Post by Matthew Craft on Oct 24, 2007 2:11:21 GMT
[]
[[Oh, and for reference's sake, Greg is 18, Timmy's 12 (and is bald with metal skin), and Jackie's 6]]
Matthew raises his hand to knock against the metal door, but drops it an instant later in a moment of dread. He looks down at the scrap of paper in his hand and then compares it to the number on the door. The address was right, but he still couldn’t conjure up the courage to knock.
He wants to know that Laurie is alright, but as he’s learned in the passed several hours, things here just weren’t that simple. The world had become a dangerous place for people like him, and this rebel camp proved it: serious defence measures, a large supply of combatant mutants, and a military-like set of procedures. The Institute was in ruins and he got the distinct sensation of fear from the people in the compound. As much as he wanted to fling himself out there and find Laurie, wherever she’d been taken, he knows that he would have to wait, no matter how uncomfortable that made him feel.
He stares down at the paper again. Greg had passed it to him after all the appropriate DNA tests had been complete, encouraging him to stop by the living quarters. He never explained why, but Matthew had his suspicions. He’d encountered an older version of his sister and her son—his nephew—but there had been no mention of his own future self.
Josh was dead, Jack was dead, John was dead…he felt the chill creep up his spine.
He lifts his hand again and is finally about to tap the metal with his knuckles when the door slides open with a quiet hsssh. Greg stares at him seriously before backing away and letting his uncle pass through the door. Matthew clears his throat and nods, a little embarrassed. “Right…uh…thanks.” Ducking beneath the door frame, he steps into the modest-sized living quarters.
It was modest in size and also modest in decorations. Toni never was much of an interior designer. The walls were a simple light brown and the floors were the same steel sheets that lined the hallways. There were a few pictures hung up on the wall; nearly all drawn by children, and a few shelves held a collection of framed photos.
“So…” Matthew says, scratching the back of his head and looking at the other boy, who—he thought—he really shouldn’t be called a boy, since he was nearly the same height as him and was actually a few years older.
“Mom wasn’t going to invite you here, but I figured you’d be curious.” Greg motions to worn couch in the corner. Taking the hint, Matthew finds a seat, resisting the urge to glance at the photos on the way by.
“I wouldn’t call it curiosity…” He mutters, rubbing his hands together as he sinks into the cushions.
“Well, Mom wouldn’t agree with me, but I thought you deserved to know, you know, about this.” Greg waves his hand around, indicating the room. He finds his own seat in a chair across from his uncle and leans forward to rest his elbows on his knees. An awkward silence quickly ensues.
“So…you’re my nephew, huh?” Matthew asks finally, staring
intently at his thumbs as he fidgets.
“Yeah…weird isn’t it?” Greg sympathizes.
“Just a bit.”
“There’s, uh…there’s actually three of us. Umm...I’m the
oldest, and then there’s Timmy and Jackie.”
“And you’re all Toni’s?” Matthew inquires uncomfortably. Greg
nods. “Who’s…uh…who’s your dad?” There’s some obvious abrupt
tension in his nephew’s body, but he calms quickly.
“Jack Russell.” A touch of venom—so far as Matthew can tell—is
added to the name.
“Really?!” He can’t help but gawk, earning a faint, but brief
smile from Greg. “Him?! But he’s just so…so…”
“Not Mom?” It was weird to have someone refer to Toni as Mom.
“Yes! How did that happen?” Matthew feels the familiar protective
prickle at the back of his neck.
“Don’t ask me. I wasn’t there.” Greg leans back in his seat
and shrugs, growing more comfortable.
“Right…sorry. It’s just…woah.” Matthew swallows, tipping his
head back to stare at the ceiling before he remembers a small amount of
manners. “Oh jeez, I’m sorry about your dad…”
“Don’t be.” He’s about to ask what he means by that, but the
look he gets from Greg promptly shuts him up. Well, he got that look from Toni.
“So…you’re eighteen, right?” He receives a nod.
“Wow, that means that you’re supposed to be born two years from now…or I guess then…” Matthew has to wonder if then even still exists. Would they ever get home? Would Greg even be born now that they were in the future and knew about him? Would be be born because they knew about him? Ow...brain hurts...
