Jorge grumbled. The sparks were burning his fingers but the man persisted. He knew that lives were counting on him to hotwire this car – well, at least one life was. He had a vague understanding of Juliette’s powers, but the most important aspect he got – she needed light. Running about the streets, collecting the attention of all those mutated individuals, it must have been exhausting work for the poor thing, which was why she had asked him to get together a light source for her.

Now Jorge was leaning behind the steering wheel of a car, trying to turn over the ignition so that he could get the lights going. She had inquired of him not long ago how it was going, that could only mean that she was going to need the source soon. With a vague notion that he had an idea, Jorge started to work on the car. Unfortunately the vehicle was being a bit more stubborn than he would have like but he persisted, of course, and he would persist until the damn thing kicked over.

He heard the shuffling and the moans but did his best to ignore them. Keeping his mind on the task at hand, he knew that Juliette must have been nearby because there were the sounds of feet everywhere. Several of the poor souls who had been altered thanks to the rip were gathering around the car and were milling about, lashing hands out towards a single, glowing figure that ran amongst them. She was getting tired, even with a glance Jorge could see that.

Quickly he dipped down and set back to work.

>> ”Alright, Jorge, any time now,”

”Going as fast as I can…” he replied into his com. ”I’m not usually on this side of hotwiring a car.”

Twist, twist, twist, and finally he heard that roar of the engine. With a sigh of happiness, Jorge suddenly cheered for himself as he sat up straight behind the wheel and placed his hand on the signal when he stopped. Looking out through the windshield, the man paused as he suddenly spied several eyes facing towards him. The mutated people were staring in his direction, gawking as Firefly continued to dim in light. It was now or never – but wait, where was Juliette?

”Sh*t…” he grumbled.

Juliette wasn’t on the ground anymore. Ghost must have received the call, jumping into the fray. Using her abilities, she managed to lift the exhausting Juliette out of danger, keeping her up off the ground and just out of touch of the beasts. That was good of her but that also meant Juliette was out of range of the car lights. But, still, with all the individuals here, he had an idea. His hands reached up to his commlink as he contacted them again.

”Ghost. I’m in the car just below you.” he explained. ”I’m going to kick on the high beams. When I clear these people out of the way, make sure Firefly gets a fully dose.”

He waited for confirmation, then he moved. Climbing out fo the car, Jorge leaned in and quickly switched the lights ot the high beams. Immediately the monster-littered street was filled with with more moans and gasps as they turned to face the newest source of bright light. Shambling over, Jorge waited until they were close enough. Suddenly running at them, Jorge shouted, leapt, and exploding into the ground into a huge wave of water. Pulling as much water from side streets, fire hydrants, and gutters as he could, the water elemental became little more than wave, splashing through the surprised creatures, crashing against them and sweeping them off their feet.

The waters churned and knocked them down, soon they were all screaming and bobbing about as living wave pushed and carried them all into the restaurant and towards the fridge with the open door in the back. It was time to pack these bastards away until they could figure out how to save them! In the meantime, he only hoped that Juliette was getting the light she needed.

>>"I'm coming in, Firefly.”

”No, wait-” Juliette protested as she felt herself being lifted off the ground, away from both the hoard of creatures and the car that Jorge was turning on. As her feet left the pavement and she watched the objects grow smaller around her, she knew that she would be out of range of whatever Jorge was planning. She was now in the air, the creatures were dispersing, and she was out of energy. Her light form flickered off for good and felt the lack of energy hit her like a ton of bricks.

It was too late, though. Without energy, she couldn’t go back to the ground without facing all the creatures unarmed. Maybe Ghost had just saved her life, really. She wasn’t even sure if Jorge was going to come up with anything.

Communication clearly wasn’t the trio’s strong suit. Juliette needed to be back on the ground, and yet she was in the air. It definitely felt better to be floating, away from the area, but it wasn’t really beneficial to the plan. Ghost was trying to help, but it meant that they had to rethink their plan.

Jorge was already thinking. Firefly scrambled to press her communicator closer to her ear so that she could hear the instructions clearly. ”Wait, how are you going to clear them all out?” Juliette asked, furrowing her brow as she looked down at the crowd. The creatures were either shambling away or combining when they bumped into each other, and none of them looked like they’d be easy to round up. So far, the only thing that they’d actually responded to was bright light.

