Sorry it took so long to update, people. Special thanks to Arthur Pendragon for getting me off my ass.
At daybreak, MJ woke to find Gabs still in his arms. "Good morning." he said.
"Morning." she answered. "Should we get the others?"
"Nah, the twins like to sleep late." He kissed her and stroked her hair. "You know, I think I saw my biological mom once."
"MJ, stop it."
"I was about seven. I woke up to hear Jesse-Dad yelling at someone. You know Jesse-Dad, he never yells. I sat at the top of the stairs and saw him yelling at this woman. She was kinda pretty, I guess. But even I could tell she had bleached hair. Jesse-Dad told her something to the tune of 'You'll have to crawl over my damned dead body to get him.' I hid in the hallway and listened. They were talking about me. After a lot of arguing they finally made her go away. Jesse-Dad found me and carried me back to bed. He told me to forget everything I saw and heard. Easier said than done."
"He meant well." Gabs conceded.
"Sloan told me I take after her. She had a crooked nose and stringy hair like me, but she got them fixed."
"MJ, I have pointy ears, blue fur and a TAIL for cripes sake. Your nose is nothing. And I like your hair." She ran three furry fingers through it. "Besides, Vati told me that if God wanted us all to be the same he'd give all of us tails."
"My cousins Leo and Winona always make fun of me for being funny looking. Cousin Keanu doesn't make fun of me. He's nice, dumb as a box of hammers, but nice. I feel sorry for my Cousin Neve, though. Her brothers and sister are always a pain to her and Aunt Quinn is always on her case for not being pretty and popular like Winona. Thing is, Neve is smart and funny, but no one seems to notice her."
"Should I be jealous?"
"Gabs, Neve is my cousin."
"By adoption."
"Same thing. You know, last summer Winona got busted for pulling a five finger discount and Aunt Quinn just bailed her out. But if it's homecoming and Neve doesn't have a date her mom will bitch at her till the cows come home."
"What does her dad think?"
"He's never home. It's a good thing we're all there for her. One time all the pressure was to much for Neve and she became bulemic. She probably would've died if Daria-Mom hadn't stepped in." MJ sighed and changed the subject. "You know what my name would've been if the Sloans kept me? Hunter."
"Hunter?"
"Hunter Sloan. Sounds real dumb, doesn't it?"
Jesse came downstairs. Someone had slipped something in Jane's drink last night when they were at McGrundy's and now he had to mix up a batch of Hair o' the Dog. He saw two strangers barely younger than himself sleeping in the living room. A muscular young man was curled up on the sofa. A statuesque young woman snoozed in the recliner. Jesse nudged the girl. "Hey, wake up."
"mmmm...Dad, I had a bad dream." she murmered, still half asleep. "Robots were chasing us. And Gabs got shot."
"Well, don't worry, you're safe now. You're at my house."
The girl blinked her sky blue eyes. "Wha- where am I?"
"Like I said, my house." said Jesse. "In Lawndale, Massachusettes."
"Lawndale!" Jasmine snapped herself awake. So it hadn't all just been a dream. She saw her father standing there, now scarcely older than herself wearing just a pair of old jeans. The words shot out of her mouth "Go put on a shirt!"
"Huh? Who's got a shirt?" Jason woke up and saw what his sister saw. "Oh, um, hi."
"Hi." said Jesse.
"Um...you're probably wondering who we are and what we're doing here." said Jason.
"The thought had crossed my mind." Jesse responded.
"I'm, I'm Bamm-Bamm."
"Uh huh. And she must be Pebbles then."
"No," said Jasmine. "I'm Fire Blossom."
"Were your parents hippies?"
Jasmine couldn't help smiling. "They were a bit..bohemian."
"And you're here because...?"
"We're friends of Danny's" Bamm-Bamm said quickly.
"You're a bit old for his usual crowd."
"We're uh, from the Dungeons and Dragons League." Fire Blossom thought quickly. "We're inviting his group to be a recognized team for game cons and stuff."
"Oh. That explains the weird names, I guess."
"Yeah, Bamm-Bamm's our barbarian and I'm a fire mage. Could you please put on a shirt?"
"Alright." Jesse sighed and left.
Jason looked at his sister. "Barbarian?" She could only shrug.
Jane woke up with a throbbing headache. Jesse put something in her hand. "Drink this." he said. "It always worked for my dad." She gulped the concoction..and promptly vomited in the wastebasket. "Hate to tell you this, Janey," said Jesse. "But that just means it's working."
"What the hell happened to me last night?"
"Some jerkoff slipped some ruffies in your drink last night at McGrundy's. I was in the middle of a set when I saw you walk off with him. I ran after you and while I was cleaning the guy's clock, you kinda got away from me."
"Why does my ankle hurt so much?"
"I dunno. We finally found you passed out in front of some tattoo parlor. You should really keep a better eye on your drink, Janey."
Jane pulled back the covers to look at her foot. Jesse had removed her shoes but left the socks. She took off the left one to reveal a swolen black and blue ankle..with a thorn pattern tattooed around it. "Aw, crap...." she moaned.
"Don't worry. Trent's kinda looked like that when he first got 'em. It'll probably look cool once it heals up." Jesse went to his closet and got out a shirt. He gave himself a critical look in the mirror. "Janey, tell me the truth, am I...sagging?"
"Sagging? You're kidding, right?"
"I think I might be slacking off on my workouts." He pulled on the shirt. "This girl downstairs told me to go put on a shirt."
"What girl downstairs?"
