xp_logs | Loose Ends, Part One

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Kyle and Forge -had- meant to go out for music. Other people had different plans in mind, at least for Kyle. As a bonus, Forge gets slightly squished.

The discount CD bin was heaven for Kyle. All kinds of music that nobody in their right mind would listen to except him, for cheap, which meant he could get more of it. "Dude. Fighting Gravity CD!" He crowed, practically bouncing on the balls of his feet. "Sweet. Somebody put one of their songs on the computer music network thing, and I've been looking for this for like, ever." Forever being, of course, two whole weeks.

Forge looked up with amusement, perusing the used CD bin across from his roommate. "Let's see..." he mumbled to himself, "Bananarama... Blaire, Alison - HAH!... Bolton, Michael... Aha, here we are, Borknager!" He triumphantly raised the CD over his head. "Ah, Scandinavia. Absolutely awful when it comes to technology, but wondrous when it comes to heavy metal."

Surreptitiously, he slipped a double-CD of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony under his purchase, out of the view of the other patrons. Wouldn't do to completely ruin his reputation. He had no idea how the little corner music store kept finding obscure and unintelligible metal bands to push him towards, but as long as they kept it up, Forge was content.

"Dude, that is -not- a real band name." Kyle said, snorting out a laugh. "That's like, a Muppet. Or maybe a Muppet band. Bork, bork, bork." One of these days he was going to bring a camera, and get a picture of Forge buying music that didn't sound like someone humping a rusty dishwasher, and make a poster out of it. But that'd take remembering a camera.

"Dude, they're like black metal Vikings with amps the size of Mr. Marko," Forge retorted. Pausing, he looked over Kyle's shoulder. "Um, apropos of nothing, you haven't accidentally stuck something from here in your pockets or anything? Because there's a guy behind you about four rows over who's been staring at you for like three minutes."

"Uh. No, dude. I've been to jail once, remember?" He'd have whapped Forge on the head if he'd been close enough to reach. Instead, Kyle glanced over his shoulder to look at the guy. "Eh. Probably just some security dude all "Oh-Em-Gee, Mutie Teenagers" or something." Just in case, he reached down and made sure nothing was in the big pocket of his cargo pants. "Nothing in the pockets 'cept my phone."

Forge opened his mouth to speak, then grimaced as an odd feeling came over him, somewhat like being in a high-speed elevator racing to the top of a building. Looking from side to side, he could see some of the other patrons of the music store beginning to waver on their feet, some crouching down by the floor.

Glancing up at Kyle, Forge drew in a labored breath. "Dude, do you feel that?"

Kyle felt it. He'd dropped to a low crouch the second that he'd felt himself shifting back off the balls of his feet. "What the -fuck-?" He muttered. "And ow." It made his knees ache, and his shoulders. "What the hell is that? An earthquake?" Except he didn't see anything shaking, or falling down, except a few people.

Placing a hand on the edge of the CD bin, Forge gasped as the small wooden legs gave way, sending him tumbling to the floor amidst a pile of cracking jewel cases. Rolling onto his back, it felt like a giant hand was pressing him to the floor. Everyone else seemed to be feeling it - except for the weird dark-haired guy in the trench coat and sunglasses, who was walking calmly towards Kyle.

"Hello, Kyle," the stranger said, apparently unaffected by the crushing force around the store. Reaching down with one arm, he grabbed Kyle's collar, yanking him up from the floor effortlessly and throwing him against the ceiling to bounce back down in a pile of dust and cracked tile. "We're going to take a little trip. Get up."

"The fuck?" Kyle gasped out. He tried to scramble to his feet, to get up and charge the guy, tackle him, bite him on the face, whatever, but just lifting his head to look up took as much strength as he had. He tried to move, to roll away, and barely made it over onto his hip, and even doing that made his whole body ache.

