Subject: A Chance Meeting Date: Tue, 17 Mar 1998 23:02:32 -0500 From: mmilford@wildwood.edu (Michelle Milford) Okay, this is my spin on Sunspot. Anyone who wants to archive this please just notify me where you archived it. It's kinda vaguely associated with some other stories that maybe one day I'll get off of paper and on to the computer in an actual story format. And Hunter _is not_ Stevie Hunter. -Shelle ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------- A Chance Meeting...? After spending an enjoyable week at home in Brazil, Roberto Da Costa was returning to America to rejoin his X-Force teammates in New York. Unfortunately, there had been a computer error, and he hadn't been booked on the direct flight to New York City. The airline apologized profusely and had arranged for him to take the best alternate available. A flight to Ft.Worth-Dallas Int'l., with an hour layover, then to LaGuardia Int'l from there. Now Bobby wandered the Dallas airport with nothing to do. His plane had arrived early, and the NY flight had been delayed an extra hour due to bad weather in Chicago where the plane's previous flight was from. He happened to glance to his side for a moment, when... CRASH!!! He got a glimpse of blonde and female as they both fell. "I'm terribly sorry, Senora..." "I'm sorry, I wasn't looking where..." She started, picking herself up. "...I was distracted..." He looked up at the same time she did, and recognition passed between them. "Bobby?" "Amara?" To the puzzlement of the crowd milling around them, they both started laughing. "What is the likelihood that we..." "...We'd bump into each other like this?" "I saw a cafe a short ways back, we could go there and catch up..." "Before we make more of a spectacle of ourselves? Sure." They went to the cafe, and procured themselves drinks and a small table. They started reminiscing about their days as New Mutants and what had happened since Amara (AKA Magma) had left to join the Hellions. (Which was way back in umm... NM 56 Oct-87) He mentioned Doug's death, Inferno & Illiyana, the X-terminators, Dani & Asgard, the MLF, Cable, Stryfe, Genosha, Gideon and the EXternals. Amara interrupted, "Sam's immortal? Like Selene?" "Si. Though Gideon thought I was for a while." Cringing inwardly Bobby continued, sketching the whole Reignfire situation. He trailed off after the part about Dani and... Darkwind, unwilling to look her in the face, he stared into his half- empty cup of coffee. A thought skittered across his consciousness, wondering why he was telling her about some things that he had barely discussed with anyone else. "Oh,... oh you must feel so awful about that." She reached out across the table and took his hand which was spasmodically clenching and unclenching. Her two hands were warm against his as she clasped it. "Si." He answered softly, his accent thickening intensely with emotion. "Hey, we forgave Shan for that whole Shadow King mess didn't we? And from what you told me, no one really blamed Dani when Hela took her over, did they? Don't you remember the time in Rio where I got sunstroke, and nearly made Rio harbor into a volcano? And remember the whole Cloak thing? We all forgave you for what happen then. We've all had bad things happen to us, it's sort of included in our DNA, si? What's done is done. You can't blame yourself for something you did while you weren't in your right mind. Do you know what I mean, Bobby?" "Yes, I do." He answered softly, looking up into her face. All he saw was understanding in her fiery blue eyes and his other hand joined hers. <##> <> <##> <> "So," Bobby said finally, after wrapping up through Sam's 'promotion', Onslaught, etc. "What have you been doing?" "We-ell... I just finished my externship. I was studying Mont Pelee in the Caribbean, and now I'm on my way back to Hawaii U to work on my bachelor's degree." She smirked slightly at him. Unable to resist, he asked curiously. "Degree in what?" "Volcanology." At his blank look, she added, "the study of volcanoes?" "Ah, si, si. Something that comes naturally, no?" He smiled teasingly at her. "Of course. I thought that I should understand what I was actually doing when I used my gift, and that by knowing, I would be able to improve my control over it. And since I haven't had any major incidents, I say it works. And yes, my professors know about my gift -- but not its extent, and an _edited_ version of my history." "Is that truly wise, menina? With the FOH and O:ZZ out to get us?" He asked suddenly concerned for her safety. "That and Xavier's and Frost's names got me a moderate scholarship. Prof. Rubric was fascinated by the idea of an assistant who can't be harmed by volcanic fumes or lava -- he's the one I just finished working with. Most of them are oblivious to politics, and since I didn't mention or show the ah... 'lava lass' effect, they consider me to be harmless. If with an unusual and useful gift." "You lucked out, Amara. Most would have been chased out as 'freaks'." "Si. Umm... Did Sam or anyone mention that Selene revealed that my name is not actually Amara Aquilla, daughter of Senator Aquilla? That I'm really Allison Crestmere, and I was born in England?" "No, they didn't mention that to me. They mentioned the collapse of the Nova Roma facade, and that Selene had produced the whole thing. But not that, menina." Bobby replied, trying to figure a way to nicely ask about a certain unwelcome someone who had been in her life. "I bet you're wondering what happened to Empath, or Roach-boy as my roommate calls him." She said suddenly, out of the blue. Bobby's eyebrows shot up, "Roach-boy?" He inquired, trying not to laugh. "Uh huh. We... had a rather major falling out. Mostly about the fact that he had empathically manipulated me the entire time I had known him. Particularly some of the things he convinced me to do." She avoided meeting his eyes and he got a very good idea of what she avoided saying Manuel DeLa Rocha had actually made her do. "Amara... Allison,... he didn't..." He started stricken, his laughter disappearing. "He is rather