Issue 1 Downtime

Daniel was found tonight away from his usual stomping grounds. He was easily seen from the air by the flaming corona surrounding him, but he was high enough that the people on the ground didn't seem to pay him any mind.

"You're a hard man to find, Scion." Kyra said, coming up behind him.

"There's a lot to see," he said, noncomittally.

"You're seeing too much." Kyra said, putting a hand on his shoulder.

"You aren't seeing enough," he answered through gritted teeth, shrugging her hand off. "There. Don't tell me you can't feel it, too."

Below them, the city... really felt like any other place. Looking at it through the eyes of his power, Daniel couldn't tell much difference between mutant town and the rest of London. Some of it was peaceful, some of it was agitated. But below them, to his eyes there was a small fire of feeling that was just wrong. It reminded him of a dirty grease fire, giving off toxic smoke, poisoning the area.

"Yes, I can feel it." Kyra replied, wincing a little at the emotions "But you can't go around feeling everything all the time."

"How can you not?" Daniel asked. "It's always there... in their minds... like a cancer, just growing, spreading..." He gritted his teeth, then reached out his hand to her. "Help me," he requested, his eyes still fixed on the 'fire'.

Kyra took his hand and extended her shields over him, cutting him off from the constant onslaught of emotions that were beating on his mind.

Daniel scowled, pushing back her influence, burning his way back through her shielding. "Not like that!" he shot back at her. "Like this!" There's a flare of his power that reaches out, touching the 'fires', igniting them white hot, burning the filthy emotions away. As they begin to die down, smaller fires can be seen that were blocked out before, tiny fires of fear and hopelessness.

"Idiot." Kyra snapped "You can't do brain surgery with a sledgehammer." she reached down, and although she didn't put back the foul temper, or the desire to control, or the tendency to take her frustrations out on those smaller and weaker than herself, the she did fix the damage that Daniel had done, that would have slowly driven the woman insane, and made life even worse for her children. Slowly, she rebuilt the woman's mind, trying to give her hope and repairing and redirecting the emotions had been built up by years of despair and abuse, changing a desire to hurt into a desire to care and protect and nurture. Finally she was finished and she hung in midair, almost shuddering with the effort.

"I wasn't finished," Daniel shot back, even as he drifted closer, his arm going around her waist to support her. "And that's why I wanted you to help."

"You can't do that." Kyra said, pushing his hand off her waist "I know you mean well, but you can't do that."

"Why not!" He drifted back from her, his eyes fixed on her with an almost manic intensity. "Who else will! You've felt it- I know you've felt it, everywhere! It's wrong!"

"Yes." Kyra said quietly "That was wrong. But it isn't always that black and white. Most of the time, it isn't that clear. Once you start on that path, its easy to start 'fixing' every petty jealousy, every personality quirk that annoys you, until everyone around you is an puppet shaped in your image. And that assumes that you even have the knowledge and the skill to 'fix' people to start with."

"Well maybe it's time that someone started," Daniel said darkly. "Have you ever listened? People want it! They lay in bed at night, and they pray for peace. They pray for safety. They lay in their beds and they plead with their gods to help them, to save them, to save all of us." His eyes flashed with that manic light again. "Maybe their gods aren't listening... but we can."

"Have you listened to a fucking word that I've said." Kyra said, starting to feel genuinely worried "It.Does.Not.Work. Other telepaths have tried. And failed. Telepaths who fucking knew what they were doing. You need to stop. Now."

"But we did just do it," he pointed out quietly, his arguement losing some of its steam.

"We did it, but that doesn't make it right." Kyra said softly, putting her arms around him "Let me help you. Just for tonight."

"I'm fine," he said quietly, though he noticeably didn't shove her away this time, pulling her to him instead.

"You need a break." Kyra said, wrapping her shields around him again, remembering how good it felt the first time her aunt had done it for her, how quiet everything seemed.

Daniel blinked, and this time it was him that seemed to sag in the air. "Maybe... a little break," he admitted.

"Lets go back to your place and let you get some rest." Kyra said quietly.

"Just... hasn't seemed important to rest," he answered as he started leading the way back to his place.

"I know." Kyra said softly "I know. But lets get you some rest. Okay?"

Daniel nodded as they made an easy descent down to his apartment building. He evidently came through here regularly, because it didn't take any effort to telekinetically unlook the roof door for them to descend to his flat.

"Lets get you to bed." Kyra said, guiding him down the hall to his bedroom.

Daniel stopped her outside the door to the bedroom with a hand across her shoulder, turning to look at her. "The other day... I hurt you. I'm sorry."

"Its ok." Kyra said with a little shake of her head "You didn't mean to."

Daniel nodded tiredly as he dropped his arm to let her follow him into the bedroom, tossing off the t-shirt he was wearing, the faint smell of smoke following the shirt from him. "Don't know what was wrong with me."

"You need some sleep." Kyra replied "Lay down, and I'll watch and make sure you're safe."

"Thanks," he said wearily, opening a drawer, pulling out some clothes more suitable for bed and quickly changing. "Make yourself comfortable," he added, nodding toward the drawer, keeping his back politely turned toward her.

Kyra quickly changed into a pair of sweats and a t-shirt, trying to squelch the mixed feelings she had about the fact that Daniel wasn't leering at her as she changed. "Ok, I'm decent." she said, heading towards the bed.

Daniel smirked... being inside Kyra's shields didn't really do much to sheld her from him, or vice versa. "Figured that as tired as I was, I didn't want to get chewed out for staring," he said, yawning.

"In other words, you knew that you were too exhausted to follow through." Kyra teased, settling in beside him.

Daniel smirked. "That a challenge?"

"Its a statement." Kyra said, a mock-stern tone in her voice. "Sleep."

Daniel smirked. "Yes, ma'am," he said, rolling his eyes as he lay down. He was out in no time flat.

Kyra sat on the bed next to him, occasionally stroking his head or back when he shifted in his sleep. Once he was deeply asleep she delicately touched his mind, trying to work out what was wrong with him.

There wasn't anything wrong with Daniel's mind at the moment, from anything Kyra could see. What he'd been seeing with his power seemed to weigh heavily on his memories, though. It wasn't so much that he couldn't block it out... but from what she could tell, he wasn't trying. Quite the opposite, he was taking as much in as he could.

Kyra frowned with sympathy when she saw what he'd been doing. She'd done the same thing, when her power first started to manifest. The temptation to look at everything, to see what was going on in other people's mind and hearts had been almost overwhelming. And unlike her, Daniel didn't have a family to send him off to live with a telepath who could protect his mind and teach him ethics and control.