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Disclaimer: Shatterstar, Rictor, Boomer, Spiral, Mojo, and all related X-Force
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entertainment purposes.
Note: An attempt to clarify Shatterstar's origin, as confusing as it is. The sequel to my other
story: "You Only Live Twice: On Shaky Ground."
Juxtaposition by Karen Galarneault
INTRO
Julio Richter had spent five months with MUSE, a relocation program for young mutants in crisis.
He now had a better grasp of the scope and limits of his powers. More importantly, he had
learned to control the directionless anger he'd been bottling up inside over his father's
murder.
MUSE had proven as good as their word: Lucas Wydham resembled a surrogate father and a drill
sergeant rolled into one. "Must be all that NASA officer training paying off big time."
Dr. Nancy Parsons was a school-marm in a designer suit, but she knew her stuff. She kept up, not
only with his training, but his education, too. He'd written and mailed a letter to his cousin,
Candia, to be read to his mother. In it, he explained why he had to run away from home. MUSE
had found him a foster family in Boston. "Never imagined I'd wind up in the City of Brotherly
Love, let alone the East Coast."
Both his foster parents were professionals: one a banker, the other a real estate agent. They
knew he was a mutant, yet they'd welcomed him into their home with open arms.
Later
Julio watched people and buildings sped by in a hazy blur as his foster-mother, Denise Morgan,
drove him to field hockey practice. She'd called ahead to see if practice would be cancelled
because of a bank of fog rolling in from the Atlantic coast. Fortunately, practice was still
on.
Upon reaching the park, Julio saw that others had already set up on the asphalt surface that
served double duty as a basketball court. Unfastening his seat belt, he gave his foster-mom a
quick hug, and ran off to join them. "Good luck, Julio," she called after him, "Don't play too
rough."
"Sure, mamaista." he yelled, dragging his equipment bag slung over one shoulder. In his hurry he
accidentally collided with a blond girl wearing sweats and green sunglasses over a pair of
startling blue eyes. She was watching his team, The Bay Street Bombers, practice, getting ready
for a scrimmage against the opposing team, the Miracle Mile Thunders.
"Hey! Watch where you're going!" she yelled as they both toppled backwards, with her landing on
top of him. "Hey, which team you on?" she asked, picking herself up.
"Yeah," Julio absently noted that she was rather attractive if she hadn't been wearing so much
makeup. "The Bay Street Bombers. You okay?"
"Can I play, too?" She asked, fidgeting with her sunglasses. She gave him a quick searching
glance that took in everything. "Girls!" he mentally scoffed.
"I don't see why not. It's co-ed after all."
"Cool. Which team did you see you were on?"
"The Bombers."
"Sounds like my kind of team."
"You got a name, chica?"
"Yeah, it's Tabitha Smith, and don't call me a chic. I hate that. What's your name?"
"Julio Richter. My friends call me Ric. And for the record, I wasn't calling you anything like
that. It's Spanish for, oh what's the use? Come on, I'll ask my coach if he's got any spare
gear for you, Tabitha. You do know how to play?"
"Like Duh! Of course I do, Ric. You don't mind me calling you that?"
"Nah. Come on."
First meeting between Ben Russell and Julio Richter
"Ben Russell, number 7 of the Thunders, and Julio Richter, number 11 of the Bombers, take up
positions on the center line, you're on pass-off this game. Smith, you're new here, so take the
back court. Don't argue with me, just get over there." the coach said, as Tabitha opened her
mouth to protest, that new or not, she could hack it just as well as the boys. She swallowed her
words and her gum at the same time.
"Sure thing." the red-headed boy agreed, taking up his stance at the indicated position
levering the playing stick to the ground. Julio followed suit on the opposite side. "No
probelmo, jefe." Julio agreed.
Ben Russell felt a momentary feeling of dejavu wash over him as he stared at the brown-haired
boy's face, like he knew that face in other place and time. "Probably just some kid my team's
played before," shaking off the odd feeling of recognition, saving his concentration for the
scrimmage.
The referee dropped the ball on the asphalt surface dead center. Ben was a split-second faster
and snagged the ball with his stick, whirling around with the ball pinioned, his teammates
flanking him, whilst trying to prevent the players on the other team from gaining control of the
ball. Seeing the oddly familiar boy catching up, intent on taking the ball away, he increased
his speed, pivoted on his heel, and passed the ball to his nearest teammate. Ben's agility made
him a natural for the game, heading for the goal, seemingly careening around obstacles presented
by Julio and Tabitha's teammates like they weren't even there. Deep into the game, he'd made two
goals.
Julio signaled to Tabitha and they both split laterally across the field. Tabitha, being smaller
and faster, got there first, snatching away the object of contention and made a mad dash for the
goal, passing it back and forth between herself and Julio. Enroute, in two minutes it took to
get past the blockade of other players, he saw, out of the corner of his eye, Tabitha making a
signal to take the shot, and leave caution to the winds. Julio yanked back the playing stick
and swiped the ball into the goal; wishing the ball along as it sailed through the air that it
would land between the goal posts. Someone must have heard his unspoken thoughts for the sphere
whipped past the goaltender and landed smack dab behind the goalie.
Play commenced in the allotted hour game, with points shifting up and down; with only a few
seconds left, Ben maneuvered an high arcing shot toward the Bomber's goal, despite Julio and
Tabitha's best efforts to block his path, sidling around their teammates as if they weren't
there. He took his shot, causing the ball to sail over their heads and come to a graceful
landing behind the goalie, a perfect shot near that won the game for the Thunders. The referee
went to the center line and called the game over.
After
"I'd like to shake the hand of the person who scored the winning goal." Julio said.
"Sure" Ben said, extending one hand for Julio to grasp, then Ben started to pump his hand up and
down for all he was worth.
