Chapter 10: Remy

"Oh good, Remy, you're still up," Storm said as she walked down the subbasement hallway with Logan, Rogue, Bobby, and Kitty in tow.

"It's only 3am," Gambit replied as he looked back at the still-yawning group. "I'm wondering why you're up though."

He'd just finished a few hours programming in the Danger Room. He wasn't used to bumping into people this time in the morning.

"I've had a call from Forge," Storm said, gesturing for him to follow. "He is under attack by Reavers."

"Reavers?"

"Yes. They have invaded Eagle Plaza en mass. His security is good but he is being overwhelmed. We are going to his aid. Come."

Gambit raised his eyebrows as he followed them to the hanger. "And these are all the people you're taking?"

"We cannot leave the school without supervision," Storm said. "And you are coming with us."

"What, me?" Gambit asked. "You're joking right? I'm the guy you don't take into combat situations."

"Your mutation works at range," Storm said. She stepped through the doorway into the hanger. "I would like to avoid close-quarters fighting."

"Might not be possible," Logan said gruffly.

"No, it may not be, but that's why I've limited this group," Storm said.

The ramp for the Blackbird lowered, and they began climbing on board.

"So, I'm basically here to fly the plane, huh?" Rogue asked with a yawn. "Good to know."

"That, and you are the best person to talk Remy down from an incident," Storm said, and offered Gambit a slight smile as he took a seat. "There is nothing thoughtless or irrational about me bringing you along."

Gambit shrugged. Everyone took their seats, Storm and Rogue in the pilot chairs.

Shorty after takeoff, Storm gave Forge a call.

"We're on our way, right now," she said.

"Great. It's so much fun being under siege," Forge replied.

Gambit leaned over to Logan. "Just where is Eagle Plaza anyway?"

"Dallas, Texas," he replied.

Gambit raised his eyebrows. "Are we even going to be able to get there any time soon?"

"It's going to take the better part of an hour to get there," Logan said.

"Won't we be too late?"

"That's the good thing about being under siege: it's easier to defend the castle than to invade it."

"Still, isn't he a defence contractor? Wouldn't it be quicker and easier to get military help?"

Logan just shrugged, and Gambit assumed that was all the answer he was going to get.

Forge gave them regular updates as they travelled. He was apparently inventing new things on the fly to keep the invading Reavers busy.

"Damn," Forge said while they were still halfway through the flight. "They've got helicopters moving in."

"Noted. Keep us apprised," Storm replied and addressed Rogue: "When we get there, you may have to pilot the Blackbird alone."

"Alright," Rogue said, a little nervous since still felt like she was in the learning stages.

Shortly thereafter they heard the sound of gunfire down the line. Storm's lips tightened, but she refrained from demanding Forge tell her what was happening.

"Damn," they heard Forge say after a great deal of alarming noise had stopped. "Storm, they've got me pinned down in my main lab and I have a feeling I know exactly what they're after. You cannot let them get their hands on it—"

"Forge—"

"No, I mean it. I know you think I'm just protecting my work, but I'm actually protecting you and everyone else," Forge insisted. "If they get their hands on this research, they'll become an even greater threat than they already are. Look, military's on their way — they'll probably get here before you do. I'll be fine, but if these guys manage to escape with my research I need you to get it back before they can do anything with it. I'm serious, 'Ro. This is important."

Storm sighed. "Very well. What can you tell us about this research so we can identify it if they do take off with it?"

Forge gave a terse description and sent through a quick photo of the lockbox he kept the working models in. He informed them in no uncertain terms that no matter what happened, they weren't to open it.

"State secrets aside, let's just say I don't want it getting lost."

"Noted."

While Storm and Forge spoke, Kitty pulled up satellite surveillance on the site. The rest of the passengers looked over her shoulders and watched the chaos unfurl. They saw it when the military vehicles arrived both on the ground and in their air. They saw as Reavers attempted to escape.

And then everyone heard more noise come down the open line with Forge. There were a few bursts of gunfire, and then muffled chatter. Storm said nothing until there was silence coming down the line.

"Forge?" she queried.

There was a long groan, then they heard Forge say weakly: "I'll be okay, but they got the box."

"Are you sure—"

"I'm in bad shape, but help will be here soon," Forge said with the voice of someone who would really rather not be talking right now. "Get the box back. Please."

"Alright, alright," Storm replied reluctantly. "We'll get the box back."

"Likely suspects?" Bobby asked Kitty.

Kitty shook her head, her eyes firmly planted on the screen. "Not yet. There's a good chance the military might get them before we do."

"Or they're in on it," Gambit said.

