X-Men Fan Fiction ❯ Genesis Quest ❯ Chapter 5

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]
X-Men, the Genesis Quest: Five

Gambit pretended to still be fast sleep as the blonde woman checked up on him, laying silently with his breathing and heart rate deliberately slowed as the woman looked him over. Finally she turned and left the room, cutting off the light from the open door and plunging him back into darkness.

Once he was sure she was gone Remy got up off the bed, noting that he was dressed in his usual armored bodysuit and long overcoat. ‘They took me captive but left all my gear?’ he thought, surprised, as he felt the seems of his costume and found all the various tools of his criminal trade hidden as usual.

The hallway was quiet as Gambit peeked out, his eerie red on black eyes narrowed in thought as he went back in his room. Turning on a mini-light he stuck it between his teeth as he examined the roof, eventually finding a piece of loose paneling in the ceiling. Carefully he eased it aside and pulled himself up, finding himself in a kind of crawlspace.

‘Well,’ Gambit thought as he carefully made his way forward through the near darkness, ‘let’s take a little look around.’

Meanwhile, in the kitchen a soft chime rang out. “Gambit has broken through into the ceiling,” the woman’s voice suddenly disturbed Frenzy’s meal, “as expected.”

“Thank you, Malice,” Selene said as the black haired woman drank her orange juice, “keep monitoring his progress.”

“You have Gambit here?” Frenzy demanded, the young black woman’s arm tensing up with barely contained anger.

“He’s a reluctant guest,” Inez sounded amused as she reached out and casually stole a sausage off Frenzy’s plate, “and as you can tell the boss has it handled.”

“He’s loose,” Frenzy said dryly, “is that really handled?”

Madelyne Pryor finished up another batch of hash browns and served both women up a share. “We know where he is,” she said then winked, “in fact, we intentionally put that passage there for him to find.”

Frenzy’s eyes widened a bit as she realized what they were doing, “You’re letting him see what you want him to see?”

Madelyne smirked, “Exactly.”

Frenzy sat back, chuckling as she conceded, “You have a very evil mind.”

Selene toasted the room with a well buttered piece of toast as she added, “I tell her that every night, believe me.”

“Too much information,” Inez made a face as Frenzy chuckled.

Back up in the crawlspace Gambit inched along, peering through cracks in the panels to see various rooms of the strange building he was in. One room contained humanoid robots by the dozen, all with the facial design and armor of the mutant hunting Sentinels. A meeting room was lined with posters and flags covered with anti-mutant slogans, symbols scattered around belonging to the Friends of Humanity and the Right. There was a massive armory filled with so many weapons Gambit lost count after 5000, all of them high tech looking and deadly. Finally there was a hanger, loaded with what looked like state of the art scram-jets.

‘This could be my way out of here,’ Gambit admitted as he carefully eased one piece of roofing aside.

Using a cable from his belt Gambit descended to the floor, cat-walking over to a small, one man craft. Climbing in he did a fast instrument check, trying to recall all the training sessions he had done with the X-Men. Knowing he didn’t have much time till his absense was discovered Gambit was glad to see it’s fuel tanks read full and ready to go.

“Wish me luck,” Gambit murmured as he fired the jet’s engine. The rumbling of the engine shook his seat as Gambit used a remote command to open the hanger door, taxing into position. As men in Friends of Humanity gear burst into the hanger from one door Gambit was off, rocketing out into the snow.

Instruments quickly confirmed he was on Antarctica and Gambit shook his head in disbelief. He had no idea how the Right and FOH had built a base here, but clearly they were back to being a major threat. Instinctively he jept the jet low as anti-aircraft fire began from concealed gun mounts, skimming along the frozen tundra till he reached open water.

‘I don’t know if I’m far enough,” he murmured as he pulled up and opened up the engines, “but my friends need to know about this as soon as possible!”

