Jailbreak: Search Party 4 - Sunday night

[x-penance.livejournal.com]

The last search party gets a call to the trainyard where Toad, Wildside, Dragoness and Ricochet have formed an unlikely team.



"Can't see a thing," Jay mumbled over the com, despite the fact that he could see something through the pouring rain, it was just that he wasn't sure exactly what it was. He didn't bother guessing, but pressed on forward, stalling only in mid air when he was warily flying around overhanging wires from old lines and new ones that crossed down into the ground. Despite how cold he should have been, the fridgid air did nothing against his skin, goosebumps crawling across his body in anticipation of something far greater than anything a danger room session had to offer.


Finally! On the field where he should be, even though something small within him told him he wasn't ready, he was so ready for this.

One hand braced on the dash, the other white-knuckled on the frame, Tabitha silently hoped she wouldn't be tossed from the violently rocking Jeep as the driver blazed ahead. She wasn't sure how, but he was keeping up with Jay. Only luck and a strong grip would make sure the rest of the team made it with the vehicle.

Lex focused a little of his energy on the engine, giving it just enough boost to keep up with their winged friend. He scanned the horizon, if it could be called that, watching for any movement. When he didn't see any he activated the radio, "This is almost as bad as a fucking sandstorm! Any sight of them?"


“Nothing yet,” Zanne replied as she peered out the window, trying to project patience toward her relatively untried team. Nothing would be gained by rushing headlong into the unknown. “I think – hold on.” A new voice came on over her earpiece and she listened intently. “They’re reporting a disturbance at the railyards. Let’s go check it out, guys.”

--

The sound of the engine, if faint, was enough to alert the escapees. Turning her head around, Dragoness was almost expecting something like that to happen. "Here they come!", announced at the rest. They had been going on for a while though, and reaching the trainyard was a reality by then.

Those pesky X-Men!

"So just keep moving!" Ricochet yelled back, not even bothering to look around. He had no desire to be caught for a second time, thank you very much. The four years he'd served was certainly long enough. "The fence there! We should be able to get through." He pointed to a join in the wire fencing surrounding the train yard, taking a moment to twist the odds in the favor, at least for this moment.


When they came under the lighting of the fence, Jay's communication to the group dropped off to silence. His wings beat to the rhythm of his breathing, a low curl deep in his throat everytime they came down, catching the wind to push him well past the sight of the group down below. He turned abruptly, heading west and around, climbing and disappearing from view.

"He's turning!" Tabitha struggled to remember what was in that direction. Her mental map was lacking but- "Yup, train yard. Our bad guys want out of town!"

Lex held on tight as the jeep launched over large bump in the road. The gate rose before them, and he crouched down as they passed through it. He still couldn't see anything, but he knew the layout well enough to make sense of their position. "We're in the open here, and we don't know where they are...I suggest we abandon the vehicle and find cover."


“Sounds like a plan, Hamster,” Zanne replied, nodding toward a distant row of structures. “You go with Meltdown and keep on the comms. Let me know what you find. I’m going to see if I can pull up something here, and will be right behind you.”


"Understood," Lex acknowledged as he ducked out of the vehicle, racing towards the nearest train. He slid up to it and waited for Meltdown to follow. When she arrived he indicated that he wanted to circle around. It was a fair bet that their quarry knew they were there, and it would be better to flank the bastards.

Tabitha stayed a breath behind Lex, turned at a slight angle to cover their backsides. She crouched low to the ground and keeping her eyes and ears open. With all the train cars moving around them at varying speeds, it was hard to keep track of human and mechanical movement. Communication had completely fallen off concerning their flyer.

Jay flew up over one of the carts and with him, a powerful thrust of his metal wings forward, feather blades slicing through the gravel and with it, a shrieking keen of an attack as he aimed to crash into body they'd been hunting.


Toad sprang over the fence Ricochet had pointed him at earlier, not bothering to wait for his seeming allies. He landed and jumped again, sticking to a pole twenty feet above the ground to get a better vantage point. Not that it mattered much, given the blue flying boy, but from up here, the other X-Men were also visible. He spat at the flyer and leaped away, bouncing off a cart and into cover. The name of the game here was escape, not giving the X-Men some well-earned bruises.


