GBOS: One Way Ticket

[x-gambit.livejournal.com]

The camp erupts in chaos as Guardsmen hidden in with the refugees launch an attack. Fred, Laurie and Nico are caught off guard by a pair of mutants with murder on their minds.



"You know, there's a place down the road from me that--" The mechanic cut himself off as they all jumped at the sound of the explosion, and the first staccato sounds of gunfire. He pushed himself to his feet, staring at the plume of black smoke that blossomed over the camp. "What the hell?" He had time for only a single curse before the round caught him between the shoulder blades and smashed him to the ground. Three men armed with compact sub machineguns approached the cleared, but were waved back by a tall man with a mustache. A young woman with white hair alit from the air beside him.

"~This ones are ours.~" He said, cracking his knuckles. Ever since Indonesia, he wanted a piece of the mutants who had driven them from the boat. "~These are the Western mutants, White Noise?~"

"~They are, Titan.~" She said, and almost casually directed a high pitched sonic blast at the automatic augers they had invested so much time into setting up.

Fred turned in time to see the mechanic fall, and catch the exchange between the two newcomers. He couldn't understand them, but their intentions seemed fairly clear. The cigarette from his break still hanging from his lips, he turned to Nico and his voice came out as a bark, "Get back to camp. Take everyone between here and there and get them safe. Come back with help." His words came short, and they didn't seem to be requests. He turned back to the attackers and moved closer, throwing off his coat, hoping to catch their attention enough to let Nico and the others get away.

"Just what the fu-" And then he was dead, and then there were men with sub machines, and then the other two persons that looked obviously mutant. For a second, she was lost on their words, which made no sense to her, but Fred's own speaking snapped her back to reality. Run, help others, and come back with help. He throwing his jacket was the signal; Nico turned and started to run, a mix of panic and adrenaline threatening to turn her into a mindless, scared animal. Fortunately for Nico, she had some experience on controlling such impulses. Instead, she bit her lip, hard; blood started to flow. She was going to need all the help in the world.

"When Blood is Shed..."

Titan stepped forward, growing as he did so. The now ten foot man lunged for Nico, looking to catch her in a giant hand and possibly crush the life from her. The other woman took to the sky again, to focus on the battle from a birdseye view.

Oh, that didn't look good at all. She was about to get crushed like some pathetic ant by a huge man. She had to stop him, but she didn't want to actually hurt the man; it was stupid, but killing someone with her magic was out of the question. "The Shoelace Joke!", yelled as she raised the Staff of One, a ray shooting at Titan's feet; even if he didn't have shoelaces...well, he would have now, and these would be tied together, in a way he would inevitably fall to the ground.

The man overbalanced, arms' suddenly pin wheeling as his feet went out from under him and he crashed heavily to the earth. White Noise rolled her eyes.

"~Honestly, the big monkey makes me do everything.~" She muttered, and her sonic shout hit Nico in the face like a blow from a boxer, knocking her backwards, clean off her feet. Two useless mutants and Titan forgets how to walk. She turned back to the American teen, a slightly cruel expression on her face. Most of the Guard had been soldiers, trained in the standard sense of honor in service. She had been with military intelligence; an operative for all intents, and she had no problems adding to the pile of corpses that would make their mission more successful.

Fred would’ve been terrified, had he not just seen what he knew was a family man hit the ground dead for no reason. He’d be at a complete loss for what to do, had he not seen the smoke from the larger battle and known more dead waited there, for no discernible reason other than more death. Fred would’ve been concerned over his chances of success, if he hadn’t just seen a good friend take a hit that would’ve hurt him. As it was, after all of it, Fred could only feel a deep burning, screaming red feeling pounding in his ears and scorching the back of his eyes. For years Fred had been afraid of just how good he was at hurting people; now he just hoped he could do it well enough.

For a man his size, Fred had always been deceptively fast. Moving towards the sneering woman who’d just grounded Nico at a powerful trot, Fred actually seemed to be growing even larger. The seams of his clothes whined as they tried to restrain his growing bulk, and were Fred in his right mind there’s a good chance that the quickly expanding mass would’ve cause him no end of agony. As it was, he simply let out an ear-splitting scream and tried to plant every ounce of his mass into the attacking woman’s face.

White Noise was taken aback by the speed of the large man, and barely had time to bring up a sonic barrier between them before he hit. The barrier didn't stop Fred, but it caused a momentary pause when he impacted into it. The force drove White Noise back a dozen steps, suddenly wary of the young man.

"~Titan!~"

"~Yeah, yeah.~"

"~Get in here. Big boy needs a lesson.~" She said, jumping backwards into the air, peppering the area around Fred with short sonic blasts. They only stung him, but it was enough for her to gain a little distance with the victim who had turned out to be a possibly dangerous opponent.

Ouch ouch ouch. Ouch. Opening her eyes, Nico sat in the ground, feeling as if she had just hit a very hard wall with her face. Which she, in a way, just done; the fact her nose was not broken had probably to do with White Noise's attack hitting her face equally, which made it more painful, but at least kept everything in place. "I'm fucking shutting you up", mumbled as she stood slowly, eyeing the woman now battling with Fred...or what a moment ago was Fred. Rising the Staff of One, Nico decided the woman was strong enough to take one with all her negativity focused on it. "From your chin to your toes, a mute silence grows!" A white beam shot off from Nico's staff, sliding on the air like a snake, and surrounding White Noise before binding her like a rope, just to vanish after that.

