BLADE Tower - 1940 hrs

Xavier broke out of his dull stupor in response to the sound of the door clinking open and took notice of his new Best Friend for the next hour.

Finally ...

A Man in a Suit, in his late 30s, early 40s, walked into the room and addressed the BLADE sitting in the chair in front of the desk. There was no need to start of formal, the man knew. Doing so only took up valuable time, and he could already sense the tension surrounding this individual.

"Corporal Moran," he started with, "I can see that you are already recuperating in spite of that incredibly rash surgery you underwent. How are you feeling?" he asked.

"Oh, how nice. You referred to by my rank, right off the bat. Everyone in BLADE, is soooo casual about the name thing." he said, half sneering.

"I can call you Xavier, if that is what you'll prefer." Let's start again. "I am Dr. Lucius Leblanc, and I'll be taking your testimony of your experience today."

Xavier blinked.

"Doctor? I figured I'd be getting grilled by someone from up top. Why are you here?" Xavier asked, seeming a little confused and a little apprehensive. He wasn't sure how to respond to all this.

"Your superiors believed that it would be to your benefit to be questioned by someone who can provide a more subtle atmosphere as we take in your report.", the Doctor said. "I'm a psychiatrist you see, and considering the trauma you must have faced, we want to see if we can help you in any way through this procedure." He gave a small smile to indicate his kindness, and hoping it would help ease the tension he still felt.

It apparently didn't, as Xavier couldn't stop himself from rolling his eyes and shifting in his seat. He folded his arms across his chest. They sent me a shrink? Me? "Oh? That was nice of them. You can tell my Bosses that I'm fine. I'm ready to hit the field on a moments notice.", he said quickly. Then added, "though, I think that I should probably get my armed looked at, first."

"I noticed that", the Doctor interjected. "That's where they removed the egg, isn't it? Is it painful at all?" "Eggs. Plural, actually.", Xavier countered. "And no, they numbed me out so I can't actually feel anything in my shoulder and upper arm." He shook his wounded left arm to provide emphasis, then returned to the previous issue. "Like I said, I don't need counseling. I don't need to be medicated, and I don't need to have a professional heart-bleed to say 'how does that make you feel?' every five minutes." he stated. "I just need my arm fixed, and a new assignment."

"That's sounds excellent.", the Doctor said, deciding to hold against the obligations of a man of his occupation. "But first I need to hear from you the details of what occured at Biahno Lake."

Xavier shifted in his seat again. "I was answering a concern of one of the residents, and I took a small group down to investigate." he said slowly at first, but then picked himself up and said with more fortitude, "we showed up at the Plant, things got screwy, and now I'm here talking about it to a shrink." He looked Dr. Leblanc in the face. "Ya happy, Doc?"

"Xavier, you do realize that everyone at the plant is dead?" He asked tentatively. "That you are the only survivor that was recovered from that location?" He asked, somewhat worried at what he might hear. Xavier's sneer resurrected, "yeah, I kind of figured that when the only other guy who made it out exploded right in front of me." The sneer died again, and with a slight aggression in his voice Xavier continued, "you want to know all the grisly details of my buddy's death? Is that it? You want me to describe what emotions I was feeling as I watched his Mim get ripped apart from the inside out? How about you stop wasting my time and get this over with, Doc. Ask your questions."

The Doctor allowed a moment of pause to hang in the room. He then turned on his monitor and showed the BLADE that their conversation was being recorded and started with the first question he was tasked with asking.

"What caused you to arrive at the Biahno Water-Purification Plant?"

"I already told you, I was answering a residence's concern. Some Woman named Rosie."

NLA's Residential District - 0700 hrs - This Morning

Xavier blasted awake and gave out a long groan as his sleep was disrupted by the loud shriek of the Alarm Clock he had set up on his Comm. Device that he always kept on his person. He fumbled with the small device and turned the alarm off. He layed on his mattress for a few more seconds before he literally rolled himself out of bed to start the new day.

He walked out of his room and entered the hallway. As he passed Dwayne's room, he gave two short pounds on his housemate's door. "Wakey-wakey, Chambers!" he said loudly in spite of his own sleepiness. "Got a big day ahead of us, doing who the heck knows, and ... yeah, stuff ..." Just keep walking ... there's coffee awaiting.

He heard a quiet 'I hate you' coming from behind the door and took that as a sign that Dwayne Chambers was still alive. He arrived to the kitchen, and started up his morning dose of 'a cup o' Joe' and gave himself a bowl of Grain Mix and Milk. On Earth this would be called Cereal, but we're not on Earth are we? No, this food he was eating was an assortment of corn-based grains and junk that was grown here on planet Mira,which is strange because practically everything else that grows on this rock is out to kill him. I guess it's an eat-or-be-eaten kind of thing, he thought to himself.

Dwayne entered and cooked himself a pack of something. It looked gray and boring, but Xavier guessed that was the kind of stuff he was into, because Dwayne eats it every other day. Some kind of protein solution that was designed to taste like bacon and eggs. Xavier would take real food any day. Or at least something that had the nutritional information on the package. He needed something a little more than the word 'FOOD' on plastic in order for him to put it in his mouth.

They finished eating, and after a few moments of getting some halfway decent clothes on and shaking the morning out of their heads they reached the front door. "You ready?" Xavier said. "Yep, you're going down." Dwayne responded. "Go!" On Xavier's go, they both took off running down the street as they raced each other on their Jogging route through the Neighborhood and down into central NLA.