Clouds gather overhead.

Theo is ready to run. Exams: kinda shit. They passed by. He probably did not do as badly as it feels he has.

He said he'd run. It would've been too late to back out.

He looks up, sees the clouds, and it dampens his mood a bit further, but he tries to keep focused, looking like he can do it, warming himself up.

Freaking Britain.

It's possibly the fifteen hundredth time Maya has looked up from her phone in the past half hour, trying to feign interest in the match.

She's just doing it to be a good friend.

Much more interesting than staring at the mediocre, slow crowds, or talking to the boring, tiresome people around her is to read some Wikipedia articles on her phone. She doubts she'll ever need to know about hyperreal numbers, but someone decided to mention they exist and she got a little hooked.

As the runners take off, there's a rumble of thunder, and large hailstones begin to fall from the sky.

"Ugh." Maya starts fumbling in her bag – she put a coat in here before she came out, probably, she thinks; she was a bit distracted at the time.

Theo frowns and ducks his head a little.

It's a bit hard to duck the ones that come near them; they're approximately the size of cats.

Cora keeps running. 

Theo looks around for some sort of shelter, noticing the size of the hail and covering his head with his arms.

… The fuck?

Atheltes and spectators alike run for cover.

Lightning flashes, striking various places on the field. 

Including some of the people.

Theo blinks at the sudden brightness, shivers and starts scratching at his arms, still trying to get out of the way of the storm –

Maya ducks under a seat in the stands, realizing the probable futility in trying to run across the open space to some sort of shelter.

Cora starts running in a more productive direction, but it's too late. 

A stray lightning bolt hits her. It's not even painful, which is the kind of thing you probably think when you're dying. 

It could have at least waited for her to finish. 

And then the area around Maya is struck, her covering her face and head with her arms but shivering at the approximate time she's hit –

A few other places – and people – on the field are hit.

People are screaming, in shock and in pain. A few are bleeding from their injuries, and the rest are panicking on account of the storm- and the man in the stands whose body is lighting up in bright sparks of red and green and pink.

Cora doesn't think. She goes for the stands and grabs Jackson's arm. 

"My car is closer. I can fit three more."

"Maya. We can't leave her."

He looks for her.

She's in the stands, hiding half-covered under a seat, but on seeing Sparky decides that actually she can make a run for it – towards Jackson; sticking together is a good idea.

"We have a car. Grab one person you like."

She looks around – thinks of grabbing Jackson as a joke but it doesn't feel the time for jokes –

Theo is near the stands, bleeding from a small cut on his forehead, hand to it and trying to navigate his way – somewhere –

"Theo!" she shouts, seeing him. "Theo! Come on –"

She tries to make her way over to him to pull him along with.

She shouldn't have any trouble with that. The hail has stopped falling, and the sky is quiet. 

What the fuck, weather – she does not trust that she will be safe, they are going.

C'mere, Theo.

He spins around, fast, when she grabs him, then sees who it is and calms a little.

His head is still bleeding.

"Oh, fuck – come on, Cora has a car, we've got a seat –"

She pulls him back towards them.

Danny and Cora are already inside. 

She curses when she sees Theo's condition.

"Is it safe to drive during a storm?" 

"It stopped, just drive."

"Did you see when it happened?"

He starts dialing.

"– Huh?" asks Theo.

"The lightning, you mean –?"

"His injury, describe it-"

He switches to handling 999, gesturing for her to continue.

"Where's Jess? Is she inside?"

"She didn't come, something about feeling ill and – augh." Maya turns to Theo, pokes his hand away from the injury so she can get a better look and relays information about it.

Fortunately it looks like it's mostly just a graze, surface damage that's bleeding a lot.

Theo winces a bit, at that, and then winces further when this just increases the pain.

He tries to hold still after that.

"It's going to be fine," says Danny, though he doesn't seem to have told his face that.

Cora drives as fast as she (legally...mostly...) can.

Maya gives Danny a bit of a look, trying to indicate the problem with his bedside manner, and then tries talking to Theo to make sure he's responding coherently.

