GENETIC ECLIPSE

Part X: Can’t Start a Fire Without a Spark

By David Wheatley

Author’s Note: This story is continued from Cable #9.

Wolverine had told him about these portals. What he didn’t tell him about was the intense dizziness you got when you stepped through them.

The portal to Egypt had been in Madripoor, but when Chimera had detonated a Lepton Imploder and destroyed a warp chamber the whole network was realigned. It was something to do with Landau, Luckman, and Lake, so Remy didn’t question it.

When they were involved it was best not to question, just to accept it and move on. When Xavier contacted Wolverine with the news about Kitty and let him know Gambit was on his way, Logan had given him precise details about how to get to Egypt.

It had only taken three warp chambers, complete with some kind of time dilation effect, and Gambit had seemingly travelled through half the galaxy. He made a note of the doors so he could use them again sometime.

Eventually he was there, in Egypt. The mini-Cerebro unit he had brought from the Xavier Institute said Logan was in the vicinity, as was Shadowcat and three others. From the reports of the other X-Men they had to be the Dark Riders, one of which included Danielle Moonstar.

Gambit hadn’t been there for the other battles with the Dark Riders, either through injury or just not being ‘chosen’ to prove himself, but he knew their reputation and how tough they were. With Dani leading them, caution and stealth were the name of the game.

Caution and stealth were all part of the trade when you were a member of the Thieves Guild. Or the Assassins. He smiled remembering how easily Bella Donna had crept up on him when they were younger, when times were easier and they were both more innocent than they currently were.

That thought reminded him that there was more to this mission than usual. Remy LeBeau had a deep-seated need to prove himself on this one. Too many times he had let people down. Bella Donna, Rogue, Genvieve, the Morlocks, the X-Men, and recently Angela, the newest X-Man codenamed Spark.

As part of the opening play in this game, Apocalypse had unleashed two of his Horsemen on the X-Men. Black Tom Cassidy as the new Famine and Sabretooth as the new Horseman of War. It was the latter that had given him the killing frenzy that constantly burned in the mind of Victor Creed and was what he lived for. He had shared his rage and desire for blood with Remy, making LeBeau no better than Creed, an irony not lost on Creed.

To Remy’s shame, he had been unable to resist the power of War and, rejoicing willingly in the bloodlust, he had almost killed their latest recruit to the X-Men, and would have succeeded if not for the intervention of Storm.

The X-Men were going through rough times, with the teams split as they were, Xavier dying from the Legacy Virus, Storm and Iceman at each other’s throats, and now this situation. Whilst nobody blamed Gambit per se, Angela wouldn’t look at him, and he blamed himself.

And Apocalypse.

If he could stop this human variant of the Legacy Virus from getting out, or had a hand in stopping it, then he would have made amends. He’d have pulled one back on Apocalypse. That was more than enough. He owed Apocalypse enough, for if not for him, there would have been no Sinister.

No Sinister, no Morlock Massacre. It all came back down to Apocalypse. Gambit could see why Archangel had been angry so much of the time because of him. It was easy to surrender to the rage, but that was Sabretooth’s style, and Remy LeBeau was not Victor Creed, no matter what Creed had made him do earlier.

He made the pain, the rage, and the regret work for him, to give him focus as an X-Man. As a hero. As a man. He made his way inside, and found that there were very few guards about. En Sabah Nur’s people were obviously expecting the X-Men to arrive in a blaze of glory – not in the shadows.

More fool them, he grinned as he made his way inside. Then he saw the Dark Riders surround Shadowcat, preparing to kill her. His heart froze as he wondered what to do – should he save her or go on with the mission?

The man in him said, ‘She knew de risks, leave and save the rest of de world’, but the man said, “De hell wi’ de risks. What’s de fate of de world if you can’t save your friends?” Luckily the decision and the situation were resolved for him.

*SHLUCKT!*

“I wouldn’t do that, bub, if I were you.”

Logan was already waiting and Gambit noticed his nostrils flare. He knew he was there and began talking to them. Gambit knew enough to get out of there whilst Wolverine distracted the enemy and complete the mission Xavier had given him.

“Merci, mon ami,” he said as he moved out, not knowing if Logan would hear him, but the words were there. They might not have been the best of friends, but they were allies and they had shared a beer and an adventure or two. He swore they’d do so again.

He made his way through the complex, taking care not to be spotted or caught. There were some kind of robots in the corridors, however they were dormant, which Remy thought strange, but did not question fortune as he made his way through.

The X-Men had been here before and he had a fair idea of where he was going. Cyclops may have had many faults in Gambit’s opinion but he was meticulous in his reports. Of course it helped when you had Jean Grey to back you up. The advantage of being a telepath was a perfect memory.

Maybe a disadvantage too, thought Remy, deciding some things were best left forgotten. However, that wasn’t the point. The point was finding the human version of the Legacy Virus, getting the information to Xavier, and shutting down this place one and for all.

He made his way in and found the laboratories unguarded, which he found strange. Gambit was much too an experienced a thief not to know when something was too easy. And this was.

He put his fingers to his lips and looked about, seeing what was wrong about the place. It seemed almost perfect. No guards, the equipment lying out in front of him, the computer mainframe active…

Or was it a computer mainframe? Somehow Remy doubted it. He edged toward the computer, staying out of range of the screen, and when he was next to it he took a cigarette from his pocket and lit up. The odds were the smell of the burning weed would attract attention, but he had work to do.

