After giving Gambit the bad news about her daughter, Joelle explains that the doctors and their machines are all that are keeping her alive. She is sick of standing around, powerless. The worst thing she can imagine is outliving her own daughter. She’s been after anything that could keep that from happening. She adds that Baron Strucker, before he died, ran a number of projects which he kept hidden, even from the rest of Hydra. This particular outpost was designed to unravel the secrets of life and death. Supposedly… he cracked it. Strucker locked the place down for when he’d need it and ordered all the men who worked on the project killed. However, one of those men survived but he couldn’t handle looking over his shoulder anymore. Shakey opened up when they met him at the club. She was able to convince him to trade her and Tombstone his intel on the base for protection and some start-over money.
Fence looks over the blueprints laid out on the table and comments that perhaps these facts are disproven by the fact that Strucker actually died. Or, replies Joelle, it just means he couldn’t get to it in time. It’s probably the downside of keeping it in the middle of nowhere. Fence tells Remy that he encouraged him to give Joelle a second chance but he didn’t mean for him to get killed. Remy admits that this isn’t ideal, but like he said, the files look legit. Fence tells him he doesn’t really know what’s there. The place could be destroyed. It could be a trap. Remy says he’s right and that’s exactly why he can’t let Joelle go alone.
later:
Remy thinks about how he usually like to keep people at a distance. It’s easier to steal from strangers and also to walk away from them. Once you know somebody’s story… once they get you to care… you’re doomed. The pair of them launch themselves over a steep drop in a large all-terrain vehicle with Remy at the wheel. After driving for a while, Joelle asks him to stop. Remy says he’s going out on a limb but he reckons they’ve arrived. They clamber out of the cabin and look down at the valley below. A large skrull face dominates the area as seen from above. Joelle looks at the sky and reckons a storm is brewing. Should they be worried? Grabbing a rope, Gambit leaps from the ridge and says it always is and he never is.
Joelle follows him down the rope and says that it looks like the coordinates that Shakey was selling were right. Remy corrects her. Firstly, her Hydra defector buddy didn’t get to sell anything and second, he’d appreciate getting credit for a pocket well-picked; especially when that pocket belonged to a cut throat monster like Tombstone. Joelle tells him she will thank him when they make off with what they came for. Remy approaches a doorway wipes some snow from it. Underneath is a skrull face with a keypad on it. Joelle taps in the code she got from Shakey and the door opens. She asks if he’s starting to trust her yet. Remy tells her to ask him that if they make it out alive… together. As they head inside a robotic voice coming over the loudspeaker states that shadow station L126 is online. They have beta security clearance. “Beta?” asks Remy. Joelle asks if that’s bad. Remy reckons that generally once Greek letters get thrown around you want an alpha or sometimes an omega. Either way, being stuck in the middle is just asking for trouble.
Remy looks down and sees a row of snowmobiles. He coos. He’s always wanted to ride one of those. Once they’ve wandered around a little, Joelle checks the map and believes she’s lost where they are. Remy asks her not to worry. All these years of thieving means he is pretty good at memorizing blueprints. He almost became an architect by accident. The heavy duty science was set up through the doors straight ahead. She asks if he needs the codes but he replies that he memorized those, too. He says he could have run this show alone once she’d shown him the rundown, but they’re done pulling fast ones on each other, no?
They enter another room and find dusty doorways where people have been experimented upon. Gambit says it’s just part of the trial and error process. He thinks it’s funny that we all hate the idea of dying but nobody thinks what kinda monster you become when you don’t. He wipes away some dust to reveal the face of one of the unfortunate victims behind the glass. They move on to another doorway. The lights turn red and the loudspeaker states that they have insufficient security clearance. It activates a violation protocol. “L’enfer,” exclaims Remy as glass shatters all around them and the mutates behind it attack. They find themselves surrounded. Remy reckons this seems a little harsh for just wanting a peek at the penthouse.
Baron Von Strucker’s image appears in holographic form and he informs them that whoever they are, he wishes to personally welcome them to their end. The tools that shape the world are not to be wielded by inferior men, but he is glad they made it this far. Their presence means that they are aware that great men can control life and death itself. Now they will die, knowing how far beneath them they truly are. They see a hole open up in the floor and from beneath it emerges a giant mutate, armed to the teeth. It immediately locks into its target, Gambit, and fires. Remy grabs a couple of smaller mutates and uses them as semi-human shields, but he knows they won’t last long under fire.
