>>> ”What did they do to you? Were you ok? I’m glad you did manage to get away, I’ve heard some stories…”

”I’ll tell you in a few minutes. Long story.” Shin said. Because the whole Tarin thing was more pressing, so he asked about that. And Lee replied.

>>> ”That…is kind of weird,” Lee admitted. ”He didn’t show up to pick Kevin up, so I went to look for him. When I was checking the shop to see if he was there.

>>> “He wasn’t, but Tarin, the Tarin from the other side of the rift, was there checking the place out because he’d had a shop in the exact same place in his world.”

Interesting. So that was how she had met that world’s Tarin. He had stories for her, but—

Did the baby still need to use the restroom? Shin went uhhh huuuuh, and they headed to the bathroom. He told her ‘one minute’, and went inside to handle things. A few minutes of juggling baby and diaper bag and everything else later (he used shard constructs to make his own super clean baby changing room table, got bless mutant powers and all of that), he came back out.

He approached Lee, baby clean and happy. Awake now, for now, but mellow.

Okay! Now he could tell her the story. He prepared her for her, explaining how long the story was, then dug into it. He hoped she was ready.

”So, on the other side of the rift, that world’s SUPER… They locked me up. For a long time. I went over with Becca to meet Lodestone, her version from another universe. Different powers. Except now, this world’s Becca isn’t even a mutant anymore. Damn wizards, but anyways. Then I got picked up by that world’s version of Lenna. She worked for SUPER. I recognized the voice. The woman from Romania? In the camps. But she was an adapted.

“And— this one was not. This was after something in my mutation changed. So I had to relearn how it worked in order to break out, because for a while I guess I only had my wedding band. No other shards, and— this is getting complicated.” He sighed, and scratched his head. Re-examined his memories. He had needed to fight crime and stay on the team as an x-man, using only his wedding band. Because it did not vanish when every other shard construct he had ever made or would ever make failed. That had been a unique situation. Thanks, Cerebra. But anyways. He frowned, as he tried to accurately recall the series of events.

”Guess it was only 24 hours. Felt way longer. Maybe I was thinking about Aurum’s sister. She was kidnapped for a very long time. Her alternate self stole her life. For recon. But yeah, the power loss was due to power growth (and using the mansion’s psychic computer)… and now my power works differently I guess… but also the same? And I can transform like a power ranger instead of taking time to build up my armor, piece by piece, and— well, I transformed into special diamond armor, super spiky, white, and just plowed through security.”

He covered up baby ears, and whispered. ”Super violent. They made me relive the camps. But—“ He had gotten out.

The story of him getting imprisoned by SUPER on the other side of the rift, and then managing to escape, was a long one. That did not surprise Lee at all based on what she had heard, especially what she had heard from Tarin.

But changing the baby first. That made complete sense to Lee and as she waited outside while Shin went into the washroom to change Michael, Lee finished the water she’d gotten after her run and threw the bottle away.

He had purposely gone over to the other side to meet someone’s doppelganger, who had had different powers. That was a new difference between the worlds that Lee hadn’t heard about before, but she supposed it would have been possible and made sense with all the other differences; the two Ruperts were completely different from each other even though they looked the same and had both become cops, and while both Tarins had the same powers, they looked different and at least one of their brothers were even named different on each side. Why not have different powers happen as well?

But the woman who Shin had gone over there with wasn’t even a mutant anymore because of ‘damn wizards’? A memory of her last meeting with Sam came to mind, which really wasn’t that long ago and yet felt like a lifetime, and Lee couldn’t help but hope that the two men were talking about the same person losing their powers. If not, that was even more terrifying than the concept of powers being removed like that were to start with.

Then Shin was talking about how Lenna was involved. Lenna, who Shin only knew from the Romanian camps, but that Lee had first met in Columbia, who was part of Slate’s Kabal. Except again, it wasn’t the woman that they knew, but the version on the other side who had been working for SUPER.

