Gone Batty
Chapter 25: Junkyard Rumble
After explaining to Barnabe about everything that had happened, the teal silverwing hummed thoughtfully to himself as he glared up at the dangling bands while crossing his arms.
"Well, what do you think?" Melody asked nervously, holding her band close to her chest.
"I think that your giant 'friends' are trying to scare you on purpose."
Shade grimaced, "you mean to tell us that they are aware that we were behind them all along?"
Barnabe frowned slightly and shrugged, "I think that's highly probable. They are predators, I'm sure that they would have caught on that they are not following your scent anymore."
Melody and Shade were visibly disturbed.
Marina forced on a smile, "come on guys, if that was true, then they would have turned back and found us by now."
"I'm not so sure, Marina," the brunette said, her eyes darting back up at the bands. "Goth loves playing with his food and he's far smarter than I'd like to admit."
The brightwing shifted uncomfortably, "what do you suggest we do, then? If Barnabe's right, then it's only a matter of time when they find us again."
"We'll stick to the plan." Shade clenched his fist and said with determination in his eyes, "we have to get to hibernaculum before they do. But for now, we have to stay low and search for food. We need all the energy we can get."
"I'll help," Barnabe volunteered.
"Are you sure? Being with us is probably the most dangerous thing right now," Melody warned him.
The silverwing flashed her a smile, "all the more reason to. That is..." he turned to Shade and nodded his head at him while holding out his hand, "if you are alright with me joining your colony? I don't exactly have anywhere to go."
Shade firmly grasped Barnabe's hand and shook it. "It's all cool with me," he grinned. "I was about to invite you anyway. We need someone who has what it takes to stand up to Goth."
Barnabe's smile widened, "great!"
The young bats began to take off when Marina paused and looked back, "Melody- are you coming?"
"Yeah, just give me a second," Melody flew up to the bands that were hanging on the twigs and silently slipped her own band onto one. "I'm sorry," she whispered mournfully and closed her eyes before turning around and flying after her friends. The bands jingled softly in response.
After having no luck finding food, the young bats reached the outskirts of the forest, what laid beyond it was something that looked like a barren wasteland of a junkyard. It was void of any life aside of the flies that were attracted to the street lamp lights and the foul smells. It was too quiet and almost reminded Melody of a graveyard. If that didn't forebode imminent doom, she didn't know what did.
"I'm starving!" Shade breathed out as he eyed the flies hungrily from a tree. "Let's go grab some bugs!"
"Nah-uh," Melody said despite her own mouth watering. "Count me out. That place looks like a death trap. Let's just continue looking for food in the forest."
"I get where you coming from Melody, but we haven't found squat for hours," Shade argued, looking miserable from hunger.
"I don't know Shade," Marina said quietly as she distrustfully gazed out at the empty space. "It's not very safe. It's so open..."
Shade took another look at the place, but didn't seem to be very convinced.
"You saw that owl and who knows where Goth is!"
"Barnabe, say something!" Melody hissed to the bat next to her. "Shade's got that look on his face!" She saw Barnabe's jaw clench as his eyes stayed locked on the bugs and her own jaw dropped with disbelief, "oh no, not you too!"
Barnabe sighed and closed his eyes before turning apologetically to Melody. "Shade has a point. Winter is coming and insects are becoming really scarce. We can't keep flying aimlessly searching for food when it's not going to be there. This place probably attracted all the flies within a mile radius."
Melody looked back and forth between Barnabe and Shade, "I can't believe this...we could be flying into a trap!"
"It's not like we can stay here either," Shade insisted, spreading open his arms. "We have to cross to the other side to find my colony anyway."
Melody groaned and stared at the junkyard worriedly.
"Don't worry, you two. With all that stuff, there's plenty of places to hide," Shade reassured the girls.
Barnabe placed a hand on Melody's shoulder, "if it makes you feel better, we'll fly over there as fast as we can all together on three, eat what we can and then hide immediately afterwards, alright?"
The girls shared a look.
"Alright, if you say so…" Marina said uncertainly and unfurled her wings.
"Ready?" Barnabe asked before he began to count.
"No," Melody muttered.
"One…"
Melody took a deep breath.
"Two…"
This had to be a bad idea.
