Tarin Brooks. He gave up his name just like that. Hi, my name is Tarin Brooks. He must have enjoyed his time in lesser circles of hell than this. Lori repeated the name to herself in her head and tried to put one last piece of the puzzle together. "Lee Brooks is your wife?" If she wasn't she was going to feel very foolish.

It was hard to breathe through the freaking humidity. She brought her hand up toward her chest intending to grip her shirt with her hand to attempt to slow her heart. There were several problems with this movement. One being that her hand didn't work properly and two being that she wasn't wearing a shirt, only a bikini top. It was a silly time to feel stupid.

Tarin described the location of the hotel relative to their current placement in town. It sounded like a part of town she'd been to a lot, but her brain wasn't running anywhere near peak efficiency these days. If it had, she'd know they were not too far off from the bar she'd hoodwinked Pulse in, the place where his allies were thick and theirs were thin.

"Not too far." She repeated. She imagined herself pushing off from against the brick wall and walking again. Just imagining it hurt. With a big sigh and a self-reminder that one who is running for her life does not get the luxury of lounging around, she actually did make it back to her feet. Had they just kept going, would they be there by now?

Walking out from behind the bar, Lori still didn't realize that they were revisiting the site where she was cuffed to a bed post earlier this week... or was that last week? Man, she was having a bad month. If there was a bright side, the stress and torture alone probably had her drop a few pounds. And if she didn't high tail it out of the street she was going to get a heck of a whole lot flatter because there was hell on wheels, a RV that took a corner faster than even a small car should have.

The tires actually screeched and even better, Lori was pretty sure she saw the thing catch air time. Lori made sure to be well on the sidewalk before grinning like an idiot. That granny had a bee in her bonnet. The RV skid past them, screeching to a reluctant halt at a stop sign or red light or something. What Lori saw on the other side of the road wiped the smile off her face.

The bar. A car. A satellite dish. A bloody grin.

She crouched diving behind the shadow of the RV, her brain still taking in the scene and her heart racing a million miles a minute. She wasn't scared because Pulse was there, though that might have been a contributing factor. They'd brought the thing she'd been powering. Tarin and Lori might have to make a stand after all until Jacen and Lee decided to show up.

(OOC: Jacen/Lee continued from Desperate Measures.)

IC:
Jacen accelerated out of the parking lot, pushing the RV to its limits. To be honest, he hadn't known that it was possible for a vehicle of this size to go up on two wheels and then settle back down correctly but yet somehow he'd pulled it off. At any other time he might have admired his own driving skill but that sort of self appreciation would have to come later. For now he had to be focused on getting to Lori and Tarin before it was to late. Of course, there was that whole issue of traffic safety. Locking the brakes, the tired screached and left a trail of rubber on the cement as the vehicle came to a sudden stop at the traffic light.

"Damn, damn, damn, damn!" Jacen cursed over and over under his breath as he waited for the light to finally go green. Of all the times for him to be without his siren and lights it had to be today. Even though technically it would have been illegal for him to bring his mobile lights and siren down to Florida, he was really wishing he had gone ahead and done it. There was no reason why he should have to abide by normal traffic laws. Not in a situation like this!

His eyes were focused on the glowing beacons up above the road, food tensed on the brake pedal as it waited to spring into action on the accelerator. Tarin and Lori were out there somewhere and if they didn't arrive in time, who knew what the hell was goign to happen.

Finally some of his automatic actions kicked in, and Jacen found himself glancing in the mirrors to make sure everything was clear around him. He didn't want to injure any innocents on his way to save others after all. Lifting his gaze back up to the red light Jacen suddenly paused.

"What the..." He muttered as he glanced back over into his right, side view mirror. Was that? Could it really be? Was he sure? "Tell your friend to check her connection. I think they're closer than we thought!" Jacen called back to Lee as he put the RV in reverse and slammed on the accelerator. Slowly at first but with ever increasing speed the vehicle moved backward before he hit the brakes, stopping right in front of the pair he was sure had to be who they were looking for.

