forum “You don’t know what they did to me. To us.” (a continuation of an abruptly deleted thread)

Started September 23, 2020 by @Tired-but-passionate

tune

She looked up. Why?
For the first time in a long time, she began to sing the song again, low and soft at first. It calmed her.

“Oh don’t worry guys,” Talon said, gesturing behind him and pointing to the ceiling. “She’s right-“
“Trent!”
She didn’t yell too loud, as her voice could echo nicely around in the large space and still get someone’s attention. The boys turned their faces upward, and Alister almost slapped himself for not looking up.
Noel stood on the tallest stack of metal crates, nearly ten feet above them, her four arms splayed outward. Her silver eyes blazed, her mahogany braid draped over her shoulder.
“I have officially declared you an idiot. Ali, bring ‘em up here.”
He clapped a hand to his mouth, trying not to guffaw. Wow. Where had all this confidence come from?
Talon wheezed. He nudged Trenton. “Yo, what happened while I was gone?”

The aliens finally seemed satisfied. Though they gave Keegan a strange, hungry stare that Arabelle didn’t like one bit.
”A pleasant evening to you, Collins 0721. We may or may not see you tomorrow.”
She stayed silent, fighting the urge to spit at their splayed, scaly feet.
Once they were gone, Arabelle looked down at him. “You did good today. Now, I’m going to manage things in the basement. Take this,” she handed him an electronic sphere. “And tell me if Ju, August, or Vix calls, alright? If they do, just tell them what I’m doing, and give me a full account of their report. Now, you better see if you family isn’t too shaken up.”

He stood there nervously as the aliens set their eyes on him with that hungry look that made him shiver a little bit.
He waited till they were gone to speak, he exhaled turning to Arabelle and taking the sphere from her. he nodded, "I will." he smiled weakly at her, before going towards the stairs to find his family. his sister.
He slowly pushed open the door and walked over to her. "Hey sis, You okay?" he sat down on the bed next to her.
"Yeah..I'm fine. Are you? i mean you had to be with Arabelle, must have been tough."
she leaned against him her head on his shoulder, her ginger curls spilling over onto him.
"Hey im tough i could probably take those aliens if they tried to do anything." he puffed out his chest before his sister laughed a little bit.
"You? tough? oh yes your such a big strong man." she poked his skinny toothpick arms.
He laughed a little bit as well letting go of his puffed-out chest.
"Hey you doubt me now but toothpicks are sharp, and they can poke people's eyes out."
"well you've definitely been hanging around the fighters too much, your actually considering fighting."she poked his cheek. "i thought you were just gonna be Ara's busy boy?"
"Well yeah i am, but i wanna do more. i feel like im not helping enough i guess."
she sighed.
"You are Kee, you are. trust me, just please don't join any raiding squads? i cant loose you like we lost mom and dad."
he sighed as well. "Okay sis."

She looked up. Why?
For the first time in a long time, she began to sing the song again, low and soft at first. It calmed her.

i don't know, it just feels wrong to hurt you i have no idea why that is she sighed, laying down, the music calmed her just a tad but she held back from yawning.

She shook her head. No, no, why did they only say to hurt him? Her song kept her from panicking too much, but her muscles tensed, poised to run.

Alister raised an arm to them, about to remind them that Trenton literally slapped Evan and that he was supposed to bring them up there, but he lowered it and sighed.
“TP buddies!” Talon laughed as he was being dragged. “Talon Pierce, yours truly, and Trenton Pike!”
It took a moment before Alister got it. “… oh, the initials?” Then he sighed again, turning to Evan.
“I can see why they were arrested.” He flicked his wrist in Evan’s direction, air swirling around him and lifting him out of the wheelchair. Then, blushing slightly, he guided Evan onto his shoulders, almost like a piggyback, allowing air to lift him up as well. Then his eyes widened.
“Wow, it would’ve been so much easier to carry you this way while you were unconscious!” He tried to keep his voice low so no one would overhear. Then he flew to the top of the crates.

She shook her head. No, no, why did they only say to hurt him? Her song kept her from panicking too much, but her muscles tensed, poised to run.

Hell if I know the song started to make her feel tired as she laid down.

He chuckled a little at that statement.
"How did you even carry me while I was unconscious?" He leaned on Alister's head a little bit but not so much it would be too much pressure. He was blushing too but he was enjoying the shoulder piggy back ride he was getting.

