Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction. I do not own Marvel or any of Marvels' characters. I only own my characters who are not characters of Marvel.
Something Strange, Something True
James 'Logan' Howlett, better known to the world as, "The Wolverine" awoke with a start. He was strapped down on a cold mental table in what he knew by sight and smell to be the place the X-men called the med lab. He smelled the scent of the one known as the beast; Henry 'Hank' McCoy who Logan's nose knew was just in the next room. He lay back down on the table.
The last thing he recalled was the strange looking sight in the night sky when a huge bright globe of light came down towards him as his teammates were rushing to his aid. He didn't recall much else except the light had felt like a heavy weight to him. Knocking the wind out of him and even preventing his claws from coming out, then darkness. True to his nose Dr. Henry McCoy emerged from his office and looked pleased to see Logan awake.
"All right Hank, just why the hell am I tied down with these adamantium ties?" Hank adjusted his glasses as he approached his grouchy friend.
"Well my dear boy, your behavior last night was rather feral. It took about six hours to subdue you and place you down here after shooting you with forty-two shots of tranquilizers." Logan looked stunned.
"What the hell are you talking about? Last night I was attacked by some huge orb light thing and I couldn't move." Hank looked at Logan as he slowly began to untie him and Logan sat up.
"What the hell is going on here?" Logan asked looking like he had no idea just what Hank was talking about.
Hank adjusted his glasses and motioned for Logan to follow him. Logan jumped off the table and after adjusting his neck, followed Hank to the war room. Hank ran some surveillance tape from last night on the large drop down screen. Before Logan's stunned eyes he saw a figure that from a distance looked just like him; but he was fighting his follow teammates? But the real kicker to Logan eyes was that included in that group were the late Jean Grey and Scott Summers. When Logan saw this he nearly choked. Hank noted the look on Logan's face.
"Ahh." Hank nodded as he pulled out a black leather pad and began taking notes. Logan just gawked at him.
"With my large hands, notebooks are easier then the new I-pads." Logan shook his head.
"Hank you don't see Jean and Scott in that video?" Hank looked Logan dead in the eyes.
"And why wouldn't I see them Logan? They do live here. Happily married as ever." Logan nearly fell off the wall he was leaning on.
"Live here? Happily married. Where's here Hank?" Hank grinned.
"Right question Logan. I think now the professor will see you and explain everything to you." Logan's mouth dropped.
"The professor?"
He followed Hank out the doors sniffing the air to see if he could pick up any smells that were not from anyone who wouldn't be associated with the institute. The only smells he got were those that belonged, including the smells of his fallen teammates who now were alive.
Logan couldn't wrap his head around it and was on high alert in case this was either Magneto or Striker or some other enemy just waiting in the wings.
As they approached the professor's office exiting the ride up from the med lab and bypassing the kitchen. Logan picked up the scent of something else. A sweet smell mixed with sandalwood, fresh fallen rain, jasmine and even licorice. The scents puzzled Logan as Hank held the door open to Xavier's office. Logan looked inside spotting the face, features and scent of the man he knew he had witnessed dying at the hands of Jean Grey. A voice in his head told him to have faith. It was the voice of the man he now beheld, Charles Frances Xavier.
In the kitchen Ororo Munroe-Howlett sat at the table facing the two high chairs in front of her feeding her two little angels as they just made a mess of the baby food they no longer wanted to eat. At six months the twins were growing bigger and were happy well-adjusted babies despite, there at times, over zealous behavior. Something they'd inherited from their father. Ororo frowned since the incident last night Logan was no doubt trapped on the world his alternate had come from. She was worried but looked at her babies and put on a happy face.
Jean had told her that the twins would pick up on her worry if she showed any so she should try to be positive for their sakes. Ororo grinned at Chance as he happily threw cheerios at the floor giggling as Kendall sat across from her big brother and clapped. A trick Logan had shown their daughter just two days earlier. Jean walked in.
"Oh Ro why didn't you call me? You know aunty Jean would do anything for her little moppets." Jean was already cooing over a smiling Chance and Kendall as they both baby talked to her and Ororo just snorted. The twins adored their extended family and their family adored them.
"Jean I can still get them breakfast you know. Logan has only been gone for less then ten hours and Hank has assured me we will get him back sooner rather then later." Ororo had to take in a deep breath. She was fighting back her panic and her tears. Jean sent a mental message to her.
'I know Lamb chop, you're scared but don't be. The professor has the other Logan in his office and is already in his head. We'll have your family whole again before you know it.' Ororo hugged Jean who hugged her back as they both wiped away unshed tears with the twins staring at them both. Ororo whispered.
"I think my little pitchers have big ears even when you don't speak out loud." Jean looked at each baby hard and they both started laughing. She turned back to Ororo.
"You know Ro you maybe right. I think these two may have that twin bond thing that Hank always talks about." Ororo grinned.
"I would not be surprised." She spoke as she began cleaning up the babies and their mess. Jean helped and then they took the two tykes out of the high chairs carrying their bundles towards the living room where their large playpen was. Putting, the just starting to crawl twosome inside of it. Ororo and Jean sat watching the twins enjoy their play. The time flew by as Jean smiled glancing back at Ro and saying.
"Look at them happy, healthy and beautiful." Jean cooed at them as Ororo laughed then got quiet.
The alternate Logan was walking by in the hallway with Hank and Scott as Ororo sensed him just like she did her own husband. On the other side of the wall that separated them Logan stopped and inhaled.
"What's with that smell?' He asked out loud causing both Hank and Scott to stare at him. Scott just opened the formal double doors. Inside the babies laughter could now be heard and the two women inside just turned towards the doors and stared. Logan just stood staring mouth agape at a very beautiful Ororo Munroe. She looked taller and shapelier then the Ororo he knew. She also appeared younger as well with longer white shining hair that hung down past her butt. She also had he noticed a very large diamond ring on the third finger from her left hand. Then his nose directed him to the twins. Logan stood dead in his tracks.