Faster than Jacen would have thought possible the vehicle was put into park and he was over the center console and out the passenger side door. Freezing as soon as his feet touched sidewalk, Jacen stood silently as he gave both Tarin and Lori and quick once over.

"Damn it Lori... you could have just called."

Tarin nodded, giving Lori what must have been a strange look when she asked if Lee was his wife. “Yeah…that Pulse is a special kind of bastard. We had to switch places…managed to convince him that I was the adapted. Luckily Jacen played along long enough for us to pull it off.” It couldn’t have been that long since that had happened…it seemed like it though.

As they stood by the wall, hiding and resting, Tarin took a quick physical inventory. His head hurt something fierce, but that was to be expected considering the several punches he’d taken to it earlier in the van ride. Everything else really seemed okay. That was nice for a change. The headache wasn’t really that bad, either. Tarin figured his legs would hurt later from the running….

Tarin realized he was mentally rambling when Lori spoke again and he noticed that he’d been staring completely off into space. Yeah, because these were the situations a person wanted to be oblivious to the world in.

Tires screeched, and Tarin wondered if he’d been hit in the head harder than he’d originally thought. There was an RV screaming down the road towards them. He looked at Lori, who was grinning and Janice who…suddenly disappeared as the huge thing rolled by. “Uh….” Tarin said, as she reappeared a few moments later. “I think that might be our ride…”

Someone in the RV must have realized the same thing, because a moment later back-up lights came on and the huge vehicle squealed its way backwards, effectively cutting off the vehicle on the other side of the road from view.

The door to the RV slammed open and out climbed Jacen who gave Lori and Tarin a quick once-over before speaking. Tarin had to roll his eyes as he walked past the other man and up the steps, hoping that Lee was in the camper, “Chat later…we left some angry bad guys about a half-mile away.” Tarin paused and looked at Lori’s suit-jacket covered arms, “Besides, for some reason I don’t think anything you have to say is going to make her feel worse.”

As they made their way into the RV, Lee situated herself as far at the back of the vehicle as she could. And was rather glad that she was sitting as Jacen tore out of the parking lot faster than she would have expected such a large vehicle to be able to go. After that, Lee made sure to not actually look out the windows. That way, she could pretend that they weren't actually driving as fast as they were.

At least, she had been able to pretend that until Jacen brought them to a screeching halt. So suddenly that Lee was almost thrown forward out of her seat and onto the floor. Lee was just getting settled back into her seat, looking around for a handhold with how Jacen was driving, when she heard his voice calling back to her.

They were closer than they had thought? Looking up, Lee looked over at the spirit, who nodded to her. "Yup, that's them," she said, even as Lee felt Jacen starting to reverse the RV.

Before she had even realized the RV had come to a complete stop, Lee saw Jacen hopping over to the passenger side door and hurrying outside. She followed his lead, but before she got outside, she saw Tarin climbing up the steps to join her.

As she stepped up in front of Tarin, Lee felt her siphoning disappear; Jacen was right outside the RV. Then she reached up and hit her husband's shoulder. "What the hell did you think you were doing?" She asked, the worry and fear she had been feeling clearly evident in her voice. As well as concern as she saw the swelling on his face.

Then her arms reached up, wrapping around Tarin's neck as she hugged him. "Don't you ever do anything like that again," Lee continued, the side of her face pressing against Tarin's shoulder as she hugged him. "You hear me?"

Finally stepping back, Lee looked outside over Tarin's shoulder to see Jacen standing there with a blond who was wearing Tarin's jacket. That normally would have bothered Lee, except the woman didn't look to be in very good shape.

"So come on, let's get going then," Lee said, pulling Tarin by the hand out of the doorway so that Lori could follow him inside.

