Dead silence is never comforting. Especially when you're walking into a dark, almost pitch black scrap yard, with piles of cars towering over you on either side. Keeping you locked in, and from seeing too far in any direction. It was enough to have Aelia holding herself just a little closer, clutching the package in her hand just a little tighter; and watching the shadows with far more paranoia then was healthy for anyone.
Every creak of metal from the wind was someone leaning around the edge of a broken down car, ready to put a bullet in her, and every small crunch of rock underfoot had her straining to hear if she was being followed.
The whole time, her body burned and ached with an ailment Aelia couldn't name, but it hurt all the same. Every step had her limping, and every breath was a wheeze that had to fight its way in and out. Her mangled arm remained tucked along her upper abdomen, trying to help support her injured form, and Lia's good hand clenched the priceless package in her pocket.
Such a small thing; and yet it held the lives of both Geneva, and herself. It made her wonder just what the extent of its prowess went to; and what lengths these people would go to, just to get their hands on it.
Just the thought had Aelia grimacing and biting down tightly.
It was a good thing she didn't plan on giving into their demands.
Huffing out a harsh breath, Aelia buckled down and limped just a bit quicker through the scrapyard. The faster she found the kidnappers and her aunt, the faster she could get this done and over with. They had said the Lakeside Scrapyard. She remembered. But they hadn't said where in the scrapyard.
And therein lay her frustrations. The junkyard was filled to the brim with cars, fridges, stoves, and anything else they could shove in it. It was one of the largest, as well, making it difficult to navigate. Hell, Aelia wouldn't have been surprised if it was going to take her the fifteen measly minutes she had left to hand over the modium just to get to the kidnappers.
Luckily, it didn't take that long to locate them.
Lia slowed dramatically, almost coming to a complete halt when she suddenly emerged from a long hallway of towering, crushed cars, and into a clearing. It looked as though everything had been shoved out of the way, to make room. It made her wonder if they had access to heavy machinery- if so, this would be much more dangerous then she had previously thought it was going to be.
What gave it away as where she was supposed to be, were the two cars parked at the far edge of the clearing, and her injured aunt's body which was laying on the ground, just in front of them. The very sight had her heart seizing up in her chest.
From the Police Car that had obviously been tampered with- 'To Punish and Enslave' really?- to Geneva laying on the ground on her side. Her arms had been tied behind her back, her long, silvery hair was a mess and splattered with dried blood, and form was dirtied and bruised. She looked like she had been through hell.
While her eyes were closed- causing Aelia panic- Geneva's chest heaved with frail, desperate breaths that reassured Lia that she was, indeed, still alive.
"Stop there, human." That same voice, the one that had spoken to her over the phone, echoed through the clearing in a defined, volatile hiss. Disgust and hatred coated over it like toxin over a snake's fangs. Dangerous and undefined.
"Come no closer." Aelia had no choice but to obey the stranger's command, and came to a tense stop at the edge of the clearing. It was hard to breathe, her own nerves choked her throat closed, and the air was heavy. Where was he talking from? She couldn't see anyone, but the sound of the voice was definitely close.
It echoed throughout the clearing, bouncing off the metal, making it hard to locate where he was. Her eyes scanned around carefully; she couldn't afford to let him sneak up behind her and get the drop on her.
Lia had to proceed with caution; much as it went against her usual strategy. But she couldn't afford to be impulsive and reckless like normal.
There was too much on the line this time.
"Did you bring the modium?" The raspy voice continued, and Aelia scowled,
"Maybe I did." She snarled, "Release Geneva!" she didn't call her 'my aunt', attempting to keep emotions and feelings out of this. The more they knew about how important she was to Lia, the more they would try to use it and bank on it.
Aelia wasn't stupid. Hotheaded, a loose cannon, maybe. But not stupid.
"Show me the modium." His voice was careful and crisp, giving away nothing. Lia clenched her jaw tight, trying to withhold a frustrated scream, before pulling out the brown, paper package with her good hand and holding it high above her head.
