Hey, guys. Wanted to apologize for the lack of updates recently. Sure, it's only been 12-ish days, but I'd been updating at a really solid clip. To make a long story short, a second mostly-unplanned family stay has taken away my time from writing. I also happen to write articles as a freelancer for You Don't Read Comics, which entails a lot more writing. I write under my real name there, but tend to write the comic articles with a bend of humor to them. If you like my sense of humor, check it out.
Perhaps some useless information, but I really wanted to provide a good explanation as to why I was absent.
On the streets of New York, the evening had finally begun to arrive. The sun had descended behind the skyline, coloring the city with all the shades of a Bob Ross painting - including a few happy clouds in the distance. The fall air no longer smelled like someone was frying goats, and a nice breeze was now drifting between the alleys as Scott exited the Hellfire Club. Behind him were Warren Kenneth Worthington the III and Jean Grey, his apparently unnecessary escorts and backup for this endeavor. Warren excused himself for a moment to go page his driver at a nearby payphone… which Scott had found rather jarring for a second. He'd grown so used to modern technology that something like a payphone had pretty much gone extinct by 2000, much less 2015.
The Past really is like a foreign country, Scott mused as he remembered the written words of L.P. Hartley. He did, however, fail notice the skeptical look Jean kept giving him.
"So." Warren finally said after returning from the payphone, "Johnson will arrive in a few moments with the car." He paused to adjust the cufflinks on his suit, "I've asked he take the two of you back to Xavier's place, and leave the car in your care. I'll send someone to pick him up as well, no worries."
"Warren?" Jean quirked her head slightly, "What do you mean? Aren't you coming back?"
"Not really," Warren smiled sadly as he shook his head, blonde tresses bouncing as he did so, "I won't be a part of what the Professor had in mind for a school. Besides, after my Uncle Bertram killed mom and dad, I can't afford to be running around like a kid in spandex. I've got a company to look after." Looking Scott in the eye, the smile grew a little happier as he clapped the man on the shoulder encouragingly, "Prove me wrong, Scott. You're almost like the brother I never had, and if anyone was going to change Xavier for the better, it's you." He pulled Scott into a big bear hug, "Don't hesitate to ask me for help, bossman."
Scott returned the hug, careful not to squeeze too hard, "You too, birdbrain. We're family, you know?"
Warren nodded back to Scott and pulled away. He pulled Jean's hand up to his face and planted a soft kiss on the back of her hand, "Take care of him, Jean."
Jean laughed softly, with a more hysterical laughter echoing in Scott's mind, "Don't worry, I'll keep him in line. Take care, Warren."
Warren Worthington the III nodded to both his friends and turned away, walking down the late-night New York streets. It wasn't long before he faded from view, obviously heading down towards Avengers Mansion for the usual Tuesday poker night.
[So,] Jean thought at Scott, sensing some remnants of his apprehension from his meeting with Emma, [Was she as you remember?]
[Colder, actually.] Scott returned, holding Jean's hand as they waited for the car Warren had called for, [More ambition, but with a temper held back by a desire to prove herself.] A stray thought crossed his mind before he could stop it, [Less clothing.]
Jean teasingly elbowed her beau, [Should I take some fashion tips from her, then? I've got a few things in the closet I could pull out.]
Scott flushed horribly, parts of his face turning as red as his optic blasts. Desperate to change the subject, Scott diverted, [Emma's agreed to see the school on Thursday, actually. She has some prospective students in mind.]
[Oh?] Jean let the subject drop for the moment, a smile crossing her face as Warren's promised car turned around the corner, [I certainly hope they're not the next generation of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants.]
Scott Shrugged mentally as he opened the door for Jean, [Some of them, we've scouted out in my past. Others never came to the school. At least, if her lineup matches what I know.]
A few minutes passed as Johnson drove the car out of the city, in the direction of Westchester. Scott and Jean simply enjoyed one another's company during the quiet. For Scott, it was like emotionally going back in time on top of physically. Jean had been gone for so long from his life, he realized it had been like he was living without an arm. Emma had been wonderful for him, but entirely different. For Jean, Scott had become almost an entirely different person. Distant in some regards, but more confident. The psychic link hadn't lost its novelty yet, either, and at times Jean felt like she could lose herself inside Scott.
[Scott?] Jean asked, her eyes closed as she rested on Scott's shoulder, [What did you do to convince her, anyhow?]
[I shared a mutual memory with her, actually.] Scott explained, watching the scenery pass the car by.
