Day In The City: Vanishing Act (Scott and Alex, Tuesday night)

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On their way out of the airport upon returning from Hawaii, Alex and Scott run into some unexpected trouble. Alex finds out instinct can be a good thing, and Scott... where did Scott go, anyway?



"You just had to drool on my shoulder, didn't you?" Scott accused his brother cheerfully as they made their way through the parking lot to where the car had been left. Scott had made a point of driving his own - Betsy had taken her own when she'd come along to see them off - simply because he'd wanted to be able to drive back to the mansion himself, to clear his head from the flight. A little indulgent, but he wasn't really all that fond of being a passenger. "You did it through the whole second inflight movie..."

Alex shoved him, a grin on his face. "And your snoring kept the entire plane awake during the third. You're lucky the stewardess didn't wake you, I had to assure her you were alright." He stuck out his tongue as the walked down the line of cars that seemed to go on for miles.

"That," Scott said mock-severely, "is a vile and despicable lie. I do not snore. I should make you carry all the luggage for sullying my reputation like that."

"Oh sure, blame me." Alex wrinkled his nose. "I can't help it, ask anyone else who was the plane!" He added the last challenge indignantly, turning his back to the line of cars as he made to shove his brother again.

Scott sidestepped the shove easily, laughing. "How come I'm faster, when I'm the elderly one?" he chided Alex jokingly. "You need to spend more time in the gym, junior. Get into shape..." Scott stopped, the hair on the back of his neck prickling and the smile falling off his face. Movement in the shadows. Furtive movement, no less. What was...

Alex was about to retort when he saw the look on Scott's face. He frowned, cocking his head to the side, opening his mouth to say something when he caught something out of the corner of his eye. He was half way into turning around when he was grabbed from behind. "Hey!"

"Alex!" Scott snapped, dropping his bags at once and reaching up for his glasses. The man holding a struggling Alex was using him as a shield, though, and Scott gritted his teeth. No chance of focusing his blast narrowly enough, not without his visor. "Let him go," he said warningly.

"Get on your knees," the man snapped, instead of responding. "Hands behind your head." Scott was peripherally aware of people approaching from behind. "Then I let him go."

Alex struggled against the man holding him, but as he'd been surprised, the man had a good hold on him. Suddenly wishing he had enough control to blast the guy, he looked over at Scott. "Don't, Scott!" Alex saw the men coming around behind Scott. One of them had a weird syringe in his hand, and his heart dropped into his stomach. This was not good. They were outnumbered. Damn.

Scott moved before the words were out of Alex's mouth. One of the dark-clad men coming up behind him was on the ground in seconds, and another quickly followed. Scott saw one, a little further back, pull a gun, and this time there was no need to focus his optic blast. He pulled down his glasses just enough, and let the man with the gun have it, not stopping long enough to see him crash down on the hood of a car before he turned for another opponent.

Despite the situation, Alex couldn't help but grin as Scott kicked some major ass. Of course his expression changed when the man holding him tightened his grip and pulled a gun from somewhere. Alex flinched instinctively as it was pointed at him. Shit, this was going from bad to worse...

Someone slammed into Scott from behind, bearing him to the ground hard enough to knock the air out of his lungs. "Get over here with the fucking syringe!" he heard a voice snarl from above him, and there was another set of hands pinning him down suddenly. Someone yanked at the collar of his coat, pulling it down to bare the back of his neck, and...

Burning, and his mind went blank.

Seeing Scott go down out of the corner of his eye, Alex's attention was immediately diverted from the gun to his brother and the man with the funky syringe. His breathing hitched as he saw his brother struggling, and something in Alex's mind snapped, much like how it had when he protected Shiro from the Skippy clone.

He felt his hands get really itchy, much like they did before he blew up, but this time it was different. Without thinking about what he was doing, Alex pulled an arm free and blasted the man holding him in the face. The others heard his blast and two came at him. Once he was free, again without thinking, he shot off two blasts, catching both men in the chest.

His mind suddenly cleared and Alex was left standing among three of the downed men in the parking lot. He looked at his hands in disbelief. Well it was obvious now his control was instinctive...now if only he could do that on call and not when someone he loved was in danger. Danger. Scott!

Alex quickly took a step forward to run to his brother and that was when he noticed he was alone with the downed men. The others were gone. Scott was gone. Alex climbed on top of a random car, doing a scan of the area for his missing brother and once he returned to the spot, even the downed men were gone and still no sign of Scott.

"Shit! Now what do I do?" Alex mumbled to himself.