Bright light and a huge wave of water, that was. Juliette watched in awe as a tsunami washed over the mindless crowd and ushered them into the building that they’d planned to lead them into. That… made things much easier, actually. She’d apparently greatly underestimated Jorge’s powers, considering the fact that he’d just pulled water from the streets of New York and somehow gotten every single one of those creatures into the freezer. It looked like they were packed in pretty tight, but they were out of sight and out of mind for now.

Once she was down on the ground, Juliette could get the light that she needed. The high beams were about as much as she could hope for given the circumstances, but they were still artificial. They could only last so long if she was going to be doing that much with her power.

Her hands had migrated to her knees as she bent over slightly and thought through what exactly was going on. They had a second to reevaluate. A god-given (or Jorge-given) second. With the light being absorbed, she looked up at her teammates. ”Alright, so what’re we doing with the freezer special in there?”

Highbeams of a car. That was better than she'd managed. Ghost couldn't see light in this state, but Jorge had indicated which vehicle he was in and how much he was unfamiliar with the hot wiring process. That was still ten million times more than Ghost was familiar with the process of hot wiring a car.

"Doing great, Jorge."

Firefly clearly hadn't been on too many Jorge missions since she asked about the how. How? Ghost didn't know exactly how, but she had a sneaking suspicion the shamblers would end up soggy afterward. Jorge took care of their miniature hoard. Ghost set Firefly down in front of the car. Maya forced herself solid again, knowing that too many more state changes this close together would be bad. She wanted to be able to see and use her hands, though.

> ”Alright, so what’re we doing with the freezer special in there?”

"Call the police. They're contained as well as they're ever going to be. If the police don't have the manpower to come back and unpack them, then we'll think of something--" Maya felt something sailing through the air. Something big. Her eyes widened and she pulled out all the stops to arrest the momentum of an incoming Rav4 with a broad torrent of wind before it landed on Firefly and the high beams. Once stopped, it dropped down flat just behind the car Jorge had hot wired.

It seemed that the last conglomeration of people had found a way to form up into one humanoid shape. It still shifted and rolled in on itself, constantly improving as it stomped toward the newest and brightest light around.

"We need to let them out before the freeze." Ghost concluded her earlier thoughts in a more succinct way. "Also, at the portal I left a group of shamblers that was combining?" At the time, it had seemed to want the glow of the portal more than anything else. Now, it seemed it was time for the boss round.

It was a lot of bodies and a lot of water to move, but Jorge did what he could. Summoning the water from all around them, sewers, alleys, even ditches and broken hydrants, Jorge pushed all of it towards the horde. The waters crashed against them as the detective pushed all his force into the task, scooping them up and keeping them from wandering off. These were still people and, as dangerous as they seemed, he wasn’t about to play executioner. Instead they would be contained until they could be stopped.

The water crashing into them, Jorge then melted his body down into that of a water elemental. Flesh and bone disappearing, the man of pure liquid hurled himself into the fray, joining the rest of the water he already manipulated and taking it into himself as a giant wave of pure water. Swooping up the last stragglers, Jorge shoved all of them in through the doorway and continued to pour into the restaurant, knocking away tables, chairs, and anything else in their way.

Upon reaching the overly large fridge, Jorge turned hard, depositing each and every shambler into the walk-in, and when the last was done, he snapped hard and slammed the door closed. Firmly he locked it before the watery silhouette took a couple steps back, clearly weakened by the act. With a sigh he sloshed out of the room, making his way back out into the street and spilling once again on the concrete and into his discarded clothing.

As he filled in his cloths, he noted that Firefly was finally set down to where she could absorb the light from the trunk that he had started up. Ghost stood nearby, keeping an eye on her and Jorge was relieved to see that there were no more of the twisted creatures around. Thank goodness. His clothes filled up, Jorge reformed, flesh returning over water until the man was solid once again. He gave them both a nod that their shamblers were situated.

>>”Alright, so what’re we doing with the freezer special in there?”

