Subject: [OTL]: (New Mutants II/Wisdoms) Breeze Book 2 Chapter 2/25 (PG-13) Date: Wed, 26 Feb 2003 22:02:24 -0800 (PST) From: Phil Hartman will1@earthling.net Breeze Book 2 Chapter 2 by Phil Hartman DISCLAIMER: They belong to whoever owns them. Etc. -------------------------------------------------------- 1/3/2003: X-Mansion Medlab: 08:00 hrs EST: -------------------------------------------------------- "Shouldn't you be in homeroom or something ?" "I can study later. He needs me right now," Chuck muttered stubbornly from where he was sitting at his father's bedside. The teen brushed brown and white locks out of his eyes, and watched the Master of Magnetism dozing. The past few days had improved Magneto's color dramatically, and his vital signs had stabilized around noon a day earlier. But there were still concerns, Hank McCoy had noted. #'His biomagnetic field is fluctuating erratically,'# Chuck repeated mentally, frowning at the remembered words of the Beast. Anya - Chuck had gotten used to calling "Alda Huxley" by her true name, even after the initial shock of her revelation - pulled a chair up to the other side of Magnus' bed and smiled. "Trying to make up for lost time?" she asked her half-brother. "I was being a jerk. Don't rub it in," Chuck growled, his gaze fixing on Anya's blue eyes for a moment. "Besides, he's no saint. But I never gave him much chance to explain ..." "Then perhaps your sister will permit me to do so." Magnus' wry tone drew a gasp of relief from Chuck and a wry smile from Anya. "I'll go see if Dr. McCoy's found whether my healing factor could be transferred to you by a blood transfusion," she said, kissing Magnus' forehead and walking out. "Not likely. Still, it's kind of her to try it," Magnus said. He sat up, or attempted to do so, and looked at Chuck with tired eyes. "You probably have a million questions, and I will gladly answer them. But preferably, save some for later ?" Magnus asked. Chuck nodded, fighting back tears as he said thickly, "I - was afraid. And angry, that I might not see you again - before I could apologize." "I heard you vented that anger in a semi-constructive manner," Magnus said, raising a white eyebrow. "The destruction of that obscenity Farouk is a feat to be proud of, my son." "If it hadn't come at the expense of the X-Mansion, sure," Chuck grumbled. "But the Professor's forgiven me, and I'm dealing with the aftermath." "How well ? Are your classmates accepting your return to the school ?" Magnus probed. Chuck tried to smile, but it came out twisted. "Let's just say things are ... a little tense," he said, quietly. "In the meantime, I've got one for you: When are you EVER going to drop those Acolytes ?" -------------------------------------------------------- "A LITTLE tense !?" "Well, we can't just jump down his throat. Grandpa was apparently dead, the Shadow King had just attacked him, and none of us were exactly swarming to Chuck's defense," Tom Maximoff said sheepishly. May Parker crossed her arms and sat on the control panel of the Danger Room's main control center. "The mansion was turned into kindling, Tom. I know that Chuck was having a hard time, but just letting him walk back in here ? And now we have Magneto - MAGNETO - in the basement !" the daughter of Spider-Man insisted as she and her classmate watched the training session going on in the room below. Tom just smiled, giving his twin brother a thumbs-up as Bill Maximoff shattered another robot with a well-placed super-strong punch. "You're forgetting that Grandpa's changed, May," Tom said, turning back to the girl. "He hasn't been crazy in ... OK, 7 years. And even when he did go nuts, he didn't hurt any of us." "You're his grandchildren. All I'm saying is, I just want to keep an eye on the guy," May sighed. "Good idea, Parker. At the same time, keep an eye on y'r strength trainin' - another barbell was cracked yesterday, an' it weren't the 60-ton one," Pete Wisdom said from the other chair of the control room. "Yes, Mr. Wisdom," May muttered in a tired tone. "Don't sound so bloody exhausted, girl," Pete rumbled. "You try bottle-feeding a squirmin' 6-month-old at 3 a.m., and THEN you complain t'me." -------------------------------------------------------- Well. This was different. Normally, Aaron would be the one lying in bed in the morning, when his Mama came to get him. The 6-month-old was unused to seeing Big People laying around this late in the morning. "Katherine ! Welcome to my humble abode. Who is your companion ?" the Silver-Haired