The Cat Is Out of the Bag (On Behalf of Cat)

All eyes turned to Cat, as Brennan stood up, making the feline feral jump from his lap. "What are you talking about?" he asked.

Cat looked at each person present, drew breath and steeled herself. It was time to come out in the open, no more hiding. "You know I haven't been myself lately. There was something eating me up." She sighed. "To be perfectly honest, I was so confused... I had even second thoughts about staying in the team." She turned to Brennan. "What kept me from leaving was you..." and to Rev, "and you."

She was now in the middle of the room, a star in a play with a captive audience. "Anyway, you must understand, please! My mother was dead, my family wanted me as far away as possible... I had to keep an eye open lest Silver would kill me then and there... And she tried, I still have the scars to prove it." She turned to Adam. "I was mad at you, mad at the world, mad at the stars, at my mother for bearing me... I was so utterly confused..." Cat collected her thoughts, remembering her mother's wake. "It was then that a very soft spoken Asian woman approached me in the middle of my mother's wake. She invited me to join a group of new mutants that would bring a new order to all genetic altered people in the world. And she knew everything there was to know about me and my family and the GSA and about me and Mutant X... She knew it all!" Cat looked again at Brennan, but he averted his eyes.

Revolution's cheeks were getting hotter and hotter, her temper rising and her blood starting to boil. "And when exactly were you planning on telling us your little tragedy tale? After we were all dead and buried?" she exploded.

"I told the woman I'd think about it, just to get rid of her..." Cat mumbled.

"And you didn't think about telling us, not even after hearing so much talk about the New Order?" Brennan was fuming.

"The woman talked about a new order, not the New Order!" Cat's voice was raising in pitch. "So many things happened since I got here. Allison's murder, Lux arriving... I honestly forgot all about it, until yesterday, when the woman's face popped up on the computer screen. Then I recognized her and I put two and two together."

"And why didn't you tell anything after Donna kicked the bitch out of our computer system?" Asked Shalimar.

"I was going to tell you all about it." Cat was panting now. This was more difficult than she had thought. "After we took Blair, Donna and Angela to the lab, I went to my room to pick this up." She fished the card from her back pocket and handed it to Adam. "I sat on my bed to think things over and I must have dozed off." She stopped there and looked at Brennan. No other details were needed. She sat down on the edge of the couch, her elbows on her knees, hands coverting her face and sobbed. "I'm so sorry, but I was so confused..."

Adam studied the card. A simple business card with a cell phone number on it. He stood up and knelt facing Cat. Gently, he took her hands off her face and lifted her chin, looking straight into her eyes. "Don't worry about it, it's all right," he said, wiping the tears that were running down her cheeks. "You haven't betrayed anybody... At least, not yet."

Cat's head snapped up and she sat straight on the couch. "What do you mean? I won't do nothing of the sort! I won't betray Mutant X! No way!"

Adam smiled, "No, Cat, you will, but under my orders." His smile broadened. "You've just cracked us open a door to the New Order."

Donna's Thoughts On Cat/Setting The Stage

Donna was very quiet listening to what Cat had said. She was angry sure, but she wasn't angry at Cat. She was angry at the other telecyber, Yukio Mishimoto. Angry at her for trying to take advantage of Cat when she was at her most vulnerable. Donna had spent her life after finding out about her powers fighting for people who couldn't fight for themselves. To making sure that others weren't victimized by others who were stronger than themselves. She was also angered by the fact that Yukio was a new mutant and was using her gifts for evil and not to make the work a better place. The New Order were definitely not gonna make the word better. They were gonna turn it into a Hitler-like society where New Mutants were the rulers and ordinary people were their slaves. Not a place were everyone could live together in peace. Call her idealistic but this New Mutant thought that the world that she wanted was far better than the one that the Salamander envisioned.

And the fact that he had burned St. Micheals to the ground was another nail in his coffin in Donna's opinion. When this was over she would see if she could help Father Dowling and Sister Steve try and rebuild the church. She hoped that no one was seriously hurt.

Then she heard what Adam had in mind. Sending Cat in as a double agent for Mutant X, The Ring, and the Cascade Group was ingenious. Of course it came from a bonifide genius so it had to be. She really was in awe of the man.

"Yeah, and I wanna send that evil telecyber a virus of my own." Donna added. "If you can get in then that gives the rest of us the chance to kick their mutant butts into a new order of our own." Blair looked at Donna. He had never seen her so determined. Of course the stakes had never been this high.

"Whoa, Mainframe." Jax said laughing. That broke the tension way apart, "Are you sure you aren't a feral?"

"Adam can vouch for it. I am pure Grade A 100% Psionic. We can kick major arse too ya know." Donna said with a huge smile on her face as she looked at Jax. "Multi-Psionic at that."

Lux patted Jax's shoulder, "Ferals aren't the only ones with attitude my friend."

"Let's put our heads together then." Emma said.

Cat was glad that they didn't all turn against her. She didn't know about Brennan though. He was uncharacteristically quiet. She was gonna have to have a talk in private with him later to set things straight.

MacGyver made a suggestion. "What we need is a little show for the New Order to see. Make them see which side that Cat has chosen."

Donna knew what her future father-in-law was getting at. "And a script that needs to be carried out."

Angela added, "And the proper players to carry it out."

"Sister," Donna turned to Angela. "are you thinking what I am thinking?"

"I've always wanted to be the star of an off off, Broadway show." Angela laughed.

They were all listening in to the two as they were going back and forth with each other. They caught on to what they were saying. Cat finally said, "I will do everything that I can to help stop them. You have my word."

Jim said, "We give them a show that they won't forget. Cory, Sam, Blair, Mac, and I will take up positions and keep watch over what is happening just to make sure that nothing goes wrong."

"With two Sentinel's we can see everything." Cory added to his fellow sentinel's proposal.

"And a slue of Ferals with heightened senses as well." Shalimar also added.

Emma said, "And Psionics as well."

"Angela, Cat, and I will be the players." Donna said, "And I can drop a dime to the Cascade safe house were we will be if anyone wants to reach us. I am sure that Windel will find out and tattle to his little friends."

"And Mutant X can be in the shadows as well keeping watch as well." Jesse offered.

"He hurts one hair on HawkGirl, Athena," Brennan said, "Or Cat's head," Cat was encouraged, "and they are in for a little smackdown of the elemental kind." And he makes a Tesla Coil with his fingers.

Adam piped up at last, "Now all we have to do is set the stage."