Issue #7 - Gemini

Jake wandered through the house with Erik, looking for any sign of other people and not really finding anything. That is, until they came to the kitchen. Jake saw them upon the floor and he quickly went over to them, kneeling down next to the men. They were beaten up, but hopefully alive?

Still Jake knew enough from sports injuries that they could be badly hurt. He went to the closest one, reaching down and touching his chest as he leaned over to see if he could hear or feel the man breathing. As he did so, he looked towards Erik, "Check on that one! See what you can do to help."

Jake quickly kneeled down near one of the young men, while Erik got to the other one. Using his sports training, he noticed that his own target did have a pulse... and he was breathing, if only just barely. Erik's power healed the blues and scratches, but it didn't seem to wake them up. "Uh, it's not working... they're not waking up... it's the same as with their parents... uh, I think they were their parents..."

Jake nodded, "Yeah, probably their parents.." Or maybe people who came here to hurt them. It was possible at least.

Emmanuel, we found them. They're in the kitchen, unconscious and looking pretty beat up. Erik has healed one, but he hasn't woken up yet. I'm going to see what I can do..

He looked towards Erik. "Come heal this one," he said as he scooted over to the one that Erik has just healed. Reaching down, Jake put a hand against the other's cheek, then he pushed with his mind, trying to form an empathic link into the landscape of his mind.

***

Health 2/2
Energy 15/15

Action 1 - 4 stones into Empathy + Int, +3 Modifier = 7 stones to form the link

Health 2/2
Energy 11/15
Defense 0
Mental defense 4 (Intelligence 2, Empathy 2)
Useful modifiers: Empathic Awareness 1, Psi of the Highest Order 3

Erik touched the other man's skin and send a wave of his biokinetic energy into him, but it didn't work in the way he wanted it to. Even though all the scratches and blues had healed, he still remained unconscious. It was when Jake touched him and tried to bond with him, the way he did with Andrew... His astral self projected into the guy's subconscious. He appeared in the very same void as the first time he had ever done it in his life. There was no sign of his target however. Was it how it was when you enter an unconscious target?

Jake looked around the void curiously. Was this how it was supposed to be? But even unconscious, the Jake thought they should be here in their mind. The brain still worked while sleeping or unconscious. Or did the twins.. leave their bodies somehow? Is that why they weren't waking up? Jake didn't know.

First, he had to make this something more.. friendly. Some place comfortable, so Jake did so, forming it into a space where he felt comfortable - a huge white sandy beach that stretched for miles with a clear blue ocean beside him. As he did so, he sent out a call into this person's mind.

Hello? Are you there?

***

Health 2/2
Energy 14/15

Action 1 - 4 stones into Empathy + Int, +3 Modifier = 7 stones this time to modify the scene

Health 2/2
Energy 10/15
Defense 0
Mental defense 4 (Intelligence 2, Empathy 2)
Useful modifiers: Empathic Awareness 1, Psi of the Highest Order 3

Jake easily transformed the black void surrounding him into a sandy so similar to the onee created for himself and Andrew the first day of his mutant life. It was only a few days ago... but it seemed like an eternity already! Sending out a message deeper into the man's psyche wasn't as successful as he wanted it to be. As if no one was there. Only broken shards of personality he sensed... but couldn't mend without some serious help from Emmanuel himself. It was as if the mind had been shattered to pieces - similar, but yet, entirely different to what had happened to the blond-haired telepath.

Jake frowned a little and he shifted on his feet, his toes digging into the warm sand. This definitely make take Emmanuel to help.

But what had happened then? The adults had been shattered physically.. but the twins.. shattered physically and mentally? Jake wasn't sure. He hoped they could at least sense he was here though.

We're going to get you help, you'll be okay. We've found you and we're taking you to safety.

Jake sent out the message into the mind of the twin, trying to use a reassuring mental voice and hoping somehow the twin might hear him, or at least get the feeling that Jake was trying to convey. Once finished, he faded from the beach, coming back to himself in the real world.

