It was everything he imagined a war-zone would be. 

Each moment passed in time with the beats of his heart, frame by frame, capturing and extending the seconds for longer than usual. Almost like a photographer, he was imprinting every image onto his brain as though it were a reel of film. Adrenaline made the frames a bit quicker, and suddenly he was racing through the pictures of events in an old movie, not entirely registering that it was all real at first. The car had flipped, and he had forced the door open. Will had pushed past him, and now it was his turn.
Quickly, without thinking, he had scurried out of the overturned car and came to lean behind the new stone structure Will had created. Eyes wide, the young man placed a hand on his forehead, breathing deeply to shake off the shock. The crawling itch on his forearms signaled the retreat of his scaly armor, leaving behind untouched skin. Smooth and not at all connected to the wrinkled car door.
 
[i]Thump.[/i]

Helena was there.

[i]Thump.[/i]

She deflected an oncoming convoy.

[i]Thump.[/i]

One of the cars had flipped.

[i]Thump.[/i]

Annelise was in the air with Helena.

[i]Thump.[/i]

And then there was an explosion.

Time returned to normal after what seemed like forever, and Chase watched as the not-so-distant area was engulfed in clouds of smoke. Annelise’s gift at play. He shook his head, trying to clear the fog in his own mind. [i]’C’mon Chase, get your shit together.’[/i] Taking a shaky breath, the young mutant looked up and witnessed the sky take on a dark hue, stretching lighting across in shining webs of electricity before one particular bolt struck down on Alex – atop Will’s wall. It wasn’t an unusual sight, lightning striking Alex – Chase had seen him do this before on an occasion or two, but never in a situation like this. As far as Chase had been in New Mexico, they hadn’t ever been attacked.

And yet, no one seemed out of focus. As if on cue, Jack – the youngest of them – rode his self-made ice into a power kick, breaking an enemy vehicle or two without breaking a sweat. And here Chase was, fading in and out of a panic-attack almost because he had no idea what to do. His powers weren’t offensive. They were defensive. He was built to survive, not fight, so what the fuck could he do but stand there and take it all in? He was useless and he knew it. 

He felt even worse about his predicament when Will collapsed. 

She had, as far as he knew, attempted to create an earthquake of sorts, splitting the earth beneath their attackers and pulling more than a few into the void. It was an impressive feat, and had they been in training or any other non-life-threatening situation, Chase would have told her as much. But even so, he might not have been able to, because it appeared to drain Will completely. 

Chase watched in horror as her eyes fluttered and she fell unconscious. Before he could react, Helena came to the rescue, attempting to resuscitate their limp friend. Unfortunately, it was too much for her to do as well, and the three – including Annelise – were forced to retreat. The latter girl’s cries echoed in Chase’s head as they left, as well as Helena’s bloodied nose and both her and Will’s near-lifeless faces. Things were not looking good. 

Amidst all that was happening there, Chase briefly recognized a dull pain in his knee before the wind was knocked out of him. Gasping, he buckled over, clutching at his torso as his eyes watered. The familiar sharpness of armored skin could be felt underneath his shirt, and he barely registered the sound of someone’s screams – Alex? Recovering fairly quickly, Chase pulled himself upright and glanced around. He couldn’t find any remaining attackers, though he was pretty sure that someone had tried to shoot him. They succeeded, but not really, and either they were just one of the dead using their last shot or the person had gotten away, Chase did not know.

What he did know was that Will’s wall was beginning to crumble, since no one was around to keep it up. Now definitely seemed like the optimal time to go. Red-faced and entirely embarrassed that he hadn’t been able to contribute at all to the fight, Chase approached Jack and Alex. “So… yeah. Should we go see if Will and Hel are okay?”