Heading down for surgery...

[forge]

The day was looking like pure gold. Last night the mystery was solved, the attacker beaten, and a kid was left off the hook. This morning he'd left a note for Kurt in his room regarding the Pryor/Gray situation, and now his schedule was looking a bit more clear.

Besides... it seemed as if Logan was finally putting the big boy pants on and trying to make sure the place was well at hand. This meant that Forge could go back to doing what he was best at: Mad Science!

Today was THE day, anyway. Forge was going to put the cybernetic leg on. He was rolling his way to the elevator, heading down to the Med Lab. There he'd meet Joshua Foley and Rayen... well, and Lorna Dane by default. Which, given the nature of the situation, suited him just fine. His sister and Lorna had remarkably similar powers, and that meant they could likely do twice the job that one alone could... this could be very useful in lining the electronics and conductors of the leg up with his body's own bio-electric rhythm.

He wasn't looking forward to the home-made surgery, having to cut the skin off of his stump and physically shove a cap of steel with prods and whatnot into his body, but the anesthetics should help.

Besides, Josh would be there to heal the wound up instantly... it was only a brief time while Rayen did her thing.

He couldn't wait! Two legs again!

[lixer]

Despite his mutation, Foley was not a surgeon, and the thought of having to be present for this makeshift surgery was making him a little queasy. Sure, when someone was hurt accidentally it was no problem to just run over and touch them, but to watch the man actually cut into his own leg and have to stand by until he was given the ok to heal him up was making his stomach churn. He hoped he wouldn't pass out in the lab.

"Yo, Boss," Josh gave a mock-salute as the doors slid open to let him into the lab. He was actually becoming quite familiar with this part of the mansion and knew where most everything was, although he never had reason to use any of it. "So, you ready for this? Be all bipedal and shit again."

Foley made sure to keep his eyes away from the instruments that had been laid out for the surgery. God, he'd have to close his eyes like a kid while they did that part.

[conduit]

Rayen wasn't entirely convinced this was the right way to go. But Bishop and Forge seemed to think it was not only a great idea, but acted as if it was some war story in the making.

Personally, she just hoped she wasn't going to pass out.

Nodding to Elixir with a bit of a smile, she looked tense and a little pale, even for her olive complexion. Offering a bit more of a smile to her brother just to be a good sport, she sighed.

"You ready?"

[forge]

Forge couldn't help but grin at Josh as he came in and offered up his own salutations. “There he is! Joshua futhamuckin' Foley, the elixer to all my woes!”

Right on his heels, Rayen came in, looking just as queasy as Josh did.

“Are you ready?”

“Hell yeah I'm ready. Been waiting for this moment for quite a while, actually. Oh come on! You guys look like you've walked over your own graves. This is nothin'! Well, actually it's everything, and I can't express enough how ridiculously glad I am you guys are here to help me out.” He couldn't help but grin like a kid in a candy store... to just think, soon he was going to be part machine!

Then the door opened, and a handsome older man with glasses entered the room, studying an x-ray chart. He looked up at the others, and offered a smile.

“Oh! Oh! Hey guys, this is Dr. Stephen Bauer – he's an old friend of mine from way back. We actually went to MIT together for a bit, but he dropped to become a plastic surgeon. Pure genius, this cat, and an ace at makin' old people look young, and fat people skinny.”

The doctor shook his head with a chuckle. “Actually, I consider myself something more than a hollywood fake-breast maker. I specialize in post surgery repair, and burn grafts. I'm not the beauty wizard that Bandero would like to say.- and even if I were, I think he's beyond repair.” He held out his hand to them both. “A pleasure to meet you both, and a pleasure to be here. As a mutant it's an honor to be in the school – and in this lab you have. Pretty impressive stuff.”

[conduit]

Rayen grinned, shaking the man's hand. "It's pretty sweet isn't it. Wish I could take credit for it." She winked at her brother.

"Alright. In case Bandero hasn't told you, I'm an electropath. At least.. as long as I'm around him." She smirked. "I'll be sensing his pattern- which I'm sure he's told you is a bit different than others, it's something about our mutation- and I'll tell him where there's a connection to be made with the wiring in his leg." Rayen took a deep breath. "Hopefully I won't pass out." She grimaced.

[lixer]

Josh smiled and shook hands with the doctor, glad that there was someone who actually knew what he was doing present. And someone who wouldn't pass out. That was good news all around.

