Chapter 2

New Faces

Following his early morning return from Mancovia, Mark sat at his desk fighting sleep as he tried to catch up on the small mountain of paperwork and petty administrative matters that were part and parcel of his position as base leader. He often promised himself that one day he’d get around to organising an assistant to take care of the more trivial jobs, but until that happened he had no choice but to get stuck in.

It was with a mixture of satisfaction and relief that he transferred the final document from his in-tray to his out-tray. A job well done. He glanced at his watch. It was almost lunch time. Strange, he’d expected Adam to be back with their new recruit long before this. Still, life rarely went according to plan. The nineteen year old toyed with the idea of going to find something to eat, but instead decided to spend half an hour or so catching up with his emails. Food could wait a little longer. He didn’t want to be away from his office when Adam finally did return.

As he turned his chair towards his computer, from the corner of his eye he caught sight of a figure suddenly appearing as if out of nowhere. At last, Adam.

However, it wasn’t Adam. “Corey!”

“Hey, Marky-boy.” The newcomer, a youth in his mid teens, gave a lopsided grin, made even more lopsided by the fact that one side of his mouth was swollen, possibly from a punch or a kick, and there was a trickle of blood running down his chin. “I guess I need a little patching up.” His right hand was clamped firmly around the upper part of his left arm and fresh, bright red blood was oozing out from between his fingers to run down his arm and drip onto the floor. The grin disappeared and he staggered forwards, almost falling, just managing to regain his balance at the last minute. “Oops!”

“Corey, what the hell have you been doing now?” Mark hurried around the desk, his arms going around the boy to help support him.

“Just a little misunderstanding,” the fifteen year old replied. He flicked his head back to shake his long, untidy, reddish hair up, away from his eyes. A pointless exercise, since it fell straight back down again.

“Let’s get you onto my bed so that I can take a look at you,” said Mark. He half carried the boy across to the door that opened onto his adjoining bedroom. “Please tell me that you haven’t hurt anyone.”

“Ain’t that just typical,” complained Corey. “It’s me that’s bleedin’ to death and you’re worried about the other guy.”

“That’s because it’s not likely the other guy has the power to set fire to someone or electrocute them.” Besides having the power to teleport himself over long distances, Corey was also a moderately strong energy manipulator.

“Details, details, always the details,” Corey sighed. “Don’t worry Marky, both of the other guys are in a better state than me. Ooph!” His legs finally gave way altogether and Mark caught him, carrying him the short distance over to the bed.

“Why do you keep getting yourself into fights all the time?” Mark asked, as he inspected the deep gash in the boy’s arm, obviously a knife wound.

“I guess I’m just that kind of guy,” the teen replied, weakly. “Arghh, that hurts! Do you have to keep poking it like that? Just get on and heal it will ya?”

“Maybe a bit of pain now will make you think twice next time.” Mark covered the bleeding wound with his hand, concentrating his powers. It was a serious injury and took almost everything he had. It didn’t help that he was tired from being up most of the night working, and because of that he’d not had chance to properly regain his strength after healing Nick’s cracked ribs. “That’s your arm sorted,” he said, breathing deeply to overcome the slight dizziness he felt as a result of overtaxing himself. “Your mouth is going to have to wait until later. Let’s get your clothes off and then you can get some sleep. You’ve lost a fair amount of blood, and that, coupled with the tiredness you’ll feel after the healing, is likely to put you out of action for a few hours; something for which we can all be grateful.

“Why can’t I just go to sleep as I am?” asked Corey. “I can go to my own room and get changed when I wake up.”

“Two reasons,” said Mark, firmly. “First off, those clothes are filthy and caked in blood and you’re lying on my bed. Secondly, if you’re naked you’re less likely to go teleporting off somewhere before you’ve had chance to recover properly.”

“Fair point,” the boy grinned.

With Mark’s help, Corey pulled off his clothes, the older teen putting them straight into a plastic laundry bag. There was still blood on the boy’s hands and on his newly healed arm, but Mark decided that this could wait until he’d had a chance to sleep; the bedclothes would need changing away as they were already marked.

As Corey’s boxers came off, Mark gave a snort of laughter. “What’s this, a fashion statement?” The boy’s pubic hair had been trimmed down to a neat patch at the base of his dick and his balls were completely smooth. “It’s not like you to bother with anything like that.”

