"Show me that love is worth the wait.
Tell me I'm right.
Give me your love don't hesitate.
Show me tonight."....Tonic

Katya didn't so much bend as dive backward, hoping she hit the floor before Rahne hit where her throat would be. Luck was with her and, as the blur flew over her, she drove her feet into Rahne's abdomen and shot her over her head, not bothering to watch as Rahne crashed into the side of the ring. Instead she rolled to her feet and prayed she made it there before she died. She knew in the split second she had seen Rahne step out of the shadows that her powers had been turned off but, figuring she might have a miracle shoved up somewhere indecent, tried to anyway. She knew the moment absolutely nothing happened, and dove to the side as a flash of fur headed her way, not thinking, merely reacting to the changes in movement as they occured. Deep down inside, she knew that was the only thing that was going to keep her alive for more than five minutes. As Rahne shot past her again, she used momentum and kicked the young woman in the back as she passed by. It allowed her to gain an advantage just long enough to throw off her gloves so she'd be doing maximum damage instead of minimal with the damn things on. She'd known this fight was coming, but she'd planned on later rather than sooner.

She knew her only shot was to keep away from the slashing claws of the young mutant, but that was easier said than done. She saw a blur of movement, cursing that Rahne had recovered from the kidney kick so fast, and barely managed to move out of the way in time. Claws shredded through her t-shirt like it was paper and Katya could feel the stinging as the long slashes started to bleed. First blood was Rahne's. She didn't try to keep up where Rahne was going as the young mutant circled her like she was moving in for the kill, which she probably was; she instead focused and, thinking of the young mutant's fighting style she had seen the night of the base attack, figured out which likely direction she'd attack from. She moved just as sound told her Rahne was pouncing at her and, instead of hitting the dirt, she moved just enough that claws skimmed her upper arm and Katya spun as she went past, aiming all of the force at her command at the back of the young mutant's left knee. With a slight crack, Katya felt it give and pop out of joint completely. It would have been easier from the front, but she figured she'd take what she could get. She heard Rahne's scream of rage and pain, and came to a simple conclusion as the young mutant turned, her knee at an odd angle, eyes glowing red with murder in their depths. She sure as hell couldn't arm wrestle Rahne when she changed forms and, even in human form, she'd probably have a hard time. But she could do one thing. She could shoot her. It seemed a viable option.

She dove for where her towel sat at the same time Rahne dove for where she had been and, realizing she was gone with a reaction time that would have impressed her to no end if she hadn't taken on Vic, Logan and Kurt for years in training sessions, rebounded and headed straight toward her. Katya whipped the towel up and into Rahne's oncoming face, the towel with the flick of her wrist doing the rest of the job for her and getting tangled around Rahne's eyes. Rahne didn't take being blinded well. She tried to get the towel off by shaking her head, and then by ripping it off with her claws, leaving some scratches on her face as she did so. She didn't seem to notice it, though. Katya went for the gun that had been underneath the towel and knew that she was too damn close to someone too damn fast. She wasn't going to get the gun up in time to save herself. She tried anyway. She swung the gun upward right when the back of a very furry claw came flying and nailed her. Hard.

She didn't quite recall getting flung over the ring's surrounding ropes or slamming into the wall, but she recalled the pain exploding through her bruised and newly healed body. She tried to blink the black spots from her eyes where she had slumped down the wall and onto the floor, and finally managed. The view she got of the young mutant standing there with saliva dripping from her jaws, claw drawn back to rip her throat out, and her with the wind knocked out of her and barely conscious, she'd never forget. She refused to close her eyes, though. She wanted to look death in the face and spit at it when it came. She figured it was only fair. The claw came flying with a blur. But never hit. Katya blinked a couple of times to try and clear the blurriness in her far-off vision as a suddenly very very large Agent R tried to hold a furious werewolf. Agent X was standing behind him, with a gun pulled and steadily pointing at Rahne. Suddenly she smelled a very familiar scent and heard a familiar voice say, "For God's sake, R, hold her, would you??? She's gone loony!" Pete's face swam into view as he leaned toward where she was slumped. "Are you alright? Can you hear me? Do you know who I am?" Katya managed to finally bring him into focus and felt her breath finally seesawing in and out of her lungs again, which made her feel even better, "I'm Katya. You're Pete. And I'm hallucinating because R is suddenly freaking huge... something is obviously wrong with my vision." She barely heard the relieved sigh at her somewhat weak words from Pete.

