Chapter 20 – Endings and New Beginnings
Kurt looked over at Kitty anxiously as they neared the place where the robot was still being chained to the ground. He would have preferred to have waited for a couple of days, to make sure that Kitty really was well enough to do this, but she had been quite insistent that she was fine now. Practically the moment that the doctors had let her out of hospital, she had made her way here. Doubtlessly she would have gone alone anyway, had Kurt not pointed out that he should go with her, as there was a very real chance that his teleporting ability would be able to get someone out of trouble if something were to go wrong. Kitty had reluctantly agreed that he could accompany her, on the condition that they left immediately, so that she could deal with the robot as soon as possible. And so Kurt watched as she strode towards the chained robot, a determined look on her face. The other mutants merely nodded as she walked passed them, and Kurt wondered if Xavier had told them about her plan. That didn't matter now, he told himself, he had to be ready to teleport anyone out of there, if there were any signs of danger, any indication that anyone might be harmed. He looked around at the assembled mutants for a brief moment, but they did not seem to require his assistance right now, as they were all busy chaining up the robot, or replacing the most recently broken chains. Kurt turned his attention back to Kitty, as she strode towards the head of the robot. He watched as she seemed to place her hand inside the machine. Then the robot seemed to pay attention to her for the first time, appeared to be trying to shake her away, seemed to be attempting to loosen its hands from its bonds so that it could try and swat her away. But all of its attempts were futile. In less than a minute, the glow in the machine's eyes dimmed, and finally blinked out. It stopped moving suddenly, becoming nothing more than an inanimate, lifeless heap of metal. The mutants around it suddenly stopped what they were doing, and turned their attention towards Kitty. There was a moment of awkward silence, and then they started cheering. Kitty, however, just walked over to Kurt, rubbing her head as though she was not feeling well.
"Are you okay?" Kurt asked, concerned, then added, "You did it! They're cheering you, you defeated the great big nasty villainous mutant hunting machine thing!"
Kitty gave him a small smile, "I'm still a bit tired," she admitted, "I don't feel like celebrating just yet. We still have the other machine to disable, the one under the Brotherhood Boarding House. I won't be able to celebrate until we've defeated that one, too."
Kurt nodded, "If you're sure you're up to it right now," he said uncertainly.
Kitty merely nodded, "The sooner that thing is put out of action, the sooner I will be able to relax, I'm sure of it."
"Well, okay," said Kurt uncertainly, "but I'm going with you, just in case."
Kitty grinned at Kurt, "As if I could get rid of you, even if I wanted to," she said.
It didn't take them long to reach the Brotherhood Boarding House. Kitty phased them into the building, nearly scaring Toad, who had been lying on the sofa reading a magazine, out of his skin. Kurt merely glared at him, "We're here to sabotage the robot under here," he said, "no arguments, we've got a truce, remember?"
"Uh, right," said Toad, leaping to his feet, but looking uneasy, "um, are you sure that's such a good idea? I mean, Mystique isn't going to like it…" his voice trailed off as he noticed Kurt's expression.
"Well?" Kurt asked, "Do you really think that I care what she thinks? That thing is a danger, and is just giving the HDL all the more reason to hate and fear us," he sighed, "not that they exactly need an excuse for that. It's better if we just stop that thing, here and now. With or without your co-operation," he added meaningfully.
Toad raised his hands in a gesture of peace and submission, "Look, I want no part of this," he said, "stop that thing for all I care, just remember that Mystique's bound to be mad at you for doing so. Doubt Magneto will be exactly happy about it either," he added.
Kurt nodded, "Don't worry, I'll tell them you had nothing to do with it. Get back to studying your literature," Kurt pointed towards the magazine that Toad had been reading.
"Right. I just can't wait until this is all over so I can go back to hating you once more," he said.
"Agreed," said Kurt, and then turned his attention back to Kitty, "this way," he said, and he led her to Mystique's study room, rolled up the carpet, and opened the trap-door. He then beckoned Kitty to enter ahead of him.
Kitty smiled slightly nervously, "I know you don't like Toad," she began, as she started to descend down the staircase, "but he does have a point. Mystique and Magneto are really not going to be happy with you when they find out that you've been involved in this."
