Half-Life
Cairo, Egypt
"You could often tell quite a bit about a city by the way they build their roofs," Gambit thought to himself perched on ledge of a tall sky-scrapper, as he stared out over the hodgepodge of roofs, from single story dwellings, to taverns, to single story chalets, to the domed silver-gilt mosques of the houses of worship. Space was at a premium, so it its inhabitants were forced to build upwards, or subdivide what they already had into smaller and smaller compartments. All the buildings were lit up as bright as day by lights of a its several million inhabitants. It was odd, he thought to himself, that once you moved beyond the city limits, right outside the urban world were the pyramids of the ancient Egyptian pharaohs. "Look at moi. Here I am half-way around the world from home in the Big Easy, and I'm playing gargoyle. Need to be movin' on. Gotta a job to do."
With that Gambit levered himself to his feet in one smooth, easy motion and gracefully leaped from roof to roof and then slid down the fire escape to the mansion below that he'd cased earlier. He didn't know who the mansion belonged to, only that it held a fortune in stolen artwork all procured through the black market. Not that he cared. "What could be easier," he thought to himself," as he picked the lock in a matter of seconds and began to go inside.
Meanwhile, Amanda, who also considered herself something of an expert on architecture, knelt at the edge of an outdoor reflecting pool and debated on which of the available points of entry would be the best option, when she collided with another person with apparently similar intentions.
"You lost?" the man said in a low drawl. His speech sounded like honey laced with cigar smoke. She thought it sounded familiar, if only she could recall the last time she'd heard it. Still, after several lifetimes he ability to attach names with voice was not `t what it used to be. The accent was very thick, but he most definitely did not sound like a local.
"Why thank you, you broke my fall perfectly," Amanda smiled, trying to use her well-stocked supply of charm on this stranger. His back was half-turned to her and she could only catch a glimpse of him in profile. He released his grip on her and eyed her in the light on the torches above the entryway of the mansion.
"You!" Remy whispered, his breath having been momentarily knocked out of him.
"What the hell are you doing here?" Amanda demanded, picking herself and dusting off her clothes. "He should really consider wearing dark glasses, those red on black eyes of his are a dead giveaway." she thought to herself. "Why are you following me?"
"I was about to ask you the very same thing," Gambit grinned.
"Look, I don't remember if I thanked you, when you came to my rescue before," Amanda began, "This is my take, "so just butt out."
"Well, you know, Amanda, I'm really not prepared to do that," Gambit smiled.
Amanda felt her resistance melting away in the wake of that smile. "What is about that accent and that smile?" He is so good looking. That's trouble, I suspect he's well aware of that."
"So how do you want to play this?" Amanda demanded.
Elsewhere, a girl with a fall of snow-white hair that was almost silver in the moonlight, peered around a corner and froze in place like a rabbit trapped in the headlights of an oncoming car. In another time she had once been called Storm, for her ability to control the weather. Now reduced to body of a twelve year old by the design of an automaton called Nanny and her cyborg assistant, the Orphan Maker, she was back in her native Cairo on the run for an old nemesis from her past, the Shadow King. The dust of the city streets caught in her lungs. She coughed until it felt like she would never stop. Ororo tried to muffle it in her hood, because she could sense the ones who hunted her on her trail. She had eluded pursuit and capture so far, but it was only a matter of time before the Hounds found her hiding spot. The hounds she could deal with, it was their master that frightened her. The Shadow King's real name was Amahl Farouk, he was a mutant with frightening mental abilities who found the evil in men and women's heart and twisted them into a horrible animal/like version of themselves. With every fiber of her being she did not want to end up like that. It wasn't a fate one would wish on even their worst enemy. She squared her shoulders against the wall of the alley. She kept moving, hoping to stay one step ahead of them.
Reaching what she assumed to be an abandoned mansion storm climbed the ivy-choked walls finding hand and foot holds. Once on top, she looked out over an indoor pool lined with plants. She felt pressure from behind and turned around to see a hound with its red and blue bodysuit lined with spikes nudging at her heels. She concentrated and aimed a blast of lightning at the creature, it struck and collapsed to the ground below. Ororo lost her balance and landed with a splash into the pool. Shaking her head, she splashed her way to the side and climbed out of the water. She faced the hounds again and let loose more lightning bolts from her hands, knowing that she could not keep this up for much longer.
