The X-Project

This afternoon there was an incident in the medlab which I think needs our attention asap. Regarding our resident Sabrina.

I've just been down in the medlab running check ups on Moira, Hank, Jean and Clarice, as well as Tommy and Haroun. Remy was brought in today in a critical condition, and during the course of his treatment Amanda pulled her magic healing trick. After freezing the staff to the spot so they couldn't stop her since it was way too much damage for her to heal. She didn't have nearly enough power to do it, so she used what was available.

The people around her.

I don't profess to even begin to understand what Amanda does half the time, but as far as I can tell, and Moira might back me up here, she's somehow drawn on the energy of the people around her. Moira, Hank, Jean. Clarice and Tommy all experienced momentary weakness, dizziness and fatigue. Haroun wasn't effected, so I'm guessing the cyberware got in the way. And from looking at the journals, Manuel was effected too.

Remy's in a serious condition, but stable.

I can't even begin to explain how furious I am. Amanda's shown callous disregard for the safety of the medical staff and the patients in medlab, plus her own boyfriend. If there was any way to make the charges stick, I'd have her charged with assault, but given that that's not an option, we need to address this ourselves. I don't think the other doctors will argue with me if I suggest a ban from medlab, for the safety of all concerned, but she needs to understand she can't go around doing this sort of thing, no matter what the reason.

One day people around this place will learn that Sleep Deprivation Is Stupid. Like I did.

Jean's been working herself to the bone with Paige - she's sleeping now, and will probably well into tomorrow. Charles will be covering the work with Paige - Kylun, Alison? I know she trusts you two and feels more comfortable with you. Help would be appreciated since I don't want to upset her by barging in.

And no, I didn't use the tranq gun this time. Or the sleeping tablets in her coffee. Stop looking at me like that.

I'm heading to Washington tomorrow for my debriefing with the taskforce, as well as making a few pit stops. Kurt's going with me. Should be back late tomorrow night - classes are covered with study halls and I'll be having an open office day for questions tomorrow. I've already let my classes know.

Full report will be given to the team leaders when I get back, and it'll be put on the database the same as my other reports.

I've just gotten a page from Pete directing me to see to Scott - he's been knocked unconscious. I'm not sure how or who or what, but best to be paranoid and make sure the kids are safe. On my way to Scott now.

Expanding on my post in the main community journal: this condition Hank has is effecting his mind. Something is rewriting his DNA, and effecting his neural pathways as a result. It's progressive - over the next couple of weeks there will be noticeable changes in his ability to think and react, and if we don't find a cure, it will eventually be fatal.

Hank's resting for now, but he's worried about the kids, and the effect this is going to have on the ones who value intelligence especially - Doug, Kitty, Forge and Paige. He's asked that we keep an especial eye on them; that's Hank for you. always worried about everyone else. I've sent word to Moira to find out when she can get back here, but I'm waiting on a reply. All I know is I'm going to need help on this one.

Once Moira's back we'll be able to arrange coverage of shifts and classes, but in the meantime I need someone to cover mine for me tomorrow - I've got a bunch of reading material for my various classes, they can spend it in the library, I just need someone to supervise - and someone to take Hank's Computer Sciences class.

Sorry if I've missed anything, or I've been a bit too brutally frank - I've been up for thirty-six hours now and am trying to do six hundred things at once. Queue for questions starts on the right.

Moira tells me Cain regained consciousness today, and while he's going to need a lot in the way of speech and physical therapy, he's alert and responsive. Not much more than that at the moment.

Nate's doing a little better - the virus is still knocking him around, but his TK is starting to make up the gap. His vision is still out, however - we're hopeful it'll return, but there's no indication of how long that will be. There was an incident earlier with Jubilee and a shared dream (nightmare, really), but Nathan's fine. Jubilee is asleep on my office couch as I write this; poor kid was terrified, and I admit to giving her a sedative to calm her down. She should be okay tomorrow.

I think we're getting better at this crisis thing.