He listened politely to Rayen and then took it as his turn. "I'm a healer," man, that sounded so lame compared to an 'electropath' - he needed to find a better word for what he was. "I'm here for the post-op part. And maybe reviving Rayen if she passes out... assuming I'm not already passed out myself."

Alright, he was ready to get this shit over with. The sooner started, the sooner it was over and he could do his healing thing and not have to worry about passing out anymore.

[forge]

Dr. Bauer nodded to each, and chuckled a bit at the mention of passing out. “Don’t worry, it’s really not as bad as all that. I’ll do my best to screen the blood from you, and Bandero won’t feel a thing.”

“Shit no, I won’t – otherwise I’ll probably pass out.” Forge chimed in, adjusting machinery they’d be using for the surgery.

The doctor smirked, and shook his head. “Bandero has fully briefed me on this process, and we worked up a basic plan of action. Given all of your abilities, this procedure really shouldn’t take that long. The hardest part will be guiding the connections where they need to be, which will indeed be your role, Rayen. Bandero himself can move the machinery using his own power… the only complication will be the bone-graft. Bandero’s design is impressive, but I’ll need to manually bolt the replacement bone to what’s left of the real bone. This will prevent the implant from easily being removed, or accidentally tearing loose.”

As Forge changed into his gown, commenting that no one should make fun of his Batman underwear (which he did actually have – all black with a Batman logo on the crotch), the Doctor went through with the other two exactly what he was looking for. The first hour or so would be the bolt getting placed on the bone, then Josh would seal it and set it using his power. Then Rayen would use hers, to guide Bandero to the exact bioelectric pathways he uses to control his leg, and the control cap will be placed into the leg then. Following that, It’d be up to Josh to heal the leg up completely.

Soon enough, they were ready to begin. Dr. Bauer smiled at the other two.

“You guys can stay in here for my part, or if you’d be more comfortable, you can wait outside? I’ll let you know when you’re needed.”

* * * *

In truth, the bolting took a little less than an hour. The two were called back in, Josh to re-seal the bone, Rayen to begin her difficult task of aligning the electric current.

"Amazing... I didn't feel a thing." Forge said, a lopsided smile on his sweaty face. He looked amazingly nervous.

[lixer]

"Alright man, you look good," Josh came in smiling, glad that they had been allowed to leave the room for the first part of the procedure. The leg looked interesting, laying on the table under him; attached, but not really working yet. It would be kinda strange to be bionic - Josh was automatically glad that his mutation prevented that from ever being an option for him. Hopefully.

"You ready Boss?" Josh strolled over and clapped Forge on the shoulder in a motion of camraderie that sent his concious immediately into the other man's body. He travelled down the blood vessels to the end of the leg, where the bone graft had just been placed and the area was bleeding rather freely. First things first, tie up those vessels; no use loosing extra blood when you didn't have to. He had to be careful not to heal everything, however, or Rayen would have a hard time getting it all connected in a minute.

So instead, Foley switched his attention to the bone, releasing calcium from the muscles surrounding it, making the part of the leg that was still present twitch uncontrollably. Sorry Boss, he thought to himself, but the calcium was needed to heal the bone. It took only moments to secure the calcium and surround the edge of the graft to the bone, making a large bump of new bone, but it would be stronger than god.

With the first part finished, Foley raced out of Forge's body, his head jerking back as his conciousness re-emerged in his own mind. He gave a grin, "you're good to go."

[conduit]

Rayen nodded, smiling. "I guess it's my go then."

Rolling over the stool, she sat down and quieted herself.

You've never done this since I've been with you.

I know, I've not really had a reason to... or maybe I've been nervous.

It's okay... I'll stay quiet.

Putting her hands together as if in prayer, she took a deep breath. Rubbing her palms for a moment, she shook them to get rid of latent static and slipped her hand beside her to run over the metal cap over his leg stump.

"Gestost yuwa dan'ta, anlista yuhuvsga." She spoke softly in Cheyenne to her brother, sinking her consciousness into the electrical pattern of her brother's being. With an obvious release of tension in her muscles, her head fell forward.

Rayen reached out her senses, pulling on a current and amplifying the charge. Unbeknownst to her, a feedback charge set off around her, creating an orb of warbling electromagnetic charge several feet in diameter.