>>"Call the police. They're contained as well as they're ever going to be. If the police don't have the manpower to come back and unpack them, then we'll think of something--

Jorge nodded. He was about to suggest that he would put a call into the MRC to see if they could get some wagons out here to transport these poor people to a hospital, or someplace that could look at them, but paused when a shadow filled the sky. Dodging out of the way, Jorge looked up in complete shock after a Rav 4 fell to the ground where they had once been. Snapping his attention up, Jorge saw that Ghost had taken Firefly to safety, leaving him with one very large, very misshapen monster.

”Oh you’ve GOT to be kidding me,” the man grumbled as he took a few steps back. The creature was massive and it certainly didn’t look pleased.

>>”We need to let them out before the freeze. Also, at the portal I left a group of shamblers that was combining?"

Jorge shook his head as he pulled out his handgun. He didn’t really like using it, but when it came down to public safety, he knew when the chips were down, he would have to make the tough call. He spoke back into his intercom to his teammates.

”You left that little part out, Ghost,” grumbled. ”And I don’t think he can fit into the freezer. Ideas?” Jorge could always go full elemental, match his size with the creature, but to what end? They needed a plan.

Calling the police did seem like the best course of action. Maneuvering the creatures into that fridge had been a task, and even with a recharge, it would take a lot to keep going, and they would still have to deal with all the creatures in there once the police did arrive. Were they still human? Could the damage be reversed? Would they be stuck like that? Did they still have human rights? There were too many questions to be answered. Juliette shook her head and ran a hand through her hair as her eyes bulged slightly.

Still deep in thought, she almost didn’t notice as a strong breeze rushed past her. As it nearly pushed her off her feet, though, she looked up to realize that Ghost was trying to push away a Rav4 that seemed to be falling through the air. Her mouth gaped a little as it landed behind the car and with the highbeams.

Luckily, thanks to Ghost, no one had been injured by the flying car. Still, that was far from the last thing that they were going to have to face that day. The universe would certainly not let them off with just zombie creatures and falling vehicles.

”Well s***,” Juliette cursed under her breath as a massive ball of creatures that seemed to have been absorbed into one another approached. It was like a videogame mega boss, after they’d defeated all of its minions. It looked far from please, and it was getting harder and harder to remember the fact that it had been human(s) just a few hours earlier.

MegaBoss definitely did not belong in the freezer, and it was beginning to make Juliette wonder what they would find of the individual creatures once they opened the door to that cramped room. How many of them would be stuck like that, combined into one writhing mass? Would they ever be able to separate them?

For the time being, they needed to focus on the present. They could worry about the rest of the shamblers later. ”We could…” Juliette started, trying to think out loud. Judging by the look of MegaBoss, they did not have the time to brainstorm for long. They had few options, and they needed to work quickly. ”I could try to lead it away. Right off of Manhattan and into the Hudson.” It was clearly a terrible plan, considering the fact that she didn’t even know if her power would last that long, and the police hadn’t even cleared that area, but not much else was coming to her.

Ghost flapped her hand at the sky and felt the clouds clear, but there was still no sun.

What the heck had happened to the sun? She'd expected it to come back out by now... a few hours for some weirdness? Yeah. Sure. Nature liked to freak out, but now even Maya was starting to get worried. No wonder Firefly looked like she was on her last straw. She missed it more than the rest of them combined.

"That doesn't sound like a bad plan, if we had enough light..." Maya looked around thinking things through as she did. The ground shook more and more violently as the main boss approached. It must have been the headlights that were still on. The street lamps had all flicked on, but their light was anemic since they too were solar powered. They hadn't had an entire day to charge... "We have the car battery which keeps generating power because it's running..." Maya yelped when the thing stomped hard enough to bounce her off the ground and rattle her teeth in her head. It was almost impossible to think like that.

"For now, let's try to implement Firefly's plan using the car's headlights? And maybe some Jorge prodding? I can..." The creature swiped at their small group, or maybe he was just reaching for the car. Either way Ghost inhaled and changed herself over from solid, to less than solid, but she hadn't quite been fast enough. She got knocked backwards as her body changed so when she hit the side of the building, she dissipated in a puff of smoke and the car they had been gathered in front of went right through a movie theater ticket window.

Ow.

"Rude!" Maya gathered herself back together, now standing inside a theater that reeked of old popcorn and shoes. She was too dazed to be sure of where her teammates had gone, but she sure as heck wasn't going to go solid again if she could help it.

