A Brave New X-World
By: Night Elf Crawler
Chapter 5
By the time they had reached 'home'. Kitty had been assigned a small room of her own, shared of course with three other girls. There was a shortage of space, so things were getting more and more crowded. The three who she shared with were all energetic and talkative. There was the blonde, Tabitha, who seemed to take to her the moment she walked in.
"Hey gal! Come sit down and join us!" She waved a mug that was filled with a substance that looked suspiciously like simulated moon ale, the blue white glow was hard to disguise.
There was Jubilation, or Jubes as she preferred to be called, who had waved cheerily, and given a nasty grin to Tabitha, who returned it in like.
Then there was Rahne. The red-head had glanced up at her, nodded, and then just gone back to picking something out of her short cropped, but wild hair.
Each of their powers, she discovered, were as impressive as the rest of those she had seen around. Both Jubes and Tabby seemed to have similar powers, they could form bursts of light, but in Tabby's case, they exploded like little bombs, and in Jubes case, they temporarily blinded you. Rahne, she discovered with quite a shock, was a mutant equivalent of a werewolf. She had been nearly scared to death when a large wolf had poked it's head into her room, startling her so much, she phased right through the floor, into the quarters below, fortunately which were empty.
As she stood out at the front of the domicile, the three girls having gone off to do their jobs telling her to just hang and get familiar with the area. Her job apparently would be assigned once they found a use for her and her powers. Jubes had suggested it might be a few days.
So all that was left, was to take a tour around the facility.
It was bustling, which didn't surprise her at all. The place didn't seem to ever STOP bustling. There was always someone up doing SOMETHING around the area even in the middle of night. It made sense, the machines must need constant upkeep to keep functioning.
She made her way down the stairs, staring across the vast cavern at the machinery, pumping filtering and whirring constantly in a thundering and banging. It was enough to give anyone a headache. As she walked along, she didn't realize that she had just walked THROUGH someone, until she heard a snort of surprise. She paused, and turned around, coming face to face with possibly the most thug-like looking person she had ever seen before.
The guy looked a bit cross, and folded his muscular arms, glaring down at her with piercing blue eyes. His hair was almost as wild as his array of clothing, long blonde and tangled.
She gulped a bit. "Um. sorry about that."
The man's eyebrow twitched once, and he snorted. "Watch where yer going." He peered more sharply at her. "You Kitty?"
Kitty felt her heart stop and leap to her throat, even though she knew no one here would harm her, the man was certainly threatening looking. "Uh. yes.."
He nodded briefly. "'Supposed to show you around." He grunted. "Name's Victor Creed. Or Sabertooth, whatever ya want."
Kitty blinked. What WAS it with these people and code names. everyone seemed to have them. "Um.. ok. Nice to meet you Mr. Er. *cough* Sabertooth." She couldn't help but snicker a bit at that. These names were so..absurd. Boom Boom, Nightcrawler, Sabertooth..
He snorted. "Please, if yer gonna say it like THAT, just call me by my name." He thumbed over his shoulder. "So wanna tour or no?"
"Oh.. yeah, right of course." She quickly jogged up to join him as he began to stride down the stairs heading for the center of the core. He didn't say much as he walked, and she had the distinct impression that he didn't say much at all under any circumstance. As they descended slowly through the bowls of the inner fortress, the heat grew more and more intense, making her break out into a sweat.
Finally, they reached a rickety scaffolding that just went straight down in steep long stairs. Victor began to climb, and she followed, having trouble breathing in the stifling air. After what seemed like forever, the stairs stopped, and she found herself standing on scaffolding that was erected near the bottom of the deep hole. A large metal disk was erected across the chasm, keeping the lava from the other side from spilling out. She briefly wondered what kind of metal was strong enough to withstand molten lava, but her attention was distracted by a throng of five people making their way towards herself and Victor.
"Hey, Creed. Whatcha doin down here?" A skinny dark skinned, dark haired boy said with a cheerful grin. He had some kind of odd metal device affixed to his arm, which was whirring and twitching oddly.
"Brought a newbie down. Dunno where she'll be yet, givin her the rounds." He thumbed back to Kitty who smiled nervously at the group.
