As she finished speaking, Sakura smiled to herself, secretly activating her personal teleportation device. Shadowcat caught on and quickly threw her shuriken at her, but it was just too late, she was already gone. She reappeared in the shadows, smiling as she reached up to her cheek. She gathered up a bit of the blood, and smoothly licked it up from her fingers. She stalked down the hallway, eventually reaching an unmarked door. The chime rang, and from within she heard his voice call out, "Come in." "Sir," Sakura bowed, "the first test has been completed." He watched from the shadows, a shaft of light occasionally catching on his armor. "She marked you," he sounded just a bit surprised. "Pryde's reputation is well earned," Sakura answered him simply. "The Hand were useful pawns in this, willing to do what we asked for money," she reported. "Do they suspect who their true employer was?" he asked her coldly. Sakura shivered at his tone of voice, and hastened to answer. "The moneys were channeled off-shore, then through accounts in Switzerland," Sakura smiled as she unpinned her white hair, letting it flow down her back. "Eliminate any Hand that had contact with you, just in case," he ordered. "Of course, my Lord," Sakura bowed. She paused for a moment, then asked, "May I have another opportunity to defeat Pryde?" "Don't let your eagerness overwhelm you," he cautioned, rising to step into the light. His silver armor gleamed, his helm fully concealing his face. A long red cape flowed around his legs, and he struck quite the impressive figure. "Forgive me, Lord Stryfe," Sakura bowed. "Nothing to forgive," Stryfe waved his hand, "just do not forget your place." He smiled at her grimly, "The X-men have always been a thorn in my side, so if I can eliminate this branch, I will do so." He paused, "But to do so, we must be sure of their strength." Sakura smiled slightly, "You wish me to send another agent in?" Stryfe smiled a truly nasty smile, "I have someone in mind. Canada's department H recently acquired him, and I'm certain he would be eager to face Katherine Pryde..." Sakura looked thoughtful, then she smiled. "Indeed," she agreed softly. Bishop headed to the front door, scowling. He had already been having a rotten day, and it didn't look like it was getting better any time soon. He opened it, and froze, mouth agape. Cat looked up at him worriedly, then she smiled. "Well," the little blonde grinned, "I'm glad to see you're all right." "What are you doing here?" Bishop looked at her in surprise. "I heard that your friends checked themselves out of the hospital early," Cat said dryly, "and that you're stuck taking care of them." Bishop paused, then sighed, "Well, yes." "You need an extra pair of hands?" Cat offered. Bishop stood there silently a moment, then a voice from behind him yelled, "Yes!" He turned to see Rogue standing there, gloves on and looking distinctly tired. "Hi, I'm Rogue," Rogue offered Cat her hand, "we ran into each other at the hospital, but weren't formally introduced." "Hi," Cat smiled. She looked around curiously, "Where's your brown haired friend?" "Where is Kitty, anyway?" Bishop tried to take control of the conversation again. "Cooking breakfast, actually," Rogue shrugged. "I'm pretty incompetent at it, and you're too busy with the babies," she explained. "Babies?" Cat raised her eyebrows. "My teammates," Bishop chuckled softly. "They aren't taking to being sick in bed very well," he explained. "I smell food cooking," they heard someone say. Cat blinked at the tall black woman with white hair flowing down her back. The lady's face went green, and she ran into the bathroom. The door slammed behind her, and they could hear her being noisily sick. Bishop shook his head as Ororo staggered out of the bathroom and then back to bed. "Looks like we can't give them breakfast," he yelled towards the kitchen. "I was making it for us," Kitty stuck her head through the kitchen wall to yell back. She saw Cat, blushed, and gave a little wave. "Interesting friends you've got here," Cat said dryly. Deciding that the cat was out of the bag, so to speak, the three X- men sketched in the details on what was going on. "And that's that," Bishop finished. Cat looked at Kitty thoughtfully, "You really didn't set out to become the best?" "More like stumbled into it," Rogue laughed. She walked from the table, "I'll send Davis out for his breakfast." "Thanks," Kitty smiled, blowing Rogue a kiss. Turning back to Cat, "The rumors just took on a life of their own, I think. Now if somebody beats me, that'll be it, but so far it hasn't happened." Davis Cameron stumbled out of the bedrooms, grabbing a clean plate and then loading it down with