Days of Future Pest
JULY 13, 2027
A teenaged boy with long brownish hair and grey-green eyes dashed through the corridors of the multi-story parking garage. "Halt, mutant." said a robotic voice. "Surrender or be annhilated."
"Annhilate this!" The boy focused on the robot. Circuitry sparked as the droid imploded on itself.
"Do you have any idea how much those things cost?" He turned to see a slim, smug looking man approaching him.
"Thomas Sloan." said the boy. "Financer of the Sentinal Project. We meet at last."
"You forgot, VP Thomas Sloan. Didn't the Formidable Four teach you any manners?"
"Take one more step and you'll see why they call me the Brick!"
"Ah, yes, the Brick." Sloan said condescendingly. "AKA Matthew Jacob Morlan. Adopted by two families. An odity, but since no one wanted a mutie baby, no one put up a fight. Ah, yes, Matthew, I know all about you."
"Not exactly top secret, you know." said the Brick.
"I know something you don't know." Sloan mocked. "At age two, you turned up in a hospital lobby with a note pinned to your shirt that said 'Mutant, parents don't want him.' When the staff found out you weighed 200 pounds and could turn Jell-O into rocks, they found out why. Your mother wanted to keep you. Cried her eyes out when you were taken from her. Your father had to divorce the stupid bitch. Thank Heaven for prenups."
"You're talking too much, Sloan."
"And you're still listening. I'm going to tell you the truth about your father."
"Jesse and Trent are the only fathers I've ever needed!"
"Matthew, I'm your father."
"NO!! It's not true! It's not possible!"
"I'm affraid so." Sloan smiled. "I couldn't let a mutie get in the way of my political career, you understand. Brooke didn't. I see you have her stringy hair and crooked nose. Lying bitch never told me about the plastic surgery or the dye jobs and perms. You know, I ordered to have you rubbed out. Vito must've gone soft on me and just abandoned you. Hard to find good help."
"SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP!!!"
"Very much like /Oedipus Rex/, don't you think?" Sloan said calmly. "Only, in this case, the father will kill the son." He drew a gun from a concealed shoulder holster.
"Drop that gun, Sloan, or you're toast!" Sloan smiled at the sound of the young woman's voice. The Brick saw the woman he came to know as his big sister. Tall, athletically built with wavy brown hair tied on top of her head in two bunchy pigtails. She was dressed in bright colored, form fitting clothes. Her blue eyes smouldered as did the fireball in her hand.
"Jasmine Rae Moreno." Sloan said calmly, still keeping the gun on Matthew. "AKA, 'Fire Blossom'. Stop and think a moment, Fire Blossom. You are in a garage which is filled with cars, they in turn are filled with gasoline. Do you really want to hurl fireballs in here?"
A blue blur hurled itself at Sloan. The gun went off. A girl's scream was heard. "Gabs!" Matthew screamed.
"I'm alright, lieb." a blue furred female said, clutching her arm. "I have his gun. It was only a flesh wound." Sloan stared at his attacker. Her blue eyes glowed in the gloaming of the garage. Gleaming white fangs shone as she spoke.
Sloan felt blood on his neck. The bitch bit me! Like a fucking vampire! "Of all the muties," he said. "Your kind is the worst! You don't even LOOK human!" Indeed, with her pointed ears and long tail, she looked quite demonic.
"I'm more human than you'll ever be, Sloan!" she retorted.
A hum filled the air as a hover craft sped up to them and stopped cold. "Get in the truck, let's go!" urged the driver. Gabs, Matthew and Jasmine piled into the craft, leaving Sloan to curse at them as they flew out of the garage and over the city.
"Nice save, twin brother." said Jasmine.
"Yeah, thanks Jason." said Matthew.
"Don't mention it." Jason was Jasmine's fraternal twin. They were both tall and athletic with wavy hair and were about 20 years old. That's where the simularities ended. Jason's hair was pitch black and curled up at the nape of his neck. His eyes were a deep hazel-brown color and he dressed in a dark purple tank top and black jeans. Jason was the more sedate of the twins.
Gabs moaned in pain. "Jason," said Matthew. "Gabs was shot."
"Can't take her to the hospital." said Jason. "They'll kill her as soon as they see her."
"She has an inducer!" Matthew said desperatly.
"Think, MJ." said Jasmine. "When they work on her, they're gonna feel fur."
"I wanna go home!" Gabs cried.
"It's OK, baby." MJ said soothingly, taking her in his arms.
"Halt, mutant, or be annhilated."
"Holy shit!" yelled Jasmine. "When did those things learn to fly?"
Jason tried to out-manuver the Sentinal. It kept tailing him. "Only one way outa this situation." he said, opening a panel in the steering wheel.
"No way, Jason!" said Jasmine. "Uncle Danny hasn't had a chance to test it yet!"
"We're testin' it now!" Jason pressed buttons and the hover car disappeared in a green streak of light.
MARCH 19, 2002
"Where are we?" asked Jasmine.
"Not where." said Jason. "When."
"Well, we better land somewhere." said MJ. "If this is before hover cars were invented, we might give someone a heart attack."
Jason landed the hover car behind a copse of trees beside a lone stretch of highway. He took a med kit of the glove compartment and tossed it to MJ. "Dress Gabs' wound as best you can." he said.
"Um, Jason?" asked Jasmine. "Is it bad when wires are poking out of the steering wheel like that?" Sparking wires poked out of the wheel.
"Ah, son of a..!" Jason slapped at the wires with his shirt tail. "MJ, stay with Gabs. Me and Jasmine will have a look around."
The twins walked down the road, looking for a clue for when or where they were. "All I see is corn." said Jasmine. "And not very helpful corn."
"Here's a clue." said Jason, picking up some litter.
"A soda can?"
"With one of those old fashioned pop-tops. You know, the kind that would have this metal tab that could break off and fall in your drink."
"Oh, I remember those. Back in Kindergarten us girls would make necklaces out of them. I think I was in first grade when they made the new ones that you just poke your thumb in."
"So we're more than 13 years in the past. Find something with an expiration date. That might help us approximate what year it is."
"Here's an old newspaper." Jasmine picked up a faded newspaper page. "Bush vows to capture Saddam, Bin Laden." she read. "Well, one of two wasn't bad. Well, we know this is after the Nine-Eleven Massacre and before the capture of Saddam Hussein. The date says January 17, 2002. It's too warm to be winter, too cold to be summer. So it must be Spring of 2002."
"Brilliant, Holmes." said Jason. "There's a sign. Let's see where we are." They approached the green road sign.
"Lawndale City Limits." Jasmine read. "Population 24,650. Wow, Lawndale used to be small."