“Yeah, November 22nd, 2009.” Greg confirms, then pauses.
“Did you want to meet Timmy and Jackie?” Matthew tilts his head to the side and frowns slightly with a shrug.
“Sure, why not?” It can’t get any weirder.
“Hey, Tim!” Greg yells back over his shoulder, the deep voice
booming off the walls.
“What?” Came the higher-pitched reply, sounding out from a room down a neighbouring hall.
“Come out here for a sec, will ya?”
“Why?” Greg rolls his eyes.
“Just do it. And bring Jackie too.” There’s a loud huff and then the sound of heavy footsteps as Timmy walks down toward his older brother. Jackie comes running along behind.
Matthew finds himself staring at his other nephew, awed by the strange metallic sheen to his skin and his obvious lack of hair. Timmy crosses his arms and stares expectantly at his older brother. “What?” Greg simply points to Matthew in the corner, who gives a small wave.
“Uh…hey.” Timmy’s arms unfold and his mouth gapes slightly
before bounding excitedly over and engulfing Matthew in a tight hug. “Woah!” He squawks, taken back by the sheer weight of the teen.
“Uncle Matty! You’re alive!” Matthew can’t help but laugh at the excitement and pats his affectionate attacker on the back, but immediately tenses when his nephew’s words sink in. He gives Greg a sobering look from over Timmy’s shoulder. Jackie clings to her eldest brother’s arm, peering at the stranger curiously.
“I’m dead?” He has to ask it, even if it ruins the expression of
joy on Timmy’s face.
“Yeah…about eight years ago now.” The younger boy stops his hug and pulls back, shooting a confused look at his brother. Matthew bobs his head chewing on his thumbnail.
Instead of the dread he expected to feel, his chest feels with a deep sorrow, but it’s not sorrow for himself. Instead he can’t help but feel a profound sadness for the three relatives in front of him. They’re father was dead and so was he, and considering just how happy Timmy was to see him, he’d obviously meant a lot to them. And what about Toni? Both her brother and the father of her children were dead, leaving her to raise the three of them on her own. “How did it happen?” He asks after several long moments.
Timmy, only half understanding the situation, takes a seat on an ottoman while Jackie pulls herself up onto Greg’s lap, hiding her head beneath his chin shyly.
“It was during a rescue mission on one of the camps. As you were trying to escape with your team, you were attacked by a sentinel.” He gently pats his young sister’s head reassuringly as he continues, giving his uncle a softer look. “You weren’t able to make it out with the rest of your team, but you were able to take out three sentinels and a big chunk of their defence perimeter when you…” Greg makes an explosion motion with his hand.
Matthew feels his stomach tighten and is very grateful that he’s sitting down. He could only assume that Greg’s flick of the fingers meant that, somehow, his nuclear core had detonated. “I…uh…wow.” He mutters, rubbing his face with a trembling hand. I did all that? It wasn’t a thought of amazement, instead one of
nausea-inducing horror. “That’s pretty screwed up…”
“Yeah. But the damage you caused to their defence system let our teams get in and save over sixty people. Mom said that you would have liked that.” I guess there are worse ways to go…though what’s worse than going off like a nuclear bomb? Being able to cause such tremendous damage and loss of life terrifies him so much that he feels the world spin for a few moments.
Timmy, still rather confused, raises a metal hand. “Umm…what?” He asks, looking at Greg.
“It’s…this isn’t the same Uncle Matty we knew.” He explains,
struggling to figure out how he could describe the events of the past 24 hours to his younger siblings. “For some reason, he’s from 2007, not 2027.” Timmy blinks then looks at his uncle.
“You mean you travelled through time?” Matthew shrugs with a
frown, still too busy mulling over his death.
“I guess. We don’t really know yet.”
“That’s kinda cool.” He shrugs again, not finding it nearly as
intriguing as his young nephew.
“Do you know who that is, Jackie?” Greg asks, looking down at his sister. The young girl stares back up at him with her big blue eyes and shakes her head. He reaches up and pulls a frame from the overhead shelf and shows her the picture inside. “That’s Uncle Matty. See?” He points to the man in the photo as Jackie grasps onto it with her little hands. She looks at the picture, then up at her uncle, comparing the two.
