[2] Rescue Operation

[Kaden]

The blistering wind whipped against Kaden's face as he sped down the road. Sand and dirt were kicked into his face, making it difficult to see and annoying to breathe. Beads of sweat that attempted to trickle down his face became mired in sand and crusted into unsightly trails. Fortunately for Kaden, the decision to continue onward was an easy one. He could either follow the road he was on and hope to catch up to Trisha, Piper, and Szar, or he could turn around and head back to the mansion that he had just escaped from.

It was difficult for Kaden to tell how long he had been driving. He knew he wasn't going particularly fast, and he knew that he was having trouble feeling out Trisha's location, but that was it. As the sun continued to beat down on his back, the courier tried to distract himself with thoughts of what he would do when he caught up to his partners in crime. Trying to devise such a plan, however, only brought a single fact to light: Kaden had no clue what he was doing.

So what if he caught up to Trisha? What could he hope to accomplish when she had felled both Piper and Szar without breaking a sweat. Kaden had some degree of confidence in the raw destructive powers he once possessed, but unleashing them in full force was something he had not attempted in years. Perhaps he would be able to grab Piper and Szar without anyone noticing and escape... on his motorcycle...

Luckily Kaden was spared any more depressing thoughts. In the distance, a short distance off the road Kaden was traveling on, a large cloud of sand was kicked into the air. With the wind in his ears, Kaden was unable to catch the faint sound of Trisha's SUV rolling through the desert. As the courier neared the dissipating plume of sand, though, he could faintly feel Piper and Szar tugging at the back of his mind.

With a frown, Kaden brought his bike to a stop. The road had taken him as close as it was going to. To actually approach Piper and Szar, Kaden would have to travel through the sand itself, something he had been going out of his way to avoid. Gripping the bike tightly, the courier steeled himself and shot off the road.

The instant the bike hit sand, Kaden could feel its tires lose their grip, spinning wildly. On instinct, the courier twisted the handlebars, but that proved to be a very poor idea. The body of the bike twisted, throwing the unprepared Kaden from its seat before falling to the ground. Kaden himself rolled through the sand for several feet, leaving a shallow trail in his wake. His body flopped to a stop, but Kaden was slow to actually move.

"Well that was a dumb idea..." he mumbled to himself

Pulling himself slowly to his feet, Kaden glared at the motorcycle that lay several yards away. As he removed his jacket, the courier kicked a small plume of sand at the fallen vehicle before starting his trek into the desert. The energies of Szar and Piper were still tugging at the back of his mind, so tracking them down would be a relatively simple task. Kaden could only hope that his sixth sense was trustworthy.

Climbing to the top of a nearby sand dune proved to be a much more difficult task than Kaden had anticipated. Stopping to catch his breath, Kaden surveyed his surroundings. Sure enough, in the direction of Piper and Szar was an overturned SUV. Fortunately, it looked as though it would only take a few minutes to arrive on-scene. With a deep breath, and a renewed sense of excitement, Kaden leapt off of the sand dune, sliding down the sand with relative ease.

While the journey took longer than Kaden had guessed, it wasn't long until he was standing next to the SUV, trying to figure out what, exactly, had happened. To Kaden's surprise, the vehicle looked to be in relatively good shape, with the exception of several cracks in the windshield. If it ran, and Kaden guessed it would, that would solve his transportation problem. Trying to carry three people on a motorcycle was just asking for trouble.

As he rounded the back of the SUV, Kaden's pulse quickened. The door to the trunk, as it were, had been thrown clean from the rest of the vehicle, and Szar's upped body lay on the desert sand. Rushing to the changeling's side, Kaden felt a wave of relief as he heard the alien groan -- at least Kaden assumed it was a groan -- and try to pull itself forward. Reaching down, Kaden grabbed ahold of Szar and helped pull him free of the SUV. To Kaden's surprise, the changeling was much lighter than he appeared to be.

"Thanks..." the changeling managed to say.

