Chasing The Dragon (Part Five)

Originally, I'd expected to chase Jay down in the Blackbird, and swoop down in front of him, cutting him off while Wind Dancer got out to chase him down. That didn't happen, though. He stopped on a small island in the St. Lawrence River right by the Canadian border, and we disembarked after putting the jet in stealth mode. I wanted to sneak up on him this time.

Wind Dancer's powers allowed her to keep the sounds we made from carrying through the air. I didn't even know that was possible. then again, what did I know about physics?

What I lacked in physics knowledge, I made up for in common sense, so when I caught sight of Jay, I came up with a simple approach to deal with him.

"Okay, Wallflower, Wind Dancer," I said, getting both girls' attention, "Buzz him with some pheromones so we can go home."

Sooraya interjected before either of them could say they understood, "I would like to try talking to him first."

"What?" I asked incredulously, "Talk to him when he's on the Blackbird and we're on the way back," I wanted her to keep him calm after we had him.

I didn't know why Jay had stopped in the middle of nowhere. I didn't want to know why he'd stopped in the middle of nowhere. We'd tried the 'Mutant Outreach Program' with him already, and he'd tried to kill me. While he wasn't hopped up on green goo this time, I still didn't want to screw around with him.

Sooraya closed her eyes and let out a sigh, "Bellamy, I hope you do not throw me off of the team for this. But if you do, I understand."

'This' being going against a clearly defined method of approach. Sooraya walked out from our hiding place. I was shocked. Sooraya was so demure, I hadn't figured she would just do something like that, especially after I'd let her go along.

That was what I got for being a soft touch. Give someone an inch, and they would take a mile. It must have been the Hellion influence in her.

From the rock he had been sitting on, Jay noticed her approach. He sprang to his feet, nearly knocking over Quire's container as he tried backing away, "No! You shouldn't be here!"

He was jittery, looking ready to bolt again. Sooraya approached him as unassumingly as possible, "Why not, Jay? No one is here to hurt you."

Well, we were in it at this point, so I just remained where I was. Getting face-to-face with the guy that had beaten the piss out of him just the other day wasn't going to do anything other than make him panic.

She managed to get close enough to take his hands into hers. He wanted to bolt. It was all over his face. But her presence was enough to convince him to stay where he was, "You shouldn't be here," He repeated, "None of you should."

"He's right, you know."

The voice came from behind us. Right behind us. We all turned, only to see wisps of black disappear into the air.

"Goddamn teleporters," I muttered. We'd been dealing with that a lot lately.

As we turned back around, we saw Sooraya stepping back from Jay, as he stood close to a woman that had managed to force her way between them while we weren't looking.

Tall, with pale skin that had a familiar green tinge to it, she wore a black, shoulder-less leotard, black arm sleeves, and thigh-high black heeled boots. A veil kept all of her facial features out of sight. All we could make out were her yellow eyes peering at us.

Black wisps flew off of her body, keeping Sooraya from getting close to either her or Jay. The mysterious woman reached over and stroked Jay's face, "Oh... it's okay," She cooed, "You did the right thing for yourself. The doctor will be pleased."

At this point, we were all standing with Sooraya, backing her up. Josh tried to reach out to Jay, who seemed torn over going with this new woman, or coming back to his friends, "Jay, what are you doing? Come on, man, let's just go back to school."

Sofia tried to follow up, "He is right, Jay. Your brothers and sisters are worried about you. Your mother is coming to see you. Please."

Jay took a step away from us, putting the veiled woman more between us than before, "You don't understand," He said, looking down at his open hands, "I'd been feeling like I didn't have any control. But when that stuff was in me... the way it made me feel... like no one could touch me. Like a... like a... god," He struggled getting the last part out, "I felt like a god."

Sooraya was aghast. Blaspheming must have been the last thing she'd expected Jay to do, "Jay, what are you saying?"

"You don't get it!" Jay snapped at her, causing her to flinch, "It told me how I could be perfect! I need it back!" He continued to rage.

Was he… addicted to whatever that green crap had been? It hadn't been a drug. Dr. McCoy had told us as much. But Jay seemed strung out.

Josh shook his head, "Dude, you're sick. We can help you. Just-."

