Memories
Heart Breaker
Disclaimer: What do you think?
If you want to use Tora, or any of my other characters, PM me.
Warning –The first reality is the Old Man Logan massacre and you may want to skip it.
She smiled as she stuck her head in the door.
"Logan, I'm just putting Eva and Jamie to bed, then I'll come and relieve Jubes."
Grinning he swung round in the chair.
"Thank you! I don't think I could stand another hour of her company."
Laughing, the teenager swatted his head.
"Well don't you get distracted with Tora in here with you. You are on security monitoring after all."
"Tora's far too professional to get 'distracted' on security roster. I still have the scar from last time."
Laughing, she prepared to close the door then stopped.
"Jubes, twenty dollars if you keep an eye on the kids until Logan's shift ends?"
"Sure thing Tora."
"Knew I could count on you."
Smiling, she headed upstairs, tucking Jamie in, telling him a story about the Lonely Angel and turned out the light. Eva was always more difficult as she would stay awake until you finished reading, then would pout until you read something else. She was halfway through The Beast Prince, a half-hour epic Logan had invented when she started hearing the screams. Instantly she positioned herself in the small corridor between the rooms, in such a way it would be impossible to enter either without running straight into her. She shuddered as the screaming intensified then Curt's voice shouted something she couldn't hear, a scream, so high it tore deeply into her heart and then a slight thunk. She bit her lip, the sharp tang of blood so slight no one else would have noticed it. And then the door swung open.
"Logan?"
He was dishevelled and covered in blood, his uniform torn. And he saw her and roared.
"Get the %£* away from my kids!"
And she saw what he saw through Dragon, saw her own body lying spread-eagled on the floor in a pool of blood, saw Poacher's provocative red and black outfit on herself and barely had time to look up before he barrelled into her, claws tearing into her gut.
She tried to swipe but her killer instincts were dulled by the human thought that this was Logan! Logan wouldn't hurt her! Then she was thrown out the corridor and she landed in something sticky and red and stared into two eyes, one blue, one gold, dull and dead, the red flecks of hair in the black confused with blood. Screaming, she pulled herself away from the severed head and screamed again before she was thrown through the wall and landed on something wooden and soft. A crunch of bone, a mewling wail then terrible, terrible silence. And a quiet voice at the doorway.
"Maman? Daddy?"
Jamie, standing in the door, looking in horror at his father, covered in blood, standing over his mother who lay in the remains of a cot, her metal skeleton having crushed the occupant. And Tora saw as Logan's eyes fixed on another enemy, another intruder and threat to his children. And Tora couldn't move as her body slowly started healing itself from the trauma it had received and then she just couldn't move, just stare at the small body in the doorway, crumpled, strings cut by one of the people he had trusted above all. She lay there, slowly bleeding out. She'd cut herself when she'd been thrown but she'd survived worse injuries. Worse physical injuries. Not this ache inside her as she tried to move off the small child and cradled her in her arms, not caring about the blood. Pulling herself along, she reached the other small body and pulled that close as well, lying face down on the floor, holding them both to her chest as a scream of realisation reached her, then thundering footsteps up the stairs and frantic cries. A gasp of horror at the boy lying decapitated outside in the main corridor then she was being turned over and horrified eyes stared into hers. And saw her grim little bundle.
"Tora! Please! Stay with me! Just one! Please, just one! I…I want one person…"
Her eyes were dull and almost as lifeless as the others.
"Tora, you can heal. Please heal…"
She shook her head slowly.
"What's…the…point?"
And she fell limp in his arms, deciding that death had to be better than this.
xXx
She laughed and kissed him again.
"Don't you have a world to save, X-Man?"
"Don't you have something to blow up, lackey of Magneto."
"Oh, he's far too trigger-happy for me. Anyway, I'm not all that sure what he wants me to do now. I keep 'vanishing', although I doubt he thinks I'm going to spend 'quality time' with my husband."
"Did I tell you Cajun's trying to get me dating?"
"What did you say?"
"I have a really nice girl who is a great kisser and who enjoys annoying her friends about her brilliant boyfriend."
"Er, frankly, I never mention the fact I'm married or in a relationship. You would not believe how much testosterone the Brotherhood throws around. If I didn't have the kind, sensitive, rather hot guy I have right now, I'd have no trouble getting a boyfriend. Or do what, us few female terrorists/supervillains who decide to join a group call a 'Karla'."
"Karla?"
"Moonstone. Hooks up with anything that moves and happens to be vaguely male."
"Yes, I meant to ask. How do you, Mystique, Destiny and the Witch cope? I mean, there must be about eight men to each of you."
