Chapter 45 – Homecoming
Song Suggestion: Bolero then Kaneada's Theme from the Akira Soundtrack
Journal: T'Challa
October 16, 2021
Time: 03:32am (EST)
I look round. See Vision's and Wanda's dead body. Vision is most likely inhabiting another body and sending reinforcements at this point.
Wanda should not have come.
But she felt compelled to.
For a friend and for the life of our unborn -
Puck and Snowbird, maybe it was old Alpha Flight business, but there's not much left of them.
I guess Logan thought there was something in their brains worth getting at.
He has no respect for living or dead.
I look at Puck's dead eyes. They seem to say, "We failed her."
Off in the distance I hear something.
Vision and a host of cadets I assume.
They are quick.
Then.
It is the oddest thing.
I hear – the most peculiar sound.
– way off into the distance.
Extremely faint at first:
- BAMF -
I smell the devil.
I know that smell. I smelled it a distant time ago.
I look in that direction –
- hearing the BAMF's getting progressively louder, like a drumbeat. I did not realize it at the time, but it was a precursor to an unfolding night's sky pageantry.
The stars in the sky begin to gravitate towards each other - maybe they never were stars.
And slowly, like Ravel's Bolero, my world around me subtly shifts.
The stars combine as they form shadows, foreign riders, and distant travelers.
There is something in the air tonight.
Witches would fear it, for it is the power of miracles.
It appears to be keeping my heart pumping.
Miracles appear in front of me - Ravel's song translates into images, starting soft and delicate until a Fellini carnival appears in the heavens.
Every color, light, popping, zigging, sagging, - thing-a-kabob appears in the sky like Cronos and all his children descended down to earth to play. There is even this black and gold robot in the form of an Imperial Star Destroyer (do not ask me how I know this).
As these travelers grow closer, they descend from their winged chariots. A gentleman with a deck of cards and another one with long blonde hair and throwing knives descend in perfect sync, land as if weightless, before scurrying towards me. They appear to be leaping ten – fifteen feet with every stride.
They descend upon their former school like the legends they have become. Some burst into flames and some appear out of nowhere.
BAMF – right in front of me.
A blue demon beats them all. He hovers over me while surveying the scene.
More of them approach. Trepidation. For they have no idea what they are walking into?
I am not intimidated by these out-of-shape and assimilated mutants until….
Trailing behind all of them, a sonic boom whips through me, coils, then flowers into the sound of a terrible fighting bird. A warring phoenix. This bird stimulates the morning sun bring with her the sky of morning. This bird carries a dark woman deep inside her belly.
A half bionic and half goat woman walks beside a middle aged woman in pajamas, slippers, and a silk robe.
She sees me.
Looks deep inside me.
Sees something in my eyes - in my soul.
I fight the tears.
She speaks to the bird woman with their thoughts. The bird woman stands over me as the others descend.
She does not utter a word; she just looks down at me, seeing to my wounds. She evidently has been assigned to protect me.
I risk choking on my own blood to deliver her these painfully obvious words, "he will kill you all."
"We shall see about that," she replies in my head.
The pajama woman walks away while the others file around her and descend into the tunnel. I do not know why, but I think of that Tolkien character - Frodo when I see her.
The Pajama Woman might save us all, might teach some of us elves from Rivendell how to do things.
Godspeed Ms. Baggins.
Godspeed -