|
   |
Lorna paced the safe house, having called the school some time ago to ask for Josh, explaining the situation at hand as best she could. Lorna had been in the middle of a 'werewolf' attack, and a mutant girl had been bitten and injured and was in need of some serious medical attention. She was fine, if a little banged up or bruised. She gave the address of the safe house and ended the call.
Lorna peeled back the rain slicked coat she'd worn, and had dug around until she could find towels for both herself and Ninette. "He'll be here soon, don't worry. We'll get you checked out and I'm sure it'll be fine." She offered a hopeful look toward Ninette, setting a towel down on the rather well worn sofa she'd directed the young woman toward.
"How's the ice doing?"
*
Ninette nods and says quietly, "Thank you. I'm not sure what I would do without your help." She's shivering, and not from the cold of the rain. She sits, and she takes off her rain bonnet carefully, mostly one handed. Her somewhat flattened hair gets fluffed up a bit as she runs her fingers through it. One must be fashionable first. "It's helping," she says, laying her hand on her wounded shoulder to touch up the ice she's got on it. The frost flows from her fingertips, skirling around well-manicured nails. "You're a mutant? Like I am?"
*
It doesn't take long for Josh to get there: mostly because he was in town and so the message had to get relayed, but that's faster then driving in from Westchester. So he knocks the on the door, pauses, and then remembering its a safe house and not someone's private residence, he opens the door to step within. He's got himself a thin orange wind-breaker: its the least warm jacket he could get, since its hot, but it still has a hood so he can hide, somewhat. But the moment he's inside he's peeling out of it, which has his simple white muscle T … showing off all sorts of gold on his arms and face and even his hair looks like spun golden thread. "Lorna?" he calls in as he helps himself into the place.
*
Lorna flashed Ninette a smile, "It's okay, I wasn't gonna leave you out there bleeding to be picked up by cops and turn into.. well, whatever it was. I dunno. Werewolf feels crazy to say." She glanced over the iced wound, unable to really do much than offer clean towels to press against it for all the good it would do. First aid was so going on her list of things to learn ASAP.
"And yeah, I'm a mutant like you. Magnokinetic." She wiggled her fingers and paused at the knock on the door before she heard Josh's voice.
"We're in here!" She called, rising to her feet again. "That was fast."
*
Ninette shudders. Werewolf. "I can't believe that's going to happen to me," she says dully. She glances toward the sound of a new arrival, but as Lorna calls out to him, she relaxes somewhat. He must be the one she assured could help her. To Lorna, she says, "Cryokinetic I think is the English word." She smiles thinly. "They used to call me Dame d'Hiver is Paris." The smile fades, and she glances aside with maybe just a titch of shame.
*
Following the voice, Josh steps into the room, his eyes immediately going first to Lorna to give her a nod and then with some concern on his golden face he looks to the patient. His skin looks every bit like its made out of shiny golden metal: only the natural way he moves belies that. Even the irises of his eyes glint with gold. To say he does not blend in is an understatement. "I'm Josh." he agrees the stranger, but he steps over and extends his hand to shake hers. If she takes it, his skin feels warm and like completely normal skin despite its appearance. "Also called Elixir. You know…" A shiny grin touches his features, "I'm the cure for what ailes you." And he winks.
*
Lorna patted Ninette's uninjured shoulder, "It won't happen. Trust me. He'll be able to help you. I know he can." She flashed the other mutant a smile and stepped back as Josh entered what served as a combo living room and open concept kitchen.
"Hey Josh," She offered the mutant a two fingered salute. "You made good time getting over here. This is," She paused, "I'm sorry you were speaking in French to my friend, I didn't catch your full name earlier." She looked sheepish and then nodded toward the rather sizible looking bite that crossed over the young woman's shoulder encased in ice and frost, hiding just how much blood should've been pouring from the wound rather well.
*
Ninette offers Josh a weak smile as she shakes his hand. Her skin is cool to touch, but not supernaturally so. "Josh," she says, her French accent mangling the name a little. "Ninette Laurant, also called Dame d'Hiver." She settles back into the couch, and she adds, "I'm sorry for my state. I usually carry myself better than this." She glances between the two, and slowly she lets herself relax. "I haven't met many other mutants. Just a man named Jay. I don't know how to tell him I'm all right."
