life of a runaway /complete/

[Kay]

Erik Styers
guns are neat little things, aren’t they?
they can kill extraordinary people with very little effort

---IN THE PAST---

Erik leans lazily against the wall of the building, smothering a yawn with his hand, when a girl bursts out of the door. He immediately straightens to attention, then relaxes as he sees it’s neither Blastie nor Lin.

“What do you want, girl?” he demands of her harshly.

“We have the two mutants in our base. We’d be willing to trade for them. Protection from the law, and money.”

He grins. “Deal.”

---BACK TO THE FUTURE---

Blastie’s punch barely grazes his ear and the kick doesn’t even come close to connecting. “Well, well. Look what we have here.”

Erik catches the boy’s next punch before it hits, effectively trapping Blastie’s hand inside his own. He laughs as the boy’s eyes widen and his left palm opens, shooting a beam of energy toward Erik’s forearm.

[Lin Heiwa]

Lin Heiwa.

at times i wondered
if i had not come
a long way
to find what i sought
was something that i
left behind.

I totally called this.

Lin wearily took one half a step back as she found herself staring into the barrel of a gun. Then Rick stumbles backwards back into her, effectively relaying a message-- and a memory bubbled up from underneath her battle-gearing brain.

Lin returned the grin, and batted off his hands with her own when he poked her, defiantly sticking her tongue out at him, “Of course not! I knew that no matter what I would’ve said, you would’ve gone anyway. You need someone with sense to keep you out of trouble!”

“What? Me, trouble? Never,” he says, feigning innocence, “You never saved my sorry ass from anything, Linny. What’re you talking about?"

"This," Lin hissed under her breath as she leaned back against the dirt wall, fingers flexing as she prepared to summon the water from her water-pocket, "is exactly what I'm talking about."

Rick was already loosing and the fight had barely started-- two on one was the only way they had a remote chance of winning. And still getting the burgers (always at the back of her mind). A flash of silver, and Lin called out a sharp warning of, "Knife!" before unscrewing the lid to her water pouch and sending a furious whip of water out (aiming to hit bounty-hunter from behind) the exact second that Rick released a beam of energy from his left hand.

[Rick Freedom]

Rick Freedom
don’t you wish it were simple?

He plays the red beam over Erik’s forearm, ducking out of the way just as Lin’s knife whizzes past his ear. Rick wiggles his arm free from Erik’s meaty grasp and takes a few quick steps back over to Lin, eyes blazing. “You never listen, do you.” It’s not really a question, but a statement. He knows he can’t beat the bounty hunter on his own, but they can’t both die here. Who would provide for everyone else back at the caves? “Get out of here, Lin. Take the stuff back to the base. I can handle this.” he snarls, never once taking his eyes off of Erik.

Rick laces his fingers together and shoots a concentrated beam of energy toward the bounty hunter.

[Daze]

ERIK Styers

look out.
that breath you just took?
it's probably your last
in freedom

---

Targets Spotted.

Knife. Erik dodges, just barely-- just in time to have a ton of water slam into his back. Winded, he rolled backward to gain some ground-- the beam from Blastie having a nice clear shot now. Lovely.

"ARGH!" Only a flesh wound, but still-- the bounty-hunter fumed as he stumbled backward, clutching the spot where the beam had grazed his arm and left a pocket of burned flesh behind. Before, this had been amusing-- but now with a few lucky shots in, the man was now enraged. Yet he didn't use his powers, that was a last resort.

Instead, he angrily ripped the gasmask over his face and released two small CR gas bombs that he had ripped from the doorway before entering the secret base. No more Mr. Nice guy-- there was no where to run: the people that lived here had locked their doors and shut them tight. Only a long straight hallway where the gas would outrun you. Or the tranq would get you. No more Mr. Nice guy, Erik rubbed his fist against his cheek.

He smirked.

---

[Lin Heiwa]

Lin Heiwa.

at times i wondered
if i had not come
a long way
to find what i sought
was something that i
left behind.

