Xaviers!

Tosh, or rather a hopeful Brosh, knocked on Professor Terrance's office door. He was dressed once more in his usual nerd chic (jeans and a graphic tee emblazoned with a pop-culture reference).

I sure hope this works Brucey.
It will because it has to.

"Come in, Tosh," says a voice from inside the office.

He entered. "Bruce, actually. That's, like, the problem."

"Fair enough, Bruce," she says, picking up a notepad and a pen. "Close the door, have a seat, and tell me what's going on."

He took a seat and gave her a recap of the incident with Haley, Tosh not waking up, and the unexpected power development resulting in an additional sub-personality.

Melissa made notes and refrained from commenting on the situation until Bruce was finished. "Well, that certainly sounds like a trying time," she says sympathetically, "Before we continue, may I have your permission to speak to Haley about her part in all this?"

"It was an accident, but yeah," he said, nodding. "Can we, yanno, get Tosh back first though? I wasn't meant for this shape."

"Of course," she says, finishing her notes and moving to sit in a chair opposite him. "I'm going to make contact and we'll see what's going on. Grab my wrist if it proves to be too much." She leans forward a bit, reaching out to touch his temples with her fingertips. As she does so, she makes contact with his mind, her avatar materializing as she pushes through his outer thoughts to get deeper.

The fog of conscious thought cleared to reveal a city street. To her right, a shop called Frisco Computers with a lightly smoke-stained second-floor window slowly healing before her mind's eye. Far down the street is a curious futuristic structure consisting of a crystalline dome ringed by metal spires covered in growths of coral. It brings to mind a temple raised from the sea.

Obvious damage gets her immediate attention and she walks towards the computer shop before taking a short hop, bouncing her avatar up to the healing second floor window. She takes a closer look at it, inspecting the damage and what lies beyond.

Inside is what looks like an XU dorm room bearing minimal signs of fire damage. A mental construct resembling a slender humanoid robot with a fireman's hat is surveying the damage, making satisfied electronic warbles as it jots down notes on a clipboard.

His brain is doing damage control, which is good. She steps backwards, floating to the ground and starting up the street towards the temple-like structure.

The giant doors of the structure are flanked by a pair of Bruces in high tech armor, wielding large rifles that periodically crackled with electricity.

"Like, halt and stuff," one said.

"You totally need ID to enter The Repository," said the other.

The Seer nods, "Perhaps you two can help me. I'm looking for Tosh."

Left Bruce said, "The Master? He's inside."

Right Bruce added, "But, like, unavailable."

"Did you have, like, an appointment?"

"I do," she says, gesturing with one hand as a card rotates into view, produced from thin air. She offers it to the Bruce on the right.

RB studied the card and it seemed to satisfy him. Standing straighter, he said, "Ah! My apologies Professor! Commander Bruce told us you were coming!"

"Control. We've got us a VIP. Open the gate," LB called in.

The large doors parted with a soft hiss, revealing an equally large corridor lit by abstract crystalline sculptures along the seamless metal walls. A penguin in an ornate blue and white circuit-patterned monk's robe waited to guide her.

She nods her thanks to the guards and steps inside, nodding in greeting to the penguin. "Can you take me to the Master?"

"Indeed!" the penguin squawked cheerfully. He turned with one wing outstretched, saying, "Follow me!"

As they walked, he said, "It is certainly high time the commander called for a specialist. The Young Master has us worried sick. Absolutely sick I tell you!"

"I can tell," she says, "I'll do what I can to set it right, I assure you." She walks just a half-step behind the penguin, taking in her surroundings as she tries to assess this part of Tosh's mind.

The corridor had a few irregular off-shoots and a few places where the turning gears of whatever function this place served jutted out of the walls. Her guide continued straight ahead and eventually led her out onto a walkway suspended in a spherical chamber that must be the core of the central dome. The walls of the sphere were made up of countless hexagonal pods, two of which are missing. A third is covered in warning tape and chains bearing ridiculously complex padlocks.

On a central platform is a control terminal and, more importantly, a bed where Tosh rested. Bruce and an unfamiliar ferret-thing are watching over him.

The Seer stops, regarding the missing pods and the padlocked one. She makes a special mental note of them and then slowly approaches the bed, reaching out a bit to get a better sense of Tosh and the other two.

This was indeed the core Tosh persona, accompanied by the representations of the conscious Bruce and what must be the new form he had told of. Tosh's avatar wasn't showing signs of the same symbolic burns, but he wasn't moving. Consciousness seemed just a breath away. He just needed the right push.

Bruce looked to The Seer with hope. "Please say you can help."

"I'll do what I can," she says, reaching out to touch Tosh even as she comments to Bruce, "You're missing some pods. Do you know what used to me there?"

"Me and the new guy," Bruce answered.

Tosh stirred with the groan of a stubborn sleeper. He exuded feelings of fear and shame.

"And the locked one?" Her mind chased those feelings, trying to get a sense of what they were tied to.

"That is where the bad one sleeps," the penguin provides in a fearful tone. The feelings were tied directly to how Tosh felt during the incident with Haley. The trauma had latched onto his emotional state like a parasite and was hanging on despite his mind's efforts to heal.

"Okay," she says, "Can you three give me some time here? It might be easier if he isn't being watched by everyone."

The mental constructs all nodded.

"Good luck Doc," the ferret said with a tip of the stetson he wasn't wearing a second ago, and the three vanished.

"Okay, Tosh," she says, reaching out to gently shake his metaphorical shoulder. "They're gone. You can wake up now."

After some resistant groaning, he muttered, "Why?"

"Because your friends need you and they're worried about you," she says, continuing to use a gentle tone not at all in keeping with her avatar's appearance.

"They have Bruce. He's not a loser," he responded.

"And neither are you," she says, "They're not built to cope without you, just like you'd have a hard time coping without them. Bruce is worried about you."

"Wait... what do you mean..."

He suddenly oped his eyes, sat up, and in the real world asked, "Them?" Curiosity, it seemed, trumped self-doubt.

"You seem to have a new mental friend," she says in the real world, still maintaining the mental contact to monitor his responses. "And apparently he carries over into your shapeshifting, but that's not totally my area of expertise."

"I... but... my power doesn't... does it?" he stammered.

"That doesn't make sense. I made Bruce after the fact to control my other form."

I reckon you were wrong about how that worked, kid.

He groaned. "... he's a cowboy... why is he a cowboy?"

"Given that he emerged after a situation with Miss Crusek, I would think that part of it is that connection."

"So my power created a second form and built it a persona, sort of based on Haley, all on its own?"

"And maybe Bruce wasn't the conscious choice I thought he was?"

"That I can't say. It's possible."