Summary : Book one of my Twilight series. Nick Fury asks Logan to help him stop some drug traffickers. Logan agrees but when he goes on the mission, gets a lot more than he ever bargained for, including a trip to another dimension! Oh, my! Features Logan and Gambit. Beast will appear later in the series as well.

Notes: This story takes place in Kimbleverse – wait! Don't run away, screaming. There is a short introduction provided below for those of you who haven't read any of my previous work. :)

Rated M for profanity, violence and some sexual content.

Disclaimer : I do not own the X-men or any of their associated villains, but all of the Siskans, the Dognan, Jael and the Outkasts, and any of the characters that are involved with the Twilight dimension are mine. Please do not use them without my permission. Thanks. :)

This is an illustrated work and the art is available on my website which you can get to by clicking on my profile.

This will be the first book of a three or four book series. While the chapters should go up weekly, there will most likely be some big breaks between the books. (My transition from working part time to full time still isn't going that well, even though it has been a few months already. Sigh...) I don't want to start posting a book, only to have to go back and revise something I had posted earlier.

11-3-13 - As some of you know I have posted a large amount of stories to this site. I've put up a lot of "books." Because I haven't published in a while, I've been away from the site and updates to the site get by me. Normally I used to break up scene changes or perspective changes by putting in a dotted line or a series of symbols to break these up so that you as readers aren't going "what the heck?" when there is a change. Well, it's come to my attention that while the site once let me use that series of symbols, it isn't anymore. Looking back over all my old chapters I'm seeing that those breaks I put in place ages ago are gone and one scene sometimes just rolls into the next, something that is probably confusing to the reader. I will be using a (break) in between paragraphs to show these scenes or perspective changes and hopefully you as readers won't be confused by it, now or three years from now. But for those of you reading these older posts, please bear with me while I go through the arduous task of fixing things. If a scene suddenly changes in the middle of things, it's not you, it's the site and not how I had originally posted. SQ

(Introduction)

Howdy, peoples! I am writing this introduction for those of you who happened to click on this wondering what it and the Kimbleverse is all about. Well, a while back I began posting a long fanfiction that involved both the X-men and some characters of my own creation, most notably my own dear Kimble.

Bah, you say! Who needs OCs (other characters) anyway! Well, take into consideration that technically any new X-men after Giant Sized #1 could be considered an OC, they are not part of the original team after all. That would include some pretty big names – Kitty Pryde, Gambit, Cable, Bishop, Maggot, Marrow, Psyclocke, all the Gen M kids. Are you getting the idea now? Yes, this story has a few OCs, but I'm asking you to let them pass or fail on their own merits, not because they are not original X-men.

My stories are kinda long, but they are Gambit, Beast and Wolverine heavy throughout so that should hopefully make up for it, LOL.

For those of you read comics regularly, Kimbleverse isn't all that far from our familiar 616 but I have made a few small changes, making it different enough that I have dubbed my little realm Kimbleverse. (Because I began writing this stuff ages ago, this universe ignores much of current Marvel continuity, including House of M, Civil War, the lame ass Gambit/Death Horseman Milligan disaster, and unfortunately the delightful Wolverine Lupine arc by Jeff Loeb that began long after I had already written most of this.)

What the heck what went on in this crazy Kimbleverse you might ask? Well, it began about nine years ago when three X-men –- Beast, Wolverine and Gambit – got kidnapped by offworld slavers called the Dognan and were taken away to another world. They had some adventures there and made some new friends. They were eventually rescued and returned safely, but they brought along with them some of those new friends, including two Siskan Courtesans named Kimble and Seth.

What's a Siskan Courtesan? Well, some Siskan inventors created elaborate holograms not unlike those the X-men use in their Danger Room training sessions. These holograms were solid and real, serving as household staff and meeting their Master's needs – whatever they might be. Sexually skilled and compliant, they were highly prized and sought after.

As holograms, these Siskans were realistic to the touch, constructed of gel and three floating star drives within that controlled their memories, skills, and appearance. They fed on energy provided by power cubes or sometimes from other sources. They can feed on kinetic energy or in some cases, plasma derived from the sun itself. They can eat tiny portions of organic food and drink, loving anything that is sweet or spicy.

