Thought you learned the first time around
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Chapter Five
Tobias and Jono
Screwed
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Tobias
I could have been wrong, but I was pretty sure this guy wasn't overly happy with the whole being rescued thing. Or maybe it was the fact I'd yelled in his head to keep him from hacking his teacher into little pieces.
One can never be really sure about those things.
He did let me and Ax in through the windows, pretty nice considering I'd just given him a massive headache. He walked over to the table and leaned against it as he glared alternately at Ax, his professor, and me. His eyes were black, almost like tar, and dark shadows loomed underneath. They seemed far too dark and wide to belong to someone so pale and thin. His hair was the same color, falling into his face and sticking out in odd directions, giving him a frantic disheveled look.
The knife didn't help matters any…
"I should just kill him. I mean, how is a bird going to stop me anyway?" He seemed to be talking more to himself than to us, but I answered anyway.
'By turning into a large and potentially dangerous animal.'
He rolled his eyes. "You expect me to believe…never mind. I just remembered I'm talking to a bird."
He smiled ruefully then sighed and eyed the knife contemplatively. He turned it and the light from the window glinted off of it. The door had already been slightly open already, why I couldn't really say, and was pushed open more as Jake and the others filed in.
Cassie was last and shut the door after her, before she glanced around. Like that other four her gaze settled on the knife totting teen. He regarded them all with a mixture of interest and cautiousness. Then he crossed his arms over his chest, almost defensively. I could almost feel the tension in the air and the distrust emanating from him. Not that he had a reason to trust us or anything.
'Maybe you should put the knife down.'
He snorted, eyes darting over to me almost nervously. "Not fucking likely. How am I supposed to protect myself from 'large and potentially dangerous animals'?"
If I could have winced at the way he threw my words back at me I would have. Thankfully hawks don't flinch, or give anything away, and I just stared at him. He stared back for a moment then sighed again, eyes moving back to the others.
"You leave me alone, I'll leave you alone."
I can't speak for everyone else but I for one was glad to know he had no plans to take a knife to any of us. I'm sure you can see how this was a comforting thought. I may have been the only one though, because the others just exchanged nervous looks. I think, in hindsight, they didn't get the same thing out of his statement that I did.
"Why is he tied to a chair?" Marco asked after a moment of tense silence.
"I didn't want to get his hopes up by tying him to the bed." Came the emotionless reply. The boy's lips quirked slightly, but I had the strange feeling he was perfectly serious. "And I figured just tying him up would fulfill my daily kink requirement."
'What is a daily-'
'Later Ax.' I said quickly. I don't mind explaining things to Ax, he's pretty much the only family I have after all, not to mention my best friend, but there were times when I would just have him watch the Playboy channel.
Which, oddly enough, we do get.
Not that I've ever watched it or anything.
Marco blinked slowly. "O-kay. I'm not going to ask anymore questions."
The boy nodded solemnly. "That's probably for the best. So…are you people? Or assorted animals? Or perhaps people that turn into assorted animals? Or maybe I'm stuck in some B sci-fi flick."
"C. Kind of." Jake looked a little nervous. Like he was still debating what we were going to do with this guy. I could tell he didn't want to add anyone else to our ranks. I certainly didn't blame him. But now that he had seen faces it was going to be hard to so anything else.
"I'm going to stay here in hopes you will elaborate that that oh so enlightening explanation."
I couldn't help but wonder if he was always that sarcastic or if it was just some kind of defense like Marco's sometimes painful attempts at humor.
Jake took a deep breath then launched into the whole story. I hadn't realized just how…thoroughly fucked up it really was. It's a little different hearing everything then it is actually living it. Ax was nice enough to contribute for technical things, not that I thought the kid understood any of what Ax had to say, and sometime later Jake was sitting on the couch looking incredibly weary.
Ax had taken on his own body, a demonstration had been needed to wipe that skeptical look of the kids face and that had pretty much done it, and the rest of us were silent.
He blinked a few times then tilted his head off to the side. "Well, not to point out flaws in your brilliant plan to save me, but has the thought occurred to you that maybe I have an intergalactic slug thing in my head? Or that Hayes has this place wired? Or a million other horrible and nasty things?"
'He has a point'
"Thank you Tobias, but I've noticed." Jake snapped.
"Hey, don't get pissy with the bird. I was just saying. Besides if you really want you can tie me up for three days. It could be enlightening." He smiled suggestively. Jake, Big Jake who has stared down aliens who could easily shred him into tiny pieces, blushed beet red. The kid laughed then pursed his lips. "So. Now that you've regaled me with your little story, what do you intend to do about my fugitive status?"
"Fugitive status?"
"You haven't seen the news. I am currently suspect number one in my family's murders. It's actually pretty funny. They've got all of my little sister's friends talking about the evil music I listen to and the many threats I've made on their lives. Somehow I never thought casual things like 'I hope you brats choke' would come back and haunt me like this." He didn't look the least bit amused as he spoke. "So. What're you gonna do about it?"
