Kyle, Jay, and... Marius

[x-wildchild.livejournal.com]

Marius arrives home from the club unexpectedly. And by unexpected, no one expected him home yet, or quite in the state he arrives. Kyle and Jay intervene.

Warning for some graphic imagery.



Being grounded sucked a lot, but at least he was getting the summer reading assignments done and over with. The more Kyle told himself that, the less he believed it. The entire summer was going to suck giant balls if it was like this the whole way. He lay sprawled on his bed, reading the same four paragraphs of Billy Budd over and over and over. And so what he thought was Forge doing something stupid with one of his experiments was a welcome break from Herman-fucking-Melville. The abrupt introduction of a reeking stink to his nose was -not- welcome though, and he intended to make it stop five minutes ago. Whatever Forge was doing, it actually hurt in the inside of Kyle's face. His sinuses were burning and he could feel his stomach rolling around like he was going to throw up.

"What the hell's that?" Jay asked, wrinkling his nose as he stepped out of his room. "Kyle, you haven't been eatin' cabbage again, have ya?" Where was the Febreeze? Something was stinking up the whole damn suite, vile enough that he couldn't even remember the lyrics to his own songs.

"I don't eat cabbage, Jay!" Kyle yelled back. Jay knew that. Cabbage gave him the giant poo gas, and poo gas wasn't cool. But it did kinda stink like that. He got up, reluctantly, because even if he was bored, he was comfortable too, and threw open his door at the same time that Jay opened his.

"Oh, Jesus holy fuck..."

Jay followed Kyle to Marius's door. "Where're you . . . oh my God." He gasped, fighting down the urge to vomit and took a step back. A few steps, even.

That was.. not one of Forge's experiments, at least he desperately hoped it wasn't, because that would mean Forge had gone insane and turned into a mad scientist, more with the mad than he usually was. "Shit. Shitshitshitshitshit..." The smell was worse out here, greasy charred flesh, and acid and the -noise-.

He didn't remember later taking his shirt off, he'd find it half-shredded on the floor later, having ripped part of it away in the haste to his one of his arms free of the sleeves . "Jay! Call the doctors. Now.." He barked.

It had to be Marius, because there was no one else in the school that tall and with that color hair who would be wearing that particular shirt at this time of night. So it had to be.

Except now all limbs were contorted in spasms and the shirt was oddly bleached-out and cracking like dry paper and the dark hair that clung to his scalp was withered and patchy and no one, no one should be showing so much pink and yellow and bright, shining red where there should have been skin.

And screaming. And screaming, and screaming.

Jay's eyes were transfixed on the utter mess on the floor that it took him a moment to register Kyle's order. "Ah . . . right." He dashed across the common room to his bedroom and picked up the phone. "Emergency!" he shouted as someone from the medlab picked up. He had no idea who it was or what they were trying to tell him. All he knew was that his friend was a mangled piece of burnt meat crying out to high heaven.

The smell was worse the closer he got, the acidic burning mixing with the smell Kyle knew -far- too well as burnt skin and muscle. The thick smell of blood he could almost ignore, at least it wasn't making his stomach growl, the threat of throwing up was welcomed, if it meant that he wasn't suddenly hungry. He dropped to his knees and pulling the remains of one of Marius' gloves off the nearest hand.

Immobilize the patient. He remembered, barely, the first aid class he'd had, way back in middle school. Clear airways, immobilize the patient, remove constricting clothing... Marius was screaming, that meant he could breathe, and the clothing wasn't constricting, it was falling apart.

There wasn't any time to worry about hurting Marius -more-, he was obviously already in agony. Despite the seeping wounds, Kyle grabbed Marius' arm and forced his fingers open, exposing the mouth on his palm - and without a moment's hesitation, slapped it against his own forearm.

What was normally a pinch, like needles biting his skin was worse -the palm-mouths had been convulsing just as Marius had, and the slap forced them into his skin before the normal numbing effect could kick in.

Each breath grated through his scoured lungs like sandpaper. The pressure on his arm was agony, but traumatized as it was Marius' body was still aware enough to fulfill one imperative: feed. His hand clenched around the sudden contact, the too-visible muscle and tendon contracting in a deathgrip that was physically painful. The entire forearm spasmed with the desperate instinct to extract marrow that Marius, even blind from pain and chemical exposure as he was, could instinctively sense would save his life.

"Voght's on her way," Jay said breathlessly as he ran back to Marius' room. "She . . . Kyle! What the hell do ya think you're doin'?" It was an instinctive comment, as he'd been thinking of doing the same thing. And when he saw that Marius was feeding on Kyle with only one hand, he almost grabbed the other to provide his roommate with another healing factor. Until that little voice of self-preservation reminded him that mimicking two mutations at once would probably do more harm than good.

Except that it looked like Marius couldn't be in more harm, so Jay promptly told it shut up and winced as his roommate began to feed on him, too.

Marius' fingers on their arms were tight -- tight enough to bruise, but they'd heal -- as his almost fatally overtaxed body worked feverishly to take what it needed. From somewhere in his blind agony Marius felt the press of offered flesh against his hands and knew back, out, safe, and just for an instant his screams shuddered and fell away.

And then, mercifully, he passed out.

Green mist appeared out of nowhere, like it was pouring out of an invisible hole in the air, as Amelia Voght teleported from the infirmary. She paused for a moment as she took in the sight in front of her, a slight widening of her eyes her only reaction before she moved.

"Boys, move away if you can," she said crisply, her voice utterly level as she crouched down beside Kyle. "I need to get him downstairs. Now."