Superhero Bootcamp 4
Under the Microscope
Breakfast was a fairly quiet and laidback meal. Like lunch, there was a buffet table set up at one end of the dinning room. A line formed at the side closest to a stack of trays, plates, silverware and napkins. As you moved down the table, you could choose from the selection offered.
Dinner was different in that each table had a few platters, bowls and plates of everything offered and everyone was expected to sit down and eat a 'family style' meal together. Any school wide announcements were made after and it was sorta fun and kinda chaotic.
But he didn't have to deal with that yet. Breakfast was quiet, everyone half asleep or still in bed. Many of the older people only wanted coffee and a muffin and then wandered out of the dinning room with their prize in hand. It was usually just the students, coming down in dribs and drabbles that ate in the big dinning hall.
Bracketed on one side by H and Neon with Sky and Tyger on the other, Jim chose a small bowl of corn flakes, a few pieces of sausage, orange juice and a small handful of hash browns. He had to push back the urge to pile food on both Neon and Sky's plates. Both boys were seriously thin and vegan food wouldn't help them put on weight.
Finally, they all made their way over to one of the many round dinning tables scattered about the room and sat down. A glance up at the long table at the front of the dinning hall where the teachers sat showed that a few people were there. Jim only recognized Mr. Summers, not that he knew that many people yet.
Two girls with trays began to make their way over to their table. Both were strange looking to Jim's eyes and that involuntary tensing at the sight of an obvious mutant stole across his shoulders. It was so strange to him; he had been raised to think of mutants as wrong and evil. Once his own mutant gifts began to manifest, he was taught to feel shame and self-hatred. It would take a while for this openness and pride to feel normal.
One of them had strangely pointed ears that poked out of her hair on the sides of her head and pale pink skin with darker pink freckles. Instantly, he had his brain full of mean jokes ranging from Mr. Spock to elves. He didn't voice any of them despite the fact that it would have been expected of him at home. The other girl was even stranger. Her hair was a brightly colored hot pink, almost a neon shade. She also had gossamer wings that shone with an iridescence that ran through the entire rainbow.
The rainbow hued girl yawned hugely, dropped her tray on the table next to Tyger, turned her chair around and flopped down straddling it.
"I am soooo tired. I can't believe I'm awake so early." She offered a blurry eyed glare at the other girl. "This is all your fault, Dryad."
The other girl blushed a deeper pink and set her tray down between Jim and H. "Sorry." She sat down quietly. "Can't help it. The sun's up."
"Morning people." The rainbow colored girl snorted. Then she yawned again, closed her eyes and leaned sideways until she was propped against Tyger. Another yawn and she snuggled her head down on his furry shoulder and began to snore lightly.
Tyger looked down at her for a moment before looking up at Jim, that soft growling purr that was his version of laughter filling the air even as the others around the table chuckled softly.
"Congratulations Tyger," H said. "You've just been promoted to fluffy pillow. I'm sure your life is now complete."
Tyger rolled his eyes and the others laughed. Then H turned to him and began the introductions.
"The sleeping fairy on Tyger's shoulder is Pixie. Be glad that she's not a morning person and tends to sleep through breakfast 'cause normally we can't get her to shut up. She's a babbler. Also, prepare to spend a large portion of your life helping her hunt down all of the crap she's bound to misplace."
More laughter followed that as well as Neon nodding frantically. "God yes. That girl would lose her head if it wasn't attached."
"This is Dryad," H pointed to the girl with the elfin ears and Jim nodded hello. "She and Pixie are roommates. She's also a morning person."
"Dryad, this here is Jaguar." Dryad smiled up at him, blushed and looked back down quickly. "He's new here, so he'll need help finding all his classes probably."
"It's nice to m-meet you."
Her voice was soft and sweet. He liked it.
"You too."