"Hey there." The boy waved. "Name's Forge. This is Magma, Sunspot, Berzerker, and Iceman." He gestured to each individual in turn. They consisted of a fiery woman who was practically at home in the heat, a glowing man who also seemed quite happy to be down there, a sweaty youth who didn't look so happy, and the boy she had seen earlier gathering water, who looked miserable.
"This miserable group is responsible for heading the repairs and maintenance of the machinery here." Victor explained with a bored tone. "Weren't for them, we'd all be dead."
"Nah, I'm sure someone else would be able to figure out how to relay the off shooting heat spikes from the central matrix of the core dampener." Forge said with a simple wave of his hand. "It's easy stuff, really."
Victor gave a roll of his eyes, indicating that he didn't think it was easy stuff.
Magma simply snorted and flipped her flaming head and looked irritated. "Spare us your humility."
Kitty couldn't help but ask the few questions that had been floating around her mind like a school of fish. "You're the ones who run the machines?"
"That's right." Forge grinned. "I designed them, and with a couple of my loyal flunkies." He gestured to a few people busy working in a recess off to the side, that looked air-conditioned, "...We figured out how to harness the heat and channel the energy." He nodded at Magma. "Magma controls the volcano, to make sure it doesn't go erupting on us."
"My skills are in controlling the seismic activity of volcanism." Magma explained, shifting into a more solid form of a pretty dark haired girl. Her hair was pulled back in an untidy ponytail, her face a bit smudged, but she had a proud look in her eyes. "It's not easy. There are only a few of us here who can control the earth enough to aid us. We have to switch off to give one another a rest." She explained.
"And in case things go wrong." Iceman was adding on. "That's what I'm here to do, save the day!" He crowed with a flashy grin, his body suddenly changing into solid ice, glittering in the heat, and amazingly not melting.
Kitty couldn't help but giggle at the boy's antics. He was kind of cute..
"All right, enough of that." Victor growled and gestured she was to follow him. "Come on sprite, lets get going." He started back up the stairs.
Kitty waved cheerily at the engine crew as they returned back to their jobs, and she followed Victor back up slowly. It was a relief to climb out of the hot pit and back to where the air was less scalding.
They emerged on a different floor from where they had started, and as Victor was turning to say something to her, a cross looking man walked out. "Hey, I've got a bone to pick with you." He snapped at Victor, holding up a holopad. "You see these? They're called RATIONS for a reason, pops. you're not supposed to dip into other resources, even if you DO wanna get roaring drunk!"
Victor looked cross, and forgot Kitty was there. "I can do what I bloody well please."
"OH no." The man was shaking the pad at him. "I'm cutting your ration for this month."
"WHAT!?" Victor lunged forward and grabbed the man by the collar and slammed him up against the rock face.
However, the man didn't seem the least bit perturbed by this. "Fair's fair. You gotta stick to the rules. I don't care if you're the magistrate, or some unknown nebwie, dad." Victor growled, but grudgingly released the man, who promptly brushed his shirt off, and then seemed to notice Kitty. "Oh? A newbie?" He held out his hand, smiling finally in greeting. "Graydon Creed. Nice to meet you."
Kitty blushed a bit, and took his hand, shaking it. "Nice to meet you too.." She glanced at Victor who was looking sourly at Graydon. "You two.related?"
Graydon's eyebrow twitched a bit. "Yes.I'm ashamed to say." He snapped back at Victor. "That ungrateful thief is my father."
"Oh." Kitty had to shake her head with some amusement. They certainly didn't behave like loving father and son.
"I'm in charge of portioning out the rations." Graydon was explaining with a tap to the pad. "Unfortunately, SOME people think they're above the laws." He threw a glare back at his father. "But they have to be enforced, everyone gets fair treatment, even those whose powers require more nutrition." He peered at her curiously. "Please don't tell me you have a fast metabolism, with five already I've got my hands full."
"Me? Oh. no I don't think I do." She answered, a bit puzzled. "What does that have to do with food rations?"