"Three!"
The four young bats launched themselves forward and shot across the empty field. On the way, they managed to snatch a few bugs. Melody was grateful that they had at least stuck in close formation as she flew between Marina and Barnabe while Shade flew next to Marina.
"This is creepy!" Marina said as they entered the junkyard.
Melody wordlessly agreed. This place looked like a perfect horror setting for a movie, especially with the lamp lights flickering on and off. She could smell the moisture in the air, signaling of another storm approaching. There was scrap metal everywhere. Cars, refrigerators, wires,
electronics and other things were making eerie creaking noises. She was half expecting to find dead bodies inside one of the cars just like in The Walking Dead. Okay! That did it. Goth and Throbb were one thing. Imagining them as zombies was another. A shudder ran through her body, "can we hide now?" she practically begged.
Barnabe heard the alarm in her voice and quickly led them into a doorless orange car on one of the junk heaps. They hung from the sun shades with Barnabe and Marina on one, and Shade and Melody on the other.
Melody let out a shaky breath as she tried to calm down.
"Does this feel safer?" Shade asked her.
Melody nodded silently, but her eyes were still wide and alert.
"Are you going to be okay?" Marina asked, concerned. "You seem really jumpy ever since you were trapped in that hut."
"Yeah," Melody cracked a smile, "I guess I just let my imagination get the best of me."
"Everything is going to be fine, Melody," Barnabe said softly. "In a place that smells this bad, no one should be able to sniff us out."
"You're right," Melody felt her muscles relax slightly.
Shade wrinkled his nose, "we won't be able to smell them either though…"
And she stiffened up again.
Marina elbowed him, "Shade!" she snapped.
"Sorry," he rubbed his arm.
"Alright, changing the subject," the older silverwing quickly interjected. "Want to know how I got captured by your kind, Melody?"
"Um, sure," she readily turned to face Barnabe, eager to get her mind off her fears.
He smiled and began his tale, "it was a year ago, I was flying outside later than I should have been for the morning birds were starting to sing. I couldn't help it, I was just so excited to start my very own journey to my colony's hibernaculum so I could finally meet my dad and Cyan for the first time. I had lost track of time."
"Cyan?"
"My older brother," Barnabe explained. "And once I realized that the sun was about to come up, I had already gotten myself lost." He chuckled to himself, "you see, I have a terrible sense of direction. I can't even read my mother's soundmap, I'm that bad."
"Seriously?" Shade blinked in surprise.
"That's not all, I can't use my echolocation either," Barnabe said with a sad smile. "In a way, I'm blinder than a bat," he joked. "Which is why I got caught so easily. When I was finally released again not too long ago, I tried to remember where hibernaculum was, but I ended up finding Scirocco's colony instead."
"That's horrible," Melody said softly.
Barnabe shrugged it off, "not really. For what I lack, I make up in other things."
"Shush! Did you see that?!" Marina exclaimed in a whisper, her green eyes were wide with fear. Everyone went quiet and still.
Melody blinked, "see what?" she whispered. She looked into the rear mirror where the brightwing pointed. There was nothing there.
"Are you sure you're not seeing things?" Shade asked, raising his eyebrow.
"Shhh!" Everyone turned to look at Barnabe who had gone completely rigid. His ears twitched as he listened carefully. "We're not alone…" he finally said quietly.
At his words, the young bats became fidgety again.
Melody pressed herself closer to Shade as stared out the broken car window. Suddenly, a shadow passed over them and they all gasped.
"W-what do you think it is?" the younger boy bat stuttered.
"I'm not gonna wait to find out!" Marina squeaked and swooped out of the car followed by Shade.
"Wait- no!" Melody didn't have time to stop them when they flew out of the car. Chances were that whatever it was, it hadn't spotted them yet. "Guys!" She quickly flew after them with Barnabe behind her.
They eventually landed on large wooden crate, breathing heavily while looking around at the sky, searching for danger. Melody let out a sigh and glared at Marina and Shade. "That was stupid."
"I panicked!" Marina protested.
The sound of a bell cut them off. Startled, the young bats turned around to see Throbb standing on a platform above them, playing with the bell of a mangled bike with a grin. Melody heard a gasp escape from Marina and Shade while hers got stuck in her throat. Barnabe was silent but glared at the larger bat.
