Secondus Scholae

by Phil Hartman

8/1/2018: Richtech Tower, Neo Amsterdam, New York: 08:00 hrs EDT:

12-year-old Aidan Richards took a deep breath, then shoved red bangs out of his blue-eyed face before daring to place a hand on the boardroom doorknob.

"If you really want to know what's in there, you could just ask," Frank Richards told his only son with a cheery voice.

Aidan blushed, turning to see his parents standing behind him with smiles - #they're not mad,# he thought, relieved.

"No ... we just wanted to wait until you were old enough to tell you exactly what happened to our old team," Rachel said, dressed in the teaching robe she wore in her role as "Mother Askani" of the Askani Collegium a few floors below. She shook out her red hair and gestured towards the door, which opened telekinetically.

"The history books will tell you that on December 31, 2000, the second New Mutants successfully saved the population of New York City from an atomic bomb," Frank said, taking up a position on Aidan's right side.

"But we didn't come away unscathed," Rachel continued, walking at Aidan's left. "Some of us never made it back ... and we still lost New York City's architecture and commerce. The States took a decade to recover - but the civilians were safe. At the cost of our innocence ..."

She looked at the statues lining the huge, temple-like room, and cleared her throat.

"We'd teleported into Times Square for New Year's," Rachel began. "We were so excited - our first semester had gone all right. We had improved control over our powers."

"And then Tom Shade detected the bomb in the dropping ball," Frank said, his voice taking on an acid tone. "But it wasn't nuclear.

"It was antimatter."

Aidan looked at his parents in horror.

"Oh yeah, Aid," Frank said, meeting his son's gaze with a humorless smile. "Someone wanted to make sure the Eastern seaboard became uninhabitable for a VERY long time. Tom psyberhacked the bomb's timer, but he couldn't deactivate it. There was a deadman's switch on it, and he was losing focus."

"Four of us decided to sacrifice themselves to let us save the people," Rachel whispered.

"Tom kept the bomb from detonating long enough for Chuck Lehnsherr and Alexa Wagner to channel the energy into space. Illyana Rasputin pushed herself to the limit teleporting individual people to Limbo."

"But - why not just 'port the bomb to Limbo ?" Aidan asked, tearing up.

"There were micro-detonators along the outside casing, rigged to go off if a spatial rift opened within an inch of the bomb," Frank said, anger entering his voice. "The stepping discs were far enough away that the bomb didn't detonate until Tom released it. But the backwash still seeped through Chuck and Alexa's combined powers, and ... burned Manhattan to the ground."

"A-and ... Mr. Shade, Mr. Lehnsherr, Ms. Wagner and Ms. Rasputin ... ?" Aidan asked, horrified.

"Chuck and Alexa survived - they left Earth, guilt-stricken, after we graduated," Rachel said, sighing. "They've stayed on New Avalon, keeping the Acolytes in line, and never came back - they blame themselves for letting Manhattan get incinerated."

"We GOT the people out," Frank grumbled. "Collateral damage could be replaced. But they don't see it that way."

"As for Tom ... he 'evolved,' as he put it," Rachel said, smiling with humor again. "He turned into pure electrical energy and entered the Internet, surfing eternally. He pops up now and then on a screen, but he's never rematerialized."

"Your Aunt Bea keeps trying to coax him out with pictures of PCs in frilly underthings, but it doesn't work," Frank grinned evilly, ducking Rachel's attempted slap.

"And Ms. Rasputin ?" Aidan asked, smiling again himself.

Frank and Rachel traded a knowing look and grinned.

"She's Earth's latest Sorceress Supreme," Rachel said, blushing.

"Some mages accused her of bribing Dr. Strange for the job," Frank said, winking at Rachel.

"'Bribe.' You put it so diplomatically," Rachel snickered. "I never thought of Stephen Strange as that kind of guy ..."

"Well, if I lived alone in a big brownstone with just Wong for company, I'd get lonely too," Frank said, taking Rachel's hand with a gentle smile. "I'm really lucky."

"OK, you're forgiven for the kinky PC gag," Rachel grinned, nibbling Frank's ear.

"A-HEM," Aidan said, blushing but smiling happily. His parents stood apart from each other, and he said, "I'm glad you guys are close, but what about the bomb ? Who made it ?"

Rachel frowned and said, "Forge."

"FORGE !?" Aidan squeaked, blushing when his voice cracked.

"Forge. He'd snapped when Storm broke up with him for the last time," Frank growled. "Somehow, he got ahold of some antimatter - or he made some - and tried to turn Manhattan into a parking lot."

"That's how your dad found out about the bomb's specs," Rachel said, relaxing. "We tore Forge's lab apart, even before the feds or the senior X-teams of the time got there - we were PISSED."

"Bill almost killed Forge," Frank remembered, wincing. "He thought Tom was dead, until the computer came on by itself."

"Wow," Aidan said, looking around the room. Paintings of the various second New Mutants hung on the walls, and the Richards started to walk around the boardroom table.