"Just this girl I found sleeping in the recliner in the living room. She says she's Danny's friend from the Dungeons and Dragons league or something."
There was a tap on the door. It was the girl from downstairs and she had a friend. She had long chestnut hair in a braid down her back and wore a Les Miserables T-shirt. "Um, could we borrow some clothes? We-uh-lost our luggage."
"Sure, you can borrow some of mine." said Jesse. "Who's she?"
"This is Sapphire. She's our..elven paladin."
"Of course." What was a D&D party without an elven paladin?
"What's that smell?" asked Sapphire.
"Oh, uh, I'll take care of this." Jesse took out the wastebasket.
"So, what were you doing last night?" Asked the tall girl with the pigtails.
"What are you, my mom?" Jane challenged. Sapphire cocked an eyebrow and smirked. "Not that it's any of your business, but someone slipped me a ruffie last night. I'm lucky my boyfriend was there. I'm Jane, by the way. And you are?"
"Fire Blossom."
"No kidding. Well 'Fire Blossom', I'm in need of a shower. I keep a few things in the closet, you can borrow them if you want."
Jane limped off to the bathroom, leaving Jasmine and Gabs in the room. "Nice to know Mom wasn't all that irresponsible." said Jasmine. "Now I know why she tells me never to let someone buy me a drink when I go out."
"I need to change too." Gabs turned off her image inducer. "Vinyl gets ripe after awhile."
"How's the arm?" Jasmine asked, undoing her top.
"OK. Little sore. Not bleeding anymore. Where did you get that?" She pointed at a tattoo just a bit above and to the left of Jasmine's clevage. It was a yellow jasmine blossom surrounded by five tongues of flame.
"This? I was in Soho last month with May and we got tattooed."
"What did your parents think about it or have you told them?"
"Gabs, I'm 20 years old. They treat me like an adult now. Besides, Mom has that thing on her ankle, Dad has our names tattooed to his left shoulder blade and if Uncle Trent gets another tattoo, Aunt Daria is going to sell him to a circus!" Jasmine looked through the closet. "And this is nothing compared to the spider May had done on her butt. God, Mom has the most boring taste in clothes. Black and red, black and red..." She considered one of Jane's shirts. "Too small. I'm gonna havta wear one of Dad's shirts.
The shirt fit Gabs well. She put a pair of Jane's jeans on backwards, letting her tail hang out of the fly. She looked in the mirror. "This isn't exactly my style either." She pressed a button on her watch. Her image flickered and was replaced with her "normal human" facade wearing a denim skirt and a T-shirt with the /Cats/ logo on it. "No, I've tortured MJ enough with my Broadway obsession." She pressed a button again and appeared in an electic blue mini dress with lime green stripes. "No, gotta think retro." Her clothes changed into bell bottoms and a tie dyed tee. "A little /too/ retro." Her clothes changed into flared hip hugger jeans and a pink baby tee with a yellow smily face. "Yuck!" Gabs went through a few more wardrobe changes. "Nope, nope, nope...hmm, how 'bout this? Turned heads at the last Mardi Gras parade." It was a purple and green jester's costume. Jasmine smiled and shook her head. "You're right. Too outre. How 'bout this?" It was the black and white tee she had put on and the jeans, appearing to have been put on right.
"Perfect."
Jesse was changing the liner in the waste basket when the doorbell rang. It was Trent and Daria. "Came to see if Janey's alright." said Trent.
"She was kinda hungover." said Jesse. "So I gave her a dose of Hair of the Dog."
"Who are those guys?" Daria asked when she saw Jason and MJ.
"The big guy's called Bamm-Bamm. And you are..?"
"They call me The Brick."
"He's our..ranger." said Bamm-Bamm. The Brick gave him a questioning look.
"They're friends of Danny's from the D&D League. They're kinda crashing here awhile. They lost their luggage, so we're lending them a few clothes."
Jane limped down in a tee shirt and shorts with a towel wrapped around her head. "What happened to your foot?" Trent asked her.
"Remember that tattoo parlor you found me at?" she answered. "Well, apparantly, I picked up something while I was there."
"A raging case of hepatitus?" suggested Daria. Jane gave her a Look.
"Hey, better tattooed than screwed." shrugged Trent. "Watch your drink next time, OK?"
"Yes, Daddy. By the way, Jesse, I told those girls they could use the shower too. That OK?"
"It's cool."
"Other girls?" Daria asked, a mental image of a Roman orgy running through her head.
"They're from D&D too." Jesse explained. "I'm gonna get some stuff for Bamm-Bamm. Brick, I think Danny might have something that would fit you."
Jasmine sat on Jesse's bed and had a look around while Gabs had her shower. She's singing that medly from "Man of La Mancha" again. thought Jasmine. So, this is what Dad's room looked like when he lived with Abuelo. The walls were covered with posters of 'dinosaur bands' such as Creed and Three Doors Down. A weightbench had been converted into a hamster habitat. So, this is where it all started. She thought as she watched three little hamsters run about. Nibbles and Schwartz who begot Dotty, who begot Tinkerbell, who begot Amber, who begot Gidget, who begot Bijou, who begot...A knock at the door interrupted her train of thought.
"You decent?" asked Jesse.
"Nope, never have been." Jasmine joked.
"Funny." Jesse came in and opened his closet. "I wanted to get some things for Bamm-Bamm. Is he your boyfriend?"
"Eeww! No!" Jasmine couldn't help saying. OK, thought Jesse. She doesn't like muscular guys. "He's my brother."
"Really? Which one of you is older?"