Amanda saw flashes of lightning coming from the mansion she was considering breaking into. She muttered a curse under her breath in Latin, figuring that another Immortal had already gotten there ahead of her and beaten her to the punch. "It must be the Quickening. What else could cause that much lighting and broken glass?"
"If you say so," Gambit shrugged, he rushed inside at full tilt.
"Wait! You have no idea what you're dealing with!" Amanda shouted after his retreating form, but received no response. Amanda whispered a silent good luck and grimaced. She kept telling herself that he probably wouldn't welcome her help anyways. "If it's another Immortal, I'm sitting this one out. Time ticked by, Amanda swore again than ran after Gambit, thinking as she did so, "I must be completely mad."
Ororo was exhausted and desperate, the hounds were everywhere, snapping at her.
She tried summoning more and more of her winds and lightning bolts, but her control over her elemental powers was nowhere near complete, and here and there a few lightning bolts kept fizzling out, like duds.
"Who are you?" Ororo asked, seeing a man in a long brown duster coat appear and begin throwing glowing spikes in the midst of the pack of hounds, scattering them. With a magician's sleight of hand Gambit flipped even more throwing spikes out of his sleeve, using his mutant abilities to charge it with energy. The ordinary piece of metal struck and exploded with the force of an cannonball.
In the back of her mind her thoughts were in a whirl. "Easier by far to tell what he does here. He's obviously he's a thief, like me. And the woman, also a thief. The owner of this house had those paintings stolen, to add to his private collection. I meant to take them back and return where they rightfully belonged, even though I knew it was a trap designed by the Shadow King to ensnare me, but now I am not so sure."
Gambit didn't know who the girl was, only that she was in trouble.
"Bonjour. I can see that I'm out of my league here. Why bother trouble." Gambit began in soothing, convincing tones. The hounds sat on the floor and stared with at him with wide liquid attentive eyes. "A wise man knows when to fight and when to leave to fight another day. Why don't we call it a draw, that way no one's feelings are hurt."
"They're spellbound by his voice," Ororo whispered, "This is my chance to make good my escape."
"You a mind-reader?" Amanda griped, start to back-pedal. This whole night was obviously a wash, so it was time to cut her losses and get the hell out of there. At the last instant she came up short as she realized that all possible escape routes were cut off.
"No!" a loud baritone voice boomed out. "But I Am!"
They all looked up to see a well-built older Egyptian man leaning over the ledge of an upper floor balcony that lined the room. He smiled an evil-grin, a vague thinning of his lips. "Very snappy patter, my friend. That's a talent of yours I could find much better uses for," he mimed the cutting of a throat by slashing his hand across his neck, "That is, after you gone through my orientation session." he laughed. It was a horrible choking laugh.
Gambit picked up a random knick knack from a table and charged up with his mutant ability to kinetically charge objects, in same motion he brought his arm back about to throw it in the direction of the man, when a searing pain started at the base of his skull and worked its way around his head like a snake. He screamed and toppled backwards.
"Leave him alone!" Ororo shouted, hurtling another lightning bolt at the man, once it struck he toppled backwards among the dust and rubble of what left of the balcony.
Amanda went over to Gambit, and gently rolled him over, his eyes were open and they glinted in the moonlight. "You alive?" she whispered.
"Yeah," he muttered, grunting with the pain of a lingering headache.
"Well, good," she whispered back, helping him to his feet.
"This is my chance, while they are distracted. Ororo said. "Stand near me, and I will use my winds to get us out of here."
"Come again?" Amanda asked, moving closer to the white-haired girl, intrigued in spite of herself.
"Hold on tightly to me, " Ororo ordered.
"Don't get any ideas, mister," Amanda cautioned waving one finger in front of his nose, "She's just a kid, although she talks a lot better than you do for someone her age."
"Let us discuss this somewhere a little less noisy," Ororo stated and using her powers created a smokescreen that blinded the hounds and their master.
"The stolen paintings were just an excuse, that's not what you're really after is it?" Gambit demanded, pivoting on his heels in one smooth motion and turning to confront Amanda.
"I wish you would stop it. I..." Amanda trailed off.
"No. But I can read you, Mademoiselle. "Tell me de truth."
"What truth?" Amanda replied, stalling for time, her fingers tapping on the hilt of her sword that she had hidden underneath her long black duster coat.