There before his eyes playing happily and gurgling baby talk to one another were two beautiful babies, both were a sweet dark coco color, a boy and a girl. The boy was a little larger then the girl and had a head full of dark curly hair that was growing down towards his back as he was crawling with his back to Logan towards some toys near the far end of the playpen. The girl had white colored hair like Ororo's some of it curling as it reached her shoulders and was held in clips that formed two large ponytails on her head. Then she turned her head and spied him. Her eyes were an Azorean blue just like Ororo's and she was grinning at him sporting one tiny baby tooth on her upper gum.
Logan grinned at the smiling babe and looked at her mom who looked and smelled nervous. Then the boy turned towards him and Logan gaped again. The face looking back at him was his own. Smaller and more rounded but with Logan's gray eyes and dark brows, a little smaller and lighter then his own brows and a smaller version of his wolfish nose. The baby grinned and there was the clef in his chin as well. Logan nearly fainted as Ororo looked peevish.
He looked from the twins to Ororo and then back to the babies as Ororo breathed deeply looking to sit down with Logan sitting also. Scott caught Jean's dour looking face glaring at him her brows crimping together and her mental shout in his head of…
'What were you thinking!' Scott squinted at the slight headache before he spoke.
"Well Logan since you now know why we need our Logan back ASAP, why don't you met his wife our Ororo Munroe-Howlett." Scott tried to recover from the glare and the mental shout his wife had given him. Logan stared at Ororo.
"So how long have you been married to your Logan?" Ororo managed a small smile.
"We have been married a little over a year. The twins happened shortly after our honeymoon in Greece." Logan perked up.
"You guys honeymooned in Greece?" Ororo had to stifle a laugh at the look on this Logan's face.
"Yes Logan felt the sea calling him there and he wanted to take me with him. He made a vow that he would never wander again unless his family went with him." Logan looked long at the twins.
"I can just imagine what kind of hell he's giving Storm and Hank back home."
"Hank do you think that will hold him?" Henry 'Hank' McCoy was breathing very hard and leaning over on his hunches as Ororo 'Storm' Munroe was seated against the lab wall making a small breeze to cold herself and the rest of her teammates down. After regaining his breath Hank spoke.
"I hope so. I've never had to administer so many tranquillizers before in my life. But this wolverine is not like ours. I swear the man went completely feral on us." Kitty was seated on the far wall around the adamantium cage that the alternate world Logan was now in. She was leaning on a now resting Colossus.
"I think he went really crazy when he saw you Storm." Ororo nodded still getting her breath back.
"I know. For some reason he went crazy when he saw me with Gambit." Hank grinned.
"No my dear he went feral. He sees you as his mate and your innocent kiss on Gambit's cheek and his hugging you back seemed to set him off." Ororo frowned at Hank.
"Why would the Wolverine care? Ours doesn't even know my real name." Hank sat up.
"But this isn't our Logan. I had the computer go over the DNA samples I got from him when we finally sedated him, he doesn't match our Logan's DNA at all. The Logan that the Globe covered was our Logan. The globe lifted off of another Logan." Peter spoke.
"You mean when it lifted off what we though was our Wolverine, there this Wolverine was instead?" Kitty patted him on his shoulder.
"Yes." Hank nodded as he pulled out his palm computer that activated the large flat screen TV that was high up on the wall.
"Look at the cells and you can see this wolverine is more feral then our Logan. His testosterone levels are much higher then our Logan's' and he's at least one hundred years younger." The team members all looked at one another. Finally Ro spoke.
"One hundred years younger? Just how old is Wolverine?' Hank shrugged.
"By my estimates he could be over two hundred to two hundred and fifty years old." Kitty and Peter stared at each other as Ororo's mouth flew open.
"What!" She yelled out in shock as Hank laughed lightening the moment.
"Remember the Wolverine has a healing factor and that is no doubt what retards his aging far greater then any other mutant or human." Kitty signed.
"Man if he could package that ability, he'd be a billionaire."
"Da." Was Peter's reply as Bobby, better known as Iceman came rushing into the room.
"Turn on the news there's a problem at city hall in New York."
Logan was in shock; he sat looking dumbfounded as he smoked his cigar out on the large porch of this X-men mansion. Aside from some cosmetic changes this mansion was just like his back home. Jean, Scott and the professor were alive, not only that but Scott and Jean had married and so had this Wolverine to Storm of all people. And to top it off they had two of the cutest babies he'd ever seen.
He inhaled long and hard on his cigar still reeling from the way this Storm looked and how happy those babies were. They even played with him after sniffing his scent. Hank had said he smelled like their father so therefore to them he kind of was. That had freaked Logan out so badly that he had to retreat to smoke so his nerves could calm down.
Now after an hour of thinking and digesting all that he'd seen tonight Logan felt calmer and more relaxed. He'd even noticed he became aroused when near this Storm. Small wonder the babies had come quick to the young newlyweds. He was taken for a loop when he found out that this Logan had never hit on Jean but had zeroed in on Storm from day one. Logan had a bigger shock when the professor gave him all the information on his past.
This Logan never lost his past. Now he knew why he had been so gaga over Jean. She was the living embodiment of Rose, a childhood crush whom Logan nee James Howlett blamed himself for her youthful death over a century ago. Jean just favored her and Rose had been in love with a another young man as Logan discovered he'd only had a schoolboy crush on her; in Rose's eyes anyway.
Rose was older and very much in love with her young man when Sabretooth had attacked her and her lover to get back at Logan. Seems Logan had murdered his and Creed's father. The man Logan's high born mother had an affair with. Creed's old man had killed the man he thought was his father and Logan in turn had killed him.
Thus the feud was born between the two. Victor who had the same healing factor as Logan, had vowed revenge on him for killing their father. He had stalked Logan for several years after Logan was taken by Rose from the home after the murder. Vic had spent over two years tracking them down. When he discovered that a teenaged Logan loved the older Rose. He found a way to exact his revenge. He murdered her and her lover making it look like Logan had done it. He even left clues so that only Logan would know who had killed them.
