"Jesus, a whole bus of them?" Saph spoke into his phone, looking over at his sleeping wife as he tried to keep the volume down. They had just gotten back from their honeymoon, and he was honestly dead tired. So was Shelby, considering she'd opted to take up her fair share of the driving. He looked down at her fondly for a second, and then replied quietly.

"Yeah, I'll be there."

Minutes later he was parking his Prirus down town, popping his arm through the sleeve of his spandex suit, and grabbing his medium Crowbar, a blue painted one he'd named Lefty. He looked at his communicator to get a good bearing on where he was headed.

Someone had hijacked a tour bus, and was forcing the driver to do loops around a random series of blocks down town. They'd tried to stop him, but he seemed to have some sort of power that could disable vehicles pretty effectively. They wanted him to fly into town and stop them... He tried to explain that it didn't exactly work that way, but in the end it didn't really matter; he was the right person for the job.

So he'd walked into the danger room, used it to beat him up quickly, and then sped down here as fast as he could. He got a good idea of a good vantage point, and promptly launched himself into the sky with a huge jump. He landed atop a high-rise apartment, scanning the area for his target. He would have to get a bead on them before he tried to interject.

This was not the best decision she had ever made in her life. She thought it had been, but her opinion on it had quickly changed the moment the bus she was on started going on aggressive loops around city. This wasn't fun anymore. She wanted off!

Eisley had thought that if she dressed herself up a little and boarded a bus full of tourists, she would have access to easy pickings when it came to electronics and money. She had been right about that regard at least- Pretty much everyone on the bus had their guard down, thinking that themselves and all of their things were safe behind the sturdy metal walls of the Vehicle. It was comical really, that there were expensive cameras and phones on benches, bags left wide open. Food everywhere.

Eisley has seated herself toward the back, having already palmed a few items on the way in. Some people just made it too easy. She fiddled with a little camera for a moment before tucking it away, chewing on some gum some else had left in a front backpack pocket. It was like a supermarket in here!

Her plan since snagging the initial ticket and boarding had been to wait until the bus rolled up to its first attraction when people were more likely to be in a hurry to get off. She would have joined the crowd happily, swiping things left and right, and then parted ways as everyone filed out to see.

It would have been so easy.

"I said SHUT UP, Damnit!!"

The problem was that a guy had forced himself onto the bus at a stoplight, seeming took control of it, and was waving around a gun of some sort to keep everyone in their seats. He didn't look much better than her when she wasn't dressed up in stolen clothes, but she liked to think she didn't often have such a crazy look in her eyes like he did.

Eisley tried to sink further back in her seat but was having trouble because of the seat hog next to her. The guy ha pulled his feet up onto the bench and was passively pushing her away inch by inch.

A woman toward the front started bawling as the guy yelled nonsensical phrases and cuss words. Eisley's ears burned.

Such a bad man!

She was thrown out of her seat a second later when the bus sped up to swing around a corner, on its fifth circle around that particular block.

There it was, looping around the Jimmy's doughnuts headquarters like, well, a doughnut around its hole. The police had done a good job clearing the area, which was good considering how many close calls the bus'd had with other cars. He took quick stock of the timing and the placement of the police blockades, cursing as he saw a street they'd missed.

"Sergeant, we need a stop at 5th and bradley." He spoke over his communicator, getting a reply that they'd seen it, and were on their way. Too late, the bus swerved into that area, which happened to be rather close to where he was currently. He looked for the right timing to jump down, but missed it by a hair; the vehicle was serving too erratically. He hobbled quickly around the edge of the building to keep an eye on the bus and it's rout, quickly observing that the driver didn't seem to have his hands on the wheel...

Maybe their suspect controlled cars? It fit in place with the cop cars stalling out as soon as they got too close. He tried to count the hostages real quick as well. 20 or so on the upper level.

No telling how many were below. He was worried about this thing tipping over, especially if they spike trapped it.
"No, don't deploy strips... Too risky. Watch for now." He boosted himself over to the next rooftop. It looked they they'd found a new block to circle.

The man on the bus looked around nervously as they made it out of another potential blockade. He needed someone he could directly hold hostage. It would make it less likely that the cops would try something. He looked around at the crowd to see if he could find someone suitable. He wasn't very strong, so he would be looking for someone small, and weak.

She flopped out into the walkway in a flail of limbs.

"YOU!" The gun toting kidnapper pointed directly at Eisley.

