"Self-Insertion"
Part 4
by Osiris Brackhaus

 

"Ciao ragazzi!", the restaurant's patron cheerfully yelled after them as Rogue and Pyro left the Casa Incendia for the marketplace. "Come back soon!"

"We actually might come back, don't you think?" Pyro looked at his companion and smiled widely, and Marie had to admit that the place actually was most lovely. Great food, romantic to the point of surreallity, very cozy. She would have loved to come back here with Bobby as long as they still were on holiday here.

But first, there was this little problem of this slightly mad mutant next to her having kidnapped this very Bobby and Logan on top to be solved. Rogue had to fight hard not to punch Pyro straight in the face for what he had done. But as already several times throughout dinner, she stayed calm, and instead smiled back just as sweet.

"Sure, why not?" Either she had never before noticed just how much Pyro had been in love with her, or her acting talents were far better than she had given herself credit for. "It was really lovely." Johnny beamed as if he had built the place himself.

It seemed to Rogue as if suddenly, there were people deeply craving either her or her boyfriend jumping from behind every corner. Why didn't Reuben team up with Pyro, she mused caustically. The two of them could make a nice plan and share Bobby and me. But that, she closed with a mental shrug, that was probably what made the difference between good and evil mutants.
Although throughout the evening, Pyro had hardly seemed evil. Just very in love and rather selfish.

"And I really can't give you a lift home?"

Startled out of her thoughts, Rogue looked at the other mutant standing next to her. "Sorry?"

"You're sure you want to stay with this friend of yours?"

"I- yeah." Rogue nodded vigorously, furious at herself that she hadn't found any better excuse for not having Pyro driving her home than a non-existent friend of her who was living close by.

"Then I'll just walk you to her door. Which road is she living?"

Only the fact that Rogue couldn't decide between either cringing or cursing saved her from giving away her anxiety. Then, with just the barest pause, she replied: "I don't know the name, I have just walked there some times. But it's just two corners, you really don't need to..."

"But I'd like to. Please allow me the pleasure."

How could one reject such attempt at chivalry without seeming far out of character? So Marie put on a brave smile and offered her arm to Pyro, who accepted with a hinted bow.
He wasn't as boring and annoying as she had expected him to be, Rogue admitted silently to herself. He's actually rather nice. And as soon as I know Bobby in safety, I'll scratch John's eyes out, she added determinedly. Down to the back of his skull. With my bare fingers. And then I'll use his own powers to incinerate what remains of his ugly face.

This time, the smile she beamed at Pyro was dazzlingly genuine.

Walking in silence for a time, they both enjoyed the lovely, late-sunset light on the medieval down-town buildings they passed, each one lost in thoughts of their own. If only it would have been Bobby at her side, not his kidnapper, Marie thought probably the millionth time this night. It was such a lovely place.

Then, as they strolled by a house had only a few door-bell buttons and no speaker system at the door, Rogue stopped, saying: "It's here."

"Oh." Pyro was obviously disappointed that it had been THAT close to the restaurant. "Well, then, I think it's time for good-bye, then."

"Yes." A moment passed between them in awkward silence, then Johnny asked:

"Don't you want to ring? Maybe she's not at home."

"Oh she will be." Rogue silently sent a prayer to heaven, then decided to try her luck any pressed a random bell at the door, smiling at Pyro as the door buzzed open seconds later. "See? No need to worry."

"Well, good-bye then..." Pyro seemed reluctant for a moment, but Rogue slipped through the door before he could decide on whether or not to kiss her good-bye. "Do you have my number?"

"No. Do you have a card?" Please, Rogue thought, don't let anyone yell for me in Italian, or I'll be lost!

"Here. When will we see again?" Pyro actually seemed to have accepted her attempt at making him believe she wasn't disinclined now that Bobby was out of the way. What a jerk.

"What about next Wednesday?"

"OK, cool! I'll call you then, yes?"

"Sure. Great."