"Yeah! Tp buddies!" He yelled as they made it to the top with noel.

“That’s a story for another time,” Alister chuckled. When they landed, he used air to lift Evan off his shoulders, setting him on the mat Noel had draped over the crate. Even if their trip was short, he was still pretty heavy.
Noel smirked with amusement in their direction, nodding in acknowledgement, but she turned to Trent, the smirk dropping.
“Thanks for slapping my friend and brother’s soulmate, Pike. Now you get my fist.” She punched him in the gut.

He let out a "oof!" And put his arms around his stomach as the wind was knocked from his lungs and he went down on one knee, and then you know laying down on the ground and holding his stomach in pain.
He rasped out "I deserved that..'
Evan winced as trent went down on his side on the matt. "Ouch."

“Trent, you slapped Evan? And you guys-“ Talon looked between him and Alister, eyes wide. “You’re soulmates? Dang Trent, that’s low…”
Noel kneeled, setting a hand on his shoulder. “Don’t worry Trent, I don’t hate you. I just hate you right now. Now, if everyone could get off this stack of crates and leave me alone, that would be great.”
Alister stepped toward her. “Aww El, we just got here…”
She sighed. “I know. Sorry you had to see that. But I’ve got more pressing matters to think about. Could you just take everyone to the bottom of this stack and stay there? I’m gonna call everyone from ‘6 over here in a few minutes.”
He gave her a small side hug, which she begrudgingly accepted. “Sure.”

Evan smiled at the sibling love.
Trent gave a thumbs up to noel, saying he understood. He looked at Talon, "Tp buddy…don't leave me here…"

Hell if I know the song started to make her feel tired as she laid down.

The sphinx blinked, surprised at the girl’s non-aggression. She kept singing as her muscles relaxed, an idea forming in her brain. Though she was concerned about what only hurting Malachi might mean, the least she could do was get him to where he wanted to go.
She managed to get Malachi on her back, then went over to Arden, who was now asleep. She bit the neck of her clothes and carried both of them slowly back to her den. The beast set the girl on the cave floor, then took Malachi to the river. She set him down, thrust her paw into the water, and cleaned his face as best she could. Then she took him back to the den, setting him far away from Arden, just in case.
It was too late to go now, and they were all in poor shape to travel. She’d have to wait till morning.
She lay between the humans, and finally laid her head to rest.

“Chill dude, I won’t.” Talon picked him up with his good hand, using his super strength so he didn’t feel all of Trenton’s weight. He glanced at Alister. “You mind taking us down? Wind abilities look pretty useful right about now.”
He obliged, letting go of Noel and flicking his wrists in Evan’s and the other boys’ direction, letting air swirl around them and lifting them into the air. He decided to guide them down while he stayed on top since there were more people. After he placed Talon and Trenton on the ground and Evan next to his wheelchair, he gathered air around himself and glided down to join them.
Now that they were on the ground and not preoccupied, they could see that Arabelle had come back and was talking to most of the rebels from ‘7 a few yards away. The ‘6 rebels had also wandered together, looking worried.

“Chill dude, I won’t.” Talon picked him up with his good hand, using his super strength so he didn’t feel all of Trenton’s weight. He glanced at Alister. “You mind taking us down? Wind abilities look pretty useful right about now.”
He obliged, letting go of Noel and flicking his wrists in Evan’s and the other boys’ direction, letting air swirl around them and lifting them into the air. He decided to guide them down while he stayed on top since there were more people. After he placed Talon and Trenton on the ground and Evan next to his wheelchair, he gathered air around himself and glided down to join them.
Now that they were on the ground and not preoccupied, they could see that Arabelle had come back and was talking to most of the rebels from ‘7 a few yards away. The ‘6 rebels had also wandered together, looking worried.

Trent got hoisted up by talons pull, then Alister helped them down. "Thanks."
Evan got up and sat in his wheelchair event tho he didn't want to be in it, he knew the medical reasoning why he had to and agreed with them that he had to.
"Thanks Ali." He smiled at him when he got down to join them.
Trent turned to see Arabelle come in and talking to the rebels from 7. "the search party still isnt back yet."

Hell if I know the song started to make her feel tired as she laid down.

