xp_logs | Without a Trace | Mission | Ororo, Nathan, Kurt + Paige (Reply)

Ororo briefs a small team - Kurt, Nathan and Paige - about a mutant in need of rescue.

Ororo was there early, already standing by the table as the others entered the briefing room. She gave them each a small smile, obviously distracted by someone or something. Still, once they were seated she pushed those thoughts aside and turned to address them, her voice calm and smooth.

"A clairvoyant working with the NYPD as a consultant has disappeared," she stated, her eyes moving over Nathan, Kurt and Paige as she spoke. "His name is Patrick Connelly, and he is a former student here. Professor Xavier was his emergency contact, and so the police called us as soon as he was noted missing. The Professor has tracked him with Cerebro, so his location is no longer a secret, but there is something strange about his psi-signature. Rather than send the police to retrieve him, we are going to go in case of any unusual circumstances."

She paused. There was more, of course, but in a situation like this where time was not an urgent matter she preferred to let people mull things over and ask questions.

"I could sense Charles focusing hard on something this morning," Nathan said thoughtfully, after a moment. "A clairvoyant... do we know anything about the circumstances surrounding his disappearance?"

"We know that he had met with a man, a kidnapping suspect, in order to see if he could glean any information from him. He disappeared shortly after, but whether the two are related is only speculation now." Ororo was not one to jump to conclusions, and they had very little information to go on. "Besides that, there is not much that we know. He was noticed missing when he failed to arrive at another meeting, and he left no clue or trace where or why he might have gone."

"Where is he now?" was the next question, from Kurt.

"We have traced him to a location near Syracuse - the coordinates are already prepped for the Blackbird. There's no reason for him to have gone there that we know of, so we must suspect other motivations."

"Is there any possibility of coercion?"

"Yes," Ororo said succinctly. "Though I cannot say for sure. This is mostly a large unknown. The best thing for us to do to find out more is to go and find him. Perhaps he will be able to answer our questions himself." She looked to Paige, lifting her eyebrows slightly. "Are you prepared? Is there anything else you need to know?" She wanted the girl to feel informed, though in all truth there wasn't much more to go on at that point.

Paige smiled brightly in return, dropping her hand from where it had been playing with the end of her ponytail in thought. She didn't get to work with Storm nearly enough in her opinion, although, even she had to admit, her opinion of 'enough' may be a little slanted; getting to go on an actual mission with her was just short of a dream. "I'll double check that our onboard med kit has been restocked recently, if that's okay. There's been a recent trend of pickups being a little beat up. Otherwise, I can't think of anything, thank you."

Ororo nodded, smiling at the girl before turning to look back at the others. "All right. There is no particular rush on this, but I would like to leave as soon as possible. Paige, go ahead and check the med kit and suit up. Nathan, please find out if Charles has any other information for us before we leave. And Kurt, I'd like you to prep the Blackbird - you'll be piloting it today. I will meet you in the hangar as soon as you're all ready." With one last nod she dismissed them all, and headed off to get ready herself.

~*~

On their way to the hangar, Nathan asks Ororo how well she knows Connelly.

Nathan was leaning against the wall outside the women's locker room, already in his leathers, when Ororo stepped out. "You know," he said, turning to follow her towards her hangar - Kurt was already there, prepping the Blackbird - "as someone who shares in the same 'family' of mutation as Mr. Connelly, I just hope that whatever's wrong with his psi-signature is temporary and fixable. I think of how much trouble my precognition has given me, and really, clairvoyancy has just got to suck even more than that."

Ororo nodded, immediately thinking back to Patrick's arrival at the school. "Yes, it certainly can be troublesome," she agreed. "But Patrick has faced the difficulties and learned how to handle them very well. It is not a power I would wish to have, but he uses it for a very noble cause, and I suppose that is lucky."

Gray eyes studied her for a moment, curiously, even as they both kept moving in the direction of the hangar. "You know him fairly well, don't you?" Nathan gave her a faint smile. "Pardon me for being nosey - it's a telepath thing."

A small smile met his inquiry, and she nodded again. "Yes, I was here when he first arrived at the school, seeking help from Charles. I was still something of a student myself, and we became friends quickly."

Nathan nodded. "I thought so. Your choice of words, and tone, at the briefing..." He paused for a moment, then shrugged. "I'd be the biggest hypocrite in the world if I disapproved of someone else having personal motivations on a mission. Especially since I actually think it helps."

