Somewhere To Run To || Lunch Club AU

half a mile an hour

Unable to move, unable to think through the chaos of the situation, Ted tried to pull himself back to reality, think rationally. Here are the facts:

1. There was an elemental in the gas station.

2. There was a person in there with it.

It was a stranger, a complete stranger. Staying here would be dangerous. Saving a person and then being forced to take them with him was dangerous. Ted needed to get away, needed to drive as far away from there as possible. And yet...

"Ted, you need to leave, you need to leave now!" Charlie's frantic words snapped Ted out of his thoughts. He shook his head in an attempt to clear his mind. Why was he still hesitating? He began to move back towards his car...

Until he heard another scream. Ted didn't know why, but he felt a twist of regret in his gut, and his resolve shattered to pieces. Suddenly, running away seemed cowardly, selfish, weak. Shouldn't he try to help? What kind of person would he be if he didn't help them?

"Charlie, there's a person in there! I'm not leaving them to die. I'm going in."

"Wait, no no no, bad idea, don't-"

Ted ignored Charlie's protests, leaving the radio on the roof of his car before moving towards the station, first walking and then breaking into a run while his mind screamed that this was a horrible idea. He passed the parking lot, the unfamiliar car parked there, how the hell had he missed a whole fucking car in the parking lot, pausing some distance away from the doors of the shop.

As he stared at the flashes of fire inside, the wind picked up. It surrounded him, power dancing at his fingertips, ready to be released at any second. But what could he do? If he tried to put out the fires, he could end up only fanning the flames or making them spread elsewhere, a dangerous thing near a gas station.

An idea sparked in Ted's mind. Instead of trying to manipulate the air around him to fight the fires, Ted grabbed at the air inside the shop and tugged it towards him. Fire needs oxygen to burn, so what if there was no more oxygen? He pulled out as much of the air as he could, then, gritting his teeth from the effort, formed a barrier around the entrances to prevent fresh air from getting in. As the remaining oxygen inside burned up, the light show inside the gas station dimmed, then ceased entirely. Ted formed a bubble of air around himself and ran.

When Ted burst through the door, the first thing he saw was the... thing cowering in a corner. Its whimpers may have almost been pitiful, if it wasn't for everything else about it. Even though Ted had seen things like it before, he couldn't help the wave of terror and nausea that momentarily paralyzed him.

The thing was almost humanoid in shape, but hunched over, towering, grotesque. Its skin was blackened and charred, smoldering with heat, like coals from a fire. Its face... Ted didn't want to look at its face. There was nothing human left in its gaze, not anymore.

It couldn't burn anymore, but it sure as hell was trying to. Incapacitated for the moment, but they needed to hurry.

Ted's eyes fell to the man in front of him, baseball bat discarded by his side. He was definitely still human, clothing burnt or torn in places, patches of skin red and blistering, struggling to breathe on the ground. With a jolt, Ted realized that part was his fault. He ran forward and extended the bubble of air around him towards the stranger, who immediately gasped for air. After a few moments of sputtering, he growled without turning to face him, "What the fuck was that? You could have killed me!"

Ted began to retort, to say that he shouldn't complain when he saved his life, but as he registered the sound of the man's voice, he found himself unable to form the words. That voice.. all too familiar, and completely impossible. For the second time today, Ted was hearing someone he definitely shouldn't be hearing out here, of all places. His gaze froze on the stranger - no, not a stranger - with his brain refusing to process what he was seeing. The cap, the vintage sweatshirt, the steel-toed boots -

The creature let out a roar, starting to stagger towards them, clearly still struggling. Fear made Ted snap back into action, moving to help the man stand. "Get up, we need to go."

The man shook him off roughly, growling "Let go of me, you b-"

Their eyes met.

There was a moment of stillness in the chaos. No mistaking it now. No matter how impossible, this was exactly who Ted thought it was.

"Ted?" His voice was hoarse and tired, but after years of knowing him, Schlatt's accent was unmistakable.

No time to talk about that now. "We gotta move!"

Schlatt stared at him for a few seconds in disbelief, then, grabbing his baseball bat, took Ted's outstretched hand and staggered to his feet. Without letting go, Ted began to pull him towards the exit. Schlatt's movement was agonizingly slow, and Ted remembered with a jolt that he was injured.

"I have a car, we just need to get outside before that thing gets to us!"

They only made it a few meters before, in a sudden burst of movement, the monster shot towards them with a roar of anger.

In a moment of panic and rage, Ted threw out his hands, sending the air around him towards the monster in a sharp gust. It sent it staggering backward, knocking it off-balance, but-

Ted realized his mistake when its eyes flashed a vivid orange. The next moment, a column of fire shot towards him impossibly fast-

Just before the inferno hit them, Schlatt let go of Ted's arm and raised a hand towards the beast. The flames split to either side of the duo, just barely missing their target, and Ted could feel their scorching heat next to his cheek. As the onslaught continued, Schlatt's hand began to tremble.

"Can't... keep this up for long..." he struggled through gritted teeth.

Ted could already feel the exhaustion from using his powers starting to set in, but he couldn't afford to stop now. Once again, he grabbed at the air inside the building, shooting it towards the shop's doors to force them to burst open. The rush of flames stopped momentarily, and Ted took advantage of the beast's hesitation to grab Schlatt and run outside.

The pair struggled across the parking lot towards Ted's car, with Ted half-dragging Schlatt along with him. When he glanced over his shoulder, he saw the monster unable to exit through the small doorway, smashing into the wall to force its way outside. "We're almost there!" Ted shouted, using a rush of air to boost them along.

They made it to the car the moment the elemental broke through. Ted threw himself into the driver's seat while Schlatt stumbled to the passenger side, slamming the door behind him. Ted turned the ignition and prepared to speed off, calling "Seatbelts!" to Schlatt.

"Wait, Ted, don't drive, I have an idea. Can you hold it back?"

Ted gritted his teeth, but obliged. With the last of his energy, he sent a gale of wind towards the elemental, pushing it backward while it tried to force its way towards them. "This better be fucking good, Schlatt!"

Schlatt held up his hand, sparks flashing between his fingers, a small smirk on his face. "This is a gas station, isn't it?"

Ted suddenly understood. "If you blow us up, I'm going to kill you." He heard the creature roar, saw Schlatt extend a hand out of the car's window, saw a small flame flare up near the gas pumps -

Schlatt frantically shouted "Drive, drive!"

Ted punched the gas pedal and the car rocketed forward, not a moment too late. In a split second, the sound of an explosion burst from behind them, leaving Ted's ears ringing. As they sped down the road, running on adrenaline and the remaining dregs of their strength, not daring to look back, Schlatt let out a shrill "Whoooop!" Ted found himself grinning with him.

He'd spent so long running in fear from those monsters, just barely scraping by with his life from the encounters, and now, finally getting to blow one the fuck up? It was cathartic, he couldn't deny.

In the thrill of the moment, he didn't even realize he'd left the radio behind.