Disclaimer: The X-Men and all other Marvel Characters and related material are copyrighted by Marvel Comics, and are used without permission. This is a non-profit piece of work (I'm not making a dime, it's all done for fun).
This piece of work and the characters of Joanna Collins, Kimberly Collins, Tina Marlow & Christopher Versailles (Blaze) are copyrighted by Allen Sumner 1996.
Send comments and suggestion to: ASumner@Highland.Net
Any comments or suggestions are welcomed and will be read and thought about and flames will be read and thought about and then probably trashed.
Here it is the follow up to "Gambit: Magic Man," hope you enjoy it:

by Allen Sumner

Rogue awoke shortly after 5:00am. Looking around with hazy eyes she realised that she had fallen asleep in Remy's room. Slowly she began to remember the day and evening before, how Remy had vanished in front of her very eyes, timeshifted by Tina Marlow, one of the newest students at Xavier's. Her uncontrolled outrage toward Tina.

Lord, if ah had hurt her. Ah don't know wha' ah'd do. she thought as she remembered how out of control she was, believeing Remy had be vaporized or something.

Then Remy reappeared an hour later. He wouldn't tell her where he had been. Then he went and saw Tina, and then he did "the magic trick" one Rogue had seen back when she was nine years old and lost at the carnival.

When she final got enough nerve to ask Remy about it. He had said nothing, replied only by pulling a stuffed bear out and giving it to her. The same stuffed bear she had given the stranger who had come to her aid so many years ago.

Then they had talked way into the morning. The last thing she remembered was Remy holding her in his arms.

Looking around again, now that her vision had cleared she saw Gambit, laying in a chair by his window, sound asleep.

Well, 't least nothin' happened. If something had, she would have Remy's thoughts in her head now. The cajun's a gentleman, who would of thought? she mused.

Being as quiet as possibly she took the top cover off of his bed and walked over to the sleeping X-man. Covering him as a mother would cover a sleeping child, Rogue looked at his rogueishly handsome face and smiled. Then she kissed her gloved fingertips and pressed them gently against his lips.

"Thank ya Remy, ah love ya." she said in a soft, barely audible whisper.

Quietly she left his room, luckly there was no other members of the X-men awake and in the hall. As she neared her room she saw that the door to Tina's room was ajar, she peered in at the sleeping girl.

"Ah'm sorry, Tina, please forgive me?" she said in a whisper and then closed the door.

Instead of going on to her room she walked outside. She need to go someplace quiet, someplace she could be alone and think. And then she lifted into the air and flew off toward the lake.

Christopher Versailles, also known as Blaze, jogged along the path next to Breakstone lake. It was mid September and the leaves had already begun to change to their beautiful autumn colors. There was a lite chill in the early morning air that seemed to make each breath he took refreshing. Out on the lake, thin wisps of mist slowly raised and danced across the water's surface

Chris, as everyone called him, had only been at Xaiver's for a couple of months. He had came here after being contacted by the X-Men, and been given a chance to learn how to control his mutant abilities to generate and control a firey green energy. He looked alot different now than he had two months ago as an 18 year old senior in high school. He had been about 5'10", a little on the heavy side, and basically your average run of the mill student, he was not a nerd or with the "IN" crowd. But when his powers began to manifest themselves, boy did he change.

Over the pass two months, even without exercising, he developed the physique of an olympic athlete, now weight in at 195 lbs. of muscle, grew 7" and even his nearsightedness had corrected itself.

Dr. McCoy, better known as the Beast, had told him that it was his mutant abilities. Whatever it was Chris liked it, of course sometime the muscle cramps got pretty bad, but if he worked out regularly, then didn't bother him much.

He followed the trail up a hill and was soon at the top, a beautiful spot that looked out over the lake and from here you could just make out the roof of the mansion poking through the rainbow colored canopy of trees in the early morning twilight. There, at the overlook, he saw another member of the X-Men sitting on an oak stump, staring out over the lake.

She sat there, with her knees brought up close to her chest and her arm wrapped around them. Her brown hair, rustled in the slight breeze causing the white strip that ran down the center to shimmer.

"Mornin' Rogue." He said as he came to a stop next to her, and then took a deep breath.

"Mornin' sugar'ah." she replied still looking toward the mansion.

"You're up early today." He said as he squatted down next to her, "Something wrong?"

"'Ah jus' couln't sleep, that's all."

"Yeah tell me another one, Rogue." he said as he noticed she had been crying. " I believe I've know you long enough, to know when something bothering you."

"It's nothin', really." Rogue said as a small tear escaped from her right eye. "It'll probabl' jus' bore ya."

Chris saw the tear roll down her cheek.

"Hey, I love bein' bored, 'sides I'm a pretty good listener."

Rogue sat there a moment and then began. She told him the events of the day before, events he had missed because he had went into Salem's Center.

"Chris, when ah saw Remy disappear like that, ah lost control o' mahself. If Jean hadn't been 'ere... God, it scares me t' even think what might o' happened."

Chris knew, as did the rest of the X-Men, how Rogue felt towards Gambit.

