Another Lost Cause || Jefferson & Nate
The whole scene played out as another failure they wouldn’t be able to accept. This couldn’t be happened again, not when it just happened and left the other guy sitting in his own silence and despair for longer than any one person should. It was the same every single time and it was all starting to add up. Another lost breakout, someone else they couldn’t help. It was one way or anything, though this time it was different. Usually it was Ultra that kept them from helping the person in need. Now it was the person in need who kept them from helping, vanishing before their very eyes before they could even really explain that the kid wasn’t alone.
All they needed was another minute or two to actually explain things, but even that wasn’t enough. Maybe it wouldn’t have been enough anyway. Put anyone in that situation where someone dove into their mind to speak to them telepathically and they would have run off, no matter if they could hear them and communicate right back the same way or not. Breakouts didn’t know any better, not when they were still on their own.
That was what they were there to help with though, so the breakout – Samuel in particular this time – wouldn’t have to be alone in it. It didn’t matter in the end, not when the kid teleported out of their sight and he hesitated in going after him. That slight pause kept him from being able to follow the kid as he stared wide eyed instead of jumping right after. He waited, they both waited, and the kid was gone wherever now.
Looking at the empty space that once held the breakout, he threw his hands over the back of his head in frustration and watched in silence for a moment, waiting for something that could happen. Maybe he would come back, just maybe he would show up. As the seconds ticked and he heard tires screeching, his head quickly turned to look in the direction where the sound came from. A van, the van they had been wanting to avoid, the van they always wanted to avoid but couldn’t seem to no matter how much they tried. “Jeff,” Nate let his hands fall to his sides as he looked from the white van driving down the street to the guy he ended up in front of the house with. “We gotta go,” Without thinking, his hand reached out to grab Jeff’s arm, tugging him in the direction of the house and the open doorway before rushing through it and kicking the door shut behind them. He didn’t stop though, just kept going until he made it into a living area and beyond that to a kitchen when he finally heard brakes screech. As if that wasn’t enough, he felt the house start to shake a little and saw a familiar figure teleport back into the house, standing in the kitchen directly in front of them. “Samuel — we don’t have time. We need to get out of here, the three of us, right now.”
Jefferson barely heard Nate say his name, but he knew what that tone meant. It was time to go. “Fuck,” he muttered, angry and ready to stand and fight the agents rather than teleport off. Thankfully, Nate grabbed Jeff’s arm and the man had no option but to follow. He was tired of running. Damn it, he was so fucking tired of running. “What if Liz is back there?” he asked, shaking Nate off. “She can help us. Buy us time.” Boy that was a long shot. Jeff always imagined he’d send a Tomorrow Person to Ultra to work as a double agent; never had he imagined anyone going willingly and then turning on them. As furious as he was at Liz for leaving, for abandoning them, she owed them, and maybe this one time she could let them leave with the breakout.
Jeff shook his head. It was a stupid plan. And saying her name brought back too many memories. “Never mind,” he said as his attention snapped to the new breakout. “Either come with us and live or go with them and die. Pick one,” he hissed, ready to bolt out the back door and pray Samuel followed. The closer Ultra got to them the harder it would be to use their powers. “I don’t have time for this.” Jeff lunged at Samuel and once he made contact with the boy, teleported them two blocked around the corner, hoping Nate jumped with them.
“Get off me!” Samuel screamed as he and Jeff began wrestling on the carpet of what appeared to be a young girl’s room.
“I’m trying to save your life!” Jeff yelled back, finally pinning the teen down.
Samuel stopped fighting and Jeff took the opportunity to breathe. “What am I?” Samuel asked, his voice hardly present.
Jeff shifted off him, scared the owner’s of the house would burst in at any moment. “You’re part of the Tomorrow People,” he said, as if that was supposed to explain everything. He glanced around at the pink walls and listened for any signs Ultra was outside. “And we need to go.”