No matter where the bastard was, there was no way he wouldn't see it.
"I've got yer stupid modium right here ya' fuck." Aelia sneered, unable to help the small vent of anger. The stress of the situation was slowly getting to her- she was never one that was able to keep her cool.
Aelia was the one you could count on to explode before anyone else. This felt like torture, keeping everything together as she had so far.
"Excellent." The low chuckle had her taking a step back, as a new energy seemed to hum through the air. The voice… was it coming from inside the car? But there was no one there! Aelia's teeth ground together viciously. It couldn't be a pre-recorded message, he was talking to her as if taking her responses into consideration… right?
Her thoughts were broken and scattered in the next moment.
Something was very wrong.
The police car, and the nondescript, brown sports car next to it began to shift. Aelia stumbled back several feet with a breathless, panicked curse. They broke apart, large pieces moving out of the way, only for others to slide into place. It was like watching an episode of Voltron, when the robot lions came together to form that big, kickass robot.
Only it was a car becoming a robot. And it didn't need any other cars to do it. Just itself.
By the end of it, two very large robotic entities were glaring down at her, their red eyes filled with hatred; and all Aelia could do was gape, her eyes wide and a sense of panic falling over her like slowly condensing snow.
Abort, this was not part of the plan, fucking abort-
That large, alien, robotic hand was suddenly reaching for her, and Aelia snapped into action. Her impulsiveness kicking in and saving her at the last second, giving her no time to think, despite the fact that her brain was whirling a thousand miles an hour, trying to process the fact that there were giant alien robots right in front of her.
She threw herself into a tight roll, sliding under the- previously- police car's hand, and closer to its feet.
"Good job, Barricade. Maybe you can try catching a fleeing engine block next." The brown car sneered,
"Silence, Mudslide." Barricade snarled, and shifted, moving faster then Aelia thought possible, given his size, "What a nuisance." One hand slammed downward, pinning Lia to the ground as if she were little more then a disobedient puppy, while the other reached out and roughly grabbed Geneva, showing no concern for her obvious injuries.
"You put her the fuck down!" Ignoring the agony that flared up at the crushing pressure throughout her body, Aelia screeched, struggling violently against the mud she was being pushed into,
"Shut up, human. You're in no position to be making demands." Barricade snorted, holding out her unconscious aunt to Mudslide, "Hold this." he sneered, as if Geneva were the most disgusting thing he had ever encountered.
"I'll kill you! I swear! I'll fucking take you apart and melt you down for scrap!" Lia howled desperately, ripping her body this way and that. But nothing had any effect. She was stuck, she was helpless, and that…
That was terrifying.
"Oh shut up already." Mudslide groaned, taking Geneva delicately, his nose- did he actually have a nose or-?- wrinkling up, "Oh c'mon… this one's leaking! It's going to get on my paint!"
"Enough, Mudslide. I must procure the modium for our Lord." Barricade frowned, and carefully picked Aelia up in his hand, scooping up a fair bit of mud and dirt with her.
Never once did Lia stop cussing them out, or struggling in his tight hold. Her plan was fucked. No, not just fucked, it was impossible. Gone. Out the window.
No one planned for aliens. No one planned for this. There was nothing she could do. Compared to these metal titans, she was nothing. None of her training had prepared her for this. And it was all Aelia could do to hold her thoughts together in the wake of this knowledge. Tears burned behind her eyes; but she refused to let them fall.
Aelia wouldn't give them the satisfaction. She was better then that.
"Come here…" Barricade chuckled darkly, grabbing hold of the package still in her hand and forcibly removing it. No matter how tightly Lia clung to it- there was no keeping it from his grasp. No holding on to it. It left her hand, and became pinched between his pointer finger and thumb.
"Useless." he scoffed and tossed the human in his hand to the ground, uncaring that she fell almost a full building worth of feet to the ground.
As Barricade had stated- Aelia was useless to him.
