The Xavier School- late Wednesday night
Kitty
When Peter and the others had gone back to Breakworld, Kitty stayed behind, due to that pesky not having a body thing. Aside from Peter being super not thrilled about being made Powerlord on a world that was a mess, Kitty had thought that would be the end of it.
And then in the middle of the night, she heard something in the hall outside her and Clint's room. Trying not to wake him up, she got up and poked her head through the wall, and saw a green-skinned figure headed down the hall to Peter's room. As if knowing she was there, they turned, and she saw ex-Powerlord Kruun smiling back at her before opening the door.
Kitty probably should have woken Clint up, but she wasn't thinking. Instead she darted out of the hall and through the wall into Peter's room, just in time to see Peter get shot with some kind of dart in the neck, which woke him up.
"What did you do?" Kitty demanded.
Kruun
Kruun answered that by grabbing Kitty by the throat, then turning back to Peter. "The cure has taken away your powers. Make any noise and I'll take your little friend's life, too," he threatened. "And if she thinks of trying anything, she should know that no matter how trained or how fast she thinks she is, I can end her life in half a heartbeat. Do you understand, little Kitty?"
Kitty
"I know you guys are a little confused by language, but 'intangible' means stabby-stabby isn't a big threat. I can't be-"
It had been months since Kitty had experienced any actual physical feeling, but she felt when Kruun drew a knife across her shoulder. The noise she made was just as much from surprise as pain. "I'm bleeding," she said when she looked down. "How can-"
Kruun
"You found it hard to pass through our metal, didn't you? It finds it hard to pass through you, too. And forged the right way, it won't. It will open you up..." he said, keeping the knife near her neck. "And it will, unless the Powerlord does what he is told."
Peter
"I understand," Peter glared. "Now this goes without saying, but I want to be clear. If you hurt her, I will kill you."
Kitty
"Appreciated, but cliche, Peter," Kitty said honestly.
Kruun
"I am not here to slut throats in the night. I am not going to kill you," Kruun said. "I'm going to beat you. Take off the suit, and you'll both come with me."
Peter
Kruun marched Kitty and Peter out to the grounds, far back near the woods. The grass was still nice and dead from where Scott had blasted the Sentinel months ago. And maybe it was another cliche, but in a way that summed Peter up pretty nicely, so he said, "You don't have to do this. You can still get out of this alive."
Kruun
"My life ended with Breakworld," Kruun shot back. "You unarmed me, we fight unarmed."
Clint
Clint had woken up when he felt Kitty leave the bed, but he didn't think much of it until a few minutes had passed and she didn't come back. He got out of bed and went to Peter's room first, frowning when he found it empty. Then he heard voices, and though he couldn't hear what they were saying, it was enough to get him moving to follow them. He got close enough to see Kitty and Peter, along with someone green - freaking Breakworld - and swore under his breath, keeping his distance for the moment.
Peter
"It's not too late, Kruun," Peter said, though he was mentally preparing for a fight, and wishing he could armor up. "You can still-"
Kitty
Kruun answered that by digging his blade through Kitty's shoulder, pinning her to a tree. She tried to scream, but couldn't, and tried futilely to pull the knife out of her.
"The blade touches you, but you can't touch the blade," Kruun said. "Frustrating, I'd imagine. Get used to that."
Clint
Clint's first reaction was surprise that something was solidly going through Kitty. Then his sleep-addled brain caught up to something going through Kitty and he couldn't keep his distance anymore. "Hey! Why don't you leave the lady alone and stick to trying to stab people who are kicking your ass?"
Peter
"I'd prefer he didn't do that either," said the guy who was apparently supposed to be kicking Kruun's ass.
Kruun
Kruun ignored that.
"Of course you would come to protect your mate," he said to Clint. "I'd expect nothing less. If you'd like to save her, you're welcome to try."
Clint
That sounded like a terrible idea, and Clint knew it was a terrible idea, but he charged at Kruun anyway because Clint had never met a terrible idea he wasn't willing to try.
Kruun
While Kitty was trying to yell at him to stop, Kruun stood his ground and stuck out his fist, trying to let Clint do all the work in hurting himself.
Clint
Later, Clint was going to blame exhaustion for the fact that he forgot how freaking strong people from Breakworld could be. That fist hurt, and Clint fell back hard, smacking his head against the ground and blacking out.
Kitty
Peter took the opportunity to do the same damn thing Clint just did, only he had the advantage of taking Kruun by surprise enough to get a punch in. Kruun recoiled, wiped blood from his mouth, and retaliated.
