Chapter Two…
Okay, so that was my first time uploading with the chaptering system, Bad Puppy! Okieday then, this one is listed as Chapter one, but it's really chapter two. So far, Our good friends from the Xavier institute have been invited for a tour of the mysterious Traddess, and now, we will see just how normal the X-Men are compared to them. HOLD ONTO YOUR SEATS and grab a doggie brush, there's a whole LOTTA fur up ahead!
And it's a Kurtty, how cute! ^_^
And that bothersome disclaimer thing. By now, we all know who belongs to whom. If you want a pic of Ce'it, or K'Payr, or Sai, or Skimmer, or Kurt, or any other character, just email me at
"What Lies Beneath"
Donnye continued to speak as they neared the building. "If any of you have questions about anything, Just ask. If we can answer them, we will. If not, we will tell you. Either way, your question will be answered."
Xavier nodded. Donnye's accent was very strange, it came from deep in his throat, a series of growling consonants, clipped syllables, and rolling vowels.
The building loomed before them, reaching for the sky with skeletal fingers. Kurt looked around in amazement, whistling softly. Donnye smiled, a strangely feral expression, and pointed out features of the exterior. "That on top is going to be the helipad, and if you look down there, you can see the loading ramp for the lower levels."
"How big is this structure?" Xavier inquired.
Donnye shrugged, "As big as it needs to be. I suspect that most of it will be empty, but we must keep up appearances."
Donnye held the lobby door open for the group. Kitty stopped just inside and gasped. The lobby was an atrium, topped with a large skylight made to look like the galaxy. Bits and pieces of colored glass turned the sunlight that shown down on them different colors. Tropical plants framed the built in desk. A pretty woman, her dark hair held back by an ornate silver clasp, looked up from the desk. She smiled, pushing a button to one side and speaking, "Shorra'Rei."
"What did she say?" Xavier rolled next to Donnye as his students gaped at the atrium/lobby.
"That we are here."
A slate gray door slid open and the most striking woman Xavier ever laid eyes upon glided into the room. She was very tall, stately and diplomatic. Her long pure white hair flowed down her back. Her skin was the color of the clouds on a perfect summer day, her eyes the color of the sky.
Donnye noticed his stare, and spoke, his purple eyes shining, "Sorry, she's not your species."
Xavier closed his mouth, "Pity."
She bowed deeply as Donnye introduced her. "This is Spokesbeing K'Payr Manora, also a representative of the Epain Council and Traddess."
"I am pleased to meet you," her strange accent was the same as Donnye's, but more pronounced, sharper. She motioned to the door behind them. "If you would follow me."
Xavier looked up as they passed through the door, the frame painted green. The door led to a long, austere hallway, lined with doors framed mostly in green, a few in yellow, and one in red. K'Payr opened a nearby green framed door, motioning for them to enter what looked to be a briefing room.
"I zoght zis vas supposed to be a tour," Kurt piped up.
"It is," she calmly replied, "But there are things you need to know before we continue."
She waited until they were all inside before closing the door. Xavier took notice of the odd floor. "Logan, look at this," he pointed to the floor. The chairs the others were sitting in seemed to sink a small way into it. Logan bent down, poking his fingers into the floor when he heard the others gasp. He looked up, and in font of him was the largest pair of pale claws he had ever seen. They flexed, digging into the floor, then relaxed. Logan watched the floor heal itself. His eyes panned up the pure white triple-jointed catlike legs. A thick tail waved slowly back and forth, counterbalancing a slim, muscular body.
K'Payr looked down on him with her very large, pure blue eyes. Her face was round, like a cat's, but her eyes were far too large, extending from her jawline to just above her hairline. He fancied that if her drew lines on her face, one down the middle, one across the middle, and diagonal line from where those intersected to the back of her head, he would have the size of her eyes and ears. A small, pert muzzle with a dainty pink nose, topped it off. Then he noticed her fangs. Sabertooth-like canines stretched to just below her jaw.
"I am Longtooth Clan Plainsrunner variant Itex."
"Zere are more like you?" Kurt was amazed, he was on his feet, staring up at her.
She nodded, "Yes, but not all of us look alike. Just like there are different breeds of Human," she poke the word huskily, an emphasis on the first syllable. Somehow, she made the word seem alluring, mysterious, "there are different breeds of Itex. We all have some traits in common, but we are more…diverse…than the Human breeds."
"I dunno," Scott glanced over at Kurt, whose holographic projector was still on, "We can be pretty diverse."
She laughed, "True, that." She reached forward, palming a raised disk on the table. It glowed, and the image of a dog-like being stood before them. "This is the other variant that you will meet. This image is of Sai, a Grey Rock Tribe Mintakken." She left the image up as she continued speaking. "You will meet two other species. One you have already met, Donnye."
