"Ah'm goin' in, Cajun. But you better have mah back!"
"Oh, don' worry, chere" Gambit's voice crackled across the comlink. "Gambit gon' be riiiight behind you."
Gambit smiled coldly as he watched Rogue enter the building. Once Gambit had decided to go back to his old ways, it hadn't taken him long to decide that Rogue would be his first new employee. All those years spent at the X-Mansion, trying to play a good, lovesick boyfriend for Rogue's benefit had gotten him nowhere. Now it was time to turn the tables.
It also hadn't taken him long to figure out a plan. Years of contacts with the thieves guild had put Gambit in contact with a long collection of shady contacts, many of whom still owed him favors, and the rest were the type who could be easily blackmailed by someone with Gambit's skills and his newly-recovered desire to use them. In fact, blackmail was on his list of means to recruit some of his ideal women, but Rogue and her unique skills presented special problems that could be turned into special opportunities.
It took him only three days to plan and execute Rogue's downfall. A sob story about an old friend who had fallen on hard times in LA with a shady modeling agency. A quick, easy pump of Rogue's ego saying that she'd be the only one beautiful enough to go undercover there to help him investigate. A promise that he was going to make sure nobody ever went down his path again.
It was all bullshit, of course.
***
Rogue knew something was wrong shortly after she entered, though she didn't know how wrong things really were. Gambit had told her that it was a modeling agency that might be a cover for something seedier, but this? This place wasn't even trying to hide what it was. From the second she walked in, it was clear all the women were surgically-enhanced, high-end porn stars. Gambit had told her to dress far skimpier than she was comfortable, assuring her she'd be able to avoid physical contact with anyone, just get in, drop off a headshot, scout the place out and split. But even the ridiculously tight dress she'd let him talk her into wearing seemed classy by these standards.
Thrown off by the sight of these women, all of whom were damn near able to put her own, naturally amazing body to shame, she instantly decided that this was a mistake and that she needed to get out of here.
She cursed under her breath, hoping Remy would hear her and know something was wrong, and started to turn around. But a man - a very sleazy man, who was pretty obviously a director or producer of some kind - pointed to her, nodded and said "Damn, LeBeau wasn't lying about her at all. That's gotta be the one."
"The one?" Rogue asked, starting to panic. "The one WHAT?"
Quickly, the women - at least eight of them - had surrounded her. Rogue was still thrown off kilter, but whatever was happening, this wouldn't be a problem for her, a trained fighter with powers.
Oh, right, her powers. The irony dawned on her in that second as the women instantly stopped Rogue dead in her tracks, rendering all her training and strength useless merely by reaching out...and touching her. Skin-to-skin contact. It took seconds. It felt like an eternity.
***
A smug Gambit strolled through the door about a moment later, grinning broadly. He nodded at the director, a particularly sleazy porn maven who Gambit had bailed out of trouble multiple times in the old days and owed the Cajun plenty.
"Holy shit, LeBeau. You still have an eye for talent. You know how much money I could make with someone like her working for me?"
"Dis just de start, homme. Watch and learn."
On the floor, Rogue was trembling wildly, still surrounded by nearly a dozen of the director's top stars, all still grabbing the powerful mutant. Many times, Rogue had thought she might be able to control her dangerous absorption ability, but even at her best, she would never have been prepared for this: absorbing the memories and personalities of nearly a dozen award-winning (and oh, how she was immediately able to remember their Adult Video Award wins, and the scenes that earned them, mentally placing herself into them as her brain tried to cope) porn stars.
Her brain reeled, trying to handle all this terrible knowledge at once. Somewhere inside, the real Rogue was there, but until she was able to purge what she was absorbing, her brain betrayed her, streamlining all the filthy things these women had done into things that Rogue remembered as things she had done. Done for money. And would do again. After all, she was a star...
That was the last thought the real Rogue had before Gambit leaned, down, sneering, right in front of her and snapped a collar around her neck."You recognize dis, yeah? Power suppression collar? Well, dis gon' make sure you don' go absorbin' nothing else...course, gonna make sure you don' lose nothing you just absorbed, neither. Why don't you keep company wit' dem new memories you got while Gambit talks business, OK?"