Authors: Sam and Merrianna

Story: Time Twist: 1 of 2

Series: n/a

1990: New Characters & Ages: McGuire Musillive (25); Denah Crenshaw (23); Doug (15), Sam (17), 'Berto (15), Illyana (15), 'Mara (16), Warlock (1), Dani (17), Rhane (15), Lockheed (-unknown-)

Videotapes: New Characters & Ages: Jubilee (15); Monet St. Croix (18); Paige Guthrie (16); Scott Summers (29)

Note: This chapter was originally meant to be the start of an entirely different story. However, the theme was so similar, and the end results so close, that I decided to add the “other story” to Time Twist. Thus, you may notice a bit of intertwining of the plots but, also, a distinct amount of separation in them as well. I hope this doesn’t detract from the overall story.

Second Note: Thank you to Merrianna for allowing me to use McGuire and Denah in my story. They were very interesting creations, and I really needed an outside influence to add color to the story. Thank you, again.

Feedback: Yes, please? Especially constructive. samwise_baggins@yahoo.co.uk

Webpage: http://www.geocities.com/samwise_baggins/index.html

In disgust, the police officer knocked on the front doors of the private school, a clipboard held securely in one hand. Returning a bunch of wild kids to their guardians didn't usually pass for his line of work, being a homicide investigator. However, the Chief had insisted that the lieutenant take on this little chore; no one else, apparently, was available and McGuire actually didn't have a pressing crime to help solve at the moment.

In fact, McGuire rarely had a pressing crime to solve, despite living in New York City and dealing with numerous murders weekly. He always seemed to figure out the suspects, how the crime was committed, and just where the evidence could be found. The Chief called it damn fine investigative techniques. His fellow officers called it eerily accurate instincts. McGuire, however, knew precisely what it was.

He could see dead people.

Yeah, even when he thought it in his own head, it sounded like a cheap one-liner from a horror movie. He always wanted to cringe when the thought came to him. In fact, he'd only ever told one person about his skill, and that woman was his partner, Denah. She had laughed, like he'd known she would, but simply dropped the subject as soon as she'd had enough of prodding him about it. Now, the subject only came up as an off-hand comment once in awhile. Denah wasn't the teasing type, which is why McGuire had broken down and revealed how he solved murders so easily. After all, it wasn't too hard when the victim told you everything you needed to know.

Of course, murder investigations and dead victims had nothing to do with why McGuire was cooling his heels on the front porch of Professor Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters. Nor did it have even the slightest connection with the group of kids he and Denah had driven out here in the '*wagon*', a van normally used for transporting recruits in the academy. What had everything to do with a couple of homicide cops returning some wayward kids, was that the other officers had, on numerous occasions, claimed the school was creepy… and no one wanted to even approach if at all possible.

It was very obvious to McGuire why no one else had been available for this little delivery. Those at the precinct hinted at a mutant or two being housed secretly up at the school, but that really didn't bother the long-suffering officer. He could deal with mutants; it was dead people that really got annoying. Once they figured out he could communicate with them, he was rarely left alone, and McGuire preferred to be a very private person. Unfortunately, here there were numerous spirits wandering around, especially to and from the private cemetery on the hill.

Ringing the bell once more, the young man glanced towards the recruit wagon and his partner sitting in the driver's seat. Denah merely arched one dark brown eyebrow and crossed her strong, dark-skinned arms over her well-endowed chest. To look at the no-nonsense cop sitting there, one would hardly believe that upon standing, she barely topped five foot two; she was a powerhouse trapped in a small, muscular frame. The woman tilted her head slightly, giving her partner another intense look and he turned back to his task. At least she was the one that had to deal with the errant teens in the 'wagon'.

When the door opened, the man standing on the other side came as a small shock to the officer. Barely taller than Denah, stockier and definitely heavier if looks could be trusted, the black-haired man with the strangely pointed haircut merely waited, silently. The look on his animalistic face gave McGuire the impression that he was far from welcome… and probably not because the visitor was law enforcement, either.

