1964-03-30 - Stolen and Crushed
Summary: Julian comes upon Seth trying to steal his car
Related: None
Theme Song: None
lorna seth julian 


Lorna sighed a soft, contented sigh as they returned toward the car with the slow measured pace of those enjoying the day. The Spring air was crisp, but without the wind it ventured on warm. Lorna had unbuttoned her jacket, leaving her modest dress and skirts free to the sunlight, her head tilted back. It still took her time to get used to the sight of her natural hair color, the green still surprising her every now and then.

Still, it was worth it to throw off anyone that might've watched her on Mojo's show. Green hair was decidedly a beacon on its own.

"So, do you want to come Upstate with me next weekend? My adoptive parents want to meet you, I might've mentioned you to my mom. She was all a flutter." She grinned, folding her hands behind her back as she stepped lightly. "They're normal. Completely and utterly. I think they'd like you."

*

It doesn't seem that Julian is much bothered by Lorna's hair, but he's rather heavy on the club scene. Dying isn't exceptionally common yet — give it another decade — but he sees strange colors now and then from the more progressive sorts who wish to stand out. "Uhhh. Sure. They're pretty normal, right? …why'd she be aflutter, though? Didja say I was handsome and rich?" He puffs out his chest at that."

*

Everyone adjusts to life after being imprisoned for almost two months, cloned and then tormented in a variety of ways for the sake of entertainment. Therapy for Seth was folding right back into old habits, most of which were illegal. However, the appeal of his usual pick pocketing and idle scams on wayward tourists had lost some appeal, and thus he was trying the doors on the cars parked alongside the boardwalk. He almost skipped the Jaguar, assuming nobody could be quite that stupid, but lingered an extra moment as he balanced just how dull-witted the arrogant can be. The door clicked open and the leather seats almost sighed as he settled into the driver's seat, a 'Well don't mind if I do' sort of flair to his actions as the steering column was popped open with the edge of a knife he held in his other hand, wiring harness extracted.

The trick to stealing a car was to make it look like you belonged in the car long enough to get the ignition jump started. Of course, this was difficult given that Seth's well-groomed appearance for prime time had already gone into disuse, the single set of clothing he had left with still plastered on him and marking him some sort of action hero - not the sort that would need a Jaguar. Oh well.

Practice makes perfect, and the boy may have been a far cry from perfect, but was close enough to get the engine to purr into life with a bit of encouragement.

"Hello, beautiful."

A cigarette set between his lips, he took the extra moment to light it before moving to shift the car into gear and take it out for a joy ride.

*

Lorna beamed at Julian, her cheeks dusting with a faint pink as she glanced back at him and twisted around to walk backwards and keep him in her eyesight. "Well, I told her that this really nice guy took me out to a fancy French resturant and told her that he had a good taste in cars. And for some reason, hasn't run off at the sight of my natural hair color." She flashed him a grin.

"Which in her book is amazing. She's been convinced since I was a kid that no one would ever get past that and that I'd become some crazy cat lady." A pause, and she considered her words. "Which really, would be quite relaxing in comparison but oh well." She winked at him and turned around just in time to catch sight of a certain blonde mutant she knew sitting in Julian's car and she stopped short, eyes going wide and round.

"Seth!?"

*

"Uhh." The 'really nice' part seems to make Julian frown a little, but no comment is made. "Green's my favorite color, y'know. My power is green!" But then… The roar of that engine is well known by Julian. His eyes snap up to it, the expression on his face that of someone who could never fathom an individual would be so stupid as to steal from /him./

"HEY!" he calls out, releasing his arm from Lorna's. His eyes flicker emerald, before all four tires suddenly get wrapped up in a brief shunt of telekinetic energy. A moment later, they all detonate in tandem, which would make any following acceleration somewhat hazardous. It's cheaper to replace tires than the car, and now he REALLY wants to punch someone in the face. "You know that guy?!"

*

Seth had the windows up, despite the good weather, and was far too focused on making the process of peeling out appear natural to notice that he was stealing a car that belonged to someone who knew someone he knew. That was too many degrees of separation for him to care anyways. As the first opening in traffic afforded itself, he aggressively swerved into the sea of metal and rubber with a smirk on his lips and a slow exhale that filled that wonderful new interior with the ragged stench of Lucky Strikes.

