(no subject)

[prodigaljaybird]

Jason hasn't slept a night through since he was fourteen years old. It's nothing new, half his nightmares so familiar they happen almost by rote, though there's a few that still manage to terrify. He goes to bed in tired expectation, feels his body sleep and his brain light up. The fighter in him smiles and welcomes the chance to meet each falling crowbar with something better than child-sized fists, meet them with guns and blades and bombs, and in his dream Jason doesn't start screaming until the shadows grow long and bat-shaped.

He falls asleep in silence.

Jason wakes to his own gasping breaths in bed and the earth shifting beneath him.

"What the f - " he starts, but the world only shakes harder, something in the movement focused, personal. It's shaking his bed harder than anything, and Jason reaches out against the attack, seizes the gauntlet beneath his pillow and wishes it was a gun.

"You'll fucking wish - " he bellows, but as soon as the words leave him he feels himself forced violently back, propelled from his sheets and right into the air. His heart races - his bed's so close to the wall, he's gonna hit and there's no time to twist, nothing to grab, nothing to stop him and it's too fucking late to -

Jason's body flies through the bamboo with a mighty crack and is caught by the ground, coming to rest a dozen yards away with great rivets of earth in his wake.

There's a million things he should be doing. Lying there stunned feels like the best start.

[ooc: open to all in game, posted privately for preplay~ Jason just blew out the side of his hut, still in the boxers and tank top he went to bed in. His power is the sonic scream.]

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[halfscarlet]

Billy's been walking for a while now. He isn't sure why he woke up early, but ever since getting out of bed, a strange feeling has been crawling over his skin. It feels like pins and needles but not quite, like something is trying to catch is attention from a million different directions at once.

Walking seems to dull the sensation a little, and eventually Billy hopes to tire himself out enough to sleep a few more hours.

He's moving along, hands in his sweatshirt pockets when a scream nearly pierces his ears, followed by a crash. Billy stumbles back a few feet in surprise, trips over something and lands on his ass in the dirt, breathing heavily as he tries to figure out what the hell is going on.

And the buzzing feeling still won't go away.

[prodigaljaybird]

Jason breathes through the ringing in his ears and sits up slowly, eyes narrowed against his own swimming vision as he searches for his attacker. It's startling to have to look over great walls of dirt - whatever it was hit him hard - but when he does Jason finds no sign of the enemy, just Billy lying similarly nearby.

"Are you okay?" he calls, too dazed to be angry. "Do you see them?"

[halfscarlet]

"I'm fine," Billy calls back. He's still on the ground, staring up at the sky as he tries to figure out what the hell's going on and how to explain that he was just startled.

His ears are ringing slightly, but he manages to get up easily, brushing dirt off his jeans. "Do I see what?"

[backward]

Somewhere in the distance, Effy Stonem listens, eyes wide and unseeing. The world isn't often a safe place, but this place has been, a patch of forest by Jason's hut, where the wind blows through reeds with a soft kiss and nightfall drapes everyone with its heavy blanket. Today, it all threatens to fall apart, the earth moving beneath her feet, the grass hissing in angry whispers, and it's only the resolve of a girl who can't lose anything more that helps her tear through the shadows just in time to watch Jason fly through the sky with a yell that seems to resonate right through her chest, leaving her unable to breathe. Or maybe it's the sight of him on the ground, maybe it's the impact, maybe, a million maybes and none of them can even start to describe the sights and sounds that immediately pass through her memory.

(Tony. Tony.)

She screams, and the world seems to light on fire, bright around her eyes as she runs— only for a second, and then everything's bathed in the faint light of a rising sun once more— dodging cracks in the earth before she skids to a stop by his side, kneeling. No words, for how hard it still is to catch her breath at all, just a hand on his shoulder, willing him to look her way.

[prodigaljaybird]

There are hands on him, and Jason moves before his eyes will open, cursing the sluggishness that came with the shock of impact. His fingers close around a wrist too slight to feel dangerous - Lux, he thinks, always her, always first - and blinks into the sun haloing a dark head of hair.

