It hurt. Everything hurt. The energy it took to push himself out of…whatever it was that Mr. Tanner had done was enough to make Akshay feel like he was going to be trapped in that moment forever. The panic that had overtaken him, the fear and the absolute madness he felt creeping along the edges were enough to make the agent desperate enough to get out of any situation. So he pushed and struggled and finally managed to latch onto a DNA signature that was as far away from Trace as possible. Like a champagne cork, Akshay burst forth, unknowingly tearing the very fabric of reality in a desperate attempt to flee.

He was the breaker of time and space…but he was in far too much pain to realize it.

It felt like the man had traveled for eons. His body was little more than smoke and vapor as he blinked in and out of existence, speeding far from the event as possible as he signature that he had latched onto loomed closer and closer.

Before he could land, his mind felt so fractured, overwhelmed by the power boost he had just received. Mutant signatures were absolutely everywhere! From the highest building to deep below in the sewers. It was strange as the man hadn’t felt so many signatures in on place before and yet here it was, everywhere, mutants everywhere.

Blinking in and out of consciousness, Akshay finally succumbed to exhaustion just as he came within feet of the signature. For a brief moment the man wasn’t aware of anything or anyone – a state which would cost him.

It was the crash that had awoken him. The mist dissipating, Akshay fell like a comet into a debris strewn alley. Landing upon his shoulder, Akshay screamed out in pain and surprise. He rolled and bounced a few feet, knocking over trashcans and splashing through grime filled puddles. His nice, ebony black suit and crisp shirt were stained, ruined by the fetid water and rotten food. And still he rolled, only stopping when his back slammed into a broken window frame that had been left out to be thrown away.

”ARRGGGHH!! F**K!! Akshay screamed in agony. Landing against the window frame only proceeded to break it further, sending a ranther sizable shard of glass into his side, narrowing missing vital organs and scraping against his rib.

A pitiful whimper of pain rolled off his lips as he sat like a used ragdoll against the wall, wincing and curling his lips over his teeth as he tried to breathe through the discomfort. Every breath, ever inch he moved hurt, but still he couldn’t quite get his bearings to remove the glass as his head was still loopy from everything that he had just experienced. The boost was wearing off, thankfully, but the man was still shaken from the order. His hand placed over the warm, sticky blood that poured out of his side, Akshay just laid there, slumped against the alley wall, struggling to remain conscious. He had to remove whatever had pierced his side, but he just needed to close his eyes first. Just for a second…

The one time Svetlana was not in an alleyway looking for trouble, it came crashing through a window to find her anyway.
Quite. Literally.

She had only stepped around the corner to make a phone call in relative peace and quiet, away from the screaming New York traffic... but just as she was about to dial, there was a deafening crash, and a body came hurtling through space out of nowhere, colliding with the asphalt before rolling into a window panel and then commencing to bleed copiously.

"SH*T."

At first, Svetlana thought the guy might have jumped, or fallen, from the roof... but looking up, she knew the fall would have killed him straight away, and he would not have skidded to such a painful halt like he did. Sveta knew about physics enough to see the difference. Pushing her phone back into her pocket, she hurried over to the limp figure by the wall. It was a young guy, definitely worse for the wear from the fall, but at least halfway conscious. Sveta crouched, careful not to be quite in arm's reach, and took a closer look at his injuries.
And then his face.

"Uh... hey!" she said, half in sudden realization that she had met this guy before... a long time ago, what was his name again?... Also, he needed to stay awake, she knew that much about trauma. "Hey, nerdy words guy! Stay awake!"

Akshay couldn’t barely keep his thoughts coherent at the moment. Lying up against the wall, the man had the vaguest idea that he was sitting in an alley, partially slumped over. Parts of his body were sore, other parts were in pain, and whatever was left was in agony. He was certain he had at least one broken bone…somewhere…and his body had been pierced by something sharp. But try as the man might to keep himself conscious, he could feel his resolve to do so slipping away with every second. He was going to pass out if he didn’t give himself some motivation to stay away.