Logan knew Vic.'s calling card. He was torn apart by the way in which Creed had murdered and killed Rose and her young man. The crime scene was beyond gruesome. Logan was changed forever. That had caused him to feel guilty even to this day. Jean had embodied her memory for Logan. The two women could have been twins.
All those years of not knowing who he was or why he couldn't remember. All gone in one four hour session with Chuck. Logan inhaled. The Striker part of his past was done. In this life he never got the chance to fire the bullet into Logan's brain and wipe his memories out. This Wolverine got to kill him first. The good news to Logan was having his past back and knowing his real name. The bad he was on another world where he didn't belong.
The one thing he did like was that 'Wheels' was back. He wished that if he returned to his world that his professor would be there too. It felt comforting to have Chuck back. He missed that scent of old English and leather that always surrounded the old man. Logan smoked more of his cigar. Truth be told Charles Xavier was more X-men then the whole team put together. He was the living embodiment of his belief in a united world.
Logan felt even his Storm would be elated to have him back. He nearly laughed out loud to himself. 'His Storm', their relationship if you could call it that, was the two of them barely speaking two words to one another maybe once or twice a week. They seemed to function avoiding each other as much as possible in the school. Lately Storm had taken to leaving him notes on his door or bike. She knew how to keep her distance from him. Logan shrugged just thinking about it. Hank came out of the kitchen doorway.
"Logan I have a room ready for you. I'm sorry if you have to be away from your world for awhile but I am working on tracking the anomaly that bought you here." Logan held up his hand.
"Furball Ya ain't gotta apologize to me for nothing. I could use a bed right about now and I'm sorry that your Logan ain't here. His wife and babies are no doubt missing him as much as he misses them." Hank smiled faintly masking his worry for their Logan.
"True it breaks my heart to see Ororo and the twins. I know she wants her husband back home. I sense the twins will feel his absence the longer he is away."
Logan looked back at the large white moon as he followed Hank back into the mansion. He spoke to no one as he uttered.
"No doubt he ain't gonna rest too well until he's back with them either."
"Hank you have to do something. That Wolverine is out of control." Hank was rubbing the bridge of his nose as his glasses fell askew on his face. Ororo was on her last thread of sanity. This Logan was feral mainly when she was near. It was impossible for her to go near the lab or any room in the sub-basement. If this Logan smelled her then the howls would begin. Hank had even rerouted the vent system to lessen this Logan's sense of smell while Ororo was confined to the basement. But he still smelled her no matter what.
Since the night they had found him, he had to be kept in the large cage in the secondary med lab. Mainly to keep him from Ororo. She was going nuts. She had bigger problems to worry about and one was Hank's confining her to the Med-lab that was right next to this Logan's. Ever since that night of the anomaly things had changed at the mansion. Ororo was now in the med-lab indefinitely. Hank had said she needed to remain there until he finished all of his tests. Truth be told Ororo didn't feel too good about facing the students or the rest of the world right now.
Hank rubbed the tiredness from his face as Ororo looked sorry. She knew he was tired. He knew she was frightened. They both knew the world was going mad around them and now Hank had to carry most of Ororo's and Logan's burdens. He had even called Moira and she informed him she would come. He needed help.
"I'm sorry my dear Ororo but at the moment I have no other place to put this Logan. Peter and Bobby are still working on the seclusion cell that has yet to be completed." Hank looked weary as Ororo patted his arm and rubbed his shoulder.
"I know Henry. I'm sorry for being so crazed lately." Hank grinned sheepishly.
"I can understand your fear and craziness Ororo. Believe me, anyone having to cope with what happened to you and this house would be tied down to a metal table by now." Ro snorted.
"Tied down, more like hiding out Henry. Let's face it I can't let the children see me like this." Ororo threw up her hands to emphasis her point.
"I look like I did when I was eighteen. Some authority figure I am. I look like and feel like a freak." Hank rubbed his head.
"Only a woman who has always looked like a Goddess would think she was a freak due to an accident in a battle with a madwoman." Ororo folded her arms under her breasts.
"Oh yeah. How would you go about explaining how I look now to the students? Have you figured that out yet? Or even my drivers license? No plastic surgeon on Earth is this good. I lost sixteen years off my body. I have the face and figure I did when I was eighteen. I'm just grateful that I still retain my memories and education from my real age and that didn't revert like my body did."
Hank stood up from his desk. He recognized when Ororo was fearful. He walked around his large desk and enveloped her in his large arms. He crushed the now more voluptuous Ororo to him. She melted into his arms. She was shaking. Hank knew Ororo was sacred. She was responsible for this school, the students and Charles'dream. Now she didn't have their Logan and she didn't even look like the woman many came to know from the battle at Alcatraz Island.
Life always had to be so damn hard for an X-man. Ororo felt the flood of tears that threatened to leave her eyes. She hated being so weak and emotional. The sound of thunder from above made her rain in her emotions and hold back the tears. Willing herself to calm down. She took some deep breaths making her emotions and state of mind come to a calm. Hank seemed to be doing the same as well. They both parted with faint and weak smiles.
"I'm sorry Henry. I guess I've forgotten that you now have all my burdens on your shoulders as well. Not to mention our Logan's. Our Logan's.." Ororo huffed as Hank frowned.
"I'm talking about him as if he ever felt apart of this team. He showed up for the fights but everything else could go straight to hell as far as he was concerned."
Ororo nearly choked as she rubbed her face and shook her head making her now longer hair flow around her mid section. Hank grinned. He thought how much she looked like she did when she first came to Xavier's.
"My dear one allow me to get you a sedative. You need to rest. Moira is coming soon and she says she's bringing a surprise. So I will have some help soon that is until Moira can secure her business in Scotland before she comes. So please go lay down and allow me to finish my tests." He placed a soft kiss on Ororo's forehead as she leaned into him and smiled.
"Okay Hank. I never win in any arguments with you. Go. Do your lab work. I'll go lay down and try to sleep. It's no doubt for the best that I calm my nerves. I don't want bad weather to be credited with the X-men and cause any more anti-mutant hatred towards us then we already have. It's tiring being hated so much. First it's because I'm Black, then it's because I'm a woman and last it's due to me being a mutant."
