Issue 1 Downtime

Winston had spent the last few hours lounging on his provided bed, not the most comfortable piece of furniture and he was looking forward to being able to permanently return to his own room. He had numerous fairly large scabs covering his body and one large stitched up gash on his gut that he'd been told would scar, though all of these were hidden by his clothing. It still hurt a little to twist his body.

To help pass the time, Winston had shredded one of the magazines he'd found outside his room and was trying to throw the paper-planes he'd made out of it through the ceiling fan, something that he was failing to accomplish, both due to the planes shoddy design and the rather fast speed of the fan. As a result numerous bent or scrunched up paper constructions littered his room.

Morgan tapped on the door of Winston's room, a hesistant smile in place and a peace offering in hand to assuage her guilt.

"Hey there, can I come in?"

Winston jolted a little at the knock, throwing a plane way off course.

Edging himself upright and pushing what was left of the magazine onto the floor he called out curiously, "Sure, come on in."

Morgan entered dressed as usual in a long flowing skirt and long sleeved shirt, her face pensieve.

"Remember me? The girl who nearly killed you?"

"You'll have to be more specific," Winston smiled as she entered, "Hey Morgan, um, what brings you here?"

"Chocolate?" Morgan proferred an over large box of said sweet, a bashful smile on her face. She sat in the chair by his bed, giving them too him and wrapping her arms around her middle in her standard defensive pose.

"I am really sorry that I hurt you Winston. I didn't mean too, its just that after everything... I'm sorry."

Winston looked the choclate box over with a blank expression, flipping the box around a few times as Morgan continued talking.

"I-thanks? Thank you, for choclate and apology, I-I get you probably didn't mean it, it's fine, if anyones at fault for anything here it's those vampiric S.O.Bs that started all this."

"I'm not sure Winston, whose fault it was but I know that there was probably a human behind the way that Progenitor guy was messing with all those mutants. We wouldn't abuse our own kind!" Morgan's voice was passionate.

"I guess there could've," Winston said as he eased himself back frm the slightly eccentric empassioned statement. As he did he also sliced the plastic from the choclate box and opened it, gazing over the large collection inside it, before picking one out from the corner and biting into it.

"Ch'u wa't one?" He said with a half-mouth full, offering the box to Morgan.

"No thank you, Food and I aren't so friendly these days - I saw a little too much on Monday to be able to stomach it." Morgan smiled.

"You were amazing from all accounts Winston."

"'hat w'a they're sa'in?" Winston said with a grin as he swallowed down the chunk of confectionary, "Now, that could be about any of my numerous amazing feats but I'm going to guess this is regarding the scuffle."

Winston winced slightly as he shifted his position before proudly beaming, "Yea, that's right, I was going to tell you we're tying now, 4 kills each."

"Sorry to rain on your parade but I am still one up." Morgan grinned cheerfully.

"Just that you dealt a heap of damage to some nasties, you really won back some respect."

"Aww, you've soaked my parade, drowned its elephants and everything." Winston pouted before resuming his smile.

"That's nice to know, that I'm no-longer as...um... so you got that one up on me in the dorm brawls eh?"

"Much less of a pariah." Morgan patted Winston's hand with a gentle smile.

"You really did manage to make a bad first impression, Win. Whatever where you thinking? I know what its like to be angry but... crazy, just crazy."

"It's not like it was all my fault, they started it on both occasions, they could've ended it whenever they wanted," Winston said defensivley despite Morgans soothing tone, "they were all just jerks."

"Maybe you were looking for a reason to fight with someone... is it possible that your power causes heightened aggression or something?" She asked gently, trying to get him to consider the possibility that he was at least partially to blame.

"Um, I wouldn't know," Winston said, having been snapped off his increasingly aggressive train of thought, he put what was left of his piece of choclate into his mouth, "I guess, I'd had a pretty boring day both days and, are you sure you don't want one of these? They're good."

Just eat them and enjoy them, stop trying to distract me. Morgan chastised him gently with mindspeak lapsing back into it through habit.

"Its just that you need to figure your power out, what it does to you, for you.. trust me on this, if you don't try to understand your powers it can really hinder you." Morgan smiled and gave his hand a squeeze before putting it back in her lap.

