He paused, looking over at her in the half-moment that the clone needed to catch its breath. "Do you wanna come and deal with this shit while I stand around talking to fucking dead people?"
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She sighed, then flicked her fingers towards the clone, doing the best she can with the five—six, now—ghouls and spirits she had at her disposal. They were decently powerful, but not nearly as powerful as she hoped.
The clone was distracted by the supernatural beings, flailing at them wildly while growling with rage. Kaz, finally recovered from the asswhooping he got, snarled in anger, taking the opportunity to jam his sword as deep as he could into Wolverine side. He continued to apply pressure until he had pushed it into a tree, pinning it to the wood with the blade.
"We need to go!" Kaz shouted, grabbing her by the wrist and pulling her into a sprint as the close slowly pulled the sword from his side.
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"Hey hey hey, watch the markings!" she scolded, attempting to wrench her wrist out of his grasp as she ran after him. She half twisted around to flick her fingers again, ordering the spirits to hold off the clone—and having one fetch her gloves and jacket.
He let go of her arm, shaking his head.
"Your priorities are fucked!" he called over the sound of the battle between the clone and the ghouls.
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She grabbed her jacket with one hand while shaking out the one Kaz just let go of, then pulled it on without her shirt. "My markings are sensitive. The skin is thinner, and you getting all rough and demanding isn't exactly the most pleasant feeling."
"I'm demanding you not get you head removed from your body," he said, continuing to run. "Those things won't hold him for long, by the way."
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"I won't, and you think I don't know that?" She huffed and increased her speed, grabbing her shirt and gloves from the spirit and waving it away. Her connection to the others was waning—they wouldn't be able to stay grounded for long, as she was their anchor. Once the connection was gone, they'd be back in the spirit realm.
"Who knows what else they have waiting for us?" he said. "If they can clone Wolverine, they can clone anyone. We could have the whole fuckin' X-Men on us pretty soon."
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"Then let's not sit around and wait for that anarchy to fall upon us and get our asses out of here." She grabbed the back of his shirt collar and pulled him towards her as she made a sharp turn, weaving through a thick patch of trees.
He was surprised as he was jerked by the neck randomly, but didn't protest. She obviously had a plan and there was no time to tell it. He just followed her lead and hoped that they were fast enough.
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She had a sorta plan, which was to run as fast and far away as possible while utilizing the thickening throng of trees she had led them into. Their tracks would be covered by the ground full of dead and dying leaves, and it would be next to impossible to find them with all of the trunks and shrubbery in the area.
"This really isn't good," he mumbled, "We need to find somewhere to hide, 'cause we aren't gonna outrun him."
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"The trees and darkness is all we've got," she said, doing her best to zip up her jacket and tug on her gloves. There were flashes of light here and there as she ran, but she was otherwise covered up.
"Let's hope they're good enough," he spoke. "Let's climb a tree. It'll be easier to hide like that."
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Rasha didn't need to be told twice. She veered away from Kaz and darted up the nearest tree, her feet and fingers finding any and every hand and foothold there was, hoisting herself up and up the tree.
Kaz's climb was a bit less graceful but a lot faster, scrambling up a different tree at the speed of a monkey. He had doubts about their survival rate with Wolverine chasing them down. Serious doubts. At this point, however, he had no other option.
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Rasha perched up onto a high branch, mostly hidden by the thickly intertwined branches and leaves. She cleared her mind of any doubts or worry, and simply sat. And waited. Worrying or doubting would lead to panic; panic would lead to noise; noise would lead to discovery; discovery would lead to certain death. So she acted as if she was simply sitting in a tree, minding her own business.
The clone came stomping beneath them, growling like a feral animal as it whipped its head around. Luckily, it wasn't that smart. It never once thought to look up into the trees above it, so it went running off in a random direction, leaving them in relative safety.
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Rasha watched the clone's passing with a slight frown, back to indifference once again. She waited a few seconds to make sure it wouldn't circle back, then shrugged off her jacket to put her tank top back on. It was only for a moment, but flashes of the light from the patterns was dimmer than before, as if her trick had sucked its life away.
Kaz jumped off from his branch, landing very ungracefully with a thump on his ass.
"We're lucky that fucker was stupid," he said to Rasha, standing up and brushing his britches off.
His clothing looked like he just was attacked by a bear. His shirt was in such disrepair that he shrugged off what was left of it and tossed it on to the ground.
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Rasha, unlike Kaz, picked her way down the tree with much more grace and silence. Once her feet hit the ground with a soft thud, she brushed off her gloved hands and tilted her head, regarding the path the clone had taken with a stone-like face and silence. Something about that attacked seemed almost set up, like someone knew who they were and where they'd be. It put her off, a feeling she didn't particularly care for.
"Any clue what the hell just happened?" he asked her, honestly not expecting an answer. "How that motherfucker managed to find us immediately? Who's cloning former superhero's? Why are they cloning former superhero's?"
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"You ask me that as if I know all the answers," she said plainly, turning to look at Kaz with a slow blink. "No, I don't. I'm just as clueless as you." There was a pause as she looked slightly off to the side, a flicker of annoyance crossing her features. "Which means we must find the answers we seek."
"Wait, so you wanna follow the vicious killing machine?" he asked, looking over at her in surprise. "I'm not fucking playing bait again."
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"Then don't get caught," she said simply, tugging up her gloves and starting off towards the clone. She brushed past Kaz without another word, unconcerned by the prospect of another fight against the deadly being. She pulled her hood up and over her hair, tucking it back so the white color wasn't as stark in the darkness.
"You have a fucking death wish, lady, I swear," he grumbled. Still, he went after her. He felt a strange connection to her. They were both mutants. That made them almost family, something he never had.
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"You say that as if I have plans to jump in front of the clone and invite him to have a snack," Rasha said, tucking her hands into her jacket pockets. Her steps were light with minimal sound, years of hard scolding from her mother engraving the habit into her mind.
"That's Wolverine," he responded. "He'll smell us from a mile away."
He hurried to her side, his footsteps much heavier. He's never had to sneak around, since it was damn near impossible to hurt him.
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"That's a clone that isn't smart enough to look up. Who knows how flawed it is? If we're lucky, it only has his brute strength, physical appearance, and mutation, and not his smarts or scenses. If we're not, then we must be tactful and smarter than he." She glanced down at his heavy footfalls with a slight frown.
