Kitty was at the firing range.

The physical damage from the kidnapping had long been taken care of by Andrew. However, it was the mental and emotional damage that was harder to heal.

The nightmares were the worst and she had taken to doing her best to stay up all night so as not to fall asleep. When she couldn't do that, she found other places to nap that wasn't around people. She didn't want to bother Tamsin or Andrew with the nightmares and the reactions she had upon awakening. Add to it that she knew that Tamsin would be picking up on her emotions each time, and you had a cat that was acting like a kitten.

She was sure that the other victims had probably had worse done to them. She didn't know for sure because it wasn't like any of them had decided to all get together and talk about what had happened. Someone else would probably have to broach that subject because she sure wasn't.

The biggest change that could be noticed in Kitty was that since the rescue, she hadn't so much as left the grounds of the institute. She hadn't been doing her usual things like riding her bike or going skydiving.

But she was spending an awfully lot of extra time at the firing range.

The garage was full of motorcycles with keys and helmets. He would have to make sure not to take Logan's bike. The last thing that he wanted was to piss off the Wolverine. Settling on one he was sure wasn't his or Scott's and set to work hotwiring it. It only took a few seconds and before he left, he wrote a note and set it on the chair nearby.

borrowed your bike.
promise i'll bring it back. with gas. in one piece

- alex.

With that, he was off. He needed to get out of there, just for a little while. He had forgotten how stifling it could be around all those people. People judging him, expecting him to be Scott. Scott he wasn't and he was so glad for that. He skidded to a stop in front of a nearby bar and made sure the bike was locked up before he made his way inside.

"Gimme a beer?" he asked as he sat down at the bar, shrugging out of his jacket. Fishing a pack of cigarettes from his pocket and lit one, Alex leaned back and finally felt like he was somewhere familiar.

[OPEN]

Evelyn checked her reflection in the full length mirror of her hotel room not for the first time that day (sixth to be exact) trying desperately not to wrinkle her nose at her outfit.

In reality it was a very sexy sophisticated outfit: black skinny jeans that clung to her skin like a second skin, calf high stiletto boots, fitted shirt that again clung to assets like it had been made specifically for them, long dark hair loose with even a slight curl and makeup just this side of subtle. She wasn't sure what she was trying to achieve with this outfit, aside from getting noticed.

It just wasn't... her, she was more used to... combat clothing.

The brief was laid out on the bed of her hotel room - she was to join the mansion as the foreign languages teacher and all she could do was hope that she managed to make it convincing. It helped that she was multilingual, it was an essential talent to have in her position.

To be precise Evelyn spoke: French, Russian, German, Italian, Spanish, Chinese and well, English. Granted it was more an Irish take on English, but, still, it was English.

Her superiors had even forwarded on an impressive resume along with a comprehensive list of references along with just the right amount of detail on the form itself.

She breathed, sliding her hands into her hair, recently manicured nails skimming the skin along the back of her neck as she fiddled with it, not used to having it down.

Part of her felt bad about this, but another part, a much larger part knew she had a duty to serve as best she could. Eve took one last look at her reflection before she pulled on a leather jacket, zipping it up until once again another layer of clothing looked as if it had been created especially for her.

Evelyn let herself out of her room and caught the first cab she could to the address she'd noted down, hopefully somebody would be there to meet her.

There were lots of things Alex Summers was good at. Pool, drinking games, flirting with women, those were his areas of expertise. Reuniting with the older brother he was sure didn't like him? That was scary to him. Scott was his only family though and if there was one thing he knew, it was that he wouldn't forgive himself if something happened and he wasn't there.

Shifting his bag from one shoulder to the other, he made his way towards the institute. He snapped his fingers idly, releasing tiny plasma waves. Alex's powers had always been rather hard for him to control but he had grown a lot since he had last met the X-Men. He pushed the buzzer on the gate and stood back to wait.

He had heard rumblings about things going down and hoped that he'd be welcomed. The last thing he needed was to be told there was no room. He sighed softly as he leaned against the fence.

Looking around the grounds, he wondered how much alike this institute and the old one were. It made him slightly bitter, the idea that Scott had grown up in this sort of atmosphere and he had been forced to live with his crazy foster family.