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The way Jean leans against Sam, it was a wonder that he kept her upright. Her fingers cling to his sides, her breath nearly shaky, her eyes wet with tears. Everything was slowly beginning to warp through her eyes, her vision hazy, her need to speak halted by the sudden fear that presses within her bones. "Sam.." It was turning into a Jack and Rose moment, she just couldn't stop saying his name.
But everything was quiet, the pulsing behind her lids growing in pressure, she could feel herself move, finally feel the chill of the cavern floor upon her bare feet. And as the light slowly.. slowly roams along the figure of the statue.. Jean's fingers grasp against his forearm tightly to give him a tug. "It.. It's him.. it! The.. the thing from my dreams.. it.. We.. SAM!" She was practically screaming now, attempting to drag his large frame backwards. "Please.. we have to go!"
*
For a second, it looked like Sam was itching to get a closer look at the great statue, his curiosity getting the better of him, but Jean's fear is particularly contagious here. Underground tunnels have been Sam's least favorite place to be for a long while now; it's a testament to his worry for Jean that he rushed in here at all. "Yeah," he says, a quaver in his voice. He takes a couple of steps backward after Jean, unable to take his eyes off the giant, but then turns and starts loping after her in earnest. "Let's get out of here."
It's when the boy turns around — when they're both not looking — that it happens: a subsonic rumble that shakes the ground, skittering pebbles in all directions. The sound crescendos into a scraping sound behind them, and Sam, playing rearguard, whirls with the flashlight. The beam finds the giant again, standing in the same pose as before. It's a moment before he realizes that it's also several yards closer to them than it was a second ago.
And then, with a rumble, its arm snaps into motion, bending in a herky-jerky way to reach out toward them. Sam yells in dismay and stumbles, hitting the ground with a thump and immediately scrambling backward in a desperate crabwalk.
*
Jean was ready to go, but the subsonic rumble knocked her off her feet and onto the arm that was already damaged from being trampled enough. She could feel the pain which was jarring, a hiss of breath taken as she tries to belly crawl her way forward. Sam's yell has her turning upon her bottom, her feet scrambling backwards as she immediately jerks her hand out in defense.
She even closes her eyes, for the need to be near Sam took precedence, her TK wrapping around him like a tight to drag him backwards as another blast is sent simultaneously towards the statue. Her arm reaches out, attempting to catch Sam before he gets away.. but the show of bravery (for once) was astounding.
*
Sam's hands go out from under him as Jean pulls him away from the giant; he nearly drops the flashlight in shock as her protective telekinetic arm tugs him out of the giant's path, but manages to hold on.
The petrified giant staggers back as the wave of Jean's power washes over it, but when its face crunches into motion, the expression it adopts is not one of fear, but… pleasure. A slack-jawed, toothless smile, stone eyelids sliding shut: the creature seems to be enjoying their struggles against it. When its eyelids reopen, the pits of its eyes blaze with malevolent fire.
"Young one," it says, lips not bothering to form words as its message delves straight into their minds. Having heard Sam call her name earlier, it gives the pair a malevolent smile and adds: "…Jean." Its arm again reaches out toward them — toward her — once again.
"Stay away from her, you stoney-assed piece of shit!" Sam hollers. Deafening in the cave, his power flares to life, and he rockets straight at the horrifying golem. The space between them is eaten in an instant by his mutant thrust, and the boy hits the outstretched arm headfirst. Like the devil's own drill bit, he grinds against stone, demolishing first the hand, then the forearm, shards of petrified flesh flying around the cavern.
But something's not right. Even as its own limb is shattered, dusty veins in the creature flare to life with the bright color of Sam's blast field, converging in the starburst pattern below its eyes. When Sam shears away from the destroyed arm and aims for the giant's center of mass, something unprecedented happens. The stone flesh, reinforced by Sam's own bright energies, rebuffs the rocketing teenager, who goes flying backward toward the cave mouth, blast disengaged, right over Jean's head.