Looking up to Erik, Jake spoke, "I.. I think someone did the same thing to them that happened to their parents. The mind feels like the personality is all shattered. We need to get them to Emmanuel."

Erik looked up to Jake and nodded, "But, uh, how are we going to, uh, move them? They look heavy... and I'd rather not, uih, hurt them?" Jake, however, had the perfect tool for this task - Emmanuel's telekinesis. He could move them around with just his mind, without having to drag their bodies to their team's telepath.

Jake nodded at Erik, "We should be careful with them. I don't know quite what happened.. but I think something has attacked them mentally, I just hope Emmanuel can fix it."

"Move back," he said. Once Erik had stepped away, Jake raised his hands, chewing his lower lip a little as he concentrated, lifting the two boys off the ground and very carefully all the way back to Emmanuel.

***

Health 2/2
Energy 15/15

Action 1 - Empathic Mimicry, to get Psi of the Highest Order 2; 1 stone to imitate Telekinesis; 1 + Intelligence 2 + Modifer 2 = 5 stones to move the unconscious guys

Health 2/2
Energy 10/15
Defense 0
Mental defense 4 (Intelligence 2, Empathy 2)
Useful modifiers: Empathic Awareness 1, Psi of the Highest Order 2

Erik nodded and did as he was told like a good boy he was. The now fully (physically) healed young men rose into the air lifted by the power Jake 'borrowed' from Emmanuel and began moving very, very slowly through the rooms to the one where Emmanuel was. It took quite a long since Jake had to be sure he wouldn't send them flying against the walls or crush them with his telekinesis, but he managed it - he was quite tired with the effort. The telepath wasn't responding. He was kneeling near the men's parents, frozen in the moment, lost in their conciousness, trying to reach their deepest psyches.

And suddenly he opened his icy blue eyes, looking at Jake. "Good work, I'll quickly scan them and..." He frowned, "They're flatscans. These are not the ones we're looking for."

Firstly, you can't spend 4 stones and use +3 Modifier, because it's as if you spent 2 stones in Telekinesis, 2 stones in Intelligence and still get the full Modifier. And you can't do that. Secondly, you have to first re-allocate stones from your Psi of the Highest Order, what means that you have to put your own stones of Energy into Empathic Mimicry. And then you can use the last stone (assuming you want Modifier (+2) ) to imitate Telekinesis... and 2 other stones into Intelligence. What gives you: Telekinesis 1 + Intelligence 2 + Modifier 2 = 5. Also, I suspect that you spend as much stones to being careful with them as you can, yes? Because you have to shift them to that certain aspect... It should take you a couple of panels to accomplish it, because you can only move things at distance 10' (because out of 5 stones you have, 3 went towards weight, 1 towards being careful, and the last one is how far you can throw the weight) per panel... so I'll simply state that several panels have passed.

Jake took great care in moving the twins downstairs, taking his time with it and floating them through the air. It look a bit of effort, but he was finally able to do it.

Once he had them downstairs, he waited for Emmanuel to finish what he was doing. He nodded in response to Emmanuel's praise, but then frowned. "They're.. not mutants?" Jake had been sure. There was supposed to be two. Here was a pair of twins. It just seemed to fit.

"I guess.. we'll go try to find them," he said, glancing towards Erik.

"Are you going to stay here and work on these ones too?" he asked Emmanuel.

"Uh, perhaps there are more of them, uh, brothers? I mean, uh, I knew twins who, uh, had two brothers... who were also, uh, twins?" Erik suggested, scratching the back of his head in confusion. He looked to Emmanuel, who was still touching parents' foreheads.

"I will... but I don't think I'll manage to do something about it so quickly. Their minds are... for the lack of a better term... annihilated. It'll take some time even for me to bring their personality back. I think it'd be easier if I recreated it from the scratch, essentially making them new persons! Someone who did this... is powerful, and believe me when I say it. I mean it."

