Any Kind of Support (ID)

[DanteMGalileo]

"Oh shit, oh shit, oh sh-!!"

"This is going to suuuuuuuu-!!"

When Goldenhand swatted the Mercedes and said car began spiraling through the air, Will and Percy were both thrown into the air, although both men were surprised to find that they weren't sinking like a stone like they had expected. Relieved, Will allowed himself to sigh as Percy swooped in to catch him. "Lydia..." he muttered to himself. "Please tell me you're not afraid of heights. Because I kinda am."

"Gah... Will... I know I said this earlier today, but please lose some weight..." Despite no longer having to deal with a fast fall to the ground, Percy was still strained from the extra weight of his captive. "I'm gonna hate myself tomorrow morning, but..." With a flap of his wings, Percy made a dive for Cat, extending his free arm out to the hybrid anthro.

A green blur flew beyond the incoming crash site, Liderc choosing a tree to hide in to heal in preparation for round two...

[ThePopcornFairy]

"I thought this was 14-A!" Mickey yelled as he pulled the camper van back around so it was directly underneath Cat, albeit still dropping at a speed slightly slower than her. "You can't go reorganizing our list of maneuvers on me! Everyone dies when that happens! And when you don't friggin' pick Mercy!"

[Pink Moon Wolf]

"KYAA-!!!" Proteus II was wildly tossed about as the impact sent William and Percy hurtling off the car. While the vehicle spiraled away from them, though, some unseen force allowed the boys to lightly drift downward as if they were near weightless. Once Will stopped tumbling and simply positioned himself like a parachutist, Lydia allowed herself a moment to take a deep breath, right herself in her seat, and soak in the fact that they weren't dropping at terminal velocity.

What she saw on her monitor was a sprawling patchwork of green fields and intricate buildings, all resting beneath an endless blue expanse.

And it... absolutely captivated her.

All Will heard in his ear was a couple chuckles of awestruck disbelief as Lydia stared wistfully at the screen. Part of her felt jealous of the position Will was in, out in the open air, freely drifting on the breeze, lost in the endless sky, all while she was encapsulated by dense walls of bone, muscle and tissue. The other part of her had simply let go of all feeling as she spread her arms out inside the pod, soaking in the magnificent scene and the sound of the whistling wind with a dreamy smile.

"OH, WILL YOU SHUT UP ABOUT MERCY ALREADY?!" Cat snapped back at Mickey. Despite her anger at her teammate, she seemed surprisingly lax about her rapid descent.

At around the same time, Mickey pulled the van up underneath her and Percy reached out to grab her. Cat graciously took the winged teen's hand, then pointed to the back door of the camper with Goldenhand. "Thanks! Let's get you boys inside!"

[ParamountKeymaster]

Eventually, after tumbling a good five or six times, the Mercedes was right side up again and pointed at the camper van. Mr. Stone watched as William, Percy and Cat drifted closer to the opposing vehicle, quickly stepping on the gas and charging towards them himself.

Rio looked out the window to find Cat and the boys entering the camper van from the back, and further beyond, the black car speeding their way. His nerves were clearly still rattled, but now that Will and Percy weren't in danger from his own teammates, he could think a little more clearly about what he should do to help them. He didn't have to think too hard about it, at least, because it was obvious what needed to be done.

Holding his arm out the window again, Rio cast another spell. Partway between the camper van and the Mercedes, a wall made of hundreds of ethereal blades sprung to life...

CRASH

There was no time to maneuver around this sudden obstacle. Not enough space to slam on the brakes at the speed the car was moving. A split second after the wall appeared, the flying black car slammed into the blade barrier at full force while Mr. Stone was met with an airbag to the face. There was a series of prominent screeching noises as the car scraped along the jagged surface, peeled away from the wall and finally plummeted back towards the earth.

"Oh blimey, did I just kill a man...?" Rio shuddered under his breath as he stared down at the thoroughly totaled Mercedes, slinking back into the van and letting his magical wall vanish along with his concentration.

[DanteMGalileo]

"Whoo!" Upon landing inside the camper, Percy raised his arms into the air. "Wasn't that fun? Can we do that again? Hey Will, you holding up over there?"

"I need to go vomit," Will bluntly replied. "Hey, is there a restroom or something on board?" Mumbling, he began to search around. "Lydia, I'm sorry about this. I'm sure you're not into puke."

As the blonde shambled off, Percy dissolved his wings and replaced his shirt and jacket, walking up to the front window. "Hey, thanks man! You really got us outta that jam, and Will's safe (if pukey) now! Seriously, how can I ever repay you?" He whistled as the black Mercedes fell below. "... I have this nagging feeling we're gonna see that guy again..." he muttered, remembering how his light spell barely affected the man.