Shakily the man turned his head, feeling the gruff, hard brick against his cheek. He should have pulled away as he could already feel it biting into his skin but it was the only leverage that he had access to. With a grunt, the agent pushed himself against the wall, trying to straighten his position some, but that was when he felt it; the thunderclap of pain as it shot throughout his body. His arm, he didn’t need to be an expert to know that he had popped it out of the shoulder socket.

But maybe pain was good. Pain was probably the only thing that was keeping him from full slumping over – that is until someone shouted an obscenity at being startled. He gulped, his eyes wincing, squeezing to stay awake and push through the pain. But even with his eyes closed, and with the effects of the booster wearing off, Akshay could see the burning effigy in the darkness; it was a mutant.

He could feel that she was closer and, for some reason, he could feel a type of nervous energy working at him. The good thing was that he was in too much pain to really notice but it was a bit distracting. Weakly he opened one eye, his vision blurry except for a crop of blonde hair before his eyes. He closed them again and winced as he could feel slumber trying to overtake him once more.

>> "Uh... hey! Hey, nerdy words guy! Stay awake!"

He sucked in a breath. Her voice kept pulling him back from sleep so he tried to focus on it. Was she an agent? The thought was momentary but it clearly wasn’t true either. What did she say? Nerdy words guy? The f**k was that supposed to mean? Shakily he tried to sit up again, growling until he was fully upright. It took tremendous effort and the movement only meant more excruciating pain.

”F****************k…” he snarled, before it was replaced with a whimper. Gingerly his one good arm flopped as he pointed to his shoulder and his side. He didn’t care who she was, but he needed help. ”Arm…dis-dislocated…” he explained. ”S-Something…in my side…” he tried to reach for the edge of his suit jacket to open it and reveal but it was too much effort. Still, the growing patch of red that stained his shirt should have been enough to indicate where the wound was. ”Take…it out…” he begged. Eyes still closed. ”P…lease…”

The guy was in and out of consciousness, and all kinds of banged up, but it was definitely him. For a moment, Sveta was truly pissed at the universe, first because it kept throwing things like this at her when all she wanted was to work peacefully for Haven... and second, because this guy out of all guys did not deserve such crap to happen to him.

>>”F****************k… Arm…dis-dislocated…”

"Yah, I can see dat." Sveta frowned, looking at the odd angle his shoulder was in. She had seen that before, and it looked very painful. Also, she was in no way qualified to put it back in, even though she knew the theory.

>>”S-Something…in my side… Take…it out… P…lease…”

Something was in his side all right. It looked like a shard of glass, but it was hard to see from all the blood. One thing Sveta knew about injuries like that, one was not supposed to take the foreign object out... There was also the issue of her touching him. Since he was definitely a mutant. She remembered him showing her his weird powers...

"Okay, um..." a moment of inspiration struck "Akshay, was it? Did I get that right?" she hoped she did, there was no need to add casual racism to the conversation "If I'm gonna take dat thing out I'm gonna have to touch you." she added, shrugging out of her jacket and taking off her shirt. The jacket was made of leather, but the shirt was cotton, and at least partially capable of stopping the bleeding. "Try to keep a grasp on your powers, okay?" hopefully, she'd only touch him for a moment. Or rather, the shard. She didn't even know if that counted as contact... Taking a deep breath, Sveta grabbed the shard in one hand and the bunched-up shirt with the other. "Here we go." She pulled, and once the shard came free, she pushed the shirt to the wound. It soon turned red.

It was fair to say the Akshay had seen better days. That’s not to say that his life was devoid of pain or suffering; far from it. But for Akshay Kumar Malik, life as an agent had made him numb to pain…for the most part. Targets fought back, missions went awry, locales not properly swept led to ambushes and traps; yes, Akshay was no stranger to getting hurt on the job. However recent events certainly pushed his limits.

