Nicholas silently thanked Mattie with a nod, taking the shard and holding it in front of him enough to examine it. It was obsidian, Jacob had been right about that. A smooth, carefully crafted piece of obsidian cut into a long-headed pyramid, fashioned so intricately so that it could rest on flat ground with the sharp edge pointing up. It was no coincidence that Nicholas had landed on it; it was a deliberate attack. Which meant there was an enemy on the opposite team, tracking them, with some such powers that he or she could have predicted or seen the exact spot where Nicholas and Mattie would have landed. His heart was racing, breathing heavy. Jacob was right. This was so much bigger than them. The most powerful member of their immediate team that had any type of future sensing abilities was Javier, and he could only see minutes in advance. Another mutant couldn't have had enough time to escape had they only been able to see minutes before Nicholas and Mattie landed. Not without Jacob seeing them.

The rock had an extremely faint glow around it, whispers of a bright blue floating around the shard. There was a [url=https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/f0/23/37/f0233773eff8cc867489a9168b001c0c.jpg]symbol[/url] etched crudely into its surface. A symbol that Nicholas was unfamiliar with. A symbol that neither he nor Jacob, to his knowledge, had ever come in contact with. Whether or not the spirals were significant was unclear to Nicholas, but he figured that bringing it to his brother's attention could give them a lead as to who'd inadvertently attacked him. However, the blue glow was unsettling. Something not so scientific had been done to this weapon. Something almost magical. Even though he was a super mutant with wings who shot [i]fire[/i] out of his hands and whose eyes glowed red when he was angry, Nicholas had never found himself believing there was a such thing as magic being involved in their reality. Now that this shard had come into his existence, he was doubting his beliefs.

"Look at this," he said, beckoning Mattie closer. "Look at this symbol. Look at the shard -- it's glowing. Have you...[i]ever[/i] seen anything like this? We've seen some pretty screwed up stuff, but have you ever seen something like this?" His voice was awed, eyes glittering with anticipation in finding out where this shard came from, what the symbols meant, and what new information it might bring about.

The wound in his back was aching -- partly from the wound itself and partly from being dabbed with alcohol. The initial sting had, obviously, faded. Super mutants could endure a lot of pain, he'd come to find out. That was the lucky side of being so genetically twisted and abnormal, especially in situations such as these.