"Does this have anything to do with that glowing crystal around your neck?" Gambit asked.
"I've never seen it do that before," Amanda replied, grasping the chain that held the crystal securely around her neck. "I wonder what's causing it. Maybe it's telling me that the other fragments are somewhere nearby."
"Why are you interrogating this woman about her jewelry?" Ororo wondered.
"Dunno," Gambit replied. "Seemed like a good idea at the time."
"Idiot," Ororo muttered.
"We must leave. Now," Ororo stated, folding her arms across her chest.
"You've got my vote there," Amanda replied.
Storm used her control over the winds to strap herself into a parachute, and with Amanda and Gambit clinging onto her for dear life, she soared up into the sky as gracefully as kite on a spring day and carried them away from the chaos, fire and smoke.
"How long can you keep this up?" Amanda shouted to be heard over the wind, trying not to make the mistake of looking down and seeing just how far up in the sky they were, or how far it was if they were to fall.
"I am not certain," Storm replied, her breath coming in and out in little gasp with the strain of the effort of keeping them all aloft and headed in the general direction of the deserted junkyard that she called home for now. "Quiet please, I must concentrate."
They landed in the deserted junkyard that Ororo called home. Ororo unstrapped herself from the parachute and tucked back into a chest where she kept her valuables. Glancing at the man and woman who had accompanied her, she shook her head and stumbled over to the pallet covered with blankets that she used as her bed.
"So that's where you got the parachute, chere," Gambit commented walking over to inspect the plane. "Not much to look at it, but mebbe with a little work we can get it flying again."
"For the record, I'm only along for the ride," Amanda said. "I'm here for one thing, and one thing only. The other fragments of this crystal I'm wearing around my neck,' Amanda said, breaking out of her momentary reverie.
"Do you really believe the legend to be true," Ororo asked. "According to the Biblical story, Methulesa was a man who lived to be almost one thousand years old."
"That the completely assembled crystal will give the wearer immortality as well as invulnerability," Amanda nodded. "Yes, I do. Too many lives have already been lost over it."
"Take it from somebody as should know," Gambit muttered, "Immortality aint' all it's cracked up to be."
"I remember now, it sure didn't make that Candra very happy," Amanda replied.
"You are speaking from firsthand experience," Ororo asked arching one white eyebrow.
Gambit shrugged, "Not for meself, but I be knowin' those that do." In the back of his mind he remembered his long business association with the External, Candra. He winced inwardly and thought back to how badly that had ended when he'd failed to return with some Watcher's chronicle of Candra's life, It's over."
Amanda recalled her old mentor and first teacher, Rebecca, fingering the chain that held the only crystal in her possession, around her neck. Rebecca had been forced to lay down her sword in order to save the life of her mortal husband, John, because another former student of, Luther, had betrayed her. "When this is all over, and once I have the pieces assembled, I'll find him, and make him pay for what he's done."
Verona, Italy 1635
A well-sprung carriage, pulled by a matched set of dappled white ponies, rattled down the marble plaza, deftly weaving in and out of the crowd of people and other conveyances by its driver. Inside, Rebecca and her student, Amanda had their heads bent close together.
"Understand this: The world wants to assign you a role in life. And once you accept that role you are doomed. Your power is limited to the tiny amount allotted to the role you have selected or have forced upon you. An actor, on the other hand, plays many roles. Enjoy that power, and if it is beyond you, at least forge a new identity, one of your own making, one that has no boundaries," Rebecca explained.
"I do not understand," Amanda blurted, confused, but intrigued. "Are you saying I should explore a career in the theater?"
"Those who know you best, will understand that that this male persona is merely a role to move about freely in this society." Rebecca said, smiling. "In private she will remain yourself.".
Right then and there, Amanda came up with a strategy. She would recreate herself utterly, forging a public image of her own making. She would play the part of a man. She wore men's clothes before creating her puesednoym, men's shirts and riding breeches. She added long men's coats, gray hats, heavy boots, and dandyish cravats to her wardrobe.
"Your new identity will protect you from the world precisely because it is not you, it is a costume you put on and take off. You need not take it personally. And your new identity sets you apart, gives you theatrical presence. Those in the back row can see you and hear you. Those in the front row marvel at your audacity." Rebecca said, tilting forward as the carriage came to an abrupt stop. The driver cracked his whip and was about to yell to those within if they were all right when they both heard shots being fired from a pistol. "What is going on out there?" Rebecca demanded, shoving her flowery hat aside, and reached forward for the door handle. Amanda rattled the handle of the door on her side of the carriage, and tumbled out, cursing the long skirts that were fashionable here in Verona now.
