Destroying
I stepped in through the door and found myself looking at… well… myself…
I was sitting in the library window; the plush cushions were warm from the springtime sun shining through the window panes, and the windows were open just enough to let in a light breeze.
“Is this where you met him?” Dr. Strange asked next to me looking around the library with intense eyes.
“No, this is where I first saw him though” I said just as I heard the sound of a motorcycle coming up the road.
My younger self and I looked out the window, Logan, then just a stranger, pulling up to the front steps with his motorcycle and stopping the engine as he looked over the place. He took off his helmet and his wild hair and rugged face came out into the light…
My younger self was breathless in an instant…
I was heartbroken…
“You fell in love with him the moment you saw him didn’t you” Dr. Strange said next to me, the sound of pity making his words feel heavy and difficult to hear.
The Logan outside sniffed the air and turned to one of the windows, a sinfully predatory smile spread across his face, and I knew my younger self could feel the blood inside their body rushing as the electricity and desire about killed him.
I just felt sad…
I eventually learned that was the look that he would give Jean…
“I can sense something” Dr. Strange said next to me.
I turned to him and watched as he raised his hands and everything went eerily quiet.
I looked back around me and everything looked different…
I went to my younger self and became unnerved when I noticed they weren’t blinking, and then I looked out the window, Logan frozen in place as the birds in the sky floated in the middle of the air without moving…
“I’ve made the memory freeze in time” Dr. Strange explained behind me.
“Why?” I asked, turning back to him.
“I can sense the trap nearby” he said as he waved his hand by one of the library walls.
The books and shelves came apart, the window floated up and out of the way, and the wall came undone, brick by brick, until there was a door big enough for us to go out of.
“You have encountered this trap before?” he asked as he stepped outside.
“Twice now” I said as I followed him. “The first time I just thought it was my PTSD; the second time the Professor saw it and said it was a trap” I explained as he waved his hand and put the building back together as if there was never an opening there at all.
“How did it attack?” he asked as he looked around like a soldier waiting for an attack.
“The first time it came at us like tentacles, then it shifted into a flock of bats swirling around us like a tornado, we fell down a pit and into a room that tried to kill us” I explained as I followed behind him and kept my eyes open… Even though I didn’t really know where to look or what to look for.
“And the second time?” he asked as he moved closer to the frozen image of Logan…
His eyes matching his smile as we got closer…
“The second time me and the Professor were over by the tree” I said turning to point to the one I meant behind us. “The tree came to life like black living vines and caught both of us” I said looking at the thing with a little more suspicion than I normally would have.
“How did you escape the first time?” he asked as he looked over the tree with the same suspicious look as me.
“The second time I changed myself into Iceman” I said as I changed into Bobby. “I froze the tree, changed into Archangel” I said as I shifted into his form. “And then I flew the Professor up and away from the tree until I could push him out of my mind” I said as I changed back into my base form.
“You say the ‘second time.’ What about the first time?” he asked looking at me curiously.
“Honestly, I think that was just an accident” I said with a shrug of my shoulders. “One minute we were about to be shish kabobbed by the wall, the next I was in another place all together, another memory I think” I said trying my best to explain what happened.
“Hmm, from what I’ve see of your mind that makes sense” Dr. Strange said as he looked me over thoughtfully. “Your mind is very flexible, it’s possible that a trap, that is trying to remain solid enough to consume you and the Professor would have a hard time keeping up with the fluid and unstable movements of your mind” he said.
“Unstable…” I said weakly as I wrapped my arms around myself.
“Not unstable as in insane” he said quickly correcting himself. “More like, unstable the way water is unstable in comparison to a rock” he explained. “That could work in our favor” he said as he looked around thoughtfully again.
“What do you mean?” I asked as I relaxed my arms down.
“This thing has latched onto a part of your mind you keep stable – a memory of someone you love” he said waving over to the still frozen image of Logan. “It’s possible that that is the only thing it’s holding on to in such an uns… such a constantly changing environment” he said quickly changing his word as he looked at me. “It means that my magic has a good chance of catching and irradicating this trap without harming your memories” he said.
