Date: Tue, 09 Apr 1996 19:43:06 GMT X-writers is a non-profit fan-fiction organisation using characters copyright to Marvel Entertainments without their permission. This issue is dedicated to my brothers Louis and Czeslaw cause they're so sweet. The majority of their dialogue is stuff they have actually said while on the Underground. --------------------------- Excalibur #96 "Glasgow's Miles Better" by Lady Amethyst --------------------------- Brian sat outside of the high tech cell looking doubtful. "So let me get this straight. You want to join Excalibur?" There was a faint smirk in his voice. He couldn't quite believe he was even having this conversion. "Yes," answered the young/old man earnestly. "You want us to let you out of that cell and give you our complete trust as part of the team?" The guy must have flipped. "Yes," there was uncertainty in his voice. "After you beat me to a pulp and nuked two towns?" Now there was anger. "Well..." Exodus trailed off. He was no fool to continue this conversation. He had no excuses other than 'power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely'. He remained silent as the erstwhile Captain Britain walked away. With his power drained his senses seemed clearer, he could see past his own ego. He wished to make up for all the evil he had done. His power would return of course, was doing so already, but this time it would be different. He had thought that before. Before he had betrayed the mother of Lancelot, before he had slain her for the power he now held. But once you have such power it is nigh on impossible to give it up, the genie cannot be put back in the bottle. Or in this case the demon. And they would not be able to hold him here very much longer. ---- Moira looked anxiously over her shoulder as she spoke into the phone. "Aye tha's right. Aye. An' thanks again f'r arrangin' this John. Rahne wis a bit busy durin' the open day. Aye ah'm sure she will. Bye then." She put down the phone and hurried out her office into the main lab where Victor von Doom was looking over the readings of the acolyte Unuscione. Her body was infected with an unstoppable techno-organic virus, courtesy of Douglock during their battle with the Acolytes just over two weeks ago. It looked likely that she would hold on to her humanity for a short while but her advancement towards the form of the Phalanx was as inexorable as Moira's descent towards death, courtesy of the Legacy virus type III. And just like Moira's Legacy infection this was completely unexpected. The Phalanx had been unable to infect mutants, yet Unuscione was a mutant and she was undoubtably infected. However Warlock's version of the techno-virus had been able to infect anyone. Was it possible that Douglock was more than he seemed? Or certainly more than the Phalanx had been. Doom didn't seem to have done anything untoward in the few minutes she had been away answering the phone but she glared at him anyway for good measure. It had been bliss the few days he'd been closeted away in his room after Cathy had left with that John Constantine. She'd been worried that he would chase after them, given Cathy's power, but instead he had emerged with a worrying "I have a cunning plan" gleam in his eye and done nothing. She expected everything would be revealed eventually, not that that was a good thing. But she had to admit Victor von Doom was a smart man, not just as a scientist. Doom had learned a lot in his quest to rule the world for its own good. Enough to give the appearance of a more peaceful person while actually he had just learned to bide his time. Good things came to those who waited. Sometimes you just had to start small. Recent events on the Scottish/English border had given him an idea. But first he felt like showing this MacTaggart woman up by curing the Legacy Virus. ---- Sally Blevins, Skids, was glad to be out of the "detention chamber" she'd been placed in. After they had determined that she had not been at fault for her actions in preventing Shadowcat from saving Colossus they had decided to give her more of a free reign, accompanied of course. In this case by Meggan. Skids still felt a little, well all right a lot after more recent events, lost after the death of Rusty. When they had decided to join Magneto on Avalon at had been the first free choice they had made in a long time. And that had felt good. Despite their associations with the X-Men they had never been as much a part of the family as the others. All they had really needed was each other. All she had wanted was to stay with him forever. Holocaust. She would destroy him if she could. Where ever, whoever, whatever... she shivered. She couldn't even get that angry, she just felt so cold. So empty. So alone. She wanted... she wanted to get the hell of this God forsaken island and go somewhere warm, where she actually knew people. She had to get out of here. ---- Margali Szardos was once a powerful sorceress, but she had fallen low on the winding way. She had lost what gave her power and at first she had thought that for the best. She had soon realised otherwise. So in order to ascend once more she had... taken... a sword from her daughter. A soulsword. But it was not what she had hoped for. It's power was tied to an individual and she could not reach it although it was in her hands. For it was not, as she had thought, a sword imbued with magical powers. It was a piece of a young womans soul. And as that, perhaps the sword could be useful after all. But she would need to weave a spell, to summon and capture, to hold and bind. To bring her what she needed. And that would take a little time. ---- Kitty walked two paces behind Rahne and Douglock. How come Moira couldn't do this? Well she knew the answer to that but it didn't mean she cared that Moira had good reason to remain on Muir while Shadowcat accompanied Rahne on her visit to Glasgow University. For not the first time Kitty wondered what her life would have been like if she hadn't gone to Xavier's, if she had gone to University, got a computing degree in the normal way... She'd probably have ended up pale and overweight, hunched over a computer in a