Lucky for Lori, the bad guys on the other side of the street were just as surprised to see her as she was to see them. They were especially surprised when the RV backed up between them, effectively cutting off direct visual contact. Lori wobbled a bit but straightened her knees and looked around dizzily for Tarin. He answered her question without even being asked. "“Uh… I think that might be our ride…”

True enough, Jacen was popping out the side door closest to her. He paused for a second and shock registered on her face. The bad guys were right across the street and the thing they wanted most, a real live adapted ripe for the kill, was just walking right out into the open.

"Damn it Lori... you could have just called."

“Chat later…we left some angry bad guys about a half-mile away.”

"Try across the street." Lori interjected into the slight pause in Tarin's speech. Her voice was deep and ragged sounding, the only bit of voice left after near constant shouting and screaming. Yeah. They were across the street. It was hard to focus on that fact when all she wanted to do was be held. Lori was going to have to buy Tarin flowers or something. Of all the things Lori thought she was facing right now, a pissed of Jacen was not what she was prepared to face.

“Besides, for some reason I don’t think anything you have to say is going to make her feel worse.” Flowers... or a puppy. She could afford to buy Tarin a puppy. The man disappeared into the RV and suddenly it was just Jacen and Lori standing on the sidewalk. Not an improvement.

"They're..." She made the mistake of taking a step forward as she tried to urge him to not be here. Stepping forward was stepping across that magical, invisible line that separated those with mutations from their power. Her eyes became surprised when the rest of her words died in her throat. Talk about weak, separating herself from her power was separating herself from the energy that was animating her body. What had been slight vertigo was now the concrete sidewalk rushing upward to meet her. Her eyes became unfocused and any and all thought processes ceased.

She was breathing. Her heart was beating. Her vital organs continued to churn away as per their duty. But without the natural energy her body usually got from food and drink, walking into Jacen's field made her essentially catatonic, eyes open but sightless. She was as weak as she would have been had she been normal.

Meanwhile, across the street Pulse was getting the machine ready. Hooked into the outside outlet, it wouldn't be as powerful as it had been hooked up to the girl. Sure, they had to keep moving while using her, but her output was insane comparatively. As it was now, they could only hope for a focused beam, one single straightforward line of radiation.

"I know you're over there, Adapted." Hearing Pulse's voice was enough to know that he was smiling. The Adapted's two friends in the RV were outside of the null range and Pulse worked to speed their racing hearts. Foreplay. It was all just foreplay leading up to a grand finale. Pulse nodded to the two beside him and they fanned out, approaching the RV from either side.

Blood ran down Pulse's forehead from a cut on his scalp. It dribbled down around his eye, swerving around his twisted, smiling mouth and ended by dripping off his chin. He had no hands to wipe it off. His hands were at the back of the dish, helping him focus his power there. "Give us our battery and we can kill you and your friends quickly. But really, I hope you try to remain brave. Makes it more fun. Always so much more entertaining to break someone strong. The weaklings fold and cry and snivel, but the brave ones, you guys with training... you almost demand that we hurt you..." He had especially enjoyed his time with the battery girl, the Adapted's partner. Coiling those wires with loving and tender care around her arms and knowing what would happen to her was a joy. She had even commented that it'd work better if he coiled them closer together, no doubt she had been trying to buy more time for her back up to arrive.

It was that or the truth drugs. Those had made her chatty. Not about helpful things, usually, but it had made her start lecturing on the finer points of her power rather than give up her adapted partner. That was what had prompted the idea that she could help their machine work and she'd chatted casually about the theory that would help them use her as they did. He grinned all the more. She was probably regretting that now.

"I can find the resonant frequency of your heart or brain and it would be fun to see them pop, but I would much rather find the frequency your adaptation works at so we can make you as helpless as you make us. That way, we can kill your back up at our leisure... one by one right in front of your eyes." That was a bluff. They had yet to hit that perfect frequency, but Pulse was hopeful. If they could ever manage to take another one alive, they'd find it.