The sphinx blinked, surprised at the girl’s non-aggression. She kept singing as her muscles relaxed, an idea forming in her brain. Though she was concerned about what only hurting Malachi might mean, the least she could do was get him to where he wanted to go.
She managed to get Malachi on her back, then went over to Arden, who was now asleep. She bit the neck of her clothes and carried both of them slowly back to her den. The beast set the girl on the cave floor, then took Malachi to the river. She set him down, thrust her paw into the water, and cleaned his face as best she could. Then she took him back to the den, setting him far away from Arden, just in case.
It was too late to go now, and they were all in poor shape to travel. She’d have to wait till morning.
She lay between the humans, and finally laid her head to rest.

Kali thrashed around in her sleep while the beast was absent, the thrashing and moving around had mostly calmed down by the time the beast came back but it was still present.
Salty hot tears were running down her cheeks, something bad must have happened while she slept.

Alister nodded to them in acknowledgment, smiling a little and blushing again at being called Ali. Talon set Trent on the ground with a “You alright, buddy?” before looking around and saying, “Yeah. Does that mean it was a failure or a success?”
A few of the ‘6 rebels drifted over to them. Two girls who only looked a little younger than the boys, and an older man, probably in his late 30s. The girls dashed ahead of the man, straight over to Trent and Talon.
”Cara!” The taller girl said, her dimples accompanying her brilliant smile as she and Talon clasped hands. She had dark skin and long bleached dreadlocks that swept to the side, revealing the shaved half of her head. The hand she didn’t use to clasp Talon’s was a prosthetic, the dark metal and plastic forming a gleaming skeletal structure.
“Hey Sef.” Talon smiled back. He nodded to the other girl. “Lyn. How’ve you been?”
The shorter girl nudged him playfully. “Why sound so casual? We haven’t gotten to see you in forever!” Her dark messy bun bounced a little, contrasting nicely with her light olive skin. Her coffee colored eye- the other one was covered by an eyepatch- though bright with joy, held a hum of solemnity.
He shrugged as they went over to Trent, Lyn giving him a side hug and Sef a fist bump. “I dunno, I guess I’m starting to feel tired.” He glanced over to Alister. “This is Lyn Ramirez and Josefine Thompson. Me, Trent, and them all grew up in the same neighborhood.”
“That’s nice,” Alister said, waving to them. They went over to him and Evan, returning the wave.
“Hey Arden,” Lyn said. “You good?”
The man watched them contentedly, deciding to stay quiet for now.

He was off the ground when the two girls came over one with a side hug and the other he gave a fist bump. he smiled at the two of them, glad they didn't immediately point out his wolf ears. He nodded to them, "Rami, Josefine." He grinned at the two before watching them go over to Evan.
"Yeah I'm good, doing better than I was, then again anything is better than being in an experimentation center." He chuckled a little bit smiling at them.
"You good Ramirez?" He grinned at Lyn a little bit.

“Yeah yeah,” she shrugged. “Just not used to seeing you in a wheelchair, I guess.”
“You seemed pretty used to seeing me with a cast, or Trent with wolf ears,” Talon pointed out, putting his good hand on his hip.
“Well, a broken arm doesn’t surprise me that much, being you,” Josefine chuckled, her Portuguese accent showing through a little. “And wolf ears fits Trent so well for some reason, I almost didn’t notice.”
“True true,” Lyn giggled. She looked between Evan and Alister. “Who’s this, Arden? He looks a lot like Storm up there.”
“I’m her brother,” he said casually.
“Storm has a brother?” Jo sized him up, making him slightly nervous. “Didn’t know that. Did she bring you back from the invasion or something?”
He chuckled nervously. “She did, actually.”

The electronic sphere in Keegan’s hand started vibrating.

"Oh trust me, i hate it. if I could be out of this wheelchair I would, but apparently walking around and standing around would mess up my stitches."
"dang your right i guess it does kinda suit me." he joked, getting a bit more comfortable with showing them.
He put a hand to his neck, looking at Alister almost saying they were soulmates before holding back and letting Alister himself talk to them.
he noticed how Jo sized him up and chuckled a little bit. "He helped save me Jo, if it weren't for him getting to me before noel did i don't know what would have happened." He smiled at Alister.

Keegan looked down at the sphere, he did whatever you do to activate it and waited to see what would happen.

