Future's Promise*STARTING*(FF, Adult) SPOT OPEN

[nickimlow]

OOC: Hope this works!

Isabel

The drive goes by in a blur. I pull over a distance from our meeting place and sit quietly in the car for awhile, thinking. In a way, I'm glad that my brother called us all together because I'm anxious to catch up with everyone. The past weeks have been crazy for me, and I'm glad to welcome the distraction.

I frown to myself, thinking about Jesse. I've been questioning my decision time and time again, wondering if I'll end up regretting it. But I know deep down that this is the right road for the both of us. No one could ever know how much I loved him and love him still, but this divorce is really for the best. Jesse and I are too different, and I realise that, as much as he is against this, just being with him places him in danger that I can't stand to inflict upon him. Still, it pains me to say goodbye.

With a sigh, I push all thoughts of Jesse, my failed marriage, and the divorce proceedings out of my mind. I get out of the car and start towards the cave that houses the Granolith. As soon as I spot my brother, I run smile widely and hurry forward to embrace him. From the look on his face, I know that he is anxious to see Liz. I groan inwardly since Liz has never been my favourite person, but I suppose that it's enough if she makes Max happy.

Inside, everyone has arrived except her. Thrilled to see Michael, I give him a hug too. Although all of us have become family and each of us looks out for one another, I have always felt that there was a special bond between Michael and me. To me, he was as much a brother to me as Max was.

But this is the new family, and I've grown affectionate towards them as well. We've weathered so much together, the six of us, and I know that our adventures have not come to an end.

Then, minutes later, my thoughts prove prophetic. No sooner after Liz arrives does the Granolith light up and we are all momentarily blinded. Not knowing what exactly is happening and what we might find, I feel dread creeping through my body as our surroundings clear once more.

When my vision finally readjusts, I see that the chamber is crowded, the number of people inside now doubled. Instinctively, my right hand flies up before me and I hold it out against the strangers, all of them looking to be about our age or so. My brother is doing the same as he fires questions at them.

I narrow my eyes at them suspiciously, wondering who they are, whether they're human or alien, how they managed to work the Granolith, and what they are doing here in the first place. And then I realise that one of them is staring at my intently. Something about the beautiful girl seems vaguely familiar, I'm absolutely certain that I have never seen her in my life. But why, then, is she looking at me with an expression that seems to spell recognition?

"Who are you?" I echo Max, but my question is directed at the beautiful girl who won't turn her gaze away from me. I make no move to lower my hand, having learnt from experience never to let my guard down. But as I study her face, something stirs deep inside of me, but I can't quite place the feeling. The sensation is strange and confusing, and the silence is filled with such tension that I can't keep from shouting at them in general, and at the girl in particular, "Answer us!"

[isabelle]

*Lex*

I feel Lana squeeze my hand and I move closer to her, just needing to be together for now. "It's them," I whisper in my sister's hair. Mom and Dad. They're alive again, but they're not brought back from the dead. They're so young. No older than we are. And they look so ... normal. I shouldn't be surprised. It's what we came for, but it's still strange to see it. To really be here. I can hardly believe this nutty plan actually worked! I don't know what do do, or even what to think. From now on, nothing we've known is true anymore. It's a whole new world.

I hear one of them demanding that we identify ourselves. I don't have to turn my head to see who it is. Uncle Max. He's different too. Less ... haunted, or something. "Wow," I add.


*Vega*

In a moment, it happens. We're all there and so are they. Our parents. Dad immediately asks who we are. Of course it would be Dad. He looks scared. Or maybe just surprised. Who can blame him? There's no way he could know what's coming. We have to warn him. Mom's there too, looking so beautiful. I miss her. I miss everything I never had because she died. She was protecting me, I know, but that never made hurt any less to lose her. What will she think now?

"We're friends," I say, raising my palms to indicate that we're not there to hurt anyone. Hopefully he won't take the gesture as a sign of attack since it's so similar to what we might do before blasting something.

