Every muscle, every bone, every nerve, every cell of Ty's being was crying right now. The very fiber of his existence felt like it would rip its self apart as the redhead hobbled down the street, using a broken tree limb for a walking-stick.

He wanted to get away from the park as fast as he could, but sadly, that wasn't very fast. He made his way down the street, very determined to get...somewhere. But where? His apartment was way too far, especially in this condition....Mag! Conveniently, she didn't live too far from here.

As sirens blared all around him, he tried to keep cool as he kept trudging along. ...****. Didn't the police have bots now? Great. Just keep walking, Ty...

So that was the plan. Drag yourself to your friend? girlfriend?...Mag. He didn't know exactly what their status was at this point. They'd had some sweet moments, but it wasn't exactly official at this point. Ty hoped it would be, but that was surely to be tested today. Let's see how much she loves me, eh?

Yep, all he had to do was explain to her what happened. He fell from a tree, was seen to by a young nurse-lady, picked a fight with an A-hole, and watched a nine year girl commit a quadruple homicide. And he was using a tree branch as a walking stick to shuffle away because he had several outstanding warrants of his own. Yay!

He may have been halfway there, only going a few blocks, before he had to stop, leaning on the branch for support.

CRACK!

This time, when the branch snapped, he fell face first, into the pavement, causing a long, whiny expletive to escape his lips as he just lay there a second. Or a minute. Maybe five?

Seven days. He'd stay here for seven days.

Zinn’s heart was still racing as she exited the park, scanning the area for Ty. While the fact that he ran when the cops got called weighed on her mind he was pretty injured, and running about got all the blood pumping and with all those broken blood vessels, he was sure to be one big bruise. Big bruises don’t travel very fast.

Sure enough she could see his limping, stick-clinging form hobbling alongside the road. She kept an eye on him, and waited for the light to change so she could cross safely. He stopped and rested. The light changed and she crossed. He hobbled off again. He stopped and rested. She was gaining on him now. He face planted into the asphalt. Oooh, ouch. Right next to a big bag of trash too. Gross.

She arrived to standing above him as he moaned out more swearwords. He had quite the vocabulary of those now. Sirens and general city noise blared. She hoped by now the cops had arrived to clear up the messy scene they had fled. And that no one had swiped her textbook. Fat chance.

“Are you OK?”

She felt like she was repeating herself. A little bit of De Ja Vu.

“Do you need a hand?”

She was reminded that he was a mutant and she was cautious not to overstep her boundaries. But he was equally human and hurting, and that was kind of her thing. The road rash on his face looked painful, but as far as she could tell nothing was broken. Blood welled up in the deeper gashes though and she frowned.

“Is there somewhere I can help you get to to wash that out?”

Because faceplanting next to a puddle of questionable bin-ooze was rather unsanitary.

"We've got to stop meeting like this," Ty groaned, trying to joke as he looked up at her, sure that his face was bleeding now. Yep...he had a very nasty wound on his chin, and maybe on his forehead. He couldn't tell. "Seriously. I can't take much more of this sh--crap." he managed to catch himself that time, trying to be polite in front of the lady. Even if it was too little, too late. Reaching up for her hand, he managed to pull himself up.

"This just ain't my day...Thanks, though. I'm heading just up the street here. Maybe a block or two. "I'll be okay. Once I get to a nice soft couch where I won't have to fear freaking things breaking on me."

Putting his hand on the side of the building next to him, he began trudging along once more. If the nurse-lady wanted to go with him, that would be fine, but Ty was a determined little bugger.

“Yeah, the blood sort of clashes with your hair”

He tried to censor himself and somewhat failed. She smirked. She had heard much worse at the hospital when prying out bits of bullet, or giving needles. She gave him a hand up and offered a shoulder to lean on. Laying down seemed like a good idea. As long as he didn’t fall asleep.

“As long as you don’t fall asleep.”

She guided him gently along until he told her to stop. Someone held the door open for them and with his guidance they were standing out front of a door she assumed to be his.

“Is there someone to watch over you for the next couple hours?”

Not that she was volunteering. But someone had to make sure he didn’t fall asleep or start throwing up uncontrollably. Head injuries – they need to be treated with caution.

"I sure hope so," he murmured to himself. Because this wasn't exactly his place. "Don't sleep, got it. And there should be, yeah." He'd spent most of the walk in silence, biting back more swear words as pain surged through his body. Weakly, he raised a fist and pounded on the door.