Bobby glanced up at him and Logan gave a nod.

"Yeah," Logan said slowly. "A move like this takes planning. I suppose it's possible they were so arrogant they thought they could just walk in there and take what they wanted, but if they were smart they would've had a contingency plan in case the military showed up before they left."

"Whatever this research is, they must want it pretty badly to risk losing everyone," Gambit said slowly. "There's no telling when they'd be able to get everyone out of custody."

"I don't see how they can even get it out of there," Bobby said. He gestured to the screen. "I mean, look at it! There's military everywhere. They've got them closed in. I don't think anyone's escaping."

"I know it might seem like Forge is worrying over nothing and there's no way that box is getting out," Kitty said. "But just remember, I can walk through walls."

"Kitty's right," Logan said. "We don't know their full capabilities. Let's not go writing this off as pointless."

They continued to watch as Storm and Rogue flew them closer. The Reavers made a couple of attempts to leave that were picked up by the satellite, but nothing successful.

"Ah crap," Gambit said abruptly.

"Think of something?" Logan asked him, his eyes not moving from the screen.

"Drones," Gambit said. "That's the back up plan if they can't escape. They send the box out on a drone. If they have access to weaponised prosthetics, I've not doubt they can get their hands on an appropriate delivery drone."

"Let's hope you're wrong," Kitty said grimly. "Because unless that drone is huge, it's not going to show up on the satellite feed."

"Can we get into Forge's security? Maybe he has outside cameras that would've picked up something."

"No—" Kitty started to say, the same time Storm stood from her seat. "Yes. I will be right back, Rogue."

Rogue looked up at Storm nervously, then turned her attention back to the task at hand. Storm picked up a second computer and began to work.

"You have access to Forge's server?" Kitty asked hopefully.

"Limited access. Forge organised a login for us in case of emergency," Storm replied, then turned the computer over to the team. "There."

"Thanks."

Logan and Bobby took over watching the satellite surveillance, while Kitty accepted the computer from Storm and began checking surveillance. Storm returned to the pilot's chair.

"Damn, this is going to take forever to sort through all these," Kitty said, shaking her head. "And reviewing the footage on top of that."

"No, it's not," Gambit said, looking over her shoulder. "There's a limited number of ways they can get the drone — if there is one — out of the building: an exit downstairs, an exit at the top, or they break a window somewhere in between. The top and bottom are heavily manned, so if I were you I'd—"

"Check for broken windows," Kitty finished as she proceeded to do just that.

Only moments later she found a broken window.

"Okay, that was quick," she said as she rewound the feed. "Let's see what broke it."

She didn't have to rewind it far. She almost laughed as they watched the drone fly through the window in reverse. Tucked in its grip was the lockbox they needed to rescue.

"Ten minutes ago," Gambit said thoughtfully.

"It could be anywhere by now."

"Check other cameras. See if any of them caught the direction it was headed."

After a few more minutes, Storm called back to the team: "Alright, we are about at the point where we need to pick a new direction, or we will run into the military."

"Um, head nor-nor-east of the Plaza," Kitty said, sounding a little uncertain. "That looks like it was the direction the drone was going."

"Very well."

"I'll try to get you better directions." Kitty sighed. "I really don't know where else to look. For all we know the drone decided to take an erratic course."

"Risky, they can only fly so far and so fast," Gambit replied. "Can we get a map of the area?"

"Yeah."

They were still puzzling it out when Storm and Rogue landed the Blackbird just far enough nor-nor-east of Eagle Plaza not to attract the attention of the military.

"Best guess is any of these buildings here," Kitty said, gesturing to the relevant places on the map. "And that's assuming that the drone was taking a straight path. These are all well outside of the military perimeter and within the expected range of a drone. Although that number is really just a guess. I mean, well, it's based on what video drones can do."

"That's a lot of places to search," Bobby said with a frown. "You sure we can't cut it down more? Unless we get lucky, by the time we find the right place, they'll probably be long gone."

Gambit snapped his fingers. "Satellite."

"What about it?" Bobby asked the same time that Logan, who had caught on, thrust the computer at Kitty for her to reconfigure.

"At this time in the morning there's going to be some legitimate traffic, but not a lot," Gambit explained hurriedly. "Whoever is waiting for that drone is going to leave their hidey hole as soon as they have it."

"So we check out what places have traffic and check those out," Bobby said with an understanding nod. "Gotcha."

"And we have a winner already," Kitty said. "I haven't even tried rewinding the feed yet."

Everyone who could peered over to look.

"How are we going to follow a car?" Rogue asked dubiously from her chair. "The Blackbird ain't exactly practical for that kind of task."