And to top it all off, Shin’s power had changed, had grown, and he had needed to relearn how to use it while in SUPER custody in order to escape? But, Shin admitted, he had only been there for about 24 hours actually, even if it felt longer.

By the time that Shin had finished speaking, Lee’s eyes were widened in surprise and shock about what he had been through. ”Wow,” was all she was able to say at first. Lee’s brain was still putting all the tangent details that Shin had made during the story into the proper places.

”That’s…wow,” Lee couldn’t help but say again. ”But you got out,” Lee said, her face solemn. ”From the stories that I’ve been told, getting out like that is unheard of. Apparently, when someone is picked up by SUPER over there, they’re never seen again. Either that, or if they are seen, it’s not for a long time, and then they’re seen as a member of SUPER, rounding up other mutants.”

Then Lee blinked as something else that Shin had said as part of his story clicked in her brain. ”Wait. Did you say you can transform like a power ranger now?” She asked in disbelief with a slight laugh.

>>> ”That’s…wow,” Lee couldn’t help but say again. ”But you got out,” Lee said, her face solemn.

Shin nodded. He had gotten out.

She went on.

>>> ”From the stories that I’ve been told, getting out like that is unheard of.” Lee said. “Apparently, when someone is picked up by SUPER over there, they’re never seen again. Either that, or if they are seen, it’s not for a long time, and then they’re seen as a member of SUPER, rounding up other mutants.”

He nodded, frowning. Then Lee caught on to something he had said.

>>> ”Wait. Did you say you can transform like a power ranger now?” She asked in disbelief with a slight laugh.

He laughed. ”Yeah. Instead of building up the armor by summoning shards over the course of like 10 minutes, bit by bit, if I spend a minute or so focusing on the thing I want to create, it all snaps into place at once. It is way way faster. Just gotta be prepared not to use most of my powers while I’m doing it. Maybe I’ll show you some time.” Shin said.

He got quiet for a moment, thoughtful. He was thinking about what Lee had said, both SUPER and people never getting free. Horror stories. He opened his mouth.

”Yeah… like I said, my friend Aurum’s sister also escaped, but I guess maybe we’re the only two who have managed it. Dunno if you’ve met her. Amelia?” He shrugged his shoulders, then spoke loudly. ”That Super group was scary! I guess the one on this side is better since they attempted to assist in protecting the mansion before it got blown up, but ehhh. Bad feelings still.” He ran a hand through his hair with a sigh. Such a shame they couldn’t have prevented that. The exploding stuff.

Vx Lee just stood there staring at Shin as he described how he ‘transformed’ into a ‘power ranger’. It would have been unbelievable if she hadn’t seen and lived things that were even more unbelievable, but still….

”Considering I cannot even imagine what that would look like, I think you’ll need to show me sometime,” Lee told Shin. ”Though, I think Kevin would have to be there. He would be so mad at me if he found out I got to see that and he didn’t. He tries to hide it to be ‘cool’ and ‘grown up’, but Kevin still loves hearing about people’s powers.”

And Shin then went on to tell her that there was someone else who had escaped SUPER: the sister of one of his friends. ”No, I don’t think I’ve met either of them,” Lee replied. Then nodded when Shin reiterated that SUPER from the other side of the rift.

”Yeah, everything that Tarin has said, SUPER over there is horrible and dangerous,” Lee confirmed. SUPER in this world had tried to help the mansion?

Then Lee’s eyes widened. ”Wait. Did you say the mansion was blown up?!?” Sam had said something happened to the mansion, but that all the students were safe.

Yeah, he could show them: it was always fun.

”Youll have to let me know if you have any requests,” He quipped with a small smile. Preparing perfect cosplay took time.

—

She confirmed Other Tarin was the one who had talked about SUPER beyond the rift. Which meant there was an Other Tarin. Here? Presently? In New York? He’d want to meet them. It would be kind of morbid, wouldn’t it? Since this person would remind him of a friend who was now, for all intents and purposes, dead. Since…. Nobody had figured out how to open up the rift again… unless a wizard decided to do it. Please, no.

