This story starts off during the events of Mekanix #1 and sometime
after the end of Read Or Die OVA #3. There are spoilers in here if you
have not yet seen Read Or Die!
Kitty Pryde wiped off the top of the bar at Belles of Hell
with a smooth gesture even as she stylishly poured out a drink for the
young man who's ID she had just checked. Since the brown haired woman
had started her classes at MIT this job in the college town bar was a
real life saver, helping give her some much needed financial
independence while also getting her out of her head a bit, keeping her
connected to a more ordinary kind of people.
Talking with the customers, listening to their problems, the
flamboyant bartending, Kitty had been a bit surprised at how easily it
all came to her. Though being a former dance major should have given
her a hint she could be that sort of performer. 'I wonder what Ororo
would think if she saw me know?' she thought to herself with a slight
smile.
Looking up as casually as she possibly could Kitty took in the
quiet young woman who was wearing glasses and sitting over there in
the corner. The black haired lady was still nursing her first drink,
looking clearly nervous about something or other as she read from her
book. Kitty had felt her watching her more than a few times tonight,
and wasn't quite sure what to make of it.
"It looks like you've gotten yourself an admirer," her slim,
dark haired boss Dylan Maguire came up behind her to note with a sly
grin.
"Maybe," Kitty blushed faintly before she tentatively asked
him, "Do you mind if I clock out early, check it out?"
"Good luck," Dylan clapped her on the back, nearly knocking
her over.
"Gee, thanks," Kitty managed.
With a single motion Kitty pulled off her apron and tucked it
back behind the bar before reaching into the small fridge there and
getting out a bottle of spring water to cool herself off a bit. She
drank it down happily, her throat feeling a bit dry from talking so
much, then she reached up to wipe off her brow with a towel.
Kitty navigated her way through the dancing crowd, being
careful not to bump or knock over any of the partiers who were all
around her. 'Glad I've had some practice at it,' she thought. Safely
reaching the corner table at last she smiled down at the woman,
"Hello."
Clearly startled the black haired woman pushed up her square
frame glasses and blurted out in what was clearly her native Japanese,
"Oh, hello."
"Is there something I can help you with?" Kitty asked her also
in unaccented Japanese. 'Hanging around Logan really pays off,' she
thought.
"Sorry," the young woman stood up and switched back to English
to introduce herself, "my name is Yomiko Readaman."
"Hello Yomiko," Kitty frowned just slightly, recognizing the
name almost instantly. She had been exchanging casual emails with a
Japanese school teacher named Yomiko for the last few weeks. 'Could
this be her?' she wondered. Getting a handle on her racing thoughts
she smiled down at her and said, "My name's Kitty."
"I know," Yomiko looked clearly uncomfortable as she gestured
Kitty to the seat opposite her, "I came here to see you."
That remark made Kitty give Yomiko a much more cautious and
assessing look. The young lady almost looked like the stereotype of a
school teacher, with her brown vest, white shirt and black matching
dress and tie. The only thing odd was her general scruffiness, with
tuffs of her hair standing up and a look of distraction on her face.
Making her voice sound much harder than normal Kitty said,
"You're the one I've been exchanging emails with, aren't you?"
"Hai," Yomiko nodded to Kitty. She hesitated, "Could we talk
somewhere a bit more private? It concerns... Shadowcat."
"Lets go outside," Kitty offered Yomiko her hand. She didn't
intend to confirm or deny what the lady had just said. 'So all those
emails weren't as casual as I thought,' Kitty mused, then, 'I guess I
should have worn a mask along with my costume more often.'
They walked along the street silently for a few moments before
Yomiko quietly said, "This is why I felt that I had to contact you,
and now to come see you." She reached into her coat and Kitty tensed
up, relaxing just a bit when she pulled out a simple brown envelope.
She popped it open, spilling several pictures out that she handed over
to Kitty.
They young woman in the photo's looked eerily familiar to
Kitty, despite her feeling sure that she had not met her before. The
woman dressed in the tight black leather jumpsuit wielded a machine
pistol in one shot, was looking impatiently at the camera in another
for some kind of official picture and in the last one...
In the last photo she was phasing through a wall.
"Who..?" Kitty said softly.
"Nancy," Yomiko said softly, "Nancy Mukahari."
Kitty held up the photo's to a nearby street lamp and examined
them closely, "If they're fakes, they're near perfect ones."
"They are not faked," Yomiko said to Kitty intensely, "I saw
Nancy- san do some of those things right in front of me."
Kitty nodded to herself thoughtfully, realizing that for some
reason she believed this young woman. Trusted her, no, especially
after those emails, but she did believe what Yomiko was telling her.
She also knew why she thought that she recognized Nancy. Except for
the hair color and a few other minor details, the two of them were
nearly a perfect match.
After a moment Kitty looked over at Yomiko thoughtfully to ask
her, "Nancy was some kind of clone, wasn't she?"
"Yes," Yomiko nodded firmly, "the man who claimed he was her
creator told me that she was a clone of Mata Hari. But once I found
out about the similarity in your powers, and saw the physical
resemblance..." She trailed off.
"You want a blood sample, to confirm it?" Kitty asked, hoping
that it was that simple, but she rather thought it wouldn't be.
"No," Yomiko shook her head sadly, "Nancy's dead."
Kitty winced slightly. There had been an air of sadness about
the girl from the beginning, and now she knew the cause of it. "I'm
sorry," she offered.
Yomiko smiled sadly, "I need your help, Kitty-san."
Kitty found herself dreading what she was about to hear, but
she just had to ask Yomiko, "Help you with what?"
"I know there's a connection between you and Nancy," Yomiko
said softly. "We were... very close, me and Nancy. I have to know what
it was, who really created Nancy, both for her and my sake," she
explained, "and I need your help to do that."
Yes, she really did not want to hear that. Kitty looked down
at the photos again, and thought about what to do. If she bailed out
on MIT right now, she didn't know if she could get back in. She was
already on probation due to her fight with a bunch of mutant haters,
she didn't need any more black marks on her record. But this Nancy...
In an odd way, they might be family. This woman with the same powers
and a startling resemblance to her, it might very well be her clone.
Kitty looked at the patiently waiting Yomiko. 'She said they
were close,' she mused, 'but the way she's acting, she loved her.'
When Illyanna had reverted back to childhood, Kitty had felt the need
to go see her, to confirm it with her own eyes and when she died Kitty
had been there. It looked like Yomiko needed something like that, some
kind of closure.
With a soft sigh Kitty said, "I'll do it."
"Thank you," a suddenly beaming Yomiko clasped Kitty's hands
in her own. "I've already booked a flight for Japan, we'll take off
tonight," she said.
"Tonight?" Kitty went pale, "Wait a minute here! I..."
"We'll buy you some extra sets of clothes when we get there,"
Yomiko said as she tugged on Kitty's hands to pull her gently forward.
"But I..." Kitty tried, then sighed. "Never mind," she softly
muttered as they walked down the street together.
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