Silver stood up and sauntered closer to Kissa, casually cutting off her view of Ben. "You get me, or you don't get anyone." she said, almost hissing. "I'll come with you, but you don't touch them. You don't hurt them. You take me and we leave." Slowly she bent over, hands on her knees, to look Kissa in the eyes. "Or I can put you in one of those silent boxes until we get away and then you can go home without any prize."
Kissa laughs, good and hard, leaning over. She ends it with some giggles.
“Oh Silver dear, you forget I have your element too. Boxes won’t hurt or contain me.” She pats Silver’s cheek. “But at least if I take you, we’ll have the irritating one dealt with.” She roughly takes Silvers wrist and lunges herself into the sky suddenly, pulling Silver up with her.
Ben watches.
Time to get out of this box!
He suddenly bursts into flames, knowing the heat would startle Sil and maybe make her lower the shield.
Silver smiled a little when Kissa finally burst into action. It had taken longer than Silver expected for the girl to actually do anything. As Kissa dragged her off the ground, Silver blew a torrential wind down from above, knocking them both back to the ground. Silver flipped her wrist, catching Kissa's arm in her grip, and walked back toward Ben, lowering the barrier and blowing his fire away.
"Get away." she said. "I'm going with her in exchange for you all. Find the others and keep them safe. Don't worry about me." With a little wave she leaped into the air again, pulling Kissa with her, and rose up over the city. "So." She said to Kissa, still holding onto the girl's arm. "Where are we going?"
Kissa doesn’t resist and goes along, already having her way. She rips her arm away from Silver once back in the air. “Follow me.”
Ben watches, angry he can’t fly. “THAT SEEMS LIKE A STUPID IDEA!” He yells after her. He growls, still aflame. “I’m going to kill her if they don’t.” He mumbles.
Silver grinned, aligning herself in the air and setting her wings to glide. "Lead the way."
Miki collapsed on the ground, staring at the empty, beautiful sky. Tears welled in her eyes and spilled down her cheeks. "Stupid kid." she muttered, hands clenched.
Kissa leads her higher, and once above the clouds her wings, big and feathery, become visible.
“You’d better not speak to Gabriel.” She quietly threatens.
Ben glares at the sky again before cooling off and heading into the car. He sits angrily in the passengers chair and glares at the windshield.
There is absolutely nothing I can do. Why would she do that? Stupid girl. I hate her so much.
Silver almost retorted that Gabriel was the main reason she had come with her, but then she paused. "Why?" she asked instead.
Miki sat on the pavement and cried until her eyes were dry, then dragged herself to her feet and came back to the van, leaning wearily on the passenger door. "Well. We should get off the street for starters." she wiped her nose on her sleeve. "I have a place we can use."
The air is quiet, and Kissa bites her lip for a moment.
“If you touch him we’ll kill you.” She states.
Ben waves Miki off with his hand.
“I have a place for us, don’t bother.”
He sighs, leaning forward for a moment and closing his eyes.
I hate everything.
He gets out of the car and goes around to the other side, gently taking Violet out and laying her in the back seat. He climbs into the front seat and restarts the car. It sputters, but doesn’t start. He growls and tries again and the engine moans back to life. He closes his door and buckles, glaring over at Miki. “Get in before I drive away without you.”
Silver waited a few minutes, watching Kissa out of the corner of her eye. She cares about him. After the silence had settled a little, she asked again, quietly, "Why?"
Miki sighed and rolled her eyes, dropping into the passenger seat. "Ben, I know you don't like me, but I can help. You don't have to like me to let in. We both care about Silver, and I'm in danger with the rest of you now. You can still hate me while crashing at a safe house with me, but don't let your frustration affect everyone else." she jerked her thumb toward everyone in the back seats. "They need help too. You're all worn out. I have resources. You're not stupid enough to turn that down just to spite me."
Ben tilts his head, widening his eyes in frustration. He backs up and drives down the road smoothly and fast.
You wanna bet?!
Kissa ignores Silver and speeds up, her wings dropping a large feather or two almost every stroke.
Miki sighed and leaned back against the seat, giving up. Fine, you are that stupid.
Silver beat her wings to catch up, and eased back into Kissa's air stream on her right, just behind. "What do you think I'm gonna do to him?"
Kissa is silent for a moment before replying, “I don’t care what you do to him… but- don’t speak to him.”
Ben speeds up, taking the backroads and swerving when needed.
This sucks. I kinda hate these kids. A lot.
He runs a hand through his hair, sighing.
They're going to be the death of me.
Silver frowned a little, then slowly edged her way up til she was almost shoulder to shoulder with Kissa and could see her face out of the corner of her eye. "What's wrong with speaking to him? Are you… do you… not want him to talk?"
