Post by Shadowcat on Jul 31, 2006 19:24:47 GMT -5
[9:00]
"Please," Kitty shouted, "please, just stop - stop panicking!" As per usual, no one listened. 'Go help out the innocent bystanders' was staring to seem like a more arduous task than she'd thought it'd be. But Kitty still tried, now and then resorting to latching onto a random person when she saw a projectile or any of the various effects of powers heading for them, phasing them out and rushing them behind cover or onto side side streets.
Emma stood near the back of the crowd and watched the proceedings in front of the NovaTex building with interest. She had been searching out and reading the minds of various X-Men as she stood well away from the immediate danger.
A familiar teenage girl clad in the X-Men uniform had caught her eye, and Emma watched her from behind dark sunglasses for several minutes as she phased civilians out of harm's way. She tapped into her mind with ease and searched it at her leisure.
Kitty Pryde. Emma had offered her a place at Massachusetts Academy when Emma had become the headmistress, and had begun searching out young mutants much as Charles Xavier had done. Kitty had refused, and though Emma had pushed it to the back of her mind, now that Kitty was there in front of her, Emma's grudge came freshly into her mind.
Emma looked around as she finished searching Kitty's mind. There was nothing specific that she was needed to do until the time came to make a quick escape...So why not have some fun?
Emma turned and crossed the street. She went into an alley between two buildings and sat behind a trash can on the hard ground. After creating a mental blanket over herself which would block not only the fact that she was a mutant should the impending sentinels show up, but her prescence to any human being, homo sapien or superior.
Then, Emma moved into Kitty's mind. It would work as always, she assumed, especially since Kitty was not at all trained to defend herself against mental attacks. Kitty would think she was doing everything that Emma told her to do of her own accord. It wouldn't be until after that Kitty would realize she had been possessed, and then Emma would delete all memory of it from her. It would leave Kitty feeling drained physically and emotionally, but the amount of exhaustion she would feel would depend on how much Emma made her do.
Emma had seen Kitty's potential, and while it was simple, it was intriguing. Kitty had an ability that neither she nor anyone around her had thought she could have. And Emma planned to use it. But first, she told Kitty to do some phasing. To keep moving civilians.
"Please," Kitty said for the umpteenth time, "please - oh, thank you." A woman in a brown raincoat thrust a child into Kitty's arms, gabbling in something that sounded vaguely Eastern European, though it might as well have been Martian for all Kitty understood it. But the object was clear enough; Kitty folded her arms around the three-year-old, which was crying, and took the woman's elbow, phasing them both across the street (and there was a small tickle at the back of her head, Kitty noticed. Stress headache coming on, no doubt. Great. That was all she needed right now...
Kitty moved a few more people before abruptly stopping. No, she thought. She needed to do something else now.
Emma quickly became bored with phasing, as it was within her own powers to project her own form astrally, which was similar. She decided to try the hidden ability to Kitty's powers. She had Kitty phase behind the crowd so that they both could concentrate on what was to come without being interrupted by the battle. She decided to be daring, and she let Kitty realize that she was being controlled. She let Kitty's thoughts surface, planning to read them and perhaps even say something to her.
Kitty phased through the crowd, coming out behind them. She had to - the reason she had to was unclear, but very important. She'd remember it in a few minutes. And she knew what she was doing, anyway, so it didn't really matter, did it, if she couldn't figure out what the reason was? She stood there for a few seconds, concentrating, trying to figure out the reason. She was there. Now she needed something to do.
With a sudden knowledge like the crack of a whip, Kitty realized that she wasn't alone in her head. A distant part of her psyche - definitely not the part in control - swore violently.
Emma was amused at Kitty's reaction to the sudden realization, but she stayed silent. She told Kitty to concentrate, to look at her feet. She commanded Kitty's body to take a step forward. Emma could have used Kitty's power with that first step, but she decided to gradually moved into it to give Kitty a way to do it again, though it would be considerably harder for her to do it without Emma's help.
Kitty lifted her foot and as she started to set it down, it caught in the air for a split-second. It was as if there were something solid there that Kitty were stepping on, but it was only air. But after a second, whatever it was she was stepping on was gone, and her foot fell to the ground suddenly, as though what she were stepping on had suddenly broken.
