xp_logs | Like Lightning (Nathan, Alison, Scott, Ororo)

After returning from Philadelphia, Nathan briefs the team leaders on what happened. A briefing given by an agitated precognitive in psionic shock is not the most helpful thing in the world, but can be revealing, even so.

Three sets of eyes observed Nathan intently, their owners each located in their favored area in the room. There was a slightest hint of ozone to the air, if one paused long enough to notice that sort of stuff, though the regular ticking of fingertips on the metallic arm of a chair was perhaps more likely to draw one's attention.

"You have been rather busy, we hear."

Nathan straightened in his chair, trying to ignore the ache of bruises - he hadn't landed well jumping out of the building, he seemed to remember - and met their eyes. Ororo had been the one who had spoken, and he didn't need telepathy, or eyes, to know that she was Not Happy. He was not particularly intimidated by her obvious displeasure, either.

"It was supposed to be about gathering information," he said, his voice coming out a bit more hoarse than it should have, for some reason. "Didn't expect him. Didn't expect to see what I saw when I saw him, either. He's where it all starts."

"Where what all starts?" Scott asked, frowning. He was as unimpressed as Ororo at all of this, but that last comment of Nathan's sounded just vague enough to suggest that there was more at work here.

"Things that can't happen," Nathan said, rubbing at his eyes. "I saw him. Echoing. And there were keys all over the place."

"You mean your precognitive abilities kicked in?" Ororo's words were clearly spoken, her voice modulating them precisely over her accent, as always. And though the smell of ozone didn't fade, the charge in the room did seem to ease off, ever so slightly.

Still seated quietly in her chair, Alison didn't say a single word, watching and apparently, waiting.

"He's dangerous," Nathan said tiredly. The walls of the room shimmered a little, and he squeezed his eyes shut for a moment. "Askani was screaming. Hysterical. I see him and I see a stone. The base of a pyramid? I think... I don't know why it's a pyramid. And he knew me."

"Nathan, open your eyes." Alison leaned forward a bit, not at all willing to see him slip into a precognitive fit on the spot. "Good," she finally said after he did as she asked. "Try and focus on now, please?" He was in a state, that much was obvious. That very state was keeping pretty much everyone in check, too, considering whatever Nathan had been up to had been left unsaid until his return. "What happened? From the start."

Nathan blinked at her, and it was as if someone had flipped a switch that put him in briefing-mode. He related the details in a flat voice, from Jake's discovery of Eris, Inc., its links to Samara and its information-selling activities with the Hellfire Club and some of its other suspicious clients, to his decision to approach Remy for help finding out more. "... and he just appeared," he said dully, "while we were there. I didn't sense him coming until he was right there, and I don't know why. I was listening, but I didn't hear him. And suddenly he's there, using my telekinesis..."

"Your telekinesis?" Scott asked sharply, leaning forward a little.

Nathan nodded. "Same patterns of energy," he muttered, "same lines of force. It was like looking into a mirror, and he used it like he was me, like he'd been a telekinetic for years."

Silence reigned for a moment at that, until Ororo slumped back against the wall where she'd been leaning with a small sigh. "Could you work with Marie-Ange so we may have a drawing of the man's appearance?" she asked, quietly.

Alison nodded at that - the question was courtesy on Ororo's part in a way, all of them knowing this could and would be done. "It'd be a start." And the other, obvious question that now hung between them all needed to be spoken, as well. "Nathan? Do you think your father might know who he is? From what you're saying, he spoke as though he had every right to be on the premises, no?"

"It was his place," Nathan muttered. "The center of his web. Except I think he was in New Mexico, first of all..." He stared down at his hands, and the image of that face floated through his mind and to the other three. That faint, superior smile. "He knew me. He expected me to come." His throat tightened suddenly. "Wasn't surprised at all..."

And this, after Nathan had been following a trail that led directly from his father's company? Scott gave Alison and Ororo a bleak, worried look, then turned his attention back to the older man. "It's not conclusive," he said quietly, surprising himself a little. "We do need to know more. Did you see anything, any connection between your father and this man?"

Nathan swallowed. "I don't see my own future," he said, and it sounded more like pitiful defiance than the statement he meant it to be. "I see theirs, and now they're not talking at all." He took a deep, shaky breath. "Do you think psionic ghosts go into shock? Because that's what it feels like."

Another round of glances was exchanged, a wordless agreement followed by motion. Ororo, quietly stepping out of the room and perhaps heading off to speak to another telepath, after offering Nathan the smallest of smiles- the one she usually used to reassure, when she herself was uncertain. Alison herself stood up and dragged her chair so that it faced Nathan, giving him a worried, pensive look. Scott eyed the two of them for a moment, and then with a murmured few words to Alison, rose and left the room as well. Best to leave this to her, given that she had the best rapport with him out of the three of them. The debriefing, such as it had been, had given him a fair bit to think about, in any case, and he needed to go talk to Remy, who would hopefully be making more sense.

"Nathan? We have your first report now, and your reasons why…" She trailed off, then shrugged a bit. "We can go over it later again, if we need to, or if something else comes to mind." A more thorough debrief would happen - just not now. "Have you spoken to Moira about this yet?"

"Can't," Nathan said a bit vaguely, not meeting her eyes. "I need to be here before I can be there, or the baby will hear. And I don't want her seeing me half-here, because she might be confused. I don't want him anywhere near her, either. He might give her a key. I think he wants to." He looked up at Alison finally, his expression almost pleading. "It doesn't have to mean... does it?"

"No. It doesn't." Reaching out, she rested one hand over his, repressing a wince at how cold it was. "You needed to say this or you wouldn't have called us in like that." And waiting to hear why was the reason none of them had blown up at him over what he'd done. "How about a nap in Charles' office? He can shield as need be for you, while you get back to all here?"

"He let me go. Let me walk out. Told me it wasn't time for me to know yet." Nathan stared at her desperately, barely feeling the pressure of her hand on his. "These weren't the answers I was looking for," he said finally, and a more than slightly hysterical laugh slipped out. He leaned forward a little, taking a deep, shaky breath and frantically reinforcing the shield on the link. "I think I should sleep. Maybe they'll come back if I do. To think I was doubting why they were here, after... before, and now the reason walks out out of the shadows and knows me. It just goes around and around and around..."

A mental whisper and a confirmation, and Alison nodded to him. "Stay here. He'll come down. Just to shield, just for the night. You won't have to worry about slipping up, 'kay?" She could get a blanket for him later, after the Professor had arrived.

He was starting to shiver again. "Tell Moira? I don't want her to worry. But just her... no one else." Nathan squeezed his eyes shut. "No one else," he muttered.

"Okay." She just nodded at that, a light glow starting then brightening a bit as she shed more heat than light. "Charles will be here in a minute and then you can sleep."