E-DAY
It was the day. It was today. It was one year. A whole year. Yesterday was Sally's birthday, she really grew up. How did I survive her? Phewwwwww...just take it easy. Go downstairs and have some breakfast. Maybe get a haircut. Today's Saturday, no one should be up this early, you can just ease into it, show Sally around. I teleport us into the kitchen, a wisp of green energy in my wake and at my arrival. I look around the kitchen, nobody is here. Okay, good. Cereal. Bowls, Trix, spoons, milk. Check, check, check, check. So just sit down, eat and-footsteps. Relax, it's just...people. Why am I so fucking nervous? Someone's here.
"Who are you?" my shoulders tense at the Cajun accent but I force myself to relax. I turn to see a girl in a black tank, a green filmy top, a black skirt with black hose, leather gloves and white streaks in her hair. She sees a guy in a t-shirt and jeans eating cereal with a foot tall eighteen year old demoness. Sally looks eighteen but is actually one, she matured fast and ages slow, she has bat wings, a black spaded tail, black scaly raptor legs from the knees down. From elbow to fingers it looks like she wears black gloves, but it's her skin and her nails are razor sharp and unbelievably strong, seriously, we had to clip them with a sword once. Her hair is long and black, almost to her knees, and her ears are pointed, her eyes are a smoldering orange and she has small fangs in her mouth. Plus she's just really cute.
"Uh, hi."
"Hi, now who are you and why are you eating our food?"
"It's breakfast and we uh, live here."
"So y'all're new?"
"No, been here a while."
"No you haven't, ah've been here a while, and ah've never seen you two before."
"I've been here longer than Scott, almost as long as Jean." Sally tugs on my sleeve
"Who is she?"
"That's Anna-Marie." Rogue crossed her arms and glared at me "Eat your breakfast Sals." Sally shrugged and began her feasting
"That's NOT mah name, and where's your room if you've been here so long?"
"Did Kitty or Kurt ever tell you about a room they found with no doors?" she uncrossed her arms and came close and was up in my face
"Wait, how'd you know about that?"
"We were there when ms nosy and mr blue and fuzzy invaded."
"They said no one was there." she was closer now, oh joy.
"Not a living soul."
"But you just said y'all were there. So which is it? Y'all were there, or 'not a living soul'?" she was glaring at me now. Boy, I sure can make friends.
"Both."
"Who are you again?"
"The names Danny." I point to the girl draining the bowl she could barely get her arms half way around "And this is Sally." I say as I rub her head. She's eating, she doesn't care.
"Rogue." she eased up a bit "So how do you know Scott and Jean?"
"I only met Scott once, on the day he got here, I met Jean when she and the professor came to meet me. I talk with Jean a lot."
"I like Jean." comments Sally who's on another helping of cereal
"Uh-huh...if you've been here as long as you say you have...then do you know why Jean is always leaving full meals around the kitchen on that weird plate?" I scratched the back of my neck
"Uh, yeah, that's sort of for us." she leans on the counter
"Why?"
"I sorta don't...interact with people, and Sally is always with me so she makes our food for me and sets it out sometimes." she backed up a bit
"And why is that?"
"Training. It's over now."
"No, why does she do that for you?"
"We're friends." Kitty walked in, covered in pink and blue, hair up in a ponytail
"Hey Rogue, hey who's this?" she spots Sally "And what is that!"
"Sally is not a 'that' shes a 'her', and what Sally is is none of your concern." Rogue rolls her eyes
"Say's his name is Danny. He also says he's been here longer than either of us."
"Chya right, how come we've never seen you before?" I shrug and tell her
"I didn't want you to." Rogue got up from the counter
"Now hold up, you said you were training and that's why we didn't see you."
"I was, my training was not to let anyone know I even existed."
"But you said you talked to Jean!"
"Jean already knew about me, and she never let on that she knew so it was fine." A voice from the hall called
"Alright, who's being this noisy this early?"
"Hey Scott."
"Woah...Danny? Is that you?"
"Yup."
"Wow, I haven't seen you since I got here."
"I'm surprised you actually remember me, we only met for like five minutes."
"Wait," said Rogue "you know him?"
"Yeah he's been here longer than I have, almost as long as Jean. And Danny, well, you were in agony and then you freaked me out with that eye thing and then you delivered a prophecy. It's not exactly something I forget. Especially when I meet a superhero."
"Superhero?" BAMF Kurt was on the table "Where?"
