The darkness of the alley was suddely lit up in a burst of
rainbow light, then a man in a black suit was dumped unceremoniously to
the pavement from a glowing portal. A silvery skinned figure appeared
next and gracefully dropped down beside him, then the portal snapped
shut.
"Are you all right?" Kate Pryde bent over to ask him, speaking
with a certain amount of amusement in her voice.
"Oh, I'm fine," Pete Wisdom grumbled as he got to his feet,
dusting off his clothes and rubbing at the small of his back, "I think
my tailbone will never be the same again, but I'm just fine." He
stretched out akwardly, his back making a soft popping noise before he
asked her, "Did Excalibur really travel around like that?"
Kate chuckled softly, "Didn't Kitty ever tell you about the
crosstime caper?"
"OK, good point," Pete nodded. He looked over at her curiously,
"You do have your teleporting ability under control, right?"
"Spacial teleporting, no problem," Kate smiled, then a bit more
seriously, "moving through time, on the other hand, is a bit more hit
and miss."
Pete nodded seriously, having read about that in some of the
files Excalibur kept. Kate had attempted to transport Excalibur from the
near future to the present, but had lost Brian Braddock in the
timestream. Returing him to his proper place had cost Rachel Summers
hers, casting her to meet her destiny in the far flung future.
Speaking of Rachel, Pete asked Kate curiously, "Are you certain
that Rachel will be here for us to meet her?"
"I contacted Nathan 'Cable' Summers," Kate said to him quietly,
"and he reluctatly confirmed that she was in England now." She smiled at
him wryly, "And you know that everybody shows up at this pub, sometime."
"I suppose that's true," Pete nodded as they walked up to the
old pub and went inside.
The Wolfshead pub was something of an institution in London.
Established sometime during World War one, it had originally served a
more mormal sort of client. But over the years, the strange, paranormal,
and just plain odd had begun to frequent it, until it became the
watering hole of choice for that sort of person.
As long as you did't mind unidentified bits of protien floating
in your beer or the fact that your barmates weren't entirely human, it
was a great pub. Smoke hung in the air, the usual non-smoking rules only
rarely enforced. Pete gave a friendly nod to a few of his old friends,
and a scowl or two to some old enemies, but he was really looking for
just one person.
The redhead sat alone at a table, looking into her mug of beer
thoughtfully. The air was oddly clear around her, almost as if an
invisible bubble was keeping the smoke away. A grey, dragon like
creature was sitting on the table, and she was feeding it nuts from a
bowl. She looked up, saw them coming, and her face lit up with a smile.
"Kate," Rachel got up and happily threw her arms around the
metal woman. It was a bit of a odd moment, a purely platonic gesture on
Rachel's part, but the look on Kate's face...
'Guess she really does love Rachel,' Pete thought sadly, 'poor
devil.'
"Rachel," Kate sighed out softly. The grey dragon stretched out
it's wings and flew at them, circling the two until it could finally
land on Kate's shoulder. She gaped at it in honest surprise and gasped,
"Lougheed?!"
The dragon didn't answer her verbally, just cooed happily.
"How," Pete asked Rachel dryly, "did that thing get here?"
The redhead smiled up at him and said with an expressive shrug,
"Dunno. According to the manager, he's been in here for a few weeks
mooching of any of the more soft-hearted patrons and drinking down the
occasional cuppa."
Lougheed gave Pete an almost smug look, "Feh!"
Rachel was looking at him curiously, and Pete realized he'd
forgotten to introduce himself. "Pete Wisdom," he offered her his hand.
"Nice to meet you, Mr. Wisdom," Rachel shook his hand with a
smile, "Cable's told me a lot about you." Pete and Kate each took a seat
at the table, the dragon settling down between Rachel and Kate's seats,
the better to get at a bowl of snacks there.
Pete smiled wryly, "Considering we ran into each other back when
I was a field operative for Black Air, it can't have been good."
"Not too bad," Rachel shook her head, "he knew that you were
just doing your job trying to aquire a sample of his techo-orgaic
virus." She looked at them curiously, "So why did you want to talk to
me, anyway?"
"Can't you just read my mind?" Pete asked curiously.
<I> Rachel's rather amused voice echoed in his mind,
"Rachel," Kate chided her gently.
"Sorry," she smiled at Kate.
Pete smiled, and picked up his drink to soothe his dry throat.
'I'm actually nervous,' he was surprised to realize. "Prof. Xavier seems
to think that there needs to be an Excalibur orgaization," he said, "and
in a moment of insanity has asked me to run it."
"And you want me to be a member," Rachel said thoughtfully,
swirling her beer around in her glass. "You know I'm on the run, right?"
she asked.
"Heard about it," Pete agreed, "and I've also read your file
over at Xaviers." He met her eyes across the table steadily, "Running's
gotten you in a lot of trouble in the past. Maybe it's about time to
stand and fight?"
"Maybe so," Rachel admitted. She looked at Kate, "I guess you're
in this team, too?"
"If you're in, yes," Kate nodded. A slightly sad smile,
"Otherwise, I'd just like to stick around with you."
"Stand and fight," Rachel murmured softly. She pinned Pete with
a fierce look and asked, "It's a lot easier to do if you've got good
back-up. If things get really bad and crazy, will you be there to stand
by me?"
Pete sat up straight in his seat, but he was smiling slightly.
"My whole career so far has been about things going bad and crazy," he
said to her with a great deal of dignity, "and I have never ran away
from a scrap."
Rachel nodded with a smile, "Then I guess I'm in."
Rachel extended her hand and Pete took it, then Kate gently lay
her silery hand over top their two. Lougheed added a soft, 'Feh!' for
emphasis. and Kate laughed.
"The sword redrawn once again," Kate murmured.
"Looks like it," Rachel agreed. She looked over at Pete
curiously and asked him, "But who else are we going to recruit?"
Just then, Pete's cellphone rang.
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