InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "Eat at Joe's"

Nico Spinelli (switchitup) wrote in genome_project,
@ 2012-04-17 15:14:00

Entry tags:

april 2012, nico spinelli

Who: Nico and Sasha
What: Sasha gets to play hero for once
When: During AU Week so 2042.
Where: Outside the government facility.
Rating: PG-13

Nico was not happy she was here. Although Sasha was a great comfort to him when he returned home and he hated to be away from her for long periods of time, he much preferred knowing she was safe. But now, with Kate Sullivan out of the running, he didn't exactly have much choice in the matter. Having a human magnet walking around was undeniably helpful, and his objections had been shot down by the leadership.

He could have been overreacting. After all, this was supposed to be a simple swap and grab. He'd pop in to the body of a guard, Sasha and the others would be able to restrain the guard in his body with the aid of his handy dandy metal-filled belt, and Nico would be able to grab the intel and toss it over before they had enough time to realize whose body he was in.

Funny how things never seem to work out as planned.

Crouched down close to the treeline, Nico started at a safe distance, but the switch wasn't happening. This had happened before. When he wasn't as focused as he should be (likely by the presence of his fiance whose eyes he would swear he could feel digging into his back). Frustrated, he edged closer to the group of soldiers. Nothing again. He was getting close, too close the com in his ear insisted, but he ignored it. There. He could feel it. He could feel his consciousness edging out, the hesitant look on the face of one of the soldiers as he tried to figure out what was happening.

But what he really felt was a solid blow to the back of his head that sent him spiraling back into his own body just in time to see grass rapidly approaching as he face-planted.

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magneticme
2012-04-18 08:37 pm UTC (link)

"Nico!"

The word fell out of her mouth before she could help it, and they had spotted them. Sasha had been on missions before, countless ones where her magnetic ability provided Railroad with solid victories over the government. But always she had been kept to the back. Always she had been protected by at least two other people. Always she could focus on the mission and the mission alone, not trying to keep her teeth from chattering as she watched Nico stalk toward unsuspecting guards. There were others with them, sure, but none of them had her unique power. In fact, the whole mission depended on her ability to subdue the guard Nico was body jumping.

But she had known from early on that this was not going to be a typical mission. Nico was going too far. Too far. She had been crouching low behind a bush, though her legs were poised, ready to leap and pounce at a moment's notice. She was on edge and with good reason. She saw it coming only seconds before it happened. And moments later she was sprinting toward him, having absolutely no regard for the others behind her who had absolutely no magnetic protection against the bullets that were now flying toward them. They dropped like flies, but Sasha had learned long ago to surround herself with an immense magnetic field. The bullets merely bounced off her as if they were made of rubber.

Her years of running and participating in sports gave her an edge too. She slid down beside Nico as if she was sliding into home base and magnetically pulled at his metal belt to bring him closer. Her foot caught on a rock though, and it momentarily threw her, losing her magnetic grip on him. By the time she moved to grab him again, the other guards were upon her. The only thing stopping them from shooting her on the spot was her field, which she used to protect Nico by putting herself between him and the guards.

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switchitup
2012-04-19 01:44 am UTC (link)

Well, this was embarrassing.

Receiving a gun butt to the back of his head apparently had the side effect of making him extremely dizzy. His vision was having trouble focusing, and being jerked around by a magnetic belt (hey, that was kind of painful, now that he thought about it) wasn't helping things much.

His head was swimming by the time he saw someone, or was it someones- he couldn't tell if he was seeing double or if there were multiple people about- loomed over him. His ears were ringing as he squinted, trying to get his vision to focus. Eventually, he realized the figure(s) above him were female, which helped him relax a little as it meant it wasn't one of the guards, who had all been men, but suddenly had him tensing up all over again when he realized who that meant it had to be.

"What the hell are you doing?" he demanded- or rather, he tried to. The words came out a bit garbled, and he wasn't entirely looking at her, which lessened the effect considerably. "Go back."