The creature grabbed the car out from the side of the building and turned it around in its massive hand.

"Uhh. Maybe a different car then?" Maya tried to turn the creature or shove it back or something, but mostly she ended up just fanning it with swaths of air. She did manage to make it mad when it hit itself in the face with its own car, but it was already kind of mad. Maybe that was just how it felt all the time?

The creature seemed pretty interested in the car which was good since it could have chosen to pick up one of her teammates instead. At least, it seemed pretty occupied until it managed to crush the vehicle. Maya had to assume the lights went out at that point. She couldn't see that their light had been extinguished, but she could more than hear the giant scream. It reminded her of some kind of zombie King Kong toddler.

Now, that was one movie she really didn't want to go see.

Movies. Movie projectors were crazy bright! And if not that, there might be something else. Something reflective or a spotlight or a generator... Maya hit her com badge as she whooshed through the empty theater.

"I got it! Do whatever you can to get another car running! We're taking the big guy to the movies!"

Okay so things had taken a decidedly different turn. If there was one thing that Jorge was not expecting today, it was to be facing down a giant beast that seemed to be made up of several, smaller, wriggling beasts, poor citizens transformed by whatever it was that the light was bringing upon them. The dimensional void, whatever it was, it was affecting people in the worst way. While they had managed to subdue most of them, this was going to be a problem.

The towering creature immediately became their highest priority. How were they going to handle this thing? Jorge had no idea what to do and just ground his teeth trying to think of a way through it. Thankfully he wasn’t here alone…

>> ”We could…I could try to lead it away. Right off of Manhattan and into the Hudson.”

>>"That doesn't sound like a bad plan, if we had enough light...We have the car battery which keeps generating power because it's running..."

He was honestly tired of Juliette using herself as bait but it seemed like light was the only way to get these things attention. Maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad idea. If they could get the X-Woman charged up, then certainly she would be able to stay out of harm’s reach, at least until they could figure out what to do. He nodded.

”Sounds fair…”

>>"For now, let's try to implement Firefly's plan using the car's headlights? And maybe some Jorge prodding? I can..."

Jorge was about to agree when a massive hand swiped in their directions. The man’s eyes widened as he quickly jumped out of the way, rolling onto the concrete as both Ghost and Firefly dodged as well. With a groan he moved onto his knee and shook his head. He was about to condemn the creature for trying to kill them but it seemed more interested in the car it was holding than the trio of heroes who were trying to bring it down. He shook his head. Oh, he would prod it all right…

Another swipe and suddenly Ghost was gone, slamming through a nearby building and landing somewhere on the other side. Looking up, Jorge glanced over to Firefly who still seemed too low on energy and sighed. Of everywhere here, it seemed like he was going to have to keep that thing off of Firefly’s back. He turned to her.

”Stay out of it’s way for now,” he said. ”I’m going to see if I can keep it busy myself.”

Like that the flesh melted away, replaced with a surge of water. Again pulling up from all nearby sources, Jorge piled the water higher and higher onto himself so that the water effigy of the elemental was the only thing that rivaled the beast in height. The monster kept turning the car over, almost not really noticing the towering elemental that stood before him, that is until it caught sight of the limited light sparking across the water droplets that churned around the officer. With a gurgling roar, Jorge lashed out, punching at the beast, sending it stumbling backwards, dropping the car, and turning an angry glare in his direction. He had his attention now.

The beast grabbed at Jorge but could only take handfuls of water. With it so close, Jorge pushed back, sending torrents of wave forward, causing the beast to growl and hiss, stepping back several feet due to the pressure. Another firm shove and Jorge knocked it back further, making the ground shake with every heavy step. Jorge knew he couldn’t maintain this for long so he prayed that someone had an idea -- until he heard the faint crackle of a voice of his earpiece floating somewhere near his head.

>>"I got it! Do whatever you can to get another car running! We're taking the big guy to the movies!"

He nodded. He wasn’t sure what Ghost had in mind but he needed to get another car going. With another mighty shove, Jorge send the beast stumbling backwards until it fell into its back. Jorge himself collapsed, falling into a puddle that quickly spilled into his clothing and reformed into a man. Clothes over his body, he bolted to the a car and quickly broken in the window with his elbow, there was no playing nice now. Climbing in, Jorge started to hotwire a new car, growling as it struggled to turn over.

