We now come to a nice looking neighborhood, a nice looking home..... Outside of which fire trucks and other first responder vehicles are gathered.
Inside, there's smoke, but no fire....
It seems to be coming from an upstairs room...
Two firefighters take in a peculiar scene..
The body of a teenager - the source of the noxious smoke.
Just outside the room, the parents -coughing- resist being lead away by others as they plead: "Don't report that he caused this! This wasn't him!" "We caused it! Our son... He shouldn't be remembered this way!" With assurances -sympathetic glances exchanged between the firefighters- the parents are lead out of their house to get checked out. As they pass the living room on their way to the door, we can see the TV that's been left on; The Evening News Anchorman: "-and water damage at an apartment complex has been confirmed to have been caused by an elderly mutant living there who claims a lose of control over their abnormality. Given their landlady's statement of a rent increase enacted at the top of the month, however, an increase to which the mutant tenant tried to contest, the more likely story is an attempt to avoid paying by claiming an uninhabitable environment." The parents utter final words of anguish as they pause at the threshold: "Why did we try....He was fine!" "He was fine the way he was!"
Some days later; early morning at the Outreach Centre.
The sun hasn't even come up yet.
We see a tired, vaguely distressed-looking Colber arrive.
He has a key.
Letting himself in, he turns on a light in a kitchen area, starts a coffee machine,
then goes to haul a couple of bean bag chairs into the meditation area where there are also pillows.
He uses the moveable dividing walls to make himself a private space where he sets the bean bag chairs next to each other, pounds them into a suitable surface to lie on, then grabs a pillow and, with a heavy sigh, gets comfortable -- after sweeping out from under his pillow some skipping-sized stones he unintentionally just created. He doesn't have much time in his refuge when he starts hearing a noise.
He's instantly alert.
It's coming from the offices, he realizes after getting up to investigate.
A thief? No.
There's a groaning.
Colber hesitates, but his instincts push him to act.
"Someone okay in there?" he calls through the door, hand on the handle but he doesn't open it yet.
It's Alex's voice that answers: "Colber? Might as well get in here."
The young man does.
He finds his mentor standing beside his desk, but leaning on it; apparently in pain.
"What's going on?"
"I don't know-" Alex groans, "I've had constant pain kind of all over my body since...." he seems to be making sense of the time that it is, "night before last. It's gotten worse."
There's a glow emanating from around his ruby quarts chest plate and underneath the cuffs of the gloves, readily visible in the lack of other light -- his powers seem to be going off constantly behind them.
Colber: "It's got to be related to your powers, right?"
"Probably," his tone is grim.
What's he supposed to do about that?
Next we're at the Mansion.
In a straggly fashion, students -and staff- seem to be just making their way to breakfast.
Colber somewhat supports Alex as we now see them coming in the front doors.
Colossus is just coming down the stairs, he and Colber make eye contact.
Colber: "Uh-h-h, are you one of the ones in charge? He needs your Medical room, or something."
Colossus starts guiding them, asking questions along the way.
Down the hall, a First Nations girl of about 11-years-old observes the scene as the trio heads towards the elevator. She's standing with an older, East Asian girl. "Isn't that Professor Summers' brother?"
Jubilee: "Yeah, it looks like it. I wonder what's up?"
While Jubilee seems -somewhat- more curious than unsettled,
the younger girl is a mix more on the unsettled side.
Jean and Scott are already amidst the hustle and bustle of the dining area. Jean is setting toast in a toaster while Scott's at the tea and coffee pots.
He sets a full mug of tea down on the counter for Jean before pouring coffee for himself.
Before she takes it, however, Jean's attention shifts; the younger girl is just approaching them, looking worrisome. "Holo. You look like something's happened?"
Even as her attention is on Holo, Jean seems to be gaining awareness that there's a distinct ripple of something in the conversation this morning.
Scott tunes into theirs - what could've happened to Holo at this point of the day?
Holo opens her mouth to start answering Jean, but seeing that Scott is listening too, speaks directly to him: "Somebody just came in with your brother. It looked like he was hurt or something." Jean and Scott exchange a look of concern as Holo finishes, "Colossus just took them to the basement."
Scott sets his own mug on the counter -"Thanks, Holo"- both adults forget about breakfast in favour of seeing what's going on.
Holo sports a fleeting smile at the 'thanks', pleased in her heart to be of help, but it's not under a nice circumstance; she watches them go.
In the Medical Bay....
Jean is examining Alex - Colber and Scott are also in the room.
Alex: "-like my joints -and bones, are on fire. It hasn't been like this since I first got my powers."
