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Idea=idaha Thick=Thahck
Take=Tahke
Chapter Three: Chance Meetings
Kat,
Meet my associate at the Waterfront at 8pm sharp. We have issues to discuss.
Avalanche
"Yah gonna go?"
"I like guess so, I'm like not doing anything else interesting tonight." Kat crumpled the paper. "You like want to come?"
"Nah Ah don' think so."
The Waterfront was a small seedy pub the Manhattan waterside and a home to the roughest gangs of the City that Never Sleeps. Most often used as a negotiation point by the ruffians. Run by a square jawed balding man named Tony, this man was built like a barge, with eyes of dark crystal, and drooping belly that swung back and forth as he walked. Always wearing a grease-stained white-collared shirt, gray pants having long holes in the seams, and an apron that was fraying at each stitch. Tony was one of New York's most imposing figures, considered: the go-to guy when on the run from the law, the advice man when a problem was at hand, and the ever-faithful bouncer. A large man with a brisk tone and heavy-handed manner, the owner of an iron temper, and when he yelled it seemed as if a foghorn was bellowing. Despite all of this, he was a kindly man with a gentle soul, and used the Waterfront as a safe haven for many young frightened runaways.
"Hey Tony." Kat said sliding onto a bar stool with a distinctive feline grace. Clothed in slick black leather pants and a purple spaghetti strap, she reminded Tony more of a leopard than the sweet little kitten he once knew. "What's like new?"
Her words sent Tony reeling into memories he'd long left in the dusty corners of his mind. Two girls pushed their way through the battered door, both huddled close to one another. Their clothing was ripped and torn, barely more than rags hanging loosely from their starved forms. Their heads hanging low, greasy brown hair drifting over their pale faces, eyes dulled. One girl, a shivering little creature, a lock of pure white hair hanging over her forehead, with eyes of dark grayish purple sunken into shadowed sockets, her cheesy skin almost translucent in the flickering light, slipped towards the bar. Her friend with frightened pure blue eyes glances distrustfully at the men passing in and out around her. Her long hair unkempt, grease glittering in the darkened lighting, tiny cowlicks sticking out from the crown of her hair, Tony noticed her trying to make herself as small as possible. Men bumping into her seemed to pass through her like she was a ghost. The white locked rogue peeked over the counter at him. 'Could yah help us?'
"Tony are you like there?" Waving her hand in front of his face Kat drew the old man back into reality. Worry crossing her innocent features and traveling through eyes that were hard and warm. A warm kitty smile from her washed away his tension. And he marveled at how she'd grown from the frightened trembling creature into a confident and self-assured tigress.
Laughing with a thick Brooklyn accent, Tony smiled. "Just remembering the first time you and Ty walked through my door."
Kat smiled thoughtfully, gaze drifting into space. "That was like so long ago, it seems like another lifetime." She slumped over her palm, eyes evaluating the sea of faces that lingered in the worn booths and the scarred tables. Cross checking each wrinkle and hair, sniffing the air, tasting the thousands of scents, one more disgusting than the last. Sweaty bodies coupled with dirt and grime, mixing with stale beer, old whiskey, and wine, Kat was sure it tasted like hog piss. It smelled as bad. "Couldn't you like get new beer, Tony?"
"No, the shipment's been backed up for months." Tony watched Kat glance anxiously at the door and back to her watch. "Got a hot date tonight Kat?"
After fluffing her ponytail, Kat groaned. "I like wish. No, Avalanche like wanted a meeting. He's like sending an associate of his to like meet me here."
Tony sighed, putting the cracked glasses he was drying into a safe cupboard behind to bar. The behind the wood was a lining of solid steel, Tony never took any chances with his glasses. "I suppose a fight will happen then?"
"It's like more than likely." Rolling her eyes, Kat said. "He like probably wants our like territory again. It's no big. We'll just like slap him around like we did last time." She grinned suddenly, eyes glittering with a feral light. 'Get out!' 'Make us!' Kat leveled her rifle at the porker in the lead. Blob had always been a big target. A loud boom ripped through the air as the Blob fell crashing to the ground. Revving engines echoed in the darkness. Avalanche's gang was a pushover. The ground beneath her trembled, he was mad. Kat grinned, one shot to the neck of the lead biker would put him away. Silent as a panther Ty moved, removing three from their bikes. 'Why don' y'all get thah idaha out of yah thahck skulls, yah can't tahke this place from us!' Ty screamed into the inky shadows of twilight.
Shaking her head, Kat clutched the edges of the bar. "Are you all right Kat?" Tony asked, concern flooding his voice. Kat's fingers dug inches into the bar, tightening until her eyes widened like twin stars. Feral growls bubbled up, forcing their way through her teeth, as her arms struggled against an unseen foe.
"Hey." A cool hand touched her shoulder. "Are you all right?"
