Hurricane Drake

In the back of his mind, he knew Sean wouldn't let him go alone. But he at least wanted it off his conscience to have given him the option. He still had the task of finding a way to keep him from being killed by the hurricane when the storm came upon them, but at least he could rely on icy roads and his water manipulation in such a critical area. Sul smiled back at Sean, silently thanking him for coming anyways. "Thanks, Squirt." He replied. By now Sean knew it was a term Sul used as a sign of friendship.

"Wait up!" was heard in the distance. A girl came running up to them, he recognized her from earlier. She came from the bunker he left her at. What could she possibly want? If the hurricane came while she was on that rooftop, she would have been killed. And if she went indoors, she would have drowned. Most of the civilians should be thankful, maybe she had a parting gift for them as they went on their journey. Though, Sul couldn't think of too many useful tools that him and Sean couldn't improvise on.

"Yes?" Sul raised a non-existent eyebrow as she approached them.

"No prob"Sean smiled tilting his head to the side.He knew Sul wouldnt make him stay with the rest of the people.This time he would be there to stop someoen from dying again.Now he wouldn't be useless.He was a tough guy,so it was time to act like one.Begin saving people like a heroBegin turning fromhis fays of murder.Not thieving of course,but still killing would not do.He was going to be "good".No matter how bad the word would taste in his mouth.So he would keep going.
With a stride in his step.Ready to face whatever layed ahead.Feeling like he could take this hurricane,and then do it again.Confidence flowing through his mind."Wait up"A female voice called.He turned to see the girl from earlier running after them.What could she possibly want?Give him that strange look that he hated so much."I wonder what she wants"Sean sighed Putting his hands in his pockets.As he drew the water from his clothes.Making the dry,but a little wrinkly.Water falling on the ice road.Freezing on contact.Hopefully she didn't slow them down.That could get them killed.

Alice nearly slipped on the ice as she neared the two heros before quickly regaining her composure. As soon as they turned to her, Alice felt doubt fill her, she was frickin' intimidated by these two. She opened and closed her mouth a few times, no sound coming out. She mentally slapped herself before taking a deep breath and beginning to speak, "I'dliketogowithyou!" she said quickly and all in one breath while staring at the ice. After she finished speaking, she looked up, trying to judge their reaction. Her plan was... well, she didn't have a plan, she just knew she had to help somehow... and what if her mom was still out there? She had to check, though Alice was sure her mother was smart enough to get in a shelter... you never knew... She fidgeted nervously, waiting for an answer as the wind slowly picked up.

The girl shocked him with her request. But it was completely out of the question. Sean and him had just saved the group's lives, getting them to this bunker. To have her come with them would be an unnecessary risk, and would defeat the purpose of them rescuing her in the first place. Sul would have enough difficulty keeping Sean safe in 150+ Mph speed winds, let alone two very vulnerable people. Not just people, a young girl. Younger than Sean and Sul, she was a mid-teenager.

Sul was unconsciously shaking his head, "I can't do that, we took all that effort just to get you here kiddo. The storms going to pick up, you're gonna get killed. Stay where it's safe. What is it you want in Florida City? We'll set a secondary objective to find it if possible. But I can't have you running out in the streets with large debris threatening to knock your head off your shoulders."

His blunt response was out of genuine compassion. He knew that this young girl could force him and Sean to make an immediate evacuation in the storm, and forfeit their mission. They only rescued a bit over a dozen people. Compared to the people in Florida City who were destined to lose their lives, it was very minimal. They couldn't jeopardize the mission to have this girl tag along. She must not realize that the storm will be returning for a second blow equal to the first.

"Sorry but we cant let you come"Sean put bluntly.Shrugging his shoulders lightly."You didn't help us stop that pole from almost killing those people.Hell you couldn't even get yourself off that damn rooftop.Your just a weak girl.So go back to the damn bunker.Before i drag your ass back there myself" Sure he didn't really like this girl,and it showed in his voice.Filled with annoyance.Also he didn't want to see this girl splattered across the ice.Not that he wouldn't love to do that himself.Still she was young.Still hadn't learned the ways of the world.Still naive to how things worked.Like he was at her age.Except she wasnt always around her mother like he was.Though he chose to push those thoughts into the darkest parts of his mind.Knowing that dwelling on those thoughts would only bring back painful memories.Memories that dredged up painful scars.
"Come on Sul lets go.I think weve wasted enough of our time with her"He sighed turning around.Motioning for Sul to follow him.Not wishing to waste any more time.

