This loosely ties in with my fic, the Adventures of Shadowcat and Rogue,
but reading that fic is not necessary.
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Pete Wisdom watched the Midnight Runner rise straight up then
the jet soared up and away from Muir Isle, carrying Kitty Pryde and her
team of X- Men back to their home to Australia. 'Sort of wish I'd told
her,' he admitted to himself, crushing a cigarette out under his shoe.
Pete smiled to himself wryly, wondering how he had managed to
get himself into this odd position, anyway. 'Oh, yeah,' Pete thought,
his black suit clinging to him a bit in the damp mist, 'because
Professor Xavier asked me to...'
It was a few weeks ago, in the Xavier institute based in New
York state. Professor Charles Xavier strode down the hallway and quickly
opened his office door, only to freeze there. He recovered in only a
moment, then he stepped inside.
"Mr. Wisdom," Xavier nodded to the black haired man who was
sitting comfortably in one of his guest chairs.
Pete watched him curiously, this bald headed, almost scholarly
looking man who lead one of the most powerful organizations of mutants
on the planet. It was easy to underestimate him, Pete noted, but
appearances could be deceiving. This was a man who had stared death in
the face many times, and had never even blinked.
"You contacted Allistaire Stuart, said that you wanted to see
me?" Pete asked him calmly, trying to read the man's face. He wasn't
having much luck.
"Indeed," Prof. Xavier nodded, as he sat down behind his desk.
He sounded a bit amused as he looked at Pete thoughtfully, "Normally,
visitors come in using the front door."
"With my background, I figured it'd be best to go in covert,"
Pete shrugged.
"How did you get in here, anyway?" Xavier finally had to ask
him.
"You guys did a pretty good job sealing off the passages that
ran between the mansion and the old Morlock Tunnels," Pete noted, "but
you didn't get all of them." He looked down at his suit with a slight
frown, "Ruined a good overcoat, though."
Xavier nodded thoughtfully, making a note. "I wanted to see
you," Xavier said, "because of the situation in Europe and Britain.
Without a team stationed there, I'm concerned that things could continue
to worsen."
"So you want me to be a member of this team?" Pete asked him,
already considering how to balance his espionage work with team
membership.
"No, I want you to lead it," Xavier answered calmly.
Pete looked at him in honest surprise, then he barked in
laughter. "Oh, no," he muttered, "you've got the wrong guy."
"Nightcrawler thinks quite highly of you," Xavier started.
"Kurt Wagner always was a charitable guy," Pete muttered.
Xavier ignored that and continued on, "And Kitty has said that
you are one of the most capable men she had met."
Pete raised his eyebrow, "You must have caught her in a good
mood."
Xavier smiled wryly as he added, "She didn't have much nice to
say about you personally, but she respects your skills."
Pete grinned, "That's the Pryde I know."
"Sam Guthrie made some good points, too," Xavier noted. He
looked across at Pete calmly, "When you were working with X-Force, you
made a pretty good leader." He smiled slightly, "Sam just let you think
you were only being an advisor."
Pete shook his head ruefully, "That sneaky..."
"There are things going on in Europe and the United Kingdom that
I don't like the looks of," Xavier said to him quietly, "but it's all
covert, shadow games. Something that I don't have much experience
dealing with. You, on the other hand, do."
"Allistaire and the spooks in the Weird Happenings Organization
have been noticing that, too," Pete murmured.
"What?" Xavier blinked.
"No, WHO," Pete grinned.
Xavier gave a low groan at that old joke, "What I meant was that
I thought they were called the Directorate, now."
"Allistaire decided to change the name back," Pete answered him
thoughtfully. He looked at Xavier and said, "If I do this, no spandex.
All right?"
"It will be your show," Xavier answered him serenely. He pulled
out a set of files and passed them over, "Here are some possible members
who are based in the UK currently. But you're welcome to recruit
whomever you wish."
"Good," Pete noted the name on one of the files and said, "I've
worked with Rahne before, she'd be an effective teammate." He looked at
another file, "I haven't met Moonstar, but I hear the two of them come
as a set."
Pete reviewed the files thoughtfully, until he finally looked up
to meet Xavier's smiling gaze. And he realized that he'd been hooked.
There'd still be some debate between them. Pete would argue a bit,
discuss what was going to happen. But he had to admit that it was pretty
much been decided. He knew that he was going to lead this new team of
Xavier's.
They talked for awhile, Pete collecting the files on a disc to
look through later more carefully. "What would you like to call this
group?" Xavier finally asked him as Pete was getting ready to go.
"Let's just keep it as simple as possible," Pete smiled,
thinking of his old teammates as he said, "let's just call it
Excalibur."
"Excalibur it is," Xavier got up to shake Pete's hand before
adding, "Good luck."
Pete shrugged, "I'll probably need it."
'Yep,' Pete thought as he finally reached his apartment building
in London after leaving Muir Isle, 'I'll need all the luck I can get.'
He went upstairs, unlocking the door casually, then he stopped cold.
'Someone's in there,' he thought grimly.
Pete went in fast, the thermal energy emissions he called 'hot
knives' glowing around his hands. "Don't move," he barked, blinking in
surprise at the silvery metallic woman standing there, looking like a
statue made out of circuitry.
"Hello Pete, it's been a while," the woman turned to him and
smiled, her face looking awfully familiar somehow. The oddest thing
about her was the hole that was in her middle, where circles of rainbow
light shone outward.
"I don't think we've met," Pete said cautiously, keeping the hot
knives ready to fire at her.
"My code-name is Widget," and the metal woman smiled at him
suddenly, "but my name is Kate Pryde." She paused thoughtfully, "And the
very first time I met you in this form was, to me, about ten years from
now."
Pete looked at her, this being who was supposed to be an older
incarnation of Katherine Pryde, with his mouth open for a few moments
then he began to curse softly. He flopped down in a seat and muttered,
"I hate time travel."
"You're taking this well," Kate noted calmly.
"I've had some experience with it," Pete sighed, "and I did read
the file that Excalibur had on Widget." He looked over at her
thoughtfully and asked, "I thought that the last body you had was made
up of pure energy?"
"I absorbed some wrecked Sentinel parts, created this body,"
Kate shrugged. She looked at him thoughtfully, "Speaking of
Excalibur..."
"Yes?" Pete asked cautiously.
"I'd like to join," Kate said seriously.
Pete looked at her shrewdly, "Why would you want to?"
Kate hesitated for a moment, then she said quietly, "To protect
the woman I love, who is also going to be in Excalibur." Before Pete
could ask she added, "Rachel Summers."
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