Issue 1 Downtime

Gideon wandered through the gardens without any real sense of purpose. This was the first time he'd been completely sidelined during a moment of crisis and it grated on him. Something inside of him was howling for the release of combat that these kinds of crises eventually brought.

A way-too-perky young woman waves at him. Despite the weather slowly moving towards Fall she's still walking around in a summer-dress and with bare feet.

"Hi there!"

Gideon closed his eyes and exhaled slowly before turning to face Teri. Something about another person walking up to him had nearly caused a less than personable reaction.

"Hello," Gideon said, "Aren't you cold?"

"A little! But it's better than thick clunky chokey clothes." she smiles. "We're Teri!"

Gideon couldn't help but cock an eyebrow at the 'we're' comment.

"I'm Gideon," Gideon said, "It's nice to meet you all."

"I'll admit I was always more comfortable in something a bit more form fitting like the X-Team uniform."

Standing next to Teri was almost like standing under a particularly loud power line. If a power line was a humming potpourri of any imaginable emotion, among it of course, fear.

"Those don't look comfy at all. And it'd take forever to get out of them." She doesn't seem to think that is too odd a comment apparently. Then again she does have bit of an accent so maybe it's just the language barrier.

Gideon rubbed the bridge of his nose as he adjusted to the cacophony. Mental walls fell into place to block out the noise.

"You weren't kidding with the 'we' were you?" Gideon asked, "So many different voices...How many of you are there?"

"You... you hear them?" she blinks. "We don't know how many, we never counted. Thousands!"

"One of the perils of telepathy," Gideon said, "So many voices. More than I've ever seen in any other person or mutant....what are you?"

"We're Teri." she says, sounding a little confused. "Oh... you mean when we're not like this." she adds after a moment and shakes her head a little, letting a couple dozen locust fall out and start buzzing in circles around her head.

"A collective consciousness," Gideon said, "Though hive mind might be more appropriate. I've only ever read about somebody like you...sorry that isn't a very polite train of thought when you're standing right there."

"That's okay. We have all kinds of things going through our head all the time!" she chuckles.

There was something that flickered through Gideon's mind. Blood, broken bones, burning flesh, and violence.

"Some of things are probably best kept to ourselves," Gideon said with a strange smile, "Some things aren't meant for the rest of the world to know."

"Yeah and some just--" Teri flinches and she almost looks like a ripples goes through her. It certainly does through the small cloud of bugs. "Someone heard fewer racks, so its sunlight was an infection, and sideways!"

Gideon sees the reaction from Teri's being and there was something in his mind that strongly desired to test the possible uses of telepathic interference on a collective consciousness. The thought caused Gideon to reevaluate his mental barriers and the gaps closed. Gideon exhaled slowly again.

"You're going to have to repeat that, Teri," Gideon said, "Because it didn't make any sense."

The buzzing realigns itself and she holds her head.

"We know... It happens. Are you a telepath?" she asks, remembering what Sam had told her about powers interacting.

Gideon nodded at Teri's statement.

"Telepathy is one of my talents," Gideon said, "Are you completely unshielded?"

"Unshielded? Professor McManus just told us sometimes powers interact and that maybe that stops the harmony."

"That's certainly a colorful way of putting it," Gideon said closing his eyes for a moment as he considered something. "You'll need to work with McManus on maintaining the...harmony. There are likely telepathic students here who have a poor handle on their powers."

"Sorry, pretend I didn't say anything because I'm the last one who should be offering advice to new students."

"That's what she said too, though, so it's probably good advice." she says encouragingly.

Gideon smiled half-heartedly.

"She was my teacher for a long time, so that might be why I sound like her," Gideon said, "Even if I was a terrible student."

"Really? If you still remember wouldn't that make you a good pupil?"

"No," Gideon said, "I've done a few too many terrible things, ignored too many important lessons. Instead I paid for my lessons in blood."

"That's very sad. But I'm sure He has a plan for you too." she says and gives Gideon a hug.

Gideon freezes much like a deer in the headlights as Teri hugs him. He's not sure how to react to this after everything that has happened.

"It's never too late!" she smiles and lets go of him.

Gideon chuckled.

"You and the headmistress seem to believe that," Gideon said, "It certainly would violate a well known quote for me to change, but I keep trying anyways."

"You're not one of those people who are actually way older than they look, right?"

"No, but right now I feel that way," Gideon said, "That's more of the headmistresses area of expertise."

"That's why we were wondering. But things never suck without a reason, even if we can't understand it sometimes."

"I'm not sure you could if I tried to explain it to you," Gideon said, "I'm also not sure it's an explanation than you want to hear. If you want to know you can ask the headmistress. She'd be happy to explain it to you."

"Oh heavens no, that's not what we meant, we'd never presume to know better than you. We meant that no one understands God's ways sometimes."

"God is another topic that the headmistress would be more helpful with," Gideon said, "I los the required belief in God or His ways."

She nods and chews on the inside of her lip.

"Want to see something neat?" she suddenly changes topics.

"Sure," Gideon said sounding rather relieved.

She leads him closer to the tree line and points at the entrance to an ant burrow. One of a couple actually. Rows of ants are coming from a small pile of shredded leaves and grass, hauling it into the hive.

"We saw it on that nature channel on TV that some ants use compost to create airflow in the hive, so we taught these to do the same. They're preparing the colony for the fall now and they won't have to go into hibernation! You can feel the warm air coming out already." she grins, kneeling down next to the entrance, holding her hand a couple inches above it.

Gideon kneels down next to Teri and places a hand over one of the entrances to the hive.

"You taught them this?" Gideon asked sounding impressed.

"Yeah! Sometimes they need a little reminding still though. They forget things."

"That's still impressive," Gideon said, "What does it feel like touching their minds? I've never been able to reach out to insects..."

"They're pretty smart. For insects. But pretty narrow-minded too. They have a lot of... purpose though."