2013.06.09 - Psychic Overclocking

It has been a few days since the Starjammer returned to Earth. Nate has spent more time than he usually does in the school, but mostly to hang out with his space piratey not-grandfather. Otherwise, he has business in New York from which he talks little and are probably related to super-powered troubleshooting, or maybe troublemaking. It is easy for Cerebro to track his power, and he has been in Kuwait, Puerto Rico and a few other strange places in the past week or two.
But since Jean left a note for him, he has come down to the secret complex under the school. Nate only comes here for occasional Danger Room sessions. It is the first time he is in the lab. He looks somewhat curious, or maybe bored.
Jean chose the lab, as opposed to MedBay -- which may be occupied -- or the Danger Room, because very few others tend to use it aside from her. Hank is about the only one, and he's off doing who knows what right now so, effectively, the place is hers to do with as she pleases. 
She looks up at Nate as the young man enters and gives him a brief smile. "Hey," she says by way of greeting, her tone lighter than it has been in past days. Indeed, she seems just a trifle less stressed than she may have seemed on the mission, stress of the mission itself aside. 
"Thanks for coming."
Nate nods, offering the redhead a half-smile. "Sure," he replies, "good to see you again, too. So this is where the famous Doctor Grey hides from the word?" Definitely curious now. Because the idea Jean Grey is a doctor and scientist feels more alien to him that... well, the different roles of some people he knew or heard about in his word are one of the things that is harder to get used to.
Jean chuckles softly. "One of the places, I suppose," she concedes. She also has a lab in the City, but she doesn't usually entertain other mutants there. safe to do that here than there. 
Of course, she conveniently overlooks the fact that he's her son in some other world. It saves her a headache. Instead, he's just some cousin far removed... or something like that. There's blood there, but not familial memories.
"How are you doing? I just wanted to catch up with you a little. Chat about that last crazy adventure we had." In space.
"I am alright," replies Nate, "and the mission was..." how to say it? "I just would have hated to miss it. Not only because of Corsair." Really, spaceships, alien empires, pirates, what was lacking there? He hasn’t picked a place to sit down yet, instead he is going over the lab, peering almost everywhere. Jean might have noticed he does that every time he gets to a new place. "How about you? Everything alright?"
Jean gives a soft, brief laugh. "Getting better," she admits. At least, she and Scott seem to have largely resolved the conflict between them on the ship. She won't say they're entirely out of the woods, yet. But she's willing to take the detente -- reconciliation, even -- at face value. 
She lets him wander around the room, checking things out. The only thing she does is make sure he doesn't inadvertently harm any of her samples or experiments. Other than that? She takes a seat near one of the work stations and telekinetically sends a chair rolling lightly towards him. "Catch. Have a seat, won't you?"
Nate hmms, stopping the chair with a hand. Oh. Alright, he flops down on the chair, then sliding closer to Jean’s workstation. "Getting better implies it wasn’t good before," he notes. "I am not around enough to know how matters were and are around the school, so... does it had to do with the Sentinel attacks or is it more recent?"
Jean shakes her head. "No. No, it has more to do with personal history." She smiles wryly. "Scott and I needed to sort a few things out. And, we have." A beat. "Mostly, anyway." She shrugs mildly. 
As to the Sentinels, she flips a hand lightly. "I've done some analysis on the Sentinel attacks and we have a small team following up on it." Okay. Really, it's Nightcrawler and Shift, but still. They can get the job done. "So, you know. Business as usual, from that perspective."
She regards him for a moment. "That telepath on the ship sure was something, wasn't she?"
Nate tilts his head about those personal matters. Is he supposed to say anything? He doesn’t think his parents were an item back in his world, being in opposite sides of the war. Here? They are like distant relatives. Awkward! "Was Bolivar Trask freed? Hmm, I guess we will know soon."
Back to the spaceship stuff, uh? Nate frowns. "I suppose so," he says cautiously. "She didn’t seem very powerful, but she was tricky. I guess I should ask Xavier for some lessons on telepathic kung-fu, hmm?"
Jean could probably supply those lessons, too. But she doesn't say it. She chuckles instead. "Nate, she was one of the most powerful telepaths I've ever met. Most telepaths aren't nearly as powerful as either of us -- never mind people like the Professor." She gives a mild shrug, however, dismissing that. "I'm more concerned with the fact that you were expending twice as much energy than you needed to, to only get as far with her as you did. More importantly, you should have been able to shield yourself from detection better than you did. You've got the power levels to accommodate it..." She gives him a concerned smile, head canting. "So, what I'm really wondering is, is it just a matter that you need more training, or is there something else happening. I can sense your power, Nate. It feels a little 'hot' to me."