Eisely froze mid pushing herself up and the rest of the bus froze with her. "Get up here! C'mon Hurry hurry hurry!"

The teen blinked owlishly and shook her head, before attempting to turn and crawl away to safety. Heck no! No way was she going up there!

"Hey! The guy shouted indignantly, and then all hell broke loose.

From every electronic device on the bus, long wires busted suddenly out. Heck, they even came out of the wall of the bus itself! People shrieked as the wires flailed around, forming longer and longer cords. Eisley made a strangled panicked sound when one length of wire snagged one of her ankles and she was unceremoniously dragged toward the front of the bus.

The guy had his prime hostage, a small teen in loose boys clothing who managed to look peeved and terrified at the same time. She struggled for a moment before the cords wrapped around one wrist and tethered her to a pole.

The guy cackled manically, still waving his weapon around as his black trenchcoat flapped around him in the wind. The bus was starting to speed up a little more... now well above the speed limit for the area.

Saph hadn't caught the sight of the wires attacking, but he did see the young boy being pulled into the hijacker's grasp. Had he tied him to a pole up front? That was quick. He must be skilled.

It was time to make a move. The bus was speeding up, and the barricades were having trouble coordinating their next moves. The hijacker was going to stay one step ahead of them until someone on the inside made a move. That would be him. He timed the next turn, and dove from the building, going into tunnel vision as he swooped down, meeting the path of the bus as it slowed a bit to swerve around a corner.

In his narrowed vision he undershot his goal a bit, but recovered by reaching out his crowbar an hooking the corner of the bottom level of the bus' lower level. He'd tried to take a trajectory that would give him enough cover to board unnoticed. The Superhero pulled himself up to the back door of the bus, forcing it open, and climbing in. People inside and below were panicking. He held a finger to his lip to settle them down. "Don't let him know I'm here..." He moved toward the driver's seat below first, catching sight of the driver himself, bound by wires as the steering wheel and gas peddles operated themselves... Yep, definitely his mutation.

He got to the stairs on the inside, bracing himself for a hard turn, and then climbing up to he could poke his head out from the low angle. He had to take a stock of the situation before he moved.

Eisley Thought about trying to gnaw through the wires like a rat but quickly decided against it whenever the gun swung around past her head. The guy kept one hand fisted in her jacket, holding her close enough she couldn't wiggle away, and her back turned toward the rest of the people in the bus.

As such, when a head popped up from below Eisely was the first to notice and was barely able to restrain herself from making a scene.

The guy she stole the ring from was on the bus! Was he following her? Was he a cop?! Her eyes darted to the gunman, then back to the man. From where she stood she could see just a hint of some kind of uniform on him and wracked her brain where she had seen it before. She was sure there had been some kinda pictures somewhere that looked like that, but couldn't remember where...

So focused on trying to remember, she didn't notice the gunman shaking her slightly until it became aggressive. She hadn't heard him yelling at her over the loud sounds coming from every direction. Her attention shifted back to him in a startled sort of way. His lips were moving and she could make out a few words here and there, but the rest was lost in chaos. He was holding her with her bad er toward him, and she couldn't turn her head around enough to catch what he was saying with the other.

She tried to shake her head no, that she didn't understand, but he seemed to be off on a tangent.

She turned her head back to Saph, eyes wide and gestured at the guy with her free arm wildly. She had seen what he could do in the alley, tossing boys around like they weighed nothing at all. He could just toss this guy off the bus, right?

The guy noticed though and whipped around to see what she was gesturing at. Instantly wires from all over the bus lurched for the x-man, intent on capturing and incapacitating him however possible. If they didn't catch him at the opening they would follow him into the sublevel of the bus, attacking from all sides like twisted wire tentacles.

While this was happening the bus headed for a blockade that had been set without spike strips. Both of the cop cars blocking the smaller road shifted into reverse on their own and careened out of the way as the bus passed through.

Jesus, was he really yelling his pain loudly about gas prices these days? The Masochist almost shook his head in amazement until he saw who the man was holding hostage... Wait, wasn't that the girl? The one who'd stolen his ring?

What the hell was she doing here? He glanced at the assortment of unknowing tourists and sighed. Of course. He would have done the same. The girl made eye contact with him, and reacted. His eyes widened as he shook his head, trying to get her to ignore him. Nope, the hijacker saw him. There went the element of surprise! He felt something dart at him from a surprising direction, and managed to move his crowbar so that it was in the way. A bundle of wires yanked it from his grasp, and he rolled back down the stairs, cursing under his breath. The experienced X-Man rolled as more wires scrambled after him, and then scrambled to crash through the side-door of the bus, forcing it open and swinging to the outside.

