Even with the time spent making sure every paragraph of the missives was carefully scrutinised with the finest of toothcombs, double and triple checked to make sure there were no hidden clauses or dangers, the four days passed slowly.
Peter had even met with Charles, to discuss Avalon and hoping to be a bridge between the Asgardians and the Augments, but Charles was of the opinion they had burned that bridge when they had demanded rather than asking for the Augments to move.
There was to be one final sweep of the city. One final check to make sure that nothing was left behind that the Nova Corp could use, and one final sweep to make sure every system was disabled before they compressively exploded the domes, a final screw you to the Asgardians and the Nova Corps.
Even Kitty would be on hand, with Peter in tow to make sure the five arcstar reactors were disconnected and dismantled before taking them back to Earth. Their new purpose was to shield Genosha from outsiders, as the Augments had finally had enough.
Peter stepped through the portal Breach had created and the atmosphere in Avalon was immediately telling. No sounds other than the artificial gravity plating Forge had created using the ACD and the air purification system could be heard. The room was empty, and all the furniture had been removed, along with any decorations. The place was a ghost town, and even though it had been home to many for only a short time, Peter knew that it was still a painful loss.
"Right, thank you, Peter. Liv said you needed a distraction, and while I believe you may have briefly met, this is Kitty"
A short woman held out her hand, and for a moment he thought it was Laura. Long brown hair, tied in a ponytail covered her black uniform, tight leather, with armoured plated over each thigh and covering her chest,
"Right, do you still work for Elektra?" but she shook her head,
"Selene took me in. but uh I still do work for the X-men," Kitty said, rubbing one arm as she smiled at Peter,
Charles coughed, "yes, we all know he's very handsome, but can we please disarm the nuclear reactors deep within the moon's core before the Nova Corps gets here, you can flirt later." and while Kitty went bright red, Peter just shook his head.
"I see being de-aged didn't improve your sense of decent Charles, that was mean. And Kitty is dating Emma now right?"
Kitty nodded. Once Emma had split things off from the group she had split off completely. Like Pepper, it was strictly working now, but with Kitty bouncing between agencies Emma had taken a shine to the young woman and they were in a semi-committed relationship now.
Charles paused, "I apologise. This" and he took in a snort of air, "incident, has many tempers frayed. Mine included."
"It's fine," Kitty said, "I have my suit, but uh Peter?"
Kitty touched a panel on her belt and a suit unwrapped itself and surrounded her, "I can phase and breath using the suit forge made me. As long as we only take an hour per device then I'm good."
"Great, I should be fine as well. My armour is airtight after Jean showed us how Helios adapted to space, so uh, how do we do this?"
Kitty grinned, "easy, I grab you, take you to the cavern, you disarm the reactor and then I bring us back up."
"Wait, what cavern?"
Charles smiled, "well, we can't just phase solid matter and leave it. So we made a tunnel, had Kitty phase down a small device and let it explode, creating a housing for," but Peter waved a hand,
"You drilled a mine shaft, right, it's fine, while geology isn't my strong point I get what you did, so uh, phase with me?"
Kitt nodded, "Sure, I've dont it before, organic matter just gets stuck, displacing the matter around it, it's only fissionable material or anything with an energy source that won't phase unless it's properly-" and Peter raised his hand again, rubbing the other one on his forehead, "sorry, just nobody ever wants to talk about how their powers actually work, so."
Peter sighed and took out his phone, "call this number," and as he sent the contact details to Kitty, she frowned,
"Liv? The nerdy-looking woman with the glasses?" She said as she stared at the number.
Peter laughed. "That nerdy looking woman is probably the most intelligent person on the planet and would love to find out exactly how your powers work. If Emma agrees she might even give you a full physical."
Peter had no illusions that people saw Liv as a stereotypical nerd, and he didn't care, in her lab coat, with her hair, all scrunched back, she was amazingly hot, and nobody except him knew what they were missing out on.
Kity tried to ignore the comment, blushed and instead focused on the task. "Uh, right. So, yeah, the reactors are about a kilometre down. So if something went wrong there was no fallout. So it'll take a while, you can breathe right?"
Peter nodded, and let his armour coat him, "I'm good."
Kitty shrugged, looking down at her own black armour, "still a Black Cat, Peter. Black goes with everything." and as she held out her hand they phased down to the bottom of the shaft.
Can you hear me? I'm not telepathic but touching like this you should be able to read my mind right?
I can, so, uh, feeling better?
It had been over two years since Shaw but some injuries took longer than others.
Charles set me up with a therapist, and to be honest, being away from Bobby helped. Do you do that? I mean, do you worry and pick over your uh, others?
Peter laughed, yeah, if I did they would kick my ass. Gwen likes to be pampered when she's ill, not that being Enhanced makes that a regular thing, but the rest, nope. If they want to be left in peace, I do.
Must be nice. I felt Bobby and the professor were constantly making sure I was okay, that Gambit hadn't crippled me. At least Negasonic understands and treats me like an adult.
