Daily Story 129: Iraq and a Hard Place

Everyone around me vanishes and the air is filled with bullets, and that's the first clue I have that Franklin knows I'm banging his girlfriend. This whole mess is Franklin's fault of course, though I know he won't see it that way - I'm referring to the gunfire in this case rather than my intimate relations with his girl although maybe he could have treated her a little better too.

If Franklin had played it cool when he realized that kid was an undercover Fed we would have been okay; there's no way in hell they wanted to start a fight with all seventeen of us. That's closer to suicide than a firefight even if you have an army because we aren't the kind of freaks that stay at home and play house. Instead, he ripped the implants the kid was using to fake his powers right out of him without any thought of the consequences and the Feds opened fire in the hopes of saving their man. Nice work, asshole.

First thing is to get some cover, so I make the pool table flip into the air and plant itself against the window. Unfortunately my telekinesis isn't good for deflecting bullets; if Franklin hadn't teleported everyone away I would still have White's force field, not to mention a whole bar full of backup. I take inventory and see that the bouncer is cowering next to the bar. He's big, but I don't think his power is going to get me out of here; he shakes things until they fly apart or something, I don't really even remember. If I had Nelson or Crazy Ike it would be different.

The gunfire stops, which means they must know everyone has cleared out. Their guy is gone too; Franklin probably teleported him into the sewers or something, though if I know him he's going to claim that he tossed him all the way to the moon. Man, I hate that guy.
"Eddie Shorthand? Francis? What the hell is going on?"
That's Big Dave, and from the context I suppose the bouncer's name is Francis which I had somehow not known until now. If we survive this I'll have to make fun of him for that. Not that survival seems likely - Big Dave is just about the most useless guy I could have asked for since his power lets him tamper with other abilities and the Feds are using good old fashioned guns.

As if on cue, they whip out something different - gas grenades come flying in over the top of the pool table. I stop them in midair and send them right back, but that won't stall them much. If they come in, I might have to use Big Dave and "Francis" as projectiles. It won't be any more effective than pool balls or the Feds themselves, but it might make me feel better about them being no help at all. The door shakes, hinges twisting. Big Dave is sniffing around for some reason.
"Franklin took everyone else, didn't he? I can feel it." Feel it? What, like it's not obvious just by looking? The door shakes again.

"He's so sloppy he leaves tears and residue everywhere. Almost enough for me to use, if I could come at it from both sides." I have no idea wheat Big Dave is even talking about. He waves me over and I back towards him while pressing against the whole front of the building in the hopes of slowing them down. It won't work. I lose it as a meaty hand wraps around the back of my skull and I can feel Dave reaching my telekinesis around, feeling, poking. I feel pretty violated but I don't have any better ideas. He's got the bouncer too, and he's saying something about fraying the fabric of space and exposing the wound. Meanwhile since I'm being used in this metaphysical bullshit I'm not reinforcing the door or the pool table and both fly away.

The Feds are right there, and I try to grab every table in the bar at once so I can fling them but Big Dave is all tangled up in my powers so somehow I reach out with something else. It's like I'm stretching the bouncer's brain, and every surface in the Drowned Spider goes fuzzy as t vibrates and bursts into flames. Friction, I guess. I don't know what's going on, the bouncer always had to touch something to shake it, but I turn it on the Feds and the first wave of them start spraying blood from every exposed pore. Dave wrestles control back but that's okay because the other Feds are falling back for now.

"Got it!" Dave yells, and sunlight pours into the room. There's a tear, a ragged hole, and on the other side it's daytime. The edges of the hole are hard to look at, they're shaking and flickering in a way that makes my brain hurt. This isn't how Franklin teleports. Not even close. We all step through and that's when I see the undercover kid on the ground, passed out. I take a closer look and wherever we are it's not nice - it's stone walls and iron bars, both covered in blood and filth. "Wrong hole," Big Dave says, "I could try again but..."
The 'but' is clear. The bar is in flames, and the Feds are likely to start throwing fragmentation grenades in to finish the job. Screw it. I pull away from Dave and the hole snaps shut.

So I guess Big Dave isn't useless after all. I have to keep that in mind. "Francis, bust the walls down. Dave, start thinking about how we get back - sunlight means we're halfway around the world. I'll supervise." And when we do get back, Franklin won't hear us coming.