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Fic: Neither Or, Kitty/Pete, PG13
disclaimer: not mine
Fandom: Marvel's Excalibur/X-Men
Characters, Pairing: Kitty Pryde, Alistaire Stuart, Pete Wisdom, Scratch, (Kitty Pryde/Pete Wisdom)
Set: er, I don't know, this is probably vaguely AU, but around the time Kitty was going to university in Chicago and Pete was doing the odd job for Stuart and the re-organized WHO.
Rating: PG13, violence, language
Length: 6800 words (I don't even know, I was going for a nice, 1000 words, and, no... not even close)
Warnings: vague spectral possession, implied torture, violence
Notes: I really had no idea what I was going to write for this, but I was joking about owing people Kitty/Pete fic, and Pete does tend to get himself in bad spots and Kitty has always been good at saving his cranky ass... so. This was written for the Girl Saves Boy ficathon at![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
girlsavesboyfic, and is sort of a belated present for ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
ladielazarus even though it's not, well, that shippy. I am also too sleepy to know if any of this makes sense.
Summary: Kitty Pryde goes off to rescue one of Alistaire Stuart's people, and is unsurprised to find Pete Wisdom in dire peril.
Neither Or
by ALC Punk!
"Hi." It had been one of those days. Wake up too early, find five bugs in the programming project due at ten (and be unable to pull them out thanks to the already-compiled code), spill your coffee on your chemistry notes, and that was after nearly falling down the stairs trying to avoid the couple making-out at the top. Kitty was trying not to snarl at the phone, but she might have been failing.
"Kitty?" The voice sounded British, and slightly uncertain.
Maybe her annoyance had come through. Kitty shoved her wet notes onto an empty spot on her kitchen table and moved to the sink, phone tucked between shoulder and ear. "Who is this?"
No need to be polite if it were some sort of solicitation.
"Ah." The voice sounded amused, "Sorry. It's Alistaire."
Kitty considered hanging up, but Alistaire Stuart hadn't really done anything to draw her ire. He was just handy, in a way that other people weren't. "What do you want?" she asked with a sigh.
To give him credit, he didn't lie and get all offended about her assumption. "How'd you like a nice little vacation in Paraguay?"
Drying her hands, Kitty considered a range of answers and finally settled for a blunt, "What'd you lose, Al?"
"An agent of the crown." Apparently, the line was secure enough for him to speak candidly. Kitty blessed that, not really having wanted half-truths and euphemisms. "He's in a rather tricky situation. I was wondering if I could have you pull him out?"
"I have chemistry homework due this afternoon, and a program to revise," Kitty replied dryly, "Why should I drop my grades just to rescue one of your agents?"
"For old times' sake?" suggested Alistaire, his voice now tentative.
"You'll have to do better than that."
"I'll owe you one."
Kitty tilted her head as she poured another mug of coffee out, wrapping her fingers around it for the warmth. "That's not hard, though. You still owe me for that code I cracked last year."
"You haven't collected yet."
The coffee was too hot to drink, so Kitty took it back to the table, sitting on the dry chair and ignoring the still-spreading puddle seeping off of the other one. "Yes, I know. Nothing's come up--Alistaire, just cut to the chase. Why can't your people pull him out?"
"It's a delicate situation, we can't be seen to hold an interest there." He was hedging, and he knew it.
Kitty frowned, toying with the handle of her mug as she tried to piece together what he wasn't telling her. She decided she didn't know enough to figure that out.
"They're all delicate situations," she pointed out. "What makes this one special?"
Silence filled the telephone and Kitty blew on her coffee to pass the time while she wondered if her landlady would notice if she didn't bother cleaning up the spill and it seeped into the floor. Sadly, she probably would. Reaching over, Kitty snagged the dish towel off the stove and tossed it over the chair.
"There are agents from two other... areas... involved." Alistaire eventually said, and even that had a grudging tone to it.
"So if they see your agent, you're all screwed."
"Something like that, yes."
Now, why didn't she believe that was the only problem? Kitty snorted, remembering the Sahara, and the sandstorm. "What's the weather like down there?"
"So, you'll go, then."
"Didn't say that."
But he was wearing her down, and he knew it. Kitty never could resist a good mystery, and Alistaire had told her just enough to make her intrigued. She wished she wasn't quite so predictable.
"You'll be perfect, Kitty. You can blend in as a student on holiday--"
"There aren't any at this time of term."
Alistaire made an impatient noise, "Tell them you've taken half a semester sabbatical for a little history and cultural review."
"What's my major, then?" she asked, her tone dry. "I don't do a lot of anthropology while tinkering with computers, after all."
"It's an elective certification," was his prompt reply.
"I want a stipend," Kitty bargained as she stood up and began cleaning the chair with the towel. Her coffee was forgotten for the moment, "And a wardrobe budget. The last time I did a retrieval for you, I was reduced to my underwear thanks to the sewers we crawled through."
"Cooper is still very grateful for your help, though." Alistaire hastened to assure her.
As though that made it all worth it. Still, Gwen had ended up near-naked, too, with a philosophical air about her. Kitty groaned as she realized she was going to agree and dropped the towel on the floor to sop up that bit of the spill, then leaned across for her mug. She took a long swallow, then said, "Stipend. Clothes allowance. And I want to know what the hell your agent was doing there."
"Spacecraft of dubious origin," was his bland reply.
Kitty snorted. That could mean anything, given what was out there in the big bad universe. "I want your approval of the funds, travelers' checks, and a plane ticket in first class couriered, or I'm going back to my homework."
"Now, Kitty, you know I can't do things that fast."
"Fine, then you have two hours," she said sweetly before she hung up. She took a sip of her now-cool coffee, and smiled as the phone rang again.
-=-
Alistaire managed the courier, who arrived looking uncertain. Classifying him as a clerk at the embassy, Kitty gave him a sweet smile and let him into her apartment. "I'd offer you coffee, but I've already had the last cup."
"It's all right, I prefer tea." The young man gave her what was probably supposed to be an assured smile, and made himself look even younger. "I was charged with turning this laptop over to you, and told that you would know what to do with it."
Kitty took it from him, appreciating Alistaire's added inducement. The laptop was top of the line, and very classy. She itched to pull it apart and put it back together again just for the fun of it, but now wasn't the time. "Was that it?"
"Oh!" Blushing, the young man pulled an envelope from his pocket. "There's a plane leaving in two hours that you're supposed to be on."
"Gotcha." Kitty dropped the envelope on the laptop and then took his arm, leading him back to her door, "I'll have packing to do, you know how it is. Thank your boss for me, this vacation was just what I needed!"
He was out the door with it closed in his face before he could object. Kitty gave a sigh and headed into her kitchen. If Alistaire expected her on a plane in two hours, he wasn't being realistic or intelligent. Half a dozen people probably already knew of her destination and presence as a new special agent for the Crown.
Kitty grabbed up the envelope and laptop and headed into her bedroom. Her half-filled suitcase got the envelope while she took the laptop into her work area to scan it for tracking devices. Finding none she put it into her laptop bag. Her own laptop fit next to it, and she finished packing in record time before grabbing her keys and the flight information for the flight that was leaving in less than an hour.
They might expect her to leave later than she'd planned, but not earlier. If anyone was watching for her. All of her precautions might be useless, pointless, over the top and plain ridiculous. That didn't make her want to change her plans, though.
With a chuckle, she ducked out onto the fire escape for old times' sake, and headed to the airport.
-=-
Paraguay was like a wet slap in the face. Kitty tried not to hunch down as she walked through the crowded streets. There was no target painted on her back, despite the fact that she was obviously a tourist and just as obviously lost half the time. Of course, playing tourist gave her the out of being underestimated.
The laptop hadn't contained much information, but Kitty had used it as a portal to hack into the UK database it had once been attached to. Even there, the files contained only a few rumors, and some speculations about pre-Spanish invasion spacecraft sightings. Kitty had the feeling she'd have better luck standing on a street corner and asking random passers-by whether there was an alien spaceship in one of the outlying areas.
Alistaire's researchers were obviously losing their touch. Either that, or this whole thing was a hoax and Kitty could go home soon.
She spent most of her day scouting the city, getting her bearings and trying to decide if she were being tailed or not.
When she decided she wasn't, she switched rooms and headed into a more affluent neighborhood.