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magneticme
2012-04-19 04:28 am UTC (link)

Sasha wasn't hearing any of it. No, really, she couldn't hear what he was saying. She knew he was trying to speak, but his words were so jumbled that she feared he'd gotten some sort of concussion from the blow to the head. "Relax, Nico. I'll protect you. Just stay behind me where my field can cover--OUCH!" What was that? Sasha instinctively held onto her arm with her other hand, and when she pulled it away, she saw that it was bloody.

Shot? She'd gotten shot? But how? Her magnetic field was impenetrable, or at least it had been up until that point. No, she must have lost focus while worrying about Nico. It was difficult to muster up the same sort of power it took to keep up her field now with a bullet wound to her arm, but Sasha was determined to prove herself and more than a little mad.

She stood and raised her hands up at the guards while still remaining in a spot where she could guard Nico from stray bullets. And every time one came at her, she honed in on it as she was taught to use her skill and forced it to stop in mid-flight, letting it drop harmlessly to the ground before her. Her head tilted slightly to the side as she curved one bullet around and sent it right back at the person who had shot it at her. A wound for a wound, she thought angrily. Though she wasn't exactly aiming for a flesh wound.

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switchitup
2012-04-19 03:18 pm UTC (link)

"Sasha," Her name came out coherently, much to his delight, and although he still felt a bit like he was going to puke, that back of his head hurt like all hell, and he certainly still felt dizzy, he had at least managed to get rid of the double vision.

That way he could focus on the fact that only one of her arms was oozing blood.

"God damn it," he cursed, slowly and painfully heaving himself into a sitting position. The simple motion gave his stomach a lurch as his surroundings shifted a bit, but after a few deep inhales, things righted again.

Sasha was still bleeding, it seemed, but now she was, what was she doing exactly?

"Sasha. Let's go," he muttered, starting slightly as one of the guards fell backward with a splatter of blood. Had she- No... not Sasha, surely?

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magneticme
2012-04-19 08:23 pm UTC (link)

No. She hadn't. Not really. It wasn't a scrape like the one she'd received nor a killing blow, but it was enough to cause the guard a bit of trouble. At the very least, he was going to be knocked out for quite some time. But it was evident that Sasha wasn't going to stop now. She only half heard Nico calling her name, speaking to her, desperately trying to get her to come back. But she was going, and she was going fast.

She had her palms pointed at a guard who seemed panicked enough to just start spraying bullets at her. But her anger was consuming her, fueling her power, and she was able to focus on every single bullet flying at her, stopping them all in mid-flight. But unlike the ones that fell to the floor, these were turning around toward the guard who had run out of bullets now and stood froze in his spot, paralyzed with fear.

She was going to show them. She was going to show them all how reliable she could be on a mission. She could riddle this guy with holes, make him look like a pincushion. She was just that powerful right now. So, why was she hesitating? Why wasn't she pulling the trigger on this guy's life? Finishing the job? Her arms wavered and as if held together by invisible strings, the bullets wavered in mid-air too. No. She had to do this. She was a fighter, and she wanted everyone to know that.

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switchitup
2012-04-20 01:43 am UTC (link)

"Sasha," Nico hedged. He wasn't exactly willing to yell at her or give her a kick in the bum for fear that she'd get distracted and lose control of her powers. He didn't know where those bullets would end up in that case, not to mention the fact that it would leave them completely unprotected.

He'd never seen her like this, and it was unnerving to say the least. He knew she was tough- there was no doubting that- but the look in her eyes reminded him of Seth Enders and his lot, and Nico didn't like it. At all.

He wobbily rose up to his feet, biting back a heave as he swayed unsteadily for a moment. "Sasha. We have to go. Now."

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magneticme
2012-04-20 02:02 am UTC (link)

Sasha felt her lip quiver. Every time she heard Nico say her name, she was reminded of her feelings for him, of all the innocent butterflies in her tummy and the way her hand fit perfectly in his. Of sunsets and moonlight dates. Of his warmth in the cold and his dashing smile. What the hell was she doing? She was a fighter, sure, but she wasn't a killer. She knew she wasn't cut out for Hellfire, so why was she acting like one of them? Her eyes dared a peek at the guard on the floor. She almost lost it. Was he dead? Was he going to die? Did he have a family? What had she done?

