Dismal Angel 2010 - Episode 17
Chapter 3: Hyperactive
It was a few days later when Remy LeBeau entered into Hank McCoy's laboratory to empty the garbage that usually piled in Hank's waste paper basket and halfway over the floor. Ideas that would be written down, crumpled up and dispersed. Remy was feeling more like himself and the incident days earlier had been seemingly dropped, for which he seemed glad.
"Good day," said Hank brightly, he was doing something by a wall, holding a strange box like device and running it near the wall as if he expected it to do something.
"Bon matin, mon ami," Remy said, a little more cheerful than Hank had expected. Remy's mood had been quickly changing from incredibly depressed to overly joyful. Hank was concerned about this, but said nothing, it wasn't his place, even as a doctor.
"What's that?" Remy asked casually, gesturing to the device in Hank's hand as he tipped the contents of the wastebasket near a countertop into a large black refuse bag.
"An EMF detector," Hank said.
"Yeah, like I know what that means," Remy rolled his eyes, but smiled a little, he picked up a few crumpled up pieces of paper from the floor.
"An electronic magnetic field detector," Hank explained, "the socket for my computer here has some problems. A surge of electricity caused my computer to lose all it's data," he made a face.
"So what's that thing do?" Remy asked, he leaned against the counter.
"Well, my thoughts are…that when the subbasement levels were built, the wiring was done incorrectly behind these walls..." he explained, "I think a hot spot may have occurred from wiring not properly insulated or irregular cycling of the energy - if so the EMF detector should pick it up from the resulting high magnetic fields…"
"I don't understand a word you're sayin'," Remy waved his hand above his head to indicate what Hank was talking about went right over his head, he smirked.
Hank sighed, "if that's the case, I'm not picking anything up, maybe this doesn't work anymore," he tapped the device, "damn thing."
Remy walked over, "let me see…"
The device screeched to life with a high pitched sound as Remy stepped over, and Hank gazed down to check the reading, "wow…look at that, from 0 – 10 in a matter of seconds…" he raised the device away from Remy and the sound stopped. Hank put it back out in front of Remy and it roared to life gain. "Fascinating…" he raised an eyebrow.
"So?" Remy shrugged.
"You seem to be generating an electromagnetic field of your own…" Hank seemed delighted at this new discovery, "this could be a manifestation of your powers! Or it could be a fluke…"
"I've passed Puberty," Remy stated, "mutant powers stop there, don't they? Once adult, they don't manifest no more."
"Not necessarily," Hank replied, "its rarer that adults manifest newer powers but not unheard of…"
Remy moved back, "I think it's just a fluke that that thing went off then. If I had other powers, I'd know," he frowned.
"And blowing up things without touching them isn't a new power? Giving off sparks when people touch you…even your powers going out of control that night Jared died," Hank put the electromagnetic field detector down. "It could be these powers are linked to emotion…and thus becoming extremely hyperactive."
"That's one thing I don't think I've ever been called…hyperactive," Remy said sullenly, he picked up his bag of garbage. "I got work to do."
"I'd rather you stayed while I look into this further," Hank stated, "your powers could be a danger to others – or yourself."
"The only thing that's a danger to me is—" Remy stopped himself, "No, never mind, I'm not gonna get into that right now," he shook his head at himself. "I'm not one of the X-Men – and definitely not one of your students, I don't NEED to work on training my powers anymore, I'm a grown man for fucks sake."
"But you are STILL here, and still a mutant, and your powers could be more unstable than you realise."
"Unstable?" Remy snorted, "my mind might be unstable but my powers definitely aren't…" he touched the counter nearby, his hand lit up, and soon that light began to spill and travel along the counter as it charged up, "does that look unstable or uncontrollable to you?" Remy asked, to make a point.
Hank felt a little flustered, "I guess not."
Remy absorbed the energy back, and took his hand away, "Au revior".
Kitty Pryde was halfway through a maths class in one of the downstairs classrooms when she saw the door open a crack, and saw Kurt Wagner peering in curiously. Kitty finished explaining a maths problem to her students, and then slipped quietly out of the class, leaving them to fend for themselves for a few moments. She shut the door behind herself.
"Hey," she said.
Kurt didn't look happy, in fact, he looked quite livid and it wasn't often she had seen him this way.