Alice sighed as Sul spoke, he was right... right? Well, either way, Alice was happy enough with that answer, but as she opened her mouth to ask Sul about finding her mom... Emo spoke. She glared at him as she found herself getting angrier and angrier as each venomous word was uttered. She clenched her fists in anger, and when he turned around, she used the shadows inside the fists, climping the photons together. It started off as nothing but a transparent black cloud, but with every second, it grew denser and denser. Alice then brought her hands
up, transferring the shadows in her right hand to her left, making it look like she held a black basketball in her hand. She hefted it for another second before throwing it at Sean. It whistled toward his head, losing it's round shape as it flew, becoming a wave of flying liquid. The substance would be watery at first... but then Alice will make it even denser, causing it to become sticky and tarlike.

Alice seemed understanding, a glimmer in her eyes appeared to have something to say. But unfortunately, Sean seemed to have aggravated the young girl. Sul's eyes darted at Sean and Alice, back and forth as he could see her apparent anger. He was reiterating what Sul had previously said, but adding in his portion of sarcasm. Working with Sean was great, but this was something Sul definitely had to talk to Sean about. They were a good team, but his people skills were terrible. They were here to help these people, not give them more grief.

Her arms balled up into fists, and could see a frown forming on her young face. Just incase she tried something, he rested his arms to his side. She was a frail looking girl but then again so was Sean. A weapon formed in her hand and she hurled it towards Sean. Sul moved in predicting she would attack Sean, throwing up an opened hand towards the spherical object. The liquid substance impacted his palm and fingers and spread over his arm up to his elbow. He held his position inbetween Sean and Alice, like a security guy at a Jerry Springer show. The large man lowered his eyes at the girl wondering what she was going to do next.

In a way, he was very interested in her powers. He didn't know she had any this whole time. But time was an issue, as was her self-sufficiency and survivability skills. Though he wanted to know more about this girl, he couldn't risk losing more time. Sul moved his hand back to stop Sean from doing any further damage, whether he planned to retaliate physically, or aggravate the girl further. He turned his attention to Alice.

"A very impressive skill, I must say. You have some potential in you to be something greater, to serve a cause. But we're going into a highly dangerous area, and I can't risk your life as well as ours. Do you understand? Miss, we want to help these people. And we can't be delayed any further. Is there something you need out of us before we leave?"

The attack that girl did was truely a suprise. Some sort of strange shadowy goop. Was it a manipulation of some sort or just a strange ass attack. She had his interest, and that is a hard thing to gain. "What was that? Some sort of manipulation." The ice around her feet moved at his thought. Forming long wriggling tentacles with icy knives on the ends. Snaking their way up to her kneck. "I'll give this much you caught my interest,but i can tell that isn't what your power is fully capable of. So don't go around thinking you can threaten me with an attack like that" He spoke ignoring Sul. Anger still focused on the girl.

If he wanted to he could slit her throat with a thought but knew that Sul could whip his arm around and probably take his upper half off in one swing. "So unless you can tell me your power has more to it than this please just go back to the bunker. I'm sure your mother must be worried sick." The last statement about her mother had a sort of sincerity in it. Even though he didn't know her mother. She somewhat reminded him of himself at her age. So he waited for her answer, hands in his pocket.

Alice frowned when the other man blocked the goop, "Dang it." she muttered, glaring at Emo.Then, the ice around her shifted and before she could react, they were wrapped around her legs, moving higher and higher by the second, she gritted her teeth against the cold that was climbing higher and higher. Finally it reached her neck and she saw that the ends were sharp blades. She glared even harder as he began to speak again, each word excuding arrogance. She wriggled her fingers slightly, that'd be enough to work.

