𝐒𝐖𝐈𝐅𝐓 (X-Men ~ Peter Maximoff)

Father Figure is a Sociopath Pt 2

Giving a quick nod to Charles, Jennifer quickly left her place, moving in a crouched position between the toppled chairs, pausing every so often with a hitched breath when a bullet hit something to close for comfort. It wasn't an easy journey, and the splinters of wood scattered across the grass wasn't exactly making it any easier. She really didn't want a splinter.

The girl turned her head Jennifer's way upon hearing her approach, the panic in her eyes dying out quickly when she realised that someone was trying to help her.

"Hey," Jennifer whispered to the girl, trying to be as quiet as possible. She didn't know how these sentinels chose their targets, and she wasn't going to exclude volume from the list of possibilities just because it seemed unlikely. "It's okay. I'm gonna get you out of here, alright?"

The girl nodded eagerly, and Jennifer wasted no time in pushing the chairs off of her as gently as possible. Through a bit of struggle, though thankfully not too many groans of discomfort, Jennifer helped to the girl to her feet, and with Jennifer taking most of the girl's weight, the two began to hobble across the lawn. They didn't get very far.

"Wait, wait, wait," the girl spoke, pulling down on Jennifer's shoulder a bit more to make sure she was listening.

Sceptical about the lack of disturbance on their trek towards the exit, Jennifer did a quick sweep around them before stopping. "What is it?"

"My camera, I left it."

"Your....-," Jennifer bit the inside of her cheek, trying not to snap at the girl – "...camera. We don't have time to go back."

"Please," the girl begged, looking up at Jennifer with pleading eyes. "If I lose that camera I lose my job. Please."

Tilting her head back with a sigh, Jennifer began to wish she had stayed with Charles. What point was there in having a camera if you didn't have a life? The sentinels were beginning to turn around and circle back. If she was going to help the girl, she was going to have to do it quickly.

Kicking up a loose chair, Jennifer helped her wounded companion to transfer her weight onto the back of the chair, and as soon as she was balanced, Jennifer headed back in the direction she came from, going back for the stupid piece of metal.

She moved quicker on her own, covering the distance in an eighth of the time. With the sun beaming down, and the metal reflecting the light straight back, it wasn't hard to find the camera in the rubble. In a minute she had the camera looped around her neck and was halfway back to where she left the girl, and that was when a bullet whizzed straight past the side of her head, so close that she actually felt it graze against her temple.

They were running out of time to get out of there.

Breath still hitched in her throat, Jennifer rushed back to the girl, weaving her arm across her back and speed walking towards the exit, this time taking the majority of the weight to make better time. It wasn't easy work, but it paid off.

For more reason the sentinels didn't bother to pursue people outside the gates, which meant that the once busy street outside had become even more busy, everyone from the press conference spilling onto the road. Half the cars sat empty, the drivers out trying to find out why hundreds of people had just come screaming from the landmark of the state.

People were confused and scared, and Jennifer could only hope that someone had had the sense to phone for the emergency services. Looking around at the people lying on car bonnets with blood seeping out of unseen wounds, Jennifer realised that this event would be classed as a terrorist attack if they didn't do something soon. More people might end up dying in this timeline than the original, because at this point, stopping Raven wouldn't be enough – the apocalypse fifty years down the line was set in motion now, and they were going to need something bigger than a simple surrender if they wanted to change that.