Kitty and Shen - Backdated
Oct. 20th, 2017 05:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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ax_mainShen and Kitty have a conversation that was long due.
Kitty hated using the crutches. She could technically phase herself wherever she needed to go, but she couldn't do that all the time, so at least part of the time, she was stuck on crutches, or on the couch, like she was now. She'd felt so cooped up in her room that she'd finally made the long journey down to the common room to at least get some 'air' and maybe some company. And, because of the crutches and the bulk of her laptop, she'd settled for just fooling around on her phone as she half-watched a Discovery channel show on historical events and the mysteries that surrounded them.
Shen did a double-take when she walked by the common room and spotted Kitty. She'd been dithering about checking in on her. She could still only guess why Kitty had been avoiding her for so long, but she didn't want to take advantage of her friend being injured to force her presence on her - no matter how much it continued to hurt that Kitty was avoiding her. But on the other hand, what kind of friend would she be if she didn't check up on Kitty when she was injured?
And here she was, in the common room, a public place. This felt less like invading Kitty's privacy than going to knock on her door would have. So Shen stopped walking and stood in the doorway, ignoring the angsty feeling in her chest. Ugh, angst. It was the worst. "Hey," she said quietly, not wanting to startle Kitty. "You want some company?"
What if Kitty said no? And why hadn't she started by asking how she was? That was what mattered most here. Shen was such an idiot.
When Kitty suddenly looked up, the extent of the bruise across her cheek and jaw became apparent, all dark and purple and a little swollen. She blinked once at Shen in the doorway, then her eyes softened a little. She could already see in her friend's eyes the hurt and uncertainty there, and oh god, it was her that caused it. She swallowed hard, then breathed softly, "Shen..."
Shen couldn't help but gasp at the state of Kitty's face. "Holy fuck." She'd taken a few steps forward before she'd thought better of it, and her wings bristled behind her when she forced herself to stop. "What happened?"
"It's..." Kitty took a deep breath, but the more she thought about it, the shakier her breath became. It had been a really bad month. Two months. Something. It was all bad. And she couldn't talk to Illyana about it because Yana felt bad enough about it already. And talking about it with Bobby just made him worry. And she definitely didn't want to bring it up with Billy anymore. He was practically traumatized. Her breath hiccuped and she felt her eyes start to sting with tears. "It was um, god, I don't even know where to start."
"You don't have to if you don't want to," Shen hurried to say, then paused, her own throat going tight at seeing her friend tear up. "Shit, do you want a hug?" It was impossible not to make that offer, never mind that she was still standing a short distance from the couch, from Kitty, and that she had no idea whether the offer would be welcome. But just - Kitty.
"It's just been really complicated and I haven't known how to tell you or whether I should tell you, and there was the whole thing with Illyana, then the demons, and-" Kitty took a shuddering breath and started to reach out for her. "Yes."
Shen needed a second for that 'yes' to register, and then she was moving, sitting on the couch beside Kitty and very carefully pulling her into a hug, wings cradling the both of them instinctively. Illyana and demons. Okay, what? "You're okay now," she told her quietly, her heart thudding in her chest.
Kitty curled her body carefully into that hug, squeezing her friend as best as she could. "Please tell me you're joining the X-Men so I can tell you about all of this and not feel guilty?"
"Of course I'm joining the X-Men," Shen replied immediately, resisting the urge to pull back and look Kitty in the face as she said so. No, keeping hugging her was way more important. "Wait, are you back from another mission? What happened?"
"Not a mission," Kitty finally pulled back, taking a deep breath. "I...Billy and I were helping Illyana with something. It went...kind of terribly wrong. But knowing about it is probably one of those things that only X-Men should really know."
"Okay," Shen agreed, simply, and rested a hand gingerly on Kitty's thigh. "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to, okay?"
"I want to tell you. And I want to tell you about the Brotherhood too. Which one do you want first?" she asked, wiping at her eyes a bit.
