*** DISCLAIMER: The X-MEN are Copyright (C) 1997 Marvel Characters, Inc,
and are property of Marvel Comics Entertainment Group. They have been
used without permission. No profit has been made from this work. This
story is Copyright (C) 1997 by Jon Bartley.

*** NOTE: This story may contain adult language, adult content, and
violence. If you find these things offensive, don't read.

BLACK LOVE (2/?)
By Jon Bartley

PART TWO: "Dreams & Wishes"

The next two weeks passed at a snail's pace for Scott. It was an
eternity of imprisonment to a life of discontentment. Still, the X-Man
Cyclops tried to live life the best he could for the next two weeks. He
continued to lead super-hero missions, after assuring his friends that
he could--though he secretly and privately prayed to the Lord of Heaven
to end his pain in any way He saw fit.
     The second week passed much quicker than the first. Then one day he
woke and felt very different. He'd had a dream of Jean the night before.
It made him feel so alive, and this feeling stayed with him when he woke. 
Scott took a shower, got dressed, and began to leave his bedroom for
breakfast.
     When he opened his bedroom door, he felt a chill. Scott
instinctively assumed it was due to the mansion's heating failing again.
But then he saw a trail of leaves in the carpeted hallway. Then Skuddly
jumped from one side of the doorway into Scott's vision and smiled.
"Hello, Summers Scott Summers. I see you're alive. That's good." said
Skuddly.
     "Please, Mr. Skuddly, call me Scott." said Scott. He was getting
used to Skuddly's entrances.
     "OK, Scott. Today is the day you get your wife back." Skuddly
patted his pockets, looking for something, and let the realization of
what was going to occur set into Scott's brain. Skuddly's dusty uniform
reminded Scott of something he was going to ask the wishsmith.
     "Oh, I remembered something. Mr. Skuddly, you said you could grant
this wish of mine," began Scott, not knowing quite how to put this. "Do,
uh, you think you could grant another one of mine? Maybe more?"
     Skuddly pulled a gray sphere from his pocket and exclaimed: "Aha! A
dead wish. Knew I had it here somewhere. This, Scott, is what will bring
your wife back."
     Scott nodded, slowly. "Ah, ok. But getting back to my question, do
you think you--"
     "We should really do this at my place. My tools are there. Come on." 
said Skuddly. He offered one of his cold hands to Scott, which the X-
Man gratefully accepted. Instantly the two men were intangible.
     Scott now knew how Skuddly got around. As the two men became
intangible, Skuddly jumped up through the ceiling, jerking Scott's arm
as he went. They landed in Rogue's bedroom. Rogue was looking in the
mirror. She really wished that she could control her powers; that she
could touch another human being. Skuddly jumped again. They landed again
in the presence of Charles Xavier. For twenty years had Charles wished
for a world in which its people could live in harmony.
     Skuddly jumped again.
     Their feet lightly hit wooden floor stained with glass. A woman was
knelling down and sweeping the glass into a dustpan. She paused for a
moment to touch the bruises and gashes over her eyes. She wished she
could please her husband just once. Skuddly jumped again. They continued
on for some time. Skuddly and Scott jumped from place to place, from
world to world, using people and their wishes as platforms, pausing only
briefly before jumping again.
     Finally, Scott and Skuddly landed in a scorching smithy. Scott felt
himself become more tangible. He had no idea where they now were, but he
didn't care either. Skuddly pulled out the metal sphere from before and
rolled it between his fingers. "This will only take me a moment to
prepare." said Skuddly and turned toward his work bench. "LYSETTE!" he
yelled.
     A short, friendly-looking woman ran into the smithy from outside
and stopped in front of Skuddly. "Yes?"
     "My tools?"
     "All shined and polished. Over there." said she.
     Skuddly turned to Scott again. "This is Lysette." Scott nodded to
her. Skuddly reached into Scott's head as though the X-Man weren't real
at all and pulled out a small ball of light. "I need this." And then he
marched over to his work bench to get started.
     "Hi," Lysette said and smiled.
     "Hello. So you work for Skuddly?"--Lysette nodded--"So you'd know a
little about his work?"--Another nod--"OK. I've got a question."
     "Oh, that's good," said Lysette. "I try to keep around at least
five questions--some of them are stupid, some are good--just in case
conversation gets dull. It never does with Skuddly around, but you never
know. One of them is: Did you know hyenas are matriarchal?"
     "No I didn't. Could you *answer* my question, though?"
     "OH. I'm not so good with answers. My sister Karma, she's good with
those. Maybe she could help you."
     "Does she work for Skuddly too?"
     "No. Only I do."
     "Then she couldn't help me. Skuddly's going to grant a wish of mine. 
I was wondering if he could grant more than just one. Maybe a few. Do
you think he could--or *would*-- do that?"
     Lysette thought about this. "Usually Skuddly gives people these
things and they can make their wish from it, and make other wishes too.
He puts them into your head."--Skuddly's loud metallic tinkering had
stopped; he looked over one shoulder--"And sometimes -- most of the time, 
really -- you can reverse your--"
     "That's enough of that, Lysette," said Skuddly coldly, standing
behind her. "Go out into the garden and plant some more azaleas."
     "But they never grow. They die, all of them." complained Lysette.
     "I said GO."
     Lysette's shoulders sunk and she stampered off loudly.
     Skuddly's smile returned. "All right, Scott. I'm done."

With much more swiftness than they left did Scott and the wishsmith
return to the Summers' bedroom. The leaves that seemed to go wherever
Skuddly went followed. After Skuddly's minor upset at his smithy, Scott
decided not to question the wishsmith anymore and to be very careful
around him in the future. There was something about Skuddly's smile now
that seemed... fake, to Scott.
     Wearing a grin from ear-to-ear, Skuddly pulled the metal sphere
he'd been tinkering with from somewhere about his person and displayed
it proudly between his thumb and index finger. There was a pink glow to
it now. "Are you ready?" said he.
     "For what?" Scott said and swallowed.
     The queer wishsmith inserted the sphere into Scott's head with the
same ease he had removed the small ball of light before. He stepped back
and nodded, proud of his work. "The rest is up to you now." said Skuddly. 
"When you go to sleep tonight, make certain your wife is the last
thing in your mind before you dream. Come morning, you'll see results,
sir."
     It *sounded* easy enough, and Scott said so. Skuddly nodded, then
left, taking his leaves with him. Scott smiled. It was only morning;
eight o'clock at the latest. The primal growling in his stomach told him
that breakfast was long overdue. Scott went downstairs and ate breakfast
with a smile on his face. If he did everything Skuddly had told him,
Scott would wake up tomorrow morning and... 'And what?' he thought.
Would Jean be sleeping beside him? And how would he tell the others she
was alive? No matter, he decided. He could tell, things would be getting
better now.

To Be Continued...
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