It was a hot lazy afternoon. The charismatic Cajun, Remy LeBeau, codenamed Gambit lay stretched out on a mat by the pool of the X-mansion. He wore a pair of sunglasses to protect his eyes from the glare of the sun, eyes that were red on black, attributed to mutancy. One advantage of that was, he had night vision.
His fellow X-men, Iceman and Bishop were on either sides of him. Sounds of laughter drifted across the pool to them. Jubilee. The little waif had actually managed to cajole Beast out of his laboratory where he was studying the Legacy Virus and into the pool. They were splashing water at each other. Bishop moved to join them.
The warmth of the sun carressed Remy's bare skin. A slight breeze stirred, a few strands of his hair fell over his face but he made no move to brush them away. He had had a long night with a really hot babe. Sappy? Saire? He couldn't quite remember. Besides, names didn't mean anything to him. He was really tired by the time he got home, which was why he had declined Storm and Rogue's invitation to go shopping. He had no desire to be their porter. Remy was more asleep then awake now. All was so peaceful. Until...
Something cold and hard slithered down his chest. An ice-cube. Remy was instantly awake. He swept the ice-cube off him with a speed that would have shamed Quicksilver, jerked his head up and yelled,"DRAKE!"
Robert Drake aka Iceman was 'reading' the latest edition of 'Playboy' when something cold and hard hit him. An ice-cube. Before he even had time to wonder where it had come from, he heard Gambit yelling his name. Bewildered, yet annoyed, he turned to find out what that obnoxious, over-confident, impudent jerk wanted. Robert Drake never liked Gambit. Never. Storm however was Gambit's best friend and was the one who had recruited him into the Xmen. Life as an Xman was not easy, living for the dream and putting his neck on the line for people who couldn't wait to turn him into ice-cocktail. Just when he thought things couldn't get any worse, the nasty little bogey swamprat showed up. That Cajun sure knew how to get under everybody's skin. Right now, all he wanted to do was to give that swamprat a knuckle-sandwich. His knuckle-sandwich. His thoughts were interrupted by Beast's hearty laughter.
"My friends, I do believe we have young Miss Lee here to thank for this entertaining little episode." Beast chuckled. Bishop smiled. Jubilee was trying hard to keep a poker face but failing miserably. Her blue eyes twinkled with mischief and glee. She was trying to get out of the pool in an attempt to escape the combined wrath of Gambit and Iceman. She knew it was a futile attempt for there was little or no hope of escaping the two full-fledged X-men.
Iceman freezed the water molecules around her and entrapped her in an ice-cage but she busted free with her ability to generate plasma bursts from her palms. There was an explosion and a splash, courtesy of Gambit's mutant ability to transmute potential energy in non-living objects to kinetic energy causing it to explode on impact.
Jubilee surfaced, spluttering. She looked a little green.
"You okay petite?" asked Gambit worriedly as he helped her out of the pool.
"Sure, sure, I'm fine...cough cough...Just swallowed some water...hack... cough...is all...where do you keep your cards? In your swimming trunks?" Gambit just smiled. Bobby just hated that smile of his.
Jubilee suddenly yelled," Last one to the shower will have to wear a skirt and do the dishes!" She shoved Gambit back into the pool and raced off with Hank and Bobby hot at her heels. Bishop remained to help Gambit out of the pool.
"T'anks mon ami," Gambit paused, studied Bishop and continued," I don' t'ink any of de chere's skirts will fit you." Bishop gestured to their downed opponent who had slipped on an ice-cube and was rubbing his butt.
"Come on! We might not 'ave to wear skirts as yet!"
End of Part 1