"Okay, I'm sending an impulse out." As she carefully reached her free hand out towards the wall and pulled voltage from a wall socket, the electricity zapped through the free air to her fingers.

The moment it reached her, the orb electrified, discharging into every electrical component in the room. Lorna's digitized voice shrieked out of Rayen's mouth.

[forge]

Forge suddenly lost all sense of the surrounding tech as an electrical surge was pounding through his body. He shook violently, vibrating with the force. The sensation was brain-numbing, and it was taking all his will to focus his electrokenesis into preventing a totally fatal incident.

“G-g-g-g-g-ah!! R-Rayen…” He stammered, barely able to voice words.

[Admin]

The scene just kept getting creepier as Rayen went to work, and before Josh had time to even react a surge of electicity went through the room.

"Holy shit!" he yelled and froze so he wouldn't touch anything and get himself fried as well.

[conduit]

Rayen gasped hard, her eyes flying open, and immediately shut down the connection. The pulse stopped at the electromagnetic field swallowed itself and disappeared.

She caught her breath, urging the doctor and Josh. "Check him!!!"

[lixer]

As the electricity disappated suddenly from the room, Foley was torn between which sibling to go to first. Instinct was to see to Rayen, who had actually been "struck" as it were by the electricity, but her words put him in motion towards her brother instead.

"Hang on, Boss," Foley muttered and grabbed one of Forge's wrists and dove so quickly into the other man that his body gave off a flash of bright gold light before setting into a simmering shimmer that wouldn't fade.

He was back in the blood vessels again, but this time the blood was stagnant, not flowing along in pulses as it should. Cardiac arrest. Foley made his way quickly to the heart and used his energy to give it a good pump - like a surgeon hand-pumping a heart, without requiring the use of hands. Comon Boss, he pleaded silently as the heart remained still, and Foley diverted oxygen from the little-needed organs to the brain and heart muscles. He pumped again, diverted more oxygen, realized that the available oxygen was running out rather quickly and abandoned the heart for a moment to jump to the lungs. Deep breath. Jump back, pump heart, jump, deep breath, jump, pump, breath, pump, breath, pump... it was a few moments before he realized that his help was no longer needed: Forge was breathing on his own and his heart was beating steadily.

What else? He searched the rest of the body, scanning quickly. Minor burns, bleeding, tie up that artery, new skin cells here, muscles spasms, more oxygen there, break down the lactic acid. God Boss, would you stop moving! Foley forcefully froze all the muscles, letting the calcium deplete itself out to remain rigid, before he released his hold on them and the body went limp.

Heart: check. Lungs: check. Brain functioning: check. Muscles: relaxed, check. No more spasms, regular breath and heartbeat, bleeding staunched, burns healed. Good.

Foley snapped back into his own body with a gasp and released Forge's wrist as if it were hot. He sat down hard on the metal floor of the medlab and leaned back against whatever was propping him up from behind, his head tilted back and jaw slack as his own body recovered from the stress of trying to bring someone back from the dead.

[conduit]

Rayen's eyes didn't leave Forge until she saw his eyes open, her heart beating wildly but not due to any injury. She squeezed Bandero's hands before watching Josh fall to the floor. Rolling the few inches to him, she checked his pulse and pulled his hair back from his face- more to hold his head up in case it fell than anything.

"Josh. Josh. You alright? Oh god I'm so sorry..."

Another voice left Rayen's lips. A different sound, digitized and mechanical. Another speech pattern. Without a doubt, someone else entirely. "I apologize as well. We should have tested these things out first. Our powers must react with one another. I... tried to stay back but as you pulled on Bandero's grid Rayen, mine was pulled into it at as well."

She looked at all three of the men. Rayen spoke again. "I'm sorry..."

[forge]

Forge coughed, sitting up on his elbows. He passed a glance at the Doctor, who took a respectful step back. Forge’s eyes were half closed, and he felt like complete hell. He’d been dead. He knew he had died there, at least for a moment. For the second time in his life, Rayen had electrocuted him to death.

He shook his head at Foley and Rayen. “No, Rayen, Lorna. It’s okay – don’t worry – we should’ve tested that, but we didn’t. Thank God for Josh. Hell, thank you Josh… you just brought me back to life.”

He nodded his thanks to the man. “You really are an Elixer, man. Shit, you’re a Phoenix Down… but that doesn’t sound as cool – and has all kinds of negative connotations around the school. I owe you one.”

