One of the Hallways in the Sub-Basement
August 19
3:30 pm
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Piotr prised open the panel in front of him that hid the pipes in the walls in this section of the hallway. Apparently there had been a leak in one of them, and so he had been called in to fix it. Easy enough job really, a lot less stressful that other things he's had to do. And yet, it was a neccessity, especially considering the need for the school to be running perfectly so as to ensure the safety of the students.

Now, that was all that mattered around this place. Keeping everyone safe. And sometimes, keeping people safe meant keeping small domestic maintennance problems dealt with quickly. The Russian never understood, but sometimes, when people are stressed enough, they tended to see small accidents as threats to their current state of well being.

All in all, stressed people saw things differently, he guessed. One could see a leaky pipe as first an inconvenience, then straight away over think it, and suddenly it's a hazard both to the water supply, and to the integrity of the walls that keep them safe. nobody was feeling this way now, but there was no point in not treating the situation was that way now, that way he'd be ready and used to it if the atmosphere around the place did turn to paranoia.

He'd not spoken since the attack at the X-Corps had happened. Well, not more than a simple "Da" or "Nyet" that is. He'd seen no reason to do so, personally. He had no pertinent information to give, and everything he wanted to know was told to him in it's own time, so he felt the need to speak wasn't really neccessary.

He did his job when he needed to, and he slept when he could, and lately he'd just stayed flesh and bone, keeping a smaller profile in the hallways. It didn't make things easier, really. In fact it made things a bit harder to deal with, his emotions runnng rampant inside him, but it was easier to hide when you were a foot shorter tht when you were metal. Not that being over six and a half feet tall made hiding an easy task at all.

He simply didn't want the big, shiny metal frame of his to draw attention to him and force him into a conversation. He wasn't really good at saying things that were helpful. Which, in turn, was why he'd not said very much at all. Heck, yesterday, he'd almost forgotten what his voice sounded like.

So here he was, loosening the boles on the coupling that held the pipes together, and replacing the section of pipe that had indeed rusted itself into a tiny hole. It wasn't much to fix really, but he was happy to be relatively useful for the time being. He'd felt like he was useless recently. The supposedly strongest mutant alive, and he wasn't able to do anything really. Because as of right now, the mansion hadn't been attacked, so they were simply fighting the idea of looming threat.

And he knew better than anyone that Steel can't pound Ideas. He grimaced at the thought as he tightened the bolts down on the coupling, and then wiped his hands. Rising up off his knees, Piotr placed the panel back onto the wall, and locked it back into place. He let out a breath, content in another task well done, and sat down, his back against the wall.

For the past few months Kitty has been trying to better herself as a productive member of the X-Men team. By trying to become a more capaple fighter. Fighting was not something she was very high on doing, But she is also a very smart girl and sees the inevitable writing on the walls. Humans and Mutants were heading on a fast track to an all out war. During the last major conflict in the world Kitty was reduced to baby sitting duties in the secret safe house for the X-Men during the Apocalypse attacks. She wanted to be more useful.

After studying up on many different forms of hand to hand combat and martial arts and a few very rough and exhausting Danger Room sessions with Wolverine Kitty was feeling much better about her abilities to handle herself in a fight. Which seemed to be very good timing considering all the outbursts of Human on Mutant violence sparking up all around them and not a day goes by Kitty doesn't think the school is in major jeopardy. If someone in SHEILD could out Havok as War. Who was to stop them from outing the Location of the School to the general public? A disastrous situation.

But as Kitty had spent another session in the danger room in preparation for something to occur and made her way back out into the hallway she caught a glimpse of someone further down the halls working on something and since curious did kill the cat. Kitty simply had to go investigate what was going on down the hall as she grabbed a nearby towel to wipe the sweat off her face she slowly made her way down the hall noticing the person fixing the pipes was the Russian mutant Colossus.

As she got ever so close to him she called out in a soft voice as to try not and startle him while he was busy. “Hey Petey.” Kitty left a short moment of silence after saying hello before continuing. “I guess even million dollar high tech pipes get messed up from time to time huh?” Kitty added the unnecessary obvious question before going on to ask. “How's it going?”

“Hey Petey.” Kitty left a short moment of silence after saying hello before continuing. “I guess even million dollar high tech pipes get messed up from time to time huh?” Kitty added the unnecessary obvious question before going on to ask. “How's it going?”

