Issue 1 Downtime

Alex was standing in the grounds along one side of the mansion outside the dorms. The sun reflected off his steel skin, and he stood with the contents of about a crate of nails standing around him, poured out on the ground. He put his foot on the pile, frowning as he concentrated on making the nails do what he wanted.

Brigid spotted him, and made her way over.

"Hey," she said tentatively.

This likely wasn't good for his concentration.

Alex looked up, and on seeing Brigid, sure enough the consistent flowing-together of the nails got spotty and soon enough stopped. "Oh, uh, hey," he said, nevertheless grinning when he saw her.

"What's up? Hear anything more about this crazy crap?"

Alex shrugged. "No one really tells me anything. 'Oh, it's all need to know.' And I guess I don't need to know," he said. He tried focusing on the nails at the same time, but soon enough just gave it up, his body shifting back to flesh.

"I don't think they want us running off and trying to help like we did before..."

"Well that's not fair. I mean... when that happened, they were here. It's not like we can steal a plane and.. wait, we can't, right?"

"Yeeeeah, let's stick with 'can't' on that."

"Yeah, better that way," he (reluctantly) agreed. "So what about you? They being all hush-hush with you, too?"

"Well, they apparently did tell Kay's roommate that she's missing, and that they're working on finding her."

"Wait, Kay's missing?" Alex asked, in his best 'what the hell?' voice. He suddenly looked much less agreeable to the 'staying with 'can't'' policy.

"Yeah, at first I just thought she was being scarce but... yeah."

"I mean, I know they'll find her. They're the frigging X-Men. It doesn't stop me from worrying, though."

"She'll be okay," he said, the nails forgotten about now as he walked over toward his girlfriend. "I mean, why would anyone want to hurt Kay, right?"

"I don't... I just don't know."

"She'll be all right," Alex reassured her. "I mean, this is what they do all the time, right? They're probably on it right now."

"Until then I guess we just... keep busy to avoid going crazy."

"Yeah," Alex said, taking the 'girlfriend needs distracting' message. "Why don't we... ah, shit," he said, remembering the pile of nails. "I, um... just need to clean this up, hang on..." He awkwardly took a step back, reaching down, poking himself with the nails as he put his hand down too hard. He winced, then turned to the metal of the nails (iron-based metals being fairly simple to sync with these days), then started trying to hurry through gathering all the nails up into a ball of iron... which of course went less than well as he (as usual) started getting flustered with Brigid watching.

Steve wandered into view and, upon seeing Brigid, headed over.

"Hey. Hear anything new on Kay?"

Great timing Mr. Jones.

"Er, hey, Steve. We were just talking about that. Not much, I'm afraid."

"Damn..." he frowned worriedly.

Shit shit shit shit, Alex tried to hurry and gather up the nails, really not eager to look stupid in front of Brigid while some other guy was there. The nails finally seemed to liquify, but his control as he gathered them wasn't too good in his hurried state. The metal contracted, gathering into one blob, but bits of it shot off at odd angles as he did, separating and solidifying as they flew off of the main mass. "Shit shit shit..."

"Uhm... you okay over there Alex?" She looked over to what he was doing.

That's Alex huh?

Noticing the unstable blob that was spitting nails, he took a step back.

"Maybe we should... take cover."

"It's fine," Alex shot back, not turning red solely on the merit that he was currently made of steel. He took a tighter control of the iron, sucking it all into the blob, which he dropped to the ground when he was done with a disconcerting rattle. "There, all cleaned up," he said, shifting back after he'd dropped the former nails.

"Alright... er... maybe take a break?"

I hope he knows what he's doing.

He watched the blob with unease.

God damn it... always fucking things up... "I'll just... go get rid of this," Alex muttered, grabbing the metal and heading back toward the doors. "You guys have fun..."

"No, Alex, it's okay. I just don't want you to get hurt, yeah?"

Seriously? "How am I going to get hurt?"

"By pushing yourself too hard?"

"What are you even talking about? I'm not even doing anything."

Steve started to open his mouth but decided against it.

Best to stay out of it.

She sighed.

"Whatever. Sorry..."

Alex just sighed. "Yeah. I'll... go do it somewhere else," he said, heading to the door.

"I guess I'll... see you later?" She asked, feeling awkward and trying to salvage things.

"I... yeah, if you want, I guess," he said.

"I... I can go..." he offered awkwardly.

Damn it... why am I suddenly such a weenie...

"Nah, you guys have fun," Alex said, not meeting anyone's eye as he headed indoors.

Brigid sighed as he went.

"...dammit."

"What... just happened?" Steve asked, blinking.