Memories
Girls in Trees
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If you want to use Tora, or any of my other characters, PM me.
"Hello Cia."
The eyes made of wood blinked once and Tora nodded.
"I thought so. You're still in there somewhere, aren't you?"
The leaves rustled to sound like yes. Tora sighed.
"Obviously speech is a little too advanced right now. How is it in there?"
The eyes blinked a few times.
"Boring? Once for yes. Twice for no."
One blink. Tora rested her hand just under the face.
"How long have you been aware?"
Six blinks.
"Six weeks?"
Two blinks.
"Six days? Well I suppose that's good. If you can control your eyes this early it stands in good stead that you'll be able to talk. Do you think you could leave the tree?"
Two blinks.
"Why not? Injuries too severe?"
One blink.
"You think you'd die if you left the tree?"
Two blinks.
"Oh. You know you'd die if you left the tree?"
One blink.
"How are you holding up?"
Eyes rolled slightly.
"Not very well?"
One blink and Tora sighed.
"We need a more effective method of communicating… Can you still feel the other plants?"
One blink and suddenly the whole forest was twitching, branches swaying in a non-existent breeze. Tora grinned.
"Well, there's our early warning system…"
The trees seemed to be laughing.
"Ah… That's why she liked talking to the tree. The tree talked back."
"That's nothing. She had the tree uprooted and transported all the way to Westchester. Right in the middle of a forest so the girl would have someone else to talk to."
"Really?"
"And then Cia ended up engaged to Krakoa Junior and had lots of sentient mutant trees."
"DEATH!"
Tora was walking back down the path when she stopped.
"Hi Betsy."
The British woman dropped down from the trees.
"How did you… Never mind Tora. Seriously, that creeps people out when you know where they are without looking. Are you pulling a Daredevil on us?"
"No. Although Matt's a good guy. We normally end up playing random card games at the end of missions because he can't watch the movie."
"The New Avengers have a post-mission movie?"
"Well, we have some even weirder post-mission celebrations."
"Like?"
"Like our habit of always trying to get the person we felt did the least and sticking a bucket of paint somewhere that will get them."
"I'm sorry, that was you?! We all thought that was Jubilee or Bobby!"
"Guilty as charged."
"No way did you get that bucket of purple paint right over the door which got me…"
"It wasn't just me…"
"Oh… Sorry…"
They walked in silence. Betsy sighed.
"At times I wish I were Brian. Does that sound really callous? It's just he's always had the world perfect for him. He doesn't even understand the problems we face at times, despite Jamie being a mutant too and supposedly some of Brian's best friends being mutants. He didn't even come to his funeral…"
"Please, can we not talk about that."
"I'm sorry."
"Look at us Betsy. Are we even the X-Men anymore?"
"Tora…?"
"What happened to the dream? What happened to our promises to each other? When did we become an army instead of a family?"
Betsy tried to speak but Tora was already limping away.
"She knew, didn't she? She knew…"
"She was gifted with the uncanny ability to know stuff like that."
Wasp smiled at Tora.
"You managed to impress the students on your mutant sub-culture lessons. And thank you for arranging this trip…"
"No, it's needed. I'm sending Hazmat to meet Rogue and I think Mettle needs to talk to Santo and really, they can all do with learning about the Weapon X Program…"
"Is that really wise…?"
"Wasp, they were tortured by Osborn. The least I can do is show that they aren't alone. That they aren't the only one who had to go through agony and pain. I'm going to speak to them about it, and I've sort of blackmailed Logan into it and Curt has agreed in exchange for three days of unregulated sugar intake."
"And…?"
"I'll be more than willing to continue teaching the students. I've missed teaching…"
Then the plane touched down and she got up, facing the students.
"This is Utopia. No anti-mutant bigotry, for your sakes. Be polite, don't start fights and whatever you do, avoid the guy in the white hat with a mask. He's a bit tetchy."
She ushered them out of the plane and onto the island. And was already planning to go to Nemesis for some headache medicine. The Avenger's Academy field trips had a habit of getting out of hand.
"She let some superpowered teenagers loose on Utopia?"
"Phoenix, most of the teenagers of Utopia were super-powered."
"Oh. Yeah."
"Didn't she end up helping the Young Avengers?"
"Do you want me to skip ahead a week? Nothing interesting happened just then."
"Please."
The masked woman in black waved a hand and the waves swirled before reforming a new picture.
The right hook sent Logan reeling. He staggered backwards, expecting to see Erik, or maybe Hulkling. He didn't expect to see Tora, eyes unreadable as she stepped backwards, in line with Magneto and the Young Avengers.
"Tora…?"
And then her eyes brimmed with tears.
"None of you knew, did you? You didn't know what Wanda meant…means to me. She was the only one who understood the pain of losing a child… I could have saved her Logan. I could have saved us all. And you didn't let me. I'm sorry."
And the lightning flashed down as an orange and black streak shot towards them…
Halfway around the world, Tora, Magneto and Wiccan were the only ones still standing. Curt sat up, coughing.
"Way cool…"
Wiccan was staring at her wide-eyed.
"Did you just betray your husband to help us?"
She nodded slightly, her eyes pensive.
"I used to meet up with Wanda every other day. When I… When I'd lost my son… Wanda understood my pain. We helped each other. I owe her more than anyone knew…"
"Excuse me, are we fugitives from the Avengers with a mutant ex-terrorist?"
Tora shook her head.
"No. Because right now, I am the Avengers to you and I say, let's go save the Scarlet Witch."
Curt stuck his hand up.
"Can I help in any way? I really want to join the Young Avengers!"
Kate grinned.
"Well, we've been talking about getting a Spider-Man or Wolverine Junior in. We were originally thinking Spider-Girl but she's more in line with Spider-Woman, isn't she?"
"Er…"
"Right, entry question. Do you suffer teenage angst?"
"Er… My girlfriend's a teetotal-vampire, except when drinking my mom's blood and who used to have a crush on my dad; I'm a depowered mutant; I look like I'm eighteen when I'm actually three; my mother may or may not have some sort of 'totally platonic' creepy soul-bonding thing with my dad's dead best friend; I'm Bond-Prince of the K'Meeri Empire; my dad is probably going to kill me for helping you lot; my uncle by adoption is Magneto; my adoptive gran is not only the Angel of Death but also Captain America's lost love; my little/big brother is engaged to Valeria Richards apparently; I'm clinically insane and the alien symbiote I'm bonded to is also insane. Oh, and my mother also has a creepy Dragon sitting in her head. That good enough?"
"I think he meets the entrance requirements. Actually, you go way above any layer of weirdness we've had so far. And that included the Tommy, Billy 'we're the reincarnated twin sons of a robot and a mutant witch'. Welcome to the Young Avengers Poison. Hope you survive."
Curt bounced around, cheering. Wiccan shuffled over to Tora.
"Are you really as powerful as they say you are?"
She glanced at him.
"Well, what do they say?"
"That you almost single-handedly saw off the Skrull invasion. That you faced the Dark Avengers alone and won."
She leant in and whispered something in his ear.
"Put it this way. Only one person has been able to do something I couldn't fix, and that was your mother."
"So… Am I? Her son?"
"Yes. And Speed's your twin."
"That's…kinda freaky…"
"How did she know?"
"She was very conscious of family."
"Wait, what!"
"She could smell family and Dragon allowed her to sense souls."
A.N. Yes, Children's Crusade will play an important part in Tora's future. Let's say, while this goes quite close to the actual story; other, future events won't. Also, this is my big exam year. Therefore, any updates will be irregular and written in the few spare minutes I have.