"Or isn't close enough to get a good hold," Spire mused.
"A mile, give or take," Toby chipped in quietly.
Spire looked around, studying the surroundings before heading toward one of the more sound-looking buildings, a three-story structure that may once have been some manner of office building. He stowed his weapon and took hold of the exposed steel bars and crumbling cement, scaling toward the top floor while avoiding the shards of glass camouflaged by the gray ashdust.
Spire looked over his shoulder at Montana. "Sorry that this isn't a very cheerful welcoming party, old man, but trust me when I say it's a little late to be making friends with this one. This is a bit of a kill or be killed situation. There's some history." All his and Toby's history, mind you, but not exactly a lie.
Toby shaded his eyes to watch Spire's progress up the side of the building. "So...I d--dunno if it's rush hour around here or what, but some of that other group is moving this general direction...and, um..." he said. Out of nowhere, a new presence had burst into his senses. "There's another one. Resurrecting. Was probably, you know, d--dead a minute ago, so I missed it, said Toby. He coughed. "If they all show up, we're probably in over our heads a little, here," he muttered.
A resurrector and regenerator. Because killing one or the other wouldn't be enough of a pain. Spire could just imagine the hassle of alternately killing Montana, then this resurrector, one popping back up as the other went down, he and Toby unable to keep either of them dead enough to get them both in the ground, like some macabre Vaudeville routine.
Usually in a situation like this, Spire and Toby would wait, avoid confrontation, sometimes even buddy up with the strangers until sleep or trust left guards lowered, but the presence of a mind reader blasted a bit of a hole in any tactic that involved deceit.
In any case, they needed to get rid of the mind manipulator.
Spire had reached a firm foothold in the empty windowsill of a gutted office. Far away, he could see the smoke curling from the flames of the damaged building. A bit closer, several other figures, and what looked like an animal of some kind. Closer still, but still far enough that he had to squint to see detail, two women. "Kid?"
Toby closed his eyes to concentrate before pointing in the direction of the psychic and teleporter. "Your left."
Spire focused on the leftmost girl, the mind manipulator, as well as he could at the distance. "Hang tight. I still want to hear those stories of yours," he said to Montana, and then his matte gray eyes turned bright as mirrors as he used his ability. He smiled, feeling his power hit her. "All yours, Toby."
Toby took off toward the quarry, knowing that as long as Spire kept his eyes locked in the psychic, she would almost certainly be down, her brain screaming with pain or her body out of her control. Now his only obstacle would be the teleporter.