The machine was the most brilliant thing their organization had managed. I was a simple idea. A small motor provided a vibration that Pulse could modulate the frequency of. The vibration's frequency was translated into a beam of radiation that carried those vibrations further than he ever could. It essentially made Pulse's power Adapted-proof, changing it from a mutant power into something ordinary enough to pass through an Adapted's field.

The problem was that it took finesse to find the perfect resonant frequency of anything, but they had a head start. Research told them that somewhere between 1 Hertz and 20 Hertz was the resonant frequency of the brain and they'd found, through experimentation, a frequency that gave Adapted's a real bloody headache. It was how they'd been finding them lately. They cruised around the state and when they saw someone drop to their knees in mind numbing pain, gripping their head... well, it had to be one them. And for Pulse, it was an us or them situation. He'd see that mutants stayed at the top of the evolutionary chain.

Pulse waved the beam back and forth across the RV hoping to hit the Adapted. It wouldn't give any of his mutant pals headaches. Just the Adapted.

((OOC: feel free to make up with the other two bad guys can do/what they are doing.))

Tarin's words made sense but just for at least this brief moment Jacen wanted to be petty. Lori had hurt him more than any woman he'd ever met and then had the audacity to come down to Florida and open up a can of worms that he thoughts was completely sealed. Maybe he had been stupid to even come down and help her but he knew that his conscience would have torn him up if he hadn't come. No, instead he would just have to be ticked at her forcing him to come.

Unfortunately, Jacen's moment of pettiness was over in a matter of seconds when Lori stepped into his field and then collapsed from a complete lack of energy. Taking a step or two toward her, Jacen's head suddenly exploded in pain that sent him collapsing to the ground right next to Lori. Before he could even realize what had happened the pain was gone, only to reappear seconds later as Pulse turned the dish, waving the beam across the area yet again. The pain was so intense that there wasn't even time to cry out in protest. All he could do was feel his muscles tense and spasm before relaxing as the pain disappeared.

If there had been enough time between waves Jacen would have been cursing. Yes, he would have been cursing up a storm if Pulse would just give him some sort of rest. Thanks to the RV that was blocking him from sight the mutant was never able to focus the beam directly on Jacen but the frequent waves back and forth were more than enough to keep him out of commission for the time being.

His eyes were getting blurry as yet another wave of pain slammed into his mind and all thought was lost. How was he supposed to come up with a plan when he could even think? He had at most two or three seconds between headaches and that wasn't going to be nearly enough... was it? The ability to formulate intricate plans was lost, but basic survival instincts would definitely fully functional. Rolling across the ground, Jacen finally let out a groan as pain rocked his brain once more but he continued moving. Rolling off the curb, onto the street, and under the RV. He didn't know if it was far enough away that Lori would get her strength back, he didn't know if it was putting him at an angle where Pulse could see him, he didn't even know if his aura would now be protecting Lee & Tarin. All he knew was that he had to do something and until he had a little bit of a longer respite... this was all he could manage.

Lee was on the RV…and she reacted…well, pretty much exactly how Tarin had expected her to react. It couldn’t exactly be called physical violence when she swatted him in the shoulder, especially considering the way that she snuggled into the same shoulder when she was done; but Lee wasn’t happy.

“I was making sure that the most qualified person, and lead that we had didn’t end up in a body bag before the night was over. It was a calculated risk…no different from yours. Besides, I’m fine.” And honestly…he was. It was strange because things like this had a tendency to turn into total shit shows where he and Lee were concerned. At this point everything was going far too easily.

Lee broke their contact and pulled him out of the doorway so that they could get the hell out of Dodge, and Jacen moved towards Lori. Then all hell broke loose. Tarin’s pulse jumped sporadically in such a lurch that later on he’d swear that he’d had to swallow his heart from where it had leaped into his throat. That wasn’t natural…it also meant that Pulse was back.

Tarin stumbled and grabbed the handle that was supposed to help old women get up the stairs and into the RV, Tarin could feel it, the extra strain…the amount of effort it was taking his heart just to pump. Vaguely as he looked outside, Tarin could see both Lori and Jacen on the ground, then he turned and stumbled back into the RV. Lee was down too.

