Re: Diner Escape: Gwen, Flash (+Jason & The League NPCs)
Jason didn't see Gwen go up into the tree, but he knew she was ahead, and he knew the guy with the handcannon was chasing her. Flash moved past so fast that he must be going after the car, which was good news - that left him with just one threat left to handle.
He slowed, paused behind a tree, and checked the gash on his leg. It hurt, but in the distant way of injuries masked by a heavy dose of adrenaline. He wouldn't like it later, but it wasn't compromising him just yet.
He peered around the edge of the trunk, looking for the last guard. If they took this guy out, Gwen would be - well, not in the clear, but closer to it. She'd get a shot at the freedom she'd been looking for since he met her, which he'd had a part in keeping from her. It seemed fair, all things considered, that he should have to shed little blood to get her there.
There was no immediate sign of the last guard, and then Jason saw movement, slow through the underbrush, methodical and quiet. The guards were well-trained enough not to make a sound, but the woods were strangely still. The animals had all booked it out of there - away from the chaos, or away from Reaper. That made even the smallest sliver of motion stand out against the broad, dark trunks. There he went, coasting above scattered snow and dead leaves, moving methodically under branches. If Gwen was nearby, she was definitely up or down, hiding in a hollow or at the top of a tree.
Jason began moving after the last guard. He was quiet in the underbrush. With no helmet, he blended into the shadows with almost unbroken smoothness. He knew the quiet of the woods would work against him just as it had worked against the guard, so he moved when the wind rustled the branches and they clattered on each other. He came closer, slid behind fallen tree trunks and into copses when the guard whipped around, searching for the source of a cracked twig, a rustle of leaves.
When the man turned next, Jason was digging a knife into the hollow of his throat. But he was too well-trained to simply wait to die, and in the next few moments, a flurry of motion, he made it halfway to disarming Jason twice, reaching and twisting, grasping for the knife, grappling to get it away from him and turn it on its owner.