"I need to speak to somebody in charge, please. My name is Officer… McGuire and I have a few children in custody who claim to be students here."

The man in the hallway glanced towards the van and rolled his eyes, but took a long sniff and flung the door open. Naturally, the reaction was a bit odd, but it didn't scare off the young officer. Instead, McGuire turned and nodded to Denah then headed into the school, following the stocky man into what looked to be a well cared for private office.

"I'll get someone," his voice was a growl. Stalking from the room, the man didn't bother to look back.

Thus, McGuire was left to cool his heels in an office. Well, it sure beat standing outside and trying to ignore the ghosts around him. This room, in fact, seemed to be a supernatural-denizen-free zone, which pleased McGuire greatly. He glanced around, out of long habit, and noted that it was worn but neat. It was comfortable, as well. In fact, one could easily find oneself relaxing in such a setting.

A frown crossed McGuire's face and he hoped the guy would hurry up. Finally a sound made the officer turn. The man who entered was about McGuire's age, neatly dressed and looking perfectly normal except for the red-tinted wrap-around sunglasses he wore. The policeman took a moment to verify that the man was really alive before stepping forward to shake the proffered hand.

"My name's Scott Summers. I understand you have some of our students with you?" The auburn-haired man didn't smile, though his voice was pleasant enough. "What happened? Are they hurt?" His concern for the children was evident.

With a brief nod, McGuire responded, "Officer… McGuire. They're unhurt, but they were arguing loudly with a bunch of town kids. Police interfered before the townies could cause any damage… they've been known to rough up outsiders." He paused, waiting to see just what Mr. Summers… or was it Professor?… would say.

Scott sighed and ran a hand through his hair. Nodding, he looked at the cop. "Do we have to fill out any reports or statements? Are you sure it was the town children who started the fight?"

"Witnesses have already supported the statements made by the students. In fact," he raised the clipboard and pulled off a handful of papers. "Here are the copies of the statements they gave… for the school records or parents or whatever your administration does with them." McGuire passed the papers to Scott and noted with silent approval that the man glance through them before nodding in acceptance. It was obvious that this particular staff member really had an interest in the affairs of his students. That, naturally, brought up the question of that first man he'd seen.

Without thinking about the fact that the dark-haired man may have been dead, McGuire asked who he was.

The first flicker of anything but a serious expression crossed Scott's face as he half grimaced, half smiled. "That would be Logan… in charge of physical education. Not a sociable kind of guy, but the kids like him well enough."

McGuire nodded. "So, are you the Headmaster? I heard that Professor Xavier wasn't around any more." He had actually heard conflicting rumors that the old man either died or went overseas.

Moving to the desk, Scott placed the papers on its hard surface for later filing. "Professor Xavier has retired. I'm…" he paused, thinking it over, before finally saying, "The former Headmaster's Assistant. Now I'm just visiting the old alma mater." Turning, noting the frown on the cop's face, the man continued hurriedly with, "the staff had an emergency come up in the computer center and Logan implied that the kids weren't in danger, so I came up for them."

"I see. Well, technically, I have to talk to a staff member, Mister Summers. I hate to interrupt an emergency, but I'm sure they'll realize that I can't just trust someone who *used* to work here. I have to be certain the person in charge is aware of the circumstances." McGuire was sure the man would reveal if he weren't on the up-and-up by backtracking or something. It seemed the Chief may have been too lenient allowing the force to avoid regular checks on the people here.

Scott, however, did not backtrack, as he hadn't been lying. With a nod and a friendly smile, the man gestured towards the door. "Why don't you follow me, Officer McGuire? I'll take you to Professor Munroe and she can receive your report. She's currently the Headmaster's Assistant." And with that, the pair was heading further into the school.