"Whichever's the least horrible to tell me about?" Shen offered, trying to think of it in terms of what would be better for Kitty. This wasn't a rip-the-bandaid-off scenario. At least, she didn't think it was.
Wow, that was hard to tell, really, but Kitty took a deep breath. "Okay, so, do you know anything about Illyana's history?"
Shen shook her head. "We've never really talked."
It felt wrong, exposing these personal pieces of Yana to someone else - but the truth was, people were going to find out anyway, and now, Belasco was a threat to more than just Yana. The X-Men, at least, needed to know about Limbo. So, Kitty explained about Yana's kidnapping and captivity in Limbo, that demonic alternate dimension. She described how Yana had fell unconscious trying to find a way to defeat him, and how she and Billy had been left trying to fight demons and hide throughout that hellish landscape before Belasco found them. How they'd refused to leave Yana there to the demon sorcerer's machinations and in the process he'd decided to kill Billy. And of course, how Billy had managed to wake Yana at the last moment, who had portaled them away.
What she didn't say was that the instrument of Yana's rebellion was a sword - one that might possibly be linked to Kitty and Billy now too, and how it was hidden inside of Yana's body. She wasn't exactly sure how anyone at Xavier's would react to that, because although she hadn't asked Yana outright, Kitty had a suspicion that the other girl might have used her magic to steal a bit of her soul. So, she didn't say anything about the sword, or about her killing S'ym, but the rest...well, it was enough. By the end, she was shaky, but nodding to Shen. "So, that's how this happened. Belasco is still there, waiting. And we have no idea if Yana can kill him or not."
Well, there was no word for all of that apart from, "...shit. Wow. Just... I'm so sorry you had to go through all that." Shen's throat was a little tight, thinking of everything Kitty had told her. Of everything Kitty and Billy had done for Illyana. That was friendship for you. "I'm so amazed that I know people like you and Billy."
Kitty looked a little sheepish at that. "It's just, horrible, you know, what Illyana's been through. We didn't want to let her endure running from him all her life. Plus, he has a large chunk of her soul already."
"He what?" Shen asked with raised eyebrows. "Shit, we need to get it back from him."
She nodded. "But we need a game plan first. And Yana...I think she's feeling really guilty about what happened to us. She might try doing something by herself."
Shen looked alarmed, but then it grew into a resolute expression. "Well, that can't happen."
Kitty gave a nod of agreement. "I know. She just doesn't really want to pour her heart out to me right now."
Shen frowned, now completely confused. "Is she mad at you?"
"No, she thinks I should be mad at her," Kitty sighed.
"Ah." Shen's sigh echoed Kitty's. "I'm sorry. That sucks. Hopefully she'll get over it soon?"
Kitty nodded. “Anyway, there’s that...then there’s what happened at the back to school party which just makes it even worse.”
"The tracker?" Shen guessed. "Tommy mentioned it."
“Did he mention me sneaking into the Brotherhood’s base?” Kitty made a face.
"He just said you guys got the intel you wanted, but weren't careful enough and got caught," Shen replied, frowning. "He didn't wanna get into details, I didn't push." She frowned. "Wait, you sneaked in alone?"
Kitty flushed red. “Yeah.”
"But you had back-up outside?" Shen asked, or really, fervently hoped.
The red just kept getting redder. This is why she hadn't wanted to tell Shen. "I...didn't tell anyone I was going."
"Right." Shen forced her eyebrows to come back down, and licked her lips. "I'm guessing everybody's already told you how stupid that was. What happened?"
Kitty looked down. "So, I got in there fine, but I missed some security cameras, and their leader, this guy who calls himself Magneto, met me in the server room. I mean, you know already. He told me he'd been a friend of the Professor's. He...tried to come off as nice, you know? Complimenting my skills on getting in and everything. I think he was trying to recruit me, but I'm not sure I stacked up to his standards. So he gave me the information on The Right and the Friends of Humanity, and offered to have me teleported home, because of course, he already knows where we live, but I just...ran."