Forge tried to sit up, but to no use. He looked to his side and saw another shelf beginning to shake. Before he could move, the entire assembly collapsed down onto his left arm, sending a jolt of feedback through it. Through the pain, Forge was incredulously analyzing the signal - it was as if a truck had driven over his arm.

The stranger hooked his arm under Kyle's, pulling him up to his feet, watching the blood drain from the boy's face. "We're going to go somewhere and talk, Kyle. It's best if you don't struggle." The man's brow furrowed as he stared through his glasses as Kyle.

Struggle? Kyle wasn't sure he could -breathe-, much less put up a fight. The room was swaying back and forth, or he was, he wasn't sure, and it was all he could do to not throw up. He swung his free arm loosely trying to get to his side pocket, and it smacked against his side, feeling rubbery and weak and causing sharp pricks of pain in his side. "You broke my phone, you fucker..." He slurred out weakly, before his vision went red and grey, and he lost any ability to do more than try to keep his feet under him.

Forge's vision began to go black around the edges as he struggled for breath. He saw the stranger lean down above him, perusing his cybernetics. "Interesting," he hissed. "Go back home, boy. Tell Dayspring I've reclaimed one from him."

And just like that, the weight on Forge's chest was gone, replaced by a sharp pain through his entire body as blood began circulating properly. Sitting up, he glanced around, but Kyle and the stranger were nowhere to be found.

Picking his way through the rubble, he noticed the other patrons holding their heads in pain, rising unsteadily to their feet. No one seemed to be injured, which surprised him. Flexing his mechanical arm, Forge frowned at the odd sense of lag between movement and sensation. Eyes widening, he bolted for the counter, reaching over to grab the store's phone despite the cashier's weak protests.

Punching in the school's emergency number, he glanced out the window as soon as someone picked up. "Get Mister Dayspring on the line right now," he said quickly, "Someone's got Kyle, and I think I can help him figure out who."

Forge, on the phone, with Nathan. It is said that a brave man will do stupid things for his friends, still Forge is grateful he doesn't have to.

As Paige vacated the chair hastily, Nathan sat down in front of the main coms console, sliding on the headset. "Talk to me, Forge," he said, his fingers moving rapidly over the keyboard, starting the incident report and alerting Alison, who was the CO on duty. He'd been in the Situation Room doing a tactical review, so it had taken him all of ten seconds to respond to the page.

"About five minutes ago, the Audio Archive used records shop, guy had been watching Kyle pretty close. Did something, some weird effect that near crushed the place, and then took off with Kyle. He said to tell you he'd reclaimed him, whatever that means."

Looking around quickly, Forge cupped his hand over the mouthpiece. "Felt like a big foot stepping on my chest, like being on a really fast roller coaster. Given that my prosthetic's having some weird time sync problems, I'm thinking this guy's a gravity manipulator. Not sure if that helps, but he's about five-ten, Caucasian, black hair. Was wearing glasses, couldn't get a good look at his eyes. Where would he have taken Kyle?"

Nathan's expression went flat. Oh, fucking hell... "I know who this is," he said, his voice ice-cold. "And I don't know where he would have taken Kyle. Yet. Where are you right now?" Who could they get in touch with to find out about Lense? MacInnis had cut ties with the taskforce, so he wasn't an option. Val Cooper? He reached out to the Professor telepathically, transmitting the information. Charles would be the best one to make that call.

"Still at the store. Corner of Kirby and Ditko in Salem Center. Just across from the Food Emporium." Waving away the objecting cashier, Forge climbed across the counter, looking out the window. "I can see a divot in the pavement northwest of here, kind of like the ones Sam leaves in the lawn when he blasts off? No idea how fast they're going. I've got the Jeep, you want me to try and follow them?" Please say no, he thought to himself.

"NO!" It came out a lot more loudly than he'd intended. "Under no circumstances do anything of the sort. Stay there and we'll be there to get you ASAP." At least he hadn't taken both of them.

That wasn't much consolation.

