Kitty Pryde-Barton (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
throughaphase) wrote2013-02-05 08:43 pm
throughaphase) wrote2013-02-05 08:43 pm
Way, way, way underground- laaaate Tuesday night
The first part of the plan was all Kitty. The four of them- her, Sage, Rogue and Amara- held hands in a circle so she could phase them all underground. Kitty had done this herself before, but it did freak her out a little to be going far enough into the Earth's crust that they needed Magma.
"Stay loose, you guys," she said quietly, because if she worried and she was used to it, the others might be freaking out and she needed to keep her concentration. "I'm slipping the molecules of our bodies through the spaces between those of the mass around us. If anyone lets go, they instantly become solid. That would be very, very bad."
She ignored anything they might be seeing around them, ignored everyone else's reactions to what was going on, and focused on getting them phased to where they needed to be until Sage said, "Kitty, Amara, it's time!"
And then they dropped down into a cavern filled with molten lava.
Everyone should probably really be glad that Kitty's focus after all these years was really really good and she could keep them all phased. And when Amara nodded at her right before they'd drop any further, Kitty had to do the scariest thing ever and stop phasing. Then it was all up to Amara, cocooning them in ash to protect them and using the lava flow to take them through the cavern. Which, first of all, was weird and Kitty didn't like this at all, and also she was really regretting the decision to come here in leather.
When they finally stopped, the ash dropped away, Rogue cried, "Now was that fun, or was that fun?"
"Next time, every time, you can have my ticket," Kitty answered immediately.
She must have looked either really freaked out or shaken up, because Rogue helped her sit. "You, Pryde? Scared? Get out of town."
Hey, it was allowed. When most of the time nothing could hurt you unless you let it, when you couldn't phase and were riding on lava that could totally melt you, if you weren't scared, you were a little weird. For instance, Rogue was a little weird. "Some things you never get used to," Kitty explained, and looked around. "Where's 'Mara?"
Rogue looked back, asking, "You sent her away, Sage, didn't you?"
"Another part of the plan we didn't need to know?" Kitty checked.
"Her mind has no defenses against Bogan's telepath," Sage explained, though Kitty found that to be a pretty flimsy answer. Unpowered, Rogue didn't have any real defenses, either, and yet she was still here. "Her will is no match for the monster himself. If we keep her close, she'll give us away. Or even be possessed, like Bishop."
"That's cold," Rogue said, standing to get in Sage's face and start pointing fingers. "We may need her."
"In my analysis, her liabilities outweigh her assets. This is what's best for the mission."
Kitty wasn't really interested in getting into a fight about this. She could see Sage's point, and earlier Rogue had admitting having doubts about trusting her. Not that Kitty entirely trusted her, either- Sage was Emma Sue, basically- but Storm brought her in, and Kitty trusted her. So fine, she'd go along with this, and decided to change the subject as she pulled herself back to her feet. "So, Sage, where are we, exactly?"
"This is what Magma told me- some of the caverns are natural, but most of these catacombs are man-made. Above us, on the surface, is the Valle Soleada headquarters of X-Corp. A century ago, another building stood in its place, a mansion. It was the Los Angeles home of the Hellfire Club. The official branch was in Hollywood, but that was just for show. The real action took place here, far from prying eyes. It was built by Elias Bogan."
It sounded like Rogue started to say something, but either she didn't get it out or Kitty was too distracted to hear, thanks to the chains suddenly wrapping around her. Before she could even grasp what was happening, she was pulled back several steps, hitting the ground hard. As soon as she processed that shock, she tried to phase, but didn't find the chains loosening at all, and then she was yanked sideways, slamming into the wall.
"Bet right now you're thinking, this can't be happening!" said a man's voice, and she was gonna take a wild guess and say he was the one doing this. Then she slammed into another wall and hey, she needed that shoulder. "'Since I'm most always intangible, how can his chains even hold me? Much less bounce me offa these walls?' Oh, baby, that has gotta hurt! But hey, you plan in the big leagues, you gotta be able to take the hits!"
This time when Kitty hit the ground, she was able to take a moment, thanks to him stopping and apparently moving on to Rogue. It was rare that she actually felt pain. Sure, sometimes you phased through adamantium or had nanotech-induced seizures and it hurt a damn lot but she just didn't fall or get knocked into things anymore. There had to be a moment to catch her breath, and to make sure she could move all her necessary parts, and to work on the chains. Also, to realize she was going to lose a lot of traction in her "I can't get hurt, don't worry about me" argument when Clint saw the bruises she was undoubtedly gonna be sporting.