Coming into her line of sight were a trio of masked men all wearing dark clothes and masks over their faces, domino masks like the ones worn by the actors in theater, except these were all black instead of patterned in red and black diamonds like those of the actors. The tell-tale "Buzz" that signaled the presence of another Immortal started at the base of her neck, she tensed, and wondered if she'd left her sword inside on the carriage seat.
Just then, the leader of the highway robbers lowered his pistol and removed his mask.
"Amanda, how nice to see you again." It was Luther, another of Rebecca's students, one she did not much care for.
"What do `you' want?" Amanda demanded, folding her arms across her chest. "Luther."
Luther smiled, "Why, the same thing you do, I suspect. Those lovely crystals that our mentor has in her treasure trove."
"You each have already been given a fragment of the crystal, Luther." Rebecca said, "You know I can not afford to play favorites."
"Is that so?" Luther began to slowly approach Rebecca, out of the corner of his eye he glanced at Amanda. "You will do nothing to interfere."
"Rebecca!" Amanda screamed, as Luther, aimed the gun point blank at her and shot her. "I will be fine." Rebecca whispered.
"Why didn't you fight back.?
"I already promised Luther that I would lay down my sword ," Rebecca replied, "In exchange for sparing the life of my mortal husband, John."
"Because I chose to," Rebecca snapped. "That should be enough for you." One last thing, you must leave, and I have something to give you before you do."
"What?" Amanda replied, standing up and wondering what she was going to do now.
Amand knew that Rebecca was dying, but Immortals couldn't die unless you took their heads, so why was Rebecca making such a production out of this incident. Then it struck her, Rebecca was sending her away, and was trying to say goodbye.
"This is the Methuselah's Stone. It will protect the wearer from harm," Rebecca whispered, "Take it."
"I can't." Amanda realized she was sobbing.
"Leave, and take the crystal," Rebecca insisted, thrusting the white shard into her student's hands. "It's up to you know to decide what you do with it."
Amanda shook her head to clear of any lingering memories of the past. She leaned back in her seat, and was a bit startled to see the Ororo, her white hair covering hacked short with a dull knife, shaking her and shaking her.
"Are you all right, Amanda?" Ororo asked, "It appeared you had left us."
"No, I'm fine," Amanda smiled. "Nice kid. Wonder what she does for fun around here when she's not running for her life." she thought to herself. "Are we there yet?"
"I be just de pilot, your de the one with the glowing compass," Gambit muttered from his position at the helm of the small plane.
"Someone's in a bad mood," Amanda grinned, pulling the crystal on its chain out of her clothes and grasping it in both hands. "I think we should land over there?" Amanda said, coming forward and pointing out the main window of the cockpit.
"What is that building?"
"The National Museum," Ororo replied., indicating with a wave of her hand that they should land on the roof. Once they were down, she led them in the direction of the ventilation system and the shaft the led down into the building. "This will be the quickest route inside."
"I guess you know what you're doing," Amanda sighed.
"No, not really," Ororo replied.
"Oh," Gambit nodded and followed them inside.
It was too late at night for anyone to be around, even the security guards were fast asleep in their chairs by the entrances. Ororo glanced back to see if the others were still behind her. They were, she brought a finger up to her mouth as a signal to keep silent. She had told them the truth, she'd never been to this museum before, or any others like it, although she'd looked in the windows when the exhibits were lit up, and the curators led tours around.
Amanda glanced around with interest at the gold exhibits on display, as well the tombs and other artifacts, although she was into collecting antiquities, , much she dealt with as a jewel thief involved other regions of the world, still it never hurt to look," she thought to herself.
Gambit followed behind them, wondering if there were really anything to find a museum.
Several hours later, they'd covered three floors and 15 different rooms, and nothing.
Just then, Amanda felt the crystal around her neck begin to grow warm and she shook her head to relieve it of a lingering headache. In the dim lighting it glowed green and twisted out of her grip and pointed south direction, in other words, down. Amanda took the lead and they found themselves facing a blank wall, Amanda approached the door and the crystal's light gradually began to form the outlines of a door.