Every once in a while, when a batch of these Siskans was made, one or two might come out differently. The Makers would call them defective, but what really happened was that they were far more self aware than the regular Courtesans, they were sentient and very much alive. They were also empaths to various degrees. The Makers called them the Lushna-esk, the holograms that could "feel". When discovered, the Lushna-esk were most often destroyed, but every once in a while, one of them would escape detection and be let out into the world.

Kimble and Seth were Lushna-esk Courtesans, but not by accident. Instead, they came from a special clutch of Courtesans that were created for a special purpose – the Game. All the Courtesans involved were Lushna-esk by deliberate design and they were scattered not long after they were made. The goal of the Game was to find as many of these special Courtesans as you could, a sort of scavenger hunt that took place across an entire galaxy. Each Courtesan was fated to find an angel, an object of some value. The more angels a Master might collect, the stronger he would become.

Kimble and Seth fell into the hands of the X-men by accident and were given a home with them where they were well cared for. Later the X-men would learn of the Game and that it would be finished on their world of all places. They also learned that the Courtesans from that special clutch included six Courtesans with unique enhancements. They were called Rogues and Kimble was included in that six.

The Game was played on Earth and concluded at an underground Complex that had been specially made by Charles Xavier in an Industrial Park in Arizona. Jael, a Dognan half breed terrorist and the X-men's primary opponent in the Game, was defeated. Survivors of his crew have vowed revenge.

As the Game was played, the X-men met and acquired some of the other Rogues. All the Courtesans in the Game are specially marked with large tattoos that show their rank and standing. The six Rogues all have individual colors that none of the others share. There is Kimble the Purple, Skye the Yellow, Asher the Grey, Star the Orange and Simone the White.

All the Siskan Rogues have unique abilities and as we discovered in my last installment, Simone has a talent for opening up doors that lead to other worlds, possibly even other dimensions. Leroy, a faun he met and befriended through one such doorway, begged for his help and Simone agreed, daring to pass through the doorway for the first time after years of observing only. We have yet to learn of his fate.

I hope this little intro brings everyone back up to speed, I tried to keep it brief. It only just scratches the surface of what went on before this story takes place. There will be additional recap material as needed as we go along, I beg the forgiveness from those who have already read all my other stories. You guys can just skim over it here and there, LOL. For those of you who are new, I hope that this introduction and the story that follows is enough to make you consider reading the stories that led up to this one. Don't be afraid, I don't bite... :)

(One)

Simone slid across the cool tiles of Rogue's bathroom floor, the floor that belonged to his dear and loving Mistress, dragging his ruined legs behind him. He was sloppy and slithering, lubricated with his own gel blood as he eased his now useless body from the doorway he had conjured up from Leroy's world, from Twilight, and back into the here and now.

This wasn't the first time he had gone through the door to Twilight. No, that first trip had been made weeks ago now and there had been many more since, but this latest trip might well be his last, he was thinking. He had been shot, his legs riddled with bullets from pursuers that had shown him no mercy.

Simone panted as he struggled to move, watching as his grey gel blood dripped from an additional large, ugly laceration on his forehead down to the floor. He was no human, he was a Siskan Courtesan, a creature technically not even alive by most folks' standards. He didn't look remotely human anyhow – his skin was a rich ebony black, the only exception was a band of white that crossed his eyes, a bandit in reverse. He also had a huge elaborate tattoo that covered most of his upper torso - a white winged woman lying seductively along the blade of a large sword. Like the woman on his chest, large black feathery wings sprouted from Simone's own back, glistening with red and blue highlights. Normally those wings were lovely and a delight to behold. At the moment they hung from him in tatters, splashed with his fluids and leaving a trail of broken plumage behind him.

Simone hauled his feet through the door from Twilight and watched as the door then vaporized and ghosted away, leaving him alone and wrecked on the bathroom floor. Left alone to deal with the misery of still being alive. "M-Mistress!" he gasped, hoping she might come to his rescue.