"They won't ever understand," The strange woman next to Jay said, speaking only to him, "Not unless they experience it for themselves. Unfortunately, Dr. Roekel sees nothing in them. Just you, Jay. You're special, like the rest of us."

Jay nodded, unsure. His eyes cut to the container that he had carried all the way with him, "And Quire?" He asked.

"The doctor sees uses for him," The woman told him, putting a hand on his shoulder, "You'll never feel helpless again."

Having heard more than enough, I fired a blast that missed the woman and carved a line in the ground between Jay and the woman, separating them. She glared at me through her veil, the black of her arm sleeves extending to form claws on the ends of her fingers.

I kept one hand aimed at her while I pointed with my other at the line in the ground, "See that? That's the line of death. You cross it, and your freedoms no longer exist."

Following my lead, Noriko had sparked up electricity in her hands and Sofia had started whipping up the wind, both prepared to fight.

The woman defiantly teleported over the line, then again once I fired at her in retaliation.

She managed to get in the middle of my group, but while she'd gotten behind me, Sofia and Noriko had seen her reappear. When she went to slice them up with her claws, Sofia flew out of her grasp. Nori blocked the attack with her metal gauntlets.

"Hey, lady! That's sensitive equipment!" Nori complained, letting loose with her electricity as the woman teleported away from repeated blasts, "Hold still!"

I growled under my breath. It was never not annoying to fight someone who could teleport. Especially when they could do it outright, instead of needing to chant or jump into a portal. Training against Nightcrawler had taught me that.

I couldn't even use the Cuckoos to help, because this woman wasn't a mutant. Not like us. If she had been, the Cuckoos could have found her while they were tracking Jay in Cerebra. Something to tuck away for later to inform everyone about, if we made it out.

"Solaris!" David shouted, gifting me with some information after having observed the fight, "She doesn't have a long range for her teleportation!"

That was great, but I needed more details than that, "How long is 'not long'?"

"405 meters per jump!"

"What's with the metric! I'm not Canadian, Prodigy!"

"About 1300 feet!"

Alright, I could work with that. If nothing else, I knew that she couldn't teleport out of my range in one or two bursts. Still though, her tells were much less prevalent than Riddick's had been. Thin black wisps kicking up were the only thing that told me she was about to jump, or was about to reappear somewhere. Not like my future son's bright-ass portals.

Sofia had taken to the air to try and use her powers to fight more traditionally. The original plan whenever Wind Dancer and Wallflower were with me were to use the combination of wind and pheromones to bring the enemy down. With the constant teleportation of the woman we were facing, we couldn't slow her down enough for Wallflower to hit her with pheromones. Not without getting the rest of us as well.

It was at this point that I noticed Jay had taken off with Quire's container in his grasp. He flew from the fight, his red wings flapping as hard as they could to carry him away quickly.

I pointed at his departing form, "Wind Dancer! You're the only one who can fly! I need you to go after him!"

Sofia turned her attention away from the fight and to Jay. Surprised at the sudden shift in objectives, she nevertheless nodded and started to fly away. The woman we were fighting took the opportunity to target her, and teleported on her back, tearing at Sofia's arms with her claws.

"AHHH!" Sofia cried out, but proved she had a bit of toughness to her, gritting her teeth through the pain and kicking up a wind storm around her body that would have shredded her assailant in return had she not teleported when she had the chance.

Instead of headhunting out of revenge, Sofia kept her eyes on the prize and went after Jay.

It would be okay. Josh could heal her with a touch, and she'd be as good as new. Sofia was the only one with the means to pursue him, so she had to focus on that over fighting.

That was what the rest of us were for.

"Doesn't she ever get tired?" I said aloud as we all tried and failed to pin her down. Noriko let out a series of colorful curses as her attempts piled up.

David had spent the battle doing what he could to analyze her with the hi-tech visor her wore over his eyes. He could only catch so many decent glimpses of her, so it took a while for him to compile enough data for him to use, but eventually he got me something good.

"Her right thigh," David said to me, "There's some kind of machine in it. Every time she teleports it lets off a signature."

That sounded promising, "Can you track it?" I asked.

David fiddled with his visor for a moment before a smirk grew on his face, "Oh yeah."

I flexed my fingers, preparing a blast, "Just point. I'll shoot."