Seeming to notice them for the first time, Throbb chuckled and turned towards them with a gleeful smirk. "Hola," he greeted.
"Oh no.." Melody breathed out, realizing that they were ambushed. But where was Go-?
The wood beneath their feet broke with thunderous crunch and two giant hands seized Shade and Marina by the leg causing them all to scream in terror. Glowing green eyes and a fanged smile stared back up at them from inside blackness of the crate. "Hola…" Goth's voice echoed slowly before he sharply yanked them inside, causing the two to cry out.
"NO!" Melody yelled as she reached for their hands but missed. She gripped the splintered edges of the hole as she peered into it.
Goth had them trapped and roared as he attempted to snag his razor teeth into them, his fangs making a loud snapping noise when Marina and Shade flew out of the way with a yelp. Goth ripped another hole in the crate's ceiling when trying to make a swipe at Shade with his claw.
That piece of wood that Goth sent flying would have struck Melody right in the face if Barnabe did not pull her out of the way. That was when Melody remembered that she and Barnabe weren't alone up there. She glanced up at Throbb who was suddenly in front of her. Melody froze like a deer in the headlights while Throbb had an unreadable look on his face as he stared down at her. His eyes then looked past her at Barnabe and the malicious grin returned to his face. Throbb growled and to Melody's utmost surprise, he shoved her out of the way with his wing, causing her to fall off the crate.
Melody shook her head as he pulled herself off the ground and looked back up to see Throbb chasing after Barnabe. "Why did he…?" No, that didn't matter. Her friends were in trouble! At that moment, Shade and Marina managed to escape out of the box, but with Goth right at their tail. Melody grunted as she climbed up onto the crate once more and then used the height to jump off and fly after them, ignoring the screaming in her head to stop and hide. By the time she had caught up to them, Goth had flown straight into a car's rear mirror, mistaking Marina's and Shade's reflection for them.
The two young bats used that opportunity to fly away. Meanwhile, Barnabe and Throbb were nowhere to be found. Goth stood up and shook the glass out of his fur, growling angrily. Melody knew that she had to distract him and landed on a metal bed post.
Putting on a sassy smirk, Melody put her fingers in her mouth and whistled down to Goth, catching his attention. Thunder rumbled and Melody's fur began to prick up in fear, but she ignored it. "Yoohoo!, Gothy ol' boy!" She placed her hands on her hips and swung them tauntingly at him, and his eyebrows shot up. "Can't you even tell the difference between a bat and its reflection? No wonder the humans managed to capture you so easily. You're all brawn and no brain!"
Goth's eyes narrowed in irritation and he grit his teeth together, a growl rising in his throat.
"Hell, I don't see why the humans even bothered with you. You're nothing but a big fat rat with wings!" Melody cupped her hands around her mouth as she yelled that down at him.
Eyes blazing and a snarl emitting out of his mouth, Goth flew at her.
Melody quickly said her prayers and flew off the bed post as lightning flashed. She was instantly reminded of the last time she was chased by Goth during this weather and her scar began to itch again. She whimpered and raced through the junkyard, hoping that the others were okay. She looked back only to do a double take in the air. Goth wasn't behind her. Melody circled around in place in confusion, but he wasn't anywhere in sight. She flew down to rest on the arm of a moldy sofa, still scanning her surroundings for him. There was no way that she had lost him that easily. She felt cold rain drops start to soak her fur as the storm finally fell upon them. She heard something rustle loudly behind her and she swirled around, but there was nothing but a loose piece of thin aluminum foil waving about in the wind.
Breathing heavily, Melody place a hand over her heart, trying to calm it.
"Melody!"
She gasped and looked upwards to see Shade waving down at her from inside a large metal pipe with Marina and Barnabe. "Shade?"
"Melody, up here! Hurry!" Marina shouted.
The girl let out a sigh of relief. They were okay. They got away from Throbb. Melody was about fly up to them when a large arm hooked her around the neck into a choke-hold from behind. She let out a strangled scream as she was lifted off her feet, her back was pinned against a hard chest. "I've caught you..." Goth breathed against her cheek in a sing-song voice and chuckled.
