AN:

This chapter contains a scene from King of Thieves.

Also, I meant to mention this at the end of last chapter and forgot: Kitty really did get stuck in phase by one of Harpoon's harpoons in the comics, during the Morlock Massacre. She was actually in the process of saving Rogue's life at the time (Rogue had been depowered by Scrambler). It took Mr Fantastic and Dr Doom working together to enable Kitty to solidify again. They will not be making an appearance in this story though ;)

Chapter 7

Storm looked up from her bed in the med lab as Hank entered with a gentleman she hadn't seen before. Her left arm and leg were both in casts.

"Storm," Hank said, "I'd like to introduce you to my friend, Forge. He was the one who invented Magneto's plastic prison. Forge, this is our Headmistress, Storm."

"A pleasure to meet you," Forge said with a nod.

"Likewise," Storm replied. "I would shake your hand, but that is a little awkward for me at the moment."

"So I see," Forge said sympathetically.

"Forge has a genius for invention," Hank went on. "I brought him in to look at that cloning chamber and see if he can do anything to help Kitty."

"I thought you knew what was wrong?" Storm asked with a frowned.

"I do. I just don't have the expertise to do anything about it," Hank replied.

Storm nodded. "Well, I guess you had better get started then. If there is anything you need, Forge, let us know."

"I shall," Forge said.

The men departed Storm's room, and headed into another room of the med lab, where Kitty was lying on the bed—in a manner of speaking—and Psylocke was sitting beside her.

"Kitty, Betsy," Hank said. "This is my friend Forge."

"Hi," Psylocke said and Kitty lifted a hand to wave at him.

"Forge, these are Betsy and Kitty," Hank went on. "Betsy has...recently had to change bodies. Her original body was killed while she was on the astral plane—she's a telepath—and she's taken up residence in Kwannon's body. We're hoping you may be able to help up determine how the cloning chamber works so that we can clone Betsy's original body."

Forge nodded.

"Kitty's mutant ability is to make herself intangible. Unfortunately, while in an intangible state, she was attacked by a bio-kinetically charged harpoon. The charge appears to have disrupted the electrical impulses between her molecules and she is slowly disintegrating as the molecules move further and further away," Hank said gravely. "It's only a matter of days before..."

"Obviously Kitty's our priority then," Forge said, with a nod towards Betsy, who merely acknowledged that this was only right. "Can I look at the data you've collected? I should warn you now, my own powers of invention do have their limits."

"I consider myself warned," Hank replied.

In less than twenty-four hours later, Forge had conjured up a 'containment chamber', into which Kitty made herself at home. It wouldn't fix the problem, but it would slow down the disintegration process from a matter of days to a few months. At the very least it bought them time. In between attempting to create a machine that would do what they wanted (Forge advised Hank that even with his mutant powers, there were some inventions that took months, even years to put together), Forge looked at the cloning chamber.

"There's a bio-gel inside," Hank told Storm. "We believe that Sinister injects the DNA sample into the bio-gel, and it's from that the clone is made. Going from what Madelyne, Piotr, and Paige have found in Sinister's files so far, it takes a few months for a clone to fully form."

"A few months will be too late," said Psylocke, and Hank turned to see her standing in the doorway. "My personality will have become indistinguishable from Kwannon's in a few months. The merging has already begun."

"I'm sorry, Betsy," Hank said sympathetically. "I'm afraid that—"

"Use the chamber to clone Kitty," Psylocke said, not wanting to hear what Hank would have said. "If that containment chamber can hold her long enough, I can transfer her mind to the new body when the time comes."

Hank nodded slowly. "If you're sure."

"I am."

Kitty watched while Hank headed into the freezer room to collect the sample of her DNA they had. She looked at Psylocke.

"Are you sure about this?" Kitty asked. "We stole the cloning chamber for you."

"I know, and I appreciate your concern," Psylocke replied, placing her hand on the clear, round wall of the containment chamber. "But you need this more than I do."

