Buckle Up, Kids... (Bobnap Ch. 6)

[Josh Dalton Worthington]

As the meeting comes to a close, much is running through Josh's head, but he manages to give a grin when Toni plays with his hair.

I hope we can get to Bobby in time. It's... it's my fault if we don't. I shouldn't have let them get away with him. He's also worried about the three of them going into combat together. This mission could end up being deadly. He doesn't know what he'd do if one of them was gravely injured. That's where Toni comes in, I think.

It's better not to dwell on what could happen.

As they get up from their seats, Josh keeps his gloved hand entwined with Warren's. "Hey... I'm only letting you have the keys if you promise not to hit anything on the way there." The keys tumble tantalizingly in the space between himself, Warren, and Toni. "Promise?"

The three of them make their way into the hall.

"With any luck, that dump will be deserted and it'll be a quick in and out. Of course, with our luck, it will be fully staffed." Josh rolls his eyes.

[Toni Craft]

Toni straightens and stretches as the meeting comes to a close and watches as Josh and Warren stand. She grins mischievously and keeps her eyes locked on the keys to the Vanquish as they float in front over her face.

"I'm only letting you have the keys if you promise not to hit anything on the way there. Promise?" The keys dangle tantalizingly in front of her until the temptation is too much and closes a fist around them.

"Now Josh, you should know that I never make a promise I can't keep." She gives the keys a tug, hoping that he's loosened his hold on them. "And that's exactly why I ain't promisin' squat. Now gimme." Luckily, she eventually gets the keys and the three leave the room, aiming for the garage.

"With any luck, that dump will be deserted and it'll be a quick in and out. Of course, with our luck, it will be fully staffed."

"It wouldn't be nearly as much fun without'em, now would it?" Toni leads the other two down the hall, spinning the keys on her finger. She turns around and starts walking backwards as she continues her little rant. "And I'm not gonna complain if there are a bunch of'em there either. I mean, I've got some grudges with a few of them. Some of them owe me some major mulla." Toni rubs her fingers together, indicating money. "Now what d'ya say we go do some wicked-ass driving and then kick some Brother-fucking-hood ninnies?!"

[Warren Worthington III]

Warren remains silent as he follows Toni and Josh to the car, thinking oppressive thoughts he hopes Josh isn’t picking up on. In less than an hour they’ll be fighting the Brotherhood, something he never thought he’d be doing, and rescuing one of their own.

They don’t even know exactly what they’ll be up against… of course, the big fight’s going to be at Alcatraz. All he really knows about is this Elliot character, and telepaths are Josh’s department, so really Warren’s job is simple… follow Josh’s lead, watch his back, with a little luck take the pyro who beat him up on a one-way flight.

> " I'm not gonna complain if there are a bunch of'em there either. I mean, I've got some grudges with a few of them. "

"Going to have to take a number on John, " he mutters. "Rest of them are yours, though. Now, are you going to drive this thing, or just talk about it?"

[Josh Dalton Worthington]

The three of them thread their way through the ground floor. Throughout the short trip, Josh picks up a fairly negative mood emanating from Warren. That's hardly uncommon right before a mission, though. I have the jitters myself.

<You're brooding. Everything's going to be fine - as long as we watch each other's backs, it's all good. And, y'know. We've got the Iron Maiden.> He directs this at Warren.

> Going to have to take a number on John

That's uncomfortably ominous. While it was likely he'd feel exactly the same way, the last thing they needed was Warren looking for John's head - if he was even there. Josh's bet was on the other team encountering him.

He wasn't sure, exactly, how he felt about John at the moment. The bruises he'd given weren't exactly endearing. At the same time, though, John could have turned on the heat and sent him to the burn unit at Westchester Memorial. But he didn't. And he genuinely seemed to think what he was doing was in Bobby's best interest. No real clue on that, must be weird Pyro-love-logic.

Josh backtracks and realizes what he just thought. I guess I do think they're in love. I mean, no one could fake something like that. John's not a particularly great actor, and there's no way in hell he could pretend to be all cuddly and goofy like that. His ribs give a twinge. OK. I'm still not exactly thrilled with him. In fact, in the event they did run into John, he'd throw him into a wall if he so much as blinked at either Warren or Toni.

So he stops just outside the garage for a second, and puts a hand on Warren's arm. "I appreciate you wanting to keep me safe... but please don't take any risks out there. Okay? Especially with John. He's deadly. I want all three of us to come out of this." He angles his head in Toni's direction at that.

