Pryde of The X-Men

@wclksthroughwclls

Bruce was trying his hardest to not be the kind of overly protective parent that would eventually end up driving their children to craziness, and honestly, he thought more or less, he’d done a good job of maintaining that so far.  He’d managed to make it through Kitty’s more wild teenage years and now she was shaping up to be a young woman after his own heart, launching into her mathematics major in a way that made Bruce feel a kind of pride that almost brought tears to his eyes.  

But the awful part was that Kitty growing up also meant her growing away, and he found himself counting how many hours had passed since he’d seen her.  Of course she had her studies, and her job, but sometimes Bruce felt like it had been days since she’d been around, and he would stare at her bedroom door, wondering if she even came in at nights anymore.  He knew something was on her mind, even if she wasn’t saying.  He’d raised her, of course he knew every single one of her expressions.  Which was why he made a point to cancel all of his morning appointments so he could stalk around the kitchen, waiting to hear her moving around upstairs before he started making breakfast. He hadn’t lost his touch, and he had pancakes, eggs and bacon on the table by the time his erstwhile daughter was descending the stairs.  "Breakfast?“ he said and then grinned, the grin of a parent who wasn’t really asking a question.  "Sit down, indulge your father for a few minutes before you run off and break his heart all over again.”

Avoiding her dad was hard, and more than that--unnecessary. If she just told him she was having nightmares, that she was confused and angry and tired from nights spent unable to sleep, she knew he would try to understand. But she couldn’t handle the thought of being fixed with his sad eyes as he tried to figure out how to fix things for her. She’d never been able to handle making him sad. Especially when she’d finally gotten her biological father in town, and hoped to potentially get the two of them to meet soon. Which couldn’t happen if Bruce thought she was having a breakdown.

She was just sneaking down the stairs (careful to skip the one that creaked) when she heard him speak, watching her expectantly like he wasn’t giving her a choice. With an inaudible sigh, she trudged to the table and dropped her backpack to the ground. “Looks good, dad. Thanks.” Even if she hadn’t ordered her pancakes with a side of guilt trip, the food smelled delicious. She appreciated the effort he was putting in. “This isn’t going to be one of those breakfasts where you sit me down and tell me some terrible news, right? Oh my god, you’re pregnant, right? I knew this would happen one day.” She said dramatically, waving her fork around like she was making a point. “This is why you always use protection, dad.”

Kitty Pryde grew up happy. Her adopted dad, Bruce Banner, was a loving man, very kind and open with her, always there when she needed him. They had some rough times as Kitty grew up, because she could sometimes be a rebellious child, but Bruce stood by her through all of it. Because of his support, she grew up into a strong and happy young adult. Albeit one who was hiding a secret. For as long as Kitty can remember, she’s had dreams of another life. Of another world where she has superpowers and magical friends. She wakes from them with the feeling that she’s missing something important, even though everything in her life is completely normal and ordinary.

She never thought much of the dreams outside of how unsettling they were until she was approached by a kid named Peter Parker one day after school. He was a few grades below her, but she knew him to be a rather dorky kid, very nervous, so it surprised her greatly when he started spinning tales of a secret life he remembered having, with magical powers and supervillians and aliens. She brushed him off as just a crazy kid, and then he dropped out of school, so the conversation never continued. But that doesn’t mean she’s stopped thinking about everything he told her.

Spreading out what minimal amount of information they had on what happened in the battle with Thanos, Gemma couldn’t help but let out a small huff. This had been everything and nothing like what she been trained for, what she spent so long preparing for. It was a bit overwhelming at first glance, and if she was being honest, second glance as well. She expected alien invasions, she was decently equipped with the knowledge of how to potentially deal with a situation like that. What she wasn’t really prepared for was a massive alien who was hellbent on wiping out half of the universe’s population and more importantly, succeeding in that very same task. It was a bit overwhelming, but she knew that she would have to power through it. 

With a decent portion of the S.H.I.E.L.D agents dusted away, Gemma got moved up a bit prematurely in efforts to try and figure out what was going on. There had to be something they were missing, especially with the addition of the people who came through the rift. It was a sign that there was another place where those who had gone were still alive, it was just getting them back that was going to be a bit of struggle. “Of all the things that I was anticipating going into this, our current situation was the last thing I was expecting.” she said with a slightly uneasy laugh, turning her head to look towards the closest person to her. 