"Does that rock do anything else," Gambit muttered, and approached the door as well.
"Here, I'll blow up de door.." he trailed off, beginning to charge up a playing card, when Storm came near him and grabbed his hand forced the card out of his grip. "What?
"You will do no such thing," Ororo said, "This is public property."
While he glared at her the door opened of its own accord. "Nice," Amanda muttered, "how very cheery and welcoming." The crystal glow became fainter, and then went out completely.
"Shall we?" Ororo offered, taking the lead. "It's my quest, why does she have to lead?" Amanda griped, following the now lifeless crystal.
Gambit just shook his head, "Mebbe dat's de way she is."
It got darker the deeper that they went, Amanda couldn't help jumping even thought she knew that the invisible door was bound to slam shut behind them once they were through to the other side, still when it went bang, she was startled.
"Who know dey had tunnels down here," Gambit said, holding up a glow playing card to provide light to see by, "I see de look in your eyes, Stormy, and don't worry, this is just we can see where we're going. I'm not going to blow anything up."
"Play nice, kiddies," Amanda couldn't help burst out laughing. She couldn't remember the last time she'd been around two people arguing who was going to blow something up.
"How do you do that?" Amanda asked, indicating the glowing playing card in Gambit's hand. "Don't tell me, but it's more than just sleight of hand, right?"
"Oui, Chere," Gambit nodded. "You gonna tell me too not to call you cher?"
"No," Amanda sighed, "Unlike Stormy, or whatever she wants to go by right now, I know better."
The tunnels were carved right out of the bedrock on which the museum had been built. It was cold, damp, and dark down here. Niches ran along on either side of them, and floor of the tunnel was smooth and kept sloping at a downwards angle.
They traveled in silence for a while, when the crystal began glowing again, they turned a corner and came up short. "Maybe we should tie ourselves together, in case we get separated," Amanda suggested. "Anyone think to bring a rope?"
"Non," Gambit replied, turning around to face her, " "What's up?"
Amanda whistled, "Check that out!" she pointed towards an intact circular alabaster table . The exquisite table sitting right in the center of the subterranean chamber. It had been inscribed with a list of offerings and blessings for the owner of the tomb. On the western wall of the tomb, the direction the sun god, Ra descends to traverse the underworld and arise renewed in the east, at dawn, there was a false door carved into the limestone through which the deceased's soul can join Ra on his heavenly barge.
The false door's lintels were inscribed detailing the various titles of the owner of the tomb: including doctor, and entertainer of the royal court, and assuring him life, strength through all eternity.
"Well, that's not what we were looking for," Amanda trailed off.
Ororo glided forward in a trance and reached for some of the various tools left lying on the surface of the table, her hand outstretched, and grasped an amulet in the form of a looped cross. "An ankh?" Ororo said, picking it up and turning it over and over in her hand. It was gold and it glinted in dim light of the torches left in the their holders above the door way that Ororo used her powers to light. The white stones that she had at first taken to be diamonds, matched the ones in the amulet that Amanda wore. "We have found what are seeking, my friends!" Ororo shouted in excitement.
"And I have found what I was seeking as well!" a loud baritone voice shattered the silence of the tomb. "Welcome, my intrepid explorers, Amal Faurok, at your service," the man bent low at the waist, with his hand over his heart. "Storm, Ororo, knows me better as the Shadow King.
"This guy certainly gets around," Amanda complained. He certainly didn't feel like any Immortal or pre-immie that she had ever encountered, but whatever he was it was making her `Buzz'; the signal that warned Immortals of the presence of others of their kind, sort of like an early-warning system. "I must be exhausted, that's the only explanation," she muttered under her breath.
"How did you find me?" Storm demanded, her fear giving a tremble to her voice.
"I'll take those crystals, now. I must thank you for going to all the trouble to retrieve them for me," the Shadow King said, holding out both hands, expecting immediate delivery and compliance with his orders.
"Not a chance," Amanda yelled, drawing her sword from underneath her black coat.
Gambit drew his bo-staff with one hand, and with the other shuffled the deck of playing cards he hidden in various coat pockets.
"You would all seek to defy me," The Shadow King asked, surprise in his voice.
"That goes without saying," Gambit replied. "You won't be taking anything from us," and with that he let fly a full complement of kinetically charged playing cards, which struck the self-proclaimed Shadow King head-on. He was singed and forced back several paces. He slammed into the wall, and staggered to his feet. With a gesture of his hand, he summoned the hounds who accompanied him.
