(no subject)
Title: Salvage (8: Hospitality)
Fandom: X-men
Pairing: Pryde/Wisdom
Rating: PG
Prompts: Snap, Spice, Birthright
"He was your own son." Pete snarled the words, separating them clearly, letting each one fall with an individual impact. Heat rolled off him; red light glittered off his sunglasses.
The cowering man put up his hands, as if that could fend off either Pete's knives or the swords arrayed against him. Sweat beaded on his forehead, shining a cooler blue from the little spheres of glow at the quarter-points of his chalked circle. "You don't understand," he gasped. "I can fix it. I can bring him back."
Pete's contempt was as thick in the room as the incense, now. "You can bring him back, can you? What about the woman you killed? Can you bring her back?"
Kitty eased a step away, into Brian's massive shadow. She started crouching down, slow, slipping herself into the floor a little at a time. The stone slid cold into her feet and ankles and fingertips, trailed the traces of something shuddersome and unpleasant into the (oh, God, she'd seen the boy's) bones of her thighs.
"She hasn't gone anywhere," the man insisted. "She's right here." He pointed at the northern quarter, at the trembling glow there. "With Sarah. Sarah was the first -- she tried to make the bargain in the first place, to trade herself for David, but she didn't know one soul wouldn't be enough, it had to be seven --"
The stone cut off the babble, and Kitty swam through the cold, counting strokes against the distance in her mind. Vibrations rippled through her, people moving. Jac, that had to be, fast beyond fast: Kitty felt her fling herself forward from her place, rebound off the circle's barrier against magics. Someone else a step behind her, to the same result. Blade, Kitty bet. It must have been calculated against vampires. Brian and Meggan could break it, given a little time. They might not have time. Pete would be lifting his hands to cut the matter short --
The circle felt like fire to pull herself through, but she'd been through worse. Her hands found the surface; her mouth and nose broke it a moment later, for one long breath of spice-choked air. She was already opening her eyes, focusing on her target, when the screaming actually came through to her. Dane was yelling for someone to stop -- the screaming had to be Faiza, then --
One of the curved and painted rib-bones was rippling with a light of its own, beginning to shine the same cool color as the quarter-points. Kitty put her hand on it; phased it partway into the stone floor; grasped the rest of it firmly, braced herself against the stone she was buried in, and pulled. Hard.
The crack it made was no louder than the silence an instant after.
"I invite you all in," Kitty said, and went the rest of the way intangible just in time for the wind of Jac's passage to sweep through her instead of knock her back into the floor. The bones clattered and scattered around her, some inside the circle, some not; incense tumbled and dispersed itself and went out.
Pete let out a slow breath of his own and let the red-white shapes at his fingertips disperse. "Dane," he said unnecessarily, "see to Faiza. Blade, Gloriana, Captain --"
"Find the demon," Meggan agreed.
"It'll come here," Blade said. "Naked souls in a broken circle. Best bait you could have."
"That's reassuring," Kitty grumbled, and hauled herself out of the floor to walk back to Pete the normal way.
"Nice trick," he told her as she came closer. "Never play disembodied-head in front of me again."
"Just like the last thirty times you told me not to," she agreed. He snorted, and didn't look away from Faiza; but when Kitty fell into her place near his side, he reached out and took her hand all the same.
"When did that happen?" Brian muttered to Meggan.
"Hush," Meggan answered him contentedly. "If they noticed us noticing, they might stop."
Fandom: X-men
Pairing: Pryde/Wisdom
Rating: PG
Prompts: Snap, Spice, Birthright
"He was your own son." Pete snarled the words, separating them clearly, letting each one fall with an individual impact. Heat rolled off him; red light glittered off his sunglasses.
The cowering man put up his hands, as if that could fend off either Pete's knives or the swords arrayed against him. Sweat beaded on his forehead, shining a cooler blue from the little spheres of glow at the quarter-points of his chalked circle. "You don't understand," he gasped. "I can fix it. I can bring him back."
Pete's contempt was as thick in the room as the incense, now. "You can bring him back, can you? What about the woman you killed? Can you bring her back?"
Kitty eased a step away, into Brian's massive shadow. She started crouching down, slow, slipping herself into the floor a little at a time. The stone slid cold into her feet and ankles and fingertips, trailed the traces of something shuddersome and unpleasant into the (oh, God, she'd seen the boy's) bones of her thighs.
"She hasn't gone anywhere," the man insisted. "She's right here." He pointed at the northern quarter, at the trembling glow there. "With Sarah. Sarah was the first -- she tried to make the bargain in the first place, to trade herself for David, but she didn't know one soul wouldn't be enough, it had to be seven --"
The stone cut off the babble, and Kitty swam through the cold, counting strokes against the distance in her mind. Vibrations rippled through her, people moving. Jac, that had to be, fast beyond fast: Kitty felt her fling herself forward from her place, rebound off the circle's barrier against magics. Someone else a step behind her, to the same result. Blade, Kitty bet. It must have been calculated against vampires. Brian and Meggan could break it, given a little time. They might not have time. Pete would be lifting his hands to cut the matter short --
The circle felt like fire to pull herself through, but she'd been through worse. Her hands found the surface; her mouth and nose broke it a moment later, for one long breath of spice-choked air. She was already opening her eyes, focusing on her target, when the screaming actually came through to her. Dane was yelling for someone to stop -- the screaming had to be Faiza, then --
One of the curved and painted rib-bones was rippling with a light of its own, beginning to shine the same cool color as the quarter-points. Kitty put her hand on it; phased it partway into the stone floor; grasped the rest of it firmly, braced herself against the stone she was buried in, and pulled. Hard.
The crack it made was no louder than the silence an instant after.
"I invite you all in," Kitty said, and went the rest of the way intangible just in time for the wind of Jac's passage to sweep through her instead of knock her back into the floor. The bones clattered and scattered around her, some inside the circle, some not; incense tumbled and dispersed itself and went out.
Pete let out a slow breath of his own and let the red-white shapes at his fingertips disperse. "Dane," he said unnecessarily, "see to Faiza. Blade, Gloriana, Captain --"
"Find the demon," Meggan agreed.
"It'll come here," Blade said. "Naked souls in a broken circle. Best bait you could have."
"That's reassuring," Kitty grumbled, and hauled herself out of the floor to walk back to Pete the normal way.
"Nice trick," he told her as she came closer. "Never play disembodied-head in front of me again."
"Just like the last thirty times you told me not to," she agreed. He snorted, and didn't look away from Faiza; but when Kitty fell into her place near his side, he reached out and took her hand all the same.
"When did that happen?" Brian muttered to Meggan.
"Hush," Meggan answered him contentedly. "If they noticed us noticing, they might stop."