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Summary: Lucas gets offended by something Theo says. Lucas gets offended by something James says. James gets offended by something Lucas says. James almost kills Lucas. Theo tries to save Lucas. James tries to kill Theo. Theo hits the dreaded panic button. Julian comes in to save Lucas. James is sad. Theo is mad. Julian is dad. Well, metaphorically. It rhymed, okay?
Date: April 10, 2010
Log Title The Art of Forgiveness
Rating: R for violence and language
Xavier Mansion - Pool
A large Olympic size pool sits outside at the edge of the property over looking Breakstone Lake. The pool, always heated to the right temperature, starts at a depth of 4 feet at the shallowest end, and gradually reaches a depth of 20ft. A diving board sits at the far end of the pool. Off to the side of the shallow end, a hot tub is built into the ground for those wanting to relax. Pool chairs and tables sit along the side of the pool for those just wanting to enjoy the sunshine.
There is a T-shirt by the edge of the pool, along with a pair of old white canvas shoes and two white gloves. In the water, Lucas is swimming laps, wearing just a pair of board shorts.
Casually walking along in the evening light, Theo strolls from the basketball court, wearing a pair of cargo shorts and his green hoody from his old high school. He doesn't seem to be bent on excersize, though. Instead he's fiddling with his phone, most likely texting someone.
He slows down as he comes near the edge of the pool, and slows, still fixed on the small electronic device. His eyes drift away from it, noting Lucas in the pool. It's warmer these days, but not warm enough for Theo's taste to go swimming in the evening. "Aren't you cold?" he asks without a more common greeting.
Lucas swims to the shallow side, standing. He takes a moment to catch his breath, spitting a little water and slinging the stringy wet hair out of his face. He looks up at Theo, "It's heated…" He tilts his head then, unsure, "Ah THINK it's heated…" He pauses, then finishes, "To be honest, since my hands went whack, Ah don't really notice temperature so much." He shrugs, "Theo, right?"
Theo gives a quick shrug of his eyebrows, "I guess that'd be a good point. Yeah, Theo. Lucas, right?" he returns, remembering him from the other day. "So what's with your hands, anyway?" he asks. "They're like super hot or something, right?" He remembers the cigarette from the night before last, but doesn't bring it up. He sticks his phone back in his hoody pocket.
Lucas looks down at his hands in the water, "Oh… They… um…" He furrows his brow, and then looks back at Theo. "My body produces nuclear reactions around them. They're really powerful, but strangely, VERY susceptible to water. My kryptonite, Ah reckon." He shrugs, and holds his hands up out of the water, wiggling his fingers. "But Ah'll take it. It's nice to have my hands, even if it's just for a little while."
Theo arches his brow curiously. "Wow," he says. "That would really suck. Won't make me sterile hanging around you too much, will it?" he asks with a teasing grin. "I guess it's a good thing it's just your hands, and not your whole body, You'd be walking around melting through the ground everywhere you went." He wanders closer to the edge of the pool, pausing by the edge.
Lucas sighs, he doesn't find it as amusing. "It does suck. And no, you won't get sterile. It's radiation, but it doesn't put off anythin' what would give you poisoning. Least, not yet." He shrugs, "It's still trouble. If'n Ah get knocked out and my gloves are off, it'll still be bad."
"Man, I thought my powers were a pain," Theo admits. "Guess you can relate with being annoyed at how everyone finds their powers really cool and neat and super awesome. Not that way for all of us," he says. "I'd probably swim a lot if I were you, too."
Lucas tilts his head a little, "Wait… what ARE your powers?" he asks.
"My breath is an odorless toxic fume, and if you breathe it in you'll die," Theo says. "Killed my last girlfriend that way." His face is completely straight, giving no indication that he completely fabricated the story. Of course, the fact that he doesn't have a mask of some sort on would suggest he's full of it.
Lucas furrows his brow, "Like iodine powder. Fuck you." He turns, and begins to wade his way towards the stairs at the end of the pool. "Ya know, Ah was startin' to think you might fuckin' NOT suck like the rest of these assholes…" he grumbles, not looking back.
Theo laughs, "Dude, I'm screwin' with you," he says, not seeming to be bothered that he pissed Lucas off.
"Seriously though, my power is a pain. I hear everything that clicks, whirrs, or beeps within about forty feet. Never realized how much we were surrounded by machines before about a month ago. Now I go out into the woods back there just so I can get some sleep," he nods toward the forest at the edge of the property.