It was there that she picked up a tail. She'd expected to: if Alistaire's agent had been nabbed, they'd be watching for outsiders, someone else to pick up the trail. College student or not, she wasn't from around here. American might not be Brit, but it was close enough in a lot of peoples' books.
Kitty let the person follow her through several streets, meandering and pretending to take photos of fountains and crenelations. Architecture was a good focal point when her shoulder-blades were itching and she wanted to shove someone into a wall and demand to know what the hell they wanted with her.
After thirty minutes, she got tired and slipped into an alley, waiting.
Footsteps hurried to catch up with her, the man cautious as he peered around the corner. Kitty stayed leaning against the bricks, studying her nails while he decided what he was going to do.
"You're not from around here," he offered, trying for a flirtatious look, "Maybe I can help you if you're lost?"
"Why are you following me?"
"I saw a pretty girl--" he suggested.
Kitty cut him off, "Bullshit. You've been watching for an outsider." She pushed away from the wall and let her momentum get her closer to him, her fingers on his shirt before he realized it. "You were waiting. For what? I'll pay." She flicked her hand open, showing off a fan of bills.
The man looked surprised. An amateur, then. His hands went up, "Look, I'm paid to watch, to follow, not to be seen."
"By who?"
He looked uncertain, and swallowed, "I don't think I should say."
It wasn't the time to show off her mutant skills. Not yet. She still needed whomever was out there to underestimate her. So that meant brute force and unorthodox tactics. With a smile, Kitty tightened her grip on his shirt and pushed him against the wall, letting him feel the bricks and the knife in her other hand pressing into him. "And I don't think I should pay you."
"Hey! I answered--"
"Not everything."
Shaking his head, he said, "I think they'll kill me."
"What'll they do now I've found you out?" Kitty pointed out, using logic to get what she wanted.
"Probably not pay me."
"Nah." Kitty released him and stepped back, pocketing her money. "They'll probably kill you."
It was a calculated risk to turn her back on him, but she did it, stepping out of the alley and walking away as though she didn't care what happened. She mostly didn't. Thugs like him were a dime a dozen. But there was always the possibility he'd be smart, or he'd be exceptionally stupid.
He didn't follow her, and Kitty gave him half a block before she glanced back. He was gone, down the other end of the alley. Good.
Kitty reversed her course, and easily picked up his trail.
Amateur. He didn't even notice she was there. Of course, she did have a slight advantage over him: years of training, not to mention the ability to walk on air. The crowds weren't sparse enough for her to be as noticeable, and she let him distance himself, gambling that she'd be able to find him if she had to.
The area got more affluent as he went, and she worried that her jeans would mark her out, but most of the people around her wore casual apparel anyway, jeans and t-shirts with rock bands or catch-phrases seemed the order of the day. It wasn't until the last street that she saw silks and velvet, and that was on a child, running in front of her mother. Kitty smiled a little, remembering her own days of pretending to be a princess in a castle.
Of course, her job wasn't to follow the thug, and it wasn't to investigate the claims about the spaceship. Her job was to locate the safe house where the bad guys had stashed Alistaire's agent, break him out, and get the hell out of town.
But the whole thing had her curious, and the agent could probably wait. After all, Kitty had the feeling she knew who it was, and she wasn't all that happy to be his rescuer. Again.
Her guide ducked into an alley, and Kitty continued past it, deciding regretfully that she'd be too noticeable if she followed him that way. She jumped the fence and worked her way through several backyards before spotting her quarry again. Another man was waiting for him near the middle, and Kitty saw leather and studs and bet he was higher up on the food chain.
They parted again, and Kitty debated with herself before quickly picking up the trail of Mr. Leather and Studs. He was faster than the other man, and she had to jog to keep up more than once. The crowds thinned, and the estates got bigger until Kitty pulled a camera from her backpack and started taking photos as a cover. Tourists like architecture, after all. She paused and focused on one Spanish-style mansion, trailing the lens along the roof with the plan to make a nice panorama shot for a desktop.
Mr. Leather and Studs walked into the grounds of the estate two down from her.
Trailing him, Kitty was careful not to change her pattern of photography. If anyone was watching, she planned to lull their suspicions.
Once she was done with the street, she heaved a sigh and glanced at her watch. "Crap," she muttered. "Late!" Then she ran back the way she'd come, letting herself get out of breath within a block and a half.
No one followed her.
-=-
After a cold shower, some soup and a large mug of coffee, Kitty lounged on her bed, fingers working the laptop to blow up the pictures she'd taken. Unless she missed her guess, the main house had its own security system, and there was an electrified fence surrounding the place.
When dusk came, she was already walking through the streets, leather pants and her backpack making her look like another college student on the make.
Kitty smiled cheerfully at every person who looked at her, but didn't stop to flirt. Skulking would have been noticeable.
There were more vehicles and people in the streets as she got closer to her destination, and she used them for cover as she walked past the place then followed the property line around the curve of the road. When she knew she wasn't being observed, Kitty slipped into the trees at the edge of the estate and walked through the electrified fence.
It pulled at her bones a little, but the electricity wasn't high enough to damage her, even in a phased state.
Getting up to the house took time and care. Kitty watched for cameras and slid in and out of the shadows as they deepened to true night. She knew it was taking a risk that there'd be heat sensors as well, but there wasn't much she could do to scramble thermal imaging.
Yet.
Once she was at the house, she checked through a window, then slipped in through the wall below. It didn't take long to find a computer terminal, and she hacked in as quickly as she could, dumping the data onto Alistaire's little laptop while she searched the layout of the place for likely holding cells.
With the map committed to memory, she fragged the computer and set a virus timed to go off and provide cover.
-=-
It would have to be the basement, of course. Kitty crept along the hallway, listening and watching. She'd dodged a pair of men earlier, obviously military or mercenary types. They'd held themselves ready for anything, but missed her crouched on the air above them.
One hand on the wall for stability, she followed the map in her mind, occasionally glancing at her watch to gage the time passing.
A door ahead appeared a likely possibility. Sound reached her, and she froze, flattening against the wall while she identified it. It came again, the sound of flesh hitting flesh, and a man groaned in response.
"You will tell us," said a voice fiercely. Male. British accent. Kitty frowned. What the hell was an English spy doing torturing someone? Shouldn't it be the other way around?
She slid past the door, then stood on her toes to look through the window. The man standing looked vaguely familiar, but she couldn't place him immediately. Not until he moved, and the light winked off of his bald head while his captive slumped still further in the chair.
Scratch. Kitty bit down hard on the inside of her lip as she dropped down into a crouch and scuttled backwards into cover. Fucking Scratch was still alive, and apparently loose in Paraguay. Kitty had no idea who'd had the bad taste to release the power-hungry jerk from prison, but she and Alistaire were going to have words. He'd sent her there with no warning for what she'd be facing--
Pushing her anger to the side, Kitty tried not to flinch as she reviewed the situation. Scratch knew her, and he knew the man he was holding prisoner. Was it at all possible that this was a trap?
Yes.
Fine. Kitty tested the wall she was next to, then phased through it and found herself in a storage room. Good enough for her purposes. She guessed she had about two minutes before Scratch found her, unless he got bored with his current play-thing.
And in ten, her little time-released virus would tear down his systems.
-=-
Be unpredictable, her sensei had told her just the other day.
So Kitty grabbed up anything that looked useful as a weapon and walked through two walls and a door. "Hey, Scratch. Miss me?"
He'd barely turned, something supercilious on his face before she was swinging the baseball bat in an arc at his head. He ducked, but she'd been expecting that, and let her swing pull her in close enough to hip-check him. It knocked him off balance and Kitty had a hand in his shirt and was throwing him into the wall before he'd recovered.
"Bitch," the ex-Black Air agent seethed, rolling to his feet, energy flowing from the palm of his hand as he swung towards her.
Kitty ducked and smashed his wrist with the bat before he could recover.
"Stay down," she advised, snapping a kick at his knee, but not managing to snap it free of the socket. She should have tried from the side, not the front.
He laughed and lunged at her, hands closing on her wrists, as though she were a solid. Kitty laughed back at him, phasing free and twisting, letting his momentum smack him into the chair containing his captive. There was a crash and tumble of wood and bodies, and then Scratch was on his back, eyes staring glassily at the ceiling, while Pete Wisdom sat on his chest.
