Erik heard the shouts, distant but getting closer, but couldn't make out what the person was yelling. He sounded distressed, whoever he was. Normally Erik would stand firmly by the perspective that what wasn't directly affecting him wasn't his business, but it was almost impossible to concentrate on reading with someone stomping around hollering at the top of his lungs nearby.

He left his room and went toward the sound of the voice, rounding a corner and coming face to face with a teenaged boy vaguely reminiscent of Summers— that is, blond and surly looking— drawing breath for another shout. "Would you mind keeping it down?" Erik snapped, folding his arms. It was only as the kid turned on him that Erik's metal sense tracked the movement, alerting him to something unexpected. Testing with a thread of his power showed him— amazing— two of the newcomer's limbs, an arm and a leg, were made entirely of metal.

Taking a step closer, Erik's brows furrowed together and his head canted to the side, his hands dropping to his sides as his power scanned the artificial limbs and learned their makeup, their inner workings. "Metal limbs that actually work," he said, now sounding curious and impressed, his eyes meeting the boy's. "You certainly don't come from any world I've ever heard of."