The State of California is willing to bear the costs of teleports to save all thirty-seven souls on this bus, but this is contingent on actually saving these people.

(It'll still pay out if they fail, but it will be financially furious about it.)

That's ok. They won't fail.

Hourglass hits the bus with a slow zone right as it hits the corner. She's applying full strength again, and compromising on backlash cost by only slowing the bottom half, this time. 

Meanwhile, Carol's got her purple sticky goop down.  More of it and she's going to start a little more strongly than she did last time.  It's a bus, after all.  It's going to take a lot of stopping.

Foreshadow gave them the clear; now she's just watching tensely, Silver Bulwark wrapped around her.

The bus rounds the corner.  It wobbles slightly as it hits the shimmering field of slowed time.  When it hits the goop, something about the dungeon monster's ability to fight the laws of physics breaks, or overcompensates.

The bus tilts, its two rightmost tires coming off the ground.  It's riding on two wheels -

That's not good --

Uh oh.

Fuck.

Hourglass extends her field upwards!

Kevin has his shield up, because that's the plan. 

(But... this looks kinda bad.)

A sixty-ton bus can only go on two wheels for so long, and even unnatural amounts of traction can only do so much. The wheels turn slightly as the Carnapper tries to recover from the combination of sticky traps, slowing fields, and the dominion of Sir Isaac Newton.

The bus loses control and rolls over, sideways - it doesn't skid directly into Kevin, it skids to his right, on its side -

Carol hurls a knife into the spiderbot, because that was Part of the Plan, but her heart really isn't in it -

Bus Fact: Buses do not have crumple zones on the bottom.

Thank you for subscribing to Bus Facts!

Everyone on board this bus would like to unsubscribe from Bus Facts.  Many of them are extremely vocal about their dissatisfaction.

That's bad. That sounds and looks -- really bad.

It sure would have been nice if her power had warned her --

"Wait!" Ophira calls out. (That's the signal for 'wait until it's not turning'.)

A few moments, as she watches it, and then her backlash shoots up again (not quite as much as last time) and she adds "Clear!"

She tenses.  Must've been bad.  Her eyes don't leave the road.

The bus can't roar, because it's electric.  It can whine aggressively, and its tires squeal lightly as it takes the corner at speed.  It's slowed down to drift the corner, but it straightens and begins to accelerate - 

No it doesn't!! It's actually going to slow down a lot more all at once! 

Even more power surges into its wheels, seeking grip from the road -  

It doesn't get grip.  It gets goop.

Kevin, at this point, has had to take a few steps back to make sure the bus hits his shield head on. 

He's in position, and now his shield is too.

Foreshadow watches tensely.

That's her cue.  She flings herself once more beneath a moving vehicle, at the behest of her colleagues.  Smash goes the front axle.

The ominous creaking noise of a bus about to lose structural integrity is obscured by the squealing of rubber on pavement as the bus does its level best to escape the sticky prison of slowed time.  It's trying to reverse away from the shield. 

  She leans on her power a little to reverse-shrimp fast to the rear axle, before it gets away.  Reach down, fling, reach down, fling, reach down, fling - and her boot meets the rear axle.  The bus shudders - 

This particular bus is empirically incapable of holding the frame off the ground with both axles gone.  It drops - 

"SINKHOLE!" 

Fuck -

She checks, again, after she tells them to wait until the bus stops turning.

...

"Bot!" she snaps. (This means: go for the bot, not the axles. This was intended for 'the bot causes problems' but --)

"Bot, copy."  I don't think I've heard her this stressed, not sure if I want to know or not.  She's curious, but has cultivated an attitude of indifference to what happens in a precognition.

- oh so that went bad-bad. (She has enough time to leave a very short reminder for half an hour later to check on her partner via voice memo, so she does.)

Bot vs axle doesn't affect her part of the plan, but - "Bot, copy." 

Kevin nods. '"Copy." 

The bus remains unable to roar, because it's still electric.  It can still whine aggressively, and its tires still squeal lightly as it rounds the corner.  It has to slow to take the corner, but as it straightens out it accelerates - 

"Clear!" (Probably she could not wonder if this is a precognition if it was. That's not how it works. She is wondering anyway.)