Alison and I were involved in something of an incident in New York today. I took her to a bar after sorting out her statement with the FBI re the stalker and the incident at the blood drive, and we got into a spot of bother with some local bigots. No-one hurt (except for them) and the boys from the Bureau are dealing with it, but I thought I should mention it in case of repercussions. Officially I don't think there's a problem - I spoke to Agent Dobrinsky for quite a while on the phone when we got back.

Alison's fine, just a bit tired and worn-out from what turned out to be a far more exciting day than I'd planned. I think the staff here have a barfight curse. And Haroun's not going to let me live this down, is he?

I need one of the telepaths down to medlab now. I've got Manuel and Amanda down here, much the worse for wear - they've been out, obviously, and someone's definitely taken exception to them. Manuel's EEG is reading very strangely, and I think there's some sort of neurological damage, but if one of the psis could take a peek, see if there's something I'm missing, I'd be grateful.

Further update when I have more.

We've cleared the 24 hour window and Alison is still with us. We're not out of the woods yet, but I think she's got a fighting chance now.

She's stepped down from bleeding lasers to bleeding light. Moira and I still can't get near her - she's running white-hot - but at least she's not burning holes in the floor. And the walls. And the ceiling. You get the picture.

We've got white-noise generators set up, but as we've discovered, Alison needs some ambient noise to survive. She went into cardiac arrest last night when we cut the sound completely, but fortunately Paige was there to do CPR. We're also experimenting with various types of materials for laser/light proof equipment/supplies, since she melts anything that comes near her short of ruby quartz and vibranium, and she still has a number of physical injuries inflicted by Sabretooth.

Moira and Paige are currently napping, since they were both up all night. Shiro's acting as my hands if Alison needs anything.

If there's any way of getting Hank here asap, someone do it. We really need him on this one.

All right, saying we have a problem is probably a bit on the obvious side, but it's nearly 2 in the morning and I reserve the right to be obvious.

The problem, fellow faculty, is this: we've lost touch with the kids.

Twice in the past week I've had separate kids tell me that the reason they don't ask for help is that they feel that other people are more important, or that we're too busy and they don't want to add to it. In the past couple of months, we've had one kid nearly blow himself up because he didn't trust us to help with his problem, another have a relapse into an addiction that nearly resulted in another student being killed, despite copious warning signs. Another who managed to hide the fact she still has some kind of connection to a demon dimension (and no, the number of times I type that doesn't change how ridiculous it sounds to me...) and nearly was eviscerated because of it. And today we nearly lost another because he decided he was the only one who was capable of stopping the shooting today. By putting himself in the firing line.

We're losing them here, people, and if we don't do something to address it, the next time could be the time our luck runs out. It's something that's going to take more than a couple of outings to an amusement park to fix. We need to start establishing relationships with these kids, talk to them, find out what's bothering them, whether they approach us first or not, because we sure as hell have seen how effective that is. Seriously, something has to change, or otherwise we're looking at the telepaths doing probes on the kids' heads every minute, and that's just ridiculous.

Down in the medlab, we've got a mentoring system with the helpers. We each have one of them assigned to us, based on interests and personalities, and we keep an eye on them, teach them, and just sometimes talk about nothing in particular. I know Nathan has a similar thing going on with his tribe of misfits - Angelo and Amanda have been in far less trouble and more inclined to ask for help because of it.

I don't know if it's feasible, extending this sort of thing to include the student body and faculty as a whole, or even if it's a good idea, which is why I'm tossing it up here. Sending the idea up the flagpole and see who salutes, I suppose. And it wouldn't be compulsory, either for student or teacher, since it doesn't work if forced. And it's not a matter of being a counsellor or anything similar - it's just a matter of touching base with the kids, showing them we're available to talk to, about anything. Anything serious, steer them straight to Leonard - it's what I ended up doing tonight with one of mine, after all.

So, is this crazy 2am talk, or do I have even a vague grasp on something here? I do know we have to do something. The next kid I have to give CPR to may not be as lucky as Doug.