[Warren Worthington III]

> <You're brooding. Everything's going to be fine - as long as we watch each other's backs, it's all good. And, y'know. We've got the Iron Maiden.>

She can't be everywhere at once, he thinks back. He's about to add something about how the last time Josh faced the Brotherhood, a few hours ago, he'd been beaten unconscious in a burning building... but he drops it. One way or another they will have to go in, so there's no point in bringing morale down. Besides, he hates arguing with Josh.

> "I appreciate you wanting to keep me safe... but please don't take any risks out there. Okay? Especially with John. He's deadly. I want all three of us to come out of this."

Warren nods. "Believe me, I don't intend to let any of us get hurt -- us or Bobby -- if I can help it. As for this John guy, well... he might have occasion to wish he could fly, next time I see him, but I won't do anything stupid. "

Well, not intentionally, anyway, he adds to himself. It doesn't take too much insight to realize that one reason he's so focused on payback is that it keeps him from thinking about just how over his head he is right now. OK, relax. Just focus on keeping Josh safe and we'll be fine.

As they reach the car, he remembers Josh and Toni's earlier banter about back seats and adds "So, do you want me in the car with you, or scouting on ahead? "

[Josh Dalton Worthington]

> [...] but I won't do anything stupid.

"Thank you." Josh presses a quick kiss to Warren's cheek as they arrive at the car. And what a car it is. He knows that Toni's in love with it - it's why she wanted to drive so badly.

> So, do you want me in the car with you, or scouting on ahead?

"Oooh no. If you're so keen on saving me, you've gotta be here to save me from Toni's driving, first. I'm the one with the shortest wingspan, so that means I go in the back." With waggle of his eyebrows, Josh opens the door and climbs behind the front row of seats. He catches his foot on the seatbelt and topples into position.

"...Are we there yet?" His voice is slightly muffled. Josh sits upright, looking slightly abashed. "Oops."

[Toni Craft]

Toni decidedly ignores all the emotional talk between the two and keeps reciting a reassuring mantra in her head. Get in, crack a skull or twelve, get Bob, castrate John, get out. Easy.

"Are you going to drive this thing, or just talk about it?"

"I'm not going to drive it, Josh. A car likes this can't simply be driven. It has to be coaxed and loved." Toni hit the unlock button on the key chain and the Vanquish honks in response. "Alright boys, everyone in. And keep the hot'n'heavy to a minimum will you? It's got a mighty fine interior and I don't want you two making a mess on it."

"You've gotta be here to save me from Toni's driving."

"I resent that, you know." Toni pulls open the driver's side door and step in. The suspension heaves and sags as her five hundred pound body lowers into the seat, but eventually settles. "Oh the poor baby! Both you boys'll have to sit on the other side, or else we might just end up doin' circles all the way there."

She inserts the key and pressed the start button, smiling impishly as all twelve cylinders thunder to life. "Isn't that just the most beautiful thing you've ever heard? Actually, don't answer that, cause if I get some comeback with a fluffly, schmoopy response that I really didn't need to hear, I'm gonna start plucking feathers." She points an accusing finger at Warren.

Toni snickers when Josh attempts to climb into the back seat, but ends up face first into the seat cushion. "Josh, honey, I'm a little concerned about you fightin' off the Brotherhood if you can't even get in the car without fallin' on your cranium." She smiles and turns back to the wheel and adjusts her seat. Then, hitting the garage door opener, she pops the car into first gear she waits for Warren to get in.

[Warren Worthington III]

> " A car likes this can't simply be driven. It has to be coaxed and loved… Alright boys, everyone in. And keep the hot'n'heavy to a minimum will you? "

Warren chuckles good-naturedly as he gets in the car. "Sounds like we should be telling you that, given your, um, shall we say ‘intimate’?, relationship with the Vanquish. Should we leave the two of you alone for a while after the, um, mission? You do seem to have the ‘heavy’ part down, in any event…"

He tries to suppress an amused smile as Josh falls into the car, and mostly manages it. It feels weird goofing around like this before going into a life-or-death situation, but he can’t deny he feels better now than he did coming out of the briefing.

> " Actually, don't answer that, cause if I get some comeback with a fluffly, schmoopy response that I really didn't need to hear, I'm gonna start plucking feathers. "

Warren’s eyes go comically wide as he swings his left wing away from Toni. "Now, now. Reserve those violent impulses for the, um, enemy, right? And don’t ask questions you don’t want to hear the answer to." He takes a deep breath and belts himself in. " And the morale-boosting banter is wonderful, but… shouldn’t we be going?"