Kat whipped around with a snarl, her furiously wild eyes meeting calm silver blue. 'His eyes are like a stormy ocean.' She thought as all anger, terror, and primal rage melted away. His face was handsome, a light tan set off by pure white hair, a dashing smile seemed to belong on his face. His sexy eyes were filled with a worry that was uncharacteristic of them. 'Nice body, like snap out of it.' "Why were you like touching me!" She snapped as the stranger pulled his hand away.
"You just looked like you were having a seizure." He said, voice full of an arrogant cockiness. Lips curling into a sneer as he said condescendingly. "But I guess I couldn't expect much from the Slums. Bartender, I'll take a tall beer." With a quickness she could barely follow, he slipped onto the barstool next to her.
Tony grunted a reply and bustled away. "How like dare you!" Kat growled. This peacock was stealing her control. He kept slowly shredding her comfort level, creating nervous waves in her stomach. Swirling her drink and glancing at the door, she ignored him.
"Waiting for someone?" He asked. Admiring eyes swept over Kat's body. 'She's hot.' He thought, and it struck a lonely chord in his heart. 'Kitty...'
"None of like your damn business!"
He smiled, she was feisty, and he liked feisty women. Rogue had been feisty, so had every girl he'd dated, Kitty had been the only exception. Ah, sweet innocent Kitty. She'd been a breath of fresh air. 'Next time I see Lance, I'm pounding his face into a brick wall!' His smile widened into an arrogantly sexy grin. Imagining what he'd do to Lance if he saw him, always made him smile. "How well do you know the city?"
Kat furrowed her eyebrows and glared. "Like leave me alone!" Glancing back to door, she searched to room for her contact. 'I like just want to get out of here!' This man, he reminded her of someone, but she couldn't place his face. It was like an older Pietro's but his voice was too deep, too gentle, and far too caressing. Pietro's had always been a little nasally. While cracking her knuckles at the intruder a familiar smell hit her nostrils. The smell of over ripe garbage. When her nose hadn't been sensitive the smell had only annoyed her, now it sickened her. That smell belonged to only one mutant: Toad. 'I like can't believe Avalanche sent 'him'!'
"Yo! Kat babe!" Todd Talansky hadn't changed much over the years. His hygiene problem had only grown worse with age. Flies followed him in small swarms. His mutation forcing him to walk with a stooped sort of stumbling gate. It was deceptive, since he was extremely agile and quick. Two bulbous yellow eyes underneath a mop of greenish blonde hair, always ogling at her. His conniving ways had only flourished in the Slums. He and most of the incompetent members of the Brotherhood had followed Avalanche, only after Mystique refused to take them off planet. "How's it hanging yo?"
"You like are a deranged dope!" Kat hissed, the hairs on the back of her neck bristling. "I like know why you are like here, and I like have a message for Panther."
"That's fine Kitty baby, but why don't we talk for a while yo!" Todd scooted closer. He leaned in gazing at Kat.
"Kitty baby?" Pietro whispered, his voice inaudible to the two fighting around him. His heart thudding against his chest. 'She couldn't be...' He evaluated the woman before him, her feline grace and moments of primal fury were alien to him, Kitty had always had sweet and innocent eyes. This woman, Kat, her eyes were hard, furious, and sad. They were like alpine pools, sucking him in, drowning him in her sorrow. She couldn't be Kitty Pryde.
Kat clenched her fists. "Get...a...way...from...me!" Snarling as her upper lip curled. "You like are like the most disgusting thing I've ever met!"
"Come on Kitten." Todd said. "You know you want me yo!"
'I love you Kitten. I'll never let you go.' His voice specially caressing the word Kitten. It was his word. 'You like mean it?' 'I'll never leave you.'
'Liar!' Pietro watched Todd fly a good twenty feet, across the bar room. Kat's stinging slap echoing through the sudden silence. "Toad, you're like incorrigible!" She turned towards the door. "Oh and like tell Avalanche he can like go to hell!" Stalking out the door, she slammed it, leapt onto her motorcycle and drove away.
"I forgot yo, how much stronger she is." Talansky groaned, peeling himself from the wall. He'd landed upside down and crooked. Leaving a second Toad sized impression next to the first he'd made a few weeks earlier. "Knew she didn't like being called Kitten." Glancing up at the tall man standing over him, he muttered. "Hey Maximoff."
"Who was that Todd?"
"Kat Pryde."
"Pryde?" Pietro asked, a perplex expression darting over his face.
Todd sighed. "Look yo, she used to called Kitty Pryde." Pietro stared at him disbelieving. "You know like bimbo valley girl." Imitating her, he bounced his head back and forth. Toad opened his mouth into frog smile, his jowls widening disgustingly. Large yellow teeth winking out. Pietro grimaced slightly.
Taking Todd by the collar, Pietro slammed him back against to wall. "Never call her that!" He growled. "Now where does she live?"