*
The look that was upon her face was disgusted. All the while, she manages to crawl to her feet, her fingers splayed as she keeps her hands at the ready to unleash more telekinetic power. She didn't realize then what was happening; that it was taking her power and feeding from it..
But as he speaks to her, it shocks her to the core, her eyes wide.. her gaze falling upon Sam as she tries to rush towards the man's back to stop him from approaching. But it was no good. The noise itself was loud, the blowback from Sam's powerful, blasting hit causing her to duck just as he flies over her head, her hands outright once more to stop the descending statue from approaching and attacking, both hands put to the mission, TK pushing so hard against the golem that the green colour of her eye slowly bleeds to white.
*
Not once since his mutant power first manifested has Sam Guthrie ever encountered a material it couldn't demolish. He has smashed gaping craters in the earth, bored through solid bedrock, and torn up old-growth forest fast enough to make Paul Bunyan weep with envy. When he blasts, Sam inhabits a tissue-paper world.
But he didn't leave a scratch on that giant's torso, and its arm is already starting to reform, rubble gathering to its feet, crawling up its body, and assembling into a cobblestone limb. Drinking in Jean's efforts to hold it at bay, the giant advances, step by rumbling step.
Sam darts in, grabs Jean around the waist, and aims his head toward the cave mouth. "We're gettin' the hell outta here," he says fearfully. Then: warmth and peace. They're surrounded by Sam's blast field and out of the cave.
Behind them, the giant basks in the afterburn of Sam's flight, reaching out an already more supple hand to entwine with the fiery contrail, entangle it, drag it into himself.
With a blast of cold wind, Sam's power coughs and fails for a second, the pair dropping toward the ground. His expression even more worried than before, the boy reignites his genetic engine, aiming for the firelight of their little camp. The blast field sputters again, Sam barely able to keep it running — but then they hit the ground, kicking rock and dirt in every direction, but getting nary a scratch themselves. The field fully fails, then, Sam collapsing to the ground and curling up with a whimper of pain. There's no external injury, but cold sweat covers his body. Something inside him isn't right.
*
"Please… stop.." Jean quietly pleads with the golem demon, her hands shaking.. she wasn't giving up. She wasn't lessening in power, but that white hot anger was slowly beginning to brew and it was frightening even -her-.. "..please.. god.." Even Jean could run out of steam, her body slowly hunkering down until she feels the arm of Sam around her waist, even she could feel the fear from him, and it made her blood run cold.
The first blast allowed her to maneuver, taking up the position she usually would, her legs wrapped around his waist, arms hugging his neck with a terrible might. The warmth and the serenity of the bubble allowing her to regather and re-coup.. She doesn't even notice outright that something was wrong with Sam. Not until the very last moments when they hit the ground with a skid and a stutter did she feel the wetness of his shirt.
"Sam.." She finally manages out, dislodging herself from his person. "Sam.. Sam.. look.. look at me, Sam.." She was smacking his face, kissing his lips, peppering his cheek, an amorous assault in a rough time.. "..Sam.. what's wrong?!"
*
His expression twisted with pain, Sam's blue eyes flutter open, but it takes him a second to focus on Jean. "Ah'm fine," he says, flashing a weak smile at her — but his habitual mantra upon landing is, for once, a flimsy lie. His freckles stand out in blanched skin, an unhealthy sheen upon him. He reaches out with one hand to touch her cheek. "We made it out," he says. "Ah just need a second… to rest… maybe some water."
They've landed just within their camp's circle of firelight, across from the tents, one standing and one collapsed. The crater of their impact kicked up dirt that is causing the fire to gutter weakly. Two plates of fish sit on the ground near the fire, abandoned by Sam when he went to search for her — now overrun by crawling insects. Their backpacks sit untouched, over by the tents.
