Xaviers!

Tosh watched with anticipation as a disc-like device floated above his workspace in the lab. It was the longest amount of time he had gotten his levitation prototype to work without failing. But his attention was a tired one, his mental menagerie continuing it's increased activity. He knew he could handle it, he just needed to reestablish the order of things.

It's magnificent!
Suck up.
Uuugh. Is that all it does Bro? Float?
It'd be great if you guys could make your newfound loquaciousness actually be helpful.
Can't always get what ya want Kid.

Wait wait wait, was that resentment? That's new.

Before he could comment on this, the flying saucer disc started to wobble and then shoot across the room.

Bruce took over and made a grab for it. "I got it!" he shouted. But he only grazed it, further destabilizing it.

"Amateur. Watch how it's done," said Ennio upon taking charge. He sent out a jet of water to knock it out of the sky. He succeeded, but the water got into the housing through a gouge left by Bruce and the device sparked and caught fire as it skittered along the floor.

"Fire!"

Kabuto stomped over to it and... with a shout, Tosh took his body back and used a fire extinguisher.

"Some great teamwork guys. You almost destroyed weeks of fine tuning!" he shouted, "Whatever you're trying to do, stop!"

He took a calming breath before he continued shouting at himself like a crazy person. It wasn't his first incident in recent days, but it was his worst.

"While I encourage some creative experimentation, whatever this is might be a little... counter-productive." Ashlie says from where she's standing in the doorway with a quirked eyebrow on her face and a small crate in her arms.

Tosh flushed a little. "Yeah, they're... being the opposite of helpful lately," he said to her with a tired sigh.

"'They' being who exactly? Your different shapes?" she asks, walking into the room to place the box she's carrying no her own workbench.

"They've been, I dunno, I guess you'd call it pushy lately," he said, downplaying the issue.

"Implying they're at odds with you. They're fully distinct personalities?"

"Still yes and no, but more yes than before. It's like they're feeding off each other, evolving."

That or I'm losing my mind.

"And they aren't happy with the status quo."

"That would be a fairly strong indicator that they are distinct. I'm not an expert by any measure but while people can certainly be unhappy about their own behavior, those rarely are expressed by referring to them as external like you do. Not to mention acting out against your own wishes." she says with some concern to her voice.

Her tone reminded him far too much of the way his mom talked to her dad before she learned just how far gone he was.

"Don't worry, please. I'm not going full-blown D.I.D. on you. Though I guess a crazy person would say that."

"I'm just concerned. Unique mental states are more common among mutants than the general population and it's not always detrimental. But when it is the consequences are usually worse as well."

"Guess I need to get ahead of this, huh?" he asked with some hesitance. He clearly didn't like to think about the consequences of his mental state becoming detrimental. No doubt having a family history of mental illness didn't help matters.

"At least be aware of it. Maybe talk it over with somebody. Doesn't have to be a professional either. I believe Samantha had some similar issues in the past."

"A good suggestion. And with the way my selves separated in Will's mindscape, maybe she can help me have a real conversation with them."

"You seemed to be doing that just fine in here when I came in. Just maybe do it over a game of frisbee rather than a high-tech school project." she says with a slight smirk.

"Yeeaah... that didn't go so well," he said as he kneeled down to pick up his project, mindful of the fire suppressant.

"Kabuto was this close to smashing it."

"Then unless you have some suppressed misgivings about your own project, this seems like something you need to address in some way."

He nodded.

"So what's in the box?"

"A student project I pulled out of storage to see if it can be salvaged or retrofitted." she says, opening the box and pulling out a collection of spools and magnets and an assembly with a couple of antennas sticking out of it. Here and there pieces of sod and grass are still sticking to it and whatever it did it clearly did so at it's own detriment, judging by the scorchmarks and bend out of shape pieces.

Tosh gave the contraption a curious look.

"What even is that? Besides a disaster."

"Long-range teleporter prototype. The grass was collateral translocation. It simply pulled in everything in a roughly 4 foot radius." she says as she untangles the mess and drops handful of sods into the garbage.

Tosh let out a whistle. "Impressive. So many mysterious divots in the lawn that I didn't even notice."

"It pulled in Heather West trying to use a Slipstream device, which angered my rogue decompiled personality matrix she'd befriended, resulting in my experimental gravity cannon rampaging through the Point."

"I thought I might put it to a more productive use than the one and only time it was used." she chuckles.

"Oh, thaaat incident."

"Makes me feel a lot better about my problems getting this thing to work right," he said as he finished cleaning his prototype.

"Nothing ever works the first time. Especially not flawlessly. Three-dimensional stabilizing is hard even without taking real life conditions into account."

"Like obstacles, wind, moisture, and whacky brain monsters," he quipped.

"Only very few electronics need to consider psychological variance." she jokes...?

The device, now clean, looked suspiciously like a sand dollar, with six anti-grav stabilizers in a ring around the center rather than five radiating from the center. . The boy couldn't help himself with the aquatic designs.

"Do you think I put too many stabilizers or not enough?"

"The amount should be fine. Programming directional control is going to be a little less intuitive than if you used four, but that's because I find humans like thinking in 4 or 8 for their directions, not because the design is flawed."

"Could be that the output of the units doesn't quite match what you programmed it for too. You could add a self-adjusting diagnostics loop but that might be beyond the scope of the project. And slow down processing and reaction time depending on how efficient the code is."

"Worth trying for the data at the very least. It could help me optimize a second prototype in the likely event I end up needing one."

"One would hope your... quarrels would not destroy it beyond repair."

"I meant for zeroing in on the optimal design. Though I suppose I need an application in mind first."

"That does usually play a large role in design, yes. If all you're doing is a proof-of-concept for anti-grav units then, well, mission accomplished, you're done."

"That was this prototype's goal, yes. But I do want to keep going. Perhaps with a small drone for search and rescue. LiKe, search rubble without disturbing it."

"Searching rubble you're probably better suited with a terrestrial model. Easier to miniaturize and get between debris. Not that aerial surveillance wouldn't be useful."

"Hmmm... good point. If I could reliably get the mass up I could do a lot more. Though I'd never get Bruce to shut about a hoverboard if I get to his weight range."

"Sounds to me like you need to settle on an application all of you can agree on first and foremost."

"God. I need to get all of me back on the same page or running everything by committee is gonna break me."

"Perhaps you need to discuss with yourself what they want and what they can get. Or assert yourself as the original and make them fall in line."

"Maybe Sam can be a mediator so we can reach a fair arrangement."

"We do have a telepath on staff." she chuckles. "Though I reckon this would be easier with someone you're more comfortable with and who has at least comparable experience in such things."