"They don't even know if they can save me—"

"And it'll be months before the clone is done," Psylocke said firmly. "By then the damage will be well and truly done; Kwannon and I will be one and the same. It's going to be confusing as hell, because I'm in the physically twenty-year-old clone body of a woman who's a forty-or-something-year-old ninja. But hey, good news, with these new skills I might even be able to hold my own against Logan in the DR now."

Kitty laughed in her mind and body, although no sound came out.

Bobby scratched his head, although this was more a subconscious action, as his icy head wasn't even itchy. Of course, he was also sitting at the dinner table with everyone else, even though he couldn't even eat in his iceform.

"So, you're saying we can't bring Kitty up here for Christmas? She has to stay in the med lad?" he asked.

"I'm afraid so, Bobby," Hank replied solemnly. "For best results, the containment chamber has to stay where it is."

"Well, that sucks," Bobby said. "It's bad enough we can't even talk to her without using Betsy as an intermediary—no offence Betsy, I'm sure you hate being used as an intermediary—but now she has to miss out on Christmas as well."

"I'm sure that Kitty will not mind," Piotr said. "She does not celebrate Christmas."

"Oh yeah, I forgot she was Jewish," Bobby said, considered, and then hopped up out of his chair. "No matter! If Kitty can't attend the holiday celebrations, then the holiday will just have to attend her!"

"Where are you going?" Tabitha asked as Bobby started to race off.

"To my brand new ice-proof computer!" Bobby said, walking backwards so he could look at her. "Thank you, Forge. I need to Google Hanukkah."

"Kurt! Phone!" Tabitha called, and Kurt looked up from the television where he was watching Pirates of the Caribbean with the Storm. "It's Rogue."

"Oh, thank you," Kurt said.

Kurt gave Storm a nod as he stood, then he left the room and located the nearest phone. He hadn't actually heard from Rogue since Wanda and John's wedding, and he made a mental note to change that, particularly now that he knew for certain that she really was his sister.

"Hello, Rogue?" he said.

"Hi Kurt," Rogue replied. "Umm, how are you doing?"

"I'm well, thank you," Kurt replied. "And yourself?"

"Good, good," Rogue said. "Uhh, well, the reason why I'm calling is... well, I kinda ran into Mystique last week."

"I see."

"And I, umm, absorbed her."

"Okay," Kurt said patiently.

"And well... I kinda found out a few things. About us," Rogue said and then went on quickly: "I found out why she abandoned me, which I really don't want to go into right now, but... well, I also found out what happened to you, and I just... I mean I don't know if you ever got the chance to talk to her at the wedding or if she'll ever tell you if you ask next time you see each other, and I knew you wanted to know... Uhh, would you like me to tell you?"

There was a long silence as Kurt took in Rogue's words. This was something he had wanted to asked Mystique about directly, but he hadn't seen her since the wedding either, and he had no way of knowing when he might have a chance for a private chat.

"I... yes," he said finally, feeling nervous.

"Okay," Rogue said. "Well, Mystique was married at the time, sort of—she was using a different shape, you know, looking like a normal person? So her husband never knew who she really was. Anyway, when you were born, you were born blue and fuzzy and with a tail, and the doctor and her husband kind of freaked."

"Ahh," Kurt said ruefully. "Used to that reaction."

"Yeah, anyway, the exact sequence of events is a little fuzzy, but everyone figured you were a demon and Mystique ended up running off with you. Except they were chasing her and she was crossing this bridge and... well... you went over the edge. Mystique was able to escape by blending into the crowd, but yeah... She thought you died, which was why she never went after you and it wasn't until you showed up with us that she realised you were even alive."

Kurt nodded thoughtfully. He remembered talking to Mystique and asking her why she didn't just turn into a 'normal' person, and she had responded that they shouldn't have to. All of sudden those words seemed to take on a whole other meaning.

