CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
[true colors]
"now is not the time to be a raging asshole"
The course was set. Using an old street sign and some other random items from the confiscation room, the group of teens created a sturdy jump for Saya. The girl looked like a proper daredevil, American flag cape and all. The engine revved down the hall as the Kuroki girl readied herself for the jump over some spike strips they found.
"Hundred bucks says she doesn't make it," Chico said to Marcus. The younger boy looked back and forth between Chico and Saya for a minute before holding his hand out to Chico to seal the deal. They shook on it as Andi chuckled.
"Easiest hundred bucks ever made," she whispered to Marcus.
Tires squealed as track marks were left behind in the hallway. Andi was surprised they had not been caught yet, but she did not dwell on the thought for long. Saya took off toward the ramp, the bike holding steady as it launched into the air. The group watched in anticipation as the back wheel hovered over the spike strips before clearing it, but just barely.
Marcus, Andi, Victor, and Jaden all cheered loudly as Petra clapped and laughed in awe. Chico, who was now out a hundred bucks, even found it in him to clap, newfound respect toward the Kuroki girl.
Saya removed the football helmet from her head, shaking out her hair as she laughed. Andi was happy to see her friend enjoying herself. The dark-haired girl often took everything too seriously that sometimes it seemed like she forgot she was still a teenager. It was normal to let loose every once in a while. "Okay, that was pretty fucking cool," she admitted with a large grin. "Can we make it bigger?"
The guys looked at each other appreciatively at the guts the girl in front of them had. "Hell yeah, we can! Then, I want to try," Andi said, getting another laugh from the Kuroki girl.
The teens went looking through the rest of the scrap and lost belongings they had pulled from the room, trying to find things that could make the ramp bigger and better. It did not take long for them to become distracted.
"So what, mass extinction?" Marcus asked the group as they shifted through boxes.
"World can't support five billion people," Chico answered. "That's some science shit."
Andi let out a small laugh, "Please, Chico, share with us some more of your valuable wisdom." She picked up an older recurve bow only to have it plucked from her grasp by the junior gang leader himself. Raising an eyebrow at him, she let out a soft, "Really?" to which he simply shrugged and continued speaking.
"Amount of fossil fuel we're guzzling," he laughed, pulling back on the bowstring. "Humans got fifty years 'til it's 'Mad Max' time." Chico released the arrow, which to Andi's surprise flew straight and true to its target.
Viktor chuckled and chimed in, "Hey, Petra already has costume for ending of world." Andi rolled her eyes at his attempt to be funny. The only ones laughing were him and Chico.
Petra obviously was getting tired of Viktor's jabs, picking up a dagger from the box she was going through with Saya and started towards the Russian teenager. Saya stood as Viktor let out a mocking, "Oh—." The Kuroki girl held out an arm keeping Petra back, "Stabbing him will not make him any less of an asshole."
Andi nodded in agreeance from her spot on the floor and scoffed as Viktor held out his arms innocently. "What did I say?" he tried, knowing full well what he did.
Just then, Chico inserted a cassette tape into the boom box they brought with them. "In Between Days" by The Cure started playing through the speakers.
"It appears you have one redeeming quality," Marcus told him.
Petra, still sour from Viktor's comment, spoke up, "The rank and vile discovers "The Head on the Door" and suddenly they deserve our praise?"
"Hey, he could have put on Julio Iglesias."
Petra turned to Chico, "Name one Cure B-side."
"You got your B-side right here," Chico said, grabbing at his crotch as he took a step closer to the punk-goth girl.
She turned away, "Think I made my point."
"This is my little bro's favorite album," the taller, Latino boy stated, flipping the cassette case in his hand.
Marcus glanced at him briefly before looking back down, "He's got good taste."
Chico was quiet for a moment. "Had taste." It was obvious to Marcus, as well as Andi who had been listening in on the conversation, that Chico's brother was dead. For a moment, the blonde girl thought that she could see a hint of vulnerability in the teen's light brown eyes.
"Oh, I didn't know," Marcus replied.
"Why would you?" Chico through the cassette case to the ground at Marcus' feet. "We—We don't even live on the same planet."
"We've all lost people."
"Yeah," Chico whispered, his eyes narrowed at Marcus in contempt. He looked as if he were about to continue when Andi interrupted.
"Don't even bother, Marcus," she told the younger of the two. "He neither wants nor deserves your pity." Chico's glare turned toward the blonde sitting on the ground nearby. She shot him a wry smile, "Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong."
Before any of them had the chance to speak again, the engine of the motorbike revved down the hall. Andi stood up and turned toward the noise, expecting to see Saya going for another run. Instead, Jaden sat atop the bike looking determined.