“Yeah, well, sometimes it doesn’t hurt to make an effort.” Corey, who had never been embarrassed about anything in his life, was actually blushing.

“If I didn’t know you better, I’d swear you’d got yourself a boyfriend,” Mark smirked.

“Yeah, well…”

Mark picked up the bag of dirty laundry and walked towards the door. He paused before he left the room to look back at the good looking boy sprawled naked on the bed. There was a roguish element to Corey that made it difficult to be mad at him for long, even though much of the time he was trouble with a capital ‘T’. He was also sexy as hell. “What am I going to do with you?” the young base leader asked, shaking his head.

“Well, a blow job would be nice for starters,” Corey grinned, grabbing his dick and giving it a shake.

“Get some sleep,” Mark laughed. He stepped back into his office and closed the door behind him.

Before Mark had even time to return to his desk, Adam teleported into the room. The sixteen year old Asian youth had wide grin on his face.

“About time,” said Mark. “I was expecting you ages ago.”

“Sorry, there were complications.”

“Don’t tell me Tim Marriott isn’t coming for some reason. Has something gone wrong?” The arrangement had been that Adam would visit Tim’s home and bring him back.

“Nothing’s wrong,” Adam smiled. “In fact I’ve a pleasant surprise for you; I’ve found us another potential new member.”

“You have?” Mark brightened up instantly. He put the bag containing Corey’s dirty clothing down on the floor and leaned back against the edge of the desk, his arms folded across his chest. “Well don’t keep me in suspense.”

Adam’s expression had suddenly changed to one of concern. “Is that blood on your shirt?” He took a step closer. “There’s more on the floor. It’s all over the place. What’s been going on?”

Mark glanced down at himself, for the first time noticing the smears of blood down his front. “It’s just Corey,” he sighed. “Nothing to get excited about. He turned up a few minutes ago looking like he’d been in a street brawl. He had a knife gash in his arm; that’s where all the blood came from. I’ve healed the knife wound and left him on my bed sleeping it off.”

“You’re going to have to do something about him, Mark, before he does some real damage to himself or someone else.”

“Yeah, I know. But forget him for the moment, tell me about this discovery you’ve made.”

Adam’s excited look returned. “It’s Tim’s older brother, Jayden. I was introduced to him when we arrived and we shook hands. As soon as our hands touched I could feel his powers. Mark, he has a healing ability stronger than anything I’ve ever seen before; much stronger than even yours.”

“A healer?” Mark stood up from the desk. Another healer in the base would be useful indeed, and if he were as strong as Adam claimed… This had been an amazingly lucky find. “Does he have any other abilities?”

“Not significant. Nothing that I could discover on a quick scan anyway. He has some very minor telepathic ability, about on a par with yours.”

Mark gave a wry smile. He was an extremely strong healer and had a limited of kinetic ability, but his telepathic powers were so weak as to be almost useless. The most he could manage was to talk telepathically to someone he was in actual physical contact with, and doing even that was likely to leave him with a thumping headache. “No competition for you then?” he grinned. Adam was one of the Corp’s strongest and most competent telepaths. “So what’s happening now? I take it he did agree to come along?”

“Yeah,” Adam nodded. “Well, sort of. That’s the small fly in the ointment. I’m afraid he’s not a very happy boy at the moment. His parents say he’s been moody for some time and it didn’t help things when a close friend of his was killed recently. With his parents help, I did manage to persuade him to come, but he’s going to need some very careful handling.

“As soon as I got him to agree to come I sent a telepathic message to Paul; since I can only manage one passenger, it would have meant me making two trips and I’m not sure I could have done that without resting between. Paul’s there at the moment, waiting for Jayden to pack his things, and then he’ll bring both boys at the same time.”

“What’s Tim like?” asked Mark.

“A bit hard to tell,” said Adam. “He comes across as maybe a bit over enthusiastic and excitable, but that could just have been because he was nervous. He seems nice enough.”

“If Jayden is likely to be unhappy, I don’t want him in a room on his own,” said Mark, thoughtfully. “I’m going to put him in with Nick.”

“Sounds like a good idea,” Adam agreed. The telepath had been briefly introduced to the Prince earlier that morning. “What about Tim?”

“Good question. I’m assigning Nathan as their houseboy, so I think he and Tim can share.”

