Reaching Salvation: Post-Acer Part 2

"No, just remembering that without my Flow even these...kids are probably stronger than me," Luke replied, not wanting to say it and turning redder as he did.

Kira paused in surprise, before giggling a bit. "I think you're one of the strongest p-people ever. I-It's not all physical," she told him, smiling.

Luke was surprised at the giggling, and he was embarrassed for a different reason then, but he nodded thankfully, even though he thought it was probably that she had gotten used to the Luke of the tournament, who was strong and always protecting her.

"Thanks."

"Y-You shouldn't doubt y-yourself," Kira smiled, before looking over at the village. "M-Most trees are th-thick enough t-to stop a b-bullet, b-but I d-don't have s-super human reflexes..."

"The impact'd hurt you, though," Luke protested, trying to decipher whether this meant 'go' or 'don't go'.

"I-I'm used t-to it b-by now..." Kira trailed off, rubbing her arms nervously. Sure enough, there were scars on a lot of her visible skin, from the shoulder down, from the tournament and travelers who had done training practice on her trees.

"If there's one thing I know, it's that even if you're used to pain it's better not to have to experience it. Pain isn't a nice thing to feel, whether you're accustomed or not," Luke pointed out.

"I-I'd rather g-g-get a c-couple c-cuts th-than...than w-watch s-someone g-get sh-shot..." Kira mumbled ashamedly, looking down at the ground.

"True, I'm not arguing that. But just barging in because we're fairly sure we can handle their attacks is a... bad idea," Luke said, having to consciously stop himself from going to his own scars from Nathan.

"W-We're not th-the only ones f-fighting, th-though..." Kira protested quietly, wanting to help the villagers, but she really didn't like arguing with Luke.

"All it could take is a bullet neither of us see, though, and in a large scale battle, that's even more likely," Luke argued back calmly. "I say we go up, all sneaky, and scope out the situation. Not that I'll be able to do much."

"A-Alright..." Kira agreed, biting her lip nervously. What if they were caught by the kids, or what if a stray bullet hit them? What happened then?

Luke took a back way around, around the back of buildings, keeping a small knife in hand just in case. Eventually he found a climbable wall, and he scaled it easily, pulling himself using upper rather than lower body strength. Then he offered a hand down for Kira. It was a nice roof, offering a decent view of the battle, while also offering a good deal of cover.

"Keep your head down," he murmured softly, forming plans of action.

Kira grasped Luke's hand gratefully, scaling the wall as well. She did as she was told and kept her head down, although the odd looking field that was coming out of Adeline didn't look to be anything good.

"Odd field," Luke remarked, taking in the sights carefully. "Joey's pretty strong. Is that a...? Nah, probably my imagination. Be back in a minute."

With that he hopped to the next roof, waiting for another flash of Flow from one of the more powerful combatants to move, and returned a while later, panting slightly.

"Wedding ring on Joey and Erika's finger," Luke announced when he returned. "New, too, must've been today. That's probably why he's going for a more brutal attack style, annoyed his wedding got interrupted. The kids are outmatched, that's pretty obvious from what I saw. This is probably the most covered rooftop, too, from all the ones over there and all the ones we passed. What do you think we should do?"

Kira frowned slightly, watching over the battle for a few more seconds. "Sh-Should we help...?" she asked. "I-I d-d-don't kn-know..."

A wedding? Naturally, she and Luke had not been invited. That stung a little, considering how often, especially during dry season, Erika had pestered her to come back to the village.

"I don't know if me limping in there is a good idea," Luke pointed out ashamedly again. He hated the useless feeling he had.

"If you can use your Flow from good cover, then I'd recommend it. I can pump out enough Flow from somewhere nearby to make them think it's from somewhere other than here."

"A-Ah, I-I-I'm sorry!" Kira stammered apologetically. She wasn't used to Luke being crippled, really, he had left before she'd had too much of a chance to become used to it.

"Um...I-I c-can put u-up s-s-some d-dead pl-plants th-that'll b-b-burn easy, i-if that'll h-help..."

"Um, I'll just stick on guard duty," Luke replied nervously, failing to add 'something I can actually do'.

Kira looked at Luke a little sadly, but decided now was probably not the time to talk to him about it. "O-Okay..." she murmured, moving closer to Luke as she used her Flow to try and tie the kids up with vines.

The kids kept coming, some of the older ones doing combat with the other villagers while the smaller kids kept trying to come at Joey's and Adeline's forcefield. Erika was beside Joey, using her Flow powers on a several kids who had dropped to the ground, some of them screaming.

---

"Sir, the Beta team is suffering major casualties." A girl around thirteen stated, her eyes a stange glowing yellow from her spot in the jeep. Beside her was a clothed figure.

"No matter-" Insert rack of coughs. "Commandor E and his team should be done with setting those bombs while they're busy..."

---

A boy around sixteen that had goggles over his eyes and a mop of curly brown hair had finished connecting the wires on his pack of dynamite.

"We're ready..."

---

Simon started to run out of the village with Elena. It's a long shot, but maybe they can help us.


---

The detinator started it's countdown. Tick Tock.

Anyone who entered the barrier may have felt a sudden numbness as their soul was slowly sucked out of their body. Those who managed to hold on were knocked down by Alex and Lance. "I'll give these back later," Adeline said, making her way to the jeep.

The people in the jeep soon found their vehicle glowing, before being literally torn apart in a second by Joey's Flow.

Joey stood there, beside it, staring at them, as all the other teens were being distracted by attacks from the earth itself. "Hi there...maybe you can answer my questions." He said, his eyes glowing with white Flow.

---

OOC: Joey is not pleased.

Elena ran after Simon, about on the verge of tears. She didn't understand what was happening, how could Simon deal with it all so easily?

The kids Adeline were fighting dropped to the ground, very pale. However, before the group in the jeep could reply a loud noise was heard as one of the village house exploded with a loud BOOOM!

OOC: Going to be off soon.