Really? Nate’s experiences with telepaths have involved only powerhouses, it seems. People like Xavier, the Martian Manhunter and the Cuckoos Hivemind can leave a boy with a wrong impression of what a strong telepath really is.
"Ah, that? I am more linked to the astral plane that other telepaths, that is why others can see me so easily." Which might be true, but he is still off-charts power levels when he uses his psionics. "As for burning energy, hmm? Look, I actually started using my powers just around a year ago. Before that I was hiding and couldn’t practice much. I am getting better, but I suppose I need more training. I don’t like using my telepathy, it is more limited in scope than the telekinesis, it makes my friends uncomfortable and lowering mind-shields in New York is always, y’know? ‘Crowded’."
Again, Jean barks a quick laugh. "Oh, yes," she says quickly. "I know all about that." A wry smile touches her lips. "When my gift first ignited? I thought I was going to go nuts." All those minds, those emotions... To this day, she has some of the strongest shields of any telepath in the world... if not the universe. 
"But, if you've only been practicing a year, I suppose better training would definitely help." There's a slight beetling of her brow. "I can't help but feel something's wrong, though, Nate. Even with an increased connection to the astral plane, I think you're running hotter than most anyone I've seen -- aside from the Phoenix Entity itself." And that has more to do with its cosmic power level than any lack of control. A completely different issue. 
"Do you mind if I take a look at you? Maybe I can figure out how to help you make your shields more efficient or something."
"No, I had my powers since I remember," Nate pauses to frown, "which is only five years. There is nothing before I escaped Apocalypse’s prison camps." At this point he should maybe explain some gory details about his home Earth. But he really doesn’t want to. Crowds weren’t a problem, and not for good reasons. He sighs, "sure, what do you want to do?"
"Just a simple probe," Jean replies, though, honestly, there's never anything simple about a probe from an omega class telepath. The juggling of the shields alone is enough of a trick. Still, for her, it's easy enough -- providing he doesn't have a mind flare or something. 
Of course, it's likely they'll end up touching at least a little on each other's memories in the process, but Jean's pretty good about suppressing and blocking a lot of that. 
She raises a hand to her temple and reaches out for his. "May I?"
Nate arches an eyebrow. "Last time it was pretty shocking," but he looks around, in this place it should be safe, he decides. "I have no secrets, but I keep some secrets that are not mine to reveal." He focuses and wards many of his most recent memories. From the inside of his mind it would be easy to Jean to peers at them, but hopes she will respect his privacy. Then he lowers his psi-shields. As they noticed before, their telepathy seem to use a too similar ‘psychic wavelength’ it is difficult not to jump in each others minds.
Jean will respect those wards, just as she expects he will respect hers. Not that it's easy, given the wavelength synch between them. But, she's strong, and experienced. And she's not looking at his memories. She's looking at how his power is fueled, how it works, and the synapses he uses to control it. She wants to know why he's running so hot. She doesn't think it's her presence that's causing the jump, though its a possibility. His system may be trying to overcompensate for the unintentional frequency interference. But, since she doesn't quite suffer the same effects? She's not sure.
Nate tries not to see into Jean’s memories or thoughts either, but he does catches some strays, also, he is likely to catch on her emotions, since he has some empathic powers that fire off at random.
Nate’s mind is not a walk in the park. He is the last survivor of his homeworld, he saw some truly horrible things as a young teen. There is trauma, angst, guilt and a good deal of rage. But he is strong-willed, and deals with his problems by focusing in the present and living life as intensely as he can. His powers help him after a fashion. They are overcharged, vastly overcharged. Nate is permanently riding a lightning bolt. It is incredible a human mind can generate so much psychic energy, and it is fortunate he projects most of his power into the Astral Plane and not the physical one.
That is not a stable power, and given his age, there is little doubt it is still growing. 
Jean's emotions are a bit of a muddle, to be honest. There's a deep seated frustration that colours almost everything, though there's also a growing relief and battered but recovering sense of trust. She's had it rough, the last little while.
The more analytical part of her mind, however, is trying to gauge that overclocked power. She knows he's still growing. She also know, however, by the signs of stress at the very edges of his mind -- perhaps in his subconsciousness -- that, indeed, the human mind isn't meant to sustain such stress for long periods. Look at what happened to the Phoenix when it became human? Ultimately, it was emotion that destroyed it. Rage. And Nate has a lot of rage.
