Florida (All Parts)

[SiphonTalvesh]

They hadn't been driving for very long before they were entering a town called "Boca Raton."

As they drove, Chris popped up with a question.

"Do you know what the history behind the Montana Subjects is Sarah, or no?"

[lurker]

Sarah shook her head, still looking out the window with a rather bored, but wary look. "Not really..." she admits, one hand figiting at the carpet bag in her lap.

[SiphonTalvesh]

Chris hesitated a moment before deciding he may as well tell her.

"The subjects were all people who volunteered for a special procedure that would, in theory, remove all dormant abnormal DNA from them. Meaning that those genes could never become active since they wouldn't be inside of them any more. Which is why I'm a bit surprised that the Cabal are after them, it makes no sense. Why go after someone who doesn't have much knowledge of the Sanctuary Networks, and who has no inner abnormal to be released and potentially controlled? It just doesn't make any sense."

[lurker]

Sarah gave a shrug. "It's probably just a random attack, right? Considering they hate mutants and all that, I wouldn't assume they'd be too bothered with a process to revert it... Unless, they were planning to steal the engineering process, but I doubt that also. It's not like they WANT to revert abnormals into normals, just kill and experiment on them," she hypothesizes.

[SiphonTalvesh]

Chris shrugged.

"Random attacks don't fit in with what we know of them. There's no obvious reason to attack these people, they are completely human. Completely clean of any genetic flaws, imperfections or abnormal DNA. Ah, here we are, and shit, looks like we've got company here."


As they pulled near, they could see a black van with it's doors open in the front driveway of a two story house. A female scream could be heard in the back yard, followed by the sounds of a scuffle.

Chris let loose a growl that was close to being demonic, something Sarah probably wouldn't have expected from him at all, before he spoke.

"Looks like those fuckwads from the Cabal are here too. Shall we teach them it's impolite to bust into someone's home?"

[lurker]

Sarah growled herself, almost immediately drawing a pair of handguns from the bag as well. "Lets. I have to pay them back for their earlier hospitality as well," she hissed, almost instantly booting the door open and sliding behind it for cover, checking for targets...

[SiphonTalvesh]

Chris was out of the car in a less than three seconds, and he hadn't teleported either, he just moved that damn fast. Pulling out his own weapon in the process, Sarah caught a glimpse of it, possibly approving of it.

His chosen weapon was a large .44 Super Blackhawk Magnum, deadly as hell, and probably had enough firepower to drop an elephant if it had to.


Quickly sweeping, they made their way to the back yard where they could see five men closing in on the now cornered woman. Their didn't seem to have any weapons on them at all, though both Sarah and Chris would know this didn't mean they didn't or could produce them quickly.

Chris blinked once, seeming to consider something, then whispered to Sarah, "can't take out all five of them with bullets without risking the woman getting hit in the crossfire. Need to draw them away from her ... think you can get at least one of them without hitting the woman?"

[lurker]

Sarah smirked at seeing Chris's weapon, but didn't comment more, after all, she had a job to do.

As they reached the backyard, she quietly listened to Chris's suggestion before nodding. She slid through the doorway, and moved to a spare piece of cover, trying hard to make any movement. After getting in position, she temporarily dropped one pistol, quickly grabbing her second one with both hands, popped out from behind her impromptu cover, quickly aimed for the one on the far right from her, and snapped off a shot, aiming for the man's head before diving back into cover, retrieving her second weapon for the impending firefight.

[SiphonTalvesh]

The plan seemed to work partially. The round instantly dropped it's intended target, which meant four viable targets remained.

Three of the four immediately scattered, returning fire at Sarah, who of course was out of the line, so the bullets whizzed into the side of the house instead. The fourth however decided that he didn't like the situation, and while firing with a pistol from one hand, he tried to grab the woman and yank her away.


Out of the corner of her eye, Sarah watched as Chris placed his weapon down where she could get it, began a chopping motion and then instantly vanished in his familiar swirling red mist. A second later he appeared directly in between the man and the woman, no doubt surprising the hell out of both of them.