*
"If Jay is a ginger with green eyes? I know him and can pass on word." Josh smiles, and he shifts over to sit beside Ninette, folding a golden hand over the other hand that holds onto Ninette's own, assuming she doesn't tug her hand back. He tilts his head and gets a faraway look on his features, but he responds to Lorna with a nod, "I was in Mutant Town at the center. Fortunately, no one much needed me today." And then its like he blurs slightly: the gold of his skin just rises off into the air and its only as this spreads over from his hand to Ninette's that its clear its not him blurring, but a golden glow. "First your injury; ahh, if you could make the ice go away?" The golden light goes to the bite wound, and without any sensation at all the the flesh begins knitting back together right before their eyes. It takes long moments for the wound to heal — but still, only moments. "The virus will take longer: viruses are the hardest thing to heal." But despite saying 'hard' he speaks with complete confidence that he can do it.
*
Lorna glanced back toward Josh and Ninette, settling in the cushioned chair opposite of the couch. "I know Jay too, don't worry. One of us will tell him." She smiled, "The guy back on the street said that whatever the infection is, lasts for a few days before .. anything happens." She murmured, biting her lower lip. "But after Josh has taken care of you, I think it'll be fine for you to go on home. I trust him when he says you're at a one hundred percent." She smiled, taking up a towel and drying off her hair.
"There were a few people infected Josh, do you think that you could reverse it on them if they've.. already.. uhh.. changed?"
*
Ninette lays her hand to the ice on her shoulder, and while she can't make herself warmer than the living thing she is, that's enough to weaken the thin layer, and she breaks it into shards from there with a 'tink' like broken glass. She hisses in pain, but the flesh is bared, ravaged but only seeping a little blood, still cold as it is.
"Thank you," she says to both of them, teeth gritted. Now that it's free, the wounded flesh wants to throb painfully. "He's a very sweet man." She focuses on Lorna's words, and she nods a little. With a glance to Josh, she nods again. "I owe you both."
*
Pain is only a function of nerves; Josh deadens them immediately so the whole area of the bite is simply numb as the flesh knits back together. He glances up at Lorna for a long moment, the golden light still radiating off of him, "I… don't know. The virus is strange: I'd have to lay hands on someone who was at that state to be able to tell. Despite all I can see I can't actually entirely tell what this virus *does* when it changes someone, but now that I've read someone exposed but before that— I'll know more if I can touch someone." He tilts his head and closes his eyes, murmuring softly, "Now… should I search out the virus itself and break it apart, or teach your body to make antibodies against it? Hm. It'll take longer but I'll do the latter. You won't be able to be infected again. This might feel a little weird, Ninette, but don't worry, and it won't hurt." And with his eyes closed he searches out the invading virus and studies it in detail. He adds absently, "You don't owe me anything. But if you feel any debt, volunteer at the soup kitchen in the community center in Mutant Town for a couple days and I'll happily name us squared."
*
Lorna bit back a hiss at the sight of the bite, at least the teeth had been sharp and hadn't been a ragged mess? Still, she was thankful that Josh was there and she exhaled a breath, nodding. "Okay. Good to know." She rubbed the back of her neck, closing her eyes. "Guess I have a guy to try to track down. Fun." She shook her head. "One of those infected escaped. So I doubt it's the end of it."
A glance was spared toward Ninette again. "What Josh said, you don't owe me anything. I could've been bitten just as easily. You just got unlucky. And now? You won't have to worry about it. Mutant Town can always use help." She smiled and dragged her own scraped hands through her hair.
"Hey, so, sometime I need to learn some basic first aid.. because if she hadn't been able to slow that bleeding I'm not entirely sure what I'd have done."
*
Ninette exhales as the numbness overtakes her sore arm, and she relaxes further. There's almost a giddy high that comes with the pain just suddenly disappearing. All those endorphins. "Thank you," she finds herself saying again. "The antibodies, those sound good. I don't want to get infected again."
The mention of volunteering at the soup kitchen gives her pause. Her lovely dress may be ruined, but she does dress like someone who doesn't step foot into soup kitchens. Still, the man is saving her life, so she nods and says, "All right. I will."
She hesitates, then says, "Sometimes I think it's time to stop hiding from the people who are like me."
*
"I'm planning on doing some classes in first aid at the school, Lorna." Josh murmurs, his eyes still closed, "_Everyone_ should know first aid. Everyone should be able to keep people alive until I can get to them: its important not to rely on the fact that I can bring someone back even if they're dead, because frankly, that takes a _lot_ out of me." Concentrating, he studies the virus: its protein sheathe, he grabs some nearby cells and shreds them, taking up the components within that he needs to pull together an antibody that will attach to and nullify the virus itself. Its a slow and precise thing, almost more trial and error, but he works through the problem. The glow radiates still and he nods towards Ninette, though his eyes are still closed: he's in the microscopic world with incredible precision at the moment. "What do we have, but eachother?" he asks of Ninette, "Alone we are small, weak, only together when we stand back to back can we face a hostile world and be strong. Of all the people to hide from, its not those who will understand what you're going through."