tiny office doing a brain-numbing job. But she was forgetting her age again, she was still only 16. If she were just a normal kid she wouldn't have even made it to University yet. Rahne had decided she wanted to follow in Moira's footsteps a little and study something Biological at Glasgow University, starting after the summer. She was a little young of course, being only 16, (though she'd be 17 by the time her course started) but Moira had sorted that out. Kitty wondered absently if the X-Men would take her back. I mean what was she doing here anyway? Rachael was gone, Kurt had moved off the island and Lockheed kept sloping off God knows where (see Unlimited #10 for where). If she went back to the X-Men she could see Storm and Wolverine more often. Plus she... She gasped as she caught sight of a dark haired man in a black trenchcoat... then kicked herself mentally. That was the second time she'd done that today. It was getting embarrassing. Ever since that damn Constantine bloke had appeared and disappeared again, dropping Pete's name like a bomb into the conversation. She'd had to bite her tongue trying not ask how he was, where he was, could she be any help down in London? This was ridiculous. It was like Alistaire Stewart all over again only worse, cause this time she'd actually got him and then screwed it up. ---- Ahead of her Rahne hung onto Douglocks' hand in the milling crowd. He was getting pretty good at changing his appearance these days. "Ah thought ah'd get Kitty, ah mean Kate, her birthday present while wur in th' city," she told him. "But ah'll need ye tae distract her so she disnae see whit ah'm gettin' her." "I too would like to get her a present. I am looking forward to her party, I have never been to a birthday party before. What do you buy somebody for their birthday?" "Well... ye get them somethin' they really want. Assumin' ye c'n afford it that is." "So I should pick the thing she wants most that I can get?" he questioned. "Aye." "So how do I know what she wants? I gather it is supposed to be a surprise, so I cannot ask her." "Ye jist have tae... guess. Fr'm whit ye know aboot her." "Very well, I shall analyze all the available variables and calculate the gift she most wishes." Rahne looked a little worried but figured whatever he came up with it was bound to be... interesting, at the very least. They entered Hillhead Underground on their way back to Queen street train station. As the small orange train made its way into the black tunnel a small boy, about three years old, began to chant, "Here comes Stanny." He was joined by his younger brother, "Here comes Stanny, here comes Stanny!" 'The boys name must be Stanley,' figured Rahne. 'Like the dragon in Xanth.' She smiled at him. "Stanny lives in the tunnel," the boy informed her, seeing her gaze. She frowned, puzzled by his statement. Maybe Stanny was the train. The older boy turned to the younger one, "Stanny's coming." The younger boy nodded in agreement. Suddenly the train lost power and slid to a halt, with a flicker the lights went out. A murmur of annoyance ran through the train and the older boy asked someone why the lights had gone out. Rahne smiled nervously though there was no-one to see except Douglock who could probably see in infra-red. She herself was less disadvantaged than most with her keen senses. Something about this was giving her the shivers. In the distance a rumble could be heard from the other direction. Growing nearer. There were a few nervous laughs. The other train would be on the outer circle, wouldn't it? For several seconds the tense crowd listened to the approaching crowd, everyone knowing it couldn't be yet deep down unable to accept that it wasn't. In the same deep recess of your mind that "the- monster-under-the-bed' lives in with his neighbour 'the-thing-in-the- cupboard'. Even though you're long since grown-up you still occasionally freeze in bed after hearing an unexpected creak. That feeling gripped the whole train. Then the noise whooshed past on the other line and nervous laughter fluttered through the dark. Rahne smiled to herself. Then she proceeded to nearly jump out of her skin as the lights came on again and she found herself face to face with the younger of the two boys, about two or three years old. "Stanny's not real," he said. "You don' have t'be scared Rahne." She stared in amazement at the boy as the train jerked back into motion. He smiled enigmatically and went back to his seat. Rahne leaned over to Shadowcat. "Kate!" she hissed. "Did ye hear that? He knew mah name." Kitty frowned over at the boy, "So what, he's probably a low level telepath. I can't exactly see us going to fight the bad guys carrying a diaper bag." Rahne glared at her. "Fine then, be like that." She tried to attract the boys attention but instead his older brother came over. "I've got magic eyes," he told her fluttering his long eyelashes. "I can make the light go on and off." "Whit's yur name?" she asked him. "Louis. Your friend looks funny." He was gazing up at Douglock who studied him from beneath the brim of his hat. "Whit's yur last name?" she wanted to make sure she could find him again if she needed too. "Kowoji." 'Damn,' thought Rahne. She'd never remember that and had no idea how it would be spelled, but she tried to commit it to memory anyway. Maybe if she looked up a phone book she could pick it out, couldn't be that many names that could be pronounced like that. ---- Meanwhile in a flat not far off Byres Road a student sat alone. In his hands he held the stub of a cinema ticket with the title "Braveheart" emblazoned on it. On the television a video replayed Excalibur helping out in Carlisle. His eyes followed the figure of Brian Braddock. "Captain Britain," he muttered. "Captain bloody England more like. Thinks he's so fuckin' great. Well, we'll see aboot that then won't we. Yer ain't the only one round here who ca'n punch through a wall mate." He stood up and punched at the wall to prove his point and completely failed. "Aah! Shite!" He hopped around clutching his fists. "Gottae work on that one a bit." ------------------------------ Next Issue: Kitty's Birthday