"Idiot," Andi muttered under her breath. He did not know what he was doing. The stoner was more likely to wind up with a spike through his head than clear the jump they set up.
Marcus seemed to have the same idea. "Dude, you're gonna break your neck," he warned.
Jaden did not care though, ignoring the advice. He held up his left hand and began counting down. "Three… two… one!"
Slash!
The group stared in horror as Jaden's hand was cut clean from the rest of his body. He screamed in agony, falling from the bike as two men wearing Japanese Oni masks and wielding razor-sharp weapons stand over him.
"Saya," Andi whispers to her friend. "I think our guests are here to see you."
Saya shot Andi a worried look before the group leaped into action. Flipping her butterfly knife, Andi lunges forward, all the while wishing she had a weapon that could pack more of a punch.
She dodges a swing from the man in the red mask only to get nicked on the arm by the blade of the man in the black mask. The warm blood drips down her arm as she goes to dodge another hit. Unknowingly, the red masked man slashed at her calf, the pain enough to send Andi to her knees. She pushes back, trying to get out of the main brawl so she could pull herself to her feet.
It did not take very much time for Andi to put two and two together to realize that these men were Kuroki. The masks alone hinted it. They were exceptionally trained. A bunch of unprepared kids in a too-tight space was no match for them. One had already swung a hatchet down onto Petra's shoulder blade and Viktor was pretty sliced up too. The last straw was when the red-masked man held his katana to Saya's throat.
They needed to get the hell out of here and quick.
Chico reached down and grabbed Andi by her uninjured arm, practically dragging her with the rest of them as the retreated down the hall. Marcus led the way with the rest of them quickly behind. Andi glanced behind her to see Saya escape the two men and run after them.
The group stopped at the lounge that the monks had been in earlier only to see them all slaughtered. "They're dead. Go! Go!" Saya insisted as the masked men were just behind them.
Chico still partially supporting Andi with her injured leg helped the blonde down the stairs. If she was not so fearful for her life at that moment, she may have teased him about helping the supposed bane of his existence.
The group burst into the library, Viktor immediate collapsing to the ground in pain from his chest wound. Saya and Petra were close behind with Marcus holding open the door for the rest of them anxiously. Chico released his grip on Andi, who ran as quickly as her leg would allow her, only to grab Jaden and shove him to the floor. The tall Latino boy pushed the blonde forward once again as they made it into the library.
The two assassins took out Jaden as Marcus watched from the doorway. He did not have much time to dwell on what he saw before Saya yanked him inside and slammed the heavy, wooden doors shut. Andi hunched over, attempting to catch her breath. The burning pain from her leg was enough to distract her from the slice mark across her right bicep. Stumbling over to a desk, she allowed herself to plop onto a chair.
"You—You killed Jaden," Marcus accused Chico. Andi glanced up for a moment before continuing to look over her injuries.
"Fuck Jaden!" Chico yelled back. "Another second, they would have been in here hacking us to pieces!"
"What the hell is wrong with you?" Marcus growled.
"We got no first aid, Marcus! He was a dead man! You don't want to like it, but I saved us." Andi could not concentrate with the two of them yelling back and forth. They needed a plan, like yesterday, and screaming at each other was getting them nowhere.
"He's right," Andi interjected, causing Marcus to look at her like she was just as insane as Chico. Maybe, in a way, she was. People like Andi and Chico, even Saya, Viktor, and the other legacies at King's, were taught to think differently than other, normal teenagers. Rats had a hard time understanding the utilitarian thinking process that the legacies had because their morals were still in line with the way society bred them to be.
"What?" Marcus asked her incredulously.
The blonde girl shrugged, causing her to wince from the pain in her arm. "He's right, Marcus," she stressed. "I mean, look at this place. We're not exactly an operational triage center. They cut off his hand! He was either going to die out there or die in here from blood loss. At least this way, the rest of us have a chance. Look at us," she stated, gesturing to her own injuries as well as Petra and Viktor's more fatal wounds. They already had two people they needed to look after.
As if to back up Andi's point, Petra called out, "Marcus?" before collapsing to the floor beside Viktor, blood seeping through her fingers. "I can't…"
"Shit," Marcus said, going to her aid. Saya went over, ripping apart her American flag to try to staunch the bleeding.
As they tended to Petra, Chico and Andi shared a look. She nodded to him in thanks, which he returned in kind. They were not friends because of this, but she was thankful to be alive and without Chico's help, she could be dead in the hallway alongside Jaden. Chico fidgeted anxiously, "Besides, if I hadn't pushed Jaden back, then your little girlfriend might not have made it. And I think we all know who you're happier to see."