"Hey fuzzy," he looked back at me "mind getting your ass out of my face?"
"Oh, sorry." BAMF he's sitting at the table "Now where's the superhero?" I raise my hand
"Yo."
"You? How old are you?"
"Seventeen." Kurt and Kitty were disbelieving and Rogue was, reserved or something, but she still looked irked.
"Okay, so vhy do you think you're a super hero?" he asked me
"Save people's lives when I can, and I've saved the world...lets see...Pariah, Undergrowth, Freakshow, Disastroid...Dan, five times. One of those times I saved this time line and another I saved the fabric of reality...although the reality one I altered it so none of it ever happened, so it's kinda arguable if I did anything at all if I made sure than there was nothing to do in the first place. Kinda the same thing with the time line time."
"Waaaaaah?" everyone was staring at me
"Yeah, temporal histories with alternate time lines kinda suck. You get used to it though."
"That's kinda scary."
"You have no idea. Hey Scott,"
"Yeah?"
"You remember that grey egg I showed you?"
"Yeah, you said you named it Sarah or something."
"Sally." her head pops up "I named her Sally, and this is her." I gesture with my hand
"Huh, she's a cute little thing isn't she?" Sally stands up and looks at Scott, scrutinizing for a moment, then she belches flames in front of his face. Kurt laughs and I smirk.
"That was rude Sally." she shrugs and I feel a twitch in my brain "Jean's up."
"How do you know?" asked Rogue
"All shall be revealed, in time."
"Kid, you gotta stop being so cryptic." came the calm gruff of Logan
"Hey Logan."
"Deadbeat." He looked at Sally and decided not to comment "Now that you're here maybe we can kick these kids into shape. None of then have gotten past your old high score in the danger room. Whaddaya say, hows about a little you on everyone else?"
"Just the students right? I don't think I can handle two telepaths."
"Yeah, yeah, wimp." Rogue went over to Logan
"Woah, woah, woah, are you saying that he's good enough to take on all of us?"
"Better, as long as he hasn't gotten soft." Rogue seethed
"I've gotten better."
"We'll see deadbeat."
"If you don't stop calling me that then you'll wake up in Antarctica."
"Try it and you're dead punk."
"Too late."
"Oh hardy-har."
"Danny? Is that you?"
"Jean?" Sally jumps up immediately. I get up and hug her then return to my breakfast "Haven't done that in a year. Jean, I want you to meet-"
"Sally! Oh my gosh, you're even cuter in person! Come here you little blade fiend!" Sally jumps into the air and tackles Jean's neck in a hug which Jean returns, with interest. Sally perches on Jeans shoulder and she laughs, a tinkling sound like glass bells being rung.
"Someone's happy to see you." I can't hide my grin, so I don't try to. "I got up early so I wouldn't see anyone, why is everyone up?"
"Danny, it's seven thirty." Sally has braided Jean's hair now, still laughing, and starts to un-braid it
"So?"
"Everyone usually gets up at five or six."
"It's Saturday Jean." Sally is now hiding in Jean's hair, giggling
"And we have a danger room training session."
"Hello Daniel." I look and see Storm coming in
"Hi Ororo, hi Evan."
"Yo, who's this Auntie O?"
"One of my first students. And the only one I have taught everything to. He has challenged my teaching skills."
"What do you mean Auntie?"
"He asked me to explain something I have never had to explain before, not in a way so others could understand."
"If you're so high and mighty, hows about a little demonstration?" asked Rogue. I looked at her. I get up and walk to her, I smile and get too close to her. She stares back defiantly, like this is some sort of challenge. It's not but...
"I could do any number of impressive things, but to you the most impressive, or most shocking at least, I think would be this." I cup her cheek in my hand, and before she can gasp, I take her lips. It's not a chaste kiss, nor is it terribly intimate, it lasted for a number of seconds, and she was frozen for them all. Everyone is looking, waiting for me to collapse or to scream, but I don't. Instead, I break the kiss, still smiling at a shocked Rogue, and walk out of the room, whistling, leaving her frozen. Sally is having hysterics. As I was leaving I heard Logan say
"The kids got some brass balls."
"Logan!" Ororo chastised. I chuckle, Sally laughed harder.
