seekevolution | The Amulet

"We have them done," Bruce offers. "JARVIS has been taking care of that over the last few hours. ...I don't know why Tony has all of this built into his AI but I don't question his genius. Just his sanity at times." He has a feeling Mohinder might not be happy about being scanned without his knowledge because only now does he realize Tony probably never told the Indian.

"I didn't know Matt was a telepath." He knows the name, Mohinder has mentioned him, but this is new!

"Quite the powerful one," Mohinder says with a fond smile. "He and his wife live in Los Angeles with their son. We've fallen a bit out of touch." Mostly because Molly hadn't really understood how Matt could have priorities outside of her. Children are self-centred, and understandably so. Speaking of-- "My daughter-- Mister Stark offered to bring her out. Is that offer still on the table? I've spoken with her on the telephone a bit but I promised years ago that I wouldn't leave her side and--"

He's dangerous, he knows that. But she ought to be safe with Bruce.

"You don't need to look after her. She's bright and will stay out of the way."

Bruce decides to make a bit of a decision himself, regardless of what Tony might want right now. "She's welcome here. Don't worry, Mohinder. I'll take care of her." He enjoys children a great deal and he and Molly have become friends to a degree since he and Mohinder started working together.

"Tony will just have to deal with a little one in the Tower." Giving a warm smile. "We just need to just make sure she doesn't touch you."

"She's twelve. You'll have a harder time getting her not to sneak out and try to see the city," Mohinder says with a half smile. "We lived in Brooklyn until a few years ago. I'm sure she misses it here. The zoo especially."

He's still said nothing about being scanned. He understands why. And he understands why he's alone. He still feels horribly guilty for the things that have happened because of him, however. His hands curl around one of the tools on the desk and JARVIS informs Bruce of a heart rate spike.

"Twelve is a little old to go out on her own," a pause, thinking, "unless perhaps if we sent JARVIS with her." Bruce shakes his head. "This is up to you as her father."

"Either way, can you get those scans of Matt up to me so I can take a look at them?"

"Oh, right yes. New York is a dangerous place. She thinks she's twenty years old, though," Mohinder laughs. Children grow up quickly. Much more quickly when you've only been minding them for a few years. Molly's more grown up than the lot of them, likely. Her young life has been filled with danger from the very start.

Mohinder keys in passwords for Bruce and sends them up to his friend's terminal.

"That ought to unlock my computer and show you where the files or kept. You might also give Matt a call. He's an amicable fellow. Just-- I'd rather you not tell him what I've done."

"I don't know how I feel about bothering Matt unless we are desperate. The man has a life separated from all of this mess; I'm not about to drag him back in." Bruce, even as he speaks, he's remotely accessing Mohinder's computer.

"Where are these files I'm looking for?" Bruce asks. But then he goes quieter, frowning as he searches. "...have you thought about what you will do if this is permanent? I know someone you could train with, if he's willing..."

Edited 2013-12-11 21:41 (UTC)

"You should see them in the folder marked 'Company,'" Mohinder says, glad that Bruce is willing to leave Matt completely out of it. Though, by completely... Perhaps he wouldn't have minded someone to talk to that knew how he felt.

So when Bruce follows up with being trained, Mohinder is both a little stunned and afraid.

"Bruce, if this is permanent, you and I both know that I will finish out my live exactly where I am. I am much too dangerous."

Bruce's hand misses it's swipe entirely at Mohider's declaration. He stares towards the feed, needing a second to find his voice. "No, you won't! We will find a method to make sure you are a free man. I promise you, Professor Xavier will be able to help if there is no way to remove this."

Actually... Bruce looks at the screen. "If this is something mental, he very well may be able to help no matter what."

Mohinder doesn't bother to look up at Bruce's image coming through on his own screen. He can tell in his voice that the other is unhappy with what he just said but Mohinder's become ever more the realist with his life. A very small, polite smile appears on his face, however.

"If you'd like to consult with him, by all means. I'm not sure I'm cut out to be this way."