That's about when all the tires went out, sending him swerving on rims that sparked up beautiful spirals of light and flames. Nope. This was way too much commitment for the mutant. Which is when the door opened and he bailed, giving the steering column a final kick on the departure that sent it into oncoming traffic. The youth hit the ground, rolled a few times, and then got up as if nothing particularly interesting had happened.

Looking around for the cigarette he had dropped, he stooped to recollect it before making to wander away as if he had nothing to do with any of this. If only he knew how to whistle properly, the image would be complete.

*

Lorna stared, aghast as she realized her friend, the young mutant that had given her solace and been there for her when she'd been captured by Mojo.. who she had gone to pieces over realizing he was captured… was stealing the boy who she'd been going out with's car? Oh boy. She turned red, and threw out her arms as he sped away and Julian went for the tires.

A giant chunk of a metal? Easy enough to halt the forward progress into traffic. The car stopped dead without so much as a squeal of breaks, her gaze darting toward the rolling Seth and then back to Julian.

"He's my friend, and apparently an idiot!" She squeaked. Her brows pinched as she glanced back toward Seth.

"Seth! Stop!"

*

Run! Run! Run! Julian's primarily sculpted his body to appeal to the opposite sex, but that has fair to high benefits in the field of athletics. He's got blinders on, all the stress from Lorna's ordeal and the lack of an outlet throwing her voice of reason into the wind. There's a very angry man in very expensive clothing rushing Seth at the moment, with every intent to leap and tackle him about the midsection into the ground. "Piece of shit!!" he snarls out, and if the motion succeeds, there's going to be a heck of an attempt to slug him right in the face! …this probably isn't going to impress Lorna.

*

Seth blinks as he hears his name, having been endeavoring to 'blend in' and thus appear as if he had nothing to do with this entire spectacle. How had the tires gone out anyways? Looking over his shoulder, he espied Lorna's companion and contemplatively mused over the probability it had to do with how enraged the stranger looked. The hooligan had never been a very good people person. His features screwed up into a sour expression, exhaling the last drag he had taken and grumbling something that would probably make Lorna blush.

Which is about when Julian hits him full force. Surprisingly, he makes no effort to flee and or fight, collapsing underneath the weight of the other boy with a mild 'uff' of air being forced out of his lungs. Great, now he had grass stains on his back. There's a moment as he looks up at Julian, all musculature tensed to beat the everlasting tar out of him, and he sighs and mutters,

"Fair enough."

Before the first blow falls. And then whatever subsequent blows he wanted to throw. Because no matter how many times he hit Seth, it really didn't seem to be actually hurting the boy. Sure it was connecting, and certainly one of them was feeling it, but it did not appear to be the blonde pinned beneath him, head rocketing to one side from the impact, not even a loosed tooth to reward the efforts.

*

As soon as the car was safely out of the path of oncoming traffic Lorna was chasing after Julian's path toward Seth, but without the intent to beat the poor blonde mutant as much as Julian was attempting to. "Julian!" She shrieked, powers forgotten for the moment as she phyiscally tried to catch said young man's hammering fists.

"Stop it! Just stop it!"

Irritation flashed in those green eyes of her's and she snarled as she was quite ignored. The metal around her denting outwards in reaction as she pulled hard on the magnetic forces that naturally stopped her.

"I SAID STOP IT! BOTH OF YOU!" She shouted, and this time her hair was floating around her in a magnetic haze, and the pressure of anything metal on the boys increased to pin them both down against the road. She wasn't particularly in control, but her emotions: angery, embarassment and concern flooded out all other thought to just wanting the two to stop whatever they were doing.

*

It takes a few moments for Julian to realize his punching efforts aren't really doing anything, but the way his face is warped is… not something Lorna's ever seen before. This would be seriously hurting a normal person, but he seems to begin realizing something's up around when Lorna's own emotions lose momentum. "Wh—hey!!" His belt buckle and wristwatch thump down into the street. "C-calm down!! Okay, okay, I stopped!!"