Lucas wades out of the water, moving over to his clothes. He doesn't say anything, bending over and picking up his gloves. As he does so, his hands begin to sizzle as the water starts to dry, and little sparks and sputters of smoke pop and hiss as they begin to heat back up. He pulls the gloves over them and then looks at Theo. He stares right into his eyes. "The first time my hands burst into energy, Ah was in my bedroom. There was so much energy released, it burst the entire house into an inferno in less than a second. Ah lost everything Ah owned." He pauses, and then adds, "My girlfriend's name was Samantha Hayes." He takes a half step closer, a little menacingly, adding, "Think before you fuck with people." He turns, and begins to head back towards the mansion, leaving his shirt on the ground.
Theo doesn't answer. He doesn't try to stop Lucas, either. "Shit," he says out loud to himself, shaking his head. He just pulls out his iPhone, and turns back toward the woods again. Sometimes it's better to just keep your mouth shut than try to fit both feet into it.
Lucas heads back inside, not looking back.
Xavier Mansion - Music room, later that night.
The music room has four levels of tiers that each sit one row in a semi circle. On the floor in the semi circle is grand piano. There is a large closet on either side of the room, one filled with string instruments and the other filled with various wind and brass instruments. There are a few guitars in the back of the room next to a large variety of percussion instruments. All the instruments here are for the students to use provided they take care of them and clean any necessary parts after they use it. The room is sound proof, so once the door is closed, the music being played will not interrupt the other classrooms.
Lucas is standing in the middle of the room. His back is to the door. He's wearing only a pair of board shorts and his white gloves. His shirt is gone, he's barefoot, and his hair is a little damp and stringy. He's got an electric guitar on, and the amp he's pulled out is turned up as loud as it will go. The soundproof room contains it, but he's playing Smells Like Teen Spirit at an earbleedingly angry volume.
James walks in from the hallway, ears folding against his head as he makes a face. Not one to go deaf before breakfast, he sticks out his lower jaw and walks over to unplug the amp, "Dude…Cobain's gonna come back and beat you with that thing." He crosses his arms and looks down at his roommate, "What'ch you doing in here? I didn't know you could play."
Lucas turns and yells at James, "Plug it the fuck back in, asstard!" he shouts. Something's got him rather pissed.
James gives Lucas a baleful look, "Get it yourself, Elvis." He crosses his arms and looks down his muzzle at the boy, "Unless, of course, you want 'me' to plug it in 'my' way." A smile forms on his face, asking please, oh please, oh please.
Theo knows that the song is blaring long before he reaches the soundproof room. He could sense it back in the elevator. Unfortunately for him, he has no idea who is in the music room. He steps into the room several seconds after James, long enough that he didn't see James enter.
The moment his head clears the door, however, he realizes that he's made his second large error of the evening. He sees James, and while he's never met James, he's heard rumors, and he also sees Lucas.
"Oh shit," he says under his breath. He doesn't back out of the room, but there's obviously a hesitation in his step as he walks toward the front of the room, stepping down the tiers of the chairs as he heads toward Lucas and James, and toward his phone.
Lucas scowls at James, "Don't be a fuckin' dick, Jimmy. Ah ain't in the mood!" He turns to see who came in the door, "Now who's—" He stops, seeing it's Theo. "Christ." He begins taking off the guitar. "Fuck you both."
James is about to say something but his ears fold back up against his head instead. With a quick head snap, the hyena's gaze finds Theo, alerted more by the smell of fear than the voice. "What do you want, little one?" His eyes narrow, big black orbs becoming slits representing dislike. Lucas brings the creature back to earth, "Fuck you and the Paragons. I'm checking out." Deft nod to that as James spares Theo any more of his hate as he looks to Lucas, "I'm leaving the team."
Theo, frightened by the rumors of James as he may be, continues forward. He opens his mouth to respond when the altercation between Lucas and James takes center stage again. His hand rests on each chair he passes, even grips each chair that he passes, as if ready to use it as a weapon as he slowly makes his way to the front of the room. He still has to get quite a bit closer to James and Lucas in order to grab his phone.
Lucas scowls at James. "You're QUITTING?!?!" He sits the guitar down, rolling his eyes and tossing his hands into the air dramatically. "Well that's just fuckin' great, Jim. Fine. Run away like a scared little bitch!" He takes a step closer to James, and actually pokes his chest with his gloved finger, trying to pick a fight. "We don't need you're fuckin' freaky ass anyway! The blind chick will more than pull your weight!"