*Sally, home, form.* Sally kisses Jean's cheek, shoots off her shoulder and dives into my body. INTO. She actually lives in me. She has a bed, but she lives inside of me. *So is she going to kill me now?* I thought at Jean
*I'm not sure, but she's blushing pretty hard.*
*She should be, that was some of my best work.*
*Why'd you kiss her?*
*Would you believe me if I said I had no real idea?*
*That depends on what your 'not real' idea is.*
*#sigh# She was really pretty.*
*So you kissed her?*
*Yes?*
*Yes.*
*I just said that.*
*No, I meant, yes, she's going to kill you.
*Oh, thanks for that.*
*It's not exactly a good habit. Where are you going?*
*To visit the Brotherhood, I want to talk to them.*
*Why?*
*Wanda.*
*Oh...Want one of us to come with you?*
*No, I think it would be better if I went alone. She doesn't exactly like you guys.*
*Alright, just be careful.*
*Aren't I always?*
*No.* I chuckle and it carries over. By now I'm at the entrance to the mansion.
*Later Jean.*
*Later Danny.* I walk along the grass, letting the sunlight hit my skin, not just pass through it. It feels good. I'd forgotten how good. It felt so good I hardly registered my walk until the shadows of a large oak snapped me from my reverie. I looked up to see the Brotherhood house. I sighed and knocked on the door. Tap tap tap. Nothing. Knock knock knock. Silence. BANG BANG BANG.
"GO AWAY! IT'S TOO EARLY!"
"I'm here to talk to Wanda!" Three seconds later and a muscled guy with tussled long brown hair and an angry face answered the door in his boxers.
"What the hell do you want with her?"
"I came to talk."
"Why?"
"So we'd have an understanding."
"Why?"
"So I don't kill everyone." he bristled
"Is that a threat?" he growled, but I shook my head
"No, it's a precaution, and I'm here to make sure it doesn't happen." He glared at me and I smiled. His glare was far from the worst I'd ever seen
"She's upstairs."
"Can you bring her down?"
"Are you crazy?" I shrug
"Maybe." then a weasly voice calls
"Yo! Who's at the door?"
"No one Toad!" he thought for a moment "Hey Tolansky! Tell your 'cuddlebumps' she has a visitor!" A small guy jumped up the stairs like his namesake and a moment later, accompanied by a few choice words, some screaming, and a few loud bangs, and a girl in scarlet attire with military short hair almost, descended the stairs.
"Who are you?"
"My name is Danny."
"And why do you want to talk to me?"
"So I don't kill anyone." she raised her eyebrows
"Come again?"
"I've heard your powers alter probabilities, is that right?"
"Who are you?"
"Danny." White rings form at my waist and traveled up and down my body, transforming me into my new persona. Their eyes widened at my new ghost form, I wear a hooded white duster, with all white pants, skintight white shirt, combat boots and of course fingerless gloves. I have a simple white ceramic face mask like the one in Gladiator where Maximus the Merciful is named, minus the tear drops and neck guard and with a large thin 'X' across it. It has two eye holes but no light can escape past the mask in my hood. The mask comes into existence when my hood is up and is the only thing visible inside of it, everything else looks like empty darkness, when my hood is up the same effect happens with my duster. My belt buckle is a simple silver circle with an 'X' in it, the background black so the 'X' stands out. The end of my duster didn't move even in the wind and the inside of it was emptiness. Literally. If you went into its fold there was a good chance you weren't coming out. A bardiche slung across my back, I hatched it from an egg and named it Sally, yeah, the same Sally, this is her second form, her weapon form. In weapon form she is a bardiche, or basically a giant pole ax, she has a black pole, a white metal body and a black sharpened edge. Along the side of her body is the impression of a small 'DP' symbol, the only remnant of my past life and in a deep blue the stylized name 'Sally' is on both sides. My voice echoed in the space it shouldn't have as I pull Sally off of my back. "But you can call me Necro." Voice echo. It adds a serious creep factor.
"What do you want?" I pull down my hood, letting my mask fade
"To talk."
"About?"
"The future."
"How do you mean?"
"Well," I look around at everyone "do you mind if we go somewhere more private for this?" she looked at me, considering for a moment.
"Fine, where?"
"Any place on earth." I put Sally back, change back to Fenton and extend my hand to her
"Oh really?" I nod "How about the top of the Eifle tower?"
"Done. Take my hand and we'll be there." she extended her hand, hesitantly, and lay her hand on my own. The instant her skin touched my glove, green enveloped us, and then a sudden wind blew it all away. The sun was up in the sky, just past the halfway mark and slowly descending, France sprawled before us.