Which means Jean is now highly concerned. Because if a boy with his power and rage grows into a man of greater power and rage... Very Bad Things will result. Either for him, or for the world. But, more likely both. 
It is a good thing Nate channels his rage into fighting threats to humankind, right? But yes, his anger could ruin his life even if he had no barely controlled super-powers. But on the other hand, the world is not lacking angry mutant teens, mutants have a raw deal, most of them turn out alright.
"So, I got you worried," he states. "What are you finding out?"
Sure. Most young mutants turn out fine, despite the raw deal. But, most young mutants aren't omegas from a post apocalyptic hell. The worst most of them see is unfair discrimination, not out and out end-of-the-world war.
Jean pulls back from her probe, now, and lowers her hands to the arms of her chair. "All sorts of things," she says dryly. "You know, I gotta say... everything I have learned about the worlds and timelines from which every alternate timeline mutant I have ever met has come tells me that most of the possible futures waiting for us out there are not places I ever want to visit, let alone live in." But, she straightens. "But, I refuse to believe that they are inevitable, either. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. So, there's got to be better options out there. And I believe they're still worth fighting for it." 
But enough of the proselytizing. She gives an apologetic smile. "Sorry. Pet peeve. Ignore it." That's not the main focus here. 
"Nate, everything I'm seeing from you tells me your powers are overclocked. It's like you've amped yourself up to 11 and can't turn the dial back down. If you weren't able to channel so much of your excess energy into the astral plane, I think you'd have exploded a long time ago. And I think as you continue to grow and develop -- and your power levels continue to expand -- that may still become a distinct and very dangerous possibility. We need to find some way to bring your whole system back in line... or I'm very much concerned that you're not going to survive very far into full adulthood." Not to mention the world around him at the time.
"I could be very wrong about this," she admits. "But, even if I am, you still need to be able to dial it back. The greater your control, the farther your power will go." She gives a wry smile. "Trust me. I have more than a little experience with this sort of thing." On some level, she's gone through it.
"You know? Everybody seems to think I am from the future. I am not. Technically I am from the past." Way to avoid the main subject of the conversation, though.
But then he sighs. "So, I need more training. Alright." He has avoided formal training so far, even from Xavier, to whom he has come at times with questions and doubts. But Nate is impatient and likes to do things his way. Looks like it is too dangerous to do it his way. Curses.
"Blame it on the Phoenix," Jean says, lips pulled wryly again. "It's amazing the things I pick up on, now, that I never used to." No, she's not the Phoenix any more, though she still uses the name. But, there are remnants that remain. And the bald fact of the matter is that she will always be its ideal host. Which means something about it will always linger near her.
"But, it's more than just training, Nate. You're unstable. I don't know, yet, if it's at a genetic level or simply because of the amount of power you're trying to control. Realistically, if your parents were both stable, you should be, too. It shouldn't be genetic. But, let's cover all our bases, shall we? I want to run a few more tests -- take a blood sample and maybe run you through the Danger Room to see where you're really at." The Danger Room systems are very good at tracking mutant metabolisms and physical reactions, after all. No matter what their power. It's reports will tell her almost as much as her own analysis. "Are you okay with that?" She can't really force him, after all.
Nate shrugs, "I have been through the Danger Room scenarios a few times, I am sure there are logs, but if you want to run something more specific, no problem. Let me know what you find out. I am curious." It would be nice if she can tell him how to avoid the killer headaches he suffers after using his powers near their limits.
Who knows? Maybe Jean will figure out enough to be able to sort out Nate's headaches. But, it all depends on what's causing them. If she has to stablizing him at a genetic level? That might be more difficult. But, if anyone has the genetic material on hand to help him it's her... and likely Scott. Probably a combination of both. But, who knows? 
"Thanks," she tells him. She rises now and fetches a syringe and some vials to take the blood she needs. It doesn't take long. Beyond that? "I'll look at the logs, but I still want to run a session, as well. Once I have some idea of what's happening, anyway." She straightens after putting the vials into storage for analysis. "Thanks for stopping by, Nate. We'll get this sorted out."
Nate grins and shakes his head. Hey, it is Jean who is trying to help him. Although he is fine, really. "Anytime. Get in touch with me when you want me here," he taps his head with a finger. Telepathy. "Looks likely I will spend some days next week traveling, so probably out of reach by phone." Those pesky Daemonites are hiding under the Sahara desert, of all places.
Jean give the young man a smile. "You got it," she assures him. "Good luck, and try not to kill anyone." It's no less than what she'd have said to Scott in the same situation. She's pretty sure they can both take care of themselves.
Category:Log