Kurt shrugged, "I'm not going to stay with the Brotherhood much longer anyway. Once school's finished, I'm going back to Germany. I have rather a lot to tell my parents and brothers and sisters, about my time over here. Things that I have avoided saying in an email, in case someone has been hacking into my account. Things I really need to tell them in person," he said.
Kitty looked down, "I guess you do have to go back there," she said, but sounded rather disappointed, "they're your family, after all, and I guess you really haven't seen them for quite a while."
Kurt nodded as he followed her, "I've never been away from them for any significant length of time before," he said, adding, "well, I couldn't really, not looking the way that I do, and I never had a fancy watch to hide my appearance back in Germany. I really do want to be back with them for Christmas."
"I understand," said Kitty, as they slowly descended to the underground room, "but I'll miss you."
"Hey, I'll miss you too," said Kurt, "but I'll only be gone for three weeks or so. I intend to come back here in the New Year."
Kitty smiled at him, "Oh, I thought you were going back forever," she said, "I thought you didn't like being with the Brotherhood, and wanted to leave them."
Kurt shrugged, "You're right," he said, "but I've spoken to Professor Xavier. He asked me to join the X-Men, at least on a trial basis. I didn't know what to say at the time, because I was worried about you. But now that you're fine, well, I can think about it a lot clearer. I intend to accept his offer, and to come back here and join the X-Men at the beginning of the New Year."
"I'm glad," said Kitty, "it always seemed that you didn't really belong in the Brotherhood, anyway."
"Yes, but I'm glad I did come here, to America," said Kurt, "I didn't want to come here at first, and I really never did adjust to living with the others in the Brotherhood Boarding House. But just about everyone else in America has been really nice to me, and, more importantly, if I hadn't come here, I would never have met you."
"Thank you," said Kitty, and Kurt could see, in the dim light of the underground chamber that they had just entered, that Kitty was blushing a rather attractive shade of pink.
"Well, that's the robot," said Kurt, pointing up at the machine, "I guess you just have to do what you did before, with the other one, right?"
Kitty looked up at the machine, "More or less," she said, and started to climb up it, to reach its head.
"Be careful," said Kurt, "mind you don't fall and hurt yourself."
Kitty gave him a withering look, "I'm an X-Man, Kurt," she said patiently, "I'm not afraid of climbing and risking getting my clothes dirty. I know I've been unconscious for a while, but I really am not some pathetic damsel in distress."
Kurt looked down, "I know that," he began, "I just want to make sure that you are okay."
Kitty sighed, "You really don't have to worry about me all the time. I keep telling everyone that I'm fine now."
"I know, but…" Kurt's voice trailed off.
"It's really sweet that you are worrying about me all the time," said Kitty, giving him a small smile, "but it really isn't necessary. I'm a trained X-Man, and we are not afraid to take calculated risks."
"I really do want to be one too," said Kurt, "just like you. But I really can't help it if I've been worried about you. As you said, you've been unconscious for quite a while, and it's not long since they let you out of the hospital."
"They were only keeping me in there just to make sure that I was okay," Kitty reminded him, "and as I keep telling everyone, I'm fine now." Kitty was silent for a moment, as her hand reached inside the robot's head. After a few seconds, the lights in the machine's eyes winked out, and Kitty climbed back down again. She grinned at Kurt, "All done," she said.
"So that's it, is it?" said Kurt, as they left the Brotherhood Boarding House together.
"Unless you want to wait around to see how Mystique reacts when she finds out," said Kitty, giving him a mischievous wink, "I've got to admit, that might be quite an interesting spectacle to observe."
"From a safe distance away," Kurt agreed. He looked around, and could see Professor Xavier slowly rolling towards them, accompanied by a young man who seemed vaguely familiar, even though Kurt didn't think that he had ever seen him before. Kurt turned his attention back to Kitty, "I don't know, I guess I was expecting more of a ta-da thing," he said, waving his hands vaguely. "All hail the conquering heroes that have saved the day, that sort of thing."