Without delving into the emotional trauma that Akshay dealt with daily, right now his threshold for pain was toeing the line. Hurtled across an unknown distance, skipping like a stone on water over asphalt, a hurt shoulder and now a piece of something in his side? Again, he had seen better days. But there was no use dwelling on the past, he needed to stay focused.

Though he could clearly see that the blonde was a mutant, at the moment he was too preoccupied with trying to live through this to focus on anything else. He would use her to make sure he survived; afterwards… free would think about that later.

>>"Okay, um...Akshay, was it? Did I get that right?"

She knew his name. He struggled to recall, wondering if maybe he did know this woman after all but pain was a potent distraction. Rather than go back and forth about something that just didn’t matter, Akshay simply nodded his head; it was his name after all. He would figure out who this woman was and how she knew him after he stopped spilling his insides all over the ground. So he directed as best he could, saying that he needed to get the glass out, it was the first priority.

>>"If I'm gonna take dat thing out I'm gonna have to touch you….Try to keep a grasp on your powers, okay?"

He barely understood what she was talking about. As she removed her clothing and cautiously drew closer to him, Akshay could feel that strange humming as it coursed through his body again. Just being near the woman seemed to make his mind a jumble of information. She began to glow brighter and brighter, mutants within his radius, and beyond, were becoming painfully visible. Shit, were his abilities going out of whack again? What was going on?

He didn’t have the luxury to think about the matter for too long as, the woman placed her hand on the shard of glass sticking out of his body. With a gulp as the silence settled around them, Akshay breathed heavily, opening his eyes weakly to look upon the woman next to him. Licking his dried lips, the agent gulp, anticipating the sheer pain that would be following.

With a confirming look, Akshay nodded his head for her to proceed.

>>"Here we go."

The sucking, slick sound of glass being removed from his body echoed in the alley, but not louder than his cry of pain. Akshay’s back arched a bit, his mouth gapped in silent pain as he hit the back of his head against the brick wall. When the initial pain finally passed, he slumped back down, breathing heavily; his side still hurt but at least it didn’t feel like he was being slowly gutted with every rise and fall of his chest. A deep breath and Akshay took a second to collect himself, feeling the pressure that the woman placed upon his side. The pain was a good distraction but he could see feel the strength of his powers still wreaking havoc in his mind.

Needing her to back away, unsure if she was truly the cause, despite her admission, he knew that he needed to speed up her interaction with him. So he reached into his jacket with his one working hand and pulled out a small, black leather pouch from an inside pocket. Popping the button on it to open, he gulped as he showed it to the blonde. Most of it was pretty basic stuff, anti-septic cream, pain relievers, etc., but he pointed to the adhesive suture bandages inside, like bandaids but they were made specifically to close open wounds. Now that the glass was gone, it didn’t feel as deep as it could have been. He just needed to get the wound closed up.

He gulped, giving her another look. ”Bleeding stops…use these. Closes wound…” he sighed, leaning his head against the brick wall. He’d after his dislocated arm afterwards. Unable to help himself, Akshay grunted an a pitiful attempt to sound humorous. ”Hell of a f**king day…”

His name was Akshay. She remembered meeting him at a comic book shop, and having a fun conversation, with him showing off his word powers, which were definitely one of the most amusing mutations she had ever seen. But the goofy young guy she remembered war very far from this older, roughed up and bleeding version she had on her hands. Sveta was not the same person as she had been a couple of years ago either, but still, she wondered exactly what had happened to the nerdy guy to have him falling out of the sky like this...

Akshay yelled as she pulled the shard out, and Sveta bit her lips as she pressed on the shirt to keep the bleeding in check. There was a lot of pain in his voice, but no magical words came, which was good - he was holding on to his powers, at least. Fumbling, he handed her something.

>>”Bleeding stops…use these. Closes wound…”

Sveta arched an eyebrow at the pouch. She had one like it too, although bulkier and less professional-looking. She stopped carrying it the same time she stopped wearing the red mask when she went out at night.

"Field kit?" she blinked, taking out the suture bandages "Akshay, did you get into the vigilante business?..."

It would be just like him, being fond of superheroes and trying to use his powers for something like this...