Man in the bed said in a funny voice. He wasn't scary, Aaron sensed. But Silver-Hair's Glow - the light Aaron sometimes saw around people - was ... different. Stronger, and yet weak, too. "This is Aaron, my son with Pete," Mama said, smiling down at Aaron and holding him up so he could sit upright on her lap. "Say hi, kiddo. This is Mr. Lehnsherr. He taught me years ago." Aaron burbled a greeting, and smiled when Silver-Hair smiled back. He WAS a nice man. "By the Eternal ... I'm getting old. A son - you should be very proud, Katherine. You're an ideal example of what a mutant can accomplish in the wider world. He's a handsome boy," Silver-Hair said. "We think so, too. Speaking of kids, Chuck said you'd talked to him," Mama said. Aaron looked up at her - her voice was changing, hinting at something she wanted to talk about but wasn't sure how to approach it. Silver-Hair's smile became tired-looking. "Charles - Chuck, if he insists - did come to see me. We cleared away some of the space between us, and dealt with some issues," Silver-Hair said softly. "One issue I think we're all pondering is what you're going to do next," Mama asked. Silver-Hair seemed to squirm - Aaron could sympathize; he squirmed sometimes too when he was being hugged too tight or when he had gas. "I'm not going to leap up from this bed and start ranting about mutant supremacy. The fact that the inauguration of Philip Moreau as Genosha's first freely-elected president went off without a problem today closes the chapter on my tenure as de facto President there," Silver-Hair said. He sighed, then shrugged and said, "Between you and I, Katherine, I might seriously consider Nereel's offer of a retirement citadel in the Savage Land. Antarctica has worked out well for me over the years, and with Marie wedded to Gambit, I have little reason to remain north of the equator." "What about Chuck ?" Mama asked, warily. Aaron cooed, looking from Mama to Silver-Hair and back. Their Glows were shifting, getting fuzzy - something might happen. "I'm not going to cut my ties to him," Silver-Hair said, relaxing. "He's my son, Katherine. We're on the road to working things out between us, and I owe him my presence in his life. I failed to be there for him for so long ... I don't want to lose him like I lost Pietro and Wanda. The very fact that Talia, the twins and Luna even talk to me is a wonder, given their parents' legitimate grievances." "Pietro and Wanda might not be as distant towards you as you think," Mama hinted. "Just give it some thought, OK ? I've got to go teach a computer class. We'll stop by later to check on you." Aaron waved bye-bye, giggling as Mama scooped him into her arms and headed upstairs. The Big People were funny, and he liked watching them. Even if they were a little sad sometimes. -------------------------------------------------------- 1/5/2003: Boathouse: 16:30 hrs EST: -------------------------------------------------------- ~Fly FREE -~ #Knock it OFF !# "It's getting grouchy again, isn't it ?" Jean Summers asked knowingly of her eldest daughter. Rachel flopped onto the couch, setting her backpack down beside it and pulling off her coat. "I swear, if I could just let the Phoenix out, I would," the girl muttered. Jean sat beside Rachel, telekinetically hanging up the coat as she let the girl lean against her. "It's not easy for an adult to deal with the Phoenix Force," Jean said. "The fact that you're keeping it caged as well as you are is really great." A surge of frustration, anger and fear leapt between the two over their psi-link, and Rachel looked up. "I'm so great at it that I keep having these dreams," she snapped, blushing. "They're ..." Jean caught a glimmer of one of the memories, and shared Rachel's blush. "Some of it is ... I THINK it's normal, for my age," Rachel breathed. "I mean, Frank is just ... wonderful, but he's never pushed me to do anything I didn't want to do, and we've only ever hugged or kissed. But some of it -" "The Phoenix feeds off of passion, and first love is like a smorgasbord," a third voice called from the front door. Rachel and Jean looked over their shoulders, and Rachel smiled as Madelyne Pryor walked in from the cold. "Hey," the girl called to her "aunt." "No Giles ?" "Danger Room, with Buffy," Madelyne said, removing her coat and boots. She teked them to a drying area Jean had prepared, and walked over to the couch to flop down on Jean's left side. "Welcome, Madelyne," Jean said, less tightly than she might have addressed her clone. They'd