Title: “Walk a Mile in My Shoes” 2/?
Author: sharonmjl47
Rating: NC-17
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The last thing Marie could remember was a really bright light. It had filled her vision and made her eyes hurt. They still hurt; so did her head. It felt so heavy. She could vaguely hear Hank talking to Scott, trying to get him to sit up and speak. She tried to move, but all she could do was roll over onto her back. She felt so strange. The only way she could describe it was heavy. She felt heavy. Her stomach felt like it had been flipped a thousand times.
She ran her hand down to her bare midriff and rubbed her tummy. Finally she was able to sit up and open her eyes. She started by rubbing her hands over her face and hair. It didn’t feel so silky anymore; it felt coarse and unkempt.
Looking down at herself, she realised what was going on. She still had her boots on, her jeans weren’t so tight around her curves, and her top was baggy around her bust. She had somehow shrunk ever so slightly. God, she was a kid!
She let out a shriek and jumped to her feet. She saw Jubilee lying on the floor across the room. She looked so tiny, so young. Hank had got Scott on his feet and was trying to calm him.
“Scott, you must calm yourself.”
“This is just wrong!” Hank stepped away and looked at Scott closely, narrowing his eyes briefly before they went wide with utter disbelief. Scott was visibly two inches shorter, his hair was lighter and his face was younger. He looked like your stereotypical 16-year-old jock in his pale chinos and polo shirt.
Hank pointed to him and began to stutter. Then he turned to look at Marie. Then his gaze fell on Logan and Jubilee who were still unconscious on the floor. “L—L—Logan?” He shook his head at what he was seeing. “No.” He pointed to Marie and Scott again. “I don’t know how, but, oh dear.” Then Hank looked back and forth between them. “Oh dear!” He walked over to the bodies of Logan and Jubilee. “Oh, I think I need to lie down!”
Hank walked over to a grey filing cabinet against the far wall and pulled out the bottom drawer. From that, he took out a small shot glass and a half-empty bottle of whiskey. He poured himself a small short and downed it. He shuddered slightly, blue fur shaking with every slight movement. He looked at the unconscious bodies of Logan and Jubilee, then to Marie and Scott and poured himself another.
While he was doing that, Marie looked at herself in the reflective glass window on one side of the lab. Her white streak was gone, her face was a little rounder, her chest was flat, and so was her ass. There was no real shape to her hips. She looked feminine still, but not womanly at all. She looked exactly like she had when Logan had found her in his trailer. What she thought was young and scrawny.
Hank seemed to steady himself, then meaningfully screwed the top back on his whiskey bottle, but left it on his desk. “Right. Let’s get them awake, shall we? I don’t think this is going to be an easy conversation to have.” He stood up, then paused. “First though…” He picked up the phone on his desk. “Yes, Charles, I would be grateful for your assistance in my science laboratory. Problem? No, well, yes! You could call it that…Logan, no, no, he is in perfect health, of sorts…Yes, there is a small problem! Yes, thank you.”
He walked over to the two sleeping people. “Rogue, help me get Logan into a siting position. Then I can use smelling salts. Scott, could you do the same with Jubilee?”
“Sure.” Scott gently put his hand under her head. “This is just so weird.”
He sat her body up against the side of Hank’s desk. Marie and Hank did the same with Logan. They stood there looking at their bodies sitting side by side. Both Marie and Scott felt scared and confused as Hank knelt down and put smelling salts under Logan and Jubilee’s noses.
Jubilee woke and put her hands on her temples and began to moan. Logan warily looked up and around, his eyes finally falling on Marie. His eyes travelled up and down her body, taking in her appearance.
He was on his feet in mere seconds, wide-legged stance, arms spread ready to fight. “Back up, you blue bitch. That’s a real bad copy of my girl!”
Marie smiled and pointed to his body. “Hold fire, sugar. Just take a little look at yourself there.”