Melody thrashed about in his arms wildly, trying to escape him but went still when he pressed a claw to her stomach. Her chest heaved with every breath that Goth allowed her to take and suddenly she was painfully aware of how delicate her life was right now.
"Temptress...now, how shall I kill you, hmm?" The arm that was around her neck lowered slightly, allowing Goth to press his mouth against her neck. Melody bit back a scream and arched her back to get away. His lips were the only barrier between his fangs and her pulse. "Shall I bite into your throat and let you struggle as you suffocate in your own blood?"
Melody squeaked when he nipped her neck gently with his teeth and she felt him smirk against her fur when she dug her claws into his arm. This was scary... Holy crap! Too close for comfort! She had to get out of here! Her eyes looked up at where her friends were and they stared down at her in horror.
"Melody!" Marina yelled.
Suddenly something startles the small bats and they look back into the tube. Melody could hear something clanging inside.
"Or shall I cut you open?" Goth continued as his claw trailed upwards slowly from her belly to her rib cage. "And eat you while you're still alive?"
Melody's fur was standing on end, her eyes were wide with tears glazing them over. If she wasn't freaking out before, she was now. She heard Throbb's laughter coming from inside the pipe.
His claw rested over her heart while it hammered away in its cage as if also trying to escape. "Or shall I be more traditional and tear out your heart and present it to Cama Zotz?"
She couldn't take it anymore. Melody squeezed her eyes shut and shrieked at the top of her lungs, "NO! Let me go! LET ME GO!" She thrashed about and scratched at his wings with her clawed feet. "I don't freaking care how you do it, just let me go!" Melody snarled and sank her fangs into his arm, tasting blood.
Goth howled in pain and tossed her off.
Regaining control, Melody flew upwards to her friends who quickly flew out of the pipe. They dodged when Throbb burst out and Melody made a sharp turn just in time to get out of Goth's way as he chased her. With perfect timing, the two brothers rammed into each other.
"Go! Go!" Barnabe yelled as he motioned Melody and the others back into the pipe before following after them.
"Don't stop!" Shade shouted to the girls as they flew downwards through the narrow passageway while Goth and Throbb entered after them. They managed to fly back outside, led by Melody and frantically tried to find someplace to hide.
"Guys! Down here!" Barnabe exclaimed and flew down towards a storm drain below.
Melody looked back at the pipe for a moment and dived down after him along with Shade and Marina. They barely slipped in between the bars when Goth swept down at them with a roar. He grasped the bars, too big to fit through. He stuck his arm through and tried to make a grab for Melody.
Barnabe slipped in front of Melody and forced her to back up while hissing furiously at Goth. Shade and Marina both inched away from Goth's hand as he reached for them.
"You little ingrates!" Goth growled, royally pissed off. "When I-" the prince was interrupted when he heard Throbb yelling. Confused, he looked up to see Throbb falling out of the pipe, seemingly having lost control in there and ended up sliding out. The fat bat fell right on top of Goth, slamming Goth's head into the metal, knocking Goth out by accident.
Hearing the loud clang, Melody winced, "oohhh…" She watched as Goth's arm went limp from behind Barnabe.
Shade and Marina looked at each other before the young silverwing smirked and hopped over to Goth's arm.
Marina gasped when he took hold of the vampyrum's hand and made it look as if Goth was gesturing apologetically to them. "Ah, so sorry, mi amigo," Shade exaggerated with a fake accent before unceremoniously dropping the hand with a thunk.
A snort escaped Melody and they all began to crack up laughing. "Th-that'd be the the day!" she chortled, gripping her stomach from laughing so hard.
"I know, right?" Shade replied with a grin, his shoulders shaking.
They all continued to laugh when suddenly Melody felt something cover her mouth from behind and she gave a muffled scream when she was pulled backwards.
"Melody?!" Barnabe turned around only to jumped by a dark furry creature and two more pairs of hands grabbed Shade and Marina.
The first thing that Melody was aware of when she first came to was that it stunk really bad!
"Ugh!" She wrinkled her nose and cracked her eyes open. Where was she? In the sewers? Melody noticed that she was pressed down against a wooden raft and noticed that she was floating on a piece of driftwood in the middle of a dirty black river. She hardly could hold back her gag reflex when she realized that this was indeed a sewer.
