"None of us can choose where we will love..." Erik from Phantom of the Opera

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The lights suddenly went out before she knew how to react to the statement and the power dampener went on with a quite minor stab of pain... considering she'd been trying to phase so she could kill him without dying herself from God only knew what kind of attack. She knew there were other forms in the room immediately after she shut her eyes and let her senses take over... approximately 10 if she wasn't mistaken, and all of them carrying some type of artillery by the smells of gun oils that suddenly were throughout the room if she stretched her senses to the limit. These odds were looking worse and worse. So, he had people hiding behind hidden panels so if he didn't do the job right others could do it for him. The cocksucking British coward wasn't even confident he could take her down himself. After taking in those facts in a split second she figured the odds of her getting out of here were a million to one. She was willing to take that chance and, if she died, she'd take the son of a bitch with her. It was her bloodthirsty nature. She decided to take him off guard as much as possible and quickly put her claws away, figuring hand to hand was her best bet... that and she wanted to hear his bones break before the wounds killed him. She didn't even consider the consequences of her actions as she attacked, figuring she was on borrowed time anyway and thinking would just get you killed all that much quicker, and just went for as much of the man's blood as possible before hers was spilled out all over the floor. With an inward snarl she lunged at where his treacherous form stood and let her instincts guide her the rest of the way to the kill.

He knew the blow was coming, but he still never anticipated the woman's reaction time. His arm had barely managed to make the block when her fist came flying up toward his face and the other shot toward his gut. They parried just long enough for Pete to realize that the woman before him was not only vicious, but she could also use several different fighting styles. He was getting one hell of a workout, and having a great time since he hadn't found a worthy opponent to use his specialized training in quite some time. He should have known that one person in his life would make damn sure that he wouldn't enjoy it for long.

The shot blew the cement away from around Katya's feet but, if Pete had known that Harold Wisdom would fire a warning shot, so too did he know that the woman he was quickly growing to respect more and more would also have a quick retaliation in mind before that warning shot could become something more. He did what any self-respecting idiot who had the stupidity to love his father would do. Telling himself it was because he was protecting the equipment and his sister hiding somewhere in those shadows, he tackled Katya from behind just when she was about to throw some very pointy throwing stars toward the shadowed alcove where the shots had come from. The two of them went rolling in a ball of black leather from his trenchcoat and blondish brown hair that smelled vaguely tropical to his nose. A few seconds later they surfaced with him on top of her. He would have had her pinned except for his very nice handgun pointed in her face. And he was looking into the surface of a very shiny and well cared for dagger that was inches from his face. Katya stared at him, determined that if one of them was going to die it was going to be him, and let that show on her face. She did not get the reaction she was expecting.

From the shadows, a very feminine laugh issued forth and then the voice belonging to said laughter tinged with a good dose of Brit said, "All right, older brother. Enough. Twice in one day with the two of you at a crossroads staring death in the face. The men won't be able to stand the pheronomes flying in this place a bit longer." Katya looked up very cautiously with one eye, still trying to see worth a damn, and saw a very bleary image of a woman, which became clearer a few seconds later. She knew right away that the man on top of her and the woman standing over her were related. They shared the same stunning shade to their eyes and her hair was the same black of a crow's wing. The woman smiled welcomingly down at her, a bit of admiration and what looked to be almost greed tinging her eyes as she said, "Yes, you'll do perfectly for this job. Welcome to the new British underground. A scraggly bunch if ever there was one, but we're well trained and do our jobs well. I'm Romany, this malcontent's sister. What Pete didn't get to tell you before you tried to kill him... good shots by the way and excellent placement of sounds... is that he changed his mind about killing you as soon as he saw you in action, and wants your help. After seeing you in action, I can see why. You passed the test admirably well."

Katya's voice was mild and cautious as she raised and eyebrow with the query, "Test?"

