Xavier Institute for Gifted Youngsters.
Rogue's Room.
Posters of fantasy art and rock bands line the walls, and the black curtains are drawn shut. "Paint It, Black" by the Rolling Stones is playing in the background. Rogue is lying on her stomach on her emerald-sheeted bed, writing a gothic poem in her dark notebook.
A knock sounds at the door. Rogue, annoyed, lays down her pencil and looks up at the door.
"Who is it?" she asks. No answer. She rolls her eyes and slowly rolls off her bed to stand up. She brushes past CD cases and books on the floor and traverses the quicksand traps of soda cans to the door. She twists the knob and opens the door. "Kitty, ah swear if that's you..." There is no one present on the other side. She looks both ways down the hall and frowns to herself. She slams the door and turns around to walk back to her bed. On the far wall she sees the shadow of young man standing still. She smiles and pushes apart her white bangs. "Well, if it isn't Toby. Ah told you not to do that anymore." The shadow dissipates into the form of Tobias Maxwell, the Darkwolf, and he steps from the wall onto her floor.
"Hey, Rogue. What can I say, I like the thrill of surprise." He holds two cans of soda in his hands. "Brought you a drink, if you want it." She smiles and takes the soda. In silence they drink together. Toby glances at the notebook on Rogue's bed. "Whatcha been writin'?"
"Oh, jest some poems." She takes a sip of soda and sits on the bed. "Gosh, ah'm so bored on Saturdays. There's jest nuthin' to do. And gawd, ah'm so stressed out after that biology test yesterday. Ah hope ah didn't bomb it." She takes another sip and closes her notebook. Toby adjusts his black sunglasses and smiles at her.
AI know what we can do. It's a great stress reliever and you should meet some friends of mine anyway. Only bloody problem is that we need a car. I know you don't have one, and neither do I. Know anyone you can borrow one from?" Rogue shakes her head.
"Only that prep Scott. And he'd never let us borrow his pride n' joy." Toby puts his hand to his chin and rubs it, concentrating on a solution to their dilemma. "And ah don't wanna borrow any of the Professor's vehicles for a joyride." Rogue starts thinking hard, too.
"Well then, I guess I'll have to think of another solution." He smiles at Rogue and she smiles back. Together they leave the room and head out to the parking lot. The sun beats down like the tyrant of the heavens. Even through his sunglasses and under his black boonie hat he still has to squint to see. Rogue leads him through the parking lot until they come upon a shiny black Hummer, brand new. They both look at one another and smile. Neither of them know whose car it is and neither of them really care. Toby crawls underneath the car to reach its shadow. Once there he fades into the darkness on the ground and slides up the car's door, fitting into the opening between the outside and the inside. Once inside he becomes tangible again, slides into the passenger seat, and unlocks the driver's door for Rogue. She climbs in the driver's seat and reaches down to tear off the ignition covering. She bares the internal workings of the key system and gets to work. Her slender fingers move up and down, over and under the wires of the ignition system. She pulls out a pocket knife and cuts the wires, connecting and splicing them for two minutes. When finished, she sticks the blade into the key slot and turns. With a loud roar the mighty diesel engine comes to life. She smiles and Toby and he looks with surprise back to her. "Where'd you learn that?" She shifts into gear and backs out of the parking place, revving the engine and tearing out of the parking lot. She turns to him and laughs. "A girl's got to know how to take care of herself, Toby. Ah've had a lot of practice." He grins mischievously and pulls out a CD case from his leather jacket pocket. "What're you gonna put in?" Rogue asks. He pulls Rammstein's Mutter out of a slot and pushes it into the CD player.
"Rammstein." Mein Herz Brennt starts as the first track. Rogue pushes back her bangs and guns the Hummer down the road as the lyrics explode fast and hard in raspy German. Toby begins giving directions. Rogue drives the big black military vehicle outside the city limits and into the Massachusetts woods. Rolling down her window, she lets the cool air blow her hair across her face and shoulders. His window down as well, Toby is careful not to let the sun touch his bare skin. He allows the wind to flap his hat with intensity as Rogue cranks the Hummer over sixty miles per hour. "Watch out for cops, Rogue." Toby holds on tight as Rogue pushes the Hummer over seventy. She smiles at him.
