Hey yall! Looks like my goal of getting the whole story written down by Christmas might actually come into reality! Who knows, I might even get a tentative start on my next fanfiction.
Sad to say, you X-man fans will be somewhat disapointed as, per request of a close friend, my next fic will center on the Biker Mice From Mars cartoon (For those of you who've never seen it, you might want to look it up, it's a great 80's cartoon. And those of you who live overseas are lucky as a great deal of the episodes in english have been lost. Sad face).
Anyway, off on tangent. We all know who owns what now, so if anyone wants to bust my chops on a fanfiction site (I did not enjoy that pm and am now thoroughly annoyed), you may now feel free to BUZZ OFF! Everyone else...
ENJOY!
Life became infinitely better at the mansion over the next few days.
Patrick seemed to warm up to the mutants. While he still treated them with caution, he seemed more willing to get to know them, and foster the beginnings of a friendship or two.
Mary helped out wherever she could, as it was not her nature to sit back idly while others did the work. She helped clean whenever she got the chance. She also helped prepare meals, trading recipes with Jean, Ororo, and Kitty.
Ericka, along with Jeremy, and Jonny, who had become quite the conniving little partners in crime, took on the job of taste testing the various goodies under construction in the kitchen and raising the spirits of everyone in the mansion.
And they were very good at that second job.
There was no person in that mansion they couldn't make smile, with the exception of Logan. He knew they were trying to make him smile, and so he steadfastly refused. All three children, though the boys especially, took this as a sort of challenge. And they strove to the utmost of their ability to crack that stony façade.
Alice, Trisha, and Jackie set out to explore the mansion and the surrounding grounds while Xavier worked with Detective Chelise to locate and notify their parents.
The Thompsons, Jackie and Jonny's parents, weren't difficult to find, as they hadn't moved very far. Auger had told them he would kill the boys if they didn't move out of the house they were living in or if they went to the police.
Until Xavier put Jackie on the phone and they heard his voice, they refused to even admit they had children, for fear of what would happen to the boys if this was Auger testing them and they failed.
"We were so scared we'd never see you again!" Jackie's mom sobbed over the phone.
"It's good to hear you son!" His father added.
They must have either put the phone on speaker or they were using different extensions of the same line, Jackie decided.
Jonny and the two Donahue children came trotting through the door.
"We're fine, I promise!" Jackie answered. He gestured and mouthed Jonny's name silently. Jonny frowned and came, confused. Jackie grinned. "Hey hold a sec, I got someone here wants to say hi."
He handed the phone to Jonny. "Mom 'an Dad." He said simply. Jonny's face lit up and he hurriedly put the phone to his ear.
"Mommy? Daddy?" he asked eagerly.
They were on the phone with Jackie and Jonny's parents for over an hour and a half.
Through Detective Chelise and the police department, it was arranged that Mr. and Mrs. Thompson would come to pick up their boys. Missing Person's would pick up the tab for their air fare, round trip.
They would arrive in two days.
In the meantime, Xavier assured them that he would continue to look after their children until they arrived, and yes they could always reach the boys at this number.
Trisha was a little more difficult.
She had been kidnapped while on vacation several years ago. Somewhere along the way, she had suffered a concussion. Her memory of life before captivity was blurry at best.
She knew what state and county she had lived in, but beyond that, there was little she could tell them. The only other thing she could provide was a house number, and the fact that her daddy was missing his leg, just below the knee.
Alice on the other hand was purely impossible. She absolutely refused to tell Xavier anything about her past.
All they could do was take a picture of her face, and hope that she was in a database of some kind.
Through all of this, Rhett slumbered on. He didn't improve, yet neither did he grow worse. He simplyexisted, there on the edge of life.
The inhabitants of the mansion ensured that he was never alone as the days passed, each taking a turn watching over their comatose friend.
But as the days flew by, and he continued to remain unconsciousness, the fear that he might never wake began to twist and coil round their hearts like a serpent.
Cold.
Cold settled in and around his very being. An iciness so cold it burned.
Rhett writhed in the darkness of his prison. This was truly a living hell.
Tis my living hell. He thought grimly. And what truly galled him, was that this, this nightmarish prison….was within the deepest recesses of his own mind!
For this was the secret of Auger's seemingly impossible revival's. The body went into a state of almost total shut down, keeping only the most essential functions going, if possible. It would remain this way until the damage had been repaired.
But where does th' mind go? He thought grimly. That'd be th' million dollar question.
While the body repaired itself, the mind was buried in the deepest depths of the subconscious, mired in their own personal living hell.
And this was his.
To be lost, in the dark and cold.
To suffer, with no end to his torment in sight.
But most of all, to be alone. He was so deeply buried, that not even the professor could reach him!
He gasped. For a moment, he had felt a touch of warmth. He reached out into the darkness, searching for that touch of warmth in all this ice.
Where are ye? He yelled.
Silence answered his call. He began to think perhaps he had imagined it. A despairing tear slipped from the corner of his eye, only to freeze on his cheek.
Wait….An what would that be?
He listened carefully, and a smile touched his lips .
A voice was fighting its way through the blackness.
Sorry about the long intro guys...But seriously! God preserve me from morons and/or stupid people in large groups!
Anyway, reveiw. Leaving a stockingfull of goodies of your choice for reveiwers this time!