Summary:Back Dated: Nick collects Isis after the Flea Market Log Info:Storyteller: None |
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Nick got the call from the flea market and had to pick Isis up. She'd been a feral, hissing and spitting ball when he got there. Blood smears her face, particularly her mouth, and coats her claws. The claws that still extend from her fingers.
If that's not enough to tell Nick something is very, very wrong, her eyes are bright neon blue and her emotions are tumultuous.
He'd been allowed to take her after the authorities had got her details.
It hadn't been possible to get much out of her but he had been able to watch the videos that had been posted. Something had exploded from a van - a mass of black goo - and Isis along with a Spider and a … something else had put it down.
Nick arrived in his truck and looks at Isis from under his lids. It says 'what the hell happened'. But he doesn't ask that. He just gets out, ushers her into the side seat. If he can. "Just put the belt on. We'll get going in a moment. Is someone going to take care of that goo?"
He doesn't want to touch it and he really hopes that the authorities are on the way. He'd rather not be here to deal with them though and he doesn't especially want to have to knock Isis out to get her belted up.
"It's … dead. We killed it. Or something." Isis growls as she fumbles with the belt trying to get it on. That's difficult with her claws and she's smearing blood and ichor everywhere but she manages before curling up against Nick.
It will make driving hard, to be sure.
"Police said they would do something with it. My head hurts, Alpha …"
Nick makes a face. That's going to be impossible to get out of the upholstery. Well since he doesn't need to check out the black goop he gets into the driver's side, puts the truck in gear and sets off. They go for a few blocks before he speaks again. The traffic doesn't seem to be too bad so that's a mercy.
"What happened?" It didn't look like anything especially recognizable. It in fact looked like a science experiment. "And what happened to your eyes?"
Isis looks at Nick in confusion. "My eyes?" He's seen them this bright once before. When that mutant had played the tone that had set her homing sense off. Clearly that's not what has happened here … she's not trying to get away from him.
"The van crashed - I pushed a woman and child out of the way." Isis says. She's struggling to form words and Nick can feel the edge of her instinct - so similar to how she was when they rescued her. "Then that thing exploded from the window. It was so angry. The spider lady and the other one showed up - and I made it madder before I jumped on its back to strangle it."
"I think it was a person, Nick. But … "And maybe she should have said this before "… it smelled of reverbium."
"They're bright blue." Nick taps the sun shade so she can look in the makeup mirror. They are indeed bright blue. Like when she had nearly gone 'bad feral'. But the behafior is, yes, different.
"It's just a pile of goo now. Was it that before?" It might have been a person but how does a person get reduced to a pudding like that?
"Did it do anything we've recognized? Sound waves? Vibrations?" Or was it something new? It's silly to think that their enemies will just keep using the same techniques and tactics after all.
She'd gone feral though and had wanted to rend the goo thing apart. "You don't like them?" Isis cants her head as she looks in the mirror. "I don't know. There was another empath, I think. She was … what's the word? Making my power stronger …?"
Not really Isis' power. But the emotions she was broadcasting.
"When we fought it? A dino-thing but the anger was more human than animal. I know what angry ferals feel like. That wasn't it …"
"I didn't hear anything. It's like what Hank did to himself …" Isis says quietly. Both she and Nick had smelt the reverbium from the serum he'd made. "… when he lost his fur. It doesn't mean there wasn't vibrations though - I was pretty focussed on stopping it."
"I like them just fine but they're not normally like that." Nick says as he makes a right turn. Are they being followed… mmmm. No. Doesn't look like it. Can't be too careful though. Call him paranoid.
"Another friendly empath?" Those aren't very common and Nick's never met one who could boost another's power. Huh. He wonders if Isis could do that.
"So maybe an experiment." Nick sighs. "Well that explains him but not you. How'd you get so…" What's the word to use here… "Feral?"
They aren't being followed and there's no little bugs scurrying over the truck. "She wasn't friendly. She yelled at me mentally." Isis sulks. "It was like the empathic feedback that happens sometimes - what she was feeling, I felt and I … made it more. Which made her angrier and I just used it."
So yes, Isis can do that but it cost her.
"Do you think this is something like we're chasing, Nick? Or something else." Isis asks, it sounds a bit strange as she tries to get the taste from her mouth. "What? Oh. I got angry … it was hard to not when there was so much rage about."
"It could be. I don't know how many people are using reverbium out there but basic logic suggests that whomever is messing with this is most likely to be experimenting with it in other ways. So yes I think it could be related. It gives us something else to look out for but we've got a pretty solid lead so I don't know that there's a whole lot of use in chasing it. Not just yet anyway."
Nick glances over at Isis. "Try calming…" Nick is trying to be calm though it is a bit difficult with Isis throwing off 'unease' everywhere. Still he's pretty good at controlling himself around her.
More or less.
"Sorry, sorry …" Isis takes some deep breathes and uses the exercises she's learned to try and settle. It helps a bit and normally being Nick does as well. Today though, it's not - her mind is chaotic.
"Did you get the name of the police who was there? I … would like to try and follow this up."
"Yes, and I got the report number so we will be able to. I figured we might want to with the condition you were in." Nick glances over once more and takes another turn. They're headed toward the waterfront road which is wider and faster and from there North to get back home.
"For tonight though I think we should leave it. Maybe have a good thin crust. What do you think?"
"Report number, right." Isis is struggling to think straight but she wants to be a PI so she needs to know this.
"I want a shower tonight and … to watch a movie. I'm not hungry …" That's probably worrying that Isis isn't hungry. She's always hungry. Maybe she will be later.
"We'll be home soon then." Nick says. He'll order a pizza anyway because he is hungry and because she might be later. Nick takes one more turn to put them on the river road and off they go. They're not going to think about this anymore tonight. Honestly if Nick overthought this kind of thing he'd go insane sooner rather than later.