Bauer stepped back into the circle. “That was… amazing… but I hate to be a killjoy, we can’t just leave Bandero’s leg half-finished.”

Forge nodded. “Yeah… do you guys have enough juice to finish this?”

It wasn’t what he wanted to do, as he was still partially dazed. He looked up to Rayen. “Do you think you can still use your ability as we planned?”

He wanted to continue before he changed his mind. There would be plenty of time to freak out about the fact that he'd just died when his leg wasn't a shattered mess.

[lixer]

"Josh. Josh. You alright? Oh god I'm so sorry..."

The healer closed his eyes for a moment, face still dazed when he opened them again, but at least he looked coherant. "Y..yeah. I'm fine." God he wanted to go to sleep. He was suddenly very sleepy. Too much healing at a time made him that way - he'd felt it after Maggot too, although a gaping hole was somehow easier to fix than electrocution.

Oh he didn't want to do that again. Crap. They did have to finish Forge's leg though. Maybe... maybe he could just hold on to the guy while they zapped him, so at least he'd already be scanning him if anything happened. And he could use a good jolt of energy to wake him up - at least getting zapped by Ms. Hotwire over there might give him the kick he needed.

Note to self: don't let Rayen anywhere near you unless you want to try bringing yourself back from the dead. Got it.

Josh sat himself up and pressed on his temples before shaking his head and giving a weak smile. "Alright, let's finish this shit so I can go to bed."

[conduit]

Rayen looked as if she had just killed a bus load of three year olds. Having almost caused her brother's death once in her life, doing it once more, with feeling, was once more too many.

Oh god I can't do this.

It's only going to be worse if you don't continue now Rayen. Just don't pull current like you did last time.

Rayen closed her eyes tight.

I can't!!!

Rayen, listen to me. It's alright. I'll take more conscious control over it. I'm sure you and I could do two things at once in the same body- let's give it a try, huh? If there's any sign of a feedback, we'll stop.

Look at Josh. He's looking at me like I'm a danger to him.

Well we kind of are, Rayen....

Oh god, oh GOD! I can't do this... I can't kill him Lorna!!

Her face contorted for a moment, tears threatening, then disappearing entirely. Logan, had he been present, would have known the look on her face with haunting clarity. It was not altogether different than the shift Professor Xavier's face had made when Jean had briefly taken over to speak through him.

Lorna looked out through Rayen's eyes, and gave Bandero a small, comforting smile. The digitized voice was, of course, not his sister.

"We've figured it out, Bandero. Are you okay? Do you think you're okay to continue?"

[forge]

Forge looked his sister, suddenly realizing how terrible she must be feeling. He could see it on her face, she looked absolutely devastated. She looked… she looked something like someone else.

Then Lorna spoke to him.

“Ummm… Okay, Lorna?” he said, head cocked to the side. “Is Rayen still in there, Lorna? Are you sure this is a good idea?”

The sudden though that she would keep control over his sister sent a shock of terror to his very core.

[conduit]

"Rayen's alright. Upset," her smile was sympathetic. "Understandably, but we know this needs to be taken care of."

She rolled the chair back over to Bandero and patted his hand.

Nodding to the doctor, she looked at Forge's knee and concentrated for a moment. "If you don't mind Bandero, I'm going to go ahead and pull the wires through myself. I think it will save time and reduce the risk of electrocuting you again."

Lighting up the areas where his bioelectric field traced his nervous system, she ran subtle current through them, jittering. What no one else knew was that she was pulling from Rayen's own bioelectric field- twisting her ability to magnify the current and pushing it through the fluid mass of her body. Essentially, Lorna had created a battery out of Rayen's person.

She frowned, pulling wires up into Forge's flesh one by one.

[forge]

Forge had frowned at Lorna's comforting, but then put on the best face he could toward letting her know he was grateful.

In truth, he was grateful, but more than that, he was worried sick. He was starting to get that feeling you had around the criminally insane... wanting them to think everything was okay, but in truth you just didn't want them to hurt you or your loved ones.

Right now, Lorna had control of his sister's body. As she used her magnetic powers, something Forge remembered from her files, to pull the wires into his nervous system, he was doing his best to figure out what he could do to seperate the two as soon as possible.

He needed her out of there if he was ever going to rest easy again.