"Eh? Oh, well those mutants whose powers consume a lot of energy have to eat much more than the average person. So we discourage use of their powers so they don't have to consume more food, and we find a dietary supplement to compensate." He explained with a shrug.
"Let me guess." Kitty said with a smile. "Your power is something science related.mathematics or something?"
At that, Graydons' smile faltered. "No, actually I'm a Squib." (note: squib is a term from Harry Potter, it means someone without magic, in this usage someone who's not a mutant, but lives down there with them)
"Oh." Kitty was slightly taken aback, and embarrassed. She had assumed, that since Victor was a mutant, obviously Graydon must be, but apparently she was wrong. "Your mother was. normal then?"
"No. actually." Graydon smirked slightly. "Mystique is my mother." He saw her confusion and cleared it up. "The magistrate? I'm sure you've met her."
Kitty nodded, and was even more mystified. According to 'urban legend' mutants begot mutants. The society up above had never had to deal with thinking about what would happen if two mutants bore a non-mutant. "If. if you're not a mutant then why do you stay down here?" She asked curiously. "Couldn't you be a plant up there?"
Graydon shook his head. "No, unfortunately not. You see, I don't exist." At her puzzled look he continued. "I was born down here. Therefore, I have no identity up there, and if I tried to make one, no doubt they would pick up on who my parents were. Nothing is done up there that doesn't involve DNA and thumbprint identification, after all." (note: I'm not sure who's older, Kurt or Graydon.. I think Graydon's older, but since I can't figure out how to write him in if that's the case ^-^ he's not older in this story, he's younger than Kurt for sake of continuity)
Kitty realized he was right and nodded slightly. It seemed the man was fairly bitter about his situation too, which made her slightly uncomfortable. Luckily she didn't have to worry about it much longer.
"Go back to work kid, come on sprite, with me." Victor grunted, indicating they continue the tour.
Graydon waved. "See you around." And he vanished into another doorway.
They continued walking, Kitty decided to ask a few questions that had been bothering her. "Victor.?" she jogged up so she was walking next to the longhaired man. "How many different jobs do people have in here?"
Victor grunted. "Figured that'd come up. Well, you've got the mechanics and the general fix-it-uppers." He counted off on a finger that happened to be tipped with a sharp claw-like fingernail. "You got the doctors and medics, you got the crafters who build new dwellings and rooms, you got the suppliers who keep all the supplies organized, the leaders who run the system, take care of disputes n such, the scouts who go finding food and doing patrols, and then there's the home makin types, look after the kids and do odd jobs around the place." He shrugged. "It's simple 'nuff."
"So what are you?"
"Me?" He snorted once and looked suddenly very irked. "I'm one of the 'other' category."
Kitty blinked, and instantly got an odd image of hyperactive mutant children hanging off his hair and doing him up in ribbons.
"What're you looking at." He growled, catching the smile that threatened to break out of her lips. "Them kids are terrors. ain't no fun, lemme tell ya." He growled. "Weren't for my damn healing factor, I'd be dead hundred times or more by now."
Kitty still couldn't help snickering a bit, and she tried desperately to stop, seeing that he was obviously quite touchy about the subject. She quickly tried to switch topics. "What do you think I would be good at doing?"
"Dunno. They haven't figured that out yet. Talent like yers can be handy in a bunch of areas. And frankly, we need more people in some jobs."
"Like what?"
"Well, scouts for example.for some damn reason, they keep getting killed or captured." He muttered something else that she obviously wasn't supposed to hear, but did anyway. "If it were me 'n Logan we'd show em how to do it proper 'like."
Kitty frowned, thinking about what kind of a job she would rather do, or be good at. Out of everything, she had to admit she would rather be a scout, there was more adventure, and with her phasing power she could be virtually untouched in battle situations. Plus, she could be handy in getting into locked places.
They stopped suddenly, and she peered around his bulk, and spotted Kurt walking towards them waving. She smiled, and waved back quickly as the blue man approached. "Hello, Katzchen." He greeted her, sticking his hands casually in his pocketed pants. "Have you gotten the whole tour? There isn't much to see I'm afraid." He apologized with a wink.