*

The perk of still being in his previously kidnapped WIL-D television attire was that he lacked much of any metal on his person. The knife that he had used to pop the steering column did clatter to the ground, emphasizing the fact it could have been drawn some time ago. It left Seth more or less free to scramble undignified out from underneath his attacker, turning to the small crowd that was beginning to form and falsifying a bow,

"And that's a wrap! Thank you so much for being part of our experimental drama today folks! If anyone would like to donate to our acting guild-"

And nobody was listening anymore. Still, he was brushing himself off and muttering,

"Lorna, we should probably skedaddle. What with the whole-"

He paused, eyeing her hair and smiling,

"You left it green. Looks good."

*

The green haired girl was left breathing hard and struggling to rein in her emotions and the magnetic field that surrounded her and pressed down against all the metal within her immediate vincinity. She closed her eyes, counting backwards as she slowed her breathing and the pressure let up. A hand pressed over her eyes, massaging her temples as she bent over and made a soft sound.

As Seth spoke, she straightened, her cheeks hot still as she gaped at him.

"My hair!?" She stepped forward and reached to try to grab him by his shirt front.

"I spent weeks trying to save you, get caught and spent weeks with you in a freaking locked room and forced to face my death and your's and then you run off and start stealing cars?!" She shrieked, and struggled once more to calm her breathing, letting him go and moving to plunk down on the curbside with a whimper, tears welling up in her eyes.

*

Slowly Julian gets back up to his feet, wincing. "You broke my watch." he whines, pulling up his sleeve to reveal the rolex. …probably a five digit loss. Tapping on the cracked glass, he glances up when Lorna decides to take a turn being all aggressive. "Yeah. Good idea. Let's go. Straight to jail." He points at Seth, looking around. "He tried to steal my fucking car!" In the era without cellphones it's not going to immediately attract police attention, but exploding tires and the growing crowd sure will!

*

Seth blinks as the front of his shirt, or what kind of doubled as a shirt but was more of some strange jumpsuit, was grabbed. Wavering as she continually escalated, the pitch beginning to twist, her eyes starting to fill with tears, he allowed the tirade to fade into Trademark Lorna Hysterics before clearing his throat and looking at least slightly ashamed.

"Uh, I guess so?"

Lips twitched as he shoved his hands into his pockets, looking at the smoldering Jaguar carefully parked once more by Lorna's powers and sighed,

"He left it unlocked. Practically askin' for it to be lifted-"

Seth trailed off as Julian broke into the conversation, sighing as he had left it wide open for Lorna to be comforted by something else. Ignoring the threats of incarceration, he stepped over to her hunched figure, crouched down so they were on level, and muttered,

"Listen, he can keep beating me up if he wants but preferably not here and honestly, we're attracting a lot of attention. I didn't mean to mess up whatever-"

A glance over his shoulder at Julian with a slightly perturbed look,

"-this is. I was just trying to grab the car. Sorry."

*

It would seem Lorna was quite done with trying to beat up Seth, or anyone for that matter as she sat on the curbside, hunched over. Her head held in her hands she sat there openly weeping as she struggled to control her powers and keep them from snaking out around her. She managed, if only just. As Seth bent down she lifted her her eyes, watery and rimmed with red as she gaped at him.

"Why would you do that, Seth? Why? A car?" Her voice broke, and it seemed as if she had no ability to focus on Julian at all as he whined about his broken watch.

"You could go to jail!" She warbled, "What would you do with a car anyways? It's not like you can hide a car, Seth. It's illegal! Why would you do that? I thought you'd .. you'd try at least at something besides .. besides just stealing things." Her voice dropped low.

"I could introduce you to people, get you off the Streets.."

*

"Could?!" Julian states, before walking back over towards Seth. He then twists around, aiming to coldclock him in the side of the head once more. He's not really much of a fighter, but he's passionate, at the very least. Of course if the other man had a mind to NOT be hit, things would be a fair amount different. "He IS going to jail!! My vehicle's ruined! Why'd you waste your BREATH on someone like him!!" He makes to shift and put his arm in front of Lorna. "You're too nice… Some people aren't worth redeeming…!"