I turned to look at the frozen image of Logan, his strong body and sharp eyes making me shudder even now…
“It also sounds like you are capable of being a bit of an anti-body against this virus in your mind” he said, causing me to look at him with a funny curious look. “You said you shifted into different people in your mind and were able to effect this trap?” he asked.
I nodded, not understanding what he was saying or where he was going with this.
“You, becoming shifting in your own mind, could have been you, your mind, your healing factor, trying to fight off this trap the way anti-bodies fight off a virus in the body” he explained a little excitedly. “All we have to do is get to the root of this trap, find where it was placed, and we can destroy it once and for all… All we have to do now is find just the right memory” he said looking around us again.
He looked over at the tree again, his eyes narrowing as he did.
“You wait here” he said as he went over to the tree.
I would have protested and followed after him, but if my powers worked in my head against this thing, the way my body works against villains in the outside world…
(And I think that’s what he was saying was happening…)
If I could do that then I could change into anyone and be there to help him if he needed it.
He got close to the tree, walked around it, my stomach feeling squeamish as he did. Then he reached out and touched the tree with his hand, causing me to flinch. When the tree didn’t go after him, I relaxed a little bit… But then he raised his hand and shot an energy blast or something at the tree, causing a huge burning hole to appear in the center of it.
I clenched my teeth as my eyes darted around, waiting for something to happen.
After a few minutes of nothing happening he turned to me, and I breathed out a sigh of relief.
…But that’s when he was attacked…
The tree branches reached out and wrapped around his neck, choking him as some other branches wrapped around his body, pinning his hands to his sides.
I shifted myself into Bobby and quickly blast the thing with ice at the base of the tree, its bark fading away to a liquid-y black as the sky turned red.
I blast the thing as hard as I could, the black mass and branches slowing and curling in pain as I did. Just then Dr. Strange’s hands began to glow green, and the base of the tree inside the ice started glowing green.
In a matter of seconds, the tree exploded into a cloud of green dust, causing the both of us to fly out and land on the ground as the two of us coughed up the dust.
“Well, that wasn’t so bad” Dr. Strange said as he cleared his throat and picked himself up. “Actually, pretty easy compared to what I usually have to deal with.”
“Easy?!” I said as I shifted back to my base form, more out of exhaustion than anything, and started coughing again.
Just then, something flew past us…
We both turned to see that the building was shooting bricks at us like bullets!
Dr. Strange stepped in front of me and put up a gold shield to protect us.
Without even really thinking about it, I changed back into Bobby and blasted enough ice in front of us to make an ice wall, the bricks hitting and cracking at it as the whole mansion changed into a black brick mansion – looking like something you would see on horror movie…
I changed into Hulk, jumped up in the air, and with a loud yell I clapped my hands together as hard as I could and the whole mansion crumbled into pieces in a few seconds flat.
I landed and Dr. Strange floated up above me and he reached his hands out towards the destroyed building, said something that I couldn’t understand, and then with a green blast all the bricks and glass of the building vaporized in a green cloud as it floated to the sky.
I normally would have been fine right now, but I sank to my knees, panting as I changed back into my base form.
“We are deep in your mind” Dr. Strange said as he landed in front of me and knelt down beside me. “Your head and body are going to suffer more from this than I would like” he said as he laid his hand gently on my shoulder, waiting for me to look up at him. “I would let you rest, but I’m afraid if I do the trap will have time to heal itself and spread again. Are you okay to keep moving?” he asked looking at me worriedly.
I gasped and gasped until it felt like my lungs had finally gotten the air they needed and looked up at him with a determined look on my face.
“Let’s take this thing down” I said resolutely.
He grinned at me with this confident and glad smile as he helped me to my feet.
“This wasn’t the root of the trap, I’m afraid we have to keep looking for it” he said as he held onto my shoulders, my legs not quite feeling all that steady under me.
“Of course, it couldn’t be that easy” I said as I finally found my legs and was able to stand up without his help.
He turned away from me and to the mess that we had left behind.