There was another man's voice, this time right above her. Facedown on the ground, she couldn't see him, but she decided that was fine with her. "So young," he said, "yet so full of nightmares. I'm so going to love making you scream-"
Good luck with that, because Kitty was pretty sure she knew who this guy was, and no. If she couldn't phase through the chains, she was working on phasing herself up just enough to twist herself over, using the momentum to unravel herself. Her tricks would always be more awesome than theirs.
This confused the hell out of this guy. "...What's that? Manacle? This is no time for one of your infantile jokes!"
"Joke's on you," Kitty said, aiming her now-loose foot into his face and pulling herself back into a standing position. "You're Revenant, right?" Hope he wasn't a huge fan of that jaw her boot was making close personal friends with. "I heard what you did to Storm. Rogue told me what you did to her. For that, you," she said, with a solid jump-kick into his solar plexus to knock him down, "and your boss, answer to me. Are we clear?"
"Shadowcat's got a temper. I'm impressed," said Rogue, and she actually sounded it. Then again, she'd missed out on Kitty's beat-up-six-guys-at-once-and-get-put-on-probation days.
Since Revenant wasn't getting up- darn- Kitty straightened, taking stock of the situation. Sage was nowhere to be seen, and Rogue seemed to have taken Manacle out just fine. Which... "Anna, how did you beat him? I thought-"
"Don't ask, girl. I sure won't tell," Rogue said, going in for a high five anyway. "Just enjoy the moment."
"Moment's over girls," said another voice, this time female. "Now it's my turn!"
And before them was Bogan's telepath, who looked to be a woman shadowed completely in black, except for the glowing red eyes that meant possession by Bogan. It was him doing all the real speaking, just using her distorted voice. Behind her were a couple of Bogan's thugs, and a couple members of the X-Men that he'd gotten a hold of before Kitty got here- Bishop, Gambit, Cannonball... So that was what, nine to two?
"All this effort, all this cunning, all for nothing. I believe these are for you," the telepath said, throwing a set of, well, manacles down at the girls' feet.
Rogue leaned in to Kitty and hissed, "This part of Sage's plan?"
"We're X-Men, Rogue," Kitty reminded her, smiling a little. "You expected this to be easy?"
"So much the better. Remember above all, my pets," the telepath said to the others, "these two are precious. I don't want them damaged."
And then one of Bogan's thugs, some big hulking guy in a hood, went to swing his club- and fell, knocking into someone else. Which just started that person swinging...
"Oops, my bad," Gambit said, ducking under some of the swings being hurled so he didn't get hit by them. "Too many folks, too cramped a space. Appears everybody's tripping over themselves..."
"...What's happening?" Kitty asked, watching everyone fighting while Gambit was trash-talking, what the hell.
"Shoulda known, where my Cajun's concerned, you never believe what you see," Rogue said, sounding a little awed. "Gambit conned Bogan!"
"You deceived me!" the telepath raged, standing in front of Bishop, who'd stayed still through the whole thing.
"It's what I do best," Gambit said, like it was nothing. "I don't need powers to be dangerous."
"I won't make that mistake again!"
"Against us, Bogan," Bishop said, grabbing the telepath's head with one giant hand, "one mistake is all it takes."
Okay, now Kitty was getting a little irritated at Sage's secrecy. It wouldn't have hurt to tell them Bishop and Gambit were in on this. She made a mental note to smack her for it later.
"Very impressive, Bishop," the telepath growled. "I'm not often fooled."
"Surprise, young lady! You think I never fought a telepath before?" And then Bishop brought his other hand to the other side of her head and started to squeeze.
Immediately blue bolts of light started shooting out from the telepath. "But I'm afraid you're about to discover that I am even more rarely defeated!" And a moment later, she had used the energy- or whatever was going on- to lift Bishop up and slam him down onto the ground on his back.
Before the telepath could do anything else to him, Kitty started running at her, already phasing. The problem was, when she tried going through her... well, she went through, but it was nothing but hurt. A-freaking-gain. "Did that hurt, Kitty? What was the plan, to use your phasing power to disrupt my central nervous system? Poor dear. I must have cross-polarized the molecular valences of my physicality so passing through me felt like a session with a buzzsaw."