"He is, by ten minutes. We're twins." Gabs' scream came from the bathroom. Jasmine went to go see what was wrong.
"Gabs, what is it?"
She came out of the shower, damp fur clinging to her body, and clutching her bleeding arm. "All I did was stretch a little and the wound opened."
"Anything wrong?" Jesse asked outside the door.
"Don't come in!" Jasmine quickly said. "She's naked!" The truth, but not why he didn't want him to see her. "OK, Gabs, don't panic. Just sit down and raise it." Jasmine saw a bottle of peroxide on the sink. (Jane had it out to clean her new tattoo.) Jasmine poured some on the open wound, making Gabs bite her lip as it hissed and foamed. Jasmine threw open the medicine cabinet looking for something to dress it with. The Bandaids were useless. She found some maxi-pads Jane had been keeping there "just in case" and grabbed one. She tied the pad in place with nearly a yard of toilet paper. She helped Gabs dry off and put on her clothes. "We're taking you to that doctor Danny told us about."
"Is there anything I can do?" Jesse offered.
Gabs put on her image inducer. "Um..Sapphire needs a doctor." Jasmine said, coming out of the bathroom. "Danny told us about the guy you go to, Dr. Phillip."
"Yeah, he's cool. What's wrong with her?"
"Uh..we got mugged last night and she was shot. Yeah. That's how we lost our luggage."
"C'mon," said Jesse. "I'll give you a ride to the hospital."
Jesse brought the two girls downstairs. The boy called The Brick was now dressed in a set of Danny's clothes and was at Sapphire's side in a heartbeat when he saw her wounded. "I need to take Sapphire to the hospital." said Jesse. "She was shot last night."
"I'm going with her." said Brick.
"I'll come too." said Danny.
"And I." said Bamm-Bamm.
"We'll hold down the fort." said Trent. "Six people's gonna be a squeeze as it is."
Jesse drove the group to Cedars of Lawndale in his Range Rover. Brick held Sapphire's hand the whole time. They hurried inside. "We need to see Dr. Phillip." Danny said to the receptionist.
"Dr. Phillip is in surgery." said the receptionist. "Do you have an appointment?"
"This is an emergency." Danny said. "She's been shot." He motioned to Sapphire. "We need Dr. Phillip."
"What's her insurance carrier?"
"Dammit!" screamed Brick. "She could bleed to death and all you care about is her fucking insurance!?"
"What seems to be the problem, Lisa?" Dr. Phillip asked as he approached.
"These kids insist on seeing you. I don't think they're insured."
"This girl's been hurt." Dr. Phillip noted the improvised dressing on Sapphire's wound. "I'll take care of her."
"But she's not insured!"
"Ask me if I give a damn. You guys wait out here, I'll fix her up." He led her to his office. "So, what's your name."
"Sapphire."
"Pretty name. No last name to go with it?" No answer. "Well, no matter. Have a seat on the table while I scrub up." She sat on the paper lined table while he washed his hands. "So, how'd this happen?"
"I-I got shot. Dr. Phillip, Danny tells me you're mutant friendly."
"Yes. Are you a mutant, Sapphire?" She answered his question by turning off her image inducer. His only reaction was a nod. "I've seen only one other mutant with your appearance before. Kurt Wagner. Any relation?"
"He's-uh'my dad."
Dr. Phillip chuckled. "Only if he started making babies when he was two. Which I doubt."
"We have doctor-patient confidentiality, right? OK, I'm from the future."
"Uh-huh." Dr. Phillip undressed the wound. "Not Daria's field dressing. She's methodical, this was a rush job. Well, at least it's clean."
"Do you believe me?"
"It doesn't matter if I do or not. Did you find the bullet?"
"It passed through. I was shot by the vice president. Can you believe that? Do me a favor, doc, if a guy named Edward Kelly runs for president with a guy named Tom Sloan as his running mate, don't vote for him."
"Well, I like to vote Independant when I can. You're going to need stitches."
"Stitches?" Sapphire chuckled. "It sounds like you want to take a needle and thread and sew me up!"
"Well, actually..."
"What's taking so long?" MJ complained.
"Relax." said Danny. "Dr. Phillip knows what he's doing. Oh, I IMed Forge this morning. He said he'd be here by three to help with the machine. By the way, did you say I invented it?"
"Well, you, Forge and Amy Barksdale collaborated on it."
"Cool!"
"I got us some sodas." said Jesse, handing out bottles of Coke.
"I'm not thirsty." said MJ.
"I'll take it." said Jasmine. She pulled at the bottle cap. It seemed stuck on. She tugged at it harder. Jesse took it back and twisted the cap off. "Oh yeah, twist caps. Uh, I mean. Yeah, shoulda tried twisting it!" She took an embarressed sip of the Coke.
There was little to do but drink Coke and read magazines. Jason found Newsweek as dry as one of his old history texts. Danny immersed himself in Popular Science. MJ would've laughed at the cover if he hadn't been so worried. Jesse flipped through an issue of Rolling Stone while Jasmine read an article in Redbook about "The Modern Karma Sutra". Yep, she thought. Done it, done it, done it, tried it and pulled a muscle, done it, done it...
"Here she is, good as new." said Dr. Phillip. Gabs looked positivly shell shocked.
"Are you OK, Gabs?" MJ whispered to her.
"Get me the hell out of here, Matthew!" she said. "They're butchers!"
"How's your arm?"
"I don't know. It's completly numb! You wanna know what happened? First, he shaved off a chunk of my fur then he jabbed me with a needle!"
"A needle?"