"Something wrong?" Kitty asked, she felt chills run up her spines to see Kurt look so angry. She folded her arms insecurely and looked at him.
"Colossus and you, that's what's wrong."
"I don't know what you're talking about," Kitty said quietly, although she full well did, and she felt so incredibly stupid and cruel to say otherwise.
"Don't play games, Kitty, you're everywhere with him, Kissing in the foyer, going off together at night…"
Kitty sighed and looked down, she supposed Kurt had to have figured it out sooner or later.
"Is this some stupid fling?" Kurt asked.
Kitty sucked in a nervous breath, and looked away, "no," she said in a tiny voice.
"Right," Kurt looked away, the transformation in his face suddenly changed from angry to extremely hurt and offended.
"You don't GET it, Kurt. I've ALWAYS liked him. I'm in love with him, so madly I'd die if anything happened to him…I can't help how I feel," Kitty tried to explain.
"Neither can I!" Kurt spun around and looked at her, "don' t you understand that's how I feel about you?! I spent all my time in that mutant prison worrying if you were dead or alive half the time, and the thought that when we got out of there that we might try and reconcile was the only thing that was keeping me going."
"Keeping you going?" Kitty nearly laughed, "We spent, what….two…maybe three days in that place. Some mutants spent three or four YEARS in that place!"
"Whatever! The point is, the thought was the only thing that kept me hopeful…now you have to go and run off with Mr Universe—"
"Don't you think I deserve to be happy?!" Kitty demanded, "I've gone through as much shit this last few weeks as anyone has but everyone always overlooks me like I don't matter. I spend more time feeling sorry for Remy and Rogue than I do myself – I help them more than I try to face up to reality and deal with my own problems or to even chase after what I want!"
Kurt looked away, angry again.
"I'm not going to spend my life being alone just because I'm one of the X-Men. And I'm not going to continue reconciling with you on and off just so I can worry that one of these days the next fight and break up will fuck up our friendship for good!" Kitty growled.
"Well you don't have to worry about that anymore," Kurt turned, and began to walk away. "Because as far as I can see, it is fucked up for good, and this time, it's all on your head."
Remy knocked on Professor Xavier's door and waited for a response, he stood patiently waiting.
{Just a moment, Remy,} came the telepathic voice of Charles Xavier in Remy's mind. This always left Remy slightly uneasy. Could the professor see what was in his mind when he telepathically spoke to him?
Remy quivered, but waited.
The door opened, Monet St Croix, the girl who'd freed him from the GMCF over a week ago, was exiting, she looked at him, smiled in a slightly knowing fashion. "Bonjour, Monsieur LeBeau," she said in a smooth calm tone.
"Bonjour," Remy replied, and passed by her to enter the office, he closed the door behind himself, "Just came to empty the trash," he said, he looked to the waste paper basket, which was full, several pieces of paper were scattered over the floor. "Keeping yourself busy I see," he said.
"You have no idea," the professor replied, but smirked slightly, "swap you jobs," he joked.
"Not in his lifetime," Remy replied. "I never was good at paperwork. Took me about a year to finally file for divorce just because the paperwork looked iffy."
"How are you finding your duties? Not too strenuous I hope," Professor Xavier said casually as he stamped a piece of paper and put it in a pile.
"Strenuous doesn't bother me. At least it keeps me busy."
"If you were one of the X-Men you wouldn't have the problem of never being busy," The Professor stated.
Remy smirked a little, "Sorry, Pro. Still not interested."
"Suit yourself…" the Professor gave a nonchalant shrug that seemed most unbefitting his character. "Can you explain what happened to the Corinthian pillar out back a few days ago, by the way."
Remy froze, "Uhm…lightning hit it?" He asked.
"Lets try again, shall we?" The Professor folded his arms on the desk and looked at him straight in the eye. "What happened to the pillar…and the basketball net, and the basketball, and the bench…and the recreation room window…and most importantly…you."
"I don't know, alright," Remy emptied the waste paper basket quickly, and picked up the pieces of paper scattered around it, shoving it all into the black refuse bag he'd been carrying around with him.
"You can't run from that forever you know," Professor Xavier stated, "I can't make you answer…or face it," he said, "But you can't keep running from yourself and your powers."
Remy looked away.
"I know you're scared of the new power…especially after what it did to Jared Rickman."
Remy shook his head, and headed for the door, "No, you don't know! You don't know nothin' at all."