It was bizarre just how persistent the mob happened to be, almost as if something or someone was compelling them forward. Skydancer had plenty of experience with those types of people who didn't particularly care for mutants, but she had never known them to get so out of control before and especially not when it was so evident the kind of physical damage she and the bug woman could do. Now was not the time to dwell on the unusual actions of the mob, however, now was the time to try and escape with her life.

The problem with the area they were currently in was that there didn't seem to be any sufficiently low ladders or bars for Skydancer to grab onto with her tubes. For that matter, she'd be satisfied with a second story barred balcony, but even that was depressingly absent. Was it too much to ask to actually get out of this situation with her skin intact?

“I’ll fly up there and lower the ladder for you. The second you get up there, I’ll pull it up. That should at least give us time to get to the top, okay?”

That was exactly what Skydancer was hoping to hear. A moment later, she spotted the ladder the bug mutant must have spotted, just out of the range of her tubes. She nodded, reserving her breath for the actual important task of breathing. Usually she was quite satisfied to be able to run rooftops and swing on her tubes, but it was days like this that she wished she wasn't tethered to the solid land as she was.

As the winged woman took to the skies, Skydancer stood there anxiously, tubes out. She could hear the mob yelling for their blood and knew that with every second that passed, they were getting closer. Her head turned rapidly, glancing between her one ally in this nightmare encounter and back again.

Almost at the exact moment the mob entered the alley, her fellow mutant managed to lower the ladder. Not spending useless effort thinking about it, Skydancer raised a tube to the bottom wrong, wrapped it around and lifted herself from the ground. A second tube brought her up even higher and, because she didn't release her grip on the first rung of the ladder, she raised it back up so the mob couldn't follow. Before she knew it, she was five or six stories above the angry crowd down below on the relative safety of an apartment rooftop.

Agnes had lowered the ladder just in time. From her vantage point, she could see the mob had turned into the alley and were running directly for the purple woman, hurling bottles, trash, whatever they had on hand. Whatever their problem was, they were not going to stop until they ripped them limb from limb or something! Agnes actually feared for both of their lives but she knew that she could not fall apart right now. She needed to focus and she needed keep herself together until they were out of harm’s way.

The ladder was lowered and the second it got within reach, the woman lashed onto it with her tubes and lifted herself up and out of the way of danger. Agnes was relief because she saw one of the mob members have the glint of something metal in their hands. Was it a knife? She could not tell from her vantage point and she didn’t want to stick around to ask.

Once the woman was up, she raised the ladder herself and kept it out of reach from all those angry people down below. They obviously did not like this and were screaming, cussing, and throwing whatever they could get their hands on. Only a couple of objects made it high enough to be a threat so Agnes ducked down. Once it seemed like they had thrown everything, both girl’s climbed.

Agnes, deciding that she didn’t want to be in the way of the purple woman, let her take the rest of the ladders that lead up to the roof of the apartment while Agnes once again took to the skies. Her wings beating fast, she flew as hard and fast she should could, trying to drown out the sounds of the angry people below. Before long, she touched down on the roof, next to the purple woman and breathed a shaky breath.

She gulped placed her hand over her chest as she tried to calm her thumping heart. Only when she had felt like it was not about to leap out of her throat did she turned back to the other woman.

“A-Are you…okay?” she whispered softly.

There was safety in height. Skydancer would probably never have true flight, not in the way her current companion had, but that didn't mean she was limited to the ground. Up high, very few people could get at her, either to bother her or to do her harm. Most people were afraid to be so far above everything because there was the constant risk of falling, but even before becoming a mutant Skydancer had never known that particular fear. This was where she belonged, not down there with the rest of them.

The higher the two of them went the more the mob down below faded away. It was more than the noise and chaos of the streets; for Skydancer there was a very real catharsis in the act as well. While it took her more effort to ascend to the clouds than it did the other woman, through use of her mutation it took her far less than a regular human. For that matter, she wasn't even certain a regular human could ascend from the outside of the building as she could. Her tubes made it possible to scale a couple stories at a time, rather than having to go through the time and effort of placing a foot upon every one of the hundreds of rungs of the ladders. Maybe she would never experience true flight, but she had the next best thing.

