People Behind the Masks 1/2

[just_a_phase]

The various items she's made and programmed for the farm haven't taken up all of her time. Now that most of the major work is finished, they take up even less. That means Kitty can work on other things.

Projects of her own, old and new. Some in code, some in metal. Some will blend the two.

But there's one thing that keeps her out late in her office more often than anything else. It causes Piotr to come out and silently wrap a blanket around her shoulders. Sometimes he then sets a mug of herbal tea next to her, softly kisses her hair, and leaves. Sometimes he reaches his large hand around her much-smaller one and suspends or shuts down the program, app, or computer. Then he lifts her up and takes her to bed.

She has spent so many hours looking online for even the faintest of traces of the Red Room that the hours long-ago became days. Months.

You can't hide forever, she swears each night, and in the meantime--

--there is work to do.

---

She's known Iron Man since she was 14. She's worked with him. They're not friends, but they've been teammates.

But out of the suit--that's different and new.

After discussion, they had agreed to work in his workshop as opposed to hers. Common sense.

The case she carries by her side is heavier than it looks like it is by how she walks and holds it; she and he have technologoy and suits and armor to talk. His armor and a suit of hers that needs help.

The last few weeks, though, have had more interesting search results than ever before. And she's pondering over what she's read and seen on a screen, twisting the words and images about like an object she's trying to figure out.

She may need to bring that up, too. She's not sure yet.

First, she supposes, she should set the damned case down before she loses an arm.

Comments

[iron_avenger]

He loathes taking anyone into his confidence about his identity, but Kitty was a calculated risk. Not even so much as a risk as inevitable. He's been aware of her hacking for ages, (often after the fact, much to his chagrin). Besides, her mother was a classmate back at MIT and one of the bright spots of a time otherwise steeped in trying to prove himself and make others happy.

Now Kitty is helping uproot something of the past - something vile. Something that creates a long shadow over the Cold War and even before it. Something that's been at odds with what he has wanted for the world all his life, even before he knew its name. The Red Room has had too many swipes at his technology and those swipes hone in and target people like Kitty. People who should be having a life rather than recovering a broken one.

"Room's secure, Ms. Pride. We can talk."

[just_a_phase]

X-10 in Oak Ridge, TN closed down, officially, years ago.

It's not exactly public knowledge that the buildings were purchased by Tony Stark, and it's still in the middle of nowhere with guards in front of what most think is government property.

Not where she expected to end up for any meeting...but it definitely has her eyes lighting up with something like greed.

This? She wants. Not for anything Stark's done--just one of her own.

But that's not the point for now.

She gracefully sets the case down before settling down on a chair stool.

Kitty appears so much smaller than Shadowcat, her actual height and slight build not hidden behind her movements and an attitude.

"Technically, you've known me since I was 14. I think you get to use, 'Kitty,' Mr. Stark, or at least, 'Katherine'. And good. We have a lot to cover."

This moves her one step closer to taking down those hellspawn. And she says this having roomed with someone who summoned demons into their bedroom closet.

[iron_avenger]

"Very well then, Katherine," he says with a slight edge that's either humor or annoyance. "This, you probably figured out is one big test lab. I have five suits here that various Russian operatives have tried to use against me over the years. I want to see you do your best to take them out while I collect the data. You have 30 seconds to prepare!"

[just_a_phase]

"This feels like Mortal Kombat," she mutters, and instantly her clothing pools at her feet thanks to phasing; it reveals the uniform she'd been wearing beneath the jeans and t-shirt.

Five seconds for that. Another five to smooth down her sleeves and pull up the uniform's collar.

Ten seconds for her hands to phase into part of the briefcase and remove a belt filled with throwing knives. Another five to slip it on.

Five seconds left, but she's ready to go.

"You want to see my best? You got it, Stark."

The "Mr" has been dropped, but her statement is just that: a statement of fact, as cool and controlled as her expression and stance.

Game face on. Big girl time.