Mohinder might be a hermit in theory, but he still craves to be around people.

"Don't, Mohinder. Don't... Don't start with that. I know that look because it's the same one I have when discussing something like this. Give me this one chance to make it right. After that, you can not believe something will work but we only just started. You believed in our work, the work I put into it, so why do you suddenly not trust what I'm doing now?"

Bruce is leaning forward now, staring at the projection. In this, in THIS, he feels a certain passion that actually pushes at the edges of his comfort zone.

In the first smart thing Mohinder might have done in his life, he doesn't speak up. He blinks at Bruce's imagine on the screen, internalizing his pain even if it flashes on his face.

Why doesn't he trust this, Bruce?

Because a few weeks ago, he'd been deliriously happy. Someone cared for him that he had wanted for so long. Someone wanted to share his time outside of a lab. Discovering that it had all been because he wanted it rather than the other way around is just as bad as inadvertently killing those guards.

Nothing is right. He's lost. He's alone. There's nothing Bruce can do right now to fix that.

"All right," he says finally. "All right."

Bruce doesn't even know where to begin with that whole situation. He enjoys being around Mohinder, even more than Tony, as Mohinder is both someone who cares for him and he can understand. There are parts of Tony he will never understand, very important parts.

Both of them had kissed him, both quite passionately though he is a poor judge, then both had left him to his own devices. The whole situation is very stressing and confusing, which is why he is focusing on the problem he believes he can fix.

"Thank you." Filled with quite relief. Bruce sits back, rubbing his brow. "Lets.. Just start with Matt's scans. I've been staring at yours for a few hours before the pizza came."

"Pizza-- Oh!" Don't mind him. He's just going to stuff his face and talk about biology and science and sink into a very comfortable chair as he and Bruce puzzle out Matt's scans with his own. It might take a few hours, but it feels right and it feels so easy. He's always had that with Bruce.

Though the scans don't match up completely, Mohinder's brain waves obviously different from the detective's, they're a close enough match that it provides a place to start from.

At least he knows now that what the amulet did to him was indeed rewrite sections of his genetic code to allow him to have a psionic power. Unfortunately, it seems two fold. Touch telepathy and persuasion. What a difficult web to untangle.

They both stuff their face - Bruce can put a pizza away on his own if he isn't paying attention - and by the end of it all, Bruce has a sinking feeling. Finally, he ends up just being blunt about it. "Mohinder, I need a blood sample if you can draw one. I'm going to have to see if there is any change to your very genes. If there has.... Unless the amulet itself can somehow rewrite again, I don't see how we can change that."

And in the back of his mind, he is fully prepared to speak to Xavier if he can get a hold of McCoy.

Mohinder's smile slides from his face. "I'll do it. I know the markers," he says, though his voice isn't even remotely steady. Taking blood might be a little dangerous right now with his hand shaking but he has no choice.

Standing, he heads towards the back of the room and removes glass slides, a pair of gloves and a syringe. His fingers lightly move over the glass but after only a moment's hesitation, he prepares the slide neatly and efficiently. Even as nervous as he is.

They can work on this together, what Mohinder has on his screen so too does Bruce. The results are not good. His DNA has been mutated. Never was there a more defeated sigh heard.

He knows Mohinder know the markers as well as he, but doing this together is hard. They stare at the same screen hundreds of feet apart, the truth written there as clear as day. Bruce removes his glasses after a moment and rubs his brow, thinking it through.

It's hard not to be there, to offer some sort of real comfort to his friend, even if he is terrible at that sort of thing.

"...we're going to find a way, I promise." He feels lame even saying it, so useless, but he means it. So he calmly himself with a word to JARVIS, still listening to his friend, and makes a phone call to a fellow scientist.

"McCoy? We need to talk. I'm sorry for the abrupt call but this... this is important and I believe you know someone who could help." Oh he had spoken to Xavier more than once, but he doesn't want to simply intrude on the man's life asking a favor when he doesn't know the professor that well.

