"The Man Called Gambit Pt. 2"
by Andrew (Hades)

Gambit left Titan's body and slipped silently into the hall with the stealth of the world's greatest thief. He worked his way down the passageway, alert and watchful. The last thing he needed was to be taken down like the unfortunate Titan. Gambit hated being sucker-punched even more than being caught. Those two often travel hand in hand. He doesn't experience either very often. He had reached the end of the corridor, and thus the hallway, and he stopped.

His hand slid in and out of his leather coat quickly, producing the small mirror. The minute rustle of leather on leather was barely audible at all. He kneeled and slid the mirror out along the floor. This technique proves useful in finding out who is where in a room without their knowing you've looked. Unless they were, for some reason, staring at the floor.

Warstar happened to be doing just that. C'Cill and B'Nee were in poor spirits. They sauntered down the hall, glaring at the floor. Had there been rocks to kick they would have been kicking them. But there were no rocks. There was a small glint of light that caught their attention, however.

"A mirror." C'Cill thought.

"Now what would a mirror be doing..." B'Nee began but didn't get to finish.

A heavily charged playing card hit them, dead-center, in the chest. The large machine-man went down, hard. His small electrical companion dove from his perch on the larger one's back. He grabbed Gambit's arm, expecting his electrically-charged touch to render the man unconscious. He realized, too late, that leather isn't the best conductor of electricity. Then, a playing card ended his consciousness. There was a loud, semi-mechanical whir, a sound like an angry machine. That's pretty much what B'Nee was. The two were sentient robotic constructs of unknown origin. Most likely there is a whole race of them somewhere. Warstar never told and no one ever asked them, as far as Gambit knew.

The whir was the larger half of Warstar working his way back to his feet. Warstar was among the heavy hitters of the Imperial Guard. Nearly indestructible to begin with, Warstar was capable of self-repair at an eerie rate. Still, Gambit didn't want to hurt them, so he hadn't charged the card fully. A mistake he was regretting now.

"Why do you attack us?" the angry green alien asked.

"I wasn't attacking you, I just wanted to talk." Gambit said, trying his secondary power on him.

His mesmerism failed.

"Must be too robotic." Gambit thought of his opponent.

"Oh, well," he said aloud, "let the games begin."

He charged another card and the biokinetic bomb exploded next to Warstar's head, making his auditory sensors ring with feedback. Gambit reached into his coat, produced his collapsible bo-staff, and pole-vaulted, kicking the large green alien in the face in one smooth motion. The larger combatant staggered backward. Remy spun on his heel and threw a card at C'Cill, just as the smaller alien was preparing to enter the fight anew. B'Nee recovered and took advantage of Gambit's distraction, charging at his back. The Cajun X-Man agilely back-flipped over the rushing alien, forcing the bruiser's head into the floor as he landed. Another charged card to the back of the head put B'Nee, and thus Warstar, down for the count. The green head rolled down the corridor with a nearly comic "clink, click, clink."

Gambit turned his back to the two downed Guardsmen. He rushed down the passage without concern for silence. Anyone who hadn't heard that exchange would have to be deaf, something the Guard was not. The way Gambit figured, the rest of the Guard would be looking for him soon if they weren't already. He didn't know how long it would be before Warstar and Titan woke up or if they would be found first, but one thing he knew for certain. His chances for pulling off this mission had just been halved.

He rounded the last corner in the long and twisting corridor. The huge vault yielded to his skill in a few short seconds. Gambit pulled the door open, sliding the huge thing slowly along its hinges.

"It should be right... maird!" Gambit said as they came into view.

The Guardsmen were fanned out behind Gladiator. Smasher, Oracle, Earthquake, Starbolt.

"At least dey not carrying de full roster." Gambit thought.

Five cards slid down into Gambit's hand and he charged them all to capacity.

"Just gimme dat box an' I be on my way. I don' wanna have to hurt you."

Gladiator laughed a haughty, pompous laugh.

"Surrender, mutant, or be taken." Gladiator issued.

"I done tol' you I won' be leavin' wit'out dat box."