*

Seth sighs as he meets her pained expression with the usual consideration he weighed her hysterics with, a mixture of sadness and guilt, as it was common enough he caused said hysterics.

"I'm an asshole."

He admitted for the both of them, wishing he could hug her but knowing just at this moment, it would get him punched. Again. Then the momentary expression was swept away, and he stood as if affronted by her offer, a sneer on his lips as he glared over at Julian.

Once again, just in time to get brought to the ground by that upper cut. It wasn't that the blow hurt, it was the words that were spat on him afterwards, that arm outstretched between him and the only friend he had, and the truth within every syllable. Carefully he picked himself back up off the ground, this time his blue eyes glowering across the distance between himself and his assailant, and this time his stance was a bit wider, his jawline set, his eyes narrowing.

"Then I could spend my days with people like him? No thank you, Lorna."

And because somebody had a mind to call the cops, because distantly he could hear sirens, and because maybe Julian had hit a bit too close to the truth - Seth turned and ran.

*

"No- Seth, please, I—" She broke off once more, tears choking off further response. Then Lorna was scrambling forward on her hands and knees as Julian clocked Seth solidly once more, a shriek escaping her lips as she tried to place herself physically between the two young men.

"I said stop it! Oh my gosh, Julian. Stop it. Please!" She was still crying, tears leaving tracks down her cheeks.

Of course, it was then that Seth turned and bolted. The sounds of sirens had her halting, her expression pained as she wrung her hands together. Not willing to halt him and see him taken in for attempting to steal a car, yet desperately wanting to stop and talk to him. Or yell. Most likely cry at him.

She clapped her hands against her lips, hanging her head as she struggled internally with her powers, as much as externally with her breathing.

*

"It's people like you I want to KEEP from her." is growled by Julian through grit teeth. "I know street trash when I see it. You're good at taking a punch. Go be a goddamn boxer." Of course, then the man turned to leave. If he was acting in a more rational fashion, he would let things stay there. Instead he brings up both of his hands, and his eyes flash green.

"I SAID YOU AREN'T GOING ANYWHERE!!"

Like a proverbial hammer of the gods, a great wall of telekinetic force nearly twenty meters across descends towards Seth, to slam him into the ground hard enough to likely leave a comical imprint. And the force wouldn't let up; it's enough to kill a normal person, but he's fairly sure that he's not dealing with anything like that.

Of course, people immediately begin to scream. "Mutant!!""He's a mutant!!""He's attacking that man!!" Many flees, others panic. This is probably going to end up a much different story when the cops get here…

*

Seth was fast, but fast like sewer rats are fast. It certainly wasn't fast enough to out distance the bars of liquid energy that slammed him into the dirt. He didn't even roll this time, so purposefully enraged was his captor, instead groaning as he struggled to get enough of his head free to draw air down into his lungs. Except try as he may to draw in a breath, he was being pushed down, a constant, unrelenting pressure. If he seriously died over a Jaguar that he didn't even properly get to steal, he was going to be pissed. Writhing like a mouse that a cat has caught between its paws, Seth could hear the sound of his pulse in his ears and focused only on dragging small measures of oxygen down.

Sure he could take a hit, but Julian could kill him, and would with enough time. And there wasn't much the human punching bag could do about it either. Vaguely he pondered that this was all rather anticlimactic and hoped at least Lorna hadn't slept with the asshole yet.

*

As Julian growled defensively over her, and shouted down Seth, Lorna's head snapped up. Just like that, the tears halted long enough for her to watch as Julian snapped out with his powers at the blonde. Her eyes going wide as the pressure didn't let him despite people around them screaming about mutants and calling for cops.

She moved, or rather, ran at Julian. Trying to put herself in his direct line of sight and clap her hands on either side of his cheeks and draw his attention to her.

"Julian! Stop it please! You'll kill him! Please, stop it. Let it go. Please." She trembling, fear making her pulse thready and her powers leap to her use with no intent behind it.

The cars along the street rattled as she tried to calm her panic, struggling to not want to hurt either of the boys but beyond her wits on what to do. So she did what she knew worked for Crystal at least. She kissed him.

