Disaster studied the results on his screen for a few moments, shaking his head... and then turned to Witchlock. "We're probably going to need you, this time. Can you focus your healing on any particular part, or is it just a whole-body sort of thing?"

She shrugged, as she stared at the door Steven had just left. "I didn't even get to... ahh, well. No, not really. We take in the 'life force' of something; animal, plant, person, whatever; and absorb it, building up a reservoir of sorts. While we're holding it, it makes us stronger, tougher, so forth; and when we push it into someone else, for a little while they heal really well; and depending on how much we use, they end up a little stronger, just like we do."

Disaster nodded. "Fascinating. And your whole family can do this?"

"Doctor." Director Thomes studied Disaster. "Is this going to help with your work? Witchlock has training to get back to after this, and is doing this for us as a favor."

He sighed. "Fine, fine. Hmm. I wonder. And I promise, this is relevent. Can you try to add a little of that energy to one of the injectors? The one over the heart? It might make things less dangerous."

She blinked. "Uhm.... I can only do it to living things. Whats in the syringes?" She reached out; laid a hand gently on the one over Jason's heart, and blinked. "Oh. Its alive... but so weak. Sure. I'll put a little in there."

Disaster took a deep breath. "Well. I doubt it'll change the outcome. But.... it was nice knowing you, Arakiel. Kamikaze definitely fit better. Warming the solution." He flipped a lever... and then, after a reading reached the ideal temperature; matching the subject's own body temperature; he flipped it back. The room grew tense, watching; as the syringes all jabbed home, and the solution joined Jason's bloodstream in every limb of his body; every vein and artery flooded with it within less than a second, only his brain relatively free of the solution.

When the injectors withdrew... at first, he seemed fine. Relaxed. He glanced at Disaster, opening his mouth, smiling.... and screamed. His body spasmed, shifted; Witchlock blinked, not even realizing that the gurney was somehow restraining him until his arms tried to leave it... but she knew why she was here. She stepped forward; and as she heard the crack of a breaking bone, added energy into the convulsing figure, unsure just what was going on, what they were trying to fix, or why it was having such an impact...

Then, the spasming stopped. She felt his chest; an erratic heartbeat... that was slowly stabilizing. "...Whatever that was, it almost killed him. He should recover; maybe end up just slightly stronger than before, I needed to put a fair amount into him. Good call having me here." She studied him, leaving her hand on Jason's chest. "Something's.... different. Not sure what.... but he's past the worst of it." She glanced at the director. "Call me again if you need me... but next time, I wanna be cleared for whatever the hell is going on."

***

"So. What's your assessment?"

"Two things. First... his power... the one he already had...seems to have become better integrated. Second.... the organs Excalibur has in his body that generate that telekinetic field? He's got them; smaller, but there; all over the place. At a guess, his precognition will have improved in some way, and he'll have a weaker version of Excalibur's abilities."

The director nodded, studying the display. "Interesting." He glanced back to Disaster. "Can the reverse be done? Can we give his ability to Excalibur, since there seems to be a certain level of compatibility?"

"...I gave this one a 1% chance of working. I'd give that even less. It would likely give him the power.... and then he would end up brain-dead. And before you celebrate too much, remember... most telekinetics kill themselves with their powers within the first week. I'd give him decent odds of not murdering himself because of the precognition, but he telekinetically broke his own arm as the organs were growing, and could just as easily accidentally crush his heart, or his brain."

Rhodes laughed. "You are incredibly pessimistic about this, considering we're dealing with a man who can see the future. I think it should be fine. Now. I would like you to continue this project; we'll give you any genetic samples we come across, and if you find one that should work, let us know. Otherwise.... you might have just turned Steven into a Titan. And if not, you just created another world-class speedster. You can feel free to go if you want; I'll see that you're paid a substantial bonus. Otherwise... any reasonable requests will be met. Make whatever insanity your heart desires, just keep our people up to date in the event we need to incinerate your lab, or you find something useful for protecting the world."

"So.... what are your feelings about creating my cybernetics experiments?"

"If you need a death-row inmate for them, fine, I can bring you one. Otherwise I only ask that any animals you use not be made to suffer unnecessarily. Let doctor Torrance know."

***

When Jason next awoke, his arm felt... incredibly sore. Huh. This was.... about how he usually felt during the process of recovering from a broken bone. He was laying in his own bed at the Swords compound, rather than in a hospital room, which was positive... and there was an odd set of goggles on the nightstand beside him. He studied them thoughtfully, and reached over to pick them up.... only to see that if he'd tried to grab them, at that moment, they would shatter. He stopped himself... and managed to relax. After a few seconds, he picked them up.... and felt... odd. Had he... yes. He'd actually felt the goggles before touching them.

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It didn't seem too big of an issue... it wasn't really in advance of his vision.... but apparently he could 'feel' things in the future, rather than just see. That... could be odd. He glanced up at the door; and waited, as it slid open; Excalibur stepping in, wearing some normal clothes; a sweater, jeans, some hiking boots; smiling. "Ahh, welcome back, Arakiel. How are we feeling? Break anything yet?"

"Almost broke the goggles, here. Caught myself, first. Are these yours?"

Excalibur shook his head. "Nah. I got a few pair for you. They let you see EM fields. Until you get used to it, they'll be incredibly useful for training telekinesis; they said you've got a weaker version of mine, but to be clear, 'weaker than mine' might still be insanely dangerous; I can literally launch things into orbit from sea level. So. Lets get you out of bed, and start you on some training. You're going to be a reserve member for a little while; we'll say 'recovering from your injuries'; so don't expect to..."

