((This is continued from The Other Kind of Virus, and this first post is not from Jaxon's perspective.))


A phone in the mansion rang. Ring-ring. At first no one answered. Ring-ring. The second peal of the phone caught someone's attention though. Ring-ring. On the third ring someone moved to answer.

What came through the other line was someone asking for help.

“Hello?! Yeah, I‘ve got a guy here, David Fisher, and he says he’s with you…. He’s sick, or he has an aneurism, or something. We are on our way to the address on your card. We are going to need some help…”

The person hung up quickly, as if she had something else to attend to, the sounds of New York traffic in the background.

David listened to her give the directions to the cabbie, keeping his hand over his eyes, not wanting to look around. The pain was not as bad, finally at a manageable point. Though his mind was still ringing, it was like the neurons were not connecting or at least the wires were crossed.

He tried to force a laugh at her joke, but the truth was he was actually worried about doing exactly that, throwing up in this cabbies car. Once she introduced herself David took his hand away and gave a forced smile "Well you already know me." He said jokingly. As he smiled his gaze wandered towards the things speeding by outside, that mixed with his already short circuiting sight caused him to get hit by a wave of dizzyness, thankfully he was already sitting. His body leaned into the door and he returned his hand to his eyes. David laughed in his mind when she asked him what was wrong. He knew the problem, but explaining it would be... difficult. "It's a long story, I'll explain it when I get a chance to fix this." He said with a determined voice. His focus went towards how he could possibly fix what happened to him.

The cab finally came to a hard stop in front of the mansion "Thank god" David said as he looked around "I have money in my wallet, should be enough for whatever fare I owe." He told Jaxon.

Grinning, she gave him an understanding look. He was looking a bit better, but not much. then he looked sick again once he looked at her. He evaded answering, and Jaxon rolled her eyes again when he wouldn’t tell her what was wrong. “Well, if you pass out before you fix it, is there someone else who will know what to do with you?”

The cab lurched to a halt, and the driver looked back expectantly, causing Jax to to rock in her seat from the momentum. At David’s permission she took the fare from his wallet, added the tip she had promised the driver from her own, and opened the door, holding it for David so he could crawl out. Prepared to help him again, she looked around.

He really hadn’t been kidding about the mansion. It was big enough to shock Jaxon, who was sort of used to big houses. She blinked up at it, while waiting for David and trying to see if anyone was coming to help. If no one came, she hoped he knew how to get in or something. She did not want to be around if they had to break in.

"I'm pretty sure they will figure things out." He said looking at the mansion through the window. Jaxon paid the cabbie and opened the door for him. David slowly moved across the seat and threw his legs out the side. Taking a few moments to gather his strength he grabbed the side of the cab and pulled himself out.

Waving back and forth he was having a hard time keeping balance. He was still dizzy, and it didn't show signs of letting up. After a moment he located the intercom next to the gate. He started walking towards it, looking like a drunk on a friday night.

He fell into the intercom and tried to press the button, missing on the first try "ugh" He moaned and hit the button "It's David Fisher, let me in." He said letting his hand slip from the panel. He didn't have much patience at this point, and each second that passed felt like minutes.

Watching him struggle try to do it on his own, Jaxon let the cab leave, and then moved to stand next to him when he seemed about to fall. “You know, it is okay to ask for help right?” Offering her shoulder, she didn’t wait to see if he would give in and accept her help, she just grabbed his wrist and slung it over her shoulders, forcing him to use her as a crutch.

“Doesn’t make you less macho or anything, I promise.” Jaxon was using bad jokes to try and get through this. It wasn’t everyday you see someone have an attack in the park, then help them, find out he was a mutant, and needed to go to a place full of mutants. She only hoped they didn’t have a mutant with the power to detect other mutants… She still wasn’t sure what she was going to do about her own powers and wasn’t ready to be put on the spot, but what happened happened. She would deal with it with poise and dignity… Poise and dignity. With that thought Jaxon winced slightly. Oh god, I’m turning into my mother…

Pushing that thought away, and vowing not to use one of her mother’s favorite phrases for the rest of the day, she watched the gates, waiting with David and concentrating on keeping him upright.

It was kind of frustrating dealing with the red tape involved with buying and owning a business at a young age. She was about to be twenty for goodness sakes. Twenty was plenty responsible. How much more responsible would she be when she could technically drink? Honestly. It was just silly.

And the papers! Ghost had started carrying around a messenger bag just to keep track of all the invoices and receipts that were floating around due to the store cleanup. It was weird to own something intangible like a business. All she had as proof were the papers in her hands. The papers that got caught in a natural breeze... she ended up pinning them against the Mansion's outer wall with a steady flow of air so that they would not escape her again as she jogged toward two people waiting at the gate.