Shen stared at her, taking all of that in. "He didn't - he didn't try anything?" She couldn't believe she'd gone and partied with those kids without knowing all this.
“No,” Kitty sighed. “He knew that the information on the thumb drive would be its own punishment.” Curiosity killed the cat.
"What do you mean?" Shen asked, frowning again.
Kitty picked at the lip of her knee brace. “Did you hear about that place that Tommy blew up? The research facility?”
"Yeah," Shen nodded. "That's what was on the thumbdrive? The information they got to first?"
Kitty nodded. “All of the records of what they did to the mutants. All of the mutants they had experimented on, and killed.”
"And you read them?" Shen asked, sympathy plain on her face.
Kitty nodded, closing her eyes for a moment before looking up. “And that’s not all. The Friends of Humanity, the ones who attacked Tamara and the others, they’re unwittingly funding the experimentation.”
Shen frowned. "Some of them have got to know."
Kitty shrugged a little. “Some, maybe, but not all. Otherwise they’d be trying to get rid of them - not make them into weapons.”
"So, wait." Shen was still frowning, trying to wrap her mind around all of this. "You've got proof?"
“Records,” Kitty nodded. “Yeah.”
"Soooo. Why aren't you going Wikileaks on their ass?"
“Because there are mutants here and in the Brotherhood that have records in there,” Kitty told her. “And because there’s no way to prove that the Right actually exists - they aren’t a public organization like the FoH - so despite the records, we could just be making it all up. And that might hurt mutants more.”
Mutants here. That meant students. Shen barely heard Kitty go on. "They got their hands on some of us?" It was horrible enough that they had gotten their hands on any mutants, but mutants here, that made it even more personal than knowing two of the Brotherhood had had to escape those bastards.
Kitty nodded solemnly. “Yeah.”
"Who?" Shen shook her head. "I mean, obviously you're not gonna tell me, that's fine. Just. Shit."
“I can’t say,” Kitty agreed with a sigh. “But yeah. It’s all terrible. I mean really terrible, and I didn’t know what to do until the Professor announced the X-Men.”
Shen nodded. "And that gives us a clear objective." Everything made so much more sense now.
Kitty nodded in agreement. "But I have this...this hatred now. And Magneto knew it. He knew that would happen." This darkness in her heart.
"Oh, Kitty." Shen drew her into another careful hug. "I'm sorry you feel that way." She pulled back, looking into her friend's eyes. "For what it's worth, I think we all have that within us, to varying degrees. It's whether we listen to it that matters." Or so Yang Tian liked to tell her.
Kitty took a deep breath. "I know. I'm afraid I might listen to it more easily now, but this," she waved to her leg, "is giving me a chance to step back and get my head together."
"Trust you to see the silver lining about being injured," Shen told her with a smile.
Sticking out her tongue, Kitty smiled a little. "I guess."
Shen held her smile for a few more seconds, then let it go. "Please tell me you've kept other people in the loop. You haven't been going through all this alone, right?"
Kitty sighed. "Bobby knew a little bit of it. And Tommy. Yana was so angry at me for backstabbing her date that she wouldn't speak to me. So I held it in for a couple of weeks. I just didn't know what to do. Finally, Yana and I made up, because the silence in the room was overbearing, and I finally went to Scott for advice. And then he dragged me to the Professor."
Shen made a face. "I don't care, next time you're avoiding me, I'm not letting you." Two weeks without proper support was way too long.
"I'm sorry," Kitty made a little face back at her, scrunching her nose. "I won't do it again. Any of it."
"I really hope not," Shen told her honestly. "That must've been hell." It hadn't felt very nice to her either, but it was nothing to what Kitty must've been going through.
"You know we can't tell anyone else, right?" Kitty suggested softly.
Shen nodded. "So, who knows? Scott, the Professor. Bobby, Tommy, Illyana?"