Of course, that was the trouble with traveling from one dimension to the next – time gets funny. He had no idea how long he had been gone. He knew he had been in Twilight for hours, but here, well, he had probably been gone only a few minutes. Rogue had just left him to go to work when he first passed through that door, she wouldn't even have known he was gone. She was working half shifts now, never leaving him for long, but it was probably still too soon for her to return.

"Mistress!" he bawled out now anyhow, like an injured child to its mother, his voice raw and shaking. Most Siskan Courtesans preferred to be owned and cared for. To Simone, his Mistress was his lifeline, his safety, his security, his most precious love. Siskans in their truest rawest form were children indeed and now poor Simone had been laid bare by his pain. "Helps me! Helps me, please...!"

There was no answer.

Simone thumped his head to the floor, his big shoulders shaking as he sobbed. This had all gone so horribly wrong and now he was going to die. His story would end here in a pool of gel blood, blood that was already shimmering away as it cooled.

In spite of how Simone thought this story might possibly end, it had actually started a few hours earlier and not even with him. It had really begun with a phone call...

(break)

Some people say that things just happen randomly. Little flights of fancy that happen on nature's whim. But these days, Logan was thinking, there really were no coincidences at all. The way things just kept falling into place there had to be some sort of reason behind it all – being kidnapped by the Dognan all those years ago, finding all these Siskans scattered about, especially one that could open those pesky magic little doors. It couldn't have all come about purely by chance... could it?

Of course, Logan had not yet pieced all these little things together when this particular little caper began. It started out simply enough with Nick Fury of SHIELD calling him and asking him for a favor. Just one little thing. But oftentimes, that one little thing turns into a great big fat one – just like this one did.

Logan had walked into one of the many meeting rooms of the Complex, not sure what to expect. He had just received a phone call from Nick Fury, head of SHIELD, saying that he was here at the Complex and had come looking for him specifically. They hadn't seen each other since the conclusion of the Game some months ago and Logan had no idea what the guy wanted. Probably not to gloat some more for taking all the credit for Jael's demise, Logan surmised, it had been too long now for that.

Logan was surprised to see the Professor there in the room as well, pouring coffee. It wasn't often that Charles was also invited to these sort of meetings. Usually if Nick wanted a favor from Logan, it meant sneaking and bloodshed would probably be involved. In that case, it was better to keep Charles and his X-men out of it. Couldn't have their hands getting dirty or anything. Seeing Charles here raised Wolverine's suspicions that this was going to a bit more complicated than what Nick had briefly suggested over the phone.

Nick looked pretty much the same as always, tall and uniformed. He was dressed in full SHIELD black including an eye patch over one eye, a casualty of the rough life the man had led. He was an older man, in his fifties with a bit of grey at the temples, but still in good fighting shape. He hadn't come alone, there was an aide with some papers who was setting up packets of information, ones with plenty of photo documentation.

"Oh, good," Logan joked as he helped himself to the coffee. "..we get pictures today."

"Anything to make it easier for you less educated types," Fury teased in return. He was his usual, 'all business' self as he continued, "As you know, we've been having a heck of a time with this substance Honey that's been hitting the streets pretty hard."

It was true. The drug hadn't been available long, just a few short weeks, but it was already a huge problem. Honey was a strange golden liquid that was drunk in small amounts, intoxicating the user immediately. It was sold in tiny glass vials, a mere mouthful was all it took to get the job done. In normal humans the effect was a drunken, stuporous high that could last for days. It was highly addictive, worse than Crack. It was also in short supply, driving the junkies crazy. They would steal, rape, shoot to kill for it. The recent uprise in violent crime was alarming.

Sadly, with mutants, use of this product was deadly. It made their current mutation evolve into a hideous secondary manifestation, often more than the body could safely withstand. It was almost always fatal, but for some, it was a sort of temporary power boost. Those who were badly misinformed about it often sought it out only to find their own death. The X-men were already working on the case - the X-men's big blue doctor, Henry McCoy, was testing the substance for its properties even as they spoke, trying to discover just where it was coming from. So far, Henry had no answers.