"Lawndale, spring, 2002." Jason mused. "Our parents will get married this summer. They're probably still living here."
"We could stay at Abuelo's house."
"Jasmine, remember, whatever we do, we can't polute the timeline."
"Duh! I've seen all those movies too. Even the flatsies like /Back to the Future/."
"But we're stuck here. Until we can fix the time teaser."
"Jason! Uncle Danny's here! He could fix it!"
Jason shook his head. "In this time, Uncle Danny's just a kid. He hasn't even been to college yet, let alone developed something as complex as the time teaser."
"Got any better plans, twin?"
"Let's go check on Gabs and MJ."
MJ cleaned and dressed Gabs' wound. "Gabs..." he said.
"Yes?"
"Before Sloan, um, shot you, he-he told me something. I-he...He's my father."
"Is that all?"
"What do you mean 'Is that all?'! I'm the son of one of the most evil men in the world! The only reason Kelly is president is because Sloan was too young to run. Sloan was a major financer of the Sentinel Project. And, and he's my father!"
Gabs smiled and brushed a furry tridactyl hand against his cheek. "Matthew Jacob, I would love you were you the son of Satan himself. Besides, my own father had a brush with the whole 'Luke, I'm your father' bit. My 'granny' was Mystique, remember?"
MJ looked into her clear blue eyes and stroked her braided chestnut hair. "I love you, Gabriele."
"Gabs." she corrected. "Only Vati calls me Gabriele, and then only when he's saying something like 'Vere do you sink you're goink dressed like zat, Gabriele?' or 'You need to take gute care of your leetle seester, Gabriele." MJ laughed. Gabs always did the funniest impression of her dad. She was always trying to make him laugh. He cradled her and kissed her.
"Are we interrupting something?" Jasmine teased.
"We gotta hide the car." said Jason. He picked up the vehicle and carried it to where the trees were thickest. The rest of them covered the vehicle with branches.
"Now what?" asked Gabs.
"We could hitch a ride into town." said Jasmine.
"That's pretty dangerous, Jasmine." said Jason. "Even in the 'good old days'."
Jasmine conjured a fireball in her hand. "I got insurance."
"Alright," Jason sighed. "Gabs, does your inducer still work?"
Gabs pressed the button on the watch she was wearing. Her image flickered and was replaced with that of a fair skinned teenaged girl. Even her wounded arm looked normal.
"I don't think girls in 2002 wore vinyl mini dresses." said Jasmine.
"I don't think they wore hot pink bicycle shorts either." said Gabs. "But I can change."
"Right here?" gasped MJ.
"Nah. Mom and I programmed my watch to induce holographic clothes. I've got a whole wardrobe in here." She touched a button and was wearing lavender capris with a /Les Miserables/ T-shirt. MJ gave her a look. "What? It's my favorite musical."
"What I have on will do." said Jason. "Jasmine's gonna get weird looks, but she'll pass." Jasmine had on hot pink bicycle shorts and a peach and yellow floral print sleevless top. "And MJ.." MJ wore a green gi top, sweat pants and kung fu slippers. "I guess it'll do."
The walked towards Lawndale, hitchhiking. "We can't use our real names." said Jason. "It might pollute the time line."
"We can go by our codenames." said Gabs. "I'm good with Sapphire."
"Brick's fine by me." said MJ. "Say, should I increase my density? Incase we run into trouble?"
"Wait till we get to town." said Jason.
"I can always decrease it again." said Gabs.
"If we're going by codenames," said Jasmine. "Then I'm Fire Blossom and Jason's Bamm-Bamm."
"How'd you get a codename like Bamm-Bamm?" asked Gabs.
"It's a funny story, really." said Jasmine.
"That we don't have time for." said Jason.
"We're waiting for a ride, twin brother, we have time. It's like this. When we were three years old, Mom told Jason to go wake up Uncle Trent. Next thing they know, Jason picks up the bed with Uncle Trent still in it and bangs it up and down on the floor yelling 'Geddup, Unca Twen! Geddup, Unca Twen!'" MJ and Gabs laughed. "Uncle Trent said there used to be a cartoon called /The Flintstones/ that featured a super-strong toddler named Bamm-Bamm, so that's what he called him."
They got a ride into town in the back of a pick-up truck. The twins led the way to "Abuelo's house" as they called it. "One more thing." said Jason as they stood at the door of the Moreno house. "We can't let him know about the future. We don't tell him who we are, and we don't call him Uncle Danny."
"I guess I can't call him Dr. M either." said Gabs.
Jason knocked on the door. He and Jasmine were momentarily shocked by the appearance of the one who answered. Abuelo never looked so young. "Hola," he said to the four people on his porch. "Are you here for Danny's role playing game?"
"Uh, yeah that's what we're here for!" said Jasmine.
"Bueno. He is in the basement."
They went to the basement. Danny was there, seated at a card table with a plump girl with red hair, a young man with an eye patch and another young man with long blackish-blue hair. Gabs turned back.
"What is it?" Jasmine whispered.
"I can't go in there! That's my dad!" she whispered, pointing at the boy with the long hair.
"You sure?"
"He's wearing an inducer. Looks just like the photo in his yearbook."
"Big deal." said Jasmine. "He won't know you. And that's our Uncle Danny and Aunt Iggy down there. Don't ask me who the guy in the patch is. Just play cool, OK?"
"So, has anyone seen that /Lord of the Rings/ movie yet?" Danny was saying.
"Ja, it was great!" said Kurt. "Can't wait for the next one."
"When's that Artie guy getting here?" asked the guy with the patch.
"He said he'd be coming, Ron." said Danny. "Be cool."
"Kurt had to come all the way from Bayville and he's early." said Ron. "What's keeping Artie? I'm ready to role play here."
"That might be him." Danny heard some people coming in the basement. "Artie?" The four visitors came in. "Um, are you guys looking for my brother, Jesse?" he asked. "He's probably at the Zen tonight."
"We need to talk to you..Danny." said Jason.
"Can it wait? The last game session ended on a cliff hanger."
"Hi, I'm Artie!" said someone at the top of the stairs.
"We know who you are, Artie." sighed Iggy. "You don't have to announce it."
"They don't know me." Artie pointed at the visitors. "Who are they, anyway?"
Danny was at a loss. "I'm Fire Blossom." said Jasmine.
"Bamm-Bamm." said Jason.
"Brick." said MJ.
"Sapphire." said Gabs.
"Going by your D and D names?" asked Artie. "Cool! I'm Crom the half-orc barbarian."
"I'm Assilem Brandywine," said Iggy. "The halfling thief."