Only when they finally reached the top of the skyscraper did Skydancer allow herself to relax and sit, her tubes retracting back into her skin. She wasn't sure if the mob would eventually figure out how to get up from the inside of the building or if they would even bother, but she figured they at least had a little bit of time.

"I think I'm all right," Skydancer replied, her voice shaking slightly. She was shook up from the experience and not ashamed to admit it. "Are you?"

Agnes was finding a hard time catching her breath. She stood there, staring over the edge of the building and watching the tiny dots that she assumed were the mob mulling around the base of the building. A few of them were still trying to leap up and grab the ladder but many others seemed to be circling down below. Why wouldn’t they just give him? What was it about the two of them that made all these people so crazy that they wanted to kill them?

Killing them? The thought was a sobering one to Agnes and instantly made her more serious. It really did feel like they wanted to kill them, didn’t it? Those people were charging at them with absolutely everything they had and they were not stopping for anything. There was no sense or reason behind their attack except the fact that they were utterly and completely relentless. They were not going to stop until their hearts stopped beating.

Agnes suddenly had a flash back of her own parents and they type of monsters that they were. They were relentless too but they were driven at least by something that was tangible; their hatred for mutants was fueled by the fact that were completely taken over by a zealot-like fervor. These people, though, their hatred Agnes couldn’t see the source of.

She took one long sigh as she turned back to her companion. The purple woman looked just as shaken as Agnes felt…

>> "I think I'm all right…Are you?"

Agnes nodded and let her wings droop down against her back. She was already tired but she knew that they needed to keep moving. A glance over the edge again and they were still leaping for the ladder but there was a significant less number of them. Maybe the rest were already heading into the building and trying to make their way up to roof access? Agnes shuddered at the thought.

She finally nodded to the woman though, answering her question.

“I-I’m okay,” she whispered. “I just…I wish I knew what was going on. I’ve never, ever been attacked like that. They were like…wild animals! Look,” she said as she gestured over the edge. “They are still trying to grab the ladder. I think…I think we’re going to have to get on the move again soon…”

How was it that such hatred to exist in people? Why couldn't they just leave the two of them alone, who hadn't harmed anyone? Clearly her own upbringing had left her with an unfortunate naivety of the world; she whose family had always been so accepting of her mutant aunt. Maybe her family wasn't perfect, but why couldn't some people be more like them? It made no sense to hold such hatred in their hearts, no sense at all that she could see.

Suddenly Skydancer realized just how close to tears she really was. She remembered what it was like when her brother had been so brutally murdered, simply because he was related to a pair of mutants. This was like that, only worse because there were so many more of them and none of them were willing, or perhaps even capable, of listening to reason. With effort, she quashed the tears. Now was not the time for a breakdown, not when their lives were still in danger.

"Keep moving," Skydancer agreed, her voice tired. The brief rest wasn't nearly enough but what choice did she have but to keep moving? Nor did the woman with her seem to have any more energy than she did. At least Skydancer had the advantage of being a pique athlete, she had no idea what the other woman's background was or how much effort it actually took to fly.

It wasn't possible to go any higher and thus Skydancer knew she had to move across. She pointed at the building across the alley from them. Tubes out to catch her landing, she took a running start and jumped from the building she was currently on, onto the next building. One tube wrapped itself around a protruding satellite dish, causing a rather disturbing creak as the anchor barely held, and two more hit the platform, cushioning the landing for the rest of her body. She barely stopped before aiming for the next building, in hopes of getting far enough from the mob down below that by the time they made it to the rooftop the two of them would be so far away they wouldn't be able to follow.

For lack of a better term, Agnes was simply exhausted. Not only was she physically tired but emotionally she was drained after everything that had gone on. They had just ran for their lives after being attacked by a mob, but instead of ending there the mob seemed to be on some relentless hunt for them. It was taking absolutely everything that Agnes had to not lose it. She needed to keep herself focus and ready to keep moving but she was so tired. On top of that, her brain hurt with the amount of questions that she was asking herself.