"I told him to stay down," she muttered, stepping around Wisdom and checking Scratch's pulse. She didn't like the man, but killing him wasn't really her style. It was there, thready and distant, but there. "Good. Get off of him."
Wisdom made a grumbling sound and rolled to the side, his hands still bound behind him. Bits of chair were still tied to his legs, but Kitty left him to fend for himself as she turned Scratch over and tied his hands together, then did his feet. A dusty rag went into his mouth and then she stood up. "We've got another four minutes before things go nuts," she said absently, hefting a piece of chair in her hand as she eyed the security camera in the corner.
"It's broken," Wisdom replied, now on his feet, though his hands were still giving him trouble. "A little help?"
"I don't know, should I?" she muttered, stepping over Scratch and checking through the window on the door. "So, where's the spaceship, or was that just a hoax?"
"Real," he said, his tone clipped.
Kitty turned and began working on the knots, ignoring the blood on his wrists and the cuts on his face. She wasn't going to let Pete being beaten up distract her. "Complete with an alien pilot?" she asked, tone soft.
It had been one of the conjectures she'd had, after reading Alistaire's notes. The detail had seemed obvious, once she'd realized the legends talked of a caretaker, or guardian. But then again, legends like that existed all over the world, and she doubted there were alien pilots haunting the moors around Glastonbury.
Wisdom didn't answer, and Kitty didn't press, "Let's go," she said instead, reaching out to wrap her fingers around his wrist. "Two minutes down."
"Right. Don't wanna stay here with that," he forked a thumb over his shoulder at the still-unconscious Scratch, "anyway."
Fighting down a sudden shiver, Kitty walked into the door, pulling him after her. She continued straight through the wall on the other side, letting him go once they were in the storage room. "We'll need more than one distraction, unless he's the only one out there."
"Nah. There's a whole army," he muttered, already bustling among the shelves.
Kitty snorted, but let that pass. Just because she'd only seen three other people didn't mean he was wrong. Or right. She left him to his own devices and began mixing the chemicals she'd found before. "One minute," she whispered.
"Here." Pete dropped a detonator onto the bench next to her chemistry experiment. "Might not be very accurate."
"It'll have to do." She added the last ingredient and stirred slowly, watching the contents as it slowly curdled. When it had hardened just enough, she shoved the end of a detonator into the bowl and hefted the entire affair, heading for the corner and the support beam there. "We'll have to run."
"I know."
"And you'd better keep up."
"I will."
Really, she was being remarkably calm for a woman faced with having to rescue her ex from being tortured. She really should have just left him, the way he'd left her. But now was not the time for being petty. Kitty smacked his arm, harder than she needed to. "Ready?"
"Ten seconds," he replied, hand coming up to grab hers.
Kitty snorted and ran through the wall again, turning to the right when they were in the open corridor. The detonator button nestled in her other hand, she waited until they had another corridor before pressing it.
A moment of silence was followed by a terrible, roaring boom, and Kitty felt fear skate up her spine as the floor rocked and threw them forward. She phased them just before they smashed into a wall.
The new room was a cavern, and they tumbled into open air, Wisdom twisting and grabbing for a shelf he couldn't touch before they were falling.
"Pryde!"
"Hold your horses--" Kitty snapped out, feeling for the air and phasing them to the right amount, until they were wafting gently downwards. Rock was coming loose above them, though, so she added a little more weight. The floor wasn't that far away, and a little bruising was more important than being flattened by the roof.
"This way--" already running, Wisdom dragged her along the curve of the room and into another cavern. This one wasn't as devastated by the explosion that seemed intent on bringing the roof down.
"You could have warned me--"
"What would have been the fun in that?" he demanded as they burst into a moonlit night, the humidity slapping at them.
Kitty coughed and sucked in a breath of blessedly fresh and clean air before she replied, "You can stop holding my hand now, asshole."
"You're holding mine," he snapped back.
-=-
She hadn't been, of course, but arguing with him about it had been pointless.
The cave they'd come out of was at the base of a cliff in front of a stream that Kitty insisted they stop at for a moment so she could rinse her hands before they hurried on. It wasn't the sort of wilderness she'd expected, given the mansions and the grounds above, but it worked, and she wondered how many estates were linked to what seemed essentially abandoned.
Kitty took the lead, finding the gravel road in short order. They waited under cover until they were certain no one was on it before taking it away from where they were. And away from the city. Kitty didn't say anything until they'd walked nearly a mile.
"We're heading for the crash site, aren't we."
"No, I just thought taking the scenic route back to your hotel was in order. Might make you more susceptible to me charms," Wisdom replied, leering at her in the starlight.
"Don't start with me," she suggested, "Alistaire's people might not be very bright, but my geography is still very good."
He was silent for several more minutes, and Kitty began to wonder if he was more injured than he'd let on. Pete usually didn't let anything keep him from being an asshole. Then again, they'd usually been surrounded by people the few times they'd seen each other over the last few years. Perhaps with only her, he didn't have to keep up the pretense.
Probably, all that shit was all in her head. She pushed it aside as he slowed and moved to the side of the road.
"It's around the next bend," he murmured, expression unreadable in the dim light.
Kitty shrugged, "Seen one spaceship, you've seen 'em all, Wisdom."
He snorted, but the words got him moving again.
-=-
Around the bend was a slight mound. It wasn't very impressive, even as Kitty found the spot where they'd started excavations. The craft was a scout of some sort, given the size, and the outer hull was in fragments. Bits of it were covered by tarps, some held up with wire frames, others just draped. Kitty knelt to poke at one, and found the surface of the hull oddly slippery.
She wiped her fingers on her pants and went towards what appeared to be the center of the area that had been cleared.
Wisdom was standing there, fingering one of the exposed bulkheads (at least, Kitty thought that's what it had to be). "It's traveled so far, seen so much," he said.
"Has it?" Kitty checked her watch and then scrubbed a hand over her face. "Should I contact Alistaire? He might be able to get this section quarantined off for some reason, and then I can get some sleep."
"No. No one else."
"Huh?"
Wisdom turned in a circle, and smiled at her, his eyes oddly glowing. "No one else, Pryde. Just you, me, and the ship."
Something cold slid down Kitty's spine. Great. Just what she'd always wanted: a possessed ex-boyfriend. She sighed and put her hands on her hips, "What the hell are you talking about? We can't fly this thing on our own, Wisdom. It's in pieces."
He shook his head, "We're already flying."
"Well, one of us is high," she muttered, before sharpening her tone, "Wisdom. Snap out of it."
"You'll be able to see it, too," he insisted. "Just come here. It's so wonderful, Katherine."
Warning bells had already been sounding, his use of her proper first name made them go a pitch higher. Kitty groaned, "I do not have time for this, Pete. Don't make me hit you."
His eyes hardened, "If you do not want the gifts on offer, you can leave."
Kitty debated with herself. She could leave, let Alistaire know what was up, keep a watch on the area so Scratch couldn't get Pete again... But that would be expedient and there were too many variables. She had no back-up in this country and no resources. All she had were herself. And Pete.
Reluctantly, she came to the conclusion that she was going to have to sober him up, or lose this round to another intelligence service. "The things I do," she sighed, reaching up and unzipping her jacket. "Pete? Pete, I'm sorry. I've changed my mind."
In the dark, he couldn't really see her smile, but her sweet tone of voice seemed to have convinced him. "Good girl, Katherine."
Letting him get closer was a calculated risk, and Kitty licked her lips, "How about we seal it with a kiss, then?"
Kitty snagged his shirt, pulling him in as she pushed up on her toes.
Kissing Pete wasn't something new and it wasn't old, either. Kissing a possessed Pete was a little stifling and odd, but she found herself enjoying the feeling of his mouth with a strange sense of guilt. He still tasted of cigarettes and alcohol, or she was super-imposing too many memories onto things.
And he still liked the back of his neck stroked. Kitty let her fingers brush over the pulse-points of his throat, and then she struck.
Four nerves pressed in a specific order, and Pete went limp against her; she let him drop to the ground and used his belt to secure his hands again. She was a little more gentle than Scratch, or so she hoped. Then she took up a position where she'd have a good view of the road and excavation, dragged him after her, and waited for him to wake up.
-=-
"That was unkind."
"You say that like I care," Kitty retorted. She was tired, and she could see the sky lightening towards dawn. Wisdom had been out for longer than she would have expected, but it meant she'd managed to modify the laptop's blutooth device and get a signal to Alistaire. His people were going to 'accidentally' fly over their position in a few hours.