After half-an-hour of sitting restlessly in a police van, the younger students of Xavier’s School had been released into Ororo’s custody. It wasn’t much longer before things had been sorted out and the teens had been delegated above stairs. The adults wanted to try to sort out the videos without interruption. Unfortunately, Kitty had also been sent upstairs, excluding her once more from the X-Men.

Stunned, and not a little angry, Kitty left the conference room. No one seemed to notice that she’d grabbed a few of the videos from the black bag, however. The girl quickly tracked down Doug Ramsey, friend and fellow conspirator on many a minor adventure previously.

“Doug. Let’s go to the study room. I want your help with something.” She tugged on his arm. The blond moved after her but the pair hadn’t been quick enough. Their actions had drawn the attention of the rest of the juveniles, all of the students having been ensconced in the TV room to gripe over what had happened at the mall.

Berto was the first to jump in. “Hey, what’re those? Can I watch, too?” he grinned his typical suave grin. Roberto DaCosta was a good-looking kid. Trouble was, he knew it.

That smile and those looks often helped him get what he wanted, but this time Kitty was determined not to lose control of the situation. Who knew what was at stake? “It’s an X-Man thing, Berto.”

Wrong thing to say! Immediately the other teens pushed in to protest being left out, insist they could handle things as well as the adults, and generally to complain that Doug was getting preferential treatment. Kitty finally had to give in.

“Fine!” She glared around at the group, though the others looked both excited and serious. “Come on then. Maybe with your different backgrounds one of you might be able to help out.

She led them to the larger study room, the videos clutched possessively in her hands. The teens fired questions at her, which she ignored. When they got inside the room, Kitty ordered them seated. Finally she nodded and turned to face the assembly. “While we were gone a bag of videos showed up. We’re still trying to figure out who left them and for what reason. We’ve started watching one and it appears to be recordings of several X-Men returning to the mansion, except we don’t recognize everybody in the videos,” brown eyes scanned the crowd as she spoke, “and at least three people that are in the video seem… different. Therefore, based on what we’ve seen so far, we think this bag came from a future reality… we don’t know which yet.”

Doug cleared his throat nervously. Being included in the X-Men was the current end-all-be-all of his aspirations, and he was apprehensive about looking foolish and childish when he had been the one Kitty’d come to with this X-Man problem. “How many teleporters do we know that can go through time or reality?”

Illyana grinned widely and raised her hand. “Me.” Several groans and nods came from the small group. “And Rachel came through time.” She thought quickly then jumped in once more as Kitty opened her mouth to speak, “I don’t think Kurt could have done it, though. He seems limited to the present.”

A soft rumble of noise began as the teens started discussing the possibilities. Kitty allowed this for a few minutes before interrupting loudly, “There’s more than just a time teleporter involved. One of the people in the video is… Jean Grey... and she’s dead.” That effectively stunned the group.

The uncomfortable silence was broken by Danielle Moonstar’s firm voice. The Native American girl was co-leader of the New Mutants, and it showed in the way she stepped in then. “So, an alternate reality is the best guess. Any theories on why the videos were left with us… in this reality?”

“A warning?”

All eyes turned towards their other co-leader, Sam Guthrie. He seemed a bit nervous as he ran a lean, strong hand through closely cropped blond hair. His light blue eyes darted among the students, coming to rest on the videos Kitty was preparing at the console. Finally, Sam leaned forward, arms resting on the table, with a sigh. “Look, there are only a few reasons someone would come into a school and leave a bunch of videos. Videos take time and money.”

Pushing her brown curls from in front of her eyes, Kitty slipped on her glasses and sat in front of the largest computer. “That’s something I hadn’t thought about. It’s an expensive trick.” Her fingers flew over the keyboard and she was barely aware when Doug joined her at the screen. “Bombs are a reason, but people rarely bomb schools unless they have some attachment to them.”

Doug pointed out something on the screen as information flowed by too quickly for most to follow. The mutant translator, however, had no problem keeping up. “A warning is another. Someone really wanted the information out, so they invested a lot of time in it. And there are always simple storage reasons.”