Breakfast was then eaten as everyone listened to H talk about this new mutant band he'd seen play over the summer. Jim had never heard of them, but that wasn't a surprise. He doubted that any of the stores back home would even stock CDs made by mutants and no clubs or dance halls would hire them to play. He could almost hear his old football team captain sneer 'what would a bunch of muties know about music anyway', but Jim wanted to fit in here so he didn't say it. Instead, he figured that he'd ask H to let him listen to their CD and judge for himself.
He was pulled out of his musing by Mr. Summer's voice. "Good morning, Pixie."
Pixie's head snapped up off of Tyger's shoulder at that loud parade ground voice, "I'm awake!"
Then she seemed to try to stand up and turn around to face him all at the same time. Instead, she got tangled up in her chair and tipped over. Her hand hit the edge of her tray and sent her breakfast flying even as she stumbled and fell right into Tyger's lap. Tyger managed to catch her and break her fall before she slid down and rolled under the table. Mr. Summer's hand snapped up and caught her muffin even as he dodged the spray of milk.
Everyone stared at Mr. Summers in shock. Mr. Summers stared at Pixie, one eyebrow arched up over his wraparound sunglasses. Pixie stared back, a look of embarrassment and horror on her face. Tyger broke the tension by laughing in his purring way. Then, slowly, the chuckles went around the table until everyone except for Mr. Summers and Pixie were laughing.
"Hhmmm…" Mr. Summers handed her back her muffin and then glanced at the spilled milk. "Please make sure that the milk is all cleaned up."
She nodded franticly and tried to untangle herself from her chair and Tyger.
Mr. Summers turned to Jim. "And you are expected down in the Med-Lab this morning right after breakfast. Dr. McCoy needs to give you a physical exam as well as get a baseline reading of your senses."
"Yes, sir."
"Do you remember how to get there?"
Jim nodded again, "Yes, sir."
Mr. Summers stared at him for a long moment and then nodded. "Very well." He turned on one foot and began to walk away. "Have a good day, kids."
Sub-basement level one.
It was a place that was both freaky and ubercool all at once. Shiny metal on the walls and ceiling. Clean modern lines. Inbuilt lights. Sleek. Futuristic. Alien.
It was divided into three main sections. The Med-Lab, The War Room and the main housing for Cerebro.
Jim liked it. It was calm, quiet and soothing to his senses with the still air that had been filtered a few dozen times and the best sound proofing engineering and money could provide.
Sub-basement level two was just as high-tech, if a little bit scarier. It held the same clean metal décor, but it housed the Danger Room. Plus something else. He wasn't shown that other space, but he could feel it and knew it was there.
Still, SB-1 was his destination, so he wasn't going to give much thought to the hidden secrets of SB-2. At least, not today.
Turning a corner, Jim walked down the long gleaming hallway until he came to a huge metal door with a giant X carved into its surface. Over to the side he saw the panel and keypad that was a part of the Cerebro controlled security system. Walking over and hoping that the code Miss Rogue assigned him really worked, Jim typed in 'JJE*2-10'.
"Working."
It was that same oddly inflectionless voice he had heard the other day.
"System requires hand-print recognition."
Nodding to himself, Jim carefully placed his hand palm down on the cool glass panel. A beam of bright green light slid across the panel, highlighting the curves of his hand. Jim blinked in shock. He felt the light. It had been a mildly warm tingle of energy that slid gently over the surface of his skin.
He probably would have stood there staring stupidly at the panel, but then a series of gears began to grind and hum. A tiny crack appeared in the giant door, neatly slicing the X in half. The two halves slid slowly apart until a whuff of cold sterile air poured out over him and then the doors moved more quickly before locking open before him.
Stepping through the doors, Jim found himself in a very modern looking reception area. The color scheme seemed to be cool white and gleaming chrome with just a touch of royal blue and bright gold. There was a sleek looking desk area and a young girl sat behind the desk. She was probably younger than Jim and had big brown eyes and brown hair cut in a bob just below her jaw line. She smiled at him.
"Hello, I'm Trance. How can I help you?"
"Er…" Jim walked over to the desk and couldn't help the confused look on his face. "I was told that I was to come down here for a physical? Is this Dr. McCoy's office?"
