Several Years Ago
Young Sam Guthrie was led into the nursing home by his father Thomas on their weekly visit to the boy's Grandfather. The boy was no older than ten, and loved when his weekly visit to see his Grandfather came around.
"Grandpa!" Sam shouted as he ran to hug the old man.
"There's my growing boy," Zachery Guthrie said as he mussed Sam's hair while Thomas went to talk to the manager. "Pretty soon you'll be taller than me. You look sad, boy. What's bothering you?"
"It's nothing." Sam said as he stared down at the ground.
"I can tell when you're lying." Zachery told him.
"It's my clothes, the other kids make fun of me because I have to get my stuff at the Good Will. Mama says we need the money for stuff the babies need. It's not fair, I never get anything new. The girls got new dresses for Easter and Daddy bought Josh a toy guitar because he thinks Josh is going to be a musician."
Zachery picked the boy up and put Sam on his lap. "You listen here, kid. It's not the clothes that make you who you are. It's your heart. And I know you've got a huge one. I've seen you standing up for your sister, and I know that you love your younger siblings with everything you have. It's not whether or not you have new things, it's what you do with the things you're lucky enough to have."
"Thanks, Grandpa," Sam said as he hugged him. "You're the best. You're always there when I need you."
"And I always will be, Sammy," Zachery promised. "Where ever you go in life, I will always be there to help my favorite grandson."
Young Sam Guthrie was led into the nursing home by his father Thomas on their weekly visit to the boy's Grandfather. The boy was no older than ten, and loved when his weekly visit to see his Grandfather came around.
"Grandpa!" Sam shouted as he ran to hug the old man.
"There's my growing boy," Zachery Guthrie said as he mussed Sam's hair while Thomas went to talk to the manager. "Pretty soon you'll be taller than me. You look sad, boy. What's bothering you?"
"It's nothing." Sam said as he stared down at the ground.
"I can tell when you're lying." Zachery told him.
"It's my clothes, the other kids make fun of me because I have to get my stuff at the Good Will. Mama says we need the money for stuff the babies need. It's not fair, I never get anything new. The girls got new dresses for Easter and Daddy bought Josh a toy guitar because he thinks Josh is going to be a musician."
Zachery picked the boy up and put Sam on his lap. "You listen here, kid. It's not the clothes that make you who you are. It's your heart. And I know you've got a huge one. I've seen you standing up for your sister, and I know that you love your younger siblings with everything you have. It's not whether or not you have new things, it's what you do with the things you're lucky enough to have."
"Thanks, Grandpa," Sam said as he hugged him. "You're the best. You're always there when I need you."
"And I always will be, Sammy," Zachery promised. "Where ever you go in life, I will always be there to help my favorite grandson."
Issue #32 (July 2018)
Written by Tobias Christopher Featuring: Icarus
Cannonball
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"Quest for Franklin Richards - Coming Attractions"Today
New Warriors Headquarters Josh Guthrie was sitting on the couch in the rec room, strumming his guitar as his big brother Sam walked in, taking a seat next to the younger mutant. Josh's red hair had gotten long and stringy, having let it grow since the day three months earlier when he overheard Franklin say that long hair was a turn-on. This was in sharp contrast to Sam's neatly trimmed and manageable short blonde hair. "See you still got Daddy's guitar," Sam said. "It's the only thing he left me," Josh told him. "It's my prized possession." "You should be in bed, we're going to save Franklin tomorrow." "Yeah, and my big brother is one day closer to death," Josh said. "You big, selfish asshole. Always too proud to ask anyone for help, like the time that Cabot girl tricked you into skinnydipping and then her brothers stole your clothes. You had to walk home butt naked and ended up climbing through the window and onto my bed so Mama and Daddy didn't catch you. And now you have a kid out there that you never told me about, and you won't even call him to save your life." "I have my reasons for not wanting him here." Sam told him. "Yeah, and what possible reason could that be?" "Because, Josh, if I bring my son here, it could save my life," Sam said as he took a deep breath. "But then he would die. You see, it all started about four years ago..." I'd gone undercover as one Greydon Creed's supporters for his presidential campaign. I was supposed to keep an eye on him and report back to the X-Men on what his plans were. But something else happened that first day... Sam saw a tall woman with red hair and business dress walking toward him. She wore glasses and had her hair put up in a conservative look. "Samson Guthrie?" the woman asked. "HOLD IT!" Josh said as he held up a finger and tried his best to not burst out laughing. "Samson? You went undercover and only altered your name by three letters? And you didn't even dye your hair or wear glasses?" "I was wearing a suit, how often do I do that?" Sam asked. "What kind of lame moronic disguise was that?" "Do you want to hear about this or not?" "Go on... Samson." Josh snickered. Her name was Jillian and she was one of Creed's top people. I think she didn't like me very much when she gave