Toeing the Line

[Slam]

((Lincoln Guenther continued from Swallowing Panic in the Face of Its Force))

Things had not gotten better for Lincoln.

How could they have, when he had woken up to find out that his sister had served up a plate of roast Moose for breakfast?

Like, what the actual fuck, Mercy?

He was having a hard time dealing with it, as could be imagined. Everyone else starting to die was...yeah, it was harder to believe. He kind of hoped that, besides Crispin being a psychopath and Kennedy being a delusional bitch, everyone else would keep their heads on fucking straight. Yeah, having a bomb around your neck sucked, and he wasn’t exactly feeling secure as he cradled his orb in his sleep through the night, Kaine’s presence be damned (it wasn’t easy either, falling asleep without being able to properly cover his it, but he was too tired and anxious to object), but FUCK, guys. They only said one person had to start killing for them to not start popping heads!

Maybe that’s why Mercy had done it? He had to find her and ask, and he would chew her right out if that was true. For fuck’s sake Mercy, always the fucking martyr.

It was still the better alternative than the fact that she might've done it because of his fight with Moose and Crispin yesterday, though.

“Let’s split up.” he had eventually said to Kaine, after a long conversation on what to do next. It probably didn’t make sense, because they had no way of finding each other again later, but he needed the time to himself to think things out. Besides, Kaine couldn’t be invisible while Lincoln was there, and Lincoln could scout like a Mofo thanks to his orb. They had agreed to meet up at the end of the day, at a collection of rocks resembling Abraham Lincoln looking stoned out of his mind. That was probably good enough.

---

And now he was indeed scouting like a Mofo. His orb was as high off the ground as it could go before it started to struggle, a good five meters, where it had the widest view possible of the Roughlands below it. Meanwhile, he was pretty sure that his body was still standing in a legal zone. It wasn’t exactly obvious where the line was, but he hadn’t gone that far from the old road. So it was fine, right?

Besides, he had to find Mercy. They said she had a prize to collect here, so if he found her while she was grabbing it, they’d be reunited and together they could come up with their next step, after the diplomatic chewing the fuck out over dead Moose. Top plan, no flaws.

That, and it wasn’t like the kidnappers could track his orb, as far as he thought. The collar was around his neck, not his soul sphere, giving him a pretty unique advantage. Maybe they could see it on the cameras, but on a bright day like this and as small as it was, it would be pretty hard to spot it if you weren’t looking for it, he thought. Ironically, because of its faint glow, it would stand out a lot more if he was trying this in the middle of the night, floating through the sky like a UFO. And really, did this even count as being in the danger zone?

But he was nervous, all the same. It was a Danger Zone, not a Happy Fun-Time Zone. No trespassing allowed. His touched his fingers to the explosives around his windpipe. Felt it press against him as he swallowed.

As if that wasn't enough, he was already starting to feel the faintness that indicated his orb was getting beyond a healthy range. It wasn’t something he experienced too regularly, because he was very protective of his orb. Like a child quickly learning that touching the stove is not a wise idea, it had been ingrained from an early age not to let his orb stray. One time when he was very little, he had accidentally left it on the bus; if Mama Guenther hadn't screamed loud enough for half the block to hear it, that could've been the end of him. So that and the lack of a need to use it for scouting his way to school meant that most of the time his orb just stayed next to him.

But he pushed on regardless, orb scanning the ground below for the elder Guenther, even as he felt a stinging behind his eyes and a swimming in his head. It made it harder to focus on what was beneath, already made difficult by the lack of a good focus point in the bushy terrain, but not impossible. As long as he didn’t get too far from himself, and the terrorists didn’t penalise him for technically cheating, he’d be fine. Well, physically fine. He wouldn’t be dead, anyway.

[HELPful_Crow]

Tiger had long since run out of patience.

When he saw the "028" marker so close to the danger zone boundary, and saw the orb whizzing through the danger zone proper, he knew what to do.

He pointed, and snapped his fingers.

[Slam]

Lincoln saw three things in short order:

He saw the flag where his sister had been earlier, but had long since moved on from.

He saw a burst of fire, springing forth from his own neck in the not-too-far distance.

Finally, he saw the ground, hurtling towards himself as he fell out of the sky.

And then, nothing.

S028 - LINCOLN GUENTHER: DETONATED
34 Students Remaining

[Slam]

Several hours later, Lincoln regained consciousness.

He was disoriented. He was confused. All he could think of was finding his sister.

He made his way out of the Roughlands, chasing that goal in single-minded desperation. He moved with what little speed and coordination he had, escaping the sight of any watching eyes under the cover of the shrubs.

S028 - LINCOLN GUENTHER: ALIVE?
33.5 Students Remaining

((Lincoln Guenther continued in Burning Bright))