"Guard!" Gladiator screamed, "Remand him into custody."

"I guess I have to hurt you, den."

"You cannot hurt me! I am Gladiator, Praetor of the Imperial Guard! No mere earth-being can hurt me."

The purple alien took to the air, his cape flowing out behind him. He flew straight forward, gathering speed to ram Gambit with a super-powered punch strong enough to knock him into next week.

"Some people, dey just don't learn."

"I will destroy you!" Gladiator yelled as he streaked toward Gambit.

Gambit laughed at the man's prideful outburst.

"If you can't beat 'em, mock 'em." Gambit thought, and broke into song.

"Don' worry, be happy." He sang nearly stoically as the oncoming alien was provoked to as-yet-unseen depths of rage.

Gambit dodged the living missile easily, sidestepping the screaming alien as he slammed into and through the wall behind him. The Guard went on the move.

Gambit threw the cards out in a fan. Two hit the ceiling over Smasher, bringing a large section of it down on his head. It wouldn't keep him down for long. Oracle reached out for Gambit's mind with her mental powers. She found no purchase, her powers useless. Gambit took her down with one card. The other two knocked Starbolt off balance.

"Dere's t'ree," Gambit thought, "but two will be back in de game soon."

"Dooooooooooooo, do, do, do, duh-do-duh-do." He sang and threw another card. The projectile hit Smasher in the face just as he rose from the rubble. He slumped forward, out cold.

"Don' worry." He threw another explosive card and Starbolt dodged.

Starbolt fired an energy blast at Gambit. He jumped nimbly over it and it plowed into Gladiator just as he was returning from his missed punch. Starbolts face went pale as he realized what had happened.

"Be happy, now." Gambit sang and winked at Starbolt.

"I'm sorr-" Starbolt started, but Gambit took him out of the fight.

Earthquake used his power to hurl the rubble at Gambit. Gambit threw out a charged card and jumped backward. The stunt worked just like counter-measures on aircraft, disintegrating the threat and leaving the target unharmed. Gambit threw the last card from the deck at Earthquake, who was too stunned to dodge.

He spun again, facing the last Guardsman still standing.

"Jus' you an' me, Gladlock." Gambit taunted.

The purple aliens lip curled back in a snarl and a guttural growl rumbled out of his throat. The world moved in slow motion. Gladiator charged again, fully intending to shut the thief-turned-X-Man up permanently. Gambit stood his ground. Gladiator became a purple bullet as he sped down the length of the huge room at Gambit. Gambit reached into his pocket. Gladiator continued to speed inevitably forward. Gambit pulled out the small mirror. The growling missile continued forward. Gambit charged the silvered surface and threw it at the enraged Guardsman bearing down upon him.

The mirror burst into a thousand pieces as it hit his face. The glittering fragments flew apart with phenomenal force, slicing his purple skin open. Blood poored out from his face like party streamers. The dust of the shattered mirror glinted in the room's dim light like stars at twilight as it fell gently to the floor. Gladiator fell hard, his face scraping the ground as his flight ended and his body skidded to a halt on the battered floor. The growl petered out as the whine of flesh scraping floor filled the room. His contorted face stopped just short of Gambit's armored boots.

"I tried to tell you, mon ami," Gambit said as he kneeled over the unconscious alien, "stress kills."

Gambit picked up the black box and ran into the corridor. Warstar had just about managed to get his head back on as Gambit hot-footed it past him. Gambit threw the sewer access room's door wide open and burst in, jump-kicking the freshly awakened Titan in the face. Gambit jumped down the hole before the startled alien knew what happened. A flash of light came up from the opening as Gambit cleared the Shi'Ar castle's shielding and was teleported away instantly.

"Dat was too close, mon ami." Gambit said angrily to the Courier.

He delivered the black box to the weasely man and turned to leave. He paused long enough to light a cigarette.

"I'll be in touch." He said.

Gambit grunted in response and left only a cloud of quickly dissipating smoke as evidence he was ever there at all.

The End???

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Want to read part one of this story? Do so by clicking here: The Man Called Gambit

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