Romany nodded. "You see, Pete thought it best that we see you in action before making any final decisions about whether or not to take you into our confidence or figure you for a useless overrated yank and wipe your mind clean. There were some of us..." at that point she glared off into the shadows to her left, "that were not overly impressed with my brother's judgement on the matter. So, since you're still alive and not drooling, I think you'll do." Katya looked up at Pete, locking eyes without hesitation now that she could see all of him, and gave him a considering stare. But she didn't lower the knife. Pete knew he was covered from the shadows so he put up the gun slowly and put it away, still keeping her slightly pinned just in case she decided to rear up and stab him through. She put up the knife as soon as she knew that he had the gun away, and then smiled as her fist flew and knocked him back off her and onto the cement floor. Pete shook his head a bit to clear the fog and heard the laughter coming from all directions. He should have seen that one coming since he would have done the exact same thing, he knew, but he wrote it off anyway, figuring that Katya had earned the right to take a shot at him.

Katya got to her feet slowly and glanced at the other shadows in the corners of the room, then looked at Romany. "If we're not going to end this in a shoot out or a killing party, would you care to introduce me to the other members of this rat pack?" Romany smiled as she waved to the others, and nodded at Katya. "Of course." One man came up to stand beside her and Katya immediately knew that it was the man who had fired the warning shot. And that he was Pete's and Romany's father. "This is my father, Harold." Pete came to stand beside them, nursing his jaw a bit. "You can call him the miserable bleeding English git if you prefer." Harrold glared at his son and spat out, "Shut up, you yank loving toerag. You almost burned up me shirt with the looks you were shooting this chit." Katya noticed the flush of irritation that darkened Pete's face for a moment and took note with interest. So... there was a somewhat disfunctional relationship between father and son. That could be used later on if necessary. The apparent affection between brother and sister would be an even better advantage to use against someone, though. She came back to herself and nodded at Harold Wisdom, "Wisdom Senior." She noticed some amusement twinging Harold Wisdom's eyes for a second before he shouted to the shadows, "Well, come on, you miserable Apocolyptites, let's get a move on, and introduce ourself to the nice assassin, shall we?"

A blond haired gentleman walked up casually holding a assault rifle in one hand, "Greetings. I'm called Agent X. This is my associate Agent R." Katya looked at the dark haired gentlemen that was slightly taller than her, carrying a machine gun, and nodded at them too. "X and R." She looked at the small redheaded woman in front of her, her demeanor better associated with a more gentle creature but with an undertone of savagery to her, for a moment and then nodded in her direction, finally recognizing her, "Rahne Sinclair... aka Wolfsbane. You escaped Apocolypse's stronghold killing 50 in the process. Good kill ranking." Rahne just nodded a little coldly, holding her rifle closer to her side, "Yeah well... ye do what ye need to to survive in this world. Ye'd know all about that, wouldn't ye?" Katya blinked at her, wondering exactly how much these people knew about her and shrugged coldly. "Yeah, you could say that." She then got introduced to the ex-paratroopers of the group, Nicolas and Mike, who seemed very professional in their ways of doing things. They had of course been some of the elite British military before their world went to hell in a handbasket. Overall, she noticed, not a bad group of individuals, and she was sure there were those she wasn't going to be introduced to so she couldn't identify them if she was captured. It was just the mistrustful way of things. That was okay, she didn't trust them as far as she could throw Piotr in a tar pit.

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Katya looked around the room as she and her three companions, this time around Agent X, Agent R, and Michael. She looked at the three gentlemen who thus far had actually treated her rather kindly as they gave her a tour of the underground base and found herself oddly at ease around these people. She had used the most subtle techniques she could think of to route out any lies amongst her bodyguards, guards, or just escorts, as they had walked through the cavernous meeting hall where missions were walked through, the different kitchen areas spread amongst the two mile long complex which had been surprisingly neat and stocked to the gills with different types of culinary delights. She could cook pretty well, considering, but she was nothing compared to Agent R from what the others had to say. She'd had to sit there and listen to them extolling his virtues as a chef for what seemed hours. She was actually looking forward to trying his cooking since the others loved it so much... even Rahne and if a woman with hyper acute senses liked it, she figured it couldn't be all bad.