Kitty blushed, and chided herself. 'No.. he's taken. none of that girl.' Her mind warned her. "Yes, I got to meet several people."
"You wanna finish it up?" Victor grunted. "I gotta get back to work, or he'll kill me."
Kurt grinned a bit. "Sure, we'll walk you there." His golden eyes seemed to twinkle, and Kitty also realized at the same time that seeing Victor 'work' would be hysterical. kids.
They fell in step, walking along the narrow catwalks, and Kurt chatted to her about some of the plans they had begun to work on. It all involved complex placing of people in the city, and manipulation of events. Apparently, he was to go and work from the inside for the next few months, until the election, when their moves would all come to a climax.
As soon as the three entered the nursery, there were several things that happened. A) Several kids of different ages let out squeals of joy. B) Another stocky, rather hairy, and grumpy looking man looked very pissed off/relieved. C) a rush of several kids in their direction threatened to knock them over.
Kitty goggled in wonder, as three kids attached to Victor in various places, and two rushed Kurt. A very small girl with frizzy puffed hair, latched onto his legs, while another with long blonde hair that was nearly white, leapt into his arms. "Pretty!!" the blonde called out, burying her face in his chest and snuggling him, while the second played with his tail, a look of glee on her face. Kitty recognized the second girl as the one he had saved during Amanda's story. The one in his arms, then must be the girl he had told her about, the one who seemed to think he was her own personal plush toy.
Victor's three growths, were likewise playing with his hair, and one snuggling in his arms, and despite the annoyed/gruff look he wore, Kitty had the sneaking suspicion he actually LIKED the children's attention.
"What took ya so long?" The other man, who must be Logan according to Victor's muttering, stood up holding a kid in either hand by the back of their shirts, like a mother cat does to her kittens. "I've been havin' ta keep them busy for over an hour!" the kids, rather than looking terrified by being held by a big hairy mean looking man, were giggling madly, having a blast trying to swat at each other.
Victor simply grunted, and rolled his eyes, as one of his kids, gave him a big fat wet slobbery kiss on the cheek.
Author's note: mwhahaa.. I'm evil.
Chapter 5
By the time they had reached 'home'. Kitty had been assigned a small room of her own, shared of course with three other girls. There was a shortage of space, so things were getting more and more crowded. The three who she shared with were all energetic and talkative. There was the blonde, Tabitha, who seemed to take to her the moment she walked in.
"Hey gal! Come sit down and join us!" She waved a mug that was filled with a substance that looked suspiciously like simulated moon ale, the blue white glow was hard to disguise.
There was Jubilation, or Jubes as she preferred to be called, who had waved cheerily, and given a nasty grin to Tabitha, who returned it in like.
Then there was Rahne. The red-head had glanced up at her, nodded, and then just gone back to picking something out of her short cropped, but wild hair.
Each of their powers, she discovered, were as impressive as the rest of those she had seen around. Both Jubes and Tabby seemed to have similar powers, they could form bursts of light, but in Tabby's case, they exploded like little bombs, and in Jubes case, they temporarily blinded you. Rahne, she discovered with quite a shock, was a mutant equivalent of a werewolf. She had been nearly scared to death when a large wolf had poked it's head into her room, startling her so much, she phased right through the floor, into the quarters below, fortunately which were empty.
As she stood out at the front of the domicile, the three girls having gone off to do their jobs telling her to just hang and get familiar with the area. Her job apparently would be assigned once they found a use for her and her powers. Jubes had suggested it might be a few days.
So all that was left, was to take a tour around the facility.
It was bustling, which didn't surprise her at all. The place didn't seem to ever STOP bustling. There was always someone up doing SOMETHING around the area even in the middle of night. It made sense, the machines must need constant upkeep to keep functioning.
She made her way down the stairs, staring across the vast cavern at the machinery, pumping filtering and whirring constantly in a thundering and banging. It was enough to give anyone a headache. As she walked along, she didn't realize that she had just walked THROUGH someone, until she heard a snort of surprise. She paused, and turned around, coming face to face with possibly the most thug-like looking person she had ever seen before.
