2. Kitty
Xavier found no problems while training Ktelor; she could make a good leader. At the same time, he continuously searched for new kids with Cerebro, and now that Ktelor managed to keep her telepathy much better in control, he even let her use it.
Ktelor's powers and physical abilities developed much further than Xavier had thought; however, that was not a problem at all. Xavier was in fact happy for Ktelor as she could end up having an incredibly accurate coordination between her mind and body. Ktelor on her turn realized this, and in order to make it happen, she kept on exercising, even increasing the intensity and difficulty of the exercises as opposed to her younger days when she hated the whole thing more than everything, doing whatever she could to get from taking part in the exercises.
By May, Xavier had found rather many mutant kids who he could go see and check if they would want to join. The mutant Ktelor and Xavier would go see first was a thirteen-year-old girl named Katherine Pryde. Her parents were deciding into which school to put their daughter in. They actually phoned Xavier, asking if he was interested in taking Katherine into his school. Xavier talked with them and they were interested. Finally the parents asked Xavier to come over for the final discussion.
Ktelor and Xavier then left the mansion one morning, took a taxi to the airport and got on a plane going to Chicago. On the plane Xavier told Ktelor what he knew about Katherine Pryde.
Katherine was thirteen years old and she was in high school because of her superior intelligence. Her powers had just manifested and she probably did not know how to use them, maybe even did not know what powers she had, or if she was a mutant at all.
Xavier would talk with Katherine's parents privately first, while Ktelor could tell stuff about the school to her. Later they all would talk together.
They arrived at a Chicago airport and took a taxi to the Prydes' home, which was located in a nice development area in Deerfield, with big clean houses, streets and lots of plantation. Ktelor glared around in an ironical way, glancing at everything behind the sunglasses she had to hide her eyes.
"This place creeps me out for some reason, y'know that?" said Ktelor, not really serious.
"Yes, Ktelor, I can notice", replied Xavier as the taxi driver helped him on the wheelchair. "Go on, Ktelor, and ring the doorbell." Ktelor waltzed, not really knowing what it meant or how to do it, to the door, posed like a ballerina and pressed the doorbell button which made a funny snobby sound.
"Oh please."
Xavier looked at the pair of stairs in front of him. "Ktelor..." Ktelor turned at him, went behind him and tried to push him over the stairs.
"Ooh yeah... urhh... here's my today's exercise, eh. I gotta say I never noticed how much you actually do weigh." Ktelor just managed to push Xavier on the door level when Carmen Pryde, Katherine's father, opened the door.
"Good day, Professor Xavier", he said, shaking Xavier's hand and glanced at Ktelor. "And hello there."
"It is nice to meet you, mister Pryde", replied Xavier and turning slightly to Ktelor, he continued: "This is one of my students, Ktelor Gilian. Say hi, Ktelor."
Ktelor grinned. "Hi, Ktelor." Carmen Pryde chuckled a little and made way for Xavier, while Ktelor pushed him in. The house looked as clean inside as it had looked outside. It was a light, modern average home. Theresa, Carmen's wife, came and shook Xavier's hand while Carmen shook Ktelor's hand. As usual, Ktelor did not manage to shake the hand correctly, and as she noticed how Carmen wondered about it, she said: "I'm left-handed."
"Oh", said Carmen. He glanced up at the second floor with bedrooms, and as Ktelor followed his sight, she saw the girl they had come here for. Theresa came to Ktelor and took her hand.
"Hello there, Ktelor."
"My dearly sincere greetings of good day to you, madam, and have a most pleasant day", said Ktelor and bowed deep, excessively shoving her left arm somewhere behind her. Theresa chuckled.
"Aren't you a clever kid." Ktelor straightened herself and looked at the adults.
"Please excuse my student Ktelor for not taking off his sunglasses, but he has something wrong with his eyes." Xavier continued talking, as did the Pryde parents, but Ktelor did not bother to listen. They moved to the dining room just by the kitchen.
Ktelor leaned on a doorframe, watching the adults while really concentrating her thoughts on Katherine, or "Kitty" as she seemed to be often called. Kitty was looking at Ktelor from upstairs. She thought Ktelor was a boy, surprisingly even finding Ktelor good-looking and interesting. Ktelor chuckled at the thought of that. Ktelor turned to look at Kitty. She was a thin little girl with long curly brown hair and hazel eyes. She was wearing a striped sleeveless shirt, vest and ordinary, rather fashionable trousers that actually fit her well. The almost unnatural way Ktelor had turned straight at Kitty made her startle. Ktelor grinned, and Kitty pulled away, pretending she had not been staring at Ktelor. Ktelor laughed shortly and then turned at Theresa, who had come to her.
