DISCLAIMER:The majority of the characters belong to Marvel Comics or Joss Whedon. A few, such as
Pyre and Jenny Gardner belong to me. No infringement or offense is intended towards anyone.
NOTES:This story is a sequel of sorts to a trio of earlier stories I wrote; Solitary, Lonely,
and Hey Jupiter. It starts a day or so after Hey Jupiter.
FEEDBACK:Pleassse send lots and lots to rhiannonamaris@yahoo.com If anyone is interested in
archiving this story, just ask first.
SHADOWLIFE Part 1
by
RhiannonAmaris
"If I stay here much longer I think I'll go insane." Kitty Pryde said softly from the curve of
her lover's arm.
Pete was half asleep, but this quickly woke him up. "Luv?" He looked at her questioningly with
his good eye.
"I've felt like this for a while, but I thought it was just because of how much I missed you...
And that was part of it." She paused and kissed his hand as he brushed a lock of her hair out of
her face.
"That makes two of us Kit, but--"
"This is never going to work, is it." She waved her hand in an inclusive gesture. "I mean the
X-Men are falling apart and most of us don't even realize it. And I don't think that it's a bad
thing. Do you have any idea how much Xaiver reminds me of Magneto these days? It's frigging
scary."
"I could have told you that. In fact I have." Pete straightened up and leaned against the
head-board. His lover punched his chest lightly.
"Thank you, Mister Know-it-all. I grew up trying to make the Dream real and now it seems like
everything we do makes things worse." Shadowcat sat up. "And do you know what really pisses me
off? Whenever someone does something that works they're ostracized. Look at how they treat Remy."
"Ya mean they're pissed about wot he's doin' with the Guilds? I would a thought they'd be
jumping for joy." Pete's eye widened and he ran a hand through his unruly hair.
"Just the fearless leaders really. What sec-- How did you know what I was talking about?"
"Oh, I have a few ears to the ground, luv." Wisdom smirked at her.
"Is that so?" Kitty raised an eyebrow. "What have you been up to? You haven't mentioned
anything."
"Well, luv, we have been rather busy." He leaned over and kissed her lingeringly.
"So we have." Kitty couldn't help but smile at the thought of how they had spent most of the
past day. 'It's been like when we got back from Dream Nails all over again.' "But that doesn't
answer the question."
"Taking care of what's left of Black Air mostly." The month or so spent drunk in the gutter went
unmentioned. "That lot's as bad as roaches." Wisdom got up and searched through the pockets of
his jacket. "That bloody purple rat stole me fags again! It's not funny Pryde."
"Lockheed's in Massachusetts Pete." Kitty giggled.
"Then where in bloody hell did my cigarettes go?"
"You still haven't answered the question, you git. What have you been doing all this time?"
While her tone was teasing, there was a seriousness in her eyes.
Pete leaned back against the wall and grinned. "Let's just say I threw my lot in with some like
minded individuals."
"Actually, let's not."
"Alright, I give. Bloody nag." He leaned over the bed and kissed her fondly. Then he backed away
with a wry grin and began to get dressed. "Started out just me an' some other blokes from Intel
were taking care of some.. old business of ours."
Kitty raised an eyebrow at that. His inclusion of her didn't narrow things down much, if at all.
At the same time it some how seemed like the past year had never happened. "Old Intel business,
or old Excaliber business, love? And I'm sure Jenny loves being referred to as 'one o' the
blokes."
"Yer accent's still awful. An' Gardner's more than used to it." He paused in pulling on his
white under shirt. "And to answer the question, both."
"Black Air." She said the name coldly, without a doubt.
"Bits an'' pieces of it, yeah. Those bits and pieces can still do plenty of damage though. Lost
the eye early on, in Russia. Did some work in Genosha. Only thing that's ever changed in that
hellhole is whose on top."
"Sam mentioned that. He didn't go into much detail, though."
"Probably thought it'd be gossiping or some such. Have to admit, though, his lot have got a lot
of potential." Pete crowed triumphantly when he spotted a pack of Marlboros on the floor and lit
up. "Right now I'm mainly trying to track down some of the less... moral scientists."
"Experimentation on mutants?"
"Nah, that's the odd thing. They seem to be dealing entirely in the supernatural. They've set up
shop in this little university town in southern California."
Kitty stretched and got up. "That seems an odd choice."
"Not really. For one thing they've got an instant recruiting base-- They've small bloody army of
made of under grads that think they're saving the world. Also there's the town itself."
