(Chapter 8)
Singed snickered evilly as Dr. Mundo and Warwick threw Annie carelessly onto the metal table, strapping her limbs outwards. The child's helpless cries and thrashes only made things worse for both parties. Warwick and Mundo even had to ask for aid because the men used all of their strength and the child still caused an issue. Annie's darker red hair now had seemingly the color of her mother, Katarina's blood-red locks, because of the gashes, cuts, and scrapes she had received on her head and neck bleeding on the table. The girl's hands were bloody because of some glass she slipped on at the castle, and the times she accidentally slipped her hand on a few facial cuts because of her fighting. Her face and sides were all battered and bruised, the color of blue and purple littered throughout her snow-white skin. Her eyes were red and glossy compared to her usual green color because she hadn't stopped crying since they took her from the castle she grew up in, but a few hours earlier.
Her anxiety rose as she heard screaming, crying, explosions, and what sounded like glass shattering. A few scared tears sprang into her eyes. She shut her door quickly and got to the back of the closet like her mother's have instructed countless times. The tons of clothes she possessed as she was forced to listen to the chaos just outside the door obstructed her view.
Talon was hiding on the other side of the room, using his bladed cape as a shield as cleavers and poison pellets rained down upon them.
Sensing the ragged inhuman breaths, Talon let down his cape and met face to face by Warwick himself.
"Du Couteau's. How pitiful the fight actually is." Warwick taunted as his vision went red. Talon tried to stab him to subdue Warwick, but he just angrily swiped through it and threw the assassin to the wall, growling.
Annie was humming gently, remembering her mother Katarina's stern words in one of her training sessions. She tried to keep calm as her heart rate was erratic and she tried to not make too much noise to alert the assailants, but the tactics were no match as the sizzle from the fire of her hands was a dead giveaway, even as she violently shook them to disperse the flame.
Her breathing pattern turned crazed as she covered her lips, tiptoeing further behind her clothes. She could hear the horrible creature around and the creak of the door opening. His heavy steps echoing in the room like thunders of the sky. She could smell his stench of sand and water mixed with garbage and rotten flesh instantaneously, as if the beast had taken a bath of putrid water.
Annie tried to dispel the horribly strong rotten smell as the steps approached her bedroom window. Eerie silence invaded the room as the sound of heavy claws dragging and ragged growly breath dwindled. Annie grew skeptical as the room faded back into dormancy. Did the monster give up? Or was he waiting for her to leave her hidden place? She couldn't quite tell at that moment. She reminded herself of what her Uncle Talon taught her: "Never leave until you are sure the enemy's gone." Annie decided she should wait.
Her mother Ashe had told her countless times that 'The enemy may be smarter than you may think'. She looked at her hands, remembering the hard training she had to control her powers. Her hands shook nervously as the steps got closer to the side table. She hugged herself, screaming internally for help, but no one came to help her.
"Gotcha, little shit." The beast raised his head as he moved it. Its nose twisted by the air around. Opening the door, Warwick growled out as he got her leg between his teeth and pulled her out. Annie tried her hardest to not move an inch, but it was of no use and she screamed in agony as the beast dragged her mercilessly across her bedroom floor. She started hysterically crying and her eyes glowed. Her fire powers had kicked in for the moment. She pushed her attacker away with a fireball, causing Warwick to stumble a bit. Abruptly leaving his sharp teeth, the situation left her with a huge gash in the middle of them as she rolled out of the way and ran to her parent's bedroom, limping.
"Mommy!" The child cried out as she trekked down the hall, the werewolf hot on her tail. When she was almost there and grasping for the door handle, she got tackled and cried out in pain. Warwick picked up the girl and slung her bloody and bruised form over his shoulder as he sprinted out quickly.
"Fresh meat to be flayed. Such resilience from the prey, only to be captured by the predator." Warwick seethed as Annie once again slipped out of his grip and tried to run back to her house. A mysterious robot yanked her in his clutches from the path she trekked.
"Get in." The voice said cockily, smirking at the two. Annie couldn't put a finger on who it was though, as her vision got fuzzier and fuzzier. She passed out as soon as they threw her in the back.