Somewhere up in the staircase, some woman yelled some question in Italian. Pressing her luck, Rogue yelled back: "It's just me, Marie! I'm on my way!" Then, turning to Pyro, she added: "See, I gotta rush. 'Was a lovely evening. Good bye."

And without waiting for an answer, she closed the door and leaned against the wall of the hallway.

Outside, she could hear Johnny hesitate for a moment, then he yelled through the door: "See you next Wednesday!", before she heard his steps leave down the cobblestone road.

Somewhere up some floors, the female voice yelled again, this time rather annoyed, and another voice, apparently an elderly man, answered her in what sounded like a flood of curses to Marie. Soon, there was a veritable duel of curses going on in the second floor, and Rogue only hoped that Pyro had been far away enough not to overhear any of the noise.

But then, she heard the sounds of a small motorbike outside, and with a soft sigh of relief, she opened the door and looked if it really was Reuben arriving there on his Vespa.
And indeed, sitting on the off-pink colored vehicle, wearing black slacks, white turtleneck, gloves and a pair of sunglasses, he looked like a stereotypical fifties-movie hero out to rescue his damsel-in-distress. With an impossible wide grin in his tanned face, it was obvious he knew what kind of display he was giving, and as Rogue slipped onto the bike behind his back, she just couldn't prevent herself from slapping him.

"Hey", he exclaimed ignobly. "What was that for?"

"For your shameless grin. And for the fact that I had to slap someone or break down screaming."

Laughing softly, Reuben started the motorbike, saying: "If you feel like doing so again, Miss, you're welcome to slap me whenever you want."

"Idiot. Where are we going?"

"Pyro's car. He's parking close to the restaurant. We can follow him home."

"Cool... how do you know?"

"You think I've been drinking coffee all the time you were flirting with that mutant?"

Wordlessly, Rogue slapped Reuben's head again, who only chuckled softly in return.

"I actually was", the blond charmer explained after a moment. "And I spend some rounds of bitter to the old men playing chess and asked some questions. Did you find out anything useful?"

"No." By now, Reuben was driving at a speed that seemed rather unhealthy in Marie's eyes, especially given the fact that he was cutting his way through a criss-cross of backyard alleys. Sneaking her arms around his waist, she held onto him for support, asking: "We didn't need half as long by foot as we went to where you picked me up. So where are we going, and why are you driving like this?"

"Don't want him to spot us immediately, ne c'est pas? And in this damned maze of huddled buildings, we can't just drive directly behind him. Either he'd see us or we'd lose him."

Coming to a halt in a narrow path not much wider than the bike itself, Reuben pointed at a crossing visible two houses ahead. "See?", he asked as suddenly, a white car came into view, Pyro clearly visible on the driver's seat. They watched as the car slowly maneuvered around the tight turn into the road to its left, then Reuben started his bike once more with full throttle. "The next crossing he'll come to is quite some way from here. We'll take a shortcut there. Hold on tight."

"Why-", Rogue tried to ask, but choked on the question as Reuben steered down the bike a small stairway that had been built between two other of the ancient buildings. Screaming, she clawed her gloved hands in her companion's sides, only calming down as they left the last step with a distinct grinding sound of metal on stone. "Remind me to shoot you if ever you try to get a license", she said breathless as they slowed down at the next place from where they would be able to watch the crossing Pyro would show up. "You're a threat to each law-abiding citizen!"

"Stop bitching." Reuben actually sounded rather flattered by his fellow student's shaky voice. "It's your boy-friend we're saving here, after all."

"Not any longer if you get killed me on the way there." Chuckling despite the situation, she added: "That's not what you have in mind, have you?"

"No. But you better duck now." Starting the Vespa again, the blond mutant drove through some narrow backyards that somehow all seemed to be interconnected.