"Ktelor, would you like to go out and have lunch with Kitty? I'm sure she will appreciate your company, and we have some personal things to talk about here. Take this and go anywhere you like, but come back by five so we can talk more." Theresa handed Ktelor a twenty-dollar bill. "Kitty should be upstairs."
"Will-do, Mrs. Pryde. Thank you", replied Ktelor and headed over to the second floor while Theresa walked back to Xavier and her husband.
Kitty was waiting for Ktelor at the end of the stairs, as she had heard what her mother had said. Ktelor stopped on the last step because it was easier for her to look straight at Kitty instead of looking down at her. "Eh... hey."
Kitty smiled a little and looked at Ktelor. "Hi... Y'know, I... I'm sorry I like stared at ya."
"Heh, don't worry about that... I get stared at way too often than I'd like, so I'm used to it. Mostly because of these though." Ktelor took off the sunglasses to show Kitty her black eyes. "An' you haven't seen what my hair does either..."
Kitty was slightly surprised, but not freaked out. "Yikes!"
"It's just a pigment disorder. I think I'm lucky in a way that my eyes aren't bright blood red."
Kitty chuckled. "Hehe... Oh", said Kitty, as if she had just remembered something. "I think I should at least like introduce myself... I'm Katherine, though most people just call me Kitty."
"I'm Ktelor Kadrei Gilian... an' most people call me just Ktelor."
"You have a strange name..."
"Well, it wasn't me who chose it, now wasn't it? Anyway, Xavier has a more special name for me though."
"Really? What is it?"
"It's a few sentences long... here it goes: 'No! Stop doing that, you pest! Don't you know how many months it took to build that – insert a fancy name for a technical thing here – !' Yeah... and then I take what I broke an' fix it in a day or so."
Kitty laughed. "Goodness... You and Xavier surely sound better than that Frost lady with that Massachusetts Academy of hers."
"Who? Ah well, never mind, I won't know her either way. Shall we go, eh? Yer mom gave me twenty bucks to go... Do you know any good restaurant places?" Ktelor turned and walked down the stairs Kitty after her.
The restaurant Kitty presented was eight blocks away. While walking there Kitty told Ktelor what had been happening to her lately, for no particular reason. She had had headaches that kept on continuing with increasing intensity and numbers. Those headaches were starting to worry her, but she knew there was not much she could do. To be honest, this kind of stuff did not really interest Ktelor, and after scanning Kitty's mind and the rest, she was rather bored. Kitty was a good kid, and Ktelor could tell her things about the school as well as Xavier and herself. If she bothered to, that is.
They soon got to the restaurant. Kitty had been doing pretty much all the talking, and after getting their food she started to get much more interested on Ktelor.
"And now we get to the interesting point of this discussion", said Kitty, looking at Ktelor.
Ktelor was a little puzzled, even though she knew what Kitty meant. Ktelor could not figure out much connection. "Huh?"
"You. Y'know, all this time you've like barely said a word. I know you guys are a bit quiet, yeah, but you're like... mute."
"Oh? Well... Should I do something?"
"Sure you should!" said Kitty, grinning. "Like, tell me something about yourself... where are you from? Why are you attending Xavier's school?"
"Oh... Well, uh... Well, I was born in Antarctica along with my twin brother... my parents were researchers there. We lived there until I was twelve... Then we moved to Canada, an' at that point Xavier found me an' my brother. He invited us to his school then, but frankly we were pretty happy with our parents, so we didn't go there. A few months after that there was a some sort of incident... Tell me, do you know the X-Men?"
"Sure, they're superheroes and so on... like the Avengers. But they disappeared a year ago..."
"Okay... well, some person named Magneto tried to kidnap me an' my brother. The X-Men came there to fight Magneto an' saved us, but my parents were killed because of the fighting. It was a nice lose-or-lose situation... either us kidnapped or my parents dead. An' I couldn't even choose. My brother was severely injured an' the X-Men took us to their headquarters... which, surprise surprise, is Xavier's school. My brother died there, an' I didn't have much choice but to stay there in Xavier's school with the X-Men."
Kitty was rather surprised. "Oh my goodness. I'm sorry... But then... you are... an X-man?"
"Kind of... As ye said, they disappeared a year ago... that's because they died. They were really Xavier's students. Xavier spent half a year thinking about whether or not to found a new team... He decided to do it. I'm his only student as for now, but he's gathering a new class now. He hopes y'll join."
"Um... am I really getting this right now? Xavier teaches the X-Men, and they're his students? What do they have to learn from a guy like Xavier?"
"How to control their... powers?"
"Powers? God, are you serious? What kind of place is his school?"
