1207/One on One on One...

One on One on One...
Date of Scene:	17 April 2020
Location:	Basketball Court
Synopsis:	David catches up with Kitty after a couple of years apart and discuss the situation in Chicago. Now if only their balling was as good as they're talking.
Cast of Characters:	David Alleyne, Kitty Pryde, Logan Howlett

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David Alleyne has posed:
It's actually warm enough outside today to get outside and get some exercise! And David is taking advantage of that. Dressed in a pair of knee lenght shorts, tennis shoes and Khalil Mack's number 52 Home Jersey, David is currently on the court with a band around his head to hold his everpresent transludent yellow shades in place as he dribbles the basketball down the court.

And like most teenagers as he dribbles down the court, he's narrating it. "It all comes down to this... Alleyne is being guarded by Kawhi Leonard, in the game seven of the finals, down by one, will the Bulls have their first championship in two decades... only five seconds left, four, three..." David steps back from the three point line, "Alleyne from the three point line for the championship..."

CLANG!

It bounces off the rim hits the backboard and goes high in the air. "And Alleyne puts up a //brick//. The Raptors repeat! Oh the horror!"

Kitty Pryde has posed:
"No no no," a girl's voice calls from off the court. "The proper announcer commentary would have been a two second pause and then... 'He's fouled!!!'" Kitty Pryde says as she approaches the court. She's wearing a pair of shorts and some t-shirt, the latter beneath a zip up hoody which is halfway zipped, and her hands stuffed in the pockets of it.

Kitty walks over to the edge of the court. "Great jersey. Can't believe the Raiders traded him to us," she says, using the pronoun choice that suggests she must be a big Chicago Bears fan. "You missed the fun in the kitchen earlier," she says, glancing around. "Ah, if you see six-feet tall T-Rex, it's Jean. Who still has her faculties, though bolted. And, a similarly sized Velociraptor is Laura. She had Gabby riding on her last I saw."

Kitty pauses and looks around the grounds for them. "Our lives are weird," she says.

Logan Howlett has posed:
"Very," grunts Logan, as he comes into sight. He's dressed for his job, in grass-stained jeans, work boots and a battered sleeveless shirt. The short, muscled man has a belt with various gardening tools hanging from it, and it looks like he's been at it for as good portion of the day.

He leans back against a nearby lightpost (For nighttime games), and watches the two.

David Alleyne has posed:
"I know, we got him for a steal, right?" David asks as he picks up the ball to turn to Kitty. Then pauses. He's seen her around of course. Last time he saw her though, she was a sixteen year old, and now.

Wow.

Jaw back into mouth, Alleyne, the groundskeeper's watching. Tossing the ball over to Kitty, he offers up an easy grin. "Want to shoot some hoops?" he starts to ask, before Kitty makes the comment about the raptors. "Wait. What? You mean Miss Grey?" he asks in confirmation. "Is this a secondary mutation thing?" As he's asking questions, he reaches up and taps the side of his glasses and speaks to himself.

"Bring up all instances of instant animal transformation in the last twenty-four hours." And he opens his hands, opening a three-dee field for the other two to look in on as his search accesses the major news networks and then local levels, looking for his search criteria.

Then he pauses as he sheepishly realizes what he did and his already dark cheeks darken further. "Hi, I'm David." he offers to Kitty. Groundskeeper? David's aware that Logan's nearby, but for just this second, he's a little ... distracted.

By the search. Really.

Kitty Pryde has posed:
Kitty Pryde catches the ball, giving it a couple of dribbles while paying attention to the two men. "Hey Logan," Kitty says, smiling as she spots the very familiar gruff-looking face. "Been wondering when we'd bump into each other," she says to the man that is like a mentor to her. No, more than a mentor, really. She's been spending a lot of time down in the computer rooms in the X-men base though, and after her return just before Genosha, where her father died, Kitty hasn't come seeking him out yet.