Wisdom groaned and shifted onto his side, staring at her. In the low light, his eyes looked bloodshot, "What the hell happened, Pryde?"
"You tell me." she suggested, waving a hand at the crashed spacecraft littering the area around them.
He was silent for so long, she figured he'd fallen asleep again. Then he said, "The ship... there was something..."
"The pilot?"
"No. More..." he trailed off, squinting at her, "The pilot's dead," he said, his voice flat.
"That would explain a few things."
Wisdom shrugged and then glared at her, "You gonna let me go now?"
"No."
"You're enjoying this." He accused.
Kitty shrugged and leaned back a little against her rock. She couldn't deny that she liked having the control here. But it wasn't exactly her choice. "Wisdom, if I let you go and you're still possessed, what does that make me?"
The words he uttered were unprintable, but Kitty felt her mouth twitch into a smile that she quickly smothered anyway.
"Pryde."
"No."
He made several movements and finally got into a sitting position, though it looked as though he didn't think it had been worth the effort. "What's to stop me hot-knifin' myself free?"
"Second-degree burns on your wrists?"
He growled, and his eyes went a little blank as he shifted his shoulders, bracing himself. The smell of burning leather reached her, and Kitty wondered if this was proof he was back. He'd let Scratch tie him up, but maybe that was some sort of sado-masochist thing he had going with the other agent.
"I don't have any aloe, you know."
A moment later, he was cursing, but free, his arms out to the sides as he shook the last remnants of his belt off.
Kitty tensed a little, but figured she had plenty of time to get out of the way if he tried to hot-knife her. Hell, she could just go intangible, grab a rock and knock him out again. Maybe a concussion would do him some good.
Ignoring her, Wisdom got to his feet with an attempt at dignity that failed when his pants tried to escape.
This was a little too much for Kitty's sense of humor, and she almost fell over with laughter shaking her. Wisdom yelped and made a grab for the fabric, but ended up revealing that he still wore stripey boxers before he managed it.
Puffing and gasping, Kitty tried to stop and wiped tears from the corners of her eyes. "Oh. Oh, I needed that," she wheezed, giggling a little when he glared at her.
With a huff, Wisdom claimed his own rock and sat down. "It wasn't funny."
"Like hell it wasn't," she countered.
He threw a twig at her. "Not possessed anymore." He sounded a little sad.
Kitty snorted, "After that performance, I should hope not." Her tone changed, turning quiet, "How are your wrists?"
"Little singed. They'll do."
Pulling the laptop towards her, Kitty checked the homing beacon to see if anyone had pinged it, then settled back. It took her a moment to realize she was staring at Wisdom, and he was staring back.
He was older than he'd been when they were dating, her eyes saw lines and hollows--he'd always looked underfed, now he looked stretched. She found herself hoping that he was just tired and not something worse, like over-worked. Then she snorted to herself: the day Wisdom over-worked himself was the day Brian Braddock would take up macrame and preach about peace in the desert.
"Stuart sent you, huh."
It wasn't really a question, but it wasn't really an observation, either. Kitty shrugged, "I think he thought I was the best at getting people extracted from tight situations. He didn't tell me it was you," she added.
"Would've told him to sod off, if he had."
Irked a little, Kitty nevertheless didn't let herself rise to the bait. "How'd Scratch survive prison?" she asked, changing the subject.
Wisdom just raised his eyebrows at her. "Y'have to ask?"
Rocking her head forward, Kitty felt the pull of her muscles, still tight despite the hour. It was going to be a long day after a worse night. "Guess I shouldn't have to," she admitted, "Guess I'm just not used to... leniency like that."
There was a snort from Wisdom.
"How'd he catch you?" she asked, wondering if she could goad him into a fight. It might at least wake her up a little.
Giving her a lofty look, Wisdom leaned back and then closed his eyes. "Wake me when Stuart's people get here."
It must have been really stupid, Kitty reflected, as she shifted so she wasn't so comfortable. Probably asinine. Maybe Wisdom was taking a piss when Scratch got the drop on him. She grinned as she settled in to type on the laptop, knowing it was the only thing that would keep her awake. Now, where'd she put that chemistry homework?
-=-
Scratch showed up before Alistaire's people did, and Kitty made a mental note to concuss him harder the next time she faced him while she threw herself into a dive to escape the energy blasting at her.
The laptop was toast, but she hadn't liked it much anyway.
"You go left," Wisdom snapped, low and fast, taking off to the right before she could reply.
Kitty swore, then popped out of her scant cover, catching sight of Scratch for just an instant before he snapped an energy beam her way. The hull of the spaceship must have once been pretty good, as the metal only whined slightly from the impact.
Left. She needed to go left.
There was no telling where Wisdom was, but they used to be good at this. It was easy to dodge between cover and the open air, going intangible when she drew fire from the angry Brit. It was easy to circle him.
Not so easy to dodge the men with the guns who suddenly loomed.
Kitty let her instincts take over, jumping and kicking, her foot snapping into the one on the left's chin and sending him flying while the other was still coming to terms with the ninja in his face. She had him down, his gun wrenched free and reversed to smash into his jaw before he could recover.
All told: ten seconds.
She crouched over them, panting a little as she pulled the magazines from their guns and phased everything together into an unusable mess.
"Pryde!"
Wisdom's shout had her moving again, skirting the edge of the crash site until she realized she was behind Scratch. He was intent on a small lump of hull not far away. Kitty held onto her mess of guns and ran towards him, dodging to one side when he turned and found her again.
"Oh, Kitty Pryde. I should have known you'd come when Wisdom called."
A laugh escaped her, and she went intangible, walking through the wreckage and Scratch's bolts with a nonchalance that enraged him. "How's the head, Scratch? Little concussion making it hard to focus?"
He swung away from her, too early, and she shouted at Wisdom to get down.
Too slow, Pete's hand came up, his hotknives flaring out, encountering and blocking Scratch's energy. But Wisdom was exhausted, his face streaked with sweat and mud, his hand shaking as he tried to hold it steady.
For some reason, Scratch seemed fresh and energized. Kitty took another step towards him and swung her hand up, sliding the mess of metal and plastic through Scratch's chest. "I could let go."
Scratch laughed, and the sound was horrible, grating. "You're an X-Man, little girl." His amusement punched the power in his beam up, and Wisdom staggered as the white-hot energy began edging along his yellow-golden.
"Actually," said Kitty, yanking the guns back and going tangible before she swung them at Scratch's head, "I'm just a bloody college student."
The impact with Scratch's head made a slightly awful thunking noise, and his hand dropped as he crumpled, energies gone in an instant. Kitty stared down at him for what felt like a very long time before Wisdom's hand touched her arm. It was tentative, as though he were a little afraid she might punch him.
She didn't.
"Pryde?"
"Yeah?" She sucked in a deep breath and dropped her weapon. "I hate guns. Is he dead?"
Wisdom gave her an odd look, then bent over to check, "No."
Letting her breath out in a long sigh, Kitty nodded. "Good." Sound made her look up, spotting the shape of the Midnight Flit above them. Her eyebrows raised, "Alistaire sure knows how to pick his allies."
-=-
Alistaire himself was aboard the Flit, and he had them land so he could start marking off the boundaries of the crash site for further study. Kitty followed him, giving him a piece of her mind as well as a warning about the odd possession the place seemed to have.
When she was done, she left him to it and went back to the Flit, seriously considering borrowing it to fly herself home.
Once inside, she found Wisdom sprawled in the cockpit, one leg up on the console.
Like old times, she kicked his leg down and dropped into the other seat. Running a systems check gave her hands something to do.
"We should go to Rio."
"I have a report due tomorrow."
Wisdom shrugged and closed his eyes, "Won't get back if we wait for the Great Scientist out there."
"I know." Kitty reached for the communications unit, "Alistaire, I have things to do." That didn't include enforced proximity to Pete Wisdom.
"The rest of my team will be along in an hour," he sounded excited, "I'll expect the Flit back by the weekend, though."
Kitty strapped in and started keying in the sequence to launch them. "By the weekend, it is." If she didn't use it as an example in class and try to keep it. Having a super-sonic jet might come in handy, sometimes.
A snore issued from Wisdom's chair, so she didn't bother telling him to strap in.