Lee hyper focused on his comment about the mansion, which he had made so off-handedly.

>>> ”Wait. Did you say the mansion was blown up?!

Shin waved his hand. ”Oh, some wizards did it. There was this big huge fight. We had wizards, they had wizards, we had SUPER agents, they had a Boss with multiple forms who got bigger and bigger as the fight progressed. They came at us with portals and raided the mansion through the forest. Rift-Universe Lenna was there, Kid-ified by some baddie ages ago. She’s an X-man now. Colombian AF. Used a tranq gun sniper rifle. I fought in golden lion armor, CS fought, Jorge and him launched themselves into the sky with all the water from the mansion sprinklers in an ice and water show. The Boss took hits. He blew them all away. No biggie.” He played it off like it was all some good joke. ”Sam fell from a couple stories up. Carrick and a good wizard caught him. I had Mirror enter my mirrored shard umbrella. I had to use it to shield us from falling debris after one of the big explosions. Then I flew up and caught Mirror’s wife, wizard Becca. Got close enough to stare at the Cataclysm boss man, and drop some shards on his arm. Everything went crazy. Carrick and his wizard buzzed flying explosive boom boom cataclysm guy, and the wizard told him to use all his powers all at once to exhaust his magic and take us out… which I guess he did… it caused him to have this wild magic reaction where he turned into this blatantly terrifying naked monster thing and caused an explosion that took out the mansion, mostly. Everyone had already evacuated though. Portals and whatnot. Mirror popped an arm out of the mirrored shards I left on the cataclysm’s arm, after all of that. Touched him. Mirror-imprisoned the man inside the shards on his own arm. Which got left floating in midair. Then Carrick swooped in, shattered the shards. Which caused the cataclysm to basically outright die. The gryphon kid ate the guys hand. That was weird. I talked with him about it. That wound up turning into a fight against monster ramen noodles and Carrick ate more stuff. That kid… but then after ALL of that, Shin swung his hands wildly. The baby cooed.

”Still another wizard popped out of the wood work and wanted to use the magical energies around the mansion combined with magic from all over the city and Atlantis, I guess?! To power a portal to rip open reality to, um, make magic more ambient and easily accessible or some insane villainous deal, which would have left really bad problems in the wind. They got big, from the magic. Someone opened a portal into their own personal magical items warehouse. Half the mansion, outside help, everyone, took on the giant monstrosity that old man became, everyone got their hits in. I think there was another battle on the side before that. And another one before that, with Hercules the Greek God, and stuff. It was all kind of chaotic and I saw what I could, but most of this is stuff I asked about after the fact. Anywho, everyone stopped the mystic who was invincible, stopped an old woman who was empowering another, beat the second boss, which I guess makes the cataclysm a mid-boss, and then… a bunch of people went out for drinks at a strip club afterwards. I dunno. I called Kealey and told her I’d had a mental break down during the fight, when I made a shard umbrella to stop the falling debris and started belting out Rihanna’s Umbrella song at the top of my lungs while everything went to heck.”

He stopped talking. And the awkward silence was devastating.

”Um. Did you get all that, or do I need to repeat it?” He felt like an NPC in an RPG who was in charge of being the info dump talking head for the story. ‘So it turns out Sin is actually… and you’re actually… yeah…’

Lee had asked about the manion being blown up and Shin had answered. Oh. My. God. Shin answered.

All Lee was able to do was stand there staring at the younger man, her mouth slightly open in shock as he went on. And on. And on. There were wizards on both sides, SUPER agents on the mansion’s side, and people from beyond the rift who had fought against the mansion and X-Men, but was now one of them?

What?

How did that make sense? How bad were the people attacking the mansion if the ‘evil’ secret government agency was fighting with[/b] the good guys?