"Wanda has Pietro who threatens anyone who goes near her. Destiny doesn't have too much to worry about as none of the guys like a girl who can tell their future. Mystique is…well, Mystique. She automatically shifts to something they find repulsive. It works."
"And you? Because that's now shaping up to be thirty or so guys and one girl."
"I stab them. Or threaten to anyway."
He laughed and kissed her softly.
"I don't think my teammates would like the fact I'm married to Tigress, Brotherhood member and assassin."
"I've only killed one man in what could be called an assassination and that wasn't meant to happen."
"Why?"
"I was supposed to be stealing the files."
"And?"
"He stuck his hand up my skirt. And squeezed."
Logan sat upright, making her roll onto the other side of the bed.
"Damn right he deserved that!"
Giggling, she sat up, her eyes sparkling.
"Who'd have known when we first started to fight that we were getting to know our perfect partner."
"I don't take responsibility for this relationship."
"Er, excuse me. You kissed me first."
"No I didn't. Second fight we ever had, you kissed me."
"Yes, then knocked you out and left you tied up at the top of a skyscraper."
"Yes. You do have a thing about leaving me tied up."
"You're a big boy. You can look after yourself."
"Naked? Tied up in the woods with a rampaging Wendigo?"
"I dealt with Wendigo."
"Yes, by using me as bait."
"You shouldn't have let yourself end up naked."
"Excuse me. You said, and I quote here, 'Hey Wolvie, Buckethead thinks I have a major grudge and want to kill you. Fancy making our own amusements?' Next thing I know, I'm tied up in the middle of the Canadian wilderness with a man-eating monster on the loose."
"That can count as making your own amusements. I had a blast."
"I didn't."
"I made it up to you, didn't I?"
"Yeeess, but-"
"No buts. If you want, I can sooth that injured ego of yours."
He smiled and pulled her over towards him.
"Yeah. I think I'd like that-"
A sudden beeping made him swear and then Tora's watch started to blip as well.
"Looks like we're going to have to go and fight. Each other. Again."
"Well, I think… yes, it's in… Well, I happen to know a nice, secluded area where we can take our fight off to."
He laughed again and kissed her one more time before scooping up his clothes from the floor.
"Off you go hero. I think I'll make a dramatic entrance when you're about to kill one of my idiotic teammates and save their butts."
Smiling, he opened the window.
"Can't be seen leaving a building that the mutant terrorist Tigress stays in, can I?"
"Well, I've been thinking about breaking into the X-Mansion. I've heard all sorts about the Danger Room."
"No way. Not for a long time. You could always join the X-Men?"
"Boring. I like a little badness in my life."
"Er, we do sometimes break the law with the X-Men."
"The operative word being sometimes."
He laughed again, picked up his hat and prepared to jump before turning round.
"You owe me an ego boost."
She grinned.
"Just as long as you don't make me wear the heels."
xXx
Etana smiled at her colleagues.
"I grew up in a rough area of Brooklyn. Orphaned, taken in by my aunt and uncle. I had things harsh. Poor, Jewish, female and black. Not necessarily in that order. And Steve? He was poor, Irish, an artist and white. And that's where we hit the problem. Not the poor, that was fine. Irish and Jewish? Stranger things have happened. But him being white and me being black? We had hell. I was thirteen in sixty-nine and that's when we started seeing each other. It was the moon landing that got us together. Not very romantic, I know. Standing in the cold, outside the electronics store, watching as man stepped onto the Moon. When they said 'The Eagle has landed', he hugged me, blushed and held my hand for the rest of time we stood out there. But it wasn't going to work out at the time. Racism was still quite common. We were eight when we decided we were going to catch a train to the Deep South and go into a whites-only establishment. Because Steve was with me, it would be hard for the owners to ask me to leave without offending him; we thought it would all work out. We got as far as the station before we were caught, dragged home and in my case, thrashed within an inch of my life."
Jane laughed at the story. Marc frowned.
"How did you get here then?"
"Steve went MIA, I decided 'What the hell, I'm not living my life in this dump', got a scholarship, did languages degrees, became a translator for the UN. I was on the Rwandan Peacekeepers as a translator for some of the foreign journos –to begin with at least. Worst three months of my life. I had the advantage of having quite dark skin so I could get out and buy supplies. Oh, and marital arts training that resulted in thirteen broken bones in two men who thought I would be an easy target."
Marc chuckled appreciatively.
"You have done a lot 'Tana."
"And I hope to do a lot more. I'm not senile yet, young Marc."
The three of them dissolved into helpless giggles.
"Is it just me, or did Etana have a rather bad influence on her in almost all realities?"
"Pretty much."
"Good, so it's not just me."