And as he began to speak again, she got to work, only using her fingers to focus her powers. In a parody of what Sean had did, she formed tentacles with sharp edges as well, but she put it so he couldn't see them, thankfully, Sul was focused on her so he probably couldn't see as well. As he spoke the last statement, she growled slightly, "I need to find her! That's the issue!" With that, she pressed the blade to the back of his neck, not enough to cut, but enough for him to know it was there. Of course, all the other blades weren't sharp but neither he nor Alice knew that. She was lucky that even one of them was sharp, honestly, she was already very lucky that the tentacles were actually solid all things considered.

Sharp spikes of ice proceeded to surround Alice as Sean spoke. The situation was getting more tense, though Sul couldn't tell whether or not the two were joking or not. He didn't protect Sean so he could hurt and possibly kill Alice.

"Sean, stop it. This isn't a game we're playing. This is serious. We're running out of time." He said, reaching over and knocking the icicles down easily with his hands. He didn't like being the middleman in fights, and to make it worse, it started to heavily rain. It would be probably a wake-up call to the two that this was a useless squabble, and that their management of time was poor. The eye of the storm was moving, and they would soon no longer be in it. Meaning that the hurricane's full power would return.

Sul returned his glance to Alice again. "I will have a difficult time protecting Sean in this storm, the wind speed has been able to move cars, trees, and several forms of debris. Taking you both with me will make it extremely difficult to protect you. If you have a picture or something, we can look for your friend. But this squabble has to stop now, we have to go."

When Sul spoke all the anger seemed to melt away. That and he noticed the blade pressed to the back of his neck. Leaving behind a sudden sense of urgency. The storm was still here and his squabble with the girl was only slowing them down. "Oh your right, we dont have anytime to waste" Sean admited. Self loathing apparent in his eyes. He had wasted time that could be used to save people. Stop any unneeded death. As he put on a fake smile. Trying to mask the hatred that he harbored for himself at the moment.

"Sul if your ready to go we can. This storm can only get worse, and god only knows that we don't need that. I'll leave the issue of the girl with you." All the hatred in his voice was gone. Now only a slight undertone of self hatred tinged it. Sul was right. He himself would be hard enough to protect. Let alone him and the girl who seemed weaker than him. Didn't need either of their deaths resting on the big man's conciounce. So he would leave the buisness of the girl up to Sul, and hope she listens to whatever he said. Something about her. Mayber it was her attitude, but it reminded him of his mother. So he just turned around waiting for Sul to make his descision.

As the icicles were knocked off by Sul, it the rain started coming down harder and harder, as she looked up at the sky, the shadow's melted away, returning to normal. She ignored Sean as Sul spoke, the little squabble had only made her dislike "emo" more. To her, he was arrogant, pompous, a general jerk. She wondered why he was even here in the first place. Alice saw the logic of leaving herself behind... but her mind was set by now. "It's my mother... I have to go look for her." she said this firmly, eyes sparkling with conviction and pure stubbornness. She obviously wasn't going to budge from her decision any longer... at least not with some convincing.

"Besides... I can protect myself." she said with a nod... ok, so that was a bit of a bluff, but she didn't know the limits of her power so technically... she wasn't exactly lying. Her stance was still that of not backing down as she quietly waited for Sul's verdict. But either way... she was gonna come whether they liked it or not.

Thunder struck and the ground shook from the oncoming storm. He couldn't argue with this girl any further. She seemed too motivated to come, even though he tried several times to dissuade her. He had offered to look for her mother if she had given him a photograph or something to help, but it wasn't good enough. Sul looked into her eyes and then shook his head.

"We have to get going, if you want to survive, stick close to us. If the hurricane catches us, the winds will be able to throw vehicles around, I'm sure they'll be strong enough to lift you off the ground as well. We'll need some form of harnesses to keep you two on foot. But we can't sit around here arguing anymore. The storm will catch up to us, it's only a matter of time. And we just lost a lot of it."

Sul nodded to Sean to keep moving, and headed towards the direction of Florida City. Whether Alice was going in a different direction or not, was up to her. But Florida City was where the mass population of trapped people were. He was slightly frustrated at how much time they wasted arguing, a little bit at Sean for pushing Alice's buttons to the point of bickering. The frustration would soon dissolve as he thought previously of how he sacrificed himself in breaking the ice to stop all the civilians from getting killed. Yet, Sean saved him. He owed Sean big time for that.

