The mind is a curious thing. How cognitive thought relates to the physical body is one of the many enigmas of the world that has yet to be fully explained by science, mutation, or other means. As things were now, Garrett's power flared against the combination of minds to little effect. Ghost's form was too insubstantial, her nerves scattered too far. Jude's nervous system, however was not. Unfortunately, the grey threads that seemed to puppet Ghost's body were now thick cords that originated from the point of Jude's mind, which was lodged rather forcefully next to Ghost's mind inside of her body.

The teacher had long since abandoned the idea that this could be a learning lesson. It was a sticky situation, the fragile nature of minds required that they find a way to attempt sever the two. It would be hard without damaging either, but as the visitor moved against the wind with purpose, the teacher seemed to acknowledge that he had some kind of answer. Together, perhaps, the instructor and Garrett could find an answer.

The teacher quickly surveyed the now chaotically scattered class. These mutants were obviously not fighters, other controllers were attempting to pacify the winds, but they were too new... too weak... too unseasoned. The only other viable combatant beside the visitor was Marqus. The X-Force team member was nursing what looked like a broken arm, but still struggling to be useful. Marqus was doing well to buffet Ghost's currents around the largest group of students, keeping them largely out of the gale and out of harm.

An image of the instructor shimmered into being next to Jude, an astral projection. The teacher's point of view shifted as his physical body fell limply to the ground some meters away. Up close, he could see the panic. He reached into Jude's mind in an attempt to help puppet the puppeteer.

~~~

It was too crowded. Too many people in her mind: it felt as if her brain swelled dangerously inside her skull. The glass was entirely too full. No space for words, only regret and terror that was not her own-- and the taste of bile that was hers alone. Her body attempted to react violently except that as she felt the impulse to twist and writhe, to somehow protect herself, she instead found that she could do nothing. Her power was seeping out, unwittingly fueling the torrential winds. Maya could not even access the core of her essence to pull herself back together. She was held in the prison of her own body. Mind too full, body too fast becoming empty.

Garrett had never encountered such a mess. Many situations had come and gone and they were all very different but this...this was unique to say the least. He was holding his ground against the wind and could see the hazy set of nerves belonging to Judy and Maya. It was a real mess, even for someone with so much fine control. He thought if he had alot of spare time on his hands he could separate the two. It would be like untangling hundreds of yards of Christmas lights.

Time was not something he had in this case. The violence of the windstorm and the panic of the students called for him to focus and end things before they got much worse. He saw the astral component of the instructor appear near Judy as he tried to manipulate the manipulator. This gave Garrett the window he needed. He dropped the focus on the Operator and focused all of his control on Maya, tuning the visibility of her systems, blocking out any other presence. The sounds of chaos and howling wind quieted and slipped away. The light in the room went right after. It was only the sound of Garrett's breathing and the hazy surge of Maya's incorporeal nervous structure.

He knew what he had to do. he had done it many times, but hesitated slightly since he was the woman he loved as opposed to an opponent. His index and middle finger of his right hand stiffened in preparation. He moved in a catlike stride sideways, circling the pair, though again he could only see Maya. He positioned himself so that he was behind her, as far as he could tell. No time for errors here, he thought to himself.
He pushed his fingers forward in a short tap, releasing a nervous command to interrupt brain activity. The interruption was only for a fraction of a second and had worked on countless others. If he couldn't rationalize or defend, he always opted to put someone down temporarily rather than fight them outright.

Maya's body drifted some inches above Jude's head, suspended at the level of buoyancy provided by the difference in her body's density and the barometric density of the room around her. Slowly she was rising as she seemingly disintegrated into the wind. Her particles were pulled forcibly away as they went to feed the cyclones.

Like the rebooting of a computer, her body and subsequently Ghost's mind shut down. The hiccup in her system stopped her power cold as Jude's mind was suddenly without a home. Ejected from his connection, Jude's mind floundered. The instructor moved quickly plucking the awareness of Jude and forcing the inert consciousness back into the shell of Jude's body. There was no way to tell how entangled the two had become or if he even indeed got all of the Operator's mind. Only after they became responsive again would anyone know. Jude's body crumpled pathetically as the mind was no longer actively sending messages to control it. He would need medical attention. Fast.

