Subject: [OTL]: (Timewind Arc, Cable/Domino/offspring) Graft (PG-13) Date: Fri, 27 Sep 2002 20:06:51 -0700 (PDT) From: Phil Hartman will1@earthling.net Timewind Arc: Graft by Phil Hartman DISCLAIMER: The kids are mine. Nate, Dom and the rest of the "old folks" are Marvel's. No money is being made off of this. Please don't sue. WARNING: Slash-themes discussed, angst, harsh language, etc. ... NOTE: Alt-future. -------------------------------------------------------- 9/9/2020: -------------------------------------------------------- ~MORGAN !?~ "Why'd she run away ?" Payne Summers asked himself, still stunned at the VERY bizarre telempathic wave he'd gotten from his twin sister before she'd flown away from the Xavier Institute. The lean 13-year-old white boy tried to telepathically reach his sister again, but she wasn't answering. Payne's blue eyes narrowed, and he flicked short brown bangs out of his face as he turned to look at the school's headmaster. "What happened, Logan ?" Barnell Bohusk demanded of the third occupant of the headmaster's office. The avian mutant looked down at the repentant-looking Maya Logan, who was clad in a black skinsuit similar to Payne's. "Yeah, Maya. What DID you do to make Morgan freak out like that ?" Payne tried to snarl, even as his voice broke. "I don't know ! I took a cheap shot at her in the Danger Room, and the next thing I know she's thinking I'm hot, and I ... sort of yelled at her, and she just freaked," the younger daughter of Logan and Elektra half-complained, half-gulped. "She thought - you - were HOT ?" Payne squeaked, eyes widening. "That was my reaction ! I like guys, for flonq's sake !" Maya yelled, blushing. ~Pray you get to mate successfully someday, little girl.~ Maya went very pale - almost as pale as the person whose enraged thought echoed through the room - when a golden flash of light deposited two tall and angry figures near Payne. The man of the pair was clad in a blue and gold skinsuit, his metallic left arm bare except for a glove. His silver hair, incongruous against his 30-something features, was short, and his left eye pulsed with a gold light the same shade as his teleport signature. The woman beside him was chalk-white, making the black tattoo around her left eye stand out as much as her raven hair. Her purple eyes pierced into Maya, prompting another shudder from the Logan girl. "My daughter," Nathan Summers said slowly and deliberately, "gave off an emotional shockwave about 20 minutes ago before fleeing here in terror. You WILL tell us precisely what you did to her, and you will do so NOW." "Because if you don't, I get you before Nate here," Domino said, not blinking as she glared at Maya. "FOR GOD'S SAKE !" Barnell - clucked, Payne thought, although he didn't dare say so aloud. "Will you two be quiet ! She's a 13-year-old girl, not an Onyx Pillar shock-trooper !" Nathan managed to look embarrased, but Domino blinked before giving Barnell an appraising look. "I need feather stuffing for a new pillow, Bohusk. If you were a better headmaster, maybe my daughter wouldn't've flown away from here crying," the probability manipulator growled. "Mom, it's Maya - y'know, I grew up with her ?" Payne interrupted. "I'm worried about Morgan too, but you don't see ME threatening Maya, do you ?" Domino sighed, muttering an apology, and found a seat on the couch across the room beside Nathan. "The important thing is finding Morgan," the mutant formerly called Cable agreed. "Barnell, is Cerebra up and running ?" "Of course. Half the student body are telepaths - I'm not going to shut down a perfectly good psi-tutoring system," Barnell shot back. His voice became accusing as he added, "You can't find her telepathically ?" "She's very good at damping her psi-signature," Nathan growled. "Payne - ?" "I've tried, Dad," Payne replied, shrugging with a surge of worry. "She's out there, but our link is - it's like she's walled it off somehow." ~I'm FINE,~ Morgan's psi-voice replied - annoyed, embarassed, slightly afraid. ~Just leave me alone for a while, please.~ "Morgan, sweetie - DAMNIT !" Domino snarled when the psi-link went dead again. "I know she's stubborn, but this is starting to worry me." Nathan and Payne glanced at her; for Domino to admit that she was worried was tantamount to her panicking. #And that's even scarier than Morgan freaking,# Payne thought, reaching out telepathically to give his mother an astral "hug." She smiled back thinly, then nodded when Nathan thought something at her and stood. "I'm going to go to her," Cable said. He gave Maya a gentler look and added, "I'm sorry if we were ... overbearing. It's just that when Morgan -" "Yeah, yeah. Apology accepted," Maya muttered, getting to her feet. "I was Miss Snotty-Ass. I'm ... sorry. Can I PLEASE go before somebody involuntarily hands me my liver ? They're hard to regrow." "Out," Barnell clucked, jerking his head towards the door. Maya exited, while Payne watched his father teleport away. "So," Domino asked her son when Payne sank down on the couch beside her, "anything new with you ?" -------------------------------------------------------- Morgan repressed a curse when a golden flash lit up the clearing she'd landed in. Nathan found his lanky, 13-year-old Caucasian daughter sitting on the end of a log. Her short brown hair was mussed, and her blue eyes were puffy from crying. "Don't give me the 'I don't want you to see me like this' riff, please. I've seen you in every possible fashion," Nathan tried to joke. The wave of mingled outrage, self-loathing and neediness he felt from Morgan almost made him flinch. "Not in the 'I've been outed' state, you haven't seen me," Morgan finally whispered, her emotions and body language slumping into an unsettling grey morass. Nathan's eyes widened slightly as he realized what he was sensing from his little girl. #She's feeling ... defeated.