Jay missed the leap by a fraction, dodging the gloop shot at him and the points of his wings carved clean into the side of a cart before he swept them back in an arch. Black converse skidded against the gravel in a turn and he took flight again, viciously hot on Toad's tail, the chase exciting his appetite.


Running to where he thought he heard combat, Lex caught sight of two of the fugitives. He couldn't tell who they were, but he wasn't taking any chances. It would be very difficult to control his electrokinesis with all the water about. Activating his comms he whispered, "Hamster to all, I've got two targets slinking through the trains directly ahead of my position." Turning his head just slightly, he checked that Meltdown was still with him. "I think it's time we said hello."

Tabitha cupped her hands to hide the creation of a flash-bang. She briefly wondered if she could make them in her sleep. She crept closer to Lex, trying to figure out where it would be most effective.

"Hello!" Wildside cackled, launching himself towards the two X-Men, intending to mess them up just a little before he caught up with the train. The rain had made it difficult to hear and smell them, but his feral senses were still better than most peoples'. He feigned left and made a lunge towards the electrokinetic, hoping to pierce flesh and release some of the psychotropic toxins from his nails.

As the feral came into full view Lex prepared to release a shock wave, but realized he'd have to put a great deal extra energy into it to compensate for its dispersal through the water. That was an unacceptable risk. Instead, he used his military combat training to throw the man to the ground. He didn't even realize he'd been scratched.

"Meltdown... I think you should keep this one away from you," he called, as the world began spinning and the rain crystallized into tiny diamonds. "He's, uh, affecting my mind..." He put his hands out in front of him, to protect himself from the harsh light that reflected through the falling drops. He backed up until his back touched something hard and he turned sharply, sending out an electric charge to defend himself.

Tabitha released the poorly formed flash-bang in an abrupt attempt to distract the feral. Her left foot slid in the mud and she went down with a disturbing squish, flash-bang going wide.

A piece of metal flung through the air from the cart blew away with his charge, Jay dodging around it as he swiftly banked right and thrust his wings hard to grab Toad's ankle and use momentum to bring him down.

Toad twisted in midair, flailing and trying to grab Jay's hand. Unable to reach, he spat at the blue man, trying to blind him and force him to let go.

What should have been a keen was muffled as suctioned gloop hit Jay's face and he was thrown back in a tumble, wings thrusting upwards and crashed into gravel. All rational thought slipped from his head, severed as instinct clawed at the green mask and arched into a frantic desperation to get it off, unable to breathe.




Lex twisted around in agony as the world exploded around him, the train cars began to meld and swirl into vicious apparitions. They tormented him with howls and whines that would make any man blanch in terror. He was losing control. "Meltdown! If you're still here you should get away... and I mean it this time," it took all his remaining will to warn his partner.

Flailing, Lex began to build an immense charge. The world seemed to be closing in on him and he felt a great urge to force it away with the power of lightning.

Tabitha scrambled clumsily to her hands and knees. She loped on all fours, beneath a near-by railroad car and out the other side before she stood. She craned her head, trying to catch a glimpse of Wildside.

As the charge left the electrokinetic's hands, Wildside found himself sailing across the trainyard and under the wheels of the moving cars, where his scream was cut off abruptly.

Jay had just gotten to his feet, gloop pulled off by the tips of his wings, gouging his face in a last desperate attempt to breath. Whipping around defensively, two wing thrusts let loose two dozen paralyzing feathers, lifting himself off the ground; his voice caught in his throat at the electrical charge that coursed through his body and dropped him like a dead weight down to the ground.



***



The plan was simple - circle around, lose their pursuers in the jumble of trans and outbuildings, and then jump on the first moving train that his powers chose. Only, with that particular annoying downside of luck powers, the dark-haired woman in the black leather was heading directly for where he'd hunkered down to keep out of sight of the psychotic blue angel. Dragoness was out of sight - they'd split up to avoid being caught - so no heavy-duty fire powers as back up. Ricochet sighed and reached out with his powers, turning the ground beneath the approaching X-Man into something resembling glue.

