Power Swap: Help! (Open!)

[Zebadiah Hayes]

The first thought to cross Zeb's mind when his eyes opened in the morning was that it was way too bright in his bedroom. This was quickly followed by the realization that it was bright because he had slept in so late. Usually Zeb was an early riser. Not because he enjoyed mornings, but because he preferred them to the nightmares the usually plagued him while he slept. But today he actually felt...rested. It was an odd concept and he lay in bed wondering if his sister had sneaked sleeping pills into his dinner again, something she hadn't done since they were children. But even that usually didn't help much.

He was pouring himself a cup of coffee, even though he didn't really feel the need for his usual gallon of caffeine, when he heard someone yelling. Although noise was a usual occurrence in the dorms, this time it sounded like someone was in pain. It startled him enough to make him throw his mug in the air.

And that's when things really got weird.

Bending backwards at the waist and reaching out his arm at an odd angle, he managed to catch the cup before it crashed to the ground. Straightening himself, he stared at the mug in his head. "What...the...?"

More noise snapped him out of his questioning thoughts. Now was not the time to worry about his new found flexibility.

When he reached the hallway that Ravyn and Levi were on, he was already starting to get the feeling that someone was wrong. There seemed to be an air of confusion around the students today. And that never bode well when one was a dorm monitor. A small gasp managed to escape his throat before he collected himself enough to shove down his own emotions. Still it was a hard sight to come to terms with. Ravyn was wing-less and Levi...he hardly recognized the boy. Not to mention the fact that both of them seemed to be bleeding. And the horrified, confused looked on both of their faces made his heart feel like it was in the grip of icy claws.

"Levi? Ravyn?" he called as he approached them...wondering for a moment if maybe he was having a nightmare. "What happened?" First step, get these two to the infirmary. Maybe he could find some answers along the way.

[Ravyn Rozanova]

Ravyn felt bad for Levi; he was obviously embarrassed about what he had said on top of everything else that was happening to him, but she still couldn't understand what would make him think Sean was his dad. She had seen him on occasion, but it wasn't like they were overly close or anything. Maybe his power was just messed up over all that was going on.

"I sure hope so," she mumbled, reaching back sadly to the smooth, flat skin of her back. It felt so weird, so unnatural. "I'm sure SOMEONE has to know what's going on." She blinked, trying to get rid of the moisture in her eyes. She couldn't break down, not yet. Levi still needed help.

And help came. Ravyn's head shot up at the sound of a familiar voice, and her gaze instantly locked onto the dorm monitor, Zeb. It wasn't like they were super close, but she knew him well enough, and right now, he was the only other person who seemed to care about what was happening to them. Without a word, she launched herself at him, wrapping her arms around him and burying her face in his shirt. "Zeb, it's awful, it's so awful, I woke up and my wings they were just gone, and, and Levi grew wings and a tail and claws, and, and I'm able to move things without touching them... What's happening to us!?" She was trembling, now letting go of herself and sobbing. "I.... I can't fly without my wings." She couldn't imagine not flying. It was like a regular person losing their legs - they were a part of her, her body, and they had just been snatched away with no warning.

[Levi Xu]

Levi jumped when the door to one of the suites on the first floor opened. He didn't want anyone else to see him like this. (If he'd remembered that only officials lived on this floor, he would have felt much better.) So when the dorm monitor came out into the hall, he was relieved. Finally, someone who could help.

But while Ravyn launched herself at the dorm monitor, Levi backed up. It wasn't just Ravyn. He didn't recognize Zeb, either. He looked older and less...magical. This was confirmation. His power was really gone.

He stopped backing up when his huge, ugly wings ran into the wall behind him. How Ravyn was able to get through any building with these huge things on her back, Levi just didn't understand.

But he did understand her tears. He was going through a similar shock, and he'd seen the aftermath of Evan losing his arm. If she felt anything like that.... Well, he wasn't judging her for crying. The tears were running down his face too as he looked up at the dorm monitor. He was bloody, his clothing was torn, and he looked like a monster. But one thing was the worst. "My power's gone. I just want it back."

If the wizard could just give him his power back, he could try to deal with the rest of it.

[Zebadiah Hayes]

Zeb prided himself on the ability to keep calm in any situation. Only after he had dealt with everyone else’s emotions would he allow himself the time to deal with his own. Some might consider this a tad unhealthy, but he figured it was one of the skills that made him good at his job.

That being said, the events of this morning so far were unsteadying him a little more than usual. It was actually Ravyn sobbing into his shirt that helped him to clear his head enough to focus on the students and push down his own worries. Damsels in distress always had that effect o him. Reaching his arms around the young girl he patted her back as she broke down in front of him. Even though he and Ravyn had never been in this position before it still felt unnerving to feel her flat, wingless back.

Looking over her shoulder, he saw that Levi wasn’t fairing much better. He wanted to tell them both that everything was going to be okay, but he wasn’t sure that was true. He remembered the way he had bent over backwards that morning to catch his mug. Was his power gone as well? How could that be okay?