Thank god, Forge thought to himself. "Yeah, staying put, no problems. Going to the Jeep and locking the doors and not even driving anywhere until one of you guys comes for me." He swallowed deeply. "You can find him, Mr. D? Get him back?

"Oh, trust me," Nathan said, unable to quite keep the seething anger out of his voice. "We're going to do both. Stay on the line," he instructed more briskly as he gave his chair back to Paige. He could sense Alison coming in this direction at speed.

Lense calls Nathan's phone, delivers threats.

Nathan's eyes were very cold, but the hand holding the cell phone to his ear was very steady. He didn't know how Lense had gotten this particular number. From one of the others, maybe. A random mention back when they'd all been in the hospital. He'd have to ask Gavin or Isabel, later.

Much later.

"Do you understand me, Dayspring?" John's voice was almost conversational. "You meet me there, or I kill the boy."

He wasn't going to kill Kyle. Whatever had snapped in that none-too-stable-already mind, Lense, just like all the rest of the first-gen operatives, was fundamentally incapable of harming a kid. Especially a kid who'd survived partial conditioning.

Even so, they couldn't take the chance. Pushing his anger down to where it belonged, Nathan grunted. "I do speak English, John," he said coolly. "I'll see you within the hour."

"Good. I've been looking forward to this." Then the line went dead.

Nathan shook his head, then flipped the cell phone closed before he looked back at Alison and Charles. "At least now we know where they are," he said neutrally.

Prelude to a class reunion, Alison tries to settle Nate down a bit before he goes in to deal with Lense.

Nathan looked up at the parking garage, his hands clenching and unclenching around the staff of the psimitar. "Nightcrawler's in position," he said to the woman standing next to him. She'd ordered Kurt to the rooftop of the adjacent building, to give him a better view of where Lense was holding Kyle, up on the fifth floor. "I'm just going to go straight up the outside of the building," he went on tightly. "No point in wasting any more time."

"Mmm. Wait. Let him stew a bit." Alison stared at the building for a moment longer, her focus not really on the structure ahead but rather, on the man beside her. They knew Kyle was fine, knew he'd be fine and left unharmed, already. Making sure Nathan would keep his self-control after going in was, at the moment, the priority. She slid him a sidelong look and held it, patiently waiting for him to notice.

Nathan did, although not as quickly as he ordinarily would have; his mind was very much elsewhere. "I can handle this," he said quietly. "I just have to distract him for a moment, so Kurt can get in there to get Kyle out. And once Kyle's out, I can definitely handle the stupid bastard." His grip went white-knuckled again. "Too bad Gavin and the others are on Muir. They'd have loved to hold him down and help beat the crap out of him. I think Chris in particular is holding a grudge."

"I'm sure they are. Thing is, we're not here to beat the crap out of him," Alison murmured, calmly - a veneer really, though it echoed her surface thoughts nicely, the right knot of rage hidden far away where it wasn't going to interfere in any way, shape or form. She was in control of her own emotions and actions and nothing was going to change that - there was no compromise to be made on that matter. She tilted her head to the side as a murmured report from Kurt filtered through on the comm system, confirming that nothing had changed since he'd settled in his observation point. And then she nodded once at Nathan, sharply and simply so, without further words.

Nathan nodded back, and then reversed the psimitar. Point downwards, it blazed with light, and he was propelled upwards, smoothly and swiftly, to the top of the parking garage. They were in control of the situation. Emotion could wait until later.

Kyle is a mouthy so and so, and doesn't know when to shut up. Fortunatly, Lense doesn't turn him into Kyle-flavored jelly for talking too much. He does tell Kyle something he probably never needed to know, about the rest of the trainee group that Kyle was in when Mistra had him.

The kid was glaring at him again. Lense tried not to roll his eyes, or turn the gravity up any further - although the idea of forcing the boy to keep his eyes on the floor was really tempting. "What's the matter?" he asked acidly, turning his attention back to the street below. "Cat got your tongue? I'm not actually going to hurt you, you know." They were five stories up in a parking garage slated for demolition and handily, quite empty just now. Work wasn't scheduled to start until next week; he'd scouted out the location before making his move. It would do just fine.