He raised his hands in the air, a golden glow surrounding him as he said something I didn’t understand… It sounded a little Latin to me… Then everything was back to the way it was, the mansion, the tree, and Logan…
Everything looking like it was from a dream…
“We are on the right track, but not the right memory” Dr. Strange said as he waved one of his hands at the front doors, causing a bright white line to glow around the outlines. “This thing has attached itself to one of your memories of … Wolverine, was it?” he asked as he walked up the steps to the doors.
“Yeah” I said absentmindedly as I walked past him.
His smile nearly sending me to tears.
I was never going to really see that smile again, was I?
“The trap is attached one of those memories, probably the most important one of him you have” he said as he opened the doors and brought us back out to the round platform again. “What is the most important memory you have of Logan? The one memory you wouldn’t give up. The one Sinister was most likely to use?” he asked.
My breath caught with dread when he asked me that.
“It… I…” I stuttered for a moment before I finally found my voice again. “I was attracted to him in an instant when I first saw him” I said waving to the doors we had walked through even though they were back floating with the others. “I would watch him and… I stalked him for a about a month or so” I finally admitted. “Watching to see what he was like, what he liked doing, how he treated Professor Xavier and the others, and I could feel myself slowly falling for him” I said, admitting my feelings to him honestly going easier for me than admitting them to any of the other X-Men.
I guess there was something about him being a stranger to me that made it easier…
That and the fact that he was in my head probably helped out to…
“But I can remember this one time, this one point where I thought to myself – This is it; I’ve totally lost my heart to him…” I said, and just like that a door came down to the edge of the platform.
Dr. Strange went up to it, but before he even put his hand on the handle, he took a step back…
“I think we’ve found it” he said as I came to stand next to him. “Brace yourself, I don’t what will happen when I open the door” he warned as he put one hand on the handle and the other, he raised up with a green glow all around it.
I turned myself into Bobby, since that seemed to be working for me so far, but what happen next really threw me…
Literally threw me…
He opened up the door, something huge and black wrapped around Dr. Strange and knocked me back until I about fell off the platform.
I flipped myself over just in time to see the thing take Dr. Strange through the door like it was swallowing him up right in front of me.
I rushed over to try and help him, but the door slammed shut in my face.
I pounded against the door with my fits, and then I kicked against it, and then I tried moving the handle – but nothing worked…
I changed myself into Colossus and tried punching at the door – nothing…
I changed into Hulk, punching and kicking at the door – nothing…
I changed into Psylocke, using a sword to try and slice the door in half – nothing…
Finally, I changed into Kitty Pryde.
I couldn’t phase through things like she could, but I was at least able to phase from my fingertips up to my elbows. And I couldn’t phase things with me like she could, but anything that was close to the size of a baseball I could phase with my hands… And hopefully that meant that I could phase this door handle off the door and kick the thing open.
I phased my fingers around the handle, and it took a couple of tries, but I was able to phase the handle off. I threw the thing aside and kicked my way in, the door finally letting me in… Of course, I almost didn’t go in at all.
Everything was dark, and it felt like everything around me was moving…
“I wonder if this is what a mouse feel like when it gets swallowed by a snake…?” I said to myself out loud, trying very hard to keep my stomach from losing my lunch.
I changed back into Roberto, the natural glow of his body providing some much needed light.
I got my feet off the ground and floated a few feet forward, and just like that something wrapped around my wrist.
I used the hand that was wrapped up to blast at whatever was holding me and then aimed my other hand in the same general area to blast it again.
Just then, something that felt as big as a tree trunk hit me in the back.
I shifted into Cyclops as I fell and used the beams of my eyes to slice through everything in my eyeline, the room letting off this creepy screeching sound as I did.
I shifted into Bobby again and blast everything with ice as I fell, eventually landing on something solid.
I shifted into Hulk again and used my hands in a big gamma clap, hoping that would spread out in every direction around me. And from the pained yell that surrounded me, it worked…
It was about then that I saw a flash of green off to the side.
I looked and there was a few more blasts…
I shifted into Juggernaut and plowed my way toward the flashes of green, until out of nowhere I crashed into a green ball.