"What do you mean with 'duck'?" Rogue couldn't see immediately what her companion wanted of her. Only when he yelled:

"DUCK!", crouching low behind the bike's tiny, mostly decorative windshield, she could see the impossibly low balcony they were heading at. The road next to it was closed off with a building site, but underneath the balcony, there was enough room for a low motorbike to pass. If one was a madman and had 'lucky bastard' as one's middle name, that was.

Biting down another scream, Rogue hung close to her fellow student, cursing herself for allowing this incredible person to lead this chase. If he weren't so damn successful at keeping track with the until now apparently completely oblivious Pyro, she'd already have beaten the crap out of him a long time ago.

And the chase didn't slow down one bit. Up and down the hills, through backyards and garages, a covered market and what looked like the back rooms of a butchery, the two young mutants followed Pyro through the convoluted roads of Caromerino. Several times, Rogue came close to the point of just jumping off the bike at the next stop and never again driving a single inch with this terrible person. But then, not even when they sneaked their way through the table-riddled yard of a café, Reuben lost control of the bike, and soon enough, the young woman just settled for closing her eyes whenever anything out of the ordinary happed.
Which was, actually, most of the time.

"Hey, Rogue!", Reuben hissed suddenly. "Rogue!"

"What?" Her eyes snapping open, she noticed that they were standing in the small driveway of a condominium, Pyro's white car nowhere to be seen. "Where is he?"

Reuben's incredulous grin widened another degree. "Did you have your eyes closed all the time?", he asked, softly adding: "Sorry."

With a disgruntled snort, she punched the blond mutant in the ribs, asking: "Where's Pyro?"

"He parked the car around the corner", Reuben answered while pointing around the building. "He must have rented a flat somewhere here. Cheap district."

"So we follow him by foot now, right?"

Reuben just nodded and waited for Rogue to slip off the bike before he moved it closer to the wall and locked it.

"Come on", he whispered, setting his sunglasses on his head. "We have to hurry."

Looking around the corner, they came just in time to see John open the door to one of the buildings, all of them apparently offering lots of small, cheap apartments to rent. As soon as he had disappeared out of sight, the two young students followed him, careful not to seem too much like the stalkers they were.
Luckily, the door's lock had apparently been broken for years, and since then no one ever had bothered to fix it. Silently sneaking into the surprisingly narrow, badly lit hallway, they looked around, listening for any hint that might tell them where to look for the kidnapper they were following.

When somewhere below them, a door in the basement slammed shut, the two of them nodded to each other.

"It's a try as good as any other", Rogue whispered, watching as Reuben solemnly peeled his gloves off his hands.

"What?", he asked as he noticed her hesitation. "We can need all little advantages we can get. I have no idea how my talent could be of use, but I'll definitely use it as soon as I know how."

With a smirk, Marie nodded, and for the first time for what seemed in years, took off her gloves as well.

"Feels weird, huh?" Reuben winked at the white-streaked mutant, gesturing her to follow him down the stairway into the basement. "You're armed now."

"Idiot", Rogue replied in an amiable whisper.

"I'm not stupid", Reuben whispered back defiantly. "I'm just...."

"Impossible?"

"No -"

"Mad?"

"No!" Still their friendly dispute was no louder than a hushed whisper.

"A scamp?"

"Well...", Reuben turned around on the last few steps of the stair to look at Rogue with a wide smile. "Might fit..."

"Well then, 'Scamp', where do we go to now?"

Reuben looked at the doors that led from the small room they had arrived in, shrugging. "No idea", he whispered weakly. "Any guess?"

Now having her time at grinning widely, Rogue pointed at the door to their very left, saying: "That one."

"That didn't sound like guessing."

"Well, that's the only metal door down here." Wriggling here eyebrows meaningful at Reuben, she waited until he got her point. When the blond mutant finally remembered that it had been a metal door they had heard up in the hallway, he bowed in a sketched gesture of admiration.

"Your brilliant deductive abilities never fail to amaze me, master", he said softly as he opened the door, careful not to make more noise than absolutely necessary. Rogue walked through, flashing her teeth at him, whispering:

"Thank you, Watson. And don't forget to take notes."