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A shifty breeze and footsteps woke Annie back up. As she audited the room, all she saw was pure white walls and heard footsteps and talking over on her left side.
"It's all going according to plan," Singed murmured to himself as he glared out the window in his office and shut the blinds, walking into the primary room.
"Subject 'Pyroroyal' awoke at six past two. Earlier than expected. Experiment tinkering begins at... eight past two."
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The drive to the restaurant was eerily quiet, except for a few short words being exchanged. Ashe had the steering wheel in a vice-like grip almost the whole way as Katarina rubbed her back. Parking the car, Katarina gave Ashe a light kiss as they vacated the vehicle.
"Follow my lead, guys," Katarina said nervously as they approached the front door of the restaurant. She gave three knocks, and the door opened, showing a man with his eyebrow raised, looking out.
"We're here to see 'The Boss'," Ashe said hoarsely, fixing her jacket as the wind blew her hair back lightly.
The man nodded and closed the door once more. The group heard muffled sounds from the establishment doors as the man inside conversed with whoever else was currently there, and then it opened once more, the same man ushering them in.
A rather handsome man with red hair, gauntlets, and a leather jacket was sitting on a sofa and overlooking the door. Beside him were two people, a raven-haired man with long hair and a blue overcoat knee-deep in a novel, with a shorter man with a top hat, a shotgun strapped to his back, a red overcoat, and a lizard to his right eating a taco, sometimes putting some hot sauce and feeding another said taco to the lizard.
"Come on in, make yourselves at home." An energetic voice greeted as the group made their way in. When Tryndamere got in last, he closed the door behind himself and walked in, everyone taking in the scenery before them. Ashe and Katarina darted over to the food and drink part of the restaurant and got a burger for Katarina and a Coke for Ashe.
"Wow Sett, you and the boys cleaned the place up!" Ashe said absentmindedly as she sipped her drink. The man cracked a grin as he sat on a loveseat beside them and nodded, running his hands through his scarlet red hair.
"Wasn't me, it was my man Aphelios who suggested it. Old Man G just said yes to him to get him to stop signing frantically. Kled and Skarrl helped get the renovation done too, even if I had to bribe the asshole with tacos and me to clean his shotgun," Sett said with a small laugh as the raven-haired man rolled his eyes with a very slightly curved lip. His eyebrow raised along with the curve on his lips as he finally inspected the two.
"Looks to me as a lot has changed, and a few congratulations are in order," Sett said finally, scanning Ashe's diamond ringed hand loosely perched on her stomach as the couple sat next to each other.
"Years does that, kid. Thank you, though," Ashe teased as she grinned back at him and nodded, wiping her eyes. Darius, Talon, Sarah, and Tryndamere stood around the coffee table as Orianna and Morgana took chairs at the side and nodded along as Sett exchanged pleasantries with all of them.
"We need you and your men's help," Katarina spoke finally, gaze piercing through Sett with gritted teeth as a tear broke out and made its way down her face. The man nodded casually as he sipped his drink.
"Anything, I got y'all. You know this." Sett said sincerely as Kled, Skarrl, and Aphelios came by and stood around him.
The room went mute. No one dared to utter a sentence as their throats dried up at the unsettling atmosphere of the room. Katarina and Ashe looked to each other with glossy eyes, mentally debating who spoke first. They both had focused gazes and more tears pooling in their eyes and green met blue. Katarina slightly nodded at Ashe and she nodded back, then turned to Sett, as the tears finally came crashing down once more.
"Annie's gone and we don't know who took her," Ashe said brokenly as Sett and his crew all had worried looks and looked amongst themselves, whispering a few things and having wordless conversations through gazes. When the smaller man's companion zoomed around, he grumbled under his breath and ran after the lizard.
"Skaarl, get back here ya damn heathen! The tacos are over here!" Kled shouted from where he stood behind the counter and chased after the lizard.
The tension in the room softened as the two scurried out of the room. Throughout the room, they all broke into light laughter. A homey feeling taking the place of dead silence. Sett coughed lightly to get everything back on track as Aphelios took out a notebook and a pen, sitting on the edge of the seat, then looked back at Sett.