*

Rage. If Lorna's seen that expression, she'd understand what's going on. It's not cruelty, in this situation. Certainly excessive, although nobody could argue Seth deserved SOME kind of ass-beating for what he did. Teeth almost grind together, and the glimmer of hot, frustrated tears glistens in his eyes. He's not even going full strength on Seth; he can flip a solid iron train cargo container when he's really pissed off. Sure, it has to be empty, but it's still pretty impressive. When he sees that Seth is enduring his force without apparent injury, he relaxes his tenuous grasp from 'restrained maximum' to 'natural maximum' more and more, likely not understanding that the point he'd visibly see Seth in the anguish he desires is likely the same point that causes him to die…

And then Lorna's there, and he's blinking. Shockingly, this is a lot WORSE for Seth. With his concentration broken, his strength goes /up/, not down. For a few horrifying seconds, the tonnage begins to ramp up. "What…?! He deserves it, he—!"

And then he's kissed, and luckily that causes his powers to snap off, leaving a huge pancake in the dirt surrounding Seth. "…!!" Blinking and shaking his head, he glares back towards Seth, only then realizing the sirens. "Shit… shit!!" His car. He can't leave his car. They'll identify him that way. His hands grasp it, looking both ways in a panic before…

Twisting, and in a great BURST of force that causes the air to shudder like a great wash of static electricity, hurling it spiraling into the distance. Some seconds later, a very distant *THUMP*.

"Let's get the fuck outta here…" One last glare to Seth, and he sheathes in green energy, bursting into the air in the direction of his tossed vehicle.

*

Seth didn't feel pain often. This was pain. His brain screaming for oxygen, the blanket of pressure weighing down on his musculature, stilling the blood in his veins, making his heart begin to miss beats, then cease trying to beat all together while the earth crumbled into his ears and he screamed. It was that exquisite, perfect sound of anguish that only a sadist can really hunger for, but it wasn't loud enough to reach Julian. There wasn't enough air left in his lungs to manage that.

Then just as suddenly, the pressure is gone, and he's left gasping in its wake, struggling to remember how to breathe, clawing at the ground to try to get up even if he's shaking too bad to do so. The first thing he can see is Lorna stepping away, the last vestiges of that embrace falling apart as the panic sets in. One knee after the other, palms pressing into the dirt, he manages to gain that much, but nothing more.

Seth is stuck, alone, and in immeasurable amounts of pain for the first time he can remember.

*

Lorna stepped back, breathing hard as Julian leans back in stunned silence before swearing and moving his car. She winced, watching him with a crease of her brows. She didn't say anything, merely watching with her heart in her chest as he glared at Seth on the ground still. Her green eyes damp with tears, green hair clinging to her cheeks as she glanced once to Julian as he starts to take off after his car.

But the green haired girl doesn't move.

She stands there, awkwardly, like a deer caught in headlights coming from both directions of the road and unable to think straight enough to get out of the way. The sight of Seth stumbling, gasping for hair and in pain roots her to the ground as surely as if she'd sunk up to her knees in pavement and concrete.

*

It doesn't take long for Julian to stop and look back, as people start striding towards Seth with intention of giving him aide. "He's not going to die!!" Probably, he has no basis to say that. But when they see he's not as dead as he should be, sentiments might change, especially if he's given medical aide. He's a mutant, as far as he can tell… and putting one into the car of the general human system is fairly cruel, justified though it might be.

"Goddamnit." Whirling back and landing heavily beside Seth, causing people to jump and retreat again, he grasps him by his shirt, sheathing the man in telekinetic force before launching skyward again with him in tow. Now Lorna has no reason NOT to follow! Which is more important than the man's ultimate fate, when the 'stolen car' angle is not liable to land him in prison anymore…

*

To his credit, Seth was attempting to survive without human aid. He wasn't in the habit of depending on the good will of others, and thus he had found his staggering feet, waving off assistance, sinking back to his knees in a pathetic display of will versus basic physical limitations after being near-flattened. Thus when the ground shuddered underneath Julian's landing, he managed a pointed glare at the other youth and may have said something smart if not for the sudden flight their mutual bodies took.

