1X04 – Midsummer Night’s Dream – Teaser

X-Men: The (fan fic) Series
Episode #: 1X04
Title: Midsummer Night’s Dream

Summary: Scott is haunted by memories as the team heads to Alaska to track a newly manifested mutant. Storm confronts an old friend and digs up painful memories of her own.

Previously… on X-Men: The (fan fic) Series

—“Any luck with your friend, Mr Silvercloud?” – Duncan

—“You want to learn how to fly?” -Scott
“Yeah, I think it’d be fun.” – Jean

—“You want to do something, most everyone else’s mutations do something, even if it’s kinda simple, yours is purely cosmetic.” – Jubilee

—“She’s a mutie, ain’t even human, they say so themselves.” – Touchy-Feely Guard

—“You’re supposed to set the alarm off, not bypass it.” – Wolverine
“Of course, force of habit.” – Storm

—“You want me to talk to her, one winged mutant to another.” – Warren

—“X-Men, they call themselves the X-Men.” – Rogue

1X04 – Midsummer Night’s Dream – Teaser

The wind was deafening, whipping through the hole in the hull, knocking around everything that wasn’t nailed down.

There was screaming and yelling, alarms going off.

“Scott!” he heard his name yelled as the plane jerked due to the turbulence, thunder cracking outside. A body went flying sideways towards the ripped fuselage.

“Alex!” he shouted back, one arm gripping the seat while the other reached for his brother. He almost had him, if he could just reach a little farther…

More thunder and lightning accompanied the heavy rain screaming in the night. The plane jerked again, the engine catching on fire. Random bits came tumbling down the aisle, this time straight at Alex who was trying to hold on, the boy pelted with boxes and bags.

Unable to hold on as the plane was now tilted on its side, Alex slid towards the opening, desperately grabbing at the floor for any handhold.

“ALEX!” Scott screamed in vain as his brother disappeared into the turbulent night.

“ALEX!” Scott bolted upright in his bed, eyes clenched tightly shut, his breath ragged, naked chest drenched in sweat.

Blindly reaching out to his side table, Scott grabbed his ruby glasses and slipped them on. Cautiously he opened his eyes, irrationally afraid that his glasses could somehow be switched in the night. But then was it truly irrational to be afraid of his mutation?

With a heavy sigh he threw his legs over the side of the bed and headed towards the bathroom. Hitting the light as he entered, he shut the door and locked it. He then turned off the main lights and flipped the second switch which had been installed during one of the renovations.

Instead of white light, the room was flooded with red from a compressed-xenon-gas bulb which produced red light at a specific resonating frequency. Slipping off his glasses he let his eyes adjust to the partial dimness the light created and then looked at himself in the mirror.

Red.

Everything was tinged with red.

He looked down at the hands which failed to grab his brother and all he saw was red.

Rubbing his forehead, he decided to take his morning shower, he was up, might as well.

…

There was a knock and he quickly slid on his clean shirt, his hair still a little wet when he went to answer the door.

“Scott,” Jean Grey greeted him with a smile.

“Jean,” he smiled politely at her, “it’s a bit early.”

“The Professor wants to see us,” she told him, “he found a new mutant.”

“Right,” he nodded and moved forward to join her in the hall, “you could have messaged me,” he tapped his temple.

“What would have been the fun in that,” she smiled broadly at him. He was told her hair was bright red but everything was some shade of red to him, her lips a glossy sheen of vivid crimson.

Though some days he fancied he could see the blue of her eyes.

…

The team, minus Storm as she had other plans for the day, stood in Cerebro’s room, the Professor sitting at the console, bringing a map up on the display.

“What do we know?” Scott asked he studied the information, most of the colors on the readout all shades of red.

“A new mutant has manifested,” the Professor told them, “somewhere outside Juneau, Alaska. I’m attempting to get a fix on a more direct location.”

“Aren’t you from Alaska?” JP asked as they waited.

“Anchorage,” he told the man automatically.