As soon as Garrett enacted his plan, the turbulent winds died instantly. It took the cyclones moments to spin a final few revolutions before sputtering out completely. The sudden death of the howling gales left a profound silence in their wake. The pressure in the room lifted as suddenly as it had manifested. Slowly Ghost's mind fought back toward the surface. Every fiber of her being wanted nothing more than to sleep, but the process had already begun. If she did not wake now, she may never wake again. The sudden drop in overall pressure around the room meant that her the vaguely feminine, over extended mist of Ghost's body was dense enough to fall the short distance back towards the metallic ground.

The instructor's astral projection flashed gold and fizzled out of existence. A gasp was heard across the room as he re-entered his own body. He took a moment to reorient himself before barking out orders.

"Wounded to the infirmary. Every Controller is to seek your Operator and vice versa until all are accounted for. Non-wounded help the wounded. You two, help carry Jude. The time to panic is past. Now is the time for action."

"'Now is the time for action."

So it was. Judy was in a bad spot, there was no doubt. As Maya finally materialized enough to hold, Garrett scooped her up without question. He looked over at Marqus at two students were picking up Jude. As he passed him, he said," You too, big guy." He flashed his eyes at Marqus' arm. As they made their way down the corridor, Garrett was simultaneously sketching Maya and Judy's systems in his mind. Maya was easy, since she was so familiar and so close. Judy was more difficult since his mind was a jumble and was critical.

Garrett did a bit of his own puppeteering on Judy as he maintained an aura of nervous stabilization around Maya as he carried her. His mind flew through the protocols and procedures that may be required for Judy, deciding at the moment to focus solely on his major systems. He ensured that all of his vital signs remained normal, troubleshooting and intercepting rogue messages as Judy's body tried to function with a partial mind. Maya was visibly shaken and was in a state of shock. He had to jump back to her occasionally to further stabilize her and convince her body that she was alright, regulating systems as they attempted to go out on her.

They arrived in the Infirmary and he laid Maya down gently on one of the beds, covering her in a blanket and hailing a nearby nurse to treat her for shock. He then had the trauma team begin all the protocols for Judy as if he were a normal patient. He didn't want to step on toes, but he continued to monitor Judy's vitals while they got to work. He looked over his shoulder at Maya now and then to ensure she was alright. He felt for Judy and genuinely didn't want him to be injured, but he would forget him in a moment should Maya's condition worsen. He didn't just get her back to lose her.

Ghost was only partially aware. Her mind had gone from being too full to feeling partially empty, stretched by it's recent cohabitation. She couldn't feel Jude. She couldn't feel much of anything actually, just the sudden spasm of pain or a fluttering of her heart that stopped as soon as it started. She was fortunate to have a neural guardian. Her eyes remained wholly unfocused though she was aware that they were moving. Her sight was confusing, part mass vision tainted by shadows and color, a result of being stuck partially between states of solid matter and a gaseous state, though the fact that she was carry-able meant she was at least over halfway corporeal.

By the time she got her senses straightened out, they were in the infirmary. She wasn't entirely sure how or when they'd gotten there, but people were fussing over her. Tucking in blankets, checking vital signs, or trying to figure out the logistics of putting in an IV when she wasn't wholly solid. It more felt like they were acting as a human shield, obstructing her vision from the other occupied bed in order to keep her calm. The room had the air of rapid motion and tension. Ghost moved slowly, incapable of much more, to peer around bodies to see the reason for all the commotion.

She saw Garret was fine and felt some part of her relax. He stepped back for a moment to glance at her and a hint of a smile crossed his face underneath all the worry and concentration. She tried to smile back, but nothing seemed to happen. Instead, Ghost's pale face blinked dumbly at the source of all the commotion that had been revealed when Garrett stepped back.

It was Jude.

She knew it was Jude as soon as he cried out. The instructor was cradling the youth's head between his hands, trying to guide his mind back into some kind of cohesion and eventually back to consciousness. Seeing Ghost semi-alert, Garrett stepped toward the bed again obscuring her view. Will he...? It was the first coherent thought she was able to form and she couldn't even bear to even finish the question. The two words echoed hollowly around Ghost's mind. She was exhausted mentally and physically, but really she would be okay in the end. Would he...?

Her chest burned tightly, but she felt cold. Not temperature cold, but something much less treatable. They were trying to get her to lay back and elevate her legs, but she wasn't in the mood to comply and honestly they couldn't make her. She was a rock, too unresponsive and dumbfounded to understand why she needed to comply. Her face glued to the scene of Jude's fight.

