Heroic Rejects: Nightcrawlers Part 2

The two boys settled on a drug store rooftop. Rusty got off of Lincoln's back and the two walked over to the edge of the building. They were able to see a speeding white van being tailgated by multiple police cars, all moving towards their direction. Now was the perfect chance."Alright Linc, let's do this." His friend complied and laid on his back, bringing his knees to his chest while keeping his feet parallel to the ground. Rusty stepped onto his soles and carefully kept himself up as he was standing straight. After he found his balance, Rusty hair and nails started to change. He began to smell like aged iron. His fingernails had become a noticeable metallic orange. With the way his hair was conditioned at the moment, it looked as if his head hair was becoming an orange war helmet. "Alright, I'm ready!" Rusty notified. "Okay then," Lincoln grunted due to the discomfort caused by the weight of Rusty and the stress position he was in. It was all about timing now. "On the count of three, send me off," Rusty instructed. The white van was close now and was starting to lose the cop cars behind it.

"One!"

The distance between the van and the building they were on was closing. Rusty could feel himself shaking so hard from fear and excitement. Is this really how Linc felt every time he jumped?

"Two!"

The van was really close. Almost in front of the store. Now was their chance.

"Three!"

In one outward kick by Lincoln, he had sent Rusty flying into the air. It was as if he had jumped off a springboard, that is if springboards could send people twenty feet up. Despite having already hardening his hair into rusted iron, Rusty could feel the wind run through his hair. Physics started taking effect and he began to fall back down. Changing his falling position while in mid-air, Rusty was now going down head first towards the ground. The van was also coming right under him. His timing had been perfect. It was all the matter if his collision would be effective or not. Bracing for impact, Rusty shut his eye, gritted his teeth, and held on to his neck. This was gonna hurt.

BAM

Hitting the back of the car roof, the car tipped up a bit before descending back onto to the road. Upon impact, Rusty heard some of the goons inside the vehicle yelp. Rusty landed on the nearby sidewalk, gritting his teeth when he hit the concrete. He swore he saw stars flying around him and his neck was stinging in pain due to the collision. Had it not been for his power, he definitely would've been dead. From what he could remember, the force from the ram left a nasty dent and Rusty could somewhat see from a distance that there was a noticeable deceleration. However other than, the attack didn't do much. The car was still moving, thus was an unresolved issue. Rusty retreated to an alley with one hand holding his neck and the other holding his walkie-talkie.

"Liam, Zach! Get ready! My attack didn't work! The van is coming your way!" Rusty yelled into the speaker. "Also Linc, can you get the med-kit and come pick me up. My neck is killing me."

Liam and Zach were navigating the sewers. Like Zach had complained about before entering, it was barely lit and the smell was unbearable. While Zach felt like he was going to knock out any moment by now, Liam seemed completely unfazed by their disgusting environment. As they were walking, Liam put his hand on Zach's shoulder so he would come to a stop. In front of them was a ladder that lead to the surface.

"There's another manhole cover on our right that's around 20 feet from us. Climb the ladder and wait till we get a signal."

Zach turned his head to face Liam with a small stunned look on his face."How in the world did you know that? In fact, how do you even know if we're under the right street this car is heading."

"Eh… don't worry about it, okay? I'll tell you later." Liam said with a smirk.

"Can you at least tell me how you're able to adapt so well to these conditions?" Zach asked.

"Oh, it's easy. You see, all you need to do is-"

Liam was cut off by the static of Zach's walkie-talkie going off. "Liam, Zach! Get ready! My attack didn't work! The van is still coming your way!" They heard Rusty yell. "Also Linc, can you get the med-kit and come pick me up. My neck is killing me."

"Alright Zach! Head towards the manhole cover. I'll set up a trap."

Zach nodded his head and his clenched his fists, which began to glow a faint red. "You can count on me." He responded before running off to his position.

Liam took a deep breath and climb up the ladder in front of him. Without needing to push off the lid on top of him, Liam simply began to slowly stick his head out of the ground. The street was empty as he began scanning his surroundings. Not for long. Liam reached into one of his coat pockets and took out his trap. Steel caltrops. The kid carefully arranged the spikes across the road and prayed that no innocents will be affected by the trap. When he was finished, Liam walked over to the side of the road and waited. By now the sirens were nearby and he could see the van close to his simple booby trap. 'C'mon, let's get this over with,' Liam thought to himself. The car was just couple of feet away from the spikes. 'Showtime,' He said subconsciously.

But the car didn't slow down at all. The tires had run over all of the caltrops and not a damn thing happened. He could see the van speeding towards the manhole cover Zach was at It wasn't over yet. Liam quickly sank into asphalt and landed back in the sewers. His walkie-talkie may have been broken, but the sewer halls acted as a perfect sound system.

"ZACH NOW!" Liam screamed as loud as he could, his voice resonating in all directions.

