CHOICES & DECISIONS

By Yannick Lamarre

The Xavier Institute in Westchester, New York, used to be Kitty’s home. That is, until her and about half of the team decided to use a more direct approach and leave Xavier and his more pacifistic ways. And now here Kitty was coming back, looking for advice from one of her closest friends. Only she had no idea how she would be welcomed here.

‘No time like the present to find out,’ she thought with some level of nervousness.

She rang the bell once and waited. There was a more than probable chance that whoever was in there knew she was here, but it was best to be polite, considering the circumstances. She heard footsteps approaching the door, pausing there a second before finally opening. She knew instantly who it was behind the door the instant it started to open.

“Hello, Kitty, how nice of you to drop by,” Storm said, smiling at Kitty.

For a second neither knew exactly how to react, but Kitty spoke first.

“Listen, we’ve been more then friends since I arrived here, and, well, I could really use a friendly ear right about now…”

Ororo’s eyes grew brighter and her smile sincere, like a mask fading away.

“It was foolish to think I would not welcome you back with open arms, Kitty,” Storm added, and the two friends hugged fiercely, both smiling like overjoyed school girls.

“Thank you,” Kitty whispered, and the two of them stepped outside the mansion.

It was a beautiful day, and they started walking together towards the back of the house.

“So, what was it that got you so troubled you risked coming back here?” Storm asked with some irony in her voice.

“I didn’t know I was endangered,” Kitty replied, recognizing the humor in her friend’s voice.

“I would never do anything to harm you, child, you know…” Storm began.

“It was a joke, ‘Ro. I know that,” Kitty cut in. “No, I’m here because… well, I’m thinking of moving away from the X-Men. To go on my own…”

“Move away? What do you mean?”

“Well, you heard about this attack on Times Squares a few days ago? I managed to stop the nutcase behind it, but he destroyed the shop I was working at,” Kitty began to explain.

“Kitty, that’s horrible, after all you’ve been through…” Storm began.

“No, it’s okay, the owner has another place already where we can start the shop again. The thing is, to be able to move there he has to rent the apartment above, and he offered it to me and a friend of mine at Sam’s,” Kitty finished.

“You want to move into an apartment?”

“Yeah, that’s about it.”

“Quit the team?” Ororo continued.

“Not really. I’d be more of a reserve member. To be used in case of extreme emergency,” Kitty explained.

Ororo stopped to stare at Kitty in surprise.

“And you would be happy with that?”

Kitty shrugged, never stopping her walk.

“That’s what I’m here to find out,” she said. “Or at least try to.”

“I should have seen this coming,” Professor Xavier said from behind his desk in his personal study, where Kitty had just told him of her plans. “Allow some freedom and they always come back wanting more.”

“What’s that supposed to mean? I’m not a child!” Kitty replied, enraged by the Professor’s reaction.

She stood from the chair where she’d been sitting.

“Well, you and all the others who walked away with Cyclops remind me of that. Children trying to prove they can be stronger then their parents,” Xavier continued, a touch of anger definitely in his voice. “If you want my opinion, Katherine, this is a bad idea, and I’m completely against it.”

Kitty looked at him, shocked by the unexpected reaction. He continued sitting there, his face showing no emotions, staring at Kitty with eyes which said enough.

“Fine, if that’s the way you want it. I don’t need your PERMISSION, Professor. You may have taken us in and shown us how to use our powers for everyone’s benefit, but you sure as hell can’t tell us how to live our lives.”

Kitty turned his back on him and started walking out. She could feel the Professor’s eyes on her back, but he added nothing, and neither did she. After this, she walked right out of the mansion without talking or meeting with any of the others. If estranging Kitty from her fellow X-Men was what Xavier had wanted to achieve, he’d just succeeded.

Frederic Bowman was your normal everyday worker. He left his wife every weekday morning and went to work as a construction worker, helping build new skyscrapers everywhere in the city, then returned to his same wife every night for a nice supper, some TV, and some loving. In fact, the only thing ‘extraordinary’ old Frederic had ever done in his entire life was participate in a special meeting held by the Sigma organization a few years back. Not that he’d remember it. No one who went to that meeting was allowed to remember what had happened there until they were signalled. And that’s what happened to Frederic early that morning, as he was about to leave for work. He was picking up his lunch in his fridge when the phone rang.

“Now who could that be this early in the morn?” his wife had asked him as she walked out of the bedroom.

“Don’t know, but I’d better pick it up,” he replied, putting his lunch on the table to pick up the phone.

“Y’ello, Bowman residence,” he answered, the same way he’d answered the phone since the first time he did it back when he was seven years old.

“Mister Frederic Bowman?” a dark, cold and distant voice asked at the other side of the line.