They slowly sank into a dark room, and Kitty cracked a glowstick while Peter adjusted his vision and the room lit up. He only needed to see the electromagnetic spectrum and the reactor burst into lines of light from the power core.
I can disable this here. The fissionable material can be bled away safely. He told her. Liv had redesigned the Arcstar reactors and they used deionized water, it wasn't difficult to make and wouldn't harm the moon, so he powered down the reactor, and waited until it was cool enough to open and empty.
The professor means well, and it's probably not easy to see his students get hurt on missions, especially when he didn't agree with that mission in the first place.
It still wasn't fair though, I mean Scott got the crap kicked outta him and he got a girlfriend and a new team. I was benched and mothered.
Peter had no reply to that. The internet was filled with images of female superheroes in compromising positions, and a few that didn't wear masks had indecent pictures spread all over a few news sites. People expected heroes to be strong macho men, and as far as Peter was concerned, it was all bullshit.
At the height of her powers, Carol could probably have smeared Hulk across the solar system, and gamma-powered or not, being thrown into the sun would probably have killed him just as easily as anyone else.
Yeah, I get it, maybe not as much, but yeah.
Kitty was quiet after that, sitting and wrapping her arms around her legs as she watched Peter work.
Right one down, four to go, back up, recharge your suit and then the next?
Kitty nodded and held out her hand,
The draining and disabling of the reactors wasn't a difficult task, and neither was getting to them with Kitty's powers. It was just slow and laborious, but as Peter and Kitty were travelling through solid rock, on the moon, he felt that caution was the better part of valour and that slow and steady was much better than dead and explosively decompressed.
It was at the fourth reactor that an issue arose.
Uh Charles, do you have anyone else on Avalon? Peter asked as he stared at the reactor. Its core was brighter than the rest and its surface was covered in a patchwork mess of cables.
No, why? The only people here are the four of us.
If you dont hear from us in five minutes, get back to the surface and get Jean.
Peter, that isn't very reassuring, if there is anything-
But Peter interrupted him, Charles, there is nothing and I mean that literally, nothing you can do unless you also have the ability to phase through rock.
Fine, five minutes it is.
Taking Kitty's hand, he explained what he was seeing.
Those cables are invisible to every one of my senses except my technopathic ones, and they lead into another chamber. Can you tell if the wall is shielded? I can see it, but I can't sense anything past it.
Kitty stretched out her other hand and felt around at several patches
There is something there. Energy fields disrupt my powers, and whatever it is tingles but doesn't unphase me. You aren't thinking of just diving through, are you?
Peter shrugged, unless you have a better idea?
I do, we can go around. I can sense the density of the wall until we find a better entrance. I'm not hoping we can make it safely through that wall, and if there is something there then someone had to get it there, there should be an entrance,
See, not just a pretty face, Bobby should listen to you more.
In the dark Peter failed to see Kitty blush, and shake her head,
Right, we go forwards slowly, I'll lead, until we find the entrance, no pushing past me, you could phase into something and get stuck,
Yeah, Peter thought to himself, or like Vision try to phase through something molecularly dense and get killed as it takes my head off. But he kept that thought to himself, and made a point to test Kitty's powers with vibranium, as a warning. He would hate to see anyone get hurt through his own stupidity.
They skirted the low-level energy field that Kitty could feel and Peter could see. It looked like strings of lights inside a giant hanger of some kind, and when they reached the entrance, it turned out to be exactly that.
The main door wasn't hidden, it was just placed under an overhand and the natural rock formation covered it in complete darkness. As whoever was here didn't expect anyone to come walking across the moon's surface, and it was away from any telescopes, they never thought they needed more of a disguise,
I want to take a look inside, how's your oxygen?
Half an hour, Kitty replied, and she looked down at her wrist, and we're at least twenty minutes from Avalon. Whatever your doing, do it quick.
Peter shook his head, I can move across the surface, head back, I won't need you for this part
Kitty huffed, No, I won't leave you, we dont know what's in there.
Peter was about to argue but he felt the resolution coming from her, even if she was about to run out, she didn't care. She was sick of being treated like a second rate hero, and while Peter didn't really want her to die while trying to prove a point, he also knew not to argue,
Fine, but once we're inside if they have air you drop back into phase and use their air.
Kitty nodded, and the pair began to slowly move across the massive metal door, searching for a way in. On one side was a small hatchway, a simple pressure door and Kitty and Peter effortlessly phased through it and into the airlock, then through and into the hanger itself.
Peter stared in shock as the area lit up to his senses. This wasn't just a hanger of some kind, it was filled with armoured suits, racks of weapons and rows of fighter-sized spacecraft. Peter quickly counted and there was enough for at least a hundred of each,
I dont care, get back to the professor, right now. We can't take this.
Kitty was about to suggest further scouting when a pair of green-skinned aliens walked into the bay, holding tablets and talking in a language neither of them recognised.
Peter's armour shimmered and disappeared while Kitty sank into the floor,
Yeah, not going to do anything. Two against that many will get us killed,
Kitty huffed, there were only two.
Two technicians, but you dont have equipment for hundreds if you dont have hundreds. The base must be further in. We need backup, and we need a plan.