*
Lorna smiled, "If you want to meet others, Josh and I are always a good start. We know a few people." She nodded toward the golden mutant, "If you need help, I'll leave you with a number where you can reach us. Or at least someone that can." She sighed, setting the towel aside. There wasn't much she could do about her clothes, she was soaked through.
"Cool, I'll sign up for them then. I'll feel better knowing how to keep someone from bleeding out at least. Especially with all the trouble I keep getting into." A pause, "I hate to ask.. Josh, but when you're done can you check over me? I don't think I've picked anything up, but I dunno how that stuff spreads and there was blood all over and rain.. and I did scrape my hands up some when I fell." More like Captain FREAKING Marvel blasted by her. That was certainly a story not to be shared.
*
"I hurt people back in Paris," Ninette says. "Not always on accident. I don't think good people would want to help a villain." She takes a deep breath. There, she said the 'v' word. It's out in the open. "But Jay has shown me you're forgiving and kind. I will leave you my number, too. I can donate money. I know that resources can be slim."
She glances with cool curiosity at the knitting of her flesh. No swooning maiden, this. "Lorna, you were magnificent, the way you fought." To Josh, she says, "She pulled up lampposts without even touching them."
*
The antibody made, Josh pulls forth a memory T-Cell and molds the two together: from that point its easy to cause replication and send production into overdrive. Josh takes a long, slow breath and lets go of Ninette, "It'll take a few hours for the virus to be neutralized, but your immune system is in overdrive and you'll soon be flooded with antibodies." He nods over to Lorna and rises, though there's a bit of a stumble: viruses are one of the harder things for him to do, short of bringing someone *back*. The precision of control required is a big deal: wounds are easy, flesh knows how to heal, it just needs to be sped up. He extends his hands to Lorna as he steps towards her, smiling, "Don't hate to ask. Healing is my gift." He glances back to Ninette, "It's easier to hurt then to heal." he says, his voice grave, serious, and with shame. "A lot easier." He shrugs, "Once you come to us we care only for your good will and choice to be better going forward: we don't ask you to answer for your past." But he has to take Lorna's hands and see if she's sick at all.
*
Lorna offered a sympathetic look toward Ninette, "Hey, don't beat yourself up over what happened in the past. It's the past for a reason, right? Trust me, I've done things I'm not proud of. There's a lot of metal in a city." She said softly, "Just try to do better next time." It was what the Professor had told her, and she kept that advice close to her heart. Even as she flashed the other woman a smile.
"Lamps are easy, they have a high iron content in the steel that the city uses. But thanks." She glanced back worriedly toward Josh as he stumbled and she was half standing by the time he came over. "Hey, come on over nad have a seat, yeah? You push yourself too much." She murmured, and let him take her hands without a fuss.
Besides the scrapes on her hands and knees, she seemed.. clean. There wasn't so much as a hint of the virus. Nothing beyond what one would expect from a few scrapes that hadn't been properly cleaned from a New York City road.
*
Ninette nods to them both and says, "It's easier said than done, but dwelling on it hasn't done me any good." Her brow furrows as Josh teeters, and she rises to her feet to try to steady him, all five feet three inches of her. "Yes, you come rest," she says. To Lorna, she says, "I will go make him tea." She heads for the kitchen, just like she owns the place, never mind she's been here less than an hour.
*
There's a light flaring of the golden light: Josh can't see injury and not heal it, even if its minor. But scrapes and such are easy to vanish. He smiles to Lorna and shakes his head, "Oh, I'm fine. I just need some coffee and a donut." At Ninette's words, "Tea would be welcome." he agrees as a counter. But he adds to Lorna, "You're fine, you're not infected." And then he settles back into the couch with a soft sigh, "Viruses are hard." he explains, "It's a level of precision that normal healing doesn't need."
*
Lorna glances back toward Ninette as the woman gets up, "Try the cabinet to the left of the stove. There should be something in there." She called and flashed Josh a relieved smile as her scrapes vanish and he gives her a clean bill of health.
"That's good to know." She exhaled a breath sitting back in her own chair as Josh sat back down.
