Araceli Elizondo Macías & Luke Estley
Luke released a long, slow exhale as a team of paramedics approached where he and Celi stood guard over their inert patient. He stepped back out of the way, careful of his footing on the loose rubble. Satisfied that the medical professionals had the situation in hand, he maneuvered around them to stand beside her as she muttered an exasperated
"Finally…", raising his voice over the noise of sirens and yelling mixed with screams, all dampened by the wet atmosphere turned muggy by the heat of fires and explosion.
Celi huffed out a breath and placed a hand on her hip, pulling her phone out of her pocket to check the voice. Control's voice sounded from the speaker, causing Celi to quirk a brow at it. She couldn't figure out why, but for some reason the ever-mysterious Control made her laugh, and she did so now as he, she, whatever, took a moment to adjust his connection. This person also seemed to her like this crazy powerful, unknown being that was always watching and listening to them. Apparently, the idea of it just tickled her silly. Utterly oblivious to her amusement, Luke gestured toward the medics.
"They've got this; let's - "
VrooOOOOmm
His jaw went slack as truck after truck began pouring out of the shattered window of the sushi joint, barrelling through the scene like plows through snow. Weaving erratically, a truck veered sharply in their direction, aimed to cut straight between them. Before the girl could even respond to Control's words, the loud roaring of engines blazed to life, effectively cutting off Luke's words.
"These jokers still…?" Her frustrated gaze turned to Luke.
"Damnit, really?!" Control sounded from her phone again: 'Stop them', causing Celi to stare at her handheld device blandly.
"Oh. Really? Never would have thought to do that…" The sarcasm in her voice was overwhelming. Luke rolled his eyes, undecided whether her comments were a welcome alleviation to the inherent stress of the situation, or irritating.
He turned in a full circle, gauging their position and the resources they would be able to reach in the seconds they had until the truck bulldozed through them - and the paramedics still attending the wounded. He jumped down from the rubble pile and hit the ground running towards the bakery, whipping out his phone and hollering into it. Meanwhile, Celi stared after him in confusion.
"I can trap them in the front window of the shop over here - if you can throw them my way and not turn me into bug squash." Already rethinking his gym schedule to figure out how to up his running game, he heaved a heavy breath and muttered,
"I really don't want to be bug squash."
Did he really want her to be able to angle a massive truck that precisely?
"You can't expect me to..." The girl muttered into her phone. But what other choice did they have?
"Damnit…" Celi jogged off to the side and turned in time to see the truck whizzing by.
"Hurry up!" She reached a hand out toward the vehicle, hand splayed, and latched on to the feeling of it. Once she had it, Celi took off running alongside, yet at a distance, forcing a gravitational pull in her direction that would course-correct the truck to run parallel to her. Just like that, she sprinted toward the shop window.
"Do it, do it, do it!"
With too much momentum behind him to make a controlled stop in time, Luke slammed straight into the glass front of the bakery, knocking the breath out of his lungs and momentarily dazing himself. When he turned around to see the oncoming face of death, the truck was less than a foot from his face and there was no time to react any other way.
I'm an idiot for letting her slingshot a bloody truck at me tarnation I'm a goner.
Luke was a split second away from closing his eyes and reciting the Lord's prayer, but he didn't. First of all, Celi would kill him - and secondly….. Celi would kill him. By the miracle of reflexes and coincidental timing alone, he reached out and wrapped his fingers around the front grill and relaxed back, falling into the reflective coating on the window. The truck sank with him, sucking out of the third dimensional world and falling completely flat in a very literal sense.
Now situated in a realm far more malleable to his will, Luke moved fast to avoid the floundering of the Chosen Few trapped inside the truck, still grappling with their unexpected inhibition and the shift out of three dimensions. He dodged sideways to avoid the truck landing on him, and lurched forward out of the mirror, falling flat on his face next to the sidewalk.
"Oh, shit!" It was the only response Celi could give as Luke wasn't able to move out of the way of the truck and instead got smashed into the mirror realm.