When Kitty hit the ground, it was more through stunned revelation rather than actual pain. Well, there was definitely some pain. But she'd been the secret weapon here. No one but Sage, Rogue and Amara knew she was here, what the extent of her powers were, and the only way someone would know what she could do and what she'd been planning to do in order to turn it back around on her... "I know you," Kitty realized, looking back at her. "I know you!"
"It's a revelation you'll carry to your grave!"
Before the telepath's kick could connect with Kitty's head, a bo was leveled in front of her leg, knocking her off course. "Shadowcat's hardly begun one life," Gambit tsked. "Whyfor you want take away all nine at once?"
He took on the fight with the telepath, and as Kitty stood she saw Rogue helping him. "No, you don't understand!" Kitty yelled. "He can draw on resources-"
The sound of screams from one of the other chambers in the cavern. They all stopped and looked toward the sound automatically, and when Kitty forced herself to look back- "Telepath's gone!"
Without the telepath, the focus had to be on whatever was causing the screams. What they found was a now-unpossessed Amara crying that she'd killed Sage, forced to encase her in lava. Gambit and Bishop worked on breaking the casing, revealing a Sage that was unharmed, if a little shaken. "You still got a plan?" Bishop asked her, helping her stand.
"I have... hope," she admitted, staring at a glowing blue gem the size of an ostrich egg. "So long as Bogan controls his telepath, we remain in deadly danger. The key to understanding Bogan's undoing is his arrogance. He has no equal at breaking spirits to his will, at the creation and use of living tools to satisfy his desires. But since his world is all about him, he understands nothing about how powers might be synergized. Of how multiple talents might work together to a common goal. He understands even less of the concept of self-sacrifice."
When Sage finished explaining her plan, Kitty was left frowning at the gem thing. Which she apparently had to get into? Oh well, it still wouldn't be the weirdest thing she'd ever done. "Any idea what Rogue and I will find inside?"
"Bogan," Sage said. "The essence of the telepath. Beyond that...?"
"You keep Bogan busy, Rogue," Kitty said. "Leave the telepath to me."
Rogue sighed, sticking her hand into the gem. "I do so love it, how I get all the fun jobs."
Following Rogue in, Kitty found herself sucked into a... she didn't know what to call it. It looked like what an astral plane probably should look like, all weird blue sky and not much around. Well, mostly. The first object she saw was a mass of metal spikes and what looked like armor or machine parts attacking Rogue, and for as much as Kitty wanted to help her out, that wasn't her job. She had to trust her to handle it.
Kitty simply phased into the ground, finding herself inside a stone wall, she was guessing. You got used to seeing what the insides of structures looked like when you were her. She poked her head through into what looked like an Escher painting, all confused stone staircases and walls with weird curves to them. And hanging from one of them was the telepath, unmoving.
She came through the rest of the wall, airwalking over a gap in the floor to finally land in front of the telepath. Taking her time in case there was some sort of trap involved here, she stopped, and reached up to lightly touch the telepath's neck-
-which alerted Bogan that there were more people here than just Rogue.
And once he figured that out, Kitty felt what she thought was a chain at once tethering to the floor and to the telepath. That was part of the plan, technically. Or at least, she knew something like this might happen. Bishop provided raw power to telepath Sage, who could focus it on over to Rogue, using all this power to sever the psychic bonds linking the telepath to Bogan. To be honest, Kitty didn't completely understand what they were doing, because it was on a level she'd never really get. Part of her power was avoiding what was going on. All she knew was that she could feel the energy around her as they did whatever they were doing... and then after a long moment, the chains binding her broke.
She could hear Sage and Rogue arguing, with Rogue insisting there were no martyrs on her watch, and sacrifice in this case was unnecessary, and then, simple as that, they were back in the catacombs, the gem broken all over the floor, and Kitty didn't care about any of that.
Instead, she went to the telepath, helping her up from where she was in a heap on the floor, watching as the black all over her seemed to chip away, first revealing super short red hair. And then she knew for sure who she had here. To be fair, she'd known that before, but it was nice to have confirmation. "She's just the same!" Kitty gasped excitedly. "I was so sure, once we cut her loose, she'd be herself again!"
"I am myself, Pryde. Just a little bit different, is all," Rachel Summers managed, her voice shaky and quiet, and Kitty could see that she was crying. "I knew if I held on long enough, you'd find me."
