Kitty tells a story about a dragon before she meets one. In #153, her bedtime tale for Illyana turns familiar people and things into a fantasy adventure, including a dragon name…

Kitty tells a story about a dragon before she meets one. In #153, her bedtime tale for Illyana turns familiar people and things into a fantasy adventure, including a dragon named Lockheed. That creature belongs to the story she is inventing. The small alien dragon who appears during the Brood ordeal in #166 is real, and keeping those appearances separate makes the introduction clearer. Kitty isn't bringing a fictional character to life. She meets an unfamiliar being in a terrifying place, and he helps her survive it. The design provides immediate relief from the Brood's ugliness without making him useless against it. He is small enough to seem companionable, strange enough to belong to the setting and equipped with fire that can make an attacker regret approaching. There is a practical ally inside the delightful visual idea of a girl with a dragon. His return at the mansion in #168 makes the relationship more than a fleeting space encounter. When Kitty investigates the tunnels and finds Sidri, he is there to help again. She has to respond to the immediate danger while also recognizing that someone she thought she had left behind is now sharing her home. The destroyed Broodworld leaves no simple journey back available. Keeping Lockheed becomes another example of the X-Men's household expanding through the consequences of an adventure. A rescue doesn't always end when the jet lands. Sometimes somebody comes home with the team because there is nowhere straightforward to send them. Lockheed becomes a companion in the household rather than another student reporting for training. He and Kitty have found each other a long way from Earth, and their friendship survives the journey home.