Subject: [OTL]: Stirred, But Never Shaken. [Pryde/Wisdom/X-people]
Date: Thu, 04 May 2000 16:17:53 -0700
From: Mel <mellyt3@eudoramail.com>

Disclaimery thing:  Most of these characters belong to Marvel!  Wow!
I'm not making any money!  Cool!!  One of them is mine!  Fantastic!!! I
just ate all my Easter eggs in one go!  Sickening!!!!

Note:  Some language!  Ask To Archive! Popup! Or MST!

Other Note:  I started this...  about 2 and a half years ago!  Can you
tell?!

Final Note!  For Luba's Birthday!  Now I am One Of The Rare!  I don't
owe her a story!  I feel liberated!  Happy Birthday, Queen Of All Things
Pete/Kitty!!!!!!

And yes, I do know that her birthday was the April 26.  I DID send it
then.  Honest.

Stirred, But Never Shaken.
By Mel

Monica Perry ran a frustrated, short-nailed hand through her hair.
Flipping over another page of the newspaper, she took a gulp of her
coffee and scowled at the employment pages.

She had just managed to survive on her job as receptionist at some
stuffy law firm for the last three months.  She had the feeling that if
she had to put up with being called Miss Cash in a supercilious tone any
longer, she might very well shoot them all.  Staring at the boring jobs
listed she struggled against her need for a cigarette, and considered
how long she would have to keep up this farce.  She realised with a jolt
that it had been nearly two years since she had done the supposedly
impossible deed, leaving Black Air.  She grinned tightly as she
remembered.  Picked out of training as an agent for MI5, she - like all
recruits - was told that no one, but no one, quit Black Air.  She had
quit, which was relatively easy, but hiding and surviving afterwards had
been much harder.  Just as it had been her incredible hunches that had
got her the position in the first place, it was one of those hunches
that told her that she had to leave Black Air, and relocate herself, and
fast.  The next night, her apartment had been blown up, along with the
rest of the building and most of the street.  On the files it was down
as an IRA car bomb, that unfortunately killed off ever so valuable Agent
Monica Perry, but Monica knew the files were wrong on two counts.  One,
she was not dead, and two, the bomb had been set up by someone in Black
Air.  After she emerged from the tunnel that had started beneath the
stairs on the ground floor, she had shrugged and mentally handed in her
resignation.  The last two years she had simply worked legit jobs,
everything from cleaner to her current receptionist job.  Anything to
keep food on the table, and to avoid notice by her old employers.  Bored
with the finite joys of disconnecting important callers and rerouting
calls to the wrong places and misfiling mail, she was once again looking
for another job.  Then she got another of her hunches.  She was going to
get out of her current job, and to do it she would be going to the
Crown, a pub she hadn't seen the inside of since she had left Black Air.
 She just hoped that her hunch knew what it was doing.

**

Pete Wisdom scowled.  He was very good at it, but he still did not
succeed in intimidating the woman standing in front of him.  "You know I
'ate shopping, love," he grumbled.

"It'll just be a couple of days.  Please?" Kitty Pryde looked up at him
from her wide brown eyes, and Pete knew he was going to give in.

"On one condition, love, I get to choose where we go for dinner."

Kitty smiled broadly and gave him a quick kiss, before dashing upstairs
to pack.  Pete couldn't manage to keep his scowl as he watched her run
up the stairs.

**

Kitty was struggling to put up with her side of the bargain, determined
not to complain.  The smoky, dank atmosphere was very hard to deal with
though, and she was only momentarily distracted by the usually
fascinating show of Pete eating.  Pete was aware of Kitty's discomfort,
and mentally promised to get them out as soon as possible.  He had
chosen the Crown mostly because he wanted to keep up with what was going
on in the world of espionage, and he was listening to some very
interesting rumours.

"Wot?  Black Air's been officially disbanded?" he asked incredulously,
his voice raising a little.

"Well, hell, looks like I got my Christmas present early."  The voice
came from a figure at the door.  Silence fell over the room, very
unusual for a group of people who made their living not being surprised.

"Perry," said one voice at the back of the crowd.  The figure stepped
forwards.

"Crikey, and here I was thinking it'd been so long you'd have forgotten
all about me," the woman at the door replied.  She was in her late
twenties, and wearing black trousers and a baggy white shirt, with a
black waist-coat, with the jacket and coat over her arm.  She was about
5"11, pale skin, blue eyes, with her sleek black hair pulled back.  She
took a deep breath, and raised one eyebrow.

"I've missed the smell of this place, stale smoke, beer, sweat, fat and
secrets. Any of you fellows missed me?" There was a wave of secret
agents towards her.  "Oh, before you ask, boys, I am looking for a job."
 The wave seemed a little more frantic than before.

Kitty turned back to Pete, to see him staring at the woman with a look
of shock and, she was not very happy to see, admiration on his face.

"Pete?  Pete?" she kicked him in the leg.  Hard.  He swore and turned
back to her.  "Who's she?"

"Only one of the best agents Black Air, or anyone ever 'ad," Pete said,
then his mind caught up.  "Oh, love, we're not like that.  Partners
sometimes, sure, but not that," he said hurriedly.  Kitty wasn't sure
whether to believe him or not.  She looked back at the woman, her eyes
widening as she saw her walking over to them.  Perry, as she was
apparently called, folded her coat and jacket over the back of the spare
chair at their table.  Pete grinned at her.

"If you've got to make an entrance," he started.

"Make it a grand entrance," Perry finished, laughing with him.

"Perry, I'd heard you were dead," Pete said, lighting a cigarette.  He
offered the packet to her.

"And I thought you'd be killed by now, Wisdom," she answered, declining
his offer.  "I had a hunch it was time to get away from things for a
bit."  She looked over at Kitty.  "Care to introduce us?"

"Yeah, Monica Perry, this is Kitty Pryde," Perry held out her hand, and
Kitty shook it.

"See Wisdom, I told you you'd meet the girl sometime," Perry said.

Kitty, confused, looked at Pete.   "What girl, Pete?"

"Er, years ago, on our first job together, Perry told me she had a hunch
I'd meet a nice girl," Pete shrugged.  "I'd forgotten."

"I hadn't," Perry said, smiling at an agent in his fifties, as he
brought her a beer and his card.  Kitty decided to argue about the nice
part later.  In private.

"So why'd you disappear?" Pete said softly, this hand with the cigarette
hiding the movement of his lips.

"Someone in Black Air was going to try to kill me," Perry said into her
beer.  "Someone important enough to make it very official."  She nodded
at a visiting American agent who brought over a plate of chips and
steak, and his card, which she slipped into her pocket with the other.

"And you came out of 'iding?" Pete sounded disbelieving.  "You always
did like livin' dangerously."

"I got a hunch that tonight'd be important," she replied.  "But I just
got another hunch.  It's also going to be a little messy.  Follow my
lead?" Not waiting for an answer, she leaned back and started chatting
to another agent, picking at her chips with her long fingers.

"What is she?  Some kind of mutant psychic or something?"  Kitty asked
curiously.  Pete placed one finger over her mouth.

"Listen, these hunches are for real.  Distant future's murky, she just
gets hunches, but up to a minute, she knows.  We'll do wot she says,
'cause of that, an' the fact that I trust 'er."  He gazed into Kitty's
eyes, asking for her trust.  Still not too sure, Kitty shrugged.

Different people kept coming up and offering Perry their cards, and she
accepted them, sometimes with just a nod, with others grabbing them to
talk and gossip about recent events.  Kitty was not too certain about
this Perry, so she watched surreptitiously.  Perry fitted in well, in
what was essentially an old boys club.  She even dressed in the same
clothes, a sort of uniform here.  Kitty didn't feel envious of this
belonging, despite the fact she was still considered 'Wisdom's girl'.
She never particularly wanted to be a part of this group.  This train of
thought was interrupted by someone else slipping a card into Perry's
hand.  Kitty was surprised by the many different people that dropped by
with their cards.  While she noted this, Kitty noticed the expression on
Perry's face flicker, and she shot a warning look at Pete, who leaned
over to Kitty.

"You want to leave?"

"Now?"  Kitty gave him a questioning look.

"Very soon, get ready."

As they did that, Perry put on her jacket and coat.  A rowdy slurred
voice mocked.

"Are you gonna leave 'fore you tell us 'ow come you're still breathin',
Perry?"

"Yes, Green, you know the rule, no giving away trade secrets," Perry
said coldly.  She headed towards the door, waved at a few people, and
slipped out just before Pete and Kitty.

"That was a quiet one," Kitty said sarcastically.  "Are all of your
premonitions that accurate?"

"Oh, yeah," Perry said, then turned and high kicked at a shadow that
collapsed at her feet.  "Sometimes I can even tell how many guns they
have," she added as about fifteen men emerged from the alleyway.

Perry had picked up the gun and was using it as a blunt object as Pete
did his thing.  More efficient than either, Kitty was a blur of flying
limbs.  After a moment first Pete, then a second later Perry stepped
back.  This was a little more difficult than it sounds, it seemed that
the attackers were after Perry, but what few managed to get past Kitty
were very easy to deal with.

"I like her, Boy Wonder," Perry said.

"So do I, Witch," Pete replied.  He lit up, automatically turning to
Monica, offering her a cigarette and a light.  Perry struggled visibly.

"No thanks, I'm trying to quit," she said.  Kitty was just about
finished but she heard that remark.

"Maybe you could persuade Pete to do the same," she suggested, facing
the last man standing.

"Naah, if you couldn't do it, she couldn't," Pete said, unconsciously
laying a few more of Kitty's fears to rest.

"Wait a minute," Perry stepped over to the barely conscious last man,
who was only being held up by Kitty's fist.  "So, why?" she asked
softly.

"Won't tell you, bitch," he spat, along with quite a bit of blood.

"Why can't you guys ever think of something different to call me?" Perry
asked rhetorically.  "And, basically, you're right," her voice lowered.
"I am a bitch, and I'll prove it to you if we ever meet again."  She
swung a fist which connected heavily with his jaw, and his eyes glazed
as he slid to the ground.

"I thought I'd enemies," Pete said.

"You do.  A girl's got to have some hobbies," Perry said.

"Which reminds me," Pete said.  "Where've you been 'iding?"

"I've been working."

"I hadn't heard about that," Pete said, and what didn't get passed along
the grapevine, eventually, wasn't worth knowing.

"Not that sort of job.  I've been working day jobs, you know, secretary,
receptionist, cleaner.  You name it, I've done it."

Pete's eyebrows went up, and he sniggered.

"Cleaner?"

"I'll have you know I'm a very good cleaner.  I'm good at everything I
do," she said, but not sounding hurt.

"I'd seen your old place, Perry, the bomb could only've made it
cleaner," Pete said.

"Hell, if you're going to be personal, you aren't the picture of
cleanliness yourself."

"Yeah, but I'm not a cleaner," Pete pointed out.

