Locke nodded his head at Saph, realizing that it was a major mistake. Usually this disorientation went by quick enough that he could deal with it. Then again he usually didn’t work with something so hard, at such height, and for such a length of time. He stumbled away from the wall and started following Saph, not because he approved of the violence or the idea of killing anybody, but because he was still convinced the fool was going to get himself killed. That and at this point he was completely turned around and had no clue where he came in from.

Saph was prepping himself before entering the room, and Locke wished there was something that he could do to do so. Right then he wanted something to drink, that way he could clear his mind. About the only thing he could think to prepare himself was to get more contact with the ground. Hopping behind Saph Locke started untying his hightops and peeling his socks off. Rough ground never really bothered him. “Don’t do anything stupid… more than you have so far.”

Saph raised an eyebrow as Locke stumbled. Was he hit? Nope, no blood anywhere... He was young, though... Maybe he just wasn't used to his powers yet... The older mutant shrugged. If that was the case, pushing ones self to the point of near pass out just put hair on your chest; the kid would be thanking himself later for it. He tilted his head a little as the kid took off his socks and shoes, and then shrugged. It made sense; an earth mover might want to be in contact with the stuff he was moving, right?

"So, you make people outa the ground, huh? I've seen a lot of people that can do stuff with the land beneath their feet, but they never made anything like that outa it. S'pretty impressive... So how long have you been able to do that?" He pressed against the wall next to the corridor leading into the next hall as he talked, keeping his voice down as he peeked. Gun shots echoed down the hall, and voices were beginning to become evident. A particular one caught Saph's attention... It was him, right? It bad been a while, but it sounded like the bastard... A solemn look crossed his face.

"Thanks for following me here... I'll do my best to make you we both make it out of this alive, but if I get offed you gotta get outa here as fast as you can, alright?" He looked back to the young man, and nodded slowly. Down this next hall was something that he knew he had to do... He started moving.

"Yeah, that's not all I do though. I can tell where things are. It's like.. seeing the underside of a trampoline. I know someone is there, but I can't see them," Locke explained, "That much I've been doing for almost five years. The people things are newish, less than a year." At least that was how long he'd been making them. Certainly the dirt had been clinging to him longer than that, but he had not tried anything until the strain at home nearly drove him mad.

There were people up ahead, but it seemed rather pointless to point that out to Saph, seeing as whoever they were sneaking up on had no intention of keeping quiet. Geeze they were almost as lacking in the common sense department as the man beside him. Locke wanted to roll his eyes, but doing so would probably be as bad an idea as the head shaking. On the upside without socks and shoes on he felt more rooted, more like himself. "Please tell me you're going to think before launching us in there." Saph told him that he was going to try and make sure they both got out of there alive. "You got to be kidding. I've been hanging around to make sure you don't get offed."

"I got the feeling you hadn't been doin it long... It still doesn't look natural on you, yet... Don't worry bout it, though... If you live long enough, your power starts to feel like a second skin." He was talking... Why hadn't he left yet? He knew the answer already, he just hated to think it.

He was nervous. He knew he might die; that had never really stopped him before, and it wasn't what was making him hesitate now. It was something else entirely that gave him pause... The kid spoke up, distracting him from his thoughts. "Think? Nah, That takes the fun out of it. Charging in thoughtlessly builds strong bones; a doctor told me that once." Well, a homeless man who had jumped a doctor and stolen his clothes, but was there really much of a difference? The good thing was that the kids words had worked to motivate Saph, unbeknownst to him.

He smiled widely. "You ready, kid? We are gonna round that corner, and then move straight down the hall way to the door at the end. After that we'll burst right in. You will take who ever is on the far left, You don't gotta win, you just gotta distract em long enough for me to have taken out everyone else. If you can beat em, good, all power to you... You'll move onto the next after that" As he spoke he cracked himself in the knee with his crow bar over and over, knowing that he wanted an ample amount of energy stored here... he didn't know how many people were in the room, but there were certainly a lot of firing guns...

"Wait, I got a better idea... Can you make another rock man? I wanna send him in, and let them empty their clips into him before we charge; that way they wont be armed." The gunshots were dieing down, which meant one side had won by now, or was close to it... That was good; it would make this a lot easier.

Funny how Saph said that his mutation would feel like a second skin. The guy didn’t know that Locke was in the golem, so as inexperienced as he was, the golem was already a sort of second skin. He gave the adult a nervous smile. Neither one was one hundred percent ready to charge in. Locke knew why he didn’t want to barge into a room with guns waiting for him. It was dangerous and stupid. Even more so with him being so off balanced. Which made him more than glad that Saph actually thought of what to do next.