The guy looked a bit cross, and folded his muscular arms, glaring down at her with piercing blue eyes. His hair was almost as wild as his array of clothing, long blonde and tangled.
She gulped a bit. "Um. sorry about that."
The man's eyebrow twitched once, and he snorted. "Watch where yer going." He peered more sharply at her. "You Kitty?"
Kitty felt her heart stop and leap to her throat, even though she knew no one here would harm her, the man was certainly threatening looking. "Uh. yes.."
He nodded briefly. "'Supposed to show you around." He grunted. "Name's Victor Creed. Or Sabertooth, whatever ya want."
Kitty blinked. What WAS it with these people and code names. everyone seemed to have them. "Um.. ok. Nice to meet you Mr. Er. *cough* Sabertooth." She couldn't help but snicker a bit at that. These names were so..absurd. Boom Boom, Nightcrawler, Sabertooth..
He snorted. "Please, if yer gonna say it like THAT, just call me by my name." He thumbed over his shoulder. "So wanna tour or no?"
"Oh.. yeah, right of course." She quickly jogged up to join him as he began to stride down the stairs heading for the center of the core. He didn't say much as he walked, and she had the distinct impression that he didn't say much at all under any circumstance. As they descended slowly through the bowls of the inner fortress, the heat grew more and more intense, making her break out into a sweat.
Finally, they reached a rickety scaffolding that just went straight down in steep long stairs. Victor began to climb, and she followed, having trouble breathing in the stifling air. After what seemed like forever, the stairs stopped, and she found herself standing on scaffolding that was erected near the bottom of the deep hole. A large metal disk was erected across the chasm, keeping the lava from the other side from spilling out. She briefly wondered what kind of metal was strong enough to withstand molten lava, but her attention was distracted by a throng of five people making their way towards herself and Victor.
"Hey, Creed. Whatcha doin down here?" A skinny dark skinned, dark haired boy said with a cheerful grin. He had some kind of odd metal device affixed to his arm, which was whirring and twitching oddly.
"Brought a newbie down. Dunno where she'll be yet, givin her the rounds." He thumbed back to Kitty who smiled nervously at the group.
"Hey there." The boy waved. "Name's Forge. This is Magma, Sunspot, Berzerker, and Iceman." He gestured to each individual in turn. They consisted of a fiery woman who was practically at home in the heat, a glowing man who also seemed quite happy to be down there, a sweaty youth who didn't look so happy, and the boy she had seen earlier gathering water, who looked miserable.
"This miserable group is responsible for heading the repairs and maintenance of the machinery here." Victor explained with a bored tone. "Weren't for them, we'd all be dead."
"Nah, I'm sure someone else would be able to figure out how to relay the off shooting heat spikes from the central matrix of the core dampener." Forge said with a simple wave of his hand. "It's easy stuff, really."
Victor gave a roll of his eyes, indicating that he didn't think it was easy stuff.
Magma simply snorted and flipped her flaming head and looked irritated. "Spare us your humility."
Kitty couldn't help but ask the few questions that had been floating around her mind like a school of fish. "You're the ones who run the machines?"
"That's right." Forge grinned. "I designed them, and with a couple of my loyal flunkies." He gestured to a few people busy working in a recess off to the side, that looked air-conditioned, "...We figured out how to harness the heat and channel the energy." He nodded at Magma. "Magma controls the volcano, to make sure it doesn't go erupting on us."
"My skills are in controlling the seismic activity of volcanism." Magma explained, shifting into a more solid form of a pretty dark haired girl. Her hair was pulled back in an untidy ponytail, her face a bit smudged, but she had a proud look in her eyes. "It's not easy. There are only a few of us here who can control the earth enough to aid us. We have to switch off to give one another a rest." She explained.
"And in case things go wrong." Iceman was adding on. "That's what I'm here to do, save the day!" He crowed with a flashy grin, his body suddenly changing into solid ice, glittering in the heat, and amazingly not melting.
Kitty couldn't help but giggle at the boy's antics. He was kind of cute..
"All right, enough of that." Victor growled and gestured she was to follow him. "Come on sprite, lets get going." He started back up the stairs.