[Which one?]
Scott pulled the memory up again, feeling slightly awkward at sharing something so personal with someone who hadn't been part of it. The memory played again, experiences entirely foreign playing before Jean's mental eye. As the memory ended, Jean frowned, a mix of emotions in her mind.
"Scott, you lovable idiot." she spoke up, pulling away from his shoulder.
"Jean?" Scott blinked in confusion, turning to look at her. He could feel several emotions coming through the link, jealousy and regret being prime ones alongside a twinge of joy.
Jean looked at him, shaking her head, "I won't be mad about what hasn't happened. It's like being mad at you for something you did in a dream." The woman who would eventually become Phoenix bit at her bottom lip, looking down, "But I think you may have given her entirely the wrong impression." Upon seeing Cyclops' blank expression, she continued, "Think about it. A handsome man comes out of nowhere, knows you better than you know yourself, and has unavoidable proof that you're destined to be with him? Even I'd find it hard to not find myself interested in that man."
"...oh." was all Scott could say.
Jean shrugged, trying to push doubts out of her mind, "You'll make it up to me later, I'm sure."
Johnson quietly rolled up the privacy window, deciding that this was just rich, crazy person roleplay unfolding in front of him.
As the car pulled up to the Xavier school grounds, Scott froze as he saw a heavily damaged Strato-Jet lurching in for a landing.
"Oh no," Scott understated as he felt a chill run down his spine.
Jean looked to Scott, a question on her face and in her mind.
"I'd forgotten we'd taken an extra day on Krakoa." Scott muttered to himself, looking at his hands in mild panic, "Our first mission as a team was today. Count Nefaria took over NORAD with his team of Ani-Men. He threatened to launch all of America's nukes, and the Avengers were out of town. Hank called us up and asked us to step up in their place."
Jean brushed her hand on Scott's shoulder, a smile on her face, "But the plane came back, Scott. That means it still went well."
"John died."
Jean's hand froze, pulling back instinctively as the car drew to a stop, "Oh. Scott, I'm so sorry."
"I got over it," Scott spoke coldly, already undoing his seatbelt as he threw open the door, "But I had a chance to make things different this time. I wanted…" Scott trailed off as he jumped out of the car and broke into a sprint for the mansion's secret entrance to the sub-levels.
The already slow elevator took an unspeakably long time to descend into the sub-basement of the mansion. From the familiar sounds Scott could make out in the distance, the Strato-Jet had landed and was busy descending into the recesses of the hangar. He couldn't hear any voices at all, and the implications chilled Scott's heart. He hadn't been there to lead his team, and they'd only barely stopped the Doomsmith Scenario the first time around.
I mean, it still counts as saving the world when the Doomsmith Scenario meant Count Nefaria would coat the world in nuclear explosions.
"Professor!" Scott shouted out as he saw his teacher and mentor wheeling over from the Cerebro room to the hangar, "What happened?"
Xavier stopped and spun himself in place to face his student, "Our old foe, Count Nefaria, resurfaced." Scott waited while Xavier recounted the tale he already knew, "Luckily, Count Nefaria had been stopped, but there were… casualties."
Scott's already chilled heart grew ice cold.
The Professor opened the automatic door to the hangar, and he wheeled through, "Come, Scott. They may need our help."
Swallowing down his fear, Scott moved after the Professor. The Strato-Jet looked like it had seen better days. The left wing was still there, but looked to be missing several sheets of armor. The cockpit's windscreen was shattered, fixed with some welded glass from another plane cockpit. Scott also got the distinct tang of leaking jet fuel in the air, but didn't actually see any at the moment leaking from the jet. The rear entry hatch shuddered as it opened, dropping to the ground with a hollow 'whang.' Without much fanfare, the X-men emerged.
...laughing? The hell?
Banshee showed up first, walking down the gangplank with Thunderbird's arm slung over his shoulder. Scott's heart instantly lightened up as he saw John still alive, but confusion reigned. If John survived, what was so serious? Ororo came out next, with Nightcrawler playfully bantering with her… and Scott could swear he was hitting on her. Iceman (wait, what?) was next, shaking his head as he followed the four in front of him down the ramp. Havok and Polaris were also there, keeping to themselves despite some obvious injuries. Finally, Colossus emerged, carrying a mostly-naked Wolverine, who was smoking a cigar (and physically smoking).