“I can try,” Locke told Saph, “Don’t know how good it will turn out. That was my biggest one yet and the hardest to move.” Locke crouched down, placing his hands onto the ground. More contact, more ease of making the golem. The floor started to crack as the softest bits of marble made their way towards Locke. Golems always started with the hand, pulling the rest of the body up. It got stuck for a moment, forcing Locke to put more into it. Already his face had become vacant, and his body trembled as he got the rest of the golem up. It was smaller than the earlier one, and just as thin. The point though was to distract though.

And as the golem lurched its way into the room, Locke staying low and scooching towards the doorway. He still wasn’t sure how far away the golem could go before it simply fell apart. As Saph predicted and as had happened earlier, gun fire went for the one thing that it couldn’t kill. Ok, where’s someone?[/i] Locke “looked” around the room, sending the golem to the closest person. He wasn’t going to do the same thing he had in the hall, but getting back-handed by a marble fist probably would knock anyone out.

"Atta-boy." Saph patted the kid on the shoulder, and then watched patiently as he created a new marble creature. It sauntered down the short hall and toward the door. Saph went back to cracking himself in the knee cap. The tingling was up to his wrist by the time he heard a hail of gunfires and freak outs such as "What the flying #$@# is that?!" and "Shoot it, Shoot it!" Saph grinned a little as he heard the telltale click click of an empty clip, and then gripped his crowbar tightly in his hand, turning to round the corner and charge right on in.

The room was filled with surprised gangsters with empty guns, some already struggling to reload. The golem was already smacking a rock fist into a guy's chin as Saph confronted his first foe. He didn't break his stride, smacking him in the noggin just as he finished loading his clip. He fell over like sack of bricks as Saph passed and smacked another with the curved part of the crowbar, sending him to the floor, his feet over his head with a little extra added force. The gangsters were just starting to realize what exactly was going on, and three of them were already out for the count.

"What the hell?!" Saph heard a voice in the back of the room pipe in. It was him! The man was moving to escape out of a door on the other end of the room; Saph wouldn't have that. He dispatched another man with a hearty crowbar to the jaw, adding enough force to unhinge the man's jaw, and then pulled back his arm, flinging his crowbar with all of his might, plus a hefty load of extra force. It had the desired effect. With a loud THUD and a cry of pain, the man's arm was pierced, and he was pinned to the wall.

Saph turned to see a fully loaded gun in his face, and he quickly ducked, feeling and hearing a bullet whiz right over his head. The gangster probably wished very much that he hadn't missed, because a hefty blow to the groin sent him to his knees, and then a kick to the face knocked him out cold. Saph turned to the room.. Three left. He charged toward two of them, silently wondering if Locke could take out one more with his rock-man.

Fluffy was confused, which was to say that Locke was confused. Yes he could "see" a greater distance with the golem. If nothing else he had a good idea where people were standing in a room that he was unable to look into at the moment. But when he had formed the golem he had been directionally confused. Somehow he had been able to get the thing in the room. 'there was a satisfying thunk as the fist he had made the golem swing made contact. Now he just had to find someone else to knock out so that Saph would be appeased and the two could get the hell out of here.

But suddenly Saph wasn't beside him. Locke would have cursed it if he could be bothered to loose his focus. He hadn't become familiar yet with the insane man's weight distribution so when Saph entered the room that Fluffy was in, Locke had no idea where he was. The golem, at his command reached out and smacked another person. On the upside it was one of the bad guys. On the downside it was now heading for Saph.

Wham! Thuck! Pow! Smack! Thwap! The men were on the ground rolling in pain in seconds, and Saph stood above them with his hands on his hips, grinning widely; they hadn't even gotten a shot off before he'd given them the beat down. He dusted his hands, and then turned to check on the kid before he took care of the important business...

He smiled at the rock construct, and continued smiling until swung at him. He blinked as he felt his body move without him telling it to; the monster struck at his left side, and his shoulders snapped around so that it would strike the right instead. Saph stood with his back facing the golem, wondering just what the hell had happened. He had just moved on accident? He didn't matter, he ducked quickly, guessing correctly that another blow was on its way. He spun in his crouched position, reaching up to poke the golem in the skinniest point of it's body, and sending the remainder if his collected force into it; the objective being to blow it clear in half, and hopefully kill it in that way. He didn't even have time to wonder why it was attacking him.