"Oh, hey David. Hey... David's friend." Ghost peeled her papers from the wall and carefully folded them away into her bag before stepping up to the keypad by the pedestrian gate.

"I got a buzz on my com, you guys need in?" She was still getting used to carrying around the x-communicator, but apparently not a whole lot of people were around today and it was her turn to have the emergency line forwarded to her. Lucky the carpet retailer wasn't too far from here. She punched in the numbers trying not to eyeball the pair. What in the world...? Ah - maybe she shouldn't ask.

David was surprised when all of a sudden the girl grabbed his arm and helped to support him. His red face helped to show his slight embarrassment, "It's not a macho thing." He said turning to give her a thankful smile.

His patience was still wearing thin though. He wasn't getting a response from the mansion, and he didn't know the code to get in. He was trying to hide it, not wanting to add to the situation. He was about to pop the keypad open and try to open it that way when he heard a friendly voice.

"Oh finally Ghost, never been happier to see you." He said in a relieved tone. The sentence didn't have as much meaning as it normally would have, the last time he saw her she scared the crap out of him. "Yeah we need to get in Ghost, something is wrong with my head." He told her. That's when a realization hit him, his hallucinations were starting to die down. Normally that's a good sign, but in this case that means the virus is moving on to something else.

Jaxon was getting worried, no one was coming, and wondered if she should try and call the building again. She smirked at the young man’s blush with a teasing tone in her voice. “Well Macho-Man, you are sounding better at least…”

A few moments later, a girl who looked like she was their age showed up, opening the gate. Jaxon didn’t even try to understand what had happened with those papers. David and David’s friend… Jaxon did a mental shrug, accepting it with little trouble, and just nodded at her question. She did raise her eyebrows, seemed to be doing that a lot lately, at the name David called the girl. Ghost.

“Yeah, he collapsed in the park and needed some help.” Adding her two cents to the conversation, she noticed that David seemed to be getting better, though he looked a little worried. Jax was just going with the flow right now, helping David and following wherever they needed to go.

Something wrong with his head? Collapsed in the park? "This sounds like a job for DocProf." Ghost closed the gate after them and pulled out her shiny communicator. She buzzed the infirmary. It rang. "You guys need a hand.. or...?" She mae some vague motions with her hands. She wasn't sure if they were an item or whatever and she really didn't want to intrude or ... whatever.

She shoved the com back in her bag. "Where is everyone?" She offered her arm to David whether he wanted the help or not. He looked a little green around the gills to be honest. "DocProf is around somewhere. Let's go ahead to the infirmary." She led them across the lawn and driveway that lead up to the Mansion front doors and even reached for the large door before she realized she was probably being rude.

"Uh. Sorry. I kinda just got in business mode there. I'm Ghost. It's nice to meet you..." She yanked the front door open and let David's friend take the lead. "It's the hall to the right all the way down. Hanging in there, David?" she sincerely hoped that this was a problem DocProf could fix because... computers were well outside her realm of expertise.

"Yeah" He said responding to Jaxon's comment. They were makign their way down towards the mansion doors, David's mind pondering on what could be next. Would it shut down his hearing, or maybe his ability to speak. He tried to ignore the thoughts, all it did was make him more nervous.

David was surprised when Ghost grabbed his other arm to help, "DocProf?" David never heard of this person, granted he hadn't been there long. Hopefully this doctor, or at least he assumed was a doctor, knew not only medical science, but computer science as well. He was probably a mutant, so maybe that would help.

"Still alive Ghost." Even if he couldn't help David would figure it out, not like he had a choice in the matter. The virus would just continue moving through his mind till it hit something vital to his survival, and shut him down for good. He would have to use his power to... Wait, his power. All this time the virus was seemingly docile it had started to take control of his power. It was downloading enormous amounts of data relating to what he had downloaded previously in his life. "Ahhhh!" He yelled as his mind felt like it was being torn apart, he couldn't handle all of it pouring it, he had to do something to stop it.

Jaxon smiled her thanks to Ghost, nodding when she offered help. “If he’ll let you help, that would be great.” Her size was not an asset in this situation, it rarely was, and the extra weight of the young man was putting a strain on her body. They began to make their way across the grounds and Jaxon was suitably impressed as she got a look around.

Ghost turned and introduced herself as she opened the door, and Jax responded in kind as she and David stepped through. “Totally understand. I’m Jaxon… or Jax. Whichever.” Looking over her shoulder she added, “I’d shake but… you know.” They really didn’t have time for pleasantries and her hands were occupied with keeping David upright and moving in a straight line.

