Wavering Future

Chapter 8

The impact after teleporting however was not gently like any of them had expected, or mostly how Pharzuph expected. They crashed to the ground in a piled heap. Jay groaned as Angeni and Ashling rolled off his back and allowed him to give Pharzuph room to get up as well; the only thing wrong was that his cousin didn't move.

"Pharzuph?" Ashling looked down worriedly. "His body temperature is low."

Jay looked around, so far no one had noticed them, but it wouldn't take long. It didn't help that they appeared to be in a military base instead of Washington. "Help him up, I'm going to see if we can get out without being seen."

"J-Jay... No." Pharzuph coughed as blood trickled down out of his mouth. "...L-leave me. I'll get out... on m-my own."

"We can't leave you here." Angeni retorted, looking half conscious herself. "What would happen to the time line if humans find you here and see what you are?"

Pharzuph shook his head weakly and closed his eyes. "D-don't worry... a-about that... go!"

"You heard him..." Jay backed away, he didn't want to leave his cousin behind, but Pharzuph did have a point; they couldn't all get caught. "Let's get out of here."

Angeni was the last to rise from her spot on the ground and come over to them, out of the three of them, four if Pharzuph was still included; she stood out the most.

"There's people running to a jet just past this tent... guards are following them." Ashling announced as she tracked the people with their heat signatures. "I can't see their hands... they must be armed."

Jay crept to the edge of the tent and peaked over the edge to see what looked like mutants running into the jet, one was particularly familiar looking. "Dad!"

"What?" Angeni joined him and her eyes widened. "Oh no... This isn't good."

"Why not? He won't die, otherwise I wouldn't have been born."

"No not that." She replied. "If he sees you then it could mess up the time line more than what we want but we need to get on the plane to get out of here."

"Give him a disguise." Ashling suggested.

"Like what?" Angeni looked around desperately.

Jay picked up a hat from inside the tent and put it over his hair. "Better?"

"Just keep you face down and hope he doesn't pay attention to you." Angeni replied. "Oh, and let us do the talking."

Jay grumbled under his breath but obeyed and ran after the two as they headed for the jet, before they could reach the little scuffle with the mutants and humans Angeni teleported them into the jet where the other mutants jumped in shock at their appearance.

"Where did you come from?" An ugly mutant with glasses asked.

Angeni cleared her throat and tried not to sound as tired as she felt. "Around."

The man scowled but didn't question them any more as Jay's father came in, shouting a farewell to someone behind him as the jet's doors closed. Once he turned back to the ground he narrowed his eyes in confusion and suspicion. "Who are you?"

"I'm uh, Distortion." She replied hesitant on using her real name but deciding it wouldn't hurt. "And these two are my friends Neon and Mayhem."

"Code names?" He still didn't seem convinced they were friendly.

"Yeah, even we don't know each others' real names." Ashling, or Neon as Alex now knew her, spoke up. "It makes it easier to deal with a death if one of us dies."

Alex finally seemed to like that answer and relaxed as he sat in a seat. "Well I'm Alex Summers, they are Toad and Ink."

The other tattooed one they could guess was Ink waved while Toad just grunted a greeting. Jay kept his head down as he sat in a chair and observed the floor while the two girls continued talking, making up a fake back-story.

"What's Mayhem' mutation?" Alex questioned suddenly. "Usually mutants with destructive powers have names like that."

The other two went silent and glanced at him. Jay stayed silent for a few seconds not knowing why they weren't saying anything before realizing they were going to allow him to speak after all. "Uh, well, I can't do it... here, but... uh, I can shoot ice."

"You'll have to excuse his stuttering." Ashling apologized for him, earning her a glare from Jay. "He just lost his cousin Cryptic."

"Oh..." Alex went silent for a few minutes before reaching over and patting Jay on the back causing all three to tense up. "Sorry to hear that."

"Where is this plane going?" Angeni asked about ten minutes later after another lapse of silence.

"Home." Ink replied. "So wherever you want to go."

"We need to get to Washington."

"Then that should be by the end of the day." Toad guessed.

Alex nodded then glanced up at them. "You should visit Xavier's school while you're there. It's for mutants like us... You'll be safe for a bit if you need to hide."

Angeni nodded and leaned her head back to doze off, it would be a long flight and she wanted to be as awake as possible for when they met younger Charles Xavier. The other two were already ahead of her, completely passed out, it was probably the easiest sleep any of them had gotten in a while, after all giant Sentinels weren't coming after them to kill them in their sleep. The one thing that bothered her more than the fact Alex could figure out who Jay really was, was the fact that they had left Pharzuph behind as he died. That wasn't how this rescue mission was supposed to go and now she had no idea how they would get back to their future, or hopefully new future.