As the woman fell back in surprise, her would be attacker swung to attack Chris. A mistake he would not live to regret. Despite a quick muzzle flash that seemed to hit nothing, the Cabal soldier was nowhere near in the position to have a chance, and Chris got into a motion similar to a palm strike, slamming into the man's chest as he turned around. This in turn lifted him into the air and Sarah could only watch as the soldier literally was tossed a half dozen yards from the force of the blow, slamming into the side of a shed nearby with enough force that the sound of snapping bone could be heard. As the body crashed back to the ground after stopping, Sarah could tell that the man was already dead, his head had twisted at almost a fifty degree angle from the impact, snapping his neck and killing him instantly.

Chris swiftly moved to the woman, and before she could react, he teleported them to where Sarah was. As her eyes widened, Chris spoke quickly to her, and his words seemed to calm her down.

"It's alright, we're not with these jackasses. We're with the Sanctuary, Helen Magnus sent us."


This got a startled look from her, but she calmed down and nodded, biting her lip as the rest of the scene unfolded.


At this point, Sarah could see, as Chris took up position next to her again, a faint trickle of blood coming from his left side somewhere. It appeared that the soldier's bullet hadn't missed afterall, yet Chris showed no signs of the injury slowing him down whatsoever.

"Three left, all behind cover. We need to deal with them swiftly before they can call for backup. Any ideas you have, feel free to share."

[lurker]

The stunt Chris pulled may have shocked her earlier, if not for all the other stuff she's been put through thus far. Even still, an impressed smirk crossed her face before Chris joined her.

As for his question, Sarah gripped her pistols. "We need to draw them out of cover. Keep an eye on them, I'll see if I can get closer," she said simply, taking a few seconds to wait before rolling from cover and swiftly firing blind at the entrenched enemy, swiftly moving to the next nearest location, and seemingly not too preterbed if they opened fire back at her. After all, she could shrug it off herself, in a sense.

[SiphonTalvesh]

The enemy of course did fire back, but they seemed to be firing as blindly as Sarah had, apparently not sure where the shots were coming from. It seemed perhaps the loss of one man so fast, and then Chris's entry had shaken them up a bit, which could become a big leverage point.

Speaking of the teleporter, Chris took the brief moment that the soldier used to fire back as a window himself, popping off two shots quickly himself with his own weapon. While the first seemed to miss, a loud grunt seemed to indicate the second one had found it's mark. Not a kill shot obviously, but it had connected somewhere. It seemed his shots were fired with two purposes in mind. One, he had struck a target, even though it wasn't a kill shot. Second, and more importantly, the soldiers were now focused upon his position, likely unaware of Sarah's position at all.

[lurker]

Having moved to another random piece of debris, Sarah quickly got close to it, and then quickly aimed several more shots at the distracted men, trying to focus a strike at one of them with her pistols before sliding under cover again. Hopefully Chris and her could keep up this confusion-creating crossfire...

[SiphonTalvesh]

Sarah managed to get a shot off as the injured man tried to poke his head out again, searching. In fact, her shot got him right between the eyes, dropping him dead instantly. The other two ducked back behind cover, but by now they had started to realize there were two assailants instead of one.


She could hear them muttering something to each other, and the only word she caught for certain was 'grenade'...

[lurker]

A soft growl came as Sarah heard that. "Chris!" she yelled towards him. "Get her out of here! They got explosives!" Even still, Sarah held her ground, popping back up and firing her pistols madly at where they hid, trying to suppress them before they could throw anything...

[SiphonTalvesh]

She was a hair late as both men suddenly threw what looked to be Pineapple Grenades in the general direction of where Chris was. The explosion took out the are he and the girl had been in, and a large corner of the house too. However, just before the explosion, Sarah heard the familiar sound of space distorting with a snap as Chris managed to teleport both himself and the girl out.


A second or two after the explosion died down, Sarah could hear one of the men talking as if he were on a radio. She could only catch parts of what he said, but it sounded as if he was calling either for backup, or to report a failed extraction attempt.

She did however catch a reply that might make her pause. It was a female voice, and her tone sounded cold and murderous.

"Understood. They know then which means Phase one needs to be moved. Don't let them leave there alive, kill the subject as well. We'll proceed with the others as planned. Don't return unless you kill the girl and the intruders. You know what to do if scenario three plays out."


The chatter stopped, and a second later shots rang out towards her direction as one of the men came up firing with an uzi that he had to have been concealing.