The bus is actually going to slow down a lot more all at once! 

(Hourglass isn't worried. Foreshadow says they're clear, so they're clear. She's focused, pushing aside the feeling of rapidly-mounted backlash.)

And she racks up backlash, gooping down the roadways in front of the bus.

(Idly, she wonders if she should have tried only gooping the section of road immediately in front of the tires.  Possibly worth it.  Not worth experimenting with, not with thirty-seven people at risk.  Even if there is a danger precog forty feet away.)

Kevin, at this point, has had to take a few steps back to make sure the bus hits his shield head on. 

He's in position, and now his shield is too.

That's her cue.  She flings herself once more beneath a moving vehicle, at the behest of her colleagues.  Once she's under the bus, she looks for the bot, doesn't see it.

How do I completely destroy the Carnapper monster?

The answer is to draw her combat knife, hurl it at the ground right there.  It bounces up at exactly the right angle to embed itself in the spiderbot, which gives off sparks.

She accepts this future.  She uses her power four more times as a way of making sure she won't be run over if she rolls out behind the bus.  (She won’t.)  After popping up behind the bus she hollers, "Clear!"

...it's going okay so far...

(Renz reminds her to watch the bus when she gets distracted looking at Reve. Right she has to watch for... complicated reasons she can't remember right now... anyway Reve is backlashed but okay and that's important too.)

Kevin drops his shield once it's clear that the bus is Not Moving. (A few moments later, the shimmer of Hourglass's power fades away as well.) 

...Hourglass is really backlashed, and Sinkhole is behind the bus and also has her backlash to contend with.

That's fine! The situation is under control. :)

Kevin walks up to the bus and politely knocks at the door.

"Yes?" the attendant asks, anxiously.

"You're safe now," he says calmly. "We've destroyed the monster that hijacked your bus. Everyone okay in there?"

"Um." No one is currently screaming for help at least, there's that, but this is really not his job. Several people are crying. "...the DRT gave the guy with a broken arm a modified brace position, but, uh." Deeep breath. Several people, when he looks back, are starting to get up, he needs to --

Louder: "One row at a time, if you think you can walk and you're not behind someone who can't, head out through the door! Walk, don't run, no shoving!"

Kevin will wave over the relevant DRT personnel and then he will stand there Obviously Being An Esper (his orange eyes tend to give it away).

Pisses me off I can't just do that.  I mean, I can say the words.  But they don't come out sounding like this guy when he says them.

The bus passengers will file off, being reminded repeatedly to walk and not push by the bus attendant. A number of them seem to be walking wounded, moving with a limp or held arms or wincing, but none of them have anything obviously badly wrong.

Meanwhile: Reve isn't doing anything now. Can she -- no, she needs to stay here, so she can watch.

...

"Reve?" she requests, quietly.

...you know what, fine. "Hourglass? Come over here?"

Hourglass was already turning to look at Foreshadow, but at Silver Bulwark's request she jogs over instead!

"What's up?"

Ophira was worried about Reve -- oh probably because Reve's So Backlahed. She somewhat blindly reaches for Reve's hands. (Ophira is still mostly watching the bus. She has a job even if it's hard.)

Ooooh the guiding feels reeeeeally goooood... 

...but Foreshadow seems Distressed? Hourglass nuzzles her and makes a vaguely concerned noise.

(Silver Bulwark shifts to make this easier.)

"...went... bad?" Not this time, she can see, but.

Oh, poor Foreshadow... Hourglass wraps herself around her. "Went well. Everyone's safe! Thanks to you."

"Can see," she agrees. Lean... wait she's supposed to be watching. Lean but less.

Hourglass takes a bit of time to process this set of inputs and figure out what's going on, but her backlash (at least at this level) is not stronger than her love-and-concern. "...don't think you need to keep watching," she murmurs. (It's over, the people are getting off the bus, and - it's been more than two minutes, right?)

"Oh." This is somewhat puzzling but she kind of slumps against Reve about it.

They're frustratingly in love.  Foreshadow's really acting all professional, but Hourglass is picking up that there's a problem.  And look at Silver Bulwark over there.  He doesn't need to say anything, just shift his arms a bit to let Hourglass through, and Hourglass just goes for it.  They're a well-oiled machine.

