Issue #4 - Diamond and Ruby

Jake swung at the entity and his sword connected, Emmanuel followed up, and they won!

Jake cheered, but it was short lived. Next thing he knew he blacked out.

Awakening slowly, he found a warm masculine body under his head, and he nuzzled Emmanuel's chest sleepily before suddenly realizing where he was. He quickly sat up, blinking sleepily.

"I.." He looked from Jason to Emmanuel, "You're awake!" He smiled, "That was.. interesting. Do you remember what happened?" Then he blushed, hoping Emmanuel didn't remember quite everything..

"Not... everything, no. I do remember the battle with the psionic entity. It was probably what was left of the psionic energy that defeated me in the real world..." Emmanuel said, sighing a little.

Jason quickly chimed in, "You do remember what happened to you? We were so worried about you! If it hadn't been for Omen's information network and her clairvoyance, we wouldn't even have known where they took you! Who would have thought they - whoever was responsible - would take you to the superhuman prison! And think that..." Jason was clearly angry at what was done to his friend... his friend or more?

"Adrienne betrayed me." Emmanuel simply stated.

"Wha-what? That double-crossing white bitch!"

"Of course, she wasn't alone. She had help from the colonel responsible for the government affairs. They thought I needed to be replaced..."

"And they wanted to put you down permanently just because..."

"I resisted. I had no idea that Adrienne betrayed me and my trust. I will get my revenge though. If it hadn't been for her psychic weaponry, they would have never defeated me in the first place. Do you think I cannot take care of myself well enough against some flatscan soldiers?" Emmanuel tilted his head, asking rhetorically.

"You can take care of yourself. You always have... but there are times that even you need other people to look out for you. And hey..." Jason stopped, smirking, "that's me!" He gave the two a cocky grin.

Jake listened carefully, not really understanding everything that Emmanuel said. He didn't know the names, and didn't know what some of the other terms were.

"What's uhh.. a flatscan?" he asked.

And he blushed again, glad that Emmanuel didn't remember the embaressing parts.

He nodded in agreement with Jason, and then grinned a little, "And me now, right?" But then he blushed a bit, knowing that Jason might have more of a reason to protect Emmanuel than Jake did. "So uhh... you two.. are together?"

"A flatscan is a mere human, not a mutant." Emmanuel explained, but Jason quickly added:

"It's very negative... and it's not like we think of every human like that."

"Though sometimes they do deserve to be called like that." Emmanuel seemed to be bitter... for what had been done to him. He had his reasons though. When Jake asked his last question, Jason coughed loudly, his eyes widened as if they wanted to burst out.

"If by 'together', you mean friends, yes." Mr. Sin simply responded, putting his acting skills to a good use.

Jake nodded. So that's what a flatscan was. In some ways it made sense.. it seemed kind of mean. But really, were normal humans as good as they were? Mutants were more powerful than a human, that was a fact.. Jake wasn't sure how to take it. But he liked being powerful.

Jason's cough gave things away, even though Emmanuel denied it. He just nodded slightly and blushed up to his cheekbones again briefly, "Ah. Ok. Just wondering."

He looked around, anywhere but at the two of them, "So uhh... what now?"

"Of course..." Emmanuel gave him a stern look and then sighed, "I think that everyone deserves some rest. Especially you, after what you've accomplished today. You've saved me and I thank you for it, young man." Now, even though Emmanuel was in his late twenties, or perhaps in very early thirties, the words 'young man' really made Jake feel young in comparison to the blond-haired man!

"But I'd like to meet with you this evening. There's much to discuss, especially about your ever-evolving powers." He smiled.

"See? I told ya he'd help ya with your powers. He's a psychic too, after all." Jason added with a cocky grin.

Jake nodded. He did feel tired. He'd been hurt in the astral world, and had expended a lot of energy, it felt like the day was long over.

"That sounds like a good idea," he said, "I'm gonna get some sleep." He smiled at the two of them, "I'm glad I could help.. I owe you guys for this opportunity and I'm glad I could pay it back." He stood and began to walk towards his room, looking back over his shoulder at the two of them with a smirk, "Besides.. I'm sure you two need some privacy." Then he quickly went upstairs to his room.

Jason shot Jake a confused glare... a bit embarassed, even though he tried to hide it, Jake was an empath after all. Not a very powerful one, but with Emmanuel as his tutor... he wondered what else could he do. Would he ever be able to control others, in the same manner as Anastacia was? Or perhaps delve into their personality even deeper... and rewrite it to suit his own desires? Was it wrong? He felt that thoughts like these were wrong, but... at the same time he knew he was better. He was a mutant, a homo superior - a homo in more than one meaning too.

Okay, so here it is. For this extremely hot and long issue you get 10 precious LoEs! But remember to spend all the remaining LoEs before the mentoring starts, so we don't get confused with which LoEs can be used for mentoring and which cannot.