xp_logs | Collateral Damage, part three - Rescue - Domino, Pete, Betsy, Nathan, and Amanda

At the mansion, Domino catches the news and calls Pete in New York, who heads to the scene. Betsy reaches out telepathically to tell Nathan that help's coming. Pete arrives, gets Nathan and Amanda into the car, and sets about getting out of the city. Nathan manages to tell him most of what happened before he passes out.

There were probably any number of more productive things she could be doing with a Saturday afternoon, but Amanda's healing spells aside, she was still feeling a little rough around the edges. Lying on the couch flipping through channels was just about as much exercise as she felt like.

It would be nice if she could find something on, though, Domino thought with a grumble, still flipping steadily. Home decorating shows, cartoons, rather cheesy-looking old movies... ooh, explosions. She stopped, watching with interest that rapidly turned in wary concern as she listened to the panicky voice-over and realized this wasn't a movie. Mutants duking it out at Columbia University? Not good, not good at all. Looked to be an awful lot of collateral damage...

Then she saw Nathan running. She froze, her hand clenching around the remote. "Nate, what the fuck...?" Then the camera skewed wildly, focusing on another familiar face, a man sheathed in a dull gold psionic exoskeleton. "Oh, shit," Domino breathed raggedly, remembering him from that last Mistra retrieval team she'd helped Nate fight. The commander... Morgan.

Mistra. Nate. Alone in New York... no, not alone. "Oh shit, Amanda..." Probabilities raced through her mind, rearranging themselves in a dizzying instant, and she dove for the phone on the table beside the couch. Pete first. Pete was in New York already. Then Charles, if he didn't know already. She dialed Pete's cell phone number rapidly. "Pick up, pick up..." she muttered.

"Mmmph. Yeah, Wisdom here. What time is it? This'd better be good..." Pete's voice sounded groggy from sleep.

"Pete, it's Dom," she said rapidly. Apologies for interrupting his vacation could come later. Much later. "Turn on your TV. Local channel. Nate's fighting a Mistra retrieval team at Columbia."

"Do what?" Pete sounded a little more alert.

The sound of a TV came on in the background, followed by a crashing, clattering sound as Pete fell out of bed.

"Fuck! Tell Charlie I'm on me way. I'll call when I get there..."

"Will do. Hurry." Domino hung up the phone and stared at the screen for a moment, flinching as the camera showed the Mistra operatives blowing up cars, going after innocent bystanders. What the fuck were they doing? Mistra didn't work in the open like that, they never had... Tearing her gaze away from the TV, she slid off the couch and limped rapidly out of the room, trying to think of where the Professor would be at this time of day.

***

There were police everywhere. Only to be expected, of course, Nathan thought blankly, crouched beside the still-unconscious Amanda. He had found an enclosed alleyway between two of the campus buildings, somewhere they could be out of sight at least for a little while, where he could figure out what to do next. His cell phone was totaled, he'd found out - the electrical attack, maybe. Couldn't see a way to get to another phone, and he couldn't think straight... break into an office? But then he'd have to leave Amanda.

He reached out with his good hand and checked Amanda's pulse. Still steady. Strange had said she would be all right. He just had to get her out of here. Another coughing spasm hit and he slumped against the wall, fighting to catch his breath. The buzzing at the back of his mind grew more frantic - the Askani, trying to remind him that he wasn't allowed to go into shock yet? Nathan squeezed his eyes shut, trying to pull his scattered thoughts back together.

***

Her eyes closed, Betsy had sensed the panic and realized it was not coming from her. She searched for the cause and had found them. From the frantic thoughts rumbling through Nathan, Betsy managed to keep herself anchored. She had found them there, in the alley, and she watched as Nathan's shaky hand went for Amanda's throat. Thank God, she's still alive. Betsy felt Nathan's thoughts barrage her foreign presense, they were like rolling waves breaking on the shore. Each assault growing in intensity. It made making contact harder.