With a soft snort, Reuben closed the door again, following Marie into the dim corridor. Dark gray concrete walls were cluttered with all kinds of junk, from old paper decoration to small boats. Every here and there, a simple light-bulb hung from the cobweb-covered ceiling, most of them looking as if they hadn't been working since the end of WWII.

"Look!", Reuben suddenly whispered with excitement, and as Marie turned around, she found her fellow student pointing at some of the junk he had found underneath the corner of a huge carped he was holding up with his other hand. "A real 60's Garciano coffee-table! That's worth a fortune by now!"

Gasping in exasperation, she was about to give him a sharp retort about the difference of interior decoration and integrity, as both of them heard a faint voice from the far end of the corridor.
Pyro, there was no doubt about it, and he was laughing in an apparently splendid mood.

Suddenly, both the table and Reuben's apparent disinterest in the rescue of Bobby and Logan were forgotten, and the two youngsters sneaked closer to where they had heard the laughter.

"Well, I just had a wonderful evening", they heard Pyro explain as they came nearer to where the corridor ended into what seemed like a maze of tiny, wooden compartments, each of them labeled with the number of an apartment and floor, all of them even more stacked with rubbish and old furniture and plain stuff than the rooms before.
From the far end of the place, a faint reddish glow was emanating, and it was also from there that the two were hearing the voice.

"Guess who accompanied me for dinner", Pyro teased whoever he was talking to, and Reuben could hear Marie grind her teeth in fuming anger. "Apparently your little Rogue isn't too upset about you having gone missing, and we had a lovely evening together."

"What have you done to her, you maniac?" This time, it was Bobby's voice, tired, furious, but apparently otherwise unharmed.

Crouching behind another heap of junk, Rogue and Reuben peered around the last corner, blinking in impressed surprise at the display in front of them. One of the last booths had been freed of all cluttered stuff, and now there was Bobby standing, wearing nothing but his swimming-trunks, caged in by a fine net of fire that surrounded the whole inside of the box. Sitting in front of him, Pyro had taken seat in an old, cob-webbed rocking chair, grinning widely, apparently having a great time of enjoying himself.

"She was wearing a white scarf, and a red blouse." Gesturing languidly, Pyro elaborated Rogue's outfit as if it had been chosen merely for his honor. "And she was smiling so sweetly..."

"If you hurt her, you fucker, I - " Bobby stepped forward, furious about the way Pyro was talking of Marie, but his angry threat was cut off as a line of fire lashed out at him where he came too close to the supernatural cage he was being held in. Cursing, Bobby stumbled back, cringing around his seared hands.

"Then what?", Pyro asked, a little more strain showing in his voice than he obviously would have liked to. Keeping up the cage apparently took more of him than he could easily handle. "You go again get yourself burned? I thought you'd have learned it by now."

Bobby's muttered curse was drowned in Pyro's jubilant laughter.

"I'll scratch his eyes out", Rogue hissed behind her cover of what looked like a dissembled baroque bed with immense, fluted posts.

"What an asshole", Reuben added, frowning at the two men in front of him. "Any idea of what to do?"

Marie shook her head, and the fear for her boyfriend was most obvious in her face. "I don't understand how he can keep up this cage. He's so much stronger than he was before he..."

"Turned evil", Reuben completed for her and earned a glare in return. Both threw a glance at the one-sided conversation that was taking place just a few steps away from them, then looked at each other with the knowledge that something had to be done. Now.

"And I don't see us beating him, even if he's distracted and only one. He'll fry anyone to cinders who comes close to him."

His eyes turning into narrow slits, Reuben looked at the young woman crouching next to him. "Well, almost anyone....", he whispered almost menacingly, and Rogue's eyes widened in disbelief.

"NO. I'm not going out there. No way."

