Scott tapped Dixon again, taking his soul jumping power. The ghosts of the scribe and the soul jumper grew colorful. They were a block away, and perfectly still.

"What are they waiting for?" Dixon asked with a hunger in his voice.

"The Calvary." Clarity said. "There are others on their way here."

"I don't see any other ghosts." Dixon said.

"Not soul jumpers. Local authorities."

Scott turned where she was looking and saw three large vans driving towards them. They screeched to a halt on the opposite side of the street and dozens of armed men jumped out and surrounded them.

"I count thirty seven assault rifles," Dixon said calmly under his breath. "And I can't soul jump any of them."

Scott tried as well. Dixon had the ability to latch his soul onto others, and take control of nearly anyone. When Scott used his ability to borrow powers like that, he could as well. Here, his soul just slid off anyone he tried to take control of.

One among them shouted an order of some kind. Scott couldn't tell what he was saying.

"Any other ideas?" Scott asked back.

"When they fall over, we run." Clarity said.

"Fall over?"

At once, the armed men fell to the ground, dropping their guns and grabbing their ears.

"Run!" Clarity said. "I can still assault their senses, but we can't stay here forever."

They ran away from the group and down the street. Scott looked back for a second and saw the swat team getting up.

"We have to get more mobile!" Scott shouted.

"I don't know how to drive a car here, do you?" Dixon jumped up onto a curb.

"You can!" Clarity shouted at Scott. "This is your chance to use some of the things I've been teaching you."

Scott focused on their surroundings. The street was packed with cars from the crash from the portal. Some towards the back of the pile were in good condition and temporarily abandoned. The sidewalk had many people on foot.

Those people all had talents and abilities. And those were represented by glowing white orbs in their chest. When he filtered for driving, Most of them had a small or nonexistent talent orb. One woman, slightly taller and paler than the rest of the crowd had a huge white driving talent. He ran to her and touched her hand. The contact lasted for a second, but the white driving orb copied, and the copy traveled from her chest to his. Another white talent, one to speak Chinese traveled over with it.

Armed with a new ability to drive and speak to the locals, he ran for one of the abandoned cars. Clarity and Dixon followed. He slid into the driver's seat, Dixon sat down up front with him, and Clarity sat in the back.

"Seatbelts." Scott said, in Chinese, out of habit. Not his habit. But the habit of the woman.

"Huh?" Dixon asked.

"Strap in," Scott said in English and buckled himself to demonstrate.

Down the road, the swat team was catching up. One took a shooting stance and let fire. A bullet hit the hood of the car and bounced away.

Scott put the car into reverse, and turned around. The car slowly backed up. More gunfire pelted them. Once the reverse was made, Scott put the car into dive, and slowly turned the car around. The turning radius didn't quite let them got the other way. He stopped a few feet from another car blocking his path.

"Uh, Scott?" Dixon asked. "You do know we're being shot at, right?"

"Don't want to get into an accident." He said, again in Chinese.

Clarity put a hand on Scott's neck. "There's the problem."

"I'll keep them distracted while you fix it." Dixon said as he soul jumped a few people behind them. Several cars sped out of the grid lock and rammed into the local authorities.

"Scott, you have to be more selective about who you take talents from." Clarity put her other hand on Dixon. "You stole an talent from an old lady, so you're driving like an old lady. Get rid of the talent."

Scott shot the driving talent out of his hand and the controls became foreign to him again. Seconds later, Clarity shoved another driving talent into his head.

"Got this through Dixon's soul jump." Clarity said. "Out of the crowd, this orb seemed the most competent."

The car became an extension of his body as he floored it out of the grid lock and against traffic.

"Now we're talking." Dixon patted him on the back.

Two of the tires squealed in protest as he swerved around a median and into correct lanes. There were a few gaps and he swerved in an out of the minor gridlock.

"More people behind us," Dixon turned in his seat for a better look.

Scott looked in the rear view mirror as Dixon sent wave after wave of soul jumped people to drive their cars to form a barricade against their pursuers.

"This is going to be easy." Scott smiled.

In the next intersection ahead, three more paramilitary vans screeched to a halt and formed a barricade of their own.

