The X-Men: A Dish Best Served Cold

Author:  Lady Rayne

Unlike the mornings before, this morning at the Xavier mansion started out quite peaceful. It was the afternoon that got started with a bang. Quite litteraly in this case.

Used to the routine by now, all of the X-men calmly filed into the room where the exposion was heard. Hank’s lab.
Rogue, Gambit, Jean, Storm, and Logan all gathered into the doorway of their resident Genius’s lab and peered inside, holding their noses at the awuful smell of rotten eggs that wafted from the room. Viles were smashed on teh floor and most of the area was blackened with soot from the explosion. “ Hank?” Jean called inside the room still holdign her nose. Logan was grimacing in disgust. With his enhanced senses the smell was ten times worse. “ Ugh..smells like rotten eggs..or sulfur.” he said gruffly waving a hand in front of his face.
" Yoo hoo.. Hank?” Rogue called stepping inside.
Gambit, Storm, Jean and Logan stepped inside as well. Carefully searching the room for the missing scientist. Finally jean smiled and looked up. She began to chuckle. “ I found him.” she said pointing upwards. “ Where?” Rogue asked and then followed Jean’s finger to the ceiling. Where they saw a very scorched furry figure hanging for dear life onto the
ceiling and shaking like a frightened bunny rabbit. Logan looked into an open file cabinet and found something. Holding it up he shook his head. “ Stink bomb.”
“ Who in the world..” Rogue wondered.
“ Take a wild guess Rogue. Who aint down here with us.” Logan tossed the bomb back into the file cabinet.
“ Scott and bobby.” Rogue said. “ Ah get it.”
“ Are you okay Hank?” Storm called upwards.
“ He’s fine..he just got a very good scare.” Jean responded for Hank, she was chuckling.
“ I find no humor in this sitution Jean” Hank finally responded.
“ Come on down sugah.” Rogue asked motining with a hand.
“ No.” Hank responded firmly.
“ Why not?” Storm asked.
“ Because my muscles will not let loose from this rafter. My mind is making suggestions but my arms won’t listen.”
“ When do you think you’ll come down?” Jean asked.
“ Check back next tuesday.” came the reply.
“ How’s de weather up dere Beast?” Gambit called up with a wide grin.
“ Shutup Gambit”

Before either Scott or Bobby could be found the practical joker struck again, and again...and again.

Rogue opend the door to her room and found herself drenched by a bucket of very cold, and very sticky liquid. Followed by a second deluge of white powder. Her scream sounded just as another scream came from down the hall. And a howl of frustration came from somewhere else. She stomped down the hall to find Storm and the others watching a very strange acting Bobby. He was running around the room screaming.
“ Dat’s gotta hurt.” Gambit laughed.
Hank had been gotten a second time, he had come down from the ceiling only to find that his bathroom door had been booby traped. Mixed in with his fur were large white feather sticking to him at random, and he was dripping with the same liquid Rogue had on her.
“ What happend ta them?” Rogue asked logan who was looking at her with a half grin on his face.
“ Somebody put icy hot on his toilet seat, hank got the tar and feather treatment.. Looks like they got you too.”
“ Yeah.” Rogue wrung out her hair and glared around. “ Where is the little weasel”
“ Who?” Logan asked.
“ You know who!!” Rogue fumed.
“ You mean Scott?” Jean asked from the others side of Logan.
“ YES!”
“ He’s in town getting groceries. I bet he set this up before he left so he’d have an alibi.” Jean laughed.
“ When ah’m done with him he’s gonna need more than an alibi! He’s gonna need two doctors just ta find the pieces o’ his head!!!”
“ Calm down Rogue. I have a solution.”

Scott came back from the store with the groceries to find a quiet house. They went through their normal routine of putitng things away. No one gave any hint that they had been hit by his pranks. Puzzled Scott expected some sort of retaliation. He looked around corners and watched every shadow. Soon he became paraiod, jumping at every sound. Still nothing happened. For the next two days everything was still normal. Then..just as Scott began to believe he had truly gotten away with his latest pranks, Rogue, Hank and Bobby cornered him in the kitchen. Bobby held a bottle of icy hot, Hank held a bucket and a bag of feathers, and Rogue held a bag of flour.
“ Hey guys, what’s the matter.” He said uneasily staring at them and the objects in their hands.
“ Nothing, Fearless leader. We just wish to speak with you about some incidents that occured but a few days past..” Hank said.
“ What..umm..incidents?” Scott hesitated.
“ I think you know” Bobby said tossing the icy hot bottle into the air and catching it again.
“ Come on you guys.” Scott started.
“ Evah heard the phrase. Revenge is a dish best searved cold, sugah?” Rogue asked in a dangeriously sweet voice.
“Come with us.” Hank smiled.