"Not too bad, I could break in here if I had the specs ahead of time."

"Bu’ what if you have no specs? Den it not so easy."

"Well, ya, but this place has more security then your average bank. Do you think you could crack into Fort Knox without the specs, I don’t think so."

"Well, maybe no’ dere, but somet’ing like dis place? No problem!" He took a swig of his beer.

"What about motion detectors. If you don’t know where they are ahead of time, it doesn’t take much to set them off. And then the gig is up."

"Cut de power. No juice, no ‘lectronic surveillance."

"Most places that use motion detectors would have a back up supply or even an independent generator. And that would be on the property and guarded. Then what would you do?" I was nursing a Dr. Pepper, Hank having warned me off of alcohol. Said something about an exaggerated reaction. It wasn't a big thing, but I didn’t really want to find out.

"Walk real slow." This was drawn out in a stage whisper and slow motion hand gestures for effect. After a good chuckle, a few more gulps of pop, we fell into a comfortable silence.

"Wanna try, Petite?"

"Try what?"

"Break in a house where you don’ know what to ‘spect?

"It’s the middle of the night! Actually it’s almost morning. Besides which, I don’t feel like explaining to the police what we were doing breaking into someone’s house at 4 in the morning."

"Non, in de Danger room."

Well, I had been in there a few times with Logan when sparing, but it looked more like a gym then anything else and I couldn't figure out why they called it the Danger Room. What where we gonna do, pretend the uneven bars where a fence? "It's a gym." Remy looked at me like I just grew a second nose or something.

"Scott never tol’ you ‘bout de danger room?"

"Noooo, what is the danger room other than a gym?"

"Ever watch Star Trek, de Nex’ Gen?"

"Ya."

"Know de holodecks?"

"Ya." This was starting to sound like a really intelligent conversation.

"It’s a bit like dat."

"Your kidding, right."

Remy shook his head in slow motion.

"I have got to see this."

***

He was right. It was like a holodeck, except the safeties where usually off. If there were any safeties. Stepping in after Remy had fiddled around with some controls, I was amazed at the transformation. I stepped through the door, and out into night in the middle of a lawn. A really posh lawn. Looking across I saw a house that rivaled the mansion for understated expense. It screamed MONEY. Remy came up behind me, passed me the sweat shirt I had left on the counter in the kitchen and then proceeded to the house.

Well, not to be left in the dust, I followed him and as we crouched in the shadow of a small bush, many feet away from the house, we discussed the game plan. Not having any equipment with us, Remy had set the difficulty level rather easy. It was a normal mansion, with no extra security other than what you would see on any house this size. In other words dogs, contact wires on the windows, possibly motion detectors and maybe sound, along with rent-a-cops, from the size of this thing. Nothing I hadn’t come across before. Of course I usually had more preparation too.

First job was to scout it out and see if the threat of dogs was real, or if it was simply in my imagination. Guard dogs wouldn’t be too hard to handle. They were used more to scare people off than to actually attack. Too much possibility for the owners to get sued if the dogs bit. It’s the family pets you have to watch out for. I had seen an Irish setter, sleeping on a kid’s bed, rip out the throat of an attacker. That I was with the attackers, I tried not to think about. Well, after seeing no evidence of dogs on the first cycle round and the glazed over look of the rent-a-cops, I started to think this might be possible. That I was accepting the reality of the situation was another thing I tried not to think about, if for different reasons.

On the second go round, we checked out the windows for contact wires and if they had any type of advertised security system. I loved people who did half the work for me, by telling me the exact manufacturer, type and model number of their system. It made researching a job so much easier. Well we found one, Castle security, but I wasn’t familiar with the company so it didn’t help me all that much. Finding all the main floor windows sensored, it was time to check out the second floor. Getting a boost from Gambit, I found the first window we checked to be sensor free. It also didn’t want to open. The next window we had more success on. It opened, and after scrambling in, Gambit and I started to wander around.

