Xaviers!

Basil allowed Diego and Colette to take him to the infirmary, but was very very quiet thus far, really only responding in short sentences to people asking him things.

From all appearances Colette was miming having an arm over her shoulder, speaking softly and reassuringly to Basil as they headed for the infirmary.

"Do you feel light-headed at all Basil? I worry zat you may have lost a lot of blood."

"No."

"It's worse than I thought Doctor Rosenhof. He's lost too many words. We need a dictionary IV, stat!" Diego joked as he walked, trying to lighten the mood.

"We could always perform a tongue transfer operation. Basil and I have practiced it many times." Now she was just being cheeky to get any sort of reaction.

"Hmmmm." Was the only reply.

"Is that 'hmmmm' you considering makeouts or telling us to shut up and hurry?"

"Perhaps shut up and hurry wiz ze make-outs?"

"Neither."

"Are you... mad I tried to Team Rocket your girlfriend?" Diego he asked, "That... sounded way too dirty."

"... What?"

"In the mall? With the ball? Did you not get the Pokemon anime on UK TV as a kid?"

Basil fell silent, then there was a weird shuffling sound.

What was he doing? Shrugging?

Colette spoke a little more softly, trying to hide the concern in her voice.

"Basil honey, please talk to us. I... we cannot see how you are doing, zis is all we have to work wiz."

"What do you want me to say?" He asked back, obviously upset.

"Should I start with my personal problem with people just delving into my head willy nilly like it's a goddamn convenience store? What about the fact that my brain just seems to accept this over and over and just let's people rewrite it however they feel like it?

What about what they made me into was completely disgusting and antithesis to my being? It's the reason you have torpedo ti-" His observation stopped abruptly, and then with a loud thump he was visible on the floor again.

This 'becoming visible when unconscious' thing seemed like a very poor survival mechanism.

Also he was *only* wearing trousers for some reason. What had he been up to when Conduit caught him up in the illusion?

"Oh shit!" he exclaimed in alarm before trying to get someone's attention. "We need a doctor!"

A nurse did rush to their aid, but seemed less concerned when she realized who it was. Nonetheless she went through the motions of checking his airway and rolling the unconscious, shirtless boy on his side.

"He'll be fine." She tried to reassure Diego and Colette, sounding pretty convinced of that. "We'll just need to get him someplace comfortable and see about treating these wounds up. He probably just lost consciousness due to blood loss."

Colette probably would have started to explain that no, she didn't want Basil to spill all of his secrets and concerns. But he just had to go and faint from blood loss first. So of course she had let out a bit of a shriek and knelt by his side until the nurse arrived.

""Oh my. I... I can get his legs, Diego maybe you can take his shoulders?"

Diego nodded and gently but firmly lifted Basil by the shoulders, careful to support his head and neck.

"Where to?" he asked the nurse.

Basil was very light and easy enough for the two of them to lift.

The nurse lead the two of them to an empty bed to place him on and started looking him over more thoroughly, including checking said blood pressure.

"Ahhhh yea that's it." The nurse started checking his hands.

"It'd be better if he was awake so we could see if he can flex them, but we can't leave these open I suppose. It doesn't look like any tendons were cut anyways, though we'll need to get it cleaned up to get a better view.

You two should probably clear out for a bit while I get a doctor to eyeball this for a second and give me clearance to stitch it up. And you won't want to watch that." She stated.

Colette was reluctant to leave Basil's side, but given that there was to be surgery in Basil's future she did relent to sitting in the waiting area until she could be allowed back in to be by Basil's bedside. Of course after what had happened that day she knew he'd be anything but lonely in the hospital wing before too long.

After they were ushered out, the two of them would find Chisaki waiting for them in the waiting room.

Colette and Diego had born witness to her normalcy, which was not exactly a thing she liked to share. Since Basil was alive and being ushered to the emergency room, she seemed to disappear, reappearing now in a winter hat that covered most of her head save her face, shades over her eyes, and a somewhat mismatched sweater and leggings.

She turned to the two of them and gave a vague sort of smile, but one lacking her normal enthusiasm.

"He's going to be fine," Diego told Chisaki, perhaps misinterpreting her expression as worry. He appeared unphased by her extreme wardrobe change but was really just too mentally preoccupied to take particular notice.

Chisaki shrugged.

"Yes, I figured. He was not screaming or writhing on the ground, and seemed to be thinking about something other than just the pain, so it could not have been too bad."

"I think he was more upset about the mind whammy than being hurt. By what little he said before he passed out anyway."

"Yes, Basil has... issues wiz zis. I do not zink telling him how all of us were fooled will make him feel any better."

"He will have to become used to this. He cannot expect to live here and not have people in his mind periodically."

"That's... a disturbing but accurate assessment. Though I'd like to think it's usually accidental or at least benign."

After a breath, he added, "Unless tin foil works."

Chisaki started giggling.

"If he were to do that, it would look like his mutancy was being a leftovers swan that floated exactly six feet above ground."

Colette scowled a bit at that sort of rationality.

"Is zat not victim blaming? Zere are students here who are unable to control zeir abilities yes, but does zat mean I should get used to ze idea of being set aflame, or struck by lightning?"

Chisaki had no idea what that term meant, but Colette's anger didn't break her stride in the slightest.

"Aside from Diego-Senpai's observations, by coming to this school we have allied ourselves with a unit of people who have many enemies. To those people all of us are flying the colours of their enemies and whether we like it or not, the attackers will not stop to consider how overtly those colours are worn. To them, you and Benson-Senpai are no different than Diego and I. You are X-Men.

If he is going to stay here, Benson-Senpai must get used to the idea he will be attacked regardless of whether or not he does anything to provoke it. If he does not, he will not gain the skills to protect himself from it, and it will drive him to dark places. I have seen this before. It is the reason I run the home-team program. To give students a chance to find the strength to protect themselves however they can. "

Colette's cheeks puffed out in frustration. Because there were few things more frustrating than someone raising a good point that you didn't have a response to.

"Yeah. That's what I meant. I think. Why were you cast as the rookie?"

"Because you are born in February, while I was born in August. We are still in school, so this makes you senpai, and I kohai.

If this were work it might be different, but it is not."

"So thaaat's what that means," he thought aloud.

"Anyway, I'm... sorry he got hurt," he told Colette, "I can't help but think I failed somehow."

Colette degrumped slightly. "I do not see how. Were we placed in a situations I... still do not understand. But zere was potential for all of us to be injured. I zink we all knew zat when we listened to ze feazer."

Oh, right, she only knew how Sam's inner voice had manifested for herself.

"Mon dieau, Basil was right zough. Who in ze hell decided on zis shape for me?"

"She is right. We all knew we were in danger, Benson-senpai was just trying to help I guess. And none of us could tell what exactly he had done when he was invisible. If we did, I would have told him he needed something to shield his hands to prevent that from happening. Or perhaps Colette-senpai could have done it instead. But we cannot beat ourselves up over what should have happened.

That means you too Diego-senpai."

She pointedly ignored Colette's observations about her physique.

He sighed. "I know you're right. I just... wish I could have done more than make jokes for the nonexistent camera, y'know? And... yeah... giant car golem. What else was there to do? Tickle it?"

"I do not zink I have very much strengz in my hands, I do not zink I could have done more zan try to blind it or... what is ze phrase, gum up ze works?"

Chisaki shrugged.

"Then perhaps what happened, happened, and could not have happened any other way." She replied enigmatically.