(and now with the correct chapter 2!)

The Batcave.

Kitty had seen a lot of lairs in her time, and a lot of heroes and villains with animal names. But something about the Batman reminded her of Logan in a few ways. She figured those two probably would have gotten along somehow. At least at first.

And the tech. Kitty had almost squealed when she'd seen it. They'd had to make do with second hand and conveniently acquired technology, but it had been impossible to figure out where the break in this timeline was so they could fix it. So they'd taken a kind of scattergun approach to it. Even if one or two things had ended up being a little personal.

She looked over to where tall buff and beautiful was talking to Bruce, and tried to calm herself down. Someone's arm went around her shoulder, and Neena said, "Thinking of all the walls you want her to take you against?"

"I'm not living that down am I?"

"Nah. Never in a million years." Neena laughed, letting go and walking away.

"At least Kurt won't make fun of me," Kitty muttered, knowing damn well Kurt wouldn't let her live that down either. She glanced around for the others, spying Laura and Sooraya up on a catwalk, holding hands and talking to a Chinese girl a few years younger than them. The hand-holding was a surprise. Except for one time Kitty had caught them kissing, they were very self-conscious about displaying their affection for each other.

She supposed Bruce was even more like Logan than she'd initially thought, complete with adopting strays.

Clarice was… somewhere, and she watched as Hulk tried to sip tea from a tiny teacup. Okay then, she wished she had a camera.

Diana had changed into designer jeans and a black leather jacket and that only made her even hotter. It hadn't been the first time Kitty had tripped over herself upon meeting some woman on one of their missions, but this one was pretty far up there on the embarrassing factor. It was the muscles, she decided. She always had a thing for muscles.

"Bruce thinks he can calibrate his equipment to work with your… what did you call it? Your tallus?"

Kitty nodded, glancing over where Neena was now talking to Bruce, "It's kind of like looking for cracks or fissures at the quantum level. Sometimes it's pretty easy to see, other times, it's harder."

"And you have no guidance on what your mission here is?"

Kitty shook her head. "Sometimes we get clues. This time, we didn't get any."

Bruce appeared as if from nowhere, clapping his hand on Diana's back. "Why don't you two head into town and get something to eat. All I really need it Neena and the tallus to calibrate this, and it'll take a few hours. So enjoy yourselves!"

And then he was gone.

"What just happened?"

"I am not sure, but it seems like a decent enough suggestion," Diana answered. She offered Kitty her arm, "Shall we?"

She stared, then numbly slipped her arm through Diana's. Neena gave Kitty a thumbs up, and Kitty suddenly knew who she was going to kill later.

On the way out, they'd spied Laura sparring with the Chinese girl. Diana told Kitty her name was Cass, and she didn't talk much. Kitty told Diana that she and Laura would get along well in that case.

"No lasso of truth?" Kitty asked, as they got into Diana's car.

Diana laughed, "It is not something to be abused."

"So I could make up anything I want and you'd have to believe me," Kitty said.

"If that is what you want."

"I was taught to generally be honest." Kitty settled into the seat of the car.

"Do you miss it? Where you are from."

Something about the words and the tone in Diana's voice, made Kitty wistful and homesick. "Yeah. I think about it all the time. The friends and family I left behind. The life I had."

Diana reached over, her hand sending a jolt through Kitty where it rested on her leg, "I understand what that is like. To be unable to return home and to leave everything you knew behind. What did you do?"

"You mean when we weren't saving the world?" Kitty smiled at Diana, willing that hand to stay put. "I was a teacher. For others like me, other mutants, kids. Besides teaching them to control their powers, we taught them all the things that a school is supposed to teach them."

A frown passed over her face, "And some of the things their parents should be teaching them."

"Those who are different are always those who suffer the most." Hunted and hounded and murdered.

"I'm a woman, a mutant, Jewish, and bisexual," Kitty replied. "Everything a lot of people hate in one convenient package."

Lucky us Neena had once told her, not long after they'd met and learned they shared a faith.

She put her hand over Diana's. Despite her flippant tone, it did hurt to say that, to acknowledge a truth. And she was glad Diana hadn't pulled her hand away. "Where are you from?"

"Themyscira." Diana sighed, the sound making Kitty's chest hurt. "Paradise on earth, the home of the Amazons. I left a hundred years ago, knowing that once I was gone, I might never return. But there, it did not matter what you looked like or who you loved, naturally."

"Why did you leave?"

Diana glanced at Kitty, meeting her eyes, "Because it was the right thing to do. The world was suffering and I had the ability to help it."

Kitty smiled, "Let me help. Someone once recommended those words over even I love you."