He'd figure it out as soon as she took her first loop-the-loop.
-f-
Fandom: Marvel's Excalibur/X-Men
Characters, Pairing: Kitty Pryde, Alistaire Stuart, Pete Wisdom, Scratch, (Kitty Pryde/Pete Wisdom)
Set: er, I don't know, this is probably vaguely AU, but around the time Kitty was going to university in Chicago and Pete was doing the odd job for Stuart and the re-organized WHO.
Rating: PG13, violence, language
Length: 6800 words (I don't even know, I was going for a nice, 1000 words, and, no... not even close)
Warnings: vague spectral possession, implied torture, violence
Notes: I really had no idea what I was going to write for this, but I was joking about owing people Kitty/Pete fic, and Pete does tend to get himself in bad spots and Kitty has always been good at saving his cranky ass... so. This was written for the Girl Saves Boy ficathon at
girlsavesboyfic, and is sort of a belated present for ladielazarus even though it's not, well, that shippy. I am also too sleepy to know if any of this makes sense.Summary: Kitty Pryde goes off to rescue one of Alistaire Stuart's people, and is unsurprised to find Pete Wisdom in dire peril.
Neither Or
by ALC Punk!
"Hi." It had been one of those days. Wake up too early, find five bugs in the programming project due at ten (and be unable to pull them out thanks to the already-compiled code), spill your coffee on your chemistry notes, and that was after nearly falling down the stairs trying to avoid the couple making-out at the top. Kitty was trying not to snarl at the phone, but she might have been failing.
"Kitty?" The voice sounded British, and slightly uncertain.
Maybe her annoyance had come through. Kitty shoved her wet notes onto an empty spot on her kitchen table and moved to the sink, phone tucked between shoulder and ear. "Who is this?"
No need to be polite if it were some sort of solicitation.
"Ah." The voice sounded amused, "Sorry. It's Alistaire."
Kitty considered hanging up, but Alistaire Stuart hadn't really done anything to draw her ire. He was just handy, in a way that other people weren't. "What do you want?" she asked with a sigh.
To give him credit, he didn't lie and get all offended about her assumption. "How'd you like a nice little vacation in Paraguay?"
Drying her hands, Kitty considered a range of answers and finally settled for a blunt, "What'd you lose, Al?"
"An agent of the crown." Apparently, the line was secure enough for him to speak candidly. Kitty blessed that, not really having wanted half-truths and euphemisms. "He's in a rather tricky situation. I was wondering if I could have you pull him out?"
"I have chemistry homework due this afternoon, and a program to revise," Kitty replied dryly, "Why should I drop my grades just to rescue one of your agents?"
"For old times' sake?" suggested Alistaire, his voice now tentative.
"You'll have to do better than that."
"I'll owe you one."
Kitty tilted her head as she poured another mug of coffee out, wrapping her fingers around it for the warmth. "That's not hard, though. You still owe me for that code I cracked last year."
"You haven't collected yet."
The coffee was too hot to drink, so Kitty took it back to the table, sitting on the dry chair and ignoring the still-spreading puddle seeping off of the other one. "Yes, I know. Nothing's come up--Alistaire, just cut to the chase. Why can't your people pull him out?"
"It's a delicate situation, we can't be seen to hold an interest there." He was hedging, and he knew it.
Kitty frowned, toying with the handle of her mug as she tried to piece together what he wasn't telling her. She decided she didn't know enough to figure that out.
"They're all delicate situations," she pointed out. "What makes this one special?"
Silence filled the telephone and Kitty blew on her coffee to pass the time while she wondered if her landlady would notice if she didn't bother cleaning up the spill and it seeped into the floor. Sadly, she probably would. Reaching over, Kitty snagged the dish towel off the stove and tossed it over the chair.
"There are agents from two other... areas... involved." Alistaire eventually said, and even that had a grudging tone to it.
"So if they see your agent, you're all screwed."
"Something like that, yes."
Now, why didn't she believe that was the only problem? Kitty snorted, remembering the Sahara, and the sandstorm. "What's the weather like down there?"
"So, you'll go, then."
"Didn't say that."
But he was wearing her down, and he knew it. Kitty never could resist a good mystery, and Alistaire had told her just enough to make her intrigued. She wished she wasn't quite so predictable.
"You'll be perfect, Kitty. You can blend in as a student on holiday--"
"There aren't any at this time of term."
Alistaire made an impatient noise, "Tell them you've taken half a semester sabbatical for a little history and cultural review."
"What's my major, then?" she asked, her tone dry. "I don't do a lot of anthropology while tinkering with computers, after all."
"It's an elective certification," was his prompt reply.
"I want a stipend," Kitty bargained as she stood up and began cleaning the chair with the towel. Her coffee was forgotten for the moment, "And a wardrobe budget. The last time I did a retrieval for you, I was reduced to my underwear thanks to the sewers we crawled through."
"Cooper is still very grateful for your help, though." Alistaire hastened to assure her.
As though that made it all worth it. Still, Gwen had ended up near-naked, too, with a philosophical air about her. Kitty groaned as she realized she was going to agree and dropped the towel on the floor to sop up that bit of the spill, then leaned across for her mug. She took a long swallow, then said, "Stipend. Clothes allowance. And I want to know what the hell your agent was doing there."
"Spacecraft of dubious origin," was his bland reply.
Kitty snorted. That could mean anything, given what was out there in the big bad universe. "I want your approval of the funds, travelers' checks, and a plane ticket in first class couriered, or I'm going back to my homework."
"Now, Kitty, you know I can't do things that fast."
"Fine, then you have two hours," she said sweetly before she hung up. She took a sip of her now-cool coffee, and smiled as the phone rang again.
-=-
Alistaire managed the courier, who arrived looking uncertain. Classifying him as a clerk at the embassy, Kitty gave him a sweet smile and let him into her apartment. "I'd offer you coffee, but I've already had the last cup."
"It's all right, I prefer tea." The young man gave her what was probably supposed to be an assured smile, and made himself look even younger. "I was charged with turning this laptop over to you, and told that you would know what to do with it."
Kitty took it from him, appreciating Alistaire's added inducement. The laptop was top of the line, and very classy. She itched to pull it apart and put it back together again just for the fun of it, but now wasn't the time. "Was that it?"
"Oh!" Blushing, the young man pulled an envelope from his pocket. "There's a plane leaving in two hours that you're supposed to be on."
"Gotcha." Kitty dropped the envelope on the laptop and then took his arm, leading him back to her door, "I'll have packing to do, you know how it is. Thank your boss for me, this vacation was just what I needed!"
He was out the door with it closed in his face before he could object. Kitty gave a sigh and headed into her kitchen. If Alistaire expected her on a plane in two hours, he wasn't being realistic or intelligent. Half a dozen people probably already knew of her destination and presence as a new special agent for the Crown.
Kitty grabbed up the envelope and laptop and headed into her bedroom. Her half-filled suitcase got the envelope while she took the laptop into her work area to scan it for tracking devices. Finding none she put it into her laptop bag. Her own laptop fit next to it, and she finished packing in record time before grabbing her keys and the flight information for the flight that was leaving in less than an hour.
They might expect her to leave later than she'd planned, but not earlier. If anyone was watching for her. All of her precautions might be useless, pointless, over the top and plain ridiculous. That didn't make her want to change her plans, though.
With a chuckle, she ducked out onto the fire escape for old times' sake, and headed to the airport.
-=-
Paraguay was like a wet slap in the face. Kitty tried not to hunch down as she walked through the crowded streets. There was no target painted on her back, despite the fact that she was obviously a tourist and just as obviously lost half the time. Of course, playing tourist gave her the out of being underestimated.
The laptop hadn't contained much information, but Kitty had used it as a portal to hack into the UK database it had once been attached to. Even there, the files contained only a few rumors, and some speculations about pre-Spanish invasion spacecraft sightings. Kitty had the feeling she'd have better luck standing on a street corner and asking random passers-by whether there was an alien spaceship in one of the outlying areas.
Alistaire's researchers were obviously losing their touch. Either that, or this whole thing was a hoax and Kitty could go home soon.
She spent most of her day scouting the city, getting her bearings and trying to decide if she were being tailed or not.
When she decided she wasn't, she switched rooms and headed into a more affluent neighborhood.