She giggled slightly. "Yeah, it is. Who are you? And have you been here before?"
Jim blushed.
"Sorry, I'm Jim Ellison," he shrugged and then remembered his codename, "er…Jaguar? And no, I've never been here before."
She nodded and typed in a few keys on the computer in front of her. After a moment she looked up and smiled.
"Well, Jaguar, welcome to the Med-Lab."
She stood up and walked around the desk and gestured for him to follow her through the doors off to the side. They came through into a junction of three hallways. One went forward and the other two headed off to the right and the left.
"There are three main areas in the Med-Lab." She pointed to the left. "Surgery and recovery." She pointed directly ahead. "Mutant research and development." She pointed to the right. "And this is where you are going, which is called Medical and has several exam rooms for physicals and treatment of minor injuries."
She started walking down the hallway leading off to the right and Jim had to jog to catch up with her. At the end of the hallway she pushed through another door. It was a combination waiting room and reception area that looked much like any Doctor's office he'd ever been in, if slightly more modern looking.
She walked around behind the desk area and over to a bin that had a stack of folders in it. She picked up the one on top and pulled all of the papers out of it. Sticking the papers onto a clipboard, she picked up a pen and handed it over to him.
"Here, fill all these out and I'll label your folder. Okay?"
He took the clipboard and glanced down at it. It looked like normal paperwork you'd fill out for any hospital. Looking back up at Trance as she opened a drawer and pulled out a box of stickers and labels, he frowned.
"Aren't you a little young to be a nurse?"
She giggled and smiled up at him.
"I'm not a nurse, although I do want to be a doctor when I'm older. I just do a bit of work around here for Beast. Setting up new files for the incoming students, some typing and filing, stocking supplies in the rooms when they run low. Things like that." She shrugged. "There are a few students who do work for him, just like there are students who do work for other teachers and stuff."
She shrugged and began typing at the computer on the desk.
"If you have any skills or interests that mesh with the specialty of one of the staff, let them know. They'll probably pull you in on some of their projects and let you get more experience. If you're real good and you really want it, you can even take specialized classes to learn more."
Jim nodded. That made sense and he wondered what it was that he would be interested in enough to do a work-study program. His dad would probably insist on something like business or math, but he couldn't think of anything that would be more boring.
With a sigh, Jim turned to look down at the forms and began to fill them out.
It had taken a little less than an hour for Trance to have him in the Med-Lab's system and his new medical file set up. The folder was set into four main sections; past medical history and insurance, current physical status, genetic information and mapping of his x-gene, and surgery or major injuries. Only the first section currently had any information in it.
Now, he was sitting in an exam room. It looked a bit like a regular doctor's exam room even if there were some equipment he didn't recognize. He didn't have enough time to work himself up with panic or to get irritated by boredom before the door opened and a pretty woman with short dark hair walked in wearing scrubs and a stethoscope around her neck.
"Hi." She smiled at him. "I'm Annie Ghazikhanian."
Jim blinked. That was one heck of a mouthful for a name. "Um…" He wanted to say something, but he was certain that he'd never be able to pronounce her name. She smiled wider.
"Just go ahead and call me Nurse Annie, everyone does."
"Um…" He blushed brightly even as he felt his cheeks heat up. "Hi. I'm…um, Jim Ellison. Uh, Jaguar."
"It's nice to meet you Jaguar." She picked up his medical folder from the desk where Trance had placed it and opened it up. "I'm the school nurse and Dr. McCoy's assistant when it comes to purely medical issues. If you haven't met him yet, you might have heard him referred to as Beast."
Jim nodded his head. "Yeah, um… I was told to come here for a physical with him today. And I have him as a teacher for Chemistry. But I never met him yet."
"Okay." Annie smiled and briefly skimmed over his medical history. Then she paused and frowned. "Wow. Lots of allergies."