Logan nodded, answering, "Yeah, I hear it makes muties crazy. Right before it kills them."

"Well, we think we might have found the source."

"Then do a raid," Logan suggested wryly. The X-men were more like police, not drug enforcement. It would take more than a simple invite to get him involved. He had no desire to get caught up in a case where there was sure to be more than one government agency involved besides SHIELD. Too messy. Not that Logan cared about messy, but with Charles here, it was the X-men being asked to help, not just Logan himself.

Fury knew about Wolverine's reservations so he was quick to explain, "It's a bit more complicated than that. Our testers have analyzed the Honey and since it is an organic substance that is pure and unrefined in any way, we suspect that it may come from a mutant source. None of our botanists can classify it. They only know that it is organically produced. It is either from some plant we've never seen before – something unlikely – or it's from a mutant."

Logan cursed softly and shook his head. This wasn't the first time they had discovered substances secreted from mutants sold this way. Most of the time the X-men or SHIELD got lucky and could shut those sources down. Hopefully they could do so here again here if that was the case.

Fury continued, "Our discovery of the source is an indirect one. We've tied the source of the Honey with a man named Frost."

Charles arched an eyebrow. "Jason Frost?"

"Yes. Why?"

"He's been on our watch list for some time. Until recently he ran a anti-mutant hate group called The Brotherhood of Righteousness for a time. He claimed that mutants were sent by the Devil and must be eradicated. He was quite active but then suddenly shut down operations a few weeks ago."

"Right when the Honey started showing up," Logan finished for him, doing the math in his head.

"That's right," Fury replied in agreement. "And I don't think it is a coincidence."

"What makes you so certain Jason Frost is involved?" Charles questioned.

"We picked up a couple of guys selling the stuff - Patrick Johnson and Paul Shwartz, two guys that had been bodyguards for Frost. We interrogated them and after some not so gentle persuasion, they gave up the location where the stuff is being sold from. It's a warehouse on Dockside. The third name on the lease is Frost's. It's close enough to warrant checking out."

"Dockside?" Charles mused to himself. "There has been an increase in mutant kids going missing from that area. Mostly from street gangs. If Frost has some sort of base of operations there, these disappearances might be connected."

"I know," Fury answered, just a hint of a smug smile on his lips.

"Why would SHIELD be interested in missing mutant street kids?" Charles snapped to that, a bit irritated. SHIELD was a tricky organization – they loved mutants when they thought mutants could be of some use or help to them. As for the rest, the organization seemed like it could care less what happened to them.

Fury answered the Professor's question truthfully. He said, "As you know, the recruitment pool has suffered greatly since the Game. As many as four thousand mutants died here. Not so many are left, and what is left is now up for grabs. If you people help us, we promise to be a bit more open when we find emergent mutants. We can share what's left, something mutually beneficial. As you know it's never been easy to get a census on you guys, we don't even know how many are out there, but from what we can tell there's been a drop off in new births. The Outkasts may now be the largest organized group now, a sad thing since they only seem to be interested in making money."

The statement was accurate. The Outkasts had jumped out of the woodwork to help the X-men thrown down Jael's bid for power, but only after the X-men had taken the worst of the casualties. The Outkasts came in, finished the job, gloated a bit, and then vanished to who knows where, certain to pop back up again at the least opportune moment.

Logan snorted at Fury's ersatz sympathy with the plight of mutants. Fury wasn't offering the X-men anything new or substantial only perhaps that he would share with them the folks SHIELD couldn't use for themselves. The weak would have shelter and a didn't respond to Logan's noise though he had certainly heard it. "What about Morlocks? Some have survived the massacre from years ago. We saw some of them just recently. Surely they might be acquiring these street kids for themselves to increase their numbers."

Fury shook his head. "Actually, our intelligence tells us the opposite. The Morlocks are disappearing faster than the topside kids as far as we can tell. We have no idea where they are all disappearing to. It doesn't look like the Honey is killing them, we haven't found enough bodies to justify all their disappearances."

"All right. Why you tellin' us?" Logan asked, wanting to get to the point.