Zach shivered at the sight of his name being called but knew it had to Liam. Zach's fist had an intense red aura now; it was fully charged. He had only one shot at this. Zach punched the cover on top of him as hard as he could. The lid was sent flying for a second until it collided with something solid above and landed back over the kid. Zach only hoped his strike was effective.

Zach's attack wasn't really effective. Clyde saw from a distance that the van jumped up a little and was now leaking a small amount of oil. But it didn't slow the car down that much and the leak wasn't big enough. It was his turn. Perched on top of the edge of a building, Clyde unclipped his walkie-talkie and gave his report. "Zach. Liam. Your guy's tricks did absolutely nothing. Someone get in contact with Chandler and tell him we need him right now. I'll do what I can."

With that, Clyde threw aside his communicator and took out eye drops. Quickly, he put a drop in each eye and shut them. When opening his eyes again, he was blind once more. Everything was dark and blurry and he couldn't even tell what was in front of him. But after a couple of seconds, everything was visible again. In fact, he could notice details from over a mile away. Courtesy of his power.

Clyde lifted his slingshot, loaded it, pulled back the string and took aim at the van. Letting go of the string, the steel marble hurled toward the van's windshield. A small crater formed on the window. Clyde began launching his barrage of metal pellets at every window on the car. Dozens of small cavities were being made on the glass and metal from his attack.

It wouldn't be enough though. Clyde's eyes were beginning to burn. He wanted to treat them as soon as he could. But if he were to even blink again, he'd go blind and the vehicle would get away before he could see again. He had to take them out now. He was going to need to bring out the heavy artillery. Taking out a few small homemade bombs out his pocket, he lit the fuse on one with a lighter and loaded it. After pulling back as hard as he could. he let go of the pouch and the small explosive was sent flying toward the front window of the car. As soon as the bomb hit the glass, it detonated. The entire windshield shattered, now having little to no transparency. The driver was now practically blind. Clyde had successfully done his job.

Immediately, he closed his eyes again and the burning pain was no longer as intense. When opened them, he was blind again and patiently waited for his vision to return. Clyde looked for the vehicle and saw the van was still moving at full speed. Now he was confused. 'Why? Why would they still be driving? After all of the abuse it just took.' He questioned to himself. He got his answer when he saw where they were heading to. A bascule bridge that was getting ready to lift. If they got on to the other side before spans went up, then law enforcement wouldn't be able to catch them in time. This was bad. If only they could just find...

Clyde picked up his walkie-talkie. "Chandler. Come in Chandler. We need you right now. A vehicle is going to cross a drawbridge that leads to Downtown Royal Woods. We need to make it stop."

No response.

Clyde was frustrated as he saw the van getting away. "Damn it Chandler! Get over here now!"

No response.

"Sorry Clyde. We still can't find the guy. We're close to where you are though. We'll be there in a few minutes" He heard Lincoln shout from the other end.

'They won't make it in time.' Clyde realized. He saw the police were far behind the car. 'And the police can't catch up too' He took note of. It was all up to him. Clyde felt himself almost blink and was narrowly able to keep his eyes open. Using the grappling hook Lincoln gave him, he slid down towards the ground. His eyes felt like they were on fire but he had endure. He ran after the car; even when there was no way Clyde could catch up, he could still take aim.

Clyde fired at the back window and missed. His eyeballs were in so much pain it was affecting his targeting. He flung another pellet, only to miss once more. If he could just make one good shot and take out the driver then this would all be over. But the shot would have to travel one-hundred feet, break through glass, and have enough power to take out the guy steering. Still, he had to try. Clyde took out another aluminum ball and placed it in the pouch of the slingshot. He pulled as tightly back as humanly possible and aimed at what seemed like the silhouette of the driver. He could feel his eyelids beginning to close. The irritation and dryness on his eyes were getting to him. His eyes felt like they were melting and if he didn't close them then he would become permanently blind. At that very moment when he was going to shut his eyes, Clyde let go of the marble.

CRASH

Clyde immediately opened his eyes again. He couldn't make out anything at first. Did that one shot he took seriously take out an entire car. However, as he could see again, he could make out what was going on now. No. It wasn't his doing. At a distance, he could see the car had crashed. Not into another car though. Right into a ten-foot-tall wall made of asphalt. There is only one explanation for what had happened. The answer was standing in the shadows near a tree, wearing a black hoodie with the hood up, slim gray sweatpants, and sported maroon colored hair. Clyde had finally found the sixth member of their team. Chandler.

A/N: I'm back! Thank you all for coming back to read my story. That is if you haven't forgotten about it already. Sorry for not updating any time sooner. Finals are a pain. Again, reviews and critiques are much appreciated. I hope that you've enjoyed the second part to The Nightcrawlers. Next chapter we'll learn what is up with Chandler and just what exactly can the Rejects do. Until then, I would love to see your predictions for what their powers are. In the meantime, bleh.