She looks back to David. "Kitty, Pryde. Remember me? I've been gone for about two years, over in the UK," she tells him. She catches the ball and takes a shot but it's short and just barely bounces off the rim. "Hank is looking into it. Laura bit him when it happened, but I think once she calmed down she was a little better. Rachel went after Jean, who talked to us with her telepathy before... ah... crashing through the wall to get away.

Kitty sighs. "So kind of a normal Friday around here. But yeah, no idea what caused it yet."

Logan Howlett has posed:
"Kitty," he responds in his growling voice. "Been a bit, yeah. I've been out at my cabin most of the time. Been enjoying the peace and quiet." Logan rolls a muscled shoulder as his gaze flicks from Kitty to David. He looks like he wants to say more to the young woman, but he keeps it to himself in mixed company. Instead he offers David a bit of a gruff nod.

He reaches into his belt and withdraws a cigar from one of the pouches, and he lights it with a scuffed old zippo. He listed to what is being said for now.

David Alleyne has posed:
"Kitty. Sorry, right. You grew up." David admits with a chuckle, his cheeks finally no longer feeling like he's able to fry eggs on them. And while he's in the presence of the pair, he can feel the slight shift in his abilities. Chewing on the inside of his cheek, he reaches up and swipes his hand to dismiss the field and articles. "Crashed... through a wall. Right, typical Friday." he manages before looking between Logan and Kitty in some confusion.

"Been distracted by what's been happening back home, so just a little surprised." he admits as he jogs over to take up the ball. "Did you want to shoot around a little? Logan can make sure we don't use powers. Or something." It's really hard to tell when David's using his power.

Kitty Pryde has posed:
Kitty nods towards Logan. "I wasn't ready to come by yet," she tells him simply. "But, I should have. Good to see you," the teen tells Logan, adding a tiny shrug of her shoulders towards him.

Lockheed comes flying over the school, spotting Kitty and winging down towards her. He lands on her shoulder and she looks at him. "She back safe?" Kitty asks. "Or lost her, couldn't find her?" Kitty asks. She seems to sense the latter from the little purple dragon and nods. "Ok, thanks for looking," she tells him, reaching up to give his head a little scritch.

Kitty turns back to David. "Hey, thanks, you're first to actually comment on that," she says. She's still of the age of the graduating class, but there are definitely differences in her from when she left. Kitty pauses and glances around the grounds. "Guess I might as well, people are looking for them and I'm not one of the overly mobile around here unless I take the Blackbird," she says.

Kitty moves over onto the court. "What's happening back home?" she asks curiously. She's had her focus on other areas, not really paying attention to news, let alone Illinois news.

Logan Howlett has posed:
"People do that," Logan grunts in response to David's statement about Kitty growing up. He looks to Kitty then, and he nods to her. "Good to see you too. Door's open anytime for you." Not a common thing for him to tell someone. There's a handful of people he's fine with visiting unannounced. Or even announced.

David Alleyne has posed:
"Yes, they do. But she did it really well." Okay, foot out of mouth, David. He shrugs his shoulders as the dragon comes flying in as he watches the interaction between Lockheed and Kitty. "She is probably really confused and needed some time to figure this out for herself. I'd assume that she's probably in the woods someplace nearby, if she still has the sense of he normal self to maintain the security of the school." It's a guess, at least.

"But if you're talking about borrowing the Blackbird for a spin, between the pair of us, we could probably do it." If she remembers what David's powerset is.

Anyway, back to subject at hand. David turns his attention to the pair to explain, "Group calling itself Purity hacked the Univerisity of Chicago's website and supposedly has information on every mutant on campus. Not sure what they're planning on doing with it, but if it's like what they did to me, they'll attempt to dox them and force them to admit to their mutantions to humiliate and out them."

Kitty Pryde has posed:
Kitty gives Logan a little nod, her eyes expressing more than the rest of her expression does, showing her fondness towards the man who has always told things to her straight. And been there for him when she literally was at risk of losing herself to fates worse than death.

She doesn't show any more emotion than that though, knowing he won't want it, probably. She instead listens to David and frowns at the mention of what's going on at the University of Chicago. "Darn it," she says softly. "You know I considered going there instead of Oxford. I don't imagine it's going to be easy to get into their own computers. They probably have enough copies of it that might be tough to deal with in that fashion," she says.

