The More You Know (Part Four)

I split the squad up as part of my approach. Eddie was our eye in the sky. If Miss Pryde made it outside somewhere, it was up to him to keep tabs on where she was going from above. Ruth would try to keep track of her through her thoughts and convey it to the rest of it. Hisako, Laura, and I would serve as the sweepers who would actually go after her.

Hopefully, we would only have to pounce on her once, because every other time we would go after her from that point onward wouldn't be as organized. That was just the nature of things like this. We would use it as a general template for a strategy for how we would attack.

I slipped into the room next to the one Miss Pryde was situated in. Laura took the one on the other side. Hisako would approach through the front door and do what she could from there. If/when Miss Pryde made a break for it, it was up to either of us to cut her off.

We were so not ready. I had already dealt with Danger Room Miss Pryde, kind of, so I should have had a better idea of what we were getting ourselves into.

I heard a ruckus coming from next door and backed off from the wall to stand at the ready, just in case she came my way. She did, of course, very quickly. She went right past me and through the wall on the other side of the room, so I took off down the hall after her, "My way! She went my way!" I yelled, trying to get everyone heading the right way.

I was faster. Every time I passed a doorway, I saw Miss Pryde running past as well from the inside of the room. I sped up a bit more and turned into the last room at the end of the hall, set to cut her off at the pass. As she sprinted through the wall in front of me, I saw the surprise in her eyes right before she ran clear through me.

What a weird feeling. I didn't like it at all. Not just because of how it felt, but because of what it meant.

"Fuck!" I shouted, turning around to see her jump through a wall leading outside. I ran to the window and threw it open to take a few shots as she retreated. None of them hit, of course. Intangibility and all that. Laura and Hisako made it into the room right afterward, and I gave out immediately, "How are we supposed to corner her? She can run through the corners!"

Hisako was slightly out of breath from sprinting all out for about a minute, but it wasn't anything that a 30 second breather couldn't fix, "There has to be a way we can stop her. We have to catch her off-guard or something."

This was a full-blown superhero that had been dealing with ambushes and other surprise attacks for a good chunk of her life. Something told me it wasn't going to be that simple, "Yeah, good luck with that. Stealth isn't exactly any of our strong suits here," At that point, Laura edged her way into the conversation. I was beginning to pick up on her nuances, as to what she said and didn't say, "What, you? You're telling me you can sneak up on her?"

Laura was difficult, but if you watched her closely enough you could figure a few things out. She wanted our attention in regards to the subject we were talking about, but if we didn't ask her directly she wouldn't say it out loud, as though we would take it as her speaking out of turn. It happened a lot, I had noticed, in the short time she had been on our team.

She wasn't exactly talkative, but our girl definitely wasn't a mute. She picked her spots, and when she chimed in, it meant something, "I think so. If she does not phase herself for another reason, I believe I can."

"Okay..." I said, licking my dry lips as I tried to come up with a new approach. We only had so much time to find her again and come up with a good plan, "We'll go with that. I'll make sure you get an opening. If that doesn't work this time, we should start wearing her out."

Hisako liked the idea of a sub-strategy, "Sounds good to me. How?"

Everyone had a weakness, even if it was a hard one to exploit, "She has to hold her breath to go through solid objects," I said, "You think she can keep that up longer than we can keep coming at her?"

Breathing during high-intensity activities was difficult. It was a key to stamina, being able to keep from sucking wind and slowing down. Tiring her out was definitely a strategy that we could use, especially if she was just going to run from us and not try to take us out.

"Let's walk and talk, guys," I said, leading everyone out of the building, thinking with as much intent as I could to project to my dear telepath, 'Blindfold, Wing? You guys got a location for us?'