She's well-aware that these are just intrusive thoughts and it's just backlash talking.  She's fine.  It's not all that much backlash, she's certainly been bitchier.  She'll just stand by, looking Professionally Neutral as they get the civilians off the bus.

(She had this.  She doesn't want to think about it, but she did and it's frustrating that she pissed it all away because of her stupid brain.  She can't even blame her backlash for it, it was 90% Carol McCleery.)

Well, the DRT has the civvie situation handled, so she has a Kevin nearby, if she wants a hug about it. 

She doesn't want a hug, she wants guiding.  You might think that those are synonymous, but one of them involves emotional vulnerability and she hates emotional vulnerability the way she hates rat-alike dungeon monsters.  Which is a lot.

She takes a moment, runs through thirty seconds of breathwork.  At this level, it even helps.  And walks over to Kevin.  "You take a lot of load on, stopping that bus?"

He reaches out a hand. "Noooot really," but oh she sure does have a chunk of it, huh.

...after a moment, he puts up a shield above them and leaves it there.

Oh, sure, look at Mister Magnanimity over here.  Fuck.  No, he's fine, he's great, he's super compatible and chill and you need to work with him.  It gets easier as the seconds tick by.  She's not critically backlashed, she's just not happy.  And it's been a long night of catching cars, which means her emotional equilibrium is compromised.  Okay, don't just stand there sucking his chillness out like some kind of psychic vampire.  "Thanks."  Her chin jerks upwards at the shield.  "Appreciate it."  Not like it costs him anything - no.  Stop it.  You're not allowed to get pissed at your source of guiding, there's a rule and everything.

She unzips her jacket.  Her backlash ticks up for a second as she plots the demise of a popsicle stick and checks to see if he's about to jerk away if she puts his hand on the skin of her back.  He doesn't, so she does.

"No prob," he says, adjusting to maximize skin contact. 

(...he notices her backlash going up for a bit, which is a bit confusing? But he's sure it's fine.)

He's in a fantastic position to notice her back tense up.  They're in public but it's fine, they're espers, this is extremely normal behavior.  She'll reciprocate skin contact.  It's so stupid, she's not a prude, it's just.  Intimate in a public space.  She's fully aware that her brain is being dumb.  But.  Here the fuck it is, anyway.

...after a few seconds of vague puzzlement, he moves his shield from above them to between them and the civvies. 

(He shouldn't keep it up for tooooo long. But for now, while she's a lot more backlashed than him, he might as well.)

Her mouth says, "You don't have to."  But her body relaxes a bit, and she gets quite a bit snugglier than she was.  Her arms encircle his waist, seeking the skin beneath his shirt.  Her head lands on his chest.  She's still wearing a helmet, but she's careful not to bonk him with it.

He lets out a small laugh. "I sure don't." He wants to, though :) 

Well.  She won't argue.  She will undo the strap of her helmet, and hang it off an attachment point on her jacket.  Then she bonks her actual forehead into him.  It's comfier.  "I think if we can pull this trick off a few more times, we'll be good.  There's other esper teams out there."

Oh, that feels nice.

He thinks for a bit. "I thiiink the time girlfriends are probably going to be done for the night?" It's late, and Hourglass got pretty backlashed. 

She'll unhug long enough to pull her phone out of her jacket's inside pocket and look at the time.  "Oh.  Yeah.  I guess it's getting pretty late."  She puts it back.  "You okay zeroing me out, before you go?  And maybe introduce me to Peeler properly, at some point?"

"Yeah! And yeah." Peeler hasn't messaged him yet, he doesn't have anywhere to be. 

Cool.  She'll just.  Guide him.  The intrusive thoughts get quieter and quieter.  Eventually, they go away altogether.

(He does drop his shield, after a while, but by then the people on the other side have been shuffled elsewhere.)

Hourglass is betty pracklashed but she really wants to get ShadowShadowShadowShadow more oriented. So while they cuddle, she does her best (#herbest) to repeat the relevant facts (they're in California, they're done for the day, everyone is fine, they saved a busfull of people...) every few minutes, like an airport announcement cycle. 

