psinex@yahoo.com Inverse Polarity: Resurrection's Cry by Phil Hartman DISCLAIMER: They're Marvel's. Please don't sue. NOTES: I woke up last night realizing that if one extrapolates from a winning concept that LOTS of readers have praised one for, one shouldn't chuck it callously ... .... so, he's back :) Continuity-wise, this takes place during and just after Blood and Iron: Nightfall ... -------------------------------------------------------- 9/27/2003: Arctic Circle: -------------------------------------------------------- I scream. Charles is torn from my grasp - sent, the Celestials say, to another Earth, where he will be able to grow up safely. I can only pray so. Then beams of white fire lance through me ... ... and I fade ... ... -------------------------------------------------------- Muir Island: 3/15/1989: 08:00 hrs: -------------------------------------------------------- "Get yuir hands OFF of him !" Moira MacTaggart struggled to break free of the mesmerized Havok and Polaris, watching helplessly as Erik the Red placed her squalling infant charge between two electrodes. "You will make a fine - eh ?" Davan Shakari muttered, looking upwards. He screamed when a talon of fire slammed him into the floor. "Ah ah ah," Phoenix teased, psychoblasting Alex and Lorna. The other X-Men entered, and Nightcrawler scooped up the sniffling baby before teleporting to Moira. "I think he's all right," Kurt smiled. "Och - ye puir wee one," Moira fussed, taking the baby gently and looking him over. The boy looked around with bright blue eyes, finally settling down in Moira's arms. "Moira ! Thank heaven you're all right," Charles called, entering with a woman who had feathers on her head. "This is Lilandra Neramani - princess of the alien Shi'ar, the race which sent Erik the Red. We have to leave at once - will you and - the baby - be all right ?" "He's fine, Charles," Moira nodded. "Bgrrghgl ?" the baby asked, looking around. "Go," Moira added, smiling at Sean Cassidy. He kissed her cheek and said, "We'll be home quick as we can, love." Moira, Alex, and Lorna waved as the others vanished in a flare of light, taking Shakari with them. "Now, come with me, little one," Moira told the baby. -------------------------------------------------------- 5/1/1989: Noon: X-Mansion: -------------------------------------------------------- "Bggffe ..." Erik looked around the room - everything was so BIG ! He pulled himself up to the top of his playpen, watching with bright blue eyes as the red-haired woman walked back and forth in front of the bald man. Both were obviously agitated, although at 11 months Erik was at a loss to figure out WHAT they were arguing about. The red-haired woman looked at him with a smile, waving her fingers, before turning back to the bald man. "Charles," she said, "I just got out of two YEARS in stasis ! I have a life to put back together - it'll be nearly impossible to convince my parents that I'm the real Jean Grey ! I can't come running back to the X-Men now." "I understand your need for rest, Jean, but - " Charles began. She cut him off with a quick gesture and said, "I want a LIFE, Charles. The dream is to live with humans in harmony, right ? Well, hiding behind mansion walls won't do it. Scott and I are leaving, and that's that. If you need us, we'll come - but we want our own lives, too." She left, but not before kneeling down and kissing the top of Erik's head. "See you, sweetie," Jean smiled. "You're not so big and bad now, are you ? ARE you ?" "Behehehehe," Erik giggled, waving as Jean left. Charles rolled over to the boy's playpen and looked at the baby with an odd smile. "I always said you were childish with the way you tossed your powers around," Charles chuckled. "Even without them, you're a hopeless charmer." "Grbet," Erik agreed, falling backwards with a surprised expression. -------------------------------------------------------- 7/4/96: Muir Island: 07:12 hrs local: -------------------------------------------------------- "A-Aunt Kitty ... ?" Erik gulped, looking around the ruins of what had been Muir, clinging to Shadowcat carefully. Kitty helped the 6-year-old over the jagged rocks, followed by Kurt, Brian, Meggan, Amanda and Alexa Wagner (who rode on Kurt's back). "Mein Gott," Kurt whispered. The entire center of the island had been vaporized, leaving a giant crescent in the middle of the North Atlantic. "If anyone -" ~BRIAN !?