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Mutants & Masterminds: Future Imperfect - Winter Break (not Canon)


Tim Wiley

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It was the worst time of year for Tim. School was out for a month and his level of boredom only increased. At least with school open, he could assail it's voluminous library to pass the time or work on proofreading papers for students. Now there was only free time, Rosa, his computer and his mom's incessant nagging that he spend the holidays at her house. Escape and evade was his plan for the latter.

"Your mom called again." Rosa said with a heavy Hispanic accent. "She wants you to visit her at the Strip Side tonight."

"Tell her I died," Tim replied, half-joking as Rosa shook her head at what that response meant.

The Strip Side was a small smoke-filled gambling establishment that was frequented by low and middle class Vegas residents for its lack of glitz and glammer, and better odds. The large casinos were built for non-locals and high rollers who either didn't mind parting with their money or wanted to 'experience' Vegas and took their losses as part of the experience. Since Tim lived in Vegas, and he didn't gamble, he didn't care much for it's 'experiences'. The only reason he still chose to stay was out of loyalty for Rosa, who he doubted could find work or a place to live without him, and the weather. Even though he detested the gambling establishments, he could stomach the Las Vegas Hilton. That was only because of the 'Star Trek Experience'. He liked the gift shop and the people dresses up as Vulcans, Klingons and Ferengi.

The look on Rosa's face told him he needed to make a more serious response. "When she calls again, tell her that I have a date and I can't make it." A date. That is about as likely as a meteor crashing through the roof of my house. Tim figured that he would watch some TV and browse the internet. There was no way he would spend time with his mother while she gambled. She would ignore him most of the time anyways, as she feed another weeks pay into the ravenous maws of some poker machine. He'd rather be in a dentist's chair getting his teeth drilled without anesthetic than watch his mother ruining her life.

"OK Tim. But you will have to see her eventually." Rosa gave him a suffering grin as if she understood his apprehension.

She was right and he knew it. And it gave him a headache.

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The TV was full of Christmas specials and news about the recent Mutant insurrections in Scotland. In between footage of policemen fighting against Mutants a news ticker proclaimed the most recent local events.

A local gang-war has broken out after the police didn’t allow a non-Mutant parent to visit his Mutant-daughter in the MIC. The city-department had issued special permits/visas that had to be applied for 4 weeks in advance to visit the Mutants during the holidays. Obviously that father didn’t have a permit, shortly after he was sent away a car crashed right into the gates.

Things were going south quickly and Tim was glad he wasn’t there. Maybe calling his mom wasn’t such a bad idea? Who knew when he would hear from her again? It was Christmas eve and she was still his mother.

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He sat with his cellphone in his hand for an hour before raising it. That he was even contemplating a call to his mom, much less going to see her, was only due to Rosa's insistence. She heaped the 'mother's guilt' theme on him and he succumbed. The sadness in her voice about not seeing her children on Christmass was too much for him to take. He did love his mom and he didn't want her to suffer like Rosa.

The phone rang several times before a woman answered. The cacophonous sounds of slotmachine dings and claxons almost drowned out the voice. His mom's voice had the characteristic mania of an addict getting their fix.

"Hello?" His mom queried. She obviously didn't even check to see who called before answering.

"It's me, mom." Tim said, trying to sound pleasant and confident. He winced as he spoke the next words. "Where did you want to have dinner?"

"I was hoping you could come to here to the Strip Side." The place had a cheap all you can eat buffet- generously subsidized by locals who gambled of course. It was the only redeeming quality of the casinos. Cheap, plentiful food. Still, he wanted to get her someplace that was quieter where he didn't have to compete with gambling for his mom's attention. Besides, he was under 21 and he couldn't get in. His mom never realized that little factoid everytime she invited him. He always had to remind her.

"I'm not 21 mom. I was actually thinking about some place nicer. Quark's, at the Hilton. My treat." He knew that the Hilton had gambling, but the slotmachines and gambling paraphanelia were isolated from the other areas of the hotel, especially the restaurant Quark's. Besides, he was craving some Flaming Ribs of Targ. He might try 7 of 9's Seafood Collective as well.

"You didn't hear?" Her voice sounded genuinely saddened. "They closed down Quark's and the Star Trek exhibit

at the Hilton a couple of years ago."

Everything went black. The sound of his own blood pumping was all that he could sense. The world had officially ended.

"Tim?" He thought he heard a voice from somewhere in the bleak universe that surrounded him. "Tiiiim?" More background noise in the haze of armageddon. "Maybe there is a bad connection?" A far-away voice murmered something to him. Suddenly the voice ceased its questings and all was silent.

We are the Borg. Lower your shields and surrender your ships. We will add you biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. your culture will adapt to service us. Resistance is futile......We are the Bor...

His ringtone slammed him back to reality and he looked at the name on the phone. Mom.

