Averting Disaster

[Marta]

Marta took a step back as the unknown man formed a ball of fire above his hand and moved as if to throw it. Splash moved in front of her sensing danger. Nox moved in front of the other and pinned him against the wall. Marta heard the words he spoke, quiet but dangerous. Nox wasn’t happy.

Splash had raised her lips to show fangs, a slight rumble in her chest. No, Splash! It is okay. she thought to Splash. The wolf looked back at Marta, but stopped. When she sat on the floor, the wolf’s eyes stayed on the unknown man.

Marta’s golden eyes moved back and forth between Nox and the twitchy guy. Nox had asked if she was okay. ”Yeah I’m okay. A little startled but okay.” she looked at Nox. ”Im sorry, I didn’t mean to cause a problem.”

[Sasha]

In a flurry of motions Sasha's hand was pinned to the wall behind him and the cold look in Nox's eyes sent fear through Sasha' body. The power fluttered away and he was left feeling empty and devoid of all the colors of the world. He'd lost the power because of fear and manhandling. Why? But Sasha just stared up at the man who pinned his hand to the wall and totally ignoring him for the moment to check on the girl.

"You've done nothing wrong. Sasha's just a bit skittish. We won't bother you." Nox said in the same empty voice he'd used to tell him off. He turned back to Sasha and leveled an unemotional look at him. He wasn't angry. He wasn't sad. He wasn't even happy when he spoke. "Did you do that on purpose?"

"Do what on purpose?" Sasha asked truly having no idea what he meant.

"Did you touch the source of your power and create the fire on purpose or did you do it because you were afraid and it just happened."

Sasha shrugged. "I was holding the power like you told me to. The fire was in my control. I made it." Sasha's voice was a whiney and he knew it he stood up tall. He was a few inches taller than Nox and that made him puff his chest out a little more. "I made it!" He said proudly.

The look on Nox's face never changed but he nodded. "Good. You won't die them while I figure this out. Sasha." His voice was still cold but it was low and just for him. "Can you promise me you'll never draw more power than half of what you can. Can you promise me you won't let it hurt you?"

His voice didn't seem like it cared but there was a tenderness a warmth that seemed to be passed through to him. Like he cared but his voice said otherwise. "I'll try." Though he didn't quite understand how he'd even know.

Nox pointed to the threads still hanging in the middle of the room. "Practice the fine threads and make balls out of them. Master that and I can help you understand more. Just don't draw upon all your power."

"Are we done here?"

Nox shook his head. "Only if you want to be. You can practice here, follow the threads on the holo screen."

That didn't seem like much to do. Sasha stared at him as he moved from the mat to the girl who'd scared him. Her little dog was strange and still baring its teeth at him. Sasha wasn't sure if he wanted to stay. He wanted to learn. He looked back at the hologram hanging in the air and decided that was better than not knowing anything.

[Nox]

Nox left Sasha with a choice. He wasn't sure what he could teach him without the ability to touch the power himself. He tried again, but there was nothing. It made his whole body ache the loss of the power. He remembered the feelings as he walked towards the little girl who had prompted a fireball. "I'm Nox. You aren't one of the Blackthorns so you must be Marta. We met before haven't we?" Though Nox couldn't exactly remember from where but it wasn't long ago. He wasn't real good at remembering passing faces.

Nox knelt down in front of the little wolf at her side. He'd heard of some wolfkin having wolves as friends. Elyse had once asked for help for her pup. There was a stab of longing at the memories of Nova, though it wasn't a feeling that stayed long, lost in the sadness of his lost power. Though he didn't feel that as he should. The power was gone and he felt empty.

Nox held out his hand for the wolf to sniff. He didn't want to be alarming or send the dog into a frenzy, there wasn't much he could do if it did. His gun was locked up and his power... his power was gone.

[Marta]

Splash turned from the twitchy man, Sasha as Nox approached. It’s okay, Splash. Friend Marta thought to the wolf, who calmed down and sniffed the offered hand.

”Yes, I’m Marta. This is Splash. She’s a good girl - just very protective. I do online school here and at Kallisti with Sterling and the others,” Splash wouldn’t have reacted at all if Sasha hadn’t attempted to attack her. Marta nodded at his question of having met her. ”You came to Ricky’s bar when I lived in Mexico.”

When Marta had recognized Nox is Sterling’s video, she had come close to panicking. She was a little surprised this meeting didn’t have a similar effect, but her thoughts were on Nox’s scent. She had smelled it a great deal from Elyse in the past couple of days. Nox was sad.

”You’re sad,” she said, her eyes showing compassion. ”Why are you sad?”

[Sasha]

Sasha could hear the conversation without even trying. It was strange but he'd been right about that. Nox was talking with his back to him. He was trusting him. At least that seemed what it was.

He didn't trust the other man though. But Sasha did try to do the weave as instructed. But it was too hard. Sasha growled and threw his hands up. "I can't do this!"

[Nox]

Nox didn't remember Mexico much. It wasn't that long ago, but a lot had happened since then. And Dane sorta blurred everything else. He remembered the girl, Marta, though he hadn't remembered her name. But the man who was her guardian that was a different story. He probably should remember him, but there was a lot about other guys Nox chose to forget.

