Nick tried to sigh but even that was taking just too much effort now. The pain was almost gone, replaced by a heavy numbness over most of his body. His right arm was the notable exception; whenever he bothered to focus on it, shooting pain almost drove him right back into unconsciousness.
Howie was still alive, he simply wasn't responding. After concentrated effort Nick had figured out what was wrong; Howie wasn't just scared, he was confused. The unfamiliar sensation of telepathy made him shrink away from Nick instead of reaching out towards him. Mind-to-mind just wasn't going to work here. This meant extra effort. Fortunately, with Brian asleep the crew outside had been able to block his pain directly, freeing Nick's energy for other things.
"My energy. What a joke." he drew a ragged breath. By this point he was leaning heavily on Lina's resources. Those were massive, but there was only so much she could dole out at one time.
Deciding he was wasting time by dwelling on things, Nick slowly, gently reached out for Howie's subconscious once again. Instead of making any overt advances, he settled for a connection, a bridge between the outside world and Howie's psyche. He stretched out the bridge on the other end, connecting with A.J. "All right man, sing."
"What should I sing?"
"Do I have to do *everything*?" he needled, hoping that A.J. wouldn't realise that he hadn't the strength to hold the connection and search his memory simultaneously. In the back of his mind, he could just sense Lina waiting for the right moment to 'send in' the teleports.
"Ok ok. Here goes."
Everyone within hearing range winced as A.J. launched into a loud, obnoxious, off-key version of Prince's "The Most Beautiful Girl in the World". Nick didn't actually need to be psychic to hear it. He silently congratulated his groupmate on the choice. It had been Howie's solo song on some of their early tours. Two lines into it Nick could already feel Howie's annoyance.
"That's right D," he thought to himself. "He's an annoying bastard. It's your range, not his. Wake up and get him to shut the fuck up."
"...I will cry tears of joy cause after you all one can do is die" A.J. was making his own ears hurt, but he kept on. C'mon D. You know you wanna slam me with a pillow. "Could you be..." There was a whoosh of air off to his right.
"Bone?"
"Yes Nicky?"
"SHUT UP!" The laughter and relief in Nick's tone was intoxicating.
Letting out a whoop, A.J. dashed towards the small group of psychics, from which he could actually hear Howie.
"Where is he? Alexander James McLean get over here and let me kick your ass!"
"Yeah right." he was grinning like an idiot, but he didn't care. Howie was out. He was gonna be okay. He looked pretty pale and had an ugly gash going up one leg but other than that... "Howie doin'?"
The old joke made Howie smile in return. "You're stealing all my lines tonight, Bone." He finally seemed to look around and take stock of the situation. "What's goin' on? This ain't a hospital."
"You think you need one?"
"He needs to lie down, get some sleep and let us work on those broken ribs of his before he punctures a lung," one of the psychics responded. A.J. nodded.
"You heard the lady. Be a good patient. Explanations later."
"Is everybody else..." there was another whoosh of air and A.J. grinned again.
"Brian's doin' ok, Kevin's here... just you worry 'bout you, man."
"Yes sir..." Howie yawned and fell asleep.
"Thanks." The girl who had spoken earlier said quietly. "He's one of those people that gets scared by psychic energy. You made a good distraction."
"Anytime. That was Kevin arriving, wasn't it?"
"Uh huh. Go on over."