Kitty Pryde, Excalibur and the X-Men are trademarks of Marvel Comics. This story is an unauthorised work done purely for my personal enjoyment, and is not intended to infringe on any of their rights in or their profits from these characters. But this story is copyright to me.
Comments, especially (constructive) criticism, always
welcomed. Please e-mail me at
mshakespeare@callnetuk.com
Notes:
< > indicates thoughts
Mark Shakespeare presents :
Excalibur Redrawn - Part 9
"Look, kindly stop treating me like I'm some sort of idiot, or just an over imaginative little girl, okay? I did not imagine it! I don't care how many people saw Illyana getting buried - I was there remember? - she - is - alive!" Kitty's eyes flashed angrily as she looked around at everyone clustered around the kitchen table. There was a silence as everyone digested what she had told them. Then she went on, "Look, I know it sounds unbelievable, Lord knows I've tried telling myself that she's dead, and it was just a stupid dream. But I can't believe that - I know she's alive, in Limbo somewhere. Or at least an Illyana is - don't forget the way Limbo works. When the X-Men were there we met alternative versions of ourselves, so it might be a different Illyana, though why I'd feel her I don't know. I dunno, maybe it's got something to do with why the Soulsword's come to me, when Amanda's supposed to have it for safekeeping. But Illyana's alive, the Soulsword's come to me, and somehow, I don't know how, we have to get to Limbo and rescue Illyana, and maybe Amanda as well."
Betsy was the first to speak. "Assuming what you have to say is true, how are we supposed to get there? None of us have any powers which might allow us to open a dimensional portal to Limbo. The only team member with a power which might allow that is Amanda herself. Brian, do you have anything technological which might let us get there?"
The massive blond man shook his head. "Unfortunately not, sis. My scientific knowledge isn't on a par with Reed Richards or Doctor Doom. So I can't help, I'm afraid. Maybe if we - "
Before he could continue, the phone rang. Meggan went to answer it. "Hello, Braddock Manor, Meggan speaking. Rahne! What a wonderful surprise! We haven't heard from you in a long time - not since the wedding, in fact. What brings you to - Kitty? Yes, she's here. Wait a minute. Kitty, it's Rahne - she wants to speak to you."
The slender brunette took the phone. "Hi Rahney, what's up? Huh?? Illyana?! You had a dream about her? But that's too much to be a coincidence - so did I. Yeah, she was alive and living in Limbo. Look, I don't think it is a dream. Somehow, she's alive, and we're going to get her back. Of course you can come - you saved her once before, remember? You know where we are - Brian'll pay the air fare. See you soon. Bye!" She put the phone down, and turned triumphantly to the others, ignoring Brian's muttered "oh thank you for the cavalier way with my money, why couldn't Moira pay?". "One dream might just be a flight of fancy. But two? Rahne had exactly the same dream, and that can't be just a coincidence, can it? Do you believe me now?"
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The police officers looked around them cautiously. These men weren't ordinary officers - the submachine guns they carried were proof of that, as were the bulletproof vests. The men fanned out, guns held ready, safety catches off, as they moved through the small village. According to the information available to them, there should have been a population of about eighty people in the village. But no sound greeted them other than that of a couple of howling dogs, and the screeching of crows. Not a car running, not a radio or television on, not a single person moving about the village.
At about three in the morning, the local police had received reports from a farm near the village of Heriotwater that the workers there had heard screams coming from the village. A police car had been dispatched to investigate, and had failed to report back. Now the Glasgow police force's Tactical Firearms Unit was investigating the matter.
The police car was soon found, sitting silently outside the church, its front doors open. The sergeant beckoned two men over to back him up, and moved towards the open doors of the church hall. One of the men took up station on either side of the doors, as the sergeant prepared to go through. The three men moved smoothly, the sergeant through the door and straight ahead, dropping into a firing crouch, the other two officers swinging to cover either side of the hall, guns raised to shoulders. But there was no need for firing - not a single living person met their eyes.
Only the dead.
They were strewn all over the floor of the church - men, women children. They had been hacked apart, or their throats ripped out by powerful jaws. Sticky, cooling blood was everywhere on the pews, the floor, the altar. The priest lay over the altar, his chest ripped open, sightless eyes staring up at the wooden figure of Jesus. Among the remains on the floor were the bodies of two uniformed police officers.
It took them men nearly half an hour to confirm the worst - somehow, someone had killed every living person in Heriotwater.
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"Well , while we're waiting for Rahne to arrive, can anyone think of another way to get there? Any other magicians we could call upon? Doctor Strange? Margali? Or what about Merlyn, or Roma? Brian?"