"I figured you'd be able to help her, sooner and all that. I remember what you went through with the zombie. I don't know what happens with this thing, other than I saw this dog change into a monster. Like less than a week after that? Well, then there were like four more. They attacked when it got dark, I mean the thunderstorm got dark enough, I guess that it made them go all… wolfy.." She made a face.
*
"Merci," Ninette says to Lorna, and she nods to Josh. Tea it is. She finds a kettle to put on and a teapot, quite confident moving around in someone else's house. Now that she's no longer hurting, there's a driven energy about her. She keeps an ear on the conversation in the other room as she goes searching for and finds some cookies. They're not a donut, but they'll have to do. "It sounds like magic," she says with a note of disapproval.
*
"There's nothing magic about it." Josh shakes his head slowly, even if Ninette can't see the shake, "Its a virus: a protein sheathe surrounded by an RNA core, the only reason I can't tell you precisely what it does is.. frankly, I don't understand genetics enough. No one does. This was biology or I wouldn't have been able to nullify it. I'm a biokineticist. I control organic matter. That makes it the purview of science. Just…weird science." He then looks to Lorna and nods his head, "It's good you called me, the virus was active but hadn't developed to the point of contagion." He hesiates, "It'll be easier next time to make a cure for someone else— I'll know what to do, but by 'easier' I don't mean easy. I have my limits: I could maybe cure two people in one sitting before going into a coma for a day or two. But… if we could get our hands on someone who has gone to the next stage of the infection, I might be able to refine the process." He hesitates, "So the effect photosensitive? The transformation happens in darkness? That's maybe useful. If someone else is infected, I'd put them in a room with as many lights as possible and keep them there."
*
A shrug, followed and Lorna glanced toward the cookies that she spotted coming out of the cabinet. "It's not magic, trust me. I know magic. I have some relatives and friends that can do it. But when they describe it, honestly it sounds just like a science to me anyways. But that's just me." She exhaled a breath, glancing back toward Josh.
"I don't know, that's just what I thought. I mean, werewolves come out when there's a full moon right? I mean, there wasn't a full moon, but you said this was a virus, not magic." She tilted her head, "The dog I think just got angry, some guy's girlfriend hit it and then.. well, it went monstery.." She grimaced.
"I dunno. Think silver would work?"
*
"I suppose science can look like magic," Ninette allows. Graciously. She emerges with a tea service as best as she can cobble together. It's not polished silver or delicate porcelain, but it will do. "It all happened so quickly," she says, setting the tea down within reach of both fellow mutants. She pours for both of them, then inquires, "Milk or sugar?" There's a nervous edge to her briskness. She may be recovered physically, but mentally? Well, it's just best to keep busy and stick with the familiar. Tea.
*
"I… have no idea what magic is, I would have sworn to you both yesterday that werewolves didn't exist, couldn't exist, that it was all some absurd old myth and maybe a mutant resembles it but its not a disease." Josh says with a handwave: obviously that's all not true anymore. "I can't imagine silver working: silver is biologically inert. There would have to be some *wild* biological changes for these transformed people to suddenly react to silver in a toxic fashion: there's a reason why 'sterling silver' is a thing. Now, I'm not saying silver absolutely wouldn't work— I need to lay hands on someone in the later stage to really understand what's going on— I'd just be surprised." He looks up to Ninette, "Sugar, please. And then twice as much as you think is reasonable. Sugar helps the… drain." he explains, but adds, "And really… someone who didn't know about mutants and saw what I could do? It looks like magic. I get that. It just isn't." But then he winces, and gesture at his face, "But those people would likely burn me at a steak as a weird golden witch." he admits.
*
Lorna nodded to Ninette, "Just plain is fine, thanks." She accepted a cup, clasping it with both hands as she glanced toward Josh. "I mean, Vampires exist, so why not werewolves." She paused, and realized that saying that outloud before a shaken woman who had just been attacked likely wasn't a good idea either.
"I'll see if I can keep an eye out Josh, and I'll let you know if I manage to wrap one up in a car again." She bit her lower lip, blowing on the tea and taking a sip. "Pretty sure being able to move metal with my mind would've looked like magic too." She offered dryly. "Maybe that's a reason people are freaked out by people like us. Some old carry over from those days."
*
Ninette doses Josh's tea with a generous helping of sugar, and she hands him a cookie along with the cup. "Maybe it falls on those of us who can hide ourselves to safeguard those who can't," she says tentatively. As for herself, she takes one milk, one sugar. When vampires are mentioned, she sits a little taller, squares her shoulders a little more. Her teacup rattles a little on its saucer. "I used to think it was a curse rather than a gift because of what would happen if people found out."
