POWER TRIP!

By Yannick Lamarre

Author’s Note: This story takes places before 1999 Uncanny X-Men Annual.

Chicago. In a big estate owned by Warren Worthington III, the X-Man also known as Archangel. This is where, strangely enough, our tale begins, in a small room on the second floor of that estate.

“I’M GOING TO BE LATE FOR WORK!!” came the sudden scream early that peaceful morning.

It was followed by a loud crash and a cry of pain, and then angry curses, in both English and some strange, alien tongue. Scott Summers looked up from his newspaper with an amused look, smiling at his wife sitting across the table from him.

“Looks like Kitty’s awake,” he remarked. “And that Lockheed’s not too happy about it.”

Jean nodded, taking a bite out of her toast. Just the start of a regular morning for the X-Men. Meanwhile up in her room, Kitty picked up the fallen table she had thrown over, thinking herself phased when she actually was not, and patted on the head of an angry looking Lockheed.

“Hey come on, how was I supposed to know you were asleep on that table? Why weren’t you in the bed anyway?” she asked, putting a shirt on quickly and jumping into a pair of clean jeans.

Lockheed rumbled something in return, and Kitty stopped to look at him in surprise.

“I DO NOT!” she replied, half-smiling. “I never dream, let alone speak in my sleep!”

The dragon mumbled something back before turning his back to her, pouting.

“Fine, whatever!” she said as she bent down and picked up her mirror.

She rapidly brushed her hair back with her fingers, gave herself an approving look, and put the mirror down. She ran out of her room, not bothering to close back the door, and hurried downstairs. She reached the kitchen, took two slices of bread, gulped them down bare, and rushed off again. She never even noticed Scott and Jean. She reached the bathroom and brushed her teeth, then looked down at her watch.

“I’ll never be there in two minutes! Betsy!” she called out loud.

The mysterious British-trapped-in-an-Asian-body walked out of nowhere and looked at Kitty.

“It would do you good to learn to keep that voice a little less loud next time.”

“Yeah, well, come on, I have to go or I’ll be late!” Kitty replied, shifting around from one foot to the other nervously.

“Fine, but I thought you’d want to put some shoes on first,” Betsy said.

Kitty looked down at her feet in surprise and swore again, running off to get her shoes.

“Um, that last one must have been Wisdom’s influence,” Elizabeth told her reflection in the bathroom mirrors.

Finally Kitty was ready, her shoes on and Lockheed in her arms.

“Okay, let’s go.”

Elizabeth nodded, and suddenly the shadows seemed to expand to surround both her, Kitty and Lockheed, who got as close to Kitty as he could, nervous in her arms. Kitty wasn’t feeling all too brave either. Betsy’s new ways of travel were pretty eerie to see, but to actually experience it…

“I ought to have my head examined for this,” she whispered before vanishing from the estate altogether, surrounded by shadows which filled her body with a cold so deep it chilled her down to her soul.

A small alley behind Sam’s Electronics, a small electronic hardware store in Times Square, New York. The shadows seemed to get a life of their own as suddenly two shapes walked out of them, first featureless, but then gaining hair, eyes, a face, as the two figures walked away. One of them was holding a purple dragon.

“Well, you’re here,” Psylocke said, taking a step back into the shadows almost immediately. “I’ll pick you up at six tonight, or earlier if there’s an emergency.”

“Okay, I’ll be right here,” Kitty replied.

Lockheed growled in disaproval, angry at the discomfort of his voyage here. His wings were far better then this any day of the week.

“Hmm, maybe I’ll just lose the dragon somewhere on the way back,” Psylocke commented, beginning to vanish again.

Her voice was so neutral Kitty couldn’t tell if Psylocke was kidding or not, and before she could ask the woman was gone. Lockheed growled again, this time a bit more angrily, and Kitty nodded.

“Yeah, I know, she’s getting pretty weird…”

Kitty shrugged and let Lockheed fly free and walked toward the back door of Sam’s Electronics.

“You know the deal. I’ve got a break at 10:30,” Kitty said, pausing to look back at Lockheed, who nodded in understanding. “I’ll see you then.”

She opened the door and walked in.

Professor Eugene Powell just didn’t know what to do with all this time. Since he had used the ‘Energia’ formula on himself, he had killed the entire workgroup he’d been developping it with; his annoying neighbor, his landlord, and that newspaper boy who always got up too late. And now he had nothing left to do. He’d been on his own since his mother had died back when he’d been 17, and was still alone now. The ‘Energia’ formula would have brought him money, more then he could have ever imagined, if he had chosen to sell it to the highest bidder, but instead he chose to use it on himself, and see what would come of it.