“Oh, this should be nice for you then,” the man said conversationally, being sociable, but all Scott could see was red.

“It’ll take several hours to get there,” Scott spoke up as he did the math, something which came naturally to him in regards to flight times, “we’ll have to do a stop over to refuel on the way.”

“I’ll have more for you by the time you reach Juneau,” the Professor gave a nod.

“Alright,” he looked around at the team, “anyone who wants to come, be ready and in the lobby in thirty minutes.”

…

“Finish storing the luggage, would you,” Scott asked of Jean and Jean-Paul as he went to board his Cessna, “I’m gonna do the pre-flight check.”

“Sure,” she smiled at him and went to moving one of the bags off to the side, the group was going to have to stay overnight considering how long the ride was. Also, they couldn’t be sure they would find the new mutant right away. Thankfully it was already the weekend.

She watched out of the corner of her eye to see Scott pull off his regular ruby specs and put on his visor, knowing he wore it when he flew because there was less risk of it coming off. She also knew why he was so afraid of something like that happening… again.

“JP,” Jean got the man’s attention as he put the last bag into the tail end storage compartment.

“Yeah,” he responded, frowning at the bag which wouldn’t quite fit.

“You know Scott lost his family, right?” she tried to remember what all might have been told to the man.

“Hmm?” he pushed at the edge of the bag and managed to get it wedged in, “oh, yeah, that’s how he got this plane, insurance payout went into a trust until he turned eighteen or something like that?”

Jean glanced back to make sure Scott was still in the cabin. Even though she didn’t have to physically look, she needed a second to decide what was appropriate, “Scott’s family was from Anchorage, he was born there, but his father was a pilot in the Air Force and they were stationed in Hawaii for several years.”

“Okay,” she had his full attention now.

“On a trip back from visiting his grandfather,” she continued, quietly, “the plane hit some really bad weather, a lot of things went wrong,” she didn’t really want to give him the details seeing as she was one of the very few who Scott had decided to share them with, “he was the only one to survive.”

JP glanced over her shoulder to the cockpit, “Damn.”

“He doesn’t talk about it,” she confided in him, “he got his pilot license and bought this plane as kind of a, well, therapy I guess.”

“I can see that,” he nodded his understanding, the engine turning over, drowning out their voices as they closed the compartment.

“He’s a great pilot,” she wasn’t sure if there were any reservations on JP’s part but she felt the need to say it, “but flying back to Alaska isn’t exactly a homecoming for him.”

It took a second for the man to put two and two together about his statement earlier, “Right, sorry, I’ll keep that in mind.”

“You didn’t know,” she assured him and moved to close the door.

…

Scott looked over his shoulder as Jean and JP climbed aboard, shutting the door behind them.

“Jean,” he called back to her, “I want you up front with me, we can work on your flight training.”

“I’ve had one lesson so far,” she remarked but was smiling as she slipped into the co-pilots chair.

“Good,” he handed over a clipboard, “you can double check me, see what you remember.”

“Alright,” she took the item and started to glance between it and the control panel.

Looking over his shoulder he frowned, “Kitty, swap seats with Bobby, I want you on the same side as Logan.”

“Ah, okay,” the girl frowned with confusion and stood from her seat, Bobby mimicking her actions.

“Balancing the load,” he told them, “having Metal Bones onboard screws up my carrying capacity calculations anyway.”

“Hey,” Bobby said indignantly, “I’m not that much heavier than her.”

Everyone gave him a look ranging between amused and droll.

“You all just called me fat,” he pointed around as he flopped down on his seat, “I hope you realize that.”

This gained another set of giggles and snickers as Scott turned back to the console.

Jean put the clipboard up in the small overhead compartment. “Everything looks good to me.”

“Then let’s taxi to the runway,” he took controls and started to drive the plane forward.

Soon they would be up in the wild blue yonder… but all Scott would see was red.

Adapted for Television by JayCee

X-Men: The (fan fic) Series

A series of short stories in a fictional X-Men TV Universe.