"Neither am I, since I got fired," Perry admitted.  Even Kitty,
suspicious as she was, joined in the laughter at that.

"So what d'you do now?"

"I'm a receptionist.  A robot that answers phones and makes coffee.  I
want out as soon as I can," Perry sounded depressed.  "Tonight was
supposed to do that, but I can't really take a job if at any time I'm
likely to get hordes of idiots after my blood."

"Don't worry, you'll get a job in no time flat.  Everyone wants you,"
Pete said.

"Yes, that's the problem.  As flattering as it is, I may have to go back
to playing it safe," Perry turned up her coat collar.

"Uh, Perry, how could we keep in touch?" Pete asked, before she could
turn away and leave for good.

"I suppose you could reach me at Gregge, Hallson, and Fritz.  I won't be
there long, if I don't find a job soon, I may blow up the building."
She smiled, then hurried off into darkness.  Pete and Kitty went back to
their hotel.

**

It was the last day of their extended shopping trip.  Pete had been very
brave, and not actually run screaming from any of the shops, although he
had gone outside to have a smoke on some tense occasions.  Now, in a
carefully casual voice, he drawled out.

"What about checking on Perry?"

Kitty drew a blank for a second, then gave him a suspicious glance.
"Why?"

"Just to be polite, people do visit friends sometimes."

"Yeah, right.  And you know what polite people do."

It took a little argument, but they did end up at the offices.  They
left the lift, and right ahead of them was the high desk.  Not quite
hidden behind it, Perry sat and talked into her head set. They came
close enough to hear what she was saying.

"As I told you sir, Mr Fritz is not available at present, perhaps you
would like to organise a meeting, or leave a message?"  There was a look
of intense something on her face, but she waited for the hysterical
voice on the other end to finish speaking.  "Yes sir, I'll tell him what
you said," her voice was clear crisp and polite.  "May demons eat your
soul," she added, hanging up.  Lurking at the back of her eyes, as she
looked up at Kitty and Pete waiting in front of the desk, was something
definitely not polite.

"Bad time?" asked Pete.

"No, the best time," Perry replied.  "If you want to, we could go to
lunch."

"Isn't it a little early?" Kitty asked, checking.

"Eleven, twelve, not a huge difference.  Maybe I could get fired."
Perry didn't sound terribly hopeful though.  She pressed a few buttons,
and spoke, "Kelly, I'm going to lunch.  See you later."  She tore off
the headpiece and mike as if they were manacles, and stood.

Kitty gulped.  Any woman would have.  Perry stood in perfect black
skirt, red blouse and black jacket.  Her face was perfectly made up, and
her heels made her easily six foot.  She looked like the epitome of
elegance.  She tossed her straight black hair over her shoulder, and
Kitty sighed.

"Come on, I'll show you the back stair.  It's the quickest way to the
lunch place I have in mind," she beckoned them.  She was right, it
wasn't much later that they were halfway down the block towards wherever
it was they were going.

Pete was describing some hilarious mission when Perry froze, stopped
laughing and lurched sideways, clutching at the wall for support.

"What?" Pete and Kitty asked.

"Oh my God, there's a bomb in the building.  We have to get them out!!"
She turned blindly back the way they had come.

"How long?" Pete grabbed her arm.

"One, maybe two minutes," Perry said trying to shake him off.

"You can't do it," Pete sounded very, very firm.

"I have to."  Perry no longer looked so elegant.

"You can't.  You don't have time.  You'll be killed," Pete was not
letting her go.  Perry hit him in the stomach with her knee, an action
that forced Kitty to get involved.  While they were holding Perry still,
Kitty asked apprehensively.

"Pete, if there is a bomb, shouldn't we do some..." There was an
enormous deafening explosion.  Bits of building started falling from the
sky, and the building they were all so recently in collapsed inwards.

Kitty gaped, and Perry collapsed sideways.  Pete grabbed her by one arm,
and grabbed Kitty with his spare hand.

Kitty phased them all as some smallish rubble started falling around
them.  "We've got to see if we can help," she said, aghast at the
thought of the people who may still be trapped in the building.

"Right. Poor sods, pity it wasn't lunch hour," Pete muttered, as they
all started back.

"'Course it wasn't," Perry said grimly. "Someone was trying to kill me
again.  Bastards," her voice was cold and hard.

"Shit Perry, you shouldn't come back then.  Someone'll see you.  Haven't
you got some hole you can crawl into?" Pete asked, stopping.  Kitty
paused momentarily, then shrugged.  He could catch up.  She ran ahead to
where the rescue effort had already begun.

"Yeah.  I'll get some stuff, and I guess I've got to get back into
hiding," Perry sighed.  "Who ever this slimebag is, they don't mind
killing civilians."

"Which is why you should go somewhere safe for a while.  Get some stuff
and meet me at where Ben's pool hall used to be," Pete ordered.

"If you know somewhere safe, you'll deserve a bloody medal, Boy Wonder,"
Perry said.  She nodded towards the downed building swarming with
rescuers.  "Get them to look near the far corner."

"Right Witch.  Now bugger off," Pete said in dismissal.

As they went their separate ways Pete to help in the clean up, and Perry
to experiment with the better part of valour, Perry muttered to herself.
 "Well going to the Crown did get me out of that job.  That's for
goddamned sure."

**

Some hours later the rest of Excalibur listened to her story with open
mouths.

"That's twice bystanders have been killed by whoever this is.  I'm
getting a bit upset."

It was amazing the sorts of emotions that these British could put behind
the mildest of words and the blandest tone, Nightcrawler noted.

"Perhaps, it would be wiser to leave this to someone else?" he
suggested.

"I do not think it is a good idea to endanger ourselves for this,"
Colossus gave Perry a wary look, "unknown person.  We only know her
through Pete."

It never took Peter Rasputin long to get paranoid, especially when it
was someone to do with me, Pete thought, not even bothering to check for
Kitty's reaction.  She stood.

"We all know about your problems with Pete, but if he says we can trust
her, I'll give her the benefit of the doubt," she said.

"And I have no objections to helping out a lady in distress,"
Nightcrawler said gallantly.

Pete didn't need to check Perry's reaction to this statement either.  If
Kurt thought that Perry would ever let anyone save her, he had another
think coming.

"I'm not helpless.  I can take care of myself.  Maybe you haven't heard
what Boy Wonder said.  I was a member of Black Air for nearly as long as
he was, and they don't go easy on people just because they're girls."
She remained standing.

"Understood," Nightcrawler said.  "But first, spend a few days here to
keep out of the way.  We would be honoured for you to stay."

Perry looked at him suspiciously for a moment, then shrugged.  "If you
don't mind."

"What are we going to do when the X-Men arrive?" Kitty asked.

"Wot do you mean?" Pete queried.

"I mean, what'll we tell Perry?"

"Nothin'.  She can work out what she needs to know by 'erself."  Pete
seemed supremely unconcerned.

The next morning the X-Men arrived.  Not all of them, Cyclops, Jean,
Beast, Wolverine and Rogue.

The minute they landed, Kitty ran up to Wolverine and they got into a
huddle of gossip, Beast grabbed Moira to talk about the loss of his
precious equipment, Jean and Scott were chatting to Nightcrawler, and
this left Rogue alone.  This didn't last long.

"You look a little left out," came an English drawl.

Rogue saw the girl leaning against the wall, out of the wind.  "Who're
you?" Rogue asked, surprised out of politeness.

"Monica Perry."  She held out her hand.  The long elegance of the hands
only marred by the short nails.

"Rogue."  She also extended a hand covered in a glove, but Perry didn't
comment.

There was an uncomfortable silence.  Then without turning around Monica
said.  "Pete, you want to say something?"

Pete walked out of the shadows in the doorway.

"Yeah, Witch.  'Day Rogue.  Perry's an old friend, I thought she might
want an introduction to you lot."

Rogue shrugged.  "Whatever sugah.  Ah'll do it." she pointed out the
various X-Men.  "Those two are Jean and Scott, and that's Beast, and
that's..." she was about to point out Logan, when Logan saw them.

He disentangled himself from Kitty and started stalking towards them.
There was absolutely no expression on his face as his fists clenched and
his claws burst through his skin.  Perry stepped forwards, away from the
wall.  The others turned to see what was going on.  Before anyone could
react, Logan dived at her, claws swinging.  Simultaneously, Perry
ducked, swayed and shot up millimetres in front of his face, her hands
gripping his hair.  Frozen, Excalibur and the X-Men could only watch as
she pulled his face forward, bared her teeth, and kissed him on the end
of the nose.  Logan's strong arms closed around her in a bear hug.

"Told you we'd meet again," Perry said with a surprisingly girlish
giggle.

"So ya did, girl, so ya did.  I shoulda believed ya."  Logan gave her a
last squeeze, and they both noticed the gaping faces around them.

"You trying to give me a stroke, Witch?" Pete asked, colour coming back
into his face.  Logan gave him a long look, with a 'you'll keep' air to
it.

"Wolvie, you know her?" Kitty asked breathlessly.

"Oh, we met years ago, didn't we, Logan?" Perry said.

"'Bout six years now," Logan confirmed.  "In some Arab country."

"There was a shape shifter, who was messing around.  To make sure it was
always us, when we met, he'd go straight for me, and I'd dodge the claws
'cause I knew where they would be," Perry explained.

"When we fixed everything up, she got called back," Logan finished.
Perry gave him another hug and then stood with her arm around his
shoulders.

"Kurt, care to give us more of an introduction to your new team mate?"
Scott suggested with some impatience.

"She is not a team member, Scott.  She's a guest," Kurt corrected.

With her customary poise Jean went over, and held out a hand.  "Maybe I
should introduce myself.  I'm Jean Grey-Summers, pleased to meet you."

"Charmed.  Don't mind me though, I can tell that you all have things to
tell each other that I shouldn't know.  I'll leave you all, how about I
cook something for dinner while you talk?" There was a loud groan.

"Don't let'er.  She does things to food that should be illegal," Pete
said.

"From you Pete, that must mean it's terrible," Kitty put in.

"Girl, are ya going to poison all of us?" Logan added.

"Gee thanks guys.  For all you know I've gotten better in the last few
years," Perry sounded hurt.

"Have you?"  Pete was not going to let her run around the question.

"No, but I might have," Perry complained.  "Don't worry, I'll toss a
salad and oh, I'll think of something.  You guys go talk," she beckoned
to Lockheed, dropped a kiss on the top of Logan's head and wandered
inside.

"But is she to be trusted?" Scott asked, inevitably.

"I trust'er.  If ya want ta count that f'r somethin'," Logan said,
tilting back his chair.

"I'm not saying that I don't trust you, Logan.  It's just that we've
been taken in before.  After all, what do we know about her?" Scott
said, in an attempt to be soothing

"I know quite a lot about her," Pete said.  Normally he didn't say much
in these meeting with the X-Men.  He never really felt part of the team
with Excalibur, and didn't think he ever would, but he liked most of
them.  The X-Men were something completely different.  "She worked with
me for 'bout eight years.  You get t'know people when you go on missions
with 'em.  If you depend on someone for yer life, you've got to know
'em."

