AN: If you'd like to take on the Sybil or Distort for character development, let me know. I just needed some other people to fill in around the story. I've got a little backstory on them, but if they spark your fancy, contact me.
Laurel could sense him watching the rat-faced man while she and Sybil kept an eye on the townies. This mostly involved sneaking behind them as they went into bars and talked with liquored up drunks. Every once in a while she would touch his mind gently to check in, but she trusted Distort's abilities enough not to be in constant contact with him. It was after the later performance that she felt him trying to find her. Sure enough, the townies that they were following glanced at their watches (she caught the Sybil's thought: normals were so predictable) and started their plan. The townies had been talking about the mutant politics that were starting in America, and eventually turning the conversation around to mutants in Germany. One of the townies stood up (a huge, burly man with an enlarged nose) and said, "The mutant circus gets out right now. We should find some and make them tell us what they are planning."
She and Sybil followed the townies with amazement: there was no way they should have been able to rile up a mob that fast. They weren't mutants themselves; Laurel would know if they were. She tried to glance into one of the townie's minds, but it was hard to focus in such a large group with so many incensed emotions running around. All what she got was a feeling of satisfaction, and a sensation that someone had paid them to do this. But not the gypsy, for some reason. She looked into the leader's mind and found, while everyone else was thinking a million things at once, he was rehearsing something. A list of questions he would force the mutant to "confess" to. There was a plot going on here. Then she felt Distort frantically searching for her.
"?" she sent, trying hard to reach him.
"!" was what she got back, but she caught an image of another group of townies, another mob, coming the opposite direction. And the rat-faced man was leading the circus performer, dressed in an oversized trench coat and large hat, right up the middle. Laurel grabbed the Sybil's hand and pushed her way closer to the front of the group. They arrived just as the circus performer found himself in the middle of a street between two rather large and fairly upset mobs.
He threw a glance apprehensively at his "friend", who knocked the hat off his head to gasps of the crowd. His inky blue face turned nearly gray as one of the townies grabbed his hands and yanked them behind his back and the rat-faced man pulled out a blindfold and slipped it over the mutant's eyes. His hands were bound and he was spun around in a circle like some oversized child playing Pin the Tail on the Donkey, while the townies laughed. But they soon tired of that, and from what Laurel could scrape off the general mind frame, this was going to get ugly very soon. She shot a glance over at Sybil.
"Meet me at the bikes," was all she said, but the Sybil's eyes widened, and nodded. She sent the same sentence to Distort, and felt his assent as he retreated. "Here," Laurel added, as the younger girl backed away. She tossed her the stone necklace, using her slight telekinesis abilities to float it safely to the girl's hands. She would hate to lose another stone.
Her hands clenched as she tried to control her mutation without the help of her failsafe, and managed right up to the point when she teleported right next to the circus performer. As soon as she appeared next to him, the townies' eyes widened as not one, but two blue demons faced them. She wrapped her arms around the bound mutant, and concentrated on the site where their bikes were. Bamf!
The space in the middle of the mob was empty.
Laurel could sense him watching the rat-faced man while she and Sybil kept an eye on the townies. This mostly involved sneaking behind them as they went into bars and talked with liquored up drunks. Every once in a while she would touch his mind gently to check in, but she trusted Distort's abilities enough not to be in constant contact with him. It was after the later performance that she felt him trying to find her. Sure enough, the townies that they were following glanced at their watches (she caught the Sybil's thought: normals were so predictable) and started their plan. The townies had been talking about the mutant politics that were starting in America, and eventually turning the conversation around to mutants in Germany. One of the townies stood up (a huge, burly man with an enlarged nose) and said, "The mutant circus gets out right now. We should find some and make them tell us what they are planning."
She and Sybil followed the townies with amazement: there was no way they should have been able to rile up a mob that fast. They weren't mutants themselves; Laurel would know if they were. She tried to glance into one of the townie's minds, but it was hard to focus in such a large group with so many incensed emotions running around. All what she got was a feeling of satisfaction, and a sensation that someone had paid them to do this. But not the gypsy, for some reason. She looked into the leader's mind and found, while everyone else was thinking a million things at once, he was rehearsing something. A list of questions he would force the mutant to "confess" to. There was a plot going on here. Then she felt Distort frantically searching for her.
"?" she sent, trying hard to reach him.
"!" was what she got back, but she caught an image of another group of townies, another mob, coming the opposite direction. And the rat-faced man was leading the circus performer, dressed in an oversized trench coat and large hat, right up the middle. Laurel grabbed the Sybil's hand and pushed her way closer to the front of the group. They arrived just as the circus performer found himself in the middle of a street between two rather large and fairly upset mobs.
He threw a glance apprehensively at his "friend", who knocked the hat off his head to gasps of the crowd. His inky blue face turned nearly gray as one of the townies grabbed his hands and yanked them behind his back and the rat-faced man pulled out a blindfold and slipped it over the mutant's eyes. His hands were bound and he was spun around in a circle like some oversized child playing Pin the Tail on the Donkey, while the townies laughed. But they soon tired of that, and from what Laurel could scrape off the general mind frame, this was going to get ugly very soon. She shot a glance over at Sybil.
"Meet me at the bikes," was all she said, but the Sybil's eyes widened, and nodded. She sent the same sentence to Distort, and felt his assent as he retreated. "Here," Laurel added, as the younger girl backed away. She tossed her the stone necklace, using her slight telekinesis abilities to float it safely to the girl's hands. She would hate to lose another stone.
Her hands clenched as she tried to control her mutation without the help of her failsafe, and managed right up to the point when she teleported right next to the circus performer. As soon as she appeared next to him, the townies' eyes widened as not one, but two blue demons faced them. She wrapped her arms around the bound mutant, and concentrated on the site where their bikes were. Bamf!
The space in the middle of the mob was empty.