"I can see the dangers in it," Ororo replied, and of course she did. She knew all the reasons why it wasn't advised to go into a mission with personal feelings, but she also knew that those feelings, and her history with Patrick might give them a little extra advantage. Time would tell. "But he needs our help, and I would be a bad friend if I wasn't there when I could be."

"If this is something powers-related, it's probably even more important to have a voice there he'll respond to, rather than a bunch of strangers. Trust me," Nathan said somewhat wryly, "I speak from personal experience."

She glanced at Nathan briefly, her normally serene expression touched with the slightest bit of apprehension. "I hope you are right. And that we are able to help."

He patted her shoulder briefly as they reached the hangar door. "No hoping about it. 'To strive, to seek, to find' and all that."

"Of course." Ororo straightened and nodded resolutely, pushing 'worried friend' aside and slipping easily into the role of CO and leader. "Let's go."

~*~

The team finds Connelly, just where the Professor located him. Something very odd is going on, and it becomes clear right away that he's not acting entirely of his own volition.

The man sitting slumped on the bench in the empty little park looked barely aware of his surroundings. He was tall and dark-haired, and would have been handsome if not for the faint grayish tinge to his skin and the slackness of his features. His hands twitched every so often, as if trying to rise, or clench into fists, but he never seemed to quite manage it.

When the four leather-clad figures started to move towards him, he didn't acknowledge their presence, either.

At a motion from Storm, the other three halted, leaving her to approach the figure on the bench alone. She tried to make her presence known through her steps and her bearing, but still it seemed like he didn't notice her. "Patrick?" she said at last, stopping a few yards from the bench. "Patrick Connelly?"

His hands twitched again and his head slowly raised, but moved back and forth, as if he couldn't focus on Ororo. A low, pained noise, almost a moan, escaped him, and he jerked forward a little, then slumped back against the bench again.

"Patrick, it's me," she said, a slight hint of emotion entering her voice. "You disappeared from the city and we traced you up here. What's wrong? We're here to help you, just tell us how."

He jerked forward again, as if trying to push himself off the bench -but then slumped sideways, barely catching himself. Before Ororo could move towards him, or say anything else, he started to cough, deep racking coughs that made the gray tinge to his face go almost blue as he fought for air.

"Patrick," Ororo said, taking a step toward him. She knelt down smoothly, one hand going to his knee as she peered up at his face. She was about to turn and call for Paige, when something very strange happened.

Nathan, who had been hanging back with the other two, trying to scan the clairvoyant as delicately as he could, had started frowning almost as soon as he touched the other man's mind.

"There's something very wrong here," he said to Kurt and Paige. "His psi-signature... it's almost tangled. I don't understand what's going on..." Then Connelly had started to cough, and Nathan's eyes widened. "There's something else--someone else. It's two psi-signatures-"

One moment, Ororo was kneeling down in front of Connelly. Then, the man was coughing up what looked like wisps of smoke that moved in eddies that were definitely not natural. A tendril reached out towards Ororo and then jerked backwards sharply, shifting away. Connelly sagged sideways onto the bench, unmoving, and the smoke floated towards the three who'd hung back.

Though her first reaction was to go to Connelly's side, Ororo had a responsibility to her team. She turned and stood, instantly on the defensive though the smoke looked harmless enough. "Watch out!" she said sharply as the smoke drifted nearer the others.

Paige was squinting hard at the smoke, now; it's behavior was all wrong. Even with unknown variables, given the wind's current direction, and the movement of her companions, it just didn't make sense... Forcing her trail of thought to pause a moment, she carefully distanced herself from the entity, unable to not notice how it reacted little to the new current she created. "Just in case anyone wasn't sure, this is the Sciences major speaking up and saying that thing is not environmentally sound."

Kurt tried to keep his distance, but he wasn't going to go too far. Not with his teammates still there. He watched the smoke warily, only glancing away for a moment to ask Ororo, "Is he well?"

As soon as Kurt opened his mouth, the smoke darted at him all at once, like the living thing it so obviously was. It was forcing its way into his mouth and nose before he could teleport away, and even as the last of it disappeared, it seemed to glow briefly reddish.

Ororo watched as the smoke vanished into Kurt, an icy feeling running down her spine. Not only had the smoke acted strange and seemingly sentient, but it had just left one man unconscious and attacked another. "Paige, check Connelly," she said, gesturing with one hand to the slumped figure on the bench. It wouldn't do any good to let him suffer despite whatever else was happening.

~*~

Paige looks after Connelly while Ororo and Nathan are otherwise occupied. She gets a demonstration of clairvoyance in action, but is unfazed. Connelly is very disoriented.