"Tell us about her," Jean suggested.

"She is a guest, should we be discussing her behind her back?" Meggan
asked anxiously.

"But she knows who you are, and who we are," Scott said.  "Should she
know that much?"

"We don't know enough about her to judge," Jean said quietly.  "We
should find out more about her," she looked pointedly at Pete, who
sighed.

"Awright.  I met 'er about ten years ago, about a month after I'd been
recruited into Black Air.

***

Pete was bored.  He was fairly sure that it wouldn't last long, things
tended to be exciting since he had started training with this bunch of
bastards.  Even after only a month, he already was trained never to
relax, and so, while waiting for what ever would happen next, he warily
looked around the bare room.  Four walls, camera, table, couple of
chairs.  Pretty standard stuff.  He had just finished tabulating all of
this in his mind, when the door opened.  In walked the training chief,
and a woman.  Well, well...

"Pete Wisdom, Monica Perry, you'll be training together," the trainer
said, turned and left.  They looked at each other.  Pete opened his
mouth.

"What's a kid like you doing in a place like this?" Monica Perry asked
Pete, before he could say anything.  Pete chose to ignore the fact that
she took the words out of his mouth, in favour of the more pressing
issue.

"I'm not a kid!" he said indignantly.

"I'm sure."  She sat down in the other seat, leaning back into a mirror
image of Pete's posture.  Suddenly irritated, Pete shot a hot-knife at
the camera.  As it rained electrical components Monica Perry grinned at
him.

"Call me Perry," she said.

"Call me Wisdom," he replied.

"Charmed, I'm sure, kid. Now, the formalities are over, we should leave
before the six men with machine guns open that door for us, in, oh, a
minute."  She got up and walked over the door.

"What?" Pete thought about arguing, but her tone made him decide against
it.  He joined her at the door, and slid a knife through the lock.  "How
the hell do you know that?"

"You have those flaming knife things, and I can tell the future," Perry
spun around the door, and lead the way to the right.

"Wot?  Like a witch?"

Perry froze, and turned to look at him.  Her gaze could have given him
frostbite.  "I am not a witch."

"I'm sure," he repeated her earlier comment.  He overtook and ran down
the hallway.  They hurried in silence for a while.

"Uh, Wisdom?"

"Huh?"

"There's three guards in front, and six behind."

"Oh, you're full of good news."

As one they got ready and leapt at the group ahead of them.  The guards
were well-trained, but no matter how brief, surprise is an advantage.
Pete went into action silently, while beside him, Perry screamed like a
harpy, and high kicked the gun out of one of the guards' hands.  Pete,
did something similar with his fist.  Pete grabbed the gun by the barrel
and brought it in an arch up, then down on its owner's head.  Meanwhile
Perry had followed up with a fist to the jaw of the other guard.  The
third guard didn't know where to shoot, and before he could stop
dithering, he was hit by a foot on one temple, and the butt of a gun on
the other.  He slithered into a heap on top of his stunned colleagues.
Pete tucked a gun into his belt, as Perry picked up another and did the
same.

"You're not so bad, Witch."

"Neither are you, Boy Wonder."  They amiably didn't kill each other for
the calling of names.  The duo continued down the hall.  They discovered
that neither needed to talk as they tried to find their way out without
encountering any more of the guards that seemed to want to kill them.
They couldn't avoid all of them, but they managed to hold most off,
without killing them.  They both had a feeling that if they killed they
might be in serious trouble.  This compunction did not seem to be
mutual, they noted after the second encounter.

"So why'd you get picked?" Pete asked.

"I must look like I'm trained for this.  I got my black belt in Karate
when I was sixteen, and I have my green in Judo.  I can speak four
languages fluently, and I am psychic," Perry said matter of factly.  "I
was beginning training in MI5 but I got dragged in here, signed on and
told no one ever leaves."

"Trying to give me a bleedin' inferiority complex?" Pete asked,
overwhelmed by her list.

"I don't want to flatter you, but you have to be good to be here, Boy
Wonder.  You're held up at the spy school as an example of what can be
done but they flay anyone who tries," Perry answered frankly.  Pete felt
gratified, especially seeing as he hadn't realised his legendary status.
 "Of course, that sort of hero worship only ever lasts until the next
bright spark comes by."  She grinned at him at this comment, and then
frowned.  "Oh fuck.  There's about twenty guards coming this way."

"Let's get out of here!"  They dashed off, but the guards were gaining,
and there were others approaching from other directions.  They were
fired on, and Perry began to lose track of the possible futures.  They
fired back, from a doorway, as they seemed to pour from every direction.
 Pete turned, pushed on the door, and they found themselves in an
office.  The training officer sat at the desk.  Panting, the pair gazed
at him, stunned.  He looked up at them and spoke in a bored voice.

"You passed the first test.  Now you can start the proper training.
Congratulations."  He turned back to his paper work.  Pete and Perry
stood there, sweating a little.

"Yes, what?" the trainer asked impatiently.

"What would have happened if we failed?" Perry asked.

"You'd be dead.  Is that all?" The trainer shrugged.

"Are we finished for today?" Pete asked.

"Yes.  Be here before 7:30 tomorrow."

There didn't seem to be anything else to say, so they left.

"So," Pete said.

"So..."

"I need a drink," Pete said firmly  "There has to be somewhere we can
get a drink around here."

"Yeah.  Hey, you over 18, Boy Wonder?"

"Not for six months, you?"

"You are young.  I've only got two months.  ID?"

"Yeah."

"Plus, we never gave back these guns."

"Let's go party."

***

"She's one of me oldest friends, and I trust 'er.  Though what that'd
count for I don't know," Pete said finally.

"She's one o' the good guys," Wolverine said.  "I've seen her in action,
and she's good at what she does," he flashed a grin.  "She's not nice,
she lies whenever she can, she's got the mouth of a fishwife, and the
morals of a alley cat.  I'd say one of the best people I'm goin' ta
meet." There was a few seconds silence.

"I am curious about the way that you made her acquaintance, Logan.  Do
you care to elucidate on the matter?" Beast asked.

"It's twice now.  The first was in the Middle East.  There was a shape
shifter, an' she had been sent to do something about it, after it'd
killed some other agents.  We teamed up."  There was a barely
perceptible pause, but Pete noticed it and nodded, satisfied.  "Next
time was in Japan.  I was on holiday."

***

Wolverine hefted the backpack, the only bag he had, and slouched his way
along the street.  He ignored the bustling crowds of people that pushed
everyone else back and forth on the busy Tokyo street, but somehow knew
to leave him alone.  He made his way to the chikatetsu, and down the
stairs, gave his ticket, and allowed himself to join the squashed masses
on the train.  He was going to visit some old friends, and he let the
reminiscence of long ago times fill his mind, swaying with the movement
of the train.  People bumped into him as they got on or off, but he
didn't notice too much.  Then, someone bumped him hard.  Automatically
he apologised.

"Sumimasen."

"You come with us, Mr Logan," a harsh voice spoke in his ear.

Casting a quick glance at the packed carriage, Wolverine decided that it
would be wiser to do as he was told.  Until he was away from bystanders
anyway.  At the next station they all got off.  There were five of them
in all, he noticed, along with the missing fingers that marked them as
the Yukuza.  They made their way off the station, and they hustled into
a nearby alley.  They made it halfway, and he clenched his fists. Before
he could show his claws there was a gunshot.  He swung around ready to
face this new threat.  The threat wasn't to him, however.  One of the
mobsters was clutching at a bleeding hole in his arm.  In the mouth of
the alley stood a tall figure.  A low smooth voice spoke in fluent
Japanese.

"That was a warning shot.  The next one might hit something permanent."

They obviously remembered that they had a hostage then, and turned to
collect him.  He was in a crouch, claws out, and a grin with just a
touch of the berserker in it.  He bared his teeth a bit more in
invitation.  Several of the quicker of the Japanese gangsters reached
for weapons.  There was a few seconds of blurred movement, and a
gunshot, and the slower ones didn't even try.  Confused and getting more
scared, the thugs looked back and forth between their adversaries.  They
had been prepared to deal with Logan, but not with him and this unknown
adversary.

"We outnumber you," one of them tried, the hesitation in his voice
making it more of a suggestion than a threat.

"We're nastier than you," the figure at the opening said, much more
firmly.

That was it, one of them cracked and ran past the threatening figure.
Once panic starts, it nearly inevitably spreads.  The others weighed up
the options and ran.  Wolverine didn't relax, he stalked towards his
backup (he wasn't about to think of it as a rescue).  He snarled and
swiped at it.  With a fluid shift, it avoided the razor sharp blades
swinging at its chest and stepped forward and gave him a hug.  Wolverine
retracted his claws and hugged back.  Leaning over then, the bundled
figure leaned over and kissed Wolverine full on the mouth.  It was some
seconds before either spoke.

"Hmm, been a while," Wolverine said.

"Life's a bitch sometimes."  The figure shook its hair out from the cap
and could be seen as a woman.

"Why're ya dressed like that, Perry?"  Wolverine indicated the many
layers she was wearing.

"I've got a damn cold.  I guess you might get it now," Perry answered,
pulling the cap back on.

"Naah, healing factor."

"I'd forgotten about that.  What'd you say we give it another go?"  The
busy silence continued a bit longer.

Wolverine picked up his bag and they headed back to the chikatetsu.
"What're ya doing here?"

"You know how it goes.  The boss says jump, and I say which ocean?"
Perry said peacefully.  "I was on the train and I got a hunch I needed
to get off, and then I saw you being hurried up the stairs.  I'm sorry
it took so long to catch up, but I was up the other end of the platform,
and it took me a while to get to this exit."  They stood on the
platform.  "I'm staying in a hotel.  Would you like to join me?" she
asked casually.  He just looked at her.  "Same tune as last time.  No
promises, no regrets."

The train came up, and the doors opened.  As the people pushed out, they
stepped forwards to enter, and Wolverine spoke softly.

"Sounds good."

***

"What do you mean, the morals of an alley cat?" Scott asked
suspiciously.  Pete and Wolverine exchanged a long glance.

"You know those James Bond movies?" Pete said first.  "Ignoring the fact
that James Bond wouldn't last five minutes in the real world, o'course."

"Yes, what's that got to..."

"Ya know the Bond women?" Wolverine said.

"Uh yes, that's the beautiful love interest.  I still don't understand."
 Scott sounded confused.

"In espionage circles there is something similar," Pete said.

Jean started to smile.  "You mean there's a real life James Bond?"  She
and Rogue had rather interested expressions now.

"Somethin' like that.  The group of cast offs' called Perry's men,"
Wolverine finished.

