Bring The Heat

91. No Way In Pt 2

As Corey approached, beginning to dematerialize, Ingrid lunged forward unflinchingly, painting the edge of the table she once lay on pink with promised destruction. Corey flinched from the blast, even mostly dematerialized, and Ingrid followed up by slamming the table into him. The jagged edges from where the metal had burst jammed into his still present torso as he shrieked, disappearing and jumping back to hide.

Looking down at where she had just torn the table from the floor, Ingrid raised an eyebrow.

"Hey, maybe I am a little angry." she muttered. "Listen. When he disappears, he... doesn't. Not fully. But he doesn't fade out as ONE - his cells clump together in tight little groups, and then spread far apart. He compacts himself into microscopic pieces, letting him move between the particles of almost anything, dodge around that dust you threw in the air!"

As he heard it, Rebound grinned. The feeling was a mixture between pride at being so close to figuring it out, joy that he'd made a new ally, and excitement at the idea of being able to figure out exactly how to kill this bastard!

...which he still had no idea how to do.

"Let me finish." Ingrid reprimanded, even though he hadn't interrupted her. "This means we can't hurt him with physical things. But he still is affected by forces! Think, if he is affected by gravity, how does he stop from falling through the floor? Because he has a force holding him together, like a glue made of air, only affecting him and nothing else! Things like explosions, or my lines, they won't blow him apart; but they can still push the particles, still hit him! I don't know how to kill him, but he is not a smart man... we just need him to make a mistake."

"I can sense him when he reappears," Rebound chimed in, "as soon as he comes back, I'll know where he is!"

Ingrid nodded, but then gave him a concerned look.

"Do you... have long left? You are pale."

Lowering his eyes, Rebound bit his lip, then steeled himself.

"Long enough."

-(AT THE COMPOUND)-

Flames crackled loudly as they spread around the huge lumps of debris encircling the opening where Wren laid. Her body was motionless, her face blank, and as blood poured from the hole in her abdomen, all she could do was breathe in and out, ragged breaths.

It was a horrible sensation, as part of the air she breathed escaped through a small hole in her lung, bubbling out through the blood. Her chest felt so tight...

Wren's head lay still against the cold dirt pressing into her cheek. She was so lightheaded, she could barely feel it - but seeing her remaining hand's skin slowly becoming a dead, sweaty, silvery colour only made her feel more ill.

Faintly behind her, Wren heard a woosh, then a POP!

"She really did a number on you, huh?"

It was a male voice, young, weak. He followed his sentence with a frail chuckle.

"Who are you?" Wren asked, deadpan. She didn't have long left, so it didn't really matter, but she really hated not knowing things.

Twig sighed, and smiled with the same melancholic sincerity that plagued his voice. Right now, he felt more vulnerable than weak. His leg was killing him, poisoning his blood... but he was with her again.

"I always felt so bad for sticking with her, and not you... but it was never because of you. I stuck with her because she changed, and I kinda hoped I could change her back... then we'd all be together again!" Twig shook his head, leaning against the wall. "But she let people I loved die... and now she's doing the same to me, and to you. I don't think she's..."