“Should we watch them?” Rhane’s Scots brogue rang out. She sounded more worried than any of the others. Then again, she was most likely worried that by having the videos they’d get in trouble, not about the ramifications of the videos themselves.

Berto, his chair leaning back on two legs, nodded enthusiastically. “Yeah, let’s do that. Pop one in Kitty. I bet we can figure this whole thing out before the X-Men.”

Everyone jumped unexpectedly when a cooing noise that sounded much like agreement came from under the large table. The noise of chairs scraping and people shuffling to get a look filled the room. Kitty and Doug even paused in their computer research to watch as Illyana came up with Kitty’s pet dragon, Lockheed, in her arms. The small purple dragon yawned and wrapped his tail partially around the Russian girl’s waist, seemingly content with his position in her arms. He cooed again as if for emphasis now that he had the room’s attention. Nervous chuckles echoed through the chamber. Perhaps more than just Rhane were nervous about stepping in on the X-Men’s assignment.

Kitty nodded. “All right… if that’s okay with everyone. Amara? Warlock? Neither of you have said anything… got anything to add before we start watching?”

Both of those named, the pretty blonde girl from Brazil and the golden mechanical-like being from another world, conceded that they had nothing to add. Berto crowed in delight as he once more leaned his chair back. The rest of the teens settled down as well, Lockheed shifting to drape himself over Illyana’s shoulders in his most comfortable habitual attitude.

Kitty switched on the first of the pilfered tapes.

Golden sunlight dapples the old mansion, vivid blue-green sky competing in sheer beauty with the greenery of rolling lawns and age-old trees. The sounds of activity, laughter, conversation, and moving equipment, filter through bird song, coming from the back of the elite home-turned-school. Happiness and excitement seem to vibrate on the air.

Doug flicked the pause button and smiled triumphantly. “That’s the view from one of the security cameras.”

“So,” Berto was unimpressed with the statement.

Shaking his head and speaking as if to a small child, Doug looked straight at the Brazilian boy. “So, whoever left them had to have access to our security recorders. That means it’s an inside job.” He pointed out features on the screen, features that didn’t really interest too many of the teens.

“The people are in back of the school. Why is this video the important one?” Amara looked over at her friends, expecting one of them to understand better, as she was not very technically inclined.

Computer-savvy Doug didn’t disappoint. “A lot of the cameras are set up so the image can rove. It means the action on one can be picked up on another at an intersection point. So, either this film takes up after the action moved, or was deliberately chosen because action will soon be there.” He sounded triumphant, but the smile faded at the confusion on Amara’s pretty face.

With a grin, Kitty jumped in to clear things. “He means someone can move the camera to follow a person. When that camera can’t be moved anymore, another camera can pick up the image. We’ve got every inch of the grounds covered by cleverly spaced cameras. It’s called a security visual net.”

The girl still sounded confused, “Oh.”

Berto stretched, his chair legs smacking down on the floor with a thud. “So, let’s watch the video and see which it is. I mean, two seconds of tape isn’t enough to beat the X-Men.”

Nodding, Doug flicked the tape back on, silently watching with the others.

A girl with Asian features runs out the front door, laughing. Her arms are loaded with several packages wrapped in silver and white. Dressed in pink and white, the adolescent looks about fifteen. Her bare feet, however, seem to clash with her otherwise dignified appearance. She is followed at a slower, statelier pace, by a thin dark-skinned girl dressed in a dove-gray suit and heels.

Turning, the carefree teen laughs. “Hey, Monet, if you don’t hurry, the reception will be over before you get there.”

“I doubt it.” The older Monet seems to be quite sure of herself, calm and collected. She follows her comrade around the side of the house with a neutral expression on her pretty face. The crowd that is suddenly revealed is a mish-mash of voices and colors, but neither girl seems daunted.