[M&M<3]

Maria

I might have gone a little over board last night. Ok so I went a lot over board but at the moment it didn’t feel that way. I hate being in this in between place with Michael. We’re together, no we’re not, we’re together again God it’s just too much to take! When he told me about the meeting, I told him we had to talk after. We need to figure out if we’re together or we’re not; make a decision and stick to it.

*

Could this really be happening? Today is the first day I’ve gotten off from the Crashdown in a week and at first I thought it was going to be another boring meeting at the pod chambers and now… And now there’s a group of people who came out of that Granolith thingy. I watch the pod squad put there hands in the air and Max start yelling. "Who are you?" My body becomes stiff. “Answer us!"

“We’re friends.” A girl speaks up and puts her hand in front of her. I look back and forth between her and Max then towards Michael. Could this really be happening?


Kyle

”We’re friends.”

I laugh, “yes cause all of my friends jump out of a ball of light and some alien looking object.” I look at Isabel, “ok so a couple of them do, but this this is just weird.” I shake my head still a little confused. One second we’re getting ready to start this meeting and the next there’s six people standing in front of us. Good thing our faithful aliens are always on guard and had their hands up faster than you could blink. Who are these people? Why are they here?

[Athenea]

Dominic

This situation seems to be getting out of hand fast. I didn’t expect to have to face them so quickly. I thought we would have time to regroup and then we could search them out. This is unexpected and I know it must be difficult for the others. We need to do something before someone gets blasted.

“We come from the future.” I say hoping they will hear honesty in my voice. “We came here to be safe, that’s all.”

Liz

The future? I thought the future had changed. I thought Future Max and I had changed it. But they say they came here to be safe. Is the future so bad for them that they would have to resort to the Granolith? And how did they know about it anyway much less get it to work?

Zan

I stand back in the shadows behind Lex and Lana and watch the scene unfold. Everyone from our group seems caught up in their memories. Me and Dominic seem to be the only indifferent ones. We don’t really remember our parents, just lab tables and cruel experiments. Of course Dominic probably does remember his Mother, lucky bastard.

The point is, the others, there parents dies to save them and mine gave me away. It’s a bit of a mind bender. Definitely could screw a person up mentally, kind of like a thousand different emotions hitting you at once…so maybe abandonment isn’t to blame on my craziness.

I know how the others look at me sometimes, Zan, the weak link. Well, maybe not Dominic or Lex, but I catch them sometimes and even though I’m not a telepath (I’ve leave that to my Bitch of a cousin) I know what there thinking. How could this be the son of the Great Max Evans? And here he is now, my age, not looking so Great but at least so human.
I close my eyes in an effort to block everything out, everyone out. And keep my mouth shut so I don’t scream out in pain can't be acting crazy now can I?

[nickimlow]

Isabel

I shoot a glance at Kyle as he jokes about the situation, perhaps to conceal the fact that he is as nervous as the rest of us. I don't find it funny, not one bit, but I can't blame him for the attempt to lighten the mood.

But the next words I hear do anything but lighten the mood. One of the boys, tall and dark-haired, tells us that they come from the future. I blink. The future. "We came here to be safe, that’s all.”

"You're from the future. Uh-huh. And you somehow just figured out how to work this thing," I say skeptically. an eyebrow raised. The question 'how' encrypts itself into every syllable I voice. "And now you're here to be safe. Safe from what?" I'm dreading the answer, realising with growing certainty that our lives are back at the peak of the roller coaster ride, and something, maybe intuition or the fruits of experience, tells me that this is the plunge.

I shake my head. "And, friends, this still doesn't answer the question of identity."

[M&M<3]

Maria

“We come from the future. We came here to be safe, that’s all.”

My heart begins to beat faster as I look over at Liz. This must be a future Max thing, but I thought she said they changed the future; it was all going to be ok. I guess something went wrong or at least that’s the way it seems.

“You're from the future. Uh-huh. And you somehow just figured out how to work this thing. And now you're here to be safe. Safe from what?" Isabel’s voice pulls me out of my thoughts, the skepticism in her voice reminds of the Ice Queen I’d known in high school. "And, friends, this still doesn't answer the question of identity." Go Isabel! Sometimes I don’t remember my so called normal life before getting involved in all the alien ciaos and at times like these I either wish I could go back to the simple days or think about how kick ass my friends are. This is definitely one of the kick ass friends days.

