This is mostly a Rogue story, although everyone else will pop up from time to time and Gambit will be introduced. So Read, Review, Flame if you want to, and have a lovely day. :)
I'm Not Myself, You See
"Who are You?" the Caterpillar said. "I can't explain myself, I'm afraid, sir," said Alice, "because I'm not myself, you see." -Lewis Carroll, "Alice in Wonderland"
The temperature had fallen about ten degrees in the past half hour and the gray clouds were developing a deep blue tint that signaled rain ahead. It would be a good idea to start walking back home, as it would take at least another half hour to walk back the way she came. She should, but she didn't quite feel like it yet. With her ever present long-sleeves, coat and gloves the temperature didn't bother her. In fact, Marie was unbelievably relieved when autumn decided to make itself know. Summer was incredibly hot when you wore gloves all the time. This time of year was perfect. A nice stroll to the Salem Center when it was cold, but no snow to trudge through.
When she thought of snow, unconsciously, she started fidgeting with the dogtags
that hung around her neck and then grabbed her fingers when she realized what
she was doing. Rogue let out a mildly self-disgusted sigh and shoved her hands
in her coat pocket. Logan had been gone for... well, a long time, she had lost
track of how long and she was not about to go out of her way to figure out the
math. She wasn't supposed to still be thinking about him all the time, but she
still wore his dumb dogtags and every third sentence reminded her of him. Everyone
at the school thought she had a crush on him, even Bobby. As for herself, she
really didn't know what she felt anymore and moreover, anything she did feel
was moot anyway, given her powers.
And that was a thought that depressed her considerably. Another self-disgusted
sigh, she was supposed to be over that, too; the constant fears about being
alone. Alone wasn't so bad, after a while. She even managed to be alone in a
school full of people, who were always talking to her. Managed to be alone when
she was out with Bobby, which frankly wasn't all that often anyway. In a strange
way she felt better when she was literally all by herself, which was why she
was currently walking the considerable distance from Xavier's school to the
nearby town of Salem Center for no other reason than to just stroll down main
street and look in shop windows. But Rogue wasn't really thinking of all those
things. She just thought she had a free day and needed a walk. So walk she did
and had just reached the outskirts of town when she failed to notice a flicker
out of the corner of her eye.
Somewhere North...
Logan looked up from a microfishe reader and vaguely wondered if his healing factor could keep up with the eye damage being inflicted by this infernal machine. Why hadn't the library put all this stuff on computer by now? When he left to try to find out about his past, he never thought it would involve this much paperwork. He almost laughed when he considered what most people would think of him in a library. I shoulda stayed in Westchester. That Chuck seemed the type who would love to do research. The man called Wolverine would have liked nothing better than to just bash someone's head in and make them talk. The problem with that was, you needed to find the right head to bash to get any useful information.
The abandoned military complex that Xavier had found, was just that... abandoned.
There were buildings, some shelves, but absolutely nothing else. Well, What
did you expect? That the nerfarious powers-that-be would leave behind all their
incriminating records for anyone to find strolling into their old buildings?
That would have been nice. Wolverine thought to himself. Then he wouldn't
currently be stuck in a library in Ottawa going blind looking through government
records and parliament minutes. He was running on his original theory that the
"project" he was involved in was at least marginally related to the
government. The military complex on government owned land attested to that.
And if there were government officials involved, hopefully, they stayed true
to their bureaucratic roots and kept records and moved them to another site
when they left the complex. After all, even Hitler was anal about keeping records.
Of course, he was also anal about destroying them towards the end of the war.
The only problem was where to find those records. Hence, the paper chase. What
non-descript department seemed to have too big a budget for its official purpose.
Which well-paid bureaucrat never seemed to attend committee meetings? Personally,
Logan was hoping to find a suspicious person. That meant a head to bash and
things would go a lot faster. So far he had found an agricultural minister who
was never in Parliament meetings. Further investigation revealed he was in Florida
a lot. Something the voters might be interested in, but not him.
There was something called "weapons research" in Department H, that
could have been promising. After all, what would the department of mutant affairs
need with a weapons research program? Unfortunately, all of the scientists and
bureaucrats attached it to it were constantly appearing at various committees,
and sub-committees and turning in lengthy reports, on...weapons research. The
research seemed to consist of defenses against Magneto and people similar, super-powered
and ill-tempered. Copies of these reports were dutifully turned in, in compliance
with the Canadian version of the freedom of information act. None of this seemed
particularly incriminating. Maybe, he was just no good at paperwork, he thought
disgustedly. Logan stood up and turned off the microfishe reader with more force
than necessary. Reading time was done for the day. He was going to stalk about
the city for a while and hope to run into a mugger or two. He felt like hitting
something.
Unfortunately, muggers, like information, turned out to be scarce that night. Logan had to settle for kicking a few mailboxes. I really hate the city, he thought to himself while returning to his motel room. I really hate motels. He'd rather be camping, but downtown Ottawa had few good camp sites. Before even reaching his room, his sensitive hearing picked up a truly horrible beeping sound. Once inside, he located the communicator that Professor Xavier insisted that Logan take with him. "For emergencies, in case you need something." The day I need help from those overgrown boyscouts... He had humored the old man, mostly because Jean was there at the time and had said "please" with those doe-eyes of hers. The stupid thing was in the bottom of his duffel bag and he had all but forgotten that he had it. Unless this is Jean calling to say she's dumped that one-eyed idiot, someone is going to die.
"Wolverine?" came the voice once Logan had finally found the metal
circle. It was the one-eyed idiot. Someone was going to die.
"Xavier told me no one was going to call me using this thing. This better
be good Summers," he growled.
"Marie's missing."
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So what happened to Rogue? The quote doesn't seem to fit right now but it will become more relevant. I'm not really famaliar with Canadian governmently structure or if they even have a version of the Freedom of Information Act, but it seemed logical. If I'm wrong, consider it dramatic licsence or tell me and I'll try to fix it.