Logan Howlett has posed:
Logan's brow furrows a bit as the Purity situation is mentioned. He growls a bit and shakes his head, before he brings his cigar back to his lips for another few puffs. "Computers and hackers and all that stuff isn't really my specialty," he admits.

David Alleyne has posed:
"Neither is groundskeeping, Mister Logan." David offers. "But as much as I'd love to have them scared the crap out of, I think Kitty's right. We may have to go espoionage on this one. They're planning some big gathering on campus next weekend to protest mutants on campus. Was going to talk to Illyana about us blending into the crowd to make sure things don't get out of hand and see if we can get access to them." he offers. "What do you think, Kitty? Want to go back to school?"

He holds out his hands for the basketball from her, his thoughts are on the school. "If she's not up for it, I'll just ask around to see if anyone wants to go with me. Student Amtrak pass isn't that expensive." And then he grins over at Logan.

"Though I did miss the martial arts lessons." he admits with a rub at the back of his head.

Kitty Pryde has posed:
Kitty passes the basketball over to David. "Yeah, we might need to get tricksy with them. Switching out the list might be a possibility, but then it's going to just end up having whoever is on it get targeted. And even if we made the list all be the Purity members, well, if they still have it somewhere. Though I don't know, maybe they haven't spread it around. I mean... how many of their members would they trust to stick to marching orders on its release?" Kitty says.

"If they are holding it back for what amounts to blackmail, they'd need to make sure their overzealous members don't go releasing it or acting on it early. So... hmm. Maybe it will be more contained than I was first thinking," she says after considering how group dynamics normally work. Especially amongst the hate crowd. "They tend to have strong leaders to keep them together in a group."

Logan Howlett has posed:
Logan glances over at David and straight-up glowers. He enjoys being the groundskeeper, and it's a job he takes with a decent amount of seriousness. He glances between David and Kitty and crosses his arms over his chest as he leans back against the post, puffing on his cigar.

Kitty knows what she is talking about, so he lets her take the lead here.

David Alleyne has posed:
Catching the ball, David dribbles it before Logan's glower freezes him in place. The man can be freaking intimidating. "I didn't mean anything bad by it!" he offers in quick defense. "I mean, the grounds are really well kept!" He hesitates and hedges the rest of his thoughts to keep what was supposed to be a compliment from blooming into bad intentions, and adjusts to Kitty to make a shot idly from where he was earlier.

The ball arcs beautifully and drops through the net with a 'swish'. "At least we know the goal's not broke?" he asks innocently enough, before he nods to Kitty.

"It's setting a fire and blowing smoke in to see who runs out first. They want to see if they can stir up a panic to chase people out. They did something like this before, from what I heard." There's a frown at that. "I guess what happened in Genosha has them emboldened enough to think to try again. You'd think it'd scared them enough to back off."

Kitty Pryde has posed:
Kitty Pryde tells Logan, "I think he just meant, you know. Rough and tumble is your thing you excel at most." She has a soft grin at his glower. He doesn't usually mince words, that's for sure.

"Nice shot," Kitty says as the ball goes through the net and slowly rolls over her way. She puts her foot on it to give it a little roll her way, then gets her foot beneath it and lifts to pop the ball up into her hand.

"Yeah, if you're thinking about doing something to help there, count me in," Kitty says, her voice a little grim with determination. She takes a shot, it's not a thing of beauty, but after a few bounces around the rim it falls through.

David Alleyne has posed:
"Thanks." David responds to the comment about the shot as Logan goes off to tend to things. "...man he's scary when you're own his bad side. I feel like he should have that as a skill." he admits with a light laugh. "Though I don't think I could /ever/ mimic that." He picks up the ball, bouncing it a couple of times. "Want to play a little? We could try HORSE, or just shoot around a little."