And there were bosses? Lee had to assume those had to be real life versions of bosses Kevin had tried to explain to her from his various computer games and not in terms of employment.

That wasn’t the end of it. No, why would it be? Shin went on to describe how there was a LITERAL god, Hercules apparently who was even a part of the fight. Or, in a fight before this one. Shin’s stories, especially when they were long or he was excited (and both were true at the moment) had a tendency to jump around a bit.

Not that a completely chronological telling of events likely would have made it much more understandable.

”Um. Did you get all that, or do I need to repeat it?”

”I…I think I’ve got it about as well as I’m going to today,” Lee said after a few moments. ”But you will have to tell Tarin this story. And he thinks mine are unbelievable…”

”Tell Tarin the story? Uh. I don’t know if he would be able to parse any of that. Maybe the sparks notes version? I honestly don’t know how you parsed any of that, Lee. Good job! Real proud of you. I like just opened my mouth and blargh words, so,”

He gestured at the park all around then, especially the foot paths.

”Lets walk while you tell me all about alternative world Tarin? Deal. I’m gonna spend the next minute or so focusing on making a baby pram with my mind, by the way, so—“

He started doing mental math while they walked and talked. About two minutes into the thing, he summoned a baby pram out of shards, from nowhere, and put the baby in it. Complete with pillows and blankets from the diaper bag. He was prepared.

They continued to walk.

Lee couldn’t help but laugh as Shin explained what had happened when he had started to tell her the story. ”Honestly, I’m not sure how much of it I got,” she admitted. ”That was my other reason for saying you should tell Tarin the story; to hear it again and hopefully understand a bit more of it.”

And Shin wanted to know about Tarin. ‘All about Tarin. Which wasn’t going to be awkward at all without revealing what was going on since she hadn’t spoken with Kevin about all that yes.

But Lee nodded as she started walking, trying to figure out where to start. May as well start at the start, right? ”Like I said, when I went by the shop to look after he hadn’t picked Kevin up, that’s when I first ran into Tarin. That Tarin. Though I didn’t believe it at first because they look completely different. When it was obvious that Kevin’s father was gone, I let him take over the shop. I mean, Kevin and myself don’t need it for anything, and the woman up on the Empire State Building, the spirit up there, would be happy it was still being used, I was sure.”

Lee paused as she thought about how to explain how they had run across each other again. Well, Shin did know about the merging, she just didn’t have to give all the details of it.

”I ran across him again a few weeks ago when he was merged. With a spirit, not a person. So we dealt with that,” Lee told Shin with a shrug. Hopefully he wouldn’t ask too many questions about this part of the story since he wanted to know about Tarin himself.

”The weirdest thing at first was…he felt so familiar even though we didn’t know each other.” Lee was frowning slightly at this point, trying to explain the feeling without it sounding too strange. ”He doesn't look a thing like the man I married, and yet there were expressions, gestures, movements that I knew. That I had seen a thousand times before.

“The more time we spent together, the more I discovered that the two of them are so different,” Lee continued, then looked over at Shin as they walked. ”Did you know that running and working out helps with control of his powers? Where was that information 17 years ago? And he’s only ever had two merges, both with spirits. He didn’t even know it was possible for him to merge with a person.”

She had not understood much. Hence her wanting to explain it again, to Tarin. Shin shook his head with a laugh.

—

Lee began explaining Tarin. They met in the shop, she gave him the shop. He looked different.

Different, how? Hotter? More homely? Maybe he was built like a train.

He didn’t quite understand about the ‘spirit on the Empire State building’ comment. Shin figured that was exclusive Lee Tarin Lore. Now, Lee Lee lore. A Lee exclusive.

Sad.

Lee went further in the story, more recent.

>>> ”I ran across him again a few weeks ago when he was merged. With a spirit, not a person. So we dealt with that,” she said.

Okay. It had been a minute. Merged meant, pushed together, fused? Like the fusion dance in Dragonball Z, or the earrings. So, this Tarin was basically posessed. Had been. Well. Dangerous.