”Come on, you piece of ****,” he grumbled over and over again. The beast barely got back onto its feet when the car finally revved to life.

Well. Using the car as a light source had been a great plan right up until the point when the creature threw the car into the nearest building. It had been working so well, too. Juliette made a noise of surprise when it flew past them and smashed through the ticket window. The light on her disappeared when the car did, and the lights went out entirely as the car was picked back up by the creature. It turned it in his hand and crushed it a little, seeming to be very distracted by the object.

”Yeah, definitely a different car,” Juliette agreed, watching the scene evolve with wide eyes. If someone had told her a year ago that she would be facing a thirty foot zombie monster while on the X-Team, she could imagine that she would have laughed at that notion. There she was, though. This was her life.

Her life and the lives of two of her teammates, anyway. They now needed to find a new source of something, and probably a better plan. What they had would be alright, but she was only just charged to her normal level. She needed far more than that if she was going to be doing anything interesting that day.

>>"I got it! Do whatever you can to get another car running! We're taking the big guy to the movies!"

>>”Stay out of it’s way for now. I’m going to see if I can keep it busy myself.”

”Wait, what?” Juliette asked, flustered by the sudden movement of her two teammates. Neither of them explicitly stated what their plan was going to be, just that she was supposed to stay out of it. Ghost was covering… something, and Jorge was taking on both the creature and the car. That left… sitting and twiddling her thumbs while she waited for them to come back.

That just wouldn’t do.

Firefly turned on her heel and spotted a different car just down the way. Perhaps with two cars at once, things would go faster, or maybe they would have another distraction. Either way, it was better than sitting on her hands while everyone else did something. She raced toward the car and pried it open. Lucky for her, it seemed to be one that was left in a hurry; abandoned by people who figured that it would be faster to just run rather than to try to drive through the crowds. Whoever had been driving had just left their keys in the ignition. Perfect, since she didn’t actually know how to hotwire a car.

Juliette turned the key and drove the car forward to where Jorge already had the other one just about set up. As quickly as she could, she positioned the vehicle so that it was directly across from the other set of headlights. She scrambled out of the driver’s seat and stood outside the car, looking to see where her two teammates had ended up. With the two headlights on, there was an area of the pavement that was extremely well-lit. Now, it was just a matter of putting the pieces together.

She strode forward and stood between the two cars, absorbing the full blast of the two lights. Already, she felt stronger than she had in a good, long time. She never let herself go that far when absorbing anything, and it felt amazing. Her skin had started to glow on its own, signifying that she was nearing her limits.

The movies had prepared Ghost for something much larger in size. She was almost disappointed that technology had caught up to movie projectors. Almost. She did have to carry it.

Maya manifested into her solid state and stumbled a step into the raised platform where the projector sat. So many shifts in such a short time was less than ideal. She would need to double-triple check that her uniform was still on her body instead of in it. Still. For now she just had to power through the pin-point headache. She knew what she had to do. It wasn't going to be pleasant, but it was better unpleasant than dead.

Ghost yanked the plug out from its socket and checked that the reel was in place. The front lens was… lens-y. Oh god, this had better do something otherwise Firefly was in trouble all because she had a big dumb idea. The X-man grabbed a powerstrip and hit her com.

”I’m on my way.” She tried to coordinate exactly which way they’d gone, but understandably, her teammates were a bit busy. Ghost inhaled and pushed her power through the projector and whooshed back the way she came. She blew past the ticket booth she’d gone through to land inside, rattling the broken windows as she passed.

As it turned out, it wasn’t all that hard to find them. There were only so many things moving out here and only one thing that big. Ghost squeezed herself into the cabin of the car and dropped the movie projector into the side seat. She was familiar with this model of car, it was awesome enough to have an actual plug and, she hoped, awesome enough to have enough power to light up the mega lamp inside the projector.

”Hey.” There was no time for more than that and no space for Ghost to be solid in that space. She did her best to manipulate things with her incorporeal form.