>>”Hell of a f**king day…”

"Been dere, done dat" Sveta muttered, taking the shirt away to take a closer look at his cut. She was down to her bra, but her gloves were still on, so at least she did not have to worry about skin to skin contact for now. The cut looked less deep now that she wiped some of the blood off, but it was still serious. Svet began applying the bandages. "You are going to need medical attention. What the hell happened?..."

Akshay was already beginning to feel a tiny bit better. A tiny bit, by no means great, but a little bit better. He could move somewhat better but it was still hampered by his injured shoulder and the fact that he was bleeding profusely. It didn’t help that there was a strange sensation sweeping over him, a strangeness that the man couldn’t quite pluck out of the air. It felt a little like when he would do overnight stakeouts, drinking coffee after coffee, to the point where he felt like he was going to vibrate out of his skin. Was that an after effect of what he went through with Trace?

He hissed again, moving to get his field kit out of his jacket. As he did so, he started to explain to the woman what she needed to do. The bleeding would stop, but only momentarily. If he moved, the wound would tear and it would start bleeding all over again. Therefore she was going to have to use the stitch strips on him in order to close it. It was by no means a permanent solution but it would at least get him to see a medical professional.

>> "Field kit? Akshay, did you get into the vigilante business?..."

He turned, slowly, his head tilted funny as he gave her the oddest of looks. As the pain started to stop being so absolutely blinding, he began to take note of her words again. She was firmly under the impression that she knew him, like, knew knew him. But nothing she said made sense. He never once used the cover of a vigilante, that was against the law. So why was she asking? Did he really look so much like this other Akshay she thought he was? How many Akshays were in this goddamn city.

”No…” he grumbled, resting his head back against the wall. He needed to pop his shoulder back in place but he couldn’t until his wound was sealed. ”…s-standard issue.” Which it was. All field kits were standard issue for S.U.P.E.R. agents.

Trying his best to keep conscious with conversation, Akshay sighed as he closed his eyes and tried to rest without sleeping. Meekly he grumbled that he was having a hellish day. It was a point that was only added to when she started to apply the bandages to his wound. He winced, grinding his teeth painfully as he gripped the wall with his good hand. It wasn’t as deep as he originally thought, but it was still deep. It needed proper care.

>>"Been dere, done dat…You are going to need medical attention. What the hell happened?..."

He sighed, breathing heavily through the pain. ”No sh*t…” he grumbled to her when she stated the obvious. But at her question concerning what happened he tilted his head again to her. ”Mutant. Knocked me away.” that was really the only way that he could describe it. Trace and the other agent, something had happened, something had happened that Akshay couldn’t wrap his mind around. Whatever it was, it stalled him in place and then suddenly shot him a distance that he really wasn’t quite sure about. Actually, that was a good question. He licked his chapped lips a she eyed her. ”H-How…far…are we from…” he gulped. ”…Madison Square Park?”

>>”No……s-standard issue.”

Akshay was still in a lot of pain, but at least he could answer questions now. That meant he was not passing out, which was good, because Sveta doubted that she could carry him far enough if he did. She finished putting the bandages on and sighed, shrugging back into her jacket to look less underdressed.
Standard issue? What, was he working for the government now? Military? MRC? Sveta wondered what made the cute nerdy guy go for a job like that. Maybe they took note of his powers? Those were all questions for later, but that did not mean they did not keep buzzing in the back of her mind as she took stock of his other injuries.

>>”No sh*t… Mutant. Knocked me away. H-How…far…are we from… …Madison Square Park?”

Sveta's eyes widened at the question. Whatever mutant had done this... that was one hell of a fall.

"Umm... whoa. Akshay, we are in Harlem."

Being knocked across half of Manhattan. She needed to now who did that, if for nothing else, then for safety reasons. Sveta shook her head. Later.

"Your shoulder is out of its socket, and I don't think you want me to put it back in." she noted practically. She might do more damage than good. It was not always as easy as it looked on movies, and there was no need for her to try if she could find a professional. Which she had a good idea about. "Dere is a clinic just around the corner, I can get you there. Can you stand if I help you?"