"I'm Felylos Bluearrow," said Kurt. "The elven paladin."
"And I'm Mortimus Arcane," said Ron. "The human wizard."
"By the way, guys," said Artie. "Sorry I'm late, but you'll never guess what I saw on the way over!"
"Oh, gee." said Iggy. "Could it have been a UFO? You always see UFOs!"
"I saw TWO UFOs! One was this green streak of light. It must've landed near the highway. I didn't wanna be late for the game, so I didn't check it out. But the other one, wow, we're talking close encounter of the third kind!"
"So you were abducted and probed," sighed Ron. "Again."
"Hear me out, OK? This big black spaceship just hovered over the football field at the high school and started to land. Then this hatch opens and out walks this blue alien dude! He was all weird, covered in fur, had this long tail."
"Oh, that was my ride." said Kurt, much to Iggy and Ron's amusment. Only Danny and the four visitors knew the truth.
"Real funny, Drizzt." Danny said, using his nickname for Kurt. "Now, on with the game!" He set up the game shield. "OK, when we last left off you were about to take the medallion of Bahmet from the red dragon's horde when the dragon woke up. Roll for initiative."
Iggy rolled highest. "I waste him with my crossbow!" she said.
"OK, roll for wasting with crossbow."
"You doin' OK, Gabs?" MJ asked.
"My shoulder still hurts." The hologram disguised her wound.
"C'mon, let's find you some Tylenol or something."
They left the basement and went through the living room just as Jesse came in with a giggling Jane on his arm. "Uh, hi." said Jesse. "You Danny's friends?"
"Uh, yeah." said MJ. "I'm Brick and this is Sapphire. She, uh, has a headache so we're looking for some Tylenol or something."
"Bathroom's just dowm the hall. It'll be in the medicine cabinet."
"Thanks, Mr. Moreno." said Gabs.
"Call me Jesse."
"And I'm Rainy Janey Laney." Jane slurred. "No, that's not right. I'm...I'm...I'm drunk!" Jesse shrugged apologetically.
"C'mon, Jane, you need to go to bed."
"Mmmm...will you come with me?" He said nothing but carried her upstairs.
"That was disturbing." MJ said as he got the pills from the cabinet.
"Which part?" asked Gabs. "Seeing your mom drunk or hearing her come on to your dad?"
"Both." he opened the bottle. "I'm gonna have some questions for her when I get home. She nearly burned my ass when she found out I had a fake ID. You saw her, right Gabs? Did she look much older than 18?"
"No, but, MJ, I like what you said, about when we get home." She swallowed the pills.
"You think we'll make it?"
"I know we have to."
"How long is this going to take?" Jason grumbled as they sat at the kitchen table.
"Relax, twin." said Jasmine. "Uncle Danny's games usually last 3 hours." Jason sighed. "Remember, Jason, we have a time machine. We have nothing but time. Besides, remember what you said about the timeline? We have to let Uncle Danny and Aunt Iggy bond or they might never get married."
"You're an incurable romantic, you know."
"Says the guy who's sculpted more than 50 statues of Rachel Summers." Jason blushed. "Look, if they don't get together, JayMax will never be born, which means our band will be short one drummer. Second, they may never collaborate and invent the INSANE."
"I still think that's a silly name for a sophisticated piece of medical equipment."
It's an anagram for Internal Neural Scanner and Neutralization Emmiter. Uncle Danny wanted to call it the Tumornator. Anyway, if the INSANE is never invented, an effective cure for breast cancer is never found, which means yours truly is dead at 17 or at best, mutilated."
"Yeah, I remember that. Scary. Dad bought a whole bunch of St. Agatha medallions and Nathan barely left your side."
Jasmine sighed. "I hope Dr. Jean and Dr. McCoy find a cure for him soon."
"Dr. Jean should step off the project. She's too emotionally involved. Jasmine..his whole arm is metal now. It may be metal permanently. Are you prepared for that?"
"Jason, when I was in the hospital he told me he'd still love me even if I had to go through with the mastectomy. I love Nathan, not his body."
"I still can't believe it..you and Nathan Summers. How did that happen?"
"Remember that big party we had for our 16th birthday? He heard me tellin Quinn what for. She was trying to force me into yet another make-over. More make-up than I was comfortable with, trying to get me to straighten my hair and, get this, she told me I should stoop so I wouldn't look so tall. Plus she was telling me I should dump track and basketball for a wuss sport like yoga. I told her she wasn't my mother, technically, not even my aunt and that she had no business telling me how to look or what to do with my life and that if I had to stoop and slump to get a boyfriend, maybe I didn't want one. Nathan told me he heard me stand up to her and thought it was cool. We danced all night together."
"Nathan's kinda tall himself. So's Rachel. We decided to start dating that night too." He sighed.
"Say, those sculpts you made of her. Did she pose for them?"
"Some."
"Even the nudes?"
"Shut up, Jasmine."
"You love Rachel Summers! You wanna hug her and kiss her and marry her and have a zillion babies."
"Yeah. Right. I really wanna bring kids into a world ruled by the likes of Kelly, Sloan, Trask and Stryker."
"Jason and Rachel, sittin' in a tree-ee..."
"Shut up, or I'll tell Nathan you still sleep with Rajah."
"Oh, he knows all about Rajah. I had him at the hospital with me."
"Who's Rajah?" asked Gabs as she and MJ came in.
"Her stuffed tiger." said MJ.
Kurt came in the kitchen. "Came in for some Mountain Dew." he said, going through the refridgerator. "Are you friends of Jesse?"
"You could say that." said Jason.
Kurt looked at Gabs. "You know, my girlfriend has a necklace just like that."
Gabs covered her necklace with one hand. "Um..it's a popular style."
Kurt shrugged. He had never seen a necklace like Kitty's, but he wanted to get back to the game. "Well, I got to go do some laying on of hands. See you." He left.
"Lemme guess." said Jasmine. "That /is/ his girlfriend's necklace."
"It has the Star of David etched on it. It was a Bat Mitzvah present."
"You know," said MJ. "You're the only person I know who's had both a Confirmation and a Bat Mitzvah."
"TJ will be getting her Bat Mitzvah soon."
"Hey, Gabs. if we have kids, what will they be?"
"Little soon to think of that, don't you think?"
"Well, you're half Catholic, half Jewish. I was raised by 4 parents. Jesse Dad's Catholic. Granmanda is into New Age stuff. Daria Mom's a quarter Jewish."
"Religeon isn't heriditary." said Jason. "You believe what you believe."
"Yeah, I guess you're right." said MJ. "I wonder if Sloan has any religeon."