“Ah, there you are” Dr. Strange said over me as I shifted back into my base form.
He held out his hand to me and I took it as he helped me up.
“What happened?” I asked as I steadied myself.
“This is the trap” he said indicating the darkness all around us.
A few tentacles of darkness tried bashing at the green globe we were standing in, causing me to flinch.
“Don’t worry, it won’t get to us” Dr. Strange said in a confident tone. “The eye of Agamotto is much more powerful than the likes of this” he said, his voice having to raise loud enough to talk over the bashing happening around us. “And now that you’re here I don’t have to hold back anymore.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“I had put up a barrier at the door to keep you out, to stop you from being consumed” he said. “When I felt you breaking through, which was very impressive by the way.”
“Thanks” I said, just before I about jumped out of my skin, some of those… whatever they were, pounding at the globe from behind me.
“Once I felt that you had broken through, I tried to search you out before this trap consumed you and trapped you in your own mind.”
“… It can do that?!” I asked him shocked.
“Yes, but there was no need to fear, your constant shifting and moving stopped the thing from catching you, and now that you’re here with me, I don’t have to hold back anymore” he said.
That’s when his arms moved around in this elaborate way, as if he was a conductor in front of an orchestra, and then, outside of the globe we were standing in, nearly a dozen copies appeared. Each one a Dr. Strange moving his arms around and blasting at the darkness with energy. The place around us erupting in this mix of darkness and colorful explosions. The dark mass that was surrounding us was moving out and away from us to attack the other doctors, and each blast of color from them seemed to send the darkness moving back in retreat.
…But one of the doctors’ blasts sent this terrible pain radiating from my head down to my back.
…And another blast sent me down to my knees.
Dr. Strange was down by my side in an instant, his hands pushing at my shoulders until I was laying down.
“This is going to be the hardest part for you” he said as another blast from his copies sent me curling in on myself in pain. “No! Stop, don’t do that!” he yelled out causing me to freeze.
“I don’t exactly think it’s voluntary” I said through gritted teeth.
“Not you, Hank and the Professor want to come to your aid” Dr. Strange said before his voice raised up again. “This is the critical moment; you cannot interfere!” he said in a very authoritative tone.
That’s when another blast had me crying out in pain and I was clutching my stomach with one hand as the other hand tried to claw at the ground… Even though there wasn’t really any ground under me.
“I know this is painful, but it is the only way to get rid of this” Dr. Strange said, his voice going back to normal now.
“I don’t care” I said trying to catch my breath. “I’ve had it” I said as I turned over to face him. “You kill me a million times if you have to, but I won’t be Sinister’s victim anymore. Not ever again!” I said… and that’s when something odd happened.
A bright white light shone out in the darkness, causing it to recoil and scurry, a bit like a bunch of rats… if the rats were shapeless blobs…
“You are quite the fighter” Dr. Strange said as he looked around at the space with an impressed look on his face.
“That was me?” I said looking between him and the outside space in surprise.
“You keep up that determination and we’ll have this thing destroyed in no time” he said with a smile as he got back up to conduct his clones and orchestrate the attack.
I felt the pain inside me with each blast that he and his copies made, causing me to curl into a ball, but I was determined to do whatever it took to be free.
I felt something wrap around me and I looked down at my body to see that the cloak had wrapped itself around me again. I smiled at the fabric weakly, but gratefully as it twisted around me, keeping my body still with each spasm of pain my body was feeling.
I clutched at the cloak as I closed my eyes and waited for it all to be over, repeating over and over that I wasn’t going to let him win, that he was never going to win again, that this was the last time he was ever going to hurt me…
My head and body went back and forth with flashes of pain and moments of slight relief.
Whatever Dr. Strange was doing out there seemed to last for hours, but still somehow felt like only a matter of moments.
Finally after, I couldn’t even begin to imagine how long everything went quiet.
My whole body was throbbing and aching as my heart pound in my ribs.
“I think I got all of it” Dr. Strange said as the cloak carefully sat me up.