"No! No, you can't handle this by yourself!" Lin snarled back, a satisfied glint momentarily flashing in her eyes as the knife did its job of distraction. "And you know it! This is what we have a head lieutenant for. Separation would leave you to die!-- and it's my job to make sure you don't do that!"

Then, distracted-- the bounty-hunter released some sort of canister onto the ground and it spun wildly in circles for a moment-- Lin instantly on guard with levitating water hanging on the back of her finger tips. A moment of panic, (Lin stepping rapidly backward and preparing to bolt it out of there as fast as she could), before sense overtook her and Lin moved the water from her hands back into her satchel.

Gas was a small form of water. When a form of liquid heats up (or rapidly cools down), some of it turns into invisible vapor-- while others turn into a seeable gas. Based on the bounty-hunter pulling a gas-mask over his face-- this was the later. But it was still liquid, and Lin could manipulate nearly all forms of liquid.

Brow furrowed, Lin raised her arms up in front of her face and concentrated on the yellow-white clouds that was quickly fogging up the air in front of her. Holding her breath-- the girl pushed her arms forward-- and collected the water in front of her; attempting to push it backward and away from them.

Key word: Attempted.

The panic quickly returned as the gas moved quickly forward toward them, rather than Lin's intention of away from them. Thinking in a blur, the girl attempted to move it toward them (Seeing if this was some trick opposite thing). Nothing.

"I can't move the gas!" Lin whispered through her teeth, eyes wide as she continued to try and press the gas backward. "Why can't I-- this-- what's different about this?!"

Then the Bounty Hunter stepped forward through the billows of gas, a smirk plastered on his face behind the mask. His voice came, muffled behind the filter, "That's right, girlie-- this isn't made of water." A pause, then he raised his hands up through the yellow white fog of the gas, triumph dripping off his words. "It's earth."

Then his hands came pounding down and the white cloud enveloped the tunnel.

[Rick Freedom]

Rick Freedom
don’t you wish it were simple?

He releases a long strings of swears at the top of his lungs.

Not wasting another second, he tugs his shirt over his head and rips it in half, covering his mouth and nose with one shirt-half and shoving the other one at Lin. It won’t keep a lot of the gas out of them, but it’s better than nothing, right?

Blindly, he grabs her by the shoulder (probably squeezing a tad too hard) and shoves her ahead of him down the hallway, illuminating a small area around them. It doesn’t do much to cut through the gas, but it’s enough to let him see.

Thank god Rick knows this place like the back of his hand. Keeping one hand on his second-in-command’s shoulder, he turns them away from the bounty hunter, down a complicated series of turns and twists, almost falling down a flight of stairs, and into a long upward-sloping tunnel.

All the while, a steady stream of curses is mumbled under his breath.

How could he be so stupid? Of course the gang would rather sell them out then gain a favor and less than two hundred. No doubt the man with the yellow gas and the tranq gun can give them much, much more.

[Kay]

Erik Styers
guns are neat little things, aren’t they?
they can kill extraordinary people with very little effort

Everything looks different now, covered in a white cloud of dust. He can “see” with his power though-- foggy shapes of people through the dust. It’s not light normal sight-- he knows they’re there, but he can’t see anything… If that makes any sense at all.

They run away. Again with the chasing! He sighs. Will they ever learn?

Tugging his tranquilizer from his pack, Erik sets off after them. The gas starts to thin the farther he gets from the canister. Can’t have that, now, can we? He tosses another CR gas ahead of him with a grin, pulling the gas from behind him as he does so.

Erik pulls his sleeves down over his wrists and tugs a pair of gloves over his fingers; thankful his gas mask covers his entire face. There’s nothing worse than the inflammation and rash caused by CR gas.

[Lin Heiwa]

Lin Heiwa.

at times i wondered
if i had not come
a long way
to find what i sought
was something that i
left behind.

Lin was already working on it-- her jacket hood coming up from behind to try and cover her mouth as best as possible. Then, Rick threw something at her from the corner of her eye and she whipped around and caught it. Turns out it was half of his shirt-- and Lin almost couldn't help but smile even in the situation. Sometimes-- you just need any excuse to smile and get yourself districted from reality for a moment.