Fred, looking more like an ogre than a human being, took every hit Titan threw at him. A powerful jab across his eye made him crouch a bit. Titan was a better fighter than he was, and perhaps just as strong. But there was no chance, after seeing the man spill over and have to recover, that he was as tough as Fred. Fred absorbed as many hits as it took until he finally telegraphed a punch coming at his jaw. He lashed out and wrapped his fatty hands around Titan's fist, planting his feet and squeezing and crushing the larger mutant's hand until Fred's thumbs actually touched around what was left of the attacker's fist.

Roaring in pain, Titan suddenly shot up to his full sixteen feet height, yanking Fred off the ground with his grip on the man's mangled hand. Like an angry giant, he wrenched the young man off and brutally slammed him headfirst back into the hard packed dirt. Another blow, which reverberated like a miniature earthquake around them.

"~Stop playing with him.~" White Noise hissed, her voice unable to get higher than a whisper despite her straining her powers to the upmost. With a frustrated snarl, she caught sight of Nico and advanced on the young woman, her combat knife in hand. "~I'm going to a cut new hole in you to fuck with that staff.~"

White Noise was greeted by a pair of completely black eyes, Staff of One gleaming in her hands. "You decided to mess with the wrong witch, you crazy bitch." She wanted to kill her, and she was a word away from doing it, but she couldn’t let down Amanda. Right? She wouldn't like that. Fuck that, Amanda isn't here, another part of her brain pushed. She was starting to lose it, and if she didn't do anything, she would end up hurting someone. Oh, but I want to hurt someone... Without moving the Staff, Nico focused.

"One Way Ticket." A white orb rushed from the staff, fast as a bullet, hitting White Noise in the stomach, and then lifting the woman as it rose, rose, rose...and soon after she was nowhere to see. Nico took a couple of minutes to sigh and consider how close she had been from making White Noise explode or something like that, but she didn't have time to feel bad for her; Fred needed help.

Just what was she supposed to do?
Fred's sensory organs were really the only vulnerable parts of him, when you got down to it, and Titan had just spent the last few moments pounding nearly all of them into the ground. When the Indian giant had released him, ostensibly to help his quickly disappearing teammate, Fred managed to get to get to his feet long before he'd actually recovered. Punch-drunk, senses muddled and still enormously furious, Fred stumbled over to Titan's leg and, after registering it was in fact the leg of the man he wanted to stop, Fred began ramming his fists into the flesh as hard as he could manage.

Titan went down again as the blow exploded in his instep. He felt a bone give in his foot under the attack, and roared in pain. Why wouldn't this thing just die? He thought, and lashed out with his good leg, catching Fred in the face with his boot. Now his plan had been replaced with a survival mentality; kill or be killed.

"Oh for the love of--" Nico felt like a tiny fly deciding if she should stand on one of the giants' noses and get squished or just watch and hope for the best. Like hell she was going to second one. Taking advantage of the little attention she was getting, Nico made her away around the fighters; she was scared of hitting Fred instead of Titan. "Hold still!" She hadn't meant for that to be a spell, but nonetheless, the Staff of One literally zapped at Titan, a white glow surrounding him and keeping him still; the man was actually trying to fight it though. What was with strong dudes fighting her spells? "Alright, Fred? Knock him down or something!"

Fred wasn't listening to Nico. The boot left a literal imprint on his face where the malleable tissue protected Fred from the brunt of the attack, but it had still sent him reeling for a moment. Now that his opponent was immobile, Fred scaled the growing mutant considerable
bulk and all, and did his best to strangle the lights out of Titan’s eyes. "INNOCENT PEOPLE!?" Fred bellowed. He seemed to be fighting himself to make some semblance of sense "WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU!?"

Titan couldn't move, and under Fred's hands, his face began to purple as the oxygen was choked off from his body.

"Fred, let him go," Laurie's voice was firm as she stepped into his field of vision, and she glowed purple as she brought her power to bear, waves of calming pheromones pushing from her skin into the air immediately around her body and then drifting outward on the breeze.

She'd come running when she saw the two younger students, but it looked like they'd already dealt with the enemy. Now she just had to make sure Fred didn't do something he'd always regret.

Fred's grip loosened, and his eyes softened as he became calmer. He slumped off of Titan and, kneeling on his knees in the dirt, closed his eyes and took long, deep breaths as he finally managed to get himself back under control. "He was...he was gonna..." was all that Fred managed to utter for the moment.

Titan lay in the dirt, his breath coming in choking gasps, three-quarters dead and nearly insensible at the attack.

Laurie didn't hesitate, simply kneeled beside Fred who appeared uninjured and moved to check Titan over, "It's okay, Fred. You did what you had to."

She reached out a hand and brushed it across Titan's forehead, sending a burst of pheromones from her skin into his body. It would increase the melatonin and endorphins in his system, and should stop him from any thoughts of further attack, and eventually send him to sleep.

"Nico, could you please go to the infirmary and bring back a stretcher," she asked after a moment, knowing that she'd need Fred close if her pheromones didn't work and this man decided to become dangerous again. Not likely, but it was better safe than sorry.

Nico nodded, the Staff of One re-entering her body as she made sure Fred wasn’t going to jump at Laurie now. “Alright; I’ll also try to communicate with someone about…well, this dude.” Focusing, Nico summoned her werelight; she was feeling numb and overly anxious, but she needed to let someone else to know about the man they had just taken down; she didn’t worry about White Noise, who probably was on the other side of the Earth by now. “Go look for an adult”, told the floating ball of dark energy, which shoot out to the camp as she went to the infirmary. “I won’t take long!” Because, after all, she didn't want to be alone until they returned.