Memories

Genius Kids

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If you want to use Tora, or any of my other characters, PM me.

Sue and Tora leant back as the two two-year-olds started carefully building a huge tower out of wooden blocks. The tower started to topple and instantly the two children started moving a few blocks and then the tower was totally stable. The fact it was taller than both of them was the most impressive part of the enterprise. Sue shook her head.

"Genius kids. What is the world coming too? I blame Reed for Val."

"I'm afraid I have to take the blame for Jamie."

"Tell me."

"One of my mutations is to be able to see other realities. Jamie's mutation takes it a step further. Forgive me, I'm about to use Computing metaphors here. My mutation is a network, a series of interconnected computers, each with their own hard drive and processor and therefore are separate entities. Also, there are lots of different networks as well. We're all a part of one big network but inside that, we're bunched into smaller networks. Like… your home computer system, which is linked up to the Internet. All of us are the Internet, one huge interconnected series of smaller networks."

"Oh…"

"In my small network, there's this reality, one where I split up with Logan and Hank sort of stepped in, a world when Etana, the Black Angel didn't die and a world where Curt wasn't taken. I find it easiest to converse with those worlds and to persuade my counterparts to follow a particular course of action as they are closest to me in personality and outlook. Jamie is a mainframe, one huge computer with a single hard drive and processor but a huge number of terminals. He has more processing power at his fingertips that Reed could ever imagine. Of course he's going to be smart."

"You just said your son is smarter than Reed."

"Reed is just one mind. Jamie is a million minds, all neatly wrapped up into a tiny, really very cute package."

They sat back and listened to Jamie and Valeria.

"Did she just tell him the twelve times table?"

"I think she did. Don't be too worried Sue. Jamie has made it his mission to learn every language in the world. He's already fluent in English, Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin, German, Russian, K'Meer, Shi'ar, Kree and Skrull. He learns them in different realities. One of them learns something, they all do."

"Don't you and Logan use Japanese for private conversations?"

"We used to. Now we leave notes on the fridge, written in Cyrillic and using the Japanese phonetic. Sometimes we add German to the mix, just to throw Jamie off the scent."

"Does it work?"

"No. Jamie asked what a rather embarrassing word meant. I banned Logan from leaving dirty notes around our rooms."

"The word being?"

Tora leant in and whispered it in Sue's ear.

"Logan actually writes stuff like that?"

"That wasn't the worst. I've taken to setting them on fire when I find them."

"Well at least he shows an interest in you. Give Reed an experiment and I swear he forgets he's married."

"Yes. Hank's like that in 8667. My response is to go down, help him finish the experiment then stay in the lab all night."

"Reed never lets me near his experiments."

Tora grinned.

"Hank hasn't had a problem since I showed Reed and Tony up at a code-cracking meeting. I mean, it was just ASCII. How hard can that be to break? But no, three of the most intelligent men in the world just sat there and stared at the screen with blank expressions on their faces."

Sue burst out laughing and the two children looked up.

"Mommy?"

"Maman?"

"Don't worry Val, we're just having some down time."

"That's nice Auntie Sue."

"He uses contractions?"

"And negatives and metaphors. Very good metaphors. Like… What two-year-old knows the words tsunami and glacier? Jamie apparently."

"What did he say?"

"That Maman will come down like a tsunami on anyone who hurts him and she's more patient and dangerous than a glacier. I think the man who kidnapped him soon learnt what Jamie meant."

There was a dangerous silver glint in her eyes. Sue nodded.

"What did you do?"

"Half-filled his lungs with water then removed it. No one threatens my children."

"I know the feeling. I'm amazed you didn't kill him."

"I didn't want Jamie scarred by the thought of seeing his mother killing someone."

"Oh, that's nice. I have skirted very close to expanding a force field inside a human body because they kidnapped my children."

"Oh, I have to remember that one. Do you think ice particles in the arteries is just a little too horrific, especially when I would increase them in size until the blood vessels were torn apart."

"I'd save that for someone who tortures your children."

"Did I tell you about the time HYDRA kidnapped Jamie and they were all so afraid of what Logan and I would do to them, they gave him hot chocolate with whipped cream and marshmallows in the vague hope we wouldn't hurt them much."

"Did it work?"

"No, it just made Jamie hyper. We have to regulate his sugar intake."

"Hyper? Oh, tell me about it…"

"How's Franklin by the way?"

"I think he's planning to do something crazy with a rocket and I know Johnny's helping him."

"Careful with your son Sue, he's the most powerful mutant we have at the moment. Even Magneto knows he could never stand up to Franklin if they were both at the height of their powers. Oh…"

"Tora, you just trailed off."

"Time in alternate realities is relative. Some realities have time going slower, some faster. There's one… Oh…"

"Tora, are you alright."

"Yes. Yes, I'm fine. Imagine a mutant who is… all of us, except Franklin. An empathic mimic. And Franklin. The Phoenix and the Dragon."

"Tora, I thought you were the Dragon."

"No. I held it for a time but… Franklin was the perfect avatar there, as…Hope is the Phoenix avatar there. You may not have realised Sue, but Dragon is masculine. The two most powerful mutants of all time, standing side by side. And we follow them Sue. We follow them everywhere, because they are more than gods. Together, they could level Asgard."

"By 'we' do you mean mutants or everyone?"

"Mutants and…well, we're leaving."

"What?"

"We have two of the most powerful cosmic entities as our leaders. We're leaving Earth. People hate us. We're leaving to colonise somewhere and design it so other mutants can follow us."

"You're actually leaving? Tora, what happened to keeping the world safe?"

"We keep the world safe from mutants. We all follow Franklin and Hope. There are no dangerous mutants left. People still hate us, so we're leaving."

"Can we go back to Dragon being masculine? Does Logan know?"

"I assume so. He asked if the Phoenix Force and the Dragon Song were responsible for the Chinese legends. I assumed they were and he just nodded."

"But you're a woman."

"Yes, I know that."

"You have a masculine entity inside you."

"And?"

"Doesn't that strike you as odd?"

"No."

"Tora, I know you have very few inhibitions about male/female gender roles, and that you seem to take great pleasure in doing both traditional male and female jobs, but seriously? A male being takes residence in your head and you don't bother to ask why?"

"I happened to be in the right place, at the right time, with the right powers and the right basic personality. Also, I'm naturally left-handed."

"What?"

"Left-handers… oh, never mind."

"I thought you were right-handed."

"Ambidextrous, but only through practice. I'm a natural leftie, but when they tie your hand up onto your right shoulder from behind, you learn to fight, write and balance with the other."

Sue instantly moved her right hand to her left shoulder. Tora shook her head.

"No, my elbow was at the small of my back."

"But…that's impossible. You'd have to…"

"Dislocate the arm. I know."

"They did that?"

"It worked."

"I can't believe you're talking like this!"

"Sue, torture was an everyday occurrence for me. Seriously, I was happy that's all they did. That's why… That's why I was so mad when I found out about Curt."

She turned back just in time to hear Valeria tell Jamie he was 'smart', which from her was like a proposal. Sue whistled.

"Okay, we are never letting those two go out when they're teenagers. Can you imagine the children?"

Tora went pale.

"I don't even want to think about it.

"The best laid plans of mice and men…"

"Okay, no need to rub it in."