Foreshadow makes some soft affectionate noises about this. Occasionally also 'yeah i know' noises. She can see the bus!

(After a few of those on the same piece of info Hourglass can be convinced to remove that from the rotation.)

...it's getting late... she yawns. 

Weak giggle, and then Foreshadow yawns as well.

...hmmm. How were they supposed to get where they're staying, again?

There's a helicopter available, if they don't want to walk eight miles through a earthquake-and-dungeon-struck unfamiliar city in the middle of the night.  For some reason.

"Hey Kevin, should we get a lift to the hotel?" She's not raising her voice much, but they're all espers. 

Hmmm. How guided is Sinkhole? 

She's better.  Pretty close to zeroed, she'd probably be good by the time they get to the hotel, if they spend the chopper ride cuddling.

"We're good to go!" 

"Ready to head out?" (Foreshadow and Silver Bulwark both nod.)

Beep boop boop hello San Diego DRT coordinator she would like one (1) helly copter please? 

Roger dodger, you old codger.  One (1) helly copter incoming, ETA 4 minutes.

Sinkhole spends the next few minutes trying to figure out if 'monster allergic reaction' has any potential (in)compatibility with 'gets pissed off at literally anything'.  She doesn't get anywhere.

"...hold me? On the way?" Foreshadow asks Hourglass, esper-quiet.

"Of course!"

She'll hold her while they wait, too.

Yeah. But standing here isn't scary. Helicopters are, especially when she's -- like this.

...yeah, that makes sense.

Well. Her girlfriend is here to hold her and remind her what's going on and hopefully ground her in the fact that her arm isn't even a little broken.

And Foreshadow appreciates her so much.

The sound of a helicopter become very apparent, especially to those with esper ears.

Ughhh they're so loud.

Yeahhhhh. Roads aren't safe, though. (She covers Foreshadow's ears.)

Noise levels of a helicopter during ascent or descent can hit 110 decibels.  Two minutes of that unprotected can cause permanent hearing loss.

Thankfully for all espers present, the pilot knows not to land anywhere near espers.  She sets the chopper down almost a thousand feet away, and her copilot starts jogging closer with a double armful of noise-cancelling headphones.

Oh good those are much better than her earplugs. (The earplugs are calibrated for reducing background noise while still letting voices through. They're not very good for helicopters. And they had to give the ones from the previous ride back.)

Hooray for Noise-Cancelling Headphones!

Carol's happy to take 'em.  She's got earplugs in her jacket because they take up zero weight and only a little space, but she doesn't have enough for the whole class.

Also helicopters are very noisy.  Earplugs would not be enough.

(Kevin doesn't really mind choppers.)

The helly chopter is quite a bit quieter once they're up in the air, but it's not actually quiet.  It's more akin to being near a lawnmower, for those familiar with such a beast.  But it's not a very long transit to the San Diego Sunset Hotel, where espers without unusually exotic needs are being siloed.

Foreshadow is going to cling to Hourglass and bury her face in her neck.

Hourglass will hold her tightly and rub small circles into her back. It's okay, you're okay, I'm here...

And Kevin snuggles up with Sinkhole and looks down at the city below them.

She's a little surprised at the cuddliness, but she probably shouldn't be.  He's that kinda guy.  Even if he is a little bony.

She takes a few minutes to just look at the pretty lights and enjoy the snuggling guiding.  She zones out a little.  She's not dropping off to sleep, helicopters aren't that comfy.  Her vision's a little blurry, but that's probably just exhaustion.

Renz sits on Foreshadow's other side. She hasn't mentioned why helicopters upset her, but she was fine in the plane even when it was loud. And it's worse when she's backlashed and she lived somewhere really rural so -- he has a guess. She was injured, during her hellweek, after all.

There's not much he can do, but he holds her hand and waits for them to land at the hotel.

The helly chopter takes them down in a park near the hotel.  There’s a white fluorescent H painted on the lawn.  They’re taken down and set down, gentle as a kiss.  It doesn’t take long to pile out and hand the earpro back to the copilot.

(How's Foreshadow holding up?)

Better now that they're out and on the ground, though she's still holding on tight to Hourglass's hand.