She lifted her head and noticed that Shade, Marina and Barnabe were on both sides of her, awake, and held down by rats.
"Let go of us!" Shade snapped as he struggled to shove one off.
"Let go!" Marina yelled.
"You can't do this!" Barnabe twisted about but it was no use.
"I'm afraid we can," the rat that held Shade smirked. "Remus allows us."
The skin between Shade's eyebrows crinkled in confusion, "who's Remus?"
"The king, of course!" the rat rolled his eyes, as if it was obvious. "Oooh, when Romulus gets his paws on these spies, he'll crush 'em like...like-"
"Uh...who's Romulus?"
"Why the king, of course!" Marina's captor snapped at Shade in annoyance.
"But you said that Remus was the king…" Barnabe looked puzzled.
"Silence!" a rat screeched.
Melody blinked but laid still. She didn't want to be touched by these slimy creatures. Meanwhile, these names, Romulus and Remus- they were ringing a bell in her mind. Weren't those the names of the two brothers who founded Rome in mythology? The same twins who were raised by a she-wolf?
She didn't have time to contemplate this when they approached what looked like an underground kingdom of rats. Talk about overpopulated...
"Lower your heads!" the rats flattened Marina, Shade and Barnabe against the raft. Melody winced as they got the air knocked out of them. She thanked herself for not getting up. "You are about to meet the kings!"
"Huh?" The four young bats looked at each other in confusion.
"Kings?" Marina repeated.
Was it possible to have more than one king? Was that even legal? As they approached the dry land, two large shadows approached them out of a lit cave with crowns on their head.
Melody gulped, they were about to find out.
A/N: Phew! Finally done with this chapter. Took me forever to get this done the way I wanted it to. My job also kept getting in the way, but I managed to get this chapter done!
DONOVAN94: Oh my goodness, you have no idea how happy your review makes me feel! Nothing makes me happier than to hear that my OC is a likable character and that I am succeeding in keeping the characters true to themselves. Hahahaha! Yes, I love the relationship that Melody and Goth have with each other right now. It's always fun writing them together. Unfortunately, despite the fact that I'm on summer break right now, I have been working. So I am not able to write as frequently as I want. But fear not! I shall never stop until it ends! Thank you so much!
mchap1154: Heehee! Yes, Barnabe is a sweet guy. :) Yes, he is joining them! Ooh, I can't wait for that episode either! It will be so fun to write! Thank you!
grapejuice101: Goth being done with obsessing with Melody? Perish the thought! The more they bump into each other, the more he becomes attracted. Not that Melody is helping the situation much by teasing him, LOL! Thanks for the review!
Guest Melissa and Alejandra: Well, I'm glad that you two will be sticking around. :) Yeah, I never liked Scirocco. I always saw him as a coward and a power hungry jerk. I always saw Throbb as someone, despite being a villain, who isn't evil. If someone helps him, he will feel inclined to return the favor. Yay, Barnabe is okay! Thank you guys!
Red Beauty (guest): I'm so happy you are enjoying this so far- and yes, I listen to requests. I may not draw everything, but you have inspired some drawing ideas for me. I'm glad that you like my drawings. Thank you.
RandomCitizen: Lol, if I kill off the antagonists by starving them now, we won't have a very interesting story. And yeah, romance is the last thing on Melody's mind right now. She's actually very unaware when someone is attracted to her unless they tell her outright. But Melody has no problem seeing romance blooming between others. As for the sequel, we'll just have to wait and see, my friend. :)
EmpressDragonfly: First of all, I love your username! And thank you! Don't worry, there will be Goth/Melody scenes to come.
Guest: Barnabe is a gentleman, err...bat. :) Don't worry, Throbb won't let Goth touch Melody if it's in his power.
heart8822: That is correct. I hope you enjoy.
Carlisle Fan22: Hahaha! Yeah, I was going for humor in that scene. Goth is definitely going to try and kill her, but not before having fun while torturing her. Thank you very much!
Whiteling: Yup, Barnabe's joined the team! I hope you enjoyed this chapter as well! Thanks!