He does seem mostly coherent, except insofar as he giggles a couple of times, nervously.

"Make any other calls you need to. We'll be there soon."

He reaches into the glove compartment, and hands a bottle of painkillers to Maya.

… Of course. Bottle of painkillers. Because every normal person has a whole bottle of painkillers, especially in the glove compartment of their vehicle.

Maya would like to check the label to make sure they are not horribly toxic and/or addictive first, please. If she wouldn't put it in her own body, she is not going to tell Theo to ingest it.

Not addictive enough to mention, apparently.

"He needs something until we get there."

Danny avoids eye contact, and thanks the person on the other end of the call.

"I told them we were coming, since it looks like we're almost there anyway. Theo, are you okay? How many fingers?"

Six.

Takes a short moment for him to realize he's being spoken to but then he can focus just fine. "… Six? I am a little dizzy but I think fine."

– What's the recommended dose of this thing – two pills, she'll take that much then, please and thank you – "I don't suppose you have water in this car?"

Their abrupt stop in the parking lot might be somewhat jarring.

She opens the door next to Theo and starts trying to get a grip on him.

"We'll need at least two to carry him. Jackson?"

"Can he walk? He looks okay to walk."

He nods, a bit belatedly. "Should be okay to walk."

"Someone should probably support him though – I can, or someone else?"

"I'll do it."

"Jackson's bigger. Let's keep this moving."

"Not where it counts, don't worry," he whispers to Theo, but offers his support.

Theo does not seem to be taking any notice of this unless a slight frown – and corresponding wince – counts.

He seems to be able to walk mostly fine.

"– I'll go let them know he's coming? Or, uh, something?"

Danny follows her inside. They handle speeding up the process, which is good; Theo's injuries aren't the most severe tonight, and he might not otherwise get timely attention.

Fortunately the injury does not appear to be life-threatening, and head injuries always bleed a lot.

The fact he's woozy is not particularly worrying; after a bit of an evaluation, they decide he probably just has a mild injury and ask if someone will be available to watch over him for the next few days – check with him every couple of hours to ensure he's appropriately responsive and so on. (There is a helpful card. They manage to get to him quite quickly, and seem like they might be trying to hurry him out to make space for other, more seriously injured people.)

He tries to pay attention to it all.

Maya offers to look after him and would like them to assess how sincere they seem when they tell her he's likely fine, because she would not like to impact the efficacy of this ward by straining the doctors but she also would not like her friend to die of an injury that went unnoticed.

She seems satisfied after a short while.

Danny is vaguely concerned but leaves Theo in her hands.

Not really his place.

Jackson is entirely unconcerned about Theo, since he didn't die in the car, but he tries to call Jess as soon as they take Theo in.

It would probably be a good idea to call Theo's dad nonetheless.

Maya would also like to know if her sister is okay.

… Jess is in fact okay, yes, why? Did something happen?

"Maya's okay. Freak storm. Hail the size of our heads, lightning. Do you want to talk to her?"

Cora wheedles (intimidates) the doctors into telling her about the general state of affairs.

"At least ten injured or dead from the storm."

"Uh – yes, probably, if you're okay too?"

"Not a scratch."

He hands it off to Maya and goes to defuse Cora.

Danny paces.

Maya catches Jess up on the situation.

Theo frowns at Danny.

"You doing alright?"

"… Excepting what we know about the injury? Yes."

"We made it out relatively unscathed. That's something. I'm going to call my parents. I'm glad you're okay."

… Uh-huh.

"Thanks."

And then Maya has caught Jess up! "Okay so I'm gonna call Theo's dad because actually it's a good idea to, like, involve the parents of an injured party? … That sounded kinda mean, that was mostly mean directed at me."

"The doctors already called him. I asked."

"You're Theo's friend, you should still call him."

"– Ah, yeah." She talks to Jess a bit more, briefly, then hands the phone back over to Jackson and gets out her own to call Theo's dad.

"If you wanted me to skip the game for you, you didn't need gale-force winds. You could have asked." 

