[The Daily Planet] Thin Threads

From: Andy Maluhia <CaptainAndy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: thedailyplanet@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Sun, 01 Oct 2006 16:13:32 -0400

_ Thin Threads
_by Zan & Jayne, Bobby Drake, Ororo, Munroe, & Charles Xavier

The last thing Zan remembered was screaming his sister's name as he transformed back to his usual shape. In the instant that he hit a very solid object very hard, he thought it might have been better if he'd stayed in his water form. It would have been much less painful. He didn't even bother getting up for that instant. Instead, he lay there, his hands over his face and muttering, "That hurt. That really, really hurt," in his native tongue.

"Get up, fool," came a relieved voice. "You're lying on somebody's pen and pencil holder."

Bobby blinked for a moment and then he started to laugh. "Oh dudes! You're the Wonder Twins! Oh this is so cool!" He had been in the Professor's office looking for a file for Ororo, but this was so much better then some stupid file. "'Ro's gonna have a cow, but this is getting way cool. Man, do you guys know if Wonder Woman's coming too? Cause like she's hot." He then smiled at Jayna. She was hot too. "If this keeps up the Professor's gonna come home to a whole different group of peeps."

Zan scrambled off the desk to his sister's side and, in tandem, they each raised a brow. "He knows who we are," Jayna hissed in Exxorian.

"I noticed.  Our 'covers' are blown," he replied in kind.

"English, dudes." Bobby said as he came to stand in front of the desk. "Don't know what your saying without the translations. Kinda hard to put brackets around spoken words." He looked around the office for a moment and then back at the newest arrivals. "So where's the monkey?"

"If we wanted you to understand then we would have spoken English to begin with," Jayna stated even as Zan asked, "What monkey?"

"You know the little blue monkey, Gleek, the one who carries around Zan's wonder water bucket." Bobby replied.

"We don't have a monkey," Jayna said tartly.

"Why do you know our names and where is the Professor? He has a lot of explaining to do," Zan hmmphed.

Bobby smirked as he leaned back against the desk. "I happen to be the number one expert on all things DC. I have every title ever published, and extra copies of quite a few." He couldn't wait to show the super-brothers those comics. "And the Professor's not here, though I think 'Ro said he'd be back today."

"Are you cracked in the head?" Jayna asked. "We've never been to this nation's capitol."

"Just Boston and Gotham," Zan began.

The over aged adolescent that was Robert Drake, blinked. The capital? What the hell did Paris have to do with anything? "Dudes, you're not in Paris, you're in New York. And no matter what the others say, no I'm not cracked in the head."

~~Robert, what are you doing in my office?~~

Bobby smirked. ~~You wouldn't believe me if I told you, Professor. Better come see for yourself and ask 'Ro to come down.~~ "Prof's home."

"He has this home and never told us," Jayna whispered to her brother.

~~Ororo, if you would kindly join me in my study? Robert seems to feel there is something we both need to know~~

With a deep sigh the tall dark skinned woman rose to her feet and left her classroom. She made her way to the Professor's office and waited outside for him. ~~We have some guests.~~

"So no monkey?" Bobby asked with a huff. "I liked the monkey." Then he smirked again. "So, what's the chance of getting the amazing amazon to come though one of those portal doors? Iceman can make her forget all about the boy in blue and the bat."

Kal-El and the others had been so strict in regards to guarding their 'secret' identities and reinforcing that the twins do the same with theirs. They stared at the offending stranger and said nothing.

Bobby looked at Zan. "Come on, dude, you have to admit Diana's hot, so's her kid, and you can't tell me they're just drawn that way cause Lois is hot too and I've seen her."

Zan's hand was curling into a fist but his sister kept a hand over his wrist keeping it from sight. "You're cracked," he hissed.

"What does he mean: seen her?" Jayna asked in Exxorian. "How does he know us all?"

Xavier had sensed the charged atmosphere as soon as he left his Bentley, a vintage car in pristine condition. Something was definitely, as the children liked to say, 'up'. He didn't need to read Ororo's mind as he approached his office. Just her body language was enough. "What have I missed in simply going out for a day trip?"

Ororo looked at the man who had become a father to her over the years and physically relaxed. "Apparently there are several portal exits on the grounds. We have had several people come through them within the last few hours. Given what happen to Vanir, this in itself isn't a surprise, the people coming through, however, are." She smiled softly, a smile that nearly looked like one her husband or daughter would give. "Have you ever wanted to meet Superman, Charles?"