"Effy," he exhales, struggling up to scan the area. "Get - " Fuck, where are they? Is his attacker invisible? Who the fuck can even do that here? His back aches, shoulders scraped raw and aching but forgotten when the ground seems to quiver beneath his feet. "Get behind me."

[backward]

He's awake. He breathes, and the sound of it is wet, far from smooth in the way that Effy's always known Jason to be, every last action of his taken with the kind of purpose that Effy's never known. It's different, to act for a cause, or to act for its own sake, but maybe Effy can feel a flicker of the desire to when her hand closes more tightly around his shoulder, her head shaking, hair falling out of place. "No," she protests, afraid suddenly. Being behind someone is no different than being left, abandoned— at least, such has always been true in Effy's life. She can't.

It can't happen again.

"No," she insists, eyes grazing over the red of his shoulder and quickly staring, fearfully, over her shoulder. She'd rather stay. "No, Jason, you're hurt."

[arrowette]

The problem with this whole speedster thing was how the world around her was moving so slow and she was moving so fast. Cissie was trying to adjust, she really was but it was so hard. How Bart or any of the other speedsters had managed this constantly, she had no idea.

She had stopped for a moment to get a quick snack when she heard a scream. She had eaten what felt like three breakfasts already but she was starving again. Bart had told her this was all part of the package but it just felt weird to be constantly stuffing her face. She jammed half a banana in her mouth and started running in the direction of the sound.

A second or two later, she saw Jason and stopped dead, barely managing to avoid the tracks of dirt in the process. "Oh my god, what happened? Are you okay?"

[prodigaljaybird]

Jason rolls onto his feet before his body's strictly ready for it, but there are voices, a person close by, and his hand is halfway to a fist before he realizes it's Cissie.

"Something's here," he says, rolling shoulders scraped raw. "Threw me right out of my hut." He could've hit somebody, could've been staying with Lux, and it makes him angry, makes him - "Stop it!" Jason shouts at the ground shifting suddenly beneath his feet.

[arrowette]

"Great," Cissie said as she crouched into a defense posture. "Because this day isn't already weird enough." She scanned the area but didn't see anything. Maybe whoever it was had already slipped away. Tracking them would have been a bit of a challenge before but now, she was thinking not so much.

"Stay here, I'll be right back. I'm going to take a look around and see if I can find anyone." In the best Impulse tradition, she didn't wait for Jason to respond but took off in a blur.

A few seconds later, she was back where she had been, looking anxious. "There's no one around," she started to say then jumped back as the ground shook. "Is... is that you doing that?"

[onlyapassenger]

"Jason!"

It's little more than an exhale, but the urgency is clear regardless of volume. Picking his way through the splintered remains of the wall, Bucky darts forward, gun in hand; he makes for an interesting picture, still dressed in well-worn pajama bottoms, his feet bare, his hair tousled from uneasy sleep, but there hadn't been much time to spare. He'd been anticipating an attack with so rude an awakening, but it's increasingly clear as the dust begins to settle that there's no one in the area except for him and Jason -- or at least no one he can see.

He ducks down at the kid's side, stance protective from an assailant that may or not have lingered.

"What the *$(% just happened?"

[prodigaljaybird]

"Hit me," Jason exhales, stubbornness keeping his eyes open until his vision swims to a halt. "Couldn't see it." He sits up with a swallowed groan, expecting to feel his ribs ache in protest, but all the pain is at his back. Small fucking favors.

He looks to Bucky, feeling sure that if Bucky had seen whoever it was they'd already be bleeding out, and doesn't feel as reassured as he might. If Bucky hasn't brought the attacker down while inside his own home, what chance does Jason have? "Nobody's snuck up on me that bad in...ever." It should be frightening, but Jason's more caught up in the shame. He's better than this, he wants Bucky to believe it as much as he needs it himself, he's better than this.

Jason opens his mouth, but all that escapes is a gasp when the earth begins to shake, tossing Bucky violently across his vision. "B-Bucky," Jason gasps. It never once occurs to him that he might be the one shaking.

