They could hear the helicopter behind them, along with the humming sound of many drones flying just over the treetops. The four of them had managed to sprint far enough away to be out of the initial main search pattern their flying pursuers were using, but the damn things would spread out quickly. And they could widen their search pattern much faster than the four could put more distance between them. They needed to get back to a vehicle. Preferably one that could stay in the trees, because the main roads were probably being watched already. This group was entirely too well-equipped and organized to not have the entire area locked down by now. They had come here in force, blocking all communication out to make sure there couldn’t be any reinforcements. They definitely had their own vehicles patrolling the road, and ways of blocking anyone else from physically leaving. At least, if they went out that way. The net itself might still be thin enough out here in the woods for their group to make it to the Adherents’ entrance portal if they were quick.
First, however, they had to find a way to travel quicker. Running like this just wasn’t going to cut it, even if all of them were nearly (or literally) inhumanly quick. Eventually, those drones would spread their search pattern out far enough to pick them up. Then it would be almost impossible to actually shake them. Even as that thought came to her, Irelyn was already speaking up, her voice coming out in a short, brisk tone that she used while working with other Touched. “Keep moving this way, don’t make any sharp turns for a couple minutes or I won’t be able to find you again.”
She let them process that for just a second, while an entire series of doubts and worries played out in her own mind, before shaking it off. With that, Irelyn took one more very deliberate step before using the next one to launch herself up and forward. She had enough experience with her power to keep her leap down enough that she didn’t break through the treetops and give away their position. Instead, most of her energy went toward launching herself forward. Just like that, she left the other three behind and crossed a solid fifty yards, sailing right between the trees and bushes. A tall oak loomed right in front of her, and she easily kicked off it to launch herself mostly forward and somewhat sideways before hitting another tree about thirty feet that way that she could also kick off of to get even further. That took her almost the length of a football field before she had to come down, bouncing off the ground and back up once again with zero hesitation. In the course of only a few quick seconds, she managed to travel almost a quarter mile like that.
Irelyn continued like that for just a bit longer, keeping her eyes and ears peeled for anything they could use. Then she heard them, multiple ATV and motorcycle engines coming from her right just as she landed in the thick branches of a gnarled old tree. Her gaze snapped in that direction, and she could see the dust clouds being sent up from the vehicles racing through the forest. It could have been ordinary campers out having a good time without any idea of what was going on, but somehow she doubted that. Either way, getting a closer look at them was her best move.
Things got better quickly on that front, as the vehicles seemed to be coming in her direction. On the other hand, she really needed to be careful. Not only was the tree she was currently in pretty close to bare, leaving her fairly exposed, but she was sure they had various tools to enhance their vision. Even if she had been completely covered by thick foliage, those people would be able to see her as easily as though she’d been standing in a spotlight. No, she needed to be tricky if she wanted to get through these next few seconds without alerting their entire group.
To that end, the woman crouched right where she was, eyes on the narrow trail she had been able to pick out as she listened to the sound of the vehicles getting closer. Now she could pick out voices calling out to one another over the sound of their engines. She wasn’t getting many specific words, but the overall gist was apparent. They were searching for people. Them. They were searching for Irelyn and the others. So, definitely not a group of campers out for a ride.
Staring at the spot on the path where the lead vehicle, whatever it was, would first come into view, Irelyn took a breath and held it. The timing here was crucial. At the exact second that the first vehicle was coming into view, just as it began to crest that small hill, she threw herself sideways, away from being in plain sight. She could hear the dirtbike, as it turned out to be, pop up into view just as her foot hit the ground almost seventy feet to the right and slightly forward from her previous location. But she didn’t stay there long, instantly kicking off from there to launch herself even further forward, past the spot where those vehicles were coming into view but still to the side. Now she was behind them, past the area they had already reached. They would probably catch a glimpse of quick movement out of the corner of their eyes, but by the time they followed up on that, or even convinced themselves it was real, it would be too late.
The instant her foot hit the ground after that forward jump, Irelyn was in the air once more. That time, she sent herself rocketing toward the path. Her timing had to be just right, which was a bit harder given she was only making an educated guess about how many vehicles there were. Still, it worked. The last one, an ATV, was just barely reaching the spot where the first had come into view. She heard the engines start to slow as the rider of that lead motorcycle began to react to catching that brief glimpse of her movement. He was trying to look that way to see what it was. Which meant the rest of the vehicles (two more motorcycles and two ATVs in total) had to slow down as well, though it sounded like they hadn’t actually seen anything themselves, shouting rather annoyed questions ahead to find out what the hell the lead driver thought he was doing.
Meanwhile, the driver of the ATV in the rear had just barely managed to avoid crashing into the matching one ahead of him. Irelyn saw the helmeted figure let out a breath of relief right before she slammed into him. Her last leap had carried her directly into his path, allowing the woman to reach out, grab the figure, and knock him off the ATV on her way past. He let out a startled grunt just as they hit the ground together several feet to the side. That gave her just enough time to get a better grip on his leather jacket, so she could jump once more and carry him out into the trees.