The woman continued teleporting all over, giving the rest of us hell. I stayed close to David, both to protect him, and to follow his direction when he finally gave me my cue.

Finally, one time she vanished in black wisps, David's finger shot out, pointing in the direction she'd teleported to, "There!"

I didn't bother confirming the sight for myself. I just lined up my shot right with where David had pointed and fired.

"Haah!"

There was a scream, and then the sound of a body hitting the ground. Noriko mercilessly pounced all over the opening provided.

"Take this!" Nori shouted as she hit our enemy with electricity. She wasn't able to fully unload, however. Almost as soon as she started, her target teleported away again, "Goddamn it!"

She hadn't been able to finish her. But between Nori, David, and I, we'd messed her up. She was limping, and something was wrong with her teleportation.

The fight was as good as over.

The woman stopped trying to teleport and faced us. Despite facing me, David, and Noriko all together, she didn't try to surrender. She was going to make us put her down. That was fine. I understood, as I wasn't the surrendering type either.

"Laurie!"

Or maybe she didn't quit because she had an ace in the hole.

In the midst of the fighting, I'd taken Josh and Laurie's presence for granted. Josh was a healer, and you didn't put your white mage on the front lines if you could help it. Laurie's power, while very effective, couldn't help us against someone she couldn't get close enough to dose with pheromones. I'd expected them to stay back, but I didn't know there had been someone else to worry about.

Josh's cry prompted us to turn his way, where he was on his knees nursing a burn on his shoulder and chest. Laurie was caught in the grasp of a woman in a bodysuit that covered her from head to toe. It burned orange with the fire she projected. The only part of her actual body that was visible was her face through a visor.

One arm was wrapped around Laurie's throat from behind, while the other was pointed right at her head, a condensed flame in her palm.

The veiled woman we had been fighting had managed to get to relative safety a short distance away from us, "It took you long enough, Solara," She said to her fiery cohort.

Solara? That was appallingly close to Solaris. Also, I called bullshit on that name. I literally took my powers from absorbing light. She just looked like she threw fire around. That wasn't solar. I didn't know what word to use to describe that, but it pissed me off.

Oh. And she had one of my teammates as a hostage. That also left me quite upset.

"Dr. Roekel didn't expect you to get beaten, Wink," Solara said to the veiled woman before continuing to threaten us, "Now, children... back off, or I'll turn your friend here into the prettiest little cinder there ever was."

The entire team remained still, worried for the fate of their friend.

I, on the other hand, lifted my fist and shot Solara in the face over Laurie's shoulder. Just like that. Solara's head jerked violently from the impact of the concussive blast, and she dropped to the ground, arms limply leaving Laurie as she fell. Laurie dropped to her knees, face frozen in shock.

Yeah. Having me play William Tell with you, only using a bad guy holding you hostage instead of an apple on your head, would likely do that to you. The poor girl had probably seen her life flash before her eyes when I took that shot.

With the danger abated, Josh was at her side in an instant, checking her over to see if she was hurt, "Laurie! Are you okay?"

Josh's voice and gold-skinned touch snapped her out of her trance. She quickly looked herself over and found a distinct lack of injuries, "I... I think so."

Ah, young love. Josh hadn't even bothered healing himself before tending to her. Hopefully he got to that sooner rather than later, but I could respect that.

Noriko walked up to me and gave me a knock on the arm. With big metal gauntlets on her arm, it smarted, "You're insane," She said, though there wasn't any real heat in it, "Did you think about what might have happened to Laurie if you'd missed?"

I eyed her from the side, "Nori, I can't sing or dance, my roommate beats my ass at every video game we play, and my handwriting is... barely legible," I made a so-so motion with my hand before making a finger gun, complete with glowing index digit, "But if you put me in front of a stationary target, I don't care how small it is. I'm not gonna fucking miss."

We all have our talents, after all. Mine just so happened to be the best goddamn aim in the school. And it was getting better every day. It was really hard (see: damn near impossible) to dodge something moving at the speed of light. It was just a matter of making sure my aim was precise when I decided to point and click.

The Wink, meanwhile, still couldn't teleport away. Noriko's attack had fried the technology David had discovered in her thigh. It likely regulated whatever power she used to teleport, because while she tried and started to do it, it was unstable and never took her very far.

