Subject: [OTL]: (Neowind; Summers descendants) Fraternis (PG-13) Date: Tue, 3 Dec 2002 21:59:02 -0800 (PST) From: Phil Hartman will1@earthling.net Neowind Arc: Fraternis by Phil Hartman DISCLAIMER: The kids are mine. Their parents are Marvel's or Joss Whedon's. Any other characters mentioned/appearing belong to their creators. No money is being made off of this. Please don't sue. -------------------------------------------------------- 6/16/2023: -------------------------------------------------------- He was standing too close to the edge again. It wasn't all that surprising; the soot-covered figure tended to ride the edge, pushing, always pushing. Only this time, the dreamer pushed back - -------------------------------------------------------- "ARAWN ?!" Aidan Richards snapped to full wakefulness, sweating and shaking in the early morninglight streaming in through his window. #I had that dream again,# the 13-year-old Caucasian boy realized, shivering at the memory. It had been two weeks since Aidan had been confronted by his older brother Arawn over some kind of dispute between the two. The clash had become physical, even involving the psi-power-amplifying psimitars the boys trained with as trainees in the Askani Collective. Aidan had shattered Arawn's psimitar, defeating him and very nearly levelling the Richards family's apartment atop the Askani Spire. In response, Arawn had stepped into thin air - #But he flew away. At least, Dad thinks so,# Aidan reminded himself. #I was too freaked to try and track Arawn ...# Guilt - nauseating, tear-bringing, unsettling - tore at his stomach, until a pounding on his bedroom door ended Aidan's train of thought. "Gimme a minute," he called sullenly, throwing back the covers and pulling a robe on over his boxer-short-clad gangly frame. The sunlight glinted through the blind-covered windows and onto Aidan's cropped red hair, making his green eyes narrow in a squint before he opened the door. "Well. Sleeping Angsty finally awakens," the figure in the doorway said, smirking. "Payne," Aidan muttered, confusion giving way to realization, surprise and a less painful form of guilt. #June 16 - Saturday - we're going -# ~Camping ?~ Payne Summers reminded his cousin telepathically, smirking in a less-sardonic-than-usual way. Like Aidan, Payne was Caucasian, but besides a vague facial resemblance and roughly similar heights, they differed markedly. Payne - the son of Aidan's uncle, Nathan Summers, and the mysterious mutant Domino - had brown hair cut in what might have been a bowl cut, and laughing blue eyes. "God - Payne, I'm sorry - I -" Aidan stammered as Payne pushed his way past him into the bedroom. "Were guilting yourself for no reason. Arawn ran like the spineless weasel-bully he's always been. Besides, you kicked his butt," Payne insisted. "I hope you at least packed - Matt, Lance and Connor are waiting." "What time - crap, 8 !?" Aidan yelped. He dug out his already-packed backpack, then dug around in his closet for a clean skinsuit to wear. "Yeees, and we were supposed to 'port at what - 7 a.m. ?" Payne half-chuckled. He saw Aidan's eyes flicker towards a waiting towel and washcloth, and sniffed, "Don't bother. We're used to you stinking with angst - missing one shower won't put us off." "It's called civilized behavior," Aidan replied with as much dignity as he could muster, grabbing his bath gear and slipping around the corner into the bathroom. "Give me 10 minutes." The door slammed shut, leaving Payne to roll his eyes. "Civilized ... we're Summerses, you doof. People accuse us of all sorts of barbarism," the brown-haired boy chuckled. -------------------------------------------------------- "It's been 9 minutes -" "Matthias. If I wanted a precision report, I'd've asked you for one. Please, just let me read." The tallest boy in the waiting room for the Spire's heavy-lift teleport matrix grunted, prompting a scowl from his shorter companion. Both had brown hair, but the taller boy's was bordering on black, while the shorter one's was almost sandy-colored. The second boy also was wearing what looked like red-lensed sunglasses. "You're being obnoxious," Matthias Summers replied, giving the younger of his two uncles a dirty look. "And you're being impatient. Aidan deserves a little more space. I should thank