"A needle! Oh, and he said that it was to keep it from hurting if you can believe that! Then, he takes a SEWING needle and some thick black thread and starts sewing me up like a rag doll!"
MJ was horrified. "I've heard of people sewing wounds together when the didn't have any suture gel, but I never believed it!"
"Oh, that's not all. He jabbed me with yet another needle! He said it was an antibiotic shot."
"Didn't they have oral antibiotics by now?"
"He said they do, but they don't work fast enough. I jokingly asked him if leeches were next. He said they only use them to reattach ears and fingers."
"I guess they haven't figured out how to clone body parts yet." MJ shrugged.
"I've been treated like a pin cushion and now I have a scar like the Frankenstein monster!"
"But you're OK. That's all that matters." He kissed her forehead.
"I also warned him not to vote the Kelly/Sloan ticket. Don't know if that will change history or not."
"You never know. One vote was all it took to put Hitler in charge."
"How's your arm?" Jasmine asked.
"Let's go. Now." Gabs groused.
As they piled back in the car, Danny took Jesse aside. "Um, Jesse, I need you to drive us somewhere else." Damn lousy learner's permit.
"Where do you need to go?"
"Um, it's like this, their-uh-car broke down and they want me and Forge to fix it."
"Car broke down /and/ mugged? These people are having some bad luck." Jesse turned on the ignition. "So, where's your car?"
"You know of a corn field just outside the city limits?" asked Jasmine.
"Do I?" Jesse couldn't help smiling a bit.
"What's so great about a cornfield?" Jasmine asked.
"Well...Janey and I went there a couple times and..." he shrugged and blushed.
"You told me you waited!" she snapped.
"Huh?"
Jason gave his sister a kick in the shins. "What my sister means," he said. "is...um...well...I guess you remind her of someone else."
"Oh." Jesse let it drop and kept driving. Jason sighed with relief. Luckily Dad had never been the prying type. Jasmine pouted and growled the word "liar" through gritted teeth.
They drove to the cornfield. Bamm-Bamm showed them where he had hidden the car. "Dude, someone stole your tires." said Jesse.
The visitors looked at each other. Could they risk letting Jesse know about the hover car cumma time machine? "Jesse," said Danny. "Did you bring your cell phone?"
"Yeah. It's in the car."
"Could you please call home and ask Trent to drive Forge out here when he gets to our place? And remind him to bring my tool kit. It's in the garage."
"No problem." he walked off.
Danny popped the hood and had a look. "Whoa. I've never seen anything like this before! This looks more like positronic circuitry rather than the innards of the cars I'm used to. I'd like to get an ohm reading on this baby."
"They said it was cool." Jesse said, surprising Danny. The visitors crowded around the hood, hoping Jesse hadn't seen that this was not a normal car. "Need some help, bro?"
"Uh, no, that's OK."
"You sure? I took auto shop back in high school. I could probably help."
"No, really, I can do this."
"Cool." Jesse shrugged his shoulders. "Gonna be a while before they show up. I'll go get some take-out. Anyone wanna come with?"
No takers. With Jesse safely out of the way, Danny could explore the workings of the car as best he could. "I've never seen half the components used to make this thing." he said. "Hope I don't need to replace anything that hasn't been invented yet. I can splice these wires together as soon as I get my toolkit."
As Danny examined the car, Jason noticed his sister leaning against a tree, staring at the sky. She was in one of her contemplative moods again. "Whatcha thinking 'bout?" he asked.
"Jason," said Jasmine. "Do you realize what we could do while we're here? We could stop the sentinal program before it starts. Personally, I'd love to be left alone in a room with Kelly and Sloan with a bottle of kerosene for just five minutes."
"Jasmine, remember, if anything happens to Sloan in this timeline, MJ may not exist."
"I know." she sighed. "But can't we warn Aunt Daria about.."
"No!" Jason emphasized. "Jasmine, we are not to meddle. We are to get the hell out of this timeline as soon as possible!"
"But Jason, by not telling her, we could be preventing.."
"No."
"How do you know what I was going to say anyway?"
"We're twins. That's how."
"Sure Nathan hasn't been giving you Teep lessons?"
"I don't need telepathy to know what you're thinking, Jasmine. I've known you for too long."
Jasmine sighed. "Jason, I've been thinking a long time about Nathan's problem. I've figured something out, but it might be grasping at straws, and would require the use of the time teaser."
"Jasmine," Jason said patiently. "For the last time, don't fuck with the past!"
"I wasn't going to 'fuck with the past' as you put it. However, the future's up for grabs. Maybe, just maybe, they have a cure for Nathan's virus in the future. Jason, when we get back, and I know we will, I'm going into the far future with Nathan to find a cure."
"What? Why would you need to go with him?"
"We don't know what the future will be like, Jason. Only a fool would go alone."
"So let him go with his dad, or with Logan. Why you?"
"Because I love him."
"That's the best you can come up with?"
"If it was Rachel who had the virus, you'd move Heaven and Earth to save her, and you know it!" Jasmine became angry to find tears on her face. Jason softened and embraced his sister.
"You know me all too well, too." he whispered. "Sh, like you said, it's all gonna be OK." He toyed with her wavy brown pigtails. "Mom and Dad would never agree, you know."
"I'm 20 years old, dammit! I'm not a child!"
"We nearly lost you just a few years ago. We don't want to lose you again." Jasmine smiled at her brother's use of the word "we". Jason liked to come off as the strong, tough leader, but she knew better. Jason kissed her forehead. "You will do what you think is right, as you've always done. But I will miss you, sister."