James' world becomes focused on his roommate, temporarily forgetting about Theo. "Glad I won't be missed while that psychopath leads you and the rest of the retards to their death," the hyena says as his hackles start to raise, "And you touch me again, I'm gonna hang you out the window to dry. And you don't wanna know why you're going to have to dry of." There's a huff of air from the creature's nose, "You wanna side with someone that tried to kill me a few times, downloaded all their shit into my head, and then threw me into jail because I won't talk to them, fine. You deserve the retards."
While Theo hasn't been taking part in the conversation, he has been closely listening. He reaches his phone, and picks it up. He examines it a moment, the panic button not escaping his attention. He puts the phone back in his pocket quietly, and withdraws his hand again. James, if he is still attentive enough, might notice that the fear fades completely from Theo. He is silent, but he doesn't leave the room as he would be able at the moment. His dark eyes study the scene unfolding before him, a quiet analyst for the moment.
Lucas growls at James, "Don't threaten me, hairball!" He creeps a bit closer, "And don't feed me this fuckin' bullshit about Jono, either. Ah KNOW you got someone in your fuckin' head!" He then remembers Theo, and he turns, his fists balling, "What the hell are you lookin' at?" he demands of Theo.
If one could actually see pupils in all that black, they'd see James' eyes turn to pinpoints. Without a word he grabs Lucas' by the throat, his hand easily wrapping around his neck, and picks the boy up. His other hand draws back as if to punch. "Who Told You That?!!" the hyena demands in a snarls that filled with more growling and spittle that actual words, "You got 5 seconds." His head turns to look at the window, forming a plan for what happens after those 5 seconds.
Theo's expression doesn't move, much, but he lifts his head a little as Lucas speaks. He might've answered, but James' attack causes him to react more drastically. His left hand, resting on the chair the phone had been on, tightens its grip. With a twist of his body, he uses his arm like a trebuchet, and the chair flings into the air, slamming into the wall below the window that James was heading for to get his attention.
"Back off, Fluffy," he says. His voice is loud, but it isn't a shout. His right hand is now resting on the next chair with a similar grip. "You aren't the one who pissed him off, I am. So both of you just calm the fuck down before I have to beat you over the head with this chair."
Lucas grabs James' arm, lifting himself up just enough to keep from choking under James' grip. He can't get his gloves off in this position, and his feet swing, a little frantically. "Ah found out because Ah went to bat for you, Jim! You said you was bein' fucked with by Jono and Addison, so Ah went to bat for you and you were fuckin' LYING to me!!! YOU lied to me! You were the only fuckin' friend Ah had here! FUCKER!" And he kicks James in the thigh, as hard as he can, ignoring Theo's outburst, since, apparently, Theo's NOT the only person to upset him today. His mutant strength is about double a normal human his size, so it's a hard impact.
James' attention is drawn away from Lucas as the chair hits the wall, but something much louder brings it back to Lucas. The word liar. Those pupils widen, a sure sign the shit has just hit the fan. The threat from Theo has little effect on the 7' tall beasty. But the accusation from Lucas? It's means war. The kicks lands and James' leg buckles, knee hitting the floor. He grits his teeth, "Grrrrr!" He tilts his head, eyes on his roommate's and rushes forward towards the wall, hoping to ram him into it and pin, "I'm not a fucking liar!"
Theo rolls his eyes. He really thought that would work. "Damn, you two deserve each other," he says. "A fool shows his annoyance at once, but a prudent man overlooks insult," he quotes as he watches the two roll on the ground.
The lights go out. The room is plunged suddenly into darkness. Power outage? Hard to tell. The only light is that coming from the moon in through the window. It's Theo's last card to diffuse and use the situation. Maybe they'll slow down if they can't see anything.
Lucas slams to the ground when James drops. He takes the opportunity to reach for his glove, to remove it. Before he can, James grabs him. "Fuck!" And then the lights go. The next thing he feels is the wall, which collapses a bit from the impact. It can't be seen in the darkness, but he leaves a Lucas-sized indentation in the wood and steel, his ribs cracking as he's crushed between James and the wall. As he slides to the floor, he takes in a single breath, and then coughs it back out, blood spraying onto his chin and onto James' muzzle. He inhales again, a gurgly, wheezy sound, and as he passes out, he simply manages, "…Jim…" He goes limp.
James snarls, lips pulling back in a grimace filled with teeth. He keeps Lucas pinned for a moment, mind operating on far too much adrenaline and anger; far too little common sense. There's a growl as he bounces the kid once more against the wall for good measure, and with that, Lucas breaks. The hyena watches with alien intent, body becoming much to still. The sound of Theo behind him causes his head to snap, gaze afixed, night vision making up for the lack of light. He looks back at Lucas as his name is called, "Huh…wa….Lucas?" He snaps out of the rage, "Lucas….Oh shit.."