Kitty (big surprise here) wasn’t a huge fan of S.H.I.E.L.D. They were stuck-up, secretive, controlling, and--most recently--they’d tried to build machines to blow up a bunch of people. Super helpful, guys, thanks! Because of this, she was never thrilled to run right into an agent on her own. They always seemed to have a hidden agenda or an angle they were trying to work. “Honestly if I had to guess, I would have picked this exact thing. Okay, no, I’m not that good at guessing. But the signs were there, at least some of them. I guess you guys were just too focused on the people on this planet to see them.” It wasn’t a particularly hostile statement on it’s own, but Kitty was getting a bad track record with fights over the past few weeks, so she backed down with a smile.

“I mean, it couldn’t have be easy trying to micromanage seven and a half billion people. I’m sure you guys had your hands full.” No, Kitty, buzz words like micromanage weren’t going to make you look like a friendly. “At least there’s fewer people to be in charge of now. Oh shit, no, I didn’t mean it like that. It’s way too soon to be joking about that. Forget I said anything.”

REAL WORLD.

If the snap was supposed to help prevent poverty, do you believe that it was successful in its attempt? 

“Even if you aren’t a terrible hero, this planet seems to be full of them. How did you guys almost let Loki take over? A child can almost take this planet. You probably need some better defenses.” Val didn’t entirely hate this woman. She seemed to actually have a backbone that wasn’t made of a chocolate eclair. Maybe she would be useful, could join the Revengers. Stupid name, a somewhat decent team.

Now Val was in her comfort zone. The woman was getting annoyed. Val had never met a person she couldn’t annoy within minutes of meeting. “Thor fighting aliens, shocker. Can’t go a day without getting into a fight.” She grabbed her sword and a couple of knives out from the ship. “Avengers compound? Will Bruce be there? I haven’t seen him or Hulk in a while.” She missed Hulk. It took a special kind of person to be as jaded and as bitter as she was. “Never been to New York. Last time I was here I was in Aebeltoft and Stenhus. Don’t think they are around anymore.” She really hadn’t been to Midgard in a while. You visit once, you see it all.

“A lot? Well I don’t think we have time to hit them all, so I guess we can go for just the best.” There was always time for drinking in her schedule. First, get drunk. Second, find Bruce. Third, drink more. Fourth, find Thor if time permits. She should probably find Loki to make sure he didn’t try and take over again. Make that fourth, she could find Thor fifth.

Kitty bristled at the words, a clear attack in her mind. “That wasn’t us.” She said tersely. “My team, I mean. That was all the Avengers. Trust me, things would have been over a lot sooner if we’d been handling it.” She couldn’t know that, not really, but it wasn’t like she was going to be asked to prove it. The X-Men simply were better than the Avengers. It was just a fact. “It’s not my fault they’re bad at saving the world. If you’re whole tagline is ‘if we can’t save the world, we’ll avenge it’ maybe you need to rethink your saving strategy. It’s obviously not very effective.”

She was just being mean for the sake of it, grumpy for no reason, but it had been a stressful couple of days. A stressful couple of weeks. A stressful life. “I mean, he was pretty much saving the planet from an invasion, but sure. Whatever.” Kitty watched with mild horror and slight amusement as the woman retrieved several large weapons from her ship. If she was planning to take over New York herself, she’d definitely need a bigger army. “Um, yeah. He should be, at least. I don’t really think the Hulk’s in the picture right now, but that’s probably something you should talk to him about.” The last thing Kitty wanted was to get in the middle of yet another conversation with Bruce and one of his friends. The one she’d found herself in with Black Widow had been scary enough.

“Oh, wow. Yeah, I don’t think they exist anymore. That must have been a really long time ago. Well, I can show you around anywhere you’d like while you’re here, okay?” She promised, feeling slightly less than enthused about the prospect. Kitty shrugged. She wasn’t even technically legal to drink, and she hadn’t exactly been spending a lot of time in bars that didn’t card. Saving the world took precedence over getting a fake I.D. “Uh, you know what? I actually think there’s a bar in the compound. We could just knock all your stops off the list in one trip.”