"Uh, what?" Scott asked, surprised.  Then his brain caught up, and his
face turned very nearly the same shade as his glasses.

"Only there's more of Perry's men," Pete finished.  The beginning of
what might have been a profound silence was interrupted by a knock on
the door.  Perry stuck her head in the room.

"Uh, there's someone on the phone for you guys," Scott and Kurt stood,
but Scott sat down again at a mental nudge from his wife.

"Excuse me for a minute," Kurt said politely, and left.

Perry stood at the doorway and noted the way that most of them were
avoiding her gaze.

"Talking about me?  Should I be flattered?"

"'Course, Witch.  Would we say anything bad about you?" Pete said
facetiously.

"Yes, you would.  You could just ask me," she sounded hurt.

"I'm sorry.  Would you like to ask us any questions about us?" Meggan
asked.

"Oh, maybe.  Where's the rest of the X-Men?" Perry couldn't resist her
curiosity for any length of time.

"We left them at home... Wait a second, how did you know who we are?"
Beast asked.

"Oh there are files on you lot.  I always had a bad habit of reading
from the back.  That way the X-Men are one of the first groups.  Bet
it's a problem with Xavier still locked up, and not having any powers
anyway."

"What do you know about Xavier's loss of power, and his incarceration?"
Beast, Scott and Jean all looked surprised.  They looked at the members
of Excalibur accusingly.  There was the sound of chuckling.

"You just told her," Wolverine told them.

"What!?!!" This whole conversation was getting a little confused.

"I'm a psychic.  I know what you are going to say a few seconds before
you do.  I am expert at getting people to tell me things."  There was a
gleam in her eyes that said it wasn't just her mutant ability that made
her good at that sort of thing.  Kurt came back before anyone blushed
too hard.

"That was Psylocke.  She wishes to invite us to dinner," he saw Perry
and remembered.  "Oh, Perry, I hope you don't mind coming?"

"Nope.  Probably a good idea, actually.  Lockheed made all the lettuce
wilt."

"Should I ask how the flying rat managed that?" Pete asked.

"Nope," Perry flashed a grin.  "Now for the important question."
Everyone looked at her curiously.  "What am I going to wear?"

They were all elegantly tuned out when they arrived at the Braddock
Mansion later that evening, or as elegantly as they could manage.  Jean
and Rogue had been closeted away with the girls from Excalibur, and,
along with Perry had succeeded in dazzling the men when they emerged.
Jean and Meggan were in green, although there was little else in common
between Jean's sheath dress and Meggan's medieval one.  Kitty was in a
red dress just long of mini, and Rogue was in a blue suit.  Rahne was in
blue also, and Moira decided to stay home.  Perry surprised them, coming
out in a very typical little black dress.  She was very much elegance
incarnate, but she just shrugged off any comments on it, and started
talking to Wolverine, catching up.  The two of them were still talking
when they arrived.  Perry looked up at the house and frowned.

"Look like home?" Pete asked facetiously.  "She went to The girls
school.  She's just a poor little rich witch," he added in an aside to
the others.

"Bloody hell, Boy Blunder, can't you get over that?  Talk about
hang-ups.  You know I always got on better with your family than with
mine."  Perry sounded sour.  They were ushered into the house by a
housekeeper, and entered the drawing room.  "So who's this Psylocke?"
she asked.

"Her name's Elizabeth Braddock," Rahne said quietly.  Perry gasped as
they were led into the room.  Psylocke saw her, and came forward.  They
both leaned forward and kissed the air by each other's cheeks.

"Honourable Monica Perry.  Long time," Psylocke said urbanely.

"Elizabeth Braddock.  You have changed.  You must give me the number of
the person who changed your race, I've always wanted to be Egyptian,"
Perry said even more casually.

"Do you know everyone?" Nightcrawler asked wistfully.

"No, you're just lucky.  Elizabeth and I were school-mates for a little
time.  Of course she was in a lower class than me, and a teacher's pet,"
Perry told him.

"And Monica was a bitch of a prefect," Psylocke said, smiling
humourlessly.  "I never thought I'd ever meet again the person who gave
me a extra duties for a month because I was a snot."

"You can make bleedin' enemies, Perry."  Pete sounded admiring.

"It's a gift."

"Wait a minute, what did you mean 'Honourable Monica Perry'?" Rogue
asked curiously.

"Her mother is Lady Emily Halifax, and her uncle is Duke of Sussex.
Why, didn't you know?" Betsy raised an eyebrow.  Logan and Pete's jaws
dropped.

"You're not."  Logan sounded stunned, in his not
cool-casual-I-can-deal-with-anything way.  Pete was speechless.

"What's the big deal?" Kitty asked.

"She's part of one of the richest and oldest families in the world, and
she doesn't tell anyone," Wolverine seemed to be getting over it.

"We all have pasts that aren't so pretty," Perry didn't sound happy
about this turn of events.  "Did you have to tell them Elizabeth?  I'd
kept that quiet for ten years and now you just blurt it out."

"Kitty asked."

"Gee, thanks Kitty."

Pete finally regained control of his vocal cords.  "You're an
aristocrat?"

"No."

"You're a member of the gentry?"

"No, I'm..."

"You've got blue blood?"

"Listen Wisdom,"

"You're a nob?" Pete's voice hit a high note.

"Drop it, Boy Blunder."

"You're an inbred,"

"Shut up."

"over-bred,"

"Enough!"

"upper-crust,"

"I said."

"snooty nosed,"

"I'm warning you..."

"court-presented,"

"STOP!"

"posh-school educated,"

"Argh!!"

"old-family,"

"No!"

"high society,"

"Oh, Jesus,"

"nobly born,"

"Please?"

"TOFF?"

"YES!!! Just shut up!!"

"You are never going to live this one down, Lady Witch."

"Don't call me Lady!"

"All right... Lady."

Grabbing Pete's tie Perry pulled his face close to hers, and spoke
through clenched teeth.  "I would recommend you drop this, now."

Pete smiled and tapped her on the end of the nose, not drawing away.  "I
don't think so."

Psylocke, like most of the others, watched this exchange like a tennis
match, eyes swinging back and forth.  Finally, she smiled, the dazzling
smile that only emphasized her beauty.  "I think, perhaps, this is worth
a month of extra chores."

Perry swung her deadly gaze from Pete to Psylocke.  If looks could
kill... Nightcrawler thought.  The silence extended.

Then Perry smiled, let go of the tie, and said.  "I still think that
you're a snot, but a dangerous snot.  I think it's better that way."

Psylocke nodded her acceptance of the compliment, and they were ushered
into the dining room.

The meal proceeded with out a crisis.  Conversations, reminiscence, and
gossip were exchanged amiably, as the courses were devoured.  After the
meal was finished, they moved into the sitting room, for coffee and to
continue the chat.  Perry, Kitty, Wolverine and Pete sat in one corner
slightly away from the others.

"So Pete, you still haven't told me about how you left the 'old firm'."

"It's a long story."

"All the best stories are long."

"So you say," Pete thought for a moment, then spoke of how he had enough
of the corrupt and heartless methods that were used.

"Yeah, so what made you leave?" Wolverine asked.

"He just told you," Kitty said.

"No, he didn't.  We both knew about those sorts of thing years ago.
Hell we took part in some of them.  What was it that changed your mind?"
 Perry sounded like she was not going to let this go.

Pete sighed and told about his friend, who Perry had not known was dead,
and the aliens, and the link they found with the Hellfire Club, and
blowing up what they had found there.  He edited a lot of the tale,
leaving some things to tell Perry later, when they were alone, things
that only another agent from Black Air would understand.

By the time that this had finished, the rest of the group was silent,
and listening too.  They weren't noticed until Beast spoke.

"The Hellfire club have fingers in many pies," Beast said.

"Too right.  The bunch of rich snobs think that just 'cause they're rich
they can do anything to anyone," Rogue agreed.

"There's a job for you, Lady Perry," Pete teased.

"I don't think so.  I'm not rich enough.  Just my brat of a cousin's cup
of tea though."

"That would be Lord Jeremy?" Psylocke asked.  "The famous one who shaved
your hair the mid term before graduation?"

"Yes, the one who pushed me down the great stairs, all one hundred of
them.  The one who slipped foxgloves into my tea, and laxatives into my
birthday cake when I was six.  The one who is the youngest Minister for
Defence ever, and is heir to the title of Duke.  That one."

"Sounds like it would be interesting at family reunions," Jean said
dryly.

"Oh yes.  And that's only one of them."

"I always wondered why you got on so well with my family," Pete said.
"They haven't actually tried to kill you, yet."

"It's a pleasant change."  Perry's eyes were not quite focused, as
though trying to remember something.  The rest slipped into school
stories, but Perry didn't contribute.  She sat and stared at the wall as
if mesmerized.

**

It was nearly twelve, and Nightcrawler was about to suggest that they
leave when Perry sat up with a start.

"The little bastard.  How dare he!" she bellowed, then swore for a
while.  Not really sure what had happened they all stared at her.  She
was making aspersions about someone's brain, morals and sexual habits,
and didn't seem to be slowing.

"Uh, Witch?" Pete asked.

"What?" she snarled.

"Wanta share?" suggested Wolverine.

"I just figured out who set those bombs, and when I get my hands on
the..."

"Perhaps we can help you?" Jean said quickly, before she could start
swearing again.

"My beloved cousin."

"What?" Rahne blinked.

"Where did Perry friend find that data?" Douglock asked.

"I'd forgotten.  I saw him twice in about a week before the first bomb.
Once I saw him with the Black Queen of the Hellfire club, a rich woman
in her own right.  Then I saw him outside the Black Air HQ.  He must
have thought I'd see the connection and spoken to someone.  That
bastard," she threw her glass across the room, smashing it against the
wall.

"Your own cousin did that?" Scott sounded shocked.

"Don't start believing in happy families now, Cyke," Wolverine said
cynically.  "So, what do you want to do about it?"

"Slow and painful death seems appropriate right now."

"Perhaps you should sleep on it, before considering violence?" Beast
suggested.

"Yeah, and dreams about the innocents he killed should make me
merciful."

"I think that it is time that we all went home, and got some sleep,"
Nightcrawler announced, and they all trailed out into the night.  There
was little conversation as they headed back to Muir Island.

**

Pete was standing in the shelter of the building, in the lee of the
wind, and smoking.  He gazed off at the sea, and didn't notice at first
when Kitty slid through the wall beside him.

"So," Pete started as Kitty spoke.

"So?"

"Were you?"

"Was I what?"

"Don't be obtuse."  Kitty sounded unhappy, and Pete wrapped his arm
around her shoulders.

"Whassup, Kitty me love?"

Kitty sighed, and gently disentangled herself.

"Are you one of Perry's men?"  Kitty was startled at the unusual sound
of Pete's low chuckle.  She stiffened.

"Is that what was bothering you?"  He noticed her expression and slumped
back against the wall.  "Are you sure you want to know?"