*
Even though she wanted to tell him that he wasn't fine, they were safe. And that was all that really mattered at the moment. "Water? I can do that.." His hand touching her cheek gets a slight lean and a kiss to his palm, held there for a quiet moment as she reluctantly pulls herself away from his grasp. Once outside? It was an entirely different matter all together.
She was filled with quiet sobs, her shoulders shaking as she falls to her knees to search out the water bottles of her own ruined tent, grabbing two.. no three of them to keep against her chest as she bundles up her sleeping bag as well. It was like she practically heard his thoughts. The plan to unzip it to make a blanket for him, or maybe even join the binds together so that they both could be wrapped up and.. relatively safe. And maybe.. not afraid. Thoughts, after all. But she carried them back to him.
Once inside of the tent, she kneels at his side, one bottle of water capped open with a straw that was soon given over so that he could drink. (Thankfully, it came with the container!) "Here.. Sam.." She murmurs quietly, reaching out to lightly nudge his shoulder. "You have to sit up.."
*
When Jean returns, Sam is looking a little less actively pained, although he's still pale and chilly to the touch. He props himself up on his elbows, then eases up into a sitting position, grabbing the bottle and gulping at it greedily. No sensible, measured sips for him. When he has slaked his thirst, he wipes at his mouth with the back of one arm and smiles weakly at Jean. "Thanks, Jean. Ah think Ah'm feelin' well enough to—"
He doesn't complete the thought before being interrupted by a quaking and shifting in the ground beneath them. He shuts his eyes and grits his teeth, grabbing for Jean's hand: the cave-in that trapped him once has left the boy fearful of such rumblings, and recent experiences certainly haven't helped.
Once the shaking stops and the night goes quiet, his eyes pop open again and, wordlessly, he clambers to clear ground to get a view of the situation. "Oh my god," he breathes, pointing with a shaky finger.
All around the camp, rough cylinders of stone have extruded themselves from the ground, etched with imitations of the stone giant's face. Every single one is staring inward at the circle of guttering firelight, the dark hollows of their eyes seeming to track the mutants they have trapped.
*
There was a little relief as he sits up, Jean slipping close to draw an arm around his shoulders just in case he gets a little weak. "No no.. just drink up and then we'll.." Go home. Even if she had to carry him out of the woods, they were going to go home so they could be safe. But that was not the case, for once the earth begins to rumble she lowers her head into his neck, hugging him tightly in hopes that it would stop. And once it does.. the fear in his voice causes her eyes to slowly lift to look. Not in front of him.. but behind him..
"..no.." She says quietly, her fingers clutching him tightly enough to possibly cause concern or pain. Her body was so tense that she begins to tremble.. or could it have been the fear itself..
"C.. can you walk..?" She asks quietly.. Or run.. maybe run..
*
Behind the standing stones, there's shadowy movement in the forest. Disturbed birds squawk and call, taking flight in their distress. As Jean latches on to him, Guthrie shuts his eyes and tries to follow suit… but whatever energy fuels his blast seems to have left him. Still, he doesn't pull away from Jean. Her presence, and the sting of her tight grip, are all that keep his exhaustion at bay.
"Yeah," he says quietly. "Yeah, we should get out of here." He turns to face the distant glow of the mansion's lights. "Ah think Ah can make it," he says optimistically. "We run in three… two…"
Without warning, the earth itself rises up to their side, piles of dirt and stone smothering their little campfire and plunging the area into darkness. Never mind the countdown: he grabs Jean and bolts on his clumsy, half-asleep legs.
*
*TWHIP!*
The snap of Sam's pull against her arm was almost akin to the way Spider-Man would snatch up a villain. Though less painful! Even sickly he was still strong and able to maneuver her to her feet with a sharp tug and a flailing of her own feet. Her hand strikes out to blow the tent out of their way as they crack off into their run, her hand crushing his as she stumbles and tries to keep herself upright, her feet beating against the ground and kicking up the dust as she goes.