Bruce gave Kitty a lopsided kind of grin and nodded.  He wished he could remember being young better, but he thought that even then he didn’t have that kind of faith that he would stand out for things that he actually cared about.  "Maybe,“ he said, and then shrugged a little. “It really doesn’t seem to matter all that much now.  Not with everything going on.  I wouldn’t mind being seen as just the Other Guy if he would just…help me out a little here.”  He chuckled at Kitty’s desire not to work with Tony, and nodded.  "That’s…honestly pretty understandable.  Don’t worry, I can find you a quiet area far away from where Tony usually sits,“ he said with a wink.

Bruce was on the verge of saying more, but then he saw Natasha slide into the room, in her usually aggressive stance whenever she came upon him talking to another woman.  Even, it seemed, one young enough to be his daughter.  "Hey, Nat, I…no. I was just going to get coffee and I met Kitty here-” he said and gave Kitty a slightly apologetic glance.  "She’s one of the X-men,“ he explained and then smiled at that awed look on Kitty’s face.  "And I’m guessing a pretty big fan of yours too,” he said and let out a laugh.  "So.  Kitty, Natasha.  Natasha, Kitty.“  He gave Nat a smile and put a hand lightly on the small of her back, doing his best to reassure her, since she seemed ready to attack.  "Did you need something though?” he asked her as sweetly as possible.

"Black Widow composed herself a bit more mature. She looked upon the overly attractive young woman. She turned to Bruce and half smiled. She put her hand on his shoulder. "I just was looking for Steve. ” She looked back at Kitty. “And to see my boyfriend. Which is you.” She said sweetly to remind them both. She shook Kitty’s hand. She was always taken back when she had fans. She usually felt the fans went to the boys.Captain and Thor mostly. Which she didn’t understand because to her eyes, Bruce was the best looking one. She probably looked more towards his awkward sense of humor and how Steve felt more like a brother to her. The only one she saw anything with was Bucky and she hadn’t seen him in a long time. She was happy where she was at in life, but sad at the same time with all the loss. “I am sorry I came in a bit… offput. I will see you later? Nice to meet you.” She said to Bruce, then to kitty.

Face sympathetic, she resisted the urge to give him an understanding pat on the shoulder. He wasn’t her student, he wasn’t. She had to let that maternal instinct go. “I get that. I’ve been there before. It’s never fun, but I promise you’ll get back to normal soon. Whatever normal looks like for you.” Half joking, she shrugs and shoots him a crooked grin. “I mean, I got stuck phasing once and was basically Casper the friendly ghost for a couple months until they fixed me. The thing that got me through? This phrase my professor kept telling me: this too shall pass. Okay, totally kidding, that was the least helpful thing to hear. A friend offered to teach me how to use a katana when I became solid again.”

She nodded at that. “Thanks. He’s not the worst thing in the world, but I’d much rather work with you or Doctor Cho. Is she still around here, do you know? I’ve heard incredible things about her.” And, okay, maybe she’d developed a bit of a crush on the biochemical genius, but who wouldn’t? The doctor was amazing.

She stared between Bruce and the Black Widow as something akin to understanding hit her, and she quickly closed her mouth. “Ohhhh, so you guys are like--Yep. Cool. It’s none of my business.” She nodded quickly, waving a hand to dispel any left over tension. “So, um, you wanted Captain America? I passed him that way earlier, but I don’t know if he’s still here.” She hadn’t actually spoken to him, though she was determined that she would at some point. If she was going to continue disliking the Avengers, she needed more than one botched meeting with Tony Stark to base that off of.

As Natasha looked like she was going to leave, Kitty quickly inserted a question into the silence. “Wait, um, can I just ask you one thing before you go? How did it feel to stand up in front of all of America and tell the government to go to hell?” She didn’t mean during the Sokovia Accords, but years before, when Black Widow had been on trial after S.H.I.E.L.D. fell. It had been incredible to watch a strong woman be so assertive against so many aggressive political figures. “You’re so lucky,” She told Bruce.

“Thank god Hi-Collar is still open. If I had been reduced to hitting up Starbucks for my caffeine fix, I might as well have just turned to ash on the spot.” Maya paused to take a drink before continuing. “Getting back here was hard enough as it is without losing my favourite coffee shop. You’d think Thanos would’ve thought about small businesses and border controls before bibbity bobbity boo-ing half the world away.”