"So, he isn't Human," Xavier commented.
She shook her head, "I am more Human than he is. He is a Shapechanger."
"Like, a shapeshifter?" Kitty was concerned.
K'Payr smiled. "No, there is a difference. But for now, just know that he is not Human."
"And the other species?" Logan growled.
"Machine Intelligence, living, thinking, feeling, nonorganic lifeforms."
"Artificial Intelligence?" Xavier prompted.
She pinned him down with a pointed stare. "They are anything but artificial. They came into being by mistake, like any other lifeform. They are born, they fall in love, they feel pain, and they die. Just because their bodies are ships or computers does not mean that they are not very much alive."
"My apologies."
She nodded. "Accepted. It is hard for them to talk with us here," she fanned her hands out, motioning to the room and the space beyond it, "So they have developed what they call a 'Mobile User Interface'. Never mistake this for the real thing, and if you are in the same place as the Interface and the ship, talk to the ship, not the Interface."
"Anything else? This tour is starting to bore me." Logan crossed his arms in front of his chest.
She nodded once. "Yes, feel free to enter any room with a green frame. A yellow frame can only be entered if you have clearance or you are escorted. And never, ever go through a red door. Those are keyed to nonHuman DNA, and it would be your death to pass under them. But," she paused, smiling, "feel free to ask what is on the other side."
She turned the hologram of Sai off, walking over to the door. "Are you ready?"
Kurt jumped up, "Ready as ever!"
Kurt couldn't hide it, he was excited. Everywhere he looked, he saw tails, pointed ears, fur. Granted, none of them were blue, but the colors did vary. He saw K'Payr's snow-white fur, T'Kayr's ebony fur, even T'Chan's many spots. He could hardly hold in his energy.
"Kurt," the professor's voice brought him up short. Kitty hid a smile behind her hand. "Why don't you turn your hologram off."
He had forgotten he was wearing it. With a sheepish grin, he fingered the watch.
No one gasped as his appearance changed. No one backed away in fear, no one shuddered in revulsion. Instead, a heavily accented voice declared to someone behind him, "I told you one of them was shedding! My fur is brown, brown not blue, brown."
He turned, seeing a pair of Mintakken Itex conversing. One was reddish brown, her long black hair pulled back in an elaborate swirl of braids. She was talking to a taller male, his gray fur darker on his back than his belly. Kurt blushed a deep purple when he saw they were wearing nothing more than loose cloth wrapped around them.
K'Payr smiled, placing a hand on his shoulder. "When you are covered in fur as long and as thick as ours, you tend to avoid clothing. It is uncomfortable and hot."
He nodded, closing his mouth. Kitty peeked her head into every green framed door, and to her disappointment, most were empty.
K'Payr noticed her, "Most of the building will remain vacant."
She pouted. K'Payr came to a vary large double door, the frame bright yellow. "If you would follow me," she held it open for them.
From the outside, Traddess looked like any other moderate sized office building. Three stories, a warehouse out back.
The inside was something else.
Logan gaped at the room that opened before him. They hadn't traveled up any stairs, so he knew they were still on the structure's first floor. But what he saw made even his jaded soul gasp in amazement.
"Oh, vow," Kurt whispered.
Several stories down, a wide flat floor was filled with activity. Two wide ledges ran along the walls, one above the other. Sleek, birdlike glossy black ships, all the same size but all different from each other in subtle style, glided from one ledge to another, or from the floor to a ledge. Itex of all sizes, shapes, and colors flowed from one ship to another. K'Payr spoke, breaking his paralysis.
"As you have by no doubt guessed, this is our landing bay. About half of these ships are Machine Intelligence."
One of the graceful ships lifted from its moorings, raising straight up to them. Logan was taken aback by the lack of engine noise. Its wings swept down and were canted forward, the nose sloping down. The vessel was not large, by space ship standards. But it was very large as it hovered over them, not rustling the air. The stillness was very eerie.
Then it spoke, "Pleased to meet you, I am Skimmer, Donnye's partner."
"Ah!" Xavier exclaimed, "You are a Machine Intelligence!"
"That I am." She dwarfed them, easily three stories tall in her own right, and several meters long.
Kurt reached up and touched her nose. Odd bits of light flickered around his fingertips. She swiveled slightly on her axis to "stare" right back at him. "And you would be?"
"I'm Kurt," he seemed pleased that she was focusing on him to answer her question. "Zis is Keety, Scott, Rouge, Ororo, Evan, Logan, and Professor Xavier. Jean is home with a cold." Each nodded or waved as they were introduced.