"Oh, god! Pretty Boy!" Celi rammed right into the window, unable to slow herself down before slamming into it. She pressed her hands to the glass, watching Luke's 2D form on the other side.
When the guy finally plopped back out onto the road, Celi pounced on him quickly, shaking him.
"I didn't mean to, Luke! I swear! Please don't be dead! Don't die, Pretty Boy!" Celi shook his shoulders furiously, yelling at him a bit too dramatically. Even though she was hamming it up just a little, her true concern was evident on her face as she pushed the guy onto his back.
The young woman raised a hand, ready to smack him across the face - like they do in movies to wake unconscious people up - and let her palm sail across his left cheek hard enough to leave a decent blotchy, red mark. It took a second, but after a minute of stillness, Luke began to stir by way of groaning quietly.
"Ow that hurt" he murmured in a soft slur, shifting to sit up a bit and rubbing the side of his face.
"Did the truck graze me before….." His eyes narrowed, landing on Celi's upraised hand,
"No, no no….. no way you did not!" He yelled, his voice rising to a high pitch that served only to prove her Pretty Boy nickname was well deserved.
He slumped back down with a groan, letting his arm slide over to grab her hand and give it a gentle reassuring squeeze to let her know he wasn't about to kick the bucket.
"You owe me dinner sweetheart" he grumbled,
"And a pass to Disney World." The man's response caused Celi to slump in relief and she just landed on him limply, letting out a long, drawn-out sigh. Continuing her dramatized reactions, she flailed pointlessly a little before standing up and turning to glare at the window that contained their enemy.
Pointing at the glass, and the men she assumed were still somehow stuck in the truck on the other side of it, Celi vented.
"You almost squashed the Pretty Boy! What would he do without that face?! I should break you into a million pieces!" The girl pulled back a fist, shaking it angrily.
"I hope some government feds torture some juicy info out of ya, ya freakin' skeezeballs!" Celi pulled her zipties from her belt and waved them about while pushing at the glass as if she'd be able to get through it.
"Let me at 'em, Luke! I'll arrest those guys in 2D so hard that they'll beg to lose another dimension!"
Muttering a curse, Luke scrambled to his feet.
"Uh, no, not today….." Shoot first and ask questions later was one thing, but shooting after they'd already shot once and hit the bulls-eye wasn't an option.
Celi desperately needed a distraction; so, he cleared his throat and started rambling.
"Anyway. Places to be, things to do, other bad guy butts to kick…" he pointed up into the sky and exclaimed,
"Oh hey look is that a flying pizza? Sorry my bad; never mind. Let's go this way…." He placed a light hand on her shoulder, and began guiding her slowly away from the window.
"What?" Araceli blinked in confusion at Luke as he started rambling about weird stuff and then directed her away from the trapped traitors.
"Are you sure you're okay? You didn't like, hit your head or anything?" She asked, sounding more suspicious than concerned at the moment. The girl glanced back for a second, but became distracted again by the flying pizza comment.
"Huh? Pizza?" Celi glanced around in confusion. With the abilities people had these days, she wouldn't be too surprised if something like that happened. Even she could make a pizza 'fly'.
"Don't we need to secure the prisoners or something? And where's Gramps? Have you seen him? With these crazy trucks, he could get killed." She started to look around again, trying to spot Hansen.
"Trust me, those prisoners are more secure than….." Luke trailed off, shooting her a quizzical look.
"Gramps? Who's that?" He glanced over the street, and came to a halt mid step with a scowl on his face. It was hard to tell from a distance, but could it be….
"Professor Hansen?" He muttered in surprise.
"What's he doing here?"
"You mean the old man?" Celi questioned.
"Uh...He works with us…?" Her tone only going up with inflection at the end because of her surprise that Luke hadn't run into Hansen yet. Biting his tongue, Luke kicked at a loose rock, sending it flying across the street.
"Well fuck."