"Moneytheism." said Jasmine. "Worship of the Almighty Dollar."
Jason peeked into the basement. The game was still going on. "How long are they going to take?" he wondered.
"Jason," said Jasmine. "Maybe we should tell them about.."
"No, Jasmine." Jason cut her off.
"But we should warn Aunt Daria that.."
"I said no."
"Could we at least warn them about Madrid?"
"Jasmine, no."
"People died, Jason! Dad's cousin.."
"Died a hero." Jason shook his head. "I know it's hard, but we have to preserve the timeline."
The game had reached a stopping point. The players recorded their experience points, said their good-byes and departed. Iggy lingered.
"Danny, I brought those Chobits DVDs you wanted to borrow." she said, taking them out of her bag.
"Thanks." he said, taking them. "Iggy, could I tell you a secret?" She nodded. "I-I want to fall in love someday. I used to think all I wanted was a cute girlfriend, but what I really want is love."
"What brought this on?" she laughed.
"I guess hanging out with the Formidable Four. Daria likes to come off as tough, like nothing can hurt her, but she softens up around Trent. And Jesse. Not long ago, Jane got hurt real bad. Jesse was completly miserable when he thought he was going to lose her."
"You want to be miserable?"
"Iggy, when it was clear that she was going to live, Jesse was happier than I've ever seen him. She was pretty sick for a few weeks after that, but he took care of her without a single complaint. I want someone who can make me feel that way."
"I understand, Danny." she said. "I want someone who can make me feel that way too." She sighed. "I hope you find that someone, Danny."
"Yeah, well, I'd better see what those guys want. Drizzt said they were still there when he went on his Mountain Dew run."
"Later, then." Danny walked out of the basement with her.
"Iggy? Do you think you could come over tomorrow night? Maybe we could, um, watch Chobits together."
"Sure. IM me. Bye."
"Bye." He turned to the four visitors. "What can I do for you?"
"Danny," said the one called Bamm-Bamm. "We need you to fix something."
"What is it?"
"There's no way around this," sighed the one called Fire Blossom. "It's a time machine."
"Riiiiiiight. You do realize the concept of time travel violates the Einstein theory, not to mention the laws of physics."
"That didn't stop you from building it." she said.
"Ixnay, ixnay.." hissed Bamm-Bamm.
"We're from the future."
"This is one of those hidden camera shows, isn't it?" asked Danny. "Fine. Who's the president in the future?"
"Edward Kelly." answered Fire Blossom.
"No way, Drizzt says he's the principal of Bayville High! Now comes the part where I slam the door in your faces and say Good day, future kids!"
"I can prove it." said Sapphire. "Look." She turned of her inducer, revealing blue fur, pointed ears and a tail. "Remind you of anyone?"
"You- you're related to Drizzt aren't you?"
"If you mean Kurt Wagner, yeah. He's my dad."
"How bout the rest of you?" Danny faced the others. "Related to anyone I know?"
"Well," said Fire Blossom. "These two guys are my brothers and you're our uncle. Will be our uncle." she corrected herself.
Danny looked at them critically. "Well, you do have Jesse's mop of hair." He looked at Bamm-Bamm. "Your eyes are kinda like Jesse's. Which of you is older?"
"I am." said Bamm-Bamm.
"Yeah, by 10 whole minutes." snorted Fire Blossom.
"We're twins." Bamm-Bamm explained.
"How bout him?" Danny motioned to The Brick. "He doesn't look like anyone I know."
"I'm adopted." said The Brick.
"Sweet. So, just where is this time machine?"
"Remember that streak of green light in the sky Artie mentioned?" said Fire Blossom. "That was us. We have it hidden in the woods near the highway."
"Well, It's a bit late to go after it. I can get Jesse to give us a lift in the morning."
"Danny," said Bamm-Bamm. "Maybe you shouldn't tell Dad, um, Jesse about us. It could pollute the time line."
"You sure?"
"Well, that's what you told me. Or, will tell me."
Danny seemed to think for a while. "Come with me." he said, leading thm to the garage. He showed them a metal box with dials and a pair of wires emerging from it. "This is a lie detector I cobbled together for fun. So far, I've only used it at parties. It's 90 percent accurate. Bamm-Bamm, right? I want you to grasp a wire in each hand." He did so. "The needle's not moving," Danny observed. "You're not nervous. Good. What's your name?"
"Bamm-Bamm." The needle gave the slightest of flickers.
"Your real name?"
He sighed. "Jason Ray Moreno." The needle didn't move.
Danny nodded. "Are you my brother's son?"
"Yes." The truth.
"Did you come from the future?"
"Yes." Danny nodded. He had told the truth so far.
"How many times have you boned Rachel?" Fire Blossom asked. The needle waggled as Jason blushed.
"That's enough." said Danny, putting away the lie detector. "It's homemade, a tad unstable and built to respond to production of sweat and change in pulse. So, care to tell me your real names?"
"I'm Jasmine."
"I'm Gabriele, call me Gabs for short. Do NOT call me Gabby."
"I'm MJ. Short for Matthew Jacob."
Danny stopped short. "Did-did Jesse name you Matthew?"
"Yeah. I was adopted by the whole Formidable Four. They gave me Morlan as a last name. Daria-Mom wanted to name me Jacob after her dad. I don't know where Matthew comes from."
"Never mind. Well, there's some couches in the basement. There's another couch and a recliner in the living room. I can get you some blankets and sleeping bags and...what happened to your arm?" He finally noticed Gabs' wounded arm.
"I got shot before we got here. Long story."
"We can take you to see Dr. Phillip in the morning. He's mutant friendly."
That night, Jason settled into the sofa and Jasmine took the recliner. "Jason," said Jasmine.
"What?"
"You feel weird sleeping in the same room?"
"We've done it before."
"Yeah, but not like this. Remember when we used to share a room when we were real little?"
"Yeah."
"I hated that."
In the basement, Gabs nudged MJ. "MJ? Could-could I sleep with you tonight?"
"Do you trust me?" he asked with a smile.
"Of course I do." She got under the covers with him.
"Your dad will kill me if he ever finds out."
"Vati is my age now." she sighed. "I miss him already."
"Try and get some sleep, babe." MJ kissed Gabs on her furry forehead.
Sorry it took so long people. I've had writer's block plus other projects. I'll post the rest of this story later. I know, since I had to introduce 4 OCs I had to use a lot of exposition. I'm sorry for that. More action in the next chapter.
OK, foreign words. Vati is German for "Daddy". Abuelo is Spanish for "Grandfather". The name Gabriele is pronounced gah-bree-EH-leh.