Why were they doing this? Why wouldn’t they stop? Who could hate them that much? She wanted to silence the questions but they just kept coming because she honestly and truly just did not know.

She was shaken awake from her musing, though, as she turned to see the purple woman regain herself a bit to stand up straight.

>> "Keep moving,"

With that, she was off. She motioned to a building that was across the alley and leapt for it. For a second Agnes was terrified that the woman was going to kill herself but those tubes that she had sprouted out and help to not only catch her but give her a softer landing as well (where were those when she landed on her?). Agnes boldly nodded. They needed to keep moving and they could think about all the whys and hows of this situation later. For now…survival was the most necessary thing.

Upright, Agnes beat her wings fast and hard before she hovered up into the air and turned, heading straight for the woman whose name she still needed to learn. Flying over the alley, she peeked down and spied that the alley was completely empty. Their pursuers had moved on, maybe? A loud crash, though, drew her attention behind her. The roof access door from the building they had just been in was shoved inward and several people began to spill out. It was their mob. They growled and beat themselves as they saw that indeed they were too late.

Agnes quelled her fear as she flew fast, landed easily on the other roof and pressing her wings against her back. She shook her head as she looked at the opposite roof and turned back to her new companion.

“Why won’t they stop?” she asked, not really hoping for an answer. This was all just getting too weird.

Skydancer could not remember the last time she had been forced to exert herself this much or in such dire circumstances. It was one thing to train to the point of exhaustion with the end result of going to the grandest stage of them all to compete in front of the world and it was quite another to literally be running for your life. If she had to choose, she'd choose the first one every single time. Not only was it less terrifying by far, but the consequences of failure were less. No matter how bad things had seemed at the time, in the end even if she lost she'd be all right. Not so when her life was on the line.

A new shudder of fear ran through Skydancer's body when she realized that the mob hadn't been stopped by the building, but were still pursing. Why were they still pursing, what force was driving them? Was it truly that they hated mutants so much that they had lost all sense of rationality and common sense? They were in a murderous frenzy and nothing seemed to deter them from their prey, but the question was why? A question for a later time once they were safe. If they were ever to be safe again.

Another tube shot out and Skydancer jumped to the next building. It was then, she realized there was a problem. There were no other buildings in range of her tubes, no other buildings to jump onto. There were a few buildings away from the mob now, but would that actually protect them? Everything that should have prevented the angry horde from pursing had failed to do so, so why should the mere fact of having to leap buildings stand in the way now? What was driving them?

"I think I need to return to the earth." Another shudder went through Skydancer as she contemplated her next move. If the other woman, whose name she still hadn't had the chance to get, preferred to take to the skies and abandon her she wouldn't blame her. Their pursuers were like mindless storms of hatred and loathing, utterly unthinking and uncaring for anything but the deaths of those they hunted, or so it seemed to her. If this was to be the end of her, at the very least she intended to go down fighting.

Agnes continued to flee, flying through the air and quickly getting tired from exerting herself so much. Agnes was learning to love to fly but it was a slow process to get her body up to a strength that would be able to help her. She could sustain flight in bursts but extended flying tended to wear her out far quicker than she wanted to admit. Unfortunately, in her current circumstance, Agnes really did not have a choice. She needed to keep flying and she needed to survive; she would push herself until she managed to collapse.

Her question went unanswered as it was resolved that they needed to keep running. Agnes was not about to arguing with the purple skinned woman. They needed to get out of here, especially since the mob looked as if they were not going to stop coming after them any time soon.

But just as Agnes turned and made ready to follow the woman, she paused when she looked across to the other building. The mob was close to foaming at the mouth, wilding pawing at them themselves and trying to skew up their courage to attempt to leap the buildings; but past all of them, she spied one man standing behind all of them, a wild smirk on his face. For a second, Agnes figured that maybe he was just another wild mob member…until she saw that flash of green in his eyes.

He was a mutant?

