Sapphire & Jasper
By: Aubrie1234
Alex had been laying on his bed for an hour as he waited for the Saturdays to return when he heard it. He held his breath as he heard a creak in the wood floor outside the door. Of course it could have been random, but you didn't stay alive as a spy if you thought creaks in the hall were random. Immediately, Alex got up without a sound (ignoring the pain that shot through his body) and went to the closet, where he hid up on the top shelf and closed the closet door. As he waited for the intruder to come in, he looked for a way out. He smiled when he found a vent in the back with a note stuck to it, which read: "If you ever need to get out. P.S., vents can get you outside the wall if you know how. Map on back for that." The blond turned the paper over to see the map just as the door was slowly opened.
"They said you were a sneaky man." spoke the woman that came inside. She had long black hair that flowed out from behind her mask, which was only a color variant of the one Doyle had in the closet, conveniently on the same shelf Alex was hiding. The woman had a blue body suit, a jetpack, grenades on her belt, and some sort of blaster on her wrist. She also had a distinct British accent, stronger than Alex's own. Not sure how dangerous she was, the blond decided to hightail out of there before his luck kicked in. As he opened the oiled vent (it had to be, since it didn't make a sound), Alex watched the woman walk around the room.
"If you will please come out, then we won't have any trouble." she spoke, "I'm here to kidnap you, but I also want to speak about how you know Doyle." Venom entered her voice on the last part of the sentence and Alex knew she might have been Abbey. Who else would have sounded like that when they were talking about Doyle and someone he had loved before them? Alex had heard that tone of voice many times before and knew it never ended well for him, so he quickly got into the vent and shut the cover before leaving.
"You won't get far." he heard her voice echo, "I will find you before the Saturdays and Doyle get back."
"Then you should start looking!" Alex couldn't help but quip. It was a bad habit, but one that sometimes saved his life. Being in the vents, the words echoed around the house, but they still gave him away. It was now a game of mercenary cat vs injured mouse, and the mouse was going to put up a big fight if it was the last thing he did.
Doyle wished he didn't have to come, but seeing as the new cryptid alert was about the Rockies, his jetpack skills were going to be invaluable. Yet he was worried about leaving Alex alone. The blond was anything but defenseless, but he couldn't help it.
"I'm sure he's fine." Doc gave him a wink and a pat on the shoulder. He could guess what Doyle was thinking about.
"He's got a lot of enemies."
"I made sure the security system was up before we left."
"Alex's luck will make it backfire."
"His luck?" Doc raised an eyebrow.
"I know you don't like mystical stuff, but Alex's luck is very unpredictable. The only thing about it that's steady is that it keeps him alive. It also tends to attract his enemies and gives him more injuries than should be humanly possible. It fluctuates between that and warding off everything harmful, though the warding rarely happens." Doyle sighed, "It would be just his luck for the security system to fail and an enemy come for him while he's injured."
"I doubt it." Doc said, "I built the security system, there's no way it could fail."
Alex was running through the garden, not only trying to get away from Abbey but also the plants. He stumbled when his shoe got stuck in goo, but pulled his foot free and continued running with only a single shoe, feeling deja vu that reminded him of the junkyard. He also ducked as a spray of needles flew over his head.
Note to self: Never come back in here, not even if the others say it's safe. Alex thought as he continued running, dodging a plant that literally tried to bite his head off.
"Get back here!" Abbey growled, using her jetpack to fly over the plants. She had her wrist blaster aimed at the blond before one of the purple plants shot at her. She dodged, but her jetpack wasn't so lucky, so she was forced to land. As she did, Alex sneaked into another vent. Ducking as the plants shot at her again, she decided to follow Alex instead of cutting him off, like last time.
"You won't get away, I promise you that!"
After they had landed, the Saturdays split up to cover more ground. While Doyle went with his parents, Zak went with his cryptid brothers in different directions. They were investigating a town that had appearances of the cryptid, but so for they didn't have any luck. That is, until they came across someone they didn't think they'd ever see again.
It happened while Zak, Fisk, and Komodo were walking down the street. Suddenly Zak was taken by the arm and pulled into a sidestreet as thin as an alley, where the three were ready to defend themselves until they saw who it was.
"Francis?!"
"Quiet!" the boy hissed before looking nervously behind himself, "Look, I've found something out that I think you should know and I don't have much time before 'Father' finds me." Out of his jacket he took a piece of paper. On it were several lines of numbers and letters.
"What's this?" Zak took the paper, feeling he could trust the young clone.
"Hacking codes." Francis said, "They can only get you into MI6. My people know Alex is with you, so it won't be long until others find out where he is. Trust me when I say that Alex isn't all who he appears to be."
"He's a spy, of course he isn't!"
"That's not what I mean. There's still a lot about him you don't know, and some of those secrets are dangerous." Francis looked away, "You may be the only person I've considered a friend, Zak, and I don't want to lose that."