Jim blushed a bit and nodded. "Yeah. Ever since my senses began to heighten when I manifested I've been allergic to everything. Rashes, dry skin, wheezing, watery eyes. The whole bit. It's a pain."
Annie nodded her head and read through his medical history more thoroughly. "Have you seen a doctor for it, or been admitted to a hospital? Either for your senses or for your allergies?"
"Um… yeah. I had to switch doctors when I was diagnosed with the x-gene because my regular doctor refused to treat me anymore. Also, I have a file at one of the hospitals too. Why?"
Annie looked over at him and gave him a reassuring smile before turning back to his folder and making a note in it. "I just want to contact your doctor and have him forward your medical file to us. That way we can see just what treatments he's offered to you in the past. Hopefully that way we can avoid things that don't work, and build on or improve on the treatments that help."
Setting down her pen she smiled and rolled her eyes. "You'd be surprised at how many mutants don't respond to normal treatments in expected ways. Some, like you, are extremely sensitive to a large variety of things which can lead to allergies or require odd dosages. Others don't metabolize medicines in the same way, which can lead to odd reactions or even no reaction at all." She chuckled slightly. "That makes our job in the Med Lab very interesting and challenging."
Jim smirked. "I'll bet."
She grinned at him a moment and then took on a more professional air of seriousness.
"What we're going to do today is simple. I'm going to give you a basic physical so that we have a good baseline of what to expect with you. This will include getting some blood and urine samples for chemical and DNA analysis. I'd also like to see about getting some tests for allergies as well. Dr McCoy will perform several scans of your body with various machines. This will help him to map out your DNA and learn about your specific mutations."
She offered him a sympathetic smile and small shrug. "It's a bit boring and a little scary at first, but I promise it won't hurt and it is necessary. We can't begin to tailor your medical treatment specifically to you if we don't know exactly how you differ from a normal human."
Jim nodded, but his smile dimmed a bit. He still hadn't come to terms with talking openly about his mutation and having someone come right out and say that he wasn't a normal human gave him a flash of shame. He knew in his head that no one here would turn on him or tease him for it, but that didn't stop him from reacting to a lifetime of training.
Cascade had an extremely low mutant population, mostly because any mutant born in the area stayed in hiding or left as soon as possible. Instead, Cascade was home to several chapters of the Friends of Humanity, The Church of Homo-Sapiens and lots of anti-mutant or human-rights activists. His entire highschool career had been a desperate and at times deadly game of hiding the truth from everyone around him, of blending in and pretending.
"Okay Jim," Annie's voice pulled him from his thoughts. "I want you to kick off your shoes and come stand on this scale so I can get your weight."
With a shy smile and a nod, Jim bent down to untie his sneakers.
After his fairly mundane physical, complete with him donating several vials of blood and a cup full of urine, Annie led him back out of the area that Trance had called 'Medical' and into the area she had pointed to and called 'Mutant Research'. It was actually kinda spooky and freaky. Not in a dusty and abandoned haunted house way, but in a sci-fi 'the aliens have taken over' Star Trek kinda way. Every surface was gleaming and cold with harsh fluorescent lighting overhead. There were large machines everywhere that Jim could only guess to their purpose.
Annie ignored his wide-eyed staring and gently herded him over to a door. Opening it, she gestured to a small changing room with an even smaller washroom attached. Stepping in behind him, she opened a closet door and pulled out a one piece jumpsuit and handed it to him.
"I need you to please change into this. The material is thin and annoying, but the scanner won't be able to get an accurate read through your clothes; especially heavy denim jeans. Also, please remove all jewelry, including any watches, as they will show up on the scans as strange metallic anomalies."
Jim looked at the jumpsuit and grimaced. It was paper thin and most likely see-through. He was fairly sure that it was meant to preserve a patient's dignity by not forcing them to go through the scanner naked, but he honestly didn't think it was that much of an improvement.
Annie must have caught his look for she grinned and whispered conspiratorially, "I know. Ugly things, aren't they?"