"Blah, blah, blah, fishcakes.” Kyle muttered.” Man, did you think I'd be happy about this? I'm kidnapped, which is the suck, and stuck here, so I can't move, which, double suck, and you want me to just shut the fuck up and take it?” He turned the glare up a notch, and bared his teeth.” I’m the ...the kidnapped person, I get to be pissed off. It's like, a rule or something."

Lense gave him a humorless smile. "Oh, you are so very, very feral, aren't you? You remind me of Ian in his younger days. Never knew when to keep his mouth shut. Of course, that's an improvement on Anika, who never learned to keep her mouth shut..."

"You don't get to say crap about Ani..."Kyle spat, without thinking.”She's not a psycho-ass who kidnaps people.” He didn't actually believe that the guy wouldn't hurt him, but he didn't really care either. The guy was a jerk, on top of being insane enough to kidnap people. Maybe if he kept him talking, then Forge'd have time to get back, call for help and Kyle could get rescued before he got smashed into Kyle-flavored-pancakes.” So, what, did Ani kick your ass or something? Turn you down for a date? What?"

"Oh, do we have a crush on Ms. 'Hello, I'm Back From The Dead, Did You Miss Me'?" Lense taunted right back, part of him grimly amused by how the kid had sprung to her defense. He knew a little bit about Anika's history with this kid. Mostly because Isabel had talked to him a few times while they'd all been in the government hospital, trying to convince him that he could have a 'new life' too. "And no, kid, the little blonde bitch neither kicked my ass nor turned me down. She just got special treatment. Dayspring running around like a maniac undoing termination order after termination order... and then coming back for her." The bitterness slipped into his voice, despite his best attempts to keep a contemptuous tone.

"Termin...what?" Kyle squawked out." Nate's not a maniac, and you’re crazy or something." Okay, this guy knew Nate, and Ani, which meant one of two things. Either he was one of those insane Mistra people, or one of those insane ex-Mistra people. Either way, he was nuts, and Kyle though, maybe if he mouthed off, the guy would get pissed off enough to forget about the gravity thing.” So, how's that working out for you, the crazy? You get paid for that? Or, hey, I know! You holding me for ransom? Man, I hope you didn't call my folks, cause they have no money."

"I'm not holding you for ransom," Lense said, more brusquely, "and I'm not going to hurt you. Quite seriously, kid, so just pipe down, all right?" He gave him a faint smile. "As soon as Dayspring gets here and I kill him, you can go."

"So why the hell can't you just kill Nate without me here?" That wasn't quite what he'd wanted to ask, Kyle would think later. "And, um, no. You kidnap me, I get to bitch. I told you, it's a rule. And dude, what makes you think you're gonna kill Nate anyway? Hello, the guy can fly. And throw trucks. And is totally going to kick your butt.” Not only was this guy insane, but he was -stupid-. Nate'd show up, kick butt, and then Kyle could go home. Not the best day to have, but he'd see some butt-kicking. That'd be cool.

"Yes, Nathan can do all kinds of fascinating things," Lense said, that faint smile still lingering on his face as he looked down at Kyle. "And I can create miniature black holes."

"Ooookaaay..."Kyle wasn't sure exactly what the hell that meant, but he'd seen that Black Hole movie on the Disney Channel once, and figured it was probably bad. Or at least that the crazy guy thought so.” I’m sure your mom's proud of you.” He was rapidly running out of smart-ass things to say too. Nate, or somebody needed to get here soon.

"Makes you wonder, doesn't it?" Lense came over and crouched down in front of Kyle where he was pinned to the floor. "Why, when they had people like me and Nathan, they bothered with... well, ferals. Small-scale mutations like that." The smile was getting downright disturbing. "Although I suppose you have your uses. And you certainly survived conditioning in bigger numbers."