It was there that she picked up a tail. She'd expected to: if Alistaire's agent had been nabbed, they'd be watching for outsiders, someone else to pick up the trail. College student or not, she wasn't from around here. American might not be Brit, but it was close enough in a lot of peoples' books.
Kitty let the person follow her through several streets, meandering and pretending to take photos of fountains and crenelations. Architecture was a good focal point when her shoulder-blades were itching and she wanted to shove someone into a wall and demand to know what the hell they wanted with her.
After thirty minutes, she got tired and slipped into an alley, waiting.
Footsteps hurried to catch up with her, the man cautious as he peered around the corner. Kitty stayed leaning against the bricks, studying her nails while he decided what he was going to do.
"You're not from around here," he offered, trying for a flirtatious look, "Maybe I can help you if you're lost?"
"Why are you following me?"
"I saw a pretty girl--" he suggested.
Kitty cut him off, "Bullshit. You've been watching for an outsider." She pushed away from the wall and let her momentum get her closer to him, her fingers on his shirt before he realized it. "You were waiting. For what? I'll pay." She flicked her hand open, showing off a fan of bills.
The man looked surprised. An amateur, then. His hands went up, "Look, I'm paid to watch, to follow, not to be seen."
"By who?"
He looked uncertain, and swallowed, "I don't think I should say."
It wasn't the time to show off her mutant skills. Not yet. She still needed whomever was out there to underestimate her. So that meant brute force and unorthodox tactics. With a smile, Kitty tightened her grip on his shirt and pushed him against the wall, letting him feel the bricks and the knife in her other hand pressing into him. "And I don't think I should pay you."
"Hey! I answered--"
"Not everything."
Shaking his head, he said, "I think they'll kill me."
"What'll they do now I've found you out?" Kitty pointed out, using logic to get what she wanted.
"Probably not pay me."
"Nah." Kitty released him and stepped back, pocketing her money. "They'll probably kill you."
It was a calculated risk to turn her back on him, but she did it, stepping out of the alley and walking away as though she didn't care what happened. She mostly didn't. Thugs like him were a dime a dozen. But there was always the possibility he'd be smart, or he'd be exceptionally stupid.
He didn't follow her, and Kitty gave him half a block before she glanced back. He was gone, down the other end of the alley. Good.
Kitty reversed her course, and easily picked up his trail.
Amateur. He didn't even notice she was there. Of course, she did have a slight advantage over him: years of training, not to mention the ability to walk on air. The crowds weren't sparse enough for her to be as noticeable, and she let him distance himself, gambling that she'd be able to find him if she had to.
The area got more affluent as he went, and she worried that her jeans would mark her out, but most of the people around her wore casual apparel anyway, jeans and t-shirts with rock bands or catch-phrases seemed the order of the day. It wasn't until the last street that she saw silks and velvet, and that was on a child, running in front of her mother. Kitty smiled a little, remembering her own days of pretending to be a princess in a castle.
Of course, her job wasn't to follow the thug, and it wasn't to investigate the claims about the spaceship. Her job was to locate the safe house where the bad guys had stashed Alistaire's agent, break him out, and get the hell out of town.
But the whole thing had her curious, and the agent could probably wait. After all, Kitty had the feeling she knew who it was, and she wasn't all that happy to be his rescuer. Again.
Her guide ducked into an alley, and Kitty continued past it, deciding regretfully that she'd be too noticeable if she followed him that way. She jumped the fence and worked her way through several backyards before spotting her quarry again. Another man was waiting for him near the middle, and Kitty saw leather and studs and bet he was higher up on the food chain.
They parted again, and Kitty debated with herself before quickly picking up the trail of Mr. Leather and Studs. He was faster than the other man, and she had to jog to keep up more than once. The crowds thinned, and the estates got bigger until Kitty pulled a camera from her backpack and started taking photos as a cover. Tourists like architecture, after all. She paused and focused on one Spanish-style mansion, trailing the lens along the roof with the plan to make a nice panorama shot for a desktop.
Mr. Leather and Studs walked into the grounds of the estate two down from her.
Trailing him, Kitty was careful not to change her pattern of photography. If anyone was watching, she planned to lull their suspicions.
Once she was done with the street, she heaved a sigh and glanced at her watch. "Crap," she muttered. "Late!" Then she ran back the way she'd come, letting herself get out of breath within a block and a half.
No one followed her.
-=-
After a cold shower, some soup and a large mug of coffee, Kitty lounged on her bed, fingers working the laptop to blow up the pictures she'd taken. Unless she missed her guess, the main house had its own security system, and there was an electrified fence surrounding the place.
When dusk came, she was already walking through the streets, leather pants and her backpack making her look like another college student on the make.
Kitty smiled cheerfully at every person who looked at her, but didn't stop to flirt. Skulking would have been noticeable.
There were more vehicles and people in the streets as she got closer to her destination, and she used them for cover as she walked past the place then followed the property line around the curve of the road. When she knew she wasn't being observed, Kitty slipped into the trees at the edge of the estate and walked through the electrified fence.
It pulled at her bones a little, but the electricity wasn't high enough to damage her, even in a phased state.
Getting up to the house took time and care. Kitty watched for cameras and slid in and out of the shadows as they deepened to true night. She knew it was taking a risk that there'd be heat sensors as well, but there wasn't much she could do to scramble thermal imaging.
Yet.
Once she was at the house, she checked through a window, then slipped in through the wall below. It didn't take long to find a computer terminal, and she hacked in as quickly as she could, dumping the data onto Alistaire's little laptop while she searched the layout of the place for likely holding cells.
With the map committed to memory, she fragged the computer and set a virus timed to go off and provide cover.
-=-
It would have to be the basement, of course. Kitty crept along the hallway, listening and watching. She'd dodged a pair of men earlier, obviously military or mercenary types. They'd held themselves ready for anything, but missed her crouched on the air above them.
One hand on the wall for stability, she followed the map in her mind, occasionally glancing at her watch to gage the time passing.
A door ahead appeared a likely possibility. Sound reached her, and she froze, flattening against the wall while she identified it. It came again, the sound of flesh hitting flesh, and a man groaned in response.
"You will tell us," said a voice fiercely. Male. British accent. Kitty frowned. What the hell was an English spy doing torturing someone? Shouldn't it be the other way around?
She slid past the door, then stood on her toes to look through the window. The man standing looked vaguely familiar, but she couldn't place him immediately. Not until he moved, and the light winked off of his bald head while his captive slumped still further in the chair.
Scratch. Kitty bit down hard on the inside of her lip as she dropped down into a crouch and scuttled backwards into cover. Fucking Scratch was still alive, and apparently loose in Paraguay. Kitty had no idea who'd had the bad taste to release the power-hungry jerk from prison, but she and Alistaire were going to have words. He'd sent her there with no warning for what she'd be facing--
Pushing her anger to the side, Kitty tried not to flinch as she reviewed the situation. Scratch knew her, and he knew the man he was holding prisoner. Was it at all possible that this was a trap?
Yes.
Fine. Kitty tested the wall she was next to, then phased through it and found herself in a storage room. Good enough for her purposes. She guessed she had about two minutes before Scratch found her, unless he got bored with his current play-thing.
And in ten, her little time-released virus would tear down his systems.
-=-
Be unpredictable, her sensei had told her just the other day.
So Kitty grabbed up anything that looked useful as a weapon and walked through two walls and a door. "Hey, Scratch. Miss me?"
He'd barely turned, something supercilious on his face before she was swinging the baseball bat in an arc at his head. He ducked, but she'd been expecting that, and let her swing pull her in close enough to hip-check him. It knocked him off balance and Kitty had a hand in his shirt and was throwing him into the wall before he'd recovered.
"Bitch," the ex-Black Air agent seethed, rolling to his feet, energy flowing from the palm of his hand as he swung towards her.
Kitty ducked and smashed his wrist with the bat before he could recover.
"Stay down," she advised, snapping a kick at his knee, but not managing to snap it free of the socket. She should have tried from the side, not the front.
He laughed and lunged at her, hands closing on her wrists, as though she were a solid. Kitty laughed back at him, phasing free and twisting, letting his momentum smack him into the chair containing his captive. There was a crash and tumble of wood and bodies, and then Scratch was on his back, eyes staring glassily at the ceiling, while Pete Wisdom sat on his chest.
"I told him to stay down," she muttered, stepping around Wisdom and checking Scratch's pulse. She didn't like the man, but killing him wasn't really her style. It was there, thready and distant, but there. "Good. Get off of him."