# "Well ?!" Morgan snapped, a spark of defensive outrage flickering between them. "My arch-rival gets inside my head and finds out I'm a lesbian, then jokes about telling EVERYONE ! She sees me BAWLING on the Danger Room floor, and tries to flonquing APOLOGIZE for being such a little witch ! Damnit to HELL." Morgan took a deep breath, as Nathan tried to process what he'd just heard. #For flonq's sake ... Rachel's the one with all the emotional sensitivity -# Nathan thought, wishing with all his might that his twin sister was present - ~Ah ah, brother dear,~ Rachel Summers-Richards sent from downstate in Neohattan. Benign bemusement and support flowed across their own twin-link, and she added, ~I can be the caring aunt, but you've got to be a parent right now.~ ~Thank you SO much. Go eat a star or something,~ Nathan grumbled. Rachel gave him the telepathic equivalent of a raspberry and shuttered her end of the link. Nathan took a deep breath, then scooted over to Morgan and put his techno-organic arm around her. "Look. You know that your mother and I will never stop loving you and Payne," he began. "I don't care if you like guys, girls or whatever. You're more than your orientation - you're a daughter, sister, cousin, niece, warrior, leader -" "Not a leader. They'll never follow a bawling embarassment to the Summers name," Morgan spat, rising. Nathan gently pulled Morgan back onto the log, then locked eyes with her. "Listen to me. You actually SHOWED emotion. That's not weakness," he said, managing a smile. "A leader has to know when to be open and when to be shut. The others'll know you're human - er, you're mortal. They'll respect that." Morgan laid her head on Nathan's shoulder, and replied, "You're not an emotional cripple, you know. Besides, Aunt Ray's talks usually end with her hunting down Uncle Frank and -" "OK, enough openness for one day !" Nathan interrupted, trying not to blush as they teleported. ~Coward,~ Morgan tried to tease. ~Do YOU like to think about Payne thinking about girls ?~ Nathan shot back. ~We could share dating tips,~ Morgan replied as they re-entered four-dimensional space outside the Institute. Nathan rolled his eyes and walked with Morgan back into the school. -------------------------------------------------------- "No, I haven't been seeing anyone," Payne replied as he and his mother walked into the Institute's kitchen. "And yes, I'm straight, and no, I'm not disgusted by Morgan being a lesbian." "Did you know ?" Domino asked matter-of-factly as they sat at the table. Payne shrugged, tekeing open the refrigerator and removing two cans of pop. "I think I had an idea. But she's my sister. It's weird talking about sex with your sister, ESPECIALLY now," he said, trying not to blush. "Well, I'm proud of you for sticking with her. She's going to have a hell of a time with this," Domino said as she opened her can of pop. Her expression turned thoughtful, and she regarded Payne with a faint smile. He'd grown so much in the past three months - arms and legs everywhere, even if he and Morgan were somehow keeping pace. #Was it only yesterday that I found Nate floating upside-down, down the road near Harry's ?# Domino thought. They'd been 14. Domino had been a Seattle demi-Goth street kid on the run from her parents' divorce, Nate a bitter survivor of his T-O virus and Apocalypse's efforts to kill him. When they'd met, the clash of bitter teen cynicism had been ... interesting, to say the least, Domino mused. #But we stayed together, through Black Womb and Nur getting his and the Sentinels and the Lehnsherr War.# #And these two -# Domino tried not to smile too widely as she remembered the twins' birth. It'd been amidst a rush of other X-births - most of their cousins had arrived in the world around the same time in June 2007 - and had been unusually quick. #I suppose it was luck. An hour's labor, the epidural worked, nothing flawed ...# Domino pondered. She looked at Payne, and swore she saw an unscarred Nathan under the boy's bangs. Payne smiled back and took a deep breath. "You're still OK with my not wanting to go into the XSE ?" Payne asked. "Hell, yeah," Domino grinned back. "You'd never fit in, and you're too alive for the Zombie School." The memory of the glazed look in the eyes of the last group of XSE Academy cadets she'd seen made Domino wince internally. Whatever was going on down in Snow Valley had convinced her to absolutely NOT send her children to the former Massachusetts Academy. #Things were different when we were in, right after the War. The Academy was strict, but at least the cadets were permitted some life,# she thought. #They were individuals - they worked well with Nate and I. Then things changed after the Pillar Incursion of '12 ...# A flicker-image of shattered, black-armored corpses stacked up outside of the XSE Headquarters in Neohattan prompted Domino to shake her head. She and Nathan had gotten out after the Incursion. #No. He and Morgan - and the other kids - have no place in whatever the XSE's turning into,# she thought. ~Maybe we're needed to make it more lively ?~ Morgan sent, materializing with Nathan in the kitchen. "Hey," Domino said, hugging Morgan. "Listen - what your dad said is true. Love who you want, and don't be scared of what we'll think. We're here for you, got it ?" "I know," Morgan replied, pulling her parents and brother into a group hug. "I know." -------------------------------------------------------- tbc ... --------------------------------------------------------