"You know your Uncle Nate and Aunt Bea married, and had your cousins Payne and Morgan," Rachel told Aidan as he looked at a portrait of Cable and Domino. They walked to another portrait, this of a young blond man and woman wearing only leaves over strategic areas of their bodies.

"Lew Guthrie and Luna Maximoff," Frank grinned. "Lew's become a Wiccan terraformer, and Luna's still got it bad for him."

"I think Quicksilver shook himself into the ground when he saw what Luna wore to the wedding," Rachel deadpanned.

They moved on, and Aidan grinned at the red-headed man and woman in the next portrait. "Joe and Gail Bailey," he said. "I know where they are."

"Gail's a firefighter with the U.S. Forest Service, and Joe's a rainmaker," Rachel said, beaming at her cousins' portrait. "And of course, the next person is with Gail."

"You'll notice, Bill Shade is as FAR from May Parker as possible," Frank grinned, looking innocent when Rachel mock-glared at him.

Aidan shook his head when he took in the image of the red-brown-mohawk-haired Bill wearing leather pants and a leather vest, with piercings coming out of his ears, nose, eyelids and lips.

"Uh ... does he still look like that ?" Aidan asked, while they moved to the next portrait.

"Yes," Frank said, snickering. "Bill's revived punk rock - 'the Screaming Bosons.'"

"May almost made him scream," Rachel sighed, nodding at the image of a young, red-brown haired young woman in glasses and a proper business suit. "She caught Bill with Gail during our senior year, and Gail and May've hated each other ever since."

"Actually, I think May bought the Bugle with her folks' settlement money from the Osborn estate just to turn it into an anti-Bill-Shade rant," Frank reflected.

"Like May has any room to talk," Rachel snorted. "I still remember her thought-leakage at 3 a.m. when we were roommates. 'Oh yes, Normie, give me the pumpkin bomb !'"

Aidan tried not to giggle, and Frank looked at Rachel in shock.

"Relax, Captain Skimpy," Rachel purred at Frank, hugging him around the waist. "You know no goblin could ever steal me from you."

"That's reassuring, Fire-Nubbins," Frank mumbled, his lips finding Rachel's.

"A-HEM !"

"Sorry," Frank told Aidan, as the boy blushed and grinned again.

"It's OK, but can we just finish the tour before you guys - y'know ?" Aidan asked, blushing even brighter.

"OK - ingrate," Rachel teased. "If your dad and I didn't - y'know - you wouldn't be here, you know."

"TMI ! TMI !" Aidan pleaded, his face matching his hair.

"Indeed," Frank said, blushing himself now. The family stopped in front of the portrait over the CEO's chair, which displayed an Asian man and woman in casual clothes.

"Leong Coy Mahn mastered his homonculus power and became a stuntman-slash-daredevil," Frank said. "He's been called 'the 21st-century Asian action hero.'"

"But he's still working on his shapeshifting power," Rachel added, grinning evilly. "Frank, remember when Leong connected his sinuses to his sweat glands for that low-budget kung fu movie he did ?"

"Oh God !" Frank groaned. "'Beware, Lo Fang - I wield the dreaded Hand of Snot technique !'"

"Nga is at the Centers for Disease Control, coordinating their Parahuman Medicine Division," Rachel said while Aidan fought a giggle attack. "She's working on an AIDS cure, and she found the counter-protein for the Ebola Zaire virus."

"And then there's Becky Guthrie," Rachel said, blushing profusely as the Richards looked at a picture of a blonde woman wearing a black skinsuit.

"She seems OK," Aidan said, looking at his parents. "She's really kinda good-lookin' ..."

"Aid, she's an ... actress," Frank mumbled.

"And it's not Oscar material," Rachel said, now gritting her teeth. "She's a faunomorph."

"She turns into animals ?" Aidan asked, his eyes widening. "So she works on animal movies ?"

"You could say that," Frank said, looking at Rachel with a pleading expression.

"'Baa, Baa, Bad Sheep,'" Rachel said, wincing.

Aidan looked at his parents curiously, but decided not to press the issue when they walked over to the next portrait. "It's Uncle Jesse !" the boy exclaimed.

The image looking back at the Richards was that of a lean, red-haired young man with a glow around him and laughing blue eyes, dressed in jeans and a polo shirt.

"You know Jesse's finishing up his tour of Europe with his light sculptures," Rachel said, smiling. "I think he might get home before you go back to school -the Labor Day shindig at the mansion."

"Frost !" Aidan said, grinning. "Thanks, guys - I'm gonna go see if Payne and Mor are here yet !"

Frank and Rachel watched Aidan run down the hall, and breathed a sigh of relief.

"Thank God he didn't figure out what Becky's really into," Frank groaned, closing the boardroom door.

Rachel grinned at Frank and slipped her arms around him again. "Funny, you've never had a problem with a phoenix in the bedroom," she teased, letting Frank probe her mouth.

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