I groaned as I woke up. A face was peering into mine. Which meant I'd missed the alarm on my first day back at school! Which I do with embarrassing regularity. Then my brain kicked in and I screamed. Which is an incredibly embarrassing girly thing to do. I pride myself on never crying except when I do something extremely painful like tear my shoulder ligaments. The face looking worriedly into mine was blue, furry and cat-like. Which was impossible.
"Quit it Tom…"
"I assure you my name isn't Tom."
I gape. An American accent and it's obviously not a mask. I do the only thing it's sensible to do at a time like this and stick my head back under the duvet in a vain hope this is all a dream.
"Has Sleeping Beauty woken up yet?"
I stick my head back out.
"I am not Sleeping Beauty! I disagree with the female stereotype of requiring a prince to come and rescue them. I rescue myself!"
I stop there. Of course I do. When two fictional characters confront you, you tend to simply gape. I'd recognized the blue guy. Hank McCoy, aka Beast. And Kurt Wagner, aka Nightcrawler, one of my all time favourite characters.
Then I realize I simply must be dreaming. Which is odd. I don't tend to dream about characters in books. I tend to oddly surreal dreams, like going through a day then flying home, or taking an exam and a T-Rex bursting in and eating my exam paper (really! I blame nerves, and reading an old X-Men pocketbook) or even that time I went through a whole day so accurately I thought it was Thursday instead of Wednesday. A hand grips around my arm.
"We better take you to the Professor."
I'm not complaining. Sooner this dream has run it's course the better. I walk as if in a dream, feeling slightly embarrassed by my Eeyore pyjamas. They're too small and my ankles and wrists are on show. I notice a few people I only recognize by sight from the backgrounds of the comic and a few I can name. Anole, Dust, Rockslide, whoa, was that X-23? They're all glancing at me as if I'm going to explode. Then we reach a door marked 'Professor Xavier' and Beast –Hank- prepares to knock. I hear a few muffled words.
"He's here."
I can feel it in my head as well. Then one of the hands around my arm disappears and a loud 'BAMF!' makes me jump. This is one of my all time weirdest dreams.
IsaacI opened my eyes slowly. I was lying on my back looking up into a clear, blue sky. I groaned as I stood up. The sun beat down harshly upon me. I shielded my eyes and looked around squinting against the sunlight. I seemed to be in a huge expanse of desert. I looked around frantically starting to realize my predicament. I glanced back over my shoulder. There was a dust cloud approaching quickly. I waved my arms wildly above my head desperately trying to draw attention to myself. Hopefully it was some kind of vehicle that could help me escape this barren wasteland. The next thing I knew a tall figure stood before me. He was clad in blue with silver gloves and boots. A silver lightning bolt also splayed across his chest. Even his hair was silver.
I gasped aloud. It couldn't be. It was Quicksilver. I had read about him in my comics many times.
'Quick-silver,' I said in awe. This had to be a dream or some sort of a mirage. I closed my eyes and counted to ten. I opened my eyes slowly. He wasn't there. I sighed with relief. I wasn't going mad.
A hand tapped me on the shoulder and I jumped with fright. I whipped around but there was no one there.
'I'm behind you,' a voice said. I spun around like a frightened rabbit. Quicksilver laughed at loud.
'I see you're new here. Come with me. I'll introduce you to my leader, Magneto,' Quicksilver said.
'I'd rather not,' I said turning around. Quicksilver stood before me.
'It wasn't a request,' he said taking a step forward.
'Keep away from me,' I stammered raising my hand. I felt a burning sensation rush through my arm and a brief look of pain passed over Quicksilver's face. Quicksilver collapsed onto one knee. I decided to take advantage of this weird circumstance and sprinted away quickly. Suddenly I was running faster than I had ever run in my life. Trees and buildings flashed by at a blinding speed. I was surprised but I kept running try to put as much distance between myself and Quicksilver as possible. I braked after about a minute. I looked around wearily. I was in some kind of forest. I roved through the woods as quietly as I could. It was dark now. I reached the tree-line and looked out. A huge mansion dominated the entire sky line. I crept up to the gigantic gates. A sign read 'Xavier's school for gifted children.' I recognised this from my comics. I had to look around. I climbed over the wall puffing and panting. I grinned to myself. The wind blew and the gate swung open. Cursing myself, I tip-toed across the lawn quietly. Through the window I could see the professor sitting there with his eyes closed and a hairy faced man sitting next to him. I recognised Logan from the comics but he looked so much more muscular up close. The hairs on the nape of my neck stood up. I felt I was being watched. Inside the house the professor's eyes snapped open.
'He's here,' he said, mentally transmitting the message through out the mansion. Logan smiled grimly and ran out the room. I heard movement inside the house. I turned to run but I was confronted by a blue demon straight at of my worst nightmare. Night-crawler lunged for me but I managed to throw myself to the side. I scrambled to my feet and looked around. Remembering Night-crawler could teleport I realized standing in open ground wasn't the best idea. I had to try and speed like I had in the desert. I concentrated hard and the whole world seemed to slow down around me. I heard a 'bamf' and I turned around. Night-crawler was hurtling towards me seemingly out of thin air. I easily sidestepped him and he smacked into the ground. The mansion door crashed open and the x-men flooded out like a tidal wave. Colossus and Wolverine came running towards me but I ran around them easily. I zigzagged around the whole team dodging lightning from Storm and energy blasts from Cyclops. I was starting to enjoy myself now. Then my legs stopped receiving messages from my brain and I froze up like a statue. I keeled into the ground leaving a long passage of torn up mud behind me. I groaned loudly as Wolverine picked me up by my scruff. A solitary claw popped out of his hand and he held it to my throat viciously.
'You move, you die.'