Andi smiled at him sarcastically, "Never knew you cared so much, Chico. Even after I punched you in the face."
Petra yelled out in pain as Saya wrapped her wound and Andi began to do the same to her own. Slowly, but not without discomfort, the blonde took off her sweatshirt and cut off the sleeves with her knife. She wrapped one sleeve around her leg, the other around her arm before moving beside Viktor and using the rest to pad his bleeding abdomen.
"You cannot outrun your fate, petulant child," the group heard one of the men call out in Japanese. Andi looked over to Saya as they banged on the outside of the door.
Chico huffed worriedly, "We're gonna die in here."
"No one's dying," Andi and Marcus said together. They met each other's eyes before turning away quickly. Andi scoffed quietly to herself, knowing that Marcus was upset that she did not agree with him about Jaden.
"Are you blind?" Chico exclaimed before gesturing to the injured two on the floor. "They're fucking dying! The monks are slaughtered! We're trapped! No weapons, no nothing!"
"We grab some chairs, we make a barricade," Marcus tried to reason, "Okay? We'll wait them out." But Chico was beyond reason. He was getting emotional, his fight or flight instincts flaring like a rabid animal backed into a corner. Emotions made everything messy.
Marcus moved the couch in front of the doors and all Chico did was laugh humorlessly. "You think a couch is gonna slow down those Terminators?"
"Chico's right," Saya stated from her spot next to Petra. Andi was sure that Marcus was tired of hearing those words by now. "They're not gonna stop until they get what they came for."
"How do you know?" Marcus asked.
The dark-haired girl paused. "Because they're Kuroki."
"'Kuroki?'" Chico questioned before growing angry. "What kind of crazy shit you pulled us into, Saya?"
The pounding from the Kuroki assassins continued. Marcus glanced back at the wavering doors, "What do they want?"
"Me," Saya answered simply.
"Well, sayonara, princess," Chico said. "I vote we hand her ass over."
Andi stood and approached the three, resting a hand on Chico's shoulder in case she needed to pull him away from the other two. "Relax, everyone just needs to take a minute. Now is not the time to be making rash decisions."
Chico pulled away from her. "You're really willing to risk your life over her?" he directed at the blonde.
"I already have. How do you think I got these?" she answered, pointing to the bloody cloth covering her arm and leg. "We're not handing Saya over, so I guess we better come up with a Plan B."
"Whatever. If you want to die, go ahead. Leave me out of it." The assassins pounded on the door again and Saya went to approach it.
"Hey, at least let me die knowing who killed me," Marcus said.
"My cousins," Saya said. "They're here to take me home. I didn't exactly leave Tokyo on good terms."
"We'll stop them."
"I've watched the Kamigas massacre an entire Triad gang with their bare hands."
Chico scoffed, "That's just beautiful. You act like you're some big hero. Always judging everyone." He turned to Andi and Marcus, "She wants to go back to her Kung Fu family, let her."
"You think we just walk away?" Marcus seethed. "They want her alive. And the rest of us?"
"This is some bullshit! Puta madre, cabrón!" the gang leader yelled, slamming his hand against a bookcase. He tore the books from the shelves and kicked over an armor display before storming off to the other side of the room. Marcus went to speak with Saya while Andi tried her luck again with Chico.
"Hey, you know that the only way we get out of here alive is if we work together on this, huh? Now is not the time to be a raging asshole," she said to him.
Chico scoffed. "Now is also not the time to be a stupid bitch. Sacrificing Jaden was fine as long as it benefited the group, but now that it's Saya's head on the chopping block, none of you are willing to do what it takes."
Andi sighed. "This is different. There was no way that Jaden was going to make it with his hand. It was a split-second decision, but it was the right one. Throwing Saya to the wolves just because it's the easiest idea isn't going to work now. Not when we have time to come up with a better plan." She started to walk away, wanting to check on Petra and Vik's injuries.
She was only a couple of feet away when she heard Chico mutter, "Thought you were smarter than this." The blonde bit her lip to keep from snapping at him. Now was not the time.
Checking over the two, she knew that they had to come up with an alternative plan fast. Their skin was paling from blood loss and they did not have much time left. Saya joined her friend as she looked over the injured two. "Viktor's losing a lot of blood."
"We'll just have to…" Marcus started.
"What?" Saya asked as she and Andi looked to him.
Suddenly Andi realized why he was frantically looking around as she glanced toward where she had left Chico sitting. "Where the hell's Chico?" Marcus asked softly.
Andi huffed angrily, quickly moving to her feet despite the protest from her leg. She limped over to where she had left the taller boy and turned to her right, noticing the open grate in the wall. "He left. He fucking left."