Jim just shot her a rueful grin as she chuckled and let herself out of the room. When the door finally clicked shut, Jim sighed deeply and began to pull his clothes off. He'd never had to go through anything like this for school before. Oh, the football team required a physical, but that was it. What's more, the school hadn't done the exam, his own doctor had. He'd never had to have any intensive tests, scans or whatnot. It was strange.
He wasn't so stupid or blind as to not understand why they wanted this done. Mutants were different than normal humans. Not just in how they looked, but in how they were put together and because of that they reacted to things differently than normal humans. They needed to know how his body worked so that someone didn't accidentally kill him by proscribing an aspirin or something. Not that an aspirin would kill him, but to another mutant it might be as good as poison. And they wouldn't know all that until they ran what seemed like a zillion tests.
Finally finished changing into his paper thin jumpsuit, Jim opened the door and stepped back out into the lab. And then came to a sudden jolting halt. People had told him about Dr McCoy. His suitemates had described him as big, furry and bright blue. They weren't wrong.
Dr McCoy stood over next to a large machine. He was easily one of the tallest beings that Jim had ever met, with heavy broad shoulders and heavily muscled limbs. And yes, he was covered in thick rich fur that was a lovely deep blue color. What was a bit of a surprise was the fact that he was feline in nature. His face and head closely resembled that of a lion. A bright blue lion that stood up on its hind legs while wearing black leather pants and a white lab coat. And glasses. Can't forget the tiny glasses perched precariously on the end of his muzzle.
This was his doctor?
"Why, good morning." The blue lion in the lab coat looked over at him and smiled a fang filled grin. Jim was very proud of himself for not turning around and running away. He couldn't help the staring and the gaping stupidly though.
"Now, now. I know those medical jumpers aren't the most fashionable, but I promise that neither myself nor the lovely Annie will laugh at you. Just be glad that we use those instead of those paper gowns they distribute to patients at the hospital."
A rumbling chuckle filled the air and the lion winked at him. "They designed those gowns so that no one could possibly move without a loss of dignity on purpose, you know."
Jim blinked stupidly and realized that he was just standing there and staring like a fool. Glancing down at the jumpsuit, he latched onto the only thing he could think of that didn't involve him admitting that he was freaked out by having his doctor be a giant talking blue lion.
"Um…" He blushed lightly and briefly touched the outfit. "I'm sort of afraid that if I move this thing'll rip. Then I'll be standing here naked and, well…" He trailed off, glanced up at Annie and blushed even harder. He could feel his cheeks heating up.
Dr McCoy chuckled a rumbling laugh again and gestured him over to them. "I see. Well, I can assure you that despite the thinness and seeming delicate nature of the material that it is tougher than it seems and won't rip."
With a sigh, Jim set up a little prayer that his jumpsuit held together and that his doctor wouldn't decide to eat him halfway through the test and walked over.
"I am Dr Hank McCoy. You might have heard me referred to as Beast. I will answer to either name. You've already met my lovely nurse and assistant Annie Ghazikhanian."
Jim blinked in astonishment he could pronounce her name.
"And you are James Ellison, also known as Jaguar. Correct?"
"Yes sir." He nodded, but then stopped and grimaced. "I go by Jim though. Not James."
Dr McCoy flashed him another toothy smile. "Jim then. Well Jim, I need you to hop up on this table here and lay down with your head facing this direction." The leonine doctor gently patted a glass topped exam table that was large and boxy under the surface. Above it was a large piece of equipment that vaguely resembled the vent-hood over a stovetop.
Carefully, Jim climbed up onto the exam table and let Annie adjust his limbs to the proper places even as Dr McCoy adjusted the thing overhead, flipped a few switches and basically turned the machine on. The glass surface he was laying on lit up brightly even as the thing over him shone down another bright light. Grimacing at the stabbing sensation in his brain, Jim shut his eyes tightly closed.
"I am sorry to say that this scan might take a while, however you won't be required to move from machine to machine or shift around into several different positions the way you would if we were taking X-rays, CAT-scans and MRIs. With this one machine, we can program it to scan for specific things. Because of this, we can get a picture of your skeletal structure, your nervous system, your circulatory system and so on and so forth."