"Ah can take care of mahself." She turns down some old dirt roads, following Toby's directions. The big Hummer stops in front of an old warehouse, its diesel engine going from a roar to a purr. Rogue shifts into park and turns the vehicle off. They two delinquents exit the vehicle and walk to the warehouse.
"So what is this place, anyway?" Rogue asks. Toby only smiles.
"You'll see," he says. The parking lot contains only six cars, including the Hummer. A sign on the side of the building reads Magnus Arms: Indoor Range. The sound of gunfire can be heard inside. The two enter the building and find themselves standing in front of a huge man behind a counter. The wall behind him is lined with guns of all kinds, shotguns to assault rifles and sub machine guns to sniper's rifles. Rogue's jaw drops as she looks at the assortment of hardware present. Toby strolls up to the counter. The big man has a big bushy red beard and curly red hair tied into a ponytail. His crossed arms are easily wider than Toby's chest. He wears a plaid kilt and a satchel large enough to carry a TV. His white shirt, more than large enough to fit Rogue and Toby together, is stretched almost to ripping across the man's huge chest. His scowl turns to smile as he sees Toby two feet beneath him. "Well, if it isn't mah guud frin, Toby. How yah bin doin', laddie?" His voice is gruff with a strong Scottish accent. "Yah come to 'ave a rematch in the arm restlin' tuurney with me?" Toby smirks at the big Scot.
"Not this lifetime, Magnus. I want you to meet my friend, Rogue." Magnus extends his huge hand takes the top of Rogue's gloved hand to his lips. A>Tis an >onor, a frin a' Toby's is a frin a' mine." He motions to Toby and bends down to speak in his ear. "Listen ere, she's not a normie, is she now?" Toby responds with an annoyed smirk.
"Of course not, Magnus, she's with me. Why would I hang around with a normie? Listen, don't touch her bare skin. Her power is that she can suck yours right out and knock you cold, capisce?" Magnus leans back and grins. "So, you're a mutie jes' like the rest a' us, den? Well, that's guud ta know. Anyway, little lady, can ya' be guessing what mah mutant power is?" Rogue looks in amazement as the big Scot casually grasps a nearby chair in one hand and crushes it to dust. Toby smirks.
"Well, ah've got a few ideas. Look, Magnus, can we jest get on with it already?" Rogue smirks at the big Highlander. Magnus appears to be surprised. "Well, she's a feisty little lass, ain't she? Okay then, what kin I be doin' fer the both of ye?" He glances at wall behind him to the wide assortment of firearms. Toby points out the weapons he wants.
"Colt M16A2, Desert Eagle .50AE, Blaser .308, the Winchester and the Benelli 12 gauges, and an AK108 should do it." Magnus grabs all the weapons and places them on the counter. He then extracts a few boxes of ammo and places them also on the counter. A pair of safety goggles and ear plugs rounds out the gear. A>Ave fun now, kiddies. And don't be urtin' yourselves now." He winks at Rogue as the two struggle to carry the weapons through the door on the right. It leads to the interior of the warehouse where four people stand, shooting at targets on the far wall. Toby and Rogue lay their weapons down on a table and select the ones they will fire first. Rogue pulls the Desert Eagle from the pile and quickly realizes she has no idea how to fire a gun. She puts the weapon down and turns to Toby.
"Uh, Toby, ah need to find out how to use these. Let me get some info outta you real quick, okay?" She brushes her bangs aside and gives Toby a quick peck on the cheek. He winces and pulls back quickly, his energy being sucked away by the vacuum of Rogue's kiss. Rogue shakes her head and then twirls the gun in her hand like a pro. She quickly loads a magazine and slaps it into the pistol's grip. "Thanks for that, ah think ah can handle mahself now." Toby regains his composure and smiles at her. "Sure you don't need to know how to do anything else?" He loads shotgun shells into the Benelli 12 gauge and swings the shotgun around on its sling. The two step up to the firing line. Rogue levels the big handgun and looks straight down the iron sights. Her target is fifty yards away, a paper silhouette of a generic human torso and head. She squints her eyes and focuses until the silhouette distorts into the image of Scott Summers. Scott smiles and waves to Rogue.