Holding onto the picture tightly, Jackie slides off her brother’s lap and slowly walks over to Matthew. She stands next to him, his knees nearly taller than her, and examines the photo again. Nervously, she thrusts her hand and the picture frame at him. Matthew takes it with a hesitant but soft smile and gazes down at the photo.
It was a family picture, with Toni, Jack, Timmy, Greg and himself, all sharing a happy moment together. Greg, maybe only nine or ten, grinned through a few missing teeth while his parents stood behind him, their arms around each other and smiling happily for the camera. Timmy, barely grown out of the toddler stage, was hoisted up in Matthew’s
arms and both were sporting wide smiles.
He can’t help but feel a swell of happiness as he studies the picture. Everyone seemed so cheerful, despite the horrible war that had affected them. Any protective feelings that he had felt for his sister all wash away when he sees just how content she was with Jack. But the happy feelings are soon replaced with a sharp pang of sadness as he remembers that both he and Jack were dead now. No wonder Toni had become so serious and humourless…
Matthew, trying to distract himself from the depressing thoughts, stares at the older version of himself. His hair was cut shorter and he looked a touch taller. His skin was tanned and he could barely make out the faint line of a long scar that ran down the back of his triceps. The face had lost its youth and was definitely that of a mature man, and
he could also see the stress of war in the lines on his face. Matthew found that despite his older self being only 28 in the photo, he looked a fair bit older.
“So this is me, huh?” He asks, pulling himself out of his little grim reverie to smile gently down at his young niece. Jackie nods and then climbs up onto the sofa and wraps her arms tightly around his neck, burying her face in against his shoulder. Matthew opens his mouth but closes it as he returns the embrace.
It all feels so strange, having these people know so much about him and him know nothing about them. He was sitting there, holding a niece that had yet to be born while there were pictures around him that he didn’t remember being in and hearing stories that wouldn’t be recorded for years. Matthew has no idea how he was ever going to understand it all, but at that moment he’s more content in knowing that despite his death he had still made a positive impact. Jackie’s arms around his neck were more than enough proof of that.
[[Oh, and for reference's sake, Greg is 18, Timmy's 12 (and is bald with metal skin), and Jackie's 6]]
Matthew raises his hand to knock against the metal door, but drops it an instant later in a moment of dread. He looks down at the scrap of paper in his hand and then compares it to the number on the door. The address was right, but he still couldn’t conjure up the courage to knock.
He wants to know that Laurie is alright, but as he’s learned in the passed several hours, things here just weren’t that simple. The world had become a dangerous place for people like him, and this rebel camp proved it: serious defence measures, a large supply of combatant mutants, and a military-like set of procedures. The Institute was in ruins and he got the distinct sensation of fear from the people in the compound. As much as he wanted to fling himself out there and find Laurie, wherever she’d been taken, he knows that he would have to wait, no matter how uncomfortable that made him feel.
He stares down at the paper again. Greg had passed it to him after all the appropriate DNA tests had been complete, encouraging him to stop by the living quarters. He never explained why, but Matthew had his suspicions. He’d encountered an older version of his sister and her son—his nephew—but there had been no mention of his own future self.
Josh was dead, Jack was dead, John was dead…he felt the chill creep up his spine.
He lifts his hand again and is finally about to tap the metal with his knuckles when the door slides open with a quiet hsssh. Greg stares at him seriously before backing away and letting his uncle pass through the door. Matthew clears his throat and nods, a little embarrassed. “Right…uh…thanks.” Ducking beneath the door frame, he steps into the modest-sized living quarters.
It was modest in size and also modest in decorations. Toni never was much of an interior designer. The walls were a simple light brown and the floors were the same steel sheets that lined the hallways. There were a few pictures hung up on the wall; nearly all drawn by children, and a few shelves held a collection of framed photos.
“So…” Matthew says, scratching the back of his head and looking at the other boy, who—he thought—he really shouldn’t be called a boy, since he was nearly the same height as him and was actually a few years older.
“Mom wasn’t going to invite you here, but I figured you’d be curious.” Greg motions to worn couch in the corner. Taking the hint, Matthew finds a seat, resisting the urge to glance at the photos on the way by.
