NOTE: Kit Pryde's codename is not chosen yet. I'm still wembling between Wraith and Phantom. But for the purposes of this story, it's sort of moot. He doesn't have a situation where it's important anyway. Indigo ________________________________________ Warmup: Phantom, Detonator, Heartbreaker, and the White Queen School Spirit "Good morning, Kit." Kit Pryde grunted in response, otherwise ignoring his classmate, Maria de la Rocha. He knew it would not be received well by the haughty Spaniard girl, but he didn't care. He'd had an exceptionally bad morning and was not up to participating in the sorts of social games Maria enjoyed. He caught the glance of red from her eyes and turned, smiling at her already. However, his intellect was still as sharp as ever. "Good morning, Maria," he said in a more solicitous manner. "Keep in mind that when you release this empathic imperative to make me think you hung the moon, I will simply go back to treating you like the shallow, materialistic bitch I have always thought you are. Why do you keep going to the trouble? It's not like I'll change my mind." Heartbreaker sputtered indignantly. "How dare you speak to me that way?" she demanded angrily, eyes still glowing. Her smile grew cruel. "You don't really mean that, do you? After all -- you *love* me." Kit's smile was unfaltering. "That I do," he answered, shrugging. "But I love my parents and they left me here. With you. Whom I love because you say so. So I'm not so far gone that I couldn't do this." Still gazing with doe-eyed adoration at Maria, he touched her, phasing her, and shoved her into the wall. "I let go, you become a very messy impersonation of Han Solo in carbonite." His thoughts, despite his words, were a jumbled mantra. ~Use your mind//go back to her room//hate her, you know you should hate her//kiss her, God how I want to kiss her//she's just DOING this to you with her powers//I don't care//Yes you DO care! You're no one's slave!~ "You wouldn't dare!" Maria gasped, eyes wide and still glowing as she desperately attempted to increase her empathic hold on Pryde. "Sure I would. Emotionally, I'd feel like my world was coming to an end, Maria. But intellectually? That's a different story. Because I know you're *doing* this to me, and that I *should* hate you for it. Now -- will you shut off the empathy or do I need to make my point with the wall and, say -- one of your fingers?" His facial expression wavered. Intellectually staying angry when manipulated empathically to be otherwise was telling on him. Resisting Maria with the strength of his intellect was no easy task. But if he was going to be trapped at the Academy with Maria, he had to make the point that manipulating him was not going to be worth her while. Maria growled, and ceased her empathic output. "You will regret this, Pryde. I swear. Nobody humiliates Maria de la Rocha." "Precisely," Kit said darkly. "I am not just any nobody. I'm Keith Pryde, and fortunately, I can think past my hormones better than the average teenage boy." He gave Maria a tug to free her from the wall, then turned away from her, stalking up the hall to Tad's room without another word. He was through the door without bothering to open it in a second. Two seconds after that, he leaned back against the door and let his knees buckle, bowing his head and covering his face with his hands. Tad never heard Kit until the first sob escaped the other boy. "Keith?" Tad was on his feet in a second. "What happened, man?" "Maria happened. Right after my parents happened." Tad frowned. "She took another shot at you, hunh?" He clenched his teeth, and closed his eyes, remembering his first acquaintance with the empath. "Bitch." His hatred for Maria had abated some with Kit's friendship, and Donna's. But he had gotten it under control -- too much rage made his time-bombs erratic and prone to fall out of his control. "Yeah." Kit savagely wiped his eyes. "And my folks refuse to let me come home," he added, almost in a whisper. "They don't believe anything Frost doesn't want them to believe, and they can't understand why I'm not happy here." Tad nodded, watching Kit get to his feet and begin to pace. "So -- you still planning to bail?" "I don't know," Kit said softly. "Donna doesn't seem to mind the place. There's also the fact that we know what the others can do. The fact that we understand de la Rocha, Aquilla, Rasputin, and know what Frost wants to make them into. Accessories for her ascension to Empress of the world." He swallowed the last of his tears, quick mind getting back into gear. He had long since developed the ability to sidestep his problems by immersing himself in intellectual pursuits. This was just another. Tad frowned. "You have a point," he admitted begrudgingly. "Pryde, you know I hate it when you make sense." Kit grinned. "Yeah, Smith, I know. I hate it too." "We stayin'?" "For a bit longer, anyway. We should find out what the rest of the Hellions think. We should see what Emma has in mind for us. My folks raised me with a sense of responsibility to others, but that's only gonna go so far. I am not gonna be cannon fodder." "What now?" Tad asked. "You going