Light flowed out onto the kitchen floor, illuminating objects within its radius and the man who stood in front of it, yet leaving the corners an inky black and everything else cloaked in shadows. Remy LeBeau stood casually, holding the fridge door open with his foot, while he rummaged the interior, emerging with two beers. With his cargo in hand, he made his way back to the den, the fridge door quietly swinging shut behind him, casting the empty room once more into darkness.
Remy walked into the warm glow of a 60 watt lit living room, the single lamp in the corner giving the only light. The beer was thrown to the only other acceptant in the house, who caught it with no effort.
Sitting back into the cushions of the couch with his feet propped up on the coffee table, Logan waited patiently for LeBeau to press play on the VCR, resuming the taped basketball game they had been watching, enthusiastically booing, cheering or cursing in appropriate places.
The rest of the team was out, either at Harry's Bar or out on their own like Jean and Scott. Remy had come home to a deserted house, and, making note of this, had taken a shower. Logan had declined the offer to join most of the team for supper and drinks and instead had gone out to roam the mansion grounds. Hearing Remy's bike pull in, he cancelled his earlier plans and decided to see what the Cajun had in mind.
So it happened that Logan found the taped Lakers vs. Bulls game, conveniently left beside the VCR. That was an hour ago. A glance at the clock showed the time to be quarter after eleven, and nobody had yet arrived back at the mansion. As the game ended a sappy soap opera started it's theme song to begin the show. This prompted Remy to stop the tape in record time, both men letting out deep sighs of relief.
"Dat was too close."
"Yer tellin' me Cajun."
As they exchanged words and got comfortable again, Logan flipped through the channels, stopping as he came across the late night news. Something had caught his attention.
The news lady stopped talking to receive two new sheets of paper handed to her, and, adjusting to the disturbance, began to read what she had been given.
"At this time, it has been confirmed that the incident downtown is between a small group of mutants and an unknown number of assailants....." The reporter droned on.
"Y'don' suppose . . . " The question was left hanging, as both men quickly made their way to the carport, it was just too convenient for it not to be their friends, and if it wasn't, well there was no harm in helping. Remy and Logan sped into town on their Harleys, the road only a blur. As traffic began to get heavier, Gambit was forced to slow down, and, as he got close enough to see the street cordoned off, pulled into an alley to park, as did Wolverine.
Not knowing what to expect, Gambit chose to nonchalantly walk down the street with hands in pockets until he got to a good vantage point to see the goings ons. He leaned back against the corner of an old building, casually making out the scene before his eyes. Though dark and the X-Men too far away to make much easily discernible, Gambit was able, with both his eyes and spatial awareness, to locate where people stood, particularly the X-Men. Storm stood slightly concealed in the alley directly in front of a two-story old apartment building, which at the moment hid five gunmen with hostages. The other X-Men stood spread out. He'd have to get in closer to make things out better.
All the assailants were in the building, one was at the second floor top right window, using an elderly man as a shield in front of him. Another was visible through a window on the left side of the ground floor. The others were somewhere in the building, with all the residents that lived there frightened and held against their will. But why the X-Men and not the cops who handled this Something prickled at his.senses, perhaps this wasn't the whole picture.
So now after scoping out the situation, he made his way to the alley where Storm had found cover by going around the block and coming in through the alley's rear entrance. Storm, Iceman, and Wolverine were in the alley. Extending his spatial awareness he detected Rogue on the apartment roof, probably awaiting further instructions, Maggot was behind the apartment building doing the same thing, simply standing there. Cecilia stood a few feet in front of one of the squad cars, by the sounds of it, relaying to Storm what the cops were up to.
"Bout time you showed, Gumbo, was beginning to think yer weren' comin'."
"What? An' leave y'ere by y'selfs wit out de protec'ion o' Gambit? Never!" Gambits face was that of mock horror.
Wolverine merely snorted at this.
"So w'ats goin' on?" he asked, his expression turning serious again.
"Hey Snake, another one of 'em fucks just showed up." Noah shoved the old man away from the window, nearly knocking the senior over with the force of it. There was no need to show himself anymore, the people down below now knew they had hostages.
