crossover snippets
so Thanksgiving was fun, way too much food. Stephen Colbert's Christmas special both left me laughing my ass off and vaguely unsatisfied, and I'm not sure why. Now we're off to my sister's for some Guitar Hero World Tour and poker.
but first, the snippets:
"Kill the spare" came Ralph Fiennes' most chilling voice, and with a flash of green light, Cedric Diggory (as portrayed by Robert Pattinson) fell to the ground, glassy eyed.
As the scene played out on the screen, Kitty felt the atmosphere in the room take on a definite chill. She knew at an objective, intellectual level that Rowling had sacrificed Cedric as a way to prepare the reader for the increasingly dark tone the series would take. But neither she nor most of the residents of Xavier's, were able to look at it so. A student - a child - dying still laid open the emotional scars of a community still in grief over the bus explosion that claimed the lives of forty two of their students.
Illyana broke the silence, "He sure was a cutie - too bad they offed him. I guess we can always catch him in those Twilight movies, huh Kitty?"
"What?" Kitty blinked, her thoughts jarred back to the present. She stifled a yawn, "What was that, 'Yana?"
---
She ducked under the O*N*E* Sentinel’s force beam and cursed. Human pilots changed the rules of the game and she didn’t like it one bit. It was a lot easier to dump the lot into Limbo and be done with it, but there were soldiers in there, and she didn’t want whatever might happen in her sorcerous domain to be on her conscience. And she hadn’t expected them to adapt so quickly to her stunt of teleporting their attacks back at them.
These things were a lot tougher than the old ones. She was of half a mind to teleport back to New York and give Tony Stark nightmares for developing these nightmares for the “Office of National Emergency”. But the real ones had ended up failing, against Apocalypse and Vulcan, and after that, had been destroyed in a climactic fight with the X-men they were supposed to be guarding.
She noted that her brother and Kitty were in much the same boat. Even worse, in fact, with their regressed ages. These new mecha were built to compensate for the full adult strength of Colossus, and their weaponry was able to penetrate his armored hide with ease. Shadowcat’s phasing talent was similarly accounted for by a series of force fields, near instant system redundancies and a multidimensional stasis beam that would force her to solidity where it to connect. The three of them had been dodging and weaving, trying to come up with sort of effective strategy, wreaking much of the simulated environment in the process.
It was Rachel, of course, who swooped in to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat, overloading their anti-telekinesis fields almost contemptuously, ripping open their armor and plucking out the pilots like peanuts from their shells.
The Room of Requirement changed, sensing that the exercise had ended. “Showing off, Summers?” asked Illyana, snidely.
“Hey, if you got it, flaunt it, Rasputin,” answered Rachel, “And it’s still Grey, thanks. After the parent that didn’t get involved with a skeeze-bag psy-witch.”
“That’s enough, you two,” scolded an exasperated Kitty, “Ray, she does have a point. You might as well pulled in Galactus for all the good the three of us could do. These sessions are supposed to keep us in fighting shape, not make us spectators to your uber-powered butt-kicking.”
Rachel shrugged, “Actually, you all were doing a pretty good job of dodging. I was thinking that there has to be some threats in this world that your powers aren’t going to be as effective against, so I wanted something to make you improvise.”
“Until you arrived to save the day?” Illyana asked snidely.
Rachel grinned cheekily, “If that’s the burden I must bear…”
Kitty rolled her eyes, “OK, Ray, I get your point, but how did the simulation help you if your powers weren’t effective?”
As the two girls began to discuss it, Piotr pulled his sister aside. “Snowflake, I have a favor to ask.”
“What is it, big brother? Need me to scare off that gaggle of Hufflepuffs that’s been following you and Cedric around?” She giggled. “I can do that- ‘specially if you get Ced to ask me to that Ball.”
He blushed a bit, “Nyet, I can fend for myself. Although I believe Kitty may have spoken with some of my more ardent pursuers.” He paused, looking thoughtful, “I wonder if I should do the same?”
“OK, so what’s up?”