Piotr looked up to see who it was speaking to him, and he smiled to see his dear friend Kitty. Well, his friend. He'd not truly spoken to her in quite sometime. He'd passed her in the hallways before, but never said much more than hello.

He stood, his manners catching up to him, and reached out his hand to her. "It is good to see you, Katya. Um, Yes. Sometimes, even the high tech pipes need a little love and attention to keep them running right."

She asked the hard questions, didn't she? Always had that talent. "Well, Katya, Heh, I'm the strongest mutant living, and I'm down in the basement of a school fixing pipes while out there," he gestured, "members of my race are being hurt and killed for being the people they were born to be." He slid back down as he finished, the defeated tone of his voice echoing slightly off the nearly epmty hallway walls.

"Sometimes, I'm great, sometimes I'm only ok, and sometimes, like right now, I'm just hoping that Scott or anyone else calls saying that they've got another job for me as soon as I'm done, just so I don't have to think about the fact that no matter how strong I am, I'm more useless than anyone else right now."

Piotr hung his head, placing his face into his palms. He sat there in silence for a minute before looking up at Kitty again. "That is, until one of my great friends came down here and lifted my spirits again. I'm Sorry, Katya, if I brought you down. I hope your day is going well?"

Colossus said his hello to Kitty as he then told her the sad reasoning of his mood. Kitty frowned and looked to the ground as Piotr spoke about the attacks and innocent people getting hurt and dying and all he could do was fix pipes. Adding he wished someone called him and asked him to do some other mundane job to take his mind off all the destruction that he could not do his part in stopping. But he must have sensed her mood dropping as he apologized for bring her down and asked how her day was going.

“Well, it was going okay til I ran into this big Russian guy who totally brought me down. Talking all his horrible stuff about death and destruction and yea.” Kitty gave a half flaccid smile as she looked up at the much larger man. “Yea, Guy was a real Debbie downer.” Kitty frowned again and looked at the ground. “His name was... Uh... Omega... Red or something... long blonde hair... saw something on him in the danger room so I picked that program... I kicked his ass for it.”

Kitty gave a wink to Colossus. “But... I do know how you feel... we are better trained... in greater numbers than both SHEILD and X-Factor combined to handle mutant issues... but yet we sit on the sidelines and just wait for orders... It is frustrating, but it is what it is Pete... I guess you could say we are just vigilantes As far as the.. 'Proper Authorities'... are concerned so there for we aren't needed right?” Kitty shrugged. “Right about now, transferring to X-Factor or something might not be too bad of an idea?”

“Well, it was going okay til I ran into this big Russian guy who totally brought me down. Talking all his horrible stuff about death and destruction and yea... Yea, Guy was a real Debbie downer... His name was... Uh... Omega... Red or something... long blonde hair... saw something on him in the danger room so I picked that program... I kicked his ass for it.”

Piotr looked at her, apology written all over his face, and smiled feebly. He knew she was talking about him. But she was still nice enough to make it seem as if one of their old foes was the culprit of his low spirits.

<I am Sorry, Katya.> He coughed and tried again, "I'm sorrya, Katya. I did not mean to- I mean, How dare Omega Red do such a thing to deserve getting his 'ass kicked', He should have known better than that."

Looking up at her, Piotr almost let old feelings resurface, but he held himself in check. He'd read somewhere that relationships established during a time of crisis were doomed to result in the two parties hating each other. And he didn't want to lose a great friend. He focused on listening to her speak instead.

“But... I do know how you feel... ... guess you could say we are just vigilantes As far as the.. 'Proper Authorities'... are concerned so therefor we aren't needed right?” Kitty shrugged. “Right about now, transferring to X-Factor or something might not be too bad of an idea?”

Piotr smirked a bit. He nodded his head even as he rose once more. "Da, Kitty, Seems that for the moment X-Factor is beginning to look very nice. A nice Lateral move to a different department for the betterment of one's sanity, as it seems. Although, I do not think I could just leave everyone, especially not now."

He turned and looked down the hallway, staring into the nothingness that filled it. "Maybe it's just that I'm feeling cooped up belowground too much. Maybe we need some fresh air?"

He looked at her again, <Maybe we should just take the whole school on a vacation to somewhere that doesn't care about mutants right now?>