Past, Present, Future - Cable, Deadpool 2

3.

Wade seemed to recover from his state of mourning quicker than anyone had expected, especially considering his state of depression, but he was soon back to his usual, chipper, joke-cracking self. He even took a mission with Colossus and Negasonic. It did not go well, however. Colossus had returned from the mission all in a huff, saying he was done trying to help Wade change his ways, and refused to talk about it. Negasonic only said that it had 'gone very wrong', all thanks to Douchepool she was quick to add.

Nina taught her history class in the morning, but all throughout the lesson she felt distracted, the still fairly vivid memory of the vision still present in her mind. She even ended up letting the students go early, to which they couldn't complain.

"Hi Ms. Nova!" She was just sorting through some papers on her desk when a very cheerful voice broke into her distracted thoughts. Looking up, she found the happy-go-lucky Yukio standing before her desk. The pink-haired girl gave her a wave.

She smiled back, the girl's happiness seeming contagious. "Hi Yukio."

"Are you alright? You seem - well, sad." Yukio's smile fell.

"Oh - yes, I'm fine," Nina lied, not ready to divulge the details of her morbid dream to anyone else yet. "Just didn't sleep well last night, is all. Bad dream."

"Well, I hope you'll be doing better soon!" Yukio was back to her smiling self.

"Thank you, Yukio. I appreciate your concern."

There was a tap at the door and they turned to see Negasonic standing there. "Hey, Ms. Nova," she said, popping her gum and giving the teacher a brief wave.

"Hi Ellie."

"Bye Ms. Nova!" chimed Yuiko before going to join her girlfriend.

"Bye Yukio, bye Ellie."

Nina went back to sorting papers, until she realized she wasn't even paying attention to what she was doing. She heaved a heavy sigh - she needed a distraction from her already present distraction. A long walk, perhaps? Perhaps she should leave campus for a change of scenery. She had been wanting to visit the vinyl record store downtown...

Leaving her papers to sort through and organize later, she gathered her coat and bag and teleported herself to the edge of downtown and began a brisk walk through the noisy city, hoping all the bustling and busyness would help clear her head, at least a little.

When she reached the record shop she took her time winding up and down the aisles rifling through the vast collection of records. Many she recognized from the '60s and '70s, recalling dancing in the library to these records with Charles and Erik, Raven, Hank and the others, and later in the '80s joined by Jean, Scott, Peter, and Ororo. She had many fond memories of first arriving at the mansion, she and Charles, both young and smitten, swinging each other around to the music, back before the accident and he lost his ability to walk, and therefore dance...

By the time she reached the counter she had circled the entire store a few times, front to back and back to front, and ended up with a stack of records to bring home. She was excitedly anticipating placing them on the player and filling her room with their music.

Shopping bag in hand she made her way back through downtown.

"Hi Weasel," she called to the man behind the counter upon entering the bar.

"Oh hey, Nina. Can I get you something to drink?"

"No, thanks. I was just out and about and thought I'd stop by."

"Well hey, thanks for thinking of us."

"Hi Dopinder," she called to the other man.

"Hello Miss Nina!"

"How's the superhero training going?"

"Oh wonderful!"

"Glad to hear."

"We're just closing up until tonight," Weasel explained.

"Well, I won't keep you. Say hi to Wade from me the next time you see him."

Down the street a ways a café caught her eye, suddenly making her crave some coffee. She sat inside with her steaming drink reading a book for a little while, her mind finally cleared of her distracting vision, at least for now. It had been a successful afternoon in that respect.

A fireplace sat against the far wall of the café, a fire crackling to life within. Nina stared at it - she did this back home too. Sometimes, if she started long enough, she could see the flames start to take shapes...

"AH!"

Everyone in the café stopped what they were doing and fell silent, looking to her when moments later she gave a sharp cry, jumping in her seat.

Instead of taking shape, the flames had triggered something, a memory, from the vision, one which she hadn't recognized before: fire. The crackling, the searing heat, the smoke...

Still getting stares from the other customers, she leapt to her feet and ran outside, frantically searching for a quiet place she could teleport from - she had to get back to the mansion and speak to Charles.

--------------------------------

Meanwhile, across the city, a man in a small, shabby hotel room was trying to rid himself of his own demons. It didn't help that today's attack on the mutant holding cell had been disastrous, and that boy still lived all thanks to that talkative, annoying, dubstep-loving freak. Nathan hoped that guy, who seemed to just keep coming back, wouldn't be any more of a problem.

Images from the night he returned home to find everything he loved destroyed flashed through his mind, specifically his family's dead bodies. His life and those he loved, reduced to nothing but rubble, ashes, and all because of that boy. He tried to drown it out by taking gulps of beer - many empty cans littered the floor already.

Nathan needed some time to recover - that guy, the talkative, annoying one - had put up quite the fight, he had to admit, while trying to stop him from killing the kid.

Part of him hated to admit it, but he needed help. And there was only one person here in this time who he trusted enough - but she had no idea who he was. Not yet. The risk was great, but if she knew what happened in the future, she would help him.

He held up his arm and activated the tracker. The automated voice chimed to life.

"Searching... Searching..." A few moments of silence until finally- "Located: Nina Nova."

(Yay we finally get to see Cable! ;) There'll be more of him from now on! Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed! :))