Back again. Late posts seem to happen all to frequently.

Disclaimer: How many times can one come up with an original disclaimer.
What's mine is mine and what's theirs is mine (only in my dreams). No moneys
being made BUT if you want me to write a book MARVEL HERE I AM!

Recaps: Cable has a new mission for X-Force. Deadpool joined X-Factor. Shard
is having technical difficulties. Havok killed Creed. The FOH are pissed and
Rogue's powers may be dampened.


Begin Part X

     Roger Fullbright sat in his black Saturn, listening to the latest Green
Day CD. He really didn't like the music. In fact he hated it but he didn't
want his thirteen year old son to think that his father was no longer cool.
Since his wife left him for another man, who he found out was a mutie, Roger
had done everything in his power to keep his son.
     His cellular phone, in the seat next to him, rang twice before he
answered. "Talk to me."
     "Roger this is Lance. I think I have a lead on Creed's murderer. One of
his advisors, a man going by the name Drake Roberts, might have a grudge
against him. His father was ordered badly beaten by Lestor and myself.
Somehow, I think Drake found out about it and had some of his buddies off
him. Or maybe he did it himself because get this, he was an undercover mutie."
     "If he was a mutie, how did he get so close to Creed? I thought you
guys would have checked into that."
     "WE DID! His forgeries were excellent, but that's not the issue right
now. What's done is done and now we must face the music and deal with the
mutie problem ourselves. The police have been inept at discovering any
details or making enough actions to satisfy us."
     "So why haven't you dealt with this Roberts fellow?" Roger really hated
the man on the other side of the conversation. Just because he was close to
Creed and was one of his confidants, he did NOT hold rank over him. Roger
had worked hard for three years to become the head of the two New York
branches of the FOH.
     "Last night my brother and I paid a little visit to his father's ward
but Drake, which is actually his last name, wasn't there. We hung around for
a couple of hours but he never showed his face. We're going back tonight."
     "Okay, I'm assuming you had a purpose in calling me?"
     There was a pause from the other side. Good. Roger wasn't scared by
that oversized freak. "The friends of his I was referring to earlier are in
your district. Drake happens to belong to the school of freaks at Xavier's.
I know we were under orders to avoid them, things have changed. I don't care
if they had nothing to do with it. They are mutants and all mutants should
be killed or shipped out of our country."
     "I'm assuming you want me to do something about this."
     "There's nothing to be assumed. I want you to order their execution."
     "And I'm supposed to take this order from you?"
     "That's correct."
     "And since when do you decide how I'm going to run my people? We have
yet to vote for a new head of office and until we do, only I make decisions."
     There was another pause. This one was much longer. If Roger could see
the veins bulging on Lance's hand while he gripped the phone, he would have
quit pressing his luck. "Mr. Fullbright, you are putting yourself in a very
precarious position. Your control over your men is not as good as you think.
I have more influence over them, which you probably didn't know. And if you
won't listen to me, there's someone I'm answering to that I'm sure you would
not want to disappoint."
     Roger had no idea who that could have been. There were plenty of FOH
members who took their hatred of mutants and other things to an extreme level.
     "By your silence, I gather you're wondering who I'm talking about.
Nathan Sexton."
     Sexton! Though he only met the man once, a shudder passed through his
body. It was one of the few people that gave him the creeps. The deathly
white albino skin and beady eyes that seemed to never blink. "How did he
claim control?"
     "Creed and him had some arrangement, in the event of his death, about
control of the FOH. It was part of his paranoia."
     "Isn't that a motive also."
     "Not likely. Both of them were of the same beliefs. Now I want you to
begin our agenda early. Starting with Drake's friends."
     "I'll see what I can do," Roger said and hung up. Granted, taking out
Xavier's children would be a fringe benefit, the chances of his survival
were slim. If some of the things he had heard were true about them, he could
never take them all down at one time. They would have to be killed piece
meal. Still holding the cellphone, he began dialing some local friends who
would be more than willing to help him on a stakeout tonight.