Theo hears the crack, and knows that this isn't just a fist fight anymore. He brings the lights back on, and he pulls the school phone from his pocket, hitting the panic button. He tosses the phone to the floor, and bursts toward James and forcefully shoves agaisnt him to get him out of the way. "Shit! You two just couldn't chill out, could you!" he shouts, now rather enraged himself. He forcefully shoves against James, trying to force him out of the way. "Get something with a tube!" he demands. "Don't go into shock now, Fido!"
He grabs a hold of Lucas, trying to make sure that he's breathing. "Lucas, wake up man," he tilts back his head, seeing the spray of blood. "Don't have a punctured lung, please don't!" he begs. He puts his head to Lucas' chest, listening for what his breathing sounds like.
Lucas is breathing very shallow, it's quite labored. Theo's close listen let's him hear the wetness building inside Lucas' lungs. He still doesn't move.
James, having injured Lucas or not, has just about had it with being pushed around and called derogatory things by people he doesn't know. Beast still riding a little too close to the surface, he lets it loose on Theo. With the stranger in the way, James snarls, "Fido this!" With that, the 7' tall hyena who's about probably 3x the bulk and build of Theo lets his foot fly out, aimed at the other kids' chest for a forceful blow.
"He's got fluid in his lungs," Theo says, and starts to turn back to James, having not been paying close attention. "Where's that — " the kick catches him in the shoulder, just under the armpit, and he is lifted off the ground by the blow. Indeed, the hyena weighs close to three times what Theo does, and the boy is like a rag doll. He lands flat on his back about four feet away, and coughs.
"Really?" he gasps in disbelief, trying to right himself. He rolls over onto his hands and knees, and tries to crawl back to Lucas. He can't offer much fight, and can't escape at this point, so his only hope is to keep doing what he's doing, and hope that the beast will subside.
"Please, he said you were his friend," he says in a hoarse whisper. "Help me save him! I need something with a thin tube that can get in his air way, his lungs are filling with blood and if we don't do something about it, he'll die in about three minutes."
Currently, Lucas is leaning against the wall, shirtless. He is resting below a cracked section of the wall in the music room. Theo is at his side, with James standing over them aggressively. There is blood on Lucas' face and down his chest, as well as blood on James' face. A chair lays on its side near them, and there is a gouge in the wall where it seems to have struck.
James, having just kicked Theo, is standing over Lucas, after ramming his roommate into the wall over something that is bound to sound much dumber later on. Especially, when the hyena explains it from his jail cell. Still pissed he looks at Theo, "YOu call me a dog again, and there's going to be two people dying in three minutes. You got that??" There's a hand that's poised as if he's going to grab Theo to make a point, but he never does. Instead he starts listening to the smaller kid on what to do.
"Sure, sure!" Theo agrees quickly, starting to get his wind again. "Just get me something now!" He looks around franticly, and spots the electric guitar. "There!" he says. "That guitar cable, bring it over here!" He reaches into his pockets, and after a moment, produces a small pocketknife.
He traces Lucas' chest, finding where the ribs broke. "We need to get the air out of his chest. Where the hell am I gonna get stuff to do that with?"
Julian enters.
( Julian heard the panic button coming from inside the mansion and rusjed down as fast as he culd. wearing his bsketball shorts and an underarmour crimson cutt off shirt. He sees Lucas lying there and his eyes go wide. "What the fuck happened in here!" he says in a suprised voice. The telekinic gets down and listens to Lucas' chest. "Somebody better start talking twenty seconds ago." )
James pulls himself away from the scene. He's done enough to help already. He leans up against one of the walls and rests his arms at his sides, head facing downward. "I came up here to talk to Lucas. He got mad I wanted to leave his squad, started poking me. Theo started throwing things. I grabbed Lucas, lucas kicked me. I rammed him into the wall before he could get his gloves off." He leaves out the part about kicking Theo for the moment. And, as he figured, it does sound pretty dumb now. His ears flatten sideways, eyes on the floor.
Theo doesn't answer the question, not exactly. He decides there's more important information to get across. He lets Julian in to listen to the injured teen's chest. "Lucas has a punctured lung, we need to get him an ambulance THIRTY seconds ago. The rest can wait until he's not dead." Realizing that James isn't going to grab the cable, he launches himself from his haunches, and pulls the cable from the guitar laying on the ground. He acts quickly to cut the ends off of the cable, and then strips back the wire.