sausages and eggs. The sandy haired boy had insisted on helping take care of his sister, and Bishop figured they could use the help. "Don't make yourself sick," Bishop smiled, looking at the pile of food. "I'm a growing boy," he shrugged. Davis shoveled in the food as he asked, "Does this sort of thing happen often?" "Unprovoked attacks?" Kitty asked. Davis nodded, and she sighed, "Yeah, I'm afraid so." "So what can I do to help?" Cat asked cheerfully. "Get ready to be whined at," Davis shrugged. At her odd look, "I don't think they get sick very often, so they really don't do it well." Neal groaned softly, covering his eyes with his hand. "Put me out of my misery," he managed. "Sorry, love," Elizabeth rasped out, "I should have spotted it." Cat and Lucas put damp cloths on feverish heads, and carried in cool glasses of soda. After a bit of trial and error, they had found that would stay down. "How you doing?" Cat asked cheerfully. She got twin glares, then Neal looked over at Bishop. "Who is she?" he asked. Cat grinned, sticking her tongue out, and Bishop laughed. "My partner, Cat," he grinned. "Nice to meet you," Elizabeth sighed, adding, "you're not catching us at our best." Elizabeth watched the two, Cat joking cheerfully and Bishop his normal serious self, and thought that they looked kind of cute together. Heather sat up uncomfortably, looking down at the peacefully sleeping Sage. The tall, blonde haired woman reached out, gently stroking the dark hair. Davis paused at the door, and discretely turned back to give them some time alone. "I want to get up," Raven complained bitterly. Rogue offered her the glass of soda, the straw ready. "And do you want to be sick again?" she asked her pointedly. Raven pouted, "I hate being sick." Ororo moaned softly. "Join the club," she echoed. Kitty gently wiped her brow, then helped her drink something. She looked over at Kitty, "Next time we go out to lunch, we're bringing along a food taster." Kitty made a face, "Sorry, Ororo. I didn't know." Raven shot Ororo a look, then said to Kitty, "It wasn't your fault." Ororo sighed softly, "She's right." A little smile, "Sorry, Kitty." "It's all right," Kitty smiled. In truth, she did feel a bit guilty that the others were sick. She got up, "You mind if I take a break? I want to go check my email," she said to Rogue softly. "No problem," Rogue smiled. Kitty phased, literally walking on air up and then up through the roof. She smiled as she heard Raven remark, "That is so cool." Kitty grinned, sitting down at her computer. She took a calming breath, then opened up her email account. She ran through the messages, and spotted the name of an old friend. She opened the file, reading the message, and a slow smile appeared on her face. "Brian, you're a doll," she murmured with a smile, and closed her mail. Bishop saw her smile as she walked downstairs. "What's up?" he asked curiously. Kitty grinned, "It looks like our transportation problems might just be solved." "Don't leave us hanging like that," Rogue chuckled. "A friend of mine, Brian Braddock, is sending us a jet," Kitty said simply. A moment of dead silence as everyone tried to decide if they had heard her right. "Did you say a jet?" Bishop finally asked. "Yep," Kitty grinned, "Brian finished repairing the Midnight Runner, Excalibur's jet, and he's sending it to us." "That's the one you were boasting could outrun the Blackbird, right?" Rogue laughed. Kitty nodded, "It's a hybrid of Earth and Shiar technology, so it can outrun just about anything terrestrial." She paused, "There's just one thing." "What?" Bishop asked patiently. "It's coming in today on auto-pilot, so it might be a good idea for some of us to be there, just in case anything goes wrong," Kitty explained. Another long moment of silence, more from surprise this time. "There's nobody piloting the jet?" Rogue squeaked. Bishop didn't wait for Kitty's answer, "You and Rogue go to the airport, I'm sure Cat, Davis and I can handle things here." Kitty grabbed Rogue's arm before he could change his mind, and the two of them were gone. Davis laughed, "Any excuse to get away." Not long afterwards, Kitty and Rogue were standing beside a sleek black jet. It had come down as smooth as silk, rolling into it's appropriate slot. It looked a bit like an oversized fighter plane, with a overly built up engine. "It seats over eight people," Kitty said cheerfully, "and after the last time it was shot down, Brian upgraded the ECM. It's all state of the art." "Shot down?" Rogue raised her eyebrows. "We did have a run of bad luck with planes," Kitty admitted. "Par for the course for any X-team," Rogue laughed.
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