"Betsy, I can't just dial up their number and get instant service - they intervene when they want to. And don't forget how Merlyn manipulated us - I wouldn't trust him at all. The mages - well, do we have time? We don't know how long we've got. What about Widget? Could we get hold of him?"
"After the Cross-Time Caper, you'd trust him?? Anyway, he stayed in Otherworld after your wedding, remember? Wait - Piotr said something about Illyana having left a stepping-disk in the mansion - he found it last Christmas! Maybe we could try that. Bri - let's get the Runner prepped for a visit to the States! I'll call Westchester!"
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"Rahne! It's good to see you again! Come on in! I'll take your things upstairs, everyone else is in the kitchen." Brian smiled at the young Scots weregirl - he had liked her ever since they first met. <We got off to a better start than Kitty and I did - I'm glad that I'm not the boor I used to be. It's embarrassing to think of how I used to behave - I'm just so glad that Meggan didn't throw me out.>
"Thank ye, Brian! Och, 'tis a fine place ye have here! I'll jist go an' speak tae the others - or mebbe I should wait till ye come and join us? That'd be fairer I - Lockheed! An' glad I am tae see you again, dragon! Kitty, it's been too long!" The two young girls embraced. Though they hadn't been friends before they ended up on the same team, they'd become close to each other, almost like sisters, in the time since.
"Good to see you too, Rahney! Come on through and meet the others, and I'll brief you as to where we stand. Once we've finally decided on the best course of action, we're ready to roll - the Runner's already prepped for takeoff.. We're still trying to work out whether we can use the disk Illyana left behind for Piotr, but we don't know if we could use that, or whether it was just for his use. And we can't get any response from the States, so I guess the X-Men are off elsewhere, as usual. Any ideas?" The two girls walked off, arms round each other's shoulders, as Brian carried Rahne's suitcase upstairs.
"Are you sure, Meggan? It would be the easiest way for us to get there if you could?" Betsy didn't want to push her elfin sister-in-law into doing something that she didn't want to do, but at the moment she couldn't think of any other way to get to their destination.
Meggan shook her head. "I know I did it once before, when Rachel was guiding me, but since then I've - "
"... and I really think I'm not gonna go back, I'm so pissed off with the Profess - sorry guys, are we interrupting something?" Kitty looked apologetically at the two women.
"No, not really Kitty. I just suggested to Meggan that, remembering how she had once shapechanged into various X-Men and copied their powers, when fighting Jamie, that she could get us to Limbo by changing into Illyana and using her stepping-disk power .....", the purple-haired telepath quietly replied. She gazed over at her sister-in-law, who looked upset, but shook her head.
"I can't do that anymore, Betsy. I've become too much my own person, I can't take on the forms and powers of other people anymore. Oh, I can still shapechange when necessary, but not into specific people, at least not to use their powers, the change would only be skin-deep. I'm sorry." Meggan whispered.
"Tha's nae something tae be ashamed of, Meggan! Ye've become yuir own person, an' aboot time it is too! I know ye'd do anything ye could tae help, so dinna start kickin' yuirself now!" The redheaded girl's words were most emphatic - she remembered only too well the feeling of being someone's else's creation, firstly the Reverend Craig, then the Genoshan Magistrates. She didn't want anyone else feeling the same, especially not a friend. Meggan visibly cheered up at her words.
Betsy spoke up. "What about mystic energy, like you used against Morgana? Could that get us there?"
Meggan responded glumly, "I was able to do that because I felt the mystic energy and could channel it, especially with Edain's help. But I don't feel any energy near here that I could use, and couldn't be certain to get it right anyway."
"So, if that's a bust, anyone got any other bright ideas?" Kitty asked the others. And was met by silence. "I guess it's the mansion, then?"
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"Yes Sir, we can confirm, the bodies of all of the villagers have been recovered. Whoever the attackers were, they spared no-one, man or woman, young or old. I think we'll need assistance in finding the attackers. Yes Sir, we've secured the area, but I still - right Sir. Will do." The police Superintendent of the TFU (Tactical Firearms Unit) replaced the handset, obviously resisting the urge to slam it down hard. The sergeant hid a wry grin - <bloody desk officers, always giving us orders we can never follow, then complaining about it afterwards!> - and asked, "so, what now Sir? Are we getting any backup?"
