(Obsolete Draft) Issue #0 Soft Reset (Obsolete Draft)

Hey there, X-Fans! I trust you've read the initial blog post eXplaining what Issue "#0" means! It's brief if you haven't, so please do (right here: https://telkjplang.wixsite.com/xmenenvisionings/post/coming-sooner-pre-issue-1) and then return to walk the "bridge" of....X-Men Envisionings!

~Cychtra

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We see glimpses of existences across the universe... Individuals on a planet living better due to the flora present. Flora a fiery being helped bring into existence....

Another planet, two bands of alien races hold forearms in a gesture similar to an Earthly handshake as they complete work on a structure; two bridges were built that day. Aided by that same fiery being...

It now travels to yet another, guiding the lost back to their kin. It has it's own place to return to..

Our glimpses turn homebound, to people on Earth..

Mutants,

Non-Mutants,

Their interactions, such as they mostly are.

Then onto... the X-Men.

Ororo Munroe A.K.A. Storm is teaching an environmental class. It's not chalkboards and textbooks today, the class is outside seeing things first hand in their own figurative backyard. One young girl is clearly holding the two options -a healthy, wild patch of nature, and a fully polluted plot- in her head, actually in her hands, as her imagining of the two scenarios appear projected above her palms. Her classmates observe the two scenes until Professor Munroe begins commenting. We can't hear what's said, but the girl's projected imaginings disappear as soon as she comes to attention. On the Mansion grounds, Marie A.K.A. Rogue and Bobby A.K.A. Iceman are conditioning themselves with some basic training; running track. Like before, we don't have sound on the scene, but some good natured teasing seems to be going on - Rogue, the mutant who can't safely touch another living person, reaches out a gloved hand in threat that Iceman better run faster. He does her one better, making an ice track in his lane that he now slides swiftly down.

In Professor Charles Xavier's office, Logan A.K.A. Wolverine, in his combat suit, and Kurt Wagner A.K.A. Nightcrawler in one of his own, seem to be finalizing details with the Professor on an impending mission. They have bags in hand.

Nightcrawler *BAMFS* himself and Wolverine away.

Finally, we come to Scott Summers A.K.A. Cyclops.

The staid man seems to be hanging out in the park with a red-haired woman as evening closes in, though it seems like he's turning her down in some way. Consistent with our previous scenes, we cannot hear this conversation.

She puts her hand on his.

It seems to be an amicable parting.

..now we pan out..

...seeing the vastness of the cosmos once more... ..But the near cosmos, a starry sky, over the grounds of that particular Mansion again.

The scenes of that day now behind us. Dawn is approaching on a new one.

A streak of fire comes down from the sky; meteor-like but no impact.

By coincidence, dawn just appears on its landing.

From the perspective of an individual, we're now entering the X Mansion.

We walk through the as yet unoccupied halls, knowing exactly where we're going.

Arriving at a door, a female hand is placed on the knob... She goes in. We hear the exchange that follows: "Jean!" "Scott." "How..?" "There's a reason I need to be here."

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It's daytime proper now, and everyone is having an impromptu welcoming party for the highly unexpected return* of Jean Grey.

*Last seen as Phoenix, ascending to the heavens with the words: "I'll be watching." 'X3:Unwritten'. ~Tra

Rogue: "So, wow, what did you see while you were out there? Ah mean what's it been l'ke?" Jean: "At the heart of things it's not too different from here. I can't talk about it in detail." Just then the Professor comes up with a man whose status as mutant is obvious at a glance. Xavier: "Jean, you may remember my old friend Dr. Hank McCoy. Although, likely not as he appears now." Hank: "Yes, a semi-recent experiment resulted in this apparently permanent savoy patina. For better or worse, I've made a new name for myself as 'Beast'." He holds out his hand.

Jean shakes it. "Not a moniker that seems entirely fitting."

Beast: "Indeed. Although I can devour books at a beastly rate."

Jean smiles. Beast: "In any case, it's a pleasure -and a fascination- to make your acquaintance again, Dr. Grey. I've taken over the medical bay and lab in your absence, but I would be happy to co-op now that we're both here."

"Call me Jean. And thank you. Maybe. Right now I'm only thinking of settling back in."

Xavier catches her eye; the experienced psychic possibly knowing of more on the mind of one of his original -and most gifted- students. --------------- Sometime later, Jean joins others in front of a TV broadcasting the news. Anti-mutant sentiment is still a topic of the day... Another day, we see her speaking to Xavier, learning more of what's been going on since she's been away. What have the X-Men had to contend with; what have other mutants?

While she waits for THE purpose for her return, she finds an intervening one...

