The X-Project

Just to reaffirm the fact that the world at large has no consideration for trauma, a new arrival. (Too bad, Nate was actually healthy for once . . .)



Nathan wondered, as he walked into the infirmary, which redhead would be doing his EEG this evening. Madelyn was almost certainly monitoring Remy. Moira, most likely, or maybe Jean. Moira was down here, he could sense her, although she seemed to be distracted by something. Doing something else while waiting for him?

He hoped it was her. After yesterday's events, he was sufficiently unsettled to not want to be too far from her. The link was reassuring; having her within touching distance was better. Distracted, his mind half on the situation with Amanda, half on what the latest in the series of EEGs would say, his concentration was very much elsewhere. And he was after all in the heart of the mansion. As he would tell himself later, he could be forgiven for not being quite on his guard.

The running footsteps registered an instant too late, as something-no, someone slammed into him from the side, knocking him to the floor. The instinctive lash of TK... didn't materialize, and Nathan panicked as a hand locked around his throat, another pinning his right wrist above his hand. The face above him was unfamiliar, distorted, Nathan saw in the moment before the sharp, sudden pain in his neck and wrist registered.

Dark-skinned, a man -- boy, maybe, but his cheeks and eyes were so sunken it was impossible to determine his real age, even though the face was only inches away. The attacker's mouth was half-open to his harsh breathing, rasps hot and foul with old blood. Vein-shot whites showed around the black irises -- his gaze was unfocused, staring beyond the face of the man he pinned. He tightened his grip on Nathan's throat and something like a hiss escaped his throat, wet and deep.

Nathan grabbed at his attacker's closest arm, the one that had a grip on his throat, trying futilely to pull it away. But he couldn't. Couldn't move it, couldn't use his powers... what the hell was going on? The pain seemed to shift in a strange, nauseating sort of way, as if whatever was causing it was moving, and Nathan tried to shout for help.

The attacker's hand tightened around Nathan's throat at his attempt to draw breath, the arms that pinned him as imovable as steel girders. The boy's breathing had quickened, and if anything he seemed to be getting stronger -- strong enough to make Nathan's wrist sing with pain, strong enough to close the breath from his throat.

He couldn't even call it struggling. He couldn't move to struggle, and the edges of his vision were going dark, the blackness pushing inwards. Nathan tried to reach out on the link, to warn Moira if nothing else, but it was gone too, or inaccessible...

Gathering up the needed files, Moira headed back to where she had left Marius. There were a great deal of tests to be run today and it was probably going to take some time before they were completed. Talk about a challenge, she thought, turning the corner.

Looking up, she came to a complete stop at the sight in front of her. Nathan, struggling under Marius as he...

Lunging at the two on the ground, she managed to get an arm under the boy's stomach and another through the arms that were currently latched onto her husband's neck and wrist. "Marius!" she snapped, trying to get through because it was obvious he was beyond rational thinking at the moment.

He fought against her as she pulled and Moira gritted her teeth. Pushing with both feet, she heard a rather sickening noise as something gave. For that effort, she also got an elbow to the throat as Marius flailed, stricking out at both of them.
And then she felt something else, normally a familiar touch but now much harder and rougher.

Not having time to yell, Moira was sent flying backwards in a burst of telekinesis, sending her slamming into the computer station and over top of it. There was a definite crunching noise as the TK blast hit the equipment in the room.

Cain jerked his head up from the waiting room. Wondering if somehow Amanda had snuck past him, he opened the door and stuck his head in, then just as quickly jerked it back as a chunk of medical equipment shattered against the wall. "Jesus, Nate!" he called, before seeing the young man straddling Nathan - and Moira laying face-down on the floor.

The world went red for a moment as Cain bellowed a deep roar, taking one long step across the lab, sweeping his hand to grab the young man by the chest, yanking him off Nathan and slamming him roughly into the ceiling. Pulling a hand back for a blow that would crush the kid's skull, he could feel the eddies of telekinesis pull at his arm.

"Cain, dinnae hurt 'im!" Moira called weakly. "'e's sick, not tryin' ta hurt anyone!"

Reversing his motion, Cain yanked the boy along the direction he was telekinetically pulling, slamming him onto a gurney, bending it in half with the force of the blow. Two quick folds, and the metal gurney was wrapped around the young man, and Cain clapped a large hand across his face, fingers squeezing with just enough force at the temples to let the kid know that he was only a hair's breadth away from having his head turned into a mess of blood and bone.