"'Course," the courier replied. "Piper in there too?"

In response, Szar simply nodded. Kaden couldn't really blame him. While there didn't seem to be any severe injuries, Szar looked more than a little banged up. That both Szar and Piper had been drugged was something that Kaden was oblivious to.

Ducking into the back of the SUV, Kaden caught sight of Piper almost immediately. The vehicle lay on its driver side, and Piper looked unfortunate enough to have been thrown against the backseat window. Crawling over to the woman, Kaden managed to hook his arms underneath Piper's and drag her towards the back of the SUV. It was a slow and awkward process, since Kaden had to do the entire thing hunched over, but eventually Piper had been pulled free of the wreckage.

As he lay the woman down, Kaden thought he heard a small yelp escape her lips, but pushed it out of his mind. Just pulling someone out of a car was probably not the safest thing to do, given the potential injuries they could have sustained, but Kaden didn't have much of a choice. For what he had planned, being inside the SUV wasn't a great idea.

Leaving Szar and Piper to their own devices for a moment, Kaden made his way towards the front of the SUV. He stopped as he came upon a sun roof that had been shattered. Fortunately, that gave Kaden fairly good access to Trisha, who was slumped against the driver-side door.

Once again, Kaden crawled his way into the overturned SUV, and managed to get a decent grip around Trisha's torso. Less concerned with Trisha's well being, Kaden managed to wrangle her out of the vehicle significantly faster than he had Piper. The courier felt very fortunate that Trisha was out of comission as he dragged her several yards away from the SUV.

With everyone pulled clear of the vehicle, Kaden approached it once again. Trying to push the SUV back onto its wheels would be a waste of effort and time. Instead, Kaden took in a deep breath, dug his heels into the sand, and thrust his hands toward the vehicle.

A flash of light burst from the courier's hands as he released a wave of energy. Heat washed over Kaden as his ki crashed against the roof of the SUV. The vehicle slid along the sand from a moment before the wheels found purchase and it rocked up into its intended position. The car's momentum continued, tipping it up onto the opposite pair of wheels. Kaden grimaced as the SUV threatened to fall back onto the sand. Fortunately, it never came to that. The SUV crashed back onto all four wheels.

At the flash of light, both Szar and Piper had looked up in time to see the SUV returned to a driveable position. Kaden returned to their side and helped them onto their feet. As Kaden helped his comrades climb into the SUV, he noticed that most of the vehicle's roof had been evaporated, letting the sun beat down on its occupants. While it was unfortunate that the courier had been slightly overzealous, he was simply happy that his energy hadn't torn through the entire car.

As Kaden hopped into the driver's seat, he grinned at the sight of the keys still in the ignition. His grin widened as the car slowly came to life. As the SUV rolled slowly through that sand, Kaden steered it back towards the road. In the back of his mind, the courier lamented that they had simply left Trisha laying in the sand, but bringing her along would be as close to suicidal as Kaden cared to get.

"So," Kaden craned his neck towards the back seat, "where are we headed?"

"Still need to get Kai," came Szar's response.

Made sense, Kaden thought. At the very least, they could be sure that Trisha wouldn't be at the mansion to take everyone out for a second time. What worried Kaden, though, was the possibility that there would be someone at least as strong as Trisha. The courier wasn't sure who Kai employed to protect him, but he probably had more than one bodyguard.

As Kaden turned his attention back to the proverbial road, something caught his eye. Something was wedged between the passanger's seat cushions. Reaching over, Kaden pulled it free and held it aloft to inspect. It looked to be some kind of dagger or knife. Though it was in a small leather sheath, it was easy to tell that it had a curved blade that was probably five or six inches in length. Shrugging, Kaden tucked the blade inside his jacket.

The SUV rolled to a stop as Kaden came upon the road that he had followed on his motorcycle. Running a hand through his hair -- which caused an annoying amount of sand to fall free -- Kaden looked up and down the road. He knew he wanted to get back to the mansion, but had no idea which way he had come from.