[NFB, NFI, OOC okay. Adapted from X-Treme X-Men #43 and 44, blame Chris Claremont for everything.]
"Stay loose, you guys," she said quietly, because if she worried and she was used to it, the others might be freaking out and she needed to keep her concentration. "I'm slipping the molecules of our bodies through the spaces between those of the mass around us. If anyone lets go, they instantly become solid. That would be very, very bad."
She ignored anything they might be seeing around them, ignored everyone else's reactions to what was going on, and focused on getting them phased to where they needed to be until Sage said, "Kitty, Amara, it's time!"
And then they dropped down into a cavern filled with molten lava.
Everyone should probably really be glad that Kitty's focus after all these years was really really good and she could keep them all phased. And when Amara nodded at her right before they'd drop any further, Kitty had to do the scariest thing ever and stop phasing. Then it was all up to Amara, cocooning them in ash to protect them and using the lava flow to take them through the cavern. Which, first of all, was weird and Kitty didn't like this at all, and also she was really regretting the decision to come here in leather.
When they finally stopped, the ash dropped away, Rogue cried, "Now was that fun, or was that fun?"
"Next time, every time, you can have my ticket," Kitty answered immediately.
She must have looked either really freaked out or shaken up, because Rogue helped her sit. "You, Pryde? Scared? Get out of town."
Hey, it was allowed. When most of the time nothing could hurt you unless you let it, when you couldn't phase and were riding on lava that could totally melt you, if you weren't scared, you were a little weird. For instance, Rogue was a little weird. "Some things you never get used to," Kitty explained, and looked around. "Where's 'Mara?"
Rogue looked back, asking, "You sent her away, Sage, didn't you?"
"Another part of the plan we didn't need to know?" Kitty checked.
"Her mind has no defenses against Bogan's telepath," Sage explained, though Kitty found that to be a pretty flimsy answer. Unpowered, Rogue didn't have any real defenses, either, and yet she was still here. "Her will is no match for the monster himself. If we keep her close, she'll give us away. Or even be possessed, like Bishop."
"That's cold," Rogue said, standing to get in Sage's face and start pointing fingers. "We may need her."
"In my analysis, her liabilities outweigh her assets. This is what's best for the mission."
Kitty wasn't really interested in getting into a fight about this. She could see Sage's point, and earlier Rogue had admitting having doubts about trusting her. Not that Kitty entirely trusted her, either- Sage was Emma Sue, basically- but Storm brought her in, and Kitty trusted her. So fine, she'd go along with this, and decided to change the subject as she pulled herself back to her feet. "So, Sage, where are we, exactly?"
"This is what Magma told me- some of the caverns are natural, but most of these catacombs are man-made. Above us, on the surface, is the Valle Soleada headquarters of X-Corp. A century ago, another building stood in its place, a mansion. It was the Los Angeles home of the Hellfire Club. The official branch was in Hollywood, but that was just for show. The real action took place here, far from prying eyes. It was built by Elias Bogan."
It sounded like Rogue started to say something, but either she didn't get it out or Kitty was too distracted to hear, thanks to the chains suddenly wrapping around her. Before she could even grasp what was happening, she was pulled back several steps, hitting the ground hard. As soon as she processed that shock, she tried to phase, but didn't find the chains loosening at all, and then she was yanked sideways, slamming into the wall.
"Bet right now you're thinking, this can't be happening!" said a man's voice, and she was gonna take a wild guess and say he was the one doing this. Then she slammed into another wall and hey, she needed that shoulder. "'Since I'm most always intangible, how can his chains even hold me? Much less bounce me offa these walls?' Oh, baby, that has gotta hurt! But hey, you plan in the big leagues, you gotta be able to take the hits!"
This time when Kitty hit the ground, she was able to take a moment, thanks to him stopping and apparently moving on to Rogue. It was rare that she actually felt pain. Sure, sometimes you phased through adamantium or had nanotech-induced seizures and it hurt a damn lot but she just didn't fall or get knocked into things anymore. There had to be a moment to catch her breath, and to make sure she could move all her necessary parts, and to work on the chains. Also, to realize she was going to lose a lot of traction in her "I can't get hurt, don't worry about me" argument when Clint saw the bruises she was undoubtedly gonna be sporting.