Please, Kitty thought desperately, hoping whoever was in her head could hear her, please don't do this. I'm trying to help people. I'm the good guys!
The power, of course, didn't listen.
Kitty felt herself step forward, watched herself step forward, and her arms shot out automaticlaly for balance, but it felt like her jaw had been wired shut. She couldn't speak and she definitely couldn't rebel against the new presence in her head. She concentrated, hard, on something she couldn't even identify, and stepped forward - into nothing. But there was something there. She just couldn't see it - and then her foot fell through, falling hard on the pavement.
‘What are you DOING?’ Kitty screeched at the presence in her head.
As Kitty began to panic, Emma decided that she needed to be calmed. 'Shhh,' she hushed Kitty gently, speaking into her mind. 'You're safe. Focus. Focus on the air.'
Of course the words alone would not have calmed Kitty, no matter how soothing Emma spoke. And so Emma made the very minor changes needed to eliminate Kitty's fear. She cause Kitty a feeling of security, a feeling that she was led by someone trust-worthy. 'You have ability,' she said, her voice the tone that would lull a child to sleep.
She told Kitty to step with her other foot, and this time, she did not cancel the power. Kitty's foot rested on something seemingly solid in the air. Emma told Kitty to put all of her weight onto it and step forward with her other foot, onto the same level as her first step. This would cause Kitty to stand in mid-air.
Kitty suddenly felt very safe. She heard words almost as if they'd been spoken in her ear by a soft, velvety voice, telling her to focus. So she did; it wasn't as if she could argue, anyway. She focused on the air, stepping ith her left foot, feeling sort of like she did when she phased, but somehow... looser?
Tentatively, she put all of her weight onto the foot, though her other still touched the ground. Slowly, carefully, she pulled it up and placed it in front of her, on a new "step" - as invisible and nonexistant as the first.
'What am I doing?' she asked the voice, wonderingly. 'What did you do to me?'
'I only let you realize your ability,' Emma said kindly, sounding innocent of any crime. Even as she told Kitty to take another step forward, not rising at all but merely walking a foot off of the ground, Emma continued. 'This is the power you could have had if you had chosen a different path than Xavier's School. They don't appreciate your ability there, you know that.'
Emma had planted a seed of doubt with those words, feeding on feelings Kitty had deep down. This seed of doubt would remain with her even after Emma left her mind, even after Kitty realized that Emma had been controlling her. 'Come on. Take another step. Isn't it wonderful?' Emma encouraged kindly.
They're wonderful to me, Kitty thought staunchly, though she felt, somewhere, that - well, perhaps they weren't. They've helped me a lot with my power! I can phase big things now, and I just phased people! I've never done that! They're wonderful...
The voice probably did not want to hear about her Danger Room sessions. Kitty took another step. It was, admittedly, quite wonderful. She could practically FLY! 'Why are you showing me this?' she asked through her elation.
'Because it's your right, to know. It's your gift,' Emma responded easily as she told Kitty to step up, as if stepping on a stair. She told her to take another step soon after, wanting to eliminate the slow pace.
'The others don't appreciate your powers, because you don't have weapons. They want you to hurt people, and you know they wish you would,' Emma continued to feed Kitty's self-confidence issues. Manipulating a teenage girl was easier than any adult.
Kitty knew, with a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach, that the voice was right. She knew they wanted her to hurt people - or at least to have something offense, something with which to actually be able to ACCOMPLISH something. They appreciate me, Kitty thought. It was at least half true. None of the others wanted to have to concentrate on saving people; they were all busy with zombies and the burning warehouse, and whatever it was that had been the trees.
She stepped up and up and up, each one becoming easier and requiring less concentration. Kitty found a way to only phase the soles of her shoes, so that she could breathe. 'What can I do from up here?' Kitty asked the voice.
'Anything you can think of,' Emma said, not giving her any answers. Emma firmly believed in making others depend upon themselves. 'You can see everything from here, and you're out of much of the danger. What can you do?' She wanted Kitty to realize it on her own--It was part of the process which would cause Kitty to blame herself partly for what Emma had caused her to do.