He leaps and charges up a few cards, unleashing them at the giant. It roars at him as they begin to explode, destroying parts of his armor and weaponry. Joelle shoots at her assailants and tells Gambit that rather than flirting and showboating, would he stop that thing already! As one of the giant creatures’ bullet cartridges glows bright, he asks her to relax. He’s got her covered. The cartridge explodes and takes the others with it, destroying the creature. He then takes down another smaller one by exploding it and re-joins Joelle. He smiles at her and says a fella could almost start to think she liked to start trouble just ‘cause she enjoyed his type of rescue. Joelle looks behind him and reminds him that their attackers still aren’t dead. Gambit grabs her and runs, adding that sometimes the best rescue looks like an escape.
As he pulls her up to some windows, he tells her that windows tend to have a lot less security than doors. As she starts to bang on the window to crack it, one of the creatures grabs a dagger in Remy’s boot. He instantly charges it and as he climbs through the broken pane, the creature is destroyed.
Now the action is over, they find themselves in a new room which contains a cabinet with three vials inside. Remy reckons that if that’s her secret-of-life formula, it could really benefit from a less ominous presentation. It’s sealed tight. It looks like Shakey never had this kind of clearance after all. She asks if he can get at it. Remy informs her that it uses a custom electronic trigger which requires a one-of-a-kind key. He’s guessing that it went the way of Strucker himself. Joelle asks him if he expects her to believe that Remy LeBeau has seen a locking mechanism and didn’t figure out a way around it? She thought they were past all this. She thought he was with her. Remy begins to draw a circle with his finger around the lock, charging it up as he goes. He replies that he’s just reminding her how much harder this would have been without him. As the door swings open, she tells him that she knows and has already promised to thank him once they get out… together. He trusted her so she figures she can trust him to hold onto the canister she removes from of the cabinet. Remy admits that he was ready for her to sucker punch him again.
The loud speaker goes off again, this time stating that the zero protocol has been initiated. Gambit states that in his experience, robot voice in a super villain bunker initiating anything is a good time to make an escape. Joelle looks at the creatures clawing at the open window and knows they aren’t going out the way they came in. Gambit tells her that he memorized the layout, remember? He has a better exit. He charges a card and blows a hole in the floor. They then drop through it straight to where the snowmobiles are sitting. “Oh, you gotta be kidding me,” she sighs. Moments later they are rocketing from the base and into the open air. Once outside Remy looks back expecting the place to blow up which it doesn’t. Joelle says they got what they came for. They don’t need fireworks. She’d just like to go see her little girl.
meanwhile:
Fence contact Remy and tells him to get out of there before the snow storm comes. And… before he stress-eats his way back into fat pants. As he speaks his door is smashed off its hinges. In walks Tombstone flanked by two of his guards. He tells Fence that the word is that he is the man who deals in goods stolen by a certain shin-armor-loving mutant. It just so happens that Gambit stole something from him. Fence backs away and puts his arms up in a defensive manner, explaining that they’re just trying to save Joelle’s daughter. Tombstone pulls out a kitchen knife from its block and asks if he believes that. The girl promised him that the intel led to something which Baron Von Strucker cooked up - the zero compound. It’s a chemical weapon. So... how about he tells him the coordinates of these two lovebirds and he’ll let him know which of them she’s been lying to?
Over at the base, the computer counts down to zero. One of the other vials which Joelle didn’t take empties and is poured over the stations occupants. They are washed away into oblivion but the structure remains unaffected. Nearby, the snowmobile has run out of gas so Gambit and Joelle head off walking. He tells her that the bad news is that they’re not making it to civilization tonight. It’s probably best that they set down before they collapse. Joelle is concerned for her daughter but Remy knows they must survive the night. He needs to get her warm, by any means necessary. He creates a hole in the snow and they soon fall asleep. When the sun rises, Joelle wakes up. “Remy..?” she says. A voice from above tells him that he heard the girl. It’s time to wake up. He opens his eyes to see Rogue standing there looking down at them. “Sugah.”
