Caged.

[wildchild]

Kyle had taken to wandering the halls as of late.

Not that he was really looking for anything, but with his growing tolerance to his medication, and the agonizing waiting period to have more of it, he had become restless.

Well, he hoped it was just restlessness. He just felt so...caged lately, so trapped within the confines of the lab.

Not that he didn't like it there. The Lab provided everything he could possibly want. It was just....

He didn't like to think about it. The more he thought about it the more it seemed that he was slipping deeper into feral-ness.

Maybe that was why he lost track of his wandering, and ended up down a hallway he had never been through before. And maybe that was what possessed him to reach for the door knob of the nearest entry way.

[Hank McCoy]

At just that moment, there was a sliding metallic sound and the door snapped open. Dr. McCoy filled the gap between the hallway outside and the brightly lit interior. It was plain from his expression that he hadn't known Kyle was there.

"Oh...!", he said. A series of surprised looks followed rapidly. Kyle's hand. Henry's eyes narrowed. Kyle's face. Henry's eyes turned slightly, but a little nervously, back toward the room. "Kyle", Henry said as he stepped through the door and closed it.

First it clicked, then the sliding sound repeated. Before it ended, it was followed by a heavy metal thunk. The door was silent.

"...is there something you needed?", Henry asked. His eyebrows were just a little too high for his expression to be convincingly casual.

[wildchild]

Kyle jumped back in sheer surprise as his boss emerged from the doorway. Great, now he was going to be out on the street by this time tomorrow.

He truly looked startled, mostly because he had sort of...spaced while he reached for the door. That was curiosity for you though, and Kyle's highly inquisitive mind fueled that curiosity like a potent gasoline.

Which is why Henry's reaction was so intriguing to him.

In all his time working with Dr. McCoy, he had never, ever seen him react that way, it was as if...

He was hiding something.

"Well....I was....erm....ah..." Kyle stammered, trying to justify any sort of reason for his actions, "See...I was just kind of wandering....and..."

He took a breath. Seeing as how he had no explanation, he decided to respond with his own question.

"I've never been down this way before...what's being studied here?"

[Hank McCoy]

"Genetics", Henry answered succinctly but not at all elaborately. There was a flash of something...anger? Irritation? at the questioning.

And then all at once Henry was jovial, his expression all smiles.

"Best not to wander, my boy, this is just where I work on some..." Henry searched for an appropriate word. "...abstract ideas. Who knows if they will ever amount to anything?" A powerful blue arm found Kyle's shoulder and Henry stood more straightly than was his custom. He filled the hallway easily and he began to walk. Away from the door. Henry was suddenly and subtly using his oversized build to usher Kyle back to more familiar areas of the lab.

"I must not be keeping you busy enough if you have found time to wander", Henry chuckled amiably.

[wildchild]

Dr. McCoy was such a kind man, Kyle knew that he would never tell him any sort of falsehood, so when the Doctor answered his question with a simple "Genetics" it was really good enough for him.

At least for the moment.

"Best not to wander, my boy, this is just where I work on some...abstract ideas. Who knows if they will ever amount to anything?"

"I bet they will..." Kyle replied, his mind wandering away from the mystery of the locked door for a time "You're the most brilliant person I've ever met Doctor McCoy, surely something extraordinary will come from it...whatever it is..."

Ok, now he was curious again. But he certainly couldn't doubt Henry's word. He was....

The Alpha Male. Obey.

He shook that notion from his head quickly, nearly missing McCoy's playful jab at his expense.

"I must not be keeping you busy enough if you have found time to wander",

"It's not that you aren't challenging me sir, " Kyle said, a slow smile creeping to his features, "I'm just so....enamored with the matierial....it really isn't work for me....I can't get enough of it to be honest..."

Really, it was a secret ambition of his to be like Dr. McCoy. The man really was Kyle's idol.

[Hank McCoy]

"That's good, that's good", Henry said with a wide grin and a pat on Kyle's back. "I remember my own enthusiasm to learn all I could as quickly as possible. It was something my old mentor Charles Xavier used to....."