WHO ARE YOU?! SAFE FROM WHAT, FROM WHO?! WHY DID YOU COME HERE?! All I want is to scream these questions at them and force answers from the 'future aliens'. Instead I stand behind Michael and wait for answers. Without thinking I automatically find the hand he doesn’t have in the air and hold it tightly, hoping to never have to let him go.

[isabelle]

*Lex*

I hold Lana close watching everything. Mom looks scared. About to freak out. Funny, it makes me feel good. It feels like home. Mom in freak-out mode is something I remember. But she was never freaked out about me. ... well, except once when she'd seen me use my powers. I hadn't even blown anything up, but I'd done something, something that scared her. I don't even remember what. I don't want her to be scared of me.


*Vega*

They're getting scared; I can see that. It's not hard to understand. I'd be scared, too. But there just doesn't seem to be an easy way to start this. It's a nearly impossible thing to explain. The only thing that makes it barely conceivable is that they are who they are. They're more used to dealing with things that are way beyond the ordinary. Or at least, I hope so. What passed for 'ordinary' for me for the last twelve years isn't something I want to think about. I need something beyond ordinary. I want to live again.

I look at Mom. She's so different than I remember. I don't remember her looking so uncertain. She'd always seemed so strong. They need answers. I glance at Dominick and Zan, both of them my brothers in different ways. Somebody's got to get this started.

"We're ... we're you're children," I say. "My name is Vega Claudia Evans."

[nickimlow]

Lana

My brother's voice helps to calm my nerves and I recover from the initial shock of seeing those faces again. Vega and Dominic are level-headed enough to answer calmly even though this was not the situation we had expected to find ourselves in so soon.

I hear Dominic saying that we just came here to be safe and I can't help but wonder, will we be? I haven't known 'safe' for so long that it still seems so far away and out of reach. But this is another time, another place all together.

Vega makes the first move to introduce herself, and I'm a little stunned. Of course I know that we have to tell them, but bursting in on them all of a sudden and telling them that we're their children from the future- I don't expect them to believe us. Still, they'll have to find out at some point, so better sooner than later.

Taking comfort from my brother's closeness, I steel myself for their reactions. "I'm Lana," I say softly, looking at my father and wishing we could go back to the time when we were a family again. He looks tough as always, a stark contrast next to Mom's nervous composure. "Lana Guerin. And this is my brother, Lex."

[M&M<3]

Kyle

I catch Isabel giving me that irritated look and know my humour isn’t as fun out loud as it is in my head. But I get, Iz is in protection mode no funnies aloud on her watch. I chuckled a little at myself, as a girl in front of me looks around then begins to speak. "We're ... we're you're children. My name is Vega Claudia Evans." I feel my jaw almost hitting the floor and stop breathing for a couple of seconds. Our children? Now I know I’ve seen some pretty messed up stuff in the last few years but… come on! Time travel? Really?! Before anyone has a chance to say anything another girl speaks up. "I'm Lana. Lana Guerin. And this is my brother, Lex." She says this looking at Guerin. I shake my head, this has to be one of those really bad alien themed dreams I have; you know the ones where the Skin’s abducted me and do the painful experiments on me in order to get to the royal four?

I glance over at Maria and take a deep breath. She has that look on her face she gets right before hurricane DeLuca strikes. I start to feel the sweat pooling on the back of my collar in anticipation of what’s to come.

[isabelle]

*Vega*

Lana introduces herself and her brother while I watch the adults, waiting for their response. Adults, hah. They're only a year or so older than me, younger than Dominick. This is so strange.

"That's my brother Zan," I say, gesturing. "You know about him already, right?" I ask, still watching my dad. He and mom had never mentioned Zan when I was little. Of course, I was only five so I guess that's not hard to understand. Still, I was in that place for years before I really believed that Zan could be my brother, believed that my father could have given his son away. Even 'though I'd come to accept it, now I find that remnant of doubt return. I'm waiting, watching to see if it's really true.