Meet my associate at the Waterfront at 8pm sharp. We have issues to discuss.
Avalanche
"Yah gonna go?"
"I like guess so, I'm like not doing anything else interesting tonight." Kat crumpled the paper. "You like want to come?"
"Nah Ah don' think so."
The Waterfront was a small seedy pub the Manhattan waterside and a home to the roughest gangs of the City that Never Sleeps. Most often used as a negotiation point by the ruffians. Run by a square jawed balding man named Tony, this man was built like a barge, with eyes of dark crystal, and drooping belly that swung back and forth as he walked. Always wearing a grease-stained white-collared shirt, gray pants having long holes in the seams, and an apron that was fraying at each stitch. Tony was one of New York's most imposing figures, considered: the go-to guy when on the run from the law, the advice man when a problem was at hand, and the ever-faithful bouncer. A large man with a brisk tone and heavy-handed manner, the owner of an iron temper, and when he yelled it seemed as if a foghorn was bellowing. Despite all of this, he was a kindly man with a gentle soul, and used the Waterfront as a safe haven for many young frightened runaways.
"Hey Tony." Kat said sliding onto a bar stool with a distinctive feline grace. Clothed in slick black leather pants and a purple spaghetti strap, she reminded Tony more of a leopard than the sweet little kitten he once knew. "What's like new?"
Her words sent Tony reeling into memories he'd long left in the dusty corners of his mind. Two girls pushed their way through the battered door, both huddled close to one another. Their clothing was ripped and torn, barely more than rags hanging loosely from their starved forms. Their heads hanging low, greasy brown hair drifting over their pale faces, eyes dulled. One girl, a shivering little creature, a lock of pure white hair hanging over her forehead, with eyes of dark grayish purple sunken into shadowed sockets, her cheesy skin almost translucent in the flickering light, slipped towards the bar. Her friend with frightened pure blue eyes glances distrustfully at the men passing in and out around her. Her long hair unkempt, grease glittering in the darkened lighting, tiny cowlicks sticking out from the crown of her hair, Tony noticed her trying to make herself as small as possible. Men bumping into her seemed to pass through her like she was a ghost. The white locked rogue peeked over the counter at him. 'Could yah help us?'
"Tony are you like there?" Waving her hand in front of his face Kat drew the old man back into reality. Worry crossing her innocent features and traveling through eyes that were hard and warm. A warm kitty smile from her washed away his tension. And he marveled at how she'd grown from the frightened trembling creature into a confident and self-assured tigress.
Laughing with a thick Brooklyn accent, Tony smiled. "Just remembering the first time you and Ty walked through my door."
Kat smiled thoughtfully, gaze drifting into space. "That was like so long ago, it seems like another lifetime." She slumped over her palm, eyes evaluating the sea of faces that lingered in the worn booths and the scarred tables. Cross checking each wrinkle and hair, sniffing the air, tasting the thousands of scents, one more disgusting than the last. Sweaty bodies coupled with dirt and grime, mixing with stale beer, old whiskey, and wine, Kat was sure it tasted like hog piss. It smelled as bad. "Couldn't you like get new beer, Tony?"
"No, the shipment's been backed up for months." Tony watched Kat glance anxiously at the door and back to her watch. "Got a hot date tonight Kat?"
After fluffing her ponytail, Kat groaned. "I like wish. No, Avalanche like wanted a meeting. He's like sending an associate of his to like meet me here."
Tony sighed, putting the cracked glasses he was drying into a safe cupboard behind to bar. The behind the wood was a lining of solid steel, Tony never took any chances with his glasses. "I suppose a fight will happen then?"
"It's like more than likely." Rolling her eyes, Kat said. "He like probably wants our like territory again. It's no big. We'll just like slap him around like we did last time." She grinned suddenly, eyes glittering with a feral light. 'Get out!' 'Make us!' Kat leveled her rifle at the porker in the lead. Blob had always been a big target. A loud boom ripped through the air as the Blob fell crashing to the ground. Revving engines echoed in the darkness. Avalanche's gang was a pushover. The ground beneath her trembled, he was mad. Kat grinned, one shot to the neck of the lead biker would put him away. Silent as a panther Ty moved, removing three from their bikes. 'Why don' y'all get thah idaha out of yah thahck skulls, yah can't tahke this place from us!' Ty screamed into the inky shadows of twilight.
Shaking her head, Kat clutched the edges of the bar. "Are you all right Kat?" Tony asked, concern flooding his voice. Kat's fingers dug inches into the bar, tightening until her eyes widened like twin stars. Feral growls bubbled up, forcing their way through her teeth, as her arms struggled against an unseen foe.
"Hey." A cool hand touched her shoulder. "Are you all right?"