"T-thanks, Francis." Zak wasn't sure what else to say, since he had genuinely believed that the other boy didn't like him.
"You're welcome, Zak. If you ever need anything, just call me." Francis gave a small nod before leaving. Zak blinked, then checked his phone. In the contacts was a new number, labeled 'Francis.'
"How am I not surprised." Zak smiled and put the phone away, "Looks like we've got our own mission to do, guys." Fisk asked if it was a good idea while Komodo hissed his agreement, "I'm sure we can trust Francis on this one. Now c'mon, we have to get back to the ship before Mom, Dad, and Doyle do!"
Alex winced as he felt his wounds reopen, but it couldn't be helped. He was now under the water with an air tank, watching Abbey at the pool's edge. The blaster nor the grenades seemed to work underwater, yet she wasn't coming after him anyway. Perhaps she was looking for a way to get him out of the water? Well, she didn't need to if the red color floating away from his body was anything to go by. If he didn't get out soon and get patched, he was going to bleed to death. Quickly coming up with a plan, he went to the surface and to the opposite side of where Abbey was.
"Not so fast." he could hear her arm her blaster being armed. Alex continued to get out of the water, tossing the air tank aside. He wouldn't need it now, "That was a careless move."
"Was it really?" Alex put on his most charming smile. This seemed to catch Abbey off guard, seeing as her blaster arm slightly lowered. The blond walked over to her, keeping his hands in sight so as not to alarm her.
"What are you doing?" She asked as she made her arm straight again.
"I wanted to take a look at a beautiful lady."
"B-but you're gay!"
"So was Doyle. You're so pretty you can make gay men turn straight!" Alex was in front of her now, still smiling, "Can I take off your mask to see your pretty face?"
"S-sure." Abbey seemed to be more flustered at the attention he was giving her, so she complied easily. She certainly did have a nice face underneath the mask, her pale green eyes standing out next to her light skin, as well as her slight blush. Alex put a hand on her hip as he leaned closer, causing her to blush more.
"You're cheating on Doyle, you know." she tried to keep her voice steady. She blinked as Alex's kind smile suddenly turned vicious.
"And you should never let your guard down." Alex backed away quickly, twirling a grenade ring on his finger. Abbey paled and looked down at her belt. It was hard to tell which one Alex had pulled.
"Perhaps if I wasn't gay and you weren't a mercenary, we could have had something!" he shouted as he began running towards the Medical Bay. His looks and charm had certainly gotten him 'interested' looks before, so he had used it to his advantage a few times. Tricking Abbey was no different, though he found it strange how she had let her guard down so easily. He winced as he heard the boom of the grenade after closing the doors, cringing as more of them fired off. They were all flash-bang grenades, so they wouldn't hurt her, but he still felt sorry for doing that to her.
Once he was sure all of them had gone off, he went back into the pool room. He found her on the floor, moaning as she held her ears and her eyes tightly closed. Taking her by the arm, he helped her to her feet. She slapped his hand away once she was on her feet, glaring at where she thought he was.
"You..." she snarled, tears in her eyes. Not making a sound, Alex grabbed her arm gently yet firmly and brought her with him into the Medical Bay. Hopefully he didn't make her deaf and blind permanently, since that wasn't his intention. To assure her he meant no harm, he closed her mask for her. In response she punched him in the gut as hard as she could. She also happened to hit him on his right side, which hurt even worse and caused him to cough. His eyes widened as he saw that he had coughed up blood, knowing that things had gotten worse. In fact, he was now noticing that he had gotten a bit lightheaded, probably from blood loss, and went over to the computer of the Medical Bay. He had just managed to send a distress signal before he passed out.
When Doc's and Drew's phones began to beep, Doyle knew something was wrong. When he saw that there was an alert coming from back at the house, his worry turned to dread.
"Alex!" he was the first to run back to the ship, his sister and brother-in-law behind him. Zak, Komodo, and Fisk were luckily already on the ship and somehow he and Komodo got it running and ready to fly by the time the adults arrived. The two were definitely smart cryptids, Doyle had to admit that, but his mind was completely focused on getting home and checking on Alex. What had happened? Was Alex hurt even worse?
"Let me guess, Alex came back a few days ago and you didn't tell us because he got badly hurt or something?" Drew mused as she and Doc took their places from Fisk and Komodo.
"Spot on." Doyle nodded, "I hope he's okay..."
"If he taught you how to be cool, then I'm sure he's fine!" Zak assured him.
"He's got a lot of enemies." Doyle rubbed his face in anxiety, "He's also badly injured and lost a bit of blood. If he loses much more he'll need a transfusion and if he reopens his wounds, that's just what's going to happen!" The redhead slammed his hand onto one of the rails, bending it so much it nearly broke in half.
