King Tide: Jean and Hope - Castaway (Backdated)

[x-jeangrey.livejournal.com]

Jean enters the astral plane to help find a panicked Hope who has lost control of her astral projection abilities during the tsunami.



The girl's body was still and quiet as they carried it into the main medical post, which was a hive of activity in it's own right. A little bruised and battered, but she was breathing. "Dr. Grey!" one of the volunteers called out, not too hard though.

In the melee Jean had sensed something had gone wrong with Hope, but by the time she and Angelo had landed after narrowly escaping the tsunami themselves she found herself waist deep in trauma victims and knew the volunteers were already bringing the girl to her. There was little time to recover from her own experience, but she knew helping the injured was most important.

"There's an empty gurney here, put her down so I can take a look."

Hope did not move or stir in any way as she was put on the gurney, outwardly utterly still. Her mind though, was still awash in emotion, still in the thrall of panic. WHERE AM I?!?!?!

The world around her looked strange. She was surrounded by ghostly specters, each one framed by it's own brightly colored aura and multicolored bands of light connecting between them. Slightly vaguer was the ghost of the island she had been just been washed away from, a wave of water hanging above it...

WHAT IS THIS PLACE?!?!?!

Despite Hope's mental panic, Jean looked her over physically. If she was panicking it was actually a good sign. It meant she was still alive and mentally alert, but if her body was injured then she had bigger problems.

"How long has she been unconscious? Who was with her last?"

Jean immediately shining a flashlight down her throat, checking her airway for any debris or vomit. She saw someone had already put a blanket over her to keep her warm.

"Think she was out when he'd got her out of the water and she has been all the time." One of the volunteers that lingered nearby replied. "The guy with the wings would know."

Wildly Hope looked around trying to find a way out. Not even a way back... just out. She wanted away from the specters with the wildly pulsing colors, hues she almost subconsciously categorized as various shades of pain, fear, despair and other kinds of emotions. And the wave that hung threateningly above the ghostly island...

She had been washed away once already. She had not desire to experience it for a second time. So, she turned her back to the specters and fled.

"Wings?" Jean repeated, suddenly realizing she knew far too many 'guys with wings,' Warren and Jay to name a few....But neither of them were on the mission and were far far away from here. But there was one she left out, namely because she hadn't quite known him as well yet, one of the students, Namor.

"No obstruction in the airway," she muttered with a decisive nod. Small victories. An oxygen mask floated over to her and she put it over Hope's face, turning on the canister to 100% oxygen. The girl was looking rather pale and slightly cyanotic, a sign of oxygen depletion, but she was breathing on her own. Administering oxygen would help bring some colors back to her cheeks.

"I need a time table. Get it from him for me please," she said as she checked Hope's pulse, then wrote it down on a clipboard that had floated over to her.

After that, she did a check for any severe bruising, signs of broken bones or head injuries. She moved quickly and precisely, knowing time was slipping when it came to addressing Hope's astral state, which appeared to be fleeting, disconnected, as if she were using her powers without knowing it. The further she moved away from her body, the longer it would take to bring her back. It could be done, but it needed to be sooner rather than later.

"Penance," Jean said into her communicator. "This is Phoenix. Please send for Dr. Reyes to help take over with the trauma victims at the triage site if she is available. Hope is having a psionic crisis with her abilities and I need to address it fast before she lapses into a coma. I have called for Namor to be brought in to report on what happened with her as he was the one who rescued her in the water. Please have him tell her when she arrives. I'll be going into Hope's mind shortly."

There was a crackle of static and then the young Albanian's voice in replay: "She is already on her way with the patient, Phoenix. She should be there very soon. Penance out."

Hope ran...

No... she flew...

Honestly, she was not quite sure how she was moving. Away from the specters was all she cared about... Till she encountered something that was like the beach she had been on, just before the water had pulled her in it's grasp. She couldn't go any further... PLEASE NO...

A band of light coming from far away washed against Hope. The light seemed bathed in flame, and carried with it a sense of warmth and comfort, but also an underlying weary pain and a hint of deep concern that was would've been very well masked for someone who didn't read auras.

Wide-eyed she stared at the watery expanse before her, gleaming with a strange light from within... trapping her... keeping her captive between the water before her and the water looming over her from behind.

