Mike's Office: A Special Case

[Madison West]

Madison knocks on Mike's door, opening it a crack as she does to make sure he's in.

"You working, Mike?"

[Michael Asters]

"Would I be here if I wasn't?" Came the answer. "Come in, Madison."

[Madison West]

Madison walks in holding a folder, "Yeah, you never use your office recreationally."

"I need your help."

[Michael Asters]

"Nope, never recreationally," he said. "So, how can I help you?"

[Madison West]

Madison tosses the folder to Mike, "X-Corp shipped us a stray. Young lady in San Francisco with an active X-Gene."

"And that's about all that's in the folder except her picture and some vital statistics. Trying to communicate has been....frustrating."

The folder is marked "Jane Doe". And it has a lot more question marks then X-Corp usually puts in it's reports.

[Michael Asters]

Cassiel looked at the picture, frowning. "You say 'difficult.' Difficult how? Doesn't speak? Won't speak?"

[Madison West]

"I'm not the psychic," Madison says with a grin, "Could be either one for all I know."

[Jane Doe]

Meanwhile, "Jane Doe" sat quietly outside Mike's office. Staring intently at a wall.

[Michael Asters]

Mike chuckled. "All right. I'll have a look at her."

[Madison West]

"Thanks," Madison says. She goes to the door and leads the girl in, guiding her into a chair.

[Jane Doe]

Jane stares at a point somewhere behind Mike.

[Michael Asters]

"Hello," Cassiel said, smiling at the girl. "Let's start simply, shall we? What's your name?" He'd give her time to answer, then repeat the question telepathically.

[Jane Doe]

She blinks, looking surprised.

She doesn't answer in words. Not even inside her head. There's confusion and then the image of Mike, an arrow pointing from his head into Jane's.

What follows is a memory or an image, it's hard to tell. It's a crowd of people all wearing name tags. Jane sits in the middle without one. There's a feeling of loneliness and isolation.

And then a bitter feeling. The people fade away and Jane is standing, this time with a name tag. Mike can feel this is the past. Something that happened a long time ago. The name on it is blurred and impossible to see. And then someone without features reaches towards Jane and plucks away the tag, throwing it away.

[Michael Asters]

Mike frowned, going over exactly when she had replied to him, and realized that she was replying to the intent behind the question, not the mental words. "Well, first thing to know is, she doesn't understand English. Not even telepathically. I don't know why yet, so I don't know the risks and advantages of pouring twenty years' worth of english-speaking experience into her head."

He focused on Jane again, and mentally inquired whether or not she could hear them, even if she couldn't understand them.

[Jane Doe]

Soft sounds. Slow jazz. The excited buzzing of a crowd. Raindrops falling on the ground.

People were speaking to her, but when they opened their mouths it was gibberish. Confusion. Lost.

Papers covered in gibberish. There was a memory of sitting in what Mike could recognize as an office at X-Corp. They showed her dozens of languages. All of them gibberish.

Then there was glass globe. Shattered into pieces.

In the real world, Jane points at herself looking sad.

[Michael Asters]

Michael nodded. Then he sent her an interrogative of if she wanted him to help her, and how he could. Accompanying was a picture of him reforming the glass globe.

"Madison," he said in a distracted voice, "Where did you say they found her?"

[Madison West]

"San Francisco," Madison says, "Although we're pretty sure she's not a resident. Working theory in the investigation offices is that she came off on a boat from overseas."

[Jane Doe]

Confusion. Jane held the globe gently in both hands. Thankful but feeling sad.

She held it up for Mike to see. There was a piece missing.

Mike could sense this truth was more literal then metaphor. The girl was missing something. There was a feeling of overwhelming loss.

[Michael Asters]

Mike nodded, smiling slightly. Mentally, he reassured her that he'd do whatever he could do to help her.

"Something happened to her mind, Madison. I don't know yet, but likely that goes with her inability to speak or understand language. We need to find out where she came to San Francisco from. See if any of the time-manipulators or postcogs can help you with that if normal investigation fails." He considered it, then said, darkly, "A likely starting point would check anything that made it there, through one way or another, from Madripoor."

[Madison West]

"I'll get on it," Madison says, "Will you help her get set up here?"

[Jane Doe]

Thanks and relief emanated strongly from Jane.