Jake groaned. It had, for us, just gotten harder. The Yeerks were not only looking for him, but the police as well. If the Yeerks got him we were screwed. If the cops got him he would eventually end up in the hands of the Yeerks and once again we were screwed. This was just going so well.
"I guess we'll take you back with us."
"…I have no intention of helping you fight this war thing." He looked a little…ashamed of what he was saying, but also convicted. "I get I'm a liability of sorts so if you just let me kill Hayes you are free to send me to fucking Timbuktu for all I care."
Cassie looked shocked. "We can't let you kill anybody."
"Why not? You people aren't exactly fighting a moral war here. Think of it as one less Controller for you to worry about."
"We don't just…kill people." Jake said looking a little nervous. "We don't like to kill anything unless we absolutely have to."
He sighed and rubbed his hands over his eyes. "That's nice. But he, as a human with nothing controlling him, gave me away to a bunch of slugs and got my family killed, so that the Yeerks could bless him with a brain slug. I'm not exactly seeing a reason not to stab him repeatedly."
'Don't take it personally. We just…don't. The Yeerks kill, we don't.'
"I'm not one of you." He pouted some then tilted his head off to the side. He shifted almost nervously, hand with the knife going up. He scratched his head with the tip, as if completely unaware of what he was doing. "We're just wasting time here."
"You're right. Ax could you…" Jake made a gesture towards the boy. I was confused for a moment then I saw Ax's tail shot out. The kid crumpled, unconscious and thankfully not missing any major limbs. The knife clattered to the ground, thankfully not piercing any of our new 'friend's' more important organs or limbs.
I had the strange feeling he was going to be very upset when he woke up.
Jake made a small noise then frowned. "So…any ideas on how to carry him out of here?"
'I think a more worthy subject would be what to do with this man.' Ax's tail flicked in the teacher's general direction and everyone turned to look.
"Uhh…we leave him I guess. He's a willing controller so we can't save him and…well, we don't have time for this. We need to be gone before they wake up."
Rachel made a face. "So we're really taking this psycho with us?"
"Yes." Jake rubbed at the bridge of his nose. I could tell he was starting to get a headache, it showed in how tired his eyes were suddenly becoming and the faint strain of annoyance in his voice.
"Look at it this way Xena, you'll have a new buddy in the Crazy Club." Marco said cheerfully. Rachel sneered at him.
"Better that than the Whiner Club."
"I sense a real lack of focus here." Jake muttered, looking over at Cassie as if begging for her to intervene.
Jono
Can I just explain how sick and tired I was of ending up out cold? First I faint then I'm drugged and then I'm cracked in the back of the skull by some centaur looking alien thing. It's enough to start driving a guy slightly insane…or, more insane then he was before…or…actually that be after the first totally life altering event, but before the other totally life altering event, so would it be before the first after?
Ugh. Headache. Moving on.
I was really annoyed when I woke up sometime later, no to mention that I was psychically wiped, mentally too. I don't know why, I'd spent most of the past two days far from awake. Maybe being unconscious and being asleep aren't the same thing case. So I passed out again.
I kind of drifted in and out for a while. I think that longest I was awake was about ten minutes, because I remember foggy figures close by whispering. Or maybe it was some kind of weird dream, thought most of the time when I have dreams I can remember they involve rope, whips, and…well never mind. That's hardly important.
I woke up, really woke up eventually, and had the presence of mine to want to roll over and go back to sleep.
And probably would have not for the rope around my arms and chest.
I was tied to a chair. Normally I would have had a crack or two or twenty for my captors but I really wasn't in the mood for it. So instead I was just really annoyed.
"Hello?"
'Hey.' The bird, again. I was beginning to see him more then I saw my own family. That thought, of my family, made me hurt…almost like actual pain, except logically I knew it wasn't. But it hurt none the less. I think it will always hurt.
"Is there perhaps a reason I'm tied to a chair? Against my will. Without Seth Green or Rob Thomas standing over me? Preferably both now that I think about it."
'Just making sure you aren't housing any brain slugs.'
"Oh. Fair enough. I guess that means no Seth Green than?"
'Sorry.'
"It's cool." I blinked a few times and looked around. "So…where are we?"
'Shack in the woods. Around where the others live, as in far away from your teacher.'
I winced. Damnit. I wasn't happy about this at all. And I wasn't ashamed to show it. The next five or so minutes consisted of me insulting the six pathetic excuses for saviors, their families and friends, their intentions, and assorted woodland creatures.
I sighed and set back, breathing heavily. I was pretty tired and I wanted to get some sleep, and by that I meant actual sleep. Meaning I didn't pass out and wake up exhausted.
'What do you have against squirrels anyway? I mean sure, they're like little speed freaks, but they haven't done anything so bad as to curse the entire species.'
"I don't know; they just look like they're plotting something. Always hanging around…gathering nuts. They are most definitely planning something."