“You sure that’s a good idea?” Adam looked worried.

“We’ll find out,” said Mark. “It needs something to fetch Nathan out of his shell, maybe this will do the trick.” He looked down at his shirt again and gave a grimace “I think I’d better change out of this before they arrive. They’re going to find things strange enough as it is, without me standing here looking like I’ve just committed a murder. I’ll just be a second.”

The young base leader re-entered his bedroom. Unfastening the top couple of buttons of his shirt and pulling it over his head, he tossed it onto a nearby chair and opened his wardrobe to get a clean one. On the bed, Corey was already asleep, his chest gently rising and falling in time with his soft breathing. Mark stood and watched him for a moment, fighting the impulse to stroke the boy’s head and brush his long hair away from his face

No one could deny that Corey was a bit of a loose cannon; he would see a situation and dive straight in, without any thought of possible consequences. However, Mark believed that beneath the veneer of carefree independence there was lost little boy who was desperate for love but was afraid to ask for it and didn’t know how to cope with it when it was offered. Corey’s past hadn’t exactly been a bed of roses. His father had been a drunk, his mother a whore. Neither of them could have cared less about the young boy growing up in their home. As a result of this, Corey was left to go his own way; he grew up in a world without rules and without love. He was frequently in trouble with the law; nothing too serious, mainly just petty things like fighting and minor vandalism. He was well on course for spending some time in a young offenders institution, when, at the age of thirteen, his powers first appeared. He was immediately accepted as a Corps member, based in New York, the main US base. However, his inability to follow rules continued to get him into trouble and now that he had abilities in both teleportation and energy manipulation, the scale and creativity of his misdemeanours increased considerably. He was warned a number of times, but it did no good and eventually the senior members of the New York base had had enough; the matter was brought before a full meeting of the Corps Council. Corey presented them with a major problem. He was considered unsuitable to continue as a Corps member, yet at the same time, due to his powers, it was decided that it would not be safe to expel him. The only possible alternative appeared to be some form of enforced sedation. Mark, a member of the Council, had been horrified at this idea and wasn’t slow in making his views known. After much debate, it was agreed that Corey be transferred to the West Coast base, under Mark’s care, to give the young base leader a chance at trying to change the behaviour of the delinquent fifteen year old. That had been three months ago. Up to know, Mark had managed to keep the boy out of any serious trouble, but it had been hard work.

Leaving the young teen to sleep, Mark pulled on his clean shirt and returned to his office. He was still fastening the buttons when Paul finally appeared with their new arrivals.

Standing next to Paul, the two brothers shared similar, nervous expressions. Jayden, the older boy, quickly let go of the teleporter’s hand, looking a little bit self conscious. However, the younger brother, Tim, stood with his hand in Paul’s, staring around himself, his eyes wide. Both boys were holding medium sized bags.

“That was brilliant! How far have we come?” The younger boy asked.

“Oh, not very far,” Paul replied, with a grin. “If you like, I can take you somewhere much more exciting than this. Wait until you get properly settled in and then we’ll have some fun.”

“Trips out will have to wait a little while,” said Mark, stepping forwards. “Hi, guys, I’m Mark. I’m the base leader here and I’ll be responsible for most of your training. Anything you want to know or are worried about, you come and see me and we can sort it out.”

Tim gave a nod and a nervous smile. Jayden simply nodded his head; the fifteen year old looked far from happy.

“I assume you’ve been told a little bit about the Corps and about your powers,” Mark continued. “We’ll have a proper talk later today and you’ll be able to ask any questions you have. The first job is to you show you to your rooms and get you settled in.”

“How long do we have to be here?” Jayden asked. There was still no trace of a smile on his face and there was a challenge in his eyes.

“That’s completely up to you,” said Mark, trying to appear as friendly as possible. He could understand the boy’s reaction, after being dragged away from home into an unknown situation without any warning at all. “We can teach you how to use your powers safely in just a few weeks. After that you can decide whether you want to stay with us or go back home.”

“Suppose I don’t even want to stay a few weeks?”

“This isn’t a prison,” said Mark. “You can leave any time you like. But you have powers that could be dangerous to yourself and to other people and so until we’re happy that you know how to use them, we’ll try and talk you out of going.” He put his hand on Jayden’s shoulder. “Give it couple of days and see how you feel. You might even like it here.”