Betsy huddled next to his broken form, a soft mental nudge making him aware of her presence. #Nathan.#

A soft voice amid the buzzing, and Nathan opened his eyes, struggling to focus. #Betsy?# he called back, faint and tentative. He had thought he felt Charles a few minutes ago, but he had been so focused on finding them someplace to hide... but this did feel like Betsy. #Betsy... Amanda, have to get her out of here...#

#Help is coming. Just hold on. No, no. She's alright. Yes, I promise, I'll be here until they do.# She smiled, her hand ghosting the side of his face. She held back any emotion that Nathan could perceive as alarmed. He could only sense and gain her feelings of calm. It's going to be alright. Stay awake. Help is coming. She continued sending reassurement to him through their connection until she sensed Pete arrive.

***

Pete pulled the car to a halt as near to the wrecked area as he could. It looked like he'd missed the worst of it - emergency crews were arriving on the scene, and there were police everywhere.

He scanned the area, thinking - if Nate was still nearby, he'd be somewhere out of sight, trying to avoid the police. He spotted several likely looking alleyways a short distance away on the edge of area, and put the car back in gear, reversing.

#Nate!# he cast the thought out hoping to god that he remember his training properly, hoping the other man was in a state to hear and respond. #You better be somewhere fucking nearby, or Dom's going to go spare!#

A louder, angrier voice amid the buzzing, distinct words, and Nathan's eyes snapped open, his sense of Betsy's presence fading. #Pete?# he thought faintly, trying to focus on those familiar thoughts. Close, he was somewhere close - driving? Nathan concentrated, flashing an image of the alley as it looked from out on the street. Maybe a minute passed before a car appeared at the end of the alley. Nathan picked up Amanda, trying to bear most of her weight with his uninjured arm, and rose, staggering over to the passenger-side door as it opened.

"She'll be okay," he said hoarsely, seeing the look on Pete's face as he saw Amanda. "Strange said..."

Pete clamped down hard on his initial rush of panic, and helped Nate get Amanda into the back of the car. "Let's get the pair of you back to the school, let the Docs check you both over, eh?"

He made sure the pair of them were settled into the back, before driving off carefully, doing his best not to attract attention, even though part of him wanted to just floor it.

"Dom caught you on telly, and called me. Said it was Mistra?"

Television? Nathan thought dimly, not understanding. But he forced himself to attend to Pete's question, aware even in his dazed state that none of them were in the clear yet. "Two teams," he muttered. "Knew the leader from before... another telekinetic. Others were new. One team went for me. The other..." Another coughing spasm hit, but even as he struggled to catch his breath he continued telepathically, knowing he had to get the information out. #Energy-projectors to take out civilians, make me surrender. Never done that before.# He pushed images at Pete, showing him. The coughing eased off and he wiped the blood away from his mouth with a shaking hand. "One Mistra survivor I know about," he rasped. "Their leader, the telekinetic... don't think he'd double b-back on his own. Didn't see the sweeper team, though..."

"Exciting new kinds of cuntery from them, now? Fuck. With any luck, the news crews will have had the sweeper team backing off. Can't imagine they want to be caught on camera more than they have to be."

He glanced in the mirror. "How're you doing back there? Can you hang on if I take a long route back just in case?"

"Hang on if I have to," Nathan wheezed, trying to slow down his breathing. He switched back to telepathy, which was for once the easier way to communicate. #Didn't give me a chance before they started taking out civilians. Fallback plan maybe. In case the first team failed.# He closed his eyes, trying to fight back the dizziness. #Fuck. So many bodies, Pete. Would've stood down sooner if they'd given me the chance...#

"Yeah? What'd have been the point in that?" Pete changed lanes, heading out of the city, eyes flicking to the mirror again.

"Look I'll say this once now, and then we'll leave it until you can actually carry on a conversation for me to beat it into you properly, but this was not your fucking fault. None of it. And you giving in to them, today or any other time, that's not going to fucking help. It's how the bastards want you to think, but just fucking hang on to the idea that as long as you're not with them, you're not ratcheting up their fucking bodycount. It's no good preventing deaths today if all that'll happen is that they'll get you back and send you out to kill more people tomorrow. This was not your fucking fault. Amanda'd say the same thing if she was awake."