"Who could have, uh, done it?" Erik wondered.

"There are many powerful mutants who do not care about flatscans' lives..."

"Why, uh, do you call them, uh, like that? We are... helping them, uh, right?"

"Of course." Emmanuel's voice became so powerful... so hypnotic! Erik seemed to be affected, as the man smiled at him. His suggestion worked, the boy stopped questioning everything. Sometimes the Pole was a bit annoying... but his power made up for it all.

Jake frowned a little and nodded. "I.. went into one of them, and it was like it was empty. There was nothing there," he said. It had been kind of disturbing, although he didn't say as much.

Erik spoke up about using the terms flatscans and Emmanuel silenced him with a word (and a mental nudge). Jake just nodded though, "We are helping them. Its just an easy way to say that they can't do the things we can."

"Come on," he said with a slight wave, and he took Erik to continue searching the house. As he did so, he remembered other powers that Emmanuel had, and he decided to start looking for mutants.

***

Health 2/2
Energy 15/15

Action 1 - Empathic Mimicry 3 to obtain Sense Mutants

Health 2/2
Energy 12/15
Defense 0
Mental defense 4 (Intelligence 2, Empathy 2)
Useful modifiers: Empathic Awareness 1, Psi of the Highest Order 2

Emmanuel nodded when Jake told him how it felt when he was inside one of them - inside his mind. "It's not really empty... but it requires a lot of effort and a high psychic perception to notice the broken pieces of their psyches... It is almost impossible to find one of them and to fully make them recover, I have to find all of them. There can be many of them - thousands, millions."

Jake and Erik went to search the rest of the house. This time the young mutant copied another one of Emmanuel's powers - his telelocation power, enabling him to sense mutants psionically. He would do it too, not as well as the adult would, but he was doing his best. His new power's range wasn't enough to cover a lot... and it didn't seem to notice any mutants in their vicinity. Where were they?

Jake's eyes did notice another pair of twins laying on the ground, however! They were younger, about 18 years old, but already looking man-like. They were unconscious like the others, but like their older brothers, they had a lot of scratches and bruises on their bodies... worse.

"Oh my God!!" Erik screamed, seeing that one of the twins was actually laying in a pool of blood! His own blood which was leaking from a wound on his stomach, where a knife was sticking out from! "Holy shit!" It was the very first time Jake had seen Erik swearing... and behaving like that, his body was actually shaking. He jumped to their side and removed the knife, touching the place. "God, please, make it work!" He prayed, as he concentrated on closing the wound... and regenerating the tissue. Because of it, his pain was visible on his face as a hole appeared on his belly... how did Jake know that? He noticed blood that was dying the boy's green t-shirt red!

Jake found the other pair of flatscans, one of them having been stabbed. He frowned, whoever had done this.. maybe they weren't so good.

Erik moved quickly, kneeling down to heal the one with the knife wound. And Jake saw the same wound appearing on Erik. Quickly, Jake put a hand on Erik's shoulder. "Slowly, Erik! Give yourself time to regenerate," he said sternly although without any power backing it up. He wanted Erik to save them, but not risk himself in the process.

"No, no, no!" Erik was shaking, "I have to save them, have to, have to!!" His eyes were full of horror as he pushed his power to its limits and absorbed all the bruises, scratches and wounds on the man's body... they quickly appeared on his own, causing him to groan and experience all that pain at one moment, not having time to adjust himself to it! With other hand he reached out to the other one and absorbed that one's wounds into himself to...

"I... aaaghhh...." He said as his vision became a blurry and he fainted.

He did heal the two, however.

Jake cursed as Erik kept going, faster even, and even after finishing the one with the knife wound he moved onto the one with the bruises, pulling those in as well.

As Erik collapsed, Jake moved towards him. He quickly lifted up Erik's shirt to check for the knife wound, and he watched it to make sure it would begin healing.