him - one hour less in those woods will be just fine by me," Connor Summers replied rather haughtily. Matt grunted again; he was used to people who talked less, anyway. The other Askani weren't nearly as verbal, nor were they as annoying. #Mom would accuse him of being multisyllabic,# Matt thought, smirking slightly. The oldest child of Buffy Summers and the former vanpire known as Angel shook his head, then gave the three approaching figures a welcoming nod. "Got him," Payne chuckled, rubbing the top of Aidan's head. Aidan just rolled his eyes, then looked around at the others. Connor - the youngest son of Matt, Payne and Aidan's grandparents, Scott and Jean Summers, and the other boys' peer - nodded politely and adjusted his ruby quartz glasses. Although he didn't need the glasses to contain his optic force blasts, he still felt more comfortable with them than without. Matt, who resembled his father except for the piercing green eyes, shrugged his backpack higher on his shoulders and looked down at the fifth member of the camping party. The shorter, blond boy smiled weakly, and looked at the others expectantly. "We all seem ready," Lance Summers - the other boys' cousin, and the son of Alex and Lorna Summers - said softly. His green eyes blinked as the portal manager primed the teleportal for five transferees. "The grounds you're going to aren't totally secured," the middle-aged Caucasian woman - Ta'lia Herzegova, Aidan remembered, a member of the Askani Gatekeeper division and a powerful teleporter - said ominously. "We want an outdoors experience, not some holo-synthetic bore," Payne insisted. "Anyone can go camping in the Danger Room." "Your choice, Payne," Ta'lia chuckled. She finished examining the hologram of the geographic coordinates, then concentrated, her blue eyes lighting up unnaturally. A blue-white portal in space-time opened up before the boys, with a pastoral scene of a lake surrounded by woods visible through it. "Spuyten Dyvil Cove," Ta'lia said, her voice taking on an unusual tone and pitch - as if she were speaking through a tube. "Go - I can't hold this forever." "Thanks," Aidan called, following the others through the portal. The change was obvious - the breeze was cooler, while the scents became more exotic and fresher. The water was rippling in the wind, glinting from the sunlight coming down. "This," Payne said appreciatively, "is living. Gentlemen, let's get camping." -------------------------------------------------------- Camping, as Connor muttered several times over the next hour, could be overrated. If it wasn't the enraged badger which leapt from a hole, it was the missing tent pegs. Or the seemingly-crazed hawk which attacked Matt. Or the unpleasant comment Aidan heard Payne muttering about bears "never coming THIS far east in New York." Still, they managed to get the tent up, and found enough space in the four-room construct for some privacy if they wanted it. "You went deluxe, huh ?" Matt asked Payne as they unrolled their sleeping bags in one of the side chambers. "Well, it was my birthday cash. And these old-style tents aren't expensive anymore," Payne said, shrugging. "Everyone wants a luxury tent. Puh-leeze ! We came out here to get away from TV, radio, the Internet, holo-vids ..." "So why aren't we wearing flannel and denim ?" Connor complained from the central chamber of the tent. "Because we're 21st-century mutants, not 19th-century lumberjacks," Payne snorted, giving his uncle a dirty look. "I don't see you wussing out and wearing HUMAN clothes." "Human isn't a dirty word, Payne," Aidan called from the far chamber. He stuck his head into the central chamber, then added, "Spandex isn't the only mutant fabric ..." "No, but it's the most evolved," Payne said haughtily. "Your dad's mass-marketing of unstable molecules ensures that." Aidan just shrugged, slipping past the other boys and out towards the lake. He stood, stretching, and walked over to where he could sit on a rock. #It's pretty,# Aidan admitted inwardly. #I could almost forget -# "I wish you would." Aidan looked over to his right in surprise and saw Lance standing there, his arms crossed and a worried look on his face. "I wasn't broadcasting, was I ?" Aidan gulped. "No, but I know you well enough to know when you're having an angst attack," Lance