“It is about the Yule Ball.” He coughed, embarrassed, “I was wondering…”
“If I could go with Cedric? Sure! Then Harry and Cho can go, and he can see how shallow she is, or he’ll be a jerk like in the book and she won’t want to see him again, and maybe he’ll get a clue about Ginny earlier. Of course, that would be another thing we’d be changing, but no more than we’re already doing…”
“Er,” Peter waited for a break, “I was actually thinking… you know Neville?”
“Piotr, be serious.”
“He’s a good boy, snowflake, he just lacks confidence.”
Illyana replied carefully, mindful that her brother had befriended the awkward Gryffindor boy. “And then some. He’s a klutz, he’s painfully shy. He’s looked down at with derision by most of the school.” She frowned, “It would mean an almost irredeemable loss of status to be seen with him - I don’t think I could take Pansy Parkinson’s cracks about it. I’m sorry, Peter. Besides, he’ll end up asking Ginny - hopefully it’ll be more movie than book, otherwise I’ll feel terrible about her squished toes.”
Piotr looked at her seriously, his sky blue eyes penetrating into hers, and then nodded. “I understand. I had hoped - if he were to be asked by an older girl, particularly one as pretty as you - that it would help him realize his worth sooner.” He shrugged sadly, “But you are right - to attend the ball with him would go over poorly with Slytherin House, and I would not ask my favorite sister to become a laughingstock.”
Illyana loved her brother very much, and hated the very idea of disappointing him. She mused for a moment, chewing a lock of her hair absently while lost in thought. “Of course, we could always pull one of those teen romance movie things. If I could get Pansy to bet me that I wouldn’t go with Neville, that I couldn’t get him to show up as a respectable date and embarrass me… that could work. She’s easy enough to manipulate into it.” She smiled evilly, “And he’s not too bad looking, we can train him, My Fair Lady style, he wouldn’t be a complete disaster. And I’m betting we can clean him up to look more dashing and debonair than Draco could ever hope to be.”
Peter marveled at his sister’s mind at work.
“OK, big brother, you got a deal. I’ll do it - just give me some time to set it up.”
but first, the snippets:
"Kill the spare" came Ralph Fiennes' most chilling voice, and with a flash of green light, Cedric Diggory (as portrayed by Robert Pattinson) fell to the ground, glassy eyed.
As the scene played out on the screen, Kitty felt the atmosphere in the room take on a definite chill. She knew at an objective, intellectual level that Rowling had sacrificed Cedric as a way to prepare the reader for the increasingly dark tone the series would take. But neither she nor most of the residents of Xavier's, were able to look at it so. A student - a child - dying still laid open the emotional scars of a community still in grief over the bus explosion that claimed the lives of forty two of their students.
Illyana broke the silence, "He sure was a cutie - too bad they offed him. I guess we can always catch him in those Twilight movies, huh Kitty?"
"What?" Kitty blinked, her thoughts jarred back to the present. She stifled a yawn, "What was that, 'Yana?"
---
She ducked under the O*N*E* Sentinel’s force beam and cursed. Human pilots changed the rules of the game and she didn’t like it one bit. It was a lot easier to dump the lot into Limbo and be done with it, but there were soldiers in there, and she didn’t want whatever might happen in her sorcerous domain to be on her conscience. And she hadn’t expected them to adapt so quickly to her stunt of teleporting their attacks back at them.
These things were a lot tougher than the old ones. She was of half a mind to teleport back to New York and give Tony Stark nightmares for developing these nightmares for the “Office of National Emergency”. But the real ones had ended up failing, against Apocalypse and Vulcan, and after that, had been destroyed in a climactic fight with the X-men they were supposed to be guarding.
She noted that her brother and Kitty were in much the same boat. Even worse, in fact, with their regressed ages. These new mecha were built to compensate for the full adult strength of Colossus, and their weaponry was able to penetrate his armored hide with ease. Shadowcat’s phasing talent was similarly accounted for by a series of force fields, near instant system redundancies and a multidimensional stasis beam that would force her to solidity where it to connect. The three of them had been dodging and weaving, trying to come up with sort of effective strategy, wreaking much of the simulated environment in the process.
