Subject: [OTL]: (Timewind Arc, Aaron Wisdom) Back and There Again (PG-13) Date: Fri, 19 Jul 2002 21:08:31 -0700 (PDT) From: Phil Hartman will1@earthling.net Timewind Arc: Back and There Again by Phil Hartman DISCLAIMER: The kids are mine. Their parents are Marvel's. Buffy and company are Joss Whedon's. No money is being made off of this. Please don't sue. NOTE: Set a little after "Line in the Sand"; consider it a post-script to that and a prologue to Timewind Book 1 ... (Just because this isn't the future of the Breeze Arc anymore doesn't mean it's going away - I'm having a LOT of fun with this ;) -------------------------------------------------------- 9/2020: -------------------------------------------------------- Frick. The frickin' 'Net is calling me the "Miracle Chrononaut." I hate that crap. I mean, I'm a 13-year-old mutant density controller who got tossed into the past of an alternate timeline, not some victim of a deranged chronovariant. Aaron Wisdom, martyr. GOD, I hate that. Aislinn Richards sent me back in time to save maybe the WHOLE timestream from a crazy version of my Aunt Illyana, and I manage to do it. (With help from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, who - SOMEHOW - ends up being my 'aunt' Rachel Summers-Richards' twin sister.) There's still a lot of suspicion against Aislinn, outside of the Muties. That's such crap - she busts her butt to save the timelines, and I get the credit. I think it still bums her a little. I try to cheer her up - - yeah, the Son of Pete Wisdom is trying to spread cheer. Hell's probably freezing over ... Seriously, I learned an important lesson back in 2002. Life isn't about griping and whining and being all bitter. The New Mutants back there stood together, and they welcomed me. Even when I told them about Abaddon. Coming face to face with Charles Xavier Lehnsherr ... that was probably the freakiest thing I've ever faced. Not even meeting myself as a baby freaked me out like seeing the proto-Angel of the Abyss ... ... and he was so normal. (Well, as normal as an anti-human bigot gets.) Anyway - I saw where all our legends about the Second New Mutants began. They had their disagreements, but they were already coming together. Kind of like my friends and I - no real surprise, since Aidan and Aislinn ARE Frank and Rachel Richards' kids. And Payne and Morgan Summers are Nate and Beatrice Summers' kids. THAT was a trip - seeing an Uncle Nate who was YOUNGER than me. And no T-O virus or psimitar or brooding, angstful riff (maybe a little, but taking down Apocalypse at age 8 would probably freak me out, too). What it all meant was, be grateful for what you've got. I'm still not "rejoicing" in my powers like some mutants today, but I'm not so grouchy about them, either. Ace's gotten quieter, like I mentioned. I think she's monitoring the timestream more often - she liked to explore alternate timelines with her CV, without changing things, even before the whole timetrip. I'm scared that she'll withdraw into her powers, like Claudette St. Croix's supposed to have done when Artie Maddicks died fighting the Sentinels back in '05. Aidan's ... angrier. I think he's more anti-XSE than he was, after they tried to railroad Ace. He even launched into a tirade against the XSE recruiter who stopped by the other day. Good thing the guy wasn't a psi. Aid's "special" power (like having ALL the catalogued psi-talents wasn't special !?) to absorb and manipulate psionic energy would've made things uglier than they were. Morgan stepped in - she always takes charge. I think that's her thing, leadership. She stopped Aid from getting too snarly, and talked him down. She's mellowed, actually - I remember when they used to thrash each other in the Danger Room. Mor could kick just about ANYONE'S butt, but I think she's trying to lead by example. Of course, Payne's totally opposite of Morgan. I think he just really dislikes the whole "Summers angst" thing and did a 180 a few years ago to try and fight it. It can't hurt, especially with Nathan Summers for a dad. (Great guy, "Uncle" Nate, but he's still tight as a spring ...) Then there's Connor and Deirdre Summers. They're Scott and Jean Summers' last pair of kids, born in '07 like all of us. Con's got his dad's optic blasts - even wears ruby quartz shades to help with his training - while Deedee's a straight telepath with an empathic bent. Con ... he's kind of a throwback. He had a codename and a shrunken yellow-and-black skinsuit when we were little - kind of a last holdout of the old X-Men days. He doesn't like the XSE's methods, but he's more of a conscientious objector to them than Aid is. Deedee is sort of a peacekeeper/confidant. If she wasn't a 'path, you'd swear she was the class gossip - but she never shares secrets about people she talkes about. It's like she's a gossip sponge. I'd almost talk to her, but I'm kind of scared. And then, there's Lance Summers. Lance is Alex and Lorna Summers' only kid. Lance's also the only one of us who's fried someone during a power manifestation. Seems there was this psi-vamp who was fleeing an XSE intervention team in the Neohattan suburbs in May, and he bumped into Lance. The perp found Lance cringing, tried to drain Lance - and triggered Lance's disintegration power. Lance 1, Perp 0. Lance freaks, Alex tries to turn him into the uber-XSE trooper, Lorna spazzes out and rips into Alex, and the rest of the Summerses have to intervene. So, Lance ends up here. At least Deedee's trying to help him, but I think a shrink'd be a better idea. Moving out of the Summerses, there's the class clown - Brendan Drake. Great guy, nice as heck, but watch where you sit around him. (An aquakinetic who's a practical joker ... some of us think Brin was cloned from Uncle Bobby, instead of being Bobby's son by Emma Frost.) Brin's the one who's been keeping us sane around here - who knew Barnell Bohusk'd be such a slavedriver !? "The Beak" might've been a lightweight with his team of New Mutants, but he's a taskmaster with us. (At