He'd never quite had the interest that a few of the younger people had in comic book heroes but that didn't mean he wasn't culturally aware of them, Superman being one of the more iconic of them. "The thought hadn't actually crossed my mind actually," Xavier stated but he rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Vanir's unfortunate episode led him to a real location, though, not unlike a wormhole. I take it from your question that these portals are not quite the same?"

"Apparently these portals have brought real people we see as fictional into our world, which they see as being fictional." Ororo explained. "To them we're the comic book heroes."

Xavier's eyebrows would have risen to his hairline if he had one. "How very interesting," he murmured. He turned his attention to the closed office doors in front of them. Whoever they were, the two young people in there with Robert were certainly confused, perhaps a bit frightened, and certainly both were getting more than angry with Bobby. "I think we ought to go inside," he stated, pushing the door open with his thoughts.

"I've been called worse." Bobby laughed. When The Professor and Ororo came in he smiled and waved. "Hi Professor, hey 'Ro. We got more company."

Zan and Jayna looked at each other. One of the newcomers was obviously the one the too-familiar lunatic was addressing as 'Professor' yet neither of them was, clearly, the professor they'd hoped for.

"Welcome to the Xavier Institute for Gifted Children," Xavier said simply. It was the straightforward approach, one also good to waste time when he surreptitiously scanned the young people's minds. "I am Professor Charles Xavier."

"They just kind of dropped in," Bobby explained. "They're the Wonder Twins."

Ororo looked at the children, they almost looked Vulcan. How did they end up here? They were working on the theory that portals were opened by Kent DNA signatures.

"The last person who spoke of us so proprietarily is now dead," Zan said levelly, his eyes narrowing even as Jayna simply smiled at him.

~~Robert...~~ Xavier warned even as he offered the newcomers a smile. "Despite Robert's enthusiasm, I generally do like to allow people the right to speak for themselves. If one might ask..."

"We are Zan," Zan began before Jayna added, "and Jayna,." In tandem, they finished "Nichols." They both pointed at Bobby. "He's not quite sane."

Ororo had to bite back a smile. "Robert is a bit, shall we say, star struck. Are you familiar with comic books?"

"We've heard of them, seen them even, but we've never read them," Jayna replied.

"The professor--/our /professor," Zan added, "referred to them as a waste of time."

"They are not a waste..."

"Robert," Ororo smiled at her friend, "perhaps you should find one of the others. I'm sure Zan and Jayna would feel better with someone they know around."

Robert rolled his eyes. "Ok yeah sure but ya could have just told me to shut up."

Ororo chuckled. "I do not tell anyone but Logan to shut up." She paused while Bobby left and then turned once more the twins. "It would seem that the portal has brought you into a world which in your world, is not real, just as to us your world is not real. The reason Robert knows of you so well if because to him you are characters from his comic books."

They believed the dark skinned woman where they would not have believed the younger man. Still, the man in the wheelchair seemed, like Professor Nichols, to be the person of authority in this house. By habit, the twins drew closer together and faced the hairless man, the unasked question obvious in their expressions.

"I'm afraid that what Ororo is saying is quite true," he said in his best calming tones. "Although I've just come home, I will not fault her logic in this situation. As unfamiliar as I am with the media, I do know that characters such as Superman and Wonder Woman are fictional."

"Fictional..." they said in a hushed tone in Exxorian.

Xavier made no pretense of not understanding the language. To a telepath of his stature, language was no barrier. "Quite, children," he continued. "The two I mentioned have been around since I was a very young man."

She couldn't help but smile. "According to James, in their world we've been around just as long. Paige is trying to find out what she can about the portals, and Hank is trying to figure out what came first. The comics or the people."

"James?" Zan asked.  "And we aren't comics.  We're real people."

"Who are probably missing school and making somebody a bit angry because of it," Jayna added.

"Kent." Ororo said simply. "And of course you're real people. The fabric of reality maybe woven tightly, but the threads are thin."

"His son," Zan realized.  "We'd like to see him."

Ororo gave the children a reassuring smile. "Of course. I'll send them down and return shortly. I was working on a cross breed and I must finish the pollination before it's ruined. Excuse me a moment."

"We would also like to go home," Jayna said a little less surely. As odd and as cranky as the man was, Professor Nichols cared about them. She missed the old man already.

"Ororo and the others are working on that, child," Xavier said gently.

[The Daily Planet] Thin Threads

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