Kitty shook her head, "You learned English by watching a load of American movies right?" she said, "Which have given you a rather skewed idea about how things work in America. Along comes the all-conquering American hero, a white heterosexual cisgender man without any form of disability, who saves the day, before riding off into the sunset, either on a motorbike or a snowy-white charger, depending upon when the film is set, quite possibly with his love interest in his arms? Is that what you were thinking would happen?"
Kurt shrugged. "I know real life isn't like the movies," he said slowly, "for one thing, no one ever seems to need to go to the toilet, and if they do ever go, they always find a dead body or something else equally as interesting to further along the plot. I just thought that it wouldn't all be so straightforward, that we wouldn't be able to finish this without some kind of, I don't know, grand finale or something."
"Forgive me for interrupting your conversation," said Xavier, wheeling up to them, "I take it that Ms. Pryde has sabotaged the robot under the Brotherhood Boarding House?"
Kitty nodded, "I just moved one of the wires a few millimetres inside the central processing unit," she said, "it will take them ages to figure out what is wrong with it. They'll have to practically take the whole thing apart to do that, but I don't think they will bother. Easier just to start with a whole new robot."
"So it really is over," said Kurt, "both robots have been damaged to the extent that it will take ages to fix them up again."
Professor Xavier smiled at him, "And there is no parade celebrating the conquering heroes?" he asked, giving Kurt a wry smile.
"Not that I really expected there to be a parade," Kurt said, "but I guess I was expecting something, some sort of celebration of our success now that it's all over, at least some cheering, you know, like when Kitty damaged that other robot."
Professor Xavier shook his head, "We've won a battle, Kurt, but the war is hardly over. A couple of robots have been sabotaged successfully, but there is still a great deal of hostile feelings, both amongst those that hate mutants, and amongst the mutants themselves. Hearts and minds won't change so quickly, if indeed they can be changed at all."
"So what happens now?" Kurt asked.
"Well, we go on as we have done before, and in time we must change and adapt, although change can, must, only come about slowly, if indeed it is to come about at all. There has been too much skulking around, too much spying on each other, too much mistrust."
"Nothing wrong with a bit of skulking around and spying," said the tall boy next to Xavier, "chances are we'd have never been able to get these robots sabotaged without a bit of espionage."
Kurt looked up at the boy, who winked at him, "Oliver?" he asked.
"Guess I look different when not dressed up as a vampire? Of course, you probably would not have been able to recognize me, anyway." The boy held up his arm, where there was a watch that looked very much like Kurt's own, upon his wrist, "Useful things, these," he said, "Oliver couldn't go back, so Michael's coming in his place."
"I have given young Oliver a new identity to help him infiltrate the HDL," explained Xavier, "meet Michael Strachan. He will be responsible for spying on the HDL in the months ahead, and sabotaging their plans where necessary."
"Just enough so that they do not get suspicious," said the newly christened Michael, "things that could quite easily have been an accident, just enough to ensure that they don't make anything like this again. I love my job!" he added.
"Well, hopefully it will prevent the HDL from making another mutant hunting robot," said Kurt, and then turned his attention to Xavier, "What did you do with the other robot?" he asked.
"I am having my people examine it, even as we speak," said Xavier, "there is some quite impressive technology there, and I would certainly like to meet the person or persons responsible for designing that machine. It would be ideal if I could recruit them to my cause, so that that technology could be utilized in order to help to aid mutant and non-mutant relations. However, I fear it will be some time until that will be accomplished, if indeed it can be accomplished at all."
"You could just use your mutant power," Kurt suggested thoughtfully, "I mean, you could sort of take over their minds, and make it so that they had to help you, couldn't you?"
"In the sense that I am technically able to do so, yes," said the Professor, "however, morally, I am prevented from doing so. I have no intention of using my mutant power to control others, unless, of course, not using my power in that way would result in even more morally questionable outcomes."
"I guess so," said Kurt uncertainly.
"Look, we won," said Kitty, "come back with me to the X-Men mansion, I'll show you around, as you will want to know where everything is when you become an X-Man in the New Year."
Professor Xavier gave him a small smile, "Then you have decided to accept my offer, Kurt? You have decided to become an X-Man?"
Kurt nodded, "At least on a temporary basis," he said.
"I am glad," said the Professor.