“Thanks” I said breathlessly to the cloak as it unwrapped itself from around me, and I unclenched my hand from the death grip I had on its hem. “Sorry” I said as it floated back over to Dr. Strange.
“My friend here has been though a lot worse than that” Dr. Strange said with a chuckle as the cloak rested back on his shoulders.
My eyes were a little blurry, but everything around us looked different…
When I could finally put everything into focus, I could see that we were in front of the mansion gates.
“As I said, I think I got all of it, but we will have to walk through your memory to make sure. Are you okay to move?” he asked.
“Yeah, yeah” I said, my voice a little slurred as I answered.
He held his hand out to me and helped me to my feet, every muscle in my body aching and protesting at the movement, but I was determined to see this thing gone for good.
“You let the memory play out and I’ll use my magic to scan for any last trace of the trap” he said as his hands started glowing this golden yellow color.
I nodded in understanding, and then quickly grabbed my head when that movement made everything swim in front of me.
“Are you sure you’re, okay?” he asked looking me over concerned. “We can wait and let you rest if we need to.”
“No,” I said without a bit of hesitation. “I want to end this” I said determinedly.
“We’ll begin then. I’ll follow after you” he said stepping back to let me lead the way.
I saw that there were buses outside in the driveway leading up to the mansion. Jean, Scott and Ororo were at the buses surrounded by kids of nearly every age group, all wearing baseball caps and carrying outdoor gear over to be loaded up on the buses…
And there leaning against his jeep, watching Jean with a feral smile, was Logan…
And there off to the side was my younger self, watching Logan, too lovesick to realize that I was about to fall for someone who would never want me.
With a deep regretful sigh, I closed my eyes and focused on the memory until everything went into motion…
“That’s the last of the gear” Ororo said to Scott.
“Alright then, everyone on the bus” he said, causing all the kids to get on the buses in a disordered and chaotic line.
I watched as the buses left, and watched as Logan’s eyes followed the bus that Jean was on. And then I watched my younger self pick up a duffle bag and walk over to Logan with a big smile on their face that was a mixture of tension and excitement.
“Hi” my younger self said, causing Logan to snap out of his trance and turn to them. “I’m Kevin Sydney, most everyone calls me Morph” I said as I put my hand out for him.
“Yeah, that’s nice” he said as he ignored me and turned back to look at the buses, sniffing the air one last time, no doubt to smell Jean’s perfume no matter how faint it was by now.
“I signed up to go on the survival training hike with you” my younger self said as they held the handle of the duffle bag in both hands, their cheeks blushing as they tried to covertly look Logan up and down.
He was wearing a pair of jeans, a white tank top that looked like it was painted on, and his dog tags sparkled in the summer light…
Even now with him hating me I had a hard time stopping myself from drooling…
“Oh, yeah, Chuck said there was someone crazy enough to sign up for it” Logan said with a laugh as he pushed himself off his jeep. “What did you say your name was again?” he asked finally giving me his attention.
“Morph” my younger self said, looking at him like the sun rose and set on him…
Of course, the way the light was hitting him just right, bathing him in this bright warm glow I can see why I first thought that…
“That the stuff you packed for the trip?” he asked pointing to the bag.
“Hmm?” my younger self asked, too absorbed in how he looked to really listen to him.
“The bag?” he said as he pointed at it again, his eyes looking like it was taking all of his control not to roll them in the back of his head.
“Oh, yeah” they said as they looked down at the bag as if the thing hadn’t been in their hands the whole time.
Now I was having a hard time not rolling my eyes…
“Leave it” he said in his usual short manner.
“Leave it?” my younger self asked as if he hadn’t heard him right.
“Won’t need it” he said as he took the bag from my younger self and tossed it right past Dr. Strange and I to land close to the gate.
“We won’t?” my younger self asked looking at him confused.
“All we’re going to need for the week is a tent and a knife” he said using his thumb to point at the few things he had in the back of his jeep.
“Just one tent for both of us?” my younger self asked, their body shaking and throat closing up at the sudden rush of excitement that image caused.
“Nope, tent is just for you” he said as he pulled out his keys from his pocket, causing my younger self to hyper focus on his zipper and belt buckle.
