X-Men Evolution: Rogue Evolution

Cat's Shadow 5.7

"See that one there?" Anna pointed at a twisted monstrosity loosely veiled beneath a long tattered black cloak in Evan's Dungeons and Dragons monster book. A warped beak poked out from under the shadow of a hood and a crooked pock-riddled hand carried a scythe. "That one's my boyfriend."

Kitty looked, her hand full of popcorn suspended between her mouth and the bowl shared between them. "Ugh! Dude! What the heck is wrong with you?" She leaned in closer. "Is it wearing shoes on its clawed feet?"

"Yeah, cus he's classy." Anna flipped a couple of pages over till the image of a tall woman, whose chestnut skin was adorned with a patchy trench coat and pointed teeth with gold caps. Long and heavy-looking tools and weapons hung across her ample hips and shoulder, and a pair of glowing red eyes glinted beneath the shadow of a wide-brim hat. "And this is my girlfriend."

"Oh. I can get that."

"Hey! Will you two focus?" Evan called from his usual spot next to Kurt in front of the fat CRT TV on the floor of the attic. In typical fashion, he and the blue boy had their eyes fixed on the screen playing some game old enough to teach them how the earth was formed. "You were just about to tell us about breaking into Jean's room!"

Of course, he wanted to hear more of the story Anna had Kitty had sworn to each other that they would never speak of again after rushing into their room post-break-in. Anna wasn't sure what she expected when they got to the attic the next day to meet with the boys, but it wasn't Kitty sweating like someone had a gun to her favorite stuffed animal's head. Before Kurt even brought the popcorn up from the kitchen, she was already bringing up the razor and the rest tumbled out of her mouth from there.

"Oh, right - right." Kitty straightened her back while clutching an over-stuffed pillow she brought in from their room. "Well, it was dark in there - like crazy dark. Okie-spooky dark."

"Which is why you ate shit on a boot the second you walked through the door," Anna mumbled.

"Hey! Like I said - dark! Anyway, she has all these weird old Broadway posters on the walls -"

"You know -" Kurt peeped up for the first time since Jean was mentioned. "To be honest, I'm not sure how comfortable I am with you both telling us this. If Jean's door was closed and locked, I'm pretty sure that universal sign that she doesn't want someone in there poking around."

"It was an investigation, Kurt!" Kitty sat even taller with the authority of an attorney. "We found something dangerous and we were simply doing our due diligence! Jean would have wanted us to."

"Yeah -like I said about the door thing..."

"Well..." Evan paused the game and craned his neck to face Kitty. "Is she or isn't she on something?"

For the first time since arriving the in the attic, Kitty shut her mouth and the pair of girls looked at each other. Anna didn't need to touch Kitty's bare hand with her own to get a glimpse into her mind. It was the journal they found. The journal filled with half-baked thoughts, a sprinkle of confession, and a dollop of cryptic nonsense therein. There was the rage, the panic, all the unrefined raw energy of Jean's inner psyche on those few pages they read. Then the stuff about Xavier, about him preparing her somehow and teaching her. From the sounds of it, whatever it he was teaching her, it could have hurt the pair of them pretty bad - and even still Jean was at least considering it.

It didn't matter how much Anna tried to reason it, or talk through it with Kitty, so much just didn't add up. Jean could move stuff around with her mind... sort of. In just about every session in the Danger Room, Jean always looked like she was going to pass out over lifting the smallest of things. She was able to hold up a collapsing steel awning at the gas station by herself, sure, but even then she couldn't sustain it for very long. Anna figured if anyone were to quantify their abilities by combat capability, Jean would be pretty low on the totem pole. Granted, Anna herself would probably be lower, but still - something wasn't adding up. Then there were the earrings they found charging next to the desk. For the longest time the gross clip-ons simply seemed like a fashion no-no, but why would they have a battery that needs to be charged?