"Need to ask for directions?" Piper quipped.

"Something like that..." Kaden replied.

With a shrug, Kaden turned the wheel to his left and hit the gas. The SUV jumped onto the road without skipping a beat and the three would-be Hunters could breathe easily. For a few minutes at least. Both Piper and Szar still looked sluggish, to say the least. If they were going to break back into the mansion, Kaden was the last person they wanted to be at full strength; despite his desire to make up for his earlier cowardice, he barely knew anything about fighting and even less about making arrests.

The three Hunters rode in silence for quite a while before Szar spoke up again. The changeling had been surveying the land, presumably to try and figure out whether they were headed in the right direction or not. Kaden felt a pang of guilt that he was unable to sense which direction Kai was in. Some day he might have such a mastery of his sixth sense, but for now driving was about all he could do.

"Hey Kaden," came the changeling's serpentine voice. "What's that?"

Squinting into the SUV's side-view mirror -- the rear-view had managed to dislodge itself during the crash -- Kaden saw what Szar was talking about. Off in the distance, quite a way from the Hunters, was something on the road. Before Kaden could actually discern the figure, though, the answer came to him. Swallowing hard, the courier turned his head towards Szar and Piper.

"It's Trisha."

Sure enough, it took no more than a few seconds for Trisha to come into focus. She was perched atop Kaden's motorcycle and did not look particularly happy. Unlike Kaden, who had only been comfortable riding at a relatively slow speed, Trisha seemed more than comfortable on the bike and was gaining on the SUV quite handily.

"I've got an idea," Kaden said to his comrades. "One of you guys come take the wheel."

"On it," Piper responded.

Though her movements still seemed clumsy, Kaden made way for Piper as she crawled into the passanger's seat. Releasing the wheel, Kaden hopped into the back as Piper traded places with him. With most of the roof having been torn from the SUV, there was plenty of room for Kaden to stand and his view out the back was unobstructed.

Taking in a deep breath, Kaden held his hands to either side, summoning forth his energy, the courier created a ball of ki in either hand. Taking aim, Kaden hurled one of the balls of ki out the back of the car. Just as it looked like the blast would collide with Trisha, the woman leaned to the side, pulling the motorcycle clear from Kaden's attack. Loosing his second attack brought about a similar result. With a frown, Kaden realized he would have to try something else.

As Trisha crept closer to the SUV, Kaden conjured up two more balls of energy. Taking in a deep breath, the courier made sure he was steady before throwing his first attack. To the surprise of his comrades, Kaden threw the blast almost straight down, barely missing the back of the SUV. The blast collided with the small road in a small explosion of dirt and sand.

"Careful with that!" Szar warned Kaden.

The courier, though, was oblivious to the changeling's warning; he was focused on road behind them. Throwing out the second blast of energy, Kaden swallowed deeply as he waited to see what would happen.

The first blast Kaden threw had left a sizable hole in the road, making half the road all-but impassable. With no other choice, Trisha was forced into a narrow path. The woman's eyes widened as Kaden's second blast came streaking towards her. With the road damaged, she had been left with no room to dodge.

From the SUV, Kaden couldn't help but laugh as a second explosion rocked the road behind them. The resulting cloud of smoke and sand made it impossible to tell if he had hit the motorcycle, like he had been aiming for, or if the attack had simply struck against the ground. Either way, he had accomplished his goal. Trisha wasn't making any dramatic exit from the smoke, and by the time it cleared, the Hunters would be too far away for it to matter.

Dropping into the back seat, Kaden reclined and wiped the grim and sweat from his forehead. Szar seemed to relax a bit as well, reclining as Kaden had. While Kaden's truimph had been a minor one, at best, he felt a surprising sense of satisfaction at having found Piper and Szar.

"So guys," Kaden said with only a slight tinge of sarcasm, "should be clear sailing from here, right?"