As Jake pulled the boy's t-shirt up, he noticed that his whole body was covered with bruises, blues, injuries, wounds and scratches... none of them his. He had absorbed all of them from the two flatscans just before he passed out - and boy, there was a lot to heal! Most important was the one on his stomach - a knife wound... which was beginning to slowly regenerate. It seemed that even while unconscious he was capable of healing himself, but the process was slower than normally. Blood was still leaking from it, and Jake saw it very clearly, the red liquid gathering on the Pole's belly...

...but Jake had something else to worry about. Someone's presence. A mutant.

Jake cursed again as he saw the knife wound still there. But.. at least it was healing, that was a good sign. He was about to take Erik and run him down to Emmanuel when he felt the other presence.

Quickly, Jake stood up, looking around the room. "I know you're there," he said, "Where are you?"

No response.

Jake frowned. "Fine then," he said as he concentrated once more. He borrowed another of Emmanuel's powers and suddenly his vision shifted, showing him the auras and emotions of all of those around him.

***

Health 2/2
Energy 15/15

Action 1 - Empathic Mimicry, to get Psi-Sight 3

Health 2/2
Energy 12/15
Defense 0
Mental defense 4 (Intelligence 2, Empathy 2)
Useful modifiers: Empathic Awareness 1, Psi-Sight 3

While Jake's vision shifted into something... totally different... he felt weird, looking at things and seeing them the same way... but differently. As if his sight was touching something on a totally different level. He looked around, with a corner of his eye also looking at the two twins and Erik. The twins were grey and lifeless, their auras nonexistant, while Erik's life energy was regenerating itself very slowly. His body was becoming brighter and brighter, but at the moment it was quite dark.

Temper didn't notice anyone else though. As if no one was actually there. Was it possible that his telelocation was playing tricks on him?

Jake turned back towards Erik, checking him over once again, but as he did so, he shifted things around again, taking on some of Emmanuel's other abilities once more.

As he continued to check Erik over, he said over the mental link that Emmanuel created:

Emmanuel, there's someone up here, but I can't see them. I felt them.. but even with your sight I can't find them.. Can you come up here? They may be dangerous.. one of the pair we found here was almost dead from a knife wound.

Jake continued to check over Erik, and the pair on the ground as he waited and to appear busy.

***

Health 2/2
Energy 15/15

Action 1 - Empathic Mimicry, to get Psi of the Highest Order 2 & Sense Mutants 1 again

Health 2/2
Energy 12/15
Defense 0
Mental defense 4 (Intelligence 2, Empathy 2)
Useful modifiers: Empathic Awareness 1, Psi of the Highest Order 2, Sense Mutants 1

As Jake checked over Erik, Emmanuel projected his thoughts back into the young mutant's mind.

I can't. I feel our targets outside the house. I'm going after. Be careful... and you have Erik, just in case, if anything happened. I'm going to engage our targets. If I don't, they're going to get away. They're moving away already. I don't know what's happened but they're suddenly detectable.

So Emmanuel wouldn't help him after all, then? Jake couldn't feel too happy about it... a mutant was in the house. He stopped sensing him or her though. Maybe it was an error? No, it couldn't have been. He was pretty sure about it. Maybe it would be wiser if he left right now, looking out for any signs of danger?

Jake frowned as Emmanuel stated he was going after the targets. Did that mean... were the targets not the person who stabbed these?

But the more Jake thought about it, it made sense.. so many twins here. But one set was a pair of mutants somewhere. Add one invisible stalker, who likes to stab people with knives apparently.. was another mutant trying to kill them?

"Erik," Jake said, shaking him slightly, "Wake up!" Jake looked around the room again, frowning.

***

Health 2/2
Energy 15/15

Action 1 - Empathic Mimicry, to get Sense Mutants 3 once more.

Health 2/2
Energy 12/15
Defense 0
Mental defense 4 (Intelligence 2, Empathy 2)
Useful modifiers: Empathic Awareness 1, Sense Mutants 3