Hank laughed at Ororo's little sarcastic speech. He knew when she did that she already felt better. He held the door open for her as she squeezed his hand before leaving. He wanted to see if he could question this Logan. But he would seed the air with pure oxygen to rid the lab of any of Ro's scent so the Wolverine could retreat back inside and Logan could come forward. Hank had a full week ahead of him.
Logan was settling in at the mansion having daily sessions with both the professor and Hank. He saw the twins at least once a day. His presence seemed to calm the restless babies and although this Ororo showed no aversion to his seeing the children. She did keep her distance from him. So far Logan had been on the alternate world for at least a week.
He was outside now playing with little Chance and Kendall both giggling hard at the goofy faces and playful growls he made as he pretended to chase the crawling rug-rats across the backyard's lawn. Their mother sat near the mansion with Jean both laughing at the antics of the twins with their alternate world father.
Hank came out to watch as Scott brought the women tall cool glasses of fresh lemon-aid.
"I'd say that this Logan is a lot more mature then ours." Scott spoke to Hank away from his wife and Ororo's ears. Hank grinned.
"More so then you think. Our Logan is at least one hundred years younger. This one even has an older Ro as well and get this the two don't seem to like each other." Scott looked shocked.
"You gotta be kidding me!" He caught himself as he smiled peevishly at his now frowning wife. Jean hadn't heard the conversation but she gave Scott a pointed look. He smiled and spoke softer to Hank.
"I can't even wrap my mind around that. Logan not wanting Ororo? I remember the first day he was brought here with Marie. He couldn't focus on anything the professor was saying to him. I even felt it when he purred at her and she nearly ran out of the office." Hank held back a snicker.
"Yes that day I believe will forever be impressed upon all our minds. It was plain to see that our Logan felt a pull towards Ororo that was on some levels primal and on others spiritual as well. I believe Charles said it best. Logan and the Wolverine recognized their mate when the two saw each other." Scott smiled.
"Thank God their relationship went smoothly. Both were just drawn to each other. I couldn't remember ever seeing Ro so happy and complete until Logan came. She seemed to be a calming influence for him as well. He just became more mellow with her there to soothe him." Hank nodded his head in agreement drinking his own rather large glass of lemon-aid. He finished the glass off before speaking.
"Well I must get back down to my lab. I think I have a handle on where the anomaly will show up next. I'm just lucky I was able to get some feed back on it from my colleagues at NASA. They too saw the strange orb and placed trackers on it. They were cataloging it's progress from where it started off the coast of Africa to where it is now.
In fact Leon Hardy an old school chum, has pinpointed it off the coast of Mali. I believe this globe started in some African nation that is relatively close to where our Ororo's mother was born. In fact there is a theory in Leon's analysis that this is something that occurs every three thousand years. In fact the people of this small country claim the ancestors raise up their long dormant powers in order to right something gone wrong in the universe. I believe our Logan and this one may have been exchanged for a reason." Scott looked dumbstruck.
"What reason Hank? I can't imagine why there would be a need to pull either of them from their own worlds into each others?" Hank grinned watching Logan as he lifted up one giggling babe and then the other placing sweet kisses on top of their heads.
"I can think of two reasons." He stared at the threesome as Scott looked also.
"Hank you can't mean that this happened to awaken this Logan to see what he could have with Ororo on his world? That's nuts. Even on another earth, another time there's no way this Ororo and that one are the same. They could be as different as night and day." Hank shook his large furry head. He adjusted his glasses as he did so.
"In speaking with this Logan the one thing that stood out was his pursuit of Jean. You and I both know Scott, that Jean here pursued you since you two were teens and Ororo arrived a few years later as a teen herself. She never installed herself into your lives and kept out of your way. I feel that the other world's Ororo did the same. She kept her distance while this Logan chased after that world's Jean. She still keeps her distance because she feels no connection to their Logan and has simply accepted her role in his life as unimportant to him and her. He's a teammate and nothing more. She'll live her life and he his. Logan himself said that she avoids him as if he were a disease." Hank went on.
"Charles and I were stunned at that, but it makes sense. Ororo is no fool she would never get involved with any man who didn't feel anything for her. Instead she will no doubt move on to some one else. Logan didn't know who she was seeing. He did note that several men at their mansion seemed to be gaga over her. He wouldn't elaborate but I figured that was because he was trying to figure out what he was missing when they were around her."
Scott shook his head brushing back his hair. He looked like he was still trying to absorb all the information Hank had told him. He gulped down some more of his own lemon-aid before speaking.
"So now what? What do we do about getting this one back to his world and ours back here where he belongs." Hank grinned.
"I have Leon calling me tonight. He feels the anomaly may be on it's way back here shortly and if his theory pans out we simply allow this Logan to get hit by the globe again and ours hopefully will be brought back to us."
"That's some theory Henry. I hope Leon is a man on a mission." Hank grinned.
"He is. Leon holds four masters and two doctorates. I would say that classifies him as a man on a mission. He always covers all corners in his research and this is his baby. His family has ties to that area going back some nine thousand years. I think I trust his theory more then any other on this." Scott stared out at Logan and the children as he spoke.
"Well I hope so for our Ro's stake. The twins need their real dad and Ororo needs her real husband back."
Hank nodded as Scott finished off his lemon-aide watching the alternate world Logan and the twins play.
Ororo was seated in the room that Hank had set up for her. She would be able to return to her own room in the morning. She stared dull eyed at the fake painted window on the wall that Peter had done so that who ever had to stay in the underground lab would feel like they had a view of the outdoors. Ororo just wished she could see the outdoors.
Since the night of the encounter with this other Logan, Ororo's life had been forever changed. She sat back on her bed and thought about the battle the X-men had with the villain who called herself the 'Nanny.' The woman had been hell bent on getting to the mayor of New York. She had already used her strange gun on his security team and staff, turning them all into nine month old babies.