The man struggled as well as he could in her grip, but she aimed for a sturdy oak and knocked the wind out of him by semi-crashing into it. There was a time when Irelyn wouldn’t have dared slam someone into a solid surface like that, for fear of doing serious damage. Even if these guys were assholes, she didn’t want to paralyze them, or worse. But years upon years of experience had left her with a much better understanding of just how hard she could safely hit them. Especially given he was wearing a helmet and padded jacket. It meant she could get away with making sure he collided hard enough to stop the man from having any interest in fighting back anytime soon. Or in doing much of anything besides laying where she dropped him.
By that point, the guy on the ATV just ahead of the one she had grabbed this one off of was starting to turn in his seat to look behind him, having felt something rush past. No sooner had he taken in the sight of the empty vehicle where his buddy had been, however, than Irelyn’s next leap brought her right down on the seat behind the man. Her arms wrapped around his waist, and she leapt right back up again almost as soon as she had landed. He had time to give a strangled, surprised yelp that was barely audible over the sound of the engines before they were gone, too high for the three guys on the motorcycles to see when they turned to look that way.
High as the jump was, it wasn’t all that far by her standards. But she did manage to jump forward a bit, ahead of where the motorcycles were and thus behind where they were looking once they turned around to stare in obvious confusion at the two mysteriously empty ATVs. And she didn’t stay there in what would have been plain sight if they turned back anyway, bouncing forward immediately to get him into the cover of the trees. That time, rather than slam the man into an oak, she brought him straight down to the ground, making him hit the dirt hard enough to leave him briefly stunned.
The man on the lead motorcycle, who had come over the hill first, was turned all the way around along with the other two. They were staring at the two empty ATVs. Before they could do anything else, Irelyn sprang right past the front wheel of that first bike, grabbing the man's arms and leaping as far as she could to yank him off his ride and away from his friends. She did it as quickly as possible, leaving that motorcycle to fall to the ground with a thunk that drew the attention of the other two.
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Now they were really freaking out. One grabbed some sort of radio attached to his bike, while the other pulled a rifle out of its holster on the side of his own. But if Irelyn had timed things just right- yes, in that second, the man she had slammed into the dirt ahead of them started to groan and curse. He might have cursed even more, but internally, if he’d realized just how much he had screwed over his partners with that. Because both remaining men reflexively looked that way, which gave Irelyn the opening she needed to launch herself over and catch both of them by the back of their necks. While they were reacting, the woman leapt straight up, dragging them along for the ride. The force of it yanked the gun and radio out of each of their hands. They kicked and flailed a bit at first, before seeming to realize just how high they actually were. That made them go still, the fear apparent in the way they whined and gasped. At least for a moment. Then Irelyn’s other power began to kick in, before they had even reached the apex of that jump. She drained their stamina very quickly. By the time they came back down where she could land smoothly, both men were completely unconscious and Irelyn was able to simply unceremoniously drop them right where they landed, next to the bikes.
From there, she took a moment to grab the other men, using her power to put them to sleep as well before pulling them all into the same area. It wasn’t hard to disarm them, take any other tools they had, and then use rope she found in one of the ATVs to tie the men up securely.
With the men dealt with for the moment, Irelyn turned to get her bearings. It took her a second to estimate just how far Paige, Haley, and Sierra could have gotten in that time. Then she took a step before leaping once more. Some might have thought she would be tired after all that. But the energy she drained from people didn’t simply dissipate off into the void. When she drained stamina, it went into her. As far as Irelyn was concerned, she’d just taken a very pleasant nap. Now she was refreshed and ready to get back to the others so they could get out of this area.
Her estimation wasn’t perfect. She had to jump around a couple more times. But soon, she did manage to come down just to the side of where the others were. Which immediately left her facing three raised guns--well two raised guns and one hand with the fingers pointed like a gun--before they realized who she was. Immediately, the weapons were lowered and Paige reflexively stepped that way before stopping as she blurted, “Irelyn--you--what happened?”
“I found us some rides to get out of here faster,” the woman replied easily, while giving an idle wave back the other way. “But hang on, what happened to you? Where’d the guns come from?”
“Let’s just say we had our own encounter with some searchers, but they were on foot,” Paige informed her with a very slight grimace. “And we barely avoided another patrol right after that.” Sierra’s head bobbed easily. “Yeah, these guys are out in force right now. But we’re pretty sure we managed to put them down before they called it in. On the other hand, if anyone tries to get in contact with them, they’ll figure out something’s wrong pretty quick. Which’ll narrow the search.”
For just a second or two, Irelyn glanced that way. Sierra was--god, she looked just like Cassidy Evans. Whatever Pittman’s full intentions had been when he made a Biolem that looked like that girl, Irelyn really didn’t want to know. She was, in all honesty, glad he was dead. Yes, part of her would have preferred to be able to talk to the man. Or at him. And she had mixed feelings when it came to what had apparently been a cold-blooded execution. But in the end, he was gone and no longer a threat. That was what mattered. He couldn’t hurt anyone else again, especially Paige and Sierra. Which was a thought that brought her right back around to wishing he was alive so she could punch him a dozen times. What a convoluted merry-go-round of conflicting feelings.