KItty nodded. "That's about it." She didn't mention Billy, because mostly that had to do with Tommy, and she didn't want to out the other boy yet again. Best to keep the number low. "Mostly the people who are joining the X-Men." And Tommy. But whatev.
"Tommy's still not joining, right?" Shen asked with a frown. She didn't know Illyana to know either way, so she assumed she was, although it was bound to be weird, if she was still seeing the Brotherhood guy.
"Oh. Right, well, Tommy and Illyana maybe not. But Tommy helped me set the whole thing up, and Yana was, you know. Part of the whole fiasco," Kitty sighed.
Shen nodded in acknowledgement. "OK, so. We need to do everything we can to get proof that the Right exists. Any leads in that info you got?"
"I've got Tessa looking into it," Kitty told her, "Though I didn't tell her anything about the files. I mean, technically I asked her to look into it before I snuck into their base."
"Okay," Shen nodded. "You don't think maybe you should - give her the files? She's like... amazing at all that stuff. Or she seems like it, anyway?"
"I'm not really supposed to be spreading the information all over the school," Kitty frowned. "The professor wanted to keep it as quiet as possible. Which is why after Yana and Tommy, I've only been telling people signing up for the X-Men."
"We need a list of who's signing up, this is ridiculous," Shen stated decisively.
Kitty huffed softly. "I know. I'll talk to the Professor. I know Bobby and Scott are in."
Shen nodded. "Teddy, too."
Kitty looked a little surprised at that. Teddy was always so quiet around her. “Really?”
"Yeah," Shen confirmed. "He doesn't like the way the Professor went about it either, but he wants to do some good."
She nodded. “Okay. So that’s five we know about.”
"Warren, six," Shen added. "Jeanne-Marie, seven... I think that's all I've got." She felt like she was forgetting someone, ugh.
“Definitely more than a few,” Kitty agreed. But most of them so far were level headed types. That made her relax a bit. “I’d like to start training together if we can.”
"So there," Shen confirmed with a nod. "If the Prof isn't gonna get things moving, we shouldn't wait on him."
Kitty hated using the crutches. She could technically phase herself wherever she needed to go, but she couldn't do that all the time, so at least part of the time, she was stuck on crutches, or on the couch, like she was now. She'd felt so cooped up in her room that she'd finally made the long journey down to the common room to at least get some 'air' and maybe some company. And, because of the crutches and the bulk of her laptop, she'd settled for just fooling around on her phone as she half-watched a Discovery channel show on historical events and the mysteries that surrounded them.
Shen did a double-take when she walked by the common room and spotted Kitty. She'd been dithering about checking in on her. She could still only guess why Kitty had been avoiding her for so long, but she didn't want to take advantage of her friend being injured to force her presence on her - no matter how much it continued to hurt that Kitty was avoiding her. But on the other hand, what kind of friend would she be if she didn't check up on Kitty when she was injured?
And here she was, in the common room, a public place. This felt less like invading Kitty's privacy than going to knock on her door would have. So Shen stopped walking and stood in the doorway, ignoring the angsty feeling in her chest. Ugh, angst. It was the worst. "Hey," she said quietly, not wanting to startle Kitty. "You want some company?"
What if Kitty said no? And why hadn't she started by asking how she was? That was what mattered most here. Shen was such an idiot.
When Kitty suddenly looked up, the extent of the bruise across her cheek and jaw became apparent, all dark and purple and a little swollen. She blinked once at Shen in the doorway, then her eyes softened a little. She could already see in her friend's eyes the hurt and uncertainty there, and oh god, it was her that caused it. She swallowed hard, then breathed softly, "Shen..."
Shen couldn't help but gasp at the state of Kitty's face. "Holy fuck." She'd taken a few steps forward before she'd thought better of it, and her wings bristled behind her when she forced herself to stop. "What happened?"