The doctors' pace seemed to slow, loosing urgency. Was that good or a bad thing? She needed someone to tell her what was going on. Ghost opened her mouth and nothing seemed to want to come out. Slowly the dull ache in her head eased. It wasn't normal, but someone was there... sleeping. The doctors filtered out one by one as Jude's condition seemed to start to stabilize. They'd all need a vacation after this.

Garrett aided the doctors as they got Judy back in some kind of condition. It was touch and go a few times, but ultimately through the use of his mutation and the excellent staff at CB, it appeared he would make it. His recovery could be long term, which would be a bad thing for him, but a very good thing for Garrett's plan to steal Maya away.

He could see that she was coming around. She was trying to be free of the nurses and their poking and prodding. Garrett waved the nurses away and told them he would manage Maya himself. He leaned in stroked her hair, wisps of herself floating in snaky tendrils as she had not fully reconstituted. " Hey you. Feeling better? I was worried about you. Judy should be fine, he'll just need some time to recuperate."

He motioned to one of the staff and asked if they could have Peter brought up to the infirmary. Whether anyone was aware, save Hawley, Maya's vacation was about to proceed. He sat at Maya's bedside, holding her hand while waiting for Peter.

When Peter did come in, he had a confused look on his face. He approached the two of them, noticing Judy and Maya lying there. " Wow. Must have been some psychic class. Glad I didn't go. So, wasn't I supposed to wait at the jeep?" Peter couldn't have transmitted a message more clearly. He obviously had no clue what was going on. Garrett knew about Maya's pesky ability of moving conversations around on breezes, so he simply nodded.

" Plans have changed, Peter. We'll have to visit X-Force another day. How about you go check the hallway for the nearest exit? We might want to get Maya out of here quick without any hullabaloo." Peter seemed to understand this dose of double talk quite well. " Hallway, exits, right. Be right back, then." He seemed to be a bi nervous but Garrett knew he could think on the fly.

He wrapped Maya up in the blanket she was in. " Let's get ready to go, dear. Let's keep this on you to be safe, so you don't get cold." More double talk spewed forth, since Maya didn't realize the amount of cold he was really talking about. Though it wouldn't be too bad in the vault.

Garrett ran his hands through her hair, though her essence. Her eyes rolled around in her head like glassy marbles. She didn't move her face, just her eyes followed him as he moved about. He chatted with nurses, shooing them, chatted with Peter, he even spoke to her a few times, though it didn't fully register what exactly he was saying. She seemed to be stuck on one thing he'd said. "Judy should be fine..."

"Ju-" It came out hoarsely and garbled. She cleared her throat, swallowed, and tried again. "Judy?" She wasn't entirely sure if he meant Jude as she'd never heard his trivializing nick name. But surely he meant Jude. She couldn't seem to think of anyone at all named Judy. Hurt or unhurt.

Garrett wrapped her more tightly in the blanket she was in. "Let's get ready to go, dear. Let's keep this on you to be safe, so you don't get cold." She wasn't cold in the way blankets could cure, but his arms did wonders. Groggily she shifted to lean against him. She burrowed her face against the plane of his chest and squeezed her eyes shut. He could take her anywhere he wanted and she probably wouldn't even notice. Not until after a good nap.

Garrett looked at one of the cameras in the infirmary, nodding silently at it. Hawley would no doubt me monitoring the events.He scooped Maya up and felt her snuggle against him. He looked forward to many long nights of the same as he left the room. Peter was on his way back down the hall making a slight nod with his head and then nonchalantly making a 180 degree turn on his heels. He had apparently found something suitable.

Garrett caressed Maya gently, looking at her nestled agaisnt him. There would be no more intrusions and interruptions fora while. She wasn't coming back until she was truly better. He rounded the corner that Peter had vanished around, finding him at the end of the short hall. he was standing in front of adoor that simply read 'Storage'. " An excellent choice, Sir." Peter smiled and opened the door for the two of them." My pleasure, Sir. Age before beauty." He chuckled a bit at the punchline, though Maya would definitely have to go last should he take that literally.

The door closed behind them and they were 9000 kilometers away, safe in Garrett's subterranean vault, a mile of ice above them.


Continued in Business Before Pleasure(Ghost)