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The man hadn't walked far down this path when he was stopped by a woman.  He shouldn't have been surprised; this was her domain after all.  Admittedly she was supposed to be dead, but in his life there were more undead than in the Vampire Chronicles.

"I should kill you right now, right where you stand."

"If it would make you feel better, go right ahead.  Gambit don't mind."

Callisto hadn't expected that reaction, she had expected a fight if she ever caught up with him.  Then again, she hadn't expected any X-men to be walking down here, especially not him.  And it wouldn't do any good to kill him if he wanted to be killed.  She put her knife back in its sheath. 

"What brings you here?"

"Jus' walkin'"

"Where are the others?"

"What others?  Oh, the X-men?  They ain't here, chere, Gambit left, you see."

That was new.  "When?  Why?"

"Not so fast.  Gambit left a week, maybe two weeks ago.  Ain't looked back yet."

"That doesn't explain why."

"Would you believe Gambit if he said that he was sick of having everyone waiting for him to betray them?  Promise Gambit one thing chere, when you kill him, look into his eyes."

"So instead of waiting youve come here where youve already betrayed us."

"Not exactly.  Gambit been hidin' out here in the city, but today's the day of the grand anti-mutant march.  Not the sort of day people like ourselves want to be walking above ground."

A mutant hiding out in the tunnels like hundreds before him.  "We fought our way out of a hell dimension just to kill you.  We didn't expect you to be quite so human though."

"Gambit disappoints himself that way sometimes."

But now he was one of the hunted, today all mutantkind was, so that gave him the right to seek shelter here.  For now.

"So are you on your own, or will Gambit be greeting other people who want to kill him?"

He'd made enough enemies to make that a possible prospect, but not today and not the Morlocks.  Callisto didn't know why she wanted to tell him what was going on, but she did.  Maybe it was because he was the first person she had seen for two weeks. 

"I'm on walkabout."

"Come again, chere?"

"Walkabout, you walk and you walk, and then you walk some more until you find what it is you're looking for. That was the idea anyway."

"Any luck?"

"None so far."

"You're going to keep walking though."

"Yeah.  Maybe I've not walked far enough yet."

"An' de Morlocks, they don't mind?"

"Why should they?  Theyve got a new leader, they don't need me anymore."

"Ah."

"That's what I'm walking for; I need to find a purpose."

"'That case, do you mind Gambit walking wit' you, he seems to be missing that as well."

They'd walked a little way, the sound of ten thousand people marching along the streets above them being their only accompaniment.

"Maybe you could join another team."

"What do you mean?"

"Fight the good fight with people who aren't the X-men.  I don't know, maybe X-Force."

Gambit laughed, the idea of him being in a military unit.  "Can you imagine it, 'yes Cable, sir, no Cable, sir.'  The only question would be which of us would kill the other one first."

"Gen X?"

"Too old."

"Alpha Flight?"

"Not Canadian."  Nor could he put on a Quebecois accent to save his life.

"Excalibur?"

"Now that is an idea."  It did seem to have some plus points.  He'd always got on reasonably well with Kurt, Kitty and all.  And they were a little more grown up so they might actually deal with whatever problems they had.  Then again Gambit never did so why he expected it from other people was beyond him.

But that would also mean never seeing his Rogue again.  Muir Island to Westchester is a long trip.

"But ain't you ever heard that a Cajun shrivels up if he isn't with in a few thousand miles of the swamp."  Not the smoothest of escapes but it would have to do.

"No, I hadn't but I don't doubt it.  Maybe you don't need to be fighting the good fight the good way at all, join Magneto and his quest."  The idea had some appeal to Callisto herself, at least the Brotherhood were trying to do something for mutants, not just sitting there on their comfortable, easy-mingling asses.  Magneto had probably betrayed the Morlocks somewhere along the line, but who hadn't.  Everyone exploited the Morlocks.

Gambit had been quiet.  He realised he needed to say something, had to be careful though, the whole thing was still painful, painful and complicated to outsiders, which Callisto was.  "That's not such a good idea chere, in case you didn' know, Gambit and Magneto, we haven't seen eye to eye lately."

"I think you're stuck down here with me then."

"That's not so bad."  Gambit decided to lighten the mood.  "A pretty girl, these wonderful surroundings, nothing better in the world."

Just when it seemed as though he was going to break out into an old fashioned musical number, a piece of paper hit him smack on the face.  It was a leaflet about the march.  The green ink on the white front cover not only had writing but also a picture of him, the latest in a long line of anti-mutant senators, didn't have much on the rest of his platform, but it was enough to get him elected.

"His Granddad hated blacks and his Dad hated immigrants and now he hates us.  Nice to know were hated by a proud lineage."

"Yeah, and the bastard is supported by the Schechter Corp.  With them paying for his campaign there's no way he isn't going to get re-elected."

"Not if what Gambit read in the papers is true?"

"Huh?"  Callisto hadn't read a newspaper in a long time, normally they held no interest for her since they were only concerned with normal humanity.

"Accordin' to the financial section, Schechter reported major fourth quarter losses and expect to be losing quite a lot more this year, especially with their competition bringing out similar tech.  Its not quite as good yet, but they're working on it."

"I wish that they would go bust, it might mean one less anti-mutant senator."

Stirring inside his head, Gambit had the beginnings of an idea.

"What are you thinking?"

"That they just might go out of business if someone gave their rivals the patterns for the Schechter chip, you know, the special one that is supposed to be four hundred times faster than normal."

Callisto quickly saw what he was getting at.  "How?"

"Other companies are always willing to pay for each others secrets.  Say someone breaks into the safe and steals the blueprint.  Sell them to the highest bidder, no questions asked, everyone's happy."

"And I suppose the someone would be us?"

"That's the idea.  You're superquick , and with reflexes to match, non?"  Callisto nodded.  "And Gambit got skills when it comes to breaking and entering."

"So they say."

"We could do it."

The idea appealed to Callisto, it was a damn sight better than waiting around down here for something to show up.  But there was also a downside.  "It's illegal."

"What isn't?  And look at it this way, they're a big company, no doubt they've done a few illegal things in the past."

"If we get caught they'll blame it on all mutants."

"Jus' have to make sure not to get caught then."

"They'll come after us."

Callisto didn't need to say who they were, Gambit realised that the X-men would figure out who the mysterious criminals were, and then they would come after them, and the results would not be pretty.  "Yeah.  Gambit don't mind taking that fall when it comes, he'll keep them busy, and you can go back to your walkabout.  One job, in and out, do the business then we go back to what we had been doing."

It was an attractive proposition.  From what she had heard Gambit could break in, it would strike a small blow against the bigots, and after it was done she could go back on walkabout and find her purpose.  Call it a small detour and maybe do something for once instead of having to react to what other people did.

"Okay, lets do it."

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