~Great. He knows about the white room thing too.~ Kyle thought. Which was probably why he grabbed him, and not say, Forge. Though, Forge being kidnapped would've sucked. He'd already had that once, and it would've ruined his resolution for the year.” Didn’t anyone tell you it was rude to insult a guy's mutation? I mean, dude, it's not like I dialed up 1-800-fuckedupDNA and asked for it..."

"No, none of us asked for it." Lense studied the boy. "I didn't. Nathan didn't. You didn't. The other kids who were with you in Vermont... they sure didn't ask for what happened to them."

"What other kids?" He'd been alone in that room. Which didn't mean there might not be other rooms, but nobody had said anything about other kids with him. They'd brought kids home later but that was not with him. They wouldn't have left them there, Kyle thought. He'd bitten Sam and they gotten him out.” What gives? What other kids?" He hadn't even heard about other kids. ~I'm so confused...~

Lense's eyes widened and he rose, his gaze still locked on Kyle but almost incredulous now. A moment passed, and then he laughed, a harsh, unamused sound. "They didn't tell you. About the others. Well, wasn't that kind of them."

This was going to be bad, he just knew it. But now he was curious, dammit. ~What kids??~. All he really wanted to do was go home, and he couldn't even do so much as to scratch an itch. "What the hell are you talking about?" Maybe when Nate showed up, Kyle thought, he’d let him get one good shot in. This guy could use a kick in the balls.

Lense tilted his head, then crouched back down beside Kyle. "You don't think you were the only one in that whole facility, do you?" he asked almost conversationally. "Mistra wasn't that inefficient. Training groups usually had six candidates in them. Yours did."

"I'm ugly, not stupid." Kyle answered with a snort.” Dude, why the hell should I even believe you, even if there were other kids?” He rolled his eyes, annoyed. This guy was so full of it. There were no other kids; he wasn't going to kill Nate." Didn't your mom tell you lying was wrong?"

"Why would I bother lying to you?" Lense's tone was casual, but his eyes were cold, direct, nothing whatsoever in them to suggest that he wasn't being straightforward. "Kid, eighty percent of the mutants they put through first-generation conditioning died. There were six of you in that training group. The other five didn't survive when the conditioning moved on into the empathic remodeling."

"So, you killed five kids, just to get one me?" Kyle said, voice cracking.” You ...you took five more kids and put them in those rooms and they died?" It was ..too much to think about. Who were they? What could they do? Were they screw-ups like he'd been, or good kids? "Why?" He didn't want to know, but he didn't want to not know either.

The gravity abruptly turned itself up several notches, crushing Kyle to the floor as Lense sprang to his feet. "Why did I?" he snarled suddenly. "Why did I? Fuck... you stupid little shit, I was one of those kids twenty years ago! You think I like telling you this? You think it makes me happy to think of five kids dying in pain... and they would have, kid, trust me on that... and being thrown away like yesterday's trash?"

The guy -had- to be lying. He had to.” Shut up. ShutupshutupSHUTUP!" Kyle could barely get the words out, it hurt to take a breath enough to talk, much less yell.” Shut up and -fuck- -you-."He was gonna get home, and get all of this shit cleared up, and find out the guy was lying, and that was that.

"Five kids," Lense flung back at him, more bitterly than angrily now, as he eased up on the gravity. He wasn't supposed to be hurting the boy. He didn't want to hurt the boy. Why was it so hard to control his temper? "Three other boys, two girls. All of them younger than you - you were the oldest in the batch. I remember the head of the conditioning team saying that." Because he'd been in Vermont, too, of course - been there and been ordered to evacuate as soon as it had been realized that Dayspring was there. Unlike Morgan and Foley, he'd done as he was told. "One of the girls was a feral, too. They were disappointed that she didn't make it. She died the night before Dayspring broke you out."