Meanwhile, Sinkhole is still handholding with Kevin, but about to have to stop.  "I'll see you tomorrow?  And Peeler, maybe?"

"Peeler's up now, if you wanna come chill with us for a bit longer! But if not, yeah, we'll see you tomorrow." 

"Well...if she wouldn't mind?  S'not like I have anyplace else to go, and bed's a three minute commute..."

"Yeah, 'sall good." Kevin smiles, pulls out his phone to get the room number that Peeler already texted him, and then turns to his fellow Seattle espers. "I'll see you three in the morning, yeah?"

Hourglass gives him a fun little salute and winks at him. (...it's hard to stay fully professional when it's with Kevin, especially when there's no DRT around and the time has crept past 1 am...)

Renz smiles at him. "See you then!" (He has a separate room; he could have slept on a fold-out bed in a pinch, but apparently they have plenty.)

Foreshadow is leaning against Hourglass sleepily, but she nods. "Sleepwell."

"You as well."  She'll - follow Kevin?  She does uncling from him a bit, it feels weird to be meeting a man's girlfriend while cozied up to him.

(Kevin, perhaps unsurprisingly, is unbothered by this.)

Hourglass rubs her thumb against the back of Foreshadow's hand and does her best to navigate the hotel in search of their allocated room.

Foreshadow can try to --

...Renz will help them find their room before he goes in search of his.

(...it's just the three of them, now.) 

"Thanks, Renz," Reve says quietly, her body language loosening up.

"I'm not backlashed," he points out. Hmmm okay the room system... is helpfully detailed... so...

"I'm only moooooooooooooooooderately backlashed," Reve says, like someone who is definitely at least moderately backlashed.

"I can tell!" Alright, they need to take the elevator...

Veleator her beloved... 

When they get inside, she wraps herself around Ophira (also her beloved (#herbeloved!!!)) with substantially less professionalism than she had been doing.

:) :) :) "Hiiiiii."

"You two good now?" Renz checks.

"Yeeeeeeeeeeeee." Reve unwraps a bit to carefully boops Renz on his shoulder with her head to avoid the compatibads. "Thanks!"

"Thanks," Ophira agrees.

"Sleep well!" He's not even going to tease them, not when they're all this tired.

And he heads off.

"...we won't be backlashed when we wake up?" Ophira asks, after a little.

Reve thinks. "...not unless we sleep with lots of clothes on?"

Ophira nods tiredly, and (Renz closed the door when he left) starts stripping out of most of her layers.

Reve will follow suit, right up until she gets distracted.

...soft querying noise?

hhhh - oh right, getting ready for bed.

"...you're distractly attractive," Reve says, pulling her shirt off.

Ophira blushes!!!

...Reve leans over and kisses her on the side of her head.

Lean!

"...you were okay, in all of them. Well -- distressed, but --"

Oh.

"That makes sense," she says softly, wrapping herself around Ophira. "I was behind Kevin."

Nodnod cling. "The first one -- the bus -- lost control, I think -- the victims -- I could hear screaming -- and the second, I think it collapsed on Sinkhole --"

Reve holds her tightly. "'m sorry."  

Headshakecling. "Would be worse if it was real."

"Yeah, of course, but - that doesn't mean it wasn't bad for you..."

"I -- yeah, I guess so --" This doesn't usually happen when she uses her power but dungeons don't usually kill civilians!

"Not saying you shouldn't, just -" she sighs and squeezes Ophira. "I worry we might not be doing a good enough job of tracking the ways it's hard on you?"

"...it feels like it would be worse if they were still trapped in there because I was afraid of what I might see, too," Ophira ?agrees?.

"Yeah, I'm glad you were there! Just... maybe it's something to talk about with your agent and see if we can plan about better, going forward? ...and if you're okay with it, I think I want to ask Scarlet for advice about this, too." 

"It doesn't happen much. I think? ...This'll be easier in the morning."

"Yeah, we can talk about it later, just -" she makes the by now very familiar to Ophi motion of taking a quick note with her commscreen "- don't want to forget?"

"Thank you."

"Of course!" Happysleepy nuzzle.

Blushylean. "Sleeeep?"

Reve will pull Ophira into bed with her. "Sleeep!"

Mmm. Yes. This is good.