Then before he knew it, the machine started to hum.
After Jim had finished getting dressed back into his clothes, he exited the small changing room only to have Annie lead him out of the testing area and down a hall to a small room set up with a table and chairs. There were several flat screens and monitors hung on the walls as well as a backlit glass panel with several films of his body hung up.
Dr McCoy was seated in a heavily reinforced chair next to a beautiful woman with brilliantly colored red hair and very generous curves. Dr McCoy looked up when they came in and gestured to the chairs closest to them.
"Ah… Jim, Annie, come on in and sit down. We have much to discuss."
Feeling unaccountably nervous, Jim offered up a shaky grin and sat down across from the woman and next to Annie.
"Allow me to introduce the lovely Mrs. Jean Grey-Summers; codenamed Phoenix. Jean, this is Mr. Jim Ellison; codename Jaguar."
"It's nice to meet you Jim."
Jim turned his wane smile at her. "You too."
"Well," Dr McCoy adjusted his glasses and glanced down at Jim's folder for a brief second. Then he swiveled his chair slightly and pointed to the films hanging on the lit panel. "The good news is that I didn't see any indication that there are any anomalies in your skeletal or musculature systems. They seem to be perfectly normal for a young man of your age and weight."
Jim relaxed a little and breathed out a tiny sigh of relief. That was good. Normal was very good. He was hoping that he wasn't on the verge of growing extra toes or arms or something. With mutants, you could never tell. Although there had to be something. And then it hit him…
"What's the bad news?"
"I wouldn't call it bad news so much as interesting." Dr McCoy flashed him a brief fang-filled smile. "There are some oddities in your nervous and endocrine systems. From my preliminary viewing of the scans, it's nothing dangerous or deadly. I will study it more closely just to be sure, of course. There are also some differences in your brain as well. Currently, I believe that all three are linked and that it is what is boosting your senses from the normal human baseline to hypersensitivity."
Mrs. Summers lifted what seemed to be a television remote and turned on one of the screens and scrolled through several images until she came to the one she was looking for. To Jim it looked like oddly colored views of his brain displayed as if someone had sliced it into layers and then painted it funky colors.
Dr McCoy stood up and walked over to the screen even as Jim felt his stomach knot up with tension and worry.
"I've studied the causes and effects of hypersensitivity for many years. My teammate Logan, whom I believe you've already met?" Jim nodded silently at the furry blue doctor. "Until now, I had believed that his senses were the strongest in any mutant. At least, over all when all five are combined. I've also had several patients over the years that had these kinds of gifts and the Institute currently has several students with hyper senses."
"You can see here, here and here," Dr McCoy briefly pointed to three separate spots on the image, "that the brain is slightly altered. These areas, in conjunction with the changes in your nervous and endocrine systems are what allow you to perceive and process vast amounts of information with your senses." Dr McCoy looked over his shoulder and shrugged lightly. "It's not enough to just take in the information, your brain needs to be able to process it, understand it and be able to respond properly."
Turning, Dr McCoy gave Jim a serious look over his glasses. It was disturbingly intense to have a giant talking lion turn such a look at him.
"I believe this is a learning process. Just as you had to learn as a young child to distinguish various sounds in order to differentiate between random noise and spoken speech or how you learned to distinguish feeling hot from cold or bright light from dim light. It's the same thing now that you are taking in greater and greater variations. For example, I could produce two identical objects heated to similar, but ultimately different temperatures. Annie here would touch them and tell me that they are both warm. She might even be able to tell me that one is just a tiny bit warmer, but maybe not. You could learn to tell me the precise temperatures with enough practice."
