Silence Falls

Back at the deserted campsite, Connor and Hermanni were keeping a watch over as much as the swamp as they could observe from their close, but divided posts while Cris distributed whatever food they had for breakfast. The girls all shoveled into their canned meals while he went off to import two meager cans and spoons to their sentry pair. “Bon Appetit, you guys.” Cris declared haughtily, delivering each of them their breakfast from their soaring post. Hermanni accepted his with a smile and a heartfelt thank you while Connor seized his without taking his eyes off of the swamp.

“So, when do you guys think Bert and the others will be back?” Cris inquired, his hands clasped behind his back. Hermanni looked at Connor curiously, but he candidly shrugged with uncertainty. The next few minutes were filled with silence of Connor discounting Cris, and Hermanni not understanding what Cris had said. Preferring to go back to the campfire to hang with the girls and keep them tranquil and settled, Cris said his farewells. “Okaaaay then...well, enjoy!”

Stillness devoured the sentry post, each of the boys scrutinizing intently on their surroundings. Through the morning fog they couldn't really identify much, but Connor tried his best to detect anything and everything that made any movement. Hermanni, however, could identify everything through the fog. In fact, at a specific stretch, his eyes spotted a search team made up of the soldiers coming right their way. Determining the time they had to escape, Hermanni understood the soldiers would arrive within several minutes. Getting up from his post, Hermanni strode off of his boulder and glided across to Connor’s boulder, unbeknownst to him. Stooping down, he tapped on the young boy’s shoulder from behind, who didn't even glimpse his way. He grumbled disinterestedly. “What.”

Hermanni wasn't sure what their word for gun was, so instead he emulated the sounds he heard them make then indicated in the direction of where the search team's harbored resting spot would most certainly be. This time, Connor actually looked at him, raising a brow in puzzlement before scanning that very direction only to see absolutely nothing. Not getting what Hermanni was playing at, Connor growled at him. “What the hell, man, what are you on!? There's nothing over there!” Sighing, Connor held up a hand to halt Hermanni. The poor boy obviously didn’t know what they were doing inspecting the swamps. “Look, man, this isn’t the time to play fucking games. Just go back over onto your rock and go sit pretty over there, okay? I got this.”

Once again, Hermanni didn't understand what Connor had said, but he could tell that he didn't believe him due to the fact he wasn't freaking out over the soldiers coming which is something humans typically do when in peril. Oh well then, he'll just have to make him see it for himself....or in this case, listen. Hermanni stood up from behind Connor and confronted the direction the soldiers were trekking in before concentrating on a distinct element in one particular man’s grip. Blue green eyes brightened, unbeknownst to Connor, and before anyone knew it, a bullet shot itself out of the gun, emitting a loud piercing echo into the swamp as it penetrated a tree next to the camp ground. Connor's eyes multiplied as he reached behind him to jerk Hermanni by the front of his shirt. “GET DOWN!!” Connor tried to holler as quietly as he could, but loud enough for everyone else in the camp behind him to pick up. He towed Hermanni along behind him as they slithered down from the boulder and docked behind some rocks to take shelter.

The girls screeched at the sound of a gun going off, and flung themselves to the floor in order to not get killed by any stray bullets. Cris tried his best to keep them clustered together to make less of an easy target. “Stay down, stay down!”

“Cris, you gotta get the girls over here behind these rocks now!” Connor snapped firmly over his shoulder, deriving a nod from Cris as he began to hustle the girls over to the rocks where they set their backs flat against them. “No one move a muscle!” Connor warned them, breathing heavily as his brain scurried to come up with a plan.

“Do you think they discovered us through this thick fog?” Cris inquired obtusely, his mind in a blind panic on what just happened.

“They shot at us so I'm assuming so.” Connor returned back.

Everyone felt the sweat dripping down their faces and their hearts raced to where they could only hear the beating of their hearts in their ears above all else. Hermanni spun to face his rock, being able to see right through it and to the other side of its solid form. He watched as the soldiers cornered their mate for firing off his gun. The others at Hermanni’s side could only pick up inaudible voices reverberating close by.

“What the fuck, Archer!? You wanna give away our position again with your butterfingers?!”

“No Sergeant, Kane. I swear it wasn't me! The gun just went off! Honest!”

“Keep it down soldier, and FOCUS! We need to find Subject V, so get moving!”

Hermanni sighed wearily upon hearing that name, and gradually turned back around so his back was also pressed against the wall of giant rocks. It's been awhile since that name was spoken, much too long a time. He’d almost forgotten it and where it evolved from.

No one noted the lengthy silent interval, not even the girls who were as mute as could be. No one had time to quizzed themselves as to why it was suddenly so hushed until...Natasha let out a scream as she was painfully wrenched up and over the shelter of rocks by her long black hair, her legs kicking in objection. The girls dashed back from the rocks and shrieked as if it was on fire, Onika and Alexis both reaching out for her legs at the last minute to try and retrieve her only to be corralled as well. Cris and Connor didn’t waver to attack.

Connor went straight for the man who had snatched Onika, tussling over the soldier's huge gun in his other hand to kill him. Cris dived over the rock and onto the man scuffling with Alexis, his arm closing on the man's neck to restrict his airways, so he’d let her go. Unperceived to Connor, a gun was directed at the back of his head, ready to blast his brain all over his friends. Hermanni discerned this though, his eyes exploding into a blue and green glow as he made several intense hand gestures from where he stood behind Demitria to use his powers to disassemble every gun present into various components. The soldiers were stunned when their beloved weapons tumbled into fragments in their hands. Guns didn’t just fall apart like that for no reason, and they knew it for they were instructed to mobilize them to precision. These soldiers were all briefed before they began this operation that it would be unlike any other operation they had ever been appointed to before. The head honchos stated himself to await the unpredictable and that impossibilities from here on out are now probabilities and would be their only trace to locating their target.

There are no limits to what Subject V could do. He IS the impossibility. The soldiers speedily took their chances to assess their surroundings for Subject V, disregarding the group of kids they were apprehending. For this to have happened to their weapons by chance is licensed as an impossibility. Impossibilities means their target must be close by.