We join her now in Xavier's office with the Professor, Cyclops, Storm and Beast. Xavier: "I have been bringing Jean up to date on the current state of mutant affairs. The little change that has occurred in these past few years. Jean?" He nods to her, giving her the floor. Jean: "I admit I feel a little awkward calling this meeting having just returned.." Xavier: "Please, speak freely. Your insight has always been valuable. Your time away changes nothing of that." Jean draws a breath before addressing everyone: "The school has always served its purpose well. A place for young mutants to learn about their powers safely, and about themselves away from judgement. While some will call the Mansion home beyond their school years, many won't. What's waiting for them beyond these grounds continues to be discrimination, and with few exceptions, it's only us mutants who seem interested in building an equal life. We all know how non-mutants generally respond. I think we need to take steps to directly foster compassion and eventually comradery in the younger generation of non-mutants."

Storm: "It's a noble idea, Jean. What steps do you propose?" Jean: "That's what we're all here for. We need suggestions. Hank, you're still working in the Department of Mutant Affairs?"

"Yes. Although," he frowns, "more as a poster child now. They think I'm better for the face of it, but much of the day-to-day responsibilities have been taken over by Warren Worthington III. Not that he isn't competent. He'll certainly listen to what input I may bring to him, however I've come to feel the Department itself is a façade constructed over endless red tape." Jean seems disappointed to hear that; her point about mutants in their fight alone proven once again. "We'll be starting smaller, then." Scott: "How about a camp? We could create an even ratio by having as many of our students attend as non-mutants sign up."

Storm: "I can't see many parents wanting to sign their kids up for a couple weeks with mutants."

"Well we wouldn't advertise it so directly."

Jean: "I don't know, Scott. It's the right idea but it can't come off as deceptive."

Scott: "In general brochures don't state the type of people that'll be there unless the camps are made for a specific demographic, kids signed up for any camp could find themselves interacting with mutants. The only difference with ours is it'll be by design and we'll actually care if those interactions are positive." Jean comes around to it. The meeting continues. Afterward, everyone's filing out....

Jean pauses as she's taken over by a strange sensation -- we see from her perspective the clarity of her vision is more dream-like; the room not so clear, the voices, like she's not so present in the scene. Scott notices. "Jean?"

Xavier: "Are you quite all right?" When she doesn't respond, Scott moves to gently squeeze her arm.

This time Jean comes out of it - touching Scott's hand more in confirming he's really there than sharing a touch. "Yeah.." she lowers her hand as though suddenly self-conscious about it (he takes his away). "Just a sensation I've been experiencing these past few days." Scott seems concerned.

Xavier: "Your body is likely readjusting after being where you have been all this time."

Scott looks from the Professor back to Jean like that hadn't occurred to him.

Jean nods. "That's what I've been thinking, too." An ironic smile crosses her face, "Right now it's here that's feeling other-worldly. Anyway, I'm fine now." She tries to turn her smile reassuring, glancing to both in turn before walking away from the attention and out of the room.

Scott doesn't seem entirely convinced.

Another day....

We see Scott teaching trigonometry by playing pool with his class. Jean is walking down the hallway outside until she suddenly seizes.

A student walking the halls sees her.

"Help! Something's happening to Professor Grey!"

Doors open - Scott races to Jean. He takes her arm to stop it hitting against the wall.

Students have come out, now taking in the scene.. Storm is there too, concerned for Jean but as Scott's got her, Storm takes care of crowd control. "Come on, guys, back to the classrooms." Once Jean stops/comes to: "..S-scott? Wh-at..?"

Scott: "You were seizing."

Jean's a mix of confused and concerned.

Eventually she shifts to get up. Scott helps her. "I'm taking you to medical."

Down in the Medical Bay... Xavier is looking into Jean's brainwaves.

"The sensations you've mentioned could've been other seizures."

"Maybe..."

Scott: "Why would Jean returning here cause something like this?" Xavier: "I've been considering that. I believe I now have the answer." He stops what he's been doing. Jean removes the electrodes from her head and carefully sits up while Xavier explains: "In going beyond this world, especially as a human rising to something celestial, your mind has expanded to accommodate more worlds, more realities. To put it another way, it has been opened to countless gateways. Now that you're back here, and not as the Phoenix, that higher cognition exists in a lesser space. Don't get me wrong. 'Lesser' is not a word that suits description of your mind, Jean. No other could've gone this far. But now, all the same, in short your mind has much with which it must cope. Made more complex by the fact that you're now disconnected from the aforementioned gateways."  

Jean's hand is on her head. "So this will keep happening until I..reacclimatize?" She lowers her hand to the table.

Scott: "How long will that take?"