Another burst of delighted laughter from Pyro broke into their conversation, then the blond charmer shrugged and said: "You're a woman. It can be a problem for you to distract him. Be creative." As Marie still stared at him as if he'd gone mad and suggested her to wear fur-bras, he added: "Go, open a button of your blouse, look pouty and say you need him. It's easy."

"You're joking." Right now, Rogue wasn't sure who was the more dangerous of the mad mutants around her.

"No. Works every time I try it. And no go!" With the last words, Reuben bluntly grabbed her shoulder and most unceremoniously shoved her out from behind her cover.
Landing awkwardly on her back, Marie struggled to gain any decent position and found herself stared at by both Bobby and Pyro who had jumped up from his chair, his hands raised as if preparing for an attack.

"Rogue!", both men exclaimed almost simultaneously, with Pyro adding: "What are you doing here?"

"I-" Rogue blinked twice, then replied most naturally while standing up: "I must have stumbled. The floor is soo cluttered here." She was massively impressed by her own fast reaction. And Reuben would be massively impressed by the way she would kick his arrogant European ass once this was over.

Pyro stammered something vaguely flattered and rather confused, giving her the time to straighten her disheveled outfit. And she would NOT open a button of her blouse, damn that bastard. What a terrible person!

Bobby was standing at the back of his cage, silent in either shock or confusion, and Rogue just didn't dare to think about what he must feel right now. Fixing her eyes on the dark-haired mutant in front of her, she explained: "I know it's stupid, and it sounds terribly whacky, but I just had to come and see you again..."

This time, Pyro didn't really believe his luck, and though he smiled crookedly and walked closer to Rogue, his eyes stayed wary. Suddenly, he stopped dead in his tracks, small, intense flames spurting around his hands.

"Where are your gloves, Rogue?", he asked, his whole stance gaining a definitely menacing edge as he stepped even closer to her. "Why have you really come?"

Blinking, Rogue suddenly realized that this was serious, dead serious, and that with all the joking and bitching with Reuben, she hadn't even noticed. Until now.
Now that there was Pyro in front of her, his hands aflame, bloody murder in his eyes, his wrath fueled beyond words by seeing his romance revealed for the ruse it had been. Instinctively, Marie stepped further back, Pyro following each of her steps. Why the hell hadn't they thought about the gloves?

"Did you think you could come and catch me off guard down here so you could suck away my power?" The air rippled with the heat rising from Pyro's body. "You can touch me, if you want to, but you will burn, Rogue, you will burn."

Right then, Rogue's retreat got stopped by the wall in her back that wouldn't move however much she might wish for it.

"I gave you a real chance", Pyro snared at her, the heat he radiated causing thing all around him to smoke and blacken. "But you had to betray me."

Right when John was about to touch Rogues face with his burning hand, something hard and heavy impacted at high velocity with the back of his head. His halo of flames immediately subsiding, Pyro blinked at the bewildered Rogue, then rolled his eyes upwards and tumbled to the ground. Behind him, Reuben was standing, a five-foot, ornate bed-post in his hand like an over-large golf club. The blond charmer looked over his shoulder at Bobby's wavering prison of flames, then put his foot down on the half-unconscious Pyro's chest, aimed and hit him with his improvised club for a second time.

"Reuben!", Rogue yelled, afraid he might seriously hurt her former fellow student. "What are you doing?"

"Switching off that fucking cage", Reuben replied with a grim note in his voice that she had never thought possible from her friend. But then, the last traces of fire around Bobby disappeared, and all other things got secondary.

Rogue hurriedly got her gloves on again, clinging to Bobby as if they had been separated for ages. It was only with a conscious effort Reuben could keep himself from flinging his arms around the freed mutant as well. He was Rogue's, and the charmer didn't want to meddle. They looked so happy together.
One of these days, Reuben decided, he would have to have a talk with Rogue about sharing. One of these days.

Trying to occupy himself with something else than staring at Bobby's trunks and becoming all melancholy, Reuben took some rope he found in a pile of old garlands and started to tie Pyro's wrists and ankles.