Nox turned around and sat on his ass wrapping his arms around his knees to watch Sasha. Nox couldn't see shit. He couldn't feel anything. And he was barely pissed about it. He felt the edges of the anger, but it was mostly loss he felt. And when Marta asked Nox shrugged. "I'm always sad. Right now I'm not much of anything. Sorta numb. But there is a distinct loss." Nox said with a soft voice with little emotion to it.

Sasha growled and whined and threw his hands up. Nox chuckled, not at Sasha, and not because it was funny. He didn't feel anything really about it, but it was a default reaction. "Don't try so hard. Draw a little power, make a thin thread and try the weave. The more power you draw the harder it is to control." Nox wished there was a way he could show him.

"Show me!"

Nox sighed and dropped his head to his arms as he tried again to find the power, to search deep with in. He even prayed to the fucking gods. Please, give me back the power. I'm nothing with out it. But it was no use. It was gone. Completely and utterly gone. Nox raised his head. "I can't. I'm sorry. The power is gone."

[Marta]

Marta wanted to just give Nox a hug. No one should be always sad. Even when she was dealing with the brothel it hadn't been sadness - well it mostly hadn't been sadness; it had been fear. She noted as he turned that one of his arms was missing. She just wished she could do something to help.

Marta moved up next to him to sit on his right side - with the good arm, and took his hand giving it a squeeze. Splash moved with her and lay on the ground next to her. The wolf was no longer interested in Sasha and Marta could see why. He was dangerous for sure, but it mostly came from the fact that he was skittish - and boy did he whine a lot.

"I'm a thirteen year old girl and I don't whine this much...geez! she thought and Splashed huffed - a sound that Marta knew was laughter coming from the wolf. She still sometimes sent messages without thinking.

She knew nothing about powers like this, but she caught Nox's meaning quickly. For some reason, he couldn't use it anymore. As scared as she was about her own powers, she knew it would hurt if they were gone, especially since she learned more about them in the dream the other night. Nox probably felt like he had lost another limb. She squeezed his hand again.

Marta turned her golden eyes on Sasha. She knew enough about supernatural powers to know that this guy was no where near focused enough to do anything. "Dude - you need to relax a bit. Way too tense. You're not going to be able to do anything like that," she didn't add that he could quit whining so much. That was annoying.

[Legione Sumus]

Jackson li

It was so noisy on the third floor. Ara and Gen were rolling around the shared space giggling and laughing. Noah was still in the shower taking his sweet time. And Ashton wasn't home. Liv was tending to Lily downstairs for Nox. Sophina and Emma were doing whatever girls do in their room where music flooded out.

Jackson went down stairs, he could have stopped in the living room and played video games, but Lily was sleeping and with Nox out of the house it was best to let the baby sleep until she woke on her own. Liv had the same idea as she glared at him before he rounded the elevator and headed down into the basement. He expected it to be mostly empty, Marta or Sterling might be there waiting until they all made their way to Kallisti for their work and lessons. It was much better than the Blackthorn mansion even if they all had to share a room. It was better than the digs they had then.

Nox was sitting on the floor next to Marta and a stranger was throwing his hands in the air whining about being unable to do something. There was something different in Nox's voice and he didn't really know the guy too well, but it was different.

Jackson stooped down and wrapped an arm around Nox's shoulder in a side hug. "I thought you were at Kallisti. Lily's still asleep." Jackson stood up and waved. "Hey Marta." and then he went over to the bench press and took off most of the plates on the bar before sitting down to lift some himself. He didn't know who was the last to use it, but it wasn't Nox, he didn't even have his arm attached.

[Sasha]

Sasha didn't like to be lectured. He frowned and stomped off the mats and away from the holo screen. "Oriena and Zeke said you could help me!" He stormed out of the basement stomping on the stairs as he ran away. He was good at running away. If he wouldn't help him then he'd find someone else to help!

[Nox]

Another set of feet trode down the basement stairs and an arm wrapped around his shoulders. Nox looked up to see one of the fosters. All of them once they'd felt safe in the house were the touchy feely kind of kids who liked hugs and cuddles and their sleeping arrangements in a shared bed didn't bother them at all. Nox often found a handful of them curled up with him in bed after he'd come home from Kallisti or Almaz. He almost never spent the night truly alone since he'd come back from the US. If they weren't in his bed, Lily was. She spent most of her nights on his chest because he fell asleep before she did.

Sasha stormed out of the basement as Jackson sat down at the bench. "I was. I was going for a... run." Sasha's outburst left Nox wanting to follow him until he realized the reason he'd run into Sasha was because he needed to distract the horde.

Nox stood up with one graceful movement -- an easy roll to standing from the seated position on the ground.

Jackson rolled his eyes "Showoff."

Nox didn't bother with rolling his eyes in return as he stated in no uncertain terms "The horde is gone." Nox looked up towards the ceiling even though there really was no need to do that "Sky can you access the data Wicked has for the nanobots in me?"

"I do. Would you like me to display them here?"

"No upstairs in the living room please." Nox had seen how Marta had looked at Jackson when he sat down to do his workout. He's leave them alone or they could come upstairs and see what he was about to do but either way. Nox gave Marta a side hug and waved at Jackson muttering to himself. "The horde is gone. And the power is gone..."