Scott reacts like this fact of his brother's mutant history is news to him; and that fact unsettles him anew.
Alex grunts: "Scratch that, it's worse."
Jean finishes but doesn't seem to have any further answers: "That being the case, it would track as being related to powers increasing.." It would, yet Jean herself doesn't seem convinced. "They seem to be going off constantly now. Did the pain begin at that point?"
"I honestly can't remember.."
"I'll get you something for it. Though it won't be as straightforward as typical pain treatment if it is in all parts of your body. I'd also like another blood sample."
Alex nods: "Do what's got to be done." His attention shifts to his brother while Jean goes about getting the sampling equipment. "You don't look like you're in pain."
"I'm not."
Alex puffs out a breath with a rueful grin: "Figures, just my luck." Jean: "All the same.." she's eying Scott, "I'd like another from you as well, just in case."
Colber: "So..something's happening to both of you?"
Scott looks to him, but Jean speaks ahead (taking Alex's blood): "A potential secondary mutation, either coincidentally occurring in them both," she finishes, moving to discard the needle/get a fresh one for Scott, "or triggered by a shared event." Colber folds his arms. "Is that common?" "No. Actually that's why I can't say for sure, I just don't have enough information." She now takes Scott's blood.
Colber seems to be deciding if he wants to continue this conversation. He does anyway: "Is it always intense like this?" Scott: "Well the only other one we know," he bends his arm up to put pressure on the -now covered- injection site, "hasn't volunteered much about his experience going into it." "Well how is he now?" "Covered in blue fur." Colber laughs -half nervously, half amused, as he looks towards Alex.
Jean: "You won't have to worry about that. Dr. Hank McCoy, the mutant he's talking about, didn't come about that mutation naturally. He was doing an experiment." Colber shifts uncomfortably: "Just on himself?" Jean assures: "Yes."
Alex moves this conversation along with another grunt: "Well wouldn't he know about this?" Jean: "We've been discussing it. Unfortunately Hank's expertise on the subject are on his own genome. From that alone we can't say-" All three become startled when Colber suddenly spills some more stones from his hands.
"Sorry, it's..been a morning. That happens sometimes when I'm stressed out.."
Jean tries to ease him: "You can relax about Alex at least, you can trust we'll take care of him."
Colber nods, a weariness still about him.
Scott realizes: "Have you two had breakfast?"
"No."
He indicates for Colber to come with him and adds to Alex: "I'll be right back."
On the main level, Colber looks for Bobby and Rogue after he's gotten himself a plate of food and a coffee.
Bobby has a breakfast sandwich, but just as he's bringing it to his lips he freezes it.
Colber (coming up behind his chair): "Man! Is that how you eat?"
It looks like they might've been expecting him; there's an empty space on the other side of the table, beside Rogue. Bobby responds: "No, I didn't do that on purpose." He looks questioningly at his own hand.
Colber's disposition turns sympathetic: "Oh..yeah that happens to me when I'm stressing a lot.." In case Bobby doesn't want to talk about that -maybe not committed to doing so himself- Colber concentrates on forking some scrambled eggs onto his toast.
Bobby: "I'm not stressed about anything. .I'll be back after I've nuked this."
He starts to get up when a preteen passing by on his way to a seat speaks up: "Here, let me."
Bobby holds his plate towards him, the kid holds out his hand.
In a few seconds the sandwich is thawed and heated up. "Thanks, Mike." Mike moves along while Bobby settles back down. Rogue: "So is Alex alraght? We heard he came in with you in kind of a bad way." She eats some toast with butter and honey on it. "He'll be fine, I guess.." Colber seems like he's processing something else. He looks at Bobby, now eating his sandwich without problem.
Back down in Medical, it seems Scott has brought a tray of breakfast for his little brother - with another coffee for himself. Jean's given Alex some medication to try after he's eaten something. She exits after that.
Scott's settled in a chair beside Alex. "I had headaches, before my powers came on."
"How bad?" It's clear Alex has one part of his brain on his own pain, as he mixes some hashbrowns into the yoke of a sunny side up egg.
"Sometimes enough to knock me out for..a while. Of course I didn't know about mutants and mutations then."
"What'd you think was happening?" He carefully brings the fork to his mouth -the action requiring a little more concentration with his ruby quartz gloves.
"Effects of the brain damage, I guess. What did you?"
Alex gives a mirthless laugh. "The worst growing pains a kid could have."
The brothers seem to be, not enjoying, yet getting something positive from this fraught trip down memory lanes. . . . . . .