log: warren, jay, lex and john

[x-highflying.livejournal.com]

After Warren slips out for a business call, he comes back to find Jay in the middle of a nightmare. When Warren can't calm Jay down on his own, John and Lex are on hand to help.

Warren was spending more and more nights at the mansion, but it didn't mean he was let off the hook when it came to business calls. Time differences meant he had to leave Jay asleep as he slipped away to take a call, slipping out the window and into the grounds so he didn't wake anyone up with the call. Twenty minutes later, and Warren was slipping back into the room, shivering slightly as the cold had finally gotten to him.

Jay was shifting in his sleep, constantly uncomfortable. His shoulders twitched occasionally and he frowned, gritting his teeth while mumbling something in coherent under his breath. His entire body was tense, perspiration clinging to it as he sweat beneath the covers and shivered at the other presence in the room as his wings slipped out, carefully, slowly in that cunning manner that said nothing was good of this nightmare that he was having.

Warren silently put his phone down, padding over to the bed and sitting on the edge of it. He could hear Jay shifting around, and he reached out a hand to gently rest on Jay's shoulder, his hand colder than he realised thanks to the freezing temperatures outside. He still didn't know anything about Jay's nightmares past the fact that he had them, and he didn't want to startle Jay too much as he got back into bed.

Jay's wing swept back in an arch and Jay shot up out of bed, on all fours with a malice in his eyes that wasn't usually there. Warren had tempered such violence from Jay before but here, he had never seen the full onslaught of what a nightmare did to him.

His wings arched up over him like a pair of deathly guardians and shimmered, feathers separating one by one like a cat with its fur raised up on his back. He watched Warren with cunning eyes and a thirst for blood as his keen broke out, resonating all though the suite.

"Jay," he said carefully, staying very still at his spot on the bed. "Jay, it's okay. It's me, Warren. I'm not going to hurt you." Warren was being very careful not to speak too loudly, he didn't want to spook Jay. His gaze met Jay's, calm and collected and doing his best not to panic or get scared.

He could smell Warren from where he crouched, fingers clutched into the bedding and a low growl curled in his throat before he inhaled deeply, the distinct air rich with fear. His keen sounded again, meant to freeze any scared individual to the spot as his wings thrust out, aimed to skewer Warren in his wings.

Warren dodged quickly enough not to get skewered, but not so quickly that the feathers didn't catch him, slicing the flesh of Warren's arms before he got out of the way. He cried out in pain, the poison in Jay's wings already working it's way through his system.

The piercing sound that filtered through the door was unlike anything Lex had ever heard. Standing in the hallway, he frantically reached for the key card to his door. It would be faster to--the slight jolt sparked from his fingers and unlocked the door before he realized that it was a possibility. Drawing the blade at his waist, he stepped across the threshold and into the apartment. "Jay!" he shouted, though the place appeared to be in order.

"Get moving!" John who had been lingering in the hallway chatting to Lex about his big move out of the mansion, pushed Lex by his shoulder before rushing toward the source of all that noise. The cigarette between his lips dangled precariously before dropping to the ground; the fire from the dying cigarette butt rekindling in the palm of his hand as he stared open mouthed at Jay then Warren, noting the visible signs of injury.

"Shit -- we gotta stop him," he yelled and threw his firing arm forward. The flames licked a path between Warren and his would be attacker, effectively kicking off the smoke alarm.

Jay's wings thrust out, one at a time, trying to catch Warren with one of them when the flame threw him back and he spun around, his keen hitting a new piercing pitch as he launched towards John, recognition lost in his eyes.

"Can you keep him contained for ten seconds? I've got an idea." The idea was to build up enough of a charge to overload the cybernetic parts of Jay's body, hopefully stunning him long enough for them to restrain him completely. He set himself, dropping the knife to avoid using it, and forced himself to build a massive charge as fast as possible. They were only going to have one shot. Then they'd all be fucked up with feathers sticking out of them, or worse, torn to shreds.

John didn't have time to argue. Blasting another round of fire as he moved back, he found that he was now cornered. He kept the fire burning in front of him, forcing himself to focus. The flames encircled Jay and moved upwards. It was getting difficult to see but he knew the other was close - and if Jay chose to strike, to move forward, he knew he'd be in trouble.

No way he would resort to hurting Guthrie though. No way he could turn the younger man into charred meat. No way he could forgive himself if he did.

Jay's wings curled around him in defense and his keen was mixed with growls and a high pitched curling in his throat. Sounds he had never made before came out of Jay as he turned, trashing at furniture, splitting pieces in two, targeting walls but the heat kept him off John, sweat pouring down his face as he whipped around, unable to arch back and lung metal feathers at them.

Warren had been struggling to clear his head - for all the pain the injury had caused, it was the poison in the feathers that had really gotten to his head, and he was struggling to move because of it. The sheet on the bed had been tugged off to be used as a makeshift bandage, Warren holding it against the wound as he slowly pushed himself to his feet.

"JOSHUA TRAVIS GUTHRIE," he yelled, drawing Jay's attention towards him. Confusion between two targets should give Lex long enough to build up his charge, and he knew the sound of the fire alarm would draw the attention of the rest of the mansion in a short amount of time. They need to contain Jay before anyone else showed up, or he would hurt more people, and Warren wasn't sure how Jay would deal with that.

Jay's attention swirled around, narrowly missing Lex's head as he took out the corner of the door frame. Fire blazed up and he turned his arms upwards to shield and in a burst of anger, his wings swept back and the fire with it momentarily before stepping forward into the flames.

With muffled grunt, Lex followed Jay's motion and released a burst of electricity into the man's back. The current warped as it flowed freely from his body, changing from a simple blast to an intense current. As it struck the blue man's artificial spine, Lex opened his senses to the system and attempted to overwhelm Jay's sensory inputs. He could feel the resistance of the advanced cybernetics--resistant to tampering by design--but he pushed onward with all his will. Jay could not be allowed to hurt himself or someone else. Blood trickled down from his nose as he continued to drive the energy into his friend, and Lex knew he could not hold on much longer. God, I hope this is enough, he thought as loudly as he could. With one final effort he drove the last of his stored charge outward and then collapsed into an unconscious heap.

Jay's cry tore through his throat, a tie between an unwordly scream of the predator within and the young man he'd become. Frozen on the spot, the current ripped through his body like a hold vibrating through him and with the last charge, his body crumpled to the floor, the organic metal spine red hot and hissing from the burn against his skin.

By now a number of familiar faces could be seen standing outside, curiosity and fear marked their faces. John stepped aside, quickly explaining the situation as help arrived. He extinguished the fire in the suite and watched as the three men were given medical attention.