Who: Alec, Avery, Jake, and some NPCs What: Guards attack Avery. Alec & Jake come to the rescue. When: Early hours of January first Where: An alleyway not far from Avery’s apartment; The Facility Warnings: Violence, language
New Years Eve. There were so many firsts that she was celebrating just now at the end of the year, it felt… really appropriate that a new one was coming up so fast. Avery was completely taken in by the infectious, happy go lucky mood in all the New Years parties. People were resolute, they were kind of drunk, they were mostly very happy. It was hard to keep in her apartment, not to explore. She’d been working on controlling her emotions, on keeping herself from projecting so much. Although Avery wasn’t good at either of those things yet, or even capable of controlling either of those things on a consistent basis, it gave her the confidence to venture outside this evening.
And boy, was she going to regret that decision.
They came out of nowhere. A couple of guards. She wasn’t alone, but she wasn’t in a well populated area. Trying to head home, a little disoriented by a drink and all the buzzing emotions. She wasn’t even drunk herself, but she had the feeling of being that way, people’s emotions were fuzzy. She didn’t even feel the anger coming towards her, or didn’t recognize it for what it was until it was too late. The guards pulled her into an alleyway, kicking her, screaming at her. Avery didn’t even know how long it went on. Something was picked up, she was hit with it - something snapped. She could feel herself losing consciousness, she was terrified and in pain. It felt like they were never going to stop.
Avery let out a long, loud scream and the guards both dropped whatever they were holding, doubling over or yelling out in pain. Although Avery nearly passed out at this point, both the guards - startled or broken out of their drunken rage or whatever - took off running leaving her alone, and hurt.
---
It was the early hours of the morning. Alec was a bit drunk. He probably should’ve been alert, but he didn’t have to be sober to hear a loud scream from an alleyway, and he didn’t have to be sober to follow that sound. A guard caught Alec in the shoulder as he ran past and the force of the shove nearly knocked Alec over, but the guard didn’t slow down or pay him much mind so he did the same.
He continued in the direction he’d heard the scream from with the single mindedness of a drunk and he hit a wall. It felt like moving through jello, like a physical force, that hurt. But Alec was already in too deep so he was gonna see this through, even if it tore him apart, like that bullshit Phoenix plot from the third X-men.
He felt a warmth briefly pass through him as his eyes flickered yellow but then he was there, kneeling beside the girl in the alley. He didn’t feel as drunk now as he touched her. “Hey - shit, Avery.” Alec cupped her face, turning it over in his hands, trying to check her for some kind of major head bleed or knife wound.
---
Everything hurt. She wasn’t sure where she was injured at this point because it felt like her entire body was in pain, and she barely registered Alec at first. It took several long moments before her eyes focused on his face. Relief flooded through her - someone good was here, right? He had helped her, he wasn’t going to hurt her. That registered somewhere in her head, and she attempted to move a hand towards him, wanting to tell him what happened, but she gasped again, pain shooting from her wrist up into her elbow.
“I can’t - it hurts to breathe - “ Her words were breathy, small gasps escaping her in short, shallow little breaths. She was shaking both from the cold and pain and how scared she was. Could it possibly be the same guard who had bothered her before, when she locked herself out? She was trying to think, but her thoughts were fuzzy. “Get… Jake.” He could help, right? He was a guard, but he was nice, and she knew him. She wasn’t sure if Alec could get her anywhere himself.
---
Pain rolled over Alec so quickly, he almost tried to catalogue them himself. Maybe she was projecting, but he was pretty sure he could feel her pain. It was overwhelming and he was starting to regret adding empathy to the bucket list. He had a high pain tolerance, but feeling pain through Avery’s lens undermined his own pain tolerance. He felt it through her pain tolerance. “Your wrist feels broken, your ribs are fucked up, you’re bleeding. But I know Jake, I can get Jake. Don’t move.” Her head was bleeding a lot and he tried not to worry about it because maybe she didn’t realize it yet so he didn’t want to tip her off. “You’ll be okay, can you can wiggle your toes? Don’t wiggle your toes, ignore that, hang on.”
Alec rummaged in his pocket and retrieved his phone. His hands moved over it quickly, texting Jake. It wasn’t a good text and it was early and Jake could be an old person who hated celebration at this point and already went to bed.
---
“How can you tell?” She asked, because she was pretty sure he wasn’t a doctor and couldn’t tell she was projecting her own pain at him. “You missed one… my head is throbbing.” Although she didn’t try and move her arm again, and she was scared of trying to move the one pinned under her body she could feel wetness on her face, she just thought it was from crying.