“Okay, that’s kind of...insensitive to joke about, don’t you think?” Kitty wasn’t a fight-y person by nature (shut up Rachel, she wasn’t), but hearing someone make comments about the dead so soon after they’d ashed away just rubbed her the wrong way. “I mean, I get it, it’s the cool thing these days to have a bleak sense of humor and talk about dying all the time, but people have lost so much. There’s nothing funny about this disaster.” She wasn’t seething, not really, but she‘d steeled her jaw and squared her shoulders the way she always did when she was expecting a fight.

And yet--Scott had made it back. She’d been there while the Avengers questioned what was happening and when they demanded he be seen by a doctor and a couple scientists to determine if any physical changes had occurred. In fact, she’d been there right up until the actual the medical exam, but she still hadn’t had moment alone to ask him her own questions until now. Despite her eagerness to start the conversation, she hovered in the doorway of the med bay with a plate of food in hand. “Hey,” She said softly to announce her return. “I just went to grab you something to eat, you’re probably pretty hungry, huh?”

She had no idea if he’d had food in the strange world he’d described being trapped in, and it felt rude not to bring something with her anyway. And the uplifting effect of flowers tended to get lost on a guy who saw everything through red-tinted lenses, so food it was. “Look, I know you’re probably recovering from a lot, so I don’t want to press you for details about anything, but you saw some of our friends? Some of the people I haven’t been able to get in touch with?”

I would never chose to be depowered. My powers are a part of who I am, and I’m proud of that. It’s as much a part of me as my eyes or my nose. I would never chose to give that up. Trading powers, though….that’s another ballgame. Are we talking just for a day, or forever? ‘Cause if it’s just for a day, I’d love to swap powers with someone like Kurt. Teleporting would be really cool, but I don’t know if I could live with the fur forever. If it’s forever, I would love a healing factor. Sorry Wolverine, you’re gonna be shadow-bub from now on.

Val wasn’t expecting to see any other being. She liked her rage to be contained. A good yelling session didn’t involve other people. Giving the woman a once over, she determined she was on Midgard. Apparently it had been much longer since she visited last. Bruce wasn’t as special as she thought. All Midgardians had decent style and were somewhat attractive. 2 was probably too small to make a judgement on but she didn’t want to meet any more.

“I didn’t ask for help. You just happened to be near the site the ship decided to crash at.” If her voice came off as angry, who could blame her. Her whole life was just a long stressful situation. “Well if you’re here, I guess you can help. Did Thor come back here? He likes this place for some reason. Can’t understand why.”

Following the woman’s motion, she started walking towards the city in the distance. “Actually Thor doesn’t matter. Where can I get alcohol? It’s been too long since I’ve had one.” Alcohol wasn’t going to betray her. It wasn’t going to leave her. Wasn’t going to go off and die on her.

As aware as Kitty was of the fact that sometimes people who needed to be saved didn’t want to be saved (see: the scene in the incredibles movie where the guy jumps off the building and then gets mad that he was rescued), she didn’t have to like it. “Okay, well you seemed like you needed it, and I’d be kind of a terrible hero if I just left you to struggle until you actively asked me to help you, wouldn’t I?”

So wow, she was clearly meeting someone who actively didn’t want to be helped. She’d never come across someone so blunt about their dismissal of her help. “You gue--” She sucked in a deep breath and tossed her curls over a shoulder. “Great. What can I do.” She asked. “Oh, yeah. He did. I just saw a little while ago, actually. We fought some aliens.” They’d separated after that, and she hadn’t seen him since, but she knew he was around here somewhere. “He’s probably at the Avengers Compound.” But she knew that wasn’t enough information, and with only the slightest bit of hesitation, she waved a hand towards the city. “I can show you where that is, if you need. I get the feeling you haven’t really been around New York before.”

Kitty blinked in surprise, clicking her tongue as she thought about how to respond to that. “Um, okay. There’s a lot of bars around here, if you really need one. I guess I could also show you to one of those.” The last thing she needed was to end up babysitting a functioning alcoholic on a day like this, but if it was one of Thor’s friends.....She felt obligated to help the woman.

