Issue 1 Downtime

Alex was, as he often did when he was bored, half-watching TV. The current focus of his attention was, as it often was, the collection of little metal things in front of him.

And normally, he'd be looking irritated as he just sat, apparently doing nothing but stare at a gold coin or a silver bar or a titanium ring in his hand. Today, though, he was looking rather astonished.

His body was a light, bright metallic color, the same as the sheet of foil in his hand. As he looked at the sheet, it rolled up on itself, condensing into a little ball that shifted like mercury with his thoughts. Sweet!

A young boy in a wizard hat passed by, turning to watch the sight.

"Oooo, pretty cool thing, there. Practicing some stuff?"

Alex grinned. "Today, call me Aluminum Boy," he joked.

"pretty good control, there.." he noted, tapping his chin as he watched the foil ball shift and bounce.

"This one's... weirdly easier to shape than iron and steel were," he commented. "I mean, they weren't hard, but... this is like silly putty." The little ball of aluminum solidified in his hand and he set it down. "Now if I could just figure out why I can do aluminum and not titanium."

"Well, aluminum is kinda soft, titanium is pretty hard, even though it's really light. It's pretty cool how different metals can really be, even though they're all metal."

He took a seat, looking at the various objects in front of Alex.

"Yeah, but iron's harder than aluminum, and I managed that before I got aluminum," he pointed out. "And silver's even softer, and I can't get that. Although I guess it explains why it's easier to shape."

"Hey, it could be you, rather then the metal. The X-gene is just as variable as the metals," he said, shrugging.

"Take my brother. He can work exactly two different metals. And one of those is because he almost died from the legacy virus."

He shuddered a little. "Yeah, but... I mean, I pick this up," he said, picking up the little silver bar, bearing the little mark stating that it was one troy ounce of .99999 pure silver. "I can feel that it's metal... I mean, not just with my hands, I can feel it. But if I pick up this?" He picked up another ring that was on the table. "I know that it's steel. I can feel exactly how much iron is in it, I can tell you where all of its flaws are, I can sense its structure... everything. But yesterday? That aluminum felt like just a slightly different 'something' like the silver. And at first after I managed iron, so did steel."

Tommy nodded, going through the different components.

"so, you are learning, getting experience? I bet the more you work with silver, the more you can do with it as well. Just as much as iron- it seems like you can work lots of different stuff."

He chuckled a little. "Actually I can't. I can do iron, and I can do steel, if they count as 'different,' and now I can do aluminum. That's it." He sighed. "What about you? How does your stuff work?"

Tommy picked up the blob of aluminum, and tensed his hand. After a moment, he waved it over the metal, and it quickly shifted to a dark golden hue. He then moved his hand again, turning it bright chrome, before returning it to the original colour, more or less.

"I think I got it back to where it started, but it might not be exact..." he said, taking a moment before placing it on the table.

"Ta da?"

"Huh," Alex said, frowning a little in thought. "Do you know what you're changing it into when you do it?" he asked, looking the ball over, and feeling it with his power as well. If it wasn't aluminum anymore he wouldn't really be upset, all it had been was a piece of aluminum foil, but it DID give him an idea...

"Not really... I don't really feel it. Well a little, I guess.. But not enough to really effect it. It's more like turning a radio dial.. It's not really exact. I'm working on it, though."

That answer didn't seem to bother Alex in the least. He looked at his various metal things, then picked up a chunk of iron, letting his body take on the dark metallic sheen of iron. "Do it to me," he said, doing absolutely nothing to hide the 'OH MY GOD YES!' attitude he seemed to have at the moment.

Tommy's eyes went wide.

"Are you sure? I've never shifted anything, you know.. Organic?"

"Yeah, but I'm not organic! I'm pure metal like this! I mean... once I've turned into something, I can control it, so if you can turn me from iron into titanium... I mean, yeah, you might miss titanium, but so what? It's worth a try!"

Tommy thought about it for several moments.

"Ok.. But can you just shift, like, your hand only? I can't do a whole lot at once.."

He frowned. "No," he admitted. "Can you just change my hand?"

Tommy nodded.

"Yeah, that should be fine.."he said, having no idea if it would be fine.

"Awesome," he said. "I... don't know if it's something you can do, but try to shift me back on the periodic table. Titanium's lower than iron." He held out his hand, visibly excited.

"ok.." tommy said, gulping he took Alex's hand, and waved his hand I've it..

And the metal hand began tingling, as tommy worked his power. He took it slow, but when the tingling was over, all of Alex's fingers and most of his thumb would feel lighter and shiner.

"ok, it might be a good chunk of Vanadium, but Im pretty sure most of it is titanium. I think."

Alex frowned, looking down at the now stiff, immobile hand. "It... kind of feels like the ring does, yeah," he said. "But it's weird, I can't... wait a minute, what the hell?" The shinier tone of his hand spread up his arm and over his body, just like every time he shifted. "Ah shit, I should've seen that comin-" Alex was cut off as the change spread to his head, and he went completely still.

After a few moments, Tommy blinked, and then he panicked.

"Alex? Alex.. Oh crap.."

He began visibly sweating, and biting his index finger.

"Craaaaapppp..."

And that was when someone heard him.

"Tommy? What's... Alex?!"

And Alex... remained sitting there. Rather shiney. Well, shit...

"Brigid!? Oh no, I didn't mean it I swear!"

Tommy was frantically running his hand over Alex's arm, trying to shift it to flesh. Which he definitely can't do on the best of days.

"What... what happened to him, Tommy?"

"I don't know! He wanted me to shift part of him to a new metal, so I did, but then it spread and now he can't move and oh god I am in so much trouble.."

He was on the verge of tears.

"But... he turns into metal all the time. Why isn't he moving, Tommy?"

Dammit, dammit, dammit... Alex could feel his body with his power, and it felt just like the titanium ring did: unreadable, unmoveable. He would have sighed if he could move. Instead, he just went to the 'trying to get the feel for it' like he'd been doing for the last hour.

"I don't know!" he shouted, activating his power, and shifting Alex's hand back towards iron, a little less calmly then he did the first time.

The changes, as they went, did the same deal spreading over Alex's body as the first one did. When T-Bow managed to hit iron, though, it was rather obvious, as Alex instantly shook his hand away from him, mobility returning as the change spread over his body. "Holy shit, that was weird," Alex said. "It was l- oh, hey, Brigid..." Busted...

Brigid went to slug him in the arm and...immediately regret it.

"Ow!" She yelped, shaking her hand out. "...jerk."

"Me!? You hit me! Why am I a jerk!?"

"Well you scared me!"

"Hey, I didn't think it would work like that," he protested, shifting (possibly against his best interests) back to human.

"What were you thinking?"

"That him turning me into titanium would let me do my thing with titanium too," he said, in a 'well, duh' voice.

Tommy just stood there, visibly shaking.

"Trouble.. I'm gonna be in so much trouble.."