“I don’t know what’s happening,” he said, offering Ravyn a handkerchief from his back pocket. “But we’re going to find out. I’ll find a way to get our powers back.” Only his sister would have recognized that he was working on convincing himself as much at the two youngsters. But as he spoke he realized that was the only thing he could do. He had always been the one to try and go out and solve the world’s problems. And this time the problems were his own as well. Even though his ability created a lot of issues in his own life, it was what he was used to. And he’s always felt privileged to get a glimpse of other’s dreams. “Right after we get you two to the infirmary and cleaned up,” he added.

Taking Ravyn by the hand, Zeb reached out slowly to put the other one on Levi’s scaled back. The boy seemed to be having trouble adjusting to moving around in his new (and hopefully not permanently so) form. “Have you guys seen any other students with different powers?” he asked. He didn’t know which answer would be worse. It would be horrible to find out this effected more metas. But at the same time it would be unnerving to find they were the only three.

“It’s going to be okay,” he said, believing it now. Because he was going to fix this. He had to.

[Ravyn Rozanova]

Ravyn tried to control her sobbing as she felt Zeb's hands on her back, which was a strange feeling in itself - usually when people hugged her, they had to be careful of her wings. But she didn't have to worry about that now. She had always pretended to complain about how hard they made it to get intimate with someone, but now she was wishing she had never said any of those things. She would do anything to get them back.

She sniffled and took the handkerchief that was offered to her, wiping at her cheeks and glancing back at Levi. He was crying too, and she wished she could hug him and tell him everything would be fine, but she was no longer in a state to do that and sound convincing, not now that she had shown how terrified she was. She noticed Zeb's use of the word 'our' rather than 'your', and looked back at him, frowning.

"Y... Your abilities are gone too?" she asked, hiccuping slightly. She didn't know if she should feel relieved or even more scared. But at least it meant she and Levi weren't alone. At mention of the infirmary, she glanced down at her arm; the towel she had wrapped around it had bloodstains on it, but not as bad as the one Levi had. "That... That sounds like a good idea. At least... it's a start?" Ravyn hoped once they settled down a bit more and were calmer, things would start to make more sense.

Gladly taking Zeb's hand and clinging onto it like a lifeline, she allowed him to guide them towards the infirmary. At his question, she shook her head and sniffled again. "We didn't see anyone, no. Most people were just staring at us. It was... It was horrible. But... I suppose it's possible that there could be others." After all, why would just the three of them be targeted? It was completely random.

She looked up at him with wide eyes as he assured them it was going to be okay. "I hope you're right," she murmured. She looked over at Levi again, and added,"for both our sakes."

[Levi Xu]

Levi shied away when the dorm monitor touched his back. It still hurt, but the bigger problem was that he could feel how close the man's hand was to his wings. And that.... he hated the sensation of being able to feel the deformities. He knew they were there, but feeling them touch things was just too uncomfortable.

He was quiet and just followed with the other two, trying not to trip over his tail, and cringing every time his clawed feet scraped the floor. It felt like decades ago he'd laughed when Buccaneer accidentally scraped up Mr. Underwood's hardwood hallway. (Jake had laughed too.) Now he was doing it, and it was miserable.

Ravyn and Zeb talked, but Levi had a hard time focusing on their words. Everything felt so wrong like this, and it was only getting worse when he learned that the dorm monitor's power was gone too. It wasn't reassuring that they weren't the only ones affected. What if security and all the teachers had new powers too? It would only be chaos. Dangerous chaos.

"Do they have a biomanipulator? Someone who can fix us?" He wasn't just referring to the cuts and scrapes either. In general, Levi had been avoiding the infirmary as much as possible. He'd gone in a few times to get a band-aid or something, and he'd visited Evan after he'd phased through something particularly dangerous. Walking though the early-morning light towards the building with the infirmary was strange. It was too peaceful and quiet, and his claws scraping on the sidewalk seemed far too loud.

But now he didn't care if it meant he could have his power back. Even if he was forced to go see Ravyn's dad. (Though she'd seemed pretty surprised when he'd told her. Maybe it was supposed to be some messed up secret.)

A shiver ran up his spine--starting at his tail, which felt so strange--as he realized something terrible. "What if this is happening everywhere? What if baseline people are getting new powers too?"

Chaos. That's what would happen.

[Zebadiah Hayes]

Still working on convincing himself that he was actually awake and not stuck in some sort of vivid nightmare or hallucination, Zeb led the two students toward the infirmary. He kept a comforting grip on Ravyn’s hand. It was the least he could do and he felt horrible that he couldn’t do more. Although he wasn’t worried about Levi hurting, he kept some space between himself and the boy. Zeb didn’t want him to have to worry about not knocking into the walls and not hurting anyone.

“I think so,” he said, slowly. It was hard for him to test it during the middle of the day but maybe his unusual flexibility was really a new power then it was possible his other one was gone too. “Maybe someone there will have a better idea of what’s going in,” he said, confidently although he didn’t really believe it. Still it could be true that this was all some sort of virus that affected metas powers. But he had never heard of anything like that before.