Zanne hurried towards a line of cars, the mud dragging at her boots more and more as she got closer to them. "Status! Team, report! What's going on, guys?" She barked furiously into her mic, alarmed and irritated by their lack of response. A flash of movement near the back of one of the cars caught her eye, and she crouched down, hoping whoever it was hadn't seen her. "I need to-- Argh!"

She abruptly splashed down onto one knee as her other leg remained stuck in the mud up to her shin. Cursing quietly to herself, she tried to pull it forward only to find that the tacky material didn't want to let her go, pulling her in deeper as she moved. "I do not need this right now," she muttered, setting a small freeze. The mud and rain surrounding her froze in place and she lunged forward, yanking her stuck leg out of its goopy trap.

Ricochet cursed under his breath. Some kind of reality manipulator? Talk about a powers clash... He reached for the probability lines again, tweakinig another. A rumble started up as a row of empty cargo trucks started rolling along the tracks... which abruptly shifted from their existing path to a line leading straight at the X-Man. Hoping it would be enough distraction, Ricochet ran for the buildings. He would be a sitting duck if he stayed put, luck or no luck.

Zanne looked up as the train cars rumbled to life, a figure bolting out from behind them. Letting down the freeze, she tried to push herself to her to get out of their path and give chase, but the mud once again held her fast. As the cars gained speed, she realized with a sickening sense of horror, unless she figured out a way out and soon, she was about to get pulverized. The rain was playing merry hell with her ability to concentrate on freezing things for too long -- too much movement to control easily outside a very small bubble let alone one that could capture a whole chain of swiftly moving train cars.

Making her decision, she set down a tight freeze around herself and pushed herself up onto her feet and leapt out of the bubble, breaking it. The jump was awkwardly executed and short, but she managed to set another small freeze as she landed, the ground remaining solid beneath her feet. She leapt again, this time more focused, getting out of the way of the rumbling train cars. She could feel them as they rushed past her, creating friction as they brushed past her invisible enclosure. Slowly, she began to pick her way across the field to the old station house.

Breathing heavily from the dash to the building, Ricochet paused, trying to listen for pursuit over his panting. Four years rotting in a cell had done little for his fitness, that was certain, especially when they'd had to keep him inhibited almost constantly. Movement caught his eye, and he flattened himself against the wall, hoping the coating of mud on his orange prison jumpsuit would help him blend with the shadows.

The flash of neon fabric as it moved past a window was good enough confirmation for Zanne that she was definitely trailing one of the escapees, and not some hapless rail man trying to get out of the rain. She tapped her mic on."Guys, I've got one in the station. I'm going to smoke him out, but I wouldn't mind having a bit of backup on hand if it's available."

Not receiving any response, she pressed her back to the exterior wall of the station and slipped the small baton she'd taken to carrying out of her belt. Concentrating, she pulled down a memory and set it playing in the station.

In an instant the building whirled to life. People appeared behind the counter, issuing tickets and arguing over baggage while customers milled around the small room. The images flickered slightly, as if playing from an old tape, and their voices while indistinct, created a dull hum that thrummed through the building.

Ricochet blinked. Where the hell had all these people come from? He reacted almost instinctively, his powers lashing out, lashing through the ghostly shapes. The walls of the building flexed and pulsed as if alive, the structure groaning under the strain.

The buckling wall knocked Zanne forward as the roof started to cave. What the hell did he do? She wanted to catch the creep, not kill him! Running out of options, Zanne cast a freeze over her side of the building, hoping that they'd both have a better chance to get clear if she could just get the fugitive to settle...or the other half of the building to fall.

The problem was, between Zanne's powers and Ricochet's, reality was getting stretched decidedly thin. And where that was happening was decidedly unstable any way. With an alarming crack, something gave, the roof beginning to cave in.