It had the desired effect, of course. He could now control any kind of energy, from kinetic to nuclear. Heck, he could probably rule the world if he wanted to. After all, he was even able to control the energy released by the brain when issuing commands of all kinds. But that was too much of a bother. So instead he would be the unofficial ruler. That was his first decision. He burned the plans for his formula, so no one could challenge him, and set off with his plan. His workmates resisted, so he blew them up. But a king, even an unofficial one, needs a place to rule. So, Manhattan would be his. Simple logic. And he could do it easily too. It was just a matter of when.

“Hey fellow slave workers!” Kitty called as she stepped inside Sam’s Electronics through the back door.

“Go home, Kitty! Your zealousness at work makes us all look like a bunch of motionless slugs,” Melissa Heartridge replied from the top of a ladder where she was putting some equipment on the shelves.

“I agree. Go home, you’re not welcomed,” came the neutral voice of Jonathan Niles, who never looked away from his computer testing screen.

“Hello to you too, Niles,” Kitty replied, walking toward her own testing station.

The two had developed something of a rivalry, often catching the errors of the other and engaging into word fights over them. Fights which were often interrupted by the one who had in some way gathered them all here, Sam Young.

“Kids today. Never show respect to their elders!” the man said from his office, walking out to get himself some coffee.

“Hey Sam! How you doing? And how’s Rachel?” Kitty asked as she started up her computer.

“Fine for me, okay for Rachel. School’s really treating her hard. You know how kids can be,” the elder of the group answered, swallowing down his coffee before heading back in the office.

“Are you guys ignoring me on purpose?” Michael Ramsey said.

He was in the farthest corner of the store, where a small workshop was set up for computer repairs and the like. His resemblance to Douglas Ramsey, his cousin, was uncanny, and Kitty herself found herself shocked each time he showed up.

“Naw, Michael, we’re just keeping the best for last,” Kitty answered, smiling, not even thinking about her answer.

“So you do like me?” he replied with a mischevious smile.

“No way, I’m just seeing how big your ego can get before I pop you back to reality,” Kitty replied immediately, showing her own version of a mischevious smile.

“Well, while you guys play your own version of Secret Hospital, no work’s getting done around here! Come on, folks, the shop opens in five minutes!” Sam said, ending all discussions as everyone returned to their work.

Kitty couldn’t help but smile as she began entering test data on various components of the computer. After all she’d been through recently, starting with getting this job, then dealing with the fact that the F.O.H.’s new leader was her father, and finding a beaten up Lockheed, which in turn brought Wisdom back in her life, and then S.H.I.E.L.D. coming to her about Ogun again, whose evil half had actually taken over her father, who in the end let himself fall to his death from the top of the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier, well, it was nice to have something normal, peaceful, not deadly, like a normal day at a normal job in a normal store. In fact the only thing really worrying her these days were the way her powers seemed to be shifting back to what they had been before, when she actually had to concentrate to phase.

‘And that’s causing trouble already. I’m too used to automatically phasing. I’ll need to readjust myself, especially in combat situations,’ Kitty thought grimly.

Some clients started entering the store, and Melissa welcomed them in, as she always did, and answered questions, both specific and vague. She hadn’t been hired for nothing. She was good at her job. She and Kitty were fast on their way to developing a solid friendship, and Kitty was glad she finally had a friend who wasn’t a mutant. It had been a long while since that had happened.

‘Maybe this whole real life thing will work after all’, she realized with a smile.

To say that Lockheed was bored was an understatement. What in the world was he supposed to do all day anyways? The small purple dragon let out an angry burst of flame in protest and stretched his wings a little, looking around the city for something, anything, to do. He was on his way back to his starting point when something did happen. He felt it first, before even seeing it. A change in the air pressure, giving him some trouble to fly. The air around him seemed to get heavier, and he could almost feel energy going through it.

He landed on a rooftop and looked around for the cause of the change. He saw a strange, glowing man coming down from the sky, hands extended, and realized that he must be the cause of all this. He didn’t know what the man wanted, but he knew one thing… it didn’t look like the man was a good one. Batting his wings against the increased air resistance, Lockheed flew off to face this new threat.

