X-Men: Evolution
Blood Magics
35. Jailbreak
Gambit pulled his arm back. He'd used the mirror to look all around the room, and he'd watched what had just taken place, as well as listening to it. His other arm was wrapped around Dragon; she'd begun making little wheezing noises when Kurt had used the knife to cut into Kitty's face, and he'd been worried about noise giving them away, so he'd clamped his hand gently but firmly around her muzzle to muffle her.
Now he glanced at her; her eyes were wide and watery with fear. He understood her fear, but hoped that she could push through it; right at this moment, she was the only available help he had.
He knew the situation; now he needed a plan. With Sinister and Rogue out of the room, if they could manage to get Kurt out of it as well, they could walk right in and disable the machine stopping their power. He just needed the right thing.
He ran his mind over what he knew about the control serum and what it did. He hadn't been surprised when Kurt did precisely as asked and hurt one of his closest friends; the control serum was complete with its job. No one seemed able to break its grip, not from the many tests Sinister had run that had been documented in what he and his brother had stolen.
For a moment, he wished his brother was here. Another set of well- trained hands would have been invaluable. Instead, he had a nine- year- old in a very awkwardly shaped body, one that was perhaps even more frightened than Gambit himself.
Gambit inhaled, then exhaled, and imagined his wishful thinking and his regret leaving his body with his breath. The wishful thinking would not help at all, and Dragon could help neither her body shape nor her age. He had to work with what he had here and now.
So, the control serum. It worked perfectly, but had a drawback. Instructions were followed to the letter with no room for anything else. Sinister had told Kurt to watch the people in the cages. Kurt's attention would be nowhere else. Maybe they could use that to sneak right around him and destroy the machine while he was there? He wouldn't have any attention focused on his periphery.
It was still risky. Sinister had told Kurt to alert him if there was trouble, meaning if anything did happen that made Kurt notice them, then they were done for. It would be better to get Kurt out of the room… but how? Kurt had been instructed to watch the people in the cages. He wasn't going to be leaving that even if Gambit put him in a situation where a good guard would check out something else, because that hadn't been the instruction.
"Kurt!" Sinister's voice snapped out. The man sounded extremely annoyed. "Check the outside cameras! Something's disabled them. Fix them if you can; if not, bring them to me! And see if you can find out why they stopped!"
The sound of Kurt teleporting away came as soon as Sinister's voice stopped. Gambit's heart leapt; Sinister couldn't have given him a better chance. Gambit now had two options, and he knew in a split second which was the better one, but he was going to have to work fast.
Gambit hurried several steps up the stairs, then set Dragon on them once he deemed they were far enough up.
"Stay here." He hissed. "Be quiet, and do not move unless your life depends on it. Understand?"
Dragon looked at him, still fearful, but nodded. She sat down and went rigid, tensing every muscle and freezing.
Gambit had no time to tell her he hadn't meant it quite that literally; instead, he hurried up the rest of the steps, halting before the top one and cresting the last of them very carefully, both so as not to trigger the silent alarm in the lasers that crossed over the top step, and to make sure that the blue- furred teleporter would not realize he was coming.
His eyes picked out Kurt only because of the box strapped to his back and the green patches that had appeared on his fur; the rest of him actually blended away into the darkness that had fallen, even with Gambit's own good eyesight. Sinister had given Gambit the perfect opportunity to try to take the furry mutant right out of the equation; he had been ordered to try to fix the cameras, or bring them to him if he couldn't. With the control serum's fixation, this would mean Kurt would not be returning to Sinister until he had fixed and/ or removed and collected all six of them… even if someone tried to interfere.
Sinister believed he had all the X- Men… and he did. But he wasn't counting on an ex- thief to come to their aid, and he didn't know about a little girl that could see energy like a tangible thing. He would probably be concerned about the cameras, but obviously not enough to think that there was still a threat to him out there.
And the more of Sinister's tools that they could disable before the vile man realized what was happening, the better. Gambit grabbed the multi- tool and opened the knife.
As soon as Kurt's eyes were in the other direction, Gambit rushed out of the corner the crack in the cliff was tucked in, using every skill he had to not make noise. It would have been a hell of a lot easier to subdue him if he had his regular tools, but since he didn't, Gambit leapt onto Kurt from behind and wrapped his arm around his throat in one smooth motion, pressing hard until he was cutting off the boy's airway, and then held on. At the same time, the knife on the multi- tool was brought to the straps of the metal box, and he began sawing through them. The knife was sharp; thankfully, it didn't take long before the box dropped to the ground.
Which was a good thing; Kurt thrashed, twisted, and yanked at Gambit with arms and tail; he teleported here and there around the area. He curved, he turned. The agility his mutation gave him was unbelievable; if Gambit had not spent many years training long and hard to improve his own strength and agility, he most certainly would have been shaken off. As it was, it was one of the hardest physical, close- up struggles of his life; it took everything he had to maintain constant pressure on his trachea while nails left marks on his hands and arms, and his tail squeezed hard enough that he would be left with bruises for weeks to come.
