Chapter 2
“Is this guy for real?”
Kitty looked at Rachel from the corner of her eye. “I think so? I’m going to be honest, I expected a little bit more when they gave us the call.”
The green supervillain leapt from car to car, almost comedic bags of money in his hand, looted from a wrecked armored car.
“The Leap-Frog?” Rachel tried to suppress a smile. “Seriously? What does he have the power of, jumping?”
Kitty motioned towards the road, and Rachel telekinetically lifted the two of them. “I dunno, Ray. Isn’t there a frog that is also a Thor? Maybe he’s got that frog’s powers?”
“Wouldn’t it be easier to just get the powers of normal Thor?”
“Hey,” Kitty shrugged, “I’m just trying to figure out what sort of person theme’s their criminal schemes after a frog.”
“It is the least intimidating animal, that is true.”
Rachel waved a hand and extended a burst of telekinetic flame to knock away a car that the villain had thrown. “That just seems unfair,” she complained. “When have you ever seen a superstrong frog? Thematic consistency is important. I use bird motifs and fire motifs, not, like, swimming ones.”
Kitty scoffed as a chunk of metal phased through her. “Maybe it’s the proportional strength and speed of a frog?”
“I don’t think that’s any stronger. Actually, I don’t think frogs have any sort of exceptional abilities, except jumping.”
“C’mon, Ray. He clearly has that down.”
“Well yes, I can see that.” Rachel swatted down a piece of metal, breaking it into shards. “But still, Spider-Man doesn’t have a trademark on spiders, and they jump too.”
“Is ‘the Leap-Spider’ any better?”
“The name could use some workshopping, I can admit that.”
Kitty rolled her eyes. “Can we finish this, Ray?”
“Sure thing, kiddo. Any ideas, or should I just hit him?”
“Well . . .” Kitty cocked her head and looked inquisitively for a moment. “You wanna pull a page from Logan’s playbook?”
Rachel’s aura of fire flared. “One fastball special coming up, then.” A claw of psychic fire extended from Rachel’s hand, and grasped Shadowcat, propelling her forward at high speed. Kitty passed effortlessly through the metal pieces that Leap-Frog threw, until Kitty, rolling her eyes, passed through the electronic exoskeleton. Sparking and whirring, Leap-Frog collapsed to the ground, while Kitty climbed back to her feet.
“There. Obnoxious thief in a robot frog-suit, all dealt with. Is that thematically consistent enough, Ray?”
Phoenix hovered to the ground, dismissing the firey aura that surrounded her. “Well, I still don’t see what going through things has anything to do with cats. I still like Sprite.”
The bobbies and STRIKE dealt with the villain as the two heroines wandered off. “What’s wrong with Shadowcat? I like Shadowcat.”
Rachel rolled her eyes. “What does it even mean, though? There isn’t even such a thing as a shadowcat, and it’s not like your powers involve cats. Or shadows.”
“It sounds very ninja-y! You know: ‘watch out, fellow evil-doer. The Shadowcat is here.’”
“Definitely, that’s the sort of image that you project. When I think of what scares a cowardly superstitious lot, I think teenage girls with a sash and poofy sleeves.”
Kitty pouted. “I think you just hate cats.”
“What?” Rachel shook her head and telekinetically took the two of them airborne again. “I have nothing against cats! I don’t love them, but I don’t hate them or anything. They’re number . . . eight. My eighth favorite animal.”
“Eighth? What are the other seven?”
“What? I just picked a number.” Rachel pulled up above the cloud layer, heating them both with psychic fire. “You can’t seriously expect me to actually have picked my top eight animals?”
“Cats. Dogs. Koalas. Elephants. Hedgehogs. Baby seals (not adult seals). Penguins. Hummingbirds.”
“Okay, first of all, elephants shouldn’t be that high on the list, and second of all, that’s strange.”
“What’s strange about that?”
“You own a bedazzled shirt that says bitch* and have a list of top eight cutest animals on demand. And want to be a ninja. That’s not exactly a common combination.”
Kitty sat back as Rachel carried the both of them back through the air. “Okay, well, I’m also getting flown through the air by a girl from the future, so yeah, common wasn’t in the cards.”
“Okay, okay. You’re right, Kittycat. Complaints are duly revoked.”
“Thank you.”
They flew in silence for a moment.
“Well, I don’t love love cats.” Rachel interjected. “They’re not that great.”
“Seriously?” Kitty
“They’re angry little rats, but with hair on their tails. You can’t tame them, really, and they just do stuff for themselves. And, angry. They’re some very angry creatures.”
“I don’t think you get animals,” Kitty said.
“They are better than frogs, at least.”
“Are you still hung up on the Leap-Frog guy?”
“Yes, Kitty, I am. It doesn’t make sense! What sort of frog has super-strength? It should by no means this complicated to learn how frogs work. What next, is Daredevil going to be rocking a halo? Should the Wasp start to shoot fire?”
“Maybe it will encourage more creative costuming?”
Rachel started diving down to the lighthouse. “That’s optimistic.”
“You should be!”
“By the way, there is one exception to the anti-cat rule.”
Kitty rolled her eyes. “What, Ray?”
Rachel just smirked.
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*That’s canon!