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]

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.