Out of all the places to get inspiration for a story I get mine from Mythbusters for this one. Not my usual show, but I was watching it one day and saw a myth about ducking behind objects like walls, tables, and dumpsters to survive a blast of C4. Anyways a story started forming in my head and I stayed up all night the next day to write it. Anyways, R&R and enjoy!

Explosions of Every Kind

Everyone sat around a wide table discussing, a holographic map projected in the middle with red dots on electrical plants, a solar energy plant, and a hydroelectric dam.

"It makes no sense," Professor Xavier started, "if these attacks are Magneto, and the overwhelming evidence suggests they are, why go after areas of power supplies? What's his plan?"

"Maybe he's building something and needs the energy," Scott put forward.

"No, because he's not draining these plants," Xavier interlocked his fingers and rested his chin on them thoughtfully, "he's destroying them. And the outcome has been catastrophic to the general population."

"So why destroy peoples' energy sources? What's he got t'gain by doin' that?" Rogue queried.

"I don't know. Perhaps he is just trying to punish the world for their rejection of mutants," Xavier pondered.

Scott flipped on the TV, "And it looks like he's at it again."

The news reporter stood in the center of the downtown area and informed, "Two more power plants under attack. Sources say a factory that manufactures and fills propane tanks had to be evacuated when inexplicable fires appeared out of nowhere and set off all the alarms." She stopped and placed her hand to her earpiece and continued, "Just in, a report of the last electric plant in Bayville collapsing to the ground unexplainably. These catastrophes are clearly not of natural origins. More on the story later."

"Attacking two at once. Like the acolytes are totally helping him on this," Kitty declared.

"Yes, that seems to be the case," Xavier thought, "Okay, we must act fast if we are to prevent any more damage. Scott, Jean, and Kitty take the electric plant. Kurt, Rogue, and Bobby the propane factory."

Everyone nodded and headed out.

Kurt, Rogue, and Bobby took the X-van. Rogue drove of course, wanting to actually make it to the mission alive. "Inexplicable fires… Pyro's definitely at this site," Rogue thought aloud.

"Or Gambit," Kurt teased while nudging Rogue with his elbow. Most of the X-men had noticed by now how much Gambit singled Rogue out during fights and used all his flirting charm to try and win her over. He'd failed… at least that's what Rogue wanted everyone to think. What they didn't know was she did think about him, often, remembering the ruby-on-ebony eyes that captivated her long enough for him to hand her an explosive card and safely walk away before it went off.

The car started to swerve into the next lane. "Rogue!" Bobby shouted as Kurt grabbed the wheel and she snapped back into reality.

"Ah got it Kurt," she said as she took back control of the wheel and continued to drive in silence.

Meanwhile, at the propane factory the acolytes' job was simple: tear the place apart then blow it up. Not hard at all. At this base they had Sabertooth for the tearing, Gambit for the blowing up and Pyro for the distraction and of course fiery fun. Which left Magneto and Colossus to take care of the electric plant. The job was simple enough, which frankly bored Gambit. Pyro was entertaining himself by making distinctive fire creatures to wreak havoc on the factory, and Sabertooth seemed contempt at tearing everything into itty bitty pieces. But Gambit, he wanted some real action. He wanted a fight. And as strange as it seemed, he wanted the X-men to show up just so he could have a good work out.

Thinking about the X-men lead his mind to the mutant he really wanted to see. A certain two-toned hair color southerner with poisonous skin. He'd only really told this fact to Pyro, in fact he'd talk for hours about her to him. Eventually, Pyro just put in earphones and pretended to listen.

Gambit got his wish, in teleported Kurt, Bobby, and Rogue. A satisfied smirk tugged at the corner of his mouth. Then the trio split; Bobby going for Pyro, Kurt going for Sabertooth, and Rogue going for Gambit. Which made his smirk grow that much wider.

"You miss me Chere? Mus' be my way wit' women," Gambit sneered smugly.

"Of course not. Don't flatter yourself," she replied while spinning around and sending her elbow into his jaw. This was followed by him stumbling back, and then tossing a charged card near her feet to catch her off-balance, next dropping to the floor and sweeping his leg under her causing Rogue to drop on her back. She let out a grunt, then rolled onto her side and returned the favor, causing him to land face first next to her.