"Wow." was all she said for a long time. I leaned back against the tower. I could wait. We stood there, looking at the city, buffeted by the wind for a long time. The sun was in a different place now. "What time is it?"
"New York? Eight thirty four. Here? Two thirty four."
"What did you want to talk about?"
"You alter probabilities, right?"
"Yes."
"Do you think...let me start over. I've been to the future, one of the many possible futures. There are three main futures for me; in one I'm a hero, in another I'm dead, in the final main possibility, I'm the greatest evil the world has ever known."
"How evil?" she asks without turning around.
"I eliminate all life on earth." that got her to turn around.
"Uh-huh, how?"
"With my bare hands." That got a reaction out of her "Listen, I want to make a deal with you; we don't fight each other with our powers. If we find ourselves about to fight each other, we don't, we just don't. My two reasons are that I don't want you to accidentally turn me evil, and...my powers are dangerous. If some of my offensive powers go haywire, I'll most likely kill someone, maybe even everyone, and if I'm fighting you, it's a good chance it might be you, so...truce?"
"How dangerous?" I sighed
"I could level all of Paris with a single scream, right now. I could plunge everything within miles of me into a new ice age. I could rip open the fabric of this dimension and let the dead overwhelm the earth." She looked mildly impressed, but still so angry
"So, no fighting?"
"Not with our powers. If we're forced to fight, absolutelyforced, the we do hand to hand, swords, something, just...no altering my probabilities. Deal?"
"Deal."
"You wanna get back to your home now?"
"Not quite yet."
"You eat breakfast yet?"
"You buying?"
"Sure."
"Yaaaaaaay!" we both look to see Sally Dancing upon the air, in her demon form, flames in her wake. This should be fun to explain.
Midnight Paris
"So we should be getting back now." I said as I sat on top of the tower. Sally is sleeping in my arms. Our visit had started here and we'd agreed to end it here.
"Okay." the lights of the city made it glow
"Are you ok?" the cool air caressing our hair, adding chill to our thoughts and words.
"I'm fine, I'm just going to miss this city."
"I can always bring you back." I told her "You just have to ask."
"No, it's...it's fine."
"Ready to go back?" she sighed
"No, but let's do it anyways." she took my hand and after a last look at the city, she nodded to me. We were enveloped in green and when the smoke cleared we were standing in front of the Brotherhood boarding house.
"So, I'll see you later Wanda."
"And I will see you later Danny." I teleported into the main foyer of the house
*Danny! You're back!*
*Hi Jean.*
*Where were you?*
*Talking with Wanda.*
*I know that, but where? I couldn't reach you!*
*I'd be surprised if you could. We were in Paris for the day.*
"*PARIS! YOU WENT TO PARIS WITHOUT ME?*" it was shouted both vocally and mentally.
"She woke up Sally with that one." after I shush her back to sleep I ask "Is it really that big of a deal?" Logan passed by and said
"Yup, you're in trouble now bub."
"Thanks Logan." Suddenly she was at the top of the stairs and Kitty was with her and Amara wasn't far behind.
"Wow, guess you're not on the track team for nothing."
"You went to Paris?" Kitty shrieked
"Why? Why Paris?" Jean asked. I shrug
"I told her I wanted to talk in private, she asked where I told her anywhere in the world and she picked the top of the Eiffel Tower." they were staring at me "In her defense I don't think she actually expected me to get her there." I shrug again then mutter "Oh well, at least I got to go to Rome." By now more girls had shown up
"ROME?" they all shrieked
"Yes! Yes! Rome! What? What is with you? Sally wanted pizza and where better to go? I mean Chicago has deep dish and NYC is good but, why not Rome?" they were just staring, still staring, eyes almost bulging. "You guys are weird, I'm going to go get my guitar." three steps away from the chattering girls, all discussing where they wanted me to take them all, I heard
"Hey deadbeat!" Logan, wasn't he going somewhere else? "I forgot, you missed introductions. Six sharp in the danger room tomorrow morning. And if you don't watch it you'll be a Taxi service for everyone looking for a vacation, not that I wouldn't mind goin' back to Canada myself but I'd take my bike."
"Oh joy."
"Oh, and Rogue was lookin' for ya too."
"Can this get any better?"
"Waaaaaah!" I turned just in time to see Scott slip on an iced floor and a bowl of soup fly through the air, miss me and land on Logan. His claws come out in a small 'snick' that seems so loud as he turns to Scott.
"Well, I guess it can." I said smiling and went to my room hearing Scott screaming and Logan growling as he chased him.