"It's a school for mutants. An' yeah, if you haven't noticed – –"
Suddenly a big, bright red, human-figured, robot-looking thing came through the front door by smashing it to bits, followed by another robot thing. This had to be the luckiest day of Ktelor's life. She stared at the robots in shock for a short while, but then moved away from Kitty and got up, saying: "Get back, Kitty!" Kitty was in panic.
Ktelor could not do anything before one of the robots had smashed her. Having been able to step aside from the full force of the swing, she did feel a dull strike of pain on the right side of her chest and flew right toward Kitty, but hitting the tile wall instead. Ktelor got her feet on the windowpane and leaned on the table with her hands. Very quickly, she examined the robot things. They were very thoroughly protected from telepathic attacks, but Ktelor sensed that there was a person inside.
In panic, Kitty had just wanted to get out of the way as the robot smashed Ktelor into her direction. She pushed herself away, and like a miracle, she flew right through the wall to the back street. How could she have done this? How was it possible? Kitty did not know, and her headaches were making their comeback. The pain stung like never before, and Kitty was very tired. She passed out.
Since the robots were telepathically protected, Ktelor would not have much choice against them. Picking up a plate, Ktelor swirled it with her full strength at one of the robots. It shattered to pieces, and the robot was unharmed. Both of the robots now made their move, stretching their arms out toward Ktelor to grab and hold her. Ktelor quickly jumped out of the way. She now wished that the bartender had a gun somewhere. Ktelor ran behind the counter, and to her luck, found an old shotgun. In no time, Ktelor caught the gun, took a shooting position, leaning against a wall with her leg, and shot at the other robot. The robot was slightly damaged, but that did not really slow it down. In a blink of an eye, Ktelor shot at the other one, then at the first one again. By that time, the second had pulled out a weapon of some sort. It looked like an energy weapon. As the robot started firing, it became clear that it was an energy weapon. The firing started from Ktelor's left toward her. Ktelor jumped to the left before the firing hit her, and the firing continued to her original place and right from there. The only problem was that Ktelor had jumped into the reach of the other robot. Before Ktelor could get back to jumping again, the robot grabbed her arms and waist. Ktelor was trapped.
The customers had fled from the restaurant and only Ktelor and the armoured men were left. Ktelor could not see Kitty either, and she did not have time to try to find her, as a curvy but yet thin woman with pale hair and white clothes walked through the door with two less armoured robot-looking men. Ktelor instantly noticed that the woman was a strong telepath – maybe not as strong as Xavier, but very close. Her clothing was odd though, the style of it looked like what was in fashion a century ago, except that the clothes she had revealed much more of her body, making it look sexy in the eyes of a man from a western culture.
The woman blocked Ktelor from doing anything with her telepathy, but as Ktelor was rather strong herself, the woman did not manage to force Ktelor pass out, even though she tried several times repeatedly. She had done all this while walking to Ktelor from the doorway, and right after she had stopped, she said: "Aren't you a tough one, kiddie! Now be a good mutant and let me take care of you unless you want to be hurt."
Ktelor looked straight at the woman, still slightly trying to struggle from the grip of the robot. "Who exactly are ye anyway, an' what makes ye think I'd obey you?"
"I am the White Queen, and you should show some respect, you little brat! If you want to know why you should obey, I'd want you to consider the man holding you, tightening his grip. Is it difficult to breathe yet? Another reason would be these guns, as you see." The White Queen and the men that had come with her took out some sort of gun-looking shooting weapons that Ktelor had never seen before. Ktelor was very nervous and definitely did not want to get shot. However, if they wanted to kill her, they would have done so already. Ktelor figured that for now she did not have to fear for her life but it was almost a dead-end anyway. She was too afraid to say anything and thus stayed quiet. The White Queen understood. "Now, will you be a good kid and let me into your mind?" Ktelor felt how the woman tried to penetrate her psychic defenses, but they held. Ktelor would not have to worry about it. "Alright, play difficult!" One of the two men handed a white handkerchief to the White Queen who then walked to Ktelor with it. The grip of the robot holding Ktelor tightened, and it became hard to breathe, not to even mention the fact that Ktelor did not have a chance to break away. Ktelor smelled some chemical in the air. The woman placed her left hand on the back of Ktelor's head and slightly gripped her hair.
With a quick movement, she tightened her hold on Ktelor's hair and pressed the handkerchief on Ktelor's face. Ktelor passed out soon.
Kitty woke up shortly after passing out. She heard some people talking around the corner, peeked to see them and saw how a woman in white clothing stood by and watched as a few grunts placed Ktelor's limp body into a car. The woman looked inevitably similar to the Frost lady from the Massachusetts Academy, who had visited the Prydes' home an hour or two ago. The people then left the car alone for a moment to see something. There was Kitty's chance. She rushed to the car, opened the back, went in and closed it as carefully as possible. Soon the car started moving, and Kitty, being tired, fell asleep.