"It's..." Kitty took a deep breath, but the more she thought about it, the shakier her breath became. It had been a really bad month. Two months. Something. It was all bad. And she couldn't talk to Illyana about it because Yana felt bad enough about it already. And talking about it with Bobby just made him worry. And she definitely didn't want to bring it up with Billy anymore. He was practically traumatized. Her breath hiccuped and she felt her eyes start to sting with tears. "It was um, god, I don't even know where to start."
"You don't have to if you don't want to," Shen hurried to say, then paused, her own throat going tight at seeing her friend tear up. "Shit, do you want a hug?" It was impossible not to make that offer, never mind that she was still standing a short distance from the couch, from Kitty, and that she had no idea whether the offer would be welcome. But just - Kitty.
"It's just been really complicated and I haven't known how to tell you or whether I should tell you, and there was the whole thing with Illyana, then the demons, and-" Kitty took a shuddering breath and started to reach out for her. "Yes."
Shen needed a second for that 'yes' to register, and then she was moving, sitting on the couch beside Kitty and very carefully pulling her into a hug, wings cradling the both of them instinctively. Illyana and demons. Okay, what? "You're okay now," she told her quietly, her heart thudding in her chest.
Kitty curled her body carefully into that hug, squeezing her friend as best as she could. "Please tell me you're joining the X-Men so I can tell you about all of this and not feel guilty?"
"Of course I'm joining the X-Men," Shen replied immediately, resisting the urge to pull back and look Kitty in the face as she said so. No, keeping hugging her was way more important. "Wait, are you back from another mission? What happened?"
"Not a mission," Kitty finally pulled back, taking a deep breath. "I...Billy and I were helping Illyana with something. It went...kind of terribly wrong. But knowing about it is probably one of those things that only X-Men should really know."
"Okay," Shen agreed, simply, and rested a hand gingerly on Kitty's thigh. "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to, okay?"
"I want to tell you. And I want to tell you about the Brotherhood too. Which one do you want first?" she asked, wiping at her eyes a bit.
"Whichever's the least horrible to tell me about?" Shen offered, trying to think of it in terms of what would be better for Kitty. This wasn't a rip-the-bandaid-off scenario. At least, she didn't think it was.
Wow, that was hard to tell, really, but Kitty took a deep breath. "Okay, so, do you know anything about Illyana's history?"
Shen shook her head. "We've never really talked."
It felt wrong, exposing these personal pieces of Yana to someone else - but the truth was, people were going to find out anyway, and now, Belasco was a threat to more than just Yana. The X-Men, at least, needed to know about Limbo. So, Kitty explained about Yana's kidnapping and captivity in Limbo, that demonic alternate dimension. She described how Yana had fell unconscious trying to find a way to defeat him, and how she and Billy had been left trying to fight demons and hide throughout that hellish landscape before Belasco found them. How they'd refused to leave Yana there to the demon sorcerer's machinations and in the process he'd decided to kill Billy. And of course, how Billy had managed to wake Yana at the last moment, who had portaled them away.
What she didn't say was that the instrument of Yana's rebellion was a sword - one that might possibly be linked to Kitty and Billy now too, and how it was hidden inside of Yana's body. She wasn't exactly sure how anyone at Xavier's would react to that, because although she hadn't asked Yana outright, Kitty had a suspicion that the other girl might have used her magic to steal a bit of her soul. So, she didn't say anything about the sword, or about her killing S'ym, but the rest...well, it was enough. By the end, she was shaky, but nodding to Shen. "So, that's how this happened. Belasco is still there, waiting. And we have no idea if Yana can kill him or not."
Well, there was no word for all of that apart from, "...shit. Wow. Just... I'm so sorry you had to go through all that." Shen's throat was a little tight, thinking of everything Kitty had told her. Of everything Kitty and Billy had done for Illyana. That was friendship for you. "I'm so amazed that I know people like you and Billy."
Kitty looked a little sheepish at that. "It's just, horrible, you know, what Illyana's been through. We didn't want to let her endure running from him all her life. Plus, he has a large chunk of her soul already."
