A Plane Crash
July 10, 1982; 3:15pm EST; Westchester, New York, USA
"Apparently the Professor has left the mansion without someone to abide in it," Ororo said from her seat on a strong branch outside of the Institute's perimeter. "Getting in should be fairly easy."
"I don't know about that, babe," Bishop said, perching in another branch as he blocked the sun's rays with his hand over his eyes. "It looks like Charles has put the Institute in 'Kill-Whatever-Moves-Mode'. I guess he's really protective over his little secret right about now."
"First I shall deal with the cameras," she said as she floated from her perch in the tree and her eyes turned white. Immediately fog began to overwhelm the area in a thick cloak, limiting even her own vision. "We shall tunnel through the basketball courts to get to one of the mini-jets!" Ororo ordered as she and Bishop charged through the front gate of the Estate. Immediately the motion detectors went crazy and random shots of laser beams were being fired from ground-based cannons.
"I'm ready, 'Ro!" Bishop said as he stood on the fog-covered basketball court with his fists pointed downwards towards the ground. "Charge me up!" From her position in the sky, Ororo held her hand down and lightning crashed into Bishop's body, dousing him with kinetic energy as he painlessly absorbed every bit of it. His eyes were closed as he focused the stored energy towards his fists and released it into the ground below his feet. The burst of energy created a big hole in the basketball court. He jumped down, followed by Ororo's hovering body as she gracefully made her way towards one of the mini-jets.
"I told you it would be fairly easy," Ororo said as her static energy disoriented the security system within the hangar.
"Yeah yeah," Bishop grumbled as he boarded the jet and prepared himself for a long flight. "Babe, I just have one question for you."
"And what is that, Bishop?" Ororo said as she began to start the brand-new engines on the jet and the panel began to light up.
"What if I have to... you know... pee?" he asked. Ororo had no answer.
July 10, 1982; 11:45 pm GMT+2; Cairo, Egypt, Africa
"Bishop, vacate the jet at this very moment!" Ororo shouted as she angrily opened the overhead hatch for herself and exited the mini-jet. She rubbed her forehead as she breathed in the heavy and humid night air of Cairo.
"But Ororo—," Bishop said, trying to mend broken wounds with smooth talk.
"Do not but me!" she commanded as she turned around. "Handle your business because if you mention to me one more time that you must... urinate, curse that forbidden word, then I shall have to handle my business, and it has nothing to do with the removal of my own bodily fluids."
That threat was enough to get Bishop to go behind a tree and sigh in relief. Ororo scanned the dark marketplace that was approximately a mile away from where they had landed. She closed her eyes, trying to envision her past in Cairo. The task of remembering was easy; she could probably pinpoint every alleyway, street, and dark corner because of her days as a thief. She strictly remembered where the apartment was at; she had walked past it several times while it remained a large pile of debris on the ground.
Bishop came from behind the tree with a sneeze, "So, where are we going?"
"Nowhere tonight," Ororo sighed. "We have time to plan a strategy and to rest."
"What kinda strategy can you plan?" Bishop chuckled as he stood next to Ororo, putting his arm around her waist. "We're gonna get you and your parents out of the building before the plane crashes, and voila, we're done."
"It is not as simple as that," Ororo frowned. "There are a number of hazardous things we need to watch out for, this includes mutant-hate hysteria, which might rise if we use our abilities in public. We must also be weary of the war that is taking place, despite tonight's eerie silence. And, we must keep our minds and bodies away from Xavier. He is in Cairo, and to reveal ourselves is to put our minds at risk of being probed and could change his dream of mutant-human peace if he does not like what the future has to offer."
"Stop being so uptight woman," Bishop laughed as he nudged her slightly away from him. "You're always so... groany and groggy. Loosen up a bit."
"Groggy?" Ororo frowned. "Just for that, there will be no loosening up tonight!" She walked towards the jet, purposely sashaying before getting inside and locking it closed.
"Aw, 'Ro!" Bishop said with his arms out while he walked towards the jet. "Why you gotta be so sensitive?" Fog covered the windows of the jet as Ororo gave him the silent treatment and ignored the rest of his pleas. He finally gave up and laid on the ground, grumbling, "Women."
