Subject: [OTL]: (alt. Excalibur/Wisdom/Pryde) Gatherings (PG-13) Date: Sun, 27 Aug 2000 10:05:08 -0700 From: Phil Hartman will1@earthling.net Gatherings by Phil Hartman DISCLAIMER: They're all Marvel's. No money is being made off of this. Please don't sue. DEDICATED TO: Luba, and the Pete Wisdom Rehabilitation Brigade :) NOTE: Yes, it's an alter-Earth ... and yes, THEY'LL show sooner or later ... but like I wrote elsewhere, I needed a break from the usual. -------------------------------------------------------- 7/4/92: Muir Island Mutant Research Center: 08:34 hrs local: -------------------------------------------------------- "Kitty." Mumbled defiance. "Katherine." "I don't WANT your damned coffee !" Moira MacTaggart looked at her younger patient with an aggrieved, sorrowful expression, waiting for the 18-year-old to look at her. Kitty Pryde hugged her dragon Lockheed closer and whispered, "How many more, Moira ? Larry, and now Ororo, Logan - Piotr - and the others - Stevie, why the hell was STEVIE in Dallas, Piotr didn't need her along, she came because she was worried about him -" "Cooo," Lockheed replied, hugging his Kitty back while Moira wiped her eyes. "Kitty, I cannae explain why these things happen," Moira finally said, sighing. "I -" "Life's not fair ? They were the X-MEN, Moira. We don't die forever," Kitty snapped, turning her eyes downward. "Damnit ... I'm sorry, they were your friends too ... oh God, I've got to tell Kurt ..." -------------------------------------------------------- She heard the wracking sob come from the shower, as the water was wrenched off with a jarring SQUEAK. "Kitty ..." "Amanda ?" Kitty said, accepting the towel Amanda Sefton handed her over the shower door. The sorceress leaned against a wall of the bathroom, nodding once when Kitty phased out of the shower wearing the towel. "Kitty, I'm sorry," Amanda said, tears welling up. "I tried - there was a mystick barrier -" They hugged once, quickly, and Kitty pulled away with a weak smile. "I ... think they died doing what they had to do," she said, ducking behind a dressing screen. "That's what I've been telling myself. Is Kurt ... ?" "I did what I could to repair the physical damage," Amanda said, waiting until Kitty stepped out from behind the screen in jeans and a sweatshirt to cast a hair-drying spell. Both women tried not to laugh at the curled disaster of hair which sprang from Kitty's head. "I'm ... s-sorry - Goddess, I must be getting rusty," Amanda snickered between harsh laughs. The last one faded to a sob, and Kitty hugged the sorceress for a long time. -------------------------------------------------------- "I never thought I'd see this day," Kurt Wagner said, almost periwinkle as Moira replayed the videotape. "What I'd like t'know is how they freed Lorna from Malice b'fore they went t'Dallas," Moira said absently. "Nine. Storm, Wolverine, Colossus, Psylocke, Havok, Polaris, Dazzler, Longshot, an' Stevie. I hope Forge knows what he's done." "Any word from the Lehnsherrs or the New Mutants ?" Kitty asked, walking in with Amanda, Lockheed drooped around his Kitty's neck. "Sam called; Doug's recovering from that gunshot to the arm. If Rogue hadn't been there ..." Kurt said, smiling sadly at Amanda. "What-if's," Amanda whispered, hugging Kurt. "Goddess, elf ... I've missed you ..." "And I, you," Kurt whispered back. "Liebchen, please - I don't want us to fall apart again." "You even have to ask ?" Amanda said aloud, smiling at Kurt. They kissed once, then longer, until a loud curse made everyone jump. "MacTaggart !" Dai Thomas grunted, storming in with a disheveled young man in a rumpled suit. The black-haired man looked around, as if to size up the scene, then slumped into a bean-bag chair by the TV. "Get up, you daft little prat," Dai barked at the newcomer. "I don't care if you're with Black Air or Quantas, you'll show a little respect. These people are grieving for loved ones." "Oi won't apologize," the youth replied in a Cockney accent, with a contemptuous glare at Dai. "At least not f'r sittin' down. No room on the bloody boat to stretch out, OR light a fag." "An' y'll nae smoke in here, either. T'is a medical facility," Moira barked, snatching the young man's cigarettes from his