to just give up and stay? This is the best gig I've ever *had,* Keith, and I still want out." "I'm going to have a stroll and see what else Frost is up to." "She's a telepath, man. She'll get in your head and pull out anything you learned that you shouldn't have." Kit had to concede his friend's point. Not only that, but there was no one on the team, save Rasputin, whom Keith didn't trust as far as he could throw. "On the other hand," Tad mused, "I doubt she thinks we're anything but her obedient little lambs. Well, except for you and Maria, anyway. It's possible it's beneath her to go snooping in our heads." "Risk I don't know if I want to take," Kit said to the older boy he finally stopped pacing and sat on the chair at Tad's desk. "I need to calm down and think." "C'mon. Let's go to the gym and shoot hoops," Tad suggested. "Or you can kick my butt at handball again." "Anything, as long as it's not football again. God, you're dense," Pryde joked, spirits lifting just slightly. ***** Emmett Frost was in his private bathroom, transforming into his alter ego, Emma. It was time to have another conversation with Maria. She'd been manipulating the staff again, and had antagonized Keith Pryde once again. ~The girl's talent is useful, but her manipulative tendencies are going to be counterproductive to my plans and goals. This will have to stop.~ Several moments later, Emma was seated, resplendent in her white business suit, as Maria was showed inside. "Miss de la Rocha, we meet again," Emma said softly. She pressed a button on the console of her desk, and a television screen rose up from the credenza at the side of the room, replaying the scene in the hallway between Maria and Kit. "Haven't we discussed this once already, young lady?" Maria shrugged, tossing her chestnut hair behind her. "Si, seņora, we have. But I will not brook rudeness from any of the men here. In my country ---" "In your country, *dear*," Emma interrupted, voice icy, "Your powers would soon have failed you from too much extended overuse, and you would have been jailed for the murder of your parents because La Policia would have wanted to pin it on *someone*." Maria paled. "I see you understand me. Never forget that it is through my good graces that you attend here. And through my good graces that you have anywhere at all to go, last of the de la Rochas. Cease manipulating the other students here." "Or?" Maria prompted. "Or I shall have to make arrangements to see that you do not -- my own way." Maria gulped. ~No. I will die before that witch touches my mind again!~ "Excellent. I see that we understand each other, Maria. That will be all." Maria left, looking chastened and contemplative. Emma knew the wheels were turning beneath that expression, though. Putting Heartbreaker's plots of revenge out of her mind, Frost turned her attention on Pryde -- her other troublesome student. ~Damnation.~ The cameras in Pryde's room showed snow -- again. The boy was suspicious of Frost and regularly phased through his room, knowing the disruptive effect of his passage on electronics after a mishap with Donna Ramsey's computer when the latter had first arrived. ~He's proving more troublesome than I thought. I may have to condition him as I did Maria.~ She toyed briefly with taking the autonomy away from the other children. But she knew that idea was only a passing fancy. They would be less efficient in the use of their powers if she did that. There might be other methods used to deal with Keith Pryde. He was, Maria de la Rocha aside, something of the darling of the small collection of students. And he had the honorable streak several of the others lacked. Smith's loyalty to the younger boy was inspiring, but complicated matters. This would require some thought. ~Perhaps where Emma has failed, Emmett can succeed.~ ***** Kit Pryde jumped, and, to Tad's annoyance and surprise, stayed up, phasing to pull off the trick. He dropped the ball into the hoop, then phased through the backboard before descending. Tad grinned. ~Another camera, no doubt,~ he thought. ~Frost keeps reinstalling 'em, Pryde keeps nuking 'em. I wonder if the two of them don't enjoy this as some twisted kind of competition.~ "C'mon. Let's get the hell out of here and go down to the city for burgers. I'm starved." ~And I want to get the hell away from Frost and talk to Pryde where nobody who cares will be able to hear us. "You're on," Keith responded with a grin. The two boys walked out of the gym, chattering to each other about cars as teenage boys will. They passed Barbara daCosta and flashed her grins. She grinned back, then made a comment about there being better ways to work up a sweat than sports. The boys looked at each other, then at Barbara, and it was Tad who replied, "Yeah, Bobbi, but sports are less dangerous!" Laughing, he took off down the hall. Pryde maintained his normal walking pace but phased until the fuming Barbara was out of sight. ---- List Archive: http://www.FindMail.com/list/xxy/ To Subscribe: e-mail to xxy-subscribe@MakeList.com To Unsubscribe: e-mail to xxy-unsubscribe@MakeList.com -- Start Your Own Free Mailing List at http://www.MakeList.com !