The team had been shocked to find so many toddlers roaming around the now battle weary city hall. Doors had been busted open and walls were littered with spent bullets as over ten to twenty toddlers sat or crawled around the hall. Some of the babies were even wailing as they sat fearful from the woman's strange gun that shot a ray which caused the victims to be turned into babies.
Ororo shivered. If not for the accident with Rouge and the Nanny she could have been turned into a child again. Hank had managed to get the gun when the crazed woman had first dropped it in her shuffle with Rouge. He'd figured out how to reverse the gun. He shot all those afflicted and reversed the effects on the security team and staffers who were beyond grateful.
But Rouge underestimated the madness this woman suffered from. She'd grabbed Rouge around her neck even as her own life was being drawn from her and tried to choke Rouge who slammed her into a wall as she flew causing the woman to fall on Hank and the gun to inadvertently hit Ororo. That shot had caused her to lose the last sixteen years in an instant.
Hank had tried to regain the weapon but the mad woman was hit herself with a more lingering shot. Her foot had kicked the gun which shattered against the wall as she was turned into a child whose encounter with Rouge had wiped her mind of who she was or what she had done. Now the Nanny was a six year old child who had no clue as to her mad life or what had made her invent such a thing in the first place.
She was taken into custody by S.H.I.E.L.D. and Nick Fury for further study as to how this quiet and shy woman had created a gun with the ability to reverse the aging process. Before her descent into madness she had been an aging scientist who worked for the cosmetics industry before she was fired for being too old and pass her prime. She had blamed the mayor who was hailed as the fresh young face of the city having just won an election from an older opponent who had run for the last three elections.
She had misplaced her own hatred onto the mayor because he was the most visible face of youth to a woman who had been well past it. Her drivers license showed she was well over seventy but had kept herself in amazing shape. Thus the shock and anger at being dismissed by her company had pushed her over the edge. She had invented the gun and would use it against those she felt were the cause of her own misery.
Her company Nick learned had fired Dr. Martha Ratchet with a pink slip given to her on the fortieth anniversary of her time on the job. Her co-workers had surprised her with a small party, that her superiors had attended as well. They had all saluted her work in the morning before firing her that night. Giving her her pension as a consolation prize for all her years at the company. It had the effect of driving the dear doctor mad.
Hank had been shocked to learn that a scientist who had given over forty years of her life to her profession had been so easily dismissed by her company as if she were a disposable napkin. Fury wasn't shocked. He had seen too many people let go in a business that valued youth and power more then it did age and wisdom.
That night had changed Ororo's life forever. She looked at the mirrored wall beside her door. There she saw her reflection. She looked close to the young girl she had been all those years ago when she had first arrived at Xavier's. Ororo rubbed her eyes. She looked at her hands. They no longer looked as they once did but looked fuller, plumper and smoother then before. She sighed.
There was no going back. She couldn't be the age she was before. She had been approaching her thirty-forth birthday. Hard to believe that it had been so many years since Jean, Scott, Hank, Remy and Charles were together. She and Logan barely spoke or saw one another since the loss a little over two years ago.
They were more like two strangers stuck in a large building surrounded by students and others who needed them but they acted like they didn't need each other. Logan was a loner and Ororo found out from her loss of family that she was too.
Ororo mostly kept to Charles' office or her greenhouse if she had free time. She didn't feel any need to speak to Logan. He had made it plain he felt no connection to her and wanted none. He grieved for Jean almost daily. Seated at her head stone almost every night. That alone kept Ororo away from him. He needed to mourn and Ororo had mourned enough.
A Loud howl hit her ears as Ororo jumped up and rechecked the newly installed double locks on her door. Hank though it best to keep her and this Logan at a distance and Ororo agreed. He was creepy to her. He watched her with eyes so black that they frightened her. His look was hungry as he stared her down. It unnerved her to be near him, yet she couldn't tear her eyes away from him. It was like he was connected to her. Something Ororo would never admit. That in itself had bothered her.
She felt the need to confine herself in this locked room until the morning where she would continue her confinement in her loft room. Maybe when Moira arrived she could assist Hank farther and by then a plan to explain what had happened to her could formulate.
Ororo didn't want to face the students yet. Only Hank and Kitty had seen her so far since that night. Peter, Bobby, Rouge and the out of commission Remy had been too busy with cleanup after the Nanny episode. That had allowed Hank to whisk her away from prying eyes as he beheld the now changed Ororo. She still shivered when she though about all that had happened in one very odd night.
Their Logan replaced by this wilder more feral one and she now changed into the teen she had been so many years ago. It made her head hurt as she pulled her legs closer to her body and hugged them.
Henry luckily had a friend in Africa who had some insight on the globe and had a theory about it. Hank would tell Ororo and the others in the morning. She heard another loud howl. The new Logan was still in his Wolverine stage and thus Hank was trying to get him back from that state with various scents and pure oxygen.
Ororo shook as she pressed her head down onto her knees, she prayed to the Goddess that it would work.
Logan sat with the professor in the gardens out in the back of the mansion. He noted Ororo's green house looked bigger. Charles had laughed. Telling him he had enlarged it a year ago so Ororo could grow new plants and vegetables mostly because she had come back from her honeymoon with a love of foreign fruits and veggies. Logan had to smirk.
When their session had ended, Logan had felt great. He took a walk through the large wooded area near the mansion. He was headed towards the lake and noted the old boathouse they had at his mansion was gone; in it's place sat a large and amazing house. It reminded him of the cabin he had in Canada. He noticed this world's Peter walking by accompanied by Kitty. Both smiling and looking giddy. Word had leaked out that the two were newly engaged. Logan grunted a Hello then spoke.
"Who lives in this place?" Peter looked stunned and Kitty chuckled.
"Your alternate and his family. This is the Howlett home. Only Ro doesn't want to stay here while Logan is gone."
Logan felt his face drop. He ran his hand through his growing hair. He needed a haircut but could wait until he got back to his world. He looked hard at the home. It was very much what he would have done to build a house for a family, if he had one. He glanced back at the couple. Noting how Kitty held on to Peter's hand and how he kept her close to his large frame.
