A woman rolled over in her bed. An arm fell softly to the spot beside her. It rubbed over an empty spot. The young woman's eyes slowly opened. She noticed the balcony door of her 5th Avenue apartment was open, and the curtains were blowing. "Remy . . . ?"

"Sorry, chere," the young Cajun man replied, stepping off the balcony and back into the room. "Didn' mean to wake you."

"Where you goin'?" she asked, still half-asleep.

"I got business," he replied. "I tol' you I was headed for 'N'awlins . . . "

"I thought we'd have more time . . . "

"Things got complicated, petite. Jus' keep your head clear, 'member what I tol' you . . . "

"Sure I couldn't keep you around at least another few minutes?" she asked with a smile.

"Maybe some other time," he replied, shrugging his trench coat over his shoulders. "Be seein' you . . . "

A split second later, and Remy LeBeau had leapt off the balcony of a 12th floor apartment. The young woman watched from her bed with awe.

"Now that is a man . . . " she grinned.

After all, just recap what was written: Her first warm night in a week. Her first real meal in a week. And a home provided by a complete stranger, a man who, for all she knows, might be biding time before he was going to rape and murder her.

He'd probably take Kitty first, too . . . She's a total valley girl . . . I mean, how insulting?

She sighed. Everyone else was still asleep. There weren't even enough beds for everyone, too.

Kitty Pryde and Frances Kane shared one of the queen sized beds. Kitty could become intangible at will. Frances had control over the earth's magnetic field.

Everett and Adam shared the other queen sized bed. Everett Thomas could get in synch with another mutant's powers and use them as his own. Adam Berman could turn himself into a reptile-like person with hardened skin, enhanced speed and strength, and aquatic capabilities.

Julio Esteban Richter, or Rictor, as they all called him, had slept on a chair. He had the mutant power to create earthquakes.

Which left the aforementioned Jubilee on a cot room service had brought in for her. She could create little blasts of light from her hands.

The six of them were recruited by Professor Charles Francis Xavier, a mutant himself, who was gathering young mutants to his school for training with their powers and protection from the outside world. But then he got killed, and the school got destroyed.

And as if that wasn't enough, some sort of half-man half animal calling itself Sabretooth tried to kill them!

There was a knock on the door. "Room service."

"Breakfast!" Jubilee huffed, walking over to the door. "About time, too . . . I'm starving."

She opened it widely, but she didn't see what she was expecting. There was a man standing in the doorway, wearing clothes that seemed to be made out of pieces of metal. He was also holding a gun aimed right at her.

"Wh-what . . . ?"

"'Name's Scalphunter," he said with a grin. "Nothin' personal . . . you kiddies just hooked up with LeBeau . . . and that was the wrong thing to do. So now ya gotta die."

"Not again," Jubilee frowned.

Scalphunter fired two shots at Jubilee, point-blank range. They passed right through her.

"Eh?" he asked.

Everett was holding onto her ankle. "I synched with Kitty . . . now I'll synch with you!"

Everett quickly blasted Jubilee's light energy at Scalphunter, blinding him and knocking him back. He slammed the door shut and locked it. "We need to get out of here, fast!"

"Everyone up!" Jubilee said. "We need to go, and go now!"

A stream of bullets ripped across the closed door.

"Holy &#$@!" Rictor said.

"Kitty and I'll phase us all through the walls and floor, get us outside!" Everett ordered. They acted quickly. He grabbed Jubilee and Frances, Kitty grabbed Adam and Ric, and soon they were outside the hotel and in the parking lot.

"Smooth move," Adam frowned. "Now we're in a big, open space!"

The window that was in their room suddenly shattered as Scalphunter leapt from their floor down to the lot. He opened fire.

Frances concentrated, creating a magnetic shield that deflected the bullets and protected the group.

"Way to go!" Adam exclaimed."

"Let me help," Everett replied, getting in synch with her. He reached out with the power and grabbed hold of Scalphunter's metal costume. With a little thought, he sent their attacker flying into the air, hoping to have him land several miles away.

"Whoa," Kitty said.

Just then, a motorcycle came speeding by. Remy LeBeau stepped off. "What're you kids doin' out here?"

"We were attacked!" Kitty exclaimed.

"By who?" Remy asked.

"Called himself Scalphunter," Everett frowned.

"Sinister ain't gonna give up, neh?" Remy asked himself.

"What have you gotten us into?" Rictor asked.

"I haven't gotten you into anyt'ing," Remy replied. "You all asked for my help, asked for me to take you wit' me . . . so I did. 'S'not my fault I got an enemy."

"Oh, that's one thing I'm sure of," Jubilee said sarcastically.

"Don't matter," Remy shrugged. "We're headin' out."

"While it's pretty obvious you're the high school drop-out type," Jubilee continued, "I would think even you could realize the seven of us won't fit on a motorcycle."