He pulls, but the wire doesn't move. He gets down on his hands and knees, but still can't get the wire to come out of the cable. A string of curse words flows unintelligibly from his mouth as he wrestles with the cable.
He brings the cable back to Lucas' side. "We have to punch a hole in his chest so that the air can escape before he suffocates."
"Calm down." Julian says as a platform of telekinetic force appears under Lucas and lifts him up. "Both of you, medbay now." He quips before he forces the door open and the thing practically breaks. The telekine starts to run and briskly drag the platform behind him. Holding Lucas safely inside. Julian runs to the elevator and is on the com with Doc. "Emergency. we have a student with major injury. Breathing labored."
James winces a little as Julian makes the call to Doc; as if that made the situation undeniably real. He stands and follows the older X'er out of the room, keeping quiet.
Theo quickly leaps back to his feet, closing his pocket knife. He runs after Julian, leaving the cable behind. He grips the side of the doorjam, swinging off of it as he spills into the hall. Oddly, the call button is already pressed before Julian reaches the elevator, but now is probably not the time to investigate such happenings.
Xavier Mansion - Elevator
The Elevator was designed to meld with the rest of the schools architecture with its wooden sliding door. There are buttons to select your destination between the floors. There is a soft ding as the doors open.
Hellion places his hand on a panel inside. "Hellion override access 04311 Express to the basement. " A fast ass elevator down to the medbay and Lucas is given to Docs care. He wheels him out and assures the three that he will be fine after a while. Julian is then left with the two teens. "Okay. I get being pissed off. But what the fuck made you think of kicking him like that? You probably were just shy of killing him." Julian says to James.
Theo watches as Lucas is wheeled away. He doesn't speak, the question is to James. But the question rings in his own mind, and he leans against the back of the elevator, letting out a breath he hadn't known he was holding as he listens for James' answer.
James does what any teen in trouble would, he keeps his arms crossed, and his eyes elsewhere. Suddenly the 7' tall beast isn't so big. "He kicked me, so I rammed him against the wall," is what he says next, "I…just reacted. I wasn't even away until it was over." He looks up at the door and states, "I can walk myself down to the holding room. I know the way. Not like I got anywhere else to go after this."
"The cells? bullshit thats the easy way out bucko." Julian looks up at James questioning James with hus cobalt blues. "If i went around doing that to everyone that pissed me off. Well you know." Julian just lets his reputation speak for itself. "You're lucky this happened in the mansion. You know what those flatscans would do if they saw an obvious mutant beat up someone who looks human?" Anyway he's hardly leaving the point alone. "But if anyone here knows just how much Xavier's takes without booting someone out it's me."
Theo just shakes his head as he listens to the conversation. He doesn't comment on his own viewpoint of what happened, but he clearly appears unimpressed.
James nods as Julian questions, offering a weak, "Yeah…" as an answer. He The look changes a little as he finds Theo. Julian can probably translate, as it's a look the X'er has probably used int he past. James' isn't taking kindly to the other kid, "You got something to say Light Bright?"
"I get you trying to save the kid. But even with that I don't like that look on yer face." Julian says as he catches Theo's look. "So James. I'm gonna talk with your advisor. Scott'll hear about it too." A little disdain in his voice about that.
"Believe me," Theo says, his eyes fearlessly meeting James'. "If I had something to say, I'd say it," he says. He pushes off from the back wall, and steps past the two off the elevator. "But you probably wouldn't hear it anyway." The comment seems multi-directional, toward Julian as well. He doesn't elaborate, but he doesn't leave room for discussion either. He rather deliberately walks toward the waiting area of the medbay to patiently wait to find out what happens to Lucas. It could be a long wait.
James inhales sharply through his teeth, "Jono. Better off just shoving myself into the jail cells. That'll be his answer." He lets out the remainder of the air he was holding with a huff, "Fine." He lean over and hits the button for the cells. Quite serious about his suggestion, "We done?" The look is toards Theo, not Julian, even though the question applies.
The telekinetic of course would rather leave Scott out of it but it's probably not goting to go that way. "You and I are gonna have a talk later." He says to James, more because he thinks James needs to cool off for now. "You don't even know me." he says about Theo. Since the teen most obviously won't hear anymore from the X-Forcer.
James grunts at Julian's request, eyes never leaving Theo until after the doors have closed, "Okay…" There's a long sigh as the hyena tries to keep from freaking out about Lucas until after he knows he's alone. In short order the door opens on the level James requested, and the beast pads off towards the cells.