[Toni Craft]

"Shouldn’t we be going?"

"Ah, ever the thinker aren't you, Warren?" Toni pulls on her seat belt, ensures that she is, in fact, in first gear, then turns to face the other two members of her team. "Now, if you boys are locked, cocked and ready to rock, I'd advise making sure that your buckled in and sitting straight because no valiant rescue would ever be complete with one of these..."

And then she lightens up on the clutch and slams down on the gas pedal. The Vanquish roars in response and all twelve cylinders thrum happily as the tires squeal and smoke.

"WOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!" Toni screams through a laugh, grinning wider with every shift of gear.

The super-powered car howls as it catches a little bit of air and seemingly flies out of the garage and into the night.

"Ha hah!! Zero to sixty in two seconds flat! You just cant beat it!" Toni is forced to yell so that Josh and Warren can hear her over the engine.

She punches the gate release and the three-mutant team rockets off Xavier grounds and out onto the main road, the Vanquish fish-tailing and the rear tires skidding.

[Josh Dalton Worthington]

> Actually, don't answer that, cause if I get some comeback with a fluffly, schmoopy response that I really didn't need to hear, I'm gonna start plucking feathers.

> And don’t ask questions you don’t want to hear the answer to.

"We are not schmoopy!" Josh fondly runs a hand along the back of Warren's head from the back seat. "And yeah, I can probably think of a couple things that beat the Vanquish in that category."

When the car hits then end of the driveway and bursts out onto Greymalkin, it lifts off the pavement again. Josh lets out a mental burst of alarm, but after a moment they're on their way and speeding to Bobby's rescue.

"Watch it, I thought your foot was made out of iron, not lead. If the cops laser us that would be awfully embarassing. Especially seeing as we're all dressed like we're travelling to some kind of kinky party..." Josh looks himself up and down for a second, snickering at the thought. "I'm not too confident on my ability to Jedi our way out of a speeding ticket, either."

[Warren Worthington III]

> " I'm not too confident on my ability to Jedi our way out of a speeding ticket, either. "

Warren grins. "You can leave that to me, if it happens… bribery is among my special talents. Besides, they’d have to catch us first, and at this rate that seems unlikely." After that, he remains mostly silent… the noise of the engine makes conversation difficult anyway. He contemplates entertaining Josh with suggestions for “things that sound better than a car engine” but he’s pretty sure his anxiety over the mission would bleed through and ruin the entertainment value. So he shuts up.

It seems to take almost no time for the Vanquish to reach the stretch of woods that surrounds the Brotherhood’s HQ, and Warren starts to unbuckle his belt when it becomes clear that Toni has no intention of stopping there. "Um… aren’t you --" The car crashes through the road railing and several small trees, barreling through the woods on its semi-ballistic way towards a large building not visible from the street.

Several armed men (or, on closer examination, the same armed man several times?) are visible near the front of the building – a few on the roof, more coming through the front door in response to some kind of alarm. The sound of bullets whinging off the car’s armor plating sets up a percussive background that culminates in a resounding climax as the car barrels right through the front door.

"Well… that’s one way in. So where’s Bobby being held?"

[Josh Dalton Worthington]

"Toni? I'm never getting into a car with you ever again. Ever." Josh gives Warren's hand a squeeze. "Here we go..."

> Well… that’s one way in. So where’s Bobby being held?

Josh piles out of the car, slightly shell-shocked from the collision, and abruptly hears the whine of an automatic weapon. "Shit!" He dives behind the rear end of the vehicle.

Muttering, he lifts a hand to his temple and concentrates briefly. Scanning the building doesn't take too much time, and before long he picks up a hint of Bobby - but it's cut off abruptly with a small giggle.

A giggle?

"I think that Elliot girl is blocking me. Bobby's here, though. I'm not sure where. Let me see if I can take care of her..." Josh's body goes a little limp as he pours his concentration into his telepathy.

He catches the distinct image of a short red-head ducking behind a corner. His astral self runs after her, the landscape oddly surreal.

<Looking for someone to play with? I'm the wrong person, babe.> Josh's mental voice sounds vaguely amused, and reverberates through the entire complex.

[Toni Craft]

"Toni? I'm never getting into a car with you ever again. Ever."

"Hell, after that stunt, I don't think I'm going to get in a car with myself ever again." Toni leans back, eyes wide at her own ability to do a (nearly) suicidal car trick. It takes a few seconds, but the bullets lodging themselves in the bullet-proof windows snaps her back to reality.

"Here we go..."

