Once more, Gabriel Summers woke up this morning feeling terrible. Not because he was hungover, as a matter of fact, he kept his drinking to a minimum last night. He even woke up in his bed for once. No, this terrible feeling was something else entirely. He was sick.
It was Alex who found him like this, eyes reddened, breathing from his mouth. Alex went to take his temperature by laying a hand on his brother's forehead, only to recoil in pain. "Ah, ow..." Alex waved his hand frantically to wave off the pain. Gabriel's forehead had been so hot, his hand felt like it got burned.
"Urgh, what is it?" Gabriel questions, lolling his head to look at Alex. It wasn't such a good idea since pain instantly followed. He obviously had a fever but something strange was going on.
"Hold on," Alex said, putting his hands up, "Don't go anywhere, I'll be right back."
"Not like I have a choice." Gabriel replies but Alex had already scurried off. He went to fetch a thermometer and brought it back for Gabe. "Here," he says, holding it up to Gabriel's mouth. Taking the cue, Gabriel held it under his tongue.
Alex peers down at the temperature mark, but something was wrong. There were no numbers showing. It was completely blank. Curiously, Alex took the thermometer out and nearly dropped it out of shock. The part that was in Gabriel's mouth had melted into a shapeless figure.
Alex raises his brow and scratches at his head. "What in the hell…"
"What's happening?" Gabriel croaked.
"Hell if I know." Alex remarks as he throws the broken thermometer away. "How're you feeling?"
"Like I'm dying."
Alex took a step back. "But you aren't… aren't you?"
Gabriel snorted indignantly only to go into a fit of coughing. "No…" he said between coughs. "Can you… can you get me a glass of water?"
"Uh, sure thing. Don't die I guess." Alex backed out of the room, only to back into their older brother Scott.
"What's going on?" Scott asks as he adjusts his glasses. Alex turned around to face him and gave a defeated shrug. "See for yourself." The blonde quickly left as soon as he said it, to get Gabriel the water he requested.
When Alex came back, Scott was inspecting the thermometer in the trash can. "Maybe his powers are acting up because he's sick." Scott proposed, addressing Alex as he heard him come in.
"Maybe," Alex echoed. He handed Gabriel the glass of water and much to both of their astonishment, the water evaporated at the mere touch of Gabriel's fingertips.
"I asked for water, not water vapor." Gabe quips without a hint of a joke in his tone. It was hard to speak but even at this point he was getting annoyed. "Pray tell, I'll ask again. What is happening to me?"
"Don't know." Scott reached over to feel Gabriel's forehead but Alex gently pushed his hand away.
"Prolly don't want to do that." Alex informs him.
Scott nods and kneels beside Gabriel. "Seems like you got a cold."
"More like a hot." Alex jokes. He looked at the cup Gabriel had touched briefly. There were small indentations into it where the glass had melted. Alex gives a slow whistle in slight adoration. "It is pretty cool though."
"No it's not." Gabriel retorts saltily. He leaned his head back into his pillow and stared at the ceiling. "The fire… it's too much."
"Well look at it this way," Alex says, putting his hands up in self defense. "It could be worse."
Gabriel considered the statement only to have the bed crack beneath him. It split down the middle horizontally, leaving Gabriel in an uncomfortable position, and to make matters worse, it burst into flame.
"You're right." Gabe chimes helplessly. "This… this is fine." The flames licked at his flesh but it didn't char his skin. Gabriel was impervious to the heat, nor did it pain him. Instead he felt very cold.
Scott and Alex stood back from the fire, careful not to get themselves burned.
"Well…" Scott punctuates, but he had nothing really to say. He dropped his hands to his side wordlessly, trying to process what's happening.
"I'll um, see if we got a fire extinguisher." Alex said as he ducked out of the room once more.
For now, Scott had asked Jean to levitate Gabriel into a bath of cold water until they could figure out what medicine he would need from Krakoa. For that they had sent the kids so they wouldn't crowd around the tub.
Instantaneously the water evaporated just as the glass of water had earlier.
"Oh someone just end my suffering." Gabriel groaned. His tone was nasally as it was hard to breathe out of a clogged nose.
"Don't worry," Jean coos. "Rachel and the boys will be back with some medicine." She crouched beside him, providing endless wet rags for his head as each one dried out.
"And this way, if the tub is set on fire, we could turn on the shower." Scott adds.
Gabriel rolled his eyes. "Oh g… oh, gre—" His nose twitched as he felt a sneeze coming on.
Jean provided a tissue for him, granted that it might combust on contact. "Here, blow into this." she told him.
Gabriel obliged, sneezing right into the tissue. The house supports began to shake in response, every object that stood up in the bathroom began to fall onto the floor.
"On second thought," Jean remarks as she clutched tightly onto her husband, "Try to hold it in."
Gabriel simply sighed and prayed to whatever god that would listen for death. He'd come back anyway.
"Right, I'll try not to breathe." he said with a sarcastic roll of his eyes.