In the meantime, Kurt was keeping Sabertooth busy by teleporting all around taunting the acolyte to catch him, then when he climbed all the way up the wall Kurt would teleport to another and stick out his tongue. In addition, Pyro was chasing Bobby around with one, rather large, dragon made out of fire. Every attempt Bobby made to freeze it melted, as a result he was ice-bridging all around trying to avoid being fried.

For the moment, Rogue and Gambit had both stood up, brushed themselves off and were back to fighting. This time she started with a kick aimed at his abdomen. He blocked, but grabbed her leg and spun her around. She got mad at not being completely in control off her own movements and ripped her foot out of his grip, pulling him forward into her back and bringing both of them down on top of each other. Gambit was heavy on top of her; nevertheless she shifted her weight underneath him and rolled him over to his back placing her on top. Rogue turned around with a leg on each side of him and pinned his wrists to the ground, "Whatcha gonna do wit'out your cards?" she mocked.

He smiled and calmly responded, "This." As he shifted the positions of his arms, one shooting up, one shooting down, and rolled them both over. Now he was on top pinning her down.

Rogue fought against his strong body on top of hers, but couldn't break free. "Let me go!" she shouted.

"No."

She glared at him, "Get offa me."

"Gambit is comfy where he is."

Kurt noticed Gambit straddling his sister and wasn't going to let that go without a fight. He forgot about Sabertooth and teleported over to Gambit. Grabbing him before he even hit ground, then teleporting near the ceiling and letting him fall. Kurt went back to Rogue and offered her a hand up. She started to say something when she saw Sabertooth charging at them from over his shoulder. "Look out!" she shouted shoving Kurt out of the way. Sabertooth seized her by the shoulders and slammed her up against a wall. "Put me down flea bag!" She kicked at him but he wouldn't release her.

Bobby ice-bridged over and froze the back of Sabertooth's neck, causing him to let out a nasty growl and drop Rogue. Now, Sabertooth was after Bobby, who kept freezing his feet to the floor, Kurt was intent on teaching Gambit a lesson, and Rogue was sneaking up behind Pyro so he wouldn't singe her before she could attack.

Rogue got a running start and tackled Pyro from behind.

"Ello Shelia!" rang out his thick Australian accent.

She had her arms firmly clasped around him; the bad thing was he could still shoot fire from his igniters; the good thing was with his arms fastened to his sides he couldn't control it very well. Not a problem for Pyro though, his signature insane Australian laugh came bellowing out past his lips. He stomped on Rogue's right foot and raised his arms with all his strength to break her grip. If he had any self-control it was gone now. Fire everywhere! It whipped and roared through the air, and he sent it straight towards Rogue. She started running, then looked around and thought, 'oh shit, propane!' Sparks started igniting. She had to find cover. Unfortunately, Sabertooth had done a good job of destroying most everything before they arrived. Rogue ran and ducked behind the closest thing she could find: a metal machine.

Then… BOOM!

The only thing heard through the thick, ash-colored smoke was Pyro's insane laughter. The machine blew to bits and sent shrapnel everywhere. All Pyro saw was the dim outline of a girl with white stripes lying on the floor.

Rogue was hit hard. Not only was she slammed into the wall when the explosion went off, but she had shrapnel pierce her flesh in several locations. The biggest part of which was deeply imbedded in her side. She lay on the floor, feeling herself slowly lose consciousness. Touching the sharp edge that stuck out of her skin of the large piece of metal that punctured her side she withdrew her gloved hand to find it stained with blood. Her other arm outstretched, and remarkably it was not her brother she called out for, it was her adversary. "Re-Remy," she whispered weakly before her head and hand fell limp.

Pyro started skipping around in a circle singing, "I got the white-striped Shelia! I got the white-striped Shelia!"

Gambit looked over, he was used to things blowing up or catching on fire when Pyro was around, but Rogue? No, if he hurt her it'd be the last thing he ever did. Gambit ran over to him, "What'd you do?"

"Set the place on fire, mate!"

"Where's Rogue?"