“Janice…” he gasped…”You gotta take Pulse out…” his vision was starting to blur, and Tarin clutched at his chest in a similar way he’d seen from spirits who had died from massive heart attacks.

Then it stopped. Unfortunately, Janice disappeared. Tarin turned, still gasping for air as his heart raced and he pulled himself around to look outside. Jacen was gone, and Lori was still on the ground. Somehow he and Lee were in Jacen’s field though.

The bad guys were still coming though…Tarin’s breathing was slowly steadily, but he knew that the second he left the adapted’s field, Pulse would start up again. They needed a distraction. Big time.

“Lee!” Tarin gasped out, “What the hell are we going to do?”

Just then, a hulking form made its way around the front of the RV and right in front of the open door. The guy was heading right for Lori. Tarin acted before he thought.

Up he pushed himself, launching out of hte RV and straight into the thug. Down they went, somehow still in Jacen's field. Tarin just hoped the element of surprise would be enough as he swung hard at the man's face, connecting a solid punch...this thug was no sloud, though...it was going to be a fight.

Lee didn't like the fact that what Tarin told her was so logical. Did it matter that it was the best idea at the time, that it was a calculated risk just like hers had been? No, because Lee had felt what Pulse was able to do to her heart while she had been in the room, and Lee knew that Tarin had given him much more reason to make the guy angry.

Plus, she had been so worried the whole time that he had been gone.

As she was pulling Tarin further into the RV, giving Jacen and Lori room to get into the vehicle themselves, Lee felt her pulse quicken. The intense pounding in her chest caused Lee's breath to catch in her throat. Tarin was stumbling, his hand groping for a railing by the steps into the RV. Lee only managed to keep upright for a few seconds longer than that. Her hand grabbing at her chest, breathing becoming increasingly difficult, Lee leaned over onto the nearby counter in the back of the RV.

She needed to move, she needed to get to Pulse, to take him out, but at that moment Lee couldn't seem to straighten up. And without being able to straighten her body, she wasn't going to be able to make it out of the RV.

And then it stopped, just as suddenly as it it started. Lee's heart was still pounding, but it was slowing down to a much more regular rhythm. And, Lee noticed, she was once again not siphoning from Tarin, despite the fact that he was more than close enough for her to be.

"How should I know?" Lee replied to Tarin, who was still gasping for his breath as he was recovering. Outside Jacen's field, she was at Pulse's mercy, yet in it, she didn't have the strength to be able to fight. What the hell were they supposed to do?

Before she knew it, Tarin was jumping out of the RV door, and Lee's eyes widened. What the hell was he doing? Rushing forward, Lee saw her husband connect with another man, the two of them falling to the ground. And Tarin was punching him.

But what else Lee saw really worried her. There was another man coming around the vehicle from the other direction. What was she supposed to do? The guy had almost a foot on her, and quite a bit more weight judging by the muscles. As long as she was still within Jacen's field, Lee knew that she stood absolutely no chance. And since she couldn't see Jacen at all, she had no idea where that field would extend to.

He was heading over to Lori, though, who was laying on the sidewalk, still wearing Tarin's jacket. The man was getting closer to Lori, though. She was going to have to risk something since the other woman didn't look to be in any condition to deal with the threat on her own at that moment.

This was definitely a double edged sword, though. Lee hoped that she'd be outside Jacen's field before she reached this man so she could deal with him, but doing so would put her back in Pulse's range as well. Taking a slightly shaky breath, Lee stepped out of the RV and ran toward the man, almost stumbling as she stepped out of the field and was hit by the energy she was siphoning combined with her heart rate starting to increase almost at once.

But Lee kept her feet and kept moving, quicker now that she was actually able to access the energy she had, and the next second she was right behind the man. Reaching up, Lee grabbed him by the back of his neck, squeezing her hand slightly, while her foot came out to trip him in the middle of the step he was taking.