"Believe me, if I could do gale-force winds I would not be using them to make you skip the game – Maya would kill me."

Jess sounds like she's smirking.

"She's a real taskmaster, huh. What would you do?"

"Let her know, first, so she doesn't kill me, then – depends."

"What, on how you're feeling? The outfit you wear that day?"

"First what she makes me do with it and how much downtime I'm allowed how quickly, and then – well if I literally have gale-force winds I really really hope I can fly?"

He'd like to interrogate the doctors about Theo again.

"I don't know, I'm not sure flying is all that. It sounds messy. Teleportation is the much better deal. I'm so sorry you're stuck with wind."

"Teleportation is a little – icky," responds Jess.

The doctors are a little busy. Does he need anything urgently?

Not urgently, no.

He frets vaguely.

After a bit a nurse spots him and comes over to see if he needs anything.

He's mostly just worried about his friend. 

"Fine, I'll take teleportation. The sacrifices I make for you."

Seeing Maya is relatively unoccupied, Cora decides to ask her.

"Want to go for a walk outside? I'm getting tired of all this waiting."

"– Sure," she responds, putting her phone away. "Theo's dad had heard it all from the doctors, apparently – he was just about out the door when I called."

She leads them outside, into the chilly air.

"It's good he has him. How are you doing?"

"I'm alright, wasn't particularly hurt – they didn't seem too worried about me when I mentioned, I'm probably not their most immediate problem and I seem fine."

"I don't know how we couldn't predict a storm this bad. The forecasts didn't say anything." 

She looks for a rock to kick in frustration and finds none.

"I don't know," says Maya. "It's honestly crazy – weather like this doesn't happen in the UK, like, maybe it does in Bangladesh or something? Monsoon season? Not here."

"...did you see it too? The guy who- burst into flame?"

"The – flame? I saw someone sparky, that was weird, but I thought it was some electrical thing?"

"Maybe, I didn't get a good look. That shouldn't happen either, that's not how lightning works."

"I know, but – what else would it be?"

Shrug.

"Just wanted to know if I made it up."

Unsatisfied with the lack of things to kick, she starts jogging.

"You don't have to come," she adds over her shoulder. 

"I – don't really run?" responds Maya, but she does in fact start jogging alongside.

Angry running, then.

They keep fairly close to the hospital, sketching a circle around it.

Maya slows after a bit.

Cora doesn't. When she's almost completed her circuit of the building-

-she blurs, her body disappearing in a flash of color as she moves from one place-

-to another, kneeling suddenly, on the ground.

Blink blink.

"– Are you okay?"

"Fine. Let's go back in."

"I – what just happened?"

"Sparks. I'd rather pretend it didn't happen."

She brushes past her, going inside.

Maya frowns and follows her in. "– What do you mean sparks?"

She doesn't answer.

They return to the waiting room.

Maya continues to frown.

Jess and Jackson are still at it.

Awww. Maya mock-retches.

The medical professionals inform Theo that he's probably fine actually, just a day to recuperate in the hospital and he can be discharged.

It's possible they're accelerating his release to deal with their other patients.

… That makes sense. His head still hurts. (Ow.)

His dad should be here soon! Ish! Probably?

He lives like twenty minutes away so yeah, unless there's damage to some roads.

"-the roads look okay near the hospital, but I'm not sure I want to trust any weather reports ever again. Are we about ready to throw meteorology out with palm reading?"

Cora ignores Jackson's ongoing conversation with Jess, putting in her headphones.

Jess is not particularly in favor of throwing out meteorology; her sister would kill her (not literally) for suggesting it's like palm reading.

However yes it can be very extremely wrong. (Her sister would probably argue this? She should stop talking about her sister.)

… Maya opts to go see if she's allowed to talk to Theo.

Did she see the freak thunderstorm which dropped cat-sized chunks of hail on everyone? Maybe he can wait to throw out meteorologists, but they should probably be able to explain this or their theories are kind of useless, aren't they.

Jess unfortunately is not a meteorologist but they tend to have reasonable accuracy on most things – she thinks – and she actually didn't see the freak thunderstorm herself no.