~ Captain Britain's jaw dropped as a scantily-clad purple-haired woman came running to him, hugging him and laughing. "Brian ! I KNEW you'd come !" Betsy Braddock smiled. "Lord, I'm so sorry we feigned our deaths -" "BETSY !!" Kitty cheered, hugging her. Kurt and Kitty were stunned only for a few moments when Storm, Rogue, Wolverine, and Colossus approached. "I am truly sorry, Kitten," Storm said, hugging her foster daughter. "We thought ... we thought it would be best if we feigned our deaths. We were terribly wrong ..." "What MATTERS is that you're alive, here and OK," Kitty smiled. "It hurts a little that you didn't tell us, but I guess I can understand. But the Marauders are GONE now - we can be friends again, right ... ?" "Goddess, yes !" Ororo laughed. The X-Men and Excalibur hugged or shook hands, while Wolverine looked at Erik with one arched eyebrow. "You been livin' with Kitty an' the elf ?" Logan asked. "Y-yessir," Erik gulped, pushing a strand of white hair out of his eyes. #He's kinda scary,# the boy thought, following them back to the tent city which had sprung up in the wake of the Muir Island disaster. "'Rik ! 'Lexy !" a girlish voice called. Erik and Alexa smiled, running to greet Rachel Summers and the other children of X-Factor. "Nate ... ?" Alexa gasped, shaking out her blue curls. 4-year-old Nathan Summers smiled shyly from a blanket, his right eye scarred and his left hand metallic. "I got a disease - y'can't catch it," the boy whispered. "It's not y'r fault," Ray said, hugging her little brother. "Apocajerk gave it t'Nate," she explained to the others. "Leech is happy Nate's still here," the green-skinned power damper called, sitting on the cot beside the Summers kids. Artie projected an image of a family, while Sarah McCoy sat cross-legged on the ground nearby. "We tried t'save Nate, but Ray did it," the bony pink-haired girl said sadly. "We c'ldn't do nothin' ..." "You tried," Ray said. "B'sides, we're all safe here now, an' the Shadow King's gone." "Yeah ... but where'll Aunt Moira an' Uncle Sean live ?" Erik asked, looking at the crying Moira. He ran to her, hugging her legs, and pleaded, "Don't be sad, please, Aunt Moira ? We'll get you a home ..." "Och - Erik," Moira smiled despite her tears. She hugged the boy and said, "Aye. We'll get through this somehow ..." -------------------------------------------------------- X-Mansion: 12/24/1997: 11:00 hrs: -------------------------------------------------------- "We're HEEERE !" Erik, Ray, Nate, Artie, Leech, and Sarah grinned to see the Fantastic Four and several Avengers enter with piles of presents - and a few old friends. "Frank !" Ray waved, running to greet Frank Richards. The 8-year-old blond boy smiled and said, "Luna an' Tommy an' Billy're here, too !" Luna Maximoff wound her way through the crowd of chatting adults, sitting with the other kids around the Christmas tree. Her cousins, Thomas and William Shade, found seats nearby and were pulled into the semi-circle. "This is great ! We don't ever get t' see you," Ray pouted at Frank. "We're here now, tho'," Frank said. "I wanna go outside, though ..." "YEAH !" the other kids cheered. "OK, OK," Jean Summers smiled. "But you know you have to bundle up." The kids groaned, but clambered into snowsuits, caps and mittens, tromping outside under the watchful eye of Frank's dog Strongjaw. "SNOWBALL FIGHT !" Alexa Wagner cheered. The kids shrieked with glee and chucked more clouds than balls of snow at each other. "Down over here !" Frank called, leading Ray, Nate and Sarah behind a small hill. "C'mon - we'll make a snow fort." "Good idea," Ray said. The other kids watched, awe-struck, as a firebird surrounded her and raised a wall of snow. "Gosh," Frank said. "All I got's'my dreamself an' my special dreams." "But precog's pretty cool," Ray smiled. ~An' Nate an' I got tel'pathy,~ she sent. ~Wait -~ She shrieked as a snowball fell down her neck, and a voice teased, "Gotcha." The kids turned, giggling, as two red-headed kids their age ran over with grins. "Joey ! Gail !" Ray cheered. Joe and Gail Bailey hugged their cousins, and Gail said, "Sorry 'bout the dirty trick, but we were practicin' our stealth." "Real sneaky," another voice teased. The kids shrieked as a wall of snow swamped them amidst a blue glow. Ray and Nate's TK allowed them to burst free of the microblizzard, and glare at Erik, Luna, Alexa, Leech, Artie and the Shades. "C'mon !" Erik pleaded. "It was fair !" "Sure, whatever," Frank grinned, firing off another round of snowballs. The kids ducked or cheered, firing back. -------------------------------------------------------- TBC IN: Inverse Polarity: Strange Attractors ... -------------------------------------------------------- end _________________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com