Ricochet cursed - not what he'd intended. He wasn't a killer, he was a thief, and while he didn't want to get recaptured, he sure as hell didn't want a death on his hands. He pushed again with his powers, this time turning the wall behind him into so much jelly, shoving his way through. Hopefully she'd have the sense to save herself if she didn't have to worry about him. Of course, taking out the wall didn't help the stability of the situation - the rest of the wall began to tilt alarmingly towards the side that stood frozen still.

The changing composition of one wall rippled throughout the freeze, unexpectedly transforming everything inside of it in a slowly oncoming wave. Unwilling to risk getting herself caught up in it, Zanne backpedaled rapidly, breaking through the edge of the bubble. As it released, the building collapsed with a squelching crunch, and Zanne dropped into a crouch, handing her head. Had the fugitive gotten out? Was he still trapped in there? Where the hell was her team?






Probably taking the sensible choice, Dragoness had kept on running, well aware they weren't in the position to start a fight, or to fight back, at least. Also, the only thing she would get by throwing flames around would be signaling her position, and most likely getting captured again, when they were so close to make it. Looking back once more, Dragoness barely managed to throw herself to the ground, avoiding by inches the barrage of steel feathers that suddenly seemed to be everywhere; if the probability manipulator had got killed, she would find herself in deep shit.


Behind him, the building sagged into a heap. Ricochet glanced wildly around, not sure if he'd run straight into another damn X-Man or not. His powers were just about spent; between being out of shape and the amount of luck he'd had to ride tonight, he was exhausted. No sign of the blue flyer or the electrokinetic. No sign of Toad or Wildside either. He stumbled forward, hardly believing that he might actually get out of here. Then movement registered on his right side and he jerked himself away, losing his footing and falling over into the mud.


"And up you go", came Dragoness' voice next to Ricochet, lifting him from the ground and hauling him off the mess he and the X-Man had caused; she hadn't got a chance to fry the woman, but at least she was more or less intact, and that was a good thing, considering they were running away. "You can thank me later, by the way."


***



Out of energy, Lex collapsed into a heap. His mind was racing, the world shifting in a swirling mirage of terrifying colors. Having never done drugs in his life, he could not actually equate the experience to anything and so he was paralyzed by the need to make sense of what had just happened. Did I attack my teammates, he wondered, terrified that he may have been more harm than good. For a brief moment he wished he could just go back to being a soldier, but only for a moment.

Catching a glimpse of Lex' collapse, Tabitha jumped between a pair of rail cars, back to her teammate. "That's one down, where the hell are the rest? Hammy, you gonna make it?"

Lex didn't respond, his eyes rolled back in his head, and he lay there motionless, a steel feather sticking out of his chest.

He couldn't see anything, nor move, but he could hear someone calling to him through a long tube. He heard, Ham, are you gonna make it, and thought that whoever had spoken was not in the right state of mind. One should not think about food while on mission, even if the smell of charred flesh and iron made his mouth water.

Meltdown reached out cautiously, trying to see if it was safe to touch her teammate. When contact didn't fry her she knelt down to check his pulse. She keyed her comms. "We've got one man down and I think I'm the only one not hallucinating. Anybody out there on my side?"

Zanne's intercom crackled to life, and she tapped on her mic. "This is Sway. I just lost Ricochet and Dragonness. What's the status of Hamster and Emo? Who's down?"

Tabitha craned her head around to catch a glimpse of Jay, covered in mud and not moving very much. "Um, everybody?" she replied into her comm.

"Christ. Where are you?" Zanne scrubbed a hand over her face. "Do you have any prisoners?"

"Only if the feral isn't dead," Tabitha stood to drag Lex closer to Jay. "Everybody got hit with hallucinogens or slime and everything just went to hell in a handbasket. I can't see any of them."

"Fantastic." 'Hell in a handbasket' seemed an accurate way to how this mission was going, Zanne agreed. 'Completely fucked.' was probably more descriptive. "Send me your coordinates and keep everyone breathing until I get there. We'll get the kids off the field and see where we're needed next."