Adrian: Hello all! So, this is actually my third X-Men fanfiction, but I deleted the other two from the site. One was an X-Men-movie story, and the other was also Evo. It was entitled "Into the Fire" and it was about Gambit getting into trouble and so on and so forth. To be quite honest, I'm not entirely sure if I meant to delete it, but I hadn't updated in about two or three years, so I'm pretty sure I did. However, now I've received some renewed zeal in regards to X-men, so I decided to start a new X-men story. This one is actually connected to the other one in that it is a prequel, more or less. After finishing this, I will more than likely rewrite the other one. Then again, I may not. It depends on how much work I have, and I've been swamped as it is of late. I'll try and update this story as much as possible (hopefully every week) but at the moment, my other story is my top priority. This is my little fun activity that I'm doing to satisfy my innate need for some Gambit-action.

I'm not too sure about the time placement of this story, but I would say at least two years after Cajun Spice. Rogue is eighteen now...So Apocalypse and all that happened (speaking of which, if I fail to mention anything relevant with Apocalypse, I apologize – I missed those episodes). Also, it's been, like, forever since I last watched any Evo episode, so if my placing is off, please correct me. Oh, and I place Gambit around 20 or so because any older than that, and the show would have been promoting paedophilia, which we all know, kiddies, is wrong.

I hope you enjoy!

Disclaimer: If I owned X-Men: Evolution, Gambit would never have been given that horrible hair cut. If I owned comic-verse X-Men, Gambit would never have burnt out his full-powers fighting New Sun. And if I owned movie-verse X-Men...well...don't even get me started on that one...

CURRENT LISTENING: Beat It by Fall-Out Boy, feat. John Mayer

Out of the Frying Pan

Prologue: Control

Footsteps echoed rapidly into the night off of the desolate concrete of the city's sidewalk. The lone mutant hurried on to his destination, clutching his shaggy coat tightly around his body to create some form of warmth to combat the freezing Seattle weather. As he wandered on, he frequently glanced over his shoulder, paranoia dictating his need to do this despite the fact that he was, essentially, blind. The young mutant (or man, they were essentially the same thing no matter what assholes like the FOH liked to think) hastened his steps, sensing that something about the night wasn't quite right.

Arriving at his destination, an old abandoned warehouse scheduled to be knocked down any month now, the homeless young man wasted no time in climbing to the fourth floor, the place where he had made his home for the past...well, he couldn't quite remember how much time had passed since he'd been here. It had to have been at least a month.

So caught up in his musings, the sightless man didn't realize the other presence until it began to speak.

"Well, well, well," the other growled mockingly, "What do we have here?"

The mutant stiffened, immediately on alert and suddenly sensing all the other minds in the room as well.

"I'm gonna enjoy ripping you apart after all the shit you've put me through tryin' to catch you," the other continued.

"Don't you dare, Sabretooth," another one snapped. "We're supposed to bring him in as unharmed as possible."

"Who died and made you boss, Scalphunter?" a decidedly female voice joined in.

"Essex made me boss. If you've got a problem with that, Malice, you can take it up with him."

"And I wouldn't suggest doing that if I were you," another girl spoke up.

"Who the hell asked you, Vertigo?" Malice snarled.

"You didn't need to ask me, bi—"

"Would you shut up?!" Scalphunter roared, glancing over at the kid they had come to acquire for their boss. He had shifted into a defensive position. "Look, kid, we're not here to hurt you. Our boss, he's a scientist. He knows you've been having trouble controlling you're powers, and he wants to help you."

The much younger mutant scowled. Did they think him an idiot? If it was that simple, they wouldn't have been chasing him across the city for the past three weeks.

"Not interested," he snarled before catching himself and taking deep, slow breaths. Whatever happened, he had to keep calm.

Sabretooth roared and lunged at him, the young man smoothly twisting out of the way. He wasn't used to fighting blind, but he would make do if he had to. Diving out of the way of a metal beam headed straight for his head, the homeless boy twirled around to come face-to-face with Sabretooth once more. The giant hulk of a man brought his arm around to claw the younger guy, but once more, he sensed the attack and ducked out of the way. Malice sent more metal items flying his way, and he barely managed to catch a dart Scalphunter had shot at him before whipping it right back at the older man with astounding accuracy for the fact that his eyes were closed.

The fight continued in this manner for at least a good half hour with Vertigo opting to sit out and watch the other three, and the boy they were trying to apprehend growing increasingly frustrated and annoyed. And with the frustrations came the beginnings of that familiar power build-up in the deep recesses of his stomach. In all likelihood, panic should have been the last thing for him to do. Panic would not help anything. Hell, panic would just make it worse. That's what his mind shouted at him. He panicked anyway. And the build-up doubled in intensity.

Scalphunter scowled in annoyance. There was no way Essex was going to excuse them if they got their asses kicked by a kid with no control who was fighting blindly. And Vertigo...

"Vertigo!" he snarled in annoyance.

The green-and-white haired women sighed, pushing herself from the seat she had chosen. "If you insist," she replied smarmily, aiming her hands in the direction of the kid and concentrating.

Said kid had barely just managed to put a clamp on his bubbling powers, when it hit him. At was as if the world had tipped out from under his feet. It was spinning. Everything was spinning. He stumbled back and forth, unable to get a bearing on anything. The world was tilting, and spinning, and he was growing increasingly light-headed. And he freaked out.

Scalphunter, about to shoot another dart at the kid, froze at the sight before him.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Malice hissed, green hair whipping around her face as she turned to glare at Vertigo.

"I'm not doing anything!" Vertigo replied angrily, continuing to focus her powers on him. "That's not me!"

"Well, he sure as hell hasn't been glowing ever before!" Sabretooth growled.

Scalphunter decided then that he really didn't want to find out what the younger mutant's uncontrollable powers were. Picking up his gun, and barely taking the time to aim, he fired. It would've been a perfect shot, too. Unfortunately, the moment the tranquilizer got within a foot of the homeless mutant, right where the brilliant red entrenching him started, it was instantaneously ripped apart atom by atom. Practically incinerated in less than a second.

"Shit!" Scalphunter exclaimed. "Vertigo, keep holding him!"

The girl glared, sweat dripping down her brow. "I'm trying, but he's starting to slip free of my hold," she ground out. The strain was evident in her voice.

Scalphunter nodded at Malice, who reached out a hand. A metal beam that she had previously discarded lifted off the ground before hurling itself straight at the out-of-control mutant. However, the same thing that happened with the tranquilizer happened with the beam, if not quite so instantaneous (this time it took all of three seconds).

The homeless young man still stumbled around. He was beyond panicked now. He could barely just keep a hold on his powers, which were leaking out at an alarming rate. And then a hand clamped around his throat, blocking off his airway. And then he made a fatal mistake. He opened his eyes.

And everything went to hell.

TBC...

Adrian: Okay, I'll make this brief due to the really long note I put at the beginning. But, basically, since I started writing this, I've re-watched the first seven episodes...and counting. But if anything doesn't agree with the show, well, we'll just say that this is AU. I hope you enjoyed!

Review!