It was getting easier to breathe but that didn’t mean he was in any way out of the woods. The woman next to him had worked fairly expertly as bandaging up his wounds, almost as if she had practice in it. Briefly he wondered if she were a part of S.U.P.E.R. but she wouldn’t have done all this without identifying herself. No, she wasn’t part of the agency, rather she must have been a civilian with some medical training; an EMT or vet or something. Whatever the case, even though she was a mutant, Akshay was thankful for the help. He honestly didn’t know how he would have fared if he were by himself.

Now wasn’t the time for considering such things. No, he needed assistance, but first, while he coped with the pain that rolled over his body like a continuous wave, he needed to get his bearings. The incident happened as Madison Square Park. From what he could remember from the bits and pieces, his power went into overdrive and…something happened. What it was he still wasn’t sure but he knew that he needed to get out of the area.

That being, cautiously he asked the woman, in a subtle way, how far they were from the Madison Square Park. Once he got his bearings, he could hopefully find a way to reach out to the office and request back-up in the apprehending of Trace.

>> "Umm... whoa. Akshay, we are in Harlem."


He stopped. He gave her a hard, unbelieving look. In a way he guessed that he wasn’t going to be near the park, but this? About half the Island away? It was pretty mind boggling to believe. To know that he had flown that much, that his powers to attain that level of distance with a boost of power. It made him a little sick to think about it. Honestly, it could have all gone so much worse. He could have landed on his head, he could have kept going, he could have teleported underwater, for all he knew! But he was in trouble, he did what he had to do to escape that hellish purgatory that Trace had somehow gotten them trapped in.

A wince rolled across his features. His side was burning but now that it was beginning to dim with the glass removed, he could feel his shoulder throbbing. His inability to move it effectively was quite disturbing but he knew he could fix it; at least…he hoped he could. With how badly damaged his side was, he was beginning to wonder if that was at all advisable for him.


>>"Your shoulder is out of its socket, and I don't think you want me to put it back in…Dere is a clinic just around the corner, I can get you there. Can you stand if I help you?"

He turned to look at her. Once there had been a desperate need for help and now he was looking at her with somewhat suspicious eyes. Why the hell did she want to help him? That was something that Akshay simply couldn’t wrap his mind around. People always talked about the marvelous generosity of strangers, but to him it was all a lot of absolutely bulls**t. Still, he was going to need her help so he was going to have to trust her. A glance over her shoulder and the area looked familiar, it looked like Harlem – and yet it didn’t. Something was off about it but he couldn’t quite place his finger one what. Hmm….

He ground his teeth, trying to stand on his own, but his legs were sore and after a valiant effort he grumbled and fell with his back against the wall again. He coughed harshly, and shook his head at himself. He always hated asking for help.

Another glance to her and he nodded. ”With your help…” he started. ”Maybe…”

When she drew closer, doing what she could to help him, Akshay braced himself, grinding his teeth as he felt that strange vibration coursing through his body once again. He was slowly beginning to make the correlation that it was caused by the mutant’s presence, but what the hell kind of power was this? He growled through the pain, leaning against her as he stood up from the ground, his entire body feeling like it was little more than a forming bruise. When he was finally on his two feet, Akshay hissed as he leaned against the wall, pressing his head against it and frustration. He needed this shoulder fixed.

He nodded to the blonde who was still stubbornly nearby. ”T-Thank you…” he muttered. ”…um, I…I don’t know your name.” he sighed.

As he said this, Akshay pulled his pill bottle from his field kit and managed to open the lid with one working hand. Reaching in, he grabbed one of the very high dosage pain killers he always carried (that he shouldn’t be carrying) and popped it into his mouth. He started to chew it, hoping the ground up medication will reach his bloodstream faster.

”And…which way…to the clinic?”