"When was the last time y'all saw her?" Sett asked as Aphelios looked softly at the two. Tears cascaded down Ashe's and Katarina's faces as Sett handed them a box of tissues. Once she took a breath to compose herself, Ashe spoke.
"This afternoon about 1:45." Ashe explained hoarsely, then cleared her throat as another round of tears made an appearance.
"Our… Our home got destroyed, and she went missing." Ashe recounted, her voice breaking as she grabbed Katarina's hand as her wife continued.
"As for the clues, we saw footprints, big, small, and animal-like, right across the way from our back door." Morgana chimed in as Katarina nodded lightly at her.
"I thought I locked it this morning, but it was… wide open," She exclaimed sadly as Ashe nodded in her direction, wiping away her tears with her thumb.
"That, along with bombs, poison, caskets, pellets, and cleavers," Katarina's eyes never leaving a spot on the floor as she tapped her nails on the cushion nervously. The unnerving silence was cast aside by the redhead standing tall.
"Okay. Right off the bat, I know one or two of them." Sett gritted out, his face morphing into an angry scowl as his fists clenched, then looked at his right hand man.
"Doctor Mundo and maybe Twitch. Mundo has the enormous feet and Twitch has poison caskets and the pellets." Aphelios signed the statement to Sett, a deep frown on his features. Sett rubbed his chin in discontent as a chill ran up his spine at the words as he relayed them. Evelynn and Sett's eyes met before the singer started.
"Rouge had told me last time we spoke that she heard from Fate that Mundo went freelance straight out of jail. Twitch and Mundo are old friends." Evelynn spoke up, still looking at her phone.
"Something is definitely fishy with those two together." Kled agreed, coming back to the front on Sett's other side.
A burst of air was heard from the door and one silhouette wrapped their arms around Katarina and kissed her forehead. A smile formed on the redhead's face as two other silhouettes blended into the sea of people. Katarina melted happily inside the grasp. Sarah joyfully yelped and ran to hug the mystery person, making Katarina smile as the other two situated themselves beside Evelynn, looking on as the diva typed feverishly on her phone.
"We need a plan before Katarina makes it look like a bloody accident." Samira deadpanned to Sett, as Katarina rolled her eyes.
"I could ask some people to do a full search of the surrounding area." Lucian spoke up. The woman holding his hand, Senna, nodding along.
"Good idea, Luc. Also, If it were me, you'd do the same, Ma." Katarina retorted with a sarcastic laugh.
"I didn't know Samira was your mother, Kata." Sett scoffed, looking amusingly at the two as Katarina pouted and Morgana and Sarah giggled simultaneously.
"Not my mother dimwit, but she still thinks I'm like nine!" The redhead growled as Samira laughed, flicking the back of her head.
"Cause you still act like you're nine. Only thing is, she isn't biologically my daughter, and neither is Sarah, but yeah, they're my headaches to deal with." Samira jested as they both glared at the woman in between them.
"Speaking of daughters, do you have a plan to get mine back beside Sarah's 'walk in through the front door' strategy?" Katarina asked Samira, looking over her shoulder at the older woman.
"Well, first off, who the hell told her that was a good idea?" Samira deadpanned, side-eyeing Sarah as she grumbled. The rest of them snickered and hid their amused smiles as they looked to Sarah. Tryndamere cleared his throat to answer.
"I'm thinking it was Kata."
Samira huffed and facepalmed, collecting herself quietly for a moment. "Son of a bitch. This is going to be a long night… Second off, I'm gonna need a map and a phone,"
Ashe handed her phone easily as the screen dinged. They all gasped, wide eyed at Ashe's phone notification. An unknown number.
'1354 Dawnbright Ave, Zaun. Good Luck, You'll need it'
Furrowed eyebrows and hopeful, yet weary looks were shared.
"How do we know if we can trust it?" Tryndamere hummed as Samira shrugged at him.
"Worth a shot. Sett's computer said it was Zaun too. We don't know who's there, but we have a couple ideas." Samira explained as she walked over to Sett and Ashe.