"SHUT UP!” Kyle would have crammed his fingers in his ears if he could've. Despite clawing them up.” Why are you telling me this crap?" He growled out. The oldest? He was fourteen when he was in there, and he was the oldest? "Why.. why did you let anyone do that, if you hated it so much? Why didn't you stop them? No kids like me should have to die!"

"I didn't stop them because I couldn't do a damned thing. Do you know what happened when you disobeyed a direct order? You fell over screaming," Lense said, coldly. "Worst pain imaginable. And it didn't stop until you decided to do what you were told. And why am I telling you..." There was an alarming glitter in Lense's eyes for a moment, although the level of gravity didn't increase. "I suppose I don't see any reason why you should get to live in happy ignorance, Kyle. None of the rest of us do."

"Nate did it." Kyle answered.” So if Nate did it then you could have too.” He’d have crossed his arms defiantly. If he could. Instead he just glared, and tried to imagine all the ways Nate was going to kick this guy's ass." Nate, and Ani, and I dunno who else. But they stopped being all ...all "I was just taking orders."

"Do you know how they did it?" Lense crouched down beside him again, that glitter still in his eyes. "Did he ever tell you? Did she? They watched the people they cared about die, kid. Nate lost his whole team in one monumental clusterfuck of an intelligence failure. Watched them get slaughtered around them, nearly died himself. Anika's lover died in her arms when a contact who'd turned sold them out. That was what cracked their conditioning. So pardon me if I neglected to lose what little I had, just to get the opportunity to save kids I didn't owe a damned thing to anyway. No one," Lense said viciously, "helped me, after all."

"Blah, blah, blah. Man, you need some therapy." Kyle was really getting tired of this guy and his emo "nobody helped meeeee" whining. Even if he was squishing him.” Or laid. Or both. Find a good shrink and sleep with her. Or him, you know, whatever gets your gears going."

Nate and Kurt to the rescue! Why is it always Nate rescuing Kyle? Why can't Kyle get to see a butt being kicked? These are very important questions for a fifteen year old boy.

"Kyle, stop baiting the man."

The voice came from the far side of the level they were on. Nathan lowered himself to the concrete, the psimitar in his hand glowing and his eyes resting briefly on Kyle before he turned his attention to Lense. "Or should that be the other way around?" he inquired, quietly. "What are you doing, John?"

"Baiting a trap." Lense's hands were shaking violently, and he clenched them into fists at his side. The structure started to creak and groan ominously around him. "And you walked right into it. Very obliging of you, Nate."

Had Kyle been any younger, better-raised or more socially aware, he'd have thanked Nate for showing up.” I just wanna kick him once, that's all I'm sayin'. Just once.” He bared his teeth at Lense, and then grinned in an entirely fake way." Toldja. And now you're gonna get your butt kicked and go home and cry big fat emo tears because no one loves you." He'd deal with the dead kids part later. Right now, he wanted to see an ass-kicking.

Sadly, he was going to be disappointed. Kurt 'ported in at that moment, grabbed Kyle after a very cursory check for injuries, and popped straight back out to a place of safety.

Kyle barely had time to blink, or even protest. He had just enough time to dig his claws into Kurt's shoulders. Even before they arrived out on the street below, he let out a surprised howl that cut off as they bamfed away. "GODDAMMIT!"

"I apologize, Kyle, but that was no place for you to be. It was not safe."

"No shit, really?" Kyle righted himself and folded his arms. "I think I -got- that, thanks. I wanted to see Nate kick his fucking ass..."

"You wanted to be in the same place where a telekinetic is fighting a man who can produce black holes?" Kurt asked pointedly, before turning away to radio back to Alison with an update.

"This sucks. I get kidnapped, smished on the ground, teleported around, and I don't even get to see the guy get his butt kicked. "He figured he had every right to ask for that. He was the kidnapped guy, and that's how it was supposed to work. He gets rescued and gets to cheer on the good guys while they kick the bad guys' asses." This really bites."