He grasped the corner of the door tightly as the bus swerved again, and he was nearly flung off. He needed to stop this soon, or someone would get hurt.

Slowly he climbed up the side of the bus, using the window ledges and the rearview mirrors as hand and footholds. He made it to a standing position with his head poking over the side of the bus and toward the back of the crazy man and his hostage when the bus suddenly swerved to a stop.

The Masochist was flung from the front of the vehicle, and spun in the air due to his reflex, landing on his right foot and stumbling to the ground. "The hell, they stopped?"

It was round that time that four men dressed in dark clothes and wearing ski masks darted into the bus, shooing out the people in the lower level so they had room for the bags of money from the bank they had just robbed.

Saph's confusion turned to surprise and anger as he realized this wasn't a normal hijacking. "@#$%..." He ran forward as the bus started moving once more, grabbing onto the door platform and crouching low to hitch a ride as the men dispersed throughout the bus, some staying down below, and some moving upstairs.

Whoops.

Well, that hadn't turned out like she had expected. The hero darted away, his crowbar remained. Lots of the wires went crazy for a bit all darting this way and that trying to get him from different areas of the bus. The wire that had snagged his weapon reeled back indignantly before tossing the crowbar away, which led it to bounce off a wall and land conveniently by Eisley's feet. The hijacker didn't seem to notice.

She pretended not to notice while the man twisted back around to shriek at the rest of the bus goers as she steadied herself against the guy with her free hand while they swerved this way and that erratically.

Suddenly they stopped. She couldn't hear the uproar of panic from below over the excited shouting of the gunman. Some of the wires flailing about shifted toward containing the rest of the passengers on the top, restraining hands onto the seats in front of them where they could be seen. The gunman finally looked down at the kid he had taken hostage, as someone else popped their head out from below, before slinging a big, heavy bag up by the empty ground at her feet.

Eisley took a gentle step back, not wanting to alert her captors to the fact that she had a big crowbar stuffed down the back of her pants and settled in the back of one shoe.

She's also stolen the gunman's wallet and was hoping to be gone before he noticed.

One more man joined them, with a big gun of his own. He started walking down the aisle checking on the passengers, looking through bags on seats and keeping an eye out for the x-man they had managed to dislodge. The bus eventually started moving again, and now that they had their haul there was no need for endless circles around blocks. They headed off in a different direction, the gunman using his power move cars out of their way right and left, while another on the inside set about using his own power to create a large purple force field around the bus as they drove.

"What's with the kid?" One man asked the trenchcoat-wearing mutant.

"Hostage! I think he's mute... couldn't ask for a better hostage!"

Eisley blinked at them from below her ballcap, wide-eyed and nervous with her lips drawn out in a flat line.

It was all a cover-up. A Red herring, and a well thought out one, too; They pulled the local police into a resource consuming attempt to baracade a mutant who made it close to impossible while others robbed a nearby bank; Once that was done they could bolt off in the other direction, with a large chunk of the local police force behind them... How would they get out of the public eye, though?

The large, glowing Force Field stuck out like a sore thumb.

No matter, they clearly didn't know that they were locked in here with him, and that meant he had an opportunity to turn the situation for the best...

He took a deep breath... This would be more difficult without his crowbar, but he would make it work. A quick peek told him two of them were on the bottom level. One was looking out the back window, while the other was counting money. Easy prey.

The door slid open, and the one in the middle counting cash didn't even notice. Saph rolled in, and flung himself forward, reaching a right palm out to cover the counter's mouth as he turned at the sudden motion. The man's eyes widened as a finger reached up and poked him in the back of the head, sending enough energy to rock his head forward, and put his lights out. He slumped to the floor as the man looking out the back turned, his eyes glowing a bright blue.

The counter's gun flew through the air and smacked him in the gut, doubling him over, and Saph was on him in no time flat, sending him reeling up with a stuff uppercut from his left hand. He stayed extended on his tippietoes for a second, and then flopped over.

The barrier around the bus suddenly went down. This was where things would get difficult. He posted at the edge of the stairs, waiting for one of the men above to check and see what was going. The two criminals he'd KO'd were slumped in seats toward the front of the bus.