The first sign that something was wrong came around 10:30 am, a few minutes before Kitty was due to meet Lockheed for her break. She was closing down the various programs she was testing out when her computer screen flashed strangely, and her motherboard made a noise she’d never heard such equipment do before. And hers wasn’t the only one that did it.

“Hey, Kitty, tell me you registered that?” came Jonathan’s voice from behind her.

When it came to computers, he could prove himself very sociable.

“Yeah, I got it. Network glitch is my bet,” she answered, running a small bug alert program.

“No, I’d rather bet it came from the outside,” her sometimes rival responded, and Kitty found herself nodding.

This was much more then a glitch could do.

“Hey guys, did you do something with the power or something? I nearly got fried by my screwdriver!” Michael said, walking out of his workshop with his smoking, ruined screwdriver in hand.

Kitty frowned and got up from her chair. This wasn’t normal.

“Anyways guys, I’m going for my break. Back in fifteen,” she said, and before anyone could say anything to hold her back, she was out the back door.

Kitty felt the air pressure around her immediately. It was almost hard to breathe, and there was a strange buzzing sound coming from everywhere at once. She was on her way to the streets when the earthquake started. It wasn’t really big, just strong enough to be noticed. In houses and apartments some cups fell off shelves and broke. But it was enough to get people in the streets to fall and start to panic. Kitty’s first reaction was to look in the sky for the Helicarrier or something, but at first she saw nothing there.

“Well, so much for a normal day,” she told herself as she got to her feet and came out of the alley onto the main streets.

The scene there was almost a remake of the one she had experienced barely two months ago with Ogun.

Kitty had to act fast. Not only did she only have fifteen minutes before the guys at Sam’s would begin to wonder what had happened to her, they’d also worry about her safety now, and would probably send someone to look for her.

“Probably Michael,” she realized with a smile.

At this point she didn’t even notice she had, let alone why she had done so. She looked around for some sort of explanation for all this, and she got it soon after. There was someone flying in front of the Coca Cola Classic billboard. Some kind of energy shield was extending from around him to seemingly encompass all of Times Square.

“Crap,” she breathed out. “Well, at least I know now.”

She reached in her pocket and took out the only part of her costume she dared to bring along with her to work, her small mask, and put it on. She closed her eyes and jumped off the ground, concentrating on her phasing and slowly walking up toward the other flying man. He spotted her when she was halfway there.

“I figured some of you superheroes might be around,” the man said. “So let’s do this the usual way I heard it goes.”

Kitty didn’t recognize him from anywhere.

‘Swell. I go solo and already I have a villain all of my own.’

“I don’t know what you’re doing here, but you’ll have to stop!” she warned, phasing off on the closest rooftop to the man.

“Hmm, I don’t think so. You’re apparently the only hero on this side of the barrier, and you’re not powerful enough to stop me. No one is,” the man declared victoriously. “I AM POWER!”

“Just what I needed, another nutcase who thinks he’s God…” she muttered to herself before replying to Power. “Sorry buster, but I’ve been up against some people who’d make you look like a nightlight when it comes to power!”

“Oh? We’ll just see about…” Power started to reply, but something caught his attention.

Kitty had hoped he wouldn’t see the small flying dragon before it was too late, but apparently that had just happened. Power turned around and rose his hand, using the kinetic energy around Lockheed to stop him in mid-air and paralyze him there.

“Now what’s this? A dragon?” the crazed villain asked, puzzled.

Shadowcat didn’t waste a second. As soon as Power had turned his back on her she had phased again, walking straight toward Power. And hoping the man hadn’t thought of putting up a forcefield around himself.

“Yeah, and a useful distraction,” she said at the last second, swinging her foot as hard as she could, unphasing on that part of her body while the rest of her stayed phased.

The kick connected, and Power reeled backwards, surprised. He screamed in rage and sent Lockheed crashing toward her. The small dragon growled in rage as he sped toward his beloved Kitty, unable to move or to stop himself. Kitty caught Lockheed right in her abdomen, and the two went crashing toward the street, Kitty’s concentration broken by the impact.

“Happy landings!” Power yelled, laughing out maddeningly.

Ironically enough, that laughter got through Kitty’s confusion and she phased both herself and Lockheed in time to make a soft landing on the ground.

“Gonna have to do better then that!” she shouted back.