Luckily, she knew how to land right to avoid too many injuries. First hitting the soft earth with her shoulder and then rolling along her back to distribute the impact throughout her already injured form. There was a sickening pop, as her already mangled arm popped out of place, and a choking scream left her as the throbbing pain from before became a burning bonfire.
Aelia was unable to complete the roll and land neatly as she usually would, instead flopping over bonelessly in the mud, limp and in too much pain to move.
She could only make a strangled, gurgling noise as more blood forced its way out of her mouth.
"Barricade. That human looks like it's going to go offline." Mudslide was a combination of fascinated, concerned, and disgusted, sneering slightly at Aelia's crumpled form, "Ugh, gross."
"Do I look like I care, Mudslide?" The police car scoffed, "Let her offline in the dirt. It's what she deserves. And get rid of that thing, it's going to follow soon after. We have what we want." he waved dismissively at the woman in Mudslide's hand.
"Alright. You're the boss." Shrugging, the brown robot dropped Geneva to the ground carelessly, letting her injured, bound form bounce against the earth sickeningly before it came to a pitiful stop. Aelia choked on more of her own blood, letting out a little pained, protestant warble, and began to slowly drag her halfway broken body closer to Geneva's.
It didn't matter how badly she hurt, both from the injuries the modium had caused, and from Barricade. It didn't matter that she had failed them both and that they were both about to die. What mattered was that Geneva was in pain, and Aelia desperately wanted to relieve her of it, even if all she could do was just unbind her and be near her in her final moments.
"Don't you want to check and make sure?" Mudslide tilted his head as Barricade began to turn towards the humans, package in hand,
"Make sure?" The police cruiser narrowed his eyes at his partner,
"Humans are sly. I would make sure that's the modium." The brown robot shrugged his shoulders, trying to appear nonchalant,
"Very well." Barricade snorted, and began to unwrap the package carefully, as if afraid to break its contents.
Aelia paid him no mind, their words like fuzz in her ears, instead gently curling her body around Geneva's. She gently braced her aunt's head on her lap and leaned over her crumpled and bloody form, using her good hand to pull at the knot on the ropes. Thankfully, they fell away easily enough at her careful administrations, leaving Geneva free.
"I'm here, I'm here auntie." Lia gasped and wheezed passed the blood that coated the inside of her mouth, trying not to sob violently, gently pressing her palm to the side of the older woman's face. Was she destined to lose everything?
"What is this?" Barricade snarled, "You STUPID human! What is this?!" he roared, dropped a multi-colored object to the dirt in front of Aelia and Geneva's crumbled forms, "Answer me femme! ANSWER ME BEFORE I KILL YOU!"
"You're already going to k-kill me." Aelia choked and coughed out a bit more blood, grinning around her wince of pain, "So what's the point?"
"You-!" Baring his gray, sharp denta dangerously, Barricade took a rough step forward, shoving Mudslide back in his anger.
Aelia just smiled darkly, her eyes glinting. She would have the last laugh.
She laughed wetly around the glob of liquid in her mouth; even as Barricade's foot crushed the multi-colored rubix cube.
(AN: Aelia is the ballsiest of the balls. Bobbi would've been a hella lot more cautious, and went in with a trap in mind. Lilah would noped the fuck out and gotten Isaac's help. Lia? Fuck that shit.
Also;
FF: hey! New review, concerning a 'mistake' you made in a previous chapter.
Me: Oh, okay, no biggie, lemme just reply and clear this up-
FF: haha, jk, can't find the review, in fact, we're not gonna let you see any of your reviews.
Me: ... *Face of a broken individual* Oh... okay... well that's cool too. Fine then, I'll put it in the AN next chapter. SO! Just to be clear; Aelia does in fact have 2 flip phones. Personal, and work. Never occured to me people would be bothered by one missing detail, so I'll clear that up in a future chapter. *Sigh* I am an imperfect person and FF is making it that much harder for me to function... *sob* I am a slug that has trouble even doing the slug.)