She'd lasted through the tour of the gym/training room which had all sorts of rings for different weapons in which to practice as well as a variety of exercise equipment, the armory which had a hell of a lot of security to get through even to get a corkscrew from what she'd seen of it thus far, and a variety of small lounge areas in which to sit and enjoy the non-existant view. They called it, "Decore ala steel" just to be cute which, sadly, she did find rather amusing, even thinking about it now. Overall, the people here seemed to be a pretty well organized team for such a small organization, although she wouldn't know how well until she'd seen them in action, she knew. She also found them to be at ease around one another and they seemed to trust one another inexplicably. They had laughed at jokes around here in the few short hours of the tour, Agent X and Agent R having a hell of a time insulting Michael's attempts at cooking, much to his amused embarrassment. She tried to think of the last time her and Piotr... or any of her teamates had teased or talked without massive doses of reserve... hell, when was the last time her and Piotr had talked for more then five words without loads of resentment and sarcasm, and she couldn't think of one timee that hadn't occurred years before. She would have found it sad, but figured it really wasn't worth thinking about. She was a strong believer that silence could keep one or both parties from experiencing emotions that were better left buried... that way at the day that it inevitably all came falling down and one of them snapped, killing the other, it would come as a surprise. Better that way than to know it was coming and musing on it too much.

She was snapped out of her reverie as Agent X, who was walking in front of her, stopped suddenly outside of a hallway. Katya stopped on a dime, not even coming close to plowing into him, although a little too close for her comfort, and the others stopped behind her calmly. Katya looked around at the sets of doors on either side of the hallway and then up at the blond haired and green eyed individual above her. "Okay. What's next on the tour, Agent X?" He chuckled a bit, as he motioned with his arm. "Well, for one thing, stop calling me 'Agent' anything. Just call me X if you would. And, as for the answer to your question... these are the living quarters or rooms of our occupants." Katya looked at the doors with a new light and mentally rubbed her hands in a bit of glee at the thought of learning a bit more about these people. Information was useful one way or the other, and she wanted more of it. She still didn't trust the motives of the people invovled and one's living quarters tended to give a lot away about a person. "You don't mind me looking in your rooms?" Katya figured she'd check. Just to make sure that she didn't step on toes that weren't meant to be stepped on in this situation. She didn't want them not trusting her in a big way... that would be bad because it could cause them to be jumpy and get her or them killed later.

Agent R behind her spoke calmly, "We all took a vote, and, if you don't mind a mess in some cases... no, we don't mind you looking. It might give you an idea on what your room will look like, anyway." Katya just looked at the dark haired man behind her and grinned a bit for the first time since she'd gotten there, and turning back to Agent X motioned with her own arm. "Well then, lead on, captain." He walked to the first door on their left and motioned Katya inside. "This is my room. Only fair you see it first, I suppose." He swung the door open with a flourish, and stood silently awaiting her reaction. Her first impression was one of utter cleanliness. There wasn't one thing out of place. Suit jackets hung very carefully from the walls, bed neatly made to the point she'd bet she could bounce a quarter off of it, and gun equipment stacked neatly on a nearby table. This guy had definitely been in the military and still showed the effects. As a matter of fact she couldn't really tell the difference between his and Agent R's room except for the fact that the furniture, sparse as it was, was in different positions around the room. Next they came to Michael's and Nick's rooms, and while there was a photograph here or a small momento there, such as a deck of cards, there was still the thread of neatness to the rooms that she found worthy of respect. Next they came to Rahne's room and Katya was almost shocked at the difference. Around Rahne's room were different tidbits of information. A small computerized version of "Alice in Wonderland" that she was in the process of reading, a basket of knitting... looked to be a sweater in progress, different arrays of knives and guns, and a small portrait on the bedside table of what looked to be a friend or mother. She would have looked closer, but she didn't want to blatantly invade the privacy of the young woman.