[ThePopcornFairy]

Mickey shrugged, responding to Rio's concerns about their pursuer's wellbeing with his typical blasé attitude towards the lives of their antagonists. "Hey, ya saved that kid in the trunk, so it balances out. Now what say we head to ground level and lay low before another bird flies into my windshield?"

With that said, Mickey drove the camper van back down into Portal Park, aiming to put a fair amount of distance between them and the mess they had made. He pulled over to a more wooded area of the park, flying over the canopy and landing in a thick patch of trees before bringing the vehicle to a halt. Seemed like they were a bit more out of the way here, hopefully out of sight of any onlookers.

"Well, that was fun!" the raccoon anthro chimed as he climbed out of his seat and prepared to make his way back downstairs. "We should do this again sometime! Been a while since we've had a good road trip!"

[Pink Moon Wolf]

"...!" The moment Will was thrust inside the camper van, Lydia immediately snapped back to reality. The sensation of flight had come and gone, and though she couldn't help but let out the tiniest of sighs from just how fleeting that moment of bliss was, she readily pulled her head out of the clouds and back into the miniaturized submersible she was piloting. At least they had escaped and were out of harm's way, if only for the time being.

"WHOO!" Having landed flat on her back on the living room floor, Cat threw her fists in the air and cast an overeager grin at the ceiling. "EXCELSIOR!"

She rolled onto her side and smirked at William as he stumbled away to puke. "Second floor, middle door. Toilets are on the right. Friggin' flush, okay?!"

Lydia had to chuckle slightly at his nausea and muffled apology. "Will, given my line of work and my current location, I think you seriously underestimate the resilience of my gag reflex."

[ParamountKeymaster]

As the camper van disappeared into the trees, the Mercedes fell out of the sky and crashed in an open stretch of the park, glass and metal scattering in all directions as bystanders were once again forced to flee from the scene. It took a while for the commotion to die down, but when it did, the twisted scrap pile that was once a flying car sat there in dead silence, showing no indications that anything that might've been inside it had survived.

Then a hand emerged from the crooked opening that used to be the driver's side window, grabbing the door, loudly ripping it off, and tossing it away. With that, Mr. Stone wormed his way out of the wreckage, walking away from it with an air of calmness unbefitting of someone who had just endured that kind of trauma. His suit was sporting a few tears, but he cared little for such trivial details. His face was scratched up a bit, but those wounds healed themselves in no time at all. His right arm, though... it was twisted in a distinctly unnatural position, one that looked like it should've been extremely painful rather than the annoyance Mr. Stone seemed to interpret it as.

And a little ways away, where the roads of Void City skimmed the outskirts of the park, a young woman in an old silver Honda watched the goings on with a mixture of discomfort, suspicion, and fascination. "What in holy hell...?"

---------------------------

"That's, uh... Yeah, alright, I guess so..." Rio mumbled as he followed Mickey back into the camper. He opted not to tell Mickey that his halfhearted sentiments weren't exactly comforting. Empathy was not the vampire's strong suit. Instead, Rio did his best to bite down any worries and take comfort in the fact that Percy and his friend were safe. It wasn't like this was their first rodeo, after all.

He met Percy out on the third floor balcony, mustering an awkward smile as he rubbed his neck. "Oh, it was no trouble. Wild antics are kind of our forte. I'm just glad you two are okay. You... are sure he's okay, right? I'm not sure if I would interpret emesis as a sign of being okay."

[DanteMGalileo]

"I don't know what that means, but Will does get pukey at these heights," Percy replied, noting the telltale retching sounds from elsewhere in the clearly-larger-on-the-inside van, followed by something flushing. "He'll be fine once he's got that out of his system, well that and whatever he's managed to catch around here. Do you guys know of any sickness that makes a person babble to themselves like they've got another person in them?"

Something rustled in a tree outside. Will emerged from the restroom, looking somewhat paler, but a bit more steady on his feet. Placing a hand to his face, he sighed, glad to be on solid ground. "Please tell me this is the end of the day," he said, trying to hide that there was indeed another person inside his body. "Please tell me this fine web of bugfuck insanity will soon be over."

Exit the flying rectangle, exit the flying rectangle...

"So... I'm gonna see if I can't get us back to our hotel room," Percy said, moving to the back door of the camper van. "I think Will needs to lie down after all this."

"Yes. Yes, I do. Somehow I doubt I'll get that break."

Exit the fucking flying rectangle already! A naginata gleamed in one of Liderc's hands, a ball of green fire in the other, prepared to pounce the second the door opened...