JULY 13, 2027
A teenaged boy with long brownish hair and grey-green eyes dashed through the corridors of the multi-story parking garage. "Halt, mutant." said a robotic voice. "Surrender or be annhilated."
"Annhilate this!" The boy focused on the robot. Circuitry sparked as the droid imploded on itself.
"Do you have any idea how much those things cost?" He turned to see a slim, smug looking man approaching him.
"Thomas Sloan." said the boy. "Financer of the Sentinal Project. We meet at last."
"You forgot, VP Thomas Sloan. Didn't the Formidable Four teach you any manners?"
"Take one more step and you'll see why they call me the Brick!"
"Ah, yes, the Brick." Sloan said condescendingly. "AKA Matthew Jacob Morlan. Adopted by two families. An odity, but since no one wanted a mutie baby, no one put up a fight. Ah, yes, Matthew, I know all about you."
"Not exactly top secret, you know." said the Brick.
"I know something you don't know." Sloan mocked. "At age two, you turned up in a hospital lobby with a note pinned to your shirt that said 'Mutant, parents don't want him.' When the staff found out you weighed 200 pounds and could turn Jell-O into rocks, they found out why. Your mother wanted to keep you. Cried her eyes out when you were taken from her. Your father had to divorce the stupid bitch. Thank Heaven for prenups."
"You're talking too much, Sloan."
"And you're still listening. I'm going to tell you the truth about your father."
"Jesse and Trent are the only fathers I've ever needed!"
"Matthew, I'm your father."
"NO!! It's not true! It's not possible!"
"I'm affraid so." Sloan smiled. "I couldn't let a mutie get in the way of my political career, you understand. Brooke didn't. I see you have her stringy hair and crooked nose. Lying bitch never told me about the plastic surgery or the dye jobs and perms. You know, I ordered to have you rubbed out. Vito must've gone soft on me and just abandoned you. Hard to find good help."
"SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP!!!"
"Very much like /Oedipus Rex/, don't you think?" Sloan said calmly. "Only, in this case, the father will kill the son." He drew a gun from a concealed shoulder holster.
"Drop that gun, Sloan, or you're toast!" Sloan smiled at the sound of the young woman's voice. The Brick saw the woman he came to know as his big sister. Tall, athletically built with wavy brown hair tied on top of her head in two bunchy pigtails. She was dressed in bright colored, form fitting clothes. Her blue eyes smouldered as did the fireball in her hand.
"Jasmine Rae Moreno." Sloan said calmly, still keeping the gun on Matthew. "AKA, 'Fire Blossom'. Stop and think a moment, Fire Blossom. You are in a garage which is filled with cars, they in turn are filled with gasoline. Do you really want to hurl fireballs in here?"
A blue blur hurled itself at Sloan. The gun went off. A girl's scream was heard. "Gabs!" Matthew screamed.
"I'm alright, lieb." a blue furred female said, clutching her arm. "I have his gun. It was only a flesh wound." Sloan stared at his attacker. Her blue eyes glowed in the gloaming of the garage. Gleaming white fangs shone as she spoke.
Sloan felt blood on his neck. The bitch bit me! Like a fucking vampire! "Of all the muties," he said. "Your kind is the worst! You don't even LOOK human!" Indeed, with her pointed ears and long tail, she looked quite demonic.
"I'm more human than you'll ever be, Sloan!" she retorted.
A hum filled the air as a hover craft sped up to them and stopped cold. "Get in the truck, let's go!" urged the driver. Gabs, Matthew and Jasmine piled into the craft, leaving Sloan to curse at them as they flew out of the garage and over the city.
"Nice save, twin brother." said Jasmine.
"Yeah, thanks Jason." said Matthew.
"Don't mention it." Jason was Jasmine's fraternal twin. They were both tall and athletic with wavy hair and were about 20 years old. That's where the simularities ended. Jason's hair was pitch black and curled up at the nape of his neck. His eyes were a deep hazel-brown color and he dressed in a dark purple tank top and black jeans. Jason was the more sedate of the twins.
Gabs moaned in pain. "Jason," said Matthew. "Gabs was shot."
"Can't take her to the hospital." said Jason. "They'll kill her as soon as they see her."
"She has an inducer!" Matthew said desperatly.
"Think, MJ." said Jasmine. "When they work on her, they're gonna feel fur."
"I wanna go home!" Gabs cried.
"It's OK, baby." MJ said soothingly, taking her in his arms.
"Halt, mutant, or be annhilated."
"Holy shit!" yelled Jasmine. "When did those things learn to fly?"
Jason tried to out-manuver the Sentinal. It kept tailing him. "Only one way outa this situation." he said, opening a panel in the steering wheel.
"No way, Jason!" said Jasmine. "Uncle Danny hasn't had a chance to test it yet!"
"We're testin' it now!" Jason pressed buttons and the hover car disappeared in a green streak of light.
MARCH 19, 2002
"Where are we?" asked Jasmine.
"Not where." said Jason. "When."
"Well, we better land somewhere." said MJ. "If this is before hover cars were invented, we might give someone a heart attack."
Jason landed the hover car behind a copse of trees beside a lone stretch of highway. He took a med kit of the glove compartment and tossed it to MJ. "Dress Gabs' wound as best you can." he said.
"Um, Jason?" asked Jasmine. "Is it bad when wires are poking out of the steering wheel like that?" Sparking wires poked out of the wheel.
"Ah, son of a..!" Jason slapped at the wires with his shirt tail. "MJ, stay with Gabs. Me and Jasmine will have a look around."
The twins walked down the road, looking for a clue for when or where they were. "All I see is corn." said Jasmine. "And not very helpful corn."
"Here's a clue." said Jason, picking up some litter.
"A soda can?"
"With one of those old fashioned pop-tops. You know, the kind that would have this metal tab that could break off and fall in your drink."
"Oh, I remember those. Back in Kindergarten us girls would make necklaces out of them. I think I was in first grade when they made the new ones that you just poke your thumb in."
"So we're more than 13 years in the past. Find something with an expiration date. That might help us approximate what year it is."
"Here's an old newspaper." Jasmine picked up a faded newspaper page. "Bush vows to capture Saddam, Bin Laden." she read. "Well, one of two wasn't bad. Well, we know this is after the Nine-Eleven Massacre and before the capture of Saddam Hussein. The date says January 17, 2002. It's too warm to be winter, too cold to be summer. So it must be Spring of 2002."
"Brilliant, Holmes." said Jason. "There's a sign. Let's see where we are." They approached the green road sign.
"Lawndale City Limits." Jasmine read. "Population 24,650. Wow, Lawndale used to be small."