"So Ro don't wanna live here while her Logan is gone?" Peter shook his head murmuring a "Da." Kitty looked peevish.
"It's really understandable. She and our Logan are like soul-mates. They don't even have to speak to know what the other wants. It's so beautiful to see them together. I just hope we can get him back." Logan gave a weak smile as they walked off.
All three felt awkward as they realized this Logan felt more like a fish out of water then ever. He headed further out into the woods to think. He was hoping Hank could find a way to get him and the other Logan switched back. He had a feeling everyone at the mansion felt the same way.
Night came quickly. Logan had of course had his time with the twins. Helping them feel like their father was never gone, but he saw the pain that crossed this Ororo's eyes when she watched her babies giggle and play with him. It was killing him a little each day. He now sat alone after a long talk with Chuck. He had asked him to relay the courtship of this world's Ro and Lo and surprisingly, Charles had told him.
He was shocked at how close the two were but when he looked at the twins he understood. They smelled like a mixture of their parents and that new baby smell. He loved them. That had shook him up. He could see how parents fell in love with their kids. He loved two children who really weren't his at all. He smoked his cigar harder.
Hank had stated that this friend of his had said the globe was headed back this way. It was now just the waiting game. Logan sat back. He needed to get home. If he stayed here he would upset everything even worse and this Ororo despite how much he had to fight his attraction to her, felt none for him. He wasn't her husband and she knew that. Her Logan knew her and he didn't. Hell he didn't know his Ro either.
He was letting it all sink in when Hank came running out followed by the rest of the team.
"There you are, hurry the anomaly that brought you here is returning, the professor and Jean sensed the power and it's headed in this direction."
Logan snubbed out his cigar and ran to join, Jean, Scott, Peter, Rouge, Remy, Iceman and Kitty as the huge white globe that Logan remembered seeing over a week ago came out of nowhere. It was making a beeline for him. He jumped with claws out straight for it.
He awoke with the sun on his face and spotted the smiling faces of Hank and Bobby. He spotted Rouge looking tearful, Remy all bandaged up and Peter looking a bit sad. Logan sat up.
"What the hell happened this time?" He looked around. The team was quiet.
"And where the hell is Scott, Jean and the professor?" Rouge looked at Hank.
"I though you said this was our Logan." Hank checked his palm computer.
"According to my readings this is." Logan sighed.
"So I'm back where I started from uhh." Marie hugged him happy to have her inhibitor on. She was shedding tears as she spoke.
"Oh Logan you're back." Remy looked pleased.
"Good to see the real you homie. Gambit can't afford to have anymore claw marks on him." Logan gave him a 'What the Fuck!' look. Peter smiled quietly and turned to Hank.
"I will go and inform Katya of the news she will not leave Ororo's side." Hank nodded as Logan perked up.
"What happened to Storm?" Marie looked worried.
"We had to fight some crazy woman called herself the Nanny and she had some kind of weapon that only partially hit Storm…" Marie looked upset. Hank finished up.
"Our Storm is alright but she has gone through some changes because of the weapon." Logan jumped off the table.
"What changes? She cripple or something now?" Hank tried to reassure him.
"No, no nothing like that. It seems the weapon this wanna be villainess created just turned grown-ups into children…." Logan interrupted.
"You mean Storm's a baby now!" Hank held up his hands trying to calm the Wolverine.
"No. Storm was only partially hit. Rouge was able to deflect the blast by knocking the weapon from the Nanny's hands, only it broke on impact when the Nanny kicked it and it hit a wall. But before it did so, during the scuffle with Rouge, it blasted our would be villainess back to her younger days." Logan looked angry
"For once Hank just tell me what's wrong with Storm?" Hank's shoulders slumped.
"Very well, the effects of the weapon only partially hitting Storm wiped sixteen years off her age. Our Ororo is now the age of an eighteen year old with her mind still at her real age and we cannot reverse the effects due to the weapon being in pieces and the Nanny a child who has no idea who she is or of her life as an adult. It seems without Rouge's inhibitor on, the effects of her mutant ability and the weapon did wonders in mind wiping her for good" Remy chirped up.
"Well at least she can grow up as a good guy this time." Rouge glared at him. Logan just whistled.
"So how's she coping?' Marie signed.
"Well she's been in her room since it happened she won't come out and Kitty's been upstairs with her. I tried to tell her she was still the same woman but she's upset that the students won't accept her as an authority figure any more and she's bummed about it." Logan started laughing. Peter came walking back in.
"What is so funny?" Logan had to hold on to the table.
"You guys are. Here I'm thinking Storm might be crippled or something and she's upset because she's sixteen years younger. Hell there are people who'd paid this nanny character cash money to be younger again." Marie rolled her eyes.
"Leave it to you suge to be an insensitive jerk." Logan grinned.
"She up in her room?" Gambit spoke up.
"She no want to see anybody Logan, she was adamant about that. She won't even see Remy and Remy is Stormys' Padnat" Logan smirked.
"When has that ever stopped me?" He strode out of the med lab inhaling all the scents he'd become familiar with since living at the mansion. He was glad to be back home. He stopped when he reached the stairwell that led upstairs. He sighed. Now the work begins.
On his way towards the stairs he passed Artie and Jimmy talking in whispers.
"I hope Ms. Munroe doesn't leave us." Jimmy spoke.
"Me too who'd run the school?" Logan after listening ran up faster to the attic staircase and nearly bowled Kitty over.
"Sorry Shortstuff, Storm in her room?" Kitty looked at him smiled and then hugged him tight.
"So glad that you're back." Logan had to grin despite himself.
"Where else is an old dog like me gonna go. Storm in there?" Kitty shook her head as she wiped away her happy tears. Logan spotted Peter down by the staircase waiting on Kitty.
He knocked once then entered Storm's room. She was sitting on her bed with her legs folded under her, facing the large balcony doors. The first thing Logan noticed was that her hair was pure white and long, damn near pass her butt. It looked almost silky straight except he could see some curl and waves to it. Then he noted that Storm looked a little fuller then she normally did.