“Where…where are you sleeping?” they asked as they got their eyes up to his face again.
“Out under the stars, with just a blanket” he said with a matter-of-fact tone as he took out a toothpick and put it in his mouth to chew on.
“Well, I can do that too” my younger self said as they hyper focused on his mouth now.
“You think you’re that tough?” he said looking me over skeptically.
“Sure” they said, no doubt losing track of the conversion again to focus on his firm body instead.
“Alright” he said with a sly smile that was almost feral.
He went to the back of the jeep and pulled out the tent and threw it to land next to my bag by the gate.
“Let’s see how tough you really are” he said walking over to my younger self like a lieutenant inspecting a new recruit. “No tent, no food, nothing but a couple of blankets and a pair of knives, how does that sound to you?” he asked his sly smile looking so tempting as he looked my younger self square in the eye.
“…Does that mean no clothes too?” my younger self asked breathlessly.
I smacked my hand to my forehead.
Of course I would ask a question like that.
You could really tell all my blood was flowing down instead of up into my head…
Logan, to the surprise of my younger self, burst out laughing, even grabbing a hold of his ribs from laughing so hard.
My younger self smiled a big triumphant smile. Up until that point I had only ever seen him smile at Jean, and I had certainly never seen him laugh at… well at anything…
I felt my heart twist inside my chest…
I was never going to see him smile like that at me or hear him laugh at any of my jokes or silly comments ever again, was I?
“You can… you can keep on… whatever that is” Logan said as he tried to catch his breath and waved a hand at my then brand-new X-Man uniform.
“It’s my uniform” my younger self said proudly.
Professor Xavier handed me the uniform that had come straight from the Baxter Building from the Fantastic Four, and he also handed me a single piece of fabric made out of the same unstable molecules as the uniform.
‘Do whatever you want with it,’ he had said.
And I decided to make myself this comfortable jacket that felt extra soft and buttery to the touch, I slipped it on, and I loved how it gave my uniform an informal relaxed feel that the other uniforms didn’t really have.
Scott always wanted us to look so professional and stiff, like a bunch of soldiers, but this jacket was my little bit of rebellion against his inflexible habits. Something cozy and warm to stand out against all the formal and sleek-looking things we were surrounded by every day.
Logan’s smile disappeared at the mention of my uniform.
“You ain’t here to try and talk me into join that little club Chuck’s got going, are ya bub?” he asked through clenched teeth as his eyes looked at them menacingly.
“No, I’m just here to learn” my younger self said.
That’s when I did roll my eyes, because I remember wanting to learn all about him and not caring a bit about anything else…
“Get in” he ordered as he looked me over suspiciously just before jumping into his jeep.
My younger self got in with the most obnoxiously excited smile on their face as I shook my head and watched them leave.
“There doesn’t seem to be anything here” Dr. Strange said, and I about jumped when he came walking up next to me.
I had totally forgotten that he was even here.
“What’s the next part of this memory?” he asked.
“Mostly me and Logan… I mean Wolverine sleeping under the stars while he teaches me how to forage and find clean drinking water, nothing too interesting really” I said with a dismissive shrug.
“We might have to go through every single thing, that sounds like a lot of decent places for that trap to have hidden itself if it survived” he said.
“Okay” I said.
Dr. Strange waved his hand, and we found ourselves in the back of the jeep with my past self and Logan. Dr. Strange scanning everything we passed as my younger self and I sat in silence, them looking at Logan with big happy eyes, me looking over the two of them with sad eyes as we went.
<><><><><>
We went through six days of Logan teaching me about plants, foraging, water and other general survival stuff, and my exhaustingly eager younger self trying to make him laugh again, or even smile, or just watching him without a care in the world as to what was going on around them.
I didn’t even shift during the entire time I was with him – I was too focused on him to get my brain and my body to work well enough to shift…
“How much time has passed?” I asked Dr. Strange on the third day.
“For us in here the full three days, out there about one hour for each day in here” he said as he scanned just about every blade of grass to make sure that thing was really gone.