The barrier dropped and suddenly everyone was on high alert. The only passengers were on the top floor now, and all of them were contained. One of the men headed for the hatch before the original guy held up and arm to stop him. Unlike before when he had been manic and shouting random things, he seemed quite... calculating now. He shook his head, not bothering to say a word as his expression spoke volumes. Behind them, one of the other passengers was ushered from his seat by helpful wire-hands and brought to the front. The Gunman leveled the gun her and nodded his chin at the stairs, a silent command for the tourist to go check it out.

Shaking, the guy stumbled over guided by the wires, dropped to his knees and leaned on over to peek at the lower level of the bus.

Meanwhile, Eisely couldn't stop herself from cautiously nudging a brick of money that had fallen from the bag back further behind her. Her eyes were darting from one captor to another, keen to the slightest hint that they would turn and look at her. Now she just needed to hook her foot under it, slowly edge it up her leg toward her tush, and she could grab it with her free hand and hide it. A brick like that would last her a while!

...Also, she was slowly running out of places to hide things.

As she was working on that, the guys were waiting for their other hostage to report back on what he was seeing. The tourist helpfully responded back in fluent Japanese, while sweating bullets.

"Ah @$%&. Who here speaks English?!" No one volunteered.

Her captor jerked her a little, capturing her attention. "Kid, go over there, peek in and tell me what you see. I'll let ya go after."

That was a lie! He was a bad man and she wouldn't believe him for a second. Still, she nodded jerkily and inched her way over as best sh coud with a huge crowbar in hr pants among a handful of other assorted things.

Eisley leaned over the stairs and peeked down, blinking into Saph's face when she noticed him there. She tilted her head when he motioned for her to keep quiet.

"What do you see, kid?!"

Uuh... what was a convincing lie? "Nothin'! Nothing there at all!" A brief pause, before she was jerked away from the opening and into the air. The teen squeaked, lifted by one arm still wrapped in wires. One gunman approached the hole with his gun drawn, intent on just open firing down into the bottom level.

It was almost too perfect, they sent a random tourist to look down at him, which was disappointing, because it would have been an opportunity to take one out, but the man just stared down at him blankly, and then started talking in some asian language to them. He smiled as they pulled him back, and lo and behold, sent the little thief girl. He could already tell she had squirreled some things away on her persons, too.

He smiled and held up a finger in an obvious shushing motion. Now, all she had to do was come up with a convincing reasoning for the shield to be down.

"Nothin'! Nothing there at all!" Aaaaayyyyup. That would do it. She was suddenly jerked away, and one of the other men stepped up to unload his gun down the stairs. Saph sighed and shook his head as this transpired, and turned his right side up, taking the bullets head on.

ow, ow ow...OW ow... And he was done. The man's eyes were wide as he screamed "I got him!", Just before a blue blur rushed past, clothes-lining him up and over the side of the bus as it went. Saph spun, his eyes darting about as he took stock on the scene. The hostages were taking cover, the girl was up in the air, the last two were on the other side of the bus.

His crowbar was sticking out of the girls pants. Really? That's what she was gonna steal? The whole @#$^ing bus was full of cash!

A stack of cash fell from her shirt. Oh... Okay, she was going for both. Fair enough. He jumped up with the assistance of the energy making his forearm tingle, and in a fluid motion grabbed the hook of his crowbar and pulled it up and out, freeing it from her, and flinging it into one of the heistees, who was leveling a sub-machine gun his way. He flew off with an honest to goodness Wilhelm scream. With a point he steered the rebounding weapon back to his feet, and grabbed it.

A few swings later, the girl was free, and it was just him, her, and the original Hijacker.

"Surrender... It's over." He stated boldly, brandishing the crowbar in his direction.

The teen swung around by one wrist, reaching up to stabilize herself and failing multiple times. She let out an indignant "HEY!" at the crowbar being swiped for her, and struggled with renewed vigor when the money fell out a few seconds later.

Now that the hero was armed again it didn't take long for the bad guys to get knocked from the bus right and left, and... then there were three.

Eisley had been released at some point, and after recovering from dropping to the ground like a sack of bricks she managed to snatch her claimed wad of money back and it was safely returned to her pants.

She backed away from the two grownups slightly, over toward the wall of the bus to watch.

"Surrender... It's over."

Stated ring man and crazy-bus-hijacker-dude stared at him blankly. His eyes darted briefly to Eisely and back.