Her butt he noted was rounder and perfectly large, from where he stood. He approached her slowly. She still hadn't turned around and was holding her head with her right hand while she had her left hand twirling circles on her left kneecap. Logan noted she appeared to be thinking hard and not even aware that he was in her room.
He walked slowly noticing how her skin glowed a bright shiny chocolate brown and as he came nearer he saw her bust was a lot bigger then he remembered. 'Did Storm have a breast reduction prior to me coming here? If so what the hell for?' he wondered as he took in the changes in her body. She finally noticed him because she sat up with a start.
"What are you doing in here?" she asked nearly jumping off of her bed. He got a good look at her now. She was a knockout, not that she wasn't before, but damn she was fuller figured, stacked in all the right places and a very sexy looking young woman he noted. He also saw the look of her eyes a bright blue and clearer then crystal. For years he had thought her eyes were brown until he found out she wore contacts to cover them, why he never understood.
Logan just stood there for a while gawking at her. Ororo shut her eyes and then opened them back mad as hell.
"Look Wolverine if you just came to gawk at me then leave, please." Logan broke out of his revelry and grinned.
"Well I thought you'd at least be glad to see me." Ororo looked at him hard.
"Oh you're the regular Logan, I mean Wolverine." She walked away from him. Logan was stumped.
"What. That's it. No glad you're back Logan. Good to have you among us again." Ororo stopped as she got to her door.
"Why would you care if I said that to you?" Logan looked confused.
"What do ya mean why would I care?" Ororo looked calm.
"Just what I said. We're not friends, you don't even like me. We seldom if ever speak. We don't hang out together and for the last year or so we avoid being in the same room together." Logan looked stunned. Ororo just folded her arms across her chest.
"When have we ever been friends? You don't like me Wolverine and frankly I don't like you. You were closer to Jean and Charles, not me." Logan looked stumped then answered.
"We run the team together." Ororo sighed.
"We're associates Wolverine not friends." Logan looked hurt.
"Of course we're friends Storm we're X-men." Ororo just looked at him. Her face impassive as she stared him in the eyes.
"We're friends right?" she asked as Logan grinned slowly.
"Right." He answered when Ororo walked slowly over to him.
"Then friend what's my name?" Logan smirked before answering.
"Storm." Ororo shook her head.
"My real name, not my codename." Logan looked a bit shocked then went to answer.
"It's Orooroo. Your name is hard to say, but Ro is easier." He messed it up bad and knew it. Ororo just glared shaking her head and looked a lot more disappointed then mad, but only for a brief second then the look was gone.
"You have no idea how to pronounce my name and no doubt you don't even know my middle name. You address me as Storm night and day. We don't hang out together. We seldom talk unless it's team related. I am not your friend. Maybe you need to visit Hank. You and he are friends Logan. I'm just a teammate who's never been close to you. So let's keep it that way shall we?" Logan stared at her. He couldn't believe the words that came out of her mouth.
"First off your name is hard to pronounce, secondly we do talk, just that we tend to yell more often then not and third there's no way in hell I'm hanging out with Hank. I only get half of every sentence he puts out of that mouth of his." Ororo just sighed again. She walked over to her door and held it open.
"Goodnight Logan." Logan took a breath.
"Look I know ya trying to cope with being so much younger in your body but your mind's still the same. Nothing else has changed Stor….Ro and you shouldn't let your outward appearance stop you from being you." Ororo just stared at him open mouthed as Logan smiled as he sailed out of her bedroom door. Ororo closed it staring at the door.
Logan found himself down in the lab with Hank after greeting all the kids at school. Jubilee had been overwrought to have him back and even Artie had been pleased. Now he sat asking Hank some rather intimate questions all about Ro.
"Say Hank why's Ro so… so…" Hank stared at him.
"Just spit it out Logan." They were drinking some of Logan's stronger Canadian brand beer. His good stuff that he hid in the lab's sub-basement away from Storm. Logan shrugged his shoulders as he downed more beer.
"Alright why is she so stacked at this age but when I meet her years later she's smaller." Hank nearly choked.
"Because Logan women are, regardless of whether they're mutant or not, slaves to fashion trends and will either starve or binge to look like what the fashion world considers beautiful. Despite what our Ororo looks like she was very insecure about her looks at a young age. She always felt that Jean was the one everyone cared about while she faded into the wallpaper, so she dropped a huge amount of weight nearly damaging her health in the process." Logan drank his beer slower. The realization of Hank's words hitting him.
"Storm though she was fat and ugly?" Hank looked thoughtful staring at the cool mist rising from his cold can.
"Sometimes the most beautiful flower feels unloved and our Ororo always felt that she was an afterthought. She never sought attention once she turned twenty-one. She just stayed to herself especially after Forge." Logan stared.
"Who's Forge?" Hank looked up.
"And my preverbal trap can never keep shut." Logan arched a brow and stared harder at Hank. Hank shuttered and shook his shoulders.
"Fine. Forge was Ororo's first love and was several years older then her by about ten. She was eighteen when they first met and she fell madly in love with him. They became engaged a year after they met and had planned on having a big wedding here at the mansion where we all assumed they were to live. Until Forge accepted an offer to work a large government contact in Washington state.
He wanted Ororo to join him and move there to start their new life. You understand Ororo had a hard life as an orphan in Africa and this was more home to her then any she remembered so she asked for time to think about it. Well Forge didn't take her wanting to wait very well so he left her but not before we discovered he had deflowered our beautiful Ororo and left her a heartbroken young woman." Logan grunted.
"So old Forge was a pig uhh." Hank shrugged his shoulders.
"A cad would be a better word but he hurt her, not too mention having to see Scott and Jean so in love everyday. Ororo went more into herself and teaching. She just shut out any thoughts of romance and concerned herself with the students and the X-men. The drastic weight loss followed." Logan grinned.
"Well now she can start again." Hank laughed, he was drinking too much of Logan's strong beer.
