CHAPTER 3
 

 He awoke with an awful headache...again! Remy looked around his room. Something was wrong, but he couldn't place it. Everyting looked different, somehow. The dark was a little more ominous, little things that Remy would not have given a second glance at seemed more important. He could hear floor boards creaking downstairs as someone walked on them, muted voices, suggesting that it was more than one person. A faint whirring sound reached his ears, indicating that someone was using the Danger Room. But the Danger Room was several stories beneath him. He shouldn't be able to hear that.

 He stood and pulled one of the curtains away from his window. The sun had long since retreated behind the horizon and a quarter moon shone brightly in the cloudless sky. <Ya done it again!> he thought. He had slept through the entire day. He reasoneed that that might be due to the fever that Ororo had mentioned. But he didn't feel sick. Just...strange.

 Ignoring the feeling he headed for the bathroom. He needed a shower and a shave and figure he should get them before he lost the chance. Scott was infamous, in his opinion, anyway, for calling spontaneous Danger Room exercise session at the worst times. It wasn't until he was about to shave that he noticed the small marks on the back of his neck.
 
 "What de Hell...?" he whispered at the mirror.
 
 He couldn't quite see them properly; they were to far back for that. But he could feel them. He had reached his hand back to rub his sore neck and his fingers grazed the two small punctures. Gambit shuddered. Flashes of the dark blur that had attacked him flashed across his mind. Whatever it had been had bitten him. Remy pushed throuh the bedroom door and out into the hall, heading for Ororo's attic apartment.

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 Ororo's attic apartment was spacious and open. A skylight took up the largest portion of the cieling and plants of all kinds grew about the room. Strom had asked for this room particularly due to her claustraphobia. It made her feel closer to nature and less shut off from the rest of the world. The stars could easily be seen at night and the sun shone through brightly during the day and it comforted her.

 Using her gift to control the weather, Storm had formed miniature rain clouds under her finger tips and was watering her plants with the rain that sprinkled down from them. She turned as she heard Remy's footsteps coming up the stairs. Remy rarely made a sound when he moved, she mused. He had startled her on several occasions when he semed to materialize behind her. She didn't normally give him the satisfaction of knowing he had scared her of coarse.

 He emerged amidst the vaious foliage a second later. He smiled at her in greeting, but it wasn't his usual teasing smile he normally gave her. Something was bothering him, Storm could tell.

 "is something wrong?" she wasted no time in asking.
 
 "Think so." came the short response. She reguarding him cooly and waited for him to continue. "I need you ta tell me somethin'. I can't see'em very well an' I need you to tell me what it is."
 
 He stepped up and pulled his hair back so she could see the marks on the back of his neck.
 
 "Goddess!" She cried.
 
 "What *is* dat?" he asked. He turned so he could see her face.
 
 "It looks as though something has bitten you. What happened?" Ororo placed her hand on his shoulder.
 
 "Dunno. But I think whatever it was happened last night," he asnwered. She gave him a concerned glance and Remy plunged into the story of what had happened. She grew thoughtful and quiet as he explained. When He finished, Storm said, "I think you ought to go see Hank in his lab and have him look at that."

 Remy tensed visibly at the mention of Hank's lab.
 
 "Why does Hank bother?" Ororo asked.
 
 "Ain't Hank dat bothers me," he mumbled.
 
 "I see." She decided not to ask why the lab disturbed him. It must be the lab. Hank had mentioned several times that he could never keep Rmey in either the his lab or the infirmary for more than ten minutes, apart from those rare times when Remy hadn't been conscious to now the differnce. In a conversation with Ororo, Hank had expressed the wish to examine Gambit more closely to learn more about his powers, but could never seem to get Remy to agree to it.

 Now Ororo eyed her friend with a mixture of curiousity and concern. He clearly wasn't going to explain what bothered him so much. His jaw was tighly set. No one could make him do or say anything he didn't want to when he set his jaw like that.
 
 "Alright," he sighed after a moment. "I'll have Hank check dis out."

 "I will come with you," she offered. Remy agreed. Storm wouldn't know it but having her there would be emmense help to him mentally. She was a strong moral support for him and if he was going into anything resembling a laboratory, she would help ease his nerves. They both left the attic apartment in search of Hank.

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 Hank McCoy's codename was Beast. And everyone agreed that it was for good reason. Hank had the brain if a Surgeon/geneticist/scientist/professor all rolled up into a big blue furry body. He was an extremely thoughtful person, despite his appearance.

 Hank pushed his rectangular glasses back up to the bridge of his nose for what he felt must have been the billionth time. They were always sliding down. He was humming to himself softly, in a jovial mood as usual, while he hunched over one of his experiments. A small vial sat before him, containing a strand of the Legacy Virus. He squeezed a few dros of red liquid from an  eye dropper into the vial and watched closely for any reaction that might occur. The liquid around the virus began to turn a multitude of colors before  it finally settled on a rather disgusting shade of green. The virus, however, was uneffected.

 Beast sighed and began cleaning his glasses with the corner of his lab coat. A nervous habit he often used when he was frustrated or something was bothering him. At the moment the act was out of frustration. He had been working to find a cure or at least a vaccination for the Legacy Virus for so long. So many muatants were dying from it. And he felt, as he had once put it, "So damned helpless to prevent the present and impending threat of the aforementioned virus".

 Hank's stomach chose that moment to rumble. He reminded himself that he hadn't eaten for quite a number of hours as he had been too preoccupied with his experiments. He wondered if there was any left over salad from that night supper in the fridge.

 "You cannot expect to continue in you endeavors if you pass out from hunger," he muttered to himself.

 "Talkin' ta y'self again, mon ami?" Hank jumped at the sudden voice. He turned to see Gambit standing about a foot behind him.

 "I was presently mentally weighing out the importance og the Legacy Virus and food," he replied. "My stomach was opting for the latter of the two."
 
 Ororo then came into the lab as well, coming up to stand beside Remy. She looked worried, Hank noticed. Whatever it was had to be important or else  Remy wouldn't be anywhere near the lab.

 "So what brings you two in here on such a lovely night?" he asked. Gambit and Ororo exchanged glances. Again, Remy went on to explain what had happened to him. As much as he knew of at least.

 "Might I have a look at those marks?" Hank asked when he had finished. Remy shrugged and pulled his hair back once again. "Oh my."

 "Do you know what it is?" this from Ororo.

 "Not really. But they appear to be teeth marks. I'd say you were correct in the assumptioned that you were bitten, Remy. Perhaps an inspection of this park you mentioned might reveal to us some clue as to who the fanged culprit is. Well, doesn't this have all the effect of a late night horror film?" Hank smiled.
 
 "Yeah, but dis flick don't go away when you turn off de T.V." Remy added.

 "Very well, my wayward cajun friend," Hank's grin widened. "We will just have to suffer without the remote control, then, won't we?"
 

END PART 3

 Spade