“Am I going to get in trouble for this?” Avery didn't’ know how things worked here. It could be her fault for all she knew, that’s sort of what it was like at Riken except she was too drugged up to notice much of anything, and she hardly ever left her room enough to get in any sort of trouble. Alec instructed her to not move her toes or not move, so she did her best to stay still.
---
“Yeah I think you have a concussion,” Alec muttered, rubbing his head. “You sent out a pretty serious mind melt. I walked into it. Fastest way to get sober, as it turns out. Think I got your empathy.” Which meant it was a little hard to breathe and his arm was throbbing. His mind was trying to remember that he wasn’t actually injured but feeling the pain so closely was proving to be a bit of a mind fuck.
“No,” he said, rubbing his wrist. It didn’t hurt to touch, he forcefully reminded himself. “This isn’t your fault. Some assholes were assholes. Nobody’s gonna fuck with you, it was their fault and I’m going to kill them for it.” That was an empty threat but it was a threat he felt very strongly right now.
---
The text had caused his heart to jump into his throat a moment, but training allowed him to act quickly. He’d quickly called his handler and gotten his leash off as island cameras were able to verify his claim of someone hurt. Jake had been in the barracks with some of the other Agents, those who didn’t double duty as guards and were enjoying the break, waiting for something to happen. It had been a while since they’d had a real mission. But when that text came in and the leash was off Jake was out with a second thought.
He knew the island pretty well so it was pretty easy to visualize where he wanted to go. The location was vague and he didn’t to risk jumping too close to Avery and Alec, or too close to other party goers, but he managed to luck into a central spot and the moment he ‘landed’ broke into a run to find Avery- which was pretty easy once the waves of paint hit him. “Alec? Avery?” He called out as he got closer.
---
“Oh, I did?” This was approximately the third time she had done something like that - twice on poor Alec. Maybe it was something about him that made her want to hurt him, but both times she hadn’t even known he was there. Maybe it was because he had a danger sense or something and caught her off guard the first time, and at a really bad time this time. He was apparently very unlucky. “Sorry.”
Concussions are strange, and Avery felt both tired and confused, a little dizzy and nauseous, and bit unlike herself. “Ba - no, um - Alec, did you - did you find Jake?” Before the words could even leave her mouth, though, a familiar voice came from the end of the alleyway. “Is that him?”
---
Alec lifted his head, glancing down the mouth of the alley. “Yeah. Holy shit, I’ve never felt concern this strong in my life,” he muttered. It was nauseating. “Makes me feel like a fucking sociopath, is this how emotions feel, fuck.”
Alec didn’t move away from Avery, as if leaving her would cause her to disappear. “Over here,” he called to Jake.
---
Jake ran into the alley and his heart beat faster as he saw Avery on the floor. “”Av..” He crouched beside her and looked up to Alec, pleased she’d been found by someone he knew and trusted- well he was sure he trusted him, their reconnection hadn’t given him anything to not trust him about. But Alec was one of them, so that meant a lot. Jake tried to push away the waves of pain he felt, which had to be from her. “Hey Avery,” He looked down at her, trying to get her attention. “I need you to focus on something else for me instead of the pain, like… that feeling you had when you walked into your home and saw that we got it all decorated up for you.” Jake knew that he could get her to the facility, but not when overwhelmed by pain. He looked up to Avery. “I can jump her there, but not…” He grimaced at the phantom pain in his side. “With this much pain.” Pain was how they controlled his powers- for his safety- too much of it could prevent him from jumping.
---
Avery could feel the concern, but it was so overwhelmed by her own pain that she couldn’t figure out why Alec was saying that. Did he feel that concerned? Was he worried? If he was that worried, should she be that worried? “Why are --” Again, her focus was broken, because Jake was actually there and walking up and asking her to forget about the pain, to think about something else. That wasn’t an easy task, and she shook her head.
“I don’t - I can’t think straight.” She replied, finally lifting her not-hurt hand to her face, to touch her head. It was pounding so much it made everything difficult to decipher. The feeling of blood, and then the sight of it brought her panic into a much clearer focus and she looked, alarmed, at both Jake and Alec. “You’re going to what? Jump? Jump where what does that - what does that even mean.” She wasn’t doing what he asked, but she was more focused on her own panic than pain, so there was at least that.
---
Alec grimaced so strongly, he practically flinched. Panic was not better than pain. He’d never felt this panicked before in his life either. It was more distracting than pain. “Teleport,” he said. “To the hospital. You need to calm down,” was a lot easier to say than do, but it was also pretty difficult to say. It was obvious she was also projecting, but Alec didn’t know if he could project. Or maybe he was projecting. Maybe Jake was getting hit by double projection. That probably sucked.
