The sitting room where they went to make their plans was comfortable, beautiful paintings hung up on the walls. Various chairs and a couch were occupied by Kitty and Illyanna together while Rachel and the Phoenix sat in their own chairs. A tea set and cups were set up, snacks helpfully provided by the kitchen ghost. "No," Illyanna just shook her head firmly in response to the question, her long blonde hair flowing around her. She took a drink of her tea, the T-shirt and jeans she wore comfortable. Rachel looked surprised as the young redhead asked, "You can't use the stepping disks to get us to England?" 'Rachel even dresses like us now,' Kitty silently noted the similar clothes that they all wore, 'or maybe that's something she picked up from our future selves?' Aloud the brown haired girl said, "The longer the range to teleport the greater chance there is that we might time-slip or miss our target, it's a problem with the stepping disks themselves." "Good explanation," Illyanna complimented her. "Coo," Lockheed the dragon murmured to himself contentedly, munching on cookies. Phoenix reached out, gently scratching the animal with a contented smile. "I'd offer to transport you," she said, the fiery replica of Jean Gray looking mildly apologetic about it, "but I think it would be best to keep a low profile." "With a unknown enemy that makes sense," Kitty nodded. "So how do we get there?" Rachel asked. "There's always more conventional methods of transportation," Illyanna offered, "we could always just take a plane." "Or...." Kitty trailed off thoughtfully. "Whenever you do that it always makes me nervous," Illyanna commented. She smiled slightly, "You had an idea?" "And is it hazardous to our health?" Rachel asked with a sigh. She had been the lab-rat recently for one of Kitty's magical experiments and she was sure her eyebrows were still a bit burnt. Admittedly she had volunteered, but still.... Kitty gave her a wounded look, "I didn't know that the Phoenix residue on you would react with the chaos invocation...." "I'm sure Kitty knows what she's doing," Phoenix said before giving Kitty a dangerous glance and asking, "right?" Kitty didn't go pale but she certainly looked a bit nervous as she swiftly reassured them, "It's perfectly harmless." "So what's the plan?" Illyanna asked. Kitty looked thoughtful, "First I need to test it, care to help me?" "Of course," Illyanna stood, offering Kitty her hand. The two got up from the couch, Rachel and Phoenix trailing along behind them as they walked down the hall over to the workroom. Kitty pulled two basins from a shelf and set them down on the table, each several feet apart. "Could someone get me some water?" Kitty asked. "Sure," Rachel quickly left and soon returned to the room carrying a full bucket, the water sloshing around inside. "I almost expected you to use magic," Phoenix noted, watching all the goings on curiously. Rachel spoke up before Kitty and Illyanna could, giving the Phoenix a slight smile. "Using magic takes energy," she explained, "derived directly from us. If there's a normal way to do something it's better to use it rather than burn energy on magic." "Exactly," Kitty nodded. Illyanna walked over to where Kitty stood, dropping her voice to a whisper. "Do you think we should try to contact Dr. Strange?" she asked. Kitty watched Rachel carefully filing the basins as she softly answered, "I tried earlier but I couldn't get through. I don't know exactly why, though." "Ominous," Illyanna quipped. "Or it could be he and Clea were busy," Kitty flashed a grin. "So what now?" Rachel asked, the basins filled to the edge as Kitty had instructed. "I'm curious too," Illyanna admitted as they walked over to the work table where the other two women were waiting. "We all know about sympathetic magic," Kitty said in a lecturing tone as she rolled up her sleeves, "when a object is used to represent all other things of that same type?" "Of course," the Phoenix nodded seriously. "This experiment uses that principle," Kitty said, holding her hands over each bowl and chanting softly, threads of magical energy dancing over them. She finished up, light flickering as she closed her hands as she said, "Who wants to stick their arm into a basin?" Illyanna stepped up and held a hand just over the surface of the still water. She puffed out a breath, "Let's see what happens." With that Illyanna smoothly thrust her hand in one of the basins and blinked in shock as her arm then popped up from the other one, still perfectly dry. The blonde beauty wiggled her fingers experimentally as the others looked on in disbelief. Rachel looked at the strangely disembodied hand then shook her head, "That's impressive, I have to admit." She looked a bit nervous, "But how do we use this to get to England?" "Using this spell we can step into a pool of water here," Kitty explained as Illyanna pulled her hand out of the water, "and emerge from any other one around the world." "Skuld!" Illyanna exclaimed, surprising the others. "Sorry," she apologized before turning to Kitty, "You figured out how that goddess transported herself through water!" "I'm not sure if this is the exact method she uses," Kitty cautioned, "but once I found out it could be done I wanted to puzzle it out." She paused, taking a look at Phoenix as she said, "There might still be one problem." Phoenix looked confused then gazed down at her fiery body sheepishly. "Ah, yes," she murmured, "would it help if I took on a human form?" Illyanna smiled wryly, "As long as it's not a problem." Phoenix stood there, her fiery edged body glowing with energy as she flared brightly. The wings of flame danced around her, power building up incredibly yet tightly contained. There was a soft bamf of air, smoke swirling as a woman was revealed. "Wow," Rachel managed. They looked almost like twin sisters, this redheaded young woman standing there in the circle of burnt floor. Her long red hair was streaked with gold as it flowed over her shoulders, her green eyes glowing with gentle amusement. Her body was clearly healthy, too, as could be easily seen because she wasn't wearing any clothes. Kitty chanted something softly, materializing a blanket which she put over Phoenix's shoulders. "You couldn't have created clothes?" she asked. "Not that we minded the free show," Illyanna murmured under her breath. "Sorry," Phoenix smiled, pulling the robe around her. She looked over at Rachel, "I hope you don't mind that I used you as a template?" Rachel's cheeks were faintly red as she answered, "No, not at all." "Let's get you dressed," Kitty said, "then we'll get ready to go." She looked around, "Now where is Lockheed?" Back in the sitting room the dragon lay on the table that had held all the snacks. The plates of food were all empty, only crumbs left and the teacups dry. The dragon's belly bulged, he had eaten so much, and he had a very self satisfied look on his face. "Urp," Lockheed burped.
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