Kitty hunched her shoulders and nodded.

"Yes, I was," Pete said.  "It was while we were both in training."
Kitty didn't move.  "We were on our first mission, and we decided that
it wasn't going to last."  He shrugged.  "She already had an eye on an
older agent.  She's like that."

Kitty didn't look very reassured.

"Do you still.?" she said.

"Do I what?"  She poked him in the side, hard.  "No, I don't.  It lasted
two months nearly ten years ago."  Pete grabbed at her hand, but she
avoided him.

"It was fun, and we'll both remember it.  But now we're just good
friends, and that's all we are to each other.  I promise, Kitty."

Kitty wasn't sure that she believed him.  She slid back through the
wall, not answering him.  Pete thought about going after her, but there
was nothing that he could do now, it was all up to her.

**

Kitty was confused.  She cared for Pete.  She cared for him a lot.
While she had always known in theory that he's had other girlfriends,
she hadn't really known.  She was troubled by this realisation, but more
so about the realisation that the ex-girlfriend in question was in the
building.  Bewildered by all of this, she needed to talk to someone.
She smiled suddenly.  Logan was here, and she could talk to him.  It had
been a long time since she had last had a heart to heart with him, and
she missed him a lot.  She floated up the staircase, and the waited for
a moment outside his door.  Maybe he was asleep, or maybe...

"Watcha want?" Logan's voice came from inside, and he opened the door.
He was dressed in the clothes that they had gone out in, though the top
buttons were undone.  "Kitty, come in," he invited.

Kitty nodded and wandered in.  She curled up in the one chair and looked
at her hands.

"What's botherin' ya?"  Logan asked.  "If it's something that Wisdom kid
did..." He let the threat stand.

"No, that is, not exactly."  Kitty blushed slightly.

"Spill it, Kitty," Logan said.  "Ya obviously want to tell someone."

"I do, but it seems..."  She took a deep breath.  "Logan, Pete's one of
Perry's men."  Logan was silent.  "He said it was about ten years ago,
but, I don't know."  She was speaking quickly to fill in the quiet.
Logan was still silent.  She looked at him hopefully.

Logan looked at his hands, at the hands that had done so much in his
life.  He glanced up, and saw Kitty's expression.  "Being one of Perry's
men is not something you should judge him on," he tried.  She continued
to look at him.  "If he says that it is over, it is.  Perry never gets
emotional about her attachments.  She, uh, she thinks of each of her men
as an interesting diversion."

Slowly, as he said this, a look of revelation grew on Kitty's face.

"Logan, you're one of Perry's men," she said, as though trying to get
her mind around the idea.

He didn't answer for a moment.  He had a slight smile on his face when
he did.  "There's some things that just happen.  She's not an angel, but
that doesn't mean she's a demon either."  Kitty just blinked at him.

"Listen kid, ya have to understand that a lot of things happen during
the years.  In our job, people have to live life harder.  If they didn't
then they might miss out all together, 'cause life's short.  Perry's
been a top agent since she was seventeen, and Pete was there with her
when it started.  I'm not surprised.  Who're ya afraid of in this?"

Kitty had to think for a moment.  "I thought, maybe, if she wanted him
back, then they might.  I mean she's so elegant, and gorgeous, and
sophisticated."

"She won't.  If she said that it was over, then it's over.  Besides,
you're putting yourself down, Kitty."  He grinned.  "You're pretty,
you're damn clever, you're strong, and, most importantly, you're you.
If Pete can't see what that's worth, ya shouldn't waste your time with
him."

Kitty relaxed.  She got up and hugged him.  "Thank you.  You always make
me feel better."

Logan patted her on the back.  "I just point out the truth.  And if
Wisdom or Perry do anythin' to hurt you, I'll deal with 'em."

Kitty laughed.  As she walked out the door, she gave him one last
glance.  "You know, Wolverine, I have a lot of difficulty seeing you as
an interesting diversion."

She didn't go to speak to Pete straight away, but she was able to go to
sleep not long after she laid her head on her pillow.

**

Logan went out into the night.  He always felt much more comfortable
outside, and while this was not his home territory, he liked to gaze at
the stars for a while before going to bed.  He sat and watched his old
friends in the heavens.  The crunch of footsteps disturbed his reverie,
and he was instantly alert.  A minute later, a woman jogged around the
corner, and looked up at his vantage point.  She waved, but continued
running and Logan went back to contemplating the stars.  Fifteen minutes
later, Perry jogged up to him, and collapsed on the next rock.

"I'm getting old," she announced.

"Never happen."

"You are lucky, old friend, others of us don't heal so fast, and do get
old," Perry wiped her forehead on her sleeve.  "And what's worse, we get
fat if we don't fight it.  And it's much harder since I gave up
smoking."  She stared out at the dark sea.

"Perry, Pete was one of your men," Logan stated.

"Yup.  He was a very cute seventeen year-old.  Why?"

"Kitty was a bit worried."

Perry laughed.  "Poor girl, she needn't worry."

"I told her that."

"I always wonder why it takes so long for people to realise that."  She
leaned back on her elbows.

"Why are you running now?"  Logan was never one to waste words.

"I didn't today, and I get this impression that I'm going to need to be
fit in the future.  Goodness only knows why, it doesn't seem anything
urgent."  Perry closed her eyes, posed there in the moonlight.  Logan's
mouth twitched, but he went back to watching for falling stars.

"Have ya had any of your hunches recently?"

"Just one.  I'm going to do something serious to my darling cousin."
She didn't move, and her expression didn't change.

"I'd think that was a certainty."

"If I have any say in it, it will be."  She was still for another
moment, then opened her eyes, and threw an amused glance at Logan, which
he didn't see.

"It's late, I need my beauty sleep."

Logan simply snorted, and she stood, brushing off her hands.  She put a
hand on his shoulder for a moment.  He didn't react.

"Sweet dreams."

"Goodnight, Perry."

She wandered inside, and the other night creatures came in.  First Logan
from his rocks, then a few minutes later, Pete.  Whatever Pete may have
thought about the conversation was left behind his cool blue eyes.

**

Everyone was down at breakfast.  Everyone that is, but Pete and Perry.

"I wonder where Perry is?" Beast queried.

"She won't be down for a while yet," Kitty said, resignedly.  "Pete said
that she has civilized sleeping habits, which means she stays up till
sunrise, then doesn't get up until lunch."

So they were all surprised when Perry wandered down ten minutes later,
dressed in her working black trousers, loose white shirt, even though
both looked like they'd seen better days.  And nights, and probably a
few weeks as well.  She grabbed a mug, and held it out.

"Coffee," she said, although it sounded more like 'caffeine'.  Meggan
poured some into her cup, and without a sign of gratitude, or any milk
or sugar, Perry tossed half of it back.  She held out the cup again.

"More, please?" she asked, and when it too had been drunk she gave the
room at large a wide smile.

"I feel better."

"Is that something that they teach you at spy school?" Rahne asked in
fascination.

"What?"  Perry had found the eggs and piled three on her plate, she then
added a heap of bacon.

"Drinking coffee like that."

Perry looked at her quizzically over the top of her breakfast pile.

"And eating like that.  I thought it was just Pete that had a love
affair with cholesterol," Kitty added.

"Hmm, I think the coffee is a hang over from too many late nights, and,"
Perry looked puzzled.  "I have no idea why we eat such revolting food.
Normally I'm quite human about food, I assure you.  It's partly I didn't
eat much last night, and partly I need the energy."

Wolverine's eyebrow twitched, as he thought that perhaps he knew why
Perry took those late night runs.  She was too busy buttering her toast
to notice.  Scott, who hadn't seen Perry in these clothes before, was
sitting and staring, with a faint expression of horror.

"So how long are you staying here?" Perry asked, after a few mouthfuls.

"We can't stay longer than a week," Jean said.

"How about you go into London, and see the sights for a couple of those
days?" Perry suggested.

Pete wandered in then, having obviously only just managed to drag
himself out of his slumber.

"Ah'd like that," Rogue said.

"I can take you to all of the good places," Kitty volunteered.  "And
Rahne and Meggan could probably do with a break too."

"We could make a trip of it," Jean agreed, having quickly discussed it
with her husband mind to mind.

"A girl's only trip," Rogue grinned.

Only Wolverine noticed the way that Perry leant forward to cover her
face with her hair.  "I wouldn't mind a look myself," he said.  Perry
looked up at him quickly.

"Sound good.  It's been a while since I've been in England," Scott
added, distracted from his scrutiny of Perry.

"I too think that it would be most enjoyable," Nightcrawler put in his
opinion.

Perry scowled at Wolverine briefly, but didn't say a word as she
finished her breakfast.

"I've just been on a soddin' shoppin' trip," Pete moaned.

"Perhaps you and Logan could go explore together," Perry suggested.

"I know you'll be bored if you stay with us," said Kitty,
understandingly.  "I think that the two of you should get to know each
other."  She gave them both a wide smile.  The second she wasn't
directly looking at either of them, they gave each other wary looks,
much as two scruffy tom-cats would give each other when unsure about
exactly who's territory they were in.  Perry muffled her snigger behind
a mouthful of egg when she saw that.

"If we all got ready, and phoned to place reservations, we could go to a
show tonight, and start this afternoon," Kitty said, ready to organise
everything.

Jean stood up.  "I'll clean up in here, since I've already got
everything packed," she said, starting to collect the plates.

Perry shoved the last of her breakfast in her mouth, swilled the last of
her coffee and mumbled something incoherent as she headed outside still
chewing.  She was ignored as everyone packed up and cheerfully assisted
in the clean up.

Pete, disgusted by the bustling of everyone else, scooped up his plate
and mug and followed her out.

"Morning," he said, plonking himself beside her.

"Whatever."

"What are you going to do?" he asked, concentrating on his toast.

"About what?"  She squinted off into the distance.

"For the Queen's Mum's birthday.  About your bloody cousin.  What did
you think I was talkin' about?"

"I'll think of something."

"Don't go thinking that you're a superhero, if you want a hand just
ask."  Pete mopped up some juice.

Perry grinned at him.  "But I'm super secret agent, Boy Wonder.  I never
get hurt, I always win, and I like my cocktails shaken, not stirred."

"You know that bruises the vermouth, you 'ave to stir it, and if you get
hurt, you'll never be able to pay me the hundred you owe me."

"You cheated that game of Snooker, and I have witnesses."

Kitty came out of the door then, and did a quick double take as she saw
them talking.  Despite her conversation with Logan, she was still not
sure that she trusted Perry.  The two trained agents saw the movement
and turned to see what it was.

"Hello Kitty, I was just explaining to Pete that if you cheat on a game
of Snooker, you don't deserve the winnings," Perry said.

"I think that depends on whether or not you can prove it," Pete said.
"And you can't."

"How did he cheat?" Kitty queried.