Pryde stopped pulling on her jeans and raised an eyebrow at him. "And how's that?"
Pete grinned, but there was no humor in the expression. "The Spaniards had a name for it. The
Boca del Inferno. Somethin' like that anyways. My Spanish is non-existent. The translation I can
handle, though. The Mouth of Hell. I had a word with Conjob. According to him it's more than
accurate. There's some kind of mystical convergence underneath it. The place is crawling with
vampires and demons and the like."
"So all they have to do is send the soldier boys out every now and then to bring back guinea
pigs."
"Yeah. The whole deal is a bad situation. I think we'll manage it well enough though." Pete had
finished dressing and sat on the edge of the bed watching her.
"We? Did you join up with Intel or something?"
"Not really. All the counter-ups we've been is pretty much unofficial. Parts of British Intel
have been helpful, but mostly it's just odds and ends."
Pete's evasiveness was beginning to annoy Kitty. "Such as?"
"Guthrie and his lot among others. On this one we'll working with this young werewolf from
Sunnydale-- a real one, not a mutant like Raheny. Some of the Yanks found out about the
Initiative and want them shut down, so we'll be working with one of theirs, Pyre they call her.
She's a psion. I don't much like having someone as young as her in on this, but..."
"And how young is she?", Kitty asked. She knew he wouldn't of mentioned if he didn't think it
was important. Pete had always despised people that recruited kids.
"You remember that attempted terrorist attack in New York earlier this year? A couple of agents
that were on the look out for them and a couple of civilians developed super powers of some kind
on the spot. Instant covert super team on a string. None of them really got a choice, but it
seems to me that Pyre was the only one that noticed. Mike was one of the civvies. She's fifteen
or sixteen, looks younger but seems older unless she's trying."
"The poor thing." Kitty was obviously remembering the White Queen trying to recruit her all
those years ago.
Pete broke her reverie by snorting. He too was thinking of Emma Frost. "She's no innocent Kit.
Reason she was in the crowd was that she figured there'd be lots of fat marks-- She was picking
pockets. I got the impression she'd been on the streets for a while. Kid's more paranoid than
the whole lot of the others put together." He smiled at that.
"But still..."
Wisdom's grin disappeared. "I know." Because he knew all to well that young 'Mike' had much more
in common with the White Queen than flexible morals.
"Where did you say the werewolf was from again Pete?" Kitty asked as if she something was just
below the surface of her mind and refused to surface.
"Sunnydale, California; where all of this is going down. Why?" His back was to her as he
finished putting on his tie.
There was a long silence. "I have family there. An aunt, uncle and cousin, my mom's sister's
family. Willow, my cousin, and I started e-mailing each other a lot a little while back. She's
about my age and going to university there."
Pete was quite, as if he was trying to remember something. "What's this cousin of yours' last
name?"
"Rosenburg. What does that have to do with any--"
"She's the werewolf's ex-girlfriend. Known about the Hellmouth and all that for longer than he
has. She's a witch." Kitty narrowed her eyes and Pete realized that if he didn't clarify himself
quickly he'd dig himself into a deep hole. "As in Wiccan. Except she can do real spells an'
stuff. Like 'Manda." Kitty nodded at the explanation, but frowned. "Anyway, I've got two main
sources on Sunnydale. Conjob and Oz. Oz is the only one that's been there. I got the impression
from him that her and some others would lend a hand if they knew what was up. He called them
something... A couple things actually. Nothing bad, mind you. The Scooby Gang or the Slayerettes.
Apparently there's this girl that's 'destined to keep back the forces of darkness' or some rot
and her mates started helping her out with it." He took another drag off of his cigarette.
"Conjob mentioned her and her teacher, but not the rest of them. Turns out he and the teacher
are mates from their punk days. We shouldn't have to call anyone else in, but if all else fails
LA is close by and Angel and his lot knows Sunnydale-- most of 'em anyway. And 'Cania is mates
with a teleporter."
"So when do we leave." Kitty was amazed by how much she wanted to leave. How much she wanted to
be back in the real world-- no matter how surreal this was it would be real, not a cloistered
New York mansion. These days she could readily admit that, except for her days in England, she
hadn't been a part of the real world since she was thirteen.
Pete stared at her for a moment. "I didn't think you would... That is to say I wasn't assuming
you'd be in."
"Of course I'm in, you git!"
"In that case I'm waiting on word from Pyre and Oz and we're off."
