The sun shined hazy and hot along the horizon of the northern New Mexican hills. Atop the mountain local residents called Father Sun, the young Alabama girl sat with black jeaned legs crossed upon the highest flat point of the mountain. Her eyes had closed long ago, her thoughts quieted into utter silence for an amount of time that was lost to Helena Britt. It was impossible for her to know just when her mind let go of it's tether to the physical world, quick or slow ceased to matter when time became just another consequence of thought and matter and energy. 

When her mind began to rise, the only thing Helena could see was her own self from up high. Down the mountain she saw the Last Five, beyond that the small homes along the lower sections of the mountain dotted the landscape like an insignificant spot upon the red rock that rose high and higher still, stretching and reaching high into the New Mexican sky that to her view began to stretch and blur, the blue of the sky, the white of the clouds, and the gold of the sun twisting and turning to colors no human eye could see. Distant, pale colors alive with light that spread like a starfire inferno over Father Sun and the New Mexican landscape. 

The gateway to the astral plane came upon her hotter than the sun's glow. In a heartbeat Helena Britt left New Mexico and went to engage the upper limits of the Earth's atmosphere. The darkness of space and the impossible distances of celestial bodies were little more than a distraction to the telepath as layers of atmosphere and clouds began to shuffle by at speeds no physical entity could ever dream to reach. Just short of sinking under the preciously thin shell of the planet Helena stopped and landed her astral form upon the same grassy lawn covered in the shade of a large oak that she had curled her toes into more times than Helena cared to count at the moment. 

The front door of the house meant nothing to her current form, phasing through it and entering the home. The ceiling to the entryway was high, and hanging from it a chandelier of crystal and silver and electric lights--lights that were currently off. Down the hallway next to the grand staircase the projected girl went, to the large living area decorated with a luxurious touch of the old South, the only light in the room coming from the walls of windows and glass doors spanning the back wall. In the plush cushioned leather recliner she found the man; in his socks, slacks, and golf shirt. The chair was fully reclined, a half eaten bowl of grapes in the older man's lap as the flat screen television in the room showed whatever golfing tournament happened to be going on.

"Napping through golf, dad?"

He wouldn't have heard her. It didn't matter to Helena as her transluscent form stood next to the chair, and smiled down on the sight. It was a sweet dream to find her father exactly where he was nearly every weekend afternoon during her youth. A quick look around the room alerted her to a few missing pieces of art along the walls of the living room...her mother, no doubt. She would've sighed, if it weren't for the thunder clap in her mind that sent her projected presence to it's knees. Eyes clinched tightly shut, the pressure rising in her ears until they were near to bursting. 

[i]"Under attack. Ambush. Guns. Help."[/i]

[i]Shit.[/i] It was a bit of struggle to rise to her feet, like getting up after plopping down after a long, long, run. She was closing her eyes when the voice came into the air half-concious and filled with sleep: "Hel?" 

She turned just in time to see her father blinking his eyes open, and looking this way and that and there again. [i]He can feel me near.[/i] It made her smile, despite the heightened sense of danger rising in the back of her mind like a bad moon. Just as quickly as she set down in Alabama, her astral form was gone, cut out like someone had simply flipped a switch.

When her eyes opened upon Father Sun, her mind reached out to Annelise first. [i]"The group that went out of town got attacked on their way back. Run to the big house and get a ride with X."[/i] The thought was sour in her mind even as she projected it. The last thing Helena wanted was Annelise entering a danger zone. If she'd had her way, Helena would've told Annelise to stay at the ranch. But with Rob out to get feed for the animals of the Last Five, they'd need every able body they could muster up. 

The next half-second Helena informed X. The woman's orders were clear: go, fast. We'll catch up. 

In a swirl of air and dirt and shattered gravity, Helena Britt launched from the top of Father Sun so quickly that a concussive boom echoed down into the ranch as her body was carried into telekinetic flight. Her soft leather boots near came off, she even almost lost the faded denim jacket over the white tee clinging to her body. The group was closer to the ranch than Helena initially thought, and that wasn't a good thing. [i]They know about the Ranch.[/i] Whoever 'they' were. Worse, a good half mile from the gunplay was a pickup truck...a civilian eyewitness just made bad go to worse. 

From her eagle eyed top-down view, Helena saw the attacker's vehicles turn and spin, spitting dust high into the air as they came around for a new attack. Will's walls weren't enough, but just as they began to shimmer and fail came a wall around the group of mutants, the only physical appearance of it a vague outline that reflected just the smallest bit of sunlight--Helena Britt's telekinesis reenforcing and strengthening Will's wall as Helena began to descend. The vehicles roared past the protected group of mutants, the last vehicle in the small attacking convey making a horrible screeching sound as it something.

Or, rather, as something hit IT. The black four wheel drive SUV flipped with such force that it just kept flipping when it finally landed back upon the Earth; nothing would've survived that tumble. By that time X's brown jeep was coming to a hard stop near the flipped vehicle the mutants were huddled near. There weren't any words exchanged as Helena swooped down from the sky and picked up X before swooping back into the sky, dropping X after a quick aim to land the vicious femme brawler onto one of the other attacking vehicles. Helena quickly went back to X's jeep, landing on the ground next to it, looking at Annelise with a small smile. 

"Going my way, sweet thing?"