"Ms. Summers," Prof. Xavier smiled slightly, offering the young
redhead his hand, "it's good to meet you."
"Nice to see you, sir," Rachel smiled down at the wheelchair
bound man with the oddest look on her pretty face.
Kitty and Illyanna followed their future apprentice inside the
mansion, watching with some amusement as the Professor tried to get over
his shock. The resemblance between Rachel and a young Jean Gray was
remarkable and something the Professor was clearly unprepared for.
"So what's the plan?" Kitty asked, giving the Professor a chance
to regain some control.
"We'll do a more complete scan with Cerebro first," Xavier said,
"then a deep telepathic scan." He smiled slightly up at Rachel, "No
offense meant, but I'd feel more comfortable confirming your story for
myself."
"Understandable," Rachel agreed.
"Kitty and I haven't tried the Danger Room in a while," Illyanna
noted, "would it be all right if we ran one of the training sessions
while you do that?"
"Oh sure," Rachel sighed jokingly, "you two get to go have fun
while I get pocked and prodded. Life's not fair."
The Professor chuckled softly before saying to Illyanna, "It
should be all right."
Kitty watched the two head towards his office, her expression
more serious than her tone had been. "You think he'll find something
odd?" she asked softly.
"No," Illyanna shook her head, "Ray's the real deal." She paused
a moment before adding, "If that isn't scary enough on it's own."
"Right," Kitty agreed. She smiled as they fell into step walking
to the Danger Room, "So do you think we'll need an observer?"
"Better safe than sorry," Illyanna agreed.
A few moments later both Logan and Ororo stood in the control
room, Kitty and Illyanna wearing the matching yellow and black team
uniforms of the X-men in the Danger Room below. "So what sort of session
do you want, darlin' ?" Logan asked, the black haired warrior smiling
slightly.
"Tough," Kitty flashed a smile, "I'm curious to see how well
magic does up against all the Danger Room's weapons and traps."
"Are you certain, Kitten?" Ororo added, the regal African woman
looking worried.
"If something goes bad I can teleport us out," Illyanna offered,
"or Kitty can just phase." She gentled her tone a bit, "Just trust us,
okay?"
"Of course," Ororo nodded.
Keeping his voice down so that the others couldn't hear Logan
said, "They're growing up, 'Roro. Gotta accept it, or it'll get rough on
you."
"You may be right, old friend," Ororo sighed.
"The scenario's ready," Logan had an impish grin on his face as
he said, "let's go."
Before Kitty or Illyanna could say anything the floor dropped
away, revealing a pit. Kitty chanted a few words even as Illyanna echoed
her action, the two of them floating as Kitty said, "That was playing
dirty, I think I like it."
Cables exploded to life around them, trying to tangle up the
girls but Illyanna was ready. Soul Sword flaming she cut through them
like paper, moving with grace and agility developed through her many
swordsmanship classes.
"I thought that her sword only worked on Magical beings and
artifacts," Ororo murmured, her eyes slightly wider than normal.
"Guess she figured out how to make it work normally," Logan
noted, sucking on a cigar with a grin on his face.
Even as Illyanna cut through the tentacles Kitty raised a disc
shaped shield, parrying a burst of scarlet laser beams. Another soft
word sent golden streams of power from her hand to destroy the
projectors in a burst of fire.
A section of wall slid aside, then a flight of missiles were
spat out at them. Both women moved as one, Illyanna's spell exploding
the rockets in midair, then Kitty's bold flew through the blast to
freeze the launcher in a block of ice.
"Iceman couldn't have done it better," Ororo murmured.
After about five more minutes of traps, weapons and even combat
droids a slightly singed looking Kitty and Illyanna left the Danger
Room, gratefully accepting a pair of towels tossed to them by the
grinning Logan.
"Not bad," Logan said as she pulled on his cigar proudly, "not
bad at all."
"I was impressed," Ororo had to admit with a smile.
"Thanks," Illyanna grinned back at them, her arm protectively
around Kitty's shoulders. She tilted her head to the side before
admitting, "That's the first time I've tried to make my blade solid
during a battle, though."
"Part of why we wanted to try it in the Danger Room," Kitty
nodded. She pushed her now messy hair out of her eyes, "Not to mention I
kind of missed it."
Logan dropped his voice a bit as he said, "I caught an awfully
familiar scent on you two when you came in. This lady, she's...?"
Ororo raised an eyebrow, "What?"
Kitty and Illyanna looked at each other a moment, silently
communicating. Finally Illyanna gave the two of them a wry smile and
said, "It's a long story, and one that I'm not sure we should be talking
about, I'm sorry."
Ororo frowned while Logan studied the two of them thoughtfully.
"I'll trust you two," he finally said, "though as soon as you can tell,
I want to know."
"We'll tell you as soon as we can," Kitty agreed, looking oddly
uncomfortable under Ororo's now stern gaze.
Illyanna met Ororo's eyes and the intensity of them made her
flinch slightly. "You two mind breaking it up?" Logan smiled at them
wryly.
"No fighting, please," Kitty agreed.
"Besides it may not be necessary," the calm voice of Professor
Xavier echoed in the hallway. They turned to see him rolling towards
them, a smiling Rachel at his side.
"Goddess," Ororo murmured upon seeing Rachel, her face oddly
pale.
"Damn," Logan muttered.
"Logan, Ororo," the Professor gestured to his female companion,
"I'd like you to meet Rachel Summers. She's Kitty and Illyanna's
apprentice visiting from the future."
It was so quiet you could hear a pin drop. "I thought we weren't
supposed to risk contaminating the timeline," Kitty muttered.
"My presence in the past already has contaminated the timeline,"
Rachel said reasonably, "spilling the beans won't worsen it that much."
"Lovely," Illyanna muttered.
Logan had the oddest look on his face. "My nose doesn't normally
lie," he finally said, "but your scent...."
"My mother is Madeline Pryor," Rachel took pity on him and said,
"she's a clone of Jean Gray, which explains my resemblance."
"So does she check out?" Kitty asked the Professor quietly as
the three talked.
"Both telepathically and by Cerebro," Professor Xavier said,
"she is whom she seems to be."
"Great," Illyanna smiled wryly, taking Kitty's hand as she
watched them talking away, "so what do we do now?"
"That is something the three of you will have to decide," the
Professor said.
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