CHAPTER 6
 

 An ear peircing scream shattered what little peace there was in the park. Ororo Munroe rose quickly to her feet in alarm. The man next to her, Logan, did the same.

 "By the Goddess, what was that?!" she cried.

 "Sounded like a mountain lion, darlin'," Wolverine answered. Hank McCoy came bounding towards them.

 "I'll assume by the looks of perplexation on your faces that you heard that, also." Hank stated.

 "How could anybody not hear that?!" Loagn growled. "C'mon!"

 The three raced through the trees towards the sound of the cry.

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 Three playing cards flipped into Gambit's hands. Almost instantly the potential energy of the cards was transmuted into kinetic energy by one of Gambit's mutant powers. It was one of the few powers he had the X-men knew about. Using skills he honed, first in the Thieves Guild, and then with the X-men, he threw the cards at the vampire's feet. They exploded in a quick succession, knocking Alex off balance. Two more cards exploded on his chest sending him, once again, sprawling on the grass.

 "And what was *that* LeBeau?!" he cried angrily. "You should be careful or you will have played all your aces before it's time!"

 "*That*, homme, was part of my mutant ability. Comes in real handy when dealin' wit' de likes a'you!" Remy replied.

 "Don't you get it, LeBeau?! It's too late! You abilities have already begun to surface. You heard you own scream; that of a lion's. The transformation has already started!" Alex's voice was soaked with triumph.

 "What transformation?!" Gambit was getting frustrated.

 "Though you'll never be a full blood, your half blood nature is starting to come through! *It* has begun!"

 Alex's leg shot out and his foot connected with the cajun's chest. There was an audible crack and Gambit worried that he might have broken a few ribs. Remy fell to the ground and Alex lunged again. Remy brought both arms up instinctively to protact himself. At that moment, Logan leapt forward and slammed Alex back into the grass. The bone claws that extended from just below Logan's knuckles unsheathed, ready to slice Alex into tiny peices if the mood struck.

 Wolverine didn't get a chance as Alex brought his feet up under Logan and flipped him headlong into the nearest tree. The air behind Alex began to swirl and crackle as a teleportation rift opened. Robin stepped out of the rift and quickly pulled Alex to his feet, bringing him into the rift. The rift collapsed in on itself and the two disappeared.

 "Ya wanna tell me what that was about, Cajun?" Logan asked. He stood up and several splintered tree bits rained down around him.

 "If I knew, I'd tell ya, mon ami," Gambit replied. He was still sitting on the ground where Alex had dumped him. Ororo moved to his side and hauled him to his feet. His rib cage protested the movement, but nothing was broken. However his arm was bleeding badly.

 "You are injured, Remy," her voice ran deep with concern. Hank came over to inspect his arm, easily sliding into his role as the X-mens' resident doctor.

 "Was that the chump that gotcha the other night?" Logan approached as well.

 "Yeah."

 "Are you certain, Remy?" Storm asked.

"He admitted it, chere."

 "As fascinating as all this seems," Beast interjected, "I would appreciate it if we could return to the mansion so that I could properly bandage this wound."

 Ororo, Hank, and Remy began to walk slowly away with various comments about being careful not to agitate the gash and the inevitable retorts about being fine and being able to handle it. Loagn watched them leave with a growing unease. For he had noticed that Remy's scent had changed even more since they had started this mission.
 

END PART 6

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