A slim woman appeared from thin air beside them, holding a hand out. The ship continued to speak. "This is my User Interface. If you see it, you know I am with you. From a distance."
Scott walked around it, "Cute," he commented. "But you might want to change the clothes on it."
"Ya," Kitty quipped, "Like, to fit in better. It looks, like, out of date or something."
Skimmer floated closer, only a few centimeters, but just enough to know she had moved. "I see, I would like your fashion advice then."
Kitty brightened and Kurt rolled his eyes. "Zis could take a vile."
"What have we gotten' ourselves intah?" Rouge commented, leaning against the wall.
Xavier looked closer at the ship. It was not all glossy black as she first apeared, instead there were darker gray lines lacing through the glossy black. Occasionally, a bright flash of light would run down it length. K'Payr explained. "The metal her hull is made of absorbs energy. It is her shields, her weapons, her engines. These lines direct the energy to where she needs it."
"Can she be cloaked?"
In response to his question, Skimmer shimmered out of existence. He reached forward and felt something solid, the energy tingling under his fingertips. Kurt had climbed up onto her, and now looked down at the floor several stories beneath him. In the blink of an eye and a waft of sulfur, he was standing next to Xavier.
"Varn me next time, ja?"
K'Payr smiled broadly, "Shall we continue?"
The rest of the tour could not be topped by the landing bay. K'Payr showed them the hydroponics lab, lounge (complete with a pile of snoozing Mitakken Itex), and one of the communications relays.
"Just why is this here?" Xavier asked after a while. "Why not one of the moons of the other planets?"
"It is best to hide right under someone's nose," she replied, walking next to him. "If we were to settle on Charon, Pluto's moon, one of the passing satellites would be sure to see us. Here, we can rest assured that if we are careful, we will not stick out and be noticed so easily."
He nodded, "But what is this facility for?"
"It is a communications relay and monitoring system. A new trade route opened not too far from here, and we need to make sure that all who travel it follow the rules. If one of them does not, we will take care of it."
"You are policing the trade route?"
"No," she shook her head. "But we opened it, it is an Itexian route, and with it so close to your world, we cannot take the risk of some of the less scrupulous Travelers from taking advantage of your world. That route is our responsibility, and we will make sure that you world will be safe from threat from Beyond."
"Beyond?"
"Beyond the Barrier, the very thing that holds your dimension together. We travel transdimensionally, Xavier. We use the Gateway that pierces the Barrier and allows us to travel Beyond. These portals into your world, your dimension, is what we are protecting."
Xavier mulled the information over in his head. "I see."
She led them out to the parking lot. The sun was starting to set and Kurt's stomach was letting all of them know he was hungry. They waved farewell to K'Payr, her own holographic projector turned on, as they pulled out of the parking lot.
"I don't like it, Professor," Logan growled.
"I like it!" Kurt quipped.
"You would," Evan chimed in, "The only place I've seen more fur was in the lint trap after you've done laundry!"
Kurt stuck his tongue out at him. Kitty giggled and Kurt flashed her a winning smile.
Kitty stood in front of sign taped to the wall at the school, her notebook held to her chest. She sighed, within earshot of Kurt, before walking down the hall.
"Vat vas zat all about?"
Evan closed his locker. "I dunno, why don't you go ask her?"
"Naw, she'd just get mad at me."
Kurt skipped into his ethics class, plopping down in his seat. He was the first in his class, and he relished spending time with Mr. O'Shanna, or Ce'it Ki Oshanna. Right now, his teacher was leaning against the desk next to his, his holographic projector hiding his own long tawny tail, pointed ears, and blue hair.
"Ask her."
Kurt was taken aback. "Vat are you talking about?"
"You know," Ce'it grinned. "I don't need to be Jedi to know you are thinking about a girl. So, who is it?"
"Keety," he replied shyly.
"So, why don't you ask her to the dance this Friday?"
"She'd say no."
Ce'it crossed his arms in front of his chest. "And how can you be so sure of that, hmm?"
He held up a hand, stopping the conversation as the other students walked into the room. Kurt took being called Mr. O'Shanna's teacher's pet with his usual good nature. If they only knew.
Mr. O'Shanna walked up to the front of the class, and began the lesson.
Kitty sat in the living room, reading the latest fashion magazine. Kurt had no idea how she was able to read that drivel. All advertisements and how to make the guy of your dreams chase after you. He paused, guy of her dreams?
He snuck up behind her, peeking over his shoulder. She was filling out some kind of survey. "Your Dream Guy" was the title.
And the name "Scott" was scribbled on top.
Kitty looked up at the sudden scent of brimstone. "Kurt?"
