Kitty sat at Kurt's bedside, his hand in hers. That they'd been close friends for so long, she really saw no strangeness in his limbs, his tail, his pointy ears and blue fur. She saw only someone she dearly cared for, connected to medical equipment, breathing through a tube. Kurt was unconscious, comatose, actually. Doctor McCoy said it was perhaps for the best, so that Kurt could focus on healing his body. He'd been attacked by a Nimrod sentinel, temporarily lost his powers, and was beaten by an anti-mutant mob. All this but a few weeks ago.

Then Callisto, the Morlocks' former leader, showed up at the school. She alerted them to the presence of killers chasing them from their home, collapsing tunnels. Kurt had insisted he go despite his injuries. Storm, perhaps feeling guilt and shame for not taking better care of her Morlock charges, or feeling fear due to her claustrophobia, refused to go. She felt her overemotional response would be a detriment to their mission. Rogue and Elisabeth stayed behind to guard the school. As Shadowcat, Wolverine, Colossus and Nightcrawler made their way through the tunnels towards the Alley, they were caught up in a blast that sent them all flying. Nightcrawler was struck by falling debris. He'd not woken up since.

She gently rubbed the back of his forearm, then briefly held the back of his hand to her cheek before settling it onto his narrow chest. Kitty stood and peeked behind a privacy curtain. Warren was laying face-down on his bed, head turned away to face the wall. She suspected he was awake. It was hard not to see the horrible damage done to his back. X-Factor, as the X-Men now knew them to be, had found out about the massacre from their youngest charges, Artie and Leech, also Morlocks. The two inseparable boys had conveyed that the Morlocks were under attack. X-Factor was making their way to the Alley when the explosion had collapsed a wall onto Warren as he flew ahead of his team. Beast and Marvel Girl were unable to lift the wall fragment without collapsing the rest of the tunnel on all their heads. Cyclops was forced to use his optic beams to free Angel...from his wing, already damaged beyond repair. Iceman had attempted to numb his friend's pain, but the external agony was not as severe as the internal misery Angel endured. Kitty couldn't imagine the guilt and despair the four of them must be experiencing, or the trauma Warren was now living through.

"I've put a glass of water on your table," Kitty whispered to him.

"Go. Away," Warren responded. Kitty stepped back, closed the privacy curtain.

Kitty was about to resume her seat beside Kurt when she heard an explosion. Several explosions. She missed the chair and fell onto the floor. Tremors shook the building's foundation. Kitty scrambled to her feet.

An accident! Rogue has been injured! she heard Elisabeth's voice in her mind, frantic. East bank of the lake! Use every precaution when approaching!

Kitty gasped, ran for the metal medical kit attached to the wall. She uncoupled it and took it by its handle. It weighed a ton and dropped heavily to her side. Kitty didn't know what kind of medical attention Rogue could possibly need, considering she was nearly invulnerable, but she took the kit just in case. She ran through the infirmary wall and into the hallway. At first she thought to dash to the stairwell and climb two flights of steps to the first floor. But after a moment of indecision, decided to investigate the source of the explosion. With her intangibility, she would be invulnerable to any residual blasts. Kitty ran down the hall towards the holding cells, the kit banging against her hip.

She saw a huge hole in the ceiling at the conjunction between the main hall and that leading to the holding cells. She stepped carefully through the wreckage. Now under the hole, she could see it went clear through every storey to the roof. Kitty could see daylight through the hole. One of the New Mutants was peering down at her.

"Is everyone okay?" she shouted up. She was given a thumbs-up. Everyone okay then, she supposed. Just then, she heard a scream. It was a male voice. Kitty whipped around to look down the corridor where the cell block was. She could see Cell 5 was open, and their prisoner (they had a prisoner?) was pressed against the invisible barrier preventing his escape. Kitty wondered why on earth he'd be doing such a thing when it was clear the cell wall had been blown open. He was crying out in pain as he was zapped. Kitty started towards him when he stopped screaming to collapse onto the floor. He suddenly disappeared from view as if pulled by an invisible string back into the cell.

Kitty came to a staggering stop, confused. "Hey!" she called down the hall. "Hey, are you okay?"

Of course he's not okay, she thought. But she couldn't make sense of what she'd seen. Then a figure strode from the open space where the cell wall used to be. He was a giant of a man, broad in the shoulders, and his pale face, with its blood-red eyes, was positively cadaverous. Kitty stared at the man, open mouthed.

"H-hey!" she said again. "Stop!"

The man regarded her for a moment, offering no response. Instead he emerged from the cell, dragging their prisoner behind him by the restraint strapped across his back. The prisoner, Gambit, Kitty thought he'd called himself, seemed to be partially conscious. He was struggling weakly in the man's grip, his bare feet squeaking on the floor. The pale man turned toward Kitty, raised a hand in her direction. A moment of consternation passed over his hideous features and he regarded his hand for a moment. He then looked down at Gambit.

"Ah, an inhibitor field," he said to himself. "How inconvenient."