Rushing to Connelly’s side the instant Ororo deemed the situation safe, Paige brushed aside his hair to gently feel his forehead, the other hand making it’s way up his throat to rest on his pulse. Rapid, but not out of normal, and it was certainly better than a coma. He was a little warm, too; it could all be put under ‘possessed by smoke-type thingie’. "Sir? I’m Husk, I’ll be the one making sure you don’t keel over on us today. Anything hurt? Do I need to hold up some fingers for you?"

Patrick blinked up at her, clearly dazed. "What-" he croaked, then swallowed as if his throat hurt. "You... made out of different things? Changing skins..."

"Lookit you, all creepy knowing things,” Paige replied gently, not at all disturbed as she gently probed his neck to make sure there were no internal injuries there. "I am indeed. I don’t think the med kit has any cough drops in it, but there might be some candy for that scratch of yours."

He shivered and tried to sit up, but slumped back against the bench. "Ow... can't move right. Where... where did it go?" Fear filled his eyes suddenly.

Making a gentle soothing noise, Paige smoothed back Patrick’s hair idly, making a final sweep for injuries before assisting him in sitting up. "You’re fine, hon. They’re taking care of it," she reassured him, smiling. "And in the future, can’t move falls under anything hurt. I just don’t have time to make another category."

He clung to her hands as she helped him sit up, the fear fading a little even if the disorientation didn't. "I... I didn't mean to come here, it-" He stopped, staring at Ororo where she and Nathan were huddled around Kurt. "'Ro... Ororo's here."

"Mhm. That’s why everything’s getting taken care of." Calmly, Paige smoothed her thumb over the top of his hands, her voice low and even. "You’re just fine. We’re going to take care of you and then take you on home, no need to fret."

~*~

Meanwhile, Kurt is having some difficulty with the sentient smoke. Nathan manages to talk him through it.

Nathan caught Kurt as he stumbled - and very nearly let go of him again in sheer shock as Kurt's psi-signature promptly emulated what Connelly's had been a minute ago. "Dammit," he gritted, his eyes flickering to Ororo. "I could try and pull it out of him... I'm not sure I could do it safely. I don't know what I'd be trying to get a grasp on here."

He looked back at Kurt, his eyes narrowing. #Kurt,# he projected, trying to focus only on the patterns that he recognized as his fellow X-Man, not the alien overlay. #Kurt, can you hear me?#

Kurt could hear him, but it was as if everything was in slow motion. That probably carried across to his mental voice when he tried to answer. #Nathan? Yes...#

#Kurt, I can't yank this thing out of you, it's too dangerous. You've got to try and push it out of your mind. It's trying to mesh with you.# Definitely was, now that Nathan was able to watch what was going on up-close like this. #Some of the exercises Charles has you non-psis do - that should work. But you need to do it now, before it gets a real grip on you.#

#I... yes.# Stopping the attempt at communication, Kurt turned his effort inward, in an effort at one of the shielding exercises he'd been taught.

Nathan watched, exchanging a worried glance with Ororo - then abruptly gritted his teeth and realized, all at once, that there was more he could be doing. He reached out and reestablished the link with Kurt, hurriedly adapting one of the Askani shielding patterns to the exercise Charles had taught.

#Follow it,# he projected to Kurt, #with your thoughts. It flows naturally from the exercise. This might force it out, but you've got to concentrate...#

That he could do, and he'd always been a fast learner. He picked up the pattern as quickly as the overlay allowed, and altered what he'd already begun to the Askani exercise. He didn't even try acknowledging Nathan other than that, using all his concentration for the more urgent task.

Nathan's eyes narrowed. The other psi-signature was twisting, straining against the defensive pattern Kurt was weaving. Being forced out, bit by bit... and almost before he'd completed that thought, Kurt was coughing suddenly, the smoke emerging from his mouth and nose just as it had from Connelly's.

The instant the last of it emerged, Nathan had it all trapped in a TK bubble. It glowed red, straining against the invisible field holding it back, but Nathan merely smiled tightly.

#I don't think so,# he projected at it. All he got back in return was a seething inarticulate response of anger and frustration, and Nathan shook his head. "Kurt, you all right?"

He'd stumbled again as he choked it out, but was still on his feet. "I... I think so. What is that?"

"This is another mutant," Nathan said somewhat grimly, giving the TK bubble a little shake. "With very bad manners."

"...a mutant?" He stared slightly... he'd never seen or heard of such an extreme example of mutation.