Then that moment was gone-- and the two freedom fighters were barreling down the corridors, trying to outrun the gas that was already surrounded them. Eyes watering, and skin already beginning to burn-- Lin held her breath for as long as possible. She knew once she opened her lungs to the gas-- it would all be over. They just had to outrun it for a second even, and Lin could whip around an create a wall of ice to block the gas from escaping.

But the gas kept on following them.

He... the bounty hunter... he could manipulate earth. The gas clung to her jacket like some sort of powder-- this gas would follow them until Lin knocked herself out from holding her breath for so long.

Which was pretty much impossible. Stumbling down the flight of stairs, a good full minute later was what did it. The gas was thin-- but in that moment that where they didn't keep moving forward, the gas caught up in a swarm and Lin let herself inhale in a sharp gas that stung like crazy. Lin coughed once, before setting off a chain reaction that she managed to smother beneath the almost scarf like muffle that she used to try and block the gas.

Then, somehow, Lin found herself moving forward again-- all the while wondering how Rick was holding up.

[Rick Freedom]

Rick Freedom
don’t you wish it were simple?

He stops muttering obscenities, realizing now that the gas would cut off his air supply-- asphyxiation, if you want to get technical about it. His hands start to shake (but he doesn’t ease his grip on Lin’s shoulder) and his lungs burn. He starts to panic. Oh god, what has he done? He puts his head down and keeps running. One minute, two minutes pass before he looks up again.

Putting on a burst of speed, he crashes into a door, fumbling with the lock for a moment before popping it open. They’re in the building proper now, no longer underground. He slams the door shut after Lin is inside and shoves shelf in front of it.

Rick crosses the room and cracks open the window, sticks his head out and takes a few deep breaths, then tumbles out, dropping head-first down the side of the building, a two-story drop.

[Daze]

ERIK Styers

look out.
that breath you just took?
it's probably your last
in freedom

---

Targets Spotted.

They always seem to be one step ahead. Quite literally, too. They were dang fast, Erik admitted-- but they were beginning to slow. You can't stop the affects of the gas; especially on skin. It was agonizing-- and Erik took a personal comfort that if they got away-- they would be in a living hell for days.

Hmph.

Erik just caught a glimpse of them as they scurried through a door (looking like they were about to fall over) and took the chance to raise his rifle to his shoulder and fire two or three excellent shots through the door just before it closed.

Not stopping, Erik slammed into the door only to find it being blocked by someone or something from the other side. Twice more he backed up and slammed his full weight into the door. It didn't budge-- and Erik growled in sheer frustration. He slipped his knife out of his sleeve and started hacking away at the doorknob-- before getting a better idea and slipping the discreet weapon back into it's hidden compartment.

Stepping back and taking a deep breath through the gas-mask, Erik summoned the energy that built up through his fingertips-- and hurled boulder after boulder of earth and concrete he retrieved from the earthy tunnel. Finally, it cracked under the weight and the pale yellow gas seeped in from the gaping hole in the door like a cloud. Smirking behind his mask, Erik forcibly ran through the remaining wood of the door and gazed around in a furry.

They could run, but they would get tired. Erik had done this for years-- he was in perfect physical shape and had unlimited resources. Sooner or later they would fall, and the bounty hunter would receive a wave of personal satisfaction from the hunt, and money to ease the cause.

---

[Lin Heiwa]

Lin Heiwa.

at times i wondered
if i had not come
a long way
to find what i sought
was something that i
left behind.

Room. Room=Clean Air.

Lin could hardly form a coherent sentence in her head at the moment, much less sprint for hours on like this. When Rick slammed the door open, and after they had stumbled inside and helped him drag a bookcase in front of the door-- she buried her face in her hands and tired to get herself to calm down.

Lin knew it was the gas that was making her panic-- she had been in situations much worse than this and kept a cool head. Her arms and legs burned like crazy and with a uncontrollable urge-- she plopped down onto the concrete and stared beadily at the doorway where the gas was already starting to leak through.