[onlyapassenger]

"Breathe."

It's an order, not a suggestion; Bucky's gaze locks onto Jason's, concern plain behind his eyes, but there's not time for reassurances. The pieces of the puzzle are quickly falling together, the lack of a visible attacker potentially explained by the way Jason himself is vibrating, the strange quality of his voice--

"I need you to breathe."

[onlyforthedream.livejournal.com]

I'm running almost before I'm conscious of it. I don't sleep well, always, and tonight I'm grateful. I'm not sure what I heard, exactly, but I know that it sounded violent and I know exactly where it came from.

I stop, barefooted, shieldless, wearing only the cotton pajama trousers I went to bed in. Not ideal for a combat situation, but all I find is... Jason, lying on the ground at the end of a long rut he apparently drew with his whole body. What should be one wall of the hut is ore of a gaping, broken hole.

There's no one else here. I know that instinctively, and after I scan the treeline, listen closely, I'm positive. Unless we were suddenly gifted with a cadre of ninjas, we're alone.

"Jason," I say, dropping down to one knee, hand going carefully to his shoulder but not moving him, "can you hear me, son?"

[prodigaljaybird]

"Yeah," Jason gasps and feels some of the startled tension leach from his body. No one's going to try anything with Steve looming over him, and Jason allows himself a moment to assess the damage - scraped shoulders, bruised back, splinters likely in places he'd rather not consider - and a curious lack of pain in his chest. Whatever forced him through the wall ought to have left a crater where his lungs are, but there's nothing. It doesn't make any sense. His ears hurt.

"Something hit me, did you see it?"

[onlyforthedream.livejournal.com]

"No," I tell him, looking up for any sign of Bucky. Nothing moves.

"There's no sign of anyone else here. Did you see anything, hear anything before it happened?"

[illuxinated]

There's been an odd sort of tension to several of the people Lux has passed on the boardwalk this morning. Instead of the typical polite smiles, they've seemed uneasy, introspective and almost wary as she passed them by. Dread creeps easily into the pit of her stomach these days, and each solemn or uncertain face coils it tighter. Nothing else seems wrong, but she can feel it, now: An anticipation that won't be dislodged. This place is too cruel too often for her to shrug it off.

A sound hits her out of nowhere, drops her down to her knees on the bamboo planks with her hands instinctively over her ears. She can feel it in her fingertips and reverberating in her chest, the sensation so distinctly physical that she doesn't immediately register it as a sound at all. The crack of splintering wood follows from the direction of the hut Jason shares with James. It's a mere whisper of sound against the ringing of her ears, but she scrambles to her feet and runs, heart in her throat.

At the end of a long trench of dark earth sprawls her boyfriend, dazed and unmoving. When she shrieks his name, her voice sounds dim and distant, heard through cotton or a bad line.

"Jason," she says again as she skids to a stop and drops by his side, shouting like her hearing aid battery has stopped working without her knowing it. "Look at me, are you okay?"

[prodigaljaybird]

There's someone shouting at him from underwater, and it sounds like Lux. Jason's eyes blink open. His vision swims, but her presence is instantly recognizable, her long hair tickling at his shoulder and smelling of coconut.

"Something's here," he says, or he thinks so, it's hard to tell through the ringing, but even as he says it he's rolling to his feet. Something's here, and Lux is, too, and there's no time to lament that he's once again put her in harm's way. His back aches, twinges protesting the movement. Jason groans and the earth trembles beneath their feet. "I can't see it," Jason says, more urgently now, "I can't protect you, run."

[thepointykind.livejournal.com]

Helena was out wandering like she was most nights, scouting or hunting or just enjoying the time under the moon. It wasn't the same as patrolling in Gotham – she wasn't in costume, for starters – but it wasn't bad. Maybe a little boring –

Until the scream. She froze for an instant, then moved, running hard in the direction of the familiar sound. The moonlight filtered through the trees, playing oddly on her skin, but she barely noticed. She was focused on her goal, which was – probably that trench dug into the ground.