His head was really starting to hurt. “Aren’t there like - don’t you have breathing exercises - like - like - childbirth? Breathe through the pain, right? Just imagine you’re giving birth.”
---
Jake wasn’t sure what emotions he was feeling, it was just a mess. Childbirth? Panic for him was better than pain. As it started to override all the other emotions being thrown at him. Panic he could work with. “It’s ok Avery, we’re going to get you to the hospital ok?” Panic was something he felt in the field a lot, something he could channel into doing something. He reached down and placed his hand on her shoulder, gently holding her. Jake also reached out for Alec’s hand. “I’m sure she’ll want you with her too.” His eyes narrowed slightly as he pictured the hallway outside the hospital area of the facility, hopefully most would be out partying and the area would be clear. “You may feel a little pressure in your ears, just don’t forget to breath.” He’d jumped with a lot of people since becoming an Agent and the warning came out as it had every other time, helped keep him focused as he felt panic pulsing through his veins.
As they ‘landed’ a wave of force spread out from them, a bench in the hall shook. “Stay with her.” He told Alec as he moved to go get a doctor.
---
Alec’s main help in this aside from getting Jake was the excellent distraction he was providing for her. As he mentioned breathing exercises, Avery’s mind went to calming anxiety kind - not childbirth - and at the mention of it she looked downright bewildered. “But childbirth would be more painful!” She almost shouted at him, but it was so hard to breath normally with the broken ribs that it came out in weird, breathy gasps.
Fortunately for Alec and Jake, that was enough to quell a bit of the projected pain and panic enough for Jake to be able to focus. However, the actual teleporting was rather unpleasant. The brief, momentary pressure and the landing was enough to make Avery yell out in pain again - any pressure was too much for her. It felt like someone was purposefully pushing on every bruise she had, smacking her broken ribs. Landing was fine, it almost felt like she hadn’t left the ground even though she obviously had to. Still, it was a bit jarring to be one place and suddenly another, especially in her confused state.
“Oh, fuck.” That was, more than likely, the first time Avery had ever actually cursed. Certainly the first time in front of Alec or Jake.
---
Of course Alec didn’t mind going to the hospital but Avery could’ve been a completely stranger and Alec would’ve wanted to go on that free teleportation ride. He grabbed Jake’s hand a bit too happily.
And of course stupid empathy ruined the ride. “Fuck,” he said emphatically with Avery. He saluted Jake as agreement that he’ll stay here and then sagged down beside Avery. And then he rubbed a hand over his face and massaged his temple, and then he remembered that was supposed to be comforting Avery instead of dwelling on pain that wasn’t even his.
“Are you okay?” He asked. “We’re at the hospital. They’ll probably be able to give you something for the pain.”
---
A few moments later Jake returned with some doctors and gurney. They carefully moved Avery to the bed and took her away to be healed. As they wheeled her past, Jake followed. “They’re going to take good care of you Av, don’t worry ok? I’m going to be right here.” The small medical team working that night sort of shoved him out of the way as they passed, not in an aggressive way but clearly wanting to get working. Jake turned to Alec and furrowed his brow. “Okay. Tell me what happened.”
---
“I don’t know.” She answered Alec honestly, because she had no idea. Physically she hurt, a lot. Mentally she was terrified. Right now she was definitely not okay, but she felt safe with Jake and with Alec there, and somewhere there was that feeling that things would be alright.
Jake came back with the doctors and though she looked a little scared to be taken away from either of them, she let herself be rolled off. “Don’t leave.” Was all she said.
---
Alec didn’t move much from his comfortable position on the floor. He only noticed how tense he was when the tension began to ease the farther Avery was rolled. Slowly, her pain dissipated from him. He felt exhausted. This was an exhausting power. He wanted to give it back, because fuck, this wasn’t fun. Maybe if Jake punched him while also teleporting, he could just switch out empathy for something actually useful. Like a way off this damn island.
“I don’t know,” he admitted. “I think some guards kicked her ass. She mind melted them. Sent them running. But they fucked her up pretty good. I followed her screaming and found her like that. She mind melted me a bit but I think that’s just her way of greeting me at this point. It’s like a tradition. She told me to find you. So I did.” Alec offered Jake a sheepish grin. “Forgot you could teleport but that was really convenient.”
---
“It was an emergency so I-” Jake paused a moment as his phone went off. “Sorry.” He answered it and walked away a moment. “Agent Hale… Yes, it’s done. Thank you… I’m finding out right now… of course I’ll submit my report in the morning.” He sighed, and put his phone away. It was funny, the chip was supposed to be not noticeable unless he tried to jump with it no, but he swore he could feel a small energy buzz or warmth or something in his spine whenever they turned it back on.