[iron_avenger]

"Do you give Xavier this much lip on Danger Room Days?" he snarks, not looking up from his myriad screens.

"And Go!"

Level One: Guardsmans Armor.

During what the press dubbed the Iron Wars Scandal, he thought the Vault guards might have been the leak supplying his technology to the enemy. He was wrong, and he's since modified the technology so it was further away from the Iron Man suit. (Though this is one of the old classics.) Since that time, there's been opportunities for a sharp saboteur to get their hands on something akin to this though.

[just_a_phase]

"You don't already know? Someone has hacked recordings of sessions over the years."

First move: running straight to it, then phasing through it to get what she can only describe as a "taste" of the energy that it uses.

"Are you billing me for any damage?" This one is easy: taking out the exoskeleton involves nothing more than a spin the instant she's through it, one leg lifting as if to kick it and gliding through instead, shorting its main support out.

That doesn't mean it doesn't have more tricks.

Result: on guard and in defensive position...but not too worried, really, as she watches it.

[iron_avenger]

"Pics or it didn't happen on both accounts."

Meanwhile, the Guardsman wobbles from the momentary power loss, but the recovery is close to a second. Not bad, but, she's dealt with worse.

You would think this suit would be fighting wildly with haymakers from it's bulky design. Instead, it's startlingly fast, dodging, waving, looking for a weak spot. Kitty can see its job now: Wear down and contain.

Too bad for it world-class ninjas are faster and rarely leave openings.

[just_a_phase]

"What are you, fifteen?" she laughs, but her attention isn't pulled away from the target. (Enemy is far too strong a word to use here.) "Besides, if I were to say I have pics?"

Her mother told Kitty she's her father's daughter, but Tony can probably see Terri in her in the way she moves, even now, like she's dancing. In the way she's snarked back at him.

In the way, when she finishes taking the Guardsman down, causing a larger shortage first that results in a minor explosion and then just not stopping until the thing is finished, she looks up at him with a smirk as she shoves hair out of her face.

Though he never saw Terri in this context.

"Round two?"

[iron_avenger]

"You're closer to that level of expertise than I am. What areHere comes Pikachu! Note the timer."

The orange armor he based on Shockwave's cybernetics crackles with deadly electricity. Under one such spark, Kitty can see "2....1..." She barely dodges the shockwave boom of thunder emanating from the machine before it resets to 30.

"I evolved this one slightly!"

[just_a_phase]

"And yet, which of us just referenced Pokemon?"

She almost gives him an exasperated look after dodging, having rolled to her left while passing since she didn't know what sort of attack--

It's electricity based.

"You know I can phase, right?"

Doesn't mean it doesn't have another kind of attack.

(Doesn't mean she actually likes phasing through energy attacks, for a variety of reasons, but it ain't like this is a Sentinel.)

But like hell she'll shut up. Much better to make a run for "Pikachu" and once she's close--

--unphases just long enough to grab its left arm--

--and phases again, still running, and takes the arm with her.

"I'm calling it Sparky, instead," she says between breaths after turning and sliding to a stop.

[iron_avenger]

Sparky keeps coming - while shooting an arc of electric power from its stump to the arm in Shadowcat's possession.

The timer ticks 6...5...4...

[just_a_phase]

She heads back towards it, the arm still in her hands.

It's just clicked to 2 when she phases the arm into its center and leaves it behind her in its middle as she takes the paces necessary to whirl and crouch.

It should explode.

"Should" is something she is always careful about, however.

[iron_avenger]

...1...

The feedback is more intense than she expected, but the explosion is eerily quiet. The suit takes its arm back and the loop feeds from body to limb, body to limb, body to -

The limb explodes out with an intense, teeth-jarring death rattle. The convulsions from the peeling, dying thing spread like leprosy to the rest of the torso and leg, slowly melting them into a pool of electrical energy.

Energy that fires up two more Guardsman armors.

[just_a_phase]

Of course.

Just...

Of course.

"My mother ever think to tell you you're a sadist? Cause I hear you can get help for that sort of thing," she snaps, preparing for something she already knows that she is going to hate.