Winston smiled, "Thanks, I get what you mean, but I've had people studying me for two years, I've got the jist of how my power works."

"And was that-?" Winston stopped mid-sentence, you in my head?

Oh, yes, sorry...

".. sorry, its a force of habit, Connor and I have been speaking that way for so long that I don't notice when I do it. I will stay out of your head, its not polite to do that without permission." Morgan apologised embarrassed, her face red.

"Um, it's fine, I've just never seen real...whatever that's called in action, well, not seen, but, I thought you could just make images in heads."

Hey! Morgan! You read me?

Morgan giggled at Winston.

Yes I read you. But only because you said it was fine, okay?

"They call us telepaths, there's a lot of different things we can do and I am very untrained in my powers, still learning what I am capable of."

Okay

"That's neat," Winston said, mouth agape in admiration as he moved an arm across to scratch his shoulder, hitting a scab and causing him to shudder, "Ow, so, Connor's the guy that brought me in here, and the 'special friend' you mentioned back at the zub, right? I should probably thank him."

"Sir doesn't really go in for thanks and the like, though it probably wouldn't hurt. Respect is a big deal to him." Morgan tried to explain Connor the simplest way she knew how to and still found it wanting. She flinched when he seemed to hurt.

"Are you in pain, Win? Is it terrible?"

"No, it's, that's fine." Winston said as he rubbed the wound, as though doing so could make it feel better, "You call him sir?"

"That doesn't seem fine Winston.. are you sure you don't want me to get you some pain relief?" Morgan rose to her feet concerned, ready to leave in search of a nurse.

"No, don't go!" Winston said, probably louder than he had to, before realising that fact himself and becoming slightly embarrased, "the-the staff here wouldn't give me anything for something like this anyways, the medicene is bad for you or something along those lines and this isn't too painful compared to what a few of the others are going through."

A frown creased Morgan's brow and she perched on the edge of Winston's bed picking up his hand in her own and stroking her fingers along his palm

"I call him Sir because sometimes there's no other word that will suffice for who he is too me." Morgan's voice was sweet as very carefully concentrated on realising a little happy magic into him, just the tiniest of traces to take his edge off. She continued talking so that he would focus on her voice rather than any vibes her power might give off.

"He looks after me, takes care of me and guides me. I look after him too in little lesser ways, though Sir thinks they are just as important for they show him how I feel."

Winston smiled at the touch, feeling her power curl around his mind. The room seemed to droop a little and everytime he blinked he could see the mountain encircled reflective lake.

"Sounds...nice." He almost whispered, his eyes focused on the ceiling fan which had started to fling colours onto the wall, "I should...thank sir...you've got a good thing...you and sir."

Morgan kept stroking his hand though she didn't use her powers any longer, using the physical touch to keep him grounded.

"Yes we do. I am very lucky." She smiled happily to herself.

"I think I do...have a reason to fight...it's...it's kinda like this, it feels...amazing, it always does..." Winston mumbled, almost in a trance-like state, as her power slowly melted away.

"Um...thank you." Win said as he regained his composure.

Morgan pressed her fingers to her lips and slipped back into her own seat silently.

"Adrenalin, endorphins, all the feel good things. That makes sense I suppose when one thinks about it."

"Yea, I guess." Winston smiled lazily, "though now I think about it, yours is a much nicer alternative, it hasn't turned me into a cut-up pariah."

"The happy smiley stuff is new to me. It wasn't always like this." Morgan smiled.

"Tell me about you?"

"Ok, well, I like long walks on the beach and getting caught in the rain," Winston joked, "What do you want to know?"

"I dunno. Don't friends talk and stuff?"

"Friends do," Winston contemplated the fact and then contemplated further conversation in a tone practically devoid of assurance, "I'm from Australia?"

"With the boomerangs and kangaroo's? Thats pretty neat. I'm from London.."

"With the Queen and..." Winston started off with mock over-enthusiasm though his voice then wavered slightly, "big fluffy hat wearing guards...yea, Australia was neat, but the cities, nowhere near as big as this place, read somewhere London by itself is meant to have the same population as Australia. I don't know if thats a good thing or not."

"It means that all the asshats are condensed in the one place." Morgan said with a sigh.

"There's not many nice people here, not human ones anyways.."