At night it was Logan and me laying under the stars by a campfire, that we started without matches I might add, him snoring in his sleep while my younger self drifted off to sleep dreaming about tasting to see if that laugh was as delicious as it had looked.
Finally, we got to the seventh morning, the last day of the trip – that was where things turned interesting in comparison to all the other days.
“Alright, I promised Chuck that we would go and do whatever you wanted for the last day before we went back to the mansion” he said in a begrudging tone.
“Really” my younger self asked with big smile.
“Yeah, I said that if you lived this long that we’d let you do whatever you wanted for the day, who knew you’d actually survive?” he said in a mixture of exhaustion and amazement.
“I have just the thing for us to do” my younger self said as he bounced up from the ground happily.
“What’s that” he asked, sounding only exhausted now.
“A hike,” they said as they gathered up their blanket and the single knife Logan had been teaching me to use all week.
“That doesn’t sound to bad” Logan said genuinely surprised that he actually like the idea. “Where to?” he asked as he made sure the fire was put out just right before rolling up his own blanket.
“I’ll lead; it won’t be far” I said as I tied the blanket to my back with the rope Logan thought for sure we would need…
There was an implied way he said it that made me think he was going to use it to tie me to a tree if I got on his nerves too much over the week…
But we just ended up using it to tie our blanket rolls to our backs as Logan carried the rest of the rope on his belt like Indiana Jones did his whip in Rader’s of the Lost Ark movie.
Logan followed after my younger self as I dragged him in the I had wanted.
We walked, and we walked, and we walked, until I was sure we were close.
“Where the hell are you leading us?” he finally asked just as it was looking like.
Before my younger self could answer the sound of young kids playing and splashing in the water close by made him stop in his tracks.
“Where are we?” he asked as he sniffed the air.
“Close to a surprise” my younger self said with a mischievous look.
“A surprise?” Logan and Dr. Strange both said at the same time as they gave me the same curious look.
“You’ll see” my younger self and I said at the same time.
My younger self went running up ahead and we all followed behind, coming to the top of a hill where the tree line ended and a valley with a bunch of cabins came into view.
“I hope I’m in time to see it” my younger self said as they took the blanket off their back and laid on their stomach in the grass.
“In time to see what?” Logan asked as he looked down at them suspiciously.
“Get down and you’ll see” my younger self said as they urged him to join them in the grass.
With a sound that was somewhere between a growl and a long-suffering sigh he got down in the grass next to them.
“Well, I see something I like already” Logan said as he spotted Jean in her bathing suit getting out of the lake.
“Any second now” my younger self said oblivious to where Logan’s interests were really going. “I was afraid I was going to miss this; this is going to be great” my younger self said squirming happily in the grass.
“What is?” Logan asked looking at me confused.
And that’s when a huge bang came from what I knew to be Scott’s cabin…
A few seconds later, Scott came bursting out of his cabin with a mountain of bubbles following after him.
“Morph! I know that was you!” he yelled out at the top of his lungs to the sky.
My younger self was rolling in the grass laughing so hard they weren’t even making any sounds; Logan was looking between my younger self and the cabin with his jaw dropped, Dr. Strange… Well, he was staying on mission as he scanned the area, but even he had a little smile on his face.
And I have to admit I was laughing at the whole scene myself.
“Scott, Morph isn’t even here, how could he have done this?” Jean asked as she came running up to Scott, stepping over all the bubbles as she did.
“I don’t know, but he’s in for it when I find him!” he yelled out as some of the kids also started laughing, and others began to play with the bubbles.
“Okay, okay, time for phase two” my younger self said as they got up and went over to a tree.
My younger self pulled out a bow and arrow that I had hidden there earlier and pulled out the arrow with the piece of paper attached to it and shot it at the solid wood supply lock up before Logan even had a chance to ask what I was doing. The arrow landed right in the middle of one of the doors and the paper unraveled to reveal three numbers on it.
“What was that about?” Logan asked as he looked at my younger self as if I had grown two heads.