The moment she had felt her hand touching his skin, Lee was siphoning as quickly as she possibly could. Keeping her one hand on the guy's neck, Lee planted her knee in the middle of his back while her other hand went to the small of his back, slipping under the shirt for more direct skin contact. It also helped hold the guy down while he still had a bit of fight left in him.

But once Lee had him on the ground, she wasn't worried about being able to knock this guy out of action. That was no problem. Lee was, however, worried about being able to get back into Jacen's field while she was still able to. Her heart was beating harder and harder by the second, growing more and more painful.

Lori lay on the sidewalk oblivious to the hands that reached for her and the hands that defended her. This was her first real rest in some time. Her body ached for it and even if the Adapted's field were to pull away, it probably would not be enough to immediately rouse her.

Pulse continued to wave his dish at about hip level. Dividing his attentions between keeping his enemies scared into the Adapted's field and working the machine meant that he completely missed the movement beneath the RV.

Jacen had ducked beneath his sweeping ray and the only indication that it wasn't working any more was the lack of screaming. Pulse did enjoy a good scream. Male or Female, a scream of pure, unadulterated agony was practically bliss. Almost as good as that last, frantic squeeze of a heart. Like the heart he was churning now...

The pounding was beginning to settle down and Jacen suddenly found himself able to think once again. A quick glance back showed that Lori still seemed to be unconscious on the sidewalk while Tarin and Lee were apparently facing off against some of the goons they had met earlier. Turning his head back around, Jacen focused in the direction that Pulse's voice had been coming from earlier. Thanks to the RV above him he couldn't see the whole man but he could deffinately make out the pair of feet that currently stood on the sidewalk across from him.

"I may not know exactly what the hell an adapted is or who he's talking about," Jacen muttered to himself as he slowly rotated the sub machine gun that had settled on his back so that in a few moments that straps now held it on his ches, "But I do know how to remove a terrorist."

With only the room available under the RV, it would have been almost impossible for Jacen to get the weapons sling off of his body which meant that aiming with this shot would be difficult. At the moment though, he really didn't care. The UMP had the capability of full automatic fire and it had a full clip. What more could he ask for?

Pointing the weapon in the direction of those dastardly feet, Jacen couldn't help but smile ever so slightly as he pulled the trigger. A slight sweep back and forth with his hands sent a wave of bullets flying toward their target. The sound of the gunfire was so loud in the confined space under the RV that Jacen was momentarily deafened but he saw with satisfaction as small bursts of blood appeared the second the metal objects hit his target.

"Gotcha."

The next few minutes were the adrenaline filled blur that usually accompanied a fist fight. The element of surprise had definitely been on Tarin’s side and he was landing far more punches than his opponent, despite what Tarin figured was a distinct size difference. They were rolling on the ground and Tarin assumed they were rolling in and out of Jacen’s field. It was obvious because of the way his heart leaped every time they rolled to the right.

Tarin took a solid punch to the side of his head and saw stars as the thug rolled them and pinned him, hands fisted in his shirt as the thug hit his head against the concrete while Tarin gasped for air and his heart raced. Times were getting desperate and there was no room left for a fair fight. Up Tarin brought his knee, landing a cheap shot right in the baby maker. It worked. The thug let out a strangled choke and promptly fell to one side, Tarin followed and did some punching and concrete slamming of his own until the man laid still. Only then did he check out his surroundings, his head was spinning slightly, and his arms and legs were scraped, but otherwise, he was fine.

From his vantage point on the ground, Tarin could see Jacen and understood why suddenly he and Lee had been engulfed in his field. The man was under the RV. Interesting tactic…but who was Tarin to criticize? Lee was out in the open, though, draining another thug who had came up on them. Lori was still crumpled on the ground, and while Tarin couldn’t see if she was breathing, he assumed that she was far too stubborn to die after everything else. That left Pulse, Lee was starting to stagger, probably from his powers and Tarin was moving before he realized what he was doing, pain slamming into his chest as he once again left the field.