"Thank you," Kurt said, abruptly realising Rogue couldn't see him nod.

"There's something else too," Rogue said. "We, ahh, we have a brother."

"Oh?"

"His name's Graydon Creed. He's Sabretooth's son," Rogue said, paused and then asked: "Do you know Sabretooth?"

"Only by reputation," Kurt said, thinking of what the man had done to Logan and Psylocke.

"Probably better that way," Rogue said dryly. "Anyway, they kinda dumped him once they realised he was human. Baseline human, that is."

"That's disappointing," Kurt said. "That they abandoned him, not that he was born human, I mean."

"Yeah, I feel his pain," Rogue said.

Instead of meeting in the War Room as they normally would, the X-men gathered in the med lab so that Kitty could be involved. Scott was still wounded, but he was recovering. Storm was really looking forward to getting the casts off. Everyone left Bobby a wide birth, as he could only contain his cold temperature so much, and anyone near him ended up needing a winter jacket. He was trying not to take it to heart. Psylocke sat by the containment chamber while Kitty looked on.

"We haven't pinpointed Sinister's new base yet," Madelyne said as head of the team delving into Sinsiter's files, "but we have found some likely locations."

"I don't suppose we've won the jackpot at all and found some floor plans?" Tabitha asked.

"I wish," Madelyne replied.

"If the old base is any indication," Kurt said, "then Nate is being kept in the most secure part of the new one."

"And unlike yours and Kitty's trip, we can't expect the next mission to have so few Marauders onsite," Storm said. "We should even expect to run into Sinister."

"I don't know about you guys, but I'm not all that eager to get my butt handed to me again," Bobby said, "almost literally."

"We can't just do nothing—" Madelyne began.

"No one's suggesting that," Scott said quickly. "What my friends are trying to say is that we need to be smarter about it next time."

Madelyne visibly relaxed into her chair.

"Do not worry, Madelyne," Storm said comfortingly. "We have no intention of allowing Sinister to keep your son from you. However, the possession of a Thomas the Tank Engine themed room at least suggests that he is being looked after."

"You don't know that," Madelyne insisted.

"No, we do not, we can only surmise," Storm replied calmly.

"It's hope, anyway," said Jubilee. "I'd happily accept that any day of the week."

"How are we going to play this smarter though?" asked Bobby. "Stage a fire drill? Somehow I don't think that Sinister's the kind of guy who runs outside and waits for the fire department to show up."

"I do not think so either, but we should continue to think along those lines," Storm said.

A long silence followed while everyone considered this. An idea occurred to Storm, but she pushed it to the back of her mind.

"Well, in other news," Tabitha said when the silence dragged out, "I've heard from Sam. He wanted us to know that the fake fight we staged between him and Psylocke worked; between the news story and the photos of the body—thanks Betsy—Sam's been recruited."

"Does he know how serious the Friends of Humanity are yet?" Bobby asked urgently.

Tabitha nodded. "Oh, these guys are serious, all right. Sam was given access to a peer-to-peer network and the stuff on there is... Well, Sam didn't give me all the details, but he said it's nasty business. A lot of the folks there use fake names and stuff, so it's still relatively anonymous, but there's also more of a 'community' feel to it than there was in the public forum. Photos and videos of violence against mutants are more frequently shared. Sam's still working on it, but a lot of the folks there keep kill counts."

"He thinks he can find '100'?" Kitty asked through Psylocke, who was projecting Kitty's comments to the group.

"In a manner of speaking. As I said most of them still use fake names—"

"Doesn't matter. If I can get an IP address, I can track them down," Kitty insisted.

"Okay, well, you're the computer genius, so I'll take your word on that," said Tabitha. "Anyway, so Sam's looking to see if he can find out who '100' is. But, from what he was saying, tracking down '100' is the least of our troubles. These guys organise stuff. They share information on where mutants are and then plot to band up and kill them. Sam's checking to see if they know anything about the school—very, very carefully."