Kitty waved cheerily at the engine crew as they returned back to their jobs, and she followed Victor back up slowly. It was a relief to climb out of the hot pit and back to where the air was less scalding.
They emerged on a different floor from where they had started, and as Victor was turning to say something to her, a cross looking man walked out. "Hey, I've got a bone to pick with you." He snapped at Victor, holding up a holopad. "You see these? They're called RATIONS for a reason, pops. you're not supposed to dip into other resources, even if you DO wanna get roaring drunk!"
Victor looked cross, and forgot Kitty was there. "I can do what I bloody well please."
"OH no." The man was shaking the pad at him. "I'm cutting your ration for this month."
"WHAT!?" Victor lunged forward and grabbed the man by the collar and slammed him up against the rock face.
However, the man didn't seem the least bit perturbed by this. "Fair's fair. You gotta stick to the rules. I don't care if you're the magistrate, or some unknown nebwie, dad." Victor growled, but grudgingly released the man, who promptly brushed his shirt off, and then seemed to notice Kitty. "Oh? A newbie?" He held out his hand, smiling finally in greeting. "Graydon Creed. Nice to meet you."
Kitty blushed a bit, and took his hand, shaking it. "Nice to meet you too.." She glanced at Victor who was looking sourly at Graydon. "You two.related?"
Graydon's eyebrow twitched a bit. "Yes.I'm ashamed to say." He snapped back at Victor. "That ungrateful thief is my father."
"Oh." Kitty had to shake her head with some amusement. They certainly didn't behave like loving father and son.
"I'm in charge of portioning out the rations." Graydon was explaining with a tap to the pad. "Unfortunately, SOME people think they're above the laws." He threw a glare back at his father. "But they have to be enforced, everyone gets fair treatment, even those whose powers require more nutrition." He peered at her curiously. "Please don't tell me you have a fast metabolism, with five already I've got my hands full."
"Me? Oh. no I don't think I do." She answered, a bit puzzled. "What does that have to do with food rations?"
"Eh? Oh, well those mutants whose powers consume a lot of energy have to eat much more than the average person. So we discourage use of their powers so they don't have to consume more food, and we find a dietary supplement to compensate." He explained with a shrug.
"Let me guess." Kitty said with a smile. "Your power is something science related.mathematics or something?"
At that, Graydons' smile faltered. "No, actually I'm a Squib." (note: squib is a term from Harry Potter, it means someone without magic, in this usage someone who's not a mutant, but lives down there with them)
"Oh." Kitty was slightly taken aback, and embarrassed. She had assumed, that since Victor was a mutant, obviously Graydon must be, but apparently she was wrong. "Your mother was. normal then?"
"No. actually." Graydon smirked slightly. "Mystique is my mother." He saw her confusion and cleared it up. "The magistrate? I'm sure you've met her."
Kitty nodded, and was even more mystified. According to 'urban legend' mutants begot mutants. The society up above had never had to deal with thinking about what would happen if two mutants bore a non-mutant. "If. if you're not a mutant then why do you stay down here?" She asked curiously. "Couldn't you be a plant up there?"
Graydon shook his head. "No, unfortunately not. You see, I don't exist." At her puzzled look he continued. "I was born down here. Therefore, I have no identity up there, and if I tried to make one, no doubt they would pick up on who my parents were. Nothing is done up there that doesn't involve DNA and thumbprint identification, after all." (note: I'm not sure who's older, Kurt or Graydon.. I think Graydon's older, but since I can't figure out how to write him in if that's the case ^-^ he's not older in this story, he's younger than Kurt for sake of continuity)
Kitty realized he was right and nodded slightly. It seemed the man was fairly bitter about his situation too, which made her slightly uncomfortable. Luckily she didn't have to worry about it much longer.
"Go back to work kid, come on sprite, with me." Victor grunted, indicating they continue the tour.
Graydon waved. "See you around." And he vanished into another doorway.
They continued walking, Kitty decided to ask a few questions that had been bothering her. "Victor.?" she jogged up so she was walking next to the longhaired man. "How many different jobs do people have in here?"