But at the comment about going to the protest with him, David's smile in warm. "Thanks, Kitty. I get the feeling I'm gonna need an assist on it. Maybe we can convince some of the others to come with us." he admits with a grin. "It'll be Spring Fling week, so you know there will be frat parties... everywhere."

Kitty Pryde has posed:
Kitty unzips her hoody and tosses it over to the side of the court. "A little one on one works," she tells him. "I could probably use some exercise after the kitchen turned into the Savage Lands," she tells him.

Kitty moves out onto the court, wearing tennis shoes thankfully, and moves over between David and the basket. "We can start now, dig into their computers and figure out who their membership are. Who the leaders are, where they live. And maybe we'll uncover something about their plans if we can hack into their computers," she suggests.

David Alleyne has posed:
"I didn't consider hacking into their servers, but probably a good place to start..." David admits as he dribbles the ball idly. "I was with Rogue last night when I saw the message on the website - they had taken over the school's website." he explains as he dribbles the ball idly, watching her to try to figure out which way she's going to go when he presses forward.

"School has their website back, but they promised they're gonna hold protests until the mutants on campus are gone. I get the feels, though. I was going to go there too. I mean, going to school here is amazing and all, but my parents pushed really hard for me to just be... at normal speed instead of letting me..." he blows out a breath. "...so I want to keep myself in check. Don't ever want them to question if I know what I know because of me, or because of my power."

And finally, he makes his move, straight towards Kitty before moving to the oustide to try to get around her to make the shot.

Kitty Pryde has posed:
Kitty defends David, though he has some definite size and strength advantages on her, though the girl-turned-X-man-turned-ninja has good foot speed to help her defend. She keeps up the conversation as they play.

"Yes, now the damage is done. Why they'd retain that kind of information is just... gah," Kitty says with a sigh. Kitty fails to block David's shot, and collects the ball after it goes in.

She takes it back out then, backing her rump and back into him forcefully once as if she intends to play rough, and then trying to quickly spin and drive around him. "Your power is you. I mean, you still have to learn it, and from somewhere else. Long as you're learning it and not just depending on borrowing all the time. I learn things easier than a lot of people too. Not as easy as you. But I wouldn't say I didn't earn what I know just because it was much easier for me."

David Alleyne has posed:
"That's the thing though." David responds to Kitty, "Like right now, I can feel all your skills, right there, like ripe fruit to be taken. I know what you're on par with, what you're better at me at, what you know that I don't." Withough thinking, he switches to Hebrew. "It's like knowing you can do it and reminding yourself that it's stealing if you do." he explains.

"And you're right..." he's working the defense now, stepping backwards with her as she's trying to find a way around his defense. "And that is how I want to do it Kitty. There's so much that I learn, and it just... goes away. Forty five minutes after you leave? Only words I'll know in Hebrew are Halal and Kosher."

When she drives to take the shot, he jumps, and it's clear they're going to bang heads unless Kitty phases.

Kitty Pryde has posed:
"Mazel tov," Kitty offers so he'll have an extra word or two to hang onto. "Right, long as you focus on a career doing things you've managed to retain, doesn't matter if your power helped you learn it from me or I spent a year talking Hebrew with you teaching," she tells him, in Hebrew.

Kitty drives for the basket but David slides down to try to block her. The young woman goes for the shot and doesn't phase, not wanting to use her power during the game. The pair collide together, body against body, head against head. Ouch.

Kitty falls over as she lands, ending up on her backside and a hand going to her head. "Ouch. Now that's Chicago-ball defense," she says, managing a soft laugh despite the hard knock of their heads.

David Alleyne has posed:
"Is it scary that I'm not exactly sure what I want to do with myself, because of it?" David asks her in response. "I can't do anything professionally in a group. There would always be that niggling doubt." he explains. He was about to say more, but when Kitty starts to drive, David holds his ground, more than willing to take a charge -- and honestly, he expected her to phase through.

That doesn't happen, instead they go *CLONK* and the pair collide and David stumbles back with a groan of pain. "At least we ain't from Philly, we'd broken our bells." he says with a laugh, reaching up to rub his head. "...alright, I'll give this one to you, but only cause you're helping."