She always hates this.

Running between the Guardsmen means she can drop quickly between them, grabbing at their bases as she sucks in a breath.

Holds it.

Pulls them into solid concrete with her until all three disappear.

[iron_avenger]

"Stop trying to compliment me and get the armor!"

That trick to finish the Shockwave mock-up, but the Guardsmen just punch right on through it and keep lumbering towards her.

That's when the reading get more unique. He's had data on her shifting before, but not in real time. Real time data shows something very, very strange. If he were to compare it with anyone's power set it's almost like Wanda's. On a subatomic level, Shadowcat is shifting, phasing not out of reality, but to different frequencies of reality. Electrons are forced to do something electrons are supposedly incapable of - form predictable patterns leading to a certainty of their location AND direction before winking out of his readings for a spit second more. An adjustment to his sensors finds something even more powerful.

He's so engrossed in the impossibility before him that he doesn't notice what she's doing to the Guardsmen armors.

[just_a_phase]

She had grabbed a section of pipe from beneath the concrete before phasing back out; it required the palm of her hand only solidifying around it, then her hand and the pipe section joining the rest of her body and phasing up out of the floor.

She hates doing what she just did, because the feeling of stress from being solid is more noticeable than it normally is once she unphases. It will be for the rest of the day, at least, and she'll phase in her sleep tonight.

And the urge to phase further is there now; she already knows what she'll probably end up doing, as these aren't the last targets in her surprise pop quiz.

But right now? Kitty's just fucking annoyed.

Sections of pipes and concrete physically joined with the Guardsmen when she let them solidify beneath the floor. One has lost an arm and has pieces through its torso; the other has some through its entire leg and the top left of its head.

The good news is that they're definitely both affected in different ways from the attack, sparks flying and the one with the concrete in its leg off-balance.

The bad news is they're definitely not done with.

But she can enjoy some stress release because of that; the pipe is strong, but thin enough she can twirl it once to get a feel for the balance and length.

And then she uses it two ways.

The first is hitting the sections that already are damaged, her body phased and only the pipe solid.

The second is phasing the pipe through other parts of the Guardsmen, unphasing only it for far less than a second each time to damage them, and then phasing her makeshift weapon again and instantly--

--attacking again--

--and again.

Body phased, pipe phasing and unphasing, and her body moving from one position to strike to another quickly and smoothly each time.

[iron_avenger]

"They're down!"

His voice reverberates through the hangar. The look he's giving her is one of vague worry and disapproval, but his prolonged silence is eerie.

[just_a_phase]

She's breathing heavily as she drops the pipe.

One moment to take her hair out of its ponytail and then pull it up again neatly before glancing at him.

He's not snarking, and she's pretty sure she's seen that sort of look before in similar circumstances.

Yup. Eerie's a good word.

"That was the idea." She wants to smile or to snark herself, and she doesn't. Just waits.

[iron_avenger]

The iron stare doesn't waiver. "Take a look."

[just_a_phase]

So she does.

She's silent as she quickly takes in all the data. It's that stress she feels when she stops phasing put into numbers, letters, and symbols.

Except her control's slipped more than she realized because this shows her mind, if not her physical brain, is split up in different--realities, she guesses, might be the best word--even when she isn't phased.

And it shows just how hard she has to will herself not to phase past a certain point.

She doesn't say anything for a second after she's finished reading and then finally says, "I knew this. Some of it's new in the sense of having the details--but they're just details that explain what I was already aware of." Kitty pauses as she grabs her t-shirt and jeans from the floor. "But I haven;t had anyone run these kinds of tests for a few years. It's probably a good idea to have the data up to date. I found a contact in Russia's intelligence a few weeks ago for info on Red Room movements. Parts of this might be useful to have on hand when I'm talking with him, though he actually has my trust. Double accomplishment today."

She leans against the wall and looks at him before allowing, "I didn't know about my mind. I'm betting that's why telepaths can't get into it unless I let them."