He flared his nostrils, and confusion crossed his face at the scents that came to him. He watched Marie cross her arms in front of her chest. Logan looked at his hands, then his body. He stepped back, as if he was trying to get away from himself. Stepping back again, he bumped into Hank’s desk and stumbled. He sat up onto the desk, and the shoes that he had been wearing immediately fell off.
“What. The. Fuck. Is. Going. ON!?!”
Marie put up both her hands in an attempt to calm him. “Logan, we’re all in the same boat. Hank’s machine somehow made us all kids again. Jubilee, Scott and me are the same. Look.” She watched as he looked around the room at the rest of them. Even as a 15-16 year old boy, he was big, still at least 5ft 8” when normally Logan was 6ft 2 ½”. His shoulders were still heavily set, big chest, lots of muscles. His facial hair had gone, and he looked amazingly handsome. His clothes were a little baggy and it showed the difference in his frame. She thought he looked like Tom Welling from Smallville. “Sugar, it’s going to be ok. We’ll figure this out. It’s fine.”
“Fine? Fine?! I’m A FUCKING KID, MARIE!”
She took a step back from him and closed her eyes tight. He instantly realised what he had done and got off the table to go to her. He wanted to hug her but felt awkward, so he decided to just stand in front of her and rub her arms.
“Marie, huh? Pretty name, chica.” Scott was helping Jubilee to sit on the edge of the desk. Her curves had disappeared much like Marie’s had. Her hair was the same, but her face was so much younger and somehow innocent.
“Oh darlin’, I’m so sorry.”
“It is, indeed, a rather rash way to find out, but pretty indeed.” Xavier had wheeled into the room without anyone noticing. He was now behind Marie and Logan.
Marie raised her eyebrow at Logan and shrugged. “It’s ok. Another thing we’ll deal with later. We got other stuff to worry about.” Marie put her hand on her head and gasped. “I think my passengers are a little cranky.”
“Whose consciousness do you have left?”
“Logan, Eric and St John. There the only ones who have hung on.” She frowned.
“Are you sure there’s no one else. It’s important.”
She shot a quick sheepish glance at Logan and sighed. “There’s a bit of Bobby, but nothing much. A few memories, not like an actual consciousness.”
“What? You never told me that. When did you get Ice-queer in your head?”
“It was a long time ago. It wasn’t important at the time, and I never got around to telling you.”
“Jesus, Marie!” Logan shook his head, then grabbed the waistband of his jeans and hiked them up a bit. Jubilee noticed and had to put her hand over her mouth to stop her from laughing.
Xavier positioned himself next to Marie. “Marie, Marie, I want you to listen to the sound of my voice. Ignore those that are attempting to influence you…”
“Get out of my head, Charles. I’m not one of your little children, who you can manipulate whenever you have a cause.”
“Magneto.” Xavier closed his eyes and tried to concentrate his mind on Marie’s consciousness. Marie flinched as she felt something shift in her mind. “Marie, listen to me. I know you can hear me, and I need you to concentrate on my voice and my voice alone. Push past them, Marie. Ignore what they say, push past them and come to me, Marie.”
“It’s so hard. They’re so strong!” She was clutching the side of her head.
“Just concentrate, Marie. You can do it.” Xavier put a reassuring hand on Marie’s shoulder.
“I think I got it. They’re still there, but I think I got it. God they don’t ever shut up.” Hank handed her a glass of water. “Thank you. Sorry, they’re a little pissed off.”
“Now her mind is under wraps, can we please get me the fuck out of this body?”
“What’s up, dude, don’t want to be young at heart?” Jubes was finding this seriously funny.
Logan attempted to growl, but it came out more of a wimpy squeak. He coughed and covered it well.
Hank was inspecting the hand controls while cleaning his glasses with his handkerchief. “Well, the power cell has completely depleted. I’m unsure how or even if it recharges itself. I am afraid for the time bring while I do some tests, you will all simply have to wait.”
“Wait? Are you fucking shitting me? I’M A KID!”
“Calm down, Logan. You’re not the only one who’s a kid! I’m team leader, so I’m not exactly loving this situation either.”
“Oh you’re not having fun, ‘cause I’m farting rainbows over here!”