"Fly Sam! We need to fly!" She's practically screaming out, even looking back behind her to see if those stone faces were drawing themselves along..
*
"Ah know, Jean… Ah know!" Sam says desperately. In spite of his long limbs and the adrenaline racing through his system, the redhead won't have any difficulty keeping up with him; his stumbling gait is half dictated by the darkness and the rough terrain, but his own legs aren't quite obeying him, either. "Ah'm trying, but it just… it ain't there." This is especially frightening for Guthrie: for all his power's drawbacks, one of its greatest strengths is its reliability — his easy control over it. Losing that is like having the ground yanked out from under him.
It's as he's fretting over this that the rumble beneath them resumes, the literal ground becoming just as unreliable as that metaphorical terrain. Sam makes another half-dozen staggering strides, then a tree root, hidden by darkness, catches his foot. The lanky teen topples forward, arms flailing, to land facedown on the forest floor. He's scrambling back to his feet when, mere feet behind him, the upper half of the stone giant bursts from the ground, sending clods of dirt in all directions. Its eyes glow malevolent and molten in the darkness; its limbs grab at the fallen mutant, clutching and dragging him backward and downward. Sam screams.
*
"What do you mean it isn't there!" She nearly shouts at the top of her lungs, scrambling right along with him, her hand snatching from his to try to grab upon the back of his pants to tug him upright and keep into motion. Maybe.. just maybe…
Nope! When he falls, she falls. But she was the only one who was able to get up, with his legs not working as they were, her hands reach out to try to grasp his as he's slid back with a leap and a jump to the ground. "SAM!" She screams out, her nails practically digging into his skin, her eyes squeezing shut as her own feet lifts from the ground at an arch that threatens to carry Jean towards the sky. Her TK was in play.
"Don't let go!" She hollars out, because this? This was going to hurt.
*
Sam does not let go. His friend — girlfriend? — has him by one hand and a telekinetic tether, and a ravenous power-stealing monster has him by the leg. There is absolutely no question which way his loyalties lie. But he's being stretched, and it is agony: Jean's telekinesis and the giant's strength are both inexorable forces of nature, and his frame is human and frail by comparison. Angled away from the ground, Sam fights past the pain, reaching down into himself for something, anything that can save him.
And he finds it: the tiniest reserve of power in his nearly dry well. It's enough only for a momentary blip of thrust, and it's instantly devoured by the creature pursuing them, but it suffices to break the monster's grip and free his leg. He's nearly passing out from pain and exhaustion, but Jean has control for now.
*
When the night was supposed to be cool; it was hot. The terrible tug and pull of both forces had Jean straining to the point that her ankles begin to buckle under the grasp she ejects. Bruises were already forming against her legs, the blood circulation was cutting off.. but the crack of the force of Sam's blast had her body tilting in a slight .. whipped somersault that ejects Sam a lot farther than she intended.
With a land flat upon her face, she continues to move, scrambling with smacked hands to the dirt that seemingly flies as she carries on, stopping for only a few seconds to gather Sam into her arm with his thrown over her shoulder and her own around his waist.
"I got you.." She pants out, her eyes watering due to dirt in her eye, her hand soon drawn out to snap at a tree that was already so close to breaking.. "Just.. need.. a.."
*UR..UR.. CRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK*
The giant oak hesitates in the way it needed to fall, and Jean begins to tug Sam away from any impending damage while keeping them both shielded from hurt. This.. is going to run her ragged and dry.
*
Sam collapses in Jean's arms, and it's a mercy that her powers are helping her, because otherwise she might crumple under his weight. (Someone needs to lay off all that heavy breakfast food.) The giant pursuing them crashes straight into the falling tree: it splinters and chips under the creature's rage and might, but tearing through an oak is a time-consuming process, even for such as it. Jean gains ground rapidly, bursting free from the treeline and out of view of the glowing, hateful eyes — if only temporarily.