As they came to the next room she felt her stomach bottom out a little bit with the words "This is Pete's room," and she didn't show the enthusiasm she was for some odd reason feeling as she walked in after Agent X. Looking around the room, anyone else would have been disappointed, but not everyone had Katya's mind. She quickly processed the information as it came to her. The half empty decanter set up on what looked to be an actual liquor cabinet. A small one, mind you but still a liquor cabinet. His bed was made haphazardly like he'd been in a hurry to get out the door and had to put off doing it the whole way. There was a small corner of a book showing from under the bed and by the half words she could read she was pretty sure it was by a German. Interesting. There was an empty bottle of some liquor that held his cigarette butts, which she had to give him credit for actually keeping the cork in to keep the smell out of the room. There was some type of picture next to the liquor bottle on the desk, which on closer inspection happened to be just a door propped up with two sawhorses. She'd used that trick a time or two herself when supplies got low, so she wasn't going to say anything. She didn't ask the others if she could step closer to see what the picture was of, she merely stepped into the room with an air of daring around her, and walked up to the makeshift desk. There was something familiar about the picture. She glanced closer at it and then, gaping in silent shock, almost ripped it as she snatched it off the desk. It was a picture of her in a black dress she hadn't worn in about two years. The last time she had worn it had been-- "Berlin. When you were doing reconnaisance on the Human High Council. You looked damn fine in that thing. March of last year." She turned to find the owner of the room standing directly behind her, and the other members of the team AWOL somewhere because they sure as hell weren't in the doorway. She met his eyes after that off-the-cuff observation and then studied the picture a couple of seconds longer. "Yes. I'd forgotten I wore that thing that night. I was trying to keep a council member from asking questions about why I might look familiar. I would like to know why I didn't sense you, though. I don't think anyone's ever gotten within 50 feet of me to snap a picture before without ending up dead and the evidence destroyed." Pete looked slightly amused as he said, "Oh, you sensed something wasn't right, I had to give you that. If I hadn't been your waitor for the evening, you would have probably had me. As it was, you were looking at the bellhop more suspiciously since he was another spy that was zoning in on your territory. Your radar was up, just not at the right target." Katya looked at him closely for a moment, noticing the chin structure and the way his nose went off to one side just slightly, and scowled, "You know even with the blond hair, mustache, and eye color change I should have realized who you were when I met you. I'm losing my touch." At that thought she furrowed her brow in confusion for a moment as she asked, "And exactly why did you snap a picture of me? How long has this 'seek find and kill' Magneto's lead assassin been going on, for God's sake?" Pete looked her straight in the face and said, his tone rich with surly attitude like he was expecting to have to defend himself with hostility, "You weren't my target that night. That was before the mission came up to exterminate you. Now that we bloody well have that out of the way, we've got a mission to plan for tonight. The others are waiting. Let's go." He was already turned away and waving her after him impatiently, so he didn't even get a slight glance at the actually pleased expression on Katya's face as she gently put the photo back where it came from on his desk.

She rushed to keep up with his long legged stride, merely putting more force into hers as she went along and almost stopped him dead by asking a question that was prodding the back of her mind. "So, can I ask what that liquor was? I've seen the home brews but that didn't look like any of them." Pete turned back toward her and slowed his pace considerably. "You... You've NEVER had scotch before?" Katya took his look of horror in stride, figuring he was some type of liquor snob and shrugged, "My dad drank it when I was little but, no, I don't remember ever trying it before. Why?" She didn't get an answer, merely him turning away muttering something about Magneto being a barbarian as he went off toward the conference room. Katya didn't ask about Harold Wisdom's room or Romany's, figuring she'd get the tour of them later. Pete DID stop before a door at the end of the hall and swung it open so hard it almost banged against the wall, though. "This is your room. We took the liberty of getting clothing that would fit you through our contacts. They'll fit. Me father is many things and one of them is a good judge of measurements. Not one word on that!" She wasn't going to give him one, even though a multitude of things was on the tip of her tongue. She looked around the room at the well-made bed, small desk and dresser and nodded at Pete, "This'll do nicely. Thanks. Now let's get to that debriefing." He closed the door with the same force he opened it with, and stalked off down the hallway in answer. She was going to ask what Apocalyte bit his ass, but decided against it since it was only her first day here... she had plenty of time to piss him off to the point of murder later on.

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The mission was a milksop mission that was far from important. That was the best conclusion she could come to out of the whole meeting.

It'd been a couple of hours since the debriefing and she was now off on her first mission with Agent X, Pete, Romany and Rahne, crawling through the mountains in a faroff countryside just to collect a disk full of information. She would have reflected on the glaring obviousness of this test of her abilities, but she didn't, figuring that she had always done her job, and done it well, and this 'mission' would be no exception to that. Nicholas was bringing up the back, playing rearguard for them as they tried to sneak into one of the Black Air bases, and get some vital information about the "mission" in question. They'd have to kill a member of Black Air to do it, which was going to tip off the whole organzation something was wrong, but they had enough enemies, if they did this carefully they figured they'd be able to pull it off. Katya knew that, not only was this mission somewhat important to the team but not vital to the outcome of the whole overall gameplan, she knew this was a test to show she was not going to choke under pressure and that she had what she liked to call "transferable skills". She slid along the ground behind Agent X, being careful to move as quietly as a shadow, Pete taking up his place behind her with very careful tact, Rahne several feet in front of them taking up the lead to "smell the way" and Romany bringing up the rear behind Pete.