They don't have unreasonable accuracy, but they're still kind of useless. He's going to study something that doesn't change every time the wind blows.

Har-har. That is in fact, possibly definitionally, what their job involves.

She's got jokes. Cute.

When he becomes mayor, he'll be sure to patronize her stand-up routine.

He was the one that joked, but sure, she'll take the credit if he insists.

Elsewhere, Maya is led to a supervised visit with Theo. 

Supervised. Sure. Okay.

"… How are you feeling?"

"Mostly just headachey," he says.

His head is somewhat enbandaged. Probably due to the earlier bleeding.

"Ah," she responds. "No… weirdness?"

"… Should there be?"

Certainly, their supervision doesn't think there should be any weirdness. Besides the weirdness happening to her face. She keeps twitching.

"No, of course not," says Maya. "… Probably."

He frowns at her. "That's not the most reassuring you could be."

"But you haven't noticed any weirdness so you'll probably be okay." Pause. "I mean you probably noticed some weirdness." Pause. "Like the weird lightning."

"… The weird lightning… was weird… yes." He tilts his head.

Maya notices the supervision acting weirdly – pauses, about to start speaking – and then simply says, "Uh-huh."

"I'm sure he's very tired, isn't he? Aren't you?"

She appears to be on the verge of tears.

Theo looks at Maya uncertainly.

"– Are you okay, ma'am?"

"It's fine! I'm just stressed, I'm sorry, I shouldn't be doing this in front of you."

She rubs her face as though that will prevent the tears, which have begun.

Adults do not normally cry spontaneously in front of Maya and she considers that a typical nurse probably would not be doing this so – "Do you need to… take a minute… or something…?"

"I should be fine?" tries Theo.

"It's just this storm, you know. They say some winds can do this to people. Ill winds. The winds blow the evil air from deep in the valleys and high in the mountains and the sea...the sea..."

She trails off and leaves the room.

Maya pauses, mouth slightly open.

"I don't guess you had the same bad feeling about all that did you."

Theo frowns. "… She was acting weirdly? I'm – not really sure."

Maya sighs.

"I'm gonna go see how she's doing," she says, and then leaves after the nurse.

The nurse walks, if you can call it walking. She begins to stagger as she turns the corner. The halls are reasonably busy, but only a few staff members shoot her looks; they're rather busy tonight.

Maya hurries up a bit to stay with her – and maybe catch her, if she falls.

It's not hard. Hopefully she's not too close. As she continues, she begins to scratch at her skin furiously. Her attention drifts towards the scratching as it continues. She stops in place, staring in horror at her arms. She continues scratching.

"– Ma'am, are you okay?"

She doesn't answer. One of the nurses passing her stops and asks if she needs help. She doesn't answer.

She keeps scratching. Her arm is turning an unpleasant shade of red.

Maya steps forward to try to get the woman's attention –

She shrieks as her nail pulls a layer of skin off.

The staff reconsiders its priorities.

Maya gets out of the way to allow them access – no point her trying to help when she doesn't know what the heck to do – but tries to keep a visual from where she is.

As they wheel her out, shouting all kinds of things frantically at one another, she can see the woman's skin begin peeling by itself. Her face is now covered in boils, and she begins screaming for help. A few visitors look unsure, but ultimately ignore her.

There's a nearby trolley with various medical supplies on – Maya gets to the other side of it, in case she needs to duck behind something for safety – and keeps watching, getting progressively more horrified.

There isn't much to see after that. They wheel her into a room, and she's not invited in.

What the fuck is up with all this.

She makes her way back to Theo's room.

Upon hearing the screams, Jackson pauses mid-sentence, interrupting his recounting of the latest developments in high school sports.

"Jess, I think there's something going on. I'm going to check on everyone. I'll call you back."

"Uh – sure, catch me up later?"

"I'll see what I can do."

It's only a few minutes later when Danny and Jackson run into Theo's room.

"Is everyone okay?"

It looks like Maya just got back to the room herself.