Wisdom made a grumbling sound and rolled to the side, his hands still bound behind him. Bits of chair were still tied to his legs, but Kitty left him to fend for himself as she turned Scratch over and tied his hands together, then did his feet. A dusty rag went into his mouth and then she stood up. "We've got another four minutes before things go nuts," she said absently, hefting a piece of chair in her hand as she eyed the security camera in the corner.
"It's broken," Wisdom replied, now on his feet, though his hands were still giving him trouble. "A little help?"
"I don't know, should I?" she muttered, stepping over Scratch and checking through the window on the door. "So, where's the spaceship, or was that just a hoax?"
"Real," he said, his tone clipped.
Kitty turned and began working on the knots, ignoring the blood on his wrists and the cuts on his face. She wasn't going to let Pete being beaten up distract her. "Complete with an alien pilot?" she asked, tone soft.
It had been one of the conjectures she'd had, after reading Alistaire's notes. The detail had seemed obvious, once she'd realized the legends talked of a caretaker, or guardian. But then again, legends like that existed all over the world, and she doubted there were alien pilots haunting the moors around Glastonbury.
Wisdom didn't answer, and Kitty didn't press, "Let's go," she said instead, reaching out to wrap her fingers around his wrist. "Two minutes down."
"Right. Don't wanna stay here with that," he forked a thumb over his shoulder at the still-unconscious Scratch, "anyway."
Fighting down a sudden shiver, Kitty walked into the door, pulling him after her. She continued straight through the wall on the other side, letting him go once they were in the storage room. "We'll need more than one distraction, unless he's the only one out there."
"Nah. There's a whole army," he muttered, already bustling among the shelves.
Kitty snorted, but let that pass. Just because she'd only seen three other people didn't mean he was wrong. Or right. She left him to his own devices and began mixing the chemicals she'd found before. "One minute," she whispered.
"Here." Pete dropped a detonator onto the bench next to her chemistry experiment. "Might not be very accurate."
"It'll have to do." She added the last ingredient and stirred slowly, watching the contents as it slowly curdled. When it had hardened just enough, she shoved the end of a detonator into the bowl and hefted the entire affair, heading for the corner and the support beam there. "We'll have to run."
"I know."
"And you'd better keep up."
"I will."
Really, she was being remarkably calm for a woman faced with having to rescue her ex from being tortured. She really should have just left him, the way he'd left her. But now was not the time for being petty. Kitty smacked his arm, harder than she needed to. "Ready?"
"Ten seconds," he replied, hand coming up to grab hers.
Kitty snorted and ran through the wall again, turning to the right when they were in the open corridor. The detonator button nestled in her other hand, she waited until they had another corridor before pressing it.
A moment of silence was followed by a terrible, roaring boom, and Kitty felt fear skate up her spine as the floor rocked and threw them forward. She phased them just before they smashed into a wall.
The new room was a cavern, and they tumbled into open air, Wisdom twisting and grabbing for a shelf he couldn't touch before they were falling.
"Pryde!"
"Hold your horses--" Kitty snapped out, feeling for the air and phasing them to the right amount, until they were wafting gently downwards. Rock was coming loose above them, though, so she added a little more weight. The floor wasn't that far away, and a little bruising was more important than being flattened by the roof.
"This way--" already running, Wisdom dragged her along the curve of the room and into another cavern. This one wasn't as devastated by the explosion that seemed intent on bringing the roof down.
"You could have warned me--"
"What would have been the fun in that?" he demanded as they burst into a moonlit night, the humidity slapping at them.
Kitty coughed and sucked in a breath of blessedly fresh and clean air before she replied, "You can stop holding my hand now, asshole."
"You're holding mine," he snapped back.
-=-
She hadn't been, of course, but arguing with him about it had been pointless.
The cave they'd come out of was at the base of a cliff in front of a stream that Kitty insisted they stop at for a moment so she could rinse her hands before they hurried on. It wasn't the sort of wilderness she'd expected, given the mansions and the grounds above, but it worked, and she wondered how many estates were linked to what seemed essentially abandoned.
Kitty took the lead, finding the gravel road in short order. They waited under cover until they were certain no one was on it before taking it away from where they were. And away from the city. Kitty didn't say anything until they'd walked nearly a mile.
"We're heading for the crash site, aren't we."
"No, I just thought taking the scenic route back to your hotel was in order. Might make you more susceptible to me charms," Wisdom replied, leering at her in the starlight.
"Don't start with me," she suggested, "Alistaire's people might not be very bright, but my geography is still very good."
He was silent for several more minutes, and Kitty began to wonder if he was more injured than he'd let on. Pete usually didn't let anything keep him from being an asshole. Then again, they'd usually been surrounded by people the few times they'd seen each other over the last few years. Perhaps with only her, he didn't have to keep up the pretense.
Probably, all that shit was all in her head. She pushed it aside as he slowed and moved to the side of the road.
"It's around the next bend," he murmured, expression unreadable in the dim light.
Kitty shrugged, "Seen one spaceship, you've seen 'em all, Wisdom."
He snorted, but the words got him moving again.
-=-
Around the bend was a slight mound. It wasn't very impressive, even as Kitty found the spot where they'd started excavations. The craft was a scout of some sort, given the size, and the outer hull was in fragments. Bits of it were covered by tarps, some held up with wire frames, others just draped. Kitty knelt to poke at one, and found the surface of the hull oddly slippery.
She wiped her fingers on her pants and went towards what appeared to be the center of the area that had been cleared.
Wisdom was standing there, fingering one of the exposed bulkheads (at least, Kitty thought that's what it had to be). "It's traveled so far, seen so much," he said.
"Has it?" Kitty checked her watch and then scrubbed a hand over her face. "Should I contact Alistaire? He might be able to get this section quarantined off for some reason, and then I can get some sleep."
"No. No one else."
"Huh?"
Wisdom turned in a circle, and smiled at her, his eyes oddly glowing. "No one else, Pryde. Just you, me, and the ship."
Something cold slid down Kitty's spine. Great. Just what she'd always wanted: a possessed ex-boyfriend. She sighed and put her hands on her hips, "What the hell are you talking about? We can't fly this thing on our own, Wisdom. It's in pieces."
He shook his head, "We're already flying."
"Well, one of us is high," she muttered, before sharpening her tone, "Wisdom. Snap out of it."
"You'll be able to see it, too," he insisted. "Just come here. It's so wonderful, Katherine."
Warning bells had already been sounding, his use of her proper first name made them go a pitch higher. Kitty groaned, "I do not have time for this, Pete. Don't make me hit you."
His eyes hardened, "If you do not want the gifts on offer, you can leave."
Kitty debated with herself. She could leave, let Alistaire know what was up, keep a watch on the area so Scratch couldn't get Pete again... But that would be expedient and there were too many variables. She had no back-up in this country and no resources. All she had were herself. And Pete.
Reluctantly, she came to the conclusion that she was going to have to sober him up, or lose this round to another intelligence service. "The things I do," she sighed, reaching up and unzipping her jacket. "Pete? Pete, I'm sorry. I've changed my mind."
In the dark, he couldn't really see her smile, but her sweet tone of voice seemed to have convinced him. "Good girl, Katherine."
Letting him get closer was a calculated risk, and Kitty licked her lips, "How about we seal it with a kiss, then?"
Kitty snagged his shirt, pulling him in as she pushed up on her toes.
Kissing Pete wasn't something new and it wasn't old, either. Kissing a possessed Pete was a little stifling and odd, but she found herself enjoying the feeling of his mouth with a strange sense of guilt. He still tasted of cigarettes and alcohol, or she was super-imposing too many memories onto things.
And he still liked the back of his neck stroked. Kitty let her fingers brush over the pulse-points of his throat, and then she struck.
Four nerves pressed in a specific order, and Pete went limp against her; she let him drop to the ground and used his belt to secure his hands again. She was a little more gentle than Scratch, or so she hoped. Then she took up a position where she'd have a good view of the road and excavation, dragged him after her, and waited for him to wake up.
-=-
"That was unkind."
"You say that like I care," Kitty retorted. She was tired, and she could see the sky lightening towards dawn. Wisdom had been out for longer than she would have expected, but it meant she'd managed to modify the laptop's blutooth device and get a signal to Alistaire. His people were going to 'accidentally' fly over their position in a few hours.