“Himself. How can I help you?” Frederic replied.

“Sigma has need of you. Do you understand?”

Unseen by his wife, Frederic’s eyes suddenly unfocused, staring instead straight ahead at something that just wasn’t there.

“I understand.”

The usual cheer in Frederic’s voice was gone, and it was enough to worry his wife. He hanged up and started walking towards the door.

“Is everything all right?” Frederic’s wife asked.

“I need to go,” he simply replied.

“What about your lunch?”

“I won’t need it.”

And with those words, Frederic walked out of his house.

“So, Lockheed, you still haven’t told me what you think of all this,” Kitty said to the small purple alien dragon that was flying around her.

The two friends were walking back towards New York. Kitty still had time before her planned rendezvous with Melissa an hour from now, and she’d decided to walk instead of taking the bus or asking Psylocke for a teleport in order to think things through. Lockheed growled an answer that seemed uncertain, and Kitty nodded.

“Yeah, I know. But maybe we should check out the place first. You might like it,” she said.

Lockheed growled again, and shook his head. The two were nearing some houses now, and it was about time for Lockheed to hide if they didn’t want to answer any unwanted questions.

“Get in here, buddy,” she told him, nodding toward her specially constructed bag where Lockheed could fit.

He answered negatively again, showing his dislike for the restraining bag.

“Then fly ahead and meet me in the Square after I’m done with Melissa. Follow us around and take a look at the area. You might get to see it a lot more than you think,” Kitty replied.

In answer Lockheed let out a pleasant cry and soared higher. This was when the small dragon was truly free, flying all around, able to do whatever he wished as long as he wasn’t seen. Kitty smiled as she watched him rise up in the air and continued her long walk towards Times Square.

“I still think this is a bad idea, Melissa.”

Melissa Heartridge shrugged at her mother’s concerns, putting her concentration instead on her shoes as she put them on and tied them up.

“You’re too young! You’re still in school!” her father added.

She looked up and smiled at the two of them.

“That’s exactly why I’m doing this! I need some time out from your constant protection!” she replied to them as gently as she could.

“You know how the neighborhood’s getting dangerous lately!” Melissa’s mother continued on, pretending not to have heard her daughter’s comments.

Melissa brushed her long dark hair back and took her purse waiting on the stairs beside the front door.

“Don’t worry, IF I’m leaving, I’m not doing it alone. I’m going with a friend of mine.”

“Who we’ve yet to meet,” her father pointed out.

“Who you don’t need to meet,” Melissa replied.

“I still think you’re not thinking this through!” her mother tried.

“Then I’ll come back here on my knees and ask for your forgiveness!” Melissa joked, smiling. “In the meantime, see you guys later!”

“Don’t come back too late,” Melissa’s father warned.

Melissa didn’t answer. She simply shut the door behind her and walked away.

Both Kitty and Melissa were standing before the empty window of what would soon be the new home of Sam’s Electronics. The building wasn’t very far away from the previous one, but was a bit smaller. A set of stairs led from the sidewalk to the apartment on the second floor, the 1052a.

“This is it,” Melissa whispered in awe. “What could be my first apartment.”

“Same here,” Kitty said, using the same tone of voice.

Even with all the dangers she’d faced as a mutant superheroine, there was something about getting an apartment on her own that was really frightening.

“Well come on, let’s check it out,” Melissa invited, taking Kitty’s arm and leading her toward the stairs.

They quickly climbed up and reached the apartment’s door. Melissa took out the keys Sam had given them and handed them over to Kitty.

“I got us up the stairs, now you get us in,” she explained.

Kitty took the keys and put them in the lock. They fit, of course. There was no more delaying this. She slowly turned the keys and opened the door. It revealed a small dusty hallway with a small closet. The two girls stepped in, anxious to see just what the rest looked like. Kitty closed the door behind them and they both stepped further down the hallway. It opened up on a large empty space with three doors leading to other rooms and two doors leading back outside, one behind the building, the other to a small balcony up front.

“Well, it’s spacious enough,” Melissa said.

“I’d say! We can fit any living room set easily in here,” Kitty commented. “And a computer here complete with printer and all.”

There was light coming in from above, and Kitty looked up to see a skylight over their heads. And through it Lockheed looking down at the two of them. Kitty motioned for him to move out of the way, which he did an instant before Melissa looked up.

“Cool! A skylight! And it’s easily opened for some fresh air,” she said, looking at some controls on the wall.

‘This would be great for Lockheed!’ Kitty thought happily.