"Hey, guys!" yelled Danny. "Jesse's back!"
At daybreak, MJ woke to find Gabs still in his arms. "Good morning." he said.
"Morning." she answered. "Should we get the others?"
"Nah, the twins like to sleep late." He kissed her and stroked her hair. "You know, I think I saw my biological mom once."
"MJ, stop it."
"I was about seven. I woke up to hear Jesse-Dad yelling at someone. You know Jesse-Dad, he never yells. I sat at the top of the stairs and saw him yelling at this woman. She was kinda pretty, I guess. But even I could tell she had bleached hair. Jesse-Dad told her something to the tune of 'You'll have to crawl over my damned dead body to get him.' I hid in the hallway and listened. They were talking about me. After a lot of arguing they finally made her go away. Jesse-Dad found me and carried me back to bed. He told me to forget everything I saw and heard. Easier said than done."
"He meant well." Gabs conceded.
"Sloan told me I take after her. She had a crooked nose and stringy hair like me, but she got them fixed."
"MJ, I have pointy ears, blue fur and a TAIL for cripes sake. Your nose is nothing. And I like your hair." She ran three furry fingers through it. "Besides, Vati told me that if God wanted us all to be the same he'd give all of us tails."
"My cousins Leo and Winona always make fun of me for being funny looking. Cousin Keanu doesn't make fun of me. He's nice, dumb as a box of hammers, but nice. I feel sorry for my Cousin Neve, though. Her brothers and sister are always a pain to her and Aunt Quinn is always on her case for not being pretty and popular like Winona. Thing is, Neve is smart and funny, but no one seems to notice her."
"Should I be jealous?"
"Gabs, Neve is my cousin."
"By adoption."
"Same thing. You know, last summer Winona got busted for pulling a five finger discount and Aunt Quinn just bailed her out. But if it's homecoming and Neve doesn't have a date her mom will bitch at her till the cows come home."
"What does her dad think?"
"He's never home. It's a good thing we're all there for her. One time all the pressure was to much for Neve and she became bulemic. She probably would've died if Daria-Mom hadn't stepped in." MJ sighed and changed the subject. "You know what my name would've been if the Sloans kept me? Hunter."
"Hunter?"
"Hunter Sloan. Sounds real dumb, doesn't it?"
Jesse came downstairs. Someone had slipped something in Jane's drink last night when they were at McGrundy's and now he had to mix up a batch of Hair o' the Dog. He saw two strangers barely younger than himself sleeping in the living room. A muscular young man was curled up on the sofa. A statuesque young woman snoozed in the recliner. Jesse nudged the girl. "Hey, wake up."
"mmmm...Dad, I had a bad dream." she murmered, still half asleep. "Robots were chasing us. And Gabs got shot."
"Well, don't worry, you're safe now. You're at my house."
The girl blinked her sky blue eyes. "Wha- where am I?"
"Like I said, my house." said Jesse. "In Lawndale, Massachusettes."
"Lawndale!" Jasmine snapped herself awake. So it hadn't all just been a dream. She saw her father standing there, now scarcely older than herself wearing just a pair of old jeans. The words shot out of her mouth "Go put on a shirt!"
"Huh? Who's got a shirt?" Jason woke up and saw what his sister saw. "Oh, um, hi."
"Hi." said Jesse.
"Um...you're probably wondering who we are and what we're doing here." said Jason.
"The thought had crossed my mind." Jesse responded.
"I'm, I'm Bamm-Bamm."
"Uh huh. And she must be Pebbles then."
"No," said Jasmine. "I'm Fire Blossom."
"Were your parents hippies?"
Jasmine couldn't help smiling. "They were a bit..bohemian."
"And you're here because...?"
"We're friends of Danny's" Bamm-Bamm said quickly.
"You're a bit old for his usual crowd."
"We're uh, from the Dungeons and Dragons League." Fire Blossom thought quickly. "We're inviting his group to be a recognized team for game cons and stuff."
"Oh. That explains the weird names, I guess."
"Yeah, Bamm-Bamm's our barbarian and I'm a fire mage. Could you please put on a shirt?"
"Alright." Jesse sighed and left.
Jason looked at his sister. "Barbarian?" She could only shrug.
Jane woke up with a throbbing headache. Jesse put something in her hand. "Drink this." he said. "It always worked for my dad." She gulped the concoction..and promptly vomited in the wastebasket. "Hate to tell you this, Janey," said Jesse. "But that just means it's working."
"What the hell happened to me last night?"
"Some jerkoff slipped some ruffies in your drink last night at McGrundy's. I was in the middle of a set when I saw you walk off with him. I ran after you and while I was cleaning the guy's clock, you kinda got away from me."
"Why does my ankle hurt so much?"
"I dunno. We finally found you passed out in front of some tattoo parlor. You should really keep a better eye on your drink, Janey."
Jane pulled back the covers to look at her foot. Jesse had removed her shoes but left the socks. She took off the left one to reveal a swolen black and blue ankle..with a thorn pattern tattooed around it. "Aw, crap...." she moaned.
"Don't worry. Trent's kinda looked like that when he first got 'em. It'll probably look cool once it heals up." Jesse went to his closet and got out a shirt. He gave himself a critical look in the mirror. "Janey, tell me the truth, am I...sagging?"
"Sagging? You're kidding, right?"
"I think I might be slacking off on my workouts." He pulled on the shirt. "This girl downstairs told me to go put on a shirt."
"What girl downstairs?"
"Just this girl I found sleeping in the recliner in the living room. She says she's Danny's friend from the Dungeons and Dragons league or something."