me some things to do. "Don't fuck this up," she said as she handed Samson an assignment sheet before she walked away. "Or I'll have your balls cut off and hung from my rearview mirror." It was love at first sight. In order to maintain a cover, I was sharing an apartment with my mutant friend Jesse. No one knew he was a mutant who had the power to open portals to anywhere he wanted, and he wanted to keep it that way. I'd known him since high school and he just happened to be living in New York at the time. "So, is Paige still on the market for a boyfriend?" Jesse asked as he brought some nachos to the living room where Sam was sitting on the couch. He wasn't as tall as Sam, but still fairly well built with black hair. "Dude, that's my sister," Sam told him as he took some nachos. "And I don't mess with my sibling's love lives." "What was that?" Josh asked with a raised eyebrow. "'Mr. You Can't Mourn Franklin's Disappearance Because You Need To Stay Strong?'" "That's different, you'd have been a wreck if I hadn't stepped in," Sam told him. "I mean, you're still kind of a wreck, but at least you're a fully functioning wreck." "Dick." Josh responded as he went back to strumming his guitar. So as the days passed, Jillian and I started spending more time together, with our relationship being love/hate/more hate/she actually did try to cut of my balls at one point/slightly less hate. Then came the night where we ended up sleeping together, which just happened to be the night that Creed was shot during a debate. Sam and Jillian were laying in the bed together after a long lovemaking session. In fact, twelve hours had passed like it was nothing. "I don't think I can move," Jillian told him. "Where did you learn to do that?" "Family secret," Sam smirked. "My Daddy told it to me when he gave me the talk." "Hey, I never learned a secret when you gave me the talk," Josh told him. "And I might have a boyfriend in the immediate future that it could help me with." "Which is why you're not being told anytime soon," Sam said. "You're way too young to be having sex." "I'm eighteen," Josh said before adding in barely a whisper. "And married." "Wait, what!?" "Nothing," Josh blushed and went back to his guitar. "Go on." It didn't take long for us to find out she was pregnant. "You did this to me!" Jillian shouted as she slammed Sam's head repeatedly onto a countertop. "You put this thing into me!" I wasn't about to walk away from my kid, and neither of us even wanted to talk about... not having a baby, so we agreed the best thing was for me to take the baby when it was born. Jillian would sign away all of her parental rights so she could continue her career in politics. We kept her pregnancy a secret from everyone, using a hologram projector I borrowed from Beast's lab to make her look like she wasn't carrying. I was planning on taking a leave from the X-Men for a while so I could raise the baby back in Kentucky with the family where the kid could grow up knowing where it came from. "What kind of person gives up her baby before it's even born?" Josh asked. "I'd love to be a daddy someday, even if I have to adopt. So if you were going to take the baby back home, what happened?" "I'm getting to that." Sam told him as he turned away, not sure if he could continue. Josh put a hand on his shoulder to let him know it was alright. As she got closer to the due date, Jillian had a change of heart. She wanted to raise the baby, and agreed to come with us to Kentucky, where she'd run for office there after the baby was older. We weren't an official couple, but time could fix that. Jillian was due to have the baby in about four weeks when I got the phone call. There'd been a car accident. Jillian was badly injured, they didn't think she was going to make it. The baby would have to be born that night, but there were other complications. "The baby's immune system is incredibly weak," the doctor said as he talked to Sam out in the waiting room. "Even with an incubation chamber, the baby wouldn't survive 24 hours." "There's nothing you can do?" Sam asked with tears in his eyes. "This is my kid, doc. Please, give me something. I can't lose both my baby and its mother." "She's in surgery right now, we'll have to deliver the baby there," the doctor told him. "I wish I could offer more hope, but it doesn't look like either of them will survive." "Do whatever it takes, please." Sam told him as he turned to look at Jesse. "I need to call my Grandpa. I need to talk to him." "Okay, buddy," Jesse said as they hugged. "Go ahead, I need to check on something." I called my Grandpa and the next thing I knew he'd taken a cab to the hospital. I was going to go to him, but even at 92 years old, my Grandpa was still spry enough to sneak out of a nursing home and flag down a cab. He'd transferred to a nursing home in New York after I'd joined the X-Men to be near me since I was his favorite grandchild. "That would explain why he never even remembered my name," Josh told him. "He always called me 'Billy' and kept trying to sell me to the nurse for extra pudding." "This could be my only chance to be a father," Sam said as he sat in the waiting room. "Now I'm losing my kid. He doesn't deserve to go out like this." "I wish there was a way for me to help you," Zachery said. "I'm so proud of you, Samuel. I know you would have given this child all the love in the world." The doctor walked in with a grim look on his face. "I'm sorry, we couldn't save her." Sam buried