Pete Wisdom smiled to himself slightly as the black haired
Englishman lead the group of his old and new teammates through what he
had come to think of as the Excalibur wing of the Muir Island Research
station.
"We've got suites to sleep everybody comfortably," Pete gestured
to one section as they passed it then added, "up ahead the Prof. and
Hank McCoy got a version of the original Cerebro system set up here."
"But I thought that you had to be a telepath to get that thing
working," Dani Moonstar asked him curiously.
"That's where I come in, I think," Rachel Summers smiled
slightly. The redhead raised an eyebrow, "I assume we're using it to
track down evil mutants?"
"And to be ready to help out any newly awakening mutants," Pete
agreed. He shrugged slightly, "I'm certainly not qualified to actually
train 'em, but for that I figure we can pass the kids on to Xavier's
School itself."
Rhane Sinclair began to chuckle to herself softly, and everyone
looked over at her curiously. "Sorry," the little redhead smiled just a
bit sheepishly, "I was just remembering when Mr. Wisdom was hurt and in
a wheelchair. He, uhm, borrowed Moria's bathing cap and then did a
really bad Prof. Xavier impersonation."
Dani smirked, "That I would have liked to have seen."
"Next time I'm drunk," Pete promised, "I'll do it as a party
trick."
Lisa Garrison shook her head with a slight smile as the slim
blonde muttered quietly, "Being in WHO and STRIKE was never like this."
"It sort of grows on you," Kate Pryde offered, the silver metal
woman smiling slightly. She grinned, "Or maybe it's infectious." The
dragon Lockheed had already disappeared almost as soon as they arrived,
likely getting into something again.
"I'd bet on infectious," Rachel shrugged. She reached out with
her telekinesis and tugged on Pete's collar forcefully to get his
attention, "I know it's a great setup, Mr. Wisdom," she said patiently,
"but it's been a pretty long day for most of us."
"Right, sorry," a slightly embarrassed Pete said as he lead all
them back towards the residential section. "The rooms are all either
singles or doubles," he explained, "and the doors can be voice keyed for
up to two people."
"Double," Dani raised her hand, and Rhane nodded with a fierce
blush. Both young women retreated together, while Rachel, Lisa and Kate
all opted for singles.
Pete looked over at the bedroom that he had claimed for himself
earlier on, then shook his head firmly. He was still a bit too excited
to try and get to sleep, so he made his way down the hallway towards the
new operations center that Xavier had installed there after the decision
to reactivate Excalibur had been made.
One wall was a massive communications setup, with ties to the
X-Men's headquarters, Avengers' Mansion in New York, Alpha Flight's
Department H in Canada, and finally a link to Russia's home superteam,
whatever they were calling themselves this week.
A central table, with monitor stations and other functions at
each seat was set up in the middle of the room. It was placed so that
they could use the communication system to talk with the other teams as
well as allowing them to talk amongst themselves.
'And when needed, it'll make a fine dining room table too,' Pete
thought to himself wryly. He flopped down into one of the chairs to look
up at the far wall, a sight he thought would be keeping him up nights
from now on.
The map was sodding huge, showing from the United Kingdom, all
across Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Russia, China, Southeast Asia all
the way down to Japan and Madripoor. As the X-Men and their allies
covered North America, Excalibur and the X-corps divisions out here were
going to be expected to watch over this part of the world.
It was enough to drive a man to drink.
"If it helps any," an clearly amused sounding voice came up from
behind him, "there are a few local heroes available to help." Kate Pryde
came into his line of sight before giving Pete a frown, "You should be
getting some sleep."
"I'm still too wired to sleep," Pete shrugged slightly before
looking up curiously, "and shouldn't you be taking your own advice?"
"I'm an artificial being, more or less, so I don't need to
sleep," Kate pointed out. She chuckled softly, "I can certainly tell
you're wired. I seem to remember you running off on the mouth when
you're very nervous."
"Gee, thanks," Pete sighed. He looked up at the map, "I'm not
deeply impressed with the local European superheroes, either."
"There's always Shamrock," Kate smirked slightly, referring to
the lucky green clover clad heroine of Ireland.
"Gah," Pete made a face.
A chuckling Kate patted him gently on the shoulder as she
reassured him, "You know you've got a good team here, Pete." She grinned
slightly, "And knowing you, you've got a few other recruits hidden up
your sleeve too."
"A couple," Pete rubbed at his eyes.
"Get some sleep," Kate said firmly before slipping out quietly.
In one of the newly occupied bedrooms Dani Moonstar tossed a
long nightshirt over her head even as Rhane disrobed beside her. "I
think I'm going to like this suite" Dani commented, the Native American
woman slowing a bit as she felt Rhane's gaze on her body.
"If it gets cold," Rhane smiled up at her gently as the Scottish
girl pulled her own night wear on, "I promise to try to keep you warm."
Dani nearly choked on a laugh, "Who are you and where's the real
Rhane?"
"Right here," Rhane said softly, "I'm just a lot more relaxed
around you." The two women got into the large double bed, snuggling
together under the covers. Rhane hesitated, "Dani, how long have you had
feelings for me?"
Dani sighed, "Quite a while, honestly." She smiled slightly, "Do
you remember when Legion hurt you, when you were visiting here a while
back?"
"Sam told be about it," Rhane murmured from the safety of Dani's
arms, "he said you were frantic to get to me."
"Being seperated from you then was hard enough," Dani shrugged
slightly, "but when you were hurt by him..."
"I guess you couldn't have told me about it back then," Rhane
admitted, thinking of the frightened, repressed girl she had once been.
"You probably would have fainted on the spot," Dani snickered,
feeling Rhane also shaking with her laughter in her arms.
In a room nearby Rachel Summers lay nude on her bed, gazing up
at the ceiling while waiting for sleep to claim her. 'How could I have
been so blind?' she wondered. Working with Kate Pryde in the resistance,
telling her conficences, they had been best friends. And she had
completely missed the fact that Kate was falling in love with her.
"Guess being a telepath doesn't always help," Rachel muttered
softly.
Finally, Lisa Garrison was sitting on top of her covers, talking
to someone softly on the telephone, "Yeah, I miss you too, love."
There was a short pause as Lisa listened, "Yeah, I'll ask him
about having you stay here on the island. I don't think he'll mind too
much."
She smirked just slightly at what she heard. "Now there's a
thought to go to bed to," Lisa snickered. With a gentle smile, "I'll
talk to you tomorrow." She set the phone down and rolled onto the bed,
smiling goofily.
'Hope that Mr. Wisdom doesn't have a problem with it,' Lisa
thought. She sighed softly, 'The whole group seems pretty friendly,
there shouldn't be a problem.'
Back in the command center Pete caught himself yawning. "Guess I
should get to bed," he got up and stretched out, yawning once again.
"Tomorrow's going to be another busy day," he murmured as he headed to
bed.
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