“I wouldn’t call it curiosity…” He mutters, rubbing his hands together as he sinks into the cushions.
“Well, Mom wouldn’t agree with me, but I thought you deserved to know, you know, about this.” Greg waves his hand around, indicating the room. He finds his own seat in a chair across from his uncle and leans forward to rest his elbows on his knees. An awkward silence quickly ensues.
“So…you’re my nephew, huh?” Matthew asks finally, staring
intently at his thumbs as he fidgets.
“Yeah…weird isn’t it?” Greg sympathizes.
“Just a bit.”
“There’s, uh…there’s actually three of us. Umm...I’m the
oldest, and then there’s Timmy and Jackie.”
“And you’re all Toni’s?” Matthew inquires uncomfortably. Greg
nods. “Who’s…uh…who’s your dad?” There’s some obvious abrupt
tension in his nephew’s body, but he calms quickly.
“Jack Russell.” A touch of venom—so far as Matthew can tell—is
added to the name.
“Really?!” He can’t help but gawk, earning a faint, but brief
smile from Greg. “Him?! But he’s just so…so…”
“Not Mom?” It was weird to have someone refer to Toni as Mom.
“Yes! How did that happen?” Matthew feels the familiar protective
prickle at the back of his neck.
“Don’t ask me. I wasn’t there.” Greg leans back in his seat
and shrugs, growing more comfortable.
“Right…sorry. It’s just…woah.” Matthew swallows, tipping his
head back to stare at the ceiling before he remembers a small amount of
manners. “Oh jeez, I’m sorry about your dad…”
“Don’t be.” He’s about to ask what he means by that, but the
look he gets from Greg promptly shuts him up. Well, he got that look from Toni.
“So…you’re eighteen, right?” He receives a nod.
“Wow, that means that you’re supposed to be born two years from now…or I guess then…” Matthew has to wonder if then even still exists. Would they ever get home? Would Greg even be born now that they were in the future and knew about him? Would be be born because they knew about him? Ow...brain hurts...
“Yeah, November 22nd, 2009.” Greg confirms, then pauses.
“Did you want to meet Timmy and Jackie?” Matthew tilts his head to the side and frowns slightly with a shrug.
“Sure, why not?” It can’t get any weirder.
“Hey, Tim!” Greg yells back over his shoulder, the deep voice
booming off the walls.
“What?” Came the higher-pitched reply, sounding out from a room down a neighbouring hall.
“Come out here for a sec, will ya?”
“Why?” Greg rolls his eyes.
“Just do it. And bring Jackie too.” There’s a loud huff and then the sound of heavy footsteps as Timmy walks down toward his older brother. Jackie comes running along behind.
Matthew finds himself staring at his other nephew, awed by the strange metallic sheen to his skin and his obvious lack of hair. Timmy crosses his arms and stares expectantly at his older brother. “What?” Greg simply points to Matthew in the corner, who gives a small wave.
“Uh…hey.” Timmy’s arms unfold and his mouth gapes slightly
before bounding excitedly over and engulfing Matthew in a tight hug. “Woah!” He squawks, taken back by the sheer weight of the teen.
“Uncle Matty! You’re alive!” Matthew can’t help but laugh at the excitement and pats his affectionate attacker on the back, but immediately tenses when his nephew’s words sink in. He gives Greg a sobering look from over Timmy’s shoulder. Jackie clings to her eldest brother’s arm, peering at the stranger curiously.
“I’m dead?” He has to ask it, even if it ruins the expression of
joy on Timmy’s face.
“Yeah…about eight years ago now.” The younger boy stops his hug and pulls back, shooting a confused look at his brother. Matthew bobs his head chewing on his thumbnail.
Instead of the dread he expected to feel, his chest feels with a deep sorrow, but it’s not sorrow for himself. Instead he can’t help but feel a profound sadness for the three relatives in front of him. They’re father was dead and so was he, and considering just how happy Timmy was to see him, he’d obviously meant a lot to them. And what about Toni? Both her brother and the father of her children were dead, leaving her to raise the three of them on her own. “How did it happen?” He asks after several long moments.