There was a tap on the door. It was the girl from downstairs and she had a friend. She had long chestnut hair in a braid down her back and wore a Les Miserables T-shirt. "Um, could we borrow some clothes? We-uh-lost our luggage."
"Sure, you can borrow some of mine." said Jesse. "Who's she?"
"This is Sapphire. She's our..elven paladin."
"Of course." What was a D&D party without an elven paladin?
"What's that smell?" asked Sapphire.
"Oh, uh, I'll take care of this." Jesse took out the wastebasket.
"So, what were you doing last night?" Asked the tall girl with the pigtails.
"What are you, my mom?" Jane challenged. Sapphire cocked an eyebrow and smirked. "Not that it's any of your business, but someone slipped me a ruffie last night. I'm lucky my boyfriend was there. I'm Jane, by the way. And you are?"
"Fire Blossom."
"No kidding. Well 'Fire Blossom', I'm in need of a shower. I keep a few things in the closet, you can borrow them if you want."
Jane limped off to the bathroom, leaving Jasmine and Gabs in the room. "Nice to know Mom wasn't all that irresponsible." said Jasmine. "Now I know why she tells me never to let someone buy me a drink when I go out."
"I need to change too." Gabs turned off her image inducer. "Vinyl gets ripe after awhile."
"How's the arm?" Jasmine asked, undoing her top.
"OK. Little sore. Not bleeding anymore. Where did you get that?" She pointed at a tattoo just a bit above and to the left of Jasmine's clevage. It was a yellow jasmine blossom surrounded by five tongues of flame.
"This? I was in Soho last month with May and we got tattooed."
"What did your parents think about it or have you told them?"
"Gabs, I'm 20 years old. They treat me like an adult now. Besides, Mom has that thing on her ankle, Dad has our names tattooed to his left shoulder blade and if Uncle Trent gets another tattoo, Aunt Daria is going to sell him to a circus!" Jasmine looked through the closet. "And this is nothing compared to the spider May had done on her butt. God, Mom has the most boring taste in clothes. Black and red, black and red..." She considered one of Jane's shirts. "Too small. I'm gonna havta wear one of Dad's shirts.
The shirt fit Gabs well. She put a pair of Jane's jeans on backwards, letting her tail hang out of the fly. She looked in the mirror. "This isn't exactly my style either." She pressed a button on her watch. Her image flickered and was replaced with her "normal human" facade wearing a denim skirt and a T-shirt with the /Cats/ logo on it. "No, I've tortured MJ enough with my Broadway obsession." She pressed a button again and appeared in an electic blue mini dress with lime green stripes. "No, gotta think retro." Her clothes changed into bell bottoms and a tie dyed tee. "A little /too/ retro." Her clothes changed into flared hip hugger jeans and a pink baby tee with a yellow smily face. "Yuck!" Gabs went through a few more wardrobe changes. "Nope, nope, nope...hmm, how 'bout this? Turned heads at the last Mardi Gras parade." It was a purple and green jester's costume. Jasmine smiled and shook her head. "You're right. Too outre. How 'bout this?" It was the black and white tee she had put on and the jeans, appearing to have been put on right.
"Perfect."
Jesse was changing the liner in the waste basket when the doorbell rang. It was Trent and Daria. "Came to see if Janey's alright." said Trent.
"She was kinda hungover." said Jesse. "So I gave her a dose of Hair of the Dog."
"Who are those guys?" Daria asked when she saw Jason and MJ.
"The big guy's called Bamm-Bamm. And you are..?"
"They call me The Brick."
"He's our..ranger." said Bamm-Bamm. The Brick gave him a questioning look.
"They're friends of Danny's from the D&D League. They're kinda crashing here awhile. They lost their luggage, so we're lending them a few clothes."
Jane limped down in a tee shirt and shorts with a towel wrapped around her head. "What happened to your foot?" Trent asked her.
"Remember that tattoo parlor you found me at?" she answered. "Well, apparantly, I picked up something while I was there."
"A raging case of hepatitus?" suggested Daria. Jane gave her a Look.
"Hey, better tattooed than screwed." shrugged Trent. "Watch your drink next time, OK?"
"Yes, Daddy. By the way, Jesse, I told those girls they could use the shower too. That OK?"
"It's cool."
"Other girls?" Daria asked, a mental image of a Roman orgy running through her head.
"They're from D&D too." Jesse explained. "I'm gonna get some stuff for Bamm-Bamm. Brick, I think Danny might have something that would fit you."
Jasmine sat on Jesse's bed and had a look around while Gabs had her shower. She's singing that medly from "Man of La Mancha" again. thought Jasmine. So, this is what Dad's room looked like when he lived with Abuelo. The walls were covered with posters of 'dinosaur bands' such as Creed and Three Doors Down. A weightbench had been converted into a hamster habitat. So, this is where it all started. She thought as she watched three little hamsters run about. Nibbles and Schwartz who begot Dotty, who begot Tinkerbell, who begot Amber, who begot Gidget, who begot Bijou, who begot...A knock at the door interrupted her train of thought.
"You decent?" asked Jesse.
"Nope, never have been." Jasmine joked.
"Funny." Jesse came in and opened his closet. "I wanted to get some things for Bamm-Bamm. Is he your boyfriend?"
"Eeww! No!" Jasmine couldn't help saying. OK, thought Jesse. She doesn't like muscular guys. "He's my brother."
"Really? Which one of you is older?"
"He is, by ten minutes. We're twins." Gabs' scream came from the bathroom. Jasmine went to go see what was wrong.