"Hi Rogue, I was wondering if you wanted to watch me make out with my girlfriend, Jean. I want to stick my tongue down her throat and I know you would just love to watch." Scott's imaginary voice is cut short when Rogue squeezes off shot after shot into the silhouette's head. The big .50 caliber rounds make the gun jump back in Rogue's hands but she quickly steadies it and fires again. The bullets tear the silhouette to shreds and made loud thumps when they hit the sand and gravel backdrop at the rear of the warehouse. Emptying a clip in less than five seconds, Rogue puts the pistol down and presses for the paper cutout to move in so she can examine her grouping. Even she is surprised by what she sees. The seven rounds from the Desert Eagle have effectively decapitated the paper effigy of Scott. Rogue glances over and sees Toby pumping the shotgun and preparing to fire. She can barely hear his voice as it whispers into the gun.
"No one messes with the Darkwolf and gets away with it! Take some of this Jake, and your friends can eat some buckshot too!" Toby empties the shotgun's internal magazine of eight rounds into the central mass of his paper target, leaving only two small shreds still attached to the retrieval line. He pulls his target in and begins switching it for a new one. Rogue does the same and this time selects the AK108 assault rifle. The black composite and fiberglass version of the venerable AK47 fits snugly into her shoulder and lines up perfectly from her eyes to her new target. She gently squeezes the trigger and lets off three rounds into the head of the target. Rogue imagines Kitty Pryde to be standing there and levels her sights with the target's head.
"Hey there, Rogue! I was like, gonna go the mall or something? Would you, like, you know, wanna go with me and shop for new shoes? Like, I'm so-" Kitty's belligerent voice is stopped short when Rogue switches the rifle to fully automatic mode and begins emptying the clip. The gun sounds like a chipmunk on steroids as each round makes a loud chatter. Suddenly the chatter stops and Rogue hears only a rapid, distant clicking. She eases her finger from the trigger and places the gun down. She next selects the big Blaser .308. The sniper's rifle is nearly three feet long and Rogue balances it on a bipod before loading the rounds into the gun's internal magazine. On the synthetic stock she rests her cheek and looks through the big scope at the new paper target, this time at the far end of the warehouse and nearly two hundred yards away. Though small to her naked eye, through the scope the cutout is as big as it would be if only a few feet away. Rogue concentrates and sees the silhouette materialize into the image of Jean Gray. Jean flashes her prep smile and calls out to her.
"Hi, Rogue! I was just wondering if you wanted to watch me tryout for cheerleading? Or you could help me put on makeup for my date with Scott or we-" The sniper rifle roars for a brief second and jolts the scope into Rogue's forehead. Down range the target's head explodes into a small shower of debris. Rogue puts the gun down and backs up, holding her head in her hands. Toby drops his shotgun and runs over to her. "Rogue? What"s the matter?" he says. She pushes aside her hair, revealing a large bruise around her eye where the scope impacted. "Ouch," he says. "Ah'm okay, Toby. Ah just got a little carried away, that's all." She rubs her bruise and leans against the weapons bench where their small arsenal was placed. "Well, ah think ah've had enough stress relief for one day." She smiles at Toby and he returns it. She goes back and begins collecting her guns. Toby follows her and they cart their weapons back to Magnus.
"Well, ah see you two must be done with yer shootin', den?" Magnus takes the weapons back behind the counter. Toby looks up at the giant Scot. "What do I owe you, Magnus?" Toby takes his wallet out. "Nuthin' this time, laddie. Meetin' yore new frin ere was enuff of a payment. You two ad better ave fun now. Come back soon." Toby and Rogue walk out into the parking lot and Rogue hot-wires the Hummer again. The big engine roars along with the musical lines of Rammstein all the way back to the Institute. There they drop the Hummer off back in the parking lot. Rogue laughs as they leave the big black Hummer. "Whoever owns that is gonna find a big surprise inside!" she says. Toby grins and laughs along with her. The two walk up the stairwell in the Institute and bump into the prep trio, Kitty, Jean, and Scott. Jean puts her hand to her mouth in concern. "Oh Rogue, where'd you get that bruise on your eye?" Her voice was as annoying as ever, but Rogue just gives her a big smile.
"Oh, ah got it relieving some stress." Toby and Rogue both laugh as they walk past the trio. Jean, Scott, and Kitty can't figure out why they were laughing so hard.