The girl let herself cough once or twice, before cutting herself off and forcing herself to stand up. Sitting around would do no good, no doubt the bounty hunter was just around the corner. In response to her justifications, the door began to shake and rattle under the weight of some new force.

Whirling around, Lin opened her mouth to quite bluntly ask Rick something--when she saw him tumble head-first out of a window he had propped open. Oh, god-- the girl slammed into the wooden support of the window as she frantically made a grab for his jacket. (or what was left of it) No use, oh--god, did he pass out? It definitely wouldn't be uncommon, the gas shutting down his nerves, then the clear air making his brain go snap and shut down? Quite honestly, Lin felt like she was on the verge of it herself, the clean cold air almost like a punch to the stomach.

No time to think, the door behind her was blasted to smithereens-- a figure raised a gun-- and Lin watched herself from somewhere far away leap out the window and a bullet fly over her head as she was suddenly falling.

[Rick Freedom]

Rick Freedom
don’t you wish it were simple?

Fingers brush his jacket. Lin. Oh. Right. She’ll think he’s in danger. Well, he is. But not from the fall. The fall was intentional. Just a little awkward. And accidental-looking. Too late now.

He twists his body in mid-air, catlike, and lands on his feet, rolling to disperse the shock of falling. No use having broken legs while on the run, now, is there? Grinning (but still shaking from the earlier lack of oxygen) he looks up at Lin’s panicked face, rushing toward him, and holds out his arms to her.

“Did you really think I didn’t have a plan, Linny? That would just be silly-- me, without a plan?”

Truly, he’s panicking. Side effects of the gas, he supposes. But he can’t let Lin know that. No doubt she’s already furious at him for leading them into this trap. But, hey. Let bygones be bygones, right?

His grin dissolves into an eyes-wide, holy-crap-we’re-going-to-die look. The leering face of the bounty hunter swims into foggy view from the window. He curses softly, then moves to shoot an energy bolt straight at Erik.

[Kay]

Erik Styers
guns are neat little things, aren’t they?
they can kill extraordinary people with very little effort

He keeps shooting, bullet after bullet after bullet. These two are far too much trouble than they’re worth.

Backups would be a good idea, but to let the others see him outsmarted by a couple of mutes? (Technically, Erik is a mutant as well, but not a rouge mutant. It’s all in the details, you see?) Besides, if he can’t take them down, none of the rest can. He’s the best for a reason, and these two brats are not going to tarnish his spotless reputation.

Slamming a new clip into his gun, he walks into the room and peers out the window. Where could they have gone? That’s a two-story drop-- any sane person would rather… Well, not rather face Erik, but would rather fight from the room than take their chances outside.

He leans back against the wall (releasing a cloud of dust from the wallpaper) and forces himself to think. If they did survive the fall, he would be able to feel it, right? The vibrations in the earth would be so great, the velocity of the crash… There.

The first one landed. It seemed to take forever, but it really wasn’t that long at all. He steps over to the window, his long strides crossing the room in only a few steps, and shoves his face out of the opening. His shoulders crash against the walls, one on each side. The mutes are lucky they’re thin-- Erik’s about four inches too broad to fit through the window.

[Lin Heiwa]

Lin Heiwa.

at times i wondered
if i had not come
a long way
to find what i sought
was something that i
left behind.

Lin manages a faint smile back at him, a plan? A plan would be good, the girl was too exhausted to think of one herself right now. Then there was a look of panic that spread across her leader's face and in a jolt of adrenaline, Lin rolls. Similar to how Rick had done-- but moved toward the wall, leaning against it and hiding in the shadows. Why? Because that was probably the only blind-spot right now for that stupid bounty-hunter-- right beneath him.

Darts fly out of the window above and into the darkness ahead, and a seeping white gas floats out from the window and into the air from the window where Rick had either fallen/jumped out of, and Lin half fell/jumped. Lovely.