[lurker]

Sarah had half jumped over her cover, ready to approach the men and tell the woman on the radio where exactly to stick her orders, when they suddenly popped out of cover again with automatics. Giving a panicked squeak, she quickly dived down, only to give a squeal as the bullets fired ate at her left arm before it could get back into cover again.

The pain of the weapon's attack stung at her, as she quickly stored her pistols and drew her own magnum, an old .44 revolver, holding it in her remaining good hand. Waiting until the sound of bullets abated, assuming for reloading, she popped up again, letting out several shots as best she could aim at their location.

[SiphonTalvesh]

By the time Sarah heard the shots stop for a reload and had popped up, the man already had reloaded. She got a few shots off but none hit him, and he waited for her to run dry, counting shots before popping up and returning fire.

Wait though, there had been two of them, but only one was returning fire. Which meant somehow the second one had gotten past her. The question was this though. Was he trying to outflank her to get her sandwiched, or had he figured Chris wouldn't leave her too far behind and gone after him and the other girl?

[lurker]

The situation was turning ugly fast. She was running out of both ammo and blood, there was at least one target unseen, and who knows how many were in Chris's way. She couldn't field treat her wounds without the guy covering her getting the hint and rushing from cover...

She didn't really have much options left, she'd have to use a serum, Sarah thought, after diving to cover.

Quickly and carefully storing her revolver away, Sarah sighed a little and reached into her coat for the beat up serum case, the NecroTech logo embossed on it's cover, swinging it open and looking at the glowing needles inside. Thumbing through them, Sarah grabbed a silvery clear one, quickly storing the case again before prepping the injection and jamming it into her neck, electing a small wince from her.

[SiphonTalvesh]

As Sarah did this, she heard the sound of someone coming up behind her. It was too late to move though, and she heard the gun make a noise as the soldier prepared to fire a shot ...


that never came. There was a sudden wet punching noise, and a gurgle of surprise behind her. A moment later she heard the sound of a body hit the ground, and then a familiar voice.


"What, did you think I was just going to leave you to these assholes?"

[lurker]

Sarah grimaced, trying to hold her coat over herself a little in a vain attempt to hide her mangled arm. "Not really, though I expected you'd, yaknow, be covering the person they were after. Cides, ya coulda showed up sooner..." she commented, blushing a bit as her skin started to turn a slight paler note. She sighed a bit as she stood to face Chris, the mental parts of the serum luckily working fast so she could hold her clothing in a somewhat semblance of modesty. "Look, I figured you were tied up escorting her, so I wound up popping one of my serums. Now I'm pretty much a incorporeal psyonic entity for a good chunk of time, and meanwhile, whoever was on the other end of the radio the mooks had want her and us dead. Something about Phase One needing to be moved too, but right now I'm more worried about the lass's safety, savvy?" she stated simply, though the entire time she was growing more translucent and still staring at Chris in a bit of a 'are you sure you know what you're doing' look.

[SiphonTalvesh]

Chris stared at her for a moment before shaking his head.

"I have no idea what you mean, but I'll take it you can't sit in a car without falling out? Anyway, when they didn't follow us out I figured that something was up. So ... I took our new friend to London quickly, and left her with Declan. She apparently knew him because she practically jumped into his arms to give him a hug. Anyway, after giving him a quick rundown I ported back here to see what was going on. When I saw one of them leave for cover, I took out his buddy, then came over here to make sure he didn't get the drop on you. Looks like that was a good move. So um ... I can't port you out if I can't touch you or anything, and if you can't sit in a car ... I think we may have to walk. Course ... I'd better wash off this blood first."


As he said this, Sarah could see that his entire arm was covered in blood. A quick check confirmed it wasn't his, but rather the blood of the soldier, who she now noticed had a fist sized hole in his chest about where his heart should have been. Said organ appeared to be missing.

[lurker]

Even as Sarah's mutations continued, she didn't stop glaring. "Well, yes and no. I can probably keep up with you well enough, but let's jus say it's not gonna be easy as buckling up.." Even still, the carnage, now that Sarah looked properly at it, made her wince, even moreso as she feels her body changing more. Chris may notice a few spare limbs hanging from Sarah's back, if they accidentally flowed through her coat, as a third eye now graced her forehead, also wincing close at the amount of blood. "I've... seen plenty of gore in my time, but still, eww..."