sick in the mind." She stated softly, not defending or denying what he didn't quite ask. <> Dharma asked worriedly. <> <> <> "...after I had found my birth record, I looked up my parents. Sometimes I wish I hadn't." Amara shook her head. Bobby had changed the subject, inquiring about what she had done after Nova Roma. "What do you mean, Amara?" He asked sympathetically, having a good idea of what she was going to say. "Let me put it this way, they're the English version of Graydon Creed." Allison said disgustedly. She gave him an ironic smile suddenly, "I did sort of curtail them though. I wrote them a very nice letter, telling them that I was their biological daughter, who was 'gifted', and that I was quite willing to go to the paparazzi with all of this if they didn't back down a little and set up a nice Swiss account for me." She paused, suddenly aware of how he might react to this information. "Clever, menina. Wish I had thought to do something like that with my _father_. The 'I hef no son' bigot." Bobby smiled mischievously at her. "Us 'gifted' sometimes need to resort to unorthodox means to stay on equal terms with 'normals'." They continued to chat for a while, about various things. They switched to Portuguese to bash American football, which was part of the reason why Amara had accepted that two- month externship in the Caribbean. She hadn't wanted to deal with all the nuttiness surrounding New Year's, the Hula Bowl and the Pro Bowl. (You can't exactly bash football in English in the middle of a Dallas airport can you?) *Final boarding call for flight 528. Final boarding call for flight 528.* "Bugger, that's my flight!" Amara exclaimed. She snatched a pen out of her purse and a card. "Here, this is the number for my dorm, call me and we'll keep talking. Just ask for Ally." She snagged her carry- on bag and purse up, then paused. "It was nice talking to you, Bobby." "Anytime, menina. It was great seeing you again." He replied. "Goodbye, Bobby." She said then kissed his cheek quickly, "remember, there's a 6 hour difference." Then she ran for the gate, dodging fellow travelers, and barely made it before they closed the boarding gate. Slightly stunned, his eyes stared at where she had disappeared from his sight for several minutes. Then he shook himself slightly, and touched his cheek where she had kissed it. The spot still burned faintly. He picked up the card and tucked it in his pocket. He glanced at his watch and decided that he should head for his own gate. <> <> <> <> <> <<*sigh*. Force of habit.>> o o o On the plane to Hawaii, with a stop over in L.A. Allison Amara Crestmere stated dreamily out the window at the fluffy white landscape. She absently licked her lips again, dwelling on the chance meeting in the airport. How much they had both changed, and how much she liked the change in Bobby. #Admit it to yerself gel, you're infatuated. You've got this thing for handsome Hispanic mutants with dark sides,# she thought cynically, letting the British accent she was picking up slip in. #But dammit, he is handsome, charming, funny, we have similar tastes, and we understand each other without saying certain things.# They had just sort of clicked together, subconsciously flirting and sharing things they wouldn't share with people they saw day to day. #Yer reading into things. He's always been a flirt and he was just lonely for company in which he didn't have to hide his unusual occupation,# part of her whispered traitorously. #Oh shut up. Give a gel a chance to dream. He's a bloke I can completely be myself with. And I don't think I can burn him by accident, from what he mentioned from the expansion of his gift. Like I did once with Roach-boy.# #I hope he calls me... o o o Bobby leaned back in his seat and closed his eyes, the dull roar of the jetliner monotonous. Her image was imprinted in his mind as clearly as if he still sat across from her outside the airport cafe. Her molten gold hair, her fiery blue eyes, her warm smile and the golden color of her tan were all painted vividly in his mind. Old feelings about her stirred in him. #Face it, you're infatuated with the brief glimpse you got of her,# he scolded himself, #but then I've also been inhibited somewhat by my situation and its only natural I'd be attracted to someone immune to my flames. We also have so much in common, not to mention the fact that she's gorgeous, funny and we... we just fit together. I can be myself with her, not having to worry about letting something slip, or knowing they're going to be thinking of me as evil-villain Reignfire? She's changed for the better, and I really like what I see. And grrr... if I ever get my hands on that sick bastard, Empath I'll,... I'll find something really horrible to do to him. I bet if I mentioned what he did to Ally to any of the girls, they'd find something suitable in the name of womanhood. Hmm...possibility..# #And I am most definitely going to call her. Let's see, I should probably try at 11 p.m. NY time and 1 p.m.# He shifted a little in his seat, getting comfortable and dozed off into a very nice dream involving him, her, and Hawaii. ______________________________________________________________________________ Okay, first of all, my thanks to Robert Diehl and his informitive X-Force and New Mutants summaries, they were invaluable. Second, thanks to Abyss I now know that I am an Avatar, and they can't keep me out of SC. (evil grin.) Third, Hunter is mine, all mine, you hear? Everyone else is Marvel's even though you may not recognize Dharma. (Well, I guess the original Dharma's mine also) Fourth, like the two main characters I happen to be immune to fire; so flames won't hurt me. And the nice anonymous person with the filthy mouth, if I find you, I'm dragging you to outside of SC cafe and siccing Paradox on you. So there. Keep the Faith and Enjoy, -Shelle, and her elusive non- inputting partner Fate mmilford@wildwood.edu P.S. Please inform me if this gets archived, I don't always have a chance to check regularly. (Sibling Exterminators? Desperate client online!)