"Gabs, what is it?"
She came out of the shower, damp fur clinging to her body, and clutching her bleeding arm. "All I did was stretch a little and the wound opened."
"Anything wrong?" Jesse asked outside the door.
"Don't come in!" Jasmine quickly said. "She's naked!" The truth, but not why he didn't want him to see her. "OK, Gabs, don't panic. Just sit down and raise it." Jasmine saw a bottle of peroxide on the sink. (Jane had it out to clean her new tattoo.) Jasmine poured some on the open wound, making Gabs bite her lip as it hissed and foamed. Jasmine threw open the medicine cabinet looking for something to dress it with. The Bandaids were useless. She found some maxi-pads Jane had been keeping there "just in case" and grabbed one. She tied the pad in place with nearly a yard of toilet paper. She helped Gabs dry off and put on her clothes. "We're taking you to that doctor Danny told us about."
"Is there anything I can do?" Jesse offered.
Gabs put on her image inducer. "Um..Sapphire needs a doctor." Jasmine said, coming out of the bathroom. "Danny told us about the guy you go to, Dr. Phillip."
"Yeah, he's cool. What's wrong with her?"
"Uh..we got mugged last night and she was shot. Yeah. That's how we lost our luggage."
"C'mon," said Jesse. "I'll give you a ride to the hospital."
Jesse brought the two girls downstairs. The boy called The Brick was now dressed in a set of Danny's clothes and was at Sapphire's side in a heartbeat when he saw her wounded. "I need to take Sapphire to the hospital." said Jesse. "She was shot last night."
"I'm going with her." said Brick.
"I'll come too." said Danny.
"And I." said Bamm-Bamm.
"We'll hold down the fort." said Trent. "Six people's gonna be a squeeze as it is."
Jesse drove the group to Cedars of Lawndale in his Range Rover. Brick held Sapphire's hand the whole time. They hurried inside. "We need to see Dr. Phillip." Danny said to the receptionist.
"Dr. Phillip is in surgery." said the receptionist. "Do you have an appointment?"
"This is an emergency." Danny said. "She's been shot." He motioned to Sapphire. "We need Dr. Phillip."
"What's her insurance carrier?"
"Dammit!" screamed Brick. "She could bleed to death and all you care about is her fucking insurance!?"
"What seems to be the problem, Lisa?" Dr. Phillip asked as he approached.
"These kids insist on seeing you. I don't think they're insured."
"This girl's been hurt." Dr. Phillip noted the improvised dressing on Sapphire's wound. "I'll take care of her."
"But she's not insured!"
"Ask me if I give a damn. You guys wait out here, I'll fix her up." He led her to his office. "So, what's your name."
"Sapphire."
"Pretty name. No last name to go with it?" No answer. "Well, no matter. Have a seat on the table while I scrub up." She sat on the paper lined table while he washed his hands. "So, how'd this happen?"
"I-I got shot. Dr. Phillip, Danny tells me you're mutant friendly."
"Yes. Are you a mutant, Sapphire?" She answered his question by turning off her image inducer. His only reaction was a nod. "I've seen only one other mutant with your appearance before. Kurt Wagner. Any relation?"
"He's-uh'my dad."
Dr. Phillip chuckled. "Only if he started making babies when he was two. Which I doubt."
"We have doctor-patient confidentiality, right? OK, I'm from the future."
"Uh-huh." Dr. Phillip undressed the wound. "Not Daria's field dressing. She's methodical, this was a rush job. Well, at least it's clean."
"Do you believe me?"
"It doesn't matter if I do or not. Did you find the bullet?"
"It passed through. I was shot by the vice president. Can you believe that? Do me a favor, doc, if a guy named Edward Kelly runs for president with a guy named Tom Sloan as his running mate, don't vote for him."
"Well, I like to vote Independant when I can. You're going to need stitches."
"Stitches?" Sapphire chuckled. "It sounds like you want to take a needle and thread and sew me up!"
"Well, actually..."
"What's taking so long?" MJ complained.
"Relax." said Danny. "Dr. Phillip knows what he's doing. Oh, I IMed Forge this morning. He said he'd be here by three to help with the machine. By the way, did you say I invented it?"
"Well, you, Forge and Amy Barksdale collaborated on it."
"Cool!"
"I got us some sodas." said Jesse, handing out bottles of Coke.
"I'm not thirsty." said MJ.
"I'll take it." said Jasmine. She pulled at the bottle cap. It seemed stuck on. She tugged at it harder. Jesse took it back and twisted the cap off. "Oh yeah, twist caps. Uh, I mean. Yeah, shoulda tried twisting it!" She took an embarressed sip of the Coke.
There was little to do but drink Coke and read magazines. Jason found Newsweek as dry as one of his old history texts. Danny immersed himself in Popular Science. MJ would've laughed at the cover if he hadn't been so worried. Jesse flipped through an issue of Rolling Stone while Jasmine read an article in Redbook about "The Modern Karma Sutra". Yep, she thought. Done it, done it, done it, tried it and pulled a muscle, done it, done it...
"Here she is, good as new." said Dr. Phillip. Gabs looked positivly shell shocked.
"Are you OK, Gabs?" MJ whispered to her.
"Get me the hell out of here, Matthew!" she said. "They're butchers!"
"How's your arm?"
"I don't know. It's completly numb! You wanna know what happened? First, he shaved off a chunk of my fur then he jabbed me with a needle!"
"A needle?"
"A needle! Oh, and he said that it was to keep it from hurting if you can believe that! Then, he takes a SEWING needle and some thick black thread and starts sewing me up like a rag doll!"