"Hey, Mag?" he called, his voice almost whiny he was so choked up with pain right now. "You there?" Gods he sure hoped she was. He leaned against the wall, wincing as he waited for the door to open, praying to any and every deity he could think of that she was there. He didn't exactly have a plan B. And the sirens were still blaring outside. Not good.

As evidenced by the hastily applied sweatpants and water dripping down her tank top's back, Magnum had just removed herself from the shower. Her makeup was significantly worse than usual, having been transformed to watery black streams by the spray and her skin had dark red splotches from where the water was hot enough to turn to steam before touching her skin. This was the ritual of waking up - burn away the memories. It reminded her that the pain of the present required more attention than the pain of the past. It also made her feel clean.

When Ty knocked, she had been wandering bare around her apartment, attempting to find a towel or other sort of cloth to dry with when the sirens began. Hers had been soiled with the mud from yesterday's fight. Stupid water manipulators, she grumbled internally. After ditching her reaction to run, Mag shrugged it off, assuming that some hungover hobo had tried to break into someone's house under the impression it was theirs. That happened often. Which is why, needless to say, Ty's presence caught her off guard. No one ever knocked on her door, much less calling out - in an extremely pathetic voice - "Hey, Mag? You there?" She exhaled a silent breath of relief when she realized that the cops hadn't come knocking.

Besides this being the most attractive of outfits to greet a love interest with, she had to wonder why he'd come knocking on her door. Their meeting wasn't until later this evening. Another part of her wondered why he sounded on the edge of crying or screaming. Despite her reservations about appearance, she opened the door. The sight that met her eyes was definitely more pitiful than her own state: Ty, heavily bruised, hunched over, and smearing crimson red over her apartment walls. "¡Coño!" she flipped out, completely forgetting that Ty's first language was not Spanish. "¿Qué carajo hiciste?"

Ty was mildly surprised by her appearance, but then again, he was ridiculously early. And...from the looks of him, tonight's plans may have to be...rethought, just a little bit. Or a lot. What did surprise him was that she reacted completely in Spanish, and though the ginger didn't speak a lick of it, he may have had an idea along the lines of what she was saying.

"First off, I don't speak Spanish, hun," he replied. Though hurt, weak, and more than a little embarrassed, he still tried to keep his sense of humor, maybe moreso. It masked the pain. Or at least, that's what he told himself.

"It's a long, embarrassing story, honestly. In a nutshell...I look like **** right now, because I fell. Twice. First time out of a tree, the second time trying to drag myself to your place using a broken limb from said tree, which broke. I'll explain everything in full later, I promise." He stopped to take a breath, still holding himself up using the wall.

"Sorry for dropping in on you like this..." I'm such a ****ing dork...

To her face, Ty recounted a story of  taking what any elementary school boy would consider fun, then tried to claim that he took another tumble after his tree branch walking stick broke. Magnum didn't believe a word of it. "Fell out of a tree," she scoffed, in a slightly heavier Hispanic accent than usual. "You expect me to believe that bulls*** story would put you in this condition?" No matter her complaints, though, Magnum moved up beside Ty and managed to position herself where she could support about half of his weight. He would still have to balance, being as he was significantly taller and most likely heavier than her.

"Sorry to drop in on you like this," he apologized. To this, she responded with her best attempt at a joke: "Better me than the cops," Despite the lightheartedness of the comment, she remained extremely angry at the situation - whoever hurt him was going to pay. As if reflecting this sentiment, the air surrounding her became slightly thicker, but this was nothing compared last time's storm.

With a lot of effort, they managed to make it into the apartment and to the couch, where she set him before going off to get rags and hydrogen peroxide. On the way back from the bathroom, she also grabbed a gauze wrap and a small wooden dowel. "Can you move without it hurting, or do I need to splint something before I worry about the blood you're depositing onto my couch?" she asked, kneeling on the carpeted floor before him with her medical supplies. Ty definitely needed to be more careful... Later, she'd realize how the sirens were probably his fault and she'd berate him over those too.

Ty sighed. She didn't believe him. But as the gracious and forgiving woman helped him inside, he didn't really argue at this point, all he said was, "It's too stupid to make up," although this was muttered. He noticed something about the air, and figured it was something relating to emotion and her power, but he couldn't pinpoint the cause. Either she was mad at him because she thought he was lying, or she was entering protective girlfriend mode. He couldn't figure out which, but it may have been a mix of both?

"Nothing's sprained or broken, at this point I think I'm just a walking bruise. Mostly on my back. And my face feels like it's been through a meat grinder..."

He let her doctor him up, wincing every now and then when she got to a sore spot--and there were a good many of those...when this was finished, he reached into the pocket of his green--now stained with blotches of red--hoodie, pulling out a quarter.