Kitty had to watch as they duked it out, struggling against the knife in her shoulder, which only seemed to cut worse and that was unfair, but she needed to check on Clint. Struggling did nothing, and in about a minute Kruun had sent Peter flying, more or less landing on his face and not moving right away.
Kruun
"I took his powers, and he fought well," Kruun said, walking over to Kitty and pulling the knife out. "So now what, little Kitty?"
He went back over to where Clint and Peter were, like he was making a show of deciding between them just to make Kitty twist a little more. There wasn't a contest, though. Clint hadn't ruined his life and his planet. Kruun leaned over and sliced Peter's stomach open.
"Before I came, I made a study of your weak flesh," he continued. "How to cut to kill. How to do otherwise. He will bleed out unless you-"
Kitty
Kitty was intangible. Even if she could check on Clint, she couldn't physically do anything for him, and she had absolutely no way to save Peter herself. She had to get help.
Before Kruun could even finish his sentence, she darted off to the school.
Kruun
"Ah, good, you understand. Clever child," Kruun said. "Let us proceed."
And then he took off after her.
Kitty
Kitty ran into the school through the wall, trying to figure out where people might be and how she was going to tell them what was happening. She went straight through the common room and kitchen first, in case anyone was awake, and then found Scott in the office, sitting in a chair and staring straight ahead. So she waved her arms, trying to get his attention since she couldn't speak.
Kruun
"You think I came to you first? I would have revenge upon you all," Kruun said from the doorway. "He's paralyzed, but can still see. Where now? Who can hear your cry?"
Kitty
So, Scott was out. But, there was a certain telepath that should be able to communicate with.
Emma was asleep when Kitty phased into her and Scott's room, and Kitty tried to... think hard enough to get her attention.
Kruun
The window broke from the outside a second later. Kruun had clearly been able to guess where her next stop was.
"She could," he said. "She's a powerful telepath. Powerful, but arrogant. I had part of my mind laced with a false consciousness camouflage to hide the handful of desires that you people would object to. Were she a notch less arrogant, she could have caught it."
As Kitty leaned over Emma and tried to shout at her, Kruun continued, "Don't worry. She's just unconscious. What did she do to Breakworld? She was just a little soldier. Unimportant. Not like you. You stopped my world's revenge against yours. You stopped the exchange of gouged eyes to make our mutual destruction fair. You thought you could save everyone. And now you can't save anyone."
He leaned over the bed enough to press the blade to Emma's throat. "You know, the longer you linger in any place, the more my blade hungers..."
Kitty
If Kitty could speak, there'd be more curses coming out of her than she'd ever said in her entire life. Kruun had anticipated everything so far. Clint, Peter, Scott and Emma were all out. He'd probably already gotten to the other telepaths, and everyone else would be asleep where Kitty couldn't do anything to get their attention.
But if he was going for the people who'd been on Breakworld, Kitty went to hunt down Logan, phasing up through the roof and airwalking down when she spotted him on the lawn, meditating.
She ran over, but when he had his eyes closed and she couldn't speak or touch him, she still had a problem.
Kruun
"Him?" Kruun hissed at her. "He will never know you're here."
Logan
"Maybe not, bub," Logan said, and opened his eyes. "But I know you're here."
He popped his claws and jumped up, ready to face Kruun. "You're good. Damn good," he said. "But you've still got a smell."
Kruun
"Oh, very clever girl," Kruun said approvingly.
Logan
"Kitty, see if you can get us some company," Logan told her.
Kitty
Kitty had absolutely no problem doing that. If anyone could handle themselves against Kruun, it'd be Wolverine, so she took off again.
She was mostly out of options, though. She still had no way to alert people of anything, so she was hoping that going somewhere that people might be awake and able to see her would solve that problem. So, this time she tried running through the school and phasing into the infirmary.
Haleena
The place was empty, except for Kruun's mate, Haleena, who looked up at her and said casually, "Ah. Hello."
Kitty
Okay, this was probably unhelpful. Kitty stalked right over to her and began trying to talk, mostly colorful bitching about what Kruun was doing to her friends and fiance, with a lot of angry gesturing.
Haleena
"I understand. Time is short," Haleena said, and studied her thoughtfully. "But I must know... Would you do anything to save your friend?"
Kitty
Being Kitty, she mouthed "Yes."
She didn't even see the blade that Haleena had had in hand. The next thing Kitty knew, it was slicing across her throat.
[NFB, NFI, OOC okay! Preplayed with the incredible so_hawkward, and taken from Uncanny X-Men #537. Warning for violence and character death.]