Envisionings (2nd Edition) Part 13 💉🩸

X-Mansion - Medical Bay Scott opens his eyes, which are soon drawn to the reading from his visor. His visor? That's not what he was wearing when he blacked out.

Meanwhile, upstairs - X-Mansion Cafeteria

The residents staggering in for breakfast, Bobby and Rogue finish loading their plates before noticing a non-resident sitting at one of the tables; Colber. They exchange looks before heading his way.

Back in the Med Bay

"Some party, huh?"

Scott looks over to find Alex on a medical bed a little distance beside his.

Off Scott's expression, Alex shrugs: "Guess the pain took me down, too. Last thing I remember was Colber helping me to my car."

Cafeteria

Bobby: "So the Youth Center lets people crash there, too?"

"What?" Colber's almost neutral question comes with a mostly clouded over expression, prompting Rogue to eye him. Colber doesn't notice, his gaze fixed on Bobby who carries on: "You told me you didn't live close, yet you were there this early in the morning."

Colber's disposition reverts to chill -or at least appears to: "Right. Well I never can sleep that much in the Summer. And it can be cool to visit familiar places early in the day. They're like, alien." He leans back, keeping one hand on the table. "Plus I'm practically a staff-in-training so I know whe-" -a pile of pebbles spill out onto the wood as if he'd been holding a fistful. "Oops -sorry. That happens when I'm nervous sometimes. I'd never seen Alex, or anyone, in pain like he was. I kind of thought-"

Audio match-cut-to

Alex: "-thought I was dying. I don't know if anyone gave me anything here, but it's at a manageable level, now."

Scott: "Usually by the time I wake up my headache's gone," he swings his legs off the side of the bed, "but a little of it's still lingering." He looks up at the lights, which seem to have been dimmed somewhat from their usual level.

The door opens to admit Hank.

"'morning."

Scott brings his attention down to him: "How far into the morning?"

"Only late enough to be missing the breakfast rush. How are the both of you feeling?" Something about Hank's disposition is more serious than usual.

Alex: "I'll live. Could do with a change of scene though, if I'll need to be here any longer."

Scott: "My visor readout is the same. I assume you're the reason I'm wearing it?"

"Yes. Following Bobby's summary of the situation last night, I acted on the hypothesis that a further increase of power could be on the verge of occurring, thus accounting for an

experience akin to your optic blasts' nascent period." He turns his head, giving a nod to Alex, "the same going for you. However. ." Hank's graveness comes to the fore, "I've since been pouring over the results of your gene sequencing. There is a marked difference to when Jean had sequenced earlier blood samples. It could be a benign mutational change. Though it looks decidedly more like a degradation. I fear the dialing-up of your powers is occurring in concert with a breaking down of your X-genes."

Alex (making sense): "So, ultimately you're saying-"

He doesn't finish; caught off guard by Scott abruptly moving towards the door.

Hank and Alex exchange a look before following -the latter with careful movements watched over by the former.

Ready Room

Joined by them, Scott explains: "Each of the recent alerts have lead us to mutants either losing control or acting on a compulsion to let loose. What if every instance was prompted by a power increase? The compulsion coming from feeling their powers uncomfortably pent-up, like the pressure inside of a pop bottle that's been shaken."

Alex (unsettled by the unknown): "Then something would be happening in the mutant community. But what would be causing it?"

Hank ventures an answer: "Perhaps we should be asking 'who'? Of whom can we think would actually want mutant powers to grow? One name comes immediately to mind. And one whose first* X-gene influencing ploy ended in an undesirable result, if I recall recounted events correctly."

*X-Men the movie.

Scott shakes his head: "For once, I'm not convinced this is Magneto. The subjects are too unlikely, for one, and If you look at the amplified X-gene expression as the side-effect to the degradation instead of the reverse, Rogue suddenly removing mutants' powers without affecting them harder in any other way starts to make sense. I think whatever this is, power loss is the intent."

Hank (playing devil's advocate): "Though only two of the mutants in question have actually appeared to lose their powers, and Rogue didn't touch one of them."

Scott: "That one could be an outlier. But we took the relief and reports from three of the others of 'feeling normal' or their power 'gone' afterward as the anomalous situation being neutralized, though each were mutants who were reluctant towards their powers in the first place -they could've been relieved to feel them go away completely; we just didn't realize. We'll need to follow up as soon as possible."

While Hank seems to be reconsidering the facts, Alex scoffs: "Well if this is something engineered by someone, we'd have an easier time asking who wouldn't want us powerless. But I'm still not seeing how you made this jump. I mean if X-genes actually are degrading, why would there be any amplification? To me it sounds like two different things going on. And maybe what you," -he looks at Hank- "think looks more likely in our results really is just some further mutation."

Hank: "Entertaining Scott's idea, it could be the X-genes are behaving akin to an immune system. That would also explain any variation in response. I can imagine your and Scott's X-genes being more robust than most, thus causing a 'call to arms' so strong you're taking a beating yourselves."

Scott: ". . .that, or our powers are going supernova."