Kitty stared down at the Sentinels, the myriad mutants duking it out with them, the military, the civilians still scattered around the battlefield. 'I could...' She thought very hard, her mind not normally geared towards things. 'I could warn people with my communicator,' she said, but that was kind of lame. I could draw fire and not be hit... I could I could even attack from up here.
Emma saw her chance to further sway Kitty's mind--and she did it not because she still wanted Kitty to go to her school, but because Kitty ought to have done so before, of her own accord. Kitty would not choose to switch schools now, but Emma could at least make her face her fears regarding Xavier's. Emma decided to see if she could make Kitty regret her choice without interfering with her mind in that regard.
'But you don't want to attack anyone. Be careful; if the others find out what you can do they'll want you to attack. Even if they say otherwise.
Emma carefully prepared Kitty's mind for what she was about to do. She arranged things so that Kitty would not be angry or alarmed at it, but would be surprised. Eventually, she would realize that she ought to be more angry, and a grudge would form against Miss Frost. But for then, she would take the news calmly.
Emma then revealed one piece of information she had withheld from Kitty's consciousness: who it was who was possessing her. Emma Frost, the confident businesswoman who was the headmistress of the Massachusetts Academy. She had invited Kitty to the school years earlier, Kitty had declined, and the meeting had gone sour.
And as soon as Kitty knew who was in her mind, Emma was gone. At least, all signs of Emma's control were gone. She could very well have hidden herself from Kitty's knowledge, but Emma did truly leave Kitty's mind. She awoke back in the alleyway she'd last been in her body in.
When she realized who'd been in her mind, Kitty realized something else.
She was still in midair.
Thankfully, the fall wasn't far, but Kitty was sure she'd twisted something. Picking herself up slowly, she tested her limbs, each one proving (more or less) sound, though she had a wicked scrape on her knee and the leather of her uniform was scuffed as all get out.
Kitty ran back over to the crowd of civilians, wondering if she'd ever be able to walk on air like that again. She supposed she should be angry at Ms. Frost, but she wasn't - even if she'd invaded her brain, she'd shown her something she'd never dreamt she could do. And somehow, it seemed wrong to hate her as adamantly as Kitty had once.
"Please," Kitty shouted, "please, just stop - stop panicking!" As per usual, no one listened. 'Go help out the innocent bystanders' was staring to seem like a more arduous task than she'd thought it'd be. But Kitty still tried, now and then resorting to latching onto a random person when she saw a projectile or any of the various effects of powers heading for them, phasing them out and rushing them behind cover or onto side side streets.
Emma stood near the back of the crowd and watched the proceedings in front of the NovaTex building with interest. She had been searching out and reading the minds of various X-Men as she stood well away from the immediate danger.
A familiar teenage girl clad in the X-Men uniform had caught her eye, and Emma watched her from behind dark sunglasses for several minutes as she phased civilians out of harm's way. She tapped into her mind with ease and searched it at her leisure.
Kitty Pryde. Emma had offered her a place at Massachusetts Academy when Emma had become the headmistress, and had begun searching out young mutants much as Charles Xavier had done. Kitty had refused, and though Emma had pushed it to the back of her mind, now that Kitty was there in front of her, Emma's grudge came freshly into her mind.
Emma looked around as she finished searching Kitty's mind. There was nothing specific that she was needed to do until the time came to make a quick escape...So why not have some fun?
Emma turned and crossed the street. She went into an alley between two buildings and sat behind a trash can on the hard ground. After creating a mental blanket over herself which would block not only the fact that she was a mutant should the impending sentinels show up, but her prescence to any human being, homo sapien or superior.
Then, Emma moved into Kitty's mind. It would work as always, she assumed, especially since Kitty was not at all trained to defend herself against mental attacks. Kitty would think she was doing everything that Emma told her to do of her own accord. It wouldn't be until after that Kitty would realize she had been possessed, and then Emma would delete all memory of it from her. It would leave Kitty feeling drained physically and emotionally, but the amount of exhaustion she would feel would depend on how much Emma made her do.
Emma had seen Kitty's potential, and while it was simple, it was intriguing. Kitty had an ability that neither she nor anyone around her had thought she could have. And Emma planned to use it. But first, she told Kitty to do some phasing. To keep moving civilians.