"I'm going to show you what happened. In detail," he explained, walking her through this facet of his power since she probably didn't even know what he was capable of. "I'm going to impart the memories onto this quarter, and my eyes are going to glow red, so don't be alarmed. Then, I'm going to hand the quarter to you, and once you touch it, you're going to get what basically is a silent video playing in your mind. Pay attention to detail, and if it's in black and white, it's only a thought. If it's in color, it's a memory. In other words, if you see anything that isn't in color, it's a lie."

Once he finished his little tutorial, he grasp the quarter in his hand, focusing on the events of maybe an hour before. It would skip around in some places, because Ty didn't have an hour to sit there and focus. That, and if he did, he would have thrown up not only everything he'd ever eaten, but things he'd only thought about eating.

~Everything was shown in Ty's point of view, in vivid color. Every blade of grass in the park, children playing, the gentle breeze blowing the leaves of the trees. Walking through the park, Ty's vision focused on certain people in the crowd, all of them men. When the day started, Ty had been scouting marks.

But not long after, he climbed the tree, and perched on a branch, looking out over the entire park. Skipping ahead, suddenly everything was tumbling, and Ty was looking straight up at the sky. Being tended to by the nurse lady, and stepped over by the A-hole. Then, the vision turned red for a moment; Mag would see what Ty saw when using his powers. Taking the shot at the A-hole, which was blocked, but stunned him.

Then, it got weird as he turned to see the 9 year old girl and the 4 dead bodies. That was when he made his way out of the park, and down the alley, using the cane. And then...everything tumbled again, only this time forward. Then fast forward to being escorted home by the nice nurse-lady, and the vision ended.

When the vision ended, Ty fought back the urge to throw up, and a minute later, he'd actually succeeded. Then, he handed the quarter out to Mag.

"Okay, just grab this when you're ready. From what I gather from those who've experienced this side of my power, you're going to see it in real time. Also, mind the headache, because they're a ****ing doozie."

Ty then sat back, waiting for this to take its course. The initial shock of the pain was dying down, and now it was just sort of a steady soreness from the bruising. Though his head still felt like it had a pulse, along with the swirling in his stomach.

Someone at a care would have labeled her harsh. Someone at a military field hospital would have called her soft. Either way, although she didn’t enjoy seeing Ty wince and writhe, she was a little rough while cleaning and bandaging him up. Blame it on her gang experience. As far as the bloody sweatshirt, Mag still wasn’t sure that she wanted it sitting on her couch (she’d just purchased a new one and was now regretting the fact that it wasn’t leather). However, the blood splotches were beginning to dry into a deep brown, so she started worrying about it less.

“I’m going to show you what happened,” Ty said, seeming to walk a fine line between whatever ideals around strength he possessed and shrinking back into himself from the pain. He explained the process, and something told her that the words coming from his mouth contained truth. Gray scale meant lies, color meant reality. This was simple enough to follow, except that his eyes proceeded to glow for a few minutes and, when they stopped glowing, he looked like he could wretch all over her hardwood floor. His nausea faded, leaving them back where they began. The quarter hadn’t even changed shape, which Magnum found to be slightly disappointing. He offered it to her as if the object held new found significance, causing her to take it with caution.

The moment her fingers touched its metallic surface, images invaded her brain, nearly paralyzing her own thought process.

It was a beautiful day, children, leaves, trees, a park…. And lots of men. In fact, Ty’s vision seemed to target the males. Especially the rich-looking ones. The pictures were in color. At first, her brain shrugged this off as the fact that he was bisexual and hadn’t admitted it yet. As his eyes continued to seek out the men, though, Mag realized that he was target hunting. Of course. Well, at least he wasn’t wearing black this time.

Then, the visions made her feel like she was falling. Her reaction was to scream, loud and shrill, but whether or not this actually happened or had been contained within her mind could not be discerned through the assault of memories. Before his fall could be completed, the quarter showed her a picture of the sky. Obviously, Ty had landed on his back. Someone went to help him, and then everything turned bright red. She freaked out again, but less violently than the first time. Red vision trumped plummeting toward the ground any day.

An image of a small girl with four dead bodies appeared, then disappeared as she got the distinct impression that he was walking away. After a short distance, he stumbled, fell again, and then the lady who had helped him the first time was back at his side. She walked him to Mag’s apartment.