Timmy, only half understanding the situation, takes a seat on an ottoman while Jackie pulls herself up onto Greg’s lap, hiding her head beneath his chin shyly.
“It was during a rescue mission on one of the camps. As you were trying to escape with your team, you were attacked by a sentinel.” He gently pats his young sister’s head reassuringly as he continues, giving his uncle a softer look. “You weren’t able to make it out with the rest of your team, but you were able to take out three sentinels and a big chunk of their defence perimeter when you…” Greg makes an explosion motion with his hand.
Matthew feels his stomach tighten and is very grateful that he’s sitting down. He could only assume that Greg’s flick of the fingers meant that, somehow, his nuclear core had detonated. “I…uh…wow.” He mutters, rubbing his face with a trembling hand. I did all that? It wasn’t a thought of amazement, instead one of
nausea-inducing horror. “That’s pretty screwed up…”
“Yeah. But the damage you caused to their defence system let our teams get in and save over sixty people. Mom said that you would have liked that.” I guess there are worse ways to go…though what’s worse than going off like a nuclear bomb? Being able to cause such tremendous damage and loss of life terrifies him so much that he feels the world spin for a few moments.
Timmy, still rather confused, raises a metal hand. “Umm…what?” He asks, looking at Greg.
“It’s…this isn’t the same Uncle Matty we knew.” He explains,
struggling to figure out how he could describe the events of the past 24 hours to his younger siblings. “For some reason, he’s from 2007, not 2027.” Timmy blinks then looks at his uncle.
“You mean you travelled through time?” Matthew shrugs with a
frown, still too busy mulling over his death.
“I guess. We don’t really know yet.”
“That’s kinda cool.” He shrugs again, not finding it nearly as
intriguing as his young nephew.
“Do you know who that is, Jackie?” Greg asks, looking down at his sister. The young girl stares back up at him with her big blue eyes and shakes her head. He reaches up and pulls a frame from the overhead shelf and shows her the picture inside. “That’s Uncle Matty. See?” He points to the man in the photo as Jackie grasps onto it with her little hands. She looks at the picture, then up at her uncle, comparing the two.
Holding onto the picture tightly, Jackie slides off her brother’s lap and slowly walks over to Matthew. She stands next to him, his knees nearly taller than her, and examines the photo again. Nervously, she thrusts her hand and the picture frame at him. Matthew takes it with a hesitant but soft smile and gazes down at the photo.
It was a family picture, with Toni, Jack, Timmy, Greg and himself, all sharing a happy moment together. Greg, maybe only nine or ten, grinned through a few missing teeth while his parents stood behind him, their arms around each other and smiling happily for the camera. Timmy, barely grown out of the toddler stage, was hoisted up in Matthew’s
arms and both were sporting wide smiles.
He can’t help but feel a swell of happiness as he studies the picture. Everyone seemed so cheerful, despite the horrible war that had affected them. Any protective feelings that he had felt for his sister all wash away when he sees just how content she was with Jack. But the happy feelings are soon replaced with a sharp pang of sadness as he remembers that both he and Jack were dead now. No wonder Toni had become so serious and humourless…
Matthew, trying to distract himself from the depressing thoughts, stares at the older version of himself. His hair was cut shorter and he looked a touch taller. His skin was tanned and he could barely make out the faint line of a long scar that ran down the back of his triceps. The face had lost its youth and was definitely that of a mature man, and
he could also see the stress of war in the lines on his face. Matthew found that despite his older self being only 28 in the photo, he looked a fair bit older.
“So this is me, huh?” He asks, pulling himself out of his little grim reverie to smile gently down at his young niece. Jackie nods and then climbs up onto the sofa and wraps her arms tightly around his neck, burying her face in against his shoulder. Matthew opens his mouth but closes it as he returns the embrace.
It all feels so strange, having these people know so much about him and him know nothing about them. He was sitting there, holding a niece that had yet to be born while there were pictures around him that he didn’t remember being in and hearing stories that wouldn’t be recorded for years. Matthew has no idea how he was ever going to understand it all, but at that moment he’s more content in knowing that despite his death he had still made a positive impact. Jackie’s arms around his neck were more than enough proof of that.