She's not sure where the hint of disapproval in his expression comes from. Or the worry.

[iron_avenger]

"That there," he replies. "That bit where you mentioned the Russian contact in the middle of talking about something else entirely. Check the readout."

"Because," he states as Kitty looks it over. "I was thinking about asking about what you might have found out. I didn't actually voice the question. My guess -" He points to the parts where she blows Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle out of the water. "Is that you heard it from some other parallel possibility of this conversation."

[just_a_phase]

She looks at the section he indicates for a few seconds.

Her first response is, "Doing the impossible one mutation at a time, apparently."

Her second is, "I hate parallel universes. They only screw with your mind."

And her third is a sigh as she slumps a little and rubs her eyes. "Before I give you any more information, give me your response from just the data and what just happened."

[iron_avenger]

"Your electrons have other ideas about parallel possibilities," he notes dryly.

Tony rubs his chin. "You're a walking contradiction in particle and subatomic particle physics. I may be many, many things in addition, but - right now - I'm a scientist. This scientist has just experienced something beyond what is accepted theoretical norms. The best you get for now is a shrug. Not reassuring, but truth generally isn't."

"The only thing I can say for sure? Your body fights you on being solid." He points to the graphs. "Too much energy in too confined of space. Your form is as a kind of cool plasma - and on that, you can get back to me on how that works - but your power is compressing your local atmosphere to contain it all through a kind of localized, body-focused pressure."

[just_a_phase]

"My electrons don't get a vote."

He's good. She knew that.

It's just different hearing it when the subject is her.

When he's finished, she just says quietly, "A+. I know. I used to be a solid person who could phase. Now I'm a phased person who can become solid. Short answer to how it works: evolution. I assume you want the longer version? And I know my body is fighting it. I phase in my sleep. If I get distracted enough, I lose control." She is not saying what distracts her that much, thank you. "And I know because I can feel it to greater and lesser extents pretty much all the time. I feel everything. Everything. It's hard as hell not to phase past a point I set as the most I will." Reluctantly, she finishes with, "It didn't use to be this hard."

It's said as statements only. Information is required to reach the most accurate conclusion. So he gets it, even if it means she has to vocalize things she nearly never has. Not really. Not to this extent, and only to Piotr to an extent that's close.

And Piotr didn't have the data on the screen to realize just how hard it is not to just let go.

[iron_avenger]

Not that it's his department to explain all this with facts and figures anyway.

"There's one more thing."

He points to her biometric data and then physically steps back to have her examine it. Kitty not trained in medical science to the extent he is, but the data is there to tell her something she likely already knows. Either her child has stopped developing and hasn't miscarried, or - more likely - the pregnancy is subject to the same kind of suspended physicality she is subject to.

He'll say more, but only if she's ready to hear it.

[just_a_phase]

She stares at the screen for several seconds before she blinks back a set of tears. Just one.

"We thought I was pregnant," she whispers, and then the rest of the data starts to click, and she feels like there's ice in her stomach.

Kitty stiffens and is silent for several seconds, just staring at the screen. "...Tell me."

[iron_avenger]

"I have no idea what to tell you," he admits. It's a hell of an admission. "It could be the fetus isn't developing, or that it's phased into a parallel possibility or -" Weakly, he half-lifts his hands in muted frustration. "Something else entirely. I could get consultation on this, but it would risk blowing our cover. High risk."

"Your call."

[just_a_phase]

She needs the Red Room obliterated. They took three daughters from her. She needs--

But what if she doesn't and it's a fourth daughter?

And suddenly, Kitty's certain: it's a girl. She's carrying a girl. She doesn't want to think about how she knows--but she still knows.

That gives her the answer.

"You can't," she says quietly. "It's not just high risk because of our cover. They can't find out I'm pregnant. It's a girl. They'll want her, and it'll all just happen again. And if we don't take them down, they'll try again. They want girls made from Piotr and me. I want my baby safe."

As she speaks, Kitty holds up one hand and looks at it.