[ThePopcornFairy]

"Yeah, I've heard of that. It's called Fight Club," Mickey answered in response to Percy's inquiry on sicknesses and voices in one's head. Clearly this was not the weirdest thing he'd heard in his life.

Well, it seemed like their temporary companions were ready to split. Before they did, however, Mickey quickly stepped in between the duo. "Now hold on there, muchachos. In my years of experience, many, many things have hit my windshield, and quite a number of them have had a funny way of coming back around to me. Who's to say you're out of the woods yet?"

The vampire raccoon shrugged, stuck his hands in his pockets, and began a casual stroll down the stairs and towards the back door. "Since you two were kind enough to give me the most exciting thrill ride I've had all week (seeing as how Cat refuses to let me play as Genji), I'll give you a head start."

Upon reaching the back of the camper van, Mickey threw the door open with bold movements and a cheerful grin like he was ecstatic to greet the world outside...

SLAM

"Whoa, slow down there, chief! You didn't even say 'surprise buttsecks!'"

[Pink Moon Wolf]

"Oh crap oh crap shut up Percy..." Lydia mumbled anxiously as she overheard the scruffy-haired teen question the Trio of Three about the voice in William's head. "Uh, listen, Will? I know it's kinda common sense that we don't go spreading our little secret around, but these three nutcases cannot know I'm here."

Cat smirked at Will and leaned against the wall. "Buddy, insanity is the name of the game around here."

"ESPECIALLY NOT THAT ONE."

"Hey, it's not my fault you always wanna play as the character I've already picked," Cat argued as Mickey made his way down to the back door. "Why don't you be Mercy if you're so hung up on that glorified gender-swapped TF2 Medic?"

Of course, her frustrations with her partner were quickly forgotten the moment Mickey opened the door and was attacked by someone standing outside. "GAH, FRIGSAUCE!" Cat then quickly charged after them, her flyswatter at the ready. "HOLD ON, MIXTAPE!"

[ParamountKeymaster]

"I'm sure an evening of respite would do you a world of good after a kerfuffle like that, but Mickey has a point..." Rio conceded, that point quickly proven accurate the moment the raccoon stepped outside and was attacked by the same bird man who had initially bagged William. "Aw, man..."

Cat was already on the initiative. Rio, on the other hand, pulled himself closer to William and Percy, grabbing both of them by the hands. "Stick close to me if you want to get out of here without another fight."

With the quick casting of another spell, all three men turned invisible.

"Don't attack him or cast any spells yourselves," Rio continued to whisper as he guided William and Percy out the door and around the ruckus Cat, Mickey and Liderc were creating. "Just the slightest lapse in my concentration will break the spell."

[DanteMGalileo]

"Ah, good, you're opening. Now, hold-"

THWACK!! Door to the face!

"Nrgh!!" Rubbing his sore face, Liderc applied a soft, vaguely cobalt-tinged light, somewhat healing the injury he had sustained. Scowling, he tossed his green fireball at the two furballs that greeted him. "I have no grief with you little hairballs, but if you know what's best for you, you'd hand over the blonde buffoon now!"

Good Faravahar above, why can nothing be straightforward?!

"... Thanks, man," Will stated in response to Rio's spell. He followed the green-clad man out of the camper, not eager to get into a fight. He put a finger to his mouth and nodded at Percy, who simply scowled, but followed the other two anyway.

[ThePopcornFairy]

"No blonde baboons here. Y'know, unless one of us has a mirror handy," Mickey responded casually, just barely picking up on the sounds of footsteps in the grass. Turning up his collar and offering Liderc a suggestive smirk, the raccoon continued, "'Sides, realistically speaking here, I don't know what's best for me. I know what's more fun, though. Cat?"

[Pink Moon Wolf]

SMACK

With one swing from Goldenhand, Liderc was sent rocketing through the park like he was shot out of a cannon.

"HAHAHA! I'm having a good day!"

And Cat charged after him shortly thereafter, her flyswatter at the ready to deal more punishment.

While that ridiculous display was taking place behind them, Lydia allowed herself a sigh of relief as Rio snuck William and Percy away under the cover of invisibility. Sure, she agreed that a break was well and truly called for by now, but more than that, she was just happy that their interactions between the Trio of Three hadn't escalated any further. Knowing what she knew about this ragtag team, things could've turned ugly very quickly if they found out she was there.

Even more than that, though... seeing Rio helping her friends, saving her own skin in the process... it stirred up an uncomfortable feeling in Lydia's gut. An old, familiar feeling that she both was and wasn't accustomed to by now. One that made her stomach churn and her heart wrench.

To think... if nothing had gone wrong... if she hadn't ended up inside William...