July 11, 1982; 11:58 am GMT+2; Cairo, Egypt, Africa
"Bright Lady!" Ororo frowned as she woke up inside the jet and looked down at her watch. The time zone changes, the time travel, and the fly overseas must have completely worn her out. She opened the jet and looked around, finding Bishop nowhere in sight. "Where is he?" she frowned, running her fingers through her tied and nappy hair.
July 11, 1982; 12:30 pm GMT+2; Cairo, Egypt, Africa
"Yeah, weather this time of the year is cooler than usual," a woman with a southern American accent smiled. "This is what we consider Winter so close to the equator. It's pretty mild."
Bishop looked at her with his eyebrows quirked upwards and a look of slight interest on his face. "What the—," Bishop said as he looked up and saw the clouds suddenly darken. It surprised everyone there when snow began to fall from the dark sky and cool winter air began to blow through the marketplace. "Ororo," Bishop mumbled. "Showoff to the core."
"This will teach him not to leave me all alone in a jet," Ororo said, standing on top of a building with her hands at her side and her white hair blowing in one direction with the wind. She closed her eyes as the cool air brushed against her neck and she tilted her head backward, enjoying the feel of the snow falling on her face and quickly melting as it dripped down her smooth, chocolate skin.
The marketers and traders below were not so enthusiastic with the white precipitation as the ground began to slowly freeze and the buyers, dressed for hot weather, began to make their ways to their homes under the unpredictable change in weather.
"Gotcha!" a voice said from behind Ororo. She turned around and was met with a bombardment of muscles as Bishop wrapped her in his arms. He smiled as his brown eyes looked into hers deeply.
Ororo smiled, playfully, as her body became surrounded with brilliant lightning, causing Bishop to release his grasp. He absorbed the shock and then grinned as he watched Ororo jump down from the building's roof and run in the snow. He jumped down behind her, laughing as he chased her down, not noticing the angry looks of dissatisfied merchants as they kicked snow on their carts.
"It's snow, just like at home!" a familiar voice said, coming from a white-haired, six-year-old girl who was picked up by her mother off of the icy ground. The snow stopped. Ororo stopped running. Bishop's smile vanished. For a second, everything was silent.
"Yes, honey," N'Dare, Ororo's mother, smiled as she spoke with an African accent. "It's very strange. The snow don't usually fall here."
"Where's daddy? Does daddy see the snow?" little Ororo asked with a smile on her face as she played in her mom's hair.
"Bright Lady, you are getting heavy Ororo," N'Dare grunted. "We are going to go see daddy now. He's in the apartment. Can you walk in the snow?" Ororo nodded and the two began to walk towards the apartment building.
Ororo stood, silent and frightened as she watched her mother and her younger-self walk away. For a moment she wouldn't even breathe, hoping somehow she was becoming camouflaged with the snow and scenery.
"C'mon babe, we got to stop them!" Bishop said, grabbing her arm and attempting to pull her, but she wouldn't budge.
"I... they... I can't," Ororo said, finally. She hung her head and looked down at the ground. The skies began to clear up completely and the hot sun began to melt the ice and snow almost instantly as temperatures quickly rose.
"Look 'Ro!" Bishop said, almost vehemently, as he grabbed both of Ororo's arms and frowned. His dominant, male characteristics began to take over as Ororo stood silently in his shadows, looking up to him like a daughter does to her father. "We came all the way through time and space to do this. You want your claustrophobia gone? You want your parents alive? Stop being such a wimp and get the job done!"
"Bishop, I can't!" Ororo yelled with tears in her eyes.
"You can and you will!" Bishop frowned. "You lead the X-Men against the most ruthless of villains, villains who would've killed us if they could have! You've helped save the lives of thousands, millions even. But you're scared to save your own parents?!"
"I am not frightened to save them!" Ororo said, pushing Bishop away from her and then turning around she no longer had to face him. She wrapped her arms around herself, "I am worried about how this could change everything!"
"This ain't a time for remorse," Bishop said, no longer angry. "It's a time for action. Now are you gonna go through with this or what?"
"I suppose that decision is already made," Ororo sighed, looking up to the sky. Just then the bomb alert siren came on, sending a loud scream of noise throughout Cairo.