Phases it. Phases it more.

Lets it phase just a bit past the point she has set as "you shall not pass" and sees it start to be sapped of color.

She shudders and it instantly snaps back to being solid.

"Besides. She's developing. You...don't need to know everything that was done to me by the Red Room. But they did a lot. She's okay. They guaranteed it." It's just calmly said. "We'll go over the data. I'll explain what you don't know. That's all we can do. They can't know I'm pregnant."

Then she looks at him. "But this means I need your help with my suit's upgrades. ASAP. Please."

[iron_avenger]

"We're going to have to design it from the ground up. I literally have nothing that is going to help you the way it is now."

He holds up a hand. "The problem is this: the suit is...It's everything in a fight. It's the totality of you being. It is a total experience of being merged with the technology to the point where it becomes you. That kind of concentration isn't possible in a normal suit if you want to stay solid."

He stands punching numbers and brings up the Dreadnought armor. "We'll need to make the suit something you can phase meld with."

[just_a_phase]

"Not...entirely the ground up," Kitty says after a moment of taking that in; she goes to grab the case she brought with her and brings it over to him. It clicks open to reveal the suit Seth had left her with.

Green and purple paint blasted off.

"I figure we're at least a foot off of it, anyway. Couple of things," she continues, typing quickly and accessing Cerebro's mainframe before bringing up scans and notes and records.

They're all about her.

She mutters under her breath, "I tried to get out, they dragged me back in. Now here we go again," and takes a breath. "Here's the main cause of the strain: it shouldn't be there. Unstable evolution doesn't make sense. The problem is that my body wants to phase further and farther. I don't let it. I've continued to evolve. But I don't let myself phase past a certain point." Her tone is only that of someone stating facts. "That's why there's too much energy. The amount's also significantly increased from my last set of scans a few years ago."

"Thing two: I came across this a few years ago. The Neo made it. It's not really even something we could use and build features onto--but I've tinkered, and it has one feature we need. I've insulated the electronics enough that accidental phasing won't blow them. It takes deliberate will on my part to short them out."

"Thing three: I think the concentration won't be the biggest issue, but we'll get into that later. It'll involve metaphors on my part and probably several scans of my mind at different stages of being phased, as well as solid. It's a constant, but it's not something that requires a lot of thought. Just...a little more over time as the energy builds up and I still don't phase entirely."

Kitty glances over at him, pulling a file from the same case the suit's in and handing it to Tony as she does so. "And this is a record of my interactions with the head of Russian intelligence. The Red Room is making more noise than usual, but they haven't been able to figure out what any of it means yet. Questions, Mr. Stark? "

[iron_avenger]

Tony favors her with a half smile. "Yes. When are you going to learn to delegate?" Says the master of not doing so. "Tasha can handle the intelligence end better than we can. You need to trust her to do her job because -"

He types in a few more commands. Reed Richard's design for unstable molecules flash to life on the screen in front of them. "We're going to be teaching these things how to dance."

[just_a_phase]

She shrugs. "I trust Tasha. But I also have a connection-by-marriage to the Head of Russian Intelligence--and Xavier's worked with him off and on for years. Hell, the Prof is the reason he's the head. The guy saved Piotr's life. It would have been stupid not to contact him, even if he had next to nada. That said?"

Kitty's eyes don't, in fact, sparkle as she looks at the unstable molecule. This is life, not an anime.

But they do look almost hungry as she murmurs, "I do so love to dance."

This is great because it's doing something, yes.

But what they'll be doing--

She's been wanting more for longer than she realizes. It is not like a parched woman presented with water. Nice cliché, but not accurate.

It's a feeling much more like she's been ignoring a muscle for years and suddenly is using it again--and it hasn't atrophied at all.

Her stomach has one hand on it for a moment, and then she's bringing up more files from some of the more specialized uniforms mutants have worn from unstable molecules, and she has no idea how wide she's smiling.

--and she can't wait to tell her Luddite husband just who it was that confirmed her pregnancy.