It was Rachel, of course, who swooped in to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat, overloading their anti-telekinesis fields almost contemptuously, ripping open their armor and plucking out the pilots like peanuts from their shells.
The Room of Requirement changed, sensing that the exercise had ended. “Showing off, Summers?” asked Illyana, snidely.
“Hey, if you got it, flaunt it, Rasputin,” answered Rachel, “And it’s still Grey, thanks. After the parent that didn’t get involved with a skeeze-bag psy-witch.”
“That’s enough, you two,” scolded an exasperated Kitty, “Ray, she does have a point. You might as well pulled in Galactus for all the good the three of us could do. These sessions are supposed to keep us in fighting shape, not make us spectators to your uber-powered butt-kicking.”
Rachel shrugged, “Actually, you all were doing a pretty good job of dodging. I was thinking that there has to be some threats in this world that your powers aren’t going to be as effective against, so I wanted something to make you improvise.”
“Until you arrived to save the day?” Illyana asked snidely.
Rachel grinned cheekily, “If that’s the burden I must bear…”
Kitty rolled her eyes, “OK, Ray, I get your point, but how did the simulation help you if your powers weren’t effective?”
As the two girls began to discuss it, Piotr pulled his sister aside. “Snowflake, I have a favor to ask.”
“What is it, big brother? Need me to scare off that gaggle of Hufflepuffs that’s been following you and Cedric around?” She giggled. “I can do that- ‘specially if you get Ced to ask me to that Ball.”
He blushed a bit, “Nyet, I can fend for myself. Although I believe Kitty may have spoken with some of my more ardent pursuers.” He paused, looking thoughtful, “I wonder if I should do the same?”
“OK, so what’s up?”
“It is about the Yule Ball.” He coughed, embarrassed, “I was wondering…”
“If I could go with Cedric? Sure! Then Harry and Cho can go, and he can see how shallow she is, or he’ll be a jerk like in the book and she won’t want to see him again, and maybe he’ll get a clue about Ginny earlier. Of course, that would be another thing we’d be changing, but no more than we’re already doing…”
“Er,” Peter waited for a break, “I was actually thinking… you know Neville?”
“Piotr, be serious.”
“He’s a good boy, snowflake, he just lacks confidence.”
Illyana replied carefully, mindful that her brother had befriended the awkward Gryffindor boy. “And then some. He’s a klutz, he’s painfully shy. He’s looked down at with derision by most of the school.” She frowned, “It would mean an almost irredeemable loss of status to be seen with him - I don’t think I could take Pansy Parkinson’s cracks about it. I’m sorry, Peter. Besides, he’ll end up asking Ginny - hopefully it’ll be more movie than book, otherwise I’ll feel terrible about her squished toes.”
Piotr looked at her seriously, his sky blue eyes penetrating into hers, and then nodded. “I understand. I had hoped - if he were to be asked by an older girl, particularly one as pretty as you - that it would help him realize his worth sooner.” He shrugged sadly, “But you are right - to attend the ball with him would go over poorly with Slytherin House, and I would not ask my favorite sister to become a laughingstock.”
Illyana loved her brother very much, and hated the very idea of disappointing him. She mused for a moment, chewing a lock of her hair absently while lost in thought. “Of course, we could always pull one of those teen romance movie things. If I could get Pansy to bet me that I wouldn’t go with Neville, that I couldn’t get him to show up as a respectable date and embarrass me… that could work. She’s easy enough to manipulate into it.” She smiled evilly, “And he’s not too bad looking, we can train him, My Fair Lady style, he wouldn’t be a complete disaster. And I’m betting we can clean him up to look more dashing and debonair than Draco could ever hope to be.”
Peter marveled at his sister’s mind at work.
“OK, big brother, you got a deal. I’ll do it - just give me some time to set it up.”