As they came even with the hilltop looking down on the compound, Katya reached into her uniform and pulled out her night vision goggles carefully and checked out the defenses of the place. If she had been worse trained, she would have whistled at the amount of security on the place. This might not be important to the overall gameplan of stopping Black Air, but they still had a damn good chance of dying tonight if she was in with any amateurs. She looked at the others and, nodding at them, quickly went over the hillside. They had carefully planned out their parts before time, making damn sure that speech wouldn't be necessary unless they had to suddenly bug the hell out of there. Rahne had the dexterity and the abilities to cover Katya's butt should she get into trouble. Pete was to go and create a temporary electrical shortout, and Agent X was to stay up on the hill and signal through their headsets if there was trouble since he had an unobstructed view of the compoud. Romany was to create a distraction amongst the guards to make sure they didn't follow Rahne or Katya into the compound after the electricity went out. Katya was going in before Rahne for one simple reason... she had to kill the head of computer technologies, download the information onto the disk after breaking the codes on the computer if they had changed them, and get the hell out of there with Rahne and the computer disk intact. In eight minutes tops once the lights went out. Easy enough if you had a death wish and wanted to do that painfully.

They slipped through the compound and up to the outer wall. When, a few seconds later, Rahne made motions that she sensed a guard that wasn't scheduled to be on duty, Katya reacted quickly. She grabbed Rahne's hand and shook her head fiercely at her when she tried to break away. She then yanked Rahne backward into the wall with her right as the guard walked into where he would have seen them. Katya gave Rahne credit. She didn't break away from her and solidify herself into the wall, she didn't try to attack her and she didn't panic. Instead, she grabbed Katya's hand hard enough to leave a LOT of bruises in the morning, and a couple of seconds later stuck her nose out of the wall and inhaled some air as Katya showed by example. Katya then slid her head out carefully at the count of 30 and looked around, Rahne's head popping out of the wall quickly thereafter in a disconcerting manner. Katya sometimes forgot what it must be like for other people to see her coming out of something like a ghost, but it was moments like this she was reminded in a big way. Rahne looked around, and then nodded at Katya as soon as they heard a small explosion and the lights around them went out. Katya switched to seeing the different electrical patterns around her and, when the shapes of other guards moved quickly past their location, brought the two of them out on the other side of the wall. They ignored the sound of gunshots coming from Romany's distraction and moved like silent wraiths through the hallways. Katya took short cuts through other walls and still they were about thirty seconds behind by the time they made it to the doors located outside the main control room. She would have cursed if she felt she had the time.

She heard the telltale click of a gun, as she knew she would, and turned with her gun already raised as the man behind her was pulling the trigger. The shot went through above her right shoulder. Hers went right between his eyes. She then took his heart with another silenced shot, and blew out the rebuilding mechanism strapped to his waist that he had been implanted with at the beginning of his career. She wanted to make damn sure the nanotechs didn't bring him back ever again, that was for sure, since he'd gotten a look at her face for a split second before he died. She then punched in the sequence Pete had gone over sixteen thousand times with her that afternoon into the keypad and heard the inner clicks as the door opened them to the inner computer chamber. She stepped through the door quickly and pulled the body of the main controller behind her as she motioned to Rahne to get inside. It was time to get this job done and done right. And quickly. Or they were going to die tonight. She didn't tell Rahne about the triple studded security pin on the man's collar she'd just pulled in. Because telling Rahne that she'd just killed one the uppermost heads of Brittish intelligence would really put a damper on her day and probably panic her into thinking that they were going to get hunted down and killed. Which, of course, they were, if she didn't do a damn good fast job of getting them the hell out of there, and quickly have a talk with Pete Wisdom about his choice of stupid plans.