replied. Aidan moved over on the boulder to let his cousin have a seat, then watched as Lance held out his right hand, which started to glow white. "Aid, we've all got our crosses to bear," Lance began. "You feel guilty about beating Arawn. Payne's a goofball because he wants to keep from being like Uncle Nate. Connor thinks he needs to keep up the 'stiff Summers upper lip' tradition. Matt worries that he'll turn into a vampire. And me ..." A beam of white energy leapt from Lance's outstretched hand and struck the lake, causing a massive explosion of steam and a small sonic boom. "I cause matter to fall apart explosively," Lance concluded, giving Aidan an embarassed smile. "And I'm not a tepe like you guys. But you've never made me feel like an outsider - you're all my friends, as well as cousins. I'm not Askani material, but that doesn't matter." "There are plenty of non-psi mutants in the Askani," Aidan replied, grinning. "Besides, you're one of us, y'know. Us Summers guys -" "ABSOLUTELY NOT !" Aidan and Lance traded a confused look, then glanced back at the tent. Connor clambered out of it in swim trunks, then glared at the tent flap and snarled, "I'm drawing the line, Payne !" "It's just us," Payne could be heard, whining from within the tent while Matt climbed out in a bicycle short-style swimsuit and an annoyed expression. "Perverted - obnoxious - it's bad enough I have to share a tent with you, you odiferous, smart-alecky, overcompensating twit !" Connor snapped. "I am NOT letting you get away with this !" "Don't tell me," Aidan guessed, rolling his eyes. "He's trying to 'declare his natural mutancy' again. Payne, swimsuit. No argument." "Fine. You won't hold my natural evolution back forever, you know. Society needs to be re-engineered to meet the inner needs of mutants," Payne snapped, ducking his head back into the tent. "'Us Summers guys,'" Lance whispered to Aidan as they went to change, "are still a weird bunch." -------------------------------------------------------- "CANNONBALL !" "No, Cyclops," Connor sniffed, watching the swimbrief-clad Payne throw himself off of a convenient "cliff" into the cove's waters. "And I'm the smart-aleck ?" Payne shot back as he surfaced. "At least Aidan's got the guts to wear a suit that doesn't resemble something a WUSS would wear." "I swim for exercise, you doof ! You're just an exhibitionist," Aidan snorted from where he was floating, clad in a blue swimbrief and goggles. "Besides, you're not so immodest around Maya Logan ..." Payne made a choking noise, then swam to shore and flopped onto his waiting beach towel. "Maya threatens me," he mumbled. "Maya threatens anything that moves," Lance - wearing a suit similar to Matt's - laughed as he sunned himself. "Payne, just ask Morgan to deal with Maya. That way you'd finally stop complaining about both of them," Matt snorted as he fished from a log near where Lance was laying. Payne blanched at the thought of his twin sister Morgan taking on Maya, then fell uncharacteristically silent. "So," Connor asked from his towel as Aidan came out of the cove, "heard anything more about - ?" Aidan shook his head and dried off, then shook out his towel and sat down between Connor and Lance. "Not a peep," Aidan said quietly. Payne and Matt gave Connor dirty looks, but he glared back at them and telepathically sent, ~He needs to get this off his chest. Better to us than to some self-titled 'expert' in grief. We're blood-related to him, for God's sake.~ ~So is Arawn.~ The other boys looked at Aidan in embarassed silence until he sat up and looked around with a tired expression. "Everyone wants me to talk. I don't know what you want me to say," he said, shrugging. "I mean, Arawn disappeared after I beat him. It wasn't a fun time, you know." "Aid - look," Matt said, standing. "Once and for all: Let it go. Arawn was an ass, and a pain IN the ass. If he's alive, let him stew in his own stupidity. If he isn't ... well, he stepped off. Just don't think you're some kind of scumbag for standing up for yourself." He sat back down to fish, and Aidan managed a smile. #OK, point taken,# he thought, stretching out. "Hey, Lance - pass me the SPF 40, willya ?" -------------------------------------------------------- finis -? --------------------------------------------------------