"We –" Maya indicates herself and Theo – "are fine. Well, ish, you know he got injured earlier – but the nurse – I don't know what the fuck was up with her –"

"I – she was acting a bit weirdly? You didn't actually – fill me in yet?"

"She scratched her skin off and then got restrained from doing so and it peeled itself off, how am I meant to explain that succinctly?"

"The entire building is panicking. You'd think they could be professional about this. It's not like patients are going to stay calm."

"I don't think anyone trains for this. Whatever this is."

"Freak bizarre storm, exploding person that I thought was somehow reasonable under the conditions, woman whose skin peels off." She pauses. "D'you get the feeling we might be in the start of a horror film?"

"I vote that none of us die."

"...Has anyone seen Cora?"

"– Not since we came back from the walk – and – a thing happened that makes me think more like sci-fi horror than like typical horror."

"We're probably jumping to conclusions here. It's only been a few hours since the storm, we're all a little jumbled up."

"What, like radioactive lightning bolts or alien nurses?"

"I – might have just blacked out or something. But like – Cora – seemed to think it was something, also."

"I'm not saying it's nothing, whatever's going on with the nurse is definitely sketchy. What exactly do you think you saw?"

"She – it looked like she blurred, sorta – kinda teleported."

"Okay, maybe we all need to take a step back. Jackson, you don't seriously believe this? Obviously it's just the storm, I mean, lightning could be affecting us somehow, right? Electrical impulses?"

"… Not, I don't think, like that," comments Maya. "It could make us dizzy and imagine things just like any head injury I guess if that's what you mean?"

"I'm going to look for Cora. You guys have fun with your theories."

Danny watches him go.

"Someone should stay with Theo. Do we know how long your dad will be?"

"Not much longer, I think?"

"I can wait here. Maya, you catch up to Jackson. I don't want him doing anything stupid, especially if Cora is doing something sci-fi horror."

"– Good idea," she says, and then darts off.

Jackson is walking like a man on a mission.

She can still keep track of him in the crowd, as long as she can weave between the increasingly harried nurses.

"Have you noticed anything like that with you? Anything weird or hard to explain?"

"… I don't think so?" He blinks. "I am injured, though, not sure I would remember it."

"I feel the same so far. We only have two cases right now, Cora and the nurse. Maya probably just misinterpreted what she saw."

Pause. "Probably."

… He looks around for something to talk about.

The hospital room is rather generic.

"I'm sorry we didn't get to see you out there. The storm kind of stole your thunder."

… Heh.

"It did a little, didn't it."

"It would have been nice to see you in action. Jess talked about you."

After awkwardly barging into the third hospital room, Jackson starts to slow down.

"– Why do you expect Cora to be here?"

"If something weird was happening to her, she'd find the nearest enclosed space to hide in, or leave the building. I'm covering all my bases."

"Aren't there a lot of enclosed spaces here? Maybe aim for store cupboards – or those on-call room thingies, or maybe the bottom of the stairwell –?"

"...good point."

He looks for anything small and enclosed but relatively unguarded.

"Psst," comes a voice from around the corner.

Jackson doesn't seem to have heard it.

Maya looks in the direction of the corner, then back to Jackson.

She decides to go check around the corner.

Cora is pacing back and forth along the wall, fidgeting.

"Something happened, something's happening. You saw it, right, you noticed it before I did?"

"– You mean the blur?"

"It happened again. It keeps happening. I don't know how to stop it."

"Why are you trying to stop it?" asks Maya.

"I can't do that in front of anyone, they'll ask all kinds of questions. I don't know how I'm doing it."

"– Is them asking questions worse than you never finding out what it is?"

"Ignorance is better than being a government test subject, yeah. I'm going home. Tell the others."

She walks away.

Maya follows after her. "You don't have to tell everybody."

"I can't tell Jackson, and I can't tell Danny, he'll just tell Jackson."

"– Doesn't mean you need to leave – or at least so long as it's not permanent?"

"I'll go home. I can tell my family."

Maya looks set to continue, before then taking a deep breath.