"You had to say that, didn't you?" Dixon mumbled as his soul jumps went from behind them to in front of them.

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

A half dozen cars charged forward like battering rams.

"No, don't." Scott pulled on the hand brake and flipped the car around. "That'll kill them. Just keep blocking their path."

Heading back toward the gridlock, Scott weighed his options. There was one small intersection just before the crashed happened, meaning he could turn right or left.

"I don't know where I am." Scott said as he pulled the hand brake again, drifting into the right turn lane.

"Use Dixon's soul jump to steal talents without contact." Clarity said behind him. "Everyone around you should know their way around Hong Kong."

Scott looked around. Drivers of the cars ahead were displaying talents. He filtered them to navigation. The biggest orb he saw was in the vehicle in front of them. It was a small, one seat electric car, perfect for maneuvering tight areas.

As Scott passed the car, he shot out his soul and connected. The man grunted and panicked, but Scott took control. His soul latched onto the white sphere and he pulled it back, this time with a mental map of Hong Kong.

They raced through the next intersection and sirens faintly filled the air.

"More coming." Dixon said. "They're bringing a lot of people with them this time. Probably five swat vans in every direction."

"No gaps in their trap?" Scott asked as he swerved between two cars while running a red light.

"No."

Up ahead, there was a station for a bullet train.

"Focus on the van's ahead of us. If we can get through, we can catch a train."

"You got it."

Dixon and Scott both sent their ghosts to cars ahead of them. The oncoming vans dashed to the side as dozens of cars went sailing for them.

"We should kidnap one of those activists." Clarity said from the back. Her multiple voices were comming up again. Each sentence was spoken with deeper or higher inflection, and a faster and slower cadence. "You know, to interrogate. Oh, I used to be good at interrogation. Quiet you, no one likes a show off."

"Is she always like this?" Dixon asked.

"Yes. She has a point though. Do you see where they are?"

"On the other side of a caravan behind us."

Scott pulled on the handbrake again and flipped the car around. More drivers were soul jumped and more of them rammed a path for Scott to drive through.

"We'll incapacitate them. Dixon, just pull in one of the soul jumpers. Leave the scribe." Clarity held her head and waved her free hand towards the activists.

They fell to the ground in pain. Scott flipped the car around again, this time bringing it to a halt right next to the activists. Dixon rushed out and grabbed the closest soul jumper among them. He threw him in the back seat with Clarity and got back in the passenger seat.

Scott backed up, and drove around the blockade, rather than risk being trapped on all sides again. "There's another entrance this way."

The activists screamed.

“This one’s name is Gregory.” Clarity beamed. “This is just like the old days.”

There was a pause, and then Greg screamed loud enough to drown out Clarity’s laugh. "They've lost control here. They used to have the top government officials in China under soul jumps. These two are all that's left in Asia.”

Another pause filled with screams. “He thinks we were in Alaska earlier today. Somehow teleported here. Someone did something big in Alaska. Also, someone is making a mess of things in Ohio. I think that's where Miranda is."

"Alaska or Ohio?" Scott said as he swerved onto a partial sidewalk to get around a bus.

"Ohio," Clarity said as her guest continued screaming. "He's becoming less giving with the information. But there is a hidden network the soul jumpers use to communicate. The hubs here are under lock down with the Chinese government, and the closest that he is divulging is in Europe."

Gun shots bounced off the trunk of the car, and his left tire popped.

"They've got people on the roof tops." Dixon ducked a little. "If they see us go underground, they'll pin us down there."

"Tourist bus up ahead." Scott nodded towards it and willed the car to stay on the road. "Follow my lead. We'll have to leave the activist here."

He slammed on the breaks and the three of them got out the car. Scott started soul jumping everyone in the bus, including the driver. Dixon helped out. Soon, there was a crowd pouring out of the bus. They mixed in with the crowd and had them move in complicated patterns. Trading a hat here and a jacket there with the bus passengers.

"Clarity, can you blind some of them for a moment?"

"Done." She said.

"Ok, half the group back on the bus, and the other half down the block. We sneak into the subway. "

While the soldier's regained their bearings, the crowds continued the patterns in different directions. Scott and the others made their way down underground. A few more soul jumps, and they were on a train, headed for the airport.