There was another man's voice, this time right above her. Facedown on the ground, she couldn't see him, but she decided that was fine with her. "So young," he said, "yet so full of nightmares. I'm so going to love making you scream-"
Good luck with that, because Kitty was pretty sure she knew who this guy was, and no. If she couldn't phase through the chains, she was working on phasing herself up just enough to twist herself over, using the momentum to unravel herself. Her tricks would always be more awesome than theirs.
This confused the hell out of this guy. "...What's that? Manacle? This is no time for one of your infantile jokes!"
"Joke's on you," Kitty said, aiming her now-loose foot into his face and pulling herself back into a standing position. "You're Revenant, right?" Hope he wasn't a huge fan of that jaw her boot was making close personal friends with. "I heard what you did to Storm. Rogue told me what you did to her. For that, you," she said, with a solid jump-kick into his solar plexus to knock him down, "and your boss, answer to me. Are we clear?"
"Shadowcat's got a temper. I'm impressed," said Rogue, and she actually sounded it. Then again, she'd missed out on Kitty's beat-up-six-guys-at-once-and-get-put-on-probation days.
Since Revenant wasn't getting up- darn- Kitty straightened, taking stock of the situation. Sage was nowhere to be seen, and Rogue seemed to have taken Manacle out just fine. Which... "Anna, how did you beat him? I thought-"
"Don't ask, girl. I sure won't tell," Rogue said, going in for a high five anyway. "Just enjoy the moment."
"Moment's over girls," said another voice, this time female. "Now it's my turn!"
And before them was Bogan's telepath, who looked to be a woman shadowed completely in black, except for the glowing red eyes that meant possession by Bogan. It was him doing all the real speaking, just using her distorted voice. Behind her were a couple of Bogan's thugs, and a couple members of the X-Men that he'd gotten a hold of before Kitty got here- Bishop, Gambit, Cannonball... So that was what, nine to two?
"All this effort, all this cunning, all for nothing. I believe these are for you," the telepath said, throwing a set of, well, manacles down at the girls' feet.
Rogue leaned in to Kitty and hissed, "This part of Sage's plan?"
"We're X-Men, Rogue," Kitty reminded her, smiling a little. "You expected this to be easy?"
"So much the better. Remember above all, my pets," the telepath said to the others, "these two are precious. I don't want them damaged."
And then one of Bogan's thugs, some big hulking guy in a hood, went to swing his club- and fell, knocking into someone else. Which just started that person swinging...
"Oops, my bad," Gambit said, ducking under some of the swings being hurled so he didn't get hit by them. "Too many folks, too cramped a space. Appears everybody's tripping over themselves..."
"...What's happening?" Kitty asked, watching everyone fighting while Gambit was trash-talking, what the hell.
"Shoulda known, where my Cajun's concerned, you never believe what you see," Rogue said, sounding a little awed. "Gambit conned Bogan!"
"You deceived me!" the telepath raged, standing in front of Bishop, who'd stayed still through the whole thing.
"It's what I do best," Gambit said, like it was nothing. "I don't need powers to be dangerous."
"I won't make that mistake again!"
"Against us, Bogan," Bishop said, grabbing the telepath's head with one giant hand, "one mistake is all it takes."
Okay, now Kitty was getting a little irritated at Sage's secrecy. It wouldn't have hurt to tell them Bishop and Gambit were in on this. She made a mental note to smack her for it later.
"Very impressive, Bishop," the telepath growled. "I'm not often fooled."
"Surprise, young lady! You think I never fought a telepath before?" And then Bishop brought his other hand to the other side of her head and started to squeeze.
Immediately blue bolts of light started shooting out from the telepath. "But I'm afraid you're about to discover that I am even more rarely defeated!" And a moment later, she had used the energy- or whatever was going on- to lift Bishop up and slam him down onto the ground on his back.
Before the telepath could do anything else to him, Kitty started running at her, already phasing. The problem was, when she tried going through her... well, she went through, but it was nothing but hurt. A-freaking-gain. "Did that hurt, Kitty? What was the plan, to use your phasing power to disrupt my central nervous system? Poor dear. I must have cross-polarized the molecular valences of my physicality so passing through me felt like a session with a buzzsaw."