"He what?" Shen asked with raised eyebrows. "Shit, we need to get it back from him."
She nodded. "But we need a game plan first. And Yana...I think she's feeling really guilty about what happened to us. She might try doing something by herself."
Shen looked alarmed, but then it grew into a resolute expression. "Well, that can't happen."
Kitty gave a nod of agreement. "I know. She just doesn't really want to pour her heart out to me right now."
Shen frowned, now completely confused. "Is she mad at you?"
"No, she thinks I should be mad at her," Kitty sighed.
"Ah." Shen's sigh echoed Kitty's. "I'm sorry. That sucks. Hopefully she'll get over it soon?"
Kitty nodded. “Anyway, there’s that...then there’s what happened at the back to school party which just makes it even worse.”
"The tracker?" Shen guessed. "Tommy mentioned it."
“Did he mention me sneaking into the Brotherhood’s base?” Kitty made a face.
"He just said you guys got the intel you wanted, but weren't careful enough and got caught," Shen replied, frowning. "He didn't wanna get into details, I didn't push." She frowned. "Wait, you sneaked in alone?"
Kitty flushed red. “Yeah.”
"But you had back-up outside?" Shen asked, or really, fervently hoped.
The red just kept getting redder. This is why she hadn't wanted to tell Shen. "I...didn't tell anyone I was going."
"Right." Shen forced her eyebrows to come back down, and licked her lips. "I'm guessing everybody's already told you how stupid that was. What happened?"
Kitty looked down. "So, I got in there fine, but I missed some security cameras, and their leader, this guy who calls himself Magneto, met me in the server room. I mean, you know already. He told me he'd been a friend of the Professor's. He...tried to come off as nice, you know? Complimenting my skills on getting in and everything. I think he was trying to recruit me, but I'm not sure I stacked up to his standards. So he gave me the information on The Right and the Friends of Humanity, and offered to have me teleported home, because of course, he already knows where we live, but I just...ran."
Shen stared at her, taking all of that in. "He didn't - he didn't try anything?" She couldn't believe she'd gone and partied with those kids without knowing all this.
“No,” Kitty sighed. “He knew that the information on the thumb drive would be its own punishment.” Curiosity killed the cat.
"What do you mean?" Shen asked, frowning again.
Kitty picked at the lip of her knee brace. “Did you hear about that place that Tommy blew up? The research facility?”
"Yeah," Shen nodded. "That's what was on the thumbdrive? The information they got to first?"
Kitty nodded. “All of the records of what they did to the mutants. All of the mutants they had experimented on, and killed.”
"And you read them?" Shen asked, sympathy plain on her face.
Kitty nodded, closing her eyes for a moment before looking up. “And that’s not all. The Friends of Humanity, the ones who attacked Tamara and the others, they’re unwittingly funding the experimentation.”
Shen frowned. "Some of them have got to know."
Kitty shrugged a little. “Some, maybe, but not all. Otherwise they’d be trying to get rid of them - not make them into weapons.”
"So, wait." Shen was still frowning, trying to wrap her mind around all of this. "You've got proof?"
“Records,” Kitty nodded. “Yeah.”
"Soooo. Why aren't you going Wikileaks on their ass?"
“Because there are mutants here and in the Brotherhood that have records in there,” Kitty told her. “And because there’s no way to prove that the Right actually exists - they aren’t a public organization like the FoH - so despite the records, we could just be making it all up. And that might hurt mutants more.”
Mutants here. That meant students. Shen barely heard Kitty go on. "They got their hands on some of us?" It was horrible enough that they had gotten their hands on any mutants, but mutants here, that made it even more personal than knowing two of the Brotherhood had had to escape those bastards.
Kitty nodded solemnly. “Yeah.”
"Who?" Shen shook her head. "I mean, obviously you're not gonna tell me, that's fine. Just. Shit."