Jake turned back to Alec. “Sorry, you were saying this was some guards?” This was not something he wanted to hear. “Do you think you’d know them if you saw them again?” He asked, his tone mixed with the soldier and someone concerned about someone he cared about. He knew Avery would be safe and it probably wouldn’t be long before the doctors came out and let them see her. At least he hoped.
---
Alec watched Jake step away to answer his phone. He didn’t try to eavesdrop, but he did try to … emotionally follow him. To see what emotions he could pick up off of Jake. Which was not easy. Because they were in a hospital, and there were a lot of emotions going on. He mostly just got concern from Jake, which was useless, because that’s kinda just what he expected to get from Jake.
“Probably one. I bumped into one of them,” Alec said. “Avery’ll be fine,” he added. “Her ribs and wrist got fucked up. She got a concussion. At least it felt like a concussion. But nothing really serious.” Unless she’d been fucked up so bad, she just couldn’t feel any serious injuries. That was possible, but he was trying not to think about that. She could be paralyzed from the waist down for all he knew, but he was thinking, he probably would’ve felt some kind of numbness, or something. If he’d been thinking clearly. He hadn’t been thinking clearly.
What a completely fucking useless power.
“The guard smelt drunk,” he added helpfully. “Guess we residents weren’t the only ones partying, huh?”
---
Jake nodded, he knew the doctors were good and she’d be fine, but he never did well when someone he cared about got hurt- Avery was hitting him especially hard. Maybe because they’d bonded upon reuniting. Maybe because this was a second time he’d not been able to protect her, the first being when they were taken from the group home- not taken, saved. He had no reason to feel guilt over that. Riken had saved them. But this time… he should have been there- despite that being an illogical feeling. He couldn’t be with her 24/7. He sighed, gathering himself. “Maybe when this is all over you can help me find him.” Jake said steely.
It didn’t take long for a doctor to return and tell them she was stable and they’d helped ease her pain if they wanted to see Avery. He warned them that she may be a little out of it and drowsy, but she’d been asking for ‘them’. Jake looked at Alec and tilted his head in a ‘let’s go’ manner.
---
Alec nodded and climbed to his feet. He only felt a little drunk when he was in the process of standing. He was a little uneven on his feet. “Hey, not to make this weird, but I’m getting a lot of guilt from you. But it wasn’t your fault, and it wasn’t her fault. Could’ve happened to anyone. Stuff like this happens.” He shrugged, but he talked about it with a casualness that gave credibility to his words. Stuff like this did happen. Not this extreme, not usually, but it happened. It made him angry, just not surprised. And not particularly guilty either. “She protected herself pretty fucking efficiently. Super painful, I’m proud of her.”
He inclined his head toward the direction they were supposed to go, to signify that that was all the mushy crap he planned on shoving onto Jake at the moment.
---
The medication they gave her was definitely… working, and let her think just a bit more clearly though with that nice, soft edge of not caring as much about what was going on. The slight loopiness was helpful, particularly because she couldn’t be placed far away from other people - so she was picking up some stuff from the other patients, but she wasn’t projecting at all. It was really low grade, one of the reasons they had kept her so medicated at Riken to begin with.
When Alec and Jake came back, she looked both happy to see them and a little embarrassed. “I’m sorry.” She quickly apologized, not sure what compelled her to do so but she felt bad for ruining their night. “I didn’t mean to ruin your night.”
---
Jake nodded to Alec’s words, not that it would keep him from feeling a little blame, but at least he knew it was an illogical feeling. He just cared a lot for Avery.
As he two young men approached Avery, they each took a side of the bed. Jake smiled softly down at her. “You didn’t ruin anything.” He hushed her. He personally hadn’t been doing much celebrating in the first place, so it wasn’t so bad. “I’m just glad you’re alright. The doctors say you’re gonna heal up in no time and everything is going to be great.” He wanted to take her hand, console her somehow, but was worried touching her would just hurt her. Jake hated seeing Avery injured, he hated seeing anyone picked on but this was bigger. He wanted to find the guards and make sure they knew they were here to protect people- not beat the crap out of them.
---
Everything is going to be great sounded like a massive lie. But it also likely meant that she wasn’t paralyzed, or suffering from a major head wound, which was also really great. “I’ve never gotten sober so fast in my entire life,” Alec added helpfully. “And he,” he inclined his head toward Jake, “probably wasn’t doing anything fun. So this was probably helpful for both of us.” He couldn’t sense any crippling pain from Avery, so that was good. For all parties involved, but mostly for Avery. “How you doing?” He asked anyway.