The Mutant Problem (Xana x The Corsair)

[TheCorsair]

“Shit,” Joe breathed at almost the exact moment Bolt muttered “fuck me”. The headlights felt like spotlights, slicing through the fog and highlighting their presence in a stage comprised of the prison yard.

“Can you handle the van?” Joe asked.

“Yeah,” Bolt replied. “Why?”

“Then I’ll evac the ladies,” Joe responded, scooping them both up and slinging them over his shoulders like sacks of grain. “Sorry about this,” he added, breaking into a jog that accelerated into a 60 mile per hour sprint.

“Stop where you are,” a loudspeaker bellowed from the van as armored men with ruifles bundled out. “And place your hands over your head.”

Bolt lifted into the air, crackling with electricity as he stopped concealing his powers. The yard lit up with dancing blue-white radiance, illuminating Joe as he pushed off from the ground, casually leaping up and over the fence. Power gathered in his right hand and exploded outwards, connecting him to the van with a solid arc of electricity. The van sizzled and lightning arced from the metal to the nearby men, crackling and sizzling in time with their screams.

Joe flexed his knees with the impact, trying to cushion the landing as much as possible for his “passengers”. His attention was riveted to the van and the men, all of whom were sprawled on the ground. “Why the fuck did you…” he began angrily as Bolt landed.

“Knock them out?” Bolt replied with a grin. “Because, unless one of them had a pacemaker, they should all just be uncilonsciius.” He blew smoke from an imaginary fingergun. “I’m pretty good with my powers.”

“Oh.” Joe blinked. “Uhm… sorry.”

Bolt eyed him carefully, then nodded. “Accepted. And…” he nodded at the women the suit still had over his shoulders. “You wanna put them down, so we can get out of here?”

Joe started, then hurriedly set them down to the sound of Bolt’s laughter.

 

[Xanaphia]

Lila let out a small laugh, more to steady herself than anything else. Hitting 60 miles per hour in half a second and clearing a 20-foot jump was enough to make anyone's heart pound. But they needed clear heads if they wanted to escape before they were discovered.

Another set of headlights cut through the night. Lila tensed—then exhaled as she recognized the vehicle.

"There's Cypher. Right on time."

Five people cramming into her mid-sized sedan made for a tight fit, but comfort wasn't the priority. Especially not when another pair of headlights swung toward them, closing in fast.

The doors had barely slammed shut when tires shrieked against pavement. Cypher floored it, trying her own version of hitting 60 mph in half a second. But speed wasn't enough right now.

"What are you thinking, more fog?" Cypher asked, glancing at Lila –and their pursuers– in the rear-view mirror.

"No, fog will affect our visibility too," Lila replied, her voice tight with focus. "But I think I can ice the roads with freezing rain."

She closed her eyes, drawing on the moisture already hanging thick in the air. It was a delicate balance—dropping the temperature just enough to create slick ice patches without turning everything into a snowstorm. Her breathing grew ragged as she concentrated, the effort pulling more from her than she'd anticipated. The creeping cold wasn't helping either, seeping into her fingers and down to her core.

"I got you," Talia piped up, drawing on her own gifts to mimic Lila. "You focus on freezing rain, and I'll add in heavy winds, and hail."

Lila didn't have the energy to argue, and the difference was immediate. With Talia's support, icy rain began coating the road behind them, while gusts of wind and sharp bursts of hail battered the pursuing vehicles. Tires screeched, cars spun out, and one even smashed into a guardrail. But some still managed to swerve through the chaos, headlights cutting through the haze of freezing rain.

 

[TheCorsair]

Bolt had claimed shotgun, leaving Joe stuffed into the back seat with Lila and Talia. He really wasn’t built for back seats, not at 6’ 6”. Hell, he really wasn’t built for sedans. All of which meant that he was uncomfortably pressed up against Lila, who had taken the middle seat. A fact that he couldn’t help but notice every time the car switched, or when Lila and Talia began squirming to look out the back window.

The effect of their powers was a distraction, though. Sudden freezing temperatures and freezing rain and hail pounded the area, sending most of the pursuers off the road. Most, but not all. “On it,” he declared.

“What?” Bolt asked.

Flinging the door open, Joe rolled out to bounce and tumble on the slick pavement. It didn’t hurt, not much at least, and not at all by the time he skidded to a stop. The impact merely cranked his power up further. Well, that and ripped up his blood-soaked suit further. Which was a shame, because he’d liked this suit.

Rolling over, he pushed himself up onto his hands and knees and launched himself towards the oncoming car. His footsteps cracked the pavement as he accelerated, picking up speed until he hit the front like he was tackling the vehicle. There was a horrendous crunching, crashing sound, and he screamed as he felt his flesh tear and his bones fracture as aluminum and steel crumpled and wrapped around him. His fingers dug into the metal of the hood and the frame, resisting the kinetic energy that threatened to hurl him away.

By the time the broken car skidded to a stop, the pain and the injuries were gone. He stood up, coated with blood and grease, wearing the tatters of a suit, and tore a huge chunk of the engine block free of the wrecked vehicle. Turning his attention, he lobbed it casually at the final pursuer. It struck the fender, shattering metal and digging into the asphalt, causing the car to flip over.

-*-

“Jesus,” Bolt breathed as the suit caught up with Cypher’s car and casually climbed back in. “You… are you all right?” It was a fair question. The suit was a complete mess, and very thing he had just done looked incredibly lethal

“Yeah,” the suit replied with a wry grin. “Not a scratch on me. Not any more.” The grin broadened. “And you should see the other guy.”