*
Looking askance at Lorna, Josh mouths, 'vampires?' skeptically, but he shrugs, not pressing the matter. "People are afraid of power, and different. And we are different and have power." He accepts the cookie and tea from Ninette, and first makes the cookie disappear with a certain intensity, and only after that does he take a long, slow breath and release it. "I used to be able to blend, before I died." he explains, "But bringing myself back seems to mean I'm…this." He gestures at his gold skin, as if it needed pointing out, "So I don't know about those who can hide, and those who can't, anymore. I know…" he hesitates, "I know I'm afraid to step foot out of mutant town." He frowns a bit, "I don't believe in curses or gifts. I don't believe in fate or god. I have a mutation: that is the way of evolution. I have an ability. No one gave it to me, it simply is. What I do with it is my choice: I… did not always choose ethically. Now I do. I can do what no one else I've ever heard of can: curse? gift? Those words imply a moral value to the ability itself: I would argue there is no moral value to an ability. A strong man has no moral virtue for being strong: how he uses it does have an ethical value, though. He can choose to protect, to defend. Or he can choose to bully and abuse." he shrugs slowly, "I am a biokineticist. I choose to heal. What other people do when they find out? That is about them. It doesn't change me. Their hatred and biogotry does not change the ethical choice I make to heal: their hatred can not make my choice a curse. Their hatred speaks to their… smallness, Ninette. The only answer to that is for us to trust others like us to stand back-to-back and show them we are good."
*
Lorna fell silent, as Ninette and then Josh spoke. She had only green hair that labeled her as 'other' as mutant, and she could easily cover it up and hide it. Choosing not to was a concious decision every day. She sipped at her tea. "I used to dye my hair brown to pass as human, and it took me until recently to become comfortable with my natural hair color." She murmured softly, "I face shop keepers tossing me out because of it and whispers, and it's not easy.. but I choose it. Not everyone can." She bit her lower lip, nodding toward Josh.
"You're welcome to spend the night here, Ninette, if it makes you feel any better. There's a few bedrooms upstairs. Or I can drive you home." She offered softly, breaking the topic.
"I can stay with you too, if it helps. My powers are kind of well, extremely destructive, and useful in a fight.. So the offer stands."
*
"It suits you," Ninette says to Lorna. It may not be possible to rattle Ninette Laurant to a degree she won't make a note of fashionable choices. "It's those shopkeepers I just want to…" Frost skirls off her fingertips, and a sheen of ice forms upon her tea. She stops, quickly, and frowns at the now cold cup. "Merde," she murmurs.
With a small sigh, she sets the tea side, and she says to Josh, "I know it's a mere perception, but I was young, and my powers… someone important to me died, and it might have been my fault. It has taken time, that's all. A young girl's heart doesn't speak the language of pragmatism."
She nods then to Lorna, and she says, "I think I'll stay, yes. If you will, too. I don't want to be alone."
*
For his part, Josh doesn't sip at his tea: its hot, sure, but that's a question of biology and healing himself is easy. He chugs it, not feeling pain from the heat, and naturally healing the inflamation done by the hot liquid. He nods to Lorna first, "Don't get me wrong." he says softly, "I'm not comfortable in my skin." He lifts a golden hand, "I live in terror everytime I go out." He sounds so grave at taht, but bhe looks to Ninette, "I don't blame you for your past, Ninette. I remember laying hands upon a man and — to say I killed him is kind. His body… broke apart. I thought him someone deserving of this, but he wasn't. And I remember always …" He shrugs. Josh finishes the tea, sets it aside and rises, "I will never heal enough to erase the harm I caused." But he nods to Lorna, to Ninette, "Be well. You can find me often at the Community Center, Ninette, in Mutant Town. If not me, they can find me. I need to go now."
*
Lorna set her tea cup aside, offering Ninette a smile. "Some thugs chased me into an abandoned building, and I brought it down around their heads." She paused, glancing down as she bit her lower lip. "They didn't come back out." She exhaled a breath and got up, stretching her arms behind her.
She glanced at Ninette's now iced tea and didn't comment. As Josh made to go she nodded, "Thanks Josh for coming out." She murmured, and glanced toward the stairs. "C'mon, Ninette, I'll make sure the beds are made up. They're usually seen to, but you never know. Safe houses and all that jazz.."