"Speaking of which," said Logan, "just how are you and Sam staying in contact?"

He knew that they had intended on keeping Sam's contact with the school down to a minimum, but no one had let him in on just how they were staying in contact with him. Tabitha grinned.

"Well, I'd tell you, but you don't like it when we bring up a certain game during meetings," Tabitha said slyly.

Logan growled. "World of Warcraft?"

"You said it, not me," Tabitha said with fiendish delight. "And we can do it without even saying 'mutant' or 'Friends of Humanity' or anything, so if anyone did happen to check up on Sam's gaming, they wouldn't know anything was being passed on."

"If it works, I do not care how they do it," Storm said, looking toward Logan.

Logan grumbled.

"Speaking of which," Piotr said. "It turned out to be a good thing that we advised the Brotherhood of our intentions to, uhh, 'stage Psylocke's death' as it were. John told us they heard about it and they definitely would have acted—especially because it was an X-man death."

"Just how much did you tell them?" Storm asked.

"Not much. As far as they know we were laying a trap for someone. They seemed to understand that we wouldn't give them all the details," Piotr said.

"Good. I wouldn't put it past them to try and use Sam's position to their benefit," Storm said, "and not necessarily ours, or the long-term benefit of anyone else."

"I'm sure they wouldn't try to hurt Sam or anything," Tabitha said with a frown.

"Maybe not intentionally," Storm said. "But we can't have Sam spying for two different people at once."

"He, that would make him a triple agent," Bobby said with a snicker. "You know, instead of a double agent..."

"Yes, we get it Bobby," Kitty said.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the country, a man in his mid-to-late twenties was sitting down at his computer. He was in a foul mood; he'd been recently caught doing illegal street racing and amongst other things his motorcycle had been impounded. Still, he had found something that helped take his mind off his troubles: the Friends of Humanity.

CageFighter:
There was this one time I beat the crap out of this mutie in a cage fight

Chud03:
not this story again

CageFighter:
Didn't know he was a mutie until after the fight when he didn't have a scratch on him
and then he grows these six shiny 16 inch claws and slices the barkeeps gun in half!

Chud03:
The last time you told this story they were only 14 inches

Tribune:
12 inches the time before that

Farmboy:
Don't you think Wolverine's tough enough without exaggerating things?

CageFighter:
Blah blah blah

Chud03:
he aint that tough Framboy
i think your a coward

Tribune:
Now now
The whole point of the FoH is so we can band together to take down the muties that are too tough for us to handle by ourselves
Once we track down where Wolverine is we'll take him as a team

Farmboy:
Good idea

Racer55:
I think I've met Wolverine
He came around to my bar looking for his daughter

Farmboy:
He has a daughter?

Chud03:
their breeding now?
great thats all we need

Racer55:
Yeah he has a daughter
I met her too

Tribune:
Of course they're breeding
They've been breeding for generations now
Muties are hardly a 'new' thing

Racer55:
Didn't know she was a mutie straight away

CageFighter:
Yeah thats the worst part
most of them look just like us

Tribune:
Tell me about this daughter

Racer55:
She had a white streak of hair and really long bone claws that came out of her hands

Chud03:
how long r they and r they going 2 keep growing in length every time u tell the story?

Racer55:
And she was able to crush my friend's gun just by looking at it

Farmboy:
Wow

Racer55:
I stabbed her in the back but she seems fine after

CageFigher:
Maybe she can heal like her old man too

Racer55:
Maybe
Me and my buds torched her place when she left with her boyfriend
He was a mutie too
He had demon eyes

Chud03:
more breeding!

Tribune:
Yes it is pretty disgusting
Do you know her name?

Racer55:
Rogue or Marie
And the boyfriend was Gambit
I don't really know too mcuh about him except he rode a motorcycle too
Rogue used to race with us all the time before we found out

Tribune:
Add what you know about these guys to our database of known muties
The more we know, the easier it'll be to hunt them down and kill them