But as a few minutes passed, unable to bring in oxygen, Kurt's struggles lessened, until he finally went entirely limp. Gambit let him go with a sigh of relief, but stayed on guard, just in case he'd had the presence of mind to simply pretend to go limp. He checked the boy's pulse, too, and found it to be fine; pulling one of the inhibitor collars that he'd taken from the jet out of his pocket, he snapped it around Kurt's neck as quickly as he could. He followed this with the handcuffs, going around his wrists, and finally tied his arms, legs, and tail up with rope. If Kurt came to before the others were rescued and they were on their way out of there, he would not be going anywhere; Gambit was certain of that.
He brought Kurt over to the entrance of the lab, though, and placed him on the ground not far from it; when they left, he didn't want the boy to get missed. He was certain that the X- Men meant to bring all their friends home, even if two of them were suffering from the control serum.
That caused a pang in his heart; he'd been too late to spare Rogue that particular fate. He could only hope that it could somehow be undone, and shake off the pain from it for now. It wasn't going to be helpful in completing the mission.
Making sure to skip over the rigged step, Gambit hurried back down to Dragon. She still sat in the exact position he left her in, rigid and frozen. He felt his lips twitch upwards.
"Good work. I've made sure Kurt can't come back and interrupt us; now, let's get in there, and see which machine is the one stopping everyone's powers. Getting rid of that is the next step."
Things had been looking pretty bad; Kitty had been left chained to the wall, her face bleeding. The rest of them were in cages; even with no one in the room for the time being, the situation was beginning to look like there wasn't much they could do to get out of it.
Storm didn't let that thinking show on her face, of course. No, when all of the children, even Boom- Boom, had gone silent with fear, the adults had to keep it together so that the children could keep it together. Panicking would help no one, and would undoubtedly make things worse. Still, Storm wasn't sure what they were going to do; even if they could determine which machine was blocking mutant powers, they would still have to destroy it somehow, and it wasn't like Sinister was going to stand and watch them do that.
It was more than just a surprise when Gambit walked into the room from the stairs, Dragon sitting on his shoulder. As soon as eyes turned to him and a few gasps echoed through the room, the man put a finger up to his lips, signalling them all to be quiet.
Looking at Dragon, the man whispered something to her; she angled herself downward, but before she could jump, he quickly took her off his shoulder and placed her on the ground. She began to scamper towards the tank that held Tristan.
"Gambit." Colossus whispered, coming towards the edge of his cage. "If Kurt comes back and finds you here…"
"Kurt's already safely tied up and out of the way." Gambit assured him quietly. "I took care of him first and left him just outside the exit. He's fine, but he won't be getting down here anytime soon. Which one is it, partner?"
The last part he directed at Dragon, who had stopped at a large grey metal box between Gambit and Tristan's tank, not far from the machine that scanned those who had been chained to the wall. It looked like a large external hard drive, but Storm hadn't the slightest idea what it was connected to.
"This one!" Dragon hissed excitedly, rearing up to put her front paws on the side of it. "The net's coming from this box!"
Gambit hurried over, his footsteps barely more than a whisper against the floor.
"Then that's what we take out."
Kneeling, the man looked over the box, and took a multi- tool out of his pocket. He frowned as he examined it; Dragon dropped to all fours.
"How do we do that?"
"Well, easiest would be blow it up…" Gambit murmured; Storm could see the side of his mouth twitch. "But that's the problem, ain't it? Plan B is to get inside and destroy some of the wiring."
Selecting a knife on the multi- tool, Gambit jammed the tip of it into a crack in the casing, and began to lever it back and forth, working it slowly further down and in.
Suddenly, Dragon gasped. "Remy!"
At the same time, Wolverine snarled. Gambit's head shot up, and a moment later, footsteps echoed from the hall Sinister disappeared down. Fluidly, the former Acolyte rose to his feet, muttering a curse, but was much too late to go anywhere; Sinister appeared in the doorway, scowling, and froze upon seeing the two in the middle of the room.
Dragon whimpered; to Storm's horror, it brought Sinister's attention right to her, and the man's stunned expression slowly morphed into that of cruel delight.
"Well. I wondered what was taking the blue one so long. And who do I find but the only two people who have ever escaped me. What a wonderful turn of events this is. Not only do I get so many new subjects for my experiments, but I also get to fix the two mistakes of my past that haunted me."
"I never escaped you. I've never even seen you before!" Dragon objected.
Sinister's mouth curled into a snarl. "That was the point! Trask was a fool. He didn't even know of the existence of mutants until he started studying you. Then word came through the scientific grapevine of a dragon with human genes. He started putting things together while he had you. But, he let outside scientists sign up for their own chance to perform examinations on a live abomination, as he put it, for a price. I had put in for my turn and I would, of course, be leaving with you- you belonged in my lab, not his. But, the morning of the very day I was to finally get my turn and my chance to take you from him, I get a phone call. You'd escaped that night after some sort of disturbance drew away most of the guards on your end of the building. And so damn furious I was about it, that this idiot's friend got the jump on me during our fight that very day! Then they got away from me too!" His voice turned into a roar.
Storm frowned. If that was true, that was one… bizarrely convenient line- up of events.