X stepped forward and said, "Hold her steady R. I'm going to trank her." R nodded simply and struggled until Rahne was in a pretty efficient stranglehold. With a slight thunk, the tranquilizers hammered home into the young mutant and a couple of seconds later she slumped in the big mutant's hold. Unconscious, she morphed back into human form, and Katya in her stunned state had a hard time associating the innocent looking face with the monsterous one that just tried to kill her. Looking at Agent R, though, she finally felt something click into place and, ignorning Pete's attempt to see if she was seriously wounded, quickly checked some limbs, and managed to struggle into a proper sitting position. "Agent R. You! I know you I think. You disbanded for a while, must have, and went into the private sector right? You were known as Micromax then. Or am I mistaking you for someone else?" Agent R shook his head as he shrunk back to his normal size and held Rahne carefully in his arms, "I was once known as Micromax for a short period of time when doing work for the British government undercover, yes. Throughout the rest, though, I've always been just Agent R." He shot her a cheeky grin as he started out of the room, probably to deliver the young mutant in for medical examination and such. "But, it's still flattering to know that someone remembered my old alias. I'm honored, honestly. Pete, take care of her and make sure she's really alright, 'kay?" With that, the mutant was gone with his burden.

Katya looked over at Romany, who knelt near where Pete was hovering nearby protectively, and asked, "How did you guys know I was in trouble?" Romany shrugged, looking sort of sheepish although non-appologetic at the same time. "Well, I was watching yours and X's match and was really impressed. It was my lunch break and I figured what the heck. When I saw Rahne and heard her Scottish laden voice there, I went and got everyone and came here in record time. Seriously, you alright?" Katya grabbed ahold of Pete's arm and prepared to take the ultimate test. "Well let's find out, shall we?" Pete stood slowly, pulling Katya up slightly in tow. She grabbed both of his arms before her legs could give out on her and he steadied her carefully. She then locked her knees and took some of the weight onto them. They seemed to hold. She could have cheered in that moment. She had a headache, but not a bad one surprisingly, although her shoulders hurt like hell and she knew she was probably going to have bruises. Obviously they had taken the majority of the impact. She felt lucky to be alive and breathing, truth be told. She let go of Pete's arms and stood on her own two feet, steadying herself off of him only once more, and looked over at Romany. "Yeah. I think I'm fine. I'm alive, breathing, and I've felt worse. That's a big something there."

Pete cursed. She turned and blinked at him a couple of times in confusion. "What? Did I say something?" Pete shook his head and said, "You're a bloody mess, is what I was referring to. You've got scratches that are bleeding on your chest, you got a couple of them on your arm, and your back is a mess." Katya then felt where the material of her t-shirt had torn and figured that the wall probably had done most of that. She wondered if she'd need more stitches and grimaced at the thought. She hated getting those things. The thought of needles entering her flesh had never been one of her favorite things to experience. Ever. Romany looked Katya over and shook her head mournfully. "You really do look a fright, although I don't think any of the scratches are really serious. You're lucky you move so fast. How did you get that good a reaction time? I was really impressed when I saw the first couple of moves while I was calling in reinforcements from all over the base. Dad got the medbay ready, Mike and Nick were preparing to have to take Rahne down the hard way, with good ol' fashioned bullets, if that didn't work..." She waved off to the right and Katya watched as the two soldiers simply nodded to her and retreated back into the woodwork, "and all of us were mighty impressed you were alive when we got here." Katya rolled her shoulders in an attempt to alleviate some of the tightness there, and sighed. "Years of training with people who were a lot faster than I was and didn't pull their punches worth a damn. I appreciate that fact a lot, but never so much so as today."

Romany grunted slightly in response to that and glanced at Pete calmly over her glasses, "Pete, I'm going to go and have that talk with Rahne. I KNOW dad is going to need the backup when she snaps out of the drugs and stuff. Why don't you take Katya, and get her cleaned up, and help her get dressed for bed if she needs it? It's late and I honestly think we're all ready for rest. Rahne will be down in med bay for a while, I think, with a level 3 force field around her. Dad's not the trusting type and she really screwed up this time around." Pete nodded as he took Katya's arm. "Right. Have someone deliver a med kit to my room, would you? I'll fix her up there since I've got a big enough bed for her to sprawl over so I can get everything on her back." Katya stiffened and was about to protest him giving up his bed, when he tightened his grip on her arm slightly and said, "...and it's is my fault that this happened. I should have had a talk with Rahne a long time ago, but I kept telling meself that it was just her having a crush on an older guy and she'd get over it." After him saying something like that, with guilt apparent even to HER in his tone, she couldn't refuse him the small thing he asked of her.