It looked like being taunted wasn’t something Eugene Powell liked very much. The man now known as Power screamed in rage at Kitty’s ongoing survival and gathered energy from all around himself to unleash a series of small bursts. She threw a quick glance at Sam’s Electronics, and saw that they were all outside now, as was apparently everyone in Times Squares, looking at the two battle it out. She guessed they were too far to see it was Kitty doing the fighting and that was good. She phased through the energy blasts that rained down on her, but even then she felt a small tingle as they passed through her and Lockheed.

‘Man, those were powerful,’ she thought in surprise.

This Power guy could deliver. But why had he fired with such a wide range instead of just targeting her? Kitty’s answer came soon enough as a series of explosions shook the streets.

“NO! THE SHOP!” she cried out in horror as the buildings all around Kitty exploded from the release of the the energy blasts that were now raining down on them.

She lost the crew of Sam’s Electronics in the following confusion, but she did see the small computer shop explode with the rest of the neighborhood. And above her, Power laughed still.

“YOU SEE! I RULE HERE NOW! I AM KING!” he screamed above the sound of the explosions.

Enraged, Kitty phased and went after Power in the air again, this time camouflaged with a screen of smoke from the fires below. Kitty emerged from the smoke barely a few feet from him, but he still had time to notice her. Although Kitty didn’t feel anything, he tried to take control of her brain energies, to take her mind over, but he couldn’t feel any such energy from her. As if she hadn’t been there at all. The whole time Kitty thought she’d caught him completely by surprised. She rammed into Power, unphasing and pushing the two of them toward the huge electronic Coca Cola billboard that waited just behind them.

“What do you think you’re doing? Let GO OF ME!!” Power screamed, confused.

This was the first time someone had resisted him so much, and he wasn’t sure what to do.

“Let’s see how well you control things with a few thousands volts going through you!” Kitty told him, and she kicked him away from her.

Like a bullet, Power fell toward the sign, too shocked to think of slowing down. He rammed into the giant billboard, and electricity did its thing. It went right through him like the good little human conductor he had become, and it was all he could do to stop the energy blast from killing him. He fell down and hit the streets, hard. Kitty phased down to the ground and checked on him. He was somehow still alive, but out cold. And completely fried too.

“Score one for Kitty,” she told the unconscious form on the streets.

But when she turned around, her smile vanished, replaced by a gasp of horror. The dome around Times Square was gone, but the street seemed to be entirely on fire. People were running around everywhere, panicked. She spotted Lockheed flying above it all, seemingly okay. That was good. If he was safe, she could get back to Sam’s and see how everyone was doing.

Kitty found the assembled crew of Sam’s Electronics, all apparently okay, about five minutes later. They had waited on the other side of the street while the arriving authorities took control of the situation.

“Guys! I’m here!” Kitty shouted at them as she ran toward them, waving her hand.

“Kitty!” Melissa responded, running to meet up with her.

The two hugged fiercely, and Melissa looked at her from all angles.

“Thank God, you look okay! Where were you, girl?” she asked.

“Yeah, I… I mean we… were getting worried!” Michael added, joining Melissa.

“Speak for yourself,” Jonathan muttered, but low enough to ensure no one would hear.

“I knew you were just fine, kiddo,” Sam said with a smile, and Kitty nodded in response.

“So, how’s the store?” Kitty asked after a few more minutes.

“Totalled. We’ll have to move to the second one,” Sam told Kitty, as well as the others.

“Second one?” Melissa asked.

“Geez, just how rich are you?” Michael said, but Sam ignored him.

“Trouble is, I can’t use it unless the apartment above is rented to someone,” the older man continued.

“Apartment?” Kitty asked suddenly. “What apartment?”

This sounded interesting.

“Well, I rent a second store near here, but the landlord wants me to rent the apartment above the store to someone before I move in. Now me and Rachel already have our place, and I don’t trust those two bozos over there with it…” Sam explained.

“Hey, who are you calling a bozo?” Michael objected.

“…But if you two girls are interested, you could share the place.”

Melissa looked at Kitty with wide eyes. Oh, she was interested all right. But Kitty wasn’t too sure. An apartment was something big. It would mean… leaving the X-Men’s regular line up, that was for sure. And what about Lockheed? But this would be a big step toward having a normal, regular life…

“I’ll think about it,” Kitty answered.

Sam nodded and looked away. Oh, she’d think about it all right. This decision could completely change her life…

NEXT ISSUE: Kitty’s thinking about moving in with Melissa, and decides to go check out the place with her. But what do the rest of the X-Men have to say about this? And when a new purist group known as Sigma attack both her and Melissa while they’re enjoying a night out on the town, will she even have any choice about this?