"Hey man, thanks." The Iceman's voice made him look up, and seeing Rogue carefully hugging her Bobby, her gloves back on her hands, Reuben couldn't help but smile.

"Sure", he replied, "Just don't let it happen again."

Instead of a reply, the Iceman just grinned, then looked down at his unconscious kidnapper on the floor. "What are we gonna do with him?"

"Police?", Rogue asked hesitantly, knowing herself that they wouldn't keep him for longer than he would chose to stay.

Surprisingly enough, it was Bobby who suggested: "Why don't we just leave him here?" As the others just looked at him questioningly, he added: "He'll free himself soon enough, and I don't think he'll try another move against us anytime soon."

"Whatever." Reuben didn't sound too convinced, but apparently didn't have a better suggestion either. Almost regretful, he set his bedpost back to it's original place, then looked up as he suddenly realized something immensely important missing. "Where's Logan?"

Uneasy silence was more of an answer as any of them would have liked.

"And you're sure Pyro didn't kidnap him as well?", Rogue asked hopefully, but Bobby just shook his head.

"Not a single chance in hell. I was already looking for Logan when Johnny knocked me out from behind. And he definitely wouldn't have been able to support another cage like that."

The memory made him shiver, and Rogue asked, mostly to herself: "How has he gotten that strong?"

"He said something about Joules and Kelvins, but I can't say I really understood what he said. Didn't really listen, either. But he said he had been studying power while we were studying Latin."

"Idiot", Reuben said with a soft kick in Pyro's side, "I just wonder what Mr. powerful-but-jobless Mutant will pay his rent from."

"Let's just go." Bobby looked as if this whole place was becoming creepier each moment, and the two others were only too glad to oblige.

Without even giving another look at Pyro on the floor, they left the place. Emerging happy, generally unharmed and still without their teacher from the basement, Rogue was still happily hugging her Bobby, Reuben carrying a genuine 60's Garciano coffee-table in a just slightly defiant way.

"Now what are we gonna do about Logan?" Bobby asked as they were standing next to the Vespa again. "Don't you have any clue?"

"None at all." Both Rogue and Reuben looked seriously worried. "We thought all the time that he had been with you."

They stood there, confused, worried, feeling helpless, until Reuben took out his mobile and started to dial. "I think I'll try with the police once more. They might not be the most diligent people here, but whatever it is that has happened to Wolverine, I bet it it's been quite a messy thing. They will have noticed. Also, we can't all ride on the bike, so I'd better call us a taxi."

Nodding in silent agreement, the two other mutants watched as their companion talked in Italian to someone on his mobile, surprised at first, then rather stern, negotiating at last.

"What did you find out?", Bobby asked as the blond charmer had hung up. "Anything useful?"

Reuben nodded, a crooked grin in his face. "As soon as I mentioned a huge, hairy American who doesn't speak a word of any other language, they conveniently remembered. They busted him this afternoon."

"What?" Rogue was stunned, at the same time happy beyond words that apparently, their teacher was unharmed. "Why?"

"For loitering. And resistance. And whatnot. I think it's just on general purpose and they kept him because he didn't speak Italian nor did he offer a bribe." Reuben shrugged, adding. "Anyway. They'll be here any minute."

"The police?"

"Yup. Fastest cab you can get." His smile widened to his trademark grin as the blond mutant added: "Also I like the carabinieri. Nice, tight black uniforms. And their cars got enough space to store even a Vespa and an additional coffetable."

"You intend to take a lift with a police car with a stolen table in your hand." Bobby blinked in disbelief while Rogue just smiled.

"Sure. Nothing a nice little donation can't settle."

"You're impossible."

"I keep on hearing that quite often lately. I love you, too, Bobby."

And blowing a kiss at his fellow student, Reuben stepped out of the driveway onto the road, waving at the black police car that had just turned around the corner.

 

If you enjoyed this story, please send feedback to: Osiris Brackhaus

go to PART 5

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