>> ”With your help… Maybe…”

Akshay tried to stand on his own and failed. Sveta moved to his side, helping him stand, first against the wall, and then on his two wobbly feet. He was definitely not going to make it far from where they stood; he was just lucky that he managed to land both near her and near a free clinic. It was probably not planned that way, but they had to be grateful for small blessings.

"Easy. No hurry." she muttered, making sure she only touched him through her gloves and clothes. No need to overboost the guy.

>>”T-Thank you……um, I…I don’t know your name.”

"Svetlana. Sveta. I came into your shop once." he had to be really out of it to not remember... but then again, they had only met once, a while ago. There was no reason for him to recall her name, especially with all the pain and the blood loss. Sveta took on some of the man's weight as he dug into the pouch for a pill that she assumed was a painkiller. He probably needed it, if he was going to walk with her.

>>”And…which way…to the clinic?”

"This way." Sveta walked Akshay out of the alley and down the street a little ways. There were not many people around this time of the way, and the ones that passed them did not pay much attention. Most of them probably assumed he was drunk, and even the ones that noticed the blood probably assumed they were dealing with some gang violence, and merely quickened their steps.

"Almost dere" Sveta huffed as they turned another corner; the clinic's door was just ahead now. "Is there anyone you would like me to call for you?"

The blonde was nice. It was a state that Akshay simply wasn’t used to. He didn’t know people who were nice except for his husband. In his line of work, in the places that he was sent to, people were decidedly not nice. As a matter of fact, if this same incident had happened any other time, any other place, he probably would have found himself with his shoes missing and a few extra stab wounds on his chest for extra measure. No, something strange was going on. Maybe he just lucked out and came across a mutant who was just genuinely helpful. Whatever the case, Akshay wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth – yet.

He was still suspicious that this was all an act. Maybe she was just trying to help him to get him someplace a bit quieter so that she would kill him or maybe keep him in some kind of strange dungeon. Akshay would have to keep a wary eye on her but for now would utilize her so long as she was useful to him. First step was to figure out her name – especially since she apparently already knew his.

>> "Svetlana. Sveta. I came into your shop once."

He didn’t say anything at first. She definitely had him confused with someone else. Akshay never once in his life owned a shop. What, was this some kind of racism? Not all people of his particular skin-tone owned shops, you know? But he kept his tongue sheathed for now. Instead he held onto the woman as she helped him up. He could feel the wound on his side burning again but the bandages would do what they could the keep it closed. His shoulder, though, ugh, that needed to be fixed.

The two started to head out of the alley. He tried to not lean on her too much but his hip was surprisingly sore. Nothing broken or penetrated, but landing as hard as he did must have certainly been rather rough on his body. He mumbled, asking where the clinic was, hoping that “around the corner” didn’t mean a corner that was a mile away.

>>"This way."

He nodded, moving in that direction. He blindly felt for his phone in his pocket, praying that it wasn’t damaged. He needed to call this in, ASAP, before Trace got away.

>>"Almost dere…Is there anyone you would like me to call for you?"

He should have said no. it was none of her business, especially as she was a mutant. However he couldn’t fully think straight and he needed the help. He nodded his head, handing the phone over to her shakily.

”Dial 0-3-11…” he said. ’When operator picks up, just…” he winced. ”...ask for Conners. I-I’ll take it from there.” They should hopefully not grill him too much on who was calling the agency from his phone but, if they did, he was in distress.

Handing his phone over, clicking the screen on would show a rather interesting picture. It showed three figures: Akshay, his husband, and their adopted 3 year old son. It was probably the only time Akshay smiled, but it was a genuine one; those were rare these days.

Sveta walked Akshay to the clinic's door, and he handed her a phone. She glanced at the screen as it lit up - and was surprised to see a photo of Akshay and another man, holding a very small child.

Oh.

Sooo... sure, she had not seen him for a while, but she didn't realized how long until it dawned on her that the nerdy guy from the comic book shop had a family. It made Sveta feel... old? Out of touch? The other guy, probably the husband or boyfriend, was cute too in his own way, and the kid was a darling, but for a moment, Svetlana was not sure how to react, or whether to react at all, to the news in the family.