When Kitty hit the ground, it was more through stunned revelation rather than actual pain. Well, there was definitely some pain. But she'd been the secret weapon here. No one but Sage, Rogue and Amara knew she was here, what the extent of her powers were, and the only way someone would know what she could do and what she'd been planning to do in order to turn it back around on her... "I know you," Kitty realized, looking back at her. "I know you!"
"It's a revelation you'll carry to your grave!"
Before the telepath's kick could connect with Kitty's head, a bo was leveled in front of her leg, knocking her off course. "Shadowcat's hardly begun one life," Gambit tsked. "Whyfor you want take away all nine at once?"
He took on the fight with the telepath, and as Kitty stood she saw Rogue helping him. "No, you don't understand!" Kitty yelled. "He can draw on resources-"
The sound of screams from one of the other chambers in the cavern. They all stopped and looked toward the sound automatically, and when Kitty forced herself to look back- "Telepath's gone!"
Without the telepath, the focus had to be on whatever was causing the screams. What they found was a now-unpossessed Amara crying that she'd killed Sage, forced to encase her in lava. Gambit and Bishop worked on breaking the casing, revealing a Sage that was unharmed, if a little shaken. "You still got a plan?" Bishop asked her, helping her stand.
"I have... hope," she admitted, staring at a glowing blue gem the size of an ostrich egg. "So long as Bogan controls his telepath, we remain in deadly danger. The key to understanding Bogan's undoing is his arrogance. He has no equal at breaking spirits to his will, at the creation and use of living tools to satisfy his desires. But since his world is all about him, he understands nothing about how powers might be synergized. Of how multiple talents might work together to a common goal. He understands even less of the concept of self-sacrifice."
When Sage finished explaining her plan, Kitty was left frowning at the gem thing. Which she apparently had to get into? Oh well, it still wouldn't be the weirdest thing she'd ever done. "Any idea what Rogue and I will find inside?"
"Bogan," Sage said. "The essence of the telepath. Beyond that...?"
"You keep Bogan busy, Rogue," Kitty said. "Leave the telepath to me."
Rogue sighed, sticking her hand into the gem. "I do so love it, how I get all the fun jobs."
Following Rogue in, Kitty found herself sucked into a... she didn't know what to call it. It looked like what an astral plane probably should look like, all weird blue sky and not much around. Well, mostly. The first object she saw was a mass of metal spikes and what looked like armor or machine parts attacking Rogue, and for as much as Kitty wanted to help her out, that wasn't her job. She had to trust her to handle it.
Kitty simply phased into the ground, finding herself inside a stone wall, she was guessing. You got used to seeing what the insides of structures looked like when you were her. She poked her head through into what looked like an Escher painting, all confused stone staircases and walls with weird curves to them. And hanging from one of them was the telepath, unmoving.
She came through the rest of the wall, airwalking over a gap in the floor to finally land in front of the telepath. Taking her time in case there was some sort of trap involved here, she stopped, and reached up to lightly touch the telepath's neck-
-which alerted Bogan that there were more people here than just Rogue.
And once he figured that out, Kitty felt what she thought was a chain at once tethering to the floor and to the telepath. That was part of the plan, technically. Or at least, she knew something like this might happen. Bishop provided raw power to telepath Sage, who could focus it on over to Rogue, using all this power to sever the psychic bonds linking the telepath to Bogan. To be honest, Kitty didn't completely understand what they were doing, because it was on a level she'd never really get. Part of her power was avoiding what was going on. All she knew was that she could feel the energy around her as they did whatever they were doing... and then after a long moment, the chains binding her broke.
She could hear Sage and Rogue arguing, with Rogue insisting there were no martyrs on her watch, and sacrifice in this case was unnecessary, and then, simple as that, they were back in the catacombs, the gem broken all over the floor, and Kitty didn't care about any of that.
Instead, she went to the telepath, helping her up from where she was in a heap on the floor, watching as the black all over her seemed to chip away, first revealing super short red hair. And then she knew for sure who she had here. To be fair, she'd known that before, but it was nice to have confirmation. "She's just the same!" Kitty gasped excitedly. "I was so sure, once we cut her loose, she'd be herself again!"
"I am myself, Pryde. Just a little bit different, is all," Rachel Summers managed, her voice shaky and quiet, and Kitty could see that she was crying. "I knew if I held on long enough, you'd find me."
[NFB, NFI, OOC okay. Adapted from X-Treme X-Men #43 and 44, blame Chris Claremont for everything.]