[Benjamin Treager]

With a heavy sigh, Ben slid into the warm, bubbling water of the school's hot tub. In all honesty, it was more like a warm tub, but it was better than some community pools he'd been to in his day. Hopefully, it would kill the headache - but he wasn't counting on it. The heat might ease some muscular tension, but apart from that, he was likely out of luck.

For the last few months, Ben and Cassidy had decided to attempt to widen their barrier of "Stay-within-5-feet-of-each-other" business, and did manage to extend it, but it seemed, only to about 20 feet. While that was a dramatic improvement, it still meant they had to be attached at the head, so to speak. If they wandered more than a kilometer, their heads would bleed out. Now, it seemed, he could almost get to the little town without the headache turning into a migraine if she were on grounds. The town was two kilometers away.

"Well, at least we know there's no way to split up without dying," he told himself, even though no one was in the school. His own school had shriveled up and deteriorated long ago, and now he'd been assigned as substitute Vice Principal, but no one had ever come to replace him. He'd have to talk to dad about that; maybe he would get a permanent position, and be allowed to stay here.

Then, his headache began to lessen. Slowly, the lights stopped hurting his brain. Then, the pressure behind his eyes slowly de-fogged.

"I think this entire effort has been pointless, cuz." he spoke, not even needing to turn around to know who was standing behind him. "Though it does seem like we managed to widen the limit before headache kicks in to about 20 feet."

[Cassidy Morian]

"Yippee," Cassidy said sarcastically when she heard her cousin address her. She had thought she was being stealthy when she was looking for him, but she supposed it was true - you really couldn't sneak up on a telepath. It had saved her skin numerous times, from people trying to sneak up on her when she was younger, to her own grandmother going after her. Handy ability to have, although the bad usually outweighed the good. Like her current situation with her cousin.

She had been on the hunt for Ben for the past half hour, using her mental powers and the levels of pain in her head to track him down. Some people thought it was strange that she could track him down so easily. Cassidy had just used her pain levels to determine his proximity - hardly a remarkable feat of telekinetic prowess.

As much as she loved her cousin - and she did, really - she was really getting sick and tired of having him in her head all of the time. Coupled with the fact that they couldn't be more than twenty feet away without getting a headache, and the headache increasing the further away she got, she was willing to do almost anything to sever their mental bond. If she had known then what she had known now, she wouldn't have lost control like that. She has much better control over her emotions, but that didn't help her much now. Hindsight was 20/20, she supposed.

She hadn't expected to find Ben at the pool, which meant that she wasn't dressed for swimming or anything else involving water. She wasn't particularly fond of the water anyway - she'd never really learned how to swim, first because her grandmother didn't think she was worth the effort to teach, and by the time she arrived at Darbyville at the age of 14, she was spending all of her time learning how to control her powers. She supposed she could learn now, but she didn't really want anyone to see her flailing around like a drowning victim. That, and she felt uncomfortable with the thought of herself in a bathing suit. Just... no.


She sat down sideways on a bench near the hot tub, drawing her knees up to her chest. She looked at him over the tops of her knees, eyes wide and blue behind her glasses. She hadn't bothered with contacts that day, and her glasses made her look much younger, black, plastic frames that were oval in shape. She still got mistaken for a student, sometimes, usually at the worst time possible.

"What are you doing down here, Ben?" she asked.

[Benjamin Treager]

"Was hoping the hot water would ease the head ache;" he replied, tenderly lifting a memorial finger to his temple to ward off the headache that had just left with her arrival. "The better question is why are YOU here? You don't like water." he spoke, turning about in the hot tub to sit facing her, even if it was a little further off.

"I think this little venture at least means we can sleep in nearby rooms, at least. At least then we won't be mistaken for lovers anymore," he grinned, reflecting back on many an awkward question he'd fielded in their trial separation of sorts. He quickly realized that she would probably become overly embarrassed, or angry, in that line of conversation, and decided to bring up what was likely on both of their minds.

"I can't help but notice this sense of impending danger, but it's so fuzzy I can't make heads or tails of it; I feel like a sailor on a ship, and I can see the hurricane off on the horizon, but I can't tell what direction it's going, or when it's going to make land fall. Is it just me?"

He frowned slightly, hoping she'd noticed it too. Her gifts were stronger in areas he was weak, and vice versa, but at least he could hope she'd noticed it. He drummed a finger on the pool deck, and set his mind off to the large dark fuzzy hanging over the school.

[Cassidy Morian]

"I was getting fed up with the headache," Cassidy replied with a shrug. "Advil just isn't cutting it anymore and I couldn't concentrate. Since you're here, I'm here. Although I could probably be in the room above us and still have no headache."

She was tempted to throw something at Ben for bringing up the lovers thing - too bad there was nothing handy that wouldn't do too much damage. As it was, she wrinkled her nose in annoyance when he brought it up. "I thought we pinky swore not to bring that up again?"

As Ben spoke about a big, dark fuzzy looming over the school, Cassidy looked back to see if she had encountered any instances where she felt like something was wrong, but couldn't quite put her finger on it. Ben's analogy of being a sailor, able to see a hurricane brewing from a distance seemed apt for the situation, and she liked how he put it that way. It was definitely something she could relate to.

"I feel it too," Cassidy said. "I'm not actually psychic so I can't see the future, but there's a tension in the school and students. Like something's going to happen, and it's going to be a doozy. It's the same kind of feeling that I had before the FOH or the MSF attacked."

She sighed and wrapped her arms around her legs tighter. She really, truly hoped that something like those two past events wasn't brewing. She'd had enough of crazy humans bent on eradicating all mutants and anything considered not even remotely normal, and other humans wanting to employ mind control to harness their powers. Why couldn't people just leave them the hell alone? They weren't hurting anyone!

"What do you think it is?" Cassidy asked, blinking at her cousin. "The storm brewing, I mean?

[Benjamin Treager]

"Throwing something at me will give you a head ache too, oh wise one," he smirked, sticking his tongue out at her like a small child. "When I hurt, so do you, so it really will be just like whacking yourself in the head, too." a grin flashed across his face, and for a moment, he was sane, normal, and hadn't a worry in the world. Then of course, reality set on.

"I don't really know," he muttered, furrowing his brows in a complicated expression. "It's hard to see, even with you so close. It was only a slight inclination before, but now it's clear - something's up, something big...but you're feeling it because I can. You're only getting a glimmer, but that's something we've shared for a while. The fact that you can feel it too through my abilities though just backs up that I'm not losing it."

He flicked his glance back at her, biting his lower lip gently. "Soon. Any day now, something's going to happen. I can't see any more; maybe that's just because we've been apart for too long, and I'm rusty, or something along those lines. But if it IS someone like the FOH or the MSF, I can tell you this school is not going to take it laying down." he replied, as if reading her thoughts was as natural as looking at her. "I know I won't. I'm not letting them get you again."