Miki held onto the door as Ben drove more recklessly than needed, but she kept her mouth shut.
Kissa is silent. She suddenly dives downward and lands on a roof of a large, rectangular building. Her wings disappear and she shoves her hair behind her ears. She looks up, waiting for Silver.
Ben pulls the car out onto a mostly-empty highway.
I’ll get them to the safe house, then I’ll go get Cage and the others.
Silver landed a moment later, facing Kissa. She cocked her head, peering at the smaller girl. "You care about him, don't you? This isn't about me… it's about him."
(post again, babe, I don't have anything to make Miki do)
Kissa glares, but doesn’t speak. She takes Silver’s wrist and brings her down a flight of stairs, in through a window, and down an empty hall. She opens a door, shoving Sil in before her, then following behind and shutting the door. The room is a conference/meeting room, with a large table in the middle and many men and a few women seated around it. They start to stand, and few let out quiet gasps. Kissa walks around Silver to stand beside her, glaring at the people.
“I brought the bird.” She states. A single man, tall and skinny, stands. He removes his reading glasses, setting them onto the table and approaches Silver.
“Well done, Cove.” He says, not bothering to look Kissa’s way.
They continue on the same highway for a total of 15 minutes, then take an exit towards a small town. The town is mostly countryside and farm houses, and he pulls onto a long, dirt road.
Violet groans as the car bumps and slowly opens her brown eyes. She stares at the ceiling for a while. “Ben?”
He huffs, turning on the road, passing a metal mailbox, and arriving at a bigger sized farm house. “Are you alright, Vi?”
Silver couldn't deny how hard her heart beat or how sweaty her palms were, but she didn't need to fake it anymore. It wouldn't do any good. She had gotten Kissa away from her friends and hopefully herself gotten closer to Gabe. She stood at the end of the table and tried not to flinch as the man approached, but her feathers slowly ruffled and her wings arched overhead in full display.
Miki let out a sigh and relaxed as the van stopped. She glanced around at the place. It looked safe. Unfortunately it was far enough from the city that it would take nearly all night for her to hike back.
“That doesn’t make sense why would the criminals kill the one keeping them safe “ he spoke carefully so he wouldn’t reveal he was one of those supposed criminals
“That doesn’t make sense why would the criminals kill the one keeping them safe “ he spoke carefully so he wouldn’t reveal he was one of those supposed criminals
The cop squints at him. “That’s what we’re trying to figure out. What’s your name, sir?” He asks.
A faint “ooh” and “ahhh” is whispered by few of the members in the room as they stand to their feet and gaze upon Silver’s wings. The man in front of Silver, however, keeps his eyes on her face. But only for a few moments. He turns and motions for everyone to sit.
“I’m going to show, ah, Sil- Silver is it?” He turns to look at her for conformation, then turns back to the group, “I’m going to show Silver to her new room. Don’t wait for me.”
He takes Silver by the hand rather gently and heads out the door, Kissa following.
“So, Silver, hows life? You been okay?”
———————————————
Violet sits up, coughing once or twice and rubs her head.
“Yes? Is everyone else okay?”
Ben climbs out of the car, leaving the question to hang in the humid air, and opens the side door. Sung and Tod step out, taking in the pretty setting, and Ben helps Violet out. There’s a large, blue bruise on her forehead above her right eyebrow, and a few on her neck. She leans against Ben and looks at the house.
“May I ask where we are?”
He shakes his head, taking her hand and heading towards the door.
“Jason walker” he said without a second thought
The cop squints at him. "Jason, ok. Did you know anyone by the name of Benjamin Stan?"
Silver told herself to remain calm, play along, but when the man took her hand, she snatched it away, barely forcing herself to follow him out of the room. Her skin crawled where he had touched her. "Remind me who you are again?" she said and her voice came out much smaller than she had wanted it to. Be strong, she told herself. Be strong. Find Gabe. Run away.
Miki sighed and finally slid out of the van, wearily pushing the door closed behind her. The place was beautiful, but she couldn't dwell on it. Part of her was ticked at Ben for being so frustrating and refusing her help, and the other part was already spinning for ideas and ways to help Silver. She pretended to follow them toward the house, but her steps were slow and she fell behind.
Then man turns, still smiling at Sil.
"Oh, I'm sorry. I'm Airow Zander. I know your friend Ben, but I don't think I've met you but once or twice." He offers his hand. "How do you do?"
Kiss continues walking, obviously irritated with Airow, and turns down another hallway. The sound of s door slamming behind her rings down the halls but Airow ignores it.
Ben opens the door of the house, letting in Violet, Sung and Todd, but he stays outside on the porch. He glares towards Miki. "We''ll get her back." He states, his arms crossed.