"I got dis way covered," Gambit whispered as he nodded down a corridor and then motioned with his metallic staff for Radius to go down the opposing corridor in the hall. "You check dat way an' holler if ya see anything."

"Will do," Radius replied under his breath and with a nod of his own. With that Gambit stalked quietly down his corridor, drawing his staff back and ready to strike at a moment's notice. Radius limped a short wait until he found a slightly opened door. He positioned himself at the edge of the doorway and looked into the room.

What he saw hit him like nothing he had seen before.

"Oh god..." Radius suddenly muttered to himself as he slumped down the wall he stood at, his eyes widening in shock and his stomach churning violently. "Oh fuckin' shit..." he continued to say as he gripped his forehead with one hand and his stomach with the other.

From the other corridor, Gambit's attention was perked from the faint and stifled groans and whimpers. Curiously, he turned his head over his shoulder and peeked down the hallway Radius had gone down. The Canadian X-Man hadn't made it past the second door of the corridor before he was doubled over on his knees, his body tensing up and heaving in odd ways.

Gambit glanced around the area, checking to see if anyone else was in the area or if they may have been investigating the sounds. After a moment of checking to be sure, the Cajun thief quietly moved towards Radius's side.

"Jared?" Gambit inquired as he knelt down and touched the young man's back. "What in th' hell's wrong wit' you, kid?"

Before Radius could choke back his vomit and respond, a glimmer of light from the partially opened door that Radius had collapsed by and the sound of heavy panting and moaning caught Gambit's attention. When Gambit lightly pressed on the door, pushing it open slightly so that he could see the source of panting and moaning, what he saw twisted his stomach into knots and caused his blood to run cold.

Bent over on their hands and knees was a young, naked woman with shoulder-length blonde hair, her body sweating and tensed up, rocking rear forward as her head bobbed forward then backward. Behind her was that man made of liquid metal from before - Mercury - thrusting in and out of here. In front of her was the tall and obese man - Landslide - whose lap the woman's face was planted firmly in.

Radius had immediately recognized the woman as his girlfriend, Allison Crestmere - possessed by her split-personality Amara Aquilla - in such a compromised position by the two men who had beaten him to a pulp nearly hours ago. After the night's humiliation and beatings, it was too much for the young man to bear. Radius had been broken - mentally, emotionally, and physically.

Gambit bit down on his lower lip and gripped his staff tightly, unsure of what to do. Radius, however, choked back the huffing and heaving and vomiting and tears, and he looked up to Gambit, begging of his rescuer only one thing.

"Stop them..."

Radius's words and disposition was more then enough for Gambit to understand. The ice water he had felt in his veins then turned into that of boiling gasoline and he stood up at Radius's side, retrieving a handful of cards from his jacket pocket with his free hand. Gambit charged the cards as he kicked in the door to the room the three were in and they all gasped suddenly, startled by sudden entrance of a new party.

However, before they could react, Gambit gritted his teeth and flung the cards towards the ground before them. The resulting release of kinetic energy caused an explosion that flung the three naked bodies in different directions.

Mercury had been blown the shortest distance from the attack, his liquid metal form having twisted with the blast and absorbed most of the impact. He attempted to rise to his feet to face the sudden threat, his body slowly closing the gaps and holes in him caused by the explosion, but Gambit knew Mercury was the most formidable of the three and the Cajun thief was on him first.

The large, albeit naked, man made of liquid metal drew a back fist and slung it towards Gambit as he had approached, but Gambit had ducked and slammed the end of his staff upwards into a section of Mercury's mending gut. The staff ripped through the mending liquid metal and ended up stuck in place as Mercury's stomach continued to close around the world.

Mercury a shot a look down to Gambit as he jammed at the staff through him and grabbed at him with both hands, but Gambit leapt out of the way of his grasp and somersaulted several feet way. However, once Mercury had realized what happened, it was too late. The metallic staff had been charged with as much kinetic energy as Gambit could muster, and when he spun around to face Gambit, the staff released the kinetic energy in a large explosion that splattered the liquid metal that formed Mercury's hide all over the room.

"DAAAAHHH!!!" came the battle cry of another of Gambit's opponents from behind him. Gambit started to spin on the heel of his foot, but a pair of bulbous arms had wrapped around his arms and torso and pulled him tightly into the owner's fleshy and stout body. Landslide harnessed all of his strength in an attempt to squeeze all of the air out of Gambit and crush his ribs in the process.

Gambit flung his legs about wildly, kicking and wiggling as Landslide continued to squeeze desperately tighter. Noting that Gambit's attempts to loosen his hold, Landslide flung himself onto his back, dragging Gambit down with him, and then wrapped his hefty legs around Gambit's in an attempt to pin him down.