This was bad for her, as her attempts to escape were thwarted by perhaps the angriest person there. Sooraya, of all people.

I had never seen Sooraya upset before. I never thought I would see it, honestly. She was easily the politest of my cohorts. But when she caught The Wink trying to teleport away, and then laid into her with a blast of sand that knocked her on her ass, it was clear that she was not pleased.

The Wink got up and tried to get away again, only for another painful wave of sand to slam into her, "Gah!"

I'd heard that sandstorms could be dangerous, but I didn't realize that if enough of it hit you hard enough, it could rip your skin off. With all of the skin showing on The Wink, I got a firsthand education on that front.

"You have corrupted my friend," Sooraya declared, grains of her sand form body shifting about wildly, "I will not forgive you!"

Despite her state, The Wink didn't leave well enough alone, "Poor Jay feels the same hunger that I and my cohorts feel. A need that must be satisfied. What kind of friend are you to keep him from what he wants?"

Sooraya turned back into her human form and moved her hand over her heart, "When what he wants will turn him into something awful..." She started to say, shaking her head in the negative, "...I would like to think I am the kind of friend who would do anything to keep it from hurting him."

The sound of slow clapping filled the air. The source? One of the most unholy looking individuals I'd seen up to that point.

A gangly man standing seven feet tall with a body that seemed more like green liquid than flesh. It was all contained within a see-through suit with a black mask that covered his head, black gloves, and black leggings and boots. The way he walked; his limbs shifted as though he were boneless.

Under one of his arms, he held an unconscious Sofia.

Damn it.

"Dr. Kilham," Wink said from where she lay on the ground.

The 'man' in question spoke in a warped voice, "My dear, Wink, you and Solara seem to have gotten the worst of things here," Before I could so much as twitch, Dr. Kilham slung his arm to the side, launching slimy globs of fluid from his fingertips.

They hit a nearby boulder and melted it in seconds. He then put those same fingers to Sofia and kept his solid white eyes locked on mine. The implication was clear. It was the same ploy Solara went for, only more effective, because he knew who was the most dangerous out of all of us in the moment.

I didn't fancy my chances of another quickdraw shot when someone was paying close attention to me. This Hazmat seemed smarter than Solara had been. If he'd seen me take down Solara, he knew all I needed to do was raise my hand and I could take a shot too fast for him to respond to. If I moved either hand any higher than my waist, he would melt Sofia's skull before I could get it high enough to shoot.

If I was hesitant to keep fighting, what he said next sealed it for me.

"Joshua Guthrie is already safe with Dr. Roekel. I'm afraid continuing to fight would benefit neither of us any longer," Dr. Kilham said, "None of us have any reason to remain here, so I would appreciate it if you allowed us our departure."

He was right, as much as it smarted. I'd sent Sofia to stop Jay. If she was here, he was somewhere we couldn't reach. I wasn't about to risk grievous harm being done to Sofia, even if it was guaranteed that we could get Jay immediately. Now that there was no chance, there was no way I was going to fight any longer.

I said I wasn't much for surrendering. That was true. But I also wasn't much for letting people under my command get hurt. We could regroup and figure something out. We couldn't replace Sofia's life.

I kept my hands down and kneeled to the ground, placing my hands in the grass, "Stand down, guys."

None of them liked it. Nori even let out an angry huff. But no one tried to go against it. They all followed my lead.

Being the enemy, I expected treachery. However, once Wink had gathered a newly awoken Solara and started leaving, Dr. Kilham set Sofia down and backed away, keeping his fingers pointed at her.

Three beams shot down from above that caused our enemies to vanish. We all looked up to see some unidentifiable aircraft high in the sky above us. Their way of escape.

Once they were gone, we all got up and ran over to Sofia. Josh healed the wounds we saw her suffer and checked her over for any others. She would be fine. Whatever had happened to her in our absence had just shaken her up.

My fists were clenched so tightly they shook. The mission was a failure. Jay was gone, and he'd taken Quire with him. For what, I had no idea, but it likely wasn't good.

This was what losing felt like? I'd almost forgotten. It had been a while since I'd felt it – a few months, actually.

…

...Yeah, I still hated it.