hand. "Now, Inspector, what brings ye here ?" Dai's expression went unusually soft, and he said, "To both give my condolences, and to ask what Shadowcat and Nightcrawler's next steps are. It's a ... touchy subject with the Crown and Scotland Yard, having two semi-wanted American mutant superheroes on British soil and all." "We hadn't thought that far ahead," Kitty said, trying not to glare at the Black Air agent giving Moira the Evil Eye. "Thanks for caring, Inspector, but you can tell your higher-ups that they could wait until the bodies are cold." "Katzchen !" Kurt wheezed, leaning on Amanda. "The Inspector is just trying to do his job ! I - CHAKGK -" "Bed. Now," Amanda ordered, slipping an arm around Kurt's shoulders. She looked at Dai and added, "If nothing else, Inspector, tell the Crown that these 'semi-wanted' mutant outlaws are patients under the care of Dr. Moira MacTaggart, and that they're still recuperating." "He can do that," Dai said, somewhat miffed, as he nodded at the young man in the bean bag chair. "Peter Wisdom, Black Air agent and your new watchdog." "WHAT !?" Moira snarled. "I dinnae need some Bond ripoff t'dictate what I do an' who I treat !" "Relax, Doctor," Peter muttered. "Oi'm no more happy 'bout this bloody mess than you are. Just lemme smoke outside, an' I'll write glowin' bloody reports back t'those spooks at the Crown." "Make sure you dispose of those butts," Kitty grumbled, phasing out of the room. #Great. A 'watchdog,'# she thought, crashing in the communication room's chair. Lockheed cuddled in her lap, purring, until the perimeter alarm went off. "Activate external cam," Kitty mumbled. The computer complied, revealing an orange-clad blonde woman flying towards Muir at high speed. "Meggan," Kitty said aloud, remembering Illyana speak of the changeling before - #Don't go there, Pryde, don't remember, don't THINK -# She opened a "hole" in the perimeter defenses and let Meggan in, feeling a twinge of sympathy at the sight of tears in the fey woman's eyes. -------------------------------------------------------- "H-he gets so SCARY when he's drunk - and poor Betsy - and you, I'm so sorry for all of you -" "Shhh, lass," Moira said, stroking Meggan's shimmering hair as Meggan lay her head in the doctor's lap and curled into a fetal ball. "We've all been hurt by what happened in Dallas." "I'm sorry," Meggan repeated, sitting up slowly. She looked around at Amanda, Kurt, Kitty, Lockheed and Pete and sighed, "I just didn't know where else to go. Brian's in such PAIN - it hurt to be near him, and he shouted at me, I didn't know what to do." "I do," Pete growled. "We go and find the blighter, and cram coffee down his throat, and make him apologize f'r treatin' a bird with such disrespect." "Herr Wisdom," Kurt said, trying to keep a straight face, "this 'blighter' weighs close to 300 pounds, and is almost pure muscle. And, he is the living embodiment of England." Kitty tried very hard not to laugh at Pete when he turned ashen. "Bluidy hell," Pete muttered, the color returning to his cheeks. "300 American pounds ? That's nothing. I dealt with a bouncer who weighed twice that much once ..." "Really ?" Kitty said, sarcasm dripping as the mutants, dragon, sorceress and faerie headed for the hangar. "And just how did you do that, Agent Wisdom ?" "Pool cue to th' back of his head," Pete said matter-of-factly. "Ah. Chivalry still lives in the British Secret Service," Kitty drawled. -------------------------------------------------------- It was quiet. #Link's dead. Betsy-dead. Haha.# "BRADDOCK !" He looked up from his couch, choking on the whisky fumes, and lurched to his feet. "C'mon, then," Brian Braddock pleaded, coughing as he step-stumbled over the empty bottles on the floor of his lighthouse apartment. "Get it over with. Let me join her -" BAMF SPLASH "Ghrglx -" "WHAT THE BLOODY HELL DID YOU DO THAT FOR !?" Brian raged, flying out of the North Sea with a face like the wrath of God. "Because you needed a bath. The shave, I won't help you with," Kurt replied, glowering back when Brian landed before the collected visitors. "Herr Braddock, consider this an intervention." "Fine. I needed to get my sorry rump off the couch anyhow," Brian snapped back. He looked at