"Hey, Ric, you want to bring Ben along and we'll somewhere else in the park, say by the picnic
benches?" Tabitha asked, steeping in between the two boys.
"Ah, that's Tabitha, I'm Julio, ... and you're ..."
"Sounds like a plan. I'm Benjamin Russell."
All three of them skipped the picnic table in favor of a shady oak tree. They sat on the ground
with their backs against it with their legs sprawled out in front of them, like spokes on a
wheel.
Tabitha took over her sunglasses and peered at each of the boys, "Can you keep a
secret?"
"Mum's the word." Julio replied.
"Well, if it's a secret, you shouldn't tell, then it won't be a secret ..." Ben trailed off. He
found himself warming up to both the Mexican boy and the blond girl almost immediately. His aunt
kept him pretty much secluded in their two-story house, except for going to school and taking
him to field hockey matches; otherwise he didn't get out much. He wanted these people to become
his friends.
"Ben, if Tabitha wants to tell us, that means she trusts us to keep her secret."
"Exactly. You see, I haven't always lived in Boston. I used to live in a trailer park in
Jonestown, Pennsylvania."
"Neither have I; you can tell by the accent."
"Yeah, you're from Mexico; it wasn't that obvious, but let me finish.
"We'll take turns telling secrets."
"Yeah, then we'll pass out secret decoder rings."
"Will you shut up, Ric? Thank you. Okay, I'll just warn you, it isn't pretty. You see, I think
I'm one of those, uh, mutants."
"We believe you," both boys said together.
"You do?" Tabitha's blue eyes widening. Thinking of her life after she'd run away from the
trailer park, the only place she'd called home.
She just couldn't take any more of her father's drunken scenes, and lived as best she could on
the streets until ChildWatch had found her. They'd brought her to live with a foster family here
in Boston. Life had a funny way of twisting people's lives around.
"I have to, you see, I'm a mutant also." Julio said, thinking back to the first time his power
manifested all those months ago in Guadalajara and later how Cameron Hodge used his powers in
San Francisco for his own ulterior motives.
"That makes it unanimous," Ben said. My Aunt Rita says that I'm special, but, ever since I
turned thirteen, I ve been able to channel sound through my hands. She won't let me handle sharp
objects."
"Weird." Tabitha commented. "Well, until you literally bumped into me, Ric, I've been so
terrified of telling anyone."
"We've all heard stories that there must be something wrong with you because you're a
mutant."
"You can say that again, Ric, but do us all a favor, and don't."
"So what's your dazzle ?" Ben asked, leaning forward, hanging on the blond girl's every
word.
"I, uh generate time-bombs of explosive energy. I kinda blow stuff up."
"I create vibratory waves from my hands. How good are you at controlling it?"
"Well," Ben replied, "I have to be careful, Aunt Rita says that if I channel too much sound,
I'm liable to either deafen myself or knock myself out."
"Me, I'm practicing making different timebombs, but sometimes I make duds. And, Ric, I'm not
really up on this whole mutant thing, so what the heck does vibratory waves mean?"
"I can resonate them along the ground to create a mini-earthquake, or through the air, to sorta
make stuff topple down. The people who rescued me taught me that I needed not just control, but
..."
"Discipline," Ben finished.
"Yeah I had a lot of stuff bottled up inside."
"Me, too." You see my real mom was great, but she died when I was really little. So he didn't
handle all that well, started drinking ..."
"And when he drank, he got mean" Ben said in sympathy for Tabitha's obviously unhappy home-life.
At least she'd had parents. He'd never known his real parents; he barely remembered anything
about his past until he'd come to live with his aunt. He'd asked once, but she'd gone silent,
hiding all the photo albums. She'd given him the cold shoulder treatment for three weeks before
their relationship had gone back to its normal routine. Ben had never asked about his parents
again.
"Julio, do you have parents?" Ben asked.
"Yeah, I come from a real large family in Mexico. But a lot of that anger I told ya about, was
dealing with seeing my father murdered right in front of my face."
"That must've royally sucked. I mean, you were a kid and all. I guess we all have sob stories. I
think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship."
"That's corny, but what did you expect?" Ben grinned, making his freckles stand out.
"You know I've been thinking, Since we're all mutants, and we've got a lot in common..."
"You know what we should do?"
"Form a club," Julio finished.
"Just for mutants like us."
"Agreed, but just to make it official, we should have a initiation ceremony."
"Yeah, some kind of oath, pinkie swear, friends forever, soul-mates till the end." Tabitha said,
holding out her right hand with the small finger crooked, "You in, Ric?" she asked, her blue
eyes staring into his brown ones.
"Si, Tabitha." Julio said extending his own left hand and twining the smallest finger around
hers, "Friends Forever, Soul-Mates. Para siempre."
Ben switched places with Julio and went through the same performance. "We should have codenames
now that we're a secret club." Ben said.
"Okay, since I blow stuff up, you call me Boomer, cause it's the sound my time-bombs
make."
"Uh, it's just a coincidence, but you might as well stick with Richter, it s the same as the
scale for measuring earthquakes."
"Okay, Rictor," Tabitha said, pronouncing it without the letter H.
"How about you, Ben. I mean we can't all be in the club and not have cool codenames," Julio
said.
"I've always liked the name Shatterstar," Ben said.
"Then Shatterstar it is. Weird, but..."
The three decided they'd wait for the next weekend game before the newly-forged club met again,
unaware that they'd had an unseen observer the entire time. She was intensely interested in all
of them, especially the red-haired boy. He'd inadvertently had given himself the name he'd bear
into the future.
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©Copyright by Alan Quan. Shatterstar and all other characters
mentioned here are ©copyright of their respective owners. The
fan-fiction written here is ©copyright by Karen Galarneault, 1999.