"I am sure you can ask Nathan to share the memory with you, when this is over", Kurt said dryly, done with his radio call.” That way you can enjoy the experience without getting in harm's way."

"You are taking -all- the fun out of this." Kyle protested. "Being all ... reasonable and stuff. You're supposed to tell me not to be stupid so I can argue with you." This was not going at all how he'd expected. Adults kept thwarting him.

Kurt smiled slightly.” Would you prefer that? I assure you that either way you would not win the argument, if winning means me taking you back to watch the fight."

"Um. All things, you know, equal? I'd rather not get called stupid.” He was still going to sulk though, Kyle decided. Or at least, he -would- have gotten a good sulk in, had he not been distracted by the cracking and groaning noises of crumbling concrete and steel. "Um. Is that the parking garage?"

Kurt looked up sharply, reaching for the boy's arm in case they needed to make another hasty exit. "I think it is, yes. Now do you see why I did not want you there?"

Kyle would have pouted. But it was wussy, and despite hurting -everywhere-, even inside his ears, he was not going to be a wuss. "Yeaaah." He agreed reluctantly.” I still get to grumble though."

As promised, Lense gets his butt kicked. He does put up a good fight, and trades insults with Nathan. In the end, Nate wins, Lense loses, and the garage isn't doing so well either.

Nathan shook his head, not making a move towards the other man as Kurt disappeared with Kyle. "What are you doing?" he repeated, more angrily. "Why the hell would you drag that kid into this?"

"Simple." Lense said with a smile. "I knew you'd come galloping to the rescue, just like you always do." he said, and then he concentrated. Plenty of leftover sulfur and methane from that blue-skinned mutant's teleportational process. Very irritating to biological tissues. Lense roped it in then tilted gravity ninety degrees and cranked it way up. Let's see how Nate liked a nice particle shower in his eyes.

Nathan reacted fast, but not quite fast enough. He managed to force some of it away, but not all of it, and he took a very large telekinetically-assisted step back to buy himself some room as his eyes burned and watered. Didn't matter, he told himself, locking onto Lense's location telepathically and expanding his TK sonar field outwards. He trained blind often enough.

Sonar field, meet gravitic oblivion. Lense had been practicing too, and he knew Nate's ability fairly well. Or so he thought. He wrapped all E-M radiation around him, disappearing from sight with a shimmer of aerial distortion. Reaching into a pocket, he pulled out a small handful of loose change. Pennies, mostly, along with a few dimes and the odd nickel or two. It would do nicely for what he had in mind next.

As soon as the sonar field rippled, Nathan instantly lashed out with a telekinetic shockwave, power blazing through the psimitar. It took out a few of the support columns on this level as well. Couldn't be helped, Nathan thought grimly, simultaneously wrapping himself in a TK shield.

Lense let himself bobble along the front of the shockwave instead of letting it pass into him. It hurt, but not as bad as getting ripped in half would. Besides, now he had all sorts of debris to play with as well. But first things first - that fancy stick had to go. Lense gestured (a bad habit that he still felt guilty for even after all this time) and sent his own shockwave back. But instead of a nice even wavefront, his was deliberately ragged. A fluctuating band of gravitic stress, ranging from zero G all the way to a punishing ten gees.

Nathan went to one knee with a grunt as the other buckled. His vision had been clearing already, but he was blinded again instantly as something broke inside his psimitar and power exploded outwards as patterns shattered.

It took out better than half the level he and Lense were currently standing on. Even with his mind reeling from the backlash, Nathan caught himself as he fell, so that he landed on his feet.

Shit. Shit! The psimitar itself was intact, but it was useless. Some sort of interruption in the internal circuits. Nathan held onto it, even so. Forge was going to kill him.

Lense smiled and then after a moment's concentration he let the change go. Fifty gees accelerating the spare change to past the sound barrier almost instantly. The coins melted from friction, but that just made it better. Almost like a superdense armor-piercing round from his hand to Dayspring's heart.