"They are good words. Who said that?"

"A man named Kirk."

"A good man?" Diana had lived so much of her life doubting that good men existed. It was only in recent years that she'd met some that came close to the standard Steve Trevor had set.

Kitty smiled, "The best."

"I would like to meet this Kirk, some day."

Darting her eyes, Kitty looked out the car window, "I'm sure there's some universe out there where you will. Keep an eye out for Luke Skywalker while you're at it."

"What will happen when we fix our timeline?"

"We'll be gone." Looking down at their hands, Kitty continued, "We'll get pulled to another timeline, on another Earth. Maybe there'll be mutants, or metahumans, maybe there won't be anything like that at all. Won't know until it happens."

In some ways, that was the worse part. Making friends and then being torn from them. It had been worse for Kurt. He'd fallen in love on one mission, only to leave her behind. Kitty had promised herself she'd never let that happen to her. But Diana … she'd be so easy to fall for if she let herself. Too easy to let herself do so. Maybe seeing her teammates hook up made her lonelier. She liked all of them, just not in that way.

Something flashed behind them, and Diana pulled over as a dozen police cars and a SWAT van sped past.

Diana glanced at Kitty and Kitty raised her eyebrows, "Honestly, beating up a bunch of bad guys is a much better date for me than lunch."

Pulling back out into traffic and speeding, Diana asked, "So is this a date?"

"Bruce and Neena weren't exactly subtle," Kitty pointed out.

"Neither were you, if I recall. Something about a wall…"

And there were things Diana could do with that rope to Kitty that she'd have no objections to so thank god she wasn't touching it right now. "You play dirty."

"Why do I think you don't mind?" Diana said, flooring it.

It turned out to be a hostage situation. Kitty was still buzzing from Diana picking her up and leaping them to the roof. She could be gone in a day or a week and so she thought that she might as well just go with it.

"So what's the plan, beefcakes?" Kitty walked to the edge of the roof and peered down. She damn near fell off when Diana ruffled her fingers through her hair. That.. that was cheating.

"I can keep the gunmen distracted, if you rescue the hostages." She'd watched Kitty walk through walls earlier and it stood to reason she could take a person with her.

"Good plan." Kitty put her hand on Diana's arm. And squeezed before she could top herself. "Throw me. Quickest way I can get in."

"Throw you? You can't be serious."

"I'm totally serious, Diana. We call it the Fastball Special."

"How very interesting. I'll give you two minutes once you're inside to get into position. " Diana's face beamed with amused delight as she picked Kitty up. Kitty tried not to see more in it then there actually was.

"I'm ready." And then she was flying through the air, faster than she'd ever been thrown before. She phased through the third story wall, letting her powers slow her down. Then she poked her head down through the floor to get a count of the hostages.

Six of them. There were four armed men who didn't suspect the pain they were about to endure. Smiling to herself, Kitty floated down behind them and into the floor. One hostage. Two. Three.

She pulled down the sixth right as Diana burst into the room. One of the gunmen turned to threaten the hostages, only to find a girl rise out of the floor and wave at him.

His bullets passed harmlessly through her and she watched as Diana knocked him out with what amounted to a love tap.

Diana dispatched the other three about as quickly, Kitty folding her arms and watching and suddenly understanding what Wisdom had meant all those years ago about watching a beautiful woman dance on the throats of her enemies. "You know, this city has had the Bat for what, twenty years? You'd think the only crooks that would bother anymore would be supervillains or the really crazy. And that's before getting into Batman's special guest stars showing up."

"Not exciting enough for you, Kath-uh."

"Shadowcat," Kitty offered, though hearing Diana say her full name would have absolutely killed her. She took Diana's hand and phased them down a floor to check on the hostages.

Neither wanted to stay around to chat with the police, though, so once Diana was confident the hostages were safe, she had Kitty sneak them out of the building with her powers.

"It is a good thing you're on our side, Katherine. I doubt there's a vault in the world that could keep you out."

Trying not to melt, Kitty nodded. "I've run into one or two evil mes. One was a master thief, the other an assassin. With my … training and background I'm aware of how scary I can be."

Diana tilted her head at her, and before she could ask, Kitty said, "I've killed before. Always a last resort."

"Do you regret it?"

"Every time." Kitty could think of one or two she wouldn't regret if she had the opportunity, but she'd never had that opportunity.

Before she could go down that thought spiral, Diana's arms wrapped around her. Kitty was torn between just enjoying the embrace or climbing Diana like a tree.

Before she could make the choice, she could hear Bruce through Diana's earpiece. "You need to get back to the cave. Immediately."