They were sidetracking and May knew it. Nothing felt real yet, you know? The impact of what had happened hadn’t hit her, not really and not yet. The big, scary, ominous ‘yet’ she was all too familiar with. After Ben… Nothing had felt real then either (but this wasn’t the same, it wasn’t) and on some level she knew that she had to take advantage of this grace period when she could keep moving. Stupidly, fearlessly moving. Whatever it took. But the point was, it didn’t feel real and so being ma'am'ed still felt like something that mattered. “Right. No no, I get what you mean. Don’t worry, okay? You? Not giving off any rude punk kid vibes at all. This is my bad really, I’ve just had a nightmare like this before like Bella in that wild movie Twilight, when she looked in the mirror and it was like, Kristen Stewart on one end and the Grim Reaper on the other. I overreacted and have never owned tweed.” May nodded then just for good measure. Crisis averted.

“Yes. Yes… Thank you so much,” she smiled taking her phone from her and putting in her number. May looked up from the screen when she introduced herself and actually saw her. An all too familiar lump started to form in the back of her throat. No wonder she’d called her ma'am… She was just- Well, younger than May. Older than Peter but it had to be barely. And here she was in the middle of all of this. “May. May Parker like it’ll now say in your contacts list. I believe you, I do and I… Thank you.” She hesitated but handed the phone back. “Wait. Are you-,” old enough to be out here doing this? Was anyone? Where were her parents? Or cool aunt? Was she going to get hurt? You could get hurt Peter. “A badass?”

It was one of those things where Kitty knew that she needed to get the conversation back on topic, but felt the strong urge to keep spiraling anyway. The heavy stuff had never been hers to handle--someone older and more responsible (more mature) had always taken that role before she could--and she was finding herself at a loss now. How had Scott and Jean always made it look so easy? “Yeah, I’m just....trying to be respectful, I guess. But apparently there’s a limit to respect, and I hit it and then sailed right over into insult territory, so I should probably stop talking right now.” She was a little stunned at the Twilight knowledge May was dropping, but she took it in stride and waved a hand at the woman. “Don’t worry about it. You’re definitely more Kirsten Dunst in Interview With A Vampire, okay? Super young on the outside, smart and wise on the inside.”

Finally it felt like she was doing something for real, some actual small amount of helping people that she hadn’t felt before, and it was refreshing. A nice change from feeling like she was beating her fists against a brick wall to get the superheroes assembled in NYC to work together. “Hey, it’s literally my job. You don’t have to thank me. I’m gonna find him.” She couldn’t promise that, and usually she did everything in her power to avoid promising that, but she felt like she needed to here. Like that was all May needed to hear right now. “Hi. Nice to meet you. I’ll um, just text you or something really quick so you have my number.” She said, accepting the phone back with a small smile. “Am I--what?” She blinked in surprise. “Sorry, I mean, I guess I am, but I don’t think that’s what you were asking me, honestly.”

Bruce chuckled and rolled his eyes when Kitty suggested wearing a t-shirt proclaiming his PhDs.  "No I’m really…good.  I would be fine with people finding more value to the team with this,“ he said and pointed to his temple, “than the…other thing.  Even if the Other Guy is more reliable in a fight than a middle aged scientist, I would rather just…be that.”  He grinned self-deprecatingly and shook his head.  "I would like to see you and Tony try to work together.  From my own lab table, on the other side of the room,“ Bruce teased gently.  "But honestly,” he said, letting his smile turn more sincere.  "Any time.  We need all hands on deck if we’re going to figure any of this out.  And I have a few mathematical proofs that I’ve been working on, on some of the infinity stone properties that could definitely use another eye.“  His hopeful smile faded when Kitty brought up human rights violations and sighed.  "That just goes back to my thought about crumbling governments.  I don’t know what’s going to happen if we don’t find some kind of solution to all of this soon.  It might be too much to hope to bring people back…but to do something to make the world feel more stable again.  Before we end up killing each other trying to point fingers at who should have the most blame.”

“EXCUSE ME BRUCE! ARE YOU BUSY!” She shouts as she hugs him tight and looks Kitty over with death glares.

