Four of a Kind - REVIEW THIS STORY

Written by Keith Chism
Last updated: 01/02/2007 02:01:11 AM

Chapter 2

Remy Lebeau walks down a hallway in the upper western wing of the Xaiver Mansion, he thinks of when he was a child, how careless and carefree he was. And then, during his teenage years, when he had to prove himself a man in the eyes of not only his adopted father, but his peers also. And he did prove himself a man, worthy of his fathers pride but, like everyone, he made mistakes. In the world he lived in, mistakes could mean death in a heartbeat. As he grew into manhood, those mistakes

became greater, more significant, some of them causing irrefutable damage. Yet as he makes his way on what seems an endless journey, he can't shake the feeling that this will be the worst mistake he's ever made.

As Rogue is folding her laundry, a slight grin comes across her face. She thinks of how odd it is to get pleasure out of doing something so mundane. She has the strength to literally tear a tank apart. She's traveled through space, through different dimensions, through time. Yet, the simplicity and calmness of this task brings her joy. She thinks that perhaps it's because it grounds her, brings her back to reality, so to speak. It shows her that there is a life outside of being an X-Man, of

saving the world time after time. She begins to fold one of the large T-shirts she wears to bed when a knock on the door interrupts her.

Gambit stands outside the door. A fear starts to rise within him, but, in his line of work he's learnt to muffle fear and excitement.

"Remy?"

"Hey chere. Mind if I come in for a bit?"

Rogue opens the door all the way. Standing with her hip leaned against the face of the door, she gives a playful remark, "I dunno. Ah'm not one to let every cute man that comes by in."

Remy chuckles lightly as he walks through the doorway and across the room to come to rest in the Victorian chair that was next to the night stand. As he settles back into the chair he comments on the laundry spread out over Rogue's bed, "Hope I'm not interrupting you?"

Rogue sits down on the edge of the bed, the soft mattress giving way even under her weight. "Naw, nothing that can't wait. How was your Danger Room session?"

Remy's neck stiffened, fearing that she might have seen Sinister and himself together, but he realizes he's only being paranoid. If she had seen them she would have come to help, and she certainly wouldn't be casually doing her laundry.

"You knew I went to de Danger Room?"

"Yeah, Kurt saw you walking that way."

"Ah. Yeah. The session went well." Remy gritted his teeth. He didn't like lying to her. He's done it before, but it always made him feel bad.

"Rogue, how would you like to go on a little trip with me?"

Rogue looked on as Gambit handled with the little resin statue of a cat that was on the night stand. "A little trip...? Where?"

"Russia. Minsk." A knot begin to form in Gambit's stomach as he explained. "I've got a little business there, wont take long, and I thought we could spend the rest of the weekend together. Things are quiet around here, so no one should mind us taking off for a few days."

Rogue leaned back and used the momentum of moving forward to bring her to her feet. Glancing at the laundry scattered on her bed she brought her eyes back to Gambit. "Yeah, sure. Sounds like fun."

"Incoming!" Cable shouts as he brings up a TK shield instinctively. He and Domino had already passed through four security systems before reaching this point. All of them easily overridden, except for this one. Domino jolted forward landing in a crouched position with her weight bringing her to one knee. As she looked up she could see that particles

of rock and dust still flew from the automated weapons' fire. The placement of the weapon was not hard to spot. With each shot, the darkness of the tunnels was illuminated.

"Dom! I'll draw it's fire while you take it out!"

Cable rose from his fighting stance and began to run further into the tunnel. He could feel the techno-organic virus shift slightly when the energy of the weapon struck his TK shield, sending sharp pains up the back of his neck. Using his telekinesis to this extreme was always a risk, but there were times when there was no other choice.

Domino saw the light from the weapon as it fired on Cable. She quickly took aim with the large plasma rifle which had never left her hands from the moment they entered the tunnel. She knew that with her mutant power she did not have to be dead-on, but still, her experience and Cable had taught her to never rely solely on her powers. Energy from Domino's rifle struck the automated weapon, the resulting explosion sent blue-white flames throughout the tunnel, causing Domino to quickly cover her face.

Cable stood in silence as he watched Domino make her way towards him. "Are you all right?"

"I'm fine. That was the last of the security systems. But now he knows we're here. ... Oath!" Cable's deep voice echoed off the walls.

Domino had never seen him like this. She saw something in his eyes, something she had only seen when he spoke of Apocalypse: Hatred. But she could not figure out why he was this way over Sinister. At most Cable considered him a mere adversary, one of many others, and certainly nothing to cause this reaction.

"Well, if he knows we are here, perhaps we should get moving?"

Cable looked down at Domino. "You're right. We have approximately 650 meters to go until we reach the entrance to the main complex."

"And when we get there ... ?"

"We destroy it."