>>”Dial 0-3-11… When operator picks up, just… ...ask for Conners. I-I’ll take it from there.”

Oh, right. Emergency call.

"Cute kid." Sveta dialed the number and held the phone to her ear as they walked through the clinic's automatic doors. She glanced around for the nearest seat, in case people did not notice immediately that she was walking a bleeding person inside. The phone beeped.

This number is not registered in the system. Please check to see if you dialed the right number, and try again.

Sveta muttered some curse words, checked, and tried again.

"Are you sure that's the right number? 0311? Because it's not recognized." she said, turning to Akshay. Some nurses noticed them and came running, drawing Sveta's attention away from the phone. "He fell... from a building." she told them, for lack of a better explanation "His shoulder is dislocated, and he had a glass shard in his side. I stopped the bleeding." that last part sounded more than a little apologetic, as she got some glares from the nurses. She was not supposed to do that, she knew. Well, it was done now. She turned back to Akshay, who was being helped onto a gurney "Anyone else I should try calling?"

>> "Cute kid."

The comment passed over Akshay’s head without him blinking. He was too concerned about his health when he got inside the clinic. His eyes drifted around the room and he looked about, seeing that there was already a plethora of people inside. He really hoped that they took emergency cases because the last thing he needed was to be stuck in the waiting room, bleeding to death. He found himself led in, just as Svetlana made the call. His superiors were going to be pissed that Tanner escaped but the blame should be shared with that stupid agent who tried to corner him and boosted both of their abilities.

Speaking of, Akshay could still feel that odd sensation coursing through his veins, like he had had too much coffee. As he stood, too afraid to sit down, Akshay leaned against a wall as Svetlana made the call. He couldn’t hear anything the operator said as he was too distracted by pain and the fact that the nurses, sensing an emergency case, ran up to his side, pushing a gurney.

Gently they helped Akshay to sit down on the roll-away when he looked up at the blonde who had helped him here. She was cursing before she looked at him.

>>"Are you sure that's the right number? 0311? Because it's not recognized."

Akshay shook his head. That wasn’t right. She probably dialed it wrong. He was about to instruct her to dial the number again when the nurses inquired what had happened and helped him to lie back on the contraption. He wasn’t sure how much he was willing to reveal to them but, when he opened his mouth, Svetlana jumped in with a fairly plausible explanation.

>>"He fell... from a building…His shoulder is dislocated, and he had a glass shard in his side. I stopped the bleeding."

In all honesty it was probably the closest to the truth that he wanted to get, especially since he wasn’t exactly sure what happened. He knew that he had used his mutation to escape from a terrifying scenario, but how he got this far, how he managed to warp that distance, since mutants so far away, he wasn’t sure. He knew the agent had power boosting abilities, but that much? It seemed fairly impossible.

The nurses shot Sveta glances, silently judging her for her intervention. The agent rolled his eyes, shaking his head at their glares. Clearly they didn’t like it when others took their jobs into their hands but Akshay knew that if it wasn’t for the blonde, he probably would still be in that alley. He’d make sure to have a talk with their superiors later for their rude behavior, but now, as he started to be wheeled away, Akshay turned his gaze to Sveta as she held up his phone.

>>"Anyone else I should try calling?"

Should she call Robbie? His husband always told him to be safe whenever he went out into the field and this was decidedly not safe. However the last thing Akshay wanted was to scare his husband. He had enough to deal with concern Nathan; and he didn’t want him worrying over something like this. The wound just needed to be dressed and his shoulder fixed. He’d show up at home with some new scars to show and maybe an afternoon off. He’d be able to smooth over things when.

He shook his head to the blonde. ”Just keep trying,” he said with a heavy breath. Their lines were probably scrambling to deal with the public incident. ”0-3-1-1,” he confirmed as he was wheeled away. ”And…don’t steal my phone!” He disappeared behind doors where doctors would be waiting to fix his problems.