"We thought you guys, being mutants, might be able to get the information using a lower profile."

"I thought you guys had all the technology you needed."

"Yes, but there's been a snag. We sent in several guys in posing as street kids and they were successfully kidnapped, but after that we lose contact with them. They are either being killed or taken somewhere our locators can't detect."

Logan arched an eyebrow. Those must have been brave lads to volunteer for something so risky. Of course SHIELD often recruited from the less savory, giving the option of jail or service, which really wasn't much of an option at all. "What? You didn't embed them with GPS or anything?"

"Actually we did. Either they detected it or they magically went somewhere the GPS couldn't find them."

"What makes you think we'd do any better?"

Fury grinned, seeing he had won the man over. "You guys are more talented, and sometimes technology isn't everything it's cut out to be."

"What are your goals exactly?" Charles wanted to know.

"For now, we just want to know where the Honey is coming from so we can shut it down. I believe if we can do that, we'll find these missing kids as well. I want to send in a small investigative force, one I that can come and go undetected. Recon only. We'll devise a full scale assault plan when we have more information. I don't want to go in there without knowing what we're up against."

"Where do we start?" Logan asked, pawing at the pictures the aide had spread out.

"Here," Fury answered, pointing to a map that had been included. "There's the warehouse there on Dockside. I don't want to set this guy off, I just need someone to go in and take a peek and tell me what they see."

"I'll assemble a team," Charles said to that.

"Thanks," Fury said, pleased. The aide began packing up the materials. This really hadn't taken all that long.

"I'll send word as soon as we learn something," Charles promised.

"I'll look forward to it."

Logan waited until Fury and his aide had left before turning to Charles, already starting to argue, "I'm going in alone."

"I didn't say the team would be a large one. At the very least you will need transport."

"Fallen's taken Henry to Atlanta to help with the whole Flush thing."

Fallen was the X-men's main go to girl for trips out like this. They had the Blackbirds of course, but Fallen's own ship was larger and by far more silent. She had built the craft she used herself, the Lucky Dragon, and had used it to take Henry out on trips like this to where he was needed most. Gideon's Flush was a new virus that had emerged recently and Henry had offered his help to the CDC to help them figure out where it was coming from. They would be gone for a few days.

"Have Remy fly you out," Charles suggested. Remy was Fallen's unofficial back up, but neither he nor his flight crew had ever flown out on official X-men business. Their craft, the Dragon 2 was as yet untried.

"Is he ready for a mission?" Logan questioned, uncertain. He didn't like flying with a newbie flight crew, even for a quick sneak and peek.

"He's to fly you out and nothing more," Charles asserted with authority. Remy had been bumped off the active duty roster because of an injury and everyone knew the thief was champing at the bit for a chance to come back on. He hadn't been cleared for that of course, so he would have to be handled delicately.

Logan crossed his arms, an ironic smile on his face. "He won't sit for that and you know it. He'll want to tag along and I'd rather go alone. "

"He will do as he is directed," the Professor insisted. "And I know I can count on you to make sure that he does."

"I'll give him a call and tell him to get the Dragon 2 ready."

(break)

Kimble lay on a nice, thick blanket, warm and happy in the late evening sun. He and Aiden were topside, out on the tarmac and in the shade of the Dragon 2, catching some rays, both of them taking their final energy recharge for the day. They came up here often now that things had quieted in the world, to watch the sunset and smoke.

Like Simone, neither of the two men were organic, fleshly beings but that didn't make them any less alive. They were both Siskan Courtesans and proud of it, one of the few of their kind still left alive in the universe. They fed on energy and preferred to take it from the sun, especially since it allowed them the freedom of coming up here alone to watch the sun rise and fall as they did so.