unofficially reached a peace accord over the past few days, since Madelyne had revealed herself as the girlfriend of Rupert Giles, the live-in mentor of Rachel's sister Buffy, AKA Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The fact that Madelyne had moved IN with Giles in the spare bedroom - and had once tried to seduce Scott Summers, Jean's husband and the father of Rachel, Buffy and their brother Nate - was being politely ignored for now. "What's the big emotional issue today ? Frank's swimming too much ? Scott forgot to clean his ruby quartz shades ?" Madelyne questioned helpfully. "The Phoenix is giving Rachel a hard time," Jean said, giving Madelyne a concerned glance - Madelyne's soul WAS a fragment of the Phoenix Force that had previously been the Dark Phoenix avatar, barely 18 years earlier. "Ah. She can be a real witch," Madelyne sighed. "Ray, kiddo, lemme give you a piece of advice: Get funky every once in a while. Go out and dance. Go scream on the edge of a cliff and let the Phoenix just flare wildly. Don't be afraid to LIVE a little. The constant restraint is what makes a Phoenix Host all cranky, and cranky makes you sloppy when control is really necessary. Stress sucks." "'Truer words' ..." Jean breathed, giving Rachel an apologetic glance when the girl arched an eyebrow at her. "Hey, you wanted my advice. Besides, the better woman won Scott, right ?" Madelyne said, grinning. "I behaved myself after we found out I was a clone." "Where Scott was concerned, you behaved. And I appreciate that. But you're still ... You're like the naughty little sister who gets trampy just to prove she's not a clone of the big sister," Jean spat, blushing embarassedly as she finished. Madelyne grinned and stood, giving Rachel a wink as she headed upstairs. "'Trampy.' Thanks for the idea, Jeannie - I have to greet Ripper the right way when he gets back. You think you're stressed ? He NEVER decompresses right unless I'm around !" Madelyne called. Jean and Rachel shared a glance. "I'm not going to go anywhere near her leather collection," Rachel swore, crossing her heart. "Bless you," Jean snickered, hugging her daughter. -------------------------------------------------------- 1/9/2003: Salem Center Junior High School: 15:35 hrs EST: -------------------------------------------------------- "Hey, pal ! How was school ?" "OK," Nate Summers said quietly as he tossed his backpack into the back seat of the Summers family van. The 11-year-old climbed in, buckling his seat belt, and pulled off his stocking cap as Scott closed the side door via an automatic switch on the dash. "OK as in 'I got through it' OK, or 'Some bully called me a name and I don't want to talk about it' OK ?" Scott asked, looking in the rear-view mirror as he pulled away from the curb. Nate relaxed a little, and forced a smile. "Nobody's been bullying me for a while, Dad," the Omega-class psionic boy said truthfully. After Nate had left the second team of New Mutants in the previous October, citing his discomfort with being the only sixth-grader among a group of high schoolers, he'd made the move to the Salem Center School District. It had worked out, to Scott and Jean's reckoning, surprisingly well. #Human kids are really just like mutant kids,# Nate thought, waving at some of his classmates as the Summerses headed away from the school. #All I had to do was be me to make friends...# He'd made a strong first impression his first day in gym class, by being the only one to last all the way through dodgeball - a feat Nate quietly attributed to his strenuous daily combat training in the Danger Room. After that, he'd won more friends through the occasional telekinetic feat, and by just trying to be friendly. #Some of the seventh- and eighth-graders can be jerks, but that's no surprise,# Nate pondered, glancing with new fear at Scott's reflection in the mirror. The fear had come in sixth period, when a flicker of - SOMETHING - in the timestream and the astral plane simultaneously had startled Nate from his algebra test. It was something the boy hadn't seen since 1999, when he'd been kidnapped and taken to Akkaba, Egypt ... #How do I tell Dad that I think Apocalypse is back ?# "I just saw something - weird," Nate said, looking at the floor. "That's all." -------------------------------------------------------- NEXT: Nate faces a dire choice; somebody's mummy gets cranky; Magnus and Xavier "chat"; and Infectia gets an unwelcome visitor ... --------------------------------------------------------