"He said, look at that cute guy, bet you haven't seen one that big
before," Perry explained.  "I was in the middle of a shot and it went a
bit wrong."

"A bit?  I reckon that was the first time Scicluna ever got a ball
there."

"Yeah, well, I always thought her nose needed work."

"You what?" Kitty couldn't help herself.

"I broke agent big shot's nose," Perry shrugged.  "I didn't think that
she like me before that, but she certainly didn't like me after that."

"I don't think the way that I yelled, 'bull's eye' made 'er see my more
charmin' side."  Pete gave an identical shrug.  Kitty looked from one to
the other, trying to figure out if they were joking.  Neither of them
was going to enlighten her.

She settled for asking.  "So, are you coming into London?"

"Guess so.  If my house hasn't been bombed, I'd like to pick up some
stuff.  I guess I should move again.  Thank goodness I don't own too
much.  When you get bombed regularly you tend to learn not to have too
much stuff."  Perry shrugged off the two bombings that had rearranged
her life.

"Where are you going to move to?" Pete asked.

"How should I know?  I didn't know I had to move until a few days ago."

"Well, you could stay here," Kitty offered awkwardly.  She didn't really
want Perry to stay, but she thought she should offer.

"Thanks, but no.  I have to figure out what to do with my life, whether
to keep hiding, or go back to work.  That should take a couple of days,
then I'll leave."

Pete's eyebrows went up, but before he could comment, Perry stood and
gave Kitty a shove in his direction.  Kitty, although she was trained
enough to stop, allowed herself to stumble into him.

"I'll leave you to it," Perry said, wandering back inside.

**

Perry was not comfortable here.  She wasn't uncomfortable, when you've
been a field operative, you can deal with a lot of unpleasant
situations.  It was the way they were all so serious, she thought. She'd
always retained her sense of humour, because otherwise she would have
gone mad long ago.  That and she quite cheerfully acknowledged she
didn't have a shred of conscience in her body.  She was just thinking
that when she turned a corner she hadn't been around, and entered a huge
room.  In front of her was the most serious person here.  She let a
small smile cross her face.

Colossus was inspecting his last painting.  He wasn't sure about the
colour blend in one section, and was peering at it closely when voice
spoke over his shoulder.

"Nice picture.  Too abstract for my taste, but nice."

He spun around, and he saw Perry standing right behind him.  "You are
interested in art?"

"Sometimes.  I haven't had much time to stand back and appreciate it."
She leaned closer, incidentally brushing against Colossus.  "But, as
they say, I know what I like."  She let her eyes travel up then down.

Colossus blushed slightly, turning away to clean up his paints a little.

Perry smiled a secret smile.  Precognition may mean that you don't have
many surprises, but she liked the anticipation and she still enjoyed the
inevitability of the chase.

No regrets, indeed.

**

The packing didn't take long, it was a skill that all people living on
the shady side of the law had, and the X-Men easily qualified.  However,
some planning had to be done, booking hotel rooms and getting tickets
for a show.  All in all, it was about three hours after breakfast that
everyone was ready.

Kitty stowed her bags on board the plane, then did a quick mental head
count.

"Where's Peter and Perry?"  She stopped as Perry walked in the door with
the small bag that was all she had collected from her apartment when she
had been hustled to Muir Island.

"You couldn't leave me behind if you tried," Perry said, going up the
steps to the jet.

Peter wandered into the hanger.  Kitty ran up to him, and grabbed his
arm.

"Peter, where's your bag?  Aren't you coming?" she asked.

Peter blinked a bit, as though trying to clear his vision.  "Huh?  I uh,
I have not packed.  I think I will stay here and paint."  He spun
around, and then wandered out again.  Kitty looked after him, concerned.

"Come on luv.  We've got to go," Pete called, and Kitty went back to the
plane.

"I think there's something wrong with Peter," she said, climbing into
the pilot's seat.  She ignored Pete's rude comment.

"Why, what makes you think that?" Nightcrawler asked.

Kitty prepared for take off.  "He seemed absent."

"Oh, he's just had a learning experience," Perry put in.

"What do you mean, a learning experience?" Scott asked her.

"He's learnt that there is much in life that is fleeting and must be
treated as such.  Clinging to the past doesn't get anyone anywhere," she
leaned back, folded her hands behind her head and closed her eyes.

Pete leaned over to Wolverine.  "And another one bites the dust."

With all the self-control he was known for, Wolverine held back a smirk.
 Pete didn't bother.

**

Perry kept her eyes closed for most of the trip down, and most of the
others assumed that it meant that she was asleep.  On the contrary, she
was very much awake, her mind busy making plans.

They landed at Heathrow, and they all got up and ready to leave.

"Perry, we're here," Jean said.

"Thanks."

Leaving the airport, they decided that they would go and have lunch at
the hotel.  When they were almost there, Perry spoke to the taxi-driver
in the car she was sharing with Kitty, Pete, and Wolverine.  Kitty was
sitting in the middle of the back with Wolverine and Pete on either
side, and Perry in the front.

"You can drop me off here," Perry told the driver.  He swerved to the
curb.

"What are you doing?" Kitty asked.

"My apartment is just around the corner.  I'll just drop in, and meet
you back at the hotel in a little while," Perry opened the door.

Kitty, thinking quickly, nudged Wolverine, who was closest to the curb.
"We'll come and give you a hand," And they all ended up getting out of
the taxi, for a variety of different reasons.  Perry wasn't terribly
happy about it, but she shrugged, aware that nothing she could have done
would have changed the situation.

The outside of the building was non-descript.  They went up four flights
of stairs, and Perry opened the door to her apartment.  She waved an
absent hand at the front living/dining room, and went into what had to
be the bedroom.  There were newspapers, old clothes and coffee cups
littering the place, and Kitty was a bit nervous about sitting down.
Wolverine sauntered into the kitchen, and Pete plonked himself down on
one on the seats, cancelling out Kitty's worries by dragging her down
onto his lap.

"Mmm, Pete we need to talk," Kitty managed after a little while.

"Who needs to natter." Pete showed her another form of communication.
He was extremely fluent.

Unhappy about the way that she'd been thinking for the last few days,
Kitty relaxed into his arms.  Wolverine, who hadn't found anything
interesting, decided he might go and keep Perry company.

Perry turned around as he entered, and saw the pair on the seat before
Wolverine closed the door.  "Those two give off enough pheromones for me
to smell," she commented.  She was packing clothes into a suitcase.
Having seen the rest of her place Wolverine figured that the only reason
she was folding the clothes was because she could fit more in that way.

"So, how do you feel about Boy Wonder and Kitty?" Perry asked as she
opened another drawer.

Wolverine shrugged.  "I don't really want her involved with someone in
the trade, but she's got a mind of her own.  I don't have a say, but if
Wisdom hurts her..." he let the threat hang.

"You do realise that if you do anything to Pete, I'd have to come after
you.  I wouldn't kill you, but I could damn well make your life
difficult," Perry said cheerfully.  "Friends have to do these things."

Wolverine grunted, and sat down on the (unmade) bed.  "What I want to
know, is what are you up to?"

"Me?  Up to something?  Never," Perry opened her wardrobe, and started
folding up the last of her clothes.

"Yeah, and I'm Miss Canada.  What are you plannin', Perry?"

Perry smirked at that image.  "You haven't got the height.  I haven't
completely figured it out yet," she put her shoe collection into a bag.
"I need to see some old friends first," she started on the top of the
wardrobe, tossing down boxes.  The lid came off one, showing a very nice
hand piece.

"How long'll that take?"

"Listen Logan," Perry leaned over him, her face only a few inches away
from his.  "this is my place, my job, my cousin.  I will deal with this,
and I will do it my way," she leaned a little closer, staring into his
eyes.  "I will not let anyone get in the way, and I am not happy about
any of this, so tact will not be a strong point.  Don't get involved."
They stared at each other, unwilling to break eye contact first.

The door opened, and Pete stuck his head in.  "Perry, have you taken
root or having a r..."  Perry and Wolverine looked at him.  "Blimey,
looks like I broke in on a domestic," he grinned.

"Boy Blunder, this counts for you too.  I don't need help dealing with
Jeremy," Perry didn't loom at Pete, but then he knew her better.

"Witch, I told you years ago, someone tries to hurt you, I won't be
happy," Pete's voice was just as serious.  He shot a quick glance at
Wolverine.  "You know that most of us wouldn't like it."

"Most of who?" Perry asked, irritated.

Pete grinned.  "Perry's Men."

"Don't give me that.  This isn't a joke.  I don't want any of you to
interfere," she included Kitty in this order.

"We'll tag along and carry your grenades for you," Wolverine offered,
giving a surprisingly lascivious leer.

"That could get inconvenient and uncomfortable," she replied
automatically.  She contemplated them thoughtfully.  "You're determined
about this, aren't you."

"You could say that," Pete conceded.  Wolverine only nodded.

"If I don't have a choice about your company, then I'm going to use
you," Perry sat on the bed.  "But I'm in charge."

Pete waved a hand in an approximate salute.

Perry looked around her.  "First we go meet the others.  Then we'll go
see Jardine.  I have to do a little blackmail."

Leaving all but one bag there, she left.  The others followed, locking
the door behind them.

As they walked down the stairs Kitty leaned closer to Pete.

"If I didn't know better, I'd say that you'd been using that bedroom.
It's certainly the only time I've ever seen anything to rival yours,"
she said quietly.

Pete leaned closer and whispered to her.  "You should be able to tell
that wasn't my room, Pryde."

"How?"

"That was definitely not my underwear on the mirror."  He kissed her
hair as she giggled.

**

"So, revered leader, what do we do now?" Pete asked after lunch.  They
were sitting in the hotel dining room, finishing their drinks.  "We've
got a couple of hours before we 'ave to go to that show," he gave her a
suspicious look.  "Unless you want to spend that time primping.  Women."

"I do have plans, as a matter of fact," Perry informed him haughtily.
"And don't talk to me about primping.  I've never known anyone to take
as long in the bathroom in the mornings," she finished.

"You said something about plans," Wolverine prompted.

"Right.  We've got to go blackmail Jardine," Perry told them.

"Why blackmail?"  Kitty asked.

"I can't think of anything else that would get him to let go of some of
his precious files," Perry said, brushing off her jacket.  "I'd prefer
to do this on my own, you understand."

"We know," Pete groaned.

"Let's go then."  Wolverine stood and headed for the door.

**

Of course getting in to see Jardine to blackmail him was not that easy.
They had managed to walk in the front doors, but no further.

They had been stopped by the security guards, and the receptionist was
playing dumb.  The security guards were probably there because of the
concealed weapons Perry was carrying, and the receptionist was only
playing dumb, because all receptionists in this buildings were agents
just out of training, or on temporary desk duty.

Perry sighed again.  "Listen, how about you let me talk to Mr Jardine,
and then I'll leave."

"I'm not sure that..." the receptionist said.