Pyro pointed over towards the rubble of the assembly line machine. Gambit grabbed him by the throat, "Y'blew her up?" He didn't wait for a reply; instead he dropped him and raced over there. When he got to her he saw a scarlet red puddle collecting beneath her body and a steady stream of drops dripping down from her side, plus three more extensive shrapnel cuts on her back. All trickling the same scarlet blood into the puddle below.

He dropped to his knees to help her, but then Nightcrawler came leaping over shouting, "Stay away from her!" Grabbing him by the shoulders and flipping him over into the wall.

"I'm tryin' t'help!" Gambit yelled as he picked himself up and ran over to the fallen Rogue.

"Liar! You're the enemy here!" Kurt shouted at him.

He ignored this last comment and picked Rogue up bridal-style. "Iceman!" he hollered as Bobby rushed over, "Get her outta here." Bobby extended his arms to carry Rogue, "What are you t'inking homme Gambit's comin' too."

"But-" Bobby started in protest.

"Jus' go! She's losin' blood fast."

Immediately, Bobby made an ice bridge and carried all four of them over the town back to the Institute as fast as he could.

They arrived at the gates and Bobby punched in the code. "Their not opening!" he gasped fearfully.

"Move!" Gambit threw three charged cards, they destroyed the gates and he darted through. The alarm system must have been activated, because he was also dodging lasers and buzz saws to get to the front doors of the mansion. He made it and blasted open those doors too. To keep up Kurt teleported Bobby and himself to the front lobby. Gambit ran by them searching for the infirmary.

"Over here," Bobby said waving his arm in the direction they should go.

Gambit ran straight by a group of girls walking down the steps, one of which was Amara, "Hey that was an acolyte. Carrying Rogue!" The cluster of girls scampered off following him as well.

Finally, they arrived at the infirmary. Beast was in there looking over some medical results when Gambit came storming in. He turned around and saw Rogue, "Oh my. What happened?" Then he saw who was carrying her, "What are you doing here?"

"Questions later. Help her."

Gambit laid her down in a bed; Beast noticed Gambit's uniform stained with blood from his waist down.

"It seems you have drawn quite the crowd," Beast observed. Gambit curved his head to see Kurt, Bobby, and a couple other mutants he did not know the names of peering their heads in.

Beast had placed gauze on most of Rogue's back wounds to prevent further blood loss and infection; he then turned her on her side to see a gleaming piece of metal trapped four inches deep into her flesh.

She moaned. She was awake, barely. "Now Rogue this is going to hurt," Beast warned. He took a pair of large tweezers and took hold of the shrapnel. He started to pull. Shrieks of pain escaped her mouth; her eyes shut as tight as she could manage to shut them. Two hands enclosed around hers and she grabbed them and squeezed them mercilessly as she screamed. One last cry of agony and it was out. Her breathing labored, deep and heavy. Rogue slowly opened her eyes and peered into the face of Gambit. Her gaze followed his face down to his neck, past his chest, towards his arms, and ended at his hands.

Hands that she was holding, and that were holding her.

She paused for a moment then quickly let go. Exhausted, she fell into her pillow as Beast covered her wound. "You'll need lots of rest. And won't be able to sit up very easily for a few days," he informed her.

"Ah can't just sit here."

"I'm afraid you have no choice. You're body needs time to heal. I'm officially placing you on bed rest."

She decided to argue that matter some more later, because right now that's exactly what she needed.

Gambit stood over her watching. Taking note of the tiniest movements to even how she can be torn up and still be beautiful. He had no intention of leaving her side.

Meanwhile, Charles and Hank were outside the infirmary talking.

"She got cut up pretty bad and will need a lot of time to recover, but she should be fine."

"That's good to hear," Xavier peered into the infirmary, "And what of him?"

"From how he was running like a mad man to get her medical attention I doubt he's here to do the X-men any harm."

"Yes, I sense no underlying scheme in his mind. Just worries for our young mutant."

"So what do we do?"

"He's a mutant just like us. We'll invite him to stay, join the team. But later, right now his mind is too full for another thought."

The group of kids had sat down in the hallway to wait for any news. Beast came out and announced, "Rogue is going to be fine. She just-"

"Beast!" Gambit's voice was heard calling.