The fifteen year old gave a reluctant nod. “I suppose.”

Mark smiled at the concession. “Before I let Paul show you to your rooms, I’d like to do a quick medical check on you. It’s a routine thing; it’ll take just a few seconds and you won’t feel a thing. We do it with all new entrants, just to check you don’t have any serious problems.”

“What sort of check?” asked Jayden, his eyes narrowing suspiciously.

“It’s nothing to worry about,” said Mark. “I put one hand on your chest and the other on your back. I can then use my healing ability to spot anything that might be wrong. Since you’re a strong healer, it’s something you will be able to do yourself once you’ve had a little training. I promise it doesn’t hurt.” He gave a reassuring smile. “Who wants to go first?”

Tim looked up at his brother, who continued to stare ahead. After a moment, he stepped forwards, releasing Paul’s hand. “I guess you can do me first,” he said, nervously.

“Good boy,” said Mark, softly. “Just lift your shirt up a little for me.”

Shyly glancing around himself at the boys watching him, the thirteen year old lifted his shirt at the sides, exposing a couple of inches of smooth stomach. “Like this?”

“That’s perfect,” said Mark. He moved closer and slid one hand under the front of the boy’s shirt, placing it firmly in the centre of his chest. Tim’s skin was soft and warm, and his heart was beating quickly. Mark’s other hand went up under the back of the shirt until it was flat between Tim’s shoulder blades. It took the older teen just a couple of seconds of concentration to establish that the boy had no problems at all. “All, done,” he said, pulling his hands away. “You’re perfectly healthy.”

“I didn’t feel anything,” said Tim, grinning. He turned to his brother. “Honestly, Jay, it doesn’t hurt.”

Jayden frowned. “I suppose you may as well get it done with. With obvious reluctance, he lifted up his shirt. However, he didn’t stop at a couple of inches, he lifted it all the way to his chin, revealing his tight, smooth stomach and firm chest. It was almost as if he were trying to prove something. “Go ahead.”

Mark put his hands in place and once more he concentrated his abilities. It was a good thing that this type of scan required very little energy, because his earlier labours combined with lack of sleep had left him feeling drained and weak. Anything beyond extremely minor healing would be beyond him at this time. As a result of this, he at first thought that he’d make a mistake. Then, his own heart now pounding, he checked again and discovered that he’d been correct. With a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach he pulled his hands away and forced a smile. “That’s you done.”

“Thanks,” said Jay, his voice cool. “I’m OK then?”

“You’ll live for now,” said Mark, trying to sound more upbeat than he felt. “Just one thing though, are you getting any headaches at the moment?”

“Sometimes,” Jayden shrugged. “Why?”

“Oh, nothing for you to worry about,” said Mark, lightly. He turned to Paul. “You can take them to their rooms now. Jay is sharing with Nick. Put Tim in the second bedroom in the same suite, he’s going to be sharing with Nathan.”

“You’re moving Nathan down here?” There was surprise in Paul’s voice.

“Yes, I’m making Nathan their official ‘houseboy’.”

“Well, you’re the boss,” said Paul, his tone making it clear he didn’t think that this was a good decision. “C’mon guys, let’s show you where you’re going to be kipping down.” He picked up Tim’s bag and led the two boys out.

As soon as they were gone and the door was closed, Adam turned to Mark, a questioning look on his face.

“Alright, what was that about?” the Asian boy demanded.

Mark’s fixed smile disappeared. “It’s not good.”

“I know it’s not good,” said Adam. “I could tell from the expression on your face when you did that check on Jayden. You covered up quickly, but it was pretty obvious that you’d found something.”

Mark took a deep breath and looked into his friend’s eyes. “Jayden has a tumour in his brain.”

There was a moment’s shocked silence and then Adam slowly let his breath hiss out from between his teeth. “Bad?”

“Yeah.” Mark nodded. “I’ve seen enough similar cases during my time at the hospital to know that surgery wouldn’t help.”

“What about healing?”

Mark hesitated. “I don’t know. He’s right at the limit of what I can do. I need to get some rest and then reassess him. If there’s even a chance then I’ve got to try and help him.”

“Mark, you have to be careful. If you stretch yourself too far…”

Adam didn’t need to finish the sentence. Both teens knew only too well the consequences facing healer who tried something beyond his abilities. Mark merely shook his head, tiredly.

 

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