As he moved, Tarin wondered if this was what it felt like when people had a heart attack. He didn’t make it far, the effort was too much and his blood was pumping too inefficiently. Back down to the ground he sunk, gasping for air and holding his chest…he was so close to Lee…but still so far away. Somehow they had to get to Pulse.

From the side of the RV he was on, Tarin couldn’t see the man, but a glance back under the vehicle, he could see that Jacen was moving around. A moment later, flashes of light accompanied by what could only be the chatter of gunfire illuminated the underneath of the vehicle and an agonized yell penetrated the humid night air. The pressure in his chest stopped.

The first place Tarin went was Lee, then after making sure she was alright, he made his way to Lori. Sure enough, the girl was alive. There were still noises, wails of pain from the other side of the RV, but Tarin did his best to ignore them. At this point, Jacen was more than capable of dealing with Pulse.
Tarin kneeled by Lori and reached out to shake her shoulder, fingers tingling at the little jolt that went through him. “Hey…” he said, stumbling slightly over the words to try and avoid using her name, “I think you’re done walking. I’m going to pick you up. Is that okay?”

The way Tarin saw it, Lori had ten seconds to respond. If she didn’t, he’d take that for a yes, and they’d be good to go. It didn’t take a rocket surgeon to figure out that being cut off from her power supply simply wasn’t going to work, and the last thing she needed was Lee taking energy from her. So that left Tarin. Damn it was a burden, being so smart and heroic sometimes. Five seconds….

Normally, it would have been nothing for Lee to take in the scene around her as she siphoned from the man she was holding pinned to the ground. Nothing to look around, make sure Tarin was alright, see what she might need to do as soon as she stood up.

This was different, though. She was still siphoning, that wasn't a problem, but with how Lee's heart was bounding and thumping in her chest, she was having some issues breathing properly, and she was keeping her head down as she tried to focus on that. So Lee didn't see the fact that Jacen was under the RV, and she didn't see Tarin getting his head beaten into the sidewalk.

She was done, the man was unconscious, and Lee was pulling back. One hand clutching her chest, Lee started to push herself back to her feet when she heard automatic gunfire. Jumping, her eyes wide, Lee fell back to her knees Looking around, trying to figure out where the shooting had come from, Lee saw Tarin on the ground. He was close to her, but not within reach. He was gasping for air, his hand on his chest.

And then the pressure on her heart felt like it eased up. Lee climbed back to her feet again, still gasping in air to try and catch her breath as she felt her heart rate starting to subside. And then Tarin was right there, wanting to know if she was alright. Lee nodded; at least she was as alright as she could possibly be in this situation.

But Tarin was moving again, heading over to Lori who was still laying on the ground. At least that told Lee that Tarin was alright too, he wouldn't be moving around that much if there was something really wrong with him.

A choice stream of sailor proud words echoed between the RV and the bar. A gun? No, a BIG gun. How was that fair? When it came to mutant fighting it was almost strictly done power to power... why had he thought the Adapteds had any shred of honor?

Now on the ground as well, Pulse was able to fully see Jacen's hiding place. Yeah. His ankles were gone, but if he was going out of this world, he wanted to take at least one more Adapted with him. His thick fingers scrabbled at the dish. When he had fallen, the dish had too. There was now a crack in it the size of Tallahassee.

More curse words, but he managed to get his hands in position, managed to get the dish pointed at the man under the RV who had shot his legs all to hell. Good thing he was on the ground too. Pointing up might have been too much of an effort since his ankles had practically been sliced in half. It was best to think about those things later.

Somewhere in the back of Lori's mind, she was imagining herself pushing whoever was shaking her. They deserved a good push. All she wanted was to be left alone and had she known it was his intention to pick her up, well, that would be all the more reason to shove him away hard. She hated being powerless and being picked up meant that you had no way left to defend yourself except maybe nipple pinching and biting. And some guys liked that. No. Getting picked up was the signal that it had been a very bad day and so she avoided it at all costs.