Ororo had stepped forward as soon as it was clear that Nathan had the other mutant trapped, and she put a hand on Kurt's arm. "I am sure Charles will be very interested to talk with it... him. But first, are you sure you are all right, Kurt?" she asked. Her expression was nearly unreadable, though her XO could tell from the way her hand rested on his arm that she was concerned. "Paige will check you over as soon as she's done with Connelly. Nathan, do you feel confident you will be able to maintain your restraint on him?" she added, glancing at the glowing mutant in the bubble.

"Absolutely," Nathan said, no trace of hesitancy or doubt in his voice. "I do molecular-level TK as a matter of course, remember." He stared hard at the being in the bubble. "Charles is going to have his hands full with this one, I think."

~*~

On the way back to the mansion, Ororo sits for a while with Connelly. It turns out they knew each other quite well.

As soon as they were in the air and cruising comfortably, Ororo unbuckled herself and stood, leaving Kurt to the controls. She made her way to the back of the Blackbird, coming to a stop where Connelly was resting across several seats in a sort of makeshift pallet. "Patrick," she said, laying a cool hand on his. "How are you feeling?" Though his color was good, he had been through quite a lot, and she knew that just because the ordeal was over did not mean he was out of danger.

Patrick gave her a weak smile. "Sore," he confessed. his voice low and hoarse. "I think, you know, that I'm not going to think too hard about why I'm sore... it's kind of disturbing." He turned his hand in hers, squeezing gently. "So how did I luck out and get you riding to the rescue, Ororo?"

Smiling back, Ororo shifted to perch on the edge of one of the seats by his leg. "By special request, actually," she admitted. "I know it's not always the best idea to get involved when you have personal history with someone in a situation, but I couldn't help it, in this case."

"I knew it was you, when I saw you, but I couldn't..." Patrick shuddered briefly, paling. "I don't even know how to describe how it felt. It wasn't like I was frozen, or anything... it's just that it took so long to do anything, and by the time I started, it had done something else." His eyes flickered towards the back of the plane where Nathan was, holding the microbial mutant in a TK-bubble. "He's got a good grip on it? It won't get out?"

"It's fine," Ororo said, squeezing his hand reassuringly. "You're in no more danger. Do you want me to go so that you can rest?"

"No," Patrick said abruptly, his grip on her hand tightening spasmodically. Then he seemed to remember where he was, and visibly focused on breathing for a moment, finally mustering up a weak smile. "Please? I've missed you, you know. The odd lunch in the city every few months is good, but..."

"I would have preferred other circumstances, but it is good to see you," Ororo agreed. She settled a bit more on the seat, her leg pressed against his. "And I certainly wouldn't pass up this opportunity to spend with you."

The smile grew a little steadier. "You look great, you know," Patrick said, very obviously trying to focus on the here and now and not what he'd just been through. "Then again, you never look anything but great."

"You haven’t seen me after a late night grading papers," Ororo said with a chuckle, shaking her head ruefully. "I think your stellar opinion would quickly change if you did."

"Can't I compliment the woman who set me on a five-year course of comparing the rest of her gender to her and finding them wanting?" Patrick stopped, laughing a little breathlessly, as if it hurt. "And you're not going to hold me responsible for anything I say right now, right?"

"As much as I may want to..." Ororo squeezed his hand again, furrowing her brows slightly as she noted the slight catch in his voice. "I promise I will not tease you about it later."

"Oh good." Patrick sighed unevenly, his eyes closing for a moment. "I don't have any idea how I'm going to explain this at work... hell, I don't know what would have happened with that suspect, afterwards. If this thing was in him, first..."

"We'll find out. I know someone back at the Mansion is in touch with them right now. And I'm sure your colleagues will understand... surely they have encountered this sort of thing before?"

"Well... maybe not this." Patrick swallowed visibly again. "Although yeah... I like to think that if they've been working with me for the last five years they understand that weird shit does happen. They're certainly used to me." He gave her a shaky smile.

"I would imagine being a police officer in New York would expose them to many strange things," Ororo said with an answering smile and a wry tone to her voice.

"This'll be one for the books." He closed his eyes again, and this time, finally seemed to relax a little. His grip on her hand didn't loosen, though. "Wonder what Charles will say to... you know, I don't even care if it has a name?"

"I am sure he'll take care of it from here. You have done more than your share." Ororo's eyes flicked over his face, checking his coloring, the gradual ease of his breathing. "I admire you, Patrick. You were very brave."

A smile flickered on his face, although he didn't open his eyes. "And I still only see good things when I touch your hand, 'Ro. Don't go away just yet?"

With a warm smile, Ororo smoothed a thumb over his hand. "I will stay as long as you like."