The camera angle suddenly switches, showing the two teens as heading right for it. Almost carelessly the younger girl topples her armload of packages onto a nearby table, receiving a nod from the blonde girl sorting through other offerings.

“That looks like Paige, my sister!” Sam’s excited voice rang out, causing Doug to pause the video again. “Only, she’s somehow older than now.”

Amara looked interested in the new topic. She turned a shy smile on Sam and softly questioned, “How old is your sister now?”

He blinked then turned to smile, blushing, at the girl. “About fourteen. Not so much younger after all, I guess.” He looked towards the pretty girl on the screen and judged she looked about seventeen in that fancy business suit-like-outfit.

Kitty grinned. “She looks maybe two or three years older then. Maybe this happens really soon?” The brunette reached over and flicked the video on again.

“I don’t know about you, M, but I’m gonna have some fun!” The Asian-looking girl hurries over to another table covered with audio and video equipment. Surprisingly, Kitty Pryde, looking to be in her late teens, her hair cut shorter, stands working on one of the monitors. “Yo, Kitty! Need help? Angelo just arrived; so’d Tab. I hear she’s a real wiz with video games.”

With a laugh, Kitty shakes her head, smiling widely. “This isn’t a video game, Jube. I need someone that knows computers.”

The girl called Jube shrugs her shoulders with a chuckle. “Then you’ll want Angelo. He loves computers. Of course, he’s still rebelling over the videos we plan to shoot.”

“Ah ha!” Berto’s shout triggered Doug’s pause reflex, as it were. The group stared at him in wonder as he puffed up in self-pride. “We now know that the videos were made by Kitty and that Jube girl.”

Kitty rolled her eyes.” A good possibility, but we actually only know that I made videos, not which ones.”

A snicker escaped Doug, but Berto ignored it. The blond didn’t mind the silence treatment. Instead, he merely pressed play.

Kitty’s smile widens. “Well, we never know when we’ll all get together again. Having a set of memorial... uh... remembrance videos seemed a great idea. So, not everyone wants to sing, but I did get a wide variety of entries. Hey, Jubilee, do you know if the bride and groom are going to perform?”

The dark-haired girl ignores her fancy outfit and slides up onto the table. She leans over to start tinkering with one of the chords. ”Yeah, I think so. It’s a great idea, anyway. It’s not like people had to write their own music or dance numbers or something. Jono was a bit cranky about not being able to sing, but that’s why we said other people could choose and sing for each other. I mean, it’s creepy enough to hear his voice in your head without him singing.”

Tilting her head, Kitty frowns softly. “I’ve never met the Boston students. One of them is a telepath?” There is genuine longing in the girl’s voice.

“Not exactly. He emits psionic energy, but he’s got no mouth. So he found a way to channel his energy into a form of mental communication. He sends his own thoughts when he wants to, which isn’t very often. Jono’s the tall, dark, and silent type.”

The girls fall into a companionable chat about their own teams as they work on the equipment. It’s only a matter of minutes before they’re interrupted by the arrival of Scott Summers. He is dressed in a nice suit and his trademark ruby quartz lenses. He checks over the work of the two teens and smiles for them. “All ready? Everyone’s started on the refreshments already and some are…rather relaxed.”

“Oh, sounds fun. I suppose that means that it’ll be easier to get them on the stage.” The older teen nods her head towards a large platform with an even large video screen or movie screen behind it. The setup is against one side of the mansion. An abundance of crowded tables are set in front of the make-shift video center. Obviously a grand party is taking place.

The video was paused to the protest of several kids. Doug shrugged, a grin crossing his features. “Thought we could raid the fridge before we settle down. Last chance at the bathrooms, too.”

“Great idea.” Dani Moonstar got up and headed for the door.

The other children soon followed suit. If they had their way, this would be a long night of watching the X-Men make fools of themselves by singing at a wedding reception. They might not get anymore information for the X-Men, but the group was looking forward to a lot of laughs, at least.