**************

By the time they got to Pete's room Katya was feeling better, although the soreness she was feeling she KNEW was going to get worse before it got better, which she wasn't looking forward to. Pete motioned her into his room and, thinking about it for a moment as she went to sit down on the bed, he closed the door behind him. At Katya's curious look, he explained, "I'm going into the bathroom to get some basic supplies before Romany gets here with the bandages. I figure you'll want to get out of your shirt so, instead of giving whoever figures to walk by a show, I figured you'd want a little bit of privacy." Katya nodded. "Thank you. I appreciate it." He then went into the bathroom and she watched as the light came on and he discreetly closed the door behind him. She didn't waste a lot of time. Instead she painfully pulled off her t-shirt and immediately knew her bra was a lost cause as well. It was shredded through and hanging on by a thread, so she simply ripped it and let it fall with the shirt. She then stripped out of her grey sweat pants as well, feeling grateful that at least her underwear was intact. She then reached back and, grabbing the sheet off the bed, wrapped it slowly around her to cover the necessities, holding it to her breasts to keep them covered, but leaving her back exposed. She checked what she could of her injuries and almost sighed with relief that the ones on her chest weren't that bad. They'd hurt, she knew that since the flesh was sensitive, but overall they could have been much, much worse. The ones on her back she wasn't sure about, though. She heard the knock at the door and, getting up somewhat painfully, went and opened it with one hand, holding the sheet in place with the other.

Romany greeted the sight of her in a sheet with no more than a blink. "Here's the materials. I got bandages, lots of ice... figured you'd need that for your back when it was all said and done, some oil that Nick of all people makes that helps heal stuff quicker... says it's like anti-biotic salve but smells better. I also collected your gun from the floor where Rahne whacked you. Mike is seeing what he can do for it. The sucker got bent up somehow, I can't figure out the details on guns worth a damn sometimes, but he said he'd try to repair it, and, if not, we'll replace it for you. Other than that, I got you a bottle of scotch -- it'll help dull the pain -- some good ol' fashioned painkillers, and some clean towels to wipe away the blood and all. I even included a change of clothing for you since the stuff you had on was... well... trashed? We're all really sorry you got beat up by one of our own, even if you did hold your own and dad said to say to the bleeding yank that she wouldn't get beaten on again unless it was in our favor from this point, on he swears it. And...,huh...,that's about it." Romany sprouted out all of that information in record time as she walked over to the desk and dropped the items onto it, right as Pete walked out of the bathroom carrying a basin full of water, yet more towels, and some pure alcohol to purify the cuts. He nodded at Romany as he put the basin down carefully on his bedside table. "You even remembered the scotch. Good. Thanks." Romany blinked at him a couple of times as she turned in the doorway, "You??? Say thank you??? Wow. Katya is having a bad effect on you, bro. Or a good one. Depending on your perspective." The rest Katya heard through the closed door, as well as some very amused laughter as she walked away.

Katya stood akwardly for a couple of moments, not knowing exactly what to do with herself, which was unlike her. Pete helped her out though by nodding at the bed. "Why don't you lie down? But first, here..." he poured the alcohol onto a cloth and handed it to her, "why don't you get the scratches on your chest. Do any of them need stitches there?" Katya took the cloth and, going beneath the sheet where he couldn't see, briskly purified the cuts with a slight intake of breath. "No. They're not that deep, thank God." She looked beneath the sheet and made sure that she had cleaned off the blood as well that was on her chest, and then handed the cloth back to Pete. "You know... I think I'm going to use your shower really fast and just wash this stuff off, if that's okay. It'll give us a lot less clean up to do with towels and all. I think I'm up to it." Pete considered her for a moment and then nodded in acquiescence. "Alright. Go ahead. If you need help, just call."