Nathan sensed them coming, and there wasn't time for the sort of shield he'd need. He flung one up anyway, to slow them fractionally, and then slipped into altered vision and tore at that lattice of energy. The air in front of him blazed suddenly, what was left of the coins burning away in an instant.

"Mick should've killed you on Youra," he snarled at his fellow ex-operative.

"Could've, should've, would've. Story of your life, Dayspring." Lense taunted as he pooled gravity under Nate's feet. Make him use that big brain of his just to keep breathing and to keep his heart beating and his blood flowing.

"Coward," Nathan grated, and had to do just that as the gravity steadily grew. The parking garage was shuddering around them, support columns crumbling. "You were... a fucking coward, John."

Lense crouched next to a support pillar and concentrated. Another new trick, one he hoped would put Dayspring down and out peacefully. He closed a gravitic bubble around Nathan, but not one that would affect anything really complex. Really, he was looking to rip apart one very specific molecule. And keep any new from flooding in to replace the old.

Diatomic molecules were tricky to break down using just gravity, but Lense was a master and his will would be obeyed. He was reaching the edges of his ability, keeping the pool going to lock Dayspring down and shredding oxygen, but he only had to hold it for a few minutes.

Someone was trying to suffocate him again. Like FUCK... Rage flooded him, rage and power, and the patterns of the exoskeleton fell into place almost automatically.

Nathan stood up, the wings of the firebird unfolding around him and demolishing what was left of this level. He launched himself upwards, his telepathy fixed on Lense, and fiery talons reached out to snatch at the other man

Lense let go of all of his other efforts and flailed at the firebird's limb with a lash of pure gravitic differential, trying to disrupt it, break it, give its creator psychic feedback. He'd trained with Tim often enough, it should have worked.

Emphasis on the should have.

The bird-construct's talons closed around him and Lense choked as the claws began to constrict.

"You didn't learn, did you?" Nathan hissed, his voice oddly resonant as it came through the exoskeleton. He could feel gravity shifting and rippling around him, but the exoskeleton was solid, utterly stable. The parking garage? Not so much. "You were afraid on Youra. Fine! But now you're throwing away the second chance you got anyway? You go after one of MY KIDS to get to me?"

Lense sent his power downward, let it intermingle with the Earth's own gravity. Smiling, he turned to look up at Nathan. "I learned just fine." he snarled back. "I learned that this is all I'm good for. All that I know, all I've ever known. All that anyone wants or expects from me." He pulled as he spoke, bringing himself and the firebird back down, back to the ruins of the garage.

They went through the next two levels, down to the second floor of the parking garage, the upper levels falling around them as the exoskeleton and the shifts in gravity tore through it. Nathan spared a moment to hope like hell that neither Alison nor Kurt were trying to get back in here to help him.

"Stupid... son of a bitch," Nathan grated, wheezing a little from the exertion and moving clumsily, the exoskeleton echoing the awkwardness. Or maybe it was the other way around. He wasn't sure how this worked. "The rest of us built lives, John! You just don't have the stomach to fight. Some Spartan you ever were..."

"I'm the only REAL Spartan! With your shield or on it, Nathan! We don't get to have lives! We're Spartans! Soldiers!" he screamed as he lashed into Nathan with his power. "I'm the last of our kind, you diseased sick fuck!"

Down to ground level, the rest of the parking garage falling inwards, collapsing towards them. Nathan gritted his teeth. He wasn't going to kill the stupid bastard. He wasn't. He managed to bring one massive wing around and slammed Lense to the ground, knocking him out.

Then he picked up the unconscious man, wrapping him in protective talons, and propelled himself upwards. Debris hit the wings of the exoskeleton, and he felt the impact, but it wasn't enough to knock him back to earth.

He pushed his way through and reached open sky.

Cut tag lyrics by Fighting Gravity. Yes, that's a real band name. I thought it highly appropriate. The specific lyrics may or may not have anything to do with the contents of the cut.