While Sul and Alice were making quick descision. Sean had a smile crack on his face. A real one. This girl wanted to save her mother. Protect her. Something Sean respected deeply. So with little but a mental command the rain that fell from the sky did something strange. It seemed to hit a dome around Sul,sean and the girl. An invisible dome that encompassed all three of them. While he also forged the ice path ahead. Watching the deep flood waters turn in to dingy extremelly solid ice. He could tell that the girl hated him. Couldn't blame her for it, but what could he do. Impressing girls never did matter to him. Just wasn't his style, or his preference for that mater. Still he thought it was the least he could do. After all noone liked to get rained on.

Also with another mental command he had any water that soaked Sul and the girl draw away. Falling to the icy floor. Freezing the moment the water touched it. " Since wev'e decided on the girl i would like to say one more thing." He placed his hand against the thick ice. Concentrating a little. Fingers seeming to dig into the ice like mud. Hand rearing upward as a long thick chain of ice erupted from the ground. Made of water so condensed it could be used to drag an 18 wheeler for a good 100 yards. Without even cracking. He had put it to the test before. Knowing that it could be used as a sort of cable to keep the winds form blowing them away. "Sul i'm going to use this to anchor us to you." He repeated the process to produce another chain. "So all you really need to worry about is debris and the other people out there." The chains whipped forward wrapping in a death grip around Sul's torso. The end of one wrapping around The girl and the other around Sean himself. "These chains should be strong enough to wistand category 4 winds. Well it should at least keep me and her from being flung around the block anyway." The chain ends seemed to melt into itself. Making like a dense ice harness. Still with the strength of the chain.

Though Sean knew if something like a truck or tree landed on the chains they might break. So he head to make sure if anything happened that..... No that nothing hapened to the chains. if something did it spelt death for both him and the girl.

Alice nodded determinedly before realizing something... the rain had stopped... no, that wasn't right either. Alice looked up again to see what seemed to be a dome of water blocking the rain, she watched as Sean formed the ice path, biting back a "Thanks." Then, to make it even harder, he drew the water from her wet clothes, making them nice and dry again. She bit her tongue, trying to hold on to her anger... Alice turned her head when Sean started to speak, trying to ignore him when all of a sudden, a chain erupted from the ground!

Sean continued speaking, explaining how it would anchor Alice and him to the... ground... ice... thing. Anyhow, soon, another chain was produced. She watched as the ends of the chain wrapped around Sul tightly, the two ends the proceeded to wrap around her and Sean. This time, she couldn't hold back the quiet, "Thank you." She folded her arms, hoping that he didn't hear. In the process, she took a good look at the ice harness, it certainly seemed sturdy enough. Alice tapped it a bit, it didn't crack or anything! She nodded, this would probably work!

The path ahead of the three was clear up ahead, he could see Florida City from where he was. Sean was utilizing his power first to stop the rain from landing on them, then to dry their clothes. He kept taking things a step further, forming chains of ice to harness themselves to Sul-Fury. It was his idea, but he was thinking more on the lines of a literal metal chain they could find somewhere. And that was only if it got bad, they were fine for now. The Hurricane was fast approaching though.

Sul flashed back to when Sean and him were fighting Pain, Sean had exerted all his energy to the point where he was bleeding from his nostrils and not giving up. He pushed the brink of death, in Sul's mind. He had told Sean earlier today not to overextend his powers, he needed to save his energy. Thinking back of Sean's weak state back in their previous experience, Sul grew agitated. He didn't want to see him like that again. He whipped his head over his shoulder and snapped at Sean.

"What did I tell you Sean? Save your energy! I'm going to need you up ahead, and you're going to be no good to me if you're passed out again! Our team is only an advantage to us if we're all in the match, understand? When we were fighting Pain, it was okay for you to sit on the sidelines and wait. It won't be here. The Hurricane won't give you a break. Doing trivial things like this is wasting your energy showing off. If you even show a hint of wearing out, I'm aborting the mission." Sul spun back around facing the direction of the City, they were approaching it quickly. Up ahead was their first real rescue mission.



The hurricane appeared to have separated several levels of the apartment complex from the main structure. The rickety building was barely holding up standing by a thread, as pieces of the structure crumbled and fell to the ground. It wouldn't be long before it collapsed. They had to search inside for people that were trapped and injured.