Within the fortress three women watch his fly away calmly, while one felt more than a bit confused. “I assume you wanted him to go,” Frenzy has to ask, “but why?”

“Gambit is running to the X-Men with news of my base and what he saw here,” Madelyne chuckled, “all of which is wrong.”

Inez chuckled, “Yeah, I helped set up the prop rooms. He things this is a Friends of Humanity base, with Sentinels and heavy arms.”

Frenzy began to smile, “But he knows where we are...?”

Selene laughed, “This citadel is mobile. We’re already on the move, and when Gambit brings his X-buddies they’ll find nothing,:

“I like it,” Frenzy grinned.

“Confusion to our enemies,” Madelyne toasted.

“Confusion to our enemies!” everyone called back, even the computer Malice.

Turning away from the group Madelyne excused herself, explaining she had to go run a errand. Frenzy finished her food then got up and stretched, still feeling the effects of being drugged so long by their enemy.

“So, you want the full tour?” Inez asked her curiously as she got up from the table too.

“Good, it’ll give me a chance to thrash those prop rooms,” Inez chuckled as they went back down the hall that contained Frenzy and Gambit’s rooms, then over to a new set of doors.

“So these rooms were just set up to confuse Gambit?” Frenzy asked as they began to tear the fake posters from the walls, shredding them with glee.

“They’re actually store rooms, I think,” Inez told her as they moved on to the next one, the fake Sentinels room. The ‘robots’ wounded up being empty tin mock-ups, but from a distance they still looked frighteningly real.

Destroying them mostly ended up being Frenzy’s job, one that she set to with great pleasure. As a kid she had been attacked when the Sentinels had been deployed, and had only barely escaped the encounter with her life. “This,” she said as she easily ripped a fake Sentinel in two, “is very satisfying.”

“I’d shoot ‘em up,” Inez drew one of her pistols with inhuman speed, “but I’d be worried about bullets bouncing about.”

“Makes sense,” Frenzy destroyed the last of the fake mechanoids with a loud crash.

“Come on,” Inez opened the door as they moved on, “no need to hit the armory, since it’s all paper anyway. Why don’t I introduce you to the other member of our merry group.”

“Other member?” Frenzy asked.

“Her name is Ariel,” Inez said, “or at least that’s what she calls herself.”

The young woman was reading a trashy magazine as they entered, her blonde hair dyed with streaks of various colors. Around the pretty young woman were oddly dancing sparkles of light, ones that seemed to draw the eye almost against your will. “Hey Outlaw,” Ariel looked up with a smile.

“Yo,” Inez nodded as she gestured, “This is Frenzy, our new recruit.”

“Nice to meet you,” Ariel offered her hand and they shook.

“So what do you do?” Frenzy asked curiously.

“I have a limited persuasive ability,” Ariel admitted, “and I can open spacial warps in doorways.”

Inez grinned, “She can make one door connect to any other door anywhere at will.”

“Pretty cool,” Frenzy admitted, instantly seeing the possibilities.

A asian looking woman dressed in a boyish style smiled at them as she came in, her black hair covered by a simple baseball cap. “Hey Inez,” she nodded as she walked over to Ariel and kissed her lingeringly.

“That’s Chance, Ariel’s girlfriend,” Inez said wryly.

“Is she a mutant too?” Frenzy asked quietly.

“Yeah, but she’s not officially working for the boss,” Inez answered quietly. “She has what she calls her double or nothing power,” she explained, “Chance can either cancel your powers or shut them down.”

“Useful,” Frenzy conceded.

“Not exactly,” Chance looked rueful as she cut in, “my talent isn’t completely reliable. Sometimes I cancel when I mean to enhance, for instance.”

Ariel took Chance’s hand and squeezed it, “It’s why she won’t join the team... she doesn’t want to see anyone getting hurt relying on her.”

‘Not exactly the X-Men,’ Frenzy mused as she watched the three talk, ‘but they’ll do.’

To be continued....