Victor grunted. "Figured that'd come up. Well, you've got the mechanics and the general fix-it-uppers." He counted off on a finger that happened to be tipped with a sharp claw-like fingernail. "You got the doctors and medics, you got the crafters who build new dwellings and rooms, you got the suppliers who keep all the supplies organized, the leaders who run the system, take care of disputes n such, the scouts who go finding food and doing patrols, and then there's the home makin types, look after the kids and do odd jobs around the place." He shrugged. "It's simple 'nuff."
"So what are you?"
"Me?" He snorted once and looked suddenly very irked. "I'm one of the 'other' category."
Kitty blinked, and instantly got an odd image of hyperactive mutant children hanging off his hair and doing him up in ribbons.
"What're you looking at." He growled, catching the smile that threatened to break out of her lips. "Them kids are terrors. ain't no fun, lemme tell ya." He growled. "Weren't for my damn healing factor, I'd be dead hundred times or more by now."
Kitty still couldn't help snickering a bit, and she tried desperately to stop, seeing that he was obviously quite touchy about the subject. She quickly tried to switch topics. "What do you think I would be good at doing?"
"Dunno. They haven't figured that out yet. Talent like yers can be handy in a bunch of areas. And frankly, we need more people in some jobs."
"Like what?"
"Well, scouts for example.for some damn reason, they keep getting killed or captured." He muttered something else that she obviously wasn't supposed to hear, but did anyway. "If it were me 'n Logan we'd show em how to do it proper 'like."
Kitty frowned, thinking about what kind of a job she would rather do, or be good at. Out of everything, she had to admit she would rather be a scout, there was more adventure, and with her phasing power she could be virtually untouched in battle situations. Plus, she could be handy in getting into locked places.
They stopped suddenly, and she peered around his bulk, and spotted Kurt walking towards them waving. She smiled, and waved back quickly as the blue man approached. "Hello, Katzchen." He greeted her, sticking his hands casually in his pocketed pants. "Have you gotten the whole tour? There isn't much to see I'm afraid." He apologized with a wink.
Kitty blushed, and chided herself. 'No.. he's taken. none of that girl.' Her mind warned her. "Yes, I got to meet several people."
"You wanna finish it up?" Victor grunted. "I gotta get back to work, or he'll kill me."
Kurt grinned a bit. "Sure, we'll walk you there." His golden eyes seemed to twinkle, and Kitty also realized at the same time that seeing Victor 'work' would be hysterical. kids.
They fell in step, walking along the narrow catwalks, and Kurt chatted to her about some of the plans they had begun to work on. It all involved complex placing of people in the city, and manipulation of events. Apparently, he was to go and work from the inside for the next few months, until the election, when their moves would all come to a climax.
As soon as the three entered the nursery, there were several things that happened. A) Several kids of different ages let out squeals of joy. B) Another stocky, rather hairy, and grumpy looking man looked very pissed off/relieved. C) a rush of several kids in their direction threatened to knock them over.
Kitty goggled in wonder, as three kids attached to Victor in various places, and two rushed Kurt. A very small girl with frizzy puffed hair, latched onto his legs, while another with long blonde hair that was nearly white, leapt into his arms. "Pretty!!" the blonde called out, burying her face in his chest and snuggling him, while the second played with his tail, a look of glee on her face. Kitty recognized the second girl as the one he had saved during Amanda's story. The one in his arms, then must be the girl he had told her about, the one who seemed to think he was her own personal plush toy.
Victor's three growths, were likewise playing with his hair, and one snuggling in his arms, and despite the annoyed/gruff look he wore, Kitty had the sneaking suspicion he actually LIKED the children's attention.
"What took ya so long?" The other man, who must be Logan according to Victor's muttering, stood up holding a kid in either hand by the back of their shirts, like a mother cat does to her kittens. "I've been havin' ta keep them busy for over an hour!" the kids, rather than looking terrified by being held by a big hairy mean looking man, were giggling madly, having a blast trying to swat at each other.
Victor simply grunted, and rolled his eyes, as one of his kids, gave him a big fat wet slobbery kiss on the cheek.
Author's note: mwhahaa.. I'm evil.