There was another slightly smaller room at the back of the apartment, undoubtly the kitchen area. Two of the three doors led to equally spacious bedrooms, much bigger then Kitty’s current room in the Chicago estate, or even the one in the mansion. The last door led to the toilet, the only oddly placed room in the apartment, right in the far wall of the living room area.

“Well, what do you think?” Melissa finally asked once their tour was over.

“I LIKE it!” Kitty answered enthusiasly. “It’s perfect for what I need! You?”

“Yeah, it’s great! So we take it?”

But as much as Kitty liked the apartment, she wasn’t ready to throw away all her friends in the X-Men just yet. There was some part of her that refused to let go of that huge part of her life.

“I… I don’t know. I need more time to think.”

“Well, how about we go out for a dance tonight? To relax and think things through?” Melissa proposed.

“Now that I can go for!”

They had been at the club for merely an hour when the mess started. The night had been going just fine. Both Kitty and Melissa were having fun, enjoying the night out while Lockheed rested his wings in Kitty’s bag under their small table. Kitty already had to turn down a few offers from guys eager for more then a small dance, and both her and Melissa were trading stories of their youth. Kitty especially, who told Melissa of some of the places she’d been through while ‘studying’ in England. They also touched the subject of old boyfriends, but neither of them was too eager to explore that particular subject, and it dropped.

The two girls were about to leave their small table where they’d been sitting for a small drink when cries of pain and surprise suddenly grabbed their attention to the front of the building. The music suddenly stopped, and gunfire emerged through the eerie silence. Then came the usual panic as an armed man suddenly stepped on the dance floor, two machine guns strapped on each of his arms.

“All impures must die!” the man shouted, and before Kitty or anyone else could do anything to react, he wildly opened fire, not even caring who or what he hit.

People were clearing the area by using the emergency exits, but many were already dropping thanks to the bullets.

“He’s mad! I’ve got to do something!” Kitty screamed over the noise of the crowd. She was about to phase when Melissa grabbed her arm.

“Come on, Kitty, we have to go!” she shouted at her.

‘I forgot! She doesn’t know I’m a mutant!’ Kitty thought darkly.

“No! I can help!” Kitty protested.

“What are y-AAARGH!!” Melissa suddenly shouted out in pain, falling on the ground, hit by a stray bullet.

Lockheed was out of his bag by now, stretching his wings and ready to help.

“No!” Kitty screamed, kneeling beside her fallen friend.

She couldn’t see where Melissa had been hit, but there was blood everywhere. It looked bad.

“Melissa, hang on! I’ll deal with this and get you help!” Kitty told her friend, but Melissa was unconscious by then.

Kitty rose from her feet and with an instant’s concentration phased, rapidly dashing toward the crazed gun-totting man. Lockheed flew behind her, easily dodging bullets and obstacles. He burst out flames, hitting the man’s hand and causing him to let go of one of the guns.

“What?” he asked, turning his attention to his attackers.

Kitty was too mad to be anything but fast and furious. She unphased before him, kicked his weapon away and slammed her feet into his jaw with a fabulous roundhouse kick. The shock alone was enough to render the man unconscious before he hit the floor.

“What the HELL was this about?” she asked angrily, but there was no one left to answer her.

Only a symbol on the man’s shirt, along with a small sentence.

‘SIGMA – WHITE MEN LIBERATION GROUP’

It sickened Kitty and she quickly returned to Melissa’s side.

The ambulances had arrived barely five minutes later, helping out survivors and bringing out the dead. Seventeen wounded, three dead. They were lucky there hadn’t been more then that. The shooter’s name was Frederic Bowman, missing since that morning. No former criminal record.

This wasn’t the first time Sigma had struck; Aapparently this group was rapidly expanding. But Kitty didn’t care. She waited beside Melissa, who was still groggy. The bullet had hit her in the upper thigh, and the medics still couldn’t tell how bad the damage was. Kitty had made the call to her parents, and they would be at the hospital once she reached them. Melissa was one of the lucky ones that night. They took her away, along with the others, leaving Kitty alone in the streets. Lockheed landed beside her, cooing a question.

“Yeah, I’m all right,” she responded.

Lockheed said something angrily, and Kitty nodded.

“I know, it’s always something. More and more pointless violence. As long as there’s prejudice in this world, hatred and… THIS… will follow. It’s pointless, it’s ugly, and I’m going to do everything I can to see it stop,” she said resolutely.

Lockheed cooed a small answer and leapt on Kitty shoulder.

“Yeah, the two of us.”

She slowly started walking towards the nearest phone booth. It was time to go home.

NEXT ISSUE: Times Of Change Part 1. Kitty makes a snap decision that could change her life… forever! And then it’s time for goodbyes as Kitty faces the results of that decision, and what it actually means for her. Don’t miss it!