It was hard to see at first, (it was nearly pitch back outside with no moon or street-lights to illuminate the path) but Lin eventually spotted Rick and let out a much relieved sigh of relief when he released a beam of light toward the door. She almost shouted out a warning for him not to do that again: this bounty-hunter was a good shot, and he was in an excellent position right now-- in a sniping position. It would be nearly impossible for him to miss now, but Lin bit back every word she wanted to say, and cough from the gas that she wanted to release and remained perfectly silent and still. Yelling would give away her own advantage, and an advantage that would be very likely needed.

[Rick Freedom]

Rick Freedom
don’t you wish it were simple?

Plan? Oh, yeah. That thing. Where they just run… Um, run where? New plan-- kill the man.

He keeps shooting up at Erik’s smug face (slightly surprised that the man hadn’t hut him yet), furious and panicked enough not to notice the familiar feeling of energy drain. With every blast of red light that flies from his palms, his knees start to tremble a bit more and he starts to feel sick to his stomach. The blasts begin to miss their target, one going so far as to hit the next window over, bringing down a shower of glass.

Subconsciously he knows he should stop, but it doesn’t register in his waking mind. so, hardly able to see straight, the boy standing in the middle of the dark street, his friend huddled against the wall, keeps shooting beams from his shaking hands.

His knees buckle, but his palms stay aimed at Erik. One shot, two, three, and it’s too much. His hands drop to his sides and he fights against the blackness hovering at the edges of his vision. He will not pass out. WILL NOT!

A bullet strikes him in the shoulder. He looks over at Lin, eyes wide, mouth open in a silent scream. Rick crumples. Well, so much for not passing out.

[Daze]

ERIK Styers

look out.
that breath you just took?
it's probably your last
in freedom

---

Targets Spotted.

Well, Erik thought numbly, gun close to his chest, and walls shaking from the kids concussionate beams slamming into the brick, At least I know what his power is.

Though even as the dust swirls around and tiny bits of rubble fall from the ceiling and around the crouched man's face, the vibrations and rumbles become weaker and weaker-- until the sound of shattering glass was the victory call for the bounty hunter. Standing up in a blur, the man cocked, aimed and fired-- the dart spiraling and sinking right into the mutant's shoulder.

He goes down instantly, much to Erik's surprise. He expected him to wobble around for a while then pass out-- but thinking about it, the bounty hunter could hardly blame him. Living on the streets was likely, not enough food, sleep, the gas, and this new exhausting chase was likely to put him on the edge of passing out alone.

Still, Erik shot him with another one in his still form. That would put him out for about two days minimum. Probably that because he was a pretty fair sized kid.

Crap, wait-- where's the other one?

Erik's eyes widen, and he instantly uses his earth manipulating to grip the concrete walls and tear them apart. He vaults out of the building and onto the ground, a least a two-story drop. Wobbly, but otherwise okay-- the man stands up and finds himself locking eyes with the very person he was looking for.

[Lin Heiwa]

Lin Heiwa.

at times i wondered
if i had not come
a long way
to find what i sought
was something that i
left behind.

Rick goes down, so easily too-- and Lin found herself almost frozen with shock and exhaustion, head thumping against the wall. Her eyes close for a moment, exhaustion sinking into her muscles. How long, how long did she have? Would the kids be okay back at... back at home? Markswell would figure it out, he would come and find out what's wrong. Protect them.

The second Lin's eyes again open, they are filled with rage and are locked with her target's.

Her hands flex and whip out a stream of water that envelope the bounty hunter, her hands crunch into fists and the water freezes-- the man quite suddenly enveloped in a block of sheer ice. Normally, Lin would worry for his heath, this could kill him-- but now, she was too blinded by a rage for her surrogate family to do much of anything else.

Too bad the man had already shot a dart.

The second the dart pierced her skin, the ice returned to normal water, and the bounty hunter was nothing worse than soaking wet. Like Rick, Lin's knees fell out form under her-- a sickening blackness clouding her vision and taking over her limbs. Thoughts died there, and eyes clouded over.

It was over, and the targets were acquired.