As Landslide squeezed, Gambit groaned and cried out, his breath growing short and a burning sensation appearing in his ribs. He continued wiggling his shoulders and arms about wildly, wanting to slip them up and above Landslide's massive arms, and even as his vision began to spot and grow dark, Gambit struggled until he was finally free. With his arms free, Landslide's squeeze on Gambit's ribs became tighter, but Gambit knew that know he had a fighting chance.

Gambit reached up frantically to Landslide's face, pawing and scratching at it - much to Landslide's irritation - until he finally felt where the obese man's eyes and temple were. Taking a quick grip on his temple, Gambit tightened his fingers's hold and pointed his thumbs, jamming them directly into Landslide's eyes.

Landslide cried out louder then before and wiggled his head side to side, trying to break free of Gambit's torturous and blinding attack. Blood was beginning to seep out of his eyes until Landslide was forced to release Gambit from his crushing embrace and push the considerably smaller thief clear off of him. Landslides screams continued as he realized he couldn't see, whether from the damage done to his eyes or the blood that had seeped out of his eye sockets, and he began to scramble to his feet wildly.

Gambit took the opportunity that had presented itself and drew several playing cards out of his sleeves into each hand. Crossing his arms, he charged the eight cards in total with his powerful kinetic energy, and then flung them at the torso of Landslide's shuffling form. The cards struck on target and exploded, just as Gambit retrieved several more cards, charged them, and flung them at his enemy.

The explosions bombarded Landslide with such force that they threw even his mammoth bulk to the floor. Gambit retrieved more and more cards, flinging them wildly onto Landslide's fallen form and allowing them to explode on impact over and over, until finally the trauma of his wounds had forced him to stop moving.

Though with a nigh-invulnerable hide and immense strength, even Landslide had simply been too overwhelmed by his injuries and the destructive power of Gambit's kinetically charged cards. Gambit stood over Landslide's unconscious body, huffing and heaving from the exhaustion of such consecutive attacks, until he suddenly remembered that there was still a third opponent who has since been unheard from.

Until now.

Gambit suddenly arched his back and cried out as a ball of fire struck him from behind. He collapsed down to his hands and knees, squinting and groaning from the burn as it smoldered in the middle of his back, burning away at his jacket and clothing.

"Friend of Falk's or not, you just ruined the best fucking I've had in years!" Amara roared and she drew back her hand, generating another ball of fire in her palm. Just as she was about to follow-up on her strike, an invisible force blind sided her and forced her into a wall. In a flash she felt the force cover her entire body and pin her there with such force that she was paralyzed, unable to move.

"Don't say things like, that Allison... Amara... whatever!" Radius shouted at the top of his lungs as he extended his force field to cover her entire body, focusing primarily around her face and throat. "Please..."

Amara struggled within the force field, her fiery lava form thrashing about and blasting flames in every direction, but nothing could get out. Her yellow eyes, bright as the suns, grew in intensity for a moment there, but quickly began to die down as she was suffocated. Her lava form shifted back into that of a human girl and she fell limp within the force field as it crushed her.

Radius knew that she was unconscious and quickly relented, dropping the force field around her and letting her drop to the floor of the room. It was then he let himself collapse to the floor before her, broken once again and in a fit of tears.

The battle was over.

{{ Storm to Gambit, come in Gambit, }} a voice had called out in Gambit's ear. He had recovered since Radius's attack and when he saw Radius break down again he made it a point to rush to the X-Man's side. Those explosions and the yelling had more then likely been heard by nearby members of the Brotherhood and they would soon be closing in on the two of them, investigating what happened.

"Pull yourself together, hommes!" Gambit implored as he knelt down by Radius and took hold of his shoulders, giving the hysterical man a solid shake. "Them fireworks I was talkin' 'bout are here, man. Lives are on th' line!"

{{ Storm to Gambit, }} the voice coming from Gambit's earpiece reiterated, albeit more urgently. {{ Do you read me, Remy? }}

Gambit looked over Radius as he rubbed his hands into his eyes and tried to compose himself. He turned away from Radius and stood up, walking away to give the man some space. He finally pressed the button on his earpiece.

"Hear ya loud an' clear, Stormy," Gambit responded with a sigh. "I got Radius and Magma right here, but they gonna need a hand an' soon..."

{{ Gambit, it's Cyclops here, }} another voice came over Gambit's earpiece - that of the leader of the X-Men. {{ Iceman and Rogue are only a dozen or so yards away and closing. Don't forget your primary objective before it's too late! }}

"Got it, Cyke," Gambit said and he knelt down briefly to pick up his staff, then turned to Radius. "You don' worry none, kid!" Gambit told him as he ran across the room to the door. "Help'll be here for you two in a few!"

"Wait!" Radius called out frantically, dropping his hands from his eyes and sitting up suddenly. "Where are you going?!"

Gambit stopped at the room's doorway and turned around to face Radius. He looked over the thrashed bedroom, to Magma's ravaged and prone body at Radius's side, and then ultimately back to Radius's bruised and battered face.

"T' finish this hell once an' for all..."