“I emptied out the supply lock up before everyone got here, left everything on Scott’s bed and then put a surprise inside before I locked it up with a brand-new combination lock” my younger self explained. “Those are the numbers” they said pointing in the distance to the paper. “Oh, and it looks like Jean figured it out” they said happily.
“She’s amazing” Logan said barely loud enough for anyone to hear.
Jean looked at the paper, tried the numbers on the combination lock, and opened up the doors to reveal a lot of soap and toilet paper for everyone, and some brand-new board games and bags of candy for all the kids.
“Thank you Morph!” Jean yelled out to the sky with a big smile.
“You’re welcome!” my younger self yelled out, them and Logan laughing together in the grass…
Right up until Scott used his eyes to shoot a branch downright next to the both of them.
“His aim gets better every year” my younger self said laughing like a lunatic all over again. “Come on, my work here is done” they said as they pulled Logan up with them and went running off in the wood, Logan laughing just as hard until they stopped to catch their breath.
“You said you were one of Chuck’s X-Men?” Logan asked as he tried to catch his breath.
“Yeah, it’s the best thing in the world, we’re like a family” my younger self said with a fond smile thinking of everyone on the team.
“Well, if you’re a part of it, maybe I’ll consider joining” he said as he slapped their shoulder in a friendly way before tightening up the rope holding his blanket around his tapered waist. “Come on, you can tell me more about it on our way back to the jeep” he said as he waved them to follow along.
My younger self followed after him…
And I had been following after him ever since…
“Good news Morph, the trap is gone” Dr. Strange said, causing me to turn back to him. “You officially get a clean bill of health” he said as he waved his hand up, causing a door to appear in front of us. “You can leave now and go home” he said.
I looked at the door and then I looked over at the frozen picture of my younger self standing next to a smiling, happy Logan.
“Could I have just one more minute?” I asked Dr. Strange.
“I’ll be on the other side, I’ll keep the door open for you” he said with a small smile as he stepped through the door, leaving me alone with in the woods with the two frozen images.
I walked up and around Logan and looked at him with tears streaming down my face.
“You’re never going to laugh like this for me again, are you?” I asked him, not expecting a reply so much as I was finally realizing what I had lost. “You’re never going to look at me that way ever again, or be near me ever again, are you?” I asked as my voice cracked from being choked up with so many emotions my whole head and body hurt. “Good-bye Logan” I said barely above a whisper as I reached my hand up to his face…
But I froze…
He was never mine…
Never mine at all…
It felt wrong to reach up and touch him or stroke his face, even in a frozen memory of mine…
I lowered my hand and finally turned away from him.
I wiped the tears off my cheeks and went through the door.
My heart getting left behind in the woods all over again.
<><><><><>
I opened my eyes and there hovering over me was Dr. Strange, his cloak waving around happily.
“They can go home now, the trap is gone” he said looking away from me.
I turned to see Hank and the Professor coming towards me, both of them looking relieved as they smiled at me.
“How are you child?” the Professor asked.
“Tired, but better” I said, my voice sounding rough, like I had just woken up from a long night of sleep.
“We’ll get you home and into your new room” Hank said as he used his powerful muscles to help me up to my feet.
“Yes, I’ve had surprised arranged for you when we get back” the Professor said with a mischievous smile on his face.
“A surprise?” I asked a little… well… surprised.
“Ah yes, ‘be it ever so humble there’s no place like home’ ” Hank said before turning to Dr. Strange. “If you wouldn’t mind doctor?” he asked.
“Not at all” Dr. Strange said as he waved his hand and made a round portal appear, and on the inside was the outside of the mansion.
“My utmost thanks for helping us doctor” the Professor said as he went through the portal first.
“Yes, many profound thanks for your assistance” Hank said as he went through next.
“Thank you doctor” I said as I held out my hand for him to shake.
“Any time my friend” he said with a sincere smile as he shook my hand.
His cloak wrapped around our hands, causing me to laugh.
“And thank you too” I said as the cloak went back to hanging by Dr. Strange’s side.
I stepped through the portal, felt it close behind be and looked up at the mansion with a grateful smile…
There really was no place like home.