Continuing to float a bit nearby as her clothes seemed to defy the laws of physics to stay with her, Sarah mentally lifted her bag nearby with her. "So, she's safe, good," she remarked, giving a sigh of relief. "Then what are our orders from here? Head on back?"

[SiphonTalvesh]

Chris semi shrugged.

"Well our orders were to make sure our friend was brought to safety, which has been done so ... yeah, we can pretty much return home as soon as you can travel. Just not sure how I'm gonna get you back though since I'm guessing you'll just pass through most solid matter, and I'm guessing my hand would just pass through your shoulder."

As he spoke, he grabbed a garden hose, muttering a "thank god" when it proved to be on. He quickly rinsed off the blood, standing back up with a soaked shirt, but pretty much clean of blood.


"Still ... phase one you said? I can only assume that either has something to do with the Lazarus Virus, which is unlikely given how far they've worked on that, or that it has something to do with whatever the reason was they're after the Montana Subjects. I'm betting on the latter, though the fact they were willing to lose one of them just to get rid of the two of us indicates that perhaps there's some things we don't know about their plans that we really need to find out about. How ... long before you are ... solid again?"

[lurker]

Sarah sighed deeply. "Normally, an hour or so, unless I diluted the serum. Once again, wasn't quite expecting you to come back..."

Giving a sigh, she manuvers her nonphysical body to be floating over the debris she had hidden behind, checking on her normal arm on how much damage was left from the Uzi attack. Luckily, the transformation has at least cleared it up partway, and Sarah was sure it was going to stay together when she returned back to normal.

"A part of me wishes he had gone through with the shot... I wouldn't be stuck in this form, and either way I woulda come round..." she comments, almost absentmindedly. To be honest, she hated feeling like a liability right now, especially considering she had jumped the gun so early. Admittedly, she hadn't expected Chris to go halfway across the bloody world and back, but even still...

[SiphonTalvesh]

Chris was silent for a long time, seemingly lost in thought. If he had heard her rambling, he gave no outward indication of it at all. When he did speak, it was with a serious tone to his voice, one that might make Sarah pause because of the tone, and the specific question asked.


"Sarah ... how many teleports is that today? Counting the four I just made going to London and back, as well as the two combat teleports just now?"

[lurker]

Sarah stopped as the question was asked, her mind thinking again. One of her extra limbs reached up to go through her hair, the long claws tangling slightly. "I dun recall ya using any on the sub so... six is about right, ya..." she admits, floating pensively.

[SiphonTalvesh]

Chris was silent for a long moment before shaking his head.

"One on the sub, when we wanted to be sure we didn't have any unwelcomed guests when we brought the Mer-Woman on board. So that makes at least 7 then. Wonderful ..."


He trailed off into silence, something seeming to be bothering him about the number.

[lurker]

Sarah cocked her head to the side a bit. "Is something wrong?" she asked, genuinely concerned about him, even if she did wish right now he had either been faster or had been able to follow, either one.

[SiphonTalvesh]

Chris hesitated for a moment before replying.

"Well, I don't know how much, if anything you know about John, so a little history is in order. John's a teleporter like me, except he's a boat load older. Hundred plus years older. Anyway John used to use his ability a LOT when he first was gifted with it. About ten years after he got it, something happened to him that caused him to become a mass murderer for quite some time. He's fine now, Helen told me about what happened between him and Tesla, seems the electrical 'torture' that Tesla did to him jolted him back to his senses."

He paused, considering his words again before he continued.

"Anyway, my concern is that perhaps John over did the teleporting thing on a daily basis. Basically my fear is that if I use my gift too much ... whatever happened to John that caused him to go insane ... could also happen to me. Now you've seen what I'm capable of, and frankly the thought of going on a rampage and not being able to control myself from doing it? Well it scares the shit out of me. Seven in one day is a lot for me, I usually try to do no more than two or three max if I can avoid it. With the Cabal crap going on, I've been having to use it a bit more than I'd like to. I'm just worried about ... ya know, going batshit insane and all."

[lurker]

Sarah nodded a little, understandably. "I see... To be fair, it's a valid concern, but for most of the trips, well, while some were needed, like dodging that grenade, some may not have been. Just like me not expecting you to be back at soon, maybe it's time for you to realize you got some backup now too as well, hmm?" Sarah remarks, trying to make light of the bad situation and rather morbid topic.