"Lawndale, spring, 2002." Jason mused. "Our parents will get married this summer. They're probably still living here."
"We could stay at Abuelo's house."
"Jasmine, remember, whatever we do, we can't polute the timeline."
"Duh! I've seen all those movies too. Even the flatsies like /Back to the Future/."
"But we're stuck here. Until we can fix the time teaser."
"Jason! Uncle Danny's here! He could fix it!"
Jason shook his head. "In this time, Uncle Danny's just a kid. He hasn't even been to college yet, let alone developed something as complex as the time teaser."
"Got any better plans, twin?"
"Let's go check on Gabs and MJ."
MJ cleaned and dressed Gabs' wound. "Gabs..." he said.
"Yes?"
"Before Sloan, um, shot you, he-he told me something. I-he...He's my father."
"Is that all?"
"What do you mean 'Is that all?'! I'm the son of one of the most evil men in the world! The only reason Kelly is president is because Sloan was too young to run. Sloan was a major financer of the Sentinel Project. And, and he's my father!"
Gabs smiled and brushed a furry tridactyl hand against his cheek. "Matthew Jacob, I would love you were you the son of Satan himself. Besides, my own father had a brush with the whole 'Luke, I'm your father' bit. My 'granny' was Mystique, remember?"
MJ looked into her clear blue eyes and stroked her braided chestnut hair. "I love you, Gabriele."
"Gabs." she corrected. "Only Vati calls me Gabriele, and then only when he's saying something like 'Vere do you sink you're goink dressed like zat, Gabriele?' or 'You need to take gute care of your leetle seester, Gabriele." MJ laughed. Gabs always did the funniest impression of her dad. She was always trying to make him laugh. He cradled her and kissed her.
"Are we interrupting something?" Jasmine teased.
"We gotta hide the car." said Jason. He picked up the vehicle and carried it to where the trees were thickest. The rest of them covered the vehicle with branches.
"Now what?" asked Gabs.
"We could hitch a ride into town." said Jasmine.
"That's pretty dangerous, Jasmine." said Jason. "Even in the 'good old days'."
Jasmine conjured a fireball in her hand. "I got insurance."
"Alright," Jason sighed. "Gabs, does your inducer still work?"
Gabs pressed the button on the watch she was wearing. Her image flickered and was replaced with that of a fair skinned teenaged girl. Even her wounded arm looked normal.
"I don't think girls in 2002 wore vinyl mini dresses." said Jasmine.
"I don't think they wore hot pink bicycle shorts either." said Gabs. "But I can change."
"Right here?" gasped MJ.
"Nah. Mom and I programmed my watch to induce holographic clothes. I've got a whole wardrobe in here." She touched a button and was wearing lavender capris with a /Les Miserables/ T-shirt. MJ gave her a look. "What? It's my favorite musical."
"What I have on will do." said Jason. "Jasmine's gonna get weird looks, but she'll pass." Jasmine had on hot pink bicycle shorts and a peach and yellow floral print sleevless top. "And MJ.." MJ wore a green gi top, sweat pants and kung fu slippers. "I guess it'll do."
The walked towards Lawndale, hitchhiking. "We can't use our real names." said Jason. "It might pollute the time line."
"We can go by our codenames." said Gabs. "I'm good with Sapphire."
"Brick's fine by me." said MJ. "Say, should I increase my density? Incase we run into trouble?"
"Wait till we get to town." said Jason.
"I can always decrease it again." said Gabs.
"If we're going by codenames," said Jasmine. "Then I'm Fire Blossom and Jason's Bamm-Bamm."
"How'd you get a codename like Bamm-Bamm?" asked Gabs.
"It's a funny story, really." said Jasmine.
"That we don't have time for." said Jason.
"We're waiting for a ride, twin brother, we have time. It's like this. When we were three years old, Mom told Jason to go wake up Uncle Trent. Next thing they know, Jason picks up the bed with Uncle Trent still in it and bangs it up and down on the floor yelling 'Geddup, Unca Twen! Geddup, Unca Twen!'" MJ and Gabs laughed. "Uncle Trent said there used to be a cartoon called /The Flintstones/ that featured a super-strong toddler named Bamm-Bamm, so that's what he called him."
They got a ride into town in the back of a pick-up truck. The twins led the way to "Abuelo's house" as they called it. "One more thing." said Jason as they stood at the door of the Moreno house. "We can't let him know about the future. We don't tell him who we are, and we don't call him Uncle Danny."
"I guess I can't call him Dr. M either." said Gabs.
Jason knocked on the door. He and Jasmine were momentarily shocked by the appearance of the one who answered. Abuelo never looked so young. "Hola," he said to the four people on his porch. "Are you here for Danny's role playing game?"
"Uh, yeah that's what we're here for!" said Jasmine.
"Bueno. He is in the basement."
They went to the basement. Danny was there, seated at a card table with a plump girl with red hair, a young man with an eye patch and another young man with long blackish-blue hair. Gabs turned back.
"What is it?" Jasmine whispered.
"I can't go in there! That's my dad!" she whispered, pointing at the boy with the long hair.
"You sure?"
"He's wearing an inducer. Looks just like the photo in his yearbook."
"Big deal." said Jasmine. "He won't know you. And that's our Uncle Danny and Aunt Iggy down there. Don't ask me who the guy in the patch is. Just play cool, OK?"
"So, has anyone seen that /Lord of the Rings/ movie yet?" Danny was saying.
"Ja, it was great!" said Kurt. "Can't wait for the next one."
"When's that Artie guy getting here?" asked the guy with the patch.
"He said he'd be coming, Ron." said Danny. "Be cool."
"Kurt had to come all the way from Bayville and he's early." said Ron. "What's keeping Artie? I'm ready to role play here."
"That might be him." Danny heard some people coming in the basement. "Artie?" The four visitors came in. "Um, are you guys looking for my brother, Jesse?" he asked. "He's probably at the Zen tonight."
"We need to talk to you..Danny." said Jason.
"Can it wait? The last game session ended on a cliff hanger."
"Hi, I'm Artie!" said someone at the top of the stairs.
"We know who you are, Artie." sighed Iggy. "You don't have to announce it."
"They don't know me." Artie pointed at the visitors. "Who are they, anyway?"
Danny was at a loss. "I'm Fire Blossom." said Jasmine.
"Bamm-Bamm." said Jason.
"Brick." said MJ.
"Sapphire." said Gabs.
"Going by your D and D names?" asked Artie. "Cool! I'm Crom the half-orc barbarian."
"I'm Assilem Brandywine," said Iggy. "The halfling thief."