"Please," Kitty said for the umpteenth time, "please - oh, thank you." A woman in a brown raincoat thrust a child into Kitty's arms, gabbling in something that sounded vaguely Eastern European, though it might as well have been Martian for all Kitty understood it. But the object was clear enough; Kitty folded her arms around the three-year-old, which was crying, and took the woman's elbow, phasing them both across the street (and there was a small tickle at the back of her head, Kitty noticed. Stress headache coming on, no doubt. Great. That was all she needed right now...
Kitty moved a few more people before abruptly stopping. No, she thought. She needed to do something else now.
Emma quickly became bored with phasing, as it was within her own powers to project her own form astrally, which was similar. She decided to try the hidden ability to Kitty's powers. She had Kitty phase behind the crowd so that they both could concentrate on what was to come without being interrupted by the battle. She decided to be daring, and she let Kitty realize that she was being controlled. She let Kitty's thoughts surface, planning to read them and perhaps even say something to her.
Kitty phased through the crowd, coming out behind them. She had to - the reason she had to was unclear, but very important. She'd remember it in a few minutes. And she knew what she was doing, anyway, so it didn't really matter, did it, if she couldn't figure out what the reason was? She stood there for a few seconds, concentrating, trying to figure out the reason. She was there. Now she needed something to do.
With a sudden knowledge like the crack of a whip, Kitty realized that she wasn't alone in her head. A distant part of her psyche - definitely not the part in control - swore violently.
Emma was amused at Kitty's reaction to the sudden realization, but she stayed silent. She told Kitty to concentrate, to look at her feet. She commanded Kitty's body to take a step forward. Emma could have used Kitty's power with that first step, but she decided to gradually moved into it to give Kitty a way to do it again, though it would be considerably harder for her to do it without Emma's help.
Kitty lifted her foot and as she started to set it down, it caught in the air for a split-second. It was as if there were something solid there that Kitty were stepping on, but it was only air. But after a second, whatever it was she was stepping on was gone, and her foot fell to the ground suddenly, as though what she were stepping on had suddenly broken.
Please, Kitty thought desperately, hoping whoever was in her head could hear her, please don't do this. I'm trying to help people. I'm the good guys!
The power, of course, didn't listen.
Kitty felt herself step forward, watched herself step forward, and her arms shot out automaticlaly for balance, but it felt like her jaw had been wired shut. She couldn't speak and she definitely couldn't rebel against the new presence in her head. She concentrated, hard, on something she couldn't even identify, and stepped forward - into nothing. But there was something there. She just couldn't see it - and then her foot fell through, falling hard on the pavement.
‘What are you DOING?’ Kitty screeched at the presence in her head.
As Kitty began to panic, Emma decided that she needed to be calmed. 'Shhh,' she hushed Kitty gently, speaking into her mind. 'You're safe. Focus. Focus on the air.'
Of course the words alone would not have calmed Kitty, no matter how soothing Emma spoke. And so Emma made the very minor changes needed to eliminate Kitty's fear. She cause Kitty a feeling of security, a feeling that she was led by someone trust-worthy. 'You have ability,' she said, her voice the tone that would lull a child to sleep.
She told Kitty to step with her other foot, and this time, she did not cancel the power. Kitty's foot rested on something seemingly solid in the air. Emma told Kitty to put all of her weight onto it and step forward with her other foot, onto the same level as her first step. This would cause Kitty to stand in mid-air.
Kitty suddenly felt very safe. She heard words almost as if they'd been spoken in her ear by a soft, velvety voice, telling her to focus. So she did; it wasn't as if she could argue, anyway. She focused on the air, stepping ith her left foot, feeling sort of like she did when she phased, but somehow... looser?
Tentatively, she put all of her weight onto the foot, though her other still touched the ground. Slowly, carefully, she pulled it up and placed it in front of her, on a new "step" - as invisible and nonexistant as the first.
'What am I doing?' she asked the voice, wonderingly. 'What did you do to me?'
'I only let you realize your ability,' Emma said kindly, sounding innocent of any crime. Even as she told Kitty to take another step forward, not rising at all but merely walking a foot off of the ground, Emma continued. 'This is the power you could have had if you had chosen a different path than Xavier's School. They don't appreciate your ability there, you know that.'