I could feel the instincts kick in and senses sharpen. I could also feel the old hate start to build. When I used to break into a house, it was to kill somebody. Only rarely did the cult break into some place for something other than blood. Shutting out the memories and the hate installed by my insane father, I concentrated on the job at hand. Poking Gambit in the ribs, I asked what we were after.

"I don’ know, somet’ing silly, dis jus’ practice." He whispered back. Looking around the room there wasn’t much. Well, there was a lot of various things, but nothing really silly. Then I got a wicked gleam in my eye and whispered something in his ear. He glanced back at me with a similar grin and we headed out of the room. Peaking rather slowly around the door and seeing the motion sensors in the corner, identified by their blinking red lights, I began to wonder if there might be an animal in the house. If so, that meant crawl space. I hoped it was something bigger than a cat as I got onto my hands and knees and started to crawl out of the room. The little red light continued to blink and didn’t go the solid red indicating detection. Gambit followed suit and we both crawled down the hall poking heads into the various rooms, looking for the master bedroom.

We finally found the room and we both snuck in. Since most bedrooms aren’t monitored, cause lets face it, would you want sensors staring at you while you slept even if it was only motion detectors, not to mention the level of false alarms they would cause, I stood up. Walking over to the dresser, I started to rummage around looking for my prize. Finding a pair of skimpy ladies lacy undies, I threw them at Gambit and started on another drawer. Bingo. I grabbed my prize, held it up for Gambit’s appraisal, and off we went.

Getting back on hands and knees we headed out the door, and into the face of a dog. A family dog. A really, really big family dog. It was a bloody Great Dane. Having no idea how vicious a Great Dane might be I froze. Well, Gambit hadn’t seen the dog yet so he crawled around me and ran into the dog. Well, all thoughts of friendly visitors left and the big lug started to bark. Do you have any idea how loud a Great Dane bark is?

Well, at least the dog meant the crawl space was much larger than I had thought, I got up off my knees, still crouched over, and ran to the room where we had entered the building. I guess I ran faster than Gambit, cause he’s the one missing a patch of material on his leg. Slamming the door behind him, we both scrambled out the window. Too bad the dog alerted the rent-a-cops. I landed on them. They do a really good job of breaking falls. Just them the scene froze and Scott walked in. I don’t think he was impressed.

He walked right up to us, now that we had untangled ourselves from the frozen guards and started in on us.

"While I normally appreciate people getting up early to work on things, I have a stinking suspicion that had nothing to do with what you where doing. What on earth is this whole setup, and how come you’re doing it now, when I’m supposed to be setting it up for Bobby and Rogue. And for heavens sake what is that thing in your pocket."

I suppose he had to stop for breath at some point in time. It was a good thing he did, cause he sure wasn’t breathing much when I pulled out the pair of leopard print male bikini briefs, I had claimed as my prize. That’s when he noticed the piece of lace hidden in Gambit’s pocket. Scott pulled it out and held up a pair of racy, lacy ladies panties that wouldn’t leave much to the imagination. I have never seen Scott that particular shade of red before. Not that I had been around much more than 7 or 8 weeks, but I don’t think his face normally matched the ruby in his visors.

Bobby walked in at that moment, looked at Scott holding the piece of lace that passes as undies and just cracked up. He looked at Gambit, then at me with the leopard print brief and asked:

"What is this, a panty raid?"

"Oui."

"Well, why didn’t you tell me, Scott I would have been here on time then."

Scott threw the panties at Gambit, yelled at Bobby to get out of there and wait till he was ready, then stomped off to the control room, which now showed up hanging in the middle of the air, near the height of the house. Of course to do that, he had to go out the doors and ran right into Rogue. He just wasn’t having that great a day.

"What’s with the ol’ grump this mornin’?"

"He didn’ like Petite an Gambit’s session, dat’s all." And with all the dignity we could manage, we both walked out of the room.