Xavier: "Unfortunately that I don't know. It may persist for as long as you're here."

Scott stares at this information (at Xavier) while Jean shifts, in both posture and expression, uncomfortable with this reality.

Scott speaks before she does: "So what can be done about it?" Xavier: "We can try conventional seizure medication. Though this..." he closes his eyes a moment. "I'm sorry. I don't have that answer, either."

Jean casts him a curious look, like she perceives a lack of full truth.

Scott doesn't pick up on this, occupied with another thought: "Maybe the reason you need to be here will happen soon and this won't matter."

Jean shakes her head. "No I don't think so, Scott. I feel I'm here ahead of time..."

Scott's expression creases at this fact.

Jean gets off the exam table, yet seems undecided what to do, now.

As if reading her mind Xavier provides: "I sensed a psychic disturbance when you seized. I didn't know what it was at the time, though now that I do I'll know when it happens again. You needn't worry about being alone."

"Thanks...In that case I think I'll lie down in my room for a while."

Watching her go, Scott seems to have mixed emotions..about this, but also something else.

That evening....

Scott is walking purposefully down the hall when he notices through the open door of the library, books levitating -two back into place and one towards a chair where Jean is sitting.

Not facing the shelves the books all came from, Jean's eyes are closed as though to see them in her mind. She now opens them to take the newly selected volume of poetry -and notices him. "Scott."

"I don't mean to disturb you just I didn't see you at dinner."

Jean sets the book on a table within reach. "I didn't feel like going while the room was full."

Scott nods, then seems to hesitate. "I want to say something but I can't decide if the time is right or wrong with what you're going through."

Jean gets up. "Tell me."

He shuts the door and steps closer.

"..The thing you need to be here for. What happens after it does?"

"I'm not sure. I think it depends how it goes.."

Scott's brow furrows - there's so much uncertainty with this. "You said it won't be soon?" "No." She looks at him, sure of that much at least.

"I can't help thinking about 'us'." He watches her reaction. She's listening. "I never thought you'd be here again," he'd accepted that, "but however anything else were to go..Jean I'll always love you. After everything I know now what it means to say those words than I ever did when I said them before."

Jean comes closer, laying her hand on his chest.

"Even if it's not permanent. Jean, I want to be with you. If you still.."

Her hand moves up to his neck..his cheek. "I still love you."

He touches her tenderly - both poised to kiss but she pauses it: "But maybe we shouldn't fall right back into us. .We've had different experiences in these past years. We might find we're different people than we remember."

Scott seems confused, unsteadied..

Jean looks at him a moment longer before holding him close -in desire, in apology.

Scott holds her. "I'm still here for you."

Jean smiles to herself with a mix of emotion.

It may be that night, it may be another.... Scott lies alone in his bed, not long asleep when a voice suddenly comes, urgent and startling, into his mind: "Scott!! Get Jean!!" He's awake at his name, he's out of bed before the Professor's brief message is through, and is now rushing out of the room -down the halls -to Jean's.

In at once -light switch flipped- Scott finds Jean seizing violently on the floor at the foot of the bed. He moves swiftly to grab a pillow to set beneath her head -gets down with her -and is shocked to find she's conscious through this -her eyes unmistakably locking with "his", pleading.

We return to the Medical Bay, where gathered again are Jean, Scott, and the Professor -- this psychic ailment being outside of Dr. McCoy's expertise.

Jean is once again laying on the examination table. Her eyes are closed but she's conscious. Exhausted, pained, but conscious. She remarks concernedly: "The seizures are intensifying."

Scott is frank: "If they go on they'll kill her."

Xavier closes his eyes with a heavy breath, then looks at his pupil on the exam table.

Jean isn't even looking at him, her eyes still closed, when she states : "You know something else..I sensed it before."

Scott stares at the Professor in deep question of why he'd hold anything back.

"There's something I may be able to do, but I fear the intensity may be analogous to the seizures. Too much for one mind, even one as exceptional as yours."

Jean moans like even verbalizing anything else is too much right now.

Scott speaks instead: "What could you do?"

"I believe with the aid of Cerebro, I can go in and defragment your mind. What makes it intense is how it will involve cycling through years of events in moments; accessing the current expanse of your mind; it will feel as though the contrast and volume in your life has been turned up; like you're walking through the life you know and many others. It may exceed what you can manage; the point from which you can come back."

With half opened eyes now set on Xavier, Jean's look says one thing: Seriously? She shifts her gaze to Scott, who's also shifted his to her.

Xavier changes thought: "We cannot know for certain that the seizures won't still dissipate. Worse before they get better. I make no recommendation, Jean. The choice is yours."