CONTINUED IN PART 2
Pyre and Jenny Gardner belong to me. No infringement or offense is intended towards anyone.
NOTES:This story is a sequel of sorts to a trio of earlier stories I wrote; Solitary, Lonely,
and Hey Jupiter. It starts a day or so after Hey Jupiter.
FEEDBACK:Pleassse send lots and lots to rhiannonamaris@yahoo.com If anyone is interested in
archiving this story, just ask first.
SHADOWLIFE Part 1
by
RhiannonAmaris
"If I stay here much longer I think I'll go insane." Kitty Pryde said softly from the curve of
her lover's arm.
Pete was half asleep, but this quickly woke him up. "Luv?" He looked at her questioningly with
his good eye.
"I've felt like this for a while, but I thought it was just because of how much I missed you...
And that was part of it." She paused and kissed his hand as he brushed a lock of her hair out of
her face.
"That makes two of us Kit, but--"
"This is never going to work, is it." She waved her hand in an inclusive gesture. "I mean the
X-Men are falling apart and most of us don't even realize it. And I don't think that it's a bad
thing. Do you have any idea how much Xaiver reminds me of Magneto these days? It's frigging
scary."
"I could have told you that. In fact I have." Pete straightened up and leaned against the
head-board. His lover punched his chest lightly.
"Thank you, Mister Know-it-all. I grew up trying to make the Dream real and now it seems like
everything we do makes things worse." Shadowcat sat up. "And do you know what really pisses me
off? Whenever someone does something that works they're ostracized. Look at how they treat Remy."
"Ya mean they're pissed about wot he's doin' with the Guilds? I would a thought they'd be
jumping for joy." Pete's eye widened and he ran a hand through his unruly hair.
"Just the fearless leaders really. What sec-- How did you know what I was talking about?"
"Oh, I have a few ears to the ground, luv." Wisdom smirked at her.
"Is that so?" Kitty raised an eyebrow. "What have you been up to? You haven't mentioned
anything."
"Well, luv, we have been rather busy." He leaned over and kissed her lingeringly.
"So we have." Kitty couldn't help but smile at the thought of how they had spent most of the
past day. 'It's been like when we got back from Dream Nails all over again.' "But that doesn't
answer the question."
"Taking care of what's left of Black Air mostly." The month or so spent drunk in the gutter went
unmentioned. "That lot's as bad as roaches." Wisdom got up and searched through the pockets of
his jacket. "That bloody purple rat stole me fags again! It's not funny Pryde."
"Lockheed's in Massachusetts Pete." Kitty giggled.
"Then where in bloody hell did my cigarettes go?"
"You still haven't answered the question, you git. What have you been doing all this time?"
While her tone was teasing, there was a seriousness in her eyes.
Pete leaned back against the wall and grinned. "Let's just say I threw my lot in with some like
minded individuals."
"Actually, let's not."
"Alright, I give. Bloody nag." He leaned over the bed and kissed her fondly. Then he backed away
with a wry grin and began to get dressed. "Started out just me an' some other blokes from Intel
were taking care of some.. old business of ours."
Kitty raised an eyebrow at that. His inclusion of her didn't narrow things down much, if at all.
At the same time it some how seemed like the past year had never happened. "Old Intel business,
or old Excaliber business, love? And I'm sure Jenny loves being referred to as 'one o' the
blokes."
"Yer accent's still awful. An' Gardner's more than used to it." He paused in pulling on his
white under shirt. "And to answer the question, both."
"Black Air." She said the name coldly, without a doubt.
"Bits an'' pieces of it, yeah. Those bits and pieces can still do plenty of damage though. Lost
the eye early on, in Russia. Did some work in Genosha. Only thing that's ever changed in that
hellhole is whose on top."
"Sam mentioned that. He didn't go into much detail, though."
"Probably thought it'd be gossiping or some such. Have to admit, though, his lot have got a lot
of potential." Pete crowed triumphantly when he spotted a pack of Marlboros on the floor and lit
up. "Right now I'm mainly trying to track down some of the less... moral scientists."
"Experimentation on mutants?"
"Nah, that's the odd thing. They seem to be dealing entirely in the supernatural. They've set up
shop in this little university town in southern California."
Kitty stretched and got up. "That seems an odd choice."
"Not really. For one thing they've got an instant recruiting base-- They've small bloody army of
made of under grads that think they're saving the world. Also there's the town itself."