All of a sudden, the images stopped. Her mind was her own again. Spikes of pain shot through her brain, down her spine and found their way to her stomach. Seconds after the images ceased, she discovered that her stomach was not nearly as strong as Ty’s. Remnants of last night’s dinner (mostly just acid by now) ended up on the floor as her forehead glistened with a cold sweat. Mag realized that she could deal with blood, guts, and gore, but mutations were an entirely different beast. For once, she was glad that the only real side effect of her powers was exhaustion to the point of incapacitation.

Well that was...unexpected. And ew. He'd suffered that effect of his power, but it never seemed to happen when he used it on others. Until now, that is. She was sick, he was hurt. Guess they were the perfect couple, eh?

"Huh...that usually just happens to me..." he murmured, pushing himself up. He was feeling mostly better, still beaten up. But she did a good job doctoring him. He made his way to the kitchen, and after a few long moments, came back with a mop.

Soon, he realized that mopping required certain muscles, and in Ty's case...all of those muscles were sore right now. But he finished cleaning and put the mop back before flopping on the couch next to her.

"So...now that you know the truth, I guess I owe you another apology, eh hun?" he lightly teased.

Magnum felt gross. And obligated to do the cleaning because it was her mess and he had enough trouble just standing. And still dizzy from whatever his power did to her. And a strong dislike for her body. But mostly, Mag felt ashamed. The kind of shame that cuts through every shred of dignity a person has left and leaves them gasping for breath. “****, I’m sorry,” she swore under her breath. “Look, I can get it if you’ll just…” Unfortunately, Ty was already gone, pressed by his gentlemanly code to clean.

So, she did the only thing she could do: Mag stumbled to the bathroom.

After rinsing and brushing her teeth, she took a step back to lean on the pedestal sink. Her eyes raked over each flaw, loudly announcing her horrid appearance and then every little inch of skin that needed covering. Being in the bathroom, with her fingers gripping at smooth porcelain, reminded her of the many nights she’d drank to forget. She sighed, splashing water over her face a few times before trying to reassemble her appearance.

After succeeding, she walked back to the living room. Ty was picking up a few straggling items left over from his cleaning as she sat back down on the couch, head in her hands. She took a deep inhale as he sat, sitting up in a slightly happier manner. “Yeah,” she laughed. “You owe me a hell of a lot of apologies. Fortunately, I think cleaning made up for most of them.”

He chuckled, nodding. "No one else has ever thrown up, except me, when I impart a lot of thoughts onto something," he explained calmly, relaxing into the couch. "In case I haven't said this already, I promised I'd never use my powers on you without your consent. And this goes for not only what I just did, but my ability to read the memories off of objects as well," he explained, looking over at her.

He took a few breaths, letting his screaming muscles calm down for the over-working they'd just received. "Sooo....now that we got all of that out of the way," he murmured. "You feeling any better? It should subside after several minutes."

"That's always reassuring, because I don't think I ever want to go through that again," she mumbled, a hint of sarcasm in her otherwise low voice (to minimize the headache). "Although, I do have one question: have you used your powers to learn about me before this?"

The buzzing in her head was, for the most part, gone. With it, her voice rose to a normal level. A deep breath told her that, although the visions hadn't toyed with her powers, their aftermath had. Neither of them had anything to worry about, though, as the problem seemed to be resolving itself with the clearing of her headache. In the process of talking, Magnum had noticed that every time she closed her eyes the pounding pressure lessened, so that's what she did; her head found a perch on Ty's shoulder and rested there. At least, it did until he started talking.

"Sooo....now that we got all of that out of the way....You feeling any better? It should subside after several minutes," he murmured above her. Instead of sitting up, she sunk lower on the couch, eventually laying so that her legs dangled over the side of the couch.  They kicked slowly into the air, aimlessly wandering through the open space that the world presented to them. "Yeah," she managed a weak chuckle. "I'm doing better. Now, what's on your mind, broken one?"

"I'd tell ya it gets easier, but...I really don't know what it's like on the receiving end of that ability," he replied honestly. "To answer your question, no I haven't used my powers to learn about you. Ever. I learned awhile back that it's best if I get consent before using abilities like mine on people I'm close to or want to get close to. Some memories are held closer than others, and trampling on and invading people's precious memories and life moments from the point of view of their shirt isn't exactly a nice way to get into someone's good graces." He gave a light chuckle.

"Me and you, I'm doing the old fashioned way. If you don't tell me, then I won't know. I guess it's my way of saying...I trust you."

He wrapped his arm around her, closing his eyes.

"Now, what's on your mind, broken one?"

"Now? Not much. Except I'm never climbing a tree to scout possible targets ever again," he said softly, wincing after he finished his sentence. Just the memory of that fall freaking hurt.