Alister didn’t notice Evan’s smile, his gaze drifting to the older man a few paces away, who was walking toward him. He heard Josefine say, “Really now? I’d like to hear that story,” before the man stopped in front of him. He held out his hand.
“So you’re Storm’s brother?” he said, his voice soft but deep. “I’m David Sokolov. I’m an old friend of Taranaba’s.”
“Taranaba?” Alister tilted his head.
“Malachi Taranaba? The leader of this rebellion. He’s missing.”
The man was of average build, only slightly taller than Alister. His short, straight hair was the color of cinnamon, and his warm hazel eyes looked at him through rectangular glasses. He had tanned skin, like he’d worked out in the sun most of his life, and elvish ears peaked out on either side of his head.
Alister’s head snapped straight. “Oh, right. I’ve only heard his first name. Nice to meet you, I’m Alister.”
David chuckled, nodding. “And you. Sometimes I help your sister out when she doesn’t feel up to leadership. This might be one of those times.”
His eyes widened. “Oh really?”
He nodded again before turning to the others. “Hey boys. Had a nice trip?”
Talon looked at him. “Trip!” He laughed. “Not really a trip, Sokolov. It was prison.”
David laughed with him.

After being tapped a few times, the sphere projected a blue hologram, glowing faintly. The form of Vixen O’Shea’s slightly wrinkled face could be made out, though it looked formless for a few seconds.
“Collins? Ah sh*t, it’s Reeves. Collins is probably busy.” O’Shea’s tired voice was met with moans and whispers.
The woman sighed. “Alright kid, you might wanna take notes.”

"S-sorry She can't be here." He muttered, he was used to feeling like the second choice or not good enough though so it was fine.
He quickly got up and got a note pad while they talked to him writing everything down he knew he wouldn't remember to tell Arabelle.
His sister moved out of the room for an exra bit of privacy.

Evan chuckled a little. "It'd be better told from his perspective than mine, mines a bit on the blurry side." He noticed Solkov talking to Alister and smiled at the interaction.
Trent laughed a bit as well. "Ya know it wasn't five stars which was disappointing, i might have to leave a bad review on yelp." he joked

“Figures.” O’Shea rested her head on her hand. “Alright, current status: two injured, no one dead. Location: De Luca residence, District 7. Taranaba is still MIA. We haven’t found a girl that matched Brightly’s description either. Uhh…”
O’Shea’s head turned the right, like there was someone in her field of vision that the hologram couldn’t capture. “Brightly, you want to take over? I’m tired, and my memory decided to turn into a big blob of nothing.”
A brief, “Sure,” could be heard, and O’Shea’s face disappeared, to be replaced by August’s.
“Hey Reeves,” she greeted. The bandaid she’d had on the bridge of her nose was gone now, a small, dark scar in its place. “I’ll give the mission report. After we left the Red Serpent, we managed to cross over into District 6’s border by sharing my invisibility. We reached the spot by the watch tower, and we didn’t see any aliens around, so we decided to split up and cover more ground to find clues as quickly as possible. But we couldn’t find much, and the storm was not letting up, so we decided to leave while we still could. But right as we were about to cross the border…” she sighed. “We were spotted by E-drones. Can’t exactly hide your heat signature, heh. I got shot in the shoulder. Then Shun had the idea of confusing the drones with his fire, and although it was brilliant and worked pretty well, he… uh, burned himself.” There was a small grumble in the background. “There was also a chance we and our surroundings might catch fire, so we couldn’t let him constantly keep it up. The drones stopped chasing us once we crossed the border though, but by that time, it was curfew. I shared my invisibility again and we went to Shun’s place as quickly as possible, since it was closer. We’ve been here since. We would’ve called sooner, but we had to deal with our injuries, and I guess it kinda… slipped our minds, haha.”
She sighed, her expression somber. “O’Shea managed to find a sliver of Malachi’s scent trail, though. But it just ends. It has to be someone with the ability to teleport, otherwise it wouldn’t have just ended.”
She blinked, looking back at Keegan’s face, as her gaze drifted downward as she talked.

Keegan nodded along with what they were saying paying attention when the person talking shifted and taking notes the whole entire time, his sister watched from the other side as he did his job, smiling at her brother.
"Alright, it's good to here from you."

“Yes, we’ll be back at the inn in the morning. Take care of yourself, Reeves. And say hi to Arabelle for me.” August gave a final flash of a smile, then the hologram went back into the sphere.

"that's unfortunate you weren't able to find malachi though, see you when you get back." He smiled at then before the image went away and he relaxed against the bed.
"I have to take these to arabelle…" He sighed getting up. "I'll be back sis."
"Okay, be careful." She smiled at him.
He walked out to find arabelle with the notes