"Kitty, can you set up the second computer to watch the satellite feed?" Storm asked in full leadership mode.

"Yes."

'Do it. Rogue, Bobby, you two stay here. One of you watch that car," Storm said and Bobby, who was still at that computer, gave a nod, "the other watch the other for additional traffic. The rest of us are checking out the buildings you thought would be likely locations, starting with the one that car came from. Gambit, I have a spare toolkit in the back."

Gambit raised his eyebrows as he stood. "Good to know."

"Wait," Bobby said as Gambit headed into the back to grab the thieves' toolkit Storm mentioned. "How come Remy's going and not me?"

"Because I need people who can slip in and slip out unnoticed for this task," Storm replied.

"Wolverine can slip in and out unnoticed?" Bobby questioned.

"You say that like you think all I do is slice people up," Logan said.

"Isn't it?"

"Let's go," Storm said firmly, before they got any more side tracked.

Rogue sat down with the second computer. Gambit grabbed a staff that was in the back as well as the toolkit, and followed Storm, Logan, and Kitty out of the Blackbird.

Chasing up on what few leads they had took time, and all of them were very much aware that the longer they took, the less chance they had of finding Forge's lockbox.

"Has that first car stopped yet?" Storm asked over their communicators.

"No, it's still travelling," Bobby replied.

"Any other traffic, Rogue?"

"Yeah, there's a couple of trucks," Rogue said, and gave their position. "Logan's closest."

Gambit stood on top of the building he was checking out and surveyed the area. Movement to the north caught his attention. He watched for a moment, then ran across the rooftop, jumped down the side of the building by way of the fire escape. As he ran towards the fence, he readied his staff and vaulted over.

He landed and froze. Then, assured he hadn't been seen, slipped into the shadows as best he could and moved closer to the area he'd seen the movement. A single light was on in the industrial complex.

"Hey Rogue," he said softly into his communicator. "Just checking out some movement north of my last position."

"Oh? Okay. Just so you know, that's outside of the range you and Kitty estimated."

Gambit gave a shrug, dropped his staff, and prepared to climb up the wall. "Estimated being the key word. This is like looking for a needle in a haystack."

"Got that right."

He leapt up and got a precarious hold on the narrow groves between the bricks. He climbed as quickly as he could to the window, and made sure to stick to the ledge to the side of it. Carefully he peered into the window.

And nearly fell off his perilous perch.

Inside was a woman busy packing up something that could only be a drone into a crate, with the lockbox sitting just nearby. A police scanner was out of Gambit's field of view, but he could hear it. Whoever she might be, she were listening out for military movement.

He couldn't believe it. They'd actually found the lockbox.

Unfortunately, his surprise also cause a line-of-sight explosion to go off inside the room. The woman jumped and stopped in their packing to inspect the wall.

"Found it," Gambit said quietly into his communicator, hoping that the scanner was making enough noise that he wouldn't be heard. "Might need backup though."

"You found it? Really?" Rogue asked, sounding amazed. "Oh, um.." She went on to direct everyone to Gambit's position.

The woman opened up the inside door and looked into the hallway. He thought about going in, but decided to wait; chances were she'd come right back in again, probably when he was still halfway through the window.

Sure enough, the woman did return. She glanced at the damaged wall, then finished packing up the drone. Once the lid was settled, she walked over to the window.

Gambit pushed himself as far back as he could and hoped she wouldn't look too far out. It was enough of a strain to stay up on the narrow ledge as it was.

His heart thumped in his chest.

A charge began to leak into the wall.

He swore under his breath.

"Remy?"

"I'm charging," he muttered in reply, hoping that the woman wouldn't notice him.

"What in the world?" the woman exclaimed.

"Sprung," Gambit said

In the same moment, he launched himself through the open window. He barrelled right into her, and knocked her to the ground, but he kept his hand on the wall. The charge had already grown too big. He would survive it, but she wouldn't.

And he wasn't interested in killing any more people.

"That," the woman said as she wiped the blood away from her broken lip with the back of her hand, "was a mistake."

Now that he was in the room and not precariously perched on a ledge barely big enough for a toe, he could finally have a good look at her. She was blonde, and wore a short, yellow minidress. Her legs and arms had a metallic look to them, and Gambit watched her stand with some trepidation: this woman was a Reaver, he was sure of it.

Two long, pointed blades emerged from the backs of her metal hands.

Definitely a Reaver.

She swung at him. He ducked.

All those Danger Room sessions with Logan seemed to have paid off, but he was still stuck to the wall in the vain hope that he could remove the charge before it went off.