least you can talk to him, though.) And Maria McCoy - Maria's a saint. Really. She's a healer, she's got that cool blue fur like her dad, and she's smart. AND she doesn't try to show off, like some people. But I worry; Maria spends a lot of time in the lab, and she's got to learn to relax a little. Like Lucian DaCosta. Luke's the kind of guy you want at a party - laid-back, LOTS of cash, cool powers, lives life like you'd think a DaCosta would. But man, does Luke kick ass in the Danger Room ! He's totally competitive in there.But at least he's not as obnoxious as his old man. Besides, Luke's super-strong, super-tough AND a geokinetic. Roberto can't match the whole package. Doing another 180, there's Nora Ramsey - Doug and Rahne's daughter. She's a shapeshifter, full-spectrum, with a pretty respectable healing factor. And Nora's nice, too. She doesn't have the whole "multiple form, multiple personality" problem some 'morphs have. What Nora does have is pacifism. I'm serious - she's a peace activist. She's not anti-XSE, but she really believes in bringing people together. I wish her luck, but between the XSE's "shoot first and ask questions only if necessary" riff and these new mutant-supremacy freaks coming out of the walls, I don't think there's much chance. Nora's really sweet, though - and she's sweet for Zach Guthrie. Great guy - Sam and Tabitha's oldest - but he's a little morally rigid. Then again, you put him side by side with Luke DaCosta, and you've got a balanced pair. Zach's careful with his plasma power - he has to be. Plasma can eat through just about anything. He's even starting to pop pyrokinesis on top of his plasma, and I think he's a little uptight for a reason. At least Zach's a cool guy. You get someone like the "Queen of Shadows," Gabby Worthington, and you learn to appreciate Zach and Nora fast. Gabby's one of those obnoxious "your mind is unshielded, let me walk through it" telepaths. At least Morgan and the other Summers 'paths are POLITE about mindlinking with me. Worse, Gabby's snooty, and she's got Darkforce. Think shadows mixed with that slime they sell little kids ... gross. She cleans up after herself, but she's so full of herself it's hard to tell where the Darkforce ends and she starts. If there's someone who can put Gabby in her place, it's Hans Wagner. Thank God Uncle Kurt (Kurt Wagner) didn't stay a priest. We'd be going nuts if he hadn't married Aunt Amanda (Sefton) and had Hans. Hansie is probably one of my best friends, besides the Summers and Richards kids - he's a blue-furred teleporter, looks almost like his dad. Hans's got the whole swashbuckler thing going, though. And he'll back you up no matter WHAT - even if you're being a dumbass, Hansie'll have your back. Speaking of having my back, I forgot N'Kera Munroe. She's Aunt Ororo's daughter by Davis Cameron (can you say "Ororo's boytoy" ? Age difference from HECK, folks !). 'Kera's almost like a sister to me - she stayed over all the time when we were growing up. Problem is, 'Kera's got her mom's thief riff goin' on, and she's an Omega-class electrokinetic and cyberkinetic on top of it ... ... but something's got 'Kera spooked. She won't say what, but psyberlinking makes her really jumpy these days. Something happened to her in the 'Net since the last time I saw her, and spooking N'Kera Munroe is hard as heck to do. Then, there's Laura LeBeau. She's kind of our token tragic mutant - her folks are Remy and Marie LeBeau, Gambit and Rogue of the X-Men. Yes, THAT Rogue - Charles Xavier Lehnsherr's mother. You'd think the way some people talk about poor Aunt Marie, she gave birth to the Antichrist. Then again, Chuck Lehnsherr DID become a daemonic cult leader back in 2006 and wipe out an entire country ... Losing her only son made Aunt Marie go ... well, nuts. When Laura was born, she never really got much attention from her mom, who was kinda in and out of catatonia. Aunt Marie TOTALLY snapped back in 2012, and she's been in a Thieves Guild-protected mental institution ever since. Worse yet, when Laura's power triggered, it wasn't her dad's kinetic-energy power or her mom's Magneto-granted magnetokinesis. It was Aunt Marie's first power - her power/psyche absorption thing. At least Marie can't eat people's minds. She can "just" duplicate other people's powers and memories when she touches her skin to theirs. She wears a skinsuit almost all the time - she can't control her powers, and I'm afraid she never will. You can guess why Laura's touchy about being touched, and why she's a loner. I try to talk to her, but ... At least Laura's not in our faces. Not like ... ... Maya Logan. Sweet Yahweh, that girl needs a leash. She thinks us guys are always thinking about girls, and she thinks most of the other girls are competing with her for us guys. And God help anyone if they get Maya as a sparring partner. A telepathic horn-job with a healing factor is a real pain in the butt (I'm getting a LOT of impromptu practice in phasing ...). You look at her twin, Marcus, and you gotta wonder what happened in Elektra's second pregnancy (the twins' big sister is Rina Logan-Yama). Marko's calm, cool, and pretty decent to have around - same powers as Maya, but he's not ... psycho. I guess that's pretty much all of us. Everyone seems pretty much - well, maybe not as "normal" as they could be, but things could be a LOT worse. And me ? I've been doing a lotta thinking since I got back from the past. I know I exist there, which is TOTALLY cool (the baby me was pretty quiet and observant - kind of like me), and Mom and Dad were OK with me being there. It was pretty surreal, until I noticed: Things were basically OK, and they turned out OK. A zillion things could've gone wrong, but they didn't. I think I'm gonna stop being so whiny - maybe a little, since I AM a Wisdom, but not like I was. (The skinsuits still skeeve me, but not as bad ...) -------------------------------------------------------- tbc in the Timewind Arc --------------------------------------------------------