Running

Meeting Zion

TW: Mention of PTSD, Mention of Anxiety disorders

The HQ is quite large and a spacious building that blends in with other buildings on the countryside road. Nixa leads us towards the doors and presses a button by the door. It takes about two seconds for the speaker to ask a question. "Who is it?" A wise, yet, kind of young-sounding voice asks.

"It's Nixa. I also have a few guests that I picked up."
"Good guests or bad guests?"
"Good."

"Righty-ho, I'm buzzing you in."

The inside feels like a mix of your grandma's cottage and a New York pent house. The people staying here clearly have very different style choices. Some elevators line the walls and a short man comes out from one of the doors, he looks like he's in his late teens or early twenties, with brown eyes that compliment his dark skin and hair. He's wearing a bright orange denim jacket with some light blue, non-ripped mom jeans. This is paired with a black shirt and some yellow converse.

"Oooh wow! This is an interesting collection of people." He remarks. I flinch away slightly when he puts his hand out for me to shake. But, I take it and shake it nonetheless. "Zion Handil, nice to meet ya."

I notice a flash of purple dance through his eyes. "Hi, I- I'm V-" I'm cut off by him.

"Yes, Virgil Black, age 16. A rather complex powerset that is often oversimplified. You suffer from hightened anxiety and undiagnosed Post Traumatic Stress Disorder characterised by a 9 year stay at Oakspen Testing Facility, from which you have some very detailed memories that I will not share with the group. You're rather hesitant about coming here, which you would be, natrurally. You are also rather worried about your unconcious friend for a reason that I did not find while delving into your memories. Currently amidst an areguement with three other people of whom I cannot currently name, correct?"

I take a step back, startled by the absolute bombshell that Zion just dropped.

"C'mon Zi, that's not cool." Nixa says, sympathetically.
"Apologies, it's my power." I'm still speechless.

Zion reaches his hand out for Remus to shake, but he doesn't take it and just offers up a small sample of himself. "Yeah.. I'd rather not, have you, uh, do what you just did. My name's Remus. I'm Polarkenetic."

"Hm." The obvious organiser of the HQ responds. "I see that you have an unconcious, part Inland Taipan snake in your arms, Remus. Is there anything I should know about him?"

Remus knows more about him than I do, so I let him respond. "He has an untreated case of Vasovagal Syncope, if you know what that is. He's not passed out because of that though, he just got shot by a police dart."
"Yes, I'm familiar with the condition. I'll see what I can do about it. Let's take him to the medical room."

"Medical room? That seems excessive to have in this kind of building." I comment.
"Maybe it is, but the building is big enough, and there's only two beds in the section, so it isn't in any way a subsitution for a real hospital."

"He sounds like Logan.." Remus mutters to me under his breath.
"Who is Logan?" Zion inquires, while walking briskly.
"Oh. Just a friend.."
"One of the people you've fallen out with?"
"Uh, yeah."

Zion leads us into a room that is no bigger than your average teenager bedroom. It has white walls with two beds, and a grey linoeum floor. There seems to be a large medicine cabinet and some IV drips by each of the beds. Remus places Janus down on a bed and Zion starts fiddling with some plastic tubes.
"If you're squeamish, look away." Nixa looks towards the door, scrunching up her face as Zion sticks a plastic tube into Janus' wrist. He shifts uncomfortabley but settles down again after a bit.

"What's that for?" Remus asks curiously.
"It's nothing in particular, just keeping a record of his heart rate that will alert me when we wakes up. I expect him to panic when he awakes, since I detected a very strong fear of hospitals when I touched him just now. I'm also concerned about how the sedation syrum that was injected into him with the dart will react with his body, since he's cold-blooded. So, this will let me know if any irregular patterns appear."

We head out of the room and down the corridor. Nixa tells us that there's one more person to introuduce us to, so we go towards the main living room area, where Zion suspects she is.

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I promise that Janus will be awake for the next chapter.. really, I do! I feel like I'm being lazy just writing him as unconcious for so long in this book, but I really promise he will wake up in the next chapter, which I will probably write today since I've already planned it out!

Wouldn't three chapters in one day be a treat for my four readers?

Stay safe!