Instead of shoving those who deserved to be shoved, she lay limply like a ton of bricks. She may have been small, but with her muscle she was surprisingly heavy. She liked to call it compact. Lots of stuff crammed into a tight place. At least she was without her steel toed shoes and heavier clothes.

The scream of profanities coming from Pulse's direction was more than enough to show that Jacen's attack had done its work. Cradling the weapon to his chest the man began to slowly scoot his way along the ground in order to get out from under the RV. Off on the other side of the road he could see the other man scrambling for what looked like a miniature satellite dish. In a relatively short time he was holding it and had it pointed directly at Jacen.

The pain was immediate but nowhere near as intense as it had been moments before. Akin to something slightly less than a migraine, it was painful but not debilitating. "For that, you get to suffer." Jacen muttered under his breath before finally escaping from under the RV. Rising to his feet, he felt instant relief as he escaped the beam once again. As he walked, he slid the UMP back around so that rest at his back, hidden from the world by the light jacket he was wearing.

As he walked, Pulse scrambled to try and keep the dish trained on him but with the obvious blood loss all that was happening was a slightly wavering beam that made Jacen angrier with each step. Suddenly speeding up, he closed in and with one powerful kick sent the dish clattering away from the other man. When this whole thing began there had been thoughts of interrogating this man to find out more information about what had happened to his parents and those other families but those thoughts were gone. In their place were images of papers marked with red ink, Lori's damaged form, and the pain that filled Jacen's head only minutes before.

His face was dispassionate even though his eyes burned with inner fire as he drew his Glock and fired two quick shots into either of Pulse's knee caps. The screams and curses were immediate as he just continued to look down at the bloody form that had apparently terrorized so many people for so long.

"You like giving people a rush... do you feel one now?" Jacen asked coldly as he raised his gun and pointed it right between Pulse's eyes.

"Damn you! Damn you and all the Adapteds! No matter what you do, more of us will come! You'll never be safe!"

"We'll be safe from you."

BANG!

Lee seemed fine, but Lori definitely was not. The ten seconds had passed. Pulse was still screaming and cursing, and that meant that there could still be bad guys out there. Lori laying in the middle of the street was really the last thing that any of them needed. Not only was she exposed to danger like that, everyone would have to worry about her if a fight started up again.

“Okay then…I’m going to pick you up.” Tarin said, wincing slightly at the tingles that spread up his arm at the contact with her. Lori was heavier than she looked, though nothing that Tarin was going to have trouble handling. Up the stairs to the RV he took her and back to one of the benches that lined the vehicle. Once there, Lori got laid down, “Just chill here.” Tarin said, straightening and already making his way back to Lee. “We’ll take care of the clean up. God knows you earned the rest.”

Outside Tarin went, and once he’d gotten Lee, he peeked around the edge of the RV. The street looked clear, so he slowly and quietly made his way around, making sure Lee was sticking with him. They rounded the RV about the time that Jacen put two caps in Pulse’s knees. Tarin stopped dead in his tracks.

Jacen was a trained killer, Tarin had known that, but there was still something slightly chilling about watching someone take a life. It was obvious that’s where this was going. The gun was pointed at Pulse’s head now, and the man was talking. He wasn’t blubbering and Tarin couldn’t see what he was saying, but Jacen responded and there was another retort as the pistol discharged a round that went clean through Pusle’s head, spraying the concrete with red mist.

Tarin turned his head, the two women who’d helped them throughout the night were there, watching. Tarin nodded towards them, “He’s not going to be hurting anymore fangirls.” Tarin said softly, they nodded and turned to each other and Tarin watched as the same thing happened to them that had happened in Colombia. When it was done, he turned to Lee. “I guess that means that we just did the right thing.” He said, then turned to look back out at Jacen, hopefully he felt the same way.