xp_logs | The Rictor Effect: The Lost Child

Around lunchtime in Mexico, Nathan arrives at the hospital - only to find Julio not there, and a lot of very suspicious property damage of a type that can't be blamed on a boy with seismic powers. A panicked Luis finds him and relays the 'man with a helmet' rumor. Nathan calls the mansion.

This was not what he'd expected to find.

At first, seeing the chaos at the hospital, Nathan had been afraid that Luis's son had had another episode. But this didn't look like earthquake damage. The buildings were still standing, for one. For two, most of the damage seemed to be in a distinct path.

And visible through the police and firemen everywhere was a large hole in the wall of the hospital, up on the second floor. Nathan shook his head slowly, looking at it. I wish I could believe that wasn't Julio's room. He was starting to have a very, very bad feeling about this, and as he edged his way through the crowds along the blockade, he started to wonder if he maybe shouldn't use his telepathy to finagle his way through. Or at least to find-

"Nathan!" a familiar voice called. Luis Richter was edging his way through the crowd towards him. "Nathan, gracias a mi dios!" Luis's normally cheerful face was gray and drawn. "Julio's gone!" He cried, nearly hysterical. "Dios mio, somebody took him!"

Nathan reached out and took the older man's arm. "Who took him?" he said, keeping his voice low. Luis's thoughts were wild, panicked, impossible to read. "Did you see anything?" There was something very specific about the damage that he was seeing, Nathan realized suddenly as he looked around again.

It was all metal. Or metal had obviously done the damage. Oh, no...

"They don't know!" Luis was trying to calm himself. "The staff, the patients, they all kept saying something about a man in a red helmet...."

"Oh, fuck." Well, that answered that. Nathan pulled Luis with him, moving out of the crowd. He let down his shields, scanning on as broad a band as he could. Nothing. Not that he'd have picked up a certain set of thoughts anyway, that being the point of the stupid helmet, but he couldn't pick up anything at all. Was he too late? When had this happened... screw that, he needed to get Charles on the line first. "Luis, this is serious. I need to call for help."

"Help?" The rest of the color left Luis's face. If Nathan Dayspring needed to call for help, it was very serious. "Do you know who took him? Do you know where Julio is?"

"I have a very, very bad feeling that I know precisely who took him." It fit a pattern of behavior, didn't it? Marie, Miles... now Julio. Nathan was white around the lips as he and Luis got clear of the crowd and he pulled out his com. "I don't know where he is, but I know someone who's going to find out."

"God, who could do a thing like this? It couldn't be.... " Luis looked at Nathan, wide-eyed. "It's not, not that..." That terrorist. The man with the red helmet. The mutant who wanted to destroy all the humans. And now he had Julio. Luis suddenly couldn't breathe.

Nathan's eyes were hard as he signaled the mansion. "We'll get him back," he said tightly. "I swear we will, Luis."

"How? I haven't got the resources to track him, and I doubt your Pack could even if you got them together in time. There's no telling where he might have taken Julio!"

"I have a new pack," was Nathan's answer. "Tracking him isn't going to be an issue."