Shin did not know much Tarin merge lore, either. He really had been a terrible friend. He would have to ask the man himself about that, since Lee seemed like she was giving the bare essentials of the story. A skill he might have to learn some day.

She said he felt familiar. Gestures and stuff. Sounded like a romance novel to Shin. And he was married to Kealey. He knew romance novels. The man, different and yet the same. The gestures, the way he walked, talked, held himself. The eyes. You know, body language.

he was being an ass, it was an ass thing to assume, if he had one of those toys you pull the lever on for animal noises, it would say the donkey says hee haw, and the picture on the wheel would be him.

But.

>>> “The more time we spent together, the more I discovered that the two of them are so different,” Lee said.

Mmhmmm.

>>> ”Did you know that running and working out helps with control of his powers?”

Yeah?

>>>”Where was that information 17 years ago? And he’s only ever had two merges, both with spirits. He didn’t even know it was possible for him to merge with a person.”

”Sounds like he has more rigid control,” Shin used a term he had not picked from a romance novel. This was basic mutant powers shop talk. ”Does he act more in control? Is he more reserved?”

The OG, the original Tarin, was different in that regard. He kind of remembered a big situation in Romania, with shards and a unicorn, and Lee, what, had she died? That was anything but “in control.” It had worked out, but it had been unpredictable and wild.

”Sounds like he has more rigid control.”

Lee couldn’t help the frown that came to her face as she nodded. ”He definitely seems to,” Lee replied, the frown still on her face as she thought about it. ”I mean, it’s hard for me to believe that he had only had a single merge before the one that I found him in. But because of SUPER over there, having control of your powers and not drawing attention was beaten into them almost from the time their powers emerged.” As she talked about this, Lee’s frown deepened. The story that Tarin had told her still made her angry. It probably always will.

”But when I introduced Tarin to the spirit at the Empire State Building, she’s who first directed this world’s Tarin to the shop, he was able to make her so solid that I swear she looked as alive as you do. I’ve never seen anything like it. Always before, no matter how solid he had made a spirit, I could always at least sort of see through them."

” Does he act more in control? Is he more reserved?”

”Oh my god, yes,” Lee answered those questions. ”The first couple of days after the merge, well, after he had slept for I don’t even know how many hours because of the energy I had to take, I made the comment of how amazed I was with how he was holding together emotionally. I’ve had more emotional responses after merges than he had. Yet apparently, Tarin was feeling like he was falling apart mentally and emotionally.” Lee shook her head sadly. Because one little panic attack in a crowded elevator mere hours after the merge ended and his claustrophobia had returned was not completely falling apart, no matter what Tarin said. It was understandable, normal, human.

>>> “…But because of SUPER over there, having control of your powers and not drawing attention was beaten into them almost from the time their powers emerged.” As she talked about this, Lee’s frown deepened.

That made sense. SUPER had been a lot to handle. He just have learned to control so he could hide better. It was a smart thing. But… Shin could not believe the number of merges, either. It seemed low.

All of this stuff made Lee sad. Or mad. Or both.

And Tarin sounded a lot stronger in some ways than their Tarin, the original. Making a spirit almost corporeal? That seemed frightening.

His comment about Tarin’s attitude struck a chord with Lee. Shin was silent while he processed the information.

After the merge, whatever had happened, Lee thought it was amazing he was holding things together, but he wasn’t. He just was not showing it. It was all inside.

”That can be dangerous, holding it all inside. Things can explode out, like a shaken bottle of cola.” He said.

”Im glad he has someone to talk to. That helps, even if it’s only a little.”

He didn’t know where he would be without his support.

When Shin pointed out that holding everything in all the time could be dangerous as well, Lee nodded. ” Oh believe me, I know,” Lee said softly before glancing over at Shin. ” You're not the only one who's had a mental breakdown before…”

But as Shin continued speaking Lee couldn't help the slight laugh, bitter though it was. ” He definitely fought against the help to start with. Though at least I understand why now, even if I don't like the reason.