And then the whole bus, which was still very much on the move and at concerning speeds, jerked suddenly and wires from all over moved to form a protective shield around the man.

Eisely hit the wall, but before she could stabilize herself she felt one of the tendril wires roll up from under her and she was tossed easily over the side of the moving vehicle.

Well, that wasn't predictable at all.

Saph rolled his eyes as the man pulled up a veil in defense and the girl was flung over the side. They never just gave up. With a boost of energy he tossed his crowbar straight up into the air, and dove off the side, grabbing the edge of the bus' railing. With one hand he grabbed the falling girl by the leg, and steered her toward the open door of the bus, swinging her in as gently as he could quick. His crowbar had reached its apex, and was starting to fall again.

"Grab on. Can you stop the bus? Gently?"

As he spoke he used his now free hand to point at his crowbar and steer it at where he'd just felt the man trying to flee behind his cover. The tool turned weapon arced over the barrier and flew right at him.

With that, he hopped up and sprint hobbled over to the wall, leaping over it to assess the criminal's state.

People always made it look easy screaming at the moment when something horrifying and unexpected happened. Eisely found her voice firmly lodged in her throat as she cleared the handrail and pitched backward into the open air. It didn't last long considering there was a hero right there to catch her, but it was long enough to give her a glimpse of the road zooming past below.

He snagged her leg, jolting her and her brain out of its terror stupor. It also jolted some of the things she had snatched from their secure spots on her person. She watched in a different kind of muted horror as a few cameras, wallets, and other miscellaneous items rained down on the pavement below. The brick of money slipped past her fingers as she swatted at it, joining the rest of her lost treasures below.

"Grab on. Can you stop the bus?"

"What??" She scrambled for the doorway like an upside down hampster, wanting nothing more than to be safe on solid ground again. Eisley hadn't heard what he'd said over the air whoosping past her ear.

THUNK

The bus started swerving erratically as the crowbar collected with the bad guy up above and he dropped like a sack of bricks. without him controlling itthey were definitely going to wreck if she didn't try and do something. Wobbling slightly as she stood, the teen had to crawl past the unconcious driver in his seat, grip the comically large steering wheel in comparison to her, and try and get her foot under the dash to the brakes.

They weree speeding toward a short hill, which ended at the bottom with a 3 way junction. If she tried to turn the wheel that this speed they'd probably flip. If she wasn't able to stop the bus before they hit the junction the whole bus would end up in the large pond just past the junction.

From the seat she couldn't reach, so she dropped her butt off the seat and pressed her foot to the peadle. It screeched in protest as the brakes applied, fishtailed dangerously for a bit, before evening out and starting to slow to a stop.

She wasnt sure exactly how to shift the bus into park, so she just kinda sat there panicing for a moment until she was able to wedge the drivers foot on the brake peadle.

Now that they were stopped, she needed to get the heck out of there. Cops would probably be showing up soon and if she wasn't careful she'd get caught.

More screeching tires sounded off the arrival of the police. Eisley practically threw herself to the floor and tried to come up with a second plan. They'd spot her if she tried to flee now.


WHen the first officer boarded and took stock of the situation, he would find two knocked out criminals, a bunch of bags full of money, a passed out driver still tied up in wires, and a small boy unconcious on the floor by the drivers feet. She'd gotten really good at pretending to be dead so people would leave her alone sometimes, she just needed to pretend to be dead-but-breathing right now.

Hopefully they would assume she was a normal passenger, she'd 'wake up' after they brought her on the street, pretent her mother/father had been kicked off of the sublevel a while back and then vanishthe moment they took their eyes off of her.

Aaaand, their wire flinging friend was out. Saph turned to look at the other passengers on the top of the bus. "BRACE YOURSELVES!" He screamed just as the bus skid to a sudden stop, throwing him from it, and to flipping onto his feet juuuuust outside a busy intersection. He gave a nervous glance back at the very close passing cars.

He took a deep breath and then jumped up quickly to check on the passengers as the rest of the police arrived. Some scrapes and bruises, but everything was fine. His eyes widened for a second when he thought of a major detail he'd missed. The girl!

He darted down the steps of the bus, but ran into a few officers taking stock of the situation. One was already pulling her from the bus, and another stepped in front to get a statement from him. He looked past helplessly as she disappeared from sight, and he resigned himself to doing his duty. More officers flooded the scene as he described what had happened as those injured were removed and treated.

The officer watching her gave up on trying to wake her after a moment, and left her in the area they were using for triage.