Kat whipped around with a snarl, her furiously wild eyes meeting calm silver blue. 'His eyes are like a stormy ocean.' She thought as all anger, terror, and primal rage melted away. His face was handsome, a light tan set off by pure white hair, a dashing smile seemed to belong on his face. His sexy eyes were filled with a worry that was uncharacteristic of them. 'Nice body, like snap out of it.' "Why were you like touching me!" She snapped as the stranger pulled his hand away.
"You just looked like you were having a seizure." He said, voice full of an arrogant cockiness. Lips curling into a sneer as he said condescendingly. "But I guess I couldn't expect much from the Slums. Bartender, I'll take a tall beer." With a quickness she could barely follow, he slipped onto the barstool next to her.
Tony grunted a reply and bustled away. "How like dare you!" Kat growled. This peacock was stealing her control. He kept slowly shredding her comfort level, creating nervous waves in her stomach. Swirling her drink and glancing at the door, she ignored him.
"Waiting for someone?" He asked. Admiring eyes swept over Kat's body. 'She's hot.' He thought, and it struck a lonely chord in his heart. 'Kitty...'
"None of like your damn business!"
He smiled, she was feisty, and he liked feisty women. Rogue had been feisty, so had every girl he'd dated, Kitty had been the only exception. Ah, sweet innocent Kitty. She'd been a breath of fresh air. 'Next time I see Lance, I'm pounding his face into a brick wall!' His smile widened into an arrogantly sexy grin. Imagining what he'd do to Lance if he saw him, always made him smile. "How well do you know the city?"
Kat furrowed her eyebrows and glared. "Like leave me alone!" Glancing back to door, she searched to room for her contact. 'I like just want to get out of here!' This man, he reminded her of someone, but she couldn't place his face. It was like an older Pietro's but his voice was too deep, too gentle, and far too caressing. Pietro's had always been a little nasally. While cracking her knuckles at the intruder a familiar smell hit her nostrils. The smell of over ripe garbage. When her nose hadn't been sensitive the smell had only annoyed her, now it sickened her. That smell belonged to only one mutant: Toad. 'I like can't believe Avalanche sent 'him'!'
"Yo! Kat babe!" Todd Talansky hadn't changed much over the years. His hygiene problem had only grown worse with age. Flies followed him in small swarms. His mutation forcing him to walk with a stooped sort of stumbling gate. It was deceptive, since he was extremely agile and quick. Two bulbous yellow eyes underneath a mop of greenish blonde hair, always ogling at her. His conniving ways had only flourished in the Slums. He and most of the incompetent members of the Brotherhood had followed Avalanche, only after Mystique refused to take them off planet. "How's it hanging yo?"
"You like are a deranged dope!" Kat hissed, the hairs on the back of her neck bristling. "I like know why you are like here, and I like have a message for Panther."
"That's fine Kitty baby, but why don't we talk for a while yo!" Todd scooted closer. He leaned in gazing at Kat.
"Kitty baby?" Pietro whispered, his voice inaudible to the two fighting around him. His heart thudding against his chest. 'She couldn't be...' He evaluated the woman before him, her feline grace and moments of primal fury were alien to him, Kitty had always had sweet and innocent eyes. This woman, Kat, her eyes were hard, furious, and sad. They were like alpine pools, sucking him in, drowning him in her sorrow. She couldn't be Kitty Pryde.
Kat clenched her fists. "Get...a...way...from...me!" Snarling as her upper lip curled. "You like are like the most disgusting thing I've ever met!"
"Come on Kitten." Todd said. "You know you want me yo!"
'I love you Kitten. I'll never let you go.' His voice specially caressing the word Kitten. It was his word. 'You like mean it?' 'I'll never leave you.'
'Liar!' Pietro watched Todd fly a good twenty feet, across the bar room. Kat's stinging slap echoing through the sudden silence. "Toad, you're like incorrigible!" She turned towards the door. "Oh and like tell Avalanche he can like go to hell!" Stalking out the door, she slammed it, leapt onto her motorcycle and drove away.
"I forgot yo, how much stronger she is." Talansky groaned, peeling himself from the wall. He'd landed upside down and crooked. Leaving a second Toad sized impression next to the first he'd made a few weeks earlier. "Knew she didn't like being called Kitten." Glancing up at the tall man standing over him, he muttered. "Hey Maximoff."
"Who was that Todd?"
"Kat Pryde."
"Pryde?" Pietro asked, a perplex expression darting over his face.
Todd sighed. "Look yo, she used to called Kitty Pryde." Pietro stared at him disbelieving. "You know like bimbo valley girl." Imitating her, he bounced his head back and forth. Toad opened his mouth into frog smile, his jowls widening disgustingly. Large yellow teeth winking out. Pietro grimaced slightly.
Taking Todd by the collar, Pietro slammed him back against to wall. "Never call her that!" He growled. "Now where does she live?"