The smoke flitted past the screen and Remy saw what he suspected. Infra-red beams emanating from the screen. If he’d walked up to it, he’d have set something off. It had been a risk the smoke wouldn’t, but he guessed a dust storm would have the same kind of effect.

If not being so revealing, he grinned as he stubbed out the cigarette. It was a waste, but needs must.

Pushing the cigarette out of his mind, and the craving he suddenly had for one, Gambit looked around for something out of place that didn’t seem out of place. Something too obvious was not what he was after, it needed to be something subtle.

He looked back at the computer then wondered where it was getting the power from. He examined the back of it, and followed the wire until it reached the wall. More to the point it reached a wall socket. That was it, Gambit thought.

Why would a citadel like this have a plug socket in one wall when there wasn’t another in sight? Because people always saw them, they might have missed it. However, Gambit was good at what he did. Pulling the wire out might set off alarms he didn’t want, so he had to find a different way, and he tapped the wall. It sounded solid enough.

He pulled a small screwdriver from his pocket and began to undo the wall socket from where it was. He had to be careful not to set any alarms off, or get electrocuted. It took a moment to get it and he saw what he was after – a gap between the wall and what was beyond.

“What are you doing?” asked a voice and Gambit turned to see a small creature – an extension of the Dark Rider called Tusk. His power was to create miniature duplicates of himself, which had a certain degree of independence. Gambit knew messing with that socket had to have summoned him somehow.

“Looking for data on the Legacy Virus,” said Gambit, beginning to charge the screwdriver. “Where is it?”

“Somewhere you’ll never find it, X-Man,” said the Tuskette and began to multiply. They didn’t look that steady, but there were a lot of them, and Gambit threw the screwdriver towards one of them, and then pushed the computer to the floor.

It crashed in a shower of sparks and the room cascaded to life, bars and wires and all sorts of contraptions appearing, avoiding the Tuskette’s but pinning Gambit in. Gambit noticed they were all in one particular area, and he was quite a distance from them, and he began to brood on the mistake.

Could the wall socket have been a red herring? Another alarm to trap the smarter and more devious investigators? He cursed himself for his foolishness and counted eleven of the Tuskettes.

This was going to take some doing, but he hadn’t clocked hours in the Danger Room for nothing. Professor Xavier hadn’t made him work and work for no reason, and Gambit thanked him for it as he weaved, ducked, and dodged the gauntlet of traps and devices, his natural agility coming through. He vaulted over the Tuskettes, using the lead one as a propeller, and sailed over their tiny heads, and landed behind them.

In a flash, he unleashed a hoard of charged cards, and he knew that whilst they weren’t going to stop the Tuskettes, they would slow them down. He needed to buy time to see what they were protecting.

He put his shoulder to the wall and knocked through it like it was paper. It had been almost too easy to miss, except this Dark Rider wasn’t the smartest of the breed and had pointed him in the right direction.

He put his hands to the wall and charged it, then took cover as it exploded, blocking the path. He quickly looked about and found what he was after. The computer.

He’d never been much into computer crime, but life at Xavier’s meant he had to become familiar with computers and he had learnt quite a lot, and in seconds he had hacked into it and found what the files he needed to find. The computer noted for the Virus, the design the pathogens, everything.

Remy put the Cerebro unit to the computer and the information began to transfer to the main unit at the X-Mansion via a network of satellites, and he hoped Xavier was paying attention. He also found something else – the enhancements for the Horsemen. This would take a few moments to send to the Institute, but they needed the information to save the life of Phoenix and the twins.

“Nice work, X-Man,” said a lone Tuskette as Remy turned to see him. “Makes it one on one. You good enough to go through me?” Remy could see it holding a flask of some sort and he knew it had to be the virus, complete and ready. Plus the transfer wasn’t complete yet. He had to stall him.

“You won’t fight me,” said Remy. “The virus in your hands is much too important.”

The Tuskette smiled. “I won’t have to,” he said and began to multiply, until there were a dozen of them in the room.

“Merde,” said Gambit, noting each one had vial of the virus in his hands. Gambit didn’t know how that was possible, but Apocalypse’s enhancements were inventive to say the least.

“You’ll not stop all of us,” they said in unison.

“Don’t have to,” said Gambit as the Cerebro plinged that it had completed the transfer. “Xavier’s got the information to stop you. Your systems aren’t that well protected.” They looked at each other, uncertain of what to do next. Then they turned and ran, obviously back to their host Tusk.

Gambit gave chase, throwing charged debris from the wall at them, taking out most of them as well as precisely shattering the vials, and within moments he arrived back at the main chamber, where Wolverine and Shadowcat were fighting Tusk and Moonstar respectively.

The remainder suddenly stopped dead as Wolverine slammed Tusk in the face, only just retracting his claws. The shock made Tusk lose control, and Gambit quickly felled all but one of the Tuskettes, as Logan dropped Tusk and pinned him down. How the feral X-Man could do this, Remy couldn’t say, as Tusk was larger than Logan.

Gambit looked about the room, quickly finding the last Tuskette, and he saw his chance to nail the last of the them and stopping the threat of the human Legacy Virus, but saw Moonstar’s psionic lance about to punch through Shadowcat, who was just standing there. He didn’t know what to do, stop the Tuskette or save Kitty.

He closed his eyes and made his choice.

Read Wolverine #14, X-Men #13, Uncanny X-Men #16, & Apocalypse #10 for parts 11-14 of Genetic Eclipse!