A terrible shiver ran up her spine as she suddenly turned and bolted on after the woman. They needed to get out of here.

After a combination of running and flying across several building rooftops, both Agnes and the woman finally came to a stop. They peered over the edge of the alley and found that there were no more rooftops for them to exploit. They were going to have to head back down if they wanted to keep running in the direction that they were going.

>> "I think I need to return to the earth."

Agnes nodded.

“I’ll come with you,” she said boldly. “Besides, something is funny. I…I thought I saw someone in the crowd with them. I don’t recognize him but…he was smirking the whole time. His eyes…they were glowing. I think…I dunno, I think he’s controlling them something.”

Once forced to come to a halt, Skydancer could see the exhaustion in the other woman's face, a mirror of her own. She nodded in affirmation of her decision to stay and fight by her side, grateful but unable to spare the oxygen needed for words. Every ounce of remaining energy was going to be needed to get out of this situation alive and even that might not be enough. Probably would not be enough, in fact. She knew, if forced to, she could do a lot of damage to a lot of people, but a mob made up of dozens? Even with the assistance of another mutant? It didn't take a brain surgeon to see how hopeless the situation was.

..."His eyes…they were glowing. I think…I dunno, I think he’s controlling them something.”

"A mutant. That explains a lot." Skydancer studied the mob all the more carefully, trying to spot the man her only ally had mentioned. They were coming up so fast, there just wasn't enough time for anything. How was she supposed to pick out a single mutant among a horde of angry humans when the horde just wouldn't stop? They kept coming and coming, until the were mere moments out of the range of her tubes. Compared to the two of them, the raving pack of humans didn't even look winded, not like they should have.

That's when Skydancer spotted him. He was a man of moderate height and build, grinning in a rather psychotic fashion. It wasn't the grin that gave him away, however, but the district golden shine to his eyes, a shine that wasn't natural among humans. It couldn't quite be called glowing, but when the sun caught it a certain way, the golden hue seemed to jump out.

"I've got him," Skydancer stated, her eyes fixed directly upon the eyes of the offending mutant. Try to kill her and her fellow mutant by enslaving the wills of all the humans around him? He would suffer for that. Whether or not she survived the encounter, she would ensure that he suffered just as much, if not more, than he had made the two of them suffer. Then the mob was upon them.

>> "A mutant. That explains a lot."

Agnes could not forget the look on the man’s face when she had seen him with the crowd. He looked like a truly malevolent force that took the greatest pleasures in the pains that he was causing those controlled people. Whatever was going on, it was obviously that he did not mind that he was pushing these people past their limits, or that he was coming close to killing them because of it. Whatever this guy’s problem was, it was obvious that he was out for blood.

The runaway nodded, still exhausted, as she looked out over the edge of the building. It was a long way down. While she was sure that she could fly, she did not want to leave her new friend behind. On top of that, running away didn’t seem to do any good. Whatever this guy was doing to these people, they were not stopping. They were pushing themselves to extremes, to a point that Agnes was sure that they were going to suffer the consequences because of it.

She sighed as she tried to think of their next move. Maybe they could somehow get that man alone? She could not dedicate much thought to it because, before she knew it, the door to their roof was busted open and several of the rage fueled men and women collapsed onto the top. They were gasping, sweating, and many of them looked like death on two feet. But, just like before, it was obvious that they were not stopping.

The runaway gasped as she looked across them all. They were all nearly rapid with spittle rolling down their chins, eyes wide and wild, and teeth gnashing. It seemed that the longer they were pushed on like this, the more feral they became. But past all of them, Agnes saw those golden eyes.

It was him.

>> "I've got him,"

Agnes barely had time to register the words when suddenly the mob charged them. With little else to say, Agnes squeezed the woman’s shoulder for luck.

“I’ll distract them,” she said before she suddenly scooped up some fallen rocks and brick pieces from the ground. Those in hand, she beat her wings hard and fast before she took off into the air once again. Buzzing around the mob Agnes hurled rocks down to grab their attentions, and hopefully divert them away from the golden eyed man to give her friend an opening. God she hoped this will work…