Then he decided to keep his mouth shut and clamor desperately to cling to the sadists forearms while looking at the city forming below them and muttering something about, 'Of course he can fly' that wasn't particularly intended for anyone.

*

It took Julian pulling Seth up into the air before Lorna acted, and even then she didn't just leap into the air from the street. Rather she bolted down the street into an alley and then pushed herself up into the air with a slower speed. It wasn't like her green hair wasn't a flag enough that she was a mutant, but it was still better to not be in the direct line of sight for people looking to shout about mutants.

Her speed was slower, marked with a wobble here or there. It would take her a while to catch up to Julian's whirling speed.

*

Honestly Julian's not sure how hard he threw the car. It was 'as hard as he could', but he rarely really tests his limits. About four blocks away it's hit the roof of a building, shattering through into a luckily empty office. It is fairly late at the moment, when most have already gone home. Seth's energy is dispersed rather roughly, to send him into the rubble-laden room beside the desk. "Goddamnit. My car. AGAIN. This is… I don't think I can just get another one. Not this soon. Goddamnit!!" He makes to land with a whirr beside it, patting the bent-up shell with sad affection.

*

Lorna entered soon after Julian touched down, her expression pinched as she climbed through the broken windows and the alike. "Well if you hadn't thrown it, then maybe we could've done something." She grumbled, pushing her hair back from her face with a look of annoyance.

"Also, hello? Magnokinetic. I can try to bend the metal bits back into place, but there's a couple of things that are rubber and plastic in there that I can't help with. I can at least get the body work started.." She offered, shooting Julian's poor defeated car a mournful look.

"The steel alloys are too nice to be thrown out like that.."

*

A snap of the fingers follows. "I know a person who can like… replace the glass and crap. If you can bend it back into shape. Yeah, that should work." Of course, that leaves the issue of a likely disoriented Seth still nearby, and the fact they really need to take the vehicle and go somewhere else before more aggressive measures to track them down follow. "Ugh. What's WITH this guy? Why'd you be close to… to some manipulative crook?! Did you fall for his silver tongue, or something?!"

*

Lorna was already stepping lightly to the car, smoothing her hands over the dents and twisted metal. Her brows furrowed as she spoke softly to the wreck of a car, smoothing out bumps as she ran her fingers over it. The paint was a loss cause, but at least she could save the lovely craftsmanship of steel and iron. Julian's other words earned a frazzled look, distracted and her cheeks turned hot.

"He's my friend Julian. He didn't .. didn't con me or something! Gosh! Stop it! Would you look at yourself? Jumping a guy and trying to beat him up like that? Over a car? He couldn't have gotten far anyways. What if he hadn't been one of us? You could've killed him anyways!"

*

"What? Why? Why's he your friend?" Julian snaps back, immediately going on the defensive. "He tried to steal my car. My CAR. If you didn't know him, and I tackled him to the ground as he fled the scene when it nearly wrecked. would you STILL be mad I punched him in the goddamn face?!" More angry pointing given towards Seth. "Everything I've heard between you two makes it pretty damn clear he shouldn't be anywhere near you!"

*

Her cheeks hot and Lorna stopped from pushing out the metal's flaws to cross her arms. "He was there for me when I need it! Okay? He's a good person! Just like you are when you're not busy being a conceited jerk! Seriously! I thought better of you Julian." She snapped back, her jaw squaring as she shifted her weight on her feet.

"That's why he's my friend, and I don't need to explain myself and who I am friends with .. with you!"

*

Breathing was good. Seth had that back underneath control and had found his legs while they warred, ignoring most of the discussions regarding the car. Certainly he could have found Julian another car, probably a similar make and model, and procured it in much the same fashion he had almost snatched this one. There was also a chop shop down by the docks that he could call a favor in on, get the beast of a machine worked over as an apology, a little tit-for-tat with the lead mechanic. Seth didn't offer any of this though, because he knew that Julian already regarded him as lower than dirt and thus there was no reason to attempt to elevate himself above such a status.

"Enough."

He finally managed, his lungs working well enough now that the finality of the statement carried some weight, though it lacked the same punch in present company - powerful as they were.