The light caught her attention as she noticed something glittering on her arm. The sense of panic receded slightly as she reached out with her other hand, touching the light cautiously. Beneath the flames colors glittered and again her mind put the possible emotions she 'saw' with the various color patterns. And even despite the unpleasant hints lying beneath, it filled her with a kind of warmth.

She wasn't alone here... But who...

The light was faint, like a lighthouse in the distance amongst a sea of darkness. It beckoned, resonating again, carrying with it a desire for her to follow. Jean waited on the other end, walking along the row of houses. She tried to ignore the frozen tsunami but it hung over her, and deep in her mind she wondered if it would continue its path. But it was not real. This was the astral plane, it was her domain, and a girl was in trouble. These thoughts kept her focused.

~Hope.~ Jean called, the same four words over and over waiting to be heard the closer Hope got. ~Follow the cord.~

The flames around the cord winked at her, keep her attention there as she tried to figure out where the cord came from and what to do with it. The puzzle in front of her and the sense of warmth it seemed to radiate had the side effect of pushing her panic back a little bit more, restoring some of her calm.

With the roar of the panic fading a little, she became aware of something else that had changed. Something... no... someone was calling her name. Wildly glancing around her, she called out: ~Who is there? Where am I?~

Jean heard the girl, though her astral voice was muffled by distance. It made communication problematic, like trying to have a conversation from yards away.

~It's Dr. Grey. ~ Jean thought with relief as she tried to close the distance as best she could. ~ You're on the astral plane. I'll explain later. Right now you need to find me. Follow the cord. It's my aura.~

Hope frowned at the 'voice'. It sounded garbled, but the sense of warmth was unmistakable. The word follow though came through quite clearly. Casting a tentative glance at the wave hanging over her, she slowly started making her way back, bit by bit, step by step.

She paused when she saw another specter appear on the horizon. This one was much more solid though and she was bathed in a shimmer of flames. Hope froze when she recognized the figure, not sure if she could believe her eyes. ~Dr. Grey?~

~Yes.~ Jean said with a smile, as the fire spread down the cord, brighter now the closer they got. The ghostly specters were all around them now, twisted into positions of the shock and horror of their last moments before the tsunami.

They dotted the mixture of sandy shores and green countryside like a maze, with the waves looming overhead. A woman was running, clutching a toddler and desperately dragging another child along, an old man, too slow to escape, stood almost a foot in front of the tide, his hands covering his face. Another man had his arms wrapped around a tree trying to hang on, frozen floating in midair with his body outstretched like he was flying. His eyes were clenched shut, mouth open in a silent scream.

~Hope.~ Jean soothed. ~They're just echoes, ghosts. Not real. Focus on me. Find me.~

The buildings the specters were running from were being gradually altered now as the time marched on around them, once whole but now breaking apart in extremely slow motion to reflect the point of impact from the water.

With a tentative glance at the other specters, Hope started making her way to the fiery shape some distance away. She tried to stare past the figures, details now registering she had not seen in her first panicked flight. The young man reaching out at his wife who seemed to floating away and she hurriedly turned her face away from that image and it's sharp blues and yellows that symbolized grief and terror.

Only to nearly step on to a tiny figure clamping some vegetation on the ground...

She hastily backed away and hurried forward, trying not to see, trying not get drowned in the swirling colors and images before her. Finally she had worked her way through them and approached the fiery woman in front of her. Completely letting her usual reserve go, Hope threw her arms around her, her body shuddering even on the astral plan.

Jean had closed the distance, letting the girl collapse into her. Wrapping her arms around her, she stroked her hair, as the fire around herself flickered and died away and only a normal looking Jean remained. "It's okay, sweetheart. It's all going to be okay."

"Dr. Grey? What... How... how did I get here?" Hope finally managed to get out a few long moments after the shuddering subsided. "What is all of this?" She kept her face hidden for the moment, not wanting to face all the strange specters yet again.

A fog rolled in, one propagated by Jean to help mask their surroundings from Hope's vision. "This is the astral plane. Part of it, anyway. It's sort of....subsection, created after the tsunami. When a cataclysmic event happens sometimes the trauma from the people and the landscape can create a psionic resonance that reflects on the astral plane. It's almost like taking a snapshot," Jean said, keeping a watchful eye on the waves that still loomed in the distance among the mist.

"When you were pulled under the water I think you panicked, and in your trying to escape, but finding no way for your body to, your mind did instead, manifesting a new facet of your abilities."