"Start again with whom? I will admit I too once though I could have a relationship with our Windrider, but alas I am not what most women want. No our Ororo is a flower too exotic for me, or better yet she is a Goddess as they worshiped her in Africa. A vision that one places on a pedestal and admires from afar but dare not touch." Logan just sat back with his arms folded and stared long and hard at Hank.
"Who in the hell just admires a beautiful woman? Ya do like women don't ya?" Finally after coming back from his revelry Hank spoke.
"Of course I do! I'm speaking poetically. I could never deserve a flower like Ororo and I have noticed her for years, but I know she never felt that way about me." Logan grunted as Hank stared hard at him.
"And you my boy made it very plain that our Red haired Jean was the object that you coveted the most. Ororo has been treated like wallpaper and she knows it. Ignored by us mere mortals in favor of our wanting women who were easier to obtain. We all ignored a Goddess." Hank hiccupped and then laughed before looking in Logan's eyes and bending down closer to tell him something.
"In fact that other Logan was hard to keep away from her. He would go bat-shit crazy, as the kids say, if any male went too near Ororo. It really put her out of sorts. That Logan made it plain she was his and no one was allowed too get near her. She though it strange until I uncovered that he had married and mated his Ororo and they had children." Logan looked at Hank.
"You told her this?" Hank smiled half asleep.
"I had too or else I couldn't explain why I had to lock that Logan up tight to keep him from jumping our Goddess. Can't have that you know. Imagine two alternate world Ororo's pregnant by the same Logan. No, not on my watch." Then Hank's head hit his desk and Logan heard the sounds of heavy snoring coming from old big blue. Logan got up he needed a smoke and another way of getting the image of this Ororo's new look out of his head. Damned if she didn't look like the alternate world Ororo. It had Logan feeling like he was going Bat-shit crazy.
Sitting up on the roof Ororo Munroe watched quietly as Logan made his way towards the wooded area of the estate. He stopped midway down the path then lit up his cigar and turned towards her direction. She arched an eyebrow. He looked dead into her eyes and grinned as he inhaled his cigar, turned and walked right into the forest. Ororo glared.
"Pompous ass." She stood up and dusted off her jeans as she floated down to her balcony. 'Now I have to alter my wardrobe again.' She thought as she made her way to her bathroom. She started her bath and poured in the oils she loved so much as she undressed pining up her now longer hair. She stood in front of the full-length mirror in her bath and looked at her now fuller shape.
"Great back to my youth again." Ororo moaned as she lowered herself into her hot bath to soak.
Logan sat out on the pier enjoying his smoke as he looked at the now falling apart boathouse. There had been plans to remodel this place into a home for Scott and Jean when they married but that was over once Jean died the first time and then came back to kill Scooter and Wheels. Logan inhaled his cigar deeply as he though about why Ororo was upset. 'Hell she has to relive her youth without them now. Not too mention having me act like a jerk around her.'
He sat back leaning into one of the dock's poles He was enjoying the favor of his cigar and the cool feel of the night air thinking about what Hank had said about how his alternate's behavior towards Ro shook her up. He though about how this place looked on the alternate world. Instead of a rundown boat house it was a real home.
The alternate world Logan and Ororo had made a very nice home with those cute and loveable babies. It had stunned Logan as he had returned later that night and stuck inside the house to see how much it looked like and smelled like a home filled with love. There were personal touches everywhere that had signs of how the two had made a life together. The wedding picture threw him. They looked so happy and content. He even saw how much Scott and Jean loved each other. For all there bickering they really knew each other well and it showed. He inhaled longer.
He stared out into the now quiet lake and shook his head. This world was nothing like the one he just left. No Charles, no Scott, no Jean. Here this Ororo had made it plain, they were not friends. His behavior in the past didn't help. He was always gruff and rude to her. She didn't need to be psychic to know he had only wanted Jean and didn't want anyone to get in his way, back then anyhow.
Logan knew this Ororo wasn't going to forget how he treated her in the past. He was callous towards her. Often pushed her aside like a ragdoll and ignored anything she had to say. He wasn't a friend she had been right about that. Now he had to change all that and prove himself worthy. He knew it was strange to her and to him in some ways. But Logan just got that gut feeling that if he didn't it would be the worst mistake of his life. He sure as hell didn't want that.
Logan was out for a few hours as the night wore on inhaling the smells that gave his weary body and mind some peace. He though about all that he'd learned during the alternate world shift, short as it was. He was missing those babies already. Funny he could've sworn he smelled old Chuck. He always smelled of leather and that damned Ole English aftershave he loved so much. He heard a voice calling him. He looked up it was Rouge flying overhead.
"Are you going deaf Suge? I been calling ya for a while now." Logan put out his cigar.
"What's wrong now?" Rouge grinned landing by him as he sat still leaning on the dock.
"I do believe ya gonna find something right this time." Logan glared at her wondering what the hell she meant by that. Then Rouge took off again headed for the mansion as Logan got up and started to follow her low flying form.
"Hell a man can't even get a good smoke alone around here no more." He took off at a run after Rouge who was flying faster towards the mansion.
Logan was shocked when he entered the back door, instead of Hank being knocked out in his basement bedroom he was now wide awake and grinning talking to a long tall slender woman with reddish brown hair who looked to be about fortyish. Logan then noticed that Remy, Kitty, Peter and Bobby were all downstairs as well as a vast majority of the students who were all coming from the direction of the professor's office.
He didn't see Storm. Then a voice came into his mind. 'Come in Logan, it will be good to see you again.' Logan stopped dead in his tracks. Hank and the tall woman noticed his stupefied stare.
"You must be Logan then." The woman walked over to him, hand extended with a big smile.
"Shocking isn't it to hear Charles' voice again after so long a time." Logan couldn't speak just stared with his mouth open. Hank actually snickered.
"Go in Logan, you won't regret it." Hank encouraged as the others all stood looking a bit shocked but happy. Logan felt his feet moving him as his mind was in a whirlwind. He entered the office and the door closed behind him.