"And stop fucking pointing at me, man. Makes me nervous."

Trying to dig the dirt out of his ears, he continued while walking unsteadily towards their argument,

"Lorna is right in that you can't tell her who she can and cannot be friends with, but Lorna, doll - you got to get smarter about this kind of thing. I am not a good person. I have never been a good person. I wouldn't even know where to start. And while I appreciate not dying today, he kind of has a point even if he's a prick."

*

"I… what the hell? I'd always be there for you, if you asked! If I KNEW! Don't you dare put that on me!!" When she states that there's no need to explain anything to him, he suddenly stiffens up. Something in his eyes seems to switch. The expression is much different than the one that Lorna's ever seen. Seth takes that opportunity to speak.

"Shut up." he growls at Seth. Towards Lorna, "Okay. I get it." Suddenly his entire body whirls with green energy, crackling like lightning over him. Eyes shine the same color as Lorna's hair, and the entire air hums madly. Painful static is in the air, but rather than make one's hair stand on end, it would start to slowly erode them with a green glow. He brings his hands forcefully together, and suddenly his jaguar crunches into a rough ball. But he keeps it up, suffusing the vehicle with more and more of his power, as it breaks, shatters, twists and pops from force past two dozen tons. And then suddenly it flashes, multiple components twisting and floating as if ethereal before disintegrating to nothing.

With no further word, he whirls himself in a coating of green telekinetic energy, and bursts into the air. The force of his exit would send a rather potent buffet of wind and lighter debris into the pair. Not a single speck of his vehicle has survived.

*

"It wasn't your fault that you weren't but he was! Okay? Gosh Julian—" She broke off as he growled at Seth, her jaw going slack and she cast a glance at Seth with a wince. "Don't tell me you're not a good person. You've saved me and been there when I needed someone, you didn't leave me alone on the street when I brought that building down. You could have. You didn't leave me alone when Mojo.." She broke off once more as Julian smashed the car and turned brilliantly green.

"Julian!" She shouted, trying to push her way toward the young mutant as the force of his power, the wind whipping at her, lashed back at her person.

"Julian! Stop! Come back! Please!"

*

Seth was moving as soon as the green energy started to flicker. He had no idea to what end, or why he thought he could protect the daughter of Magneto. The car folded in itself with a grinding of metal, an impossible compression where air was forced in tighter and tighter until a nigh vacuum was born and at the atomic level what had once been beautiful machinery now dusted into nothingness. And as the power thrummed, and the heat of it pricked at his skin, he found Lorna and grabbed her away from the edge of the ruined facade of the office building. Sure she could fly, but this didn't seem like a good time to work things out.

When the remnants of the vehicle blasted against them with the force of his ascent, Seth turned his back against it and waited until it had settled. Then he regarded Lorna quietly, releasing her with a murmured,

"Well he seems nice."

*

Lorna sank down into a crouch as Julian flew off and did not return, despite her pleading. Tears stung her eyes and she clapped both hands over her features as a sob launched itself from her throat in a violent cry. Her shoulders quaked as she utterly broke down into her crying, without hesitation or without care for the fact that the display of power Julian just summoned would doubtlessly have someone investigating the building in short order.

She wailed, curling up on herself, head resting on her knees as she wept.

*

Seth sighs, scratching at his greasy hair and dirt stained frown before bending at the hip. It was becoming a practiced motion now, collecting up a sobbing Lorna in his arms and supporting them to safety. Down a back staircase, skipping the first three exits until they hit the basement, then leading her silently out the chute the trash was usually reserved for into a dark alley that the police sirens hadn't touched yet. Instead of trying to speak again, he walked with her to the nearest phone booth, waited for the slick black car to idle curbside, wincing when the driver weighed him with a bit too much recognition. Burning buildings and sobbing women was becoming much too common an occurrence. Only when she was safely on her way did he fish inside of a pocket, find a flattened pack of cigarettes, and pull out his last smoke with a grimace as loose leaf tobacco fell loose across his shirt.

"Well shit."

And for the first time that day, he sounded genuinely inconvenienced by something.

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