Pryde stopped pulling on her jeans and raised an eyebrow at him. "And how's that?"
Pete grinned, but there was no humor in the expression. "The Spaniards had a name for it. The
Boca del Inferno. Somethin' like that anyways. My Spanish is non-existent. The translation I can
handle, though. The Mouth of Hell. I had a word with Conjob. According to him it's more than
accurate. There's some kind of mystical convergence underneath it. The place is crawling with
vampires and demons and the like."
"So all they have to do is send the soldier boys out every now and then to bring back guinea
pigs."
"Yeah. The whole deal is a bad situation. I think we'll manage it well enough though." Pete had
finished dressing and sat on the edge of the bed watching her.
"We? Did you join up with Intel or something?"
"Not really. All the counter-ups we've been is pretty much unofficial. Parts of British Intel
have been helpful, but mostly it's just odds and ends."
Pete's evasiveness was beginning to annoy Kitty. "Such as?"
"Guthrie and his lot among others. On this one we'll working with this young werewolf from
Sunnydale-- a real one, not a mutant like Raheny. Some of the Yanks found out about the
Initiative and want them shut down, so we'll be working with one of theirs, Pyre they call her.
She's a psion. I don't much like having someone as young as her in on this, but..."
"And how young is she?", Kitty asked. She knew he wouldn't of mentioned if he didn't think it
was important. Pete had always despised people that recruited kids.
"You remember that attempted terrorist attack in New York earlier this year? A couple of agents
that were on the look out for them and a couple of civilians developed super powers of some kind
on the spot. Instant covert super team on a string. None of them really got a choice, but it
seems to me that Pyre was the only one that noticed. Mike was one of the civvies. She's fifteen
or sixteen, looks younger but seems older unless she's trying."
"The poor thing." Kitty was obviously remembering the White Queen trying to recruit her all
those years ago.
Pete broke her reverie by snorting. He too was thinking of Emma Frost. "She's no innocent Kit.
Reason she was in the crowd was that she figured there'd be lots of fat marks-- She was picking
pockets. I got the impression she'd been on the streets for a while. Kid's more paranoid than
the whole lot of the others put together." He smiled at that.
"But still..."
Wisdom's grin disappeared. "I know." Because he knew all to well that young 'Mike' had much more
in common with the White Queen than flexible morals.
"Where did you say the werewolf was from again Pete?" Kitty asked as if she something was just
below the surface of her mind and refused to surface.
"Sunnydale, California; where all of this is going down. Why?" His back was to her as he
finished putting on his tie.
There was a long silence. "I have family there. An aunt, uncle and cousin, my mom's sister's
family. Willow, my cousin, and I started e-mailing each other a lot a little while back. She's
about my age and going to university there."
Pete was quite, as if he was trying to remember something. "What's this cousin of yours' last
name?"
"Rosenburg. What does that have to do with any--"
"She's the werewolf's ex-girlfriend. Known about the Hellmouth and all that for longer than he
has. She's a witch." Kitty narrowed her eyes and Pete realized that if he didn't clarify himself
quickly he'd dig himself into a deep hole. "As in Wiccan. Except she can do real spells an'
stuff. Like 'Manda." Kitty nodded at the explanation, but frowned. "Anyway, I've got two main
sources on Sunnydale. Conjob and Oz. Oz is the only one that's been there. I got the impression
from him that her and some others would lend a hand if they knew what was up. He called them
something... A couple things actually. Nothing bad, mind you. The Scooby Gang or the Slayerettes.
Apparently there's this girl that's 'destined to keep back the forces of darkness' or some rot
and her mates started helping her out with it." He took another drag off of his cigarette.
"Conjob mentioned her and her teacher, but not the rest of them. Turns out he and the teacher
are mates from their punk days. We shouldn't have to call anyone else in, but if all else fails
LA is close by and Angel and his lot knows Sunnydale-- most of 'em anyway. And 'Cania is mates
with a teleporter."
"So when do we leave." Kitty was amazed by how much she wanted to leave. How much she wanted to
be back in the real world-- no matter how surreal this was it would be real, not a cloistered
New York mansion. These days she could readily admit that, except for her days in England, she
hadn't been a part of the real world since she was thirteen.
Pete stared at her for a moment. "I didn't think you would... That is to say I wasn't assuming
you'd be in."
"Of course I'm in, you git!"
"In that case I'm waiting on word from Pyre and Oz and we're off."
CONTINUED IN PART 2