Kurt sat curled up in the branches of a tree, his tail dangling behind him. She didn't like him, she liked Scott. He slowly tore a leaf apart, watching the little green bits float to the ground. Scott, not Kurt, but handsome, normal looking, Scott. Scott, the popular one, Scott the tall one. Scott the one who doesn't shed. He brushed some loose fur from his arm.
"Hey elf, what's wrong?" He hadn't noticed Logan sneak up on him in his brooding.
"Nozing," he turned his back to Logan, one hand on the tree trunk.
Logan grabbed the spaded tip of his tail. "I know what nothing is, kid. And this is not 'nozing'."
He sighed, there was no way he could escape from Logan. If he teleported out, Logan would track him and eventually get the information he wanted, perhaps even in the Danger Room. Kurt would prefer to talk on his own terms, not bruised after a round of training.
"Keety," he sighed softly.
"Ah, girl trouble."
Kurt smiled, one small fang flashing. "Ja."
Logan was a gruff, abrupt man, but at times like this, he couldn't hide the soft spot he had for each of the students. And right now, a soft and furry spot needed his help. He pulled on the tail, pulling Kurt into his arms. He placed the youth on the ground. "Talk to me, elf."
He looked away, chewing on his bottom lip with one fang. "I…"
"Out with it."
"I vanted to ask her to ze dance, but I don't zink she vould vant to go vith me."
"And what makes you think that?"
"She vants to go vith Scott."
"I know that Jean is going with Scott, by then her cold will be gone."
Kurt's eyes brightened a bit, "But, how do I ask Keety?"
"This is what we do…"
Kitty sighed. Tomorrow was the dance, and no one had asked her yet. Scott had asked Jean day before yesterday, Evan was filming it, and even Rouge had plans. Kurt bamfed in, plopping next to her on the couch. "Hi, Keety."
"Hi, Kurt."
He wanted to say something, but his question just roamed around in his eyes, fighting to come out. He chewed on his bottom lip, "Keety?"
"What?" She was starting to become annoyed.
He wrung his hands, nervous, "Do you vant to go to ze dance?"
Dance, with Kurt? He held up a hand, "Uhm…zink about it, ja?" A flash of brimstone, a few lingering blue furs, and he was gone. She plucked one of the furs out of the air. "He really is shedding."
Her sigh was filled with hope, she had been asked to go to the dance! Even if it was with Kurt, it was something. Now, to find a dress…
Kurt sauntered into the dance, beaming. Kitty was at his elbow, smiling. Ce'it gave the pair a knowing smile before returning to his duties as chaperone to several gyrating teenagers. Loud music boomed over the sound system, colored lights casting the room into a kaleidoscope of chaos. Arms flashed over heads in tune to the rapid heartbeat of the music.
The song wound down, to be replaced by something softer. The teens paired up, and Kurt looked at Kitty, again chewing on his lip. "Stop that," she teased, "You'll chew a hole through it."
His tooth once again hid in his mouth. "Okay," he was still nervous. "Do you vant to dance?"
She paused, then started as she felt something push them. She and Kurt both scanned the room for Jean, but their eyes stopped on Ce'it, leaning against the wall some distance away. He winked at them, as if saying "Go dance, have fun."
Kurt stuck his tongue out at him and walked onto the dance floor, Kitty following. Soon they stood, face to face, his hands on her waist, her hands o his shoulders. For a moment, she could feel the muscles under his clothes, tensing in nervousness. They rocked in time with the music, drawing closer to each other. Finally, she placed her head on his shoulder, enjoying the fierce beating of his heart.
This wasn't so bad. She could feel the muscles in his strong arms as the wrapped around her. He spoke softly, almost sadly. "Vat about Scott? I saw the magazine."
She paused in mid rock. "I—I'm sorry." She wrapped her arms around him, hugging him tight. She looked up at him, his eyes bright, "I guess," she paused, uncertain as to what to say, "I guess I didn't see what was right in front of me," She rested her head on his shoulder again.
He rested his chin on her cheek. Her eyes snapped open at the sudden feeling of fur, but then half closed like a cat whose itchy spot you just found. His fur was very soft, almost like silk. His breath was husky in her ear, she looked up at him, his eyes centimeters from hers. She pulled him closer, rubbing her cheek next to his. The song ended, and she passed her lips softly over his, pulling away. "I think I would like some punch."
K'Payr glared at the holographic display. It hovered above the table in the conference room that she had used to brief the X-Men. But instead of a Mintakken Itex, a readout of Beyond floated in front of her. Cells of color and tubelike structures filled the air, the odd geometric Itexian text flitting from feature to feature. Little red dots swarmed trough the tubelike features.
They were being invaded.
My first Cliffhanger!! YIPEE! ^_^;