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Waves of pain pounded in his head and trying to block it with his usual methods didn't seem to be working and he couldn't hear Reon except as the barest whisper. He nearly panicked at that since he could always hear his mate. What was wrong with him?
They'd just come from a riot in the Amirre Province. It had been more difficult then usual for him to get the crowd to calm and listen to reason. The people here had a legitimate gripe, their elected leader and his council had passed a truly stupid and ruinous law and their constituents had rose up in arms against it.
Once he'd calmed the masses of rioting groups, order was restored but he had some harsh words with the leader, that was about the time his head began to pound.
He should have been able to push the pain away then Reon would pull it from him and give him nearly immediate relief but this time nothing seemed to be working. He couldn't think and his stomach was beginning to roil queasily. He really didn't feel so good.
Reon stared down at his trembling and moaning mate in extreme concern. Clicking his comm on, he called their pilot.
"T-Bone, something is very wrong with Ulysses. Get us back to headquarters asap and alert the medical staff."
Razor responded, "Gotcha, Reon. What seems to be his problem? I noticed he was in pain."
Reon felt the Turbokat pick up speed as he answered. "He is but I can't relieve him of it and I can barely hear him on our link. He shivering and moaning so somethings very wrong."
"You know, he could be coming down with a cold. It may not be work related at all." Razor said thoughtfully. "I thought he was looking a bit pale and ill but I couldn't be certain."
"I think you may be right. I should have been more aware of how he was feeling in general. It's just, were so used to him being tired and groggy after an extended use of his abilities that we forget he could get ill as well." Reon said anxiously.
"Don't worry Reon, I'll get him home as fast as I dare. I don't think he could handle too many G's with that amount pain." T-Bone spoke up.
"Thanks T-Bone." Reon sighed.
As the tabby promised, he got them home in thirty minutes despite it usually taking more than an hour. A medical crew was waiting when they were lowered into the bowels of the International Aristal Protection Agency's ( IAPA) hidden headquarters.
Ulysses Feral was placed on a gurney and hurried to the medical center. He was very quickly stripped of his clothes and put to bed. A rapid round of tests were performed and during it all Feral held on to his mental shields, barely conscious.
He felt them handling him which sent spikes of agony through his head. He cried out each time they were forced to move him. His mental controls were slipping rapidly as he got sicker and the pain in his head increased. He couldn't sense Reon any longer.
As normal procedure, Feral had been placed in a psychic dampening room. This was a specialized space that had been insulated to keep an out of control psychic from harming others. Feral's abilities were far more formidable than any living psychic of this century so extra caution was being taken. Nulls were the only ones in the treatment room with him except for Reon who could withstand his mate's abilities...usually.
Unfortunately, all their precautions were for naught. Feral lost the battle to keep hold of his shields which caught Reon in a sudden surge of psyhic energy that knocked him out sending him to the floor. All the nulls experienced extreme headaches as the patient sent out wave upon wave of pain and delirium that blasted through the protective walls meant to keep it in to every sensitive in the complex.
All over headquarters, people were grabbing their heads and screaming. The few null minds around were only strickened with headaches but those were so debilitating they were left just as helpless as their more sensitive colleagues.
The destructive psychic wave reached the office of Director Argus. He immediately recognized the signature of the one responsible as he strengthened his usually already strong shields against the onslaught. But even he could barely hold back the intense scream of pain emanating from Feral.
His eyes squinted against the effort to hold his own chields in place. He realized, if it took this much effort to block the powerful psychic in their midst, his lower level psychics were suffering untold agony and nulls would be suffering bad headaches.
Hurriedly leaving his office, he rushed to the medical center. On his way, his fear was realized as he passed many of his employees laying on the ground holding their heads, some screaming, others moaning in agony.
He could do nothing for them so passed by quickly to reach the source of the problem. Stepping into the medical center, he headed straight for the dampening room. All medical personnel were on the floor in agony and if he didn't stop this soon even the nulls would be harmed.
Reaching the room he was looking for, he opened the door and was slammed to his knees by the strength of Feral's outpouring of agony. Despite his pain, he shoved the door shut. Sweat ran down his face as he struggled against this sea of pain. It was like pushing a boulder up a mountain by yourself as he moved inch by inch toward the bed Ulysses lay on.
On the way, he grabbed a prepared hypo of a strong acting anesthetic. Though it wasn't recommended to knock out someone before finding out what was ailing them first, in this instance, they would all be dead if Ulysses wasn't knocked out...now.
It seemed to take him forever to cover the short distance to the sick tom but finally he reached the bed and pulled himself upward. Gritting his teeth as the pain hit him like knives, he quickly injected the contents of the needle into Feral's neck vein. He needed it to work instantly and this was the best way to do it.
Feral was out of his mind with pain as he screamed and thrashed about. It felt nearly as bad as when those aliens had invaded his mind some time ago. Then suddenly the pain stopped, he whimpered and sighed out a breath of relief as his mind shut down completely.
As the horrible psychic wave shut off abruptly, people went limp with relief and struggled to recover from the onslaught.
Director Argus allowed himself to slide to the floor and just lay there while his head recovered from the shock and pain.
It seemed like forever but was probably only a few minutes when Argus heard someone speaking to him. "Director! Sir, are you alright?"
He opened his eyes carefully and squinted against the bright light of the ceiling lamps. One of the non-psychic doctors was kneeling by his side and eyeing him worriedly. The doctor obviously still had a headache but wasn't completely incapacitated.
Closing his eyes again, Argus said softly, "Yes, I'm alright now. Just let me rest a moment longer."
"Certainly sir. I'm so sorry! We didn't expect him to be able to bypass the dampening room's protection." The doctor said unhappily.