“Firstly, let’s check each one of you over to make sure that the machine hasn’t left any residual health issues, then we will think of a temporary plan while I carry out some tests on the machine.”
They all nodded. Hank spent a good hour on each of them, checking all of their vital signs, blood pressure, pulse, and heart rate. Then he went a step further with them all by performing a brain scan, several blood and DNA tests, and finally an X-Ray each.
The four of them were sitting on and around Hank’s desk while he shared the results with them and the Professor. “Well, I am happy to say that all of you are in perfect health. I estimate that the four of you are around 15 or 16 years in age, and all of you are currently smack bang in the middle of puberty, which should be interesting. The brain scans came back normal for people of your age. Blood tests and DNA results showed that Marie - I hope you don’t mind me calling you that by the way. It’s just so pretty, and it fits you lovely.” She smiled and shook her head.
“Sorry, where was I? Oh yes. Marie and Jubilee, your mutations have not yet manifested, but due to your pubescent state it could happen at any time, so be wary. It’s normally triggered by a traumatic event. I know it’s ironic, but avoid that if you can. Scott and Logan, your mutations are fully active, but again given your pubescent state, you may find them a little more difficult to control. X-Rays, yes, Scott, Marie and Jubilee all fine. Logan, yours was quite interesting. It appears that your metal skeleton has also been changed to accommodate the change to your body.”
“How did that machine manage this?” The Professor had nearly as many questions as the others did.
“It has somehow changed their molecular structure and reversed the ageing process. I don’t understand why anyone would create such a contraption. I simply can’t see the point to it. It might be useful as a weapon, but a strange one at that. Maybe Magneto was desperate to re-live his youth.”
“Can you reverse the effects?”
Hank cleaned his glasses again. It was something he did when he needed to think, how to word his answer carefully. “I believe that I can, but I need the time and some solitary space to do it. I have to figure out how the thing works in the first place, then I will have to figure out how to reverse the machine and its effects.”
Xavier turned his wheelchair to face the four teenagers that used to be his X-Men. “I think that your time would be used best by…enjoying it.”
Scott stood up and put his hands in his pockets. “With all due respect, sir, we need this to get sorted out.”
“Yes, Scott you do. But there is little that the four of you can actually do. You are not fit for your X-Men duties or for your educational ones. My advice would be to seize the opportunity to re-live this part in your lives. All of you, through one reason or another have missed out on some, or in Logan’s case all, of your teenage years. I suggest that you all go and enjoy yourselves. Live a little. Be grumpy, over-emotional and hormonal teenagers again. Don’t waste the chance that has been handed to you.”
They sat there and looked at each other. Then they nodded. Logan took a cigar out of his pocket and was about to light it. Hank jumped forward and grabbed it. “No you don’t, my boy! I’m afraid you are no longer old enough to smoke.”
“Enjoying this a little too much, ain’t ya, blue?”
“I’ll admit, it is rather amusing. May I suggest that you all stay together? If there are any slight changes in your conditions, then it is more likely to be spotted that way.”
The others laughed and then began to file out of the room, but the Professor stopped them. “One more suggestion. Find some clothes that fit. You all look like you’ve raided your parents’ closets!”
Hank and Xavier could hear the now-young group talking as they left. “So, who wants to go to the mall?”
“Jubes!”
“I ain’t going nowhere like this yellow.”
Xavier smiled, as Hank sat down on his chair next to him and poured them each a shot of whiskey. “Charles are you sure it such a good idea to let four hormonal, dangerous and rather unpredictable teenagers on the loose?”
“Hank, my dear friend, we have a school full of hormonal, dangerous and unpredictable teenagers. What’s four more?”
“Well, at least we know Scott will behave himself.”
Xavier chuckled and finished his whiskey. “You didn't know him when he was my student, did you?”
Hank shook his head. “No why?”
“Let’s just say, if the first thing he does is steal a car, I won’t be surprised!”
**********END OF PART TWO
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Author's Chapter Notes:
Summary: “… When did you get Ice-queer in your head?”