Jean rubs her forehead: "I can barely think right now.." She sits up.

Xavier: "While they've intensified, the time between your seizures hasn't appeared to decrease significantly. I trust you can return to your rest without worry. Put this out of your mind until morning."

Scott: "I'll see you back to your room."

Getting of the table, Jean whispers a thank you and exits with Scott.

Xavier watches them go with a heavy mind. At the door to Jean's room.... Jean: "What's your opinion on all this?"

Scott: "Probable risk either way. I don't like it."

Jean sighs.

Scott's thoughts shift: "Anything else I can do before...I go?"

Jean turns her gaze from the inside of the room to Scott. Considering something...or maybe it's just her tired mind. "No. I can manage, thanks.." She turns back to the doorway.

Scott suddenly pauses her with a touch of her shoulder. Again she turns to him.

He takes her in a tender embrace.

At morning's light, Scott is outside on the Mansion grounds. He's gone to the fountain.

He stares contemplatively into the water, meeting the "eyes" of his reflection.

Meanwhile, the past days' events seem to be filtering through Jean's dreaming mind...

She awakes.

A thought seems to be settling in. An answer from her subconscious.

Scott has moved away from the fountain. It seems the sun won't rule the day after all - clouds shift into place.

He lowers his gaze from the sky, idly shifting it to the garage he now walks by. But suddenly stops.

Xavier's office.

Scott's permitted in -curiously told to leave the door open.

"You said the procedure could be too much for one mind. Well what if mine was involved too? Use it like a second engine."

It's a curious proposition.

Instead of answering, Xavier turns his attention to the doorway, in which Jean now stands.

It's clear she's heard. She comes in, closing the door. (remarkably) "The same idea just came to me. But, what would the risk be to Scott?" A concerned look to Scott turns into a questioning one to Xavier. Xavier considers. "Comparatively very little, I believe." He looks to his longest-standing student, "the feeling that you've taken a marathon of exams by the end, to be sure, but nothing lasting I shouldn't think."

Scott: "Then let's do it." He looks to Jean. "Whenever you're ready."

Jean: "I don't want to delay."

And so, the reset procedure gets underway.... Xavier is in Cerebro while both Jean and Scott are in the Medical Bay, lying down on separate exam tables positioned close to each other but facing separate ways, so only their heads are next to each other; both electroded up.

We see the process as a splash panel. We see Jean, and her mind: there are "bubbles" of moments, events, timelines, of her past -their past, her present -theirs, the future? On Earth, in the cosmos,

it's just as Xavier described: bold colours, some bubbles fade away while others come into sharper relief, Focus-on/closer-on Jean various micro expressions intermittently cross her face,

Discordant mixture of sounds gradually clearing out, until finally....

finally...

..Presentness

Jean sits up, looking around as though seeing the world anew.

She slips the electrodes off as Xavier comes through the door.

"How do you feel, Jean?"

She seems unable to supply an answer, then, a serene smile.

She turns. "Scott, what about you?"

He's just -slowly- sat up, now taking the electrodes off but returning his hand to his head afterward. "It rivals the worst I've had...might even surpass it.." Squeezing his forehead, he slowly turns so he's sitting now with his legs over the side of the table -Jean's gotten off hers and stands by him- "..But it worked?" he verifies, placing his hand on hers that's now along his neck; massaging.

"I'm positive it has. I can't remember when my mind's felt this clear."

With a clear undertone of pain, Scott smiles.

The positive expression is mutual. Xavier: "Your classes will have to contend with me today," he states to Scott.

Jean (deeply): "Thank you both so much."

Outside a cleansing rain has been falling....

That evening, Scott, who's slept the day away, has just come out of his room and is going down the halls when he hears a warm voice.

"Scott." Jean comes up to him. "I was just thinking of checking in on you."

"I'm about 80%." He smiles.

Her disposition turns more earnest: "Thank you again." Her hand's on his chest/shoulder. "I know you would've done it even if the risk had been greater to you."

A moment. "Jean, listen- during the procedure I saw some of what you've experienced. Most of it's left my memory like waking from a dream, but I still have the impressions." She looks at him closely.

"You're still the person I remember."

His hand goes to her side.

She takes his other hand in hers. They take each other, they kiss.

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Hey again, X-Fans! Thanks for reading through the bridging storyline of X-Men Envisionings! The next, and first official installment, "# 1", will contain a full storyline complete with New Characters! Other Existing Favourites such as the younger Summers brother "Havok"! Plus Action in the Main Plot that affects the Mutant Community! Not all who exist at the start of the story will by the end! You won't want to miss X-Men Envionings # 1: a.k.a. "Relativity"!