She relaxed a little further when the ghostly figures were hidden from her sight. "I projected myself here?" Suddenly another thought occurred to her: "But... what... what about my body? Does this mean...."

"You're alive," Jean said reassuringly. "A little worse for wear but you'll live. You nearly drowned. You're a little banged up but you're on oxygen and you should recover in a couple of days." She didn't mention that if they hadn't retrieved her from the astral plane it would've been longer, or worse, Hope could've become comatose.

Finally gaining some clarity on what was going on helped restore her composure even more, She sucked in what would have been a deep breath in the normal world and hesitantly ventured: "Is it hard to go... well... to go back? I think I am kinda done here..." And now that she had regained that measure of calm, the glances at the wave looming over head and the subtle underlying emotions she had registered didn't escape her notice.

Jean laughed sympathetically. "I know the feeling," she said, giving her one more big hug before pulling away. She held out her hand.

"Follow me."

Hope still stayed close as she followed the red haired doctor into the crowd of specters again. Luckily the mists still covered most of them and the rest she was able to ignore. Well, mostly ignore. When Jean finally stopped Hope looked around her, recognizing a particular rock formation, and frowned: "Is this not where we set up the medical post in the beginning?"

"You were brought here after Namor rescued you," Jean confirmed, nodding toward certain familiar specters that they passed on their way inside the tent. Jean paused before she opened the flap.

"To get back to your body I'll need to do some psychic repair work. Like I said, when the tsunami hit it created something like a snapshot of certain events. That means what's in this tent is you...so when you see yourself, don't be afraid."

"Alright." Hope tried to steel herself a little when she followed Jean into the tent and a few minutes later she was looking down into her own face, completely slack. Also, different from the other specters she had seen, her imprint was only pearly white, just like her astral form when she normally projected. "Dr. Grey... I don't... I don't think I look too well... There's no trace of the aura I have seen around the other specters. Or is that because I am here?"

Jean nodded. "The tsunami essentially caused you to project accidentally, straining your astral form to point where it disconnected from your body," she said. She reached down to where the cord from Hope's astral tether lay on the ground and gently picked it up. An old, carefully worn doctor's back suddenly appeared on the table beside the Hope on the cot.

"I just need to repair the connection," Jean said, opening the bag to pull out a needle and some shimmering thread. "I don't recommend ghosting for a couple of weeks, however. Just like a wound bound with stitches it needs time to heal properly."

That made sense. And she could stay in her body for a bit. Especially if it meant getting out of here... "Alright." She nodded. "Do I need to do something special?" Hope settled cross legged next to the spectre of her earlier body.

Jean smiled as she picked up the other severed half of the cord coming from the Hope on the table. The two pieces began to float in the air, only inches from one another as Jean threaded the needle. She had other ways to do the repair work but translating it into resembling something from the physical world that Hope could see, she found, was often comforting to those who weren't as familiar with the nature of psychic surgery.

"Try to hang on. Once I repair the pieces you should be drawn back into your body like a rubber band. It can be a little disorienting."

Hope watched in fascination as Dr. Grey wielded the glowing thread and the two pieces became as one again. During the process a tugging sensation on the back of her mind grew stronger and stronger. The moment the last stitch was tied off, the tugging became burning and suddenly she was snapped back...

Only for her eyes to snap open, her lungs and throat burning and her entire body sore. She started coughing, mindlessly wanting to get rid of the heavy sensation on her chest.

Jean's hand rested on Hope's shoulders as she helped her up to sit, pulling the oxygen mask off of her temporarily and resting it on her forehead to give her room to cough up any remaining water. A towel floated over to wrap around her.

"Welcome back."

Hope didn't have any breath to reply and after the coughing subsided, she focused on trying to get in more air. She vaguely recognized the mask and grabbed it, greedily sucking in the air. A wince stole over her face as she moved, all muscles twinging in protest.

"You're okay, you're safe now," Jean reassured her, knowing sometimes events on the astral plane could be forgotten, like waking up from a dream and forgetting certain parts.

She coughed once more, then sought out Dr. Grey’s eyes as the reality of being back in her body sank in. “Thank you. .. for getting me…” Hope managed to croak out, before coughing some more. After the coughing subsided, she was able to lay down and sunk in an exhausted sleep.