"But now… I have a chance to rectify those mistakes." The ecstasy in Sinister's voice bloomed back into full force. "You two… are mine now. My subjects… my experiments! At last, I get what's mine!"
Dragon squeaked and hid behind Gambit's legs, trembling. Gambit hardened his expression.
"You think we're just going to come quietly? You got a fight on your hands." The man warned.
Sinister grinned. "And what kind of fight will that be? You can't use your powers."
At his words, Storm's eyes were drawn to Dragon, who suddenly whirled around. Behind Gambit's legs as she was, now, Sinister couldn't see her well, but Storm could. The girl reached up towards the knife Gambit had left stuck in the hard drive and grasped it in her teeth, pulling.
After a moment, there was a small scraping sound, and a corner of the metal gave; the knife slipped, popped out of the casing, and the corner snapped back into place. Dragon dropped the multi- tool on the ground, eyes widening and filling with tears.
"Don't matter. I'm not just walking into one of your cages."
Dragon's head dropped in despair; she trembled.
"Oh? Well, I'll just have to lift you into one, then."
Sinister reached a hand up; Gambit grunted and stiffened. Storm knew the signs by now; Sinister had done the same to Kitty not long ago.
"New trick?" Gambit managed to grunt out.
Sinister sneered. "Never underestimate an old dog."
Dragon twitched, her mouth falling open again. She looked at the ground under her feet, then lifted her left front paw and stared at that, too.
Then she lunged forwards, both front paws extended, and sank her claws into the casing of the machine. Yanking them down, she sank them into the other corner, and pulled again. Strips of metal fell off and clattered to the floor.
Sinister's eyes widened and he yanked Gambit out of the way. "What are you doing?"
Dragon lunged at the exposed machinery.
"No!"
Sharp silvery claws sliced through wires and delicate bits of metal; sparks flew, there was a terrible zapping sound, and Dragon went rigid, her breath leaving in a squeak that was quickly silenced. Sinister dropped Gambit.
"How did you-!"
The Cajun hit the floor and swept out a foot, knocking Dragon away from the external hard drive, hard. Dragon squalled, but was disconnected from the sparking electricity. Gambit gave a grunt and spasmed, himself, during the moment he also became part of the current pathway, but then they were both free of it.
Gambit rolled, and stopped by Storm's cell. Cards were suddenly in his hand, three of them, and they all lit up with a golden glow before he threw them at Sinister, causing them to explode.
"Our powers!" Cried Kitty; she promptly dropped out of the chains, landing on the ground and wobbling just a little. "They're back!"
With a roar, Wolverine immediately brought out his claws and slashed through the bars of his cage; Boom- Boom readied bombs, Cyclops began blasting his bars, and Colossus transformed into his metal appearance and bent his.
Magma began burning through her bars; Sunspot, not able to take on his fire form without the sun present, nevertheless began bending his bars as well, though at a considerably slower pace than Colossus.
"Girl, get in here!" Sinister roared. "Take them out! Boy, where are you?"
"Kurt's busy." Gambit informed him. Storm readied her own power, prepared to send lighting out through the bars of her own cage; she was currently sharing it with Berserker, who did the same, but neither of them were going to be able to leave their cage until someone helped them open it.
Out of the corner of her eye, Storm noticed Dragon trying to stumble to her feet, clearly still reeling from the shock the equipment dealt her; she seemed rather uncoordinated.
Footsteps came running down the hall that Sinister had come from; Gambit reached towards the closest cage- the one holding herself and Berserker- and Storm watched him tap one bar at the top, then the bottom; tiny spots of his power lit up and blew, hardly large enough to harm anything, but the bar snapped, and Gambit caught it neatly in his hand and brought it up to wield like a staff.
Beast, at the other end of the lab, was assisting Colossus in bending the bars of Xavier's cage; once the silent strongman had made short work of them, Beast hurried in to pick Xavier up off the ground. Boom- Boom covered Multiple with her own body while her bombs went off to destroy the bars of their cage. Wolverine's first stop was to slash the bars open for Storm and Berserker.
Xavier's voice echoed in everyone's mind as Storm stepped out.
"All of you, listen. Kurt is currently out of the way; as Gambit said, he's been tied up just outside the exit. He's neither in danger nor a danger to us. That means we have three things to do. First, subdue Rogue without hurting her so we can take her back as well. Second, bring down Sinister. And third, we need to destroy everything in this lab, and I mean everything. Don't leave a single piece of plastic casing untouched; it must be erased from existence if we want to make sure that no one can use anything ever again!"
"In other words, blow it all up and melt it all down!" Berserker growled, jumping out behind Storm. "You got it!"
Rogue appeared in the doorway behind Sinister; Gambit smirked.
"Hello again, Chere. Is it just me, or does something about this situation feel like déjà vu?"
A/N: If anyone is wondering what Storm was watching Dragon do... Dragon dug her claws into the floor, and when she realized she had put gouges in the stone, she realized that she could probably slice right through the machine's casing.
Dragon's escape from Trask contributed to Gambit's escape from Sinister. And it was even on a night where the security at Trask's lab was mostly distracted by something else. Strange how some things work out so well, huh? Very strange indeed... hmm...