"So help me god, Moira, I'm gonna pulp this little bastard right goddamn now if someone doesn't explain to me what the hell's going on here."

...the hell's going on here. Booming, angry voice. Cain-voice? Nathan blinked up at the ceiling, blurring in his view, and raised a shaking hand to his throat as he gasped for air, the pain making his eyes water even more. The link was back suddenly, and...

"M-Moira?" He raised his head, shock and fear blasting through him as he saw her struggling to sit up. "Moira!" Adrenalin flooded through him and he managed to scramble to his feet.

"I'm fine!" Moira responded, finally hauling herself to her feet. Wobbly but up, she took in the scene in front of her. Her throat ached more than the rest of her body, which was saying something. But she was relatively unhurt.

"Is 'e secured?" she asked, grabbing for first aid material when she spotted Nathan's neck and wrist. This...well...she got a got good look at her husband's wounds and shuddered. Roughly the shape of the mouths on the boy's hands...

"The hell is wrong with this kid?" Cain asked, one hand still poised above the boy's face. "You wanna, I dunno, stick him with something so he quits wriggling? He's about to bend this gurney off him, so if you've got a plan that DON'T involve me giving him a concussion, now would be the time."

But this, as it turned out, was unnecessary. Something about Cain's hand over his face seemed to calm the boy; the earlier telekinetic pulls had ceased, and his struggles were subsiding. Even as Cain finished speaking the boy tensed, exhaled in something like a sigh, and went limp. Unconscious, just like that. As if someone had reached into his brain and flicked the off switch.

Nathan started towards Moira but then froze, dizziness sweeping over him. "Can I second the 'what the fuck'?" he muttered, blinking at Moira. Bruised, at least, he analyzed, and opened his mouth to tell her to sit down or something when another wave of dizziness hit and he tottered. "Did he just go crazy and fall asleep?" His wrist hurt, almost as badly as his throat. Nathan blinked down at it and saw the bleeding lacerations there. "Ow."

"Cain, see ta Nathan," Moira instructed, moving over the boy. "An' then I need ye ta out o' here." Sharply she raised a hand, cutting off both of their protests. "Until Nathan came in, Marius was normal. I'm nay sure, yet, wha' triggered th' attack but I was more than safe. Go, get Madelyn but...but nay Jean." She frowned. "There's a connection..."

"Maddie, right," Cain said, shoving the unconscious boy against a wall, not with any sort of gentleness. Glaring down at him, he scowled. "It's the dope, isn't it? Is that what the kids are on these days? I swear, it's worse every year..." he grumbled, stalking out of the lab.

Moira held Nathan back for long enough to give him a quick once-over and a curt instruction to 'bandage those, for now', before she put the first aid supplies in his hand and pushed him out the door. By that time Cain had gotten Madelyn, and Nathan blinked as Maddie rushed past him, the door closing behind her.

"No one answered my 'what the fuck'?" he muttered, eyeing Cain.

Cain just shrugged. "Kids these days. Probably on..." He glanced down at Nathan's neck, then raised his eyebrows to his hairline and snorted. "Oh man. Oh man, get a turtleneck. Seriously. The kid gave you a hickey."

"Great," Nathan grumbled, heading over to the mirror to get a better look. "How many times in one year do I have to pick my clothing based on how well it hides injuries..." He bandaged his neck quickly, noticing the unsteadiness of his hands, and then did the same for his wrist. "Moira's fine," he muttered, pushing down the link. "I think. Maddie'll make sure."

"Pretty fragile kid, though," Cain mused as Nathan bandaged himself. "Passed out before I could even wallop him one. Where's the fun in that?"

"You're not supposed to have fun walloping Moira's patients. She gets cranky." Nathan took a deep breath and then let it out, tentatively extending his telekinesis - just to make sure that it was still there. "Thanks," he said, looking around at Cain.

With another shrug, Cain headed up towards the stairs. "Take a swing at my friends, I take a swing at you. Seems fair to me, and I don't discriminate on age. Hell, I'm still itching to knock that old man of yours into orbit. C'mon, let's grab a beer. I'm sure your wife'll page us if the kid needs to be dunked in the lake or something."