Henry froze and cleared his throat. The smile vanished for an instant as he seemed to realize he was about to say something he didn't want to finish.

"Well", he said when the talking and the smiling resumed, "you'll get no resistance from me." This was true, it seemed, as long as it didn't involve whatever was behind that door. Again Henry pushed on toward a more palatable subject. "Why don't you show me the progress you've made on identifying the latent potential in those samples?", he suggested.

[wildchild]

"I remember my own enthusiasm to learn all I could as quickly as possible. It was something my old mentor Charles Xavier used to....."

Kyle had never heard about this...Xavier person before. It really only fueled his curiosity. Of course, it would be rude to ask, seeing the Doctor's reaction to his slip of the tongue.

"He must have been really something to become your mentor Doctor..." Kyle said, wondering what exactly that something could possibly be.

"Why don't you show me the progress you've made on identifying the latent potential in those samples?"

Oh right. His work.

"Well...these certainly were a bit different than the last batch you had me look at.." Kyle said, recalling back to earlier that afternoon, "There was a slight complication with the last few, and I had to start all over again..."

He shrugged bashfully, "Not that I minded, the arrangement of the nucleotides were just...fascinating..."

A wide grin, like a child remembering a trip to the Zoo.

"Actually, I got the urge to move about halfway through the last sample....I just couldn't sit still..." He added, his smile fading considerably. He was obviously worried about his condition.

"I don't know...maybe you could, if you're not too busy, give me a little professional guidance?" Kyle asked, "I'd really appreciate it."

[Hank McCoy]

"He must have been really something to become your mentor Doctor..."

"He was", Henry replied, and there was obvious pain in his expression. "No one understood mutation better..." He stared off into space as his mind sifted through thoughts from the past. After a moment, he smiled a wistful smile. "I guess it is inevitable that the student should surpass the teacher, eh?" He clapped Kyle once again across the shoulder.

"Let's have a look", he said, and bent to look into the microscope at Kyle's workstation.

"The sequences are rarely predictable", Henry said as he rotated the scope's controls, adjusting the view and examining the impossibly small specimens in rather astonishing detail. "Here", Henry said, and stepped back so that Kyle could take a look.

"We cannot predict the nature of the polymorphism at this stage, but the chromosomal aberrations here are a relatively strong indicator of latent mutation." His smile was almost that of a proud parent. "This patient is, more than likely, one of us", he said.

[wildchild]

Dr. McCoy never ceased to amaze Kyle. The man's knowledge on most subjects was formidable enough, but when it came to genetics, he was...well... a genius.

Kyle sneaked a quick glance upwards at his mentor, seeing the smile stretch across his face. The amount of joy that he seemed to take in his work was nothing more than astounding.

"Wow..." Kyle said, peering into the microscope, one hand furiously taking notes on the specimen's configuration onto his lab book;

-Watch for aberrations in chromosomes. Strong indication of mutation.

-Specimen Six- Strong signs of Homo Superior traits. Watch closely for nature of mutation.

"Now...how much farther along would it normally take for the nature of the mutation to surface?" Kyle asked, "I know generally it's puberty, but I read that in rare cases, the Homo Superior traits can activate much later....even many years later..."

He flipped his notebook to where he had wrote it down.

-"Late Bloomers''. Ask Dr. McCoy why.

"What causes that?" Kyle asked, "Chemical imbalance?"

[Hank McCoy]

Kyle was asking the right questions. He was thinking along the appropriate lines and soon enough he would very likely cross the threshold into a realization of the much larger picture. Henry had no doubt of it.

What remained a question, was how Kyle would react once he grasped the implications. That, even more than his obvious ability, would determine Kyle's role in the future of Henry's true research.

"Unfortunately predicting the true nature of mutation is even more elusive than anticipating when it might occur", Henry answered a little ruefully.

"Essex theorized that it is often the hormonal influx during the advent of puberty or times of abnormal stress that provides the catalyst for those individuals who do not present their gifts at birth. While this takes a step toward explaining the how, it doesn't really provide an answer for the why." Henry waited to see if Kyle would offer an opinion. As it was a pet subject he dwelt upon a great deal, he didn't wait long.