She pulled up, falling into a defensive stance as she took in the situation. Which was so not what she expected to see. She stared at the guy laying on the ground, then cast a look back at the busted hut. Torn between amusement and confusion, she glanced back at Jason. “Damn. Are you getting your ass kicked by Black Canary?”

[prodigaljaybird]

"Maybe," Jason posits from the ground. It takes him three tries to sit up, but he manages it, figuring if she's standing there talking to him there must not be anything to fight.

His ears hurt, his back, too, but not his chest, which seems strange when he'd been forced backwards. God, through the wall of his hut and fuck his life, Bucky is going to murder him. "Is she invisible? Is that a thing she does now?"

[wishesandsmoke]

Eden's just out for a walk, trying to figure out what to do with herself, when someone bursts through a wall and rolls to a halt not far from her. Even before she registers it's Jason, she's racing toward him, kneeling down to touch his arm. "Oh, my god, Jason, are you okay?"

For a moment, her gaze flickers to the mess he's made of the ground. She could probably fix that in a moment now with a bit of concentration — now that she's realized what's going on, it's a matter of harnessing that same feeling under her skin persuasion gave her — but first she has to see to Jason.

[prodigaljaybird]

Jason meets her searching gaze with a miserable one of his own. Maybe it's stupid - she's already seen him lower than most, delivered him from the ground with her own two hands, but there's something extra humiliating about being found on his back, flung there by an unseen enemy.

"I'm okay," he replies, assessing the damage even as he says it, his fingers spread wide across his chest. "Should have a bruise the size of a cannon ball. Eden." He wraps his fingers around her tiny wrist, remembering at the last to be gentle. "Something's here, you gotta get out of here."

[radicalize]

It had been a fucking weird morning already, waking up to find the door of her hut made of stone, dealing with the revelation that apparently it was happening to whatever Mathias touched. After nearly four years, Lucy liked to think she had gotten good at handling whatever the island threw at her — prided herself on it, even — but this had thrown her for something of a loop, different from its usual tricks. More alert now than she'd been when she had first discovered it, at least, and intent on finding out how widespread this particular phenomenon was, she was only walking by the hut when she saw the wall fucking blow out, and Jason land on his back.

"Oh my God," she blurted out, hurrying to his side without thinking and dropping to a crouch, her hand at his shoulder. "Holy shit, are you okay?"

[prodigaljaybird]

Jason groans, wanting nothing more than to lie there and possibly lose consciousness for a while, but whatever hit him is still out there, and now Lucy's as much in its path as he is.

"M'not hurt," he says, though what he means is not seriously. He's not broken, and he's had worse bruises, but he still feels off, and not because he just dug a trench with his back. Jason sits up, his focus so wholly on finding a safe path for both of them out of the clearing that he moves too fast, and the rush of pain forces a groan from the bottom of his lungs.

It feels good at first, an outlet for the agonized mess of his shoulders, but then something pinches tight and Jason yelps, and then he's not thinking of anything other than the fact that the tree across from them just exploded, and he's pretty sure the blast came right out of his own mouth.

Jason closes it with a click.

[curiously-cora.livejournal.com]

"Jason! Are you okay?" The words come tumbling out of her mouth before she remembers. Because at the exact same time she speaks the world around her explodes; the tree leaves inexplicably pop off, the pebbles shatter into pieces and the lollypop she's holding explodes. Coraline covered her mouth, eyes wide as she stares at Jason.

Coraline mouthed I'm sorry silently. She didn't dare speak again.

[prodigaljaybird]

"Fuck." Jason would really rather lie there, perhaps indefinitely, but Coraline's here and they're still under attack. He bolts upright, aiming the only weapon he has, his gauntlet, at the treeline, but there's nothing there.

"Do you see them?" he whispers to her, twisting his head to look around. "Hey! Show yourself!" The words leave him so hard it seems like they should hurt, but mostly they just feel powerful, and in the split second Jason has to witness it he could swear he sees the column of his voice fly towards the nearest tree.

And blast it into matchsticks.