Yeah, as far as his death, and that of her own parents went… she had a lot of thoughts to sort out, but later. Preferably when they weren’t far too busy dealing with an entire well-armed private militia. And it definitely wasn’t the right time to stand there marveling over how much her newest little sister resembled the teenaged daughter of the richest couple in the entire state of Michigan. Or how that rich couple also happened to secretly be the-- nope, nope, definitely not the right time to think about any of that. One crisis at a time, and the one right in front of her had priority.
Forcing herself to put all of that out of her mind, Irelyn cleared her throat pointedly before nodding back the way she’d come from. “Okay, we're going over there. I'll take one of you at a time. The others, um, keep your heads down.” With that, she reached out to take Sierra by the hand. As soon as the other girl was ready, she jumped, taking several leaps to reach the spot where she had left the vehicles and their trussed-up former riders. A quick glance that way assured her that they were all still safely out of commission and hadn't made any real headway on getting free.
Her hand squeezed Sierra's shoulder as she pointed to the nearest ATV. “Keep an ear on the radio, would you? I'd like to know if we're about to have company before it’s right on top of us.”
Sierra offered her an easy wink while hopping up to straddle one of the motorcycles. “No prob, babe. And I do mean ‘no prob.’ Seriously, you realize I can listen to their radios just by tun--ow.”
The last bit came from Irelyn giving the girl a tiny kick in the leg to quiet her down. “Yes, I know,” she very deliberately replied, “you can listen to the radio on the bike instead, if you insist. ATV, bike, whatever works.” Leaning closer to ensure that Sierra was between her and any view the tied-up troops might’ve had, she pointed to her mouth, then jabbed that finger in their direction before giving a sharp shake of her head. Hopefully, the point was made. Don’t talk about that stuff out loud where those people could conceivably hear and figure something out. Yes, they should remain asleep for awhile, but there was no sense in taking that sort of risk. Even if they didn’t jump to the Biolem thing, learning that Sierra could listen to their radios in her head was just information they absolutely didn’t need. It might make them think she was a Touched or something. And honestly, they really just didn’t need to give those people reason to pay any more attention to Paige and Sierra, or to stop underestimating them. Being seen as not an actual threat was their best advantage, and Irelyn was very aware of just how beneficial it could be.
Either way, saying too much in front of those people, probably unconscious or not, was a bad idea. It was better to assume they had some ability to hear more than expected. Then it would be harder to be unpleasantly surprised. Avoiding as many unpleasant surprises as possible when it came to dealing with Touched, Touched-Tech, and anything adjacent to that had been one of the most important things she’d learned over so many years. Even if it didn’t always work, as well evidenced by--well, her life over these weeks, really.
As soon as she was certain the other girl understood what she was trying to get across, Irelyn turned and jumped away once more. She would have to make this quick. The idea of leaving any of them alone was enough to make her stomach roll, but it couldn’t be helped. The sooner she could grab the other two, jump them back here, and get everyone on their way with their new vehicles the better. They needed to put some distance between themselves and their pursuers, and get to the Adherents’ entrance portal to make sure they knew what was going on.
In quick succession, she brought Paige and Haley back over to join Sierra by the vehicles. The other girl had been busy in those few moments, apparently, informing them that she had searched those vehicles and removed the GPS tracking devices that would have allowed their pursuers to find them the moment they figured out what the four had done. While she was at it, the girl had also disabled anything that might have allowed the vehicles to be turned off or controlled from a distance. She even managed to avoid saying anything about using her Biolem tech to do so out loud.
“Great,” Haley announced as she stepped to one of the bikes. “Now can we get moving already? I'd like to warn those people before it all ends up being a moot point because we took so long that the fuckers found them the old-fashioned way. Or, you know, they all died of old age.”
Haley… she was here. She'd come back after all that time. Even more surprising, she hadn't left right after Irelyn woke up. She was still here, and had even come on vacation with them. And apparently it was a good thing she had. Otherwise, they would've had no idea what was happening. Though to be fair, Irelyn was pretty sure they could have worked out that these people were the bad guys even if they didn't know the details. The guy in the power armor and all his friends weren't exactly subtle in any way.
While Sierra started up the motorcycle she was on, Irelyn beckoned Paige to join her on one of the ATVs. It sounded like they would have a little bit before they got where they were going, and she wanted to have a chance to talk to the girl.
Granted, several frantic minutes racing on an ATV through the woods trying to stay ahead of a private army who wanted to abduct a group of tech touched for their own schemes probably wasn't the best possible time to have a conversation. But then again, she had learned a long time ago that in this sort of life, you took what you could get.
At least this time she wasn't trying to have a heart to heart with a teammate while the plane they were on was plummeting toward a mountain.
That had been an interesting fifteenth birthday.