Wisdom groaned and shifted onto his side, staring at her. In the low light, his eyes looked bloodshot, "What the hell happened, Pryde?"
"You tell me." she suggested, waving a hand at the crashed spacecraft littering the area around them.
He was silent for so long, she figured he'd fallen asleep again. Then he said, "The ship... there was something..."
"The pilot?"
"No. More..." he trailed off, squinting at her, "The pilot's dead," he said, his voice flat.
"That would explain a few things."
Wisdom shrugged and then glared at her, "You gonna let me go now?"
"No."
"You're enjoying this." He accused.
Kitty shrugged and leaned back a little against her rock. She couldn't deny that she liked having the control here. But it wasn't exactly her choice. "Wisdom, if I let you go and you're still possessed, what does that make me?"
The words he uttered were unprintable, but Kitty felt her mouth twitch into a smile that she quickly smothered anyway.
"Pryde."
"No."
He made several movements and finally got into a sitting position, though it looked as though he didn't think it had been worth the effort. "What's to stop me hot-knifin' myself free?"
"Second-degree burns on your wrists?"
He growled, and his eyes went a little blank as he shifted his shoulders, bracing himself. The smell of burning leather reached her, and Kitty wondered if this was proof he was back. He'd let Scratch tie him up, but maybe that was some sort of sado-masochist thing he had going with the other agent.
"I don't have any aloe, you know."
A moment later, he was cursing, but free, his arms out to the sides as he shook the last remnants of his belt off.
Kitty tensed a little, but figured she had plenty of time to get out of the way if he tried to hot-knife her. Hell, she could just go intangible, grab a rock and knock him out again. Maybe a concussion would do him some good.
Ignoring her, Wisdom got to his feet with an attempt at dignity that failed when his pants tried to escape.
This was a little too much for Kitty's sense of humor, and she almost fell over with laughter shaking her. Wisdom yelped and made a grab for the fabric, but ended up revealing that he still wore stripey boxers before he managed it.
Puffing and gasping, Kitty tried to stop and wiped tears from the corners of her eyes. "Oh. Oh, I needed that," she wheezed, giggling a little when he glared at her.
With a huff, Wisdom claimed his own rock and sat down. "It wasn't funny."
"Like hell it wasn't," she countered.
He threw a twig at her. "Not possessed anymore." He sounded a little sad.
Kitty snorted, "After that performance, I should hope not." Her tone changed, turning quiet, "How are your wrists?"
"Little singed. They'll do."
Pulling the laptop towards her, Kitty checked the homing beacon to see if anyone had pinged it, then settled back. It took her a moment to realize she was staring at Wisdom, and he was staring back.
He was older than he'd been when they were dating, her eyes saw lines and hollows--he'd always looked underfed, now he looked stretched. She found herself hoping that he was just tired and not something worse, like over-worked. Then she snorted to herself: the day Wisdom over-worked himself was the day Brian Braddock would take up macrame and preach about peace in the desert.
"Stuart sent you, huh."
It wasn't really a question, but it wasn't really an observation, either. Kitty shrugged, "I think he thought I was the best at getting people extracted from tight situations. He didn't tell me it was you," she added.
"Would've told him to sod off, if he had."
Irked a little, Kitty nevertheless didn't let herself rise to the bait. "How'd Scratch survive prison?" she asked, changing the subject.
Wisdom just raised his eyebrows at her. "Y'have to ask?"
Rocking her head forward, Kitty felt the pull of her muscles, still tight despite the hour. It was going to be a long day after a worse night. "Guess I shouldn't have to," she admitted, "Guess I'm just not used to... leniency like that."
There was a snort from Wisdom.
"How'd he catch you?" she asked, wondering if she could goad him into a fight. It might at least wake her up a little.
Giving her a lofty look, Wisdom leaned back and then closed his eyes. "Wake me when Stuart's people get here."
It must have been really stupid, Kitty reflected, as she shifted so she wasn't so comfortable. Probably asinine. Maybe Wisdom was taking a piss when Scratch got the drop on him. She grinned as she settled in to type on the laptop, knowing it was the only thing that would keep her awake. Now, where'd she put that chemistry homework?
-=-
Scratch showed up before Alistaire's people did, and Kitty made a mental note to concuss him harder the next time she faced him while she threw herself into a dive to escape the energy blasting at her.
The laptop was toast, but she hadn't liked it much anyway.
"You go left," Wisdom snapped, low and fast, taking off to the right before she could reply.
Kitty swore, then popped out of her scant cover, catching sight of Scratch for just an instant before he snapped an energy beam her way. The hull of the spaceship must have once been pretty good, as the metal only whined slightly from the impact.
Left. She needed to go left.
There was no telling where Wisdom was, but they used to be good at this. It was easy to dodge between cover and the open air, going intangible when she drew fire from the angry Brit. It was easy to circle him.
Not so easy to dodge the men with the guns who suddenly loomed.
Kitty let her instincts take over, jumping and kicking, her foot snapping into the one on the left's chin and sending him flying while the other was still coming to terms with the ninja in his face. She had him down, his gun wrenched free and reversed to smash into his jaw before he could recover.
All told: ten seconds.
She crouched over them, panting a little as she pulled the magazines from their guns and phased everything together into an unusable mess.
"Pryde!"
Wisdom's shout had her moving again, skirting the edge of the crash site until she realized she was behind Scratch. He was intent on a small lump of hull not far away. Kitty held onto her mess of guns and ran towards him, dodging to one side when he turned and found her again.
"Oh, Kitty Pryde. I should have known you'd come when Wisdom called."
A laugh escaped her, and she went intangible, walking through the wreckage and Scratch's bolts with a nonchalance that enraged him. "How's the head, Scratch? Little concussion making it hard to focus?"
He swung away from her, too early, and she shouted at Wisdom to get down.
Too slow, Pete's hand came up, his hotknives flaring out, encountering and blocking Scratch's energy. But Wisdom was exhausted, his face streaked with sweat and mud, his hand shaking as he tried to hold it steady.
For some reason, Scratch seemed fresh and energized. Kitty took another step towards him and swung her hand up, sliding the mess of metal and plastic through Scratch's chest. "I could let go."
Scratch laughed, and the sound was horrible, grating. "You're an X-Man, little girl." His amusement punched the power in his beam up, and Wisdom staggered as the white-hot energy began edging along his yellow-golden.
"Actually," said Kitty, yanking the guns back and going tangible before she swung them at Scratch's head, "I'm just a bloody college student."
The impact with Scratch's head made a slightly awful thunking noise, and his hand dropped as he crumpled, energies gone in an instant. Kitty stared down at him for what felt like a very long time before Wisdom's hand touched her arm. It was tentative, as though he were a little afraid she might punch him.
She didn't.
"Pryde?"
"Yeah?" She sucked in a deep breath and dropped her weapon. "I hate guns. Is he dead?"
Wisdom gave her an odd look, then bent over to check, "No."
Letting her breath out in a long sigh, Kitty nodded. "Good." Sound made her look up, spotting the shape of the Midnight Flit above them. Her eyebrows raised, "Alistaire sure knows how to pick his allies."
-=-
Alistaire himself was aboard the Flit, and he had them land so he could start marking off the boundaries of the crash site for further study. Kitty followed him, giving him a piece of her mind as well as a warning about the odd possession the place seemed to have.
When she was done, she left him to it and went back to the Flit, seriously considering borrowing it to fly herself home.
Once inside, she found Wisdom sprawled in the cockpit, one leg up on the console.
Like old times, she kicked his leg down and dropped into the other seat. Running a systems check gave her hands something to do.
"We should go to Rio."
"I have a report due tomorrow."
Wisdom shrugged and closed his eyes, "Won't get back if we wait for the Great Scientist out there."
"I know." Kitty reached for the communications unit, "Alistaire, I have things to do." That didn't include enforced proximity to Pete Wisdom.
"The rest of my team will be along in an hour," he sounded excited, "I'll expect the Flit back by the weekend, though."
Kitty strapped in and started keying in the sequence to launch them. "By the weekend, it is." If she didn't use it as an example in class and try to keep it. Having a super-sonic jet might come in handy, sometimes.
A snore issued from Wisdom's chair, so she didn't bother telling him to strap in.
He'd figure it out as soon as she took her first loop-the-loop.
-f-