea. I guess I should hurry and do mine too!" He said before disappeared, leaving behind a trail of smoke.
kitty breathed a sigh of relief and continued up to her room. When she got there, she threw her backpack on the floor and ran to her cell phone that was lying on the dresser. She dialed a number as fast as possible. Thank goodness Lance gave me this number. She said to herself.
The line was ringing for a while until someone picked up on the other end. "Hello?" Answered Lance. Kitty was a bit disappointed. "Hi Lance." "Kitty is that you?" "Yeah, like who else would it be?" she said in a duh tone. "I don't know. It's just that we've been getting a lot of phone calls lately. So how are you?" "I'm fine. Listen, is Pietro there?"
Lance was surprised she asked that question. "Why do you want to know if Pietro's here?" She began to speak on the first thing that came to mind. "I just uh,...wanted to yell at him for the things he said to me last night. That's all." "You called just to yell at him?" Lance said in disbelief. "Well you know, I just wanted to blow off some steam and I figured that I'd get back at him. He made me so angry that I couldn't even concentrate at school. And he made me feel terrible when he called you a dope to my face." Kitty knew that would tick Lance off. "He called me a what?!" "Don't worry about it Lance, I'll take care of him, just put him on the phone please." She said nicely.
Lance calmed down before speaking again. "Well I wish I could, but he stepped out a few minutes ago." Just as he said that, Pietro walked in. "You know what, never-mind, he's back. And Kitty, when you grill him, don't hold back." "Believe me I won't!" She shouted.
Lance walked over to Pietro with a look of anger on his face. "Telephone Pietro!" he said roughly while shooting him an unpleasant look. Pietro returned the facial expression before walking over to the phone.
"Hello?" he started. "Hi Pietro, I have some serious news." "Sure spill it." "You know we were supposed to be going to the construction site right? Well..." Pietro cut her off. "You told Mystique that you wanted to go to the beach? Yeah I know, she told me. She was going to have Wanda and me ambush you there. But I got Wanda to understand that she doesn't have to fight anymore. So everything seems to be working out fine. Mystique has no idea that you know who she is. Which means you didn't break under pressure. But I have to say that I did doubt you for a moment." He said diabolically. "You jerk! Well I guess that shows you that Kitty Pryde doesn't give up!" She screamed. Obviously offended by his words.
"Pipe down Pryde. Where are you any way?" He asked seriously. "I'm in my room. Why?" She asked curiously. Pietro didn't answer. "Hello? Hello? Pietro?" She heard the line go dead. She hung up the phone and smacked it on her dresser. Soon afterward, she got a knock on her door. She walked over and opened it,
"Pietro!" Kitty shouted surprised to see him. "Shh! Keep it down!" he beckoned. He closed the door behind himself. "Alright Pryde. This is the stuff I was talking about." He said while going into his pocket pulling out the syringe. "Mystique gave this to me in hopes that I'd use it on you. But I have a better idea on how to use this." he ended with a sinister tone.