Kitty dashed a few feet forward towards the strange man, gripping the medical kit by its handle in both hands. She swung it, and the weight of the thing turned her in a circle once, twice, and a third time before she released it like a shot put. The kit sailed down the length of the hall and connected with the side of the pale man's head. He staggered and the kit struck his shoulder to fall to the floor with a crash. The kit's contents exploded everywhere. Kitty regarded the man with horror. A line of blood, first a trickle and then in a gush, of what looked almost like motor oil, poured from a gash in the pale man's forehead. He touched it, looked at the blood on his fingertips as if he couldn't believe such a thing had happened. The man looked up at Kitty, rage written all over his horrible face. He dropped Gambit unceremoniously onto the ground and began striding in Kitty's direction. She backed up hastily. As soon as the man was free of the inhibitor field's influence he once again raised his hand and a burst of yellow orange light blasted through her intangible form. Unfortunately, something about the energy burst set her very molecules on fire. She shrieked.

"Oi!" shouted a voice from the opposite end of the hall. Kitty spied Elisabeth Braddock at the far end, shouting in a very un-Betsy-like way. Her pale round face was framed by her power signature, a bright pink butterfly-like shape that emanated from her eyes. As cute and sweet as Betsy appeared, she was a formidable telepath equipped with any number of powerful psy-weapons. She was pulling one from the air now, a bright pink beam that for a moment appeared as a sword in her hand. She sent it hurling towards the pale man. He turned and staggered as he was struck, falling to one knee. Kitty dashed forward, phasing through the man to approach Gambit where he lay. She knew her abilities would fade as she neared him and that she would become tangible once again. Betsy was running down the hall towards her, another psy-bolt forming in her hand. She leapt over Kitty and Gambit's prone form, bringing her bolt down into the back of the pale man's head.

Kitty tugged at the restraint on Gambit's chest. She couldn't just leave him here helpless. If Kitty had her powers, she could have just phased through the mechanics and short-circuited them. Seeing she was unable to pull the restraint free, she attempted to disarm it.

The reader said: Access Denied. Permissions Setting: Operator Does Not Meet Age Requirements.

"Aagggh!" she screamed at it, punching at the device. Gambit let out a little "oof."

Casting about, Kitty searched for a solution. She grabbed the medical kit, closed it, and lifted it over her head.

Gambit was blinking blearily at her. His eyes widened and he shook his head.

Kitty brought the corner of the kit down onto the inhibitor field's screen. It cracked. The second blow smashed it. She raised the kit a third time, only to find it knocked from her hand. She looked up to see the pale man standing over her. Kitty shrieked as he made a grab for her. His hand phased right through her.

Light suddenly surged through Gambit and he was on his feet in a heartbeat. He launched himself at the pale man, throwing his body weight into the man's chest. The pair fell back against the far wall. Kitty spied Betsy struggling from the ground where she had been thrown. Gambit's expression was one of absolute fury. He was repeatedly punching the pale man in the face, which unfortunately seemed to have little effect. Every injury inflicted quickly repaired itself. Now Kitty knew why the man was so surprised to find himself bleeding. It seemed he was invulnerable to physical assaults.

"-Hurt-a-kid, I'll...end you!" Gambit was snarling, even as the man gripped his throat, pushing his glowing form away.

The horrible man spoke: "Perhaps I should have instead offered you the lives of children in exchange for your services? How many would it have taken? Twenty? A dozen? ...One?"

Gambit screamed incoherently at the man, glowing impossibly bright now.

White and pink light was pouring up the pale man's arm from where he made contact with Gambit's skin. He seemed to recognize this, because all at once, his entire form flowed forward like a black tidal wave, engulfing Gambit's head, neck and shoulders. Kitty watched in horror as the young man struggled, being smothered before her very eyes. The black wave was quickly engulfing Gambit. Kitty saw only his right arm, with its bandaged fingers, free and flailing as Gambit struggled to pull free, and even that was quickly disappearing. Kitty jumped for his hand, grasped it, willed him into intangibility. Betsy too was leaping into the fray, a psybolt held like a dagger as she wrapped her legs around the amalgamous form. She aimed where she thought the pale man's head to be and stabbed downward. In that instant, it seemed that Gambit disappeared entirely. The whole mass shuddered. Both young women tumbled away as bright ribbons of white and pink began to swirl though the black. They both shielded their eyes from the blinding light, falling back and away from whatever was happening before them.

The light suddenly went out. The entire hall was plunged into darkness. At the end of the corridor, one of the ceiling lights flickered sporadically. Betsy and Kitty reached for one another in the darkness. As their eyes adjusted, they could still spy a faint glow in the hallway before them. They slowly approached to see Gambit, sitting in the hall. He was repeating something to himself over and over again.

A body at rest stays at rest...A body at rest stays at rest...

"Oh, my gosh," Kitty said and hid her eyes. He was nak-er, nude again.

Elisabeth approached him, peering down into his face. Gambit regarded her with his dark black and red eyes. "Pretty good, Posh," he told her. "But can you come out with another hit single? Gettin' pretty sick of hearing Wannabe playing every damn place I go."

Betsy stared at him. "What…?" she shook her head impatiently. "Who was that horrible man?"

Gambit considered her for a moment, as if trying to decide if he wanted to answer. Finally he said: His name is Essex. A doctor Essex. But that's not what he is."

"What is he then?" Kitty asked quietly.

Gambit replied: "Something Sinister."

Next time: Threesomes, probing, and the Big O.