"Do you even have my number? I can give you my number, you can text me later?"

"...no. Thanks."

She hands Maya her phone.

Maya opens contacts and adds herself, briskly, then hands it back.

"Do I need to warn Jackson off here for a bit, or do you plan on getting out pretty fast?"

"...I'll be fast."

And she is. A few nurses startle and look up, but assume it was just the lack of sleep.

… Maya turns back, shaking her head a little, and goes looking for Jackson again.

Danny shakes his head, watching the door for any signs of Theo's dad.

"There's no way. The new coach is completely mishandling his best players. I give them a few weeks."

"Fat chance."

Theo shrugs, trying for a smile, but isn't really keeping his eyes off the door himself.

"I'm sure it's just traffic. A lot of people will be on the road now."

"There might be a tree in the way. Or something."

He keeps his eyes on the door.

"What were you going to do tonight? Before all this."

"I didn't really have plans. Just the running."

"How long have you been doing it?"

"A couple of years, with the school?" He shrugs.

"Not really your biggest passion, huh? What are you into?"

Uh, he thinks. "Uh," he says.

What a question.

"Like, hobbies?" he asks. "Mostly music? Computer games?"

"What kind of games? I'm not much of a gamer, but I could probably be convinced to pick something up."

Theo starts describing a shooter game – he seems slightly embarrassed, apparently it's an animated one.

It's not long thereafter that there's a knock on the door.

Danny doesn't seem particularly interested in judging him.

He answers the door, since Theo's not really in condition to do so.

"Mr. West, Theo's right inside. Do you guys need a minute?"

"Oh, I uh, didn't realize he had visitors –" He looks into the room quickly, then turns back to Danny. "He's okay, then?"

(Theo raises an eyebrow.)

"He's recovering. It wasn't that bad, we were lucky."

"Good," he says. "Good."

He makes his way around Danny and into the room, smiling at Theo and trying not to seem too worried.

Things seem like they might be okay.

Unless dismissed outright, Danny will hover by the door.

Meanwhile, Jackson returns from a fruitless search.

"Didn't find her?" asks Maya.

"Congrats. You win one missing friend and one hospitalized one."

He rubs his temples, leaning against the nearest wall.

"I just hope we come out of this without any real damage. The track must be completely ruined."

"The whole area sounds pretty ruined, let's be fair."

"Have you checked the news? Was it just us?"

He pulls out his phone.

"All I know is this hospital is far too busy for it to just be that sports field."

Pause.

"If you mean country, I dunno."

"It was local. Very local. Nobody outside the city was affected."

"Was it the whole city, did it reach out to even – like, Kent?"

"The whole city, and just the city. That's definitely something."

"… Huh." She frowns.

"If you figure it out, tell me. I'm going to defer thinking about that until tomorrow."

"The definite somethings are kinda stacking up, here."

"I don't know what they're adding up to. This isn't natural. We need to find out why this storm was different."

"I don't remember learning about any freak storms like this in History…" says Maya. "Not that I pay attention in it that much, though."

"Whatever it is, I'm dealing with it tomorrow. I need a nice, long nap."

She raises an eyebrow.

"Whatever it is, it's way bigger than I can handle after all this stress. I'm getting my beauty sleep first."

Eyebrow stays raised. "If you're sure."

"Say hi to your sister for me."

He goes.

Maya heads on her way back to the hospital room.

Danny is waiting outside.

"Hey."

Wave. "Jackson's gone to get a nap." Pause. "Uh, as I said to him – with the storm and the weird occurrences and whatnot, the, uh, 'definite somethings', are definitely stacking up – meaning, this whole thing's getting kinda ridiculously coincidentally weird."

Nod.

"We'll have to keep an eye on each other. I think after everyone's had a day to rest we should try to get together and discuss things."

"I'm not sure I want to wait that long – it's weird, things keep happening, what if the storm was just the start –?"

"Okay. Tomorrow."

He knocks on the door to Theo's hospital room.

Theo's dad looks up and waves them in.