his head in his hands as Zachery looked up. "And what about the baby?" "The baby has been rushed the critical care unit," the doctor said. "You can see him right now, but... he doesn't have long." "Him?" Sam asked. "It's a boy?" "Sam!" Jesse shouted as he rushed through the doors. "Is the baby okay?" "He's here and he's going to die soon," Sam said, choking back the words. "Maybe not," Jesse said. "Maybe there is a way, but you might not like it." "You know that little power I have?" Jesse asked as he looked through the glass window with Sam and Zachery. "The one where I can open up portals to where ever I want? Well, I've been researching for years, reading published science papers from Reed Richards and other top scientists, wondering if I could open portals to other worlds. I think I can open a portal to a world where the air is so pure that it can heal things like what the baby has. Just one breath of air and the kid is as good as cured." "He'd have a chance," Sam whispered. "You really think you can do this?' "Yeah, but here's the catch," Jesse said. "Something like another dimension? That takes a lot of power. This could kill me, and if it doesn't, I could probably only do it once." "I can't ask you to do that." Sam told him. "Then don't, because I'm doing it anyway," Jesse told him. "You saved my ass more times than I care to admit. Let me save your son. At least if I die, a baby gets to live. That's the kind of tradeoff that I can work with." "If this works, whoever takes him will have to stay in that world forever," Sam told him. "Grandpa, tell the family goodbye for me." "You're not going," Zachery told him. "I am. I'll raise your boy in that world. I still have another good twenty years in me, more than enough time to see him become a good man like his father." "No, Grandpa, he's my son." Sam told him. "And you still have an entire brood of siblings that need your guidance, and a world that needs a good man like you," Zachery told him. "Plus you're still young, you can still find more love and father more children. I'll always let this one know that he was loved by you." "I don't know what to say," Sam said as he looked at his grandfather. "You and this kid mean everything to me." It didn't take much to get the baby out of the hospital. We headed to the back alley where we could do this without anyone seeing as I held my baby in my arms for the first and only time while Jesse prepared the portal. "I love you so much," Sam said as he looked down at the baby. "Josiah, that's what I'll call you. After Grandpa's own little brother that died when he was a boy. I know you're going to grow up to be a strong and caring person. Maybe one day we'll find a way back to each other." "I'll only be able to hold the portal for a few seconds," Jesse told him as he focused on the wall in front of him. "So you'll have to hurry." "I'll take good care of him, Samuel, I promise," Zachery said as he took the baby. "He looks a lot like your father when he was born." "I love you, Grandpa," Sam said. "I don't know what I'll do without you here." "The same thing you've done while I was here with you," Zachery said. "You'll be a great man, just like your father raised you." Jesse's eyes and nose started bleeding as the portal opened. "Go, now!" Zachery carried the baby through the portal into an open grassy field. Before he say anything, the portal closed as Sam caught Jesse after collapsing. "Jesse was in a coma for six months," Sam told his little brother. "And to this day I still don't know if Grandpa or Josiah are still alive. Your nephew would be about four years old right now. And since there's no way of accessing that dimension, I'll never have a way of knowing if he survived those first 24 hours. And even if he is, I don't know if bringing him back will make his immune system worse. If I have to choose between me and Josiah, I'm choosing him. Go to bed, we have a friend to rescue in the morning." As Sam walked out of the room, Josh stared down at his guitar. "I'm going to find him, Sam," Josh promised. "I'm going to find your kid and save you." In another dimension, free of pollution and destruction, a wolf cub was running away from a pack of larger, more vicious wolves until it found itself cornered. It whimpered just as a rocket blast was heard from high above, just before a mysterious hooded figure landed between them while wielding a large sharpened spear. The figure twirled it around just as the larger wolves attacked, only to be struck by the blunt end of the spear and sent running away. "I told you not to wander so far from home," the figure said as he lowered his hood, revealing a twelve-year-old boy with shaggy red hair. He was wearing a hooded cloak with clothes and boots made from the leather of various dangerous animals he'd killed over the years in self-defense. He smiled as he got down on one knee so the wolf could lick him. The young man ran a hand through the wolf's grey fur with a fingerless glove and smiled. "Come, Sawa, we must return home before dark. You know how cold the night air gets in these parts." The following morning, the New Warriors headed to the Baxter Building, fully ready to go traveling dimensions to bring Franklin back, only to find the Fantastic 4 standing at the door to Reed's lab. "We're ready to bring our buddy home." Cannonball said. "I'm afraid that no one's bringing anyone home," Reed told the group. "We can't go rescue Franklin." TO BE CONTINUED IN FANTASTIC 4 #78! |