Kitty shrugged. “I think it’s only a matter of time. Not that you haven’t like, proved yourself already and everything, but just...you have to keep trying to show them that your brain is the part of you they should respect. They can’t ignore that forever.” At least, she hoped they couldn’t. She hadn’t had much experience with other people changing their opinions. And she and her friends had been remarkably ineffective at instituting any kind of change themselves. “I can understand that. Respect it, even. It’s not like being the other guy doesn’t come at a high personal cost to you.” It seemed to her like Rogue’s powers in a way, where she could use them and help people, but it left her with flashes and images of those people running rampant through her head for days or weeks--and, unfortunately, of touched too long, forever. “I’d almost prefer not to use your lab if it means I have to work with Tony Stark. But I guess I’ll suck it up for the sake of the world.” She said with a grin, eyes lighting up a little with her joke. Her almost-joke. Her half-joking, all serious joke. “That sounds really interesting. I’d love to take a look. Nobody at Xav--in the X-Men has even managed to get that close yet, but I think it’s because our scientists are mostly missing.” She would have loved to race down to the lab and take a look right away, to know exactly what was happening and how to help fix it, but she had other responsibilities and obligations, and she couldn’t just take off like a kid anymore to do whatever she wanted. “Right, we have to make the world more stable again. It’s not a viable option to let things collapse around us. What if Thanos decides we’re still not governing ourselves effectively, and he comes back to rule us?” It was a terrifying thought, but not more terrifying than the loud voice behind her. Kitty jumped, spun to face the woman, and felt her eyes widen as she realized who it was. “Holy cra--Um, hi.” She stopped herself and gave a little wave. “You’re the Black Widow.” She said, like it wasn’t obvious. What wasn’t obvious was why she was getting such an aggressive look from the woman. “Hi.”

Why am I.….Okay. Sit down. This is going to take a while. Something a lot of humans don’t like to talk about is just how discriminated against mutants truly are these days. You tell a potential employer who was eager to hire you that you’re a mutant, and I can guarantee you that nine times out of ten that job offer will suddenly disappear. You tell someone you know that you happen to be a mutant, and suddenly they start thinking it’s okay to make anti-mutant jokes because they have a mutant friend. Why am I telling you this? Because that’s the exact same shit that happens to gay people, day in and day out. Why would I–a person who constantly faces oppressive treatment–want to contribute to the oppression of another marginalized group? We have to stand together and support each other or risk being silenced completely. There’s also this little thing called intersectionality, it’s actually pretty important these days. So, even though I’m a mutant, I can also be bisexual. Shocker, I know.

Valkyrie was the best at piloting ships, thank you very much. She wasn’t prone to crashing at all. The crashed ship she was surrounded by was, not her fault. How was she to know that there was only limited fuel left? The gauge was still on full. Her landing was as perfect as she could do it. She missed her Pegasus, because at least she didn’t run out of fuel. Ships that she didn’t crash aside, Valkyrie had no clue where she even was.

With more force than was necessary, she tossed the piece of metal keeping her in away. The planet had breathable air, and it didn’t smell anywhere near as bad as Sakaar’s trash heap. Wherever she was was certainly in ruins. Maybe it was safer for her to stay inside of her ship. Throwing the top off probably wasn’t her smartest idea. She could try and sneak away, but her odds weren’t that great. 

Valkyrie kicked the side of the ship, but she regretted it instantly. “Stupid ship. Never trust anything from a Ravanger. I should have known better. Take the extra ship Thor said. It won’t fall apart he said. Children these days. They known absolutely nothing. Last time I try and save Asgard.”

Asgardian’s were relatively easy to spot, for the most part. They were all big, loud, and vaguely English. Which, Kitty actually didn’t understand, because she was pretty sure they were supposed to be Norse, but she’d never actually met anyone who was from Norway, so maybe they all sounded like that. Still, she knew better than to make one mad.

Phasing through the large hunk of metal that was thrown her way, Kitty huffed loudly and cleared her throat. “Hello, person standing here, thank you very much. You know, if you just stayed still for a second, I could come get you out. I’m very--” But the woman had already smashed her way out.

Watching the woman rage against her ship (which was pretty much falling apart from what Kitty could tell) was interesting, but it wasn’t going to get Kitty the answers she needed. She cleared her throat again. “Hey, do you need help or not? ‘Cause I do have better things to be doing than standing here all day. So if you’ve got questions or anything, could you ask them now? Maybe we can walk and talk. Are you heading to the city?” Kitty asked, motioning to New York on the horizon.