Meggan with honest regret and said, "Meg ..." "Oh my darling," Meggan sobbed, hugging him. "Please, PLEASE, don't be sad alone ! The bottles won't help !" "I know. It's just so ... alone, without Betsy," Brian mumbled, quaking. He knelt, letting Meggan kneel beside him, and the others walked a short distance away. "That's the great Captain Britain ?" Pete asked, incredulity dripping from his voice. "A drunken sot who can't see one half-dead elf coming at him from nowhere ?" "Danke for the deep tactical assessment, Herr Wisdom," Kurt said, snickering. "I do feel winded -" ZRAK-BOOM "MY LIGHTHOUSE !" Brian snarled, shielding Meggan with his body when something fast, winged and roaring flew past with energy bolts blazing. "Black Air ! Damnit, I TOLD Scicluna she'd have to accept my resignation or I'd fry her Hasselhoff collection !" Pete shouted, returning fire. "Hasselhoff ?" Kitty said, aghast, while Amanda wove a defensive spell. "Abomination against man and God, Pryde," Pete agreed with dead seriousness. "She's got all his albums." "Mein Gott ! Black Air is truly an evil organization if their administrators collect David Hasselhoff albums !" Kurt tried to joke. "Lover, please, I'm trying to focus here ..." Amanda grunted, concentrating on keeping the shield up. "We need some -" WHOOSH BOOM ! The jet wobbled down towards the ocean, caught in mid-fall by the outraged Brian, who tossed it unceremoniously onto the heath in front of his lighthouse. He tore off the cockpit and grabbed the pilot out by the scruff of her neck with a feral growl. "Talk," Brian ordered, watching the pilot remove her helmet with contemptuous sloth. The platinum-blonde young woman Brian held glared back at him, then at Pete with sheer hatred. "Black Air can sod off, Wisdom. They want you alive," she barked. "I want to eat your bollocks !" "Sari !" Pete snapped. "No more bedroom talk !" "People, please - this is an interrogation, not innuendo," Amanda said, blushing. "Who is this young woman, and why is she trying to kill you, Agent Wisdom ?" "She's an old friend," Pete groused. "The kind you don't expect t'leave you lying face-down in a Budapest gutter when the curfew police are out." "YOU ordered that cheap Hungarian beer, you arsehole !" Sari shrieked. "YOU STIFFED ME !" "You blew up my home ... because this little TWIT ... wouldn't pay a bar tab ?" Brian enunciated in an icy tone. Sari started to shiver when Brian leaned in close to her and whispered, "Get. Off. My. Island. NOW." He released her, letting her jump into the North Sea and start swimming, before he stood and looked at Pete with a curious expression. Finally, Brian said, "You know, I can try to get along with a man who appreciates a good continental beer." "Well, I c'n try t' get along with an oversized national symbol," Pete said reluctantly. They shook hands, quickly, and let go half-a-second later. "Now that that's settled," Kitty said with an odd smile, "what'll we call ourselves ?" "What d'you mean, Pryde ?" Pete asked suspiciously. "I've been thinking during this whole caper," Kitty said, starting to pace with her hands behind her back. "Here we are, six people and a dragon at loose ends, and the world's just lost its foremost example of mutant superheroes ..." "Katzchen, they just died not very long ago," Kurt said gently. Kitty smiled a sad, soft smile back at her friend and said, "Call it a coping mechanism, Kurt. Call it whatever you want. I just won't let the X-Men go that easily. If ... if Dallas - if the Professor's dream - is supposed to mean anything, then we've got to accept what happened. We're all that's really left of the X-Men, and the world - or at least this corner of it - needs us." "A team," Brian said softly. "A team to protect Europe," Meggan said, her eyes alight. "Mutants and humans alike," Amanda said, looking at Kurt. "It could work," Kurt said, hope flickering in his own eyes. "Coo," Lockheed said, nuzzling Kitty's neck. Everyone looked at Pete. "Oh, all right," Pete growled. "But I don't want t'hear one bluidy word about my smoking. A man needs some vice to deal with all this sappiness." -------------------------------------------------------- A beginning ;) --------------------------------------------------------