Her rage had driven her to the edge, and she had almost fallen right off. But the invisible strings of magnetism were more than just the ties that bound her to a dozen or so bullets. They bound her to Nico too, in a different way, but the concept was the same. "Go," she said to him quietly. "Start moving." She stood in front of him, her magnetism still manipulating the bullets like they were puppets. If she could just keep the bullets between them and the guards, maybe, just maybe, they could escape.

"Nicolas," she said to him in a way that made her sound more like her old latina self, and glanced back at him. "You okay?"

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switchitup
2012-04-20 03:01 am UTC (link)

It wasn't exactly reassuring that she hadn't dropped those bullets, but the fact that she was speaking to him was something. His hand sought out hers, carefully finding its familiar place as his fingers entwined with hers.

"I'm fine," he said softly, managing a grimace of a smile once he realized she'd looked back at him. He couldn't do much of anything to help her at this point, which was driving him a little nuts. "Let's just get the hell out of here."

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magneticme
2012-04-20 03:33 am UTC (link)

The feel of Nico's hand around hers fully brought her into the moment. And though it was probably a bad time for this, she was starting to freak out a little. She was afraid that Nico was badly hurt, that her arm would have to be cut off, that more guards were coming. Her anger meter was going down only to be replaced by a surge of fear. Fear didn't control powers very well.

A few of the bullets dropped to the ground as a result, but Sasha maintained the rest at an almost steady position. "Can you run? I don't think I can hold these for much longer." She wasn't even waiting so much for his reply and continuously moving them back, back, back to where they had come from. Just because her bullet wound was starting to hurt and tears were beginning to cloud her eyes didn't mean Nico had to get shot as well.

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switchitup
2012-04-23 03:09 am UTC (link)

"Yeah. I told you, Sash, I'm fine." He knew it wasn't entirely true, and he wasn't completely positive that he could actually sprint, but a jog was entirely plausible. But he could tell she was wavering by the soft jingle of a few of the bullets hitting the pavement.

He eased back as she did, frowning at the guards who were holding their ground uneasily.

"Don't suppose you'd care to toss their guns a safe distance away before we go?"

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magneticme
2012-04-23 05:45 pm UTC (link)

Sasha gulped back a panicked sob. Now that her rage was subsiding, she could feel exactly what that bullet had done to her. It wasn't the worst bullet wound in the world, but it was her first. The first was always the worst. She didn't trust herself to speak. She lifted her hands and dispersed the guns as he had suggested. Some of the guards were still holding on tightly to theirs and were knocked off their feet receiving nothing more than bruises, Sasha hoped. She'd done enough damage today, enough to get her a gold star from Hellfire.

Once she was sure the guards were sufficiently distracted, she let the bullets drop with a tired sigh, as if she'd been carrying a large piano on her back this entire time. It had worn her out all these shifts in emotions, and she might have been about ready for a nap if she didn't still have so much adrenaline pumping through her veins. She chanced a moment to properly look at Nico, lifting his arm and wrapping it around her shoulders to help him walk. She wanted to hug him and never let him go, wanted to cry and throw a little tantrum. But there was no time. And it was going to take a while for Sasha to figure out what the hell had happened to her out there.

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switchitup
2012-04-23 08:34 pm UTC (link)

Maybe Sasha was feeling the full brunt her wounds, but Nico wasn't, and he was counting on a mixture of adrenaline, shock, and downright force of will to get him through this before his raging headache really kicked in.

"The cars aren't that far," he assured her, trying to somehow sound authoritative enough to keep her moving and reassuring enough to keep her calm. He wasn't entirely sure if he pulled it off, but hell if he had time to think over it. He let her drape his arm over her, but was conscious of that bullet wound she'd managed to obtain- he made a mental note that he was going to have everyone's head at Railroad for that- and only let it rest lightly.

"Put your shields back up if you can," he insisted, tugging her forward as he hurried for the treeline.

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