Mike seeks out the Thieves' Guild

New Orleans. A city of partying, imbibing and bribing. An old friend of Mike's family, Noreen Tanaka, had arranged for him to stay at a property that she owned when he made it to the city. The good news, he would only have to pay minimal rent as well. The bad news, she had made it pretty clear that if he went hunting for trouble, there was a chance that he could get wrapped up in something bigger than himself.

Mike had managed to get to the city by sneaking aboard a party bus. He used his telekinesis to move some chemicals in the brains of people who noticed him to make sure that they wouldn't bother him or point him out. Noreen must have figured something was up when she picked him up from the bus station out of a party bus.

"I'm not high enough in the NOPD to go launching raids on the Thieves' Guild," she told him.

She hadn't asked why he had come, but with that statement, he knew that she had deduced why fairly quickly. It must have been a popular business in the city, young mutant coming from somewhere else to get a look at the mysterious Gambit. The man who had helped the X-Men save the world time and time again from threats like the Shadow King or Apocalypse or Mr. Sinister. Mike figured that part of the city's tourism probably came from that.

But he knew that the city had a darker past. The Thieves' Guild wasn't just one big family - there were several clans. The LeBeau Clan and the Antiquary's clan were the most powerful. Then there were the sister organizations that had been set up in different cities with which the guild shared a loose affiliation. The Assassins' Guild was similar, but Mike hadn't been able to scrounge up as much information on them yet. Then there was the fact that the mysterious mutant named Candra seemed to have her hooks sunken into the city. Plus, some had even reported seeing the Ghost Rider in the city a few times.

Now that was a presence that Mike Dorie knew nobody could handle, maybe not even the Hulk.

Mike shook his head and left the apartment. He came here for a reason. Now was the time to get at it.