He didn't mean to hit Saph, really. As insane and reckless as the guy was, Locke wouldn't wish him harm. A lesson in being patient and planning yes, but not for Saph to get a beat down from the marble man that Locke had made himself. Even if he were to attack Saph with Fluffy he would have aimed for the right side, so at least he would be giving the guy something to work with. Not that Locke was even sure what side he was attacking on the guy. The details of what he was doing were becoming lost as he started loosing his focus.

So it was a good thing when Saph made Fluffy explode. Not only because it meant that Locke wasn’t going to hurt him, but also because it was taking a toll on Locke. Ever since he made the second he had been shaking violently, as if the vibrations he was altering to give the marble shape and movement were actually running through him. It’s hard to think of something like a rock moving and shaking, but it did. Just not in a way that you could see or notice. Not unless you were Locke. His shirt was soaked through with sweat from the exertion, high physical, and mental strain. When the golem exploded Locke’s eyes flew open to a world of one solid blur. Lights flashed in his only good eye and he fell over, hitting his head hard.

The shaky rock monster was out of play... Which meant he stood in a room mostly devoid of action... Two people stood, him, and the man pinned to the wall. Saph slowly looked to him, and the man, who was now descending into shock cowered into the wall, trying desperately to get his bleeding arm free...

"Rus... Russel, c'mon, buddy... You don't wanna hurt me..." The man gasped as he tried to pull his arm away one more time, and the pain caused him to collapse, causing him to hang by the impaled limb. Saph did his best to keep a calm face underneath the torrent of emotions the ran beneath his skin. The man tried to get something out of him once more as he approached. "It's me... It's your pal, Crig... Don't... Don't kill me please!" He cowered deeper into the wall as Saph made it to him. He looked down at the pitiful man, and then clasped the crowbar in his hand, and yanked it free

"AAIIIIIIEEEEE" The man screamed as he fell to the floor, clutching his hand. "You're crazy, man! You goddam FREAK!" Saph couldn't hold the calm face anymore... A look of contempt flavored heavily with rage crossed his features as he grabbed the pitiful man by his collar and lifted him to his feet, slamming him against the wall, and causing him to wet himself. "Better to be a FREAK then a traitorous, backstabbing, slimy little F^$@!" The man started crying, drool slipping from his mouth, which was almost toothless, more from lack of hygiene than anything else. "Th-th-they threatened to kill me! I had no choi-"
"LIAR!" The roar could be heard from outside the large house, and was followed by a paused, and then a more calculated tone "You betrayed us to line your filthy pockets with gold... and now... now I will pass judgment."

The man's eyes widened, and he babbled incoherently as Saph flung him to the floor. Saph was glad the kid wasn't in the room; he didn't want him to see this... He slowly climbed on top of the man plopping right down on his belly with all of his weight, pushing the wind from his lungs... "OOF!...No... No!" Saph didn't respond, he simply raised his fist, and dropped it down onto the man's face...

He wasn't going to use his powers... that would be too merciful... Instead he would raise his fist again, and then drop it once more on the same place... and then again... and again... The man struggled and kicked underneath him, but he repeated the motion over and over until he was still... And then he started again until he wasn't breathing... and then he continued until his arm was so tired he couldn't bare to lift it... until his fists were so drenched in his own blood that he couldn't even open his hand...

And then he wept. Like a child, he wept.

He stood slowly after all of the deeds were done, and walked into the hallway in a daze. Locke was there, on the floor, knocked out... He smiled a little... The kid had pushed himself too far... That explained the golem attacking him... He walked over to the wall next to him, and leaned against it, sliding down it until he was sitting. "Looks like the little Earthwalker got in just a bit over his head... Like that name? Earthwalker... I figured you needed a cool one... It seemed like it would fit." He wasn't sure if the kid was listening... He didn't care... He didn't really care about anything right now.

Locke couldn’t “see” like he usually did. The usual vibrations that he picked up on and served as a way to visualize things on the left side had been dulled down, leaving him with only the slightest notion that someone had slumped down near him. Things were fuzzy, and he was unable to tell if it was because his real vision was still blurred or if it was just the decreased volume coming to him. In any case Locke was grateful for it. He didn’t even want to think about how many people had been attacked, let alone how many Saph had decided to off. Even worse was the thought that he might have badly injured someone with Fluffy.

He tried to get his body up and off the floor but Locke felt strangly heavy. Perhaps his body had turned into the marble that he’d been working with. His mouth was certainly stone dry. Everything had just been drained out of his body and it took tremendous effort to turn his aching head to actually look at who was near him. Oh good, it’s him,[/i] Locke thought when his eye could focus on Saph. The man looked incredibly distressed, which Locke found in a strange way comforting. It meant that Saph had not become a heartless killing machine, not exactly the type of person you want to be defenseless around. “Earthwalker?” he croaked, surprised that, one, the word got out of his mouth, and two, that a puff of dust didn’t come out from his lips.