Nathan looked at Amanda, small and bruised and slumped against the seat, her mouth open a little as if she were just sleeping, not unconscious. "That... charm she gave me," he said hoarsely. He couldn't process Pete's logic just yet. Maybe later. "Went off... but I couldn't sense anything. Then the car blew up." He leaned back against the seat, concentrating on breathing. The interior of the car was freezing. He thought of asking Pete just why they needed that much air conditioning, but didn't. His mind drifted away from the subject, back to one of the other things he hadn't been able to figure out. "Don't know... how Manuel did that," he murmured, his eyes closing. "Not a telepath... but it was h-him. Think Strange... saw it too..."

While Nate was talking, Pete picked up his mobile from the seat, and sent the text he'd keyed in while driving over there to Dom, just to let her know he'd got them. "De La Rocha? What'd he do?"

"Came down their link... while she was unconscious. Were... three of them left, then. He set off all their triggers. Didn't want... me to surrender, either." Nathan forced his eyes open in time to see Pete give him another look in the mirror. "Probably... flat on his ass somewhere, back at the school..." He'd tried to talk too quickly and wound up coughing again. #Someone needs to check,# he sent faintly. #Probably fried his dampener...#

"Stick with the the telepathy, mate." Pete put his foot down a little more, driving as fast as he could given the traffic, wishing they were clear of the city. "Never thought I'd see the day when De La Rocha and I would agree on something, though."

Someone would find Manuel, Nathan told himself, trying to catch his breath. He was back at the school and safe; that was the important thing. #Most of the operatives were second-gen. Except the telekinetic--Morgan. He led the last retrieval team. Didn't kill him the last time because he was one of my students before I left.# Nathan stared blindly out the window at the passing traffic. #Don't think he'd double back,# he went on, not noticing that he was repeating himself. #Not by himself. But watch out for a twenty-foot-tall psionic exoskeleton.#

"I should think he'd be a bit hard to miss." Pete relaxed a little as they got out onto a fairly fast moving freeway. "Don't suppose any of them were stupid enough to tell you how they found you, were they?"

#No... too disciplined for that.# Although they had been doing more talking than they should have been. Cockier than they should have been. They thought they had me.. He shifted on the seat, not quite managing to bite back the grunt of pain. #Knew the car, even. Had to, to plant the bomb. How could they...? I take a different one every week. Different routes.#

"Bollocks." Pete slapped the dashboard in frustration. "Soon as we get back, I'm giving Culley a bell, going to get him over here. Time to start looking for these fucks properly. And you and I are going to see if we can work out how they're tracking you."

Nathan knew he should try and focus, think it through. There had to be an explanation. A mistake he'd made somewhere - a big one, to account for this. But his eyes closed again and his head sagged back against the seat, his body jerking with a few more racking coughs. Harder and harder to think. #Warned me,# he thought dimly, not really meaning to project it. #The sword... told me, last chance. Didn't think... still thought I had time...# And he'd been so slow drawing up that summary for Pete, so caught up in his nightmares and all the other distractions at the school...

Pete checked his mirrors again, half looking at Nate, half making sure they weren't being followed. "So did I, mate - it ain't like either of us could have expected an agency that's worked so bloody hard to stay invisible to suddenly mount an op that involved tearing up a chunk of New York. I figure they're getting desperate..."

#Something's changed... the President's investigation, something...# But that didn't make sense. Getting him back wouldn't stop that. Wouldn't undo whatever damage had been done. #More, too. They were different. Some of the ones I didn't know.# The younger ones. #Enjoyed what they were doing. Unstable. Shouldn't have made it through the program...#

"If the president's cracking down, then maybe they've don't have the luxury of being picky any more. Or maybe it's something else. Fuck knows. We're just racking up the bloody puzzles today." Pete smiled thinly to himself, as he overtook a truck and accelerated along an empty stretch of road ahead.

Nathan started to cough again, and coughed until stars were exploding on the insides of his eyelids and everything except the pain in his chest seemed increasingly distant. It went on and on, and when it finally stopped, he felt only a dim flicker of relief. #Too cold in here, Pete...# he thought faintly, and passed out.

"Oh, bollocks." Pete accelerated still further, hoping to god that he didn't encounter any traffic cops on the way. This could be a little tricky to explain...