He remembered his mom's last words and despare came back with a vengeance. Why did the only place in Vegas ,worth a snot, have to close. Even worse, he didn't even know it had happened. He answered the call: "Hey mom. Sorry about that. Must be sunspots." More like a black hold sucking all that was good in the universe from my life.

"I was just going to say that the Star Trek Experience reopened downtown, in Freemont Square at the Neonopolis" His mom's voice had a satified tone to it.

"It did?!" Tim's voice squeaked in a merging of giddiness and confusion. The world was whole again. The sun was shining. Tim was alive!

"How about I pick you up at 7:30?" she said.

"See you then." Tim responded, as his mom hung up without another word.

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Tim looked impatiently at his watch. It was 8:15 already and no sign of his mom. He was caught between anger, frustration and disappointment although he had almost expected her to fail him again. Tim fought back tears and swallowed his grief down. He wouldn’t let her spoil his evening and he could go there on his own.

Just when he had put on his shoes the phone rang. He stared at it as if it was a call from outer space. It rang again… and again, then he answered it. “Tim? I’m so sorry honey… I got robbed, honestly! I just had won enough money for us to spend an awesome Christmas Eve and then I got mugged on the way to pick you up.”

What a blatant lie, Tim thought. He could still hear the sounds of the slotmachines in the background. His mom was still there and she most likely lost the money she had planned to stow away for “their” evening.

He wanted to answer, say something and just forget about it. He felt the grief boiling up again in his bowels making his throat dry and tears started to water his vision.

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I knew better than to hope my mom would come. He thought to himself as his mom waited for his reply. Should I make another attempt to see her? It was pointless. His mom's priorities were gambling, gambling, getting money to gamble, and gambling. Somewhere he fit into her equation, but it was not high enough for him to be important on Christmas eve.

"Let's just forget it, mom." his mouth tasted sour and he just wanted to forget that he had even called her. Once again she was a disapointment. "I told you that I was going to pay for dinner and all you had to do was pick me up." His paying for dinner was a safe gift for his mom, as she couldn't pawn if for money to gamble. Inside he hoped she might have been able to save something for a Christmas gift like he did for her, but he knew better. She was a selfish addict who would probably end up sleeping with Mick Tanner for cash to keep her binge going. It made Tim want to puke.

"If you want to see me I'll be at The Neonopolis. I'm going to grab dinner at Quarks and then see a movie at about ten thirty." She will probably call me crying and drunk in the middle of the night. She will go on one of her guilt-laden tirades that I'm a bad son who doesn't want to see his mom on Christmas Eve. "Night mom," he said as he hung up the phone. Fucking cunt! he muttered to himself as tears started to well up in his eyes.

"Hey Rosa!" Tim walked into the laundry area. "You want to go grab dinner and lament that neither of us have families we can spend Christams eve with?" His disappointment was clearly visible and Rosa knew all to well what that meant.

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Rosa gave Tim an apprehensive smile knowing that he was going through another crisis with his mom. “Of course.”, she said with her heavy Mexican accent.

At the Neonopolis business was usually except for the fact that it was Christmas eve. Virtually everything was decorated accordingly with colors red and white dominating the area. There was a heavy scent of cinnamon and slot machines ho-ho-ho’ed in at least 30 different languages which still made it sound mostly like ho-ho-ho.

Tim’s mom was nowhere to be seen and he wouldn’t be surprised if he came back home and the police had told her that she had drunk herself to death and they found her in some alley with her clothes half ripped off by some pervert who thought she was an easy lay.

Rosa did her best to make Tim’s Christmas eve at least tolerable and enjoyable – he was next to being her own child and she couldn’t understand how a mother could treat her kid like Tim’s mom did. She had gone to the toilet and it was slowly taking too long for Tim’s inner clock. Women normally needed longer breaks but Rosa was gone for more than 20 minutes now.

He decided to walk over to the restrooms and check it out. Maybe she was in trouble or something else happened. She had still trouble with the language although finding someone who spoke fluently Spanish was easy enough around these parts. Tim barely walked around the corner when he felt the floor trembling. He looked around in confusion and his eyes strangely focused on a glass of water. It made circles with each tremble that came from the restrooms just like from the first Jurassic Park movie. Tim gulped and looked down the gangway were the restrooms were located and suddenly one of the doors virtually exploded into a thousand pieces followed by a body that vaguely resembled Rosa’s that hit the wall and then recoiled to the floor like a rag doll.

Tim could barely comprehend what was happening when the wall got torn apart by a creature that could’ve sprung right out of a Terminator movie. Its red eyes focused on Tim standing still for a short moment, then it pointed its arm at him and fired. Unable to move or even think Tim froze in total shock and awe. His last thoughts were I’m not John Connor

(ooc: This story continues in this thread: Chapter 1 )

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