"No one expected him to be that powerful, doctor. Ulysses Feral always manages to surprise us with what he can do. That's what makes him unique." Argus sighed then carefully sat up. He opened his eyes and looked at the doctor who was still kneeling beside him.
"How is he? I know its not good protocol to knock a sick patient out..." He asked in concern.
The doctor sighed and grimaced. "You're right there sir, but I don't really think it will harm him. We were only just beginning to try and diagnose his problem when he lost control. Let me see what the test results say." He got up and went to where the reports lay.
While the doctor spent the next few minutes going over all the test results, the Director got slowly to his feet and looked down at Ulysses sleeping peacefully. Another doctor was checking on the patient while just beside him, Reon appeared, pulling himself up with the assistance of the doctor, on the other side of the bed. His face reflected how much pain he was still suffering from his mate's outburst.
"Reon?"
The copper haired tom looked up and blinked. "Sir?"
"How is he or are you blocked from him now?"
"Uhmmm..." Reon's eyes went blind a moment as he carefully probed his mate's state of mind.
Uly was sound asleep, to his relief but he left when heard distant music begin to fill his mate's mind. He had no desire to be drawn into his mate's unique difference without Uly being awake to control the odd ability to hear the music of the spheres.
"Uh, he's out cold, sir. Music is beginning to filter through him and I thought it wise to withdraw quickly." Reon said, blinking and refocusing on his leader.
"A wise precaution. I still have not been able to determine how he does that but I, too, don't stay around when he has that door open. Can you tell me when this current condition began?" Argus asked.
"Not really sir. The guys and I thought Uly was unusually tired but it was as we were coming home that I realized something was very wrong. I was unable to draw his pain off and I could tell he wasn't able to dampen it himself either." Reon said, shaking his head in dismay. "When I told the guys to head home, it was Razor who suggested Uly might be ill."
"He was correct." The doctor interrupted. Reon and the Director stared at him in concern. "He's come down with the flu. A nasty form of it too. Normally, though, he has a strong constitution but he's been under far too much strain for too long a period and that allowed his immune system to weaken enough to allow the virus to bring him down. We'll make him comfortable but that's all we can do since it must run its course on its own."
"What about blocking his psychic output when he wakes?" Argus asked, frowning.
The doctor sighed and stared down at his patient. "Well, its really not good practice to do this but in Feral's case we really have no choice. He will be kept sedated until the worst of the symptoms pass. He'll be put on an IV drip to keep his fluids up. Rest is what he needs anyway and this will ensure he gets it."
"Do whatever you have to doctor. We'll leave him in your capable paws." The director said, relieved it wasn't anything more serious. "Reon, go get some rest yourself. This is your best opportunity to totally relax from your duties as an anchor, take advantage of it." He ordered his best agent.
Reon hesitated as he stroked his mate's exhausted face. He leaned down and kissed the dark tom and reluctantly, left his side. "Very well sir. You're right, I could use the rest as well."
Argus clapped a paw on the disheartened agent. "Don't' worry Reon, he'll pull through alright. He really needed this apparently."
"I know sir. It's just hard to be separated from him." Reon said giving his boss a tired smile.
Argus smiled gently back. "That's what makes you two so special. The deep and abiding love you have for each other. Go get some rest."
They walked out together from the medical center then parted ways. Reon yawned and sighed, he was really tired but he had one last thing to do before he sought his bed. He took the elevator to the recreation floor to look for Chance and Jake. It was a bit chaotic there as psychic agents were still recovering from Uly's unintentional mental assault.
Sighing, he called out to everyone. Silence fell as all eyes turned to him. "I apologize for my mate's loss of control. He's taken ill with the flu and managed to blast through the dampening room. He's going to be okay and will be kept sedated until he's well enough to handle his mental blocks once more." He told everyone.
The people gave a collective sigh of relief. The room filled with the buzz of conversation again. Chance had been aiding a pair of psychics and now that they were recovering he made his way over to Reon.
"So Jake was right, Ulysses was sick." He said when he got close.
"Yeah, we need to be more alert to his body besides his mind. We missed the clues and he's terrible about saying anything on how he's feeling bodily." Reon said, shaking his head at his failure to notice his mate's deteriorating condition.
"Hey, don't beat yourself up about it Reon. You're tired too you know." Chance said, patting the agent on the back, comfortingly.
Reon sighed and nodded. "I know, the director was the one to knock Uly out and ordered me to get some rest."
"Then you best go do that." Chance said, pushing Reon a little to get him moving.
"I am. I just came to tell you two." Reon said with a snort as he began to leave.
"Count us notified and thanks. Gives us a break too. See you when you're rested." The tabby said, grinning.
Reon waved at him and continued on to the elevator. He couldn't wait to collapse in bed, though he was going to miss having his mate at his side.
It took Ulysses more than a week to recover. He felt totally embarrassed when he found out what he'd done and shocked as well.
"I can't believe I was able to blast through the dampening field." He said to his mate as they made their way toward the Turbokat. They had a mission and were leaving immediately.
"Yeah, everyone was a bit shocked. We know you're powerful but you've just proven you're way beyond anything we've ever dealt with. But then, that's how you're able to do what you do, love." Reon told him.
"It's a bit scary though." Feral muttered as he climbed into the jet's holding area and took his specially customized seat and belted in.
"Yeah, I'm sure it is, but we're here to keep you safe, love. Don't worry." Reon smiled warmly as he got into his own special seat then leaned toward his mate and kissed his cheek.
Feral sighed and smiled slightly. Reon was right, he had a circle of caring people, something he didn't have when he was Chief Enforcer and a loving mate. He let his fears go and relaxed. He would soon be very busy and needed to husband his strength. He was just very glad he had a chance to get a long rest even if it had been enforced. He felt refreshed and ready to take on his duties once more.