As Ryan made his way into one of the old bedrooms of the abandoned mansion that the Hellions were using as their base, he wondered just where he was going to be able to find another place to crash. Shep had pretty much said that it was either tell him what it was that he'd gotten himself into or leave, and since everyone who had found out about Chronos had been brutally murdered – everyone who hadn't been either processed or recruited by the ACTF, that is – that only left the leaving. There was no way he was going to drag more normal people into this.
Not after what had happened to his family.
With his dad missing – he tried not to think too deeply about what had probably happened to the old man – and his mom off in hiding somewhere, he'd decided that, no matter what happened to him, he'd never involve anyone in his fight who wasn't already in it for themselves. It was just him and the Zoanoids now; that was the way things had to be, and it was also why he had to leave this place.
)Where do you think we're going to be able to stay, though?(
)I haven't the faintest idea,( he sent. )I'll probably manage to figure something out later, but right now what's most important is getting out of here before Shep has someone come to throw us out.(
)You really think he'd do something like that?(
)Maybe not,( he sent. )Still, we're going to have to leave before Chronos finds out where we are and starts sending their goons after us.(
)You've got a point there, kid.(
Tucking his cassette player back into his jacket pocket, he took one last look around. As depressing as it was, this place was actually the closest thing to a real home that he'd been able to stay in for the last year or so. Agito's safehouses didn't rate a remembrance, and he'd only been semi-conscious while he and Sho had been trapped in that cocoon together.
Sighing, since he knew there was no point in putting off the inevitable any longer, he made his way out of the old bedroom he'd been staying in and headed down the stairs. Elegen was silent the whole time, but he knew the Hyper Zoanoid understood his reasons for leaving and wouldn't try to talk him out of it. As Ryan made his way down the stairs, moving quickly but carefully so he wouldn't end up tripping and falling the rest of the way down, he soon found himself in the mansion's spacious living room.
He also found himself facing all six of the Hellions.
"So, you've got your stuff and now you're just going to leave?" Gearhead demanded.
"That was pretty much the plan, yeah."
"I can't believe you'd just up and leave so quickly after you seemed so happy to be here. Didn't you say you had nowhere else to stay?" Hardfire, the largest of the Hellions, asked with obvious concern.
"I guess that's really the case now, isn't it," he said, trying to defuse the tension.
"I asked him to trust us with something, some secret that he's been keeping from us; he didn't want to," Shepherd informed the rest of the Hellions, glaring at him all the while.
"This isn't about trust, Shep," he snapped, his good humor all but gone.
"You gonna tell me just what it is about, then?"
"It's about keeping you and your people from getting horribly, brutally murdered," he ground out.
"By who?" Shepherd's tone was one of complete and utter skepticism.
"Sorry to disappoint you again, Shep," he said, smirking and not feeling particularly sorry at all, "but we've already covered this ground."
Shepherd glared at him all the fiercer, and Ryan just barely resisted the urge to give the other boy the finger. Shep might have been fully pissing him off, but at the moment getting out took precedence over anything else. So, as much as he would have liked to the kid a piece of his mind, he was practical enough to know that now wasn't the time. Turning away from the assembled Hellions, he started for the door again.
Feeling someone's hand on his shoulder, he turned to look at whoever it was that wanted his attention. Seeing that it was only Snakeoil, Ryan raised his eyebrows at the other boy.
"C'mon, I might as well show you where the exits are."
"I thought you didn't want me to leave," he said.
"Truthfully, I don't. You're good in a scrap, and we could use someone like you. But we Hellions are tight; it's all or nothing with us. And if Shepherd says you're out, then you're out."
)Story of my life, eh Snake-head?( he sent, sighing mentally.
)You've still got me with you, kid. I'm not going to leave you out in the cold. And I'm not just saying that because I'm pretty much stuck with you.(
)Thanks, Elegen.(
)Yeah. Keep your head up, Ryan. We'll find a way to get through this.(
"Hey!"
"Huh?" He jerked his head over to where Snakeoil was standing.
"Shepherd was right, you are really spacey. We're almost back outside. I've been trying to tell you that for like five minutes now."
"Sorry, I guess I got a little lost in thought," he said, shrugging.
)To say the least.(
)Quiet, you.(
They seemed to be in either a cellar or a very dark hallway – though from the look of the place, he thought it was more likely to be the former – and for a moment Ryan wondered just what he'd missed while he and Elegen had been talking. It wasn't as if he could just ask Snakeoil to take him back the way they'd come —not when he was being thrown out—but it would have been nice to know where he was coming from, at least.
XxXxX
Aptom cursed fluently as he stared at yet another boarded-up entrance. The Zoa-chick he'd just snacked on might have been a mindless lackey of the Zoalords like all of his other meals, but her idea to get in and out quietly had been a good one. Of course, he wasn't doing it on the orders of his nonexistent superiors. He just wanted to avoid getting a face-full of bioelectricity.
He knew that he stood at least a marginally better chance of being able to do that if he managed to talk with the kid, since Elegen was still mad at him for eating those tasty Hyper Zoanoid friends of his. Naturally, he didn't care much about that, but getting blasted in the face was something he liked to avoid on general principle.
Hearing the sound of a door opening and then closing in rapid succession, Aptom quickly made himself scarce.