"I'm Felylos Bluearrow," said Kurt. "The elven paladin."
"And I'm Mortimus Arcane," said Ron. "The human wizard."
"By the way, guys," said Artie. "Sorry I'm late, but you'll never guess what I saw on the way over!"
"Oh, gee." said Iggy. "Could it have been a UFO? You always see UFOs!"
"I saw TWO UFOs! One was this green streak of light. It must've landed near the highway. I didn't wanna be late for the game, so I didn't check it out. But the other one, wow, we're talking close encounter of the third kind!"
"So you were abducted and probed," sighed Ron. "Again."
"Hear me out, OK? This big black spaceship just hovered over the football field at the high school and started to land. Then this hatch opens and out walks this blue alien dude! He was all weird, covered in fur, had this long tail."
"Oh, that was my ride." said Kurt, much to Iggy and Ron's amusment. Only Danny and the four visitors knew the truth.
"Real funny, Drizzt." Danny said, using his nickname for Kurt. "Now, on with the game!" He set up the game shield. "OK, when we last left off you were about to take the medallion of Bahmet from the red dragon's horde when the dragon woke up. Roll for initiative."
Iggy rolled highest. "I waste him with my crossbow!" she said.
"OK, roll for wasting with crossbow."
"You doin' OK, Gabs?" MJ asked.
"My shoulder still hurts." The hologram disguised her wound.
"C'mon, let's find you some Tylenol or something."
They left the basement and went through the living room just as Jesse came in with a giggling Jane on his arm. "Uh, hi." said Jesse. "You Danny's friends?"
"Uh, yeah." said MJ. "I'm Brick and this is Sapphire. She, uh, has a headache so we're looking for some Tylenol or something."
"Bathroom's just dowm the hall. It'll be in the medicine cabinet."
"Thanks, Mr. Moreno." said Gabs.
"Call me Jesse."
"And I'm Rainy Janey Laney." Jane slurred. "No, that's not right. I'm...I'm...I'm drunk!" Jesse shrugged apologetically.
"C'mon, Jane, you need to go to bed."
"Mmmm...will you come with me?" He said nothing but carried her upstairs.
"That was disturbing." MJ said as he got the pills from the cabinet.
"Which part?" asked Gabs. "Seeing your mom drunk or hearing her come on to your dad?"
"Both." he opened the bottle. "I'm gonna have some questions for her when I get home. She nearly burned my ass when she found out I had a fake ID. You saw her, right Gabs? Did she look much older than 18?"
"No, but, MJ, I like what you said, about when we get home." She swallowed the pills.
"You think we'll make it?"
"I know we have to."
"How long is this going to take?" Jason grumbled as they sat at the kitchen table.
"Relax, twin." said Jasmine. "Uncle Danny's games usually last 3 hours." Jason sighed. "Remember, Jason, we have a time machine. We have nothing but time. Besides, remember what you said about the timeline? We have to let Uncle Danny and Aunt Iggy bond or they might never get married."
"You're an incurable romantic, you know."
"Says the guy who's sculpted more than 50 statues of Rachel Summers." Jason blushed. "Look, if they don't get together, JayMax will never be born, which means our band will be short one drummer. Second, they may never collaborate and invent the INSANE."
"I still think that's a silly name for a sophisticated piece of medical equipment."
It's an anagram for Internal Neural Scanner and Neutralization Emmiter. Uncle Danny wanted to call it the Tumornator. Anyway, if the INSANE is never invented, an effective cure for breast cancer is never found, which means yours truly is dead at 17 or at best, mutilated."
"Yeah, I remember that. Scary. Dad bought a whole bunch of St. Agatha medallions and Nathan barely left your side."
Jasmine sighed. "I hope Dr. Jean and Dr. McCoy find a cure for him soon."
"Dr. Jean should step off the project. She's too emotionally involved. Jasmine..his whole arm is metal now. It may be metal permanently. Are you prepared for that?"
"Jason, when I was in the hospital he told me he'd still love me even if I had to go through with the mastectomy. I love Nathan, not his body."
"I still can't believe it..you and Nathan Summers. How did that happen?"
"Remember that big party we had for our 16th birthday? He heard me tellin Quinn what for. She was trying to force me into yet another make-over. More make-up than I was comfortable with, trying to get me to straighten my hair and, get this, she told me I should stoop so I wouldn't look so tall. Plus she was telling me I should dump track and basketball for a wuss sport like yoga. I told her she wasn't my mother, technically, not even my aunt and that she had no business telling me how to look or what to do with my life and that if I had to stoop and slump to get a boyfriend, maybe I didn't want one. Nathan told me he heard me stand up to her and thought it was cool. We danced all night together."
"Nathan's kinda tall himself. So's Rachel. We decided to start dating that night too." He sighed.
"Say, those sculpts you made of her. Did she pose for them?"
"Some."
"Even the nudes?"
"Shut up, Jasmine."
"You love Rachel Summers! You wanna hug her and kiss her and marry her and have a zillion babies."
"Yeah. Right. I really wanna bring kids into a world ruled by the likes of Kelly, Sloan, Trask and Stryker."
"Jason and Rachel, sittin' in a tree-ee..."
"Shut up, or I'll tell Nathan you still sleep with Rajah."
"Oh, he knows all about Rajah. I had him at the hospital with me."
"Who's Rajah?" asked Gabs as she and MJ came in.
"Her stuffed tiger." said MJ.
Kurt came in the kitchen. "Came in for some Mountain Dew." he said, going through the refridgerator. "Are you friends of Jesse?"
"You could say that." said Jason.
Kurt looked at Gabs. "You know, my girlfriend has a necklace just like that."
Gabs covered her necklace with one hand. "Um..it's a popular style."
Kurt shrugged. He had never seen a necklace like Kitty's, but he wanted to get back to the game. "Well, I got to go do some laying on of hands. See you." He left.
"Lemme guess." said Jasmine. "That /is/ his girlfriend's necklace."
"It has the Star of David etched on it. It was a Bat Mitzvah present."
"You know," said MJ. "You're the only person I know who's had both a Confirmation and a Bat Mitzvah."
"TJ will be getting her Bat Mitzvah soon."
"Hey, Gabs. if we have kids, what will they be?"
"Little soon to think of that, don't you think?"
"Well, you're half Catholic, half Jewish. I was raised by 4 parents. Jesse Dad's Catholic. Granmanda is into New Age stuff. Daria Mom's a quarter Jewish."
"Religeon isn't heriditary." said Jason. "You believe what you believe."
"Yeah, I guess you're right." said MJ. "I wonder if Sloan has any religeon."