“But Tarin is doing much better now, even compared to how amazingly well I thought he was handling things at first. I mean, he is still having nightmares, but they're far less frequent now.

Then Lee stopped, both talking and walking for a moment before her feet started moving again. And as she closed the slight distance that had appeared between them, Lee looked over at Shin as they walked. ” Tarin did seem amazed by the idea that there even were places like the mansion on this side. I was already thinking I should bring Kevin to show him around in the next while. Do you think it'd be ok if I invited Tarin along when I come?”

>>> ” Oh believe me, I know,” Lee said softly before glancing over at Shin. ” You're not the only one who's had a mental breakdown before…”

Shin never once figured he had the monopoly on mental breakdowns. Honestly, for what went on around these here parts, he figured his number was decidedly low.

He listened as Lee talked about Tarin’s struggle, about how he initially did not want the help, fought against it. How she eventually understood the reason, even if it wasn’t one she liked. And how he was doing better. Still having nightmares, but…

Hmm.

Shin nodded. He went on one or two steps with the shard hover pram, before he noticed Lee had stopped walking.

He turned to look at her. She caught up.

She started talking about Tarin, and his reaction to the information about the existence of a place like the mansion. With his brief knowledge of the X-men on Tarin’s side of the rift, that checked out. They had been an outlaw band of paramilitaries. It was kind of amazing how much acceptance they had received over here.

Then she asked him a question. She had been planning to show her son, Kevin, the mansion… and wanted to know if it was okay to bring Tarin around.

”Oh for sure. Everyone is welcome,” Shin said. Everyone within reason, that was. Maybe not the baddies. ”Unrelated, but some time I would like to meet him. I feel like we could talk about some things.”

A squirrel ran up a nearby tree. An Eastern gray. It chittered as it climbed. The baby woke up long enough to watch it with wonder.

Lee nodded as she heard Shin say that everyone was welcome. Yes, true, Lee thought. Everything she knew about the mansion, and her own personal experience did say that. But at the same time, it had been so long since she had been there, she’d had so little contact with anyone there for years…it had felt like the right thing to do, asking to bring Tarin along when she was already planning to just show up to give her son a tour of the school.

”Yeah, sure,” Lee said, then shook her head slightly. ”I’m sure he’ll be alright with that, but I can ask him. Or you can stop by the shop if you’re in the area.”

Lee paused as she thought. Shin hadn’t known what had happened in the last 6 years, no, the last decade. Did he know where the shop was? With how long they had been friends, Lee thought that he should, but now she was second guessing that.

”Or we can always meet up when the three of us come to the mansion once Kevin’s run off somewhere,” Lee continued, smiling at Michael as she saw he had woken up. ”I can introduce you two and we can talk. Or I can always find something to do if you guys want to talk.”

Not that Lee thought that was likely, at least not from Tarin's end. With the stories that she and Tarin had shared already, she couldn't imagine Tarin actually talking to Shin about anything either she didn't already know or something he didn't want her to know.

The shop? Sure, yeah, the shop! He knew the shop, he—- he didn’t know the shop… Lee saw it in his eyes, saw it in his face and the way he tilted his body towards her. He… didn’t know the shop.

Absolutely splendid friend, him.

>>>”Or we can always meet up when the three of us come to the mansion once Kevin’s run off somewhere,” Lee offered him a lifeline. ”I can introduce you two and we can talk. Or I can always find something to do if you guys want to talk.”

He took the offer.

”Ah yeah,” Shin said lightly. ”Yeah totally. We could do that. With how close-to-the chest you make him sound, he might appreciate having a middleman, so to speak. Plus, I uh, don’t really know the shop. Yeah.” He scratched his neck and smiled weakly. He could own that. Why lie?

”We can hash it out. I can get back to you.” He said. He had her contact info now. He could schedule something. Babies always made it a little more difficult.