The Superintendent frowned. "He said something about - " but before he could complete his sentence, he was loudly interrupted by the sound of helicopters approaching. He looked up, and saw four Aerospatiale Panthers in flight formation coming over the treetops. In seconds they were landing on the village square, and doors flew open to disgorge the men inside. They were in dark grey battle dress, with head protection like that of astronauts, body armour protecting chest, abdomen and limbs, and futuristic-looking rifles unslung and held at the ready. On their chests was an insignia, matching that on the helicopters themselves - a black background with, in red, the letters UNIT.
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It is a dark place, where she is, one full of menace and brooding evil. It was not her home before she became its guardian, and being here has weighed heavily upon her. Too heavily. Once she was warm, vivacious, fun-loving, a hero. Now, she is mad. She hears voices which whisper terrible things to her, and she follows what they tell her to do.
She had a lover once, a swashbuckling hero. Who hid his kindness and humanity under the form of a demon. Now, demons surround her, and call her Mistress. As they once called the Other. She brought the Other back, took its essence and merged it with living demonflesh, to give her company. But the Other wouldn't stay with her, and fled. So she brought back her brother. Stefan. Her lover killed him, long ago. But now he lives again. Her companion. Her lover.
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"It comes back to that again, doesn't it? We need to get to Limbo, but we don't have any way of doing it, except maybe a stepping disk which we don't know would work for us, or even if it's still there. Damn it!" Kitty cursed at their luck, and thumped the bed in impotent anger - the two people who had powers which would have immediately let them get to Limbo to rescue Illyana and Amanda, were Illyana and Amanda. The others couldn't come up with any other ideas either - it seemed they were stymied. They were probably going to have to fly to the States and take the risk that they'd be out of luck. Brian had gone to the room he used as a laboratory, to see if he could concoct some device which might open the dimensions long enough to allow them through, if the stepping disk didn't work. Meggan had, of course, gone with him - perhaps her link to Earth magic and the elemental forces of the universe might help in some way. Now Kitty and Rahne were sitting in their shared room, talking about Illyana, waiting for the signal from Brian, and getting more and more annoyed at their helplessness. Rahne had changed into fresh clothes after her flight, and was pacing up and down the room, thinking furiously. Kitty sat on her bed, chewing the end of her braid - she'd done her hair up for her own martial arts practice earlier in the day, and not yet got round to letting her hair out again. <Five minutes and we go, ready device or not! I don't care what Brian might say about not rushing in hastily and without planning, I won't wait a moment longer!>
"I dinna ken what we can do, Kitty. Unless ..... ye have the Soulsword , do ye no'? Mebbe ye can use that tae get us there?" Rahne's face now held a trace of hope - anything she could do to rescue Illyana, she would.
Kitty's face lit up for a second, to be replaced by a frown of thought. "I dunno, Rahney. I always thought that it was Illyana's mutant power which created the transportation disks, not her sorcerous abilities. Still, it's worth a try, I suppose."
She placed her hand in front of her stomach, and concentrated. She felt the twisting begin as something within her made its exit. Within seconds, the Soulsword was in her hand, shining with brilliant white light, a metal gauntlet encasing her right hand up to the wrist, White flames surrounded it, dancing up and down its length.
"Right, now to find a way to use it," Kitty muttered to herself, and began to think at the blade she held. For a few seconds, there was nothing. Then, to Rahne's amazed eyes, around Kitty's feet there appeared a shining golden circle, one she had seen before.
"A steppin' disk! Och, Kitty, I dinna ken how ye managed it but ...... Kitty, ye'd better move before th' disk - Kitty!" she screamed, and threw herself at her friend, trying to knock her from the disk. But she wasn't fast enough. In a flash of light, both girls disappeared. Lockheed, who had been watching from on top of the wardrobe, roared his anguish. In seconds Brian, Meggan and Betsy were rushing to the room, Meggan and Brian getting there first by virtue of flying, Betsy arriving half a minute later. By then the blonde elemental had already used her powers to scan for the girls, and informed Brian that she could find no trace of pain, or even fear from Kitty.
"Then what in the name of God's happened to them?" the huge man demanded. Before his wife could answer, the phone rang. "And who the hell is that now?" Betsy went to answer whilst the other two tried to find a clue to what had happened to the missing girls. She came back a few minutes later, her face grim. "That was Alistaire Stuart on the phone. Apparently UNIT, which he renamed his department, is investigating a mass killing in Scotland. A village was attacked, and everyone killed. He wants our help with this. From what he described, it sounds like the sort of weaponry used by the beings who attacked us here the night Kitty arrived, and some very large dogs or wolves. I think we should respond."
Meggan frowned. "But how can we go before we find out what happened to Kitty and Rahne? They're friends, we can't just forget about them!"
Betsy sighed. "But wherever they are, we can't find them to help them. They're on their own now, Meg ........"