"Wolverine!" Professor Xavier shouted out in surprise, a wide smile on his face as he wheeled towards the group, "How did you survive the plane crash?"
Scott blinked in surprise, seeing his friend Logan in such a state. Everyone began talking at once, responding to the Professor's answer all in their own words. The chatter went on and on for several minutes, and Scott found it hard to follow. Finally, Wolverine let out a loud shout to interrupt everyone, climbing out of Colossus' arms to stand (shakily) on the ground.
"I heal real good." Logan explained without explaining, winking at Cyclops subtly as he looked at his newfound friend.
"Heal good nothing, lad," Sean Cassidy laughed, patting Logan on some healed shoulder flesh, "Half your legs were gone! And what about all that metal?"
Wolverine grinned as he dropped the cigar and crushed it under barefoot, "That's a state secret from Canada, Irish. Sorry, but I can't talk about it."
The world swam around Cyclops' head as relief and confusion flooded his mind. Scott moved to take a step back, only to find himself sitting on the floor rather abruptly. A hand touched his shoulder, and he looked up to see Jean smiling over him.
[So.] Jean teased Scott as she sat down next to him, [Maybe the world doesn't rest entirely on your shoulders, Slim?]
Taking a breath, and feeling the world steady itself under him, Scott raised a hand, "Excuse me? What the hell happened at NORAD?"
Bobby stepped forward as he de-iced himself, returning to his normal costume, "Well, Nefaria had a team of knockoff X-Men-"
"Ani-Men." Piotr Rasputin corrected him, "I believe we should be accurate, friend Robert."
"Fair enough, Pete," Bobby nodded his way, "But a few ice blocks froze most of them in place. Nefaria went all classic villain on us and set the Doomsmith Scenario to trigger across the world. Half of us set to work ripping the computers to pieces, while Wolverine lead Colossus and Thunderbird over to the the hangar bay." He paused, stretching an arm, "But I think Wolverine knows the rest better than I do. Me, I just froze the computer until it stopped working."
Ororo raised an eyebrow, "Yes, but you also knew what I should fry to help." Bobby waived her praise off, trying to avoid the limelight.
"I can continue," John Proudstar spoke up, looking very much alive, "Nefaria had a jet stored in the hangar, and began to take off. Wolverine looked at Colossus and told him to throw the little runt at the freaking plane." John laughed at the memory, shaking his head, "Little jerk stuck to the plane like his namesake, and clawed his way up the side of the jet."
"Then you decided to throw a missile at me." Logan groused, his face showing more amusement than anything else.
"You'd already survived the Hulk." John pointed back, a smirk on his face, "And I did warn you to jump off."
Logan rolled his eyes as he slugged Thunderbird with a weak punch, "At least Nefaria bit the big one. Jerk won't be coming back from the grave after that."
Yeah, sure.
Scott let out a held breath, shuddering slightly. Jean hugged him from behind, a smile on her face as Scott leaned into her embrace. Scott had expected a lot of resistance from time itself, like reality forcing itself back into what it had once been. After all, that had happened so many times before, even when his past self had been thrown into the future by a well-meaning Hank McCoy.
Maybe he could fix the world.
Maybe there could be an ending that didn't end with the Inhumans accidentally causing a massacre.
Maybe.
Author's Notes:
Fakeout? Perhaps. But I really wanted to have a time where Scott couldn't step in and use future knowledge to just go "lol, everything will be fine" like a walking Deus Ex Machina. It's pretty obvious some of the smaller changes made to the canon have already had a lot of weird effects, and I can't wait to write more. I love the kind words and feedback, as well. Thank you all for reading so far.
Also, I consider this the end of "issue one." Not sure how many more issues lie in front of us, but I've got a few twists in mind without committing to anything solid.
As you can tell, I've decided to let Warren to keep with his canon and leave. I figure that the New Defenders and Champions may happen canonically-ish, but I'm not going to spend a whole lot of time on things that Scott isn't involved in. As much as I'd love to see how changes in the timeline would affect, say, Spider-Man or the Fantastic Four... unless they become directly involved, I probably won't cover them.
I chose not to have Sage appear here simply because I'm not a huge fan of her. I like that Claremont was able to play an extremely long game with her via retcon, but I'm not super-familiar with her beyond the rather poor Exiles run that Claremont had. As such, I'm going to avoid writing her miserably out of character by just skipping on by.
Finally, I totally do plan on working in the New Mutants and Hellions into the story somehow. They're top contenders for "easy students to include."