This hesitation was all Perry needed to see, now she knew that this was
a 'tenderfoot'.

"Oh, he won't mind.  And you could get one of those security guards to
watch," she smiled brightly.  "I'm a friend of his daughter, and I just
wanted to say hi."

"I."

"It'll only be a minute," Perry coaxed.

The girl (she would have been about 19) waved over a guard, as she
dialed a number and held up the phone to Perry.

"Yes," came Jardine's voice.

"I've told you before, putting kids on the front desk is going to get
you into trouble,"  Perry said with a smile.

"Who is this?"  Jardine said, putting a tracer on the call.

"You don't remember me?  Tall, dark, gorgeous and lethal, and you still
don't remember me?"  Perry's smile widened as the guard reached for his
gun.  "You'd better remember me fast, or this guards going to pull a gun
on me, and you know how much I hate that."

"Perry?" Jardine said incredulously.  "I'd heard you were alive."

"And I am.  Live, kicking and waiting.  Could I come up and see you some
time this year?"  she asked, leaving the others to deal with the
security guard.  They stepped in front of her to allow her time to talk.
 For a short hairy guy, a teenage girl and a weedy guy in an old suit
they could loom and menace remarkably well.

"How do I know it's you?" Jardine queried, despite the images he was
seeing from the cameras in the foyer.

"Oh that's a tough one," Perry conceded.  "I've got to do this with out
getting too personal, of course.  We wouldn't like to get like that US
president and have me describe features of your..."

"Come on up, Perry," Jardine said hastily.  "And bring up Wisdom and the
others."

"Jardine's so sweet don't you think?"  Perry commented as she handed the
phone back to the receptionist.

The girl listened to Jardine for a few seconds then put the phone down.

"You're to go to the sixteenth floor, go straight ahead, and Mr Jardine
will meet you," she said, with a stunned expression.  The others headed
towards the lift, but Perry lagged behind for a moment.

"Don't ever show surprise, never believe anything anyone tells you, and
never let anyone with a concealed this close unless you know you can
kill them before they kill you."

The receptionist blinked, and smoothly brought out a gun.  Before she
could level it, Perry had hers against the girl's head.

She froze and Perry nodded, and walked away, putting the gun back inside
her jacket.

"I don't know how some of these get graduated," she sighed.  "They're so
green they make me sick."

"They must have their slow weeks," Pete put in.

Perry just shook her head sadly as they got in the lift.

"Don't tell me Jardine's one of Perry's men as well," said Kitty,
walking to the back of the lift.

"Oh, I won't then," Perry said.

"But he's, he's so old.  Old enough to be your father," Kitty
complained.

"So?  Wolverine's almost old enough to be my grandfather, and I didn't
hold that against him," Perry explained.  "Besides I haven't said I've
had sex with Jardine, I only said that I wouldn't tell you if I had."

The lift door opened and they stepped out.  Up ahead, along the sparsely
lit corridor a door stood closed.  The group headed towards it, none of
them at all cowed by the tall, silent hallway.

***

She's still alive."  The statement was flat and emotionless, yet somehow
made the listener scramble to explain.

"She never leaves the building before 12:30," the other man said
quickly.

"Never."  It wasn't a question.

"Not once in the last 3 months that she's worked there.  Until
yesterday."  A surreptitious hand wiped a sweating brow.

"So essentially, you are saying that you assumed that she'd be in
there."  The speaker sat comfortably in his high-backed chair, and
calmly watched the unlucky man make his excuses.

"No, I mean yes."  Seeing the wisdom in changing the subject, he
continued.  "But don't worry.  I'll get my best man on it.  She'll be
dead in a week."

A woman spoke from the shadows of another high backed chair.  "I can't
see why we should expect any better of you now.  You have failed twice
now."

"I didn't know she got away two years ago, Sir Jeremy."  The voice now
had a distinct whine as he addressed the original accuser.

"I find it hard to believe that you are considered a dangerous
international terrorist, and yet are completely incapable of getting rid
of one woman."  Sir Jeremy sighed, sipping at his glass of brandy that
he had been warming in his cupped hands.

"I'll get her, don't worry sir," the unfortunate bomber promised.

Sir Jeremy sighed again.  "I'm not going to worry, because you aren't
going to be involved any more," he explained.

Another man stepped out of the shadows.  The bombers eyes widened as he
saw him.  It was only momentary as, in a sudden flare he burst into
flames.

"It seems I will have to remove my cousin myself, your Majesties," Sir
Jeremy said, turning slightly away from the flames that baked his face.

The Black King of the Hellfire Club of Britain settled himself into a
third chair.  "So what are you going to do about your cousin?" he asked,
admiring the blaze.

Sir Jeremy, better known to the public as the Minister for Defence,
sipped his brandy again.  "I'm not sure.  I suppose I'll have to think
of something."  His eyes gleamed a little, in a way that was not
entirely a reflection of the fire.

"You do know that if there is anything you wish for assistance in..."
the Black Queen suggested vaguely.

"Don't worry, I'm sure that I won't need your help."  With the dazzling
smile which got him into politics, he drained the last of his brandy and
stood.  "However, I don't imagine that she'll do much for the moment."
He bowed briefly at them both and took his leave.

A brief silence filled the room.  Gradually the fire died down to a few
smouldering piles.

"He underestimates her."

The Black King looked up briefly at his consort as she spoke.  "I
concur.  However, he is also becoming somewhat too… shall we say
insolent?  I suggest we allow him to make his own mistakes this once.
Either way, it can only be to the good."

"I believe that if he failed, he might not survive."

"That would not, I think, be entirely a negative."

**

"Jardine, you old dog, what have you been up to?" Perry called as she
entered the room.

"What do you want, Perry?"  Jardine rolled his eyes.

Perry grinned and sat on the corner of his desk.  "Why should I want
anything?"

"Perhaps because you're only affectionate when you want something?"
Jardine said.

Perry winked at him.  "You know me too well.  I just want a look at a
couple of files."

His eyes narrowed suspiciously and his arms folded almost automatically
as Jardine heard this.  "What 'couple of files' do you want to look at,
Perry?"

"Ah, this is where it gets complicated, Jardine," Perry said.  "If you
know what I'm looking up, you're going to think that you should know
what I'm going to do.  And then, you're going to think you can stop me."

Logan stood leaning against a wall, not showing any sign that he was
following the conversation at all.  Pete, standing by the window, looked
out at the city.  Kitty also was at the windows, but carefully watching
the conversation.

Jardine twitched an expressive eyebrow and Perry continued.  "You know
that you couldn't stop me, if I didn't want you to, Jardine.  I don't
want you to.  Not this time," she finished, her voice flat and
emotionless.

Kitty leant over slightly towards Pete.  "Is she threatening him?" she
asked, almost too quietly for him to hear.

"I'd say so, luv," he said, his voice as low as hers had been, not
looking towards her, nor the discussion at the desk.

Kitty shot another look over her shoulder.  "Can she do that?  Isn't he
her boss, kind of?"

Pete wrapped an arm around her, and pulled her next to him, his eyes not
shifting from the group of pigeons sitting on a gargoyle across the
street.  "I didn't tell you much about 'er, did I?  About what she did
exactly."

Kitty shrugged.  "She's an ex-Black Air agent, right?  And a psychic."

"But, I didn't say what 'er 'speciality' is, did I?"  Pete didn't wait
for an answer.  "We only worked together for a few months, a year at
most.  Then we both figured we worked best alone.  I went off and," he
paused for a barely noticeable moment, "did my stuff."

Kitty noticed.

"And Perry?  What did she do?" Kitty prompted.

"She was what we sometimes called a 'odd-job man'.  She was called in if
something went wrong with someone else's mission," Pete still wasn't
looking at her.  Kitty could tell there was more, and waited patiently.
Finally, he spoke again.  "Often if situations went bad, they went
really bad.  So she'd 'ave to pick up the pieces.  We all did stuff we…
we didn't enjoy, but she'd go in, and get the job done.  Whatever she
decided it'd take."

"She's the best?" Kitty asked, curious.

"No, hell no.  She's not the best at anything," Pete grinned, and
finally looked at her.  "You're better at computer, and ninja stuff than
she is.  I can name people who're better at everything she does.  She's
just nearly the best in a lot of things.  And there's her witchery.  She
can tell when somethin'll go wrong.  So things don't go wrong when she's
workin'."

Kitty blinked.  "What never?"

Pete shrugged.  "There's always chance.  We figured it out once to be
about 93% o' the time she's right.  But that was a few years ago."

"What about the bombs?" Kitty asked softly.

"She didn't get killed either time, did she?"

"What about everyone else?  20 people died the first time, Pete, and 12
the other day," Kitty stared at him, her eyes wide and only a fraction
on the puzzled side of accusatory.

Pete turned away again.  "I don't know what 'appened the first time,
Pryde.  But the other day," he took a deep breath, and Kitty noticed his
hands were clenched before he shoved them violently into his pockets.
"Nick Fury offered Perry a million for two days work once, Pryde, and
she's spent the last two years as a cleaner and a secretary?  No bloody
wonder she's not as careful as she should be.  That bomb two years ago
screwed up her life royally, luv."

Kitty stared at Pete for a moment, and then slid an arm around his
waist.  "You're really pissed off."

"She's a friend, Pryde.  She deserves better than that."

Over at the desk, Jardine had just about given up the fight.  "Look,
I've just want to know one thing, Perry.  Will you keep me out of this?"

Perry nodded.  "I promise, you aren't involved at all.  If you're lucky,
you won't even find out what I'm going to do."

Jardine stood, and shook his head.  "Somehow that doesn't make me any
happier," he commented in a mournful voice.  He waved a hand at his seat
and the computer, and stepped out of the way.  "Does anyone else feel
like a nice stiff drink?"

"If it's that stuff you keep for special occasions, you can count me
in," Pete said, stepping away from the window with his arm around Kitty.

Jardine gave him a sour look.  "I was going to give you the cheap stuff,
Wisdom.  It'd suit your tastes better."

"I'd hate to deprive you of the nice stuff.  Break it out, mate."

Logan smiled.  "Sounds good to me," he agreed.

Jardine muttered a little about drunkards, but Pete tolerantly let it
go.  A few moments later, the men all stood around with their short
glasses, and Kitty had a cup of coffee.  For an office, Jardine's had an
incredibly wide range of beverages.  They lapsed into the uncomfortable
silence of almost strangers.

"So how did you get dragged into this?" Jardine asked Pete, breaking the
silence.

Pete rolled his eyes.  "Perry's a bossy bitch."

"Hey I heard that, and I didn't want you to come, Boy Blunder."  Perry
didn't look up from the screen, or show any other sign she was at all
interested in anyone else in the room.

"That's too damn right," Jardine said, ignoring Perry.  "If she weren't
so damn right most of the time-"

"All of the time," came the voice from behind the computer.

"Someone would have taught her a lesson about arrogance a long time
ago," Jardine finished smoothly.