Kimble was the most odd looking of the pair. He was the perfect image of a male Dognan pilot, a blending of both human and animal. His skin was a stark, bleached out white spread out over the upper body of a well worked human athlete. He was an inorganic being and no amount of sunbathing would ever give him a tan. Just like Simone, a large tattoo of a winged woman covered his entire chest, only his was Purple, announcing to all who would see that he was indeed a Rogue of the Game and a person of high value. That's where his humanity ended. His lower half had a pair of legs that were crooked like a cat, ending in pawed feet with two large toes each, a large silver claw wedged in between. A complimentary pair of leathery bat wings made sure he would never be confused with anything resembling a normal human. His hair was waist length and richly black, fanned out under him as he reclined, an eye-catching alabaster Adonis. He was dressed only in a pair of loose fitting black sweatpants, riding just low enough on his hips to show that from the waist down the bare skin blended into white fur, the softest fur anyone could run their hands through.

He was leaning back on the blanket and sprawled happily, his eyes a bit droopy from the round of play that he and Aiden had shared before coming up here. These two were more than simple friends, they were pair bonded and married, matching rings and everything.

Aiden was sitting beside him with his elbows resting on his bent knees, smoking a cigarette. He smoked the most of the pair by far, his non-organic body using the nicotine to keep himself calm and even. All the benefits without the risk of cancer. He, too, was shirtless at the moment, the sun gleaming off of his slightly browned and golden skin. He had once had the ability to see the future in his sleep and this had earned him the nickname The Dreamer. The nickname had stuck though he hadn't had a premonition since the Game had concluded here just a few short months ago.

Kimble's supine position on the blanket gave him a good view of his lover's back. Unlike Kimble, Aiden appeared as a normal human man, slight in stature but strong enough not to be trifled with. He too carried a big bright Mark on his chest, but his winged woman was a golden egg yolk yellow. It was striking, but he was no Rogue like Kimble was. He had begun as a simple Blue Receiver, but he had been chemically altered in the Game. Now no one was really sure what his true status was. Not that it mattered now that the Game was done.

Kimble of course cared about none of this, he was too busy admiring the way the sun was shining through Aiden's wispy blonde hair, like spun gold, loving every strand. He loved everything about the man, including the slow and easy movement of Aiden's elegant slim fingers as he smoked. It brought a smile to Kimble's face, the thought of what those highly skilled hands had done to him only a few minutes ago, before they had come up here.

Aiden sensed Kimble's loving, playful thoughts as a vibration he could feel. They were no ordinary Siskans, these. They were Lushna-esk and empathic. Now so fully bonded that worded communication was no longer necessary for them to express their deepest thoughts for one another. Kimble's warm, vaguely lustful vibration made Aiden smile and he glanced back at his lover with his pale green eyes, that grin all teasing now.

Aiden was about to say something but paused when his cell phone went off. Aiden wasn't fond of the device, but now that he was an actual member of the Dragon 2 flight crew, was forced to carry it. Kimble of course, did not possess one himself. He had never overcome his fierce aversion to phones - he had once been horribly beaten for using one a long time ago - and so all their calls came to Aiden whether it was for him or not.

" 'Allo?" Aiden answered a bit reluctantly, his eyes looking Kimble up and down. The pilot was spread out, just ripe for the taking, and Aiden was never one to turn down seconds if he could have them. This was an interruption he could have done without.

"Bonjour, Dreamer," Remy said breathlessly from the other end. He was obviously in the middle of something, walking quickly and moving fast. "Where you at?"

"Outszide, catching szome szun," Aiden replied, his voice thick with a heavy accent. Aiden was not a Rogue like his love-mate, his accent had come from not from coding, but from having been melted several times. It was a sign of damage. Not that he minded it all that much, it made him unique and his individuality was something Aiden had always enjoyed.

"Kim dere wit you?"

Aiden smiled. "But of coursze. 'E would be nowhere elsze."

"Bien. Start de Dragon up, we got a mission. A real one fo' once. 'Bout friggin' time. I'll be up dere in ten minutes."

"Aye, Captain," Aiden replied and hung up. He turned back to Kimble who looked entirely too comfortable. "Alasz, my love, we muszt go. We 'ave a mission."

Kimble just grunted without moving. He began to complain in his own slow drawl, a mark of his being a Rogue as real as his tattoo. "A real one? We ain't had nuthin' but short runs around the block. Fuckin' drills and drills and then more stupid drills. Why's we even botherin' nohow if they ain't never gonner ever use us fer real?"