Jorge was getting pretty tired now. This thing was massive and it was difficult to keep it held back with water. He had managed to distract it some but it seemed as if the towering beast were not going to easily be stopped. Their best option was to still get it to the bridge where, either it could get tangled in the suspension lines or it could be knocked into the water. Jorge didn’t relish the idea of harming innocent people trapped in state they didn’t have control over was...unnerving. He sighed, trying to focus on the fact that they needed to tackle one problem at a time. The most important being that they stay alive this time.

Jorge had told Firefly to stay back while he handled the beast but it seemed as if she weren’t exactly willing to do so. As Jorge fought off the monster, he heard the sounds of her battling the mammoth beast and lashed out to stop it. When he finally distracted it enough, knocking it back several yards, he finally shrunk back down to his clothes and noted that Firefly was busying herself with setting up another car. Good, twice the power is better.

Just as his own car roared to life, Jorge looked up to see that Firefly had started her own and brought it close, hitting the highbeams. He followed suit and watched as the young woman ran out, standing between the beams of light. It was a beautiful sight, really, to watch her pull in as much light as she was getting from them. Would it be enough? He hoped so, what was more important was if they had time.

>>”I’m on my way.”

Jorge was about to respond when he felt the vehicle shake underneath him. He grumbled a bit at this, turning his eyes back to the street. The lumbering monster was getting closer now, returning to the scene, probably drawn by the cars combined headlights. With a curse on his lips, the man stepped out of the car and started to pull in as much water as he could. He could feel the strain already weighing on his head, but he had to keep going. Several bursts of water followed, flying out from a makeshift line in the sand that encircled Firefly. Jorge would do his best to keep her safe while she charged up. Burst after burst of stinging water was fired, knocking the beast off balance but only slightly. Thankfully, their salvation would appear when Ghost suddenly manifested in the passenger side of the car, holding a film projector; handy.

>>”Hey.”

”Hey to you,” he said. Another burst of water and Jorge shouted to nurse. ”Firefly! Get up in the air! We’ll keep you charged up! Follow us to the bridge!” He turned back to Ghost as climbed back into the car, roared the engine. ”Can you manage that thing?” He waited for eventual chase/pursuit/fleeing to take place. This was going to be an interesting ride.

After living in New York City for a little over two years, Juliette had seen a few car chases. Usually, they were something to marvel at; misguided criminals being chased through the streets by blaring sirens. It was something to stare at, not be involved in. Now, though, as she looked between the two cars, she realized what was about to go down. Not a car chase in the traditional sense, but two cars chasing after a mutant and a giant rip monster. Average day, right?

Juliette looked down at her hands, taking in the distinct shimmering quality of her skin between the two lights. It was probably the greatest feeling ever to be that charge up. The monster didn’t look all that terrifying from her new vantage point.

She took a deep breath in and then took off in the air. She could tell that she was drawing the attention of the blob in her energy form by the way that it sort of turned the upper mass of its… body. ”That’s right, look at the pretty flying light,” she called out to it, tossing a ball of light toward it. She would lead it to the bridge, where it would disappear into the water. All she needed to do was not think about the fact that the blob used to be people.

”Alright, crew, let’s go,” she called out to the cars below her before shooting off in the direction of the bridge. She shot little blasts down at the ground as she went just to make sure that the creature wouldn’t distracted on the way over. It seemed to be working well enough since it kept the closest thing to attention that it had on her as it rolled forward in the streets. Juliette was doing her best to keep in time with the cars below her, but it was getting difficult not to want to weave her way forward and draw it even faster. She knew that if she wanted to be in the air for an any amount of time, though, she needed to keep pace with them.

Just… a little faster, though. Firefly could go just a little faster. She sped up just a little, looking back at the creature to make sure that everything was alright. She kept her eyes on it and everything was fine until… there was just a little blip. A little blip and she was suddenly a mile and a half closer to the bridge than the cars. She looked around, confused as to what had just happened. There was no logical reason for why she had travelled that far, that fast. That was something to think about for a different time, though. She needed to get back to where the cars and the creature were. She shook her head and flew back as fast as she could.

She just had to hope that she hadn’t caused any kind of issues by doing that.

> ”Can you manage that thing?”