God he hoped the blonde wouldn’t take his phone…

The nurses got Akshay on a gurney, a doctor came running, and there were already medical terms flying around that made things look a lot reassuring and efficient than a few moments before. Sveta let out a relieved sigh, and remembered to zip her jacket up - since she had left her blood-soaked shirt in the alley, she was still only wearing a bra under it. People stared at her, and the blood stains, and she realized she must look like she had been in some kind of a fight. She folded her arms and looked down at the phone.

>>”Just keep trying. 0-3-1-1. And…don’t steal my phone!”

Sveta clicked her tongue and rolled her eyes. As if she was desperate enough to steal someone else's crappy phone. She had been, once upon a time... but even then, she would not stoop to taking a phone from someone who had just been in an accident. What kind of a person did he think she was?... Did he even remember her?

She called the number again. No luck. She tried a couple of times, then, just for good measure, tried her own number. It connected. She tried the other one again, since the phone was obviously working... still no luck. In the end, she even scrolled through, trying to guess which name in Contacts belonged to the guy in the photo. She tried a few at random. None of them rang.

Sveta huffed, taking a seat in a corner, as far away from people as possible, and settled down to wait.

He probably didn’t have to remind Svetlana to not steal his phone…but he reminded Svetlana to not steal his phone. The truth was that Akshay really had no idea what was going on. The number should have worked – should have. These phones were especially designed so that even if they didn’t have the best signal, as long as there was one, they would be able to hook onto the agency call center. He wasn’t sure of the science of it, but it had gotten him out of more jams that he cared to admit. The fact that it wasn’t working now was, admittedly, just a little disturbing.

However Akshay didn’t have time to think on any of that as he was wheeled out of the waiting room and into the back. His eyes roamed from side to side, pain still rearing its ugly head as he the situation finally allowed him to start to slowly relax. With relaxation came the need the rest, and as Akshay tried to zero in on what the doctor was telling him, he found he couldn’t listen anymore. Instead, exhaustion firmly settling in, Akshay’s head lulled and he drifted into the darkness of sleep.

---

Time was frozen. He was trapped. Not moving. Not breathing. Dead and yet still alive. It was the most horrific feeling in the world but it was one that dug its claws deep into Akshay’s psyche, ripping little chunks out like a cat clawing at paper. Akshay felt himself unmoving, still, his body not responding only caused the panic to rise in his chest. Faster and faster his heart pounded in his chest until, finally, the man was able to release a scream.

His back arching, Aksahy shot out of bed, sitting up, his best bare of any clothing. As he moved, the man winced, feeling pain radiating from his entire side. As he reached over, carefully craning his neck, he could see that his wounds had been bandaged and his shoulder had been set. God he was sore…and thirsty. Wait, where was he? A bleary look around and Akshay could see that he was indeed safe, in a hospital room, in the back of a sh*tty clinic. People in neighboring areas coughed and sputtered, the sounds deafening to the agent, but he ignored them.

That’s right. He had fallen from the sky, landed in an alley, and got himself wounded. Then there was a blonde. She had helped him to get here. What was she doing? She had been trying to contact his HQ wasn’t she? He stopped and cursed under his breath. Dammit. He needed his phone. How much time had even passed? An hour? Two? Was she even still there.

A nurse passed as the bare-chested Akshay weakly climbed out of bed. His action immediately caused her to rush to his side.

“Mr. Malik? Are you okay? Please don’t move…”

”My wife…” he said leaning against her. ”The blonde woman I was with. Please. I need to see her.”

“Okay, Mr. Malik. Just, calm down. We’ll get her…”

Malik wanted to fight more against the nurse but he was still extremely sore. It would take time for his shoulder to feel 100% again, and it coupled with his gauze-covered side were only going to impede his movement further. So he nodded. Gently he sat back and watched the nurse as she checked his gauze to make sure there was no tearing in his side. Only when she was did she give him an encouraging smile. He blinked, gave her a short one in return and sent her off again.

He needed to have a word with his “wife”.