He smirked and redid his belt, "What you fail to comprehend Mr. Nash is that I do not want my old job back. I don't even remember having this job. You see all I am interested in here is getting my brain to look less like soft Swiss cheese and more like a normal collection of sequential memories." He waved a hand around the room, "Look at all of this. You guys didn't have a fuckin' clue what was going on did you? I get nabbed by aliens and disappear for a couple years and when I get back, lucky me!, time to fix the problem." Travis adjusted his coat, "No thanks. I don't want your job, your health benefits suck."

Nash tried to answer but lacked the words to describe the situation. Lowering his arms he admitted, "There must be a mole in this Department. Someone who knows how to manipulate our systems and keep you off our radar. That person may aswell be yourself but that theory just went down the sink the moment you entered this facility. I'm not trying to be a pain in the ass, can I expect at least as much from you?", it was hard to read Nash but he sounded genuine so far. Well, as genuine as someone in his position could be.

Travis snorted derisively, "If you know me at all you know I'm a pain in the ass by nature. Memory problems or not I'm still me ... I think. I don't actually remember so many I'm not...." Travis smirked again, "You said you wanted to examine me, I'm here now, let's get the show on the road. We can talk about employment options once I know there isn't a chip in my head making me horny all the time."

"I take that as a 'yes'.", Mr. Nash replied and nodded to one of his experts.

They were taken across the huge hall to a corridor that lead them away and a bit deeper down. Mr. Nash was explaining what they were going to do as they walked.

"It is close to an MRI but we don't need you to get undressed. It'll be just your head that we need to scan. Most important thing at this moment is to determine if your memory loss is induced or because of damage to your brain. For your sake I hope it is the latter because inducement suggests that you've been manipulated and that'd make things... complicated."

Looking at Ronnie and her obvious protective behaviour towards Travis he added, "If you want you can check the whole procedure yourself and make sure we're not messing with your friend. It is in our fullest interest to cooperate here to get the best result out of this. Maybe we'll find a way to undo this but I can't promise. A mutant with mental powers would be extremely valuable but the last one capable of that died because of the Virus. May she rest in peace."

Mr. Nash was most likely referring to 'Probe', one of the most powerful mutants that worked part time for the government and who was known for her telepathic and psychic abilities.

The lab looked extremely futuristic with all kinds of large flatscreens and holographic displays.

Several men in lab coats asked Travis to remain still while the scanning process was executed. In the meantime Nash asked Ronnie to watch the procedure behind one of the huge screens explaining what the results meant.

"Hmm... looks like your partner suffered some damage to... What on earth is that?!", Mr Nash stared at the screen.

Ronnie could see that there was something attached to Travis' central cortex of his brain... it looked like a squid that was framing his entire skull. The thing was larger than his skull. That was physically impossible. Ronnie instinctively looked at Travis trying to match what she saw on the screen with Travis' head. He could tell the flight of fear that briefly crossed her face.

"You can't tell him," Ronnie said, the sight of that thing jarring her memory. Bitch wasn't lying. Raven had said that there was something in his head, something that left him alone so long as he remained unaware of it. "If it knows he knows, it'll kill him.

"Now, pretend I'm freaking out over nothing," she said, thinking fast.

"Uh," the technician said, but Nash quickly said, "I see. For now, let me reassure you that we won't say anything."

Ronnie forced herself to look calm and even rolled her eyes. "I hope so," she said, giving him a smile and a thumbs up through the glass. "Otherwise, I'm going to get angry, and you wouldn't like that, Mr. Nash."

Travis waved and smiled. He didn't miss the concerned look and it didn't take him long to figure out what that look meant. So either my brain really does look like Swiss cheese or some little alien smiled for the camera and mugged for a photo. Great. He waited for the tech to give him the all clear and then walked out of the scanning room to meet Nash and Ronnie. "So how's my brain doing? Nice and healthy?"

"It looks... ok. But I fear your memory loss is induced and unless we find a powerful telepath I fear we won't be able to undo that. At least we now know that there is at least one more person involved in this thing. I will contact our research team and let them check our databases to find out who'd be able to do this and if you had any contact with said mutants."

Mr. Nash nodded at Ronnie and smiled nervously.

"Maybe we could discuss this matter in private while we're having lunch? Be my guests.", he raised an eyebrow expecting a positive answer to his invitation.

"Free lunch? I'm there," Ronnie said, trying to keep the mood - her mood, specifically - light. "Lead on, Mr. Nash."

"Powerful telepath huh? I don't suppose you have one in a closest somewhere that you forgot about?" Nash shook his head, "Well I MAY get lucky and find somebody Sly who's been hiding out from you guys. As for lunch I think I'd rather pass. I had hoped to not leave the others we were found with without word from us for too long."