"Ah, but my szweet, disz one isz real. Or szo Remy claimsz."

Kimble sat up at that. "Did he say where we wuz goin'?"

"Non, only zat 'e on 'isz way up. We are to sztart up ze Dragon."

"Well, then let's get to it," Kimble said, a huge grin on his face.

Truth be told Kimble loved to fly, drills or not. He was more than simply empathic, he had other gifts as well. He was telekinetic and could fly himself and this ship as well. The Dragon 2 was no ordinary ship - Seth, Kimble's Siskan half brother, had designed it from Dognan schematics which meant it needed both a telekinetic and an energy producer to fly it. In Dognan society, pilots had both of these abilities. Kimble was a pilot in appearance only, his only talent was telekinesis, he couldn't power the ship. No, that job was reserved for one Remy Lebeau, former thief and now Captain of this tiny vessel.

A few minutes later that same thief eagerly climbed up the short ramp to the Dragon 2, his personal pride and joy. Seth had originally designed it and built it for the Professor, but then Charles had given it to Remy, a generous gift.

Remy smiled as he heard his two shipmates chattering away inside. After the events of the Game, their lives had all been drastically changed, the thief's perhaps most of all. Remy had suffered greatly in the Game itself and had since been bounced from the active duty roster. While it was disappointing and unfair at first, the hurt of it had been significantly appeased by where it had landed him – at the helm of this magnificent little craft.

Seth had built this Lear jet sized ship with the thief in mind. Remy's biologically produced energy was more than strong enough to power the tiny vessel. Combined with Kimble's own powerful telekinesis, the two of them could take this craft wherever they wished. While not as exciting as being on the ground team, the thrill of flight had blasted away any resentment the thief might have felt. Now he was going on clandestine excursions into territory he could never have gone on his own.

Kimble's companion and lovemate Aiden had been incorporated into the flight team, mostly since the two Siskans were inseparable. Aiden had only the weakest of telekinetic ability, certainly nothing that could help fly this thing, so Kimble had taught Aiden all the mechanics he would ever need to know. Aiden, like all Siskans, learned fast when properly motivated. Aiden wasn't without skills of his own - he was well trained in hand to hand combat and was sort of like their designated bouncer should the need ever arise. He was also Remy's personal sparring partner, helping to keep Remy in perfect shape for what they hoped was his eventual reinstatement to the full time duty roster. Now the three of them ran this vessel like three parts of one whole, a fluid team in every sense of the word.

The X-men had in their possession two ships like this. The first was the Lucky Dragon, built by Kimble's former Mistress Fallen, a true Dognan pilot. She was responsible for returning the X-men after they had been kidnapped by Dognan slavers all those years ago. Her Lucky Dragon was large, a true spaceship that could carry many passengers.

The Dragon 2 was much smaller than that and more like a shuttle craft to her large, heavy duty transport. The Main Room was one large space and comprised the bulk of the ship. The front of the room was dominated by a large viewing screen that acted as a window, showing what was going on outside the craft as they flew. In the middle were two pilot sticks, one each for Remy and Kimble. At the rear of the room was a short row of seats, enough for six passengers. A small bathroom and some storage lockers completed the whole of the ship.

"Ready, boys?" Remy chirped merrily, coming into the main room. His manner of dress proved he was no liar when he had said this was a real mission – he was decked out in the full black uniform of the X-men. This was no mere grocery run.

"Aye," Kimble replied, already seated on his pilot stick. Though the pilot sticks were called sticks, they more closely resembled large chairs that were ridden, not unlike being on a large cruising motorcycle. They were easy on the body, able to be adjusted into many positions and designed for comfort on a long trip. They could even be slept in if necessary.

Remy eased onto his pilot stick, placing his hands on two bars out front, and gave them a good charge of telekinetic energy. He smiled with satisfaction as he heard the engines come to life below him, raising a pleasant low vibration in the seat. That sound would always send a real thrill right through him, like an affirmation that he was in control of some large powerful beast. It was better than any motorcycle could ever be. He loved to fly, a change in lifestyle he never could have imagined.