Following Ghost’s directions, Jaxon helped support David as they headed down the hall they were instructed, trying not to get distracted by the suroundings. Just as David responded to Ghost’s question, he seemed to have a relapse, making Jaxon call out to the other girl.

“Ghost! It’s happening again!” His shout made her ears ring and she quickly took more of his weight, still trying to move him down the hall to the infirmary Ghost had mentioned, despite the burn and ache of overworked muscles. “Come on David, keep it together, almost there. What’s wrong? Talk through it, we can’t help unless you tell us what’s going on!”

Ghost smiled at Jaxson. She liked the nickname too. Jax-san would sound just the same as Jaxson and that made her smile to herself. That was until David started screaming in her ear. She tensed up and looked at him like a man possessed. Her initial reaction was to leave him. She even considered knocking him out briefly... for his own good of course, but it was Jax-san's words that got her rear in gear.

Ghost grabbed David's arm and put her shoulder under his for better leverage. "It's not too far now." She put her back into it and tried to take more weight to help Jaxson who seemed tired. Ghost was by no means strong, but David's wailing was... disturbing and strangely motivating. She wasn't sure if it would have been faster to navigate the halls of the Mansion with Jax or if it would be faster to ghost like this, but one thing was for sure: something was wrong with him. He needed help. Now.

If DocProf couldn't be found, Ghost intended to bring David to Sebastian, the other healer she knew. There was no way they could carry him all the way to the Sanctuary and Ghost couldn't drive. She would have to ghost if they couldn't find the eldest resident of the Mansion. Maybe he would give him something to help David... not scream...

"Sorry, Jax-san. He's not normally like this..." A brisk breeze summoned in the hallway rattling the pictures on the walls and sweeping past the three down the hallway. Ghost was worried. She didn't know David that well, but she couldn't think of a single person that deserved whatever he was getting.

A familiar gentleman opened the door at the end of the hall and ran tired hands through his age bleached hair. "What is all this racket?"

((OOC: wasn't sure if you wanted the good doctor to be in or not. DocProf is an NPC that can be run by anyone his profile can be found here))

[OOC: yeah that's fine]

Tuning it out, that's all he wanted to do. Ignore it, try to let it do what it did, but it was impossible. The virus forced all the data to the forefront of his mind, something the human brain wasn't meant to withstand. David was losing it, he felt helpless that he couldn't stop it, and that turned to rage that his own power was destroying him.

He pulled his arms from the other two and grabbed his head. He had to hand fulls of hair and wanted to just yank his head open, as if it would even help. He dropped to one knee, and immediately forced himself back up and started trying to hurry to what he assumed was the doctors office.

He was stumbling left and right, not able to keep his balance. "Ugh enough of this!" He yelled, he knew he had to block his mind from connecting to the internet, but the how was still a mystery.

Jaxon nodded in response to Ghost’s estimation, glad that soon they would be able to get some help. When the other girl said that David wasn’t like this all the time and she couldn’t stop the small smile, “I’m sure he’s not.” Jax and Ghost were struggling to get David down the hall when an older man opened a door to inquire about what was going on. Jaxon was just about to call out to him for help when David pulled away.

He looked like he was trying to pull his hair out to get to his head, kneeling on the ground. “Jeeze!” Watching as David tried to rush forward, Jaxon stood frozen with shock for a moment, unsure what to do.


((OOC: sorry it is short))

DocProf made the short jog down the hall on legs that had seen better days. "What's going on?" Ghost looked from the doctor to Jax-san. well, she didn't know.

"This is David, a newer resident and uhm this is Jax-san. Jax-san said that David collapsed?" She looked to the other girl for confirmation of this fact before nodding to the healer who was already taking the initiative to check for bodily harm.

The doctor addressed his questions to Jax as he pulled his pin light from his pocket and checked David's pupilary reaction time. He hardly seemed to notice any fidgets or pulling away or screaming. He'd seen stranger things in his time and would perhaps live to see many more strange things after this. "Any loss of consciousness? If so for how long? How long has he been like this? Is he coherent at all? Help me get him up, will you Ghost?" Ghost nodded and automatically took David's arm again. She was tempted to erect a vacuum like Zephyr's just to cut off David's noise level, but it would be a waste of energy.

"Doc, where is everyone? We tried calling the infirmary from the gate." She was worried that something bigger was going on and of course she was missing out. The doctor gave a quick once over of David and shrugged as he turned back toward the infirmary. "Staff meeting." He hobbled ahead to ready a bed leaving Ghost and Jax to pull David the last few feet into the infirmary.

Through girl power they made it to the infirmary and hopefully pushed David onto one of the paper lined beds. It was small, but adequate space for a school of this size.