MJ was horrified. "I've heard of people sewing wounds together when the didn't have any suture gel, but I never believed it!"
"Oh, that's not all. He jabbed me with yet another needle! He said it was an antibiotic shot."
"Didn't they have oral antibiotics by now?"
"He said they do, but they don't work fast enough. I jokingly asked him if leeches were next. He said they only use them to reattach ears and fingers."
"I guess they haven't figured out how to clone body parts yet." MJ shrugged.
"I've been treated like a pin cushion and now I have a scar like the Frankenstein monster!"
"But you're OK. That's all that matters." He kissed her forehead.
"I also warned him not to vote the Kelly/Sloan ticket. Don't know if that will change history or not."
"You never know. One vote was all it took to put Hitler in charge."
"How's your arm?" Jasmine asked.
"Let's go. Now." Gabs groused.
As they piled back in the car, Danny took Jesse aside. "Um, Jesse, I need you to drive us somewhere else." Damn lousy learner's permit.
"Where do you need to go?"
"Um, it's like this, their-uh-car broke down and they want me and Forge to fix it."
"Car broke down /and/ mugged? These people are having some bad luck." Jesse turned on the ignition. "So, where's your car?"
"You know of a corn field just outside the city limits?" asked Jasmine.
"Do I?" Jesse couldn't help smiling a bit.
"What's so great about a cornfield?" Jasmine asked.
"Well...Janey and I went there a couple times and..." he shrugged and blushed.
"You told me you waited!" she snapped.
"Huh?"
Jason gave his sister a kick in the shins. "What my sister means," he said. "is...um...well...I guess you remind her of someone else."
"Oh." Jesse let it drop and kept driving. Jason sighed with relief. Luckily Dad had never been the prying type. Jasmine pouted and growled the word "liar" through gritted teeth.
They drove to the cornfield. Bamm-Bamm showed them where he had hidden the car. "Dude, someone stole your tires." said Jesse.
The visitors looked at each other. Could they risk letting Jesse know about the hover car cumma time machine? "Jesse," said Danny. "Did you bring your cell phone?"
"Yeah. It's in the car."
"Could you please call home and ask Trent to drive Forge out here when he gets to our place? And remind him to bring my tool kit. It's in the garage."
"No problem." he walked off.
Danny popped the hood and had a look. "Whoa. I've never seen anything like this before! This looks more like positronic circuitry rather than the innards of the cars I'm used to. I'd like to get an ohm reading on this baby."
"They said it was cool." Jesse said, surprising Danny. The visitors crowded around the hood, hoping Jesse hadn't seen that this was not a normal car. "Need some help, bro?"
"Uh, no, that's OK."
"You sure? I took auto shop back in high school. I could probably help."
"No, really, I can do this."
"Cool." Jesse shrugged his shoulders. "Gonna be a while before they show up. I'll go get some take-out. Anyone wanna come with?"
No takers. With Jesse safely out of the way, Danny could explore the workings of the car as best he could. "I've never seen half the components used to make this thing." he said. "Hope I don't need to replace anything that hasn't been invented yet. I can splice these wires together as soon as I get my toolkit."
As Danny examined the car, Jason noticed his sister leaning against a tree, staring at the sky. She was in one of her contemplative moods again. "Whatcha thinking 'bout?" he asked.
"Jason," said Jasmine. "Do you realize what we could do while we're here? We could stop the sentinal program before it starts. Personally, I'd love to be left alone in a room with Kelly and Sloan with a bottle of kerosene for just five minutes."
"Jasmine, remember, if anything happens to Sloan in this timeline, MJ may not exist."
"I know." she sighed. "But can't we warn Aunt Daria about.."
"No!" Jason emphasized. "Jasmine, we are not to meddle. We are to get the hell out of this timeline as soon as possible!"
"But Jason, by not telling her, we could be preventing.."
"No."
"How do you know what I was going to say anyway?"
"We're twins. That's how."
"Sure Nathan hasn't been giving you Teep lessons?"
"I don't need telepathy to know what you're thinking, Jasmine. I've known you for too long."
Jasmine sighed. "Jason, I've been thinking a long time about Nathan's problem. I've figured something out, but it might be grasping at straws, and would require the use of the time teaser."
"Jasmine," Jason said patiently. "For the last time, don't fuck with the past!"
"I wasn't going to 'fuck with the past' as you put it. However, the future's up for grabs. Maybe, just maybe, they have a cure for Nathan's virus in the future. Jason, when we get back, and I know we will, I'm going into the far future with Nathan to find a cure."
"What? Why would you need to go with him?"
"We don't know what the future will be like, Jason. Only a fool would go alone."
"So let him go with his dad, or with Logan. Why you?"
"Because I love him."
"That's the best you can come up with?"
"If it was Rachel who had the virus, you'd move Heaven and Earth to save her, and you know it!" Jasmine became angry to find tears on her face. Jason softened and embraced his sister.
"You know me all too well, too." he whispered. "Sh, like you said, it's all gonna be OK." He toyed with her wavy brown pigtails. "Mom and Dad would never agree, you know."
"I'm 20 years old, dammit! I'm not a child!"
"We nearly lost you just a few years ago. We don't want to lose you again." Jasmine smiled at her brother's use of the word "we". Jason liked to come off as the strong, tough leader, but she knew better. Jason kissed her forehead. "You will do what you think is right, as you've always done. But I will miss you, sister."
"Hey, guys!" yelled Danny. "Jesse's back!"