     "Are you sure you don't want another one cajun," Wolverine asked, as he
poured the last of his fourth pitcher of beer into his mug.
     Gambit looked up from the glass of scotch he was swirling around for
the past twenty minutes. The rocks had already malted and diluted the drink
he hadn't even tasted. "Dis one's just fine."
     "All right. I've tried to play nice and get it out of ya. What's
bugging you?" Wolverine downed the glass of beer in four large gulps. "You
remind me of a love sick pup and it's disgusting."
     "Did you ever wish you could have seen your future ta change your past?"
     "Every day of my life. So let me guess...this has to do with Rogue?"
     "Don' it always seem dat way lately. Joseph came up wit' a plan to help
Rogue control her powers an I'm worried she'll be too gra'ful."
     "You know gumbo. I liked you much better when you were an arrogant kid
nobody liked."
     "T'anks," Remy said and polished off the watered down drink. "Y' right.
I done a lot of growin' up since I join de X-Men. If she don' wan' Gambit
den I move on."
     Wolverine signaled the waitress to bring the check. "What do you say we
head back to mansion and call it a night. Cyke has put us on a curfew
because of all the assaults on mutant during the past few days."
     "Sure, homme. I could use an hour in de Danger Room."
     The waitress brought the check and Wolverine gave her thirty dollars to
cover everything.
     Outside, the air was crisp and showed signs of rain for tomorrow.
Henry's convertible was parked next to a line of motorcycles. Gambit looked
upon them with envy. During the X-Men's first encounter with Omega Red, his
Harley had been nearly totaled. Since then he hadn't managed to restore his
Harley fully.
     Behind them, four boisterous men stumbled out of the bar. One was
trying to keep the other three in line but was failing miserably.
     "You'd almost t'ink dat if someone were ta follow us, dey'd be a little
more discreet 'bout it."
     "I was wondering the same thing myself. I've been around too long not
to notice amateurs. Why the hell are they interested in us?"
     "Got me. We're mutants, what better reason dey need?" 
     Both men lit cigarettes before getting into the car. Logan took his
time adjusting the mirrors, checking the radio station and moving the seat
forward. He watched the mirrors to check his suspicions. Sure enough, the
four men were waiting beside their cars slowly working their way into them.
Several times the men glanced in their direction. Normally Wolverine would
have confronted them to see what their problem was but Cyclops wanted no
forced conflicts with humans.
     "Looks like we'll have a tail."
     "Why can' we lead normal lives like everybody else," Remy asked.
     "When you joined the X-Men, stuff like this is normal," Logan answered,
starting the car. While the door was still open, Gambit grabbed a few hand
fulls of pebbles and rocks that composed the parking lot. The car was
already in motion before he managed to close the door.
     They drove in silence for twenty minutes, heading in the general
direction of the mansion. On the way to the bar, they had traveled along the
main highways, where it was harder to pick up a tail, especially since they
weren't expecting one. Logan decided against that route and restricted their
journey to back roads and poorly lit streets. It was impossible for the
tails to hide what they were doing. "Either these guys are incompetent or
they are extremely arrogant," Wolverine said, while watching the distance
they were staying ahead of them.
     "Don' you t'ink we should lose 'bout now?"
     Logan, floored the gas peddle and the two pairs of headlights behind
him slowly receded but quickly began to close the gap. "Well it looks like
we will confront our friends back there." The lights that were still working
were few and far between so they barely illuminated the road. To the left a
guard rail was absent even though the hillside sloped sharply. The curvature
of the road did not warrant one unless the drivers speed was eighty or greater.
     "Damn Beast and his economically sound vehicle," Wolverine cursed. The
cars behind them were side by side and almost on top of them. "I think they
want to run us off the road."
     Wolverine tried to force the gas peddle beneath the floor, hoping the
vehicle would gain more speed.
     "Slow down, mon ami. Gambit had a plan from de onset."

End Part X

Part XI real soon: Cable's mission revealed. Gambit and Wolverine's night on
the town gets deadly.