"Oh, Maya – how are you doing? – And your sister?"

"We're… fine, mostly – she was nowhere near, didn't realize anything had happened."

And how is Theo doing?

Theo seems mostly bored, possibly slightly upset that he's going to take longer than five minutes to recover from the whole earlier experience.

"Hey – how'd things go?" he asks.

"We –" she hesitates briefly, "– couldn't find Cora. Uh." Handwave doorwards. "Jackson went to get some rest, all the – definite somethings are stacking up and getting to him."

"It's kind of been a rough day. The rest of us will all catch up tomorrow. You should come, if you feel up for it."

Theo's dad looks at him.

Theo looks back.

"Uh," he says. "I'm not sure – hopefully?"

"Whatever works. We just want you to feel better. Night, Theo. Good night, Mr. West."

"Uh, yeah, um," Maya looks between them. "– I'll text you later?" she suggests, to Theo.

"Um." Blink. "Okay. See you – maybe tomorrow?"

"Yeah, see you."

So they leave Theo and his father alone.

"We need to talk about this soon, before anyone does something stupid."

"ASAP," she agrees. "We don't know what's going on with half of this. But Jackson and Cora don't seem up for talking."

"They'll talk. I know how to get them to knuckle down. Where should we do this?"

"I dunno – do we care for secrecy, are there concerns we need to take into account?"

"We might not be the only ones this happened to, but...we're just kids. We shouldn't be the ones to come forward about it."

"Right – there was the nurse at the hospital, there are probably other people this happened to, but I just – I keep thinking 'science fiction film' but a bunch of this doesn't fit the genre."

"Maybe we should get used to that feeling. Real life isn't supposed to have a genre, even if it's starting to look like it might."

"I know, but I have no structure – no schema, no ready-made plan – for this thing." Sigh.

"We're a bunch of scientifically interesting escaped test subjects who have to survive the government, who'll want to use us, and the public, who'll want to crucify us."

"Well," she says. "Not quite. But that might be closer."

"Is there anything else we can do without the others?"

"Brainstorm? Flick through news articles for patterns, check around the hospital for others?"

"We can look around. Anyone who was caught out in the storm might be a person of interest. I'll take the third floor, if you can take the first?"

"Uh, I don't have the layout of the place memorized – is that all the trauma patient rooms?"

"That's all the patient rooms we can get access to without help. We don't have anyone on the inside."

Nod. "Might be able to get into them anyway – if we want to – but this is a start."

She heads off to the first floor, and wonders what's on the ground floor below. (A&E, maybe.)

The first floor contains several patient rooms, but nothing dramatic enough for her to see from the outside is going on.

Hmmm.

She checks around a bit more but then texts Danny to report this.

Danny replies that he's not seeing anything dramatic, either. 

Hmmmmmm.

She goes back to find him.

Danny is findable. He's on the third floor, chatting up a nurse. He waves at her politely.

(… Cute? Anyway.)

She walks over to the two of them, smiling at Danny. "Hey."

"Hey. Maya, this is Rodrigo. He was just telling me that yesterday was hectic."

Rodrigo nods. He gives Maya an appraising look, like he's deciding what to say.

Danny smiles encouragingly.

"There were some crazy things happening in room 304. I thought it might have been part of a prank show, like with hidden cameras and everything, but then she was just gone this morning."

Maya tilts her head, just a little. "Crazy things, like…?"

"She was like, making things in the room move without touching them. Like Jean Grey, only not as hot."

Danny coughs. Rodrigo shrugs.

"I can show you the room, but it looks normal now."

"Thanks, Rodrigo."

"It'd be appreciated." Maya smiles.

Rodrigo leads them into the room confidently. None of the people who see them question it. Currently unoccupied, it looks like any ordinary hospital room.

"There was this whole act last night. The walls were glowing, and there were all these lights..." he trails off as he touches the walls. Nothing about them looks unusual.

"I thought maybe I was hallucinating or something? But then she just disappeared, so I think she must have been doing it somehow."

Danny nods politely, but he seems focused on the walls now.