They made it to Boston fairly quickly- within practically an hour. The new jet that the ex-Excalibur member, Brian Braddock, had built recently was truly astounding. At least he did something good with his life recently, Kitty Pryde thought. She’d taken to thinking of Brian extremely negatively ever since they had a recent revelation as to what Brian’s true nature was. How he could be such a horrible person was beyond most of the members of Excalibur, but Kitty was almost positive that somehow, on some level, definitely on a subconscious level, that Meggan must have been using her powers at least a little bit to change Brian in some ways. Which was truly astounding, and spoke to the true nature of Meggan’s potential, but Kitty was used to being suprised by Meggan lately. She’d grown more intelligent and powerful by leaps and bounds. Kitty was not worried, though. Meggan still had a ways to go before she became "too" powerful.
They stowed and hid the jet in a clever hiding spot, and went to Andre’s old apartment.
"Now, my friend, Jill, she’s probably asleep right now, she’s been house-sitting for me," Andre explained before he opened the door with his key. "So, we’ll try to be quiet, eh?" He grinned, and quietly opened the door, creeping in slowly. He was wrong, his friend Jill was not sleeping. Instead, she was up cooking something (breakfast, probably, the group realized, since it was a bit earlier time was than it was from where they came from) for a female friend of hers, who was sitting at the counter, looking very tired.
Jill’s eyes lit up. "Aaaah!" she squealed, and ran up and hugged Andre tightly. "How ARE you?!" she shouted.
"Great, great," he answered. "I’d like you to meet some of my friends." He backed up and motioned the rest of the group forward. "These are my new friends. Kitty, Meggan, and Illyana, this is Jill. Jill, this is Kitty, Meggan, and Illyana. And here’s someone special to me." Andre walked over, held Neophyte’s hand, and brought him forward. "This is Lars. Lars, this is my good friend and professional house-sitter, Jill."
"Well, it’s great to meet you all," Jill grinned. "And it’s especially nice to meet you, Lars." She hugged him and grinned. "I can not wait to get to know you all better!" She smiled. "And here is someone special to me, too. Dove?" The sleepy girl at the table blinked and got up, trying to smile. "Dove, this is Andre, and his friends, Lars, Kitty, Meggan, uh, Illyana? Did I get that right? I guess I did." Dove smiled and waved appropriately.
"We’ve got some stuff to get from out of the hall, so we’ll go get that, okay?" Andre said.
"Okay!" Jill grinned.***
"So that’s it? That’s how you met?!" Jill enthused. "That’s amazing! Wow." Jill had just been told the "edited" version of Andre’s and Lar’s first "date", the one that left out Excalibur. Andre did not like to lie, but he knew that, for their sake, he had to leave Excalibur out of it. So he just introduced them as friends they met along the way. "This is so nice, you suprising us like this!" Jill continued. "It really is so great to see you."
"It’s great to see you, too," Andre agreed. "Jill and I have known each other for quite some time. Since before high school, really. And we went to the same high school and college and everything....."
"And we stayed best friends throughout it all," Jill winked.
Suddenly, there was a loud rapping at the door.
"Oh, I’ll get that," Jill grinned, mischievously. "I think I know who it is!"
"The surprise guest behind door number three?" Andre joked.
"Y’know, Andre, this is a really nice apartment. It’s very big. What’d you do that you could afford a nice place like this?" Kitty queried.
"Well, I’m a speech pathologist," Andre explained.
"Oh, really?" Kitty replied. "That’s great."
"A what?" Meggan asked.
"A speech pathologist. I help the deaf learn how to speak and learn sign language, and things like that," Andre said. "It’s a great job. I was doing some of it, off and on, in Europe. Then I took a bit of a holiday, and then, well, then I met Andre. Since then, everything’s been, well, hectic. I’m glad to be back here, though. Tie up some loose ends for awhile."
"Well, you’ll get plenty of chances to visit, I’m sure. We’ve got multiple modes of transportation," Kitty encouraged.
"Yes, I guess so," Andre said. "How about you, Lars?"
"Well, I-I.....-it’s a lot to absorb, but it’s very nice here," Lars said, smiling. "It’s good to see where you used to live."
"I was right!" Jill said from the other room, walking swiftly into the kitchen. "I did know who it was! Look who it is!"
Four men and a woman walked into the room, and Andre’s face lit up. "It is great to see you guys!" he shouted. He walked up and hugged them all.
"Yes, well, it’s nice to see you, two," one of them answered mechanically. Kitty’s brow furrowed. For such good friends, she thought, you’d think they’d be warmer.
Meggan stared at the coffee table. What’s that feeling I’m getting? She wondered. It’s not good. Something’s wrong.
"What’s up, guys?" Andre asked. "I mean, how are you doing?" He eyed them suspiciously.
"Interval Sensor Sweeps indicate four mutagenic presences and one superhuman presence," one of the men spoke.
"Lethal force has been fully authorized," the woman spoke up.
"What’s going on?!" Andre shouted.
Kitty stood up and got out of her chair, ready for danger. Meggan did the same, and finally Neophyte got up, too. They glanced around the room. There were five new strangers, and Jill and Dove were fine. The situation seemed dangerous, but the numbers even.
"We are prime sentinels, created to protect humanity by destroying the mutant menace," one of them spoke up, while they morphed into machines wearing blue and pink uniforms.
"You will be subdued," Dove suddenly spoke up, morphing into one of the machines, much to everyone’s suprise.
"And dealt with," Jill finally spoke, the last to morph into a prime sentinel. Andre gasped.
Suddenly, home seemed like a very harsh place to be.
To Be Continued
Next: All hell breaks loose!
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