"Right, Josh? Keep me hooked in with you two." Toni looks over at Warren and Josh, then grins. "Good luck, boys!" An instant later she's smiling at them through a plate of iron.

<Woooo!> Toni rams her shoulder into the door, dislodging it from the rubble and steps out into the bullet filled carnage. <Wait a sec...> Bullets starting pinging off her body almost immediately. <These guys all look the same...kind of like googletuplets...cool!>

She turns to see Josh stumble out of the car and dive down for cover. <Need some help, darlin'?> Taking out three dupes on her way around the car, Toni took up a defensive stance, using her body to shield Josh and Warren from the fray of careening rounds. <Um...Right...now what?>

[Warren Worthington III]

> " I think that Elliot girl is blocking me. Bobby's here, though. I'm not sure where. Let me see if I can take care of her... "

Warren slides out of the car and catches Josh around the waist as he goes limp, ready to get him out of the way of any attackers. He’s reassured by Toni’s barrier-like presence, but he can hear other guards – or more of the same guard, or whatever is going on there – starting to approach from other directions. From downstairs he hears even more activity, and gunfire, and some kind of explosion… but Warren has no idea what any of it means.

> " Um...Right...now what? "

He shrugs, startled… he’d expected somebody else to be giving the orders on this mission. Josh, presumably, once he’s returned from his telepathic jaunt. " Just hold our position ‘till Josh gets back, I guess?"

[Josh Dalton Worthington]

Josh’s mind soars on the astral level, his physical form temporarily forgotten.

He looks down at his astral ‘body’. Somehow, the fact that I project myself in an X-Men uniform is hardly surprising. Josh continues to run down the blurry corridor. As he turns a corner, he smashes straight into a hastily erected wall.

<How’s the big strong boy feel about that one?> He can almost taste her glee.

<About two seconds from tracking down your real body and punching you, girl or not.> Josh narrows his eyes, and the wall disintegrates into a haze. Her disappointment is audible. He makes his way into the room.

A young girl, still in her teens, stands in the middle of it. As Josh steps into the vast space, the hallway behind him vanishes, leaving the two of them trapped together in the chamber. She glares daggers at him.

<I’m supposed to be guarding headquarters while the Boss is gone! You’re making my life difficult.> She folds her arms over her chest, piqued.

<I’m so broken up about that. Stop clouding Bobby from me, will you? You’re not going to win. My team is going to kick your ass.> Josh tries state the fact blandly, but it’s impossible to keep satisfaction out of his ‘voice’.

<Bobby, right? John’s with him right now. You have horrible timing, you know. The two of them are trying to break out past Madrox right now.> Elliot sounds perturbed, and glances at a door behind her. As if out of a cartoon, there are over a dozen locks of all varieties keeping it shut. Light pours out from the crack along the bottom. <It’s getting difficult to split my attention between you, your friends, and them.> She steps carefully in a half-circle.

John's helping Bobby escape? What the hell...? <Yeah, would you quit it? Kids shouldn’t play with guns. I don’t want Warren or Toni to get hurt.> He tries to cover his worry with sarcasm, but his shields don’t work quite the same on the astral level, and she picks up on his emotions.

<Worried about your friends? You should be… Jamie’s overwhelming them. Ooh, and the one’s special, isn’t he? Lovely. Just like John, hm?> She lets out a mental snort, and suddenly Warren and Toni’s bodies are sprawled out in the room with the two of them.

Josh sucks in a breath, and tries not to let out a shout. It’s not really them. He repeats this mantra several times internally. With any luck, the two of them were safe and sound in the real world. He bites his lip, and then decides enough is enough.

<You’ve just pushed the wrong button, bitch.> He shoves his hands forward, and Elliot lifts off the ground, slamming into the door directly behind her. With a splintering sound, it smashes wide open. Light bursts out.

As he feels Elliot sink into unconsciousness, wherever her physical body is, a few words drift weakly through astral space.

<I just wanted to keep John here, safe. The Boss is going to be furious…>

Josh feels a burst of sympathy until his gaze drops onto the simulacrums of Warren and Toni. With a shake of his head, he lets his astral presence collapse in on his physical self.

His eyes snap open, and he sends a joyous telepathic message across the complex.

<Bobby, we’re here! We’ll get to you as soon as we can, but they’ve got machine guns…> Josh imprints the message with an image of himself, Warren, and Toni.

He steadies himself on the vehicle, finding himself in Warren’s arms. “Thanks. Okay, I knocked Elliot out… let’s take care of these idiots on the way down.” Bullets spang against the car's armor plating.