"No, but I will anyway." Maya did her best to carefully manifest to her corporeal state. Her head immediately let her know that she should have stayed incorporeal. Too bad that wasn't an option. Maya did her best to plug this into that and that into that other that and then the car and it needed to be pointed right at Firefly.

Ah. This wouldn't have worked at all if she hadn't changed to a state where she could see her teammate. Ghost gave her the thumbs up and then hit the on switch: a satisfying toggle flip.

Cafas surprised her by showing up painted across Firefly's body. For a moment, she watched transfixed as her boo's mouth moved in silence. Guess that was a trailer for that new episode 8 of StarFight or whatever. Ghost leaned around and found the reel. As lovely as Cafas' face was, they needed max light. Ghost ripped the film from in front of the lamp and it shot out a max power, full bright white light. The car jerked and Ghost did her best to position it back on Firefly.

Teamwork. They were just gonna have to do their best with what they had.

>>”Alright, crew, let’s go,”

Jorge nodded as he glanced over to Ghost. She was busy setting up the projector so that when, finally, it was working, it managed to release a pretty massive beam of light. Impressed by her ability find a way to plug it into the car, Jorge revved the engine and looked up at Firefly. She was already taking flight and leading the massive bulk of a beast away. Now they just needed to keep up in order to ensure that the woman would stay at least somewhat charged.

And thus the chase was on. Firefly threw balls of light that immediately impacted against the hulking beast, drawing its attention. As soon as she had it, she took off, luring the beast along with it. Jorge knew then that he had to plant his foot down onto the gas pedal and shoot off after them -- which was no easy task as he was met with a litany of problems.

The most important issue was that the beast was massive. Moving around it so that could get upfront proved to be difficult but, finally, with an impressive turn, Jorge managed to pull up ahead and drove on, aiming the car so that Ghost could illuminate Firefly from the back window. Really going this fast was almost beyond the man as he normally reserved this speed for chases and those were few and far between; now it was a matter of life and death. The second problem, it would seem, was that Firefly seemed intent on pouring as much speed into her plan as possible.

With the gas pedal already pressed against the floor, he quickly reached up, tapping the earpiece in his ear to ring her up.

”Firefly! Ease up, will you? I can’t keep you and Ghost’s projector lined u--” he blinked, looked in the rearview, and suddenly the blossom of light that was Firefly had vanished. Okay, that was strange. He wanted to ring her up, to check that she was okay, but a ground shaking stomp and a roar of frustration immediately pulled his attention back. Cursing under his breath he glanced to Ghost. ”Okay. Look’s like we’re the bait now. Keep that light aimed on it.” Changing gears and revving the engine, Jorge took off again, tapping his earpiece. ”Firefly! Come in! Where are you?”

There was a stomp in the distance. That was definitely bad news. Firefly raced through the air, trying to get back to her original position with the creature and the car. Leaving them alone with it didn’t seem like something that she should do as a teammate, even if she didn’t know why she had gotten so far away in the first place. It only took a minute, since she was still close enough to see the vehicle, but the minute had the capability of being detrimental to the plan.

Not a moment too soon, she returned to the action. The creature was rolling forward angrily, its sights set on the car. Juliette swung around to get back into the creature’s eye line, and after that, it wasn’t hard to get it to want to follow her again.

Once she was back in the range of the light from the cars, Juliette started to continue. She went much slower the second time around, having no plans of whisking away again. ”Sorry about that, guys. I… sorry.” She finished with a frown. There was no good explanation for it, really. She had no idea why she had taken off like that all of a sudden and no logical explanation. It was something that she would have to look into when there wasn’t a giant beast on the loose.

The creature followed closely behind Juliette, shifting itself to be able to reach her more easily. It reached up with an arm-like appendage and attempted to swat her out of the air. Firefly swerved, just barely missing the end of the swipe. She was invulnerable, but she definitely wasn’t strong enough to compete with a giant hand coming down on her like that.

Just another half mile. That was all they needed. The river was nearly in sight. Juliette did her best to keep in time with the cars, but she wanted to get there as fast as possible. She turned to see where the cars were at, only to see that the creature had stopped following. It was no longer rolling and shifting and becoming more monstrous. Instead, it almost seemed to be… changing in a different way.

”Uh, guys? Does anyone know what’s happening now?”