Beast rushed back in, he didn't have to ask what was wrong, he could see it. Rogue was coughing up blood. "We need to do emergency surgery, now!" Beast grabbed her bed and wheeled it into the surgery room, "I need Jean!" he yelled. Jean was studying to go into the medical field, but was still out on the mission. Xavier sent her a telepathic message to get back to the mansion, it was urgent. She left the fight up to Cyclops and Shadowcat and flew as fast as she could back. She managed to make it there just in time and rushed into the surgery room. "There's shrapnel in her internal organs, give her a sedative."

She asked no questions and did what she was told. It took a while to find all the pieces, but they did it. Finally, they rolled a very heavily drugged Rogue back into the infirmary. Gambit stood up the second he saw her, "Is she gonna be okay?"

"Hopefully." Not the most reassuring word to hear.

Gambit stayed with her all night. He didn't notice anything that happened outside of that room. Not Scott and Kitty coming back. Not a concerned brother pacing the hall. He didn't even notice Logan getting back from wherever he'd been until he literally ripped the doors off the infirmary.

"You!" he growled, "You did this?" Logan unsheathed his claws and positioned them centimeters from Gambit's neck.

"No!" he yelled back.

Beast came running in, "It's alright Logan. He's here to help her."

He grumbled, "I doubt it." Then walked over to Rogue, her eyes slightly flittering open, and took hold of her hand, "Gonna be okay kid?"

A hazy smile appeared on her face, "Course."

"I'll be here to check on you, promise."

Her head nodded and she drifted back into unconsciousness. Gambit realized they were much closer than he had originally thought. This was potentially very dangerous to his future health. Beast had left and Logan pulled up a chair next to Rogue's bed. While Gambit took a seat on the opposite side. He knew Wolverine wanted to tear him into little pieces and bury them so far away no one would ever find them, which didn't make the awkward tension any better.

However, both men eventually drifted off into sleep.

Wolverine, being woken up first with an assignment to track down Magneto's new base reluctantly left Rogue's side. Before he left though he checked in on her one more time, but stopped when he saw Gambit holding her hand, pleading with her unconscious figure, "Please be alright Chere, please." Logan smiled and left without a sound.

She woke up rather disoriented the next morning. "Why am Ah in the infirmary?"

"You were in an explosion during a battle Chere," Gambit's voice startled her.

"Why are y'here?" she asked.

"You could have died Cherie," he sounded sincere.

She replied coldly, "An' what do y'care? We're enemies."

"Jus' couldn't bear the thought of goin' into battle an' not seein' you there." He tried to reach out for her but she retorted quickly. As she did though, she caught a glimpse of her uniform: torn and blood-covered.

She looked around then asked, "So none of it was a dream?"

As Beast walked in he answered, "No Rogue it wasn't," then he held up the large piece of shrapnel that was imbedded in her side and asked light-heartedly, "Would you like a souvenir?"

She raised her hand up to her face and rubbed her cheek, drawing it back she saw the soot that freshly rested on her tattered, blood coated glove. "Maybe later," she answered.

"Suit yourself," he took a medical chart with him and left.

She plopped down on her pillow with a thud, "What am Ah s'pose t'do stuck in here for weeks?"

Gambit smirked, "I could entertain ya."

"Go jump offa bridge Swamp Rat."

He smiled wider than before, "One second," he said and rushed out.

Gambit came back with a bed-in-breakfast table and placed it on Rogue's lap. She scanned the items: French toast, a glass of milk, her favorite book, a fresh pair of black gloves, and a rose.

"Ya were in mah room," she stated eyeing him suspiciously.

"Minor detail," he dismissed, "Now eat up, Gambit made them specially fo' you."

They were delicious, covered in maple syrup and powdered sugar. But halfway through the first one she set down her fork, she had to tell him what was nagging at her.

"What's wrong Chere? You don' like 'em?"

"They're great. It's…umm…" she looked down, contemplating whether she should tell him or not, "y'know who Ah called out for before Ah lost consciousness?"

"Non."

"You."

"You called out Gambit's name?"

"Ah called out Remy's name."

Disclaimer: I DON'T OWN XMEN OR XMEN EVOLUTION

Might write another chapter for it! Tell me if you think I should!