"Y'know, I don't have to take you all wit' me."

"No, please!" Frances said. "We'll keep Jubilee's mouth shut . . . but we've gotta be a target too, now . . . we've been attacked twice!"

Jubilee crossed her arms and huffed.

"Fine," Remy nodded. "And we're not takin' a motorcycle . . . de owner probably wouldn't appreciate his hog windin' up so far away from home."

"You mean you stole that bike?" Kitty asked.

"Yeah," Remy replied. "I'm a t'ief. It's what I do."

"But stealing's wrong," Kitty frowned.

"Are we gonna stand here and debate, or are we gonna get going before someone else attacks us?" Rictor asked. "Let's go, gang . . . "

"I got us a ride," Remy said, leaving the motorcycle behind and leading the way on foot. "It's not much, but it'll get us outta de city."

"What is it?" Frances asked. "Some kind of old pick-up truck?"

Remy nodded. "Come on."

Remy sat behind the wheel with Rictor riding shotgun. The others sat in the back of the truck. Jubilee was especially complaining.

"So . . . you gonna tell us your story?" Ric asked.

"After you tell me yours," Remy replied.

"Well, you know we're mutants," Rictor started. "The six of us--well, there were seven . . . we were gathered to that school you found us at by this guy, Professor Xavier. He's a mutant, too--or, he was. And he was gathering mutants to his school so he could train us or something. He had this dream of mutants and humans living together peacefully."

"Regular Martin Luther King, neh?"

"Somethin' like that. But these bad guy mutants, they attacked the school, killed Xavier, and blew the place up. Near as we could tell, the other mutants were all dead. Well, except Doug Ramsey . . . he left before the fight started, went to some place called Muir Island . . . he got lucky, I guess."

"What's Muir Island?"

"I dunno . . . I think some other branch of Xavier's school . . . we thought about trying to go there, but it's all the way in Scotland . . . but yeah. So, we had nothin' goin' for us . . . then you came along, helped us out . . . and I guess we're stickin' with you because we've got nothin' else."

"Danks," Remy replied, pulling a cigarette into his mouth. He used his powers to light it.

"Your turn," Rictor said.

"Okay," Remy shrugged, taking a drag first. "I tend to live in New Orleans. S'where I was raised. I was an orphan . . . I got taken in by de T'ieves Guild."

"Thieves Guild?"

"Quick explanation: The underbelly o' the city's divided pretty much into two warring sides: Thieves and Assassins. No one knows why we fight anymore. We just do. There's also some big ceremony involved, somethin' that happens every five years. Some immortal woman meets with th' two guilds . . . looks at what's been goin' on . . . I don' even know what it is exactly. She's kinda like a ref, but also like some sorta deviant creature pullin' some strings somewhere."

"No one questions the fighting?"

"Nope. Dey jus' live to fight, to be on top . . . and to please Cassandra . . . she's de immortal woman. Den I learned dat we was gonna try and bring peace to da two guilds . . . wit' a marriage between me an' a Thieves woman . . . I'm sorta de prince, she's sorta de princess."

"That's . . . interesting."

"Ya. An' dis is also de year Cassandra pops up. So we don' know what's gonna happen. I dunno why everyone's so afraid o' her, but I figure dere must be some reason. So I go and aquire de services of a man name o' Sinister. I do a few jobs for him, he gives me a little vial dat's supposed to help me. Only I wasn't up for waiting too long. So I took it . . . "

" . . . being the thief."

"Ya. And now he's after me. And dis guy, he ain't no cupcake. De jobs he wanted me to pull? I wasn't up for all de killing involved."

"Whoa," Rictor said.

"So now I gotta get back to N'awlins, ditch dis guy . . . marry de girl . . . confront de immortal woman . . . and end a whole lotta fightin'."

"That's pretty noble," Rictor nodded. "Not what I expected."

"Not what I expected, neither. Dis is an arraigned marriage . . . and arraigned end to all de fightin' . . . who knows if it'll last? It's too much pressure . . . Dat's why I smoke. If my lifestyle don't kill me soon enough, lung cancer'll be my ace up de hole."

"Dude, you're crazy," Rictor grinned.

"I know," Remy smiled. "Hey, everybody back dere? I'm gonna try an' keep de stops to a minimum . . . but we prolly gonna stop in Philly for sure. Any objections?"

" . . . "

"Okay den," Remy shrugged. "Long way 'till there, though . . . but de fewer de stops, de harder it is for Sinister to find me."

"Whatever," Rictor shrugged.

"I have to pee," Jubilee said.

"'Course you do," Remy frowned. "Didn't I tell you to go before we left?"

"No."

"Oh . . . well, I meant to. Jus' hold it. We'll stop before we run out of gas."

"You've got a full tank, don't you?" Jubilee asked.

"Maybe," Remy grinned.