Approximately five minutes later Katya was out of the shower, relatively dried off, and walked into the other room. Pete was sitting on the end of the bed, reading a book, in his bare feet, his shirt rolled up and unbuttoned again. Even his belt was off. He looked very relaxed, more so then she'd ever seen him. "What are you reading?" She didn't realize she'd spoken until he looked up and held up the book. "Nietzsche. Know of him?" Katya nodded as she went over to the bed and sat down somewhat painfully, her toga-type outfit once again in place. "Yeah. He's one of my favorites. Sun Tzu was good for anchient warfare... he's one of my ex-friend's favorites, but I thought it had some good points, but was a little bit outdated. Nietzsche had a lot of the same opinions I did, so yeah... I know of him." Pete looked oddly pleased as he closed the book and, getting up, put it on his bureau out of the way. "Yeah I'm the same way. Me father introduced me to a lot of his stuff when I was younger. That was before he became a super paranoid pratt. Why don't you lie down and I'll check out your back for you?" Katya nodded and Pete quickly rearranged the pillows to better accomodate her lying on her stomach so she could boost herself up and be comfortable. She lay down, and reaching down pulled the small knot she'd made at her side so that her entire back was exposed to him, even her practical black cotton french-cut underwear. Pete admired her body for a moment, and then looked closer at some of the cuts, some of which were still bleeding. "The rough surface of the wall got you good. That must hurt like hell." Katya would have shrugged nonchalantly but she knew that'd hurt too much to pull off really well so she simply made a noncommittal sound, "It hurts, but I've had worse. So, Pete Wisdom where did you grow up and how? I still haven't learned a lot about you." Katya had pulled back her hair again in the bathroom with a piece of t-shirt she'd saved to use as a hair band, and so she was able to see Pete's expression as she looked at him sidelong.

He looked reflective for a couple of moments, as he poured some alcohol onto a rag, "Well, this'll help take your mind off the pain, so I'll go with your distraction trick. I was born and raised in the lower east end of London. Not the best part of town, but there are worse. Me mother was overly protective and a bit schizophrenic for as long as I can remember. I think it was because of me father's involvement in law enforcement and then the rebellion. She died when I was still pretty young, but I didn't really miss her when she was gone. She was an interesting psycho sort. My first sport was fistcuffs on the street corners of London when I was still pretty young. I lost my first few, but I got better. Me and Romany, we sorta looked after one another, and we grew up pretty odd considering my home life and Apocalypse and all..." She hissed out a breath as he swabbed at her back with the alcohol-laced cloth for the first time, not being able to help herself as her back broke into one big burn, and so he tried to take her mind off it by continuing.

"After me early years winning street curb fights and knife fights and all of that youngster romping, I finally found the military. It got me away from me father and all and also allowed me to do something I'd wanted to do from an early age. That was fight for a cause. Ended up later on, after some odd years fighting, in the armed guards for me country as an assassin. I, by that time, had seen enough of battle to know life was cheap... hell, I'd known that from an early age, and the money was good. After a while I ended up with Apocalypse when he found out I was a mutant and so I ended up as a member of Black Air. Never asked any questions and was told plenty of lies, but it worked for me. I was pretty dead inside and didn't much care about anything. And then I started to dig up some of the stuff they were actually doing and planning, and started to feel a bit out of me depth because of it all. Went to me father, the git, and he put together a band of people to help me try and eventually shut Black Air down. The job needed doing and we tried our best to do it while I was working under cover with Black Air. Eventually I ran across their plan to assassinate the Human High Council, and just disbanded from them without offering a reason as to why. Which of course made me a criminal to be hunted down, but I could care less." He stopped talking for a moment and lifted the towel from his ministrations on her back. "It's looking at least a bit better, although it's starting to turn purple. We'll put some bandages on it and some ice on top of that. That'll at least take care of the swelling for a bit. So, anything else you want to know?"

Katya shifted a little bit to make herself a little more comfortable, as much as she could with the muscles in her shoulders cramped to hell due to the bruising, and asked, "Education? How is it that you know how to read Nietzsche in his native language and seem to know a hell of a lot about books and various subjects? I'm assuming the army trained you and educated you?" Pete nodded and then, realizing she was staring at the headboard so as not to get a crink in her neck, said, "Yeah for the most part. Me father actualy hammered home education too because it would allow me not to be drawn into stupidity 'cause I'd know past examples and so forth to go on. He learned better later with Black Air and how I'd been drawn in like a bleedin' fool, but he figured I eventually woke up so that was all that mattered. He did a lot toward showing me a diverse group of subjects and such 'cause he's pretty paranoid. I got the bright side of that paranoia though, so I'm not saying too much." He opened the jar of healing oils that Romany had brought and, smelling it, smiled a little in relief. "Good, they got the good smelling oil. Some of the other stuff smells like rot. This'll help you out quite a bit." With that he didn't ask or give her time to react, he simply straddled her back and, sitting back comfortably, lathered it onto his hands. Katya stiffened for a moment and then snapped, "What in hell do you think you're doing?"