It doesn't take long to get something set up though once he explains the problem to his friend.

"So what you're saying is that we're going to have guests," Tony says for the third time as he watches Bruce pace the room. "Jesus Banner, sit. You're making me nervous. I don't do well when I'm nervous."

Says the man in perfect, peak physical condition munching on Doritos! You'd think he'd never ate anything in his life with the way he snacks sometimes. Then again, there are moments where he forgets to eat for days until JARVIS emails someone to come and force feed him. Or lure him away from his project.

Sometimes sexy underwear helps.

"It's fine, whatever. We'll have your mutant friends over just make sure no one touches my stuff and tell the Professor to stay out of my head."

"I'm sorry," quiet before Bruce sits down. He winces a little at Tony's callous words. "Please don't just outright label them as mutants, please? Not like that... You sound racist." He sighs, leaning back. "Xavier won't go in your head; he is better than that. I don't know who will come but it may just be him or him and Logan or him and someone else."

Still, Bruce feels some hope. "He'll be able to help."

"How do I sound racist! That's what they call themselves!" Tony asks, breath a mess of nacho cheesy goodness. "Is there some extra new PC term I'm not using and whooooa--"

Logan.

"No. Sorry, nope. Howlett can stay at a Holiday Inn." He crumples up the bag and gets up, walking around Bruce and the couch all together. It's not that there's bad blood, perse. The Wolverine just doesn't get along with anyone. Same is pretty much true for Stark.

NOSE WRINKLE. That chemical breath isn't natural on any world. Bruce gives him a look, about to explain how tone is everything, until he spits out the bit about Logan. "What? Why are you forcing him to stay somewhere else? He'd come to protect Xavier and that's it! And I honestly don't know if he prefers that name, I wish you wouldn't call him that."

This is going to go terribly. "JARVIS can you please send a message along to McCoy that perhaps Xavier should think of someone other than Logan?"

"No, it's fine," Tony grumbles. Time alone with Bruce is turning into time spent alone instead. "I'm going to fly out to London. Don't let them mess with my stuff." He probably should see Pepper. He probably shouldn't think about Bruce any more.

At least for right now. Bruce is still his. Mohinder's in isolation and even if they find a cure, it won't matter.

Tossing the balled up bag into one of the wall compactors, Tony cleans his hands off with a handiwipe kept in his pocket and leans against the back of the couch that Bruce has sat himself down on, leaning in until brown eyes meet his own. "Good luck, Banner," he says softly and presses a kiss to Bruce's lips.

Yes, he's smirking as he walks away.

"See you in a few days! I'll see about fiddling around with containment for that amulet while I'm gone." Honestly, Tony. Such a brat.

Blink. Blink. Did that just happen? Bruce watches Tony leave without being able to form a word. A goodbye kiss? Is Tony so offended by the idea of Logan possibly coming that he decided to leave?

"Why London?" He asks no one at all, still stunned. Then it hits him. Pepper had been going to London, if he remembers right.

He kissed Tony Stark who is dating(?), not married but close enough(?), something to Pepper. What kind of man is he to do that?!

He's the sort of person taken in by Tony Stark. Just like everyone else. Almost everyone else at least.

It's not the the Wolverine is impossible to deal with, it's just that Tony can't really do much to help. He's not good with sitting around and being bored. That's where the fighting with Logan would undoubtedly occur. Boredom. And jealousy.

What made Tony special, in his own eyes, had been the suits. The suits now are gone.

He doesn't like to be reminded of it.

While Bruce would have argued that it is and always has been Tony's genius and ingenuity that has made Tony special. He does fully believe that. If it wasn't true, they wouldn't have kidnapped him all that time ago to use his genius. He wouldn't have survived it.

He ends up working very late, curling up in his own bed just before the sun peaks. When he's woken, it's by JARVIS informing him that his guests have arrived. Bruce scrambles up to meet them.

JARVIS equally informs Mohinder of the same. "Professor Suresh, Doctor Banner's guests have arrived."

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