"Now chere, let's be reasonable," Gambit said desperately. "If you kill me, this charge is going to go off. And the explosion—" he ducked again "—is going to be a lot bigger than that little one I scared you with earlier."

The charge spread across the walls.

"Sure it will," the woman replied. She swung at him again, and missed. "Keep still."

"I don't think you understand," Gambit said, making use of the expanding charge to increase his ability to dodge her. "It's not just going to take out the walls, this charge will take out the entire complex."

She swung. He ducked and kicked up at her. His boot hit her stomach hard, knocking her back.

"If this charge goes off, you're dead!"

The charge ran along the floor.

"Really dead!"

It began climbing along the table where the drone and the lockbox were.

"No!" the Reaver exclaimed.

She lunged for the lockbox, and snatched it up just in time. She dashed out the door, and then threw a challenging look at Gambit, as if daring him to follow her. Whether she believed or not was irrelevant; she'd noticed he wouldn't step away from the area infused with magenta light.

"Merde!"

"Remy, what's happening?" Rogue demanded.

"I'm charging half the room and she's getting away with the lockbox!" Gambit shouted. "I knew me coming along was a bad idea."

The rest of the room lit up.

"No, make that the entire room. I suppose everyone's too far away to get here any time soon?" Gambit asked. "Stupid question: Everyone stay away. If this charge goes off, everyone in the vicinity is dead and no one's getting their hands on that lockbox."

"Yes, 'if'," Rogue said. "Good attitude, keep it up. How close are we to popcorn levels?"

"Not far. But I'm concerned about how much this thing keeps growing."

"Alright. What's the recipe for that lovely pecan pie you made?"

"What?"

"This is me trying to distract you from your emotions with bland topics of conversation," Rogue said. "You know, the usual. Although I do hesitate to use the word 'bland' in conjunction with your pecan pie, which is delicious and deserves to be put on a pedestal."

Gambit made a noise that was half laugh, half scoff. He took a deep breath and then determinedly pushed the Reaver and the lockbox out of his mind.

"Okay, pecan pie," he said. "Well, first you preheat the oven to about 350…"

As he spoke, he felt like he was back in the school kitchen. He remembered rolling the dough, melting the butter and brown sugar, whisking in the corn syrup, and adding in the little extra ingredients that would give the pie its zing.

"And then you put the pecans in the pie pan, and pour the corn syrup mixture over it…"

His hold on the charge strengthened, and the charge stopped its growth.

"Then you just cook it for about an hour. When that's done, you let it cool completely, and well, yeah, that's it," Gambit said.

"Ah, so that's your secret recipe."

"Not much of a secret. I found it on the Internet."

"Oh, didja now?" Rogue sounded amused.

"Well, yeah. It's where I get most of my recipes."

"You like looking up recipes, Cajun?" Rogue asked gleefully.

"I suppose," Gambit said, and his eyes narrowed. "What's so funny about that?"

"Oh, I had a little hunch about something, and I think this may have proved it. How's the hold on that charge going, sugar?"

"What hunch?" Gambit asked, paused as he reassessed the charge, then said: "Hey, I think I can remove the charge now."

"Woohoo!"

"That's what Sims do," Gambit replied absently as he deactivated the charge. "Okay, got it. I guess I better see if I can get this Reaver before it's too late. Probably already is."

"Oh, I don't know about that," Rogue said as Gambit climbed back out the window. "There's only one exit out of that property, and the Blackbird's sitting there."

"Wait what?" Gambit exclaimed as he picked up his dropped staff. "If that charge had gone off—"

"It wasn't going to go off, not with me here," Rogue said, sounding entirely too smug and sure of herself. "Especially not now that I've figured out your little secret."

"What little secret?" he asked as he ran around the outside of the building.

"It's so secret that not even you know the secret."

"This is a bad time to tease me, chere," Gambit said.

"I know what your hobby is. You know, the one that Storm wants you to find. The one that will help teach you how to get into the zone."

"Please," Gambit replied cynically, "enlighten me."

He turned the corner and spotted the Reaver's car ahead. She was no longer in it, but rather slicing at an ice wall that stood between her and the Blackbird. Rogue was standing at the top of the ramp, and as soon as she spotted him, she gave him a wave.

"Cooking."

"What?"

"Cooking. Your hobby is cooking."

"Um…"

"Oh come on. How many times have you decided to go cook something to 'help you relax'?" Rogue said. "And what about just now? I ask you about cooking pecan pie, and you're able to get that monster charge under control. And it was a monster. We could see it from over here. Bobby was freaking out."

"I was not."

"I thought you were going to wet your pants."

Gambit laughed and missed whatever Bobby might have said in reply.