"Rogue, you saw the man you love vanish before your very eyes. Nobody blames you for your reaction, 'sides I probably would of done the same it it had been somebody I cared for deeply.

"Ah know, but the thought o' never seein' him again. Chris, it's the hope that someday ah'll be able to touch him, that keeps me goin'."

"Never lose hope Rogue, I'm sure that someday you'll be able to."

Ya always were an optimist. "Chris, y'all don't realize how much somethin' as little as a touch can mean ta some one." She turned her eyes back out across the lake, toward the mansion. "Some times it can be so rough... the professor an' the rest of y'all have help so much, but...", She paused and shallowed deeply, "even with all of y'all as my family, I still get t' feelin' so lonely..." she paused again and wiped the tears from her eyes, "Listen t' me... pourin' my heart out, y'all probably have something better t' be doin'."

"Nah, Rogue. Nothing that can't wait while I listen to a friend." Chris said as Rogue wiped the more tears from her eyes with a gloved hand.

"Thanks... y'all don't know how much that means. Guess we'd better be getting back." she said as she started to rise.

"Rogue...", Chris added, "Why don't we just sit here and watch the rest of this beautiful sunrise?"

She looked at him and smiled and then sat down beside him.

They watched as the sun continued to rise over the horizon behind them, its early morning light causing the canpoy of the trees to erupt into a collage of reds, oranges, yellows, and greens. At this time of the year it was as breathtaking as any Chris had ever seen.

"Rogue?" Chris voice broke the silence, "You really do love him, don't you?"

"Yeah, ah do."

Chris just turned and looked back out across the lake.

"Chris, don't worry, ya'll find tha' special someone too." Rogue said.

<X-Men.> Professor Xaiver's telepathic voice sounded in their minds. <Would you all please come to the mansion, we have some new arrivals that I would like you to meet.>

"Well, we better get going." Chris said as they both stood. Rogue gently rose into the air.

"Are ya comin'?" she asked.

Chris walked to the edge of the cliff and then dove off, diving towards the surface of the water. The rush of adrenalin filled him. Then about twenty feet above the water there was a flash of green as he ignited if powers. His regularly short cut sandy-brown hair transformed into a long flowing green flame that left a five foot fire trailing behind him as he climbed up to where Rogue hovered.

"Sometimes ah wonder about ya, Chris." She said in her usual southern drawl.

He looked at her with his now soild green eyes. "Yeah, me to." then he gave her his best Jackie Chan "clik, clik" wink and shot off toward the mansion. No use trying to outrun her, he thought, she can play tag with a jet fighter... and win.

The two airborne figures appear over the top of the trees at the edge of the yard in back of the mansion and saw the rest of the X-Men standing by the pool. Then they landed and waited with the rest.

Gambit walked up to Rogue, "Where you been, cherie?"

"Jus' out thinkin'."

Gambit gave a quick glance over to where Chris was standing talking to Sam Guthrie. Both were from Kentucky and had formed a strong friendship.

Chris watched as Professor Xaiver and Jean Grey escorted two young girls, about Chris' age, out to group. One was a tall statuesque redhead, she wore boots, jeans, a white blouse and brown vest, her long hair was pulled back into a pony tail. When Jean introduced her as Kimberly Collins, the girl whinced and added.

"Just call me Kim."

The other girl seemed a little nervous. She wasn't as tall as the first one. She had shoulder lenght black hair and wore a blue and white sun dress. Even though she didn't look much like the other, there was something similiar about the two.

"And this is her sister Joanna." the Professor added as she nodded her head. "They will be joining our newest class of students."

Each of the X-Men then went to make their individual introductions to the two new students. Bobby Drake, the Iceman, walked over to Kim and introduced himself, with a introduction that sounded more like a pick up line. He took her hand and started to kiss it.

"You must be Iceman...", she said as she tightened her grip, Bobby whinced and shrugged, "Jean warned me about you." With that her grip tightened considerably, forcing him to his knee and causing him to let out a slight cry. "But you are kinda cute."

Bobby got to his feet, shaking his throbbing hand. "Let me guess... super-strength!"

Kim nodded and gave the Iceman a wink.

Chris walked up to Joanna who was listening to Jean explain some of the things she could expect. Jean looked up at him and Joanna turned to face him.

"Joanna, this if Christopher Versailles we call him Blaze." Jean said as Joanna's and Chris' eyes meet.

They both stood tranfixed. An unseen spark passed between them.

<Chris, say something.> Jean telepathical nudged him.

"Um.. Hi." he finally studdered.

"Hi." Joanna said, her skin flushed.

TO BE CONTINUED

Well there you have it, the follow up to "Gambit: Magic Man" I have decided to link some of my stories together and introduce some new characters. I'm still not to sure where all of this is heading. We'll just have to sit back and enjoy the ride, wherever it may take us.
Guess you figured out by now that this is going to be an ongoing story, guess I'll have to think up some niffy title for it, wish me luck.
And if anybody wants to archive this story or an other that I write, you have my permission, if you let me know.
-Allen

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