"Easy!" Doc growled, "If you keep up hitting or holding things while you're mad, I'm going to have to replace everything in the house!"
"Here, let's just access the security footage." Drew typed at some keys and a large screen popped up. It began playing footage from the moment they left the house, but things didn't change until around an hour in Suddenly, they could see Alex clumsily running from Abbey through the house, through the garden and the hangar to the pool. The audio was also on, where they caught Alex's trick to Abbey, though until he had revealed it, Doyle and the rest of the Saturdays honestly thought he had was cheating on the redhead. They winced as the grenades went off, muting the loud sounds, and watched as Alex helped Abbey, where things took a turn for the worse when Alex coughed up blood and passed out after sending the message.
"Can't you make this thing go any faster?!" Doyle was angry, both at himself for leaving Alex and at Abbey from trying to kidnap him.
"This is as fast as it can go, Doyle!" Drew said, "We're doing our best!"
"Alex could be dying for all we know!" Doyle snapped. If he had more hair, he would be pulling it out right now. A mixture of fear and separation anxiety had overtaken him, making him so scared and angry that the cryptids kept a good distance away.
"Wait, fast forward a bit." Zak said, "There might be more to the video." Drew nodded and did so. The video began running again and just a few minutes afterword, the security system had been broken, as well as the front wall. A black van, as well as many men, came charging in. They broke down the front door, quickly made their way to the Medical Bay (so quickly it was as if they knew the place like the back of their hands), and took Alex and Abbey. She was helped out the door by one while the rest handcuffed Alex and dragged his body with them, as if they didn't consider him human enough to be carried. A slight trail of blood from Alex's wounds was created as well, following the group to the van. As Alex was tossed in, Abbey climbed in after him and the other men followed. One happened to look up, and though he was wearing a mask, he smiled to the camera and held up a badge with the symbol of a silver scorpion on it. He then brought out his gun and shot at the camera, causing it to go black.
"...No." The rail under Doyle's hands screamed as he twisted and bent it in every possible way, "He's gone. I left him alone and now he's GONE!" The portion of the rail Doyle had been messing with was ripped up and thrown at the doors to the rest of the ship. He was breathing heavily, clenching and unclenching his fists, then left. But as soon as the doors were closed, the rest of the family could hear him howl with sadness.
"...Wow." Zak finally spoke, "He must really love Alex."
"We need to find out who those people are and where they've gone." Doc said, "But there's no way to track them unless they stole something with a tracker in it, since the cameras only see so far."
"Let's check Zon's nest." Drew said, "She might have followed them." The cameras were changed to show Zon's nest at the time of Alex getting kidnapped. She woke up from the noise (her wings had been washed by Doyle the night before so as to not worry anyone) and upon seeing what was going on, grabbed one of Zak's shoes before taking off to follow the van.
"Wait, there are trackers in my shoes?" Zak looked down at the pair he was wearing.
"...Would you believe us if we said we don't trust you to stay home?" Doc said. Zak gave him a glare.
"Boys, calm down." Drew intervened, "At least we know Zon is keeping an eye on them. Now we just need to find out who they are."
"I think this can help." Zak took out the paper, "Francis gave this to me. He said people knew where Alex was and that his secrets were dangerous." He gave the paper to his father, who glanced over it.
"These are codes. What are they for?"
"MI6, he said. We can use them to hack into MI6's files to find this group, since I get the feeling they're more dangerous than we think."
"Good idea." Drew praised, "I'll open the tracking program to locate Zon. Hmm?" she glanced at another screen, "The tracking program is open elsewhere. You don't think-?" Komodo and Fisk looked into the rest of the ship before giving worried nods.
"Looks like Alex isn't the only one we're going after." Doc sighed.
Doyle looked down at the mini-tracker in his hand as he flew. He had to get Alex back, he couldn't lose him again. And though it was probably safer in numbers, his emotions were ruling his mind. He may not have wanted to be in a relationship with Alex again, but he still cared for the blond. Besides, Alex had always been there for him, so now it was time to switch things around. He owed Alex for leaving him alone, after all.
Why had he ever thought to leave the blond alone? He could have just stayed home and no one would have minded, yet he still went without much of a thought to Alex until they were in the air. How could he have been so careless? He had just gotten back the one he loved, then lost him again. That caused him to pause.
"...How good of a person am I if I can't even keep him safe when he needs me?" Doyle looked at the tracker in his hand, then shook his head, "I can be pathetic later, I need to find him first." Yet, even as he flew towards where the tracker was, his heart was heavy with sadness & anger at himself.
Sorry if this is shorter than usual. Francis also makes an appearance, so I hope I got him in character. And Alex is in trouble, isn't he?
As a side note, I have a question: Abbey is going to get her hearing and sight back, of course, but do you think she could lose them because of 5 of her grenades going off at close range like that? Just curious and I haven't looked it up yet.
Anyway, please read & review!