"I just figured I was stress-cooking," he said.

"Was it stress cooking when you volunteered to make heart shaped food for Valentine's Day?"

"Hmm."

He fell silent and sneaked quietly over to the Reaver's car. She had given up trying to slice at the wall, and was instead using her blades to climb over it. While Bobby reinforced and heightened the wall, Gambit opened up the car and picked up the lockbox from the passenger seat. He secured it to his belt on the other side from the toolkit.

With his staff at the ready, Gambit ran towards the ice wall, one of the lower sections far from the Reaver. He vaulted over and landed soundly on the other side.

"Nicely done," Rogue said, and put her hand to her ear. "Okay, ya'll, we have the lockbox. Let's get out of here."

The lockbox was secured and returned to Forge (who'd suffered mostly superficial wounds from the attack) at first available opportunity. The team was relieved to go home and get back to bed, or in Gambit's case, finally get to bed. All except for Rogue, who had to rush off to work.

They all slept in later than usual, but the rest of the staff were able to cover for them.

After his breakfast, Gambit (who had slept in the least), eyed off the kitchen and wondered if Rogue was right. Was cooking his hobby? It seemed liked a strange idea. Cooking was a necessity after all. Everyone needed to eat. He just figured it was worth the effort to make food he liked eating.

The door opened and Gambit looked up from his place at the bench to see Storm entering the breakfast nook.

"Good afternoon," he said.

"Good afternoon," she replied with a smile. "I had a feeling I would find you in here."

He shrugged as she sat down beside him. "Where else am I going to get pancakes for breakfast at this time of day?"

"Indeed." She looked at him thoughtfully. "Premade, premix, or did you make them from scratch?"

"From scratch." He frowned. "You buying Rogue's theory that cooking is my hobby?"

"It does not matter if I buy it or not. What matters is if cooking can help you get your powers under control." She held his gaze. "Can it?"

He shrugged helplessly. "I don't know."

"Alright, let's take this step by step," Storm said. "How do you feel when you cook?"

Gambit shrugged again. "I don't know. Nothing in particular. I mean, sure, there's the momentary stuff, like irritation when something doesn't work out, or happiness when something does. But overall it's not exactly an emotional experience."

Storm nodded. "You said you thought you were stress-cooking? How does it help relieve your stress?"

He frowned again. "I don't know. Gives me something else to focus my attention on? It just does, I guess."

"You find it soothing."

Gambit thought about that. "I suppose so."

"Calming perhaps?"

Her choice of word gave Gambit pause. His frown deepened as he pondered it.

"You know," he said slowly. "I don't need to look at my incidents diary to tell you that I have never had one in the kitchen."

"Oh really?" Storm asked. "I remember you being concerned about that too."

"Well, yeah, the kitchen would have to be the worst possible place for me to start blowing stuff up, especially with other people around," he shook his head disbelievingly as he continued: "The only reason why I even consented to kitchen duty was because I hadn't had any problems in the kitchen on my own."

He laughed despite himself.

"Staring me in the face the whole time," he muttered, then looked back up at Storm. "So, I guess I found a hobby. Now what?"

"I think I shall give you additional shifts on the kitchen duty. Just the one for now; we may add more later. You no longer need to attend the other hobby classes—"

"Yes!" Gambit exclaimed, pumping his fist into the air. "No more writing workshop with Pyro!"

Storm smiled tolerantly. "My class is now optional for you. If you do decide to attend, you may leave when we get to the gardening part. As always, my door remains open to you should you ever want some personal guidance. In terms of pursuing your culinary interests, you will have our full support, just let us know if there's anything else you would like to do."

"Like what?"

Storm spread her hands. "Whatever you would like. Cooking classes, culinary school, you may decide you want to take on special event cooking, like you did with Valentines Day—"

"Ooh, that one," Gambit said gleefully. "More of that."

"Noted. Oh, and one more thing."

"Yeah?"

"No more drinking until you're of age."

He'd forgotten he promised that. Still…

"What if I want to cook Baked Alaska?" he asked.

"No more drinking until you're of age," she repeated firmly.

"You said you'd support me in my cooking endeavours," Gambit replied mischievously. "What about rum balls? Beer battered fish? Caipirinha sorbet?"

"No more drinking until you're of age."

"Ooh, you know what's nice? A good red wine sauce…"

End!

I cannot tell you just how much I loved writing that last bit :)

Anyway, that's it for The Great Hobby Search, but I'm already working on the next story. Unfortunately, I'm not as far into it as I would've liked to have been by now, so it looks like it's going to be a longer wait for it to be posted than I'd like :(

Thank you as always for your reviews.