As Jason slid the goggles on, a light on the ceiling suddenly flashed... red. Excalibur blinked. "Well, fuck. Gear up, just in case they send you out. Try not to break too much." He jogged out of the room, running for his position... and Jason stared at the light for a few seconds.

A red light meant something seriously dangerous was going on, and not to wait to gather the team; to gear up and leave immediately. He walked over to the deployment harness, starting to climb in... but... it felt like a bad idea. Was it... should he not put the armor on? Or... should he not go? He could see Imperious, shifting into her angellic form, out in the main room, giving him a smile as she headed for the roof... and shook his head. Whatever. If he got hurt, he got hurt.

When Cascade and Imperious settled into place on the chopper, Arakiel was there, hand gripping a handle, his helmet in his other hand... and grimacing at the visible cracks that were forming around the handle. He could see the fields emerging from his hand through the goggles, and focused on calming down... as Imperious looked at him, frowning. "Sweetie... I think you should sit this one out." He stared at her. She was right. The idea of going along felt... terrible. He might get himself... or worse... one of his teammates... killed.

He inhaled deeply... and nodded. "Fuck. You're right. I'm a liability, for right now. I'll... practice. Good luck. I'll be along next time." He released the handle... and backed off, letting the crew clear the grounds... and the chopper take off without him.

He watched it hurtling into the sky. "...Next time."

***

As Excalibur flew further into the sky, building up speed, he checked his HUD. "Command, what's the emergency?"

~We've been having dozens of boats go missing off of the pacific coast, and the navy has been investigating the area. A few minutes ago, we had a carrier go radio silent. One of her escorts just reported in; tells us there are what look like giant crabs climbing up the sides. Considering that if there were a Jotun force here, 'giant crabs' would be a fair descriptor...~

"Fuck! I'll be there as soon as possible."

~There are others en route, but you're one of the heaviest hitters, and most heavily armored. Just in case, we're asking them to wait for you. Whatever it is, one of our speedsters; a west coaster named Gale; arrived... and then immediately went radio silent as well. Whatever they are can hurt at least some speedsters... so we're sending in a drone first, then we'll be sending in the toughest people we've got.~

He soared up past twenty thousand feet, pushing his powers; the speedometer ticking up into the thousands of miles per hour.... he stopped when the heat warnings on his suits started to spike; he might be able to outrun a SR-71, but his suit wouldn't survive the experience for long; nor would he, if the suit fell apart. As the distance counter rapidly ticked down, and a new set of coordinates popped up; a meeting point with other heroes, just a few miles from the carrier, one of the escort ships that had reported the problem.

~This is Drone Operator Wilkins. I've swept the flight deck, cleared out dozens of the crabs from above. Some of the crew are dead, seemingly torn apart by the crabs, but all of them are out of it. I'm getting some interesting readings from the drone; the enemy appears to be deploying a psychic weapon of some sort. The ship has its own drones and built-in defenses, but the men supposedly running it are probably out as well. If someone can get in and hit the override, we can clear the ship remotely with drones, and then search for whatever weapon is doing this. This drone is too big to fit through the doors.~

Excalibur frowned. "Override?"

~The onboard drones are built to ignore remote commands unless they come from the carrier itself. Anti-hacking measure. If someone with enough shielding can bypass it, there's both flying and wheeled drones to clear things from there.~

He nodded, as the pacific appeared in the distance ahead; rapidly growing in his vision, along with a marker on his HUD for the navy ship he was headed for. "Should we call in Lightning? He's immune to psychic effects, right?"

A different voice emerged. ~If its Jotun, they'd be the only ones who might reasonably have a way to break through that. We'll assess whose most heavily shielded on-site. They'll see if they can stand whatever it is; if not, we blast the ship with EMP til the effect stops, then retrieve. If this is psychic, Gale might be in the water in the area. Everyone, please keep eyes on the water; we'd be looking for a bright white and blue suit.~

When Excalibur saw the ship ahead, with a whole mass of people on-deck; he slowed down; and floated beside the ship, glancing over the assembled team. A few of them were wearing standard black DMA uniforms. Some of them were wearing heavier armor; others just essentially suits; and there were a few in odd, colorful costumes that some marketing division somewhere likely thought would sell. He glanced around at them, looking for key faces; there were three people in the DMA whose psychic resistance was supposed to be better than his armor suit; two of them powerful telepaths themselves.

"Alright, people. I'm going to do a fly-by at speed. My armor can float... if whatever it is knocks me out, please come get me. If it doesn't... we'll see if I can get aboard. Be ready to..." He frowned. One of the naval crew was gripping his head, muttering something.... a few of the newly arrived DMA personnel were also grimacing... "Fuck! We're within range. Turn around, get away from the carrier! I'll clear any crabs that might be clinging on."

No-one seemed to be passed out at this point; but they were definitely uncomfortable, and some of the people seemed to be having a terrible time of it. The boat shifted; but it was clearly going to take some time to turn around.

A few of them took to the air, even as Excalibur dived down into the water; feeling the uncomfortable pressure; his suit popped up with a depth warning; it wasn't designed for deep-sea diving, and if he didn't deactivate it, a set of inflatables would pop out to pull him back to the surface. Rather than deactivate it entirely, he added a two-minute timer... and then turned to survey below the ship, a sonar pulse washing out... and showing dozens of the crabs floating nearby, moving towards the frigate; ranging from just a few feet across to over teen feet across.... and as the sonar bounced back... there were more and more of them. Hundreds. Maybe even thousands, just swarming towards the frigate, and to the carrier.