“I can’t say,” Kitty agreed with a sigh. “But yeah. It’s all terrible. I mean really terrible, and I didn’t know what to do until the Professor announced the X-Men.”
Shen nodded. "And that gives us a clear objective." Everything made so much more sense now.
Kitty nodded in agreement. "But I have this...this hatred now. And Magneto knew it. He knew that would happen." This darkness in her heart.
"Oh, Kitty." Shen drew her into another careful hug. "I'm sorry you feel that way." She pulled back, looking into her friend's eyes. "For what it's worth, I think we all have that within us, to varying degrees. It's whether we listen to it that matters." Or so Yang Tian liked to tell her.
Kitty took a deep breath. "I know. I'm afraid I might listen to it more easily now, but this," she waved to her leg, "is giving me a chance to step back and get my head together."
"Trust you to see the silver lining about being injured," Shen told her with a smile.
Sticking out her tongue, Kitty smiled a little. "I guess."
Shen held her smile for a few more seconds, then let it go. "Please tell me you've kept other people in the loop. You haven't been going through all this alone, right?"
Kitty sighed. "Bobby knew a little bit of it. And Tommy. Yana was so angry at me for backstabbing her date that she wouldn't speak to me. So I held it in for a couple of weeks. I just didn't know what to do. Finally, Yana and I made up, because the silence in the room was overbearing, and I finally went to Scott for advice. And then he dragged me to the Professor."
Shen made a face. "I don't care, next time you're avoiding me, I'm not letting you." Two weeks without proper support was way too long.
"I'm sorry," Kitty made a little face back at her, scrunching her nose. "I won't do it again. Any of it."
"I really hope not," Shen told her honestly. "That must've been hell." It hadn't felt very nice to her either, but it was nothing to what Kitty must've been going through.
"You know we can't tell anyone else, right?" Kitty suggested softly.
Shen nodded. "So, who knows? Scott, the Professor. Bobby, Tommy, Illyana?"
KItty nodded. "That's about it." She didn't mention Billy, because mostly that had to do with Tommy, and she didn't want to out the other boy yet again. Best to keep the number low. "Mostly the people who are joining the X-Men." And Tommy. But whatev.
"Tommy's still not joining, right?" Shen asked with a frown. She didn't know Illyana to know either way, so she assumed she was, although it was bound to be weird, if she was still seeing the Brotherhood guy.
"Oh. Right, well, Tommy and Illyana maybe not. But Tommy helped me set the whole thing up, and Yana was, you know. Part of the whole fiasco," Kitty sighed.
Shen nodded in acknowledgement. "OK, so. We need to do everything we can to get proof that the Right exists. Any leads in that info you got?"
"I've got Tessa looking into it," Kitty told her, "Though I didn't tell her anything about the files. I mean, technically I asked her to look into it before I snuck into their base."
"Okay," Shen nodded. "You don't think maybe you should - give her the files? She's like... amazing at all that stuff. Or she seems like it, anyway?"
"I'm not really supposed to be spreading the information all over the school," Kitty frowned. "The professor wanted to keep it as quiet as possible. Which is why after Yana and Tommy, I've only been telling people signing up for the X-Men."
"We need a list of who's signing up, this is ridiculous," Shen stated decisively.
Kitty huffed softly. "I know. I'll talk to the Professor. I know Bobby and Scott are in."
Shen nodded. "Teddy, too."
Kitty looked a little surprised at that. Teddy was always so quiet around her. “Really?”
"Yeah," Shen confirmed. "He doesn't like the way the Professor went about it either, but he wants to do some good."
She nodded. “Okay. So that’s five we know about.”
"Warren, six," Shen added. "Jeanne-Marie, seven... I think that's all I've got." She felt like she was forgetting someone, ugh.
“Definitely more than a few,” Kitty agreed. But most of them so far were level headed types. That made her relax a bit. “I’d like to start training together if we can.”
"So there," Shen confirmed with a nod. "If the Prof isn't gonna get things moving, we shouldn't wait on him."