Noah was fairly tall 6'0" but with a thin, lanky body, making him appear scruffy with short, messy, greasy brown hair. His humorless smile showed straight yellow teeth although one front tooth was missing. He wore dark blue jeans with a clean tan polo shirt untucked. His black runners were unlaced and a bit scuffed. His face was nowhere near spectacular, just plain, like somebody you would see in a crowd and pass by without a second look.
"How many now in the alley, Noah? " Snake bit out the sentence with agitation. He was pacing back and forth, going through different scenarios in his mind, thinking of a way out but getting nowhere, the adrenaline running through his veins making him too unstable.
Snake was smart but irrational and impulsive with a violent temper. Snake's dirty blond hair hung just about to his shoulders, thin and scraggly, and his blue eyes held no beauty. If he'd take a bath, clean himself up, and brush his hair, you could almost say that snake was a handsome man. Almost. Right now, his camouflage pants, ripped at the knee with the green T-shirt half tucked into his pants, and old black hiking boots didn't really do anything for him.
"Four."
"I'll show them fuckers! Think they're all great, bunch of pansies groupin' together, ha! See what you think 'bout this!!"
And with this, he bent over as if feeling sick, his hands held in front of him. A small green glow began to form in the shape of a tennis ball. The green light continued to get bigger, but the light stayed at a dim glow.
Once the swirling green glow got to the size of a basketball, Snake straightened, walking to the window, though keeping far enough back so that anybody outside looking in wouldn't be able to see him. The room they were in was black, the lights having been turned off. Snake looked right at the alley where four mutants stood, supposedly talking, brought his hands up as if getting ready to chest pass to a team mate, and threw forward at great speed his green ball.
Within seconds, the green ball, hit the area between the four X-Men and exploded into brilliant white light, far brighter then even high-powered spotlights. Though the light not escaping the green casing of the giant ball only spread a radius of fifteen feet at all angles, all this lasted no more than five seconds.
Remy never heard the answer to his question as his spatial awareness picked up something moving towards them at an incredible speed. There wasn't even time to back away.
Storm turned towards Gambit, about to answer him, when she noticed him looking right across the street to the old apartment building. She didn't get the chance to follow suit as a huge explosion of bright light flooded her senses, forcing her to her knees, hands covering her eyes.
Gambit saw only a flash of lime green before white light shot through his eyes with excruciating pain rocketing back and forth through his head. Unknowingly letting out a shout of surprise and hurt, he fell to the ground with a thud. Then blackness.
Storm regained her feet and looked around, Wolverine was doing the same, but making his way over to the Cajun.
"What the hell was that!?" Bobby stood near the entrance of the alley, partially leaning on the building to the left, regaining his equilibrium.
"Gumbo," Wolverine knelt beside the Cajun, who at the moment was trying to get to a kneeling position, the process slow but accurate.
"Remy, are you all right?" Storms voice was calm, but there was a hint of worry edging it's way into the end of the sentence.
Gambit blinked a couple of times, then stood with the help of Storm, and blinked again, this time leaving his eyelids up, but making no progress seeing through the inky black that claimed his vision.
"I can' see not'in'" Without eyesight at the moment, Gambit relied on his other senses, he could feel where people stood in the house, but couldn't pinpoint the "bad guys". Maddened by the attack which left him blinded at the moment Gambit focused on this power seperating people within the building from one another. Giving the locations of where people stood to Storm, she relayed this to the other X-Men. What was only a few moments ago a short stand off between unknown people and the X-Men, ended.
The sound of an automatic camera rewind, ready to snap yet another photo, was heard by no one else but the lone man who lay atop the old thrift store three buildings away from the X-Men. His high-scoped camera was trained on one man as he casually walked towards the cordoned off section of street *click,* stopped and leaned against a building. *click* Then continued on, re-appearing in the alley. *click, click, click* Then, as the flash of light disappeared, he knelt on the ground. *click, click* Then as he stood, and the X-Men flew into action. *Click* More pics snapped as the young mutant, with unruly auburn hair, and lithe body walked with his fellow comrades, out of view. All the while acting as if the blast of light hadn't bothered him in the least. *Click, click*
"I'll see you soon, ol' buddy Just you wait an' see, do I got a surprise for you. Hahaha..."
And with that the man left as quietly as he'd come.