"Moneytheism." said Jasmine. "Worship of the Almighty Dollar."
Jason peeked into the basement. The game was still going on. "How long are they going to take?" he wondered.
"Jason," said Jasmine. "Maybe we should tell them about.."
"No, Jasmine." Jason cut her off.
"But we should warn Aunt Daria that.."
"I said no."
"Could we at least warn them about Madrid?"
"Jasmine, no."
"People died, Jason! Dad's cousin.."
"Died a hero." Jason shook his head. "I know it's hard, but we have to preserve the timeline."
The game had reached a stopping point. The players recorded their experience points, said their good-byes and departed. Iggy lingered.
"Danny, I brought those Chobits DVDs you wanted to borrow." she said, taking them out of her bag.
"Thanks." he said, taking them. "Iggy, could I tell you a secret?" She nodded. "I-I want to fall in love someday. I used to think all I wanted was a cute girlfriend, but what I really want is love."
"What brought this on?" she laughed.
"I guess hanging out with the Formidable Four. Daria likes to come off as tough, like nothing can hurt her, but she softens up around Trent. And Jesse. Not long ago, Jane got hurt real bad. Jesse was completly miserable when he thought he was going to lose her."
"You want to be miserable?"
"Iggy, when it was clear that she was going to live, Jesse was happier than I've ever seen him. She was pretty sick for a few weeks after that, but he took care of her without a single complaint. I want someone who can make me feel that way."
"I understand, Danny." she said. "I want someone who can make me feel that way too." She sighed. "I hope you find that someone, Danny."
"Yeah, well, I'd better see what those guys want. Drizzt said they were still there when he went on his Mountain Dew run."
"Later, then." Danny walked out of the basement with her.
"Iggy? Do you think you could come over tomorrow night? Maybe we could, um, watch Chobits together."
"Sure. IM me. Bye."
"Bye." He turned to the four visitors. "What can I do for you?"
"Danny," said the one called Bamm-Bamm. "We need you to fix something."
"What is it?"
"There's no way around this," sighed the one called Fire Blossom. "It's a time machine."
"Riiiiiiight. You do realize the concept of time travel violates the Einstein theory, not to mention the laws of physics."
"That didn't stop you from building it." she said.
"Ixnay, ixnay.." hissed Bamm-Bamm.
"We're from the future."
"This is one of those hidden camera shows, isn't it?" asked Danny. "Fine. Who's the president in the future?"
"Edward Kelly." answered Fire Blossom.
"No way, Drizzt says he's the principal of Bayville High! Now comes the part where I slam the door in your faces and say Good day, future kids!"
"I can prove it." said Sapphire. "Look." She turned of her inducer, revealing blue fur, pointed ears and a tail. "Remind you of anyone?"
"You- you're related to Drizzt aren't you?"
"If you mean Kurt Wagner, yeah. He's my dad."
"How bout the rest of you?" Danny faced the others. "Related to anyone I know?"
"Well," said Fire Blossom. "These two guys are my brothers and you're our uncle. Will be our uncle." she corrected herself.
Danny looked at them critically. "Well, you do have Jesse's mop of hair." He looked at Bamm-Bamm. "Your eyes are kinda like Jesse's. Which of you is older?"
"I am." said Bamm-Bamm.
"Yeah, by 10 whole minutes." snorted Fire Blossom.
"We're twins." Bamm-Bamm explained.
"How bout him?" Danny motioned to The Brick. "He doesn't look like anyone I know."
"I'm adopted." said The Brick.
"Sweet. So, just where is this time machine?"
"Remember that streak of green light in the sky Artie mentioned?" said Fire Blossom. "That was us. We have it hidden in the woods near the highway."
"Well, It's a bit late to go after it. I can get Jesse to give us a lift in the morning."
"Danny," said Bamm-Bamm. "Maybe you shouldn't tell Dad, um, Jesse about us. It could pollute the time line."
"You sure?"
"Well, that's what you told me. Or, will tell me."
Danny seemed to think for a while. "Come with me." he said, leading thm to the garage. He showed them a metal box with dials and a pair of wires emerging from it. "This is a lie detector I cobbled together for fun. So far, I've only used it at parties. It's 90 percent accurate. Bamm-Bamm, right? I want you to grasp a wire in each hand." He did so. "The needle's not moving," Danny observed. "You're not nervous. Good. What's your name?"
"Bamm-Bamm." The needle gave the slightest of flickers.
"Your real name?"
He sighed. "Jason Ray Moreno." The needle didn't move.
Danny nodded. "Are you my brother's son?"
"Yes." The truth.
"Did you come from the future?"
"Yes." Danny nodded. He had told the truth so far.
"How many times have you boned Rachel?" Fire Blossom asked. The needle waggled as Jason blushed.
"That's enough." said Danny, putting away the lie detector. "It's homemade, a tad unstable and built to respond to production of sweat and change in pulse. So, care to tell me your real names?"
"I'm Jasmine."
"I'm Gabriele, call me Gabs for short. Do NOT call me Gabby."
"I'm MJ. Short for Matthew Jacob."
Danny stopped short. "Did-did Jesse name you Matthew?"
"Yeah. I was adopted by the whole Formidable Four. They gave me Morlan as a last name. Daria-Mom wanted to name me Jacob after her dad. I don't know where Matthew comes from."
"Never mind. Well, there's some couches in the basement. There's another couch and a recliner in the living room. I can get you some blankets and sleeping bags and...what happened to your arm?" He finally noticed Gabs' wounded arm.
"I got shot before we got here. Long story."
"We can take you to see Dr. Phillip in the morning. He's mutant friendly."
That night, Jason settled into the sofa and Jasmine took the recliner. "Jason," said Jasmine.
"What?"
"You feel weird sleeping in the same room?"
"We've done it before."
"Yeah, but not like this. Remember when we used to share a room when we were real little?"
"Yeah."
"I hated that."
In the basement, Gabs nudged MJ. "MJ? Could-could I sleep with you tonight?"
"Do you trust me?" he asked with a smile.
"Of course I do." She got under the covers with him.
"Your dad will kill me if he ever finds out."
"Vati is my age now." she sighed. "I miss him already."
"Try and get some sleep, babe." MJ kissed Gabs on her furry forehead.
Sorry it took so long people. I've had writer's block plus other projects. I'll post the rest of this story later. I know, since I had to introduce 4 OCs I had to use a lot of exposition. I'm sorry for that. More action in the next chapter.
OK, foreign words. Vati is German for "Daddy". Abuelo is Spanish for "Grandfather". The name Gabriele is pronounced gah-bree-EH-leh.