Emma had planted a seed of doubt with those words, feeding on feelings Kitty had deep down. This seed of doubt would remain with her even after Emma left her mind, even after Kitty realized that Emma had been controlling her. 'Come on. Take another step. Isn't it wonderful?' Emma encouraged kindly.
They're wonderful to me, Kitty thought staunchly, though she felt, somewhere, that - well, perhaps they weren't. They've helped me a lot with my power! I can phase big things now, and I just phased people! I've never done that! They're wonderful...
The voice probably did not want to hear about her Danger Room sessions. Kitty took another step. It was, admittedly, quite wonderful. She could practically FLY! 'Why are you showing me this?' she asked through her elation.
'Because it's your right, to know. It's your gift,' Emma responded easily as she told Kitty to step up, as if stepping on a stair. She told her to take another step soon after, wanting to eliminate the slow pace.
'The others don't appreciate your powers, because you don't have weapons. They want you to hurt people, and you know they wish you would,' Emma continued to feed Kitty's self-confidence issues. Manipulating a teenage girl was easier than any adult.
Kitty knew, with a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach, that the voice was right. She knew they wanted her to hurt people - or at least to have something offense, something with which to actually be able to ACCOMPLISH something. They appreciate me, Kitty thought. It was at least half true. None of the others wanted to have to concentrate on saving people; they were all busy with zombies and the burning warehouse, and whatever it was that had been the trees.
She stepped up and up and up, each one becoming easier and requiring less concentration. Kitty found a way to only phase the soles of her shoes, so that she could breathe. 'What can I do from up here?' Kitty asked the voice.
'Anything you can think of,' Emma said, not giving her any answers. Emma firmly believed in making others depend upon themselves. 'You can see everything from here, and you're out of much of the danger. What can you do?' She wanted Kitty to realize it on her own--It was part of the process which would cause Kitty to blame herself partly for what Emma had caused her to do.
Kitty stared down at the Sentinels, the myriad mutants duking it out with them, the military, the civilians still scattered around the battlefield. 'I could...' She thought very hard, her mind not normally geared towards things. 'I could warn people with my communicator,' she said, but that was kind of lame. I could draw fire and not be hit... I could I could even attack from up here.
Emma saw her chance to further sway Kitty's mind--and she did it not because she still wanted Kitty to go to her school, but because Kitty ought to have done so before, of her own accord. Kitty would not choose to switch schools now, but Emma could at least make her face her fears regarding Xavier's. Emma decided to see if she could make Kitty regret her choice without interfering with her mind in that regard.
'But you don't want to attack anyone. Be careful; if the others find out what you can do they'll want you to attack. Even if they say otherwise.
Emma carefully prepared Kitty's mind for what she was about to do. She arranged things so that Kitty would not be angry or alarmed at it, but would be surprised. Eventually, she would realize that she ought to be more angry, and a grudge would form against Miss Frost. But for then, she would take the news calmly.
Emma then revealed one piece of information she had withheld from Kitty's consciousness: who it was who was possessing her. Emma Frost, the confident businesswoman who was the headmistress of the Massachusetts Academy. She had invited Kitty to the school years earlier, Kitty had declined, and the meeting had gone sour.
And as soon as Kitty knew who was in her mind, Emma was gone. At least, all signs of Emma's control were gone. She could very well have hidden herself from Kitty's knowledge, but Emma did truly leave Kitty's mind. She awoke back in the alleyway she'd last been in her body in.
When she realized who'd been in her mind, Kitty realized something else.
She was still in midair.
Thankfully, the fall wasn't far, but Kitty was sure she'd twisted something. Picking herself up slowly, she tested her limbs, each one proving (more or less) sound, though she had a wicked scrape on her knee and the leather of her uniform was scuffed as all get out.
Kitty ran back over to the crowd of civilians, wondering if she'd ever be able to walk on air like that again. She supposed she should be angry at Ms. Frost, but she wasn't - even if she'd invaded her brain, she'd shown her something she'd never dreamt she could do. And somehow, it seemed wrong to hate her as adamantly as Kitty had once.