"In the end," Mrs. Summers spoke up with a sweet feminine voice, "it's about control and focus. Your senses want to take in lots of information, but your brain is still learning how to process and deal with the overload. This control is eluding you because you are trying to simultaneously learn to consciously control all five senses. Normal humans don't have to control them at all, so normal techniques just don't work for you. For normal humans, it's just a matter of focus. You focus on that which you wish to have your brain process and ignore the rest. That technique will help you, but it isn't enough. You have to add control as well."
Jim shifted in his seat and considered all that they'd told him. It was a lot more than his doctor back home had ever discovered. That doctor had taken a wait-and-see attitude, curious to find out if he'd grow tentacles or turn orange or something equally strange.
"So… when I slip into those trances lost in my music or something, it's because I lost control over my hearing?"
"Essentially," Dr McCoy quirked a dark blue eyebrow at him, "yes…"
Mrs. Summers clicked off the screen and the image went dark even as Dr McCoy walked back over to the table and sat down in his very large chair. Once settled, he turned his head to look at Jim and reached out with one huge paw-like hand and patted his arm. Jim shivered at the sensation of extremely soft fur brushing against his arm.
"Please do not worry too much over this. From all that I can tell, nothing in your mutation is dangerous to yourself or others. It is just a matter of learning control and focus on an extreme level. And that, young man, is what all of your teachers and instructors are here to help you with. In time and with practice, you will eventually look back at this time and be amazed at the difference in your ability to not just cope, but to manipulate your senses to your best advantage."
"That's good." Jim grimaced. "Sometimes the world can be a pretty painful place. All loud sounds, sharp scents, rough textures and stuff."
Dr McCoy nodded his head and hummed. "Yes, well. Annie told me that you routinely use your walkman to block out other irritants to your senses?"
Jim nodded and blushed sheepishly. "Yeah. I focus on the music. Get lost in it at times and then I don't really notice the rest of the world, so it can't bother me."
Mrs. Summers tilted her head and thought for a moment.
"That makes sense. Everyone needs to be able to get away for a little peace and quiet every now and then. Such times, if not taken to the extreme of withdrawing from the world, act to help a person stay mentally and emotionally balanced and healthy. With your hyper senses, that's nearly impossible. You'd always be bombarded by some sound or scent or something."
Jim nodded his head and frowned. "That's it exactly. I mean, I really didn't want to know that the guy down the hall had gas last night, but I didn't have any choice. I could hear…and smell it."
Dr McCoy chuckled lightly. "Indeed. I too have experienced things to that nature."
At Jim's expression of curiosity he explained further. "Recently, many of the older mutants have experienced a secondary mutation. For some it was fairly minor, for others it was a large change in their bodies and abilities. For me, I experienced a jump in sensitivity of my senses as well. They went from being categorized as 'acute' to 'hypersensitive'. I could break it down to a more specific level since there are various individual levels in the 'hypersensitive' category. While none of my senses are as strong as yours, they are still far above a normal human's and above that which I was used to. It has been an interesting adjustment."
"On that note, I am going to write you a prescription for a two pieces of equipment for your dorm room. One will be a white noise generator. Hopefully it will help filter out ambient noises a bit and allow you to sleep without having music playing at all hours. The other will be a medical grade air filter. This will hopefully pull as many irritants out of the air as possible in order to soothe both your sense of smell and sense of touch."
Jim smiled with genuine relief and gratitude. "Thank you, Doctor."
Dr McCoy waved one paw-like hand in the air. "Think nothing of it. As soon as the equipment arrives, I will have it delivered to your dorm. Also, I am going to start working on a series of allergy tests with the samples we have. I might need you to return at some point for more samples or for testing purposes. Since you said that the allergies appeared at the same time as your senses manifested as hypersensitive, I want to determine which is a true allergy and which is just a reaction caused by a lack of control and focus."
"A good curry, for instance, is nearly impossible for me to eat since my secondary mutation kicked in. I know for a fact that I am not allergic to it or any of the individual ingredients, but that doesn't stop me from reacting negatively to it. It is because I haven't yet learned to control my senses enough to eat such hot spicy foods. I believe that you are suffering from the same problem, only to a much greater degree. Therefore, testing."