Pete snorted.  "Ha, she knows everything there is to know about
arrogance."

There was no audible response to that from the insulted party, and more
keys taped away.

Jardine closed his eyes with a groan.  "I'm just going to regret this.
I can see it.  Who needs to be a precog in a situation like this?  Why'd
I get involved?"

Perry sat back, then stood.  "Because you're gullible when you want to
be?"

Logan sniffed.  "You finished then?"

Perry nodded.  "I got what I needed."  For a moment she looked at
Jardine.  "I'm not going to be working with you, again."

Jardine blinked.  "Hey, what did I do?  You know my money's good."  He
looked a bit hurt, and reminded Kitty, in a way, of the men who'd
slipped cards into Perry's hands a few days ago.

Perry's face was solemn for a long moment, then her eyebrows twitched.
"Hey, I guess it'll depend on how good exactly your money is."

Jardine winked.  "Very good.  But seriously, contact me when you start
looking for a job, I'm sure we've got a place for you."

Kitty meanwhile was watching some very interesting by-play.  What made
it more fascinating was the way that it was completely non-vocal, and
almost too subtle for anyone to see.  She knew Pete however, and she'd
seen that slight tilt to his head at Perry's original comment about
working with Jardine, and the tensing of his spine.  Then, as Jardine
joked, the tension was very deliberately forced from his frame, and his
shoulders relaxed.

"So, we going?" Logan said gruffly.

Perry sighed.  "Men, always in a rush.  Then they want to stop just when
it's getting interesting.  Premature evacuation, every time."  She
shrugged, and smiled at Jardine.  "Be good now."

Jardine's face wrinkled into a smile.  "And you just have fun."

Pete snorted as he steered Kitty towards the door.  "She always has fun,
Jardine.  It's getting 'er to stop what's hard."

Perry ignored them all and left, head held high.

**

"Didn't I tell you that we'd make great burglars?"  Pete murmured to
Kitty softly.

They were standing very casually, outside one of the old elaborate town
houses that littered some districts of London.  They had been standing
thus for almost 20 minutes, and the dank drizzle was getting Kitty's
spirits down.  Logan didn't seem to notice, and the other two seemed
used to it.

Finally, at 1:30 in the morning, Perry decided that it was time to move.
 Yet again, she turned to her little band of followers.

"I don't want you come with me."

Yet again, Logan ignored her and Pete shrugged.  Perry's eyes rested on
Kitty.  "You don't have to come.  I'd prefer it if you didn't," she
said, her voice as polite as if she was asking Kitty to tea.

Kitty sighed and held up the hand she had wrapped in Pete's as
explanation.

"You're all insane," Perry said, but she was resigned.  "Just don't get
in the way."  She took their acquiescence for granted, and stepped
lightly up the shallow, rain-slippery stairs.

At the top, she pulled a small notebook out of her pocket and flipped it
open.  She confidently tapped in a series of numbers into the door lock.
 She opened the door and quickly gestured everyone in, then opened a
disguised panel and tapped in another code.

Pete grinned, a flash of teeth in the half-light.  "You're taking all
the fun out of this, Perry.  It's too easy."

Perry shrugged.  "That's not the point.  If you wanted fun you could
have gone somewhere else."

They quietly treaded up the internal stairs, the darkness heavy with
wealth and rich furnishings.  Kitty though, had grown up in a mansion,
Logan was never intimidated, and Pete had an ironic smirk.  Like an
over-qualified gang of thieves they moved all but silently through the
night-darkened rooms, following Perry as she moved, as she stopped, and
as she waited, her face blank, for some unseen signal.

Finally they paused in front a large, bulky, carved wooden door, which
Perry indicated as The Door by a twitch of her head and a baring of
teeth.

Softly, she opened the door and stepped through, and Kitty noticed that
as she stalked through the door, Perry's demeanour changed from the
sneaky to the self-confident.  Somehow, in the space of a step, Perry
pulled a cloak of what could only be called overwhelming arrogance
around herself.

That coloured her tone as she spoke, slowly and drawling, yet somehow
before the man seated at the desk could even draw breath at their
entrance.

"Jemmy!  How long has it been?"

Still silent, Kitty, Logan and Pete followed.  This was her place, and
her fight.  Each, deep in their soul, though they would never admit it,
followed a certain code of chivalry.  They were here only as witnesses,
to watch and to make sure that their companion didn't get hurt.

Certainly the man at the desk, Sir Jeremy, didn't seem to notice them.

"Moni!  My dear cousin Monica, I have been rather lax in my duties to
see you again, now that it seems you aren't dead."  His voice was urban
and he smiled, giving away neither surprise nor any other strong emotion
at their arrival.

"Sure, whatever, Jem."  Perry stalked, and there really wasn't any other
way to describe that long-legged stride, over to the desk, then leaned
against the dark wood, facing slightly away from her cousin, as though
admiring the room.  There was much to admire, dark wooden bookshelves
lining the walls, filled with identical thick volumes covered in rich
red, green, blue.  Curtains, thick and complete, hung blood red and
tasselled, and Persian rugs lay smug in their confident expense.

Before the silence could do more than heighten the tension, not at all
muffled by the surrounds, Perry spoke again, her face turned so neither
her allies nor her cousin could see her features directly.

"Why didn't you try to buy me, Jeremy?"

Jeremy looked surprised for the first time.  "I tried.  If I recall you
told me that if I ever tried to talk to you again, you'd pull my
intestines out my ears.  Unlikely, but graphic."

Perry inclined her head further, and in the shadows of the doorway there
was the busy quiet of people not getting involved in family business.
"Ah.  So that was what you were nattering about.  I thought you were
just being a pig again."  She looked up again.  "You did realise that in
your attempts on my life more than thirty people were killed."

Jeremy rolled his eyes in humorous exasperation.  "And it didn't work,
did it?  The fool has, naturally, been dealt with."

"Of course, you can't let someone fail you and tell the tale."  Perry
sighed gently, as though on the brink of a decision.  "You're still
working with the Hellfire Club, aren't you?"

"It is hereditary, Moni.  You could take up your role, but I fear that
you've been coarsened by your years on what you call the 'side of
angels'.  Uncle doesn't understand where you get that need to act like a
bobby from, to be honest.  If Aunt Maya wasn't such a complete
featherbrain, I might suspect something."  His voice was amused as he
pronounce this, but there was something underneath that civility that
slithered.  Something that breathed betrayal and let the listener know
that he cared neither that innocents had been killed nor would he stop
using what he must to get what he wanted.  "But Moni, you must know that
I can never let you take your place in the family.  You're entirely too
likely to spout those stupid scruples you collected.  Tiresome and
naive.  None of use what that."  He looked benignly down from a position
of familial approval.

"I suppose that your ministry only helps you, and the Club," Perry said,
her voice bored.  "I suppose now I know this, the assassination attempts
will get more frequent."

"Oh, it is helpful.  Immensely.  But I don't need to order you killed
more frequently.  I only need to make it more successful.  And there is
no need to think about trying anything now.  I'm a Minister.  The uproar
would be enormous.  Not that you could, those morals you've picked up
must be irritating."

Perry shrugged, and for nearly the first time faced her cousin fully.
"I don't know where you got the idea I had qualms about killing you now.
 And I'm dead, remember?  It's unlikely I'll be picked out for this
crime."  She didn't look happy.  "I've had more training than you can
even imagine, Jeremy."

He blinked at her, confused, and she shot him.  Barely a sound escaped
the silenced gun as blood and brains splattered on the wall behind him
in a pattern on chaos and silent exclamation.

Kitty stepped forward, shocked.  Her companions at the door echoed the
movement.  None of them had expected that violence, and they gaped at
Perry as she leaned over to wrap slack fingers around the gun that no
one had seen, and stepped away, without further touching anything.

"Bloody hell," Pete murmured softly.  "Was that necessary, Perry?"

Perry looked at them, and saw the varying degrees of shock.  "I'm not a
flag-waving fanatic, Wisdom, but there's some things I can't let happen
to Britain.  One of those things is it being led by Black Air or the
Hellfire Club."  She walked by them, calm in walk, face, tone and smell.


Something about that kept everyone quiet all the way back outside and
into the back alley.  Once there she paused, and nodded towards the near
end. "Go that way.  You'll find your way fast."

"What about you?"  Logan spoke for the first time.  He voice was gruff,
and laden with meaning.

Perry tilted her head.  "I think I'll manage.  I'll see you around."
She turned back to the tall, now uninhabited house.

Kitty felt Pete stiffen next to her, and she wrapped an arm around his
waist under the coat.  He leaned into it, before speaking one last time.

"You know what you're doing, Perry?"

In the murk of pre-dawn London her voice came back, serene and low.  "I
always do.  And you know, it did need doing."

There probably wasn't amusement in that last statement, Kitty thought,
but she was never certain.

For some reason that night was never talked about, although they all
glanced casually at the Times report on the shocking suicide of an up
and coming young Minister.

**

"She did it."

"Very well indeed, I thought."

"Quite."

"Are you pleased?"

"It is too early to say.  We must keep an eye on her."

"She would be a worthwhile acquisition, I believe."

"I agree."

Epilogue:

Pete watched the island disappear into the mists, much like this latest
part of his life, he would have thought, if he'd been inclined towards
the poetic.  Right now though, his stomach hurt, his eyes were tired,
and he was seriously inclined towards alcohol, not sentimentality.  Deep
in his mind, those last few exchanged words repeated endlessly, but he
had a feeling they'd be there for a long time.  He didn't want to deal
with them now.

The boat docked and he swung heavily onto the dock, suddenly realising
that he was going to have to find somewhere to stay.  Somewhere a long
way from this soon-to-be Pete-forsaken coastline.  Somewhere, he
decided, where there was a lot of whisky.

He was walking by the parked cars, heading towards the train station,
when a hand swung out, halting him abruptly.  With crystal clear
perception, he noticed that the hand held a full bottle of gut-rottingly
cheap whisky.

"You know what I say, Boy Wonder.  Never waste the good stuff on
drowning your sorrows," a familiar voice commented.

Pete looked up and nodded, suddenly unsurprised, at Perry.

"Sorry about the car," she commented as he walked around and slid into
the ancient pea-green Volkswagen bug.  "Only thing handy at such short
notice."

The car started with a wheezing roar and they pulled away from the dock
leaving blackened clouds of gruesome smoke behind them.  Neither of them
looked back.  They'd learnt a long time ago never, ever, to look back.
There were too many ghosts there.  Waiting for their chance, waiting for
you to look back.

"So," Perry said, over the low rumble, "I was thinking, how do you feel
about freelance picking up after Black Air?  It's either that or
cleaning, and cleaning is terrible on your nails."

Pete gulped from the bottle, unresponsive.

She tuned the radio to some bad eighties rock, turned it right up and
they headed south, streaming virulent fumes and electric-rock lyrics.

The end.