xp_logs | Nathan and Moira, Tuesday afternoon

Nathan invites Moira down to the Danger Room and finally shows her his new trick. Moira grumbles at him for not telling her sooner, but is quick to plot all kinds of tests for the exoskeleton.

Nathan gave the jacket of his uniform a tug and looked up at the control booth. "I figured I'd wear the leathers just in case," he explained, not bothering to raise his voice. Moira would have the exterior pick-ups on, so she'd hear him easily. "Since I don't precisely know what you're going to do to me when you see this, and you are right up there with access to all of the controls..." He was only half-teasing.

Moira's eyebrows raised up another notch--they had been steadily climbing since he had suggested the Danger Room for his little 'show'--as she placed her feet on the part of the control panel that didn't really have much in the way of controls. "Am I goin' ta 'urt ye for this?" she asked him.

"Well, no," Nathan said a bit edgily. "I hope. I obviously should have shared earlier, but it's been a hell of a month and I think you'll see, when you see it, why I didn't." Okay, that was nicely vague. Nathan sighed and closed his eyes. "Give me a second here," he said, concentrating.

Watching with interest, she kept one eye on him and one on the readings. Which were...starting to rise? "What th' hell?"

Nathan stared at the glow starting around his hands, slowly spreading up his arms. It had been instinctive, back in the parking garage with Lense, just like it had been last year in Canada. Apparently when he stopped to think about it, he... well, had to stop and think about it.

A little faster than it had been, though. The glow swelled around him and then blazed into brilliance, the wings of the firebird unfolding, nearly reaching the walls of the Danger Room as he flew smoothly up to where he'd be at Moira's eye level.

#Hi,# he said a bit shyly, down the link.

To her credit, Moira managed to catch herself as she nearly went tumbling head over heels, the wheels on the chair going out from under her when her feet had pushed against the consol. Staring at him as she steadied herself, she tilted her head to the side. #Hi yerself...#

Nathan tilted his head at her, and the exoskeleton echoed the movement in a way that was uncannily birdlike. #So, this is it,# he said. #You remember me telling you about managing this off-the-cuff back in Canada when we were fighting Tim's team? I started to experiment, last week. And it came in very, very handy when we went out after Kyle.#

#Last week?!#

#Yeah,# he sent, drifting lazily backwards in the Danger Room, the wings of the exoskeleton moving in three long, slow beats. #Or actually, the end of the week before. I was...# He trailed off, then sent the rest of it without words. Askani and GW and the sudden, burning need to find a way to remember that wasn't painful, that both of them would have been happy to see.

Moira shelved the lecture that was sitting on the tip of her tongue. He should have come to her with this earlier but, well, yelling at him right now was not going to do either of them a whole lot of good. Reaching over, she flipped a switch and studied the response it had to the flames. "Good news, yer nay radioactive," she said, a bit dryly.

"There's no heat, either," he said, aloud. The exoskeleton gave his voice an odd resonance, but it was audible. "It's... shields, but the layering is strange."

"Huh." Standing, she peered down at him. "Th' energy levels are similar ta when ye use yer telekinesis, just... stronger. Any downsides ta usin' this tha' ye've found?"

"It's tied in to my movements." He demonstrated by touching his nose with a finger. The claw of the exoskeleton came up, echoing the movement. "And it's so damned big that it's clumsy."

Watching the firebird touch its wing-tip to its nose had been just a little bit odd. "Nathan? Can ye use yer TK while doin' this?"

"Uhhh... not so much," Nathan confessed, then smiled at her. "But I can fly."

"Is it better than th' TK...wobble flight?" she suddenly teased.

"So much better," Nathan said, serious all at once. "It feels natural. I feel like a bird. And I see... well, I see the lines of force when I'm inside this."

"Interestin'. Does it tire ye out?"

"I haven't really tried it for long enough to be sure," Nathan said, swooping down towards the floor and back up again to demonstrate just how he flew. "An hour... I think I went an hour in it the one night. It's easy to lift things with it," he said suddenly. "I picked up a car and it was like picking up a... a Nerf ball."

"I'd jus' watch it, if I were ye," Moira warned. "It sounds as if yer channelin' most o' yer TK inta this. It's nay a bad thin' but if ye do get tired..."

If he wore himself out too much with the exoskeleton, even dropping it wouldn't mean he could turn around and use his TK for something else that needed doing. The point was well-taken. "So I guess this means no juggling the Blackbird for fun?" Nathan said, his voice teasing but his expression as he floated back up to the window serious enough to tell Moira that he had heard and absorbed her words of caution.

"If ye look sideways at th' Blackbird, Scott an' Haroun will 'ave ye for dinner," she mused, smiling at him.

"It might be worth it. Anyway - the exoskeleton stood up to having a whole parking garage collapse on it on Friday," Nathan pointed out. "I felt the debris hit it, but it was like... Oh, like riding a motorcycle, and the shower of gravel when you make a fast stop? A few of the hits did hurt, but not really."

"Ye've changed how th' telekinesis comes out, channelin' it a different way so tha' it nay only looks different but it interacts wit' ye differently."

"I'm a prodigy?" Nathan ventured hopefully.

"Yer a loony, but, we'll stick wit' yer suggestion."

"Anyway," Nathan said, flying back and forth again, oddly irritated by the lack of room in here. The exoskeleton echoed his emotion, the wings of the firebird ruffling testily. "I suggested here because I thought this might be the best place to test it. Plus I thought you might have a heart attack if I lit up outside over the lake or something."

"I bloody well nearly 'ad a 'eart attack in 'ere," Moira reminded him, grabbing the chair back and settling into it again. "Th' Danger Room was a good idea, especially if there's somethin' wron' wit' it that ye didn't know about." An eyebrow rose. "Like radioactivity."

Oh, yes, he was due for some poking. She had that look. "I've never been radioactive before," he said meekly. "It didn't even occur to me."

"Ye've never been a big flamin' bird thing, either."

"Well, true." Nathan waved a wing at the wall, contemplatively. "I can sense when it's too close, you know. It's like my sonar field, emanating from the exoskeleton instead of from me."

"Well, at least I willnae 'ave ta worry 'bout ye knockin' yerself out by runnin' inta a wall." Moira sighed. "I'm goin' ta want ta do some extensive tests an' exercises wit' this."

"Like...?" Nathan asked, honestly curious. "I knew you would. I just wasn't sure what."

"Endurance levels, for one. Th' last thin' I want is for ye ta be usin' tha' in a prolonged fight an' go out like an old candle. I want ta run some tests to see if tha's actually made o' anything an' if it is, wha' it is. How much ye can lift..." She grinned evilly. "Remember yer telekinesis trainin'? Tha' an' then some."

"Makes sense. I don't particularly want to become suddenly acquainted with the ground at a bad moment," Nathan admitted. There were two... edges, for lack of a better word, in the part of the wall that surrounded the control booth. He flew up and held onto them with the claws of the exoskeleton, letting the wings fold back behind him. "And I'm really curious as to how much I can lift."

"Do ye want ta start now?"

"No time like the present," Nathan said brightly.