It was odd how reality slowly came back to you after a surreal moment like the one the would-be super hero had just participated in. He looked down at his swollen, bloody fists, and then dropped them into his lap, staring at the wall across from him. He'd never killed someone he knew before... Well, not anyone he'd ever given a damn about, at least. He wondered if there was anyone left amongst the shooters; the sound of far off sirens told him that soon there wouldn't be, anyways.


The kid responded to him; he was awake. Saph wasn't all quite there yet, so he merely nodded slowly, and uttered a low. "Yeah..." It registered on him that they should probably leave; the cops might not be happy about two people entering a crime scene and killing and or beating up all of the criminals. He didn't move to leave, though; he was too out of it. He was just... So tired. The sirens were starting to get louder; they probably only have five or so minutes to get out of there...

Instead of leaving, tried to let his mind wander; tried not to think about how he'd just beaten a man to death with his bare hands... He felt like Cain must have felt after killing able. No... He'd known exactly what was going to happen and he'd done it anyways. He was proud of it; it was his greatest work. He hated himself for that.

Wasn't it funny how trying to not to think about something always made you think about it even more?

Sirens. Wait... Sirens? It would make sense of course for there to be police or ambulances coming since, after all, there had been a gunfight and glass shattering. What didn't make sense was why they were hanging around when someone with authority was going to be entering that building. Locke hoped that he wasn't responsible for the death of anyone, though he had no doubt that the phantom crunch he had felt when Fluffy hit whoever had broken bones, but a teenage kid laying almost motionless in a building filled with 'splodied bodies and someone as potentially mentally unbalanced as Saph was not good. At least he had an excuse to not be moving. Although he'd never been drinking, Locke was pretty sure that the headache and severe dehydration had to be what it was like to have a hangover. He wasn't moving on his own from that spot until he had something to drink. Ok, so Saph had to deal with having slaughtered people and was probably having to reconcile with that but couldn't he hold it together long enough to book it?

"Shouldn't we go?" he asked, pleased to see that his jaw and tongue were loosening up again. If only he could get his hands and his feet to stop feeling so heavy. Move![/color] he tried to command himself, seeing as it felt as if he had turned into Fluffy in a new way. To his imense satisfaction Locke noticed some finger twitches. "Saph? We need to go."

"... go?"
Like a tidal wave smashing against the shore after the water had retreated all the way to the edge of the beach, reality crashed into him without mercy. His eyes snapped up; the kid's urgent voice, the sirens, the need to get the hell out of there, they all hit him like a charging bull.

"Go!" He was up on his feet in a flash of movement, reaching down to collect Locke, who didn't seem to be able to move very well. The older mutant got him to his feet the best he could, and then supported him as much as necessary, maybe even dragging him a little as he moved toward what he hoped would be a back door. These shifty types always had a back door, right? That was what he figured Crig was going... Saph realized that they would have to pass through the room in which he had killed the man to get to that door... He hoped the kid was too zoned out to notice as he rushed through the room, and through the door Crig had been heading for... It led to a hallway with an exit at the end. Saph headed for it as quickly as he could, and used the remainder of his gathered force to kick it wide open... They were outside once more, in a back alley. "Lets get outa here..."

Minutes later they were safe, a few blocks away from the scene of the crime. Saph stood in a different alley, glancing about nervously. "So, eh... I wanted to thank you for your help. I'm sorry I got you into this mess..."

Locke never was so out of breath before in his life. And although Saph had more ore less dragged him for the first part of the run, the teen had a stitch in his side that required him to hold onto himself. Heavy breaths can be painful enough, but when your throat is dry anyone's throat instantly makes it sound as if you spent your whole life working in a coal mine. Now he was at least able to stand, or at least support his weight enough to lean against a wall while bending over, clutching his shirt with the one hand and his jeans with the other. It really seemed like he was going to be going to jail for a minute there.

At times like this being an atheist came in handy, because Locke called upon a deity as a profanity with no fear of damnation. That little nap earlier did nothing to soothe his frayed nerves. In spite of the stitch in his side that nervous laughter started escaping from him. Did he think any of this had been remotely entertaining? Not at all. He'd be seeing those brain bits and motionless bodies for weeks. Locke just needed to get something out. "Hell, make it up with a Slushee."