Amanda kept her hand clenched around her sword, "Come on, you ugly as sin, guys,"
"No way this is anything like fight another Immortal. How did I ever get myself into this mess?" she thought to herself, even as she did so, she whacked them on the side of their heads and flanks with the flat of her sword and knocked them back several paces, listening as they whined with pain. Turning to Storm, she watched as the girl brought both arms up and with the palms spread open and let loose with several blindingly bright bolts of lightning. "You know, we just might win this one, after all.
"Try not to bring this place down around our ears, okay?. I'm not ready to buried here," Amanda whispered nervously taking a quick glance around the chamber.
Storm just nodded and kept up with the lightning, Gambit , having run out of cards, picked up loose rocks, charged them up, and threw them at the hounds.
"Ororo, Ororo, " the Shadow King said in mollifying tones, "If I may quote the Immortal Bard," he glanced around, "Well, if there are no objections," he continued, `"How sharper than a serpent's tooth is an ungrateful child,'. I do think King Lear said it best. I would given you the world, instead you choose to defy, and brought your allies into this. Now, they will share your fate." With that he let loose a mental blast of energy.
"Look out!" Ororo shouted.
"Huh?" Amanda asked, instinctively ducking, and dropping to the floor, so that the mind blast missed her.
Gambit having already experienced being on the receiving end of one of these mind blasts, braced himself for the impact, as it were the blast hit with a glancing blow, and gave him a piercing headache. "I be feelin' that in de morning," he muttered to himself under his breath.
"It is time to end this,!" Ororo shouted, and swirled up the dust and the winds under her command and blew the hounds and their master down an adjoining tunnel, where the ceiling collapsed. "That will not hold them for long! Amanda I have secured the crystals! We must leave now!"
"You'll get no arguments from this corner," Amanda replied, standing up and dusting herself off. She went over to Gambit, and helped him to his feet. He looked dazed and he was bleeding from his left ear. "Think you can make it?" she asked.
"Yeah," Gambit replied. "I have to, right?"
"Let's get out of here," Amanda nodded.
"You have no idea how glad I am to be out of those tunnels," Amanda said, blinking as her eyes slowly adjusted to the change from darkness to light. "Where do we go from here?" Amanda asked.
"Do you really want to do that, chere?" Gambit asked.
"Have you heard of something called the X-Men?" Ororo asked. "We will need to return to America to tell you more about them. And let us get one thing straight, please address me as Storm."
"X-Men. I be liking the sound of that," Gambit replied, shrugging, checking his duster for the deck of playing cards he remembered having, wondering if he'd dropped them during the fight. "Can I call you Stormy? It fits you."
"My name is not Stormy," Ororo said mock-severely. "You may call me Storm or Ororo," she added, folding her arms, and turned to Amanda.
"Amanda, you are welcome to return to the United States with us, " Ororo offered.
"No thanks," Amanda replied. "I appreciate the offer, but I've got enough weirdness in my life, and I still have a quest left incomplete." In the back of her mind she had to admit to herself that she couldn't have pulled this off without their help.
"Understood," Ororo nodded.
"I'll be moving on," Amanda said, turning to Gambit, "You really are charmer, you know that?" Amanda remarked, moving forward and landing a lingering kiss on his lips. She laughed at the surprised look on his face.
"You are incorrigible," Ororo smiled. "Have I mentioned that already?"
"Non," Gambit shrugged his red on black eyes glowing. "Where will you go?"
"I haven't decided yet. I was thinking about returning to Paris," Amanda replied.
"If that's where you feel you must go, then do not let us stop you," Storm said.
"We could got to New Orleans, Stormy.. Ah Storm," Gambit said.
"You two sort this out," Amanda laughed. "You take care of her, and I think you'll provide a nice foil for each other."
"Now who's de mind-reader?" Gambit arching one eyebrow, then gave her a hug.
"Farewell, Amanda," Storm added. "Watch yourself."
"Always," Amanda replied, walking off in the direction of the nearest 4-star hotel, one hand in her pocket where she could feel the hard outlines of the two additional crystals they had found in the catacombs underneath the museum. She glanced back at the last minute to see Gambit and Storm waving at her, she waved back, then she watched them climb into the plane and take off into the dawn sky.