"I believe that evolution seeks to protect our race from detection. It's in defiance of Natural Selection. Delaying the onset of noticeable differences helps to insure the survival of a homo superior amongst inferior parents and others who might otherwise exploit or seek to destroy it."

[wildchild]

"I believe that evolution seeks to protect our race from detection. It's in defiance of Natural Selection. Delaying the onset of noticeable differences helps to insure the survival of a homo superior amongst inferior parents and others who might otherwise exploit or seek to destroy it."

Whoa.

Kyle took a moment to consider the weight of what Dr. McCoy had just said. It...made a great deal of sense.

"Yeah...." Kyle said his voice quiet as he slipped into deep thought, "I see...yeah..that makes perfect sense..."

A quick scribble in his notes, and he continued with much more enthusiasm in his voice, "I mean, if evolution has shown us anything it's shown that if an organism is made to fulfill a certain niche, it will work as hard as it can to fulfill it's role...to maintain superiority...such as a plant growing thorns or a spider's venom..."

His mind went back to a book he had read a few months ago. They had referred to this theory as a "Red Queen", taken from the character of the same name from Alice and Wonderland. "Sometimes, to stay in one place, you have to run as fast as you can", was the direct quote, if he recalled correctly.

"It's only natural that Homo Superior, being the more advanced of the two races, would develop methods of concealment in order to protect the species from extinction..." Kyle continued, a wide smile across his features. He loved this!

He had to know more, he needed to know more. He wanted to devour every last bit of knowledge he could.

"Survival of the fittest." Kyle said, "And by masking the superior traits until a point in life when we are more able to defend ourselves, the chance of survival increases..."

"Am I close?" He asked, looking up at his mentor.

[Hank McCoy]

"Many lower species already use camouflage and deception to protect the young from being treated as food or as a threat by the parents or even the larger community. It's extremely common", Henry answered. "Think of how much more danger our kind would be in were our society not built to protect them."

"Unlocking the mysteries of our advancement means helping everyone", he added with some noticeable pride. "Understanding may come in unexpected ways."

[wildchild]

Kyle was really, really curious as to what Dr. McCoy was getting at. It was different, it was exciting and he had to learn more.

Such was his insatiable curiosity.

It was maddening. He didn't care what Henry meant by "unexpected ways', all he wanted was to aide his mentor in whatever way possible.

"Well...great discoveries often come from unexpected places," He said, "You have to think outside the box sometimes..."

All Kyle was doing was making himself more and more curious. Time to make his move.

"I have no problem with thinking outside the box..."

[Hank McCoy]

Henry gave Kyle a smile that was equal parts smug and self-indulgent.

Don't you, Kyle? Don't you really?

It took him a moment to decide how far to push and how far to let the younger man struggle with the problem on his own. Part of the appreciation would come in earning that knowledge. In understanding the implications...in weighing the costs of both success and of failure.

...in understanding the risks of breaking the rules and challenging God...

He had put the keys in Kyle's hand. All he needed to know were in those specific samples. It might take him weeks to sort out the message there...months...

The words Kyle had said echoed. "I have no problem with thinking outside the box..."

The words Victor Creed had said to him did too. "Sometimes, Doc...ya gotta break a few eggs..."

Henry hesitated, trying to decide. Should he let Kyle stand on the edge of discovery or push him over the cliff?

Birth is ever a violent activity, he reasoned. Hello, Alice. Welcome to Wonderland, Henry thought.

"Walk with me, Kyle", Henry said suddenly, but instead of leading anywhere he swung the chair around and sat at Kyle's workstation. He began to punch at keys.

[wildchild]

Doctor McCoy had said nothing for what felt like an eternity. Had he been too forward? Maybe Doctor McCoy didn't think he was capable enough to be of any sort of assistance.

"Walk with me, Kyle"

Although he hid it well, on the inside Kyle was doing a happy dance. His face lit up as his mentor began to press keys at his work station, mere moments away from revealing what had to be the biggest revelation he would ever experience.

His whole body quivered with anticipation, he almost couldn't stand to wait.