He turned to Levi and started to answer the boy’s question with an affirmative. But then he started to wonder if the school doctors might be having trouble with their powers too. “Don’t worry, there will be someone there to help fix you guys up,” Zeb said, careful with his wording. Although he really wanted to put the two at ease, he had always felt it was wrong to lie just to make someone feel better.

Zeb reached out to squeeze Ravyn’s shoulder as she explained about their morning. Kids could be so harsh, but he also wondered if some of the students just hadn’t realized that their powers were messed up yet. Unlike Ravyn and Levi, the change might not be so visible.

“Don’t worry,” he said. “We’ll get this all figured out.” He made a point to show that he meant it with his voice.

As they walked into the infirmary Zeb realized that Levi was already worrying about what he had been considering might be happening. “Let’s try not to worry about that until we know more,” he said, giving the boy a reassuring glance.

“Anybody here?” he called out. Letting go of Ravyn for the first time, he went ahead and started looking through the drawers for some clean gauze for her arm. “Why don’t you guys sit down and try to relax a little,” he said. Then realizing that might be an issue for Levi he added, “If you want.”

[Ravyn Rozanova]

The walk over to the infirmary was quiet for the most part, except for Levi's occasional question and Zeb's answers that she knew were supposed to make her feel better, but she had a hard time believing him. Someone couldn't just grow wings back. At least, she didn't think so. But she'd never heard of this happening before, so how would she know?

She shivered at the idea of regular people getting abilities. How on earth would that work? Untrained adults suddenly developing powers? It would be absolute chaos, like Levi said.

They reached the infirmary and she wrapped her arms around herself as Zeb went to look for something to clean and dress their wounds with. She glanced over at Levi, and sadness continued to well up in her. He looked so very alone and afraid, she couldn't deal with it. Being careful to avoid the claws, she reached over and gave him a gentle hug, wrapping her arms around his back before pulling back and rubbing a hand down his shoulder. "W-we'll get through this," she told him. She wished she still believed it.

She followed Zeb's instructions and sat, holding her injured arm out in front of her and trying to get used to the feeling of sitting without anything behind her. Chairs felt so big. Or at least, they didn't feel uncomfortably small anymore. Ravyn wasn't sure how Levi was supposed to cope with both wings AND a tail. She glanced around. "Is there anyone here this time of the morning?" she asked, when no one appeared at Zeb's call. She began to shiver again. "We need help!"

[Levi Xu]

"They've got a doctor and a nurse on-call. I think the number's over there." Levi pointed to a phone on the counter. He'd seen someone use it before, when he'd brought Evan to the infirmary after he'd phased through the floor of the auditorium and into one of the research labs two summers earlier. He'd never been in the Infirmary this early in the morning before, but it looked just as stark and clinical as it had always looked.

He hated hospitals, and another shiver ran down his spine as he realized he might need x-rays or something.

The hug from Ravyn was unexpected, and Levi stiffened when she wrapped her arms around him. Before he could decide whether to reciprocate or not, she'd pulled away, and he half-heartedly let his claws drop down to his sides. "It's better like this," He thought, looking at her injured arm in the cold florescent light. "You'll just hurt her again."

He attempted to sit in one of the chairs, but he couldn't manage to do so comfortably, not with his new tail. (Levi might have been able to handle with the wings on their own, but sitting on the tail hurt.) He ended up just sinking down and sitting on the floor, arms wrapped around his knees.

Levi wished he had grabbed his phone when he'd left his room, so he could call Evan. He'd call Nomi, but he knew she'd tell Ba, and he did not want his father to know he was a monster. "Are we gonna need to go to the hospital? I don't want my father to know."

[Zebadiah Hayes]

Zeb was also worried about the idea of baseline human suddenly getting powers. He remembered as a child when he had first manifested. Even with the support of his sister and the recruiter who showed up at his home, he still had felt lost for a while. He couldn’t imagine what would happen if an older person woke up with new found abilities. Without an explanation or training. It would be pure chaos.

Still, he kept those thoughts to himself and gave a warm smile to the two youngsters. It was hard enough for him, but if he thought about it the power he had woken up with wouldn’t make his life any worse. In fact, he was glad for it for the moment. He wasn’t sure how well he would be handling Ravyn and Levi without a good nights rest. But to wake up missing a part of oneself, or with a totally knew anatomy? He couldn’t keep for sighing as he searched for words to console them and came up empty.

“I don’t think anyone’s here,” he said. “Don’t worry though I’ll buzz someone.” He smiled at the two before picking up a phone and placing a call to ask someone to come to the Infirmary. “They’ll be here soon,” he said, once he had finished the call.

“I don’t think you’ll have to,” Zeb said, answering Levi’s question. “Don’t worry about your father finding out, that’s not important right now.” He stopped himself there. “I mean, just try not to worry.” He rubbed his eyes, feeling incompetent to handle this right now. How could anyone? It seemed the rules for the world had changed over night.

“Let’s just wait for the doctor,” he said, taking a seat near Ravyn. “Once you guys are fixed up, I’ll go see if I can find someone to help us figure out what’s going on. Okay?”

((wrap?))