The bird laughed, an interesting sound in my head. I kind of liked it. …Which just seems wrong because hello, bird. But, as very few things about me are 'right' these days, so it hardly matters.
"Here's a weird question, since I've been a bitch and all, but can you untie me? Ropes chafe." I could feel hesitation and I rolled my eyes. "Come on you can turn into deadly animals, what the hell am I going to do? Call animal control? The horror."
'If I untie you will lay off with the sarcasm?'
I blinked then tilted my head back to look at the ceiling. It was pretty bad looking, almost rotted through and on the verge of falling down. The shack wasn't too big, littered with cans and candy wrappers. The bird was perched on the sill of some windows that looked like they hadn't been cleaned in many a year. I mean so dirty light didn't even shine through. It could have been midnight or noon for all I knew.
"Yeah fine, I'll be nice."
'Thanks for making that sacrifice for me.' He fluttered to the floor. For a moment there was nothing and then his body began to stretch and change and can I just say eww? This morphing stuff just isn't attractive. I think you could be Pamela Anderson and look like crap while changing like this.
But once he was more human then bird and the urge to puke wore off I had to admit my jailer was…kind of cute. Dirty blond hair, big brown eyes, not too tall…he was setting off my outcast alarm.
Yeah, outcast alarm. It's the latest in the 'Everyone hates me but it's cool cause I have cool imaginary gadgets' line.
He wasn't the big bad everyone's afraid to even look at him funny type. I am that type. Which is odd cause I'm like six two a hundred and sixty pounds soaking wet and nothing to be afraid of. Unless of course you think I'm the type to blow something up, which I'm not. No…really. I'm not.
Just that once…
He was more the quiet shy type who hung around in the front of the classroom and liked reading the books assigned to us in class and wrote angsty poetry and had a beautiful soul, but never got noticed by girls (or boys) because everyone wanted the bad boy. I could definitely see this guy having his head shoved in a few toilets. Correction, I could see myself smirking in a corner while this kid got dragged off to have his head shoved in a toilet. I know, I'm horrible.
Pft.
Anyway the bird, though I suppose that was no longer accurate, untied my hands and I got to inspect my delightful little rope burns. Not so bad, since I'd been unconscious, not like when I was tied up at Hayes', where I nearly rubbed my wrist to the point of bleeding. …Not on purpose.
Getting out of those ropes had been more annoying then hard to be honest. Lets just say that between me and Hayes, one of our mothers didn't teach us how to get out the knots our little sister and her demented friends tied us up with. When we played Cowboys and Indians I was somehow always tied to the tree in the backyard.
I'd like to think all of the strangeness started then…
Of course after getting loose it had just been a matter of cracking Hayes upside the head with a handy lamp, which had made the most satisfying crack I'd ever heard, and tying his stupid ass up. Even if he hadn't thought I would have learned how to tie, and untie, knots for a practical reason, you'd at least think the man knew me well enough to know I had a kink or two.
I probably could have gotten out of these ropes given some time but this was so much easier.
"You alright?"
"Yeah." I pushed myself up then sat back down quickly and bit my lower lip. He looked concerned and took a step towards me. I held up a hand to stop him, trying to command my stomach to stop the little dance it was doing. It didn't really work and I ended up doubled over, gagging. One can only assume that if I had eaten recently I would have thrown up.
"I'm going to assume you aren't alright now."
"Well, yeah. I've got the hangover from Hell or something." I muttered once I could speak again. My head was pounding, but the queasiness had subsided and I could think moderately clearly.
Stupid Hayes and his drugs. If I ever got a chance I was going to…rip out his spine through his chest or something equally if not more gruesome. I don't know, maybe play jacks with his still beating heart. I saw that on a cartoon once.
Probably the Simpson's.
But that's not really important. Blondie seemed to consider it then got even closer, so he was standing right in front of me. And he looked all worried and concerned, I kind of felt bad for what I was about to do.
I lunged forward and tackled him. This would have been a lot easier if he wasn't a wiggler. I mean, cute guy with the wiggling and the cursing. Eventually I was sitting on his chest and threatening to strangle him if he didn't stop it.
He stopped. I guess he thought I would do it. Then again, after trying to convince him and his friends to let me murder Hayes I wasn't too surprised he thought I would.
"You make my head hurt." I muttered before frowning. "That was wholly uncalled for."
"You attacked me!"
"You tied me up!" I stuck out my tongue at him and he glared at me.
"Well you could have had a Yeerk in your head."
"Well I don't so get off of that."
He grumbled something that probably wasn't very nice but continued to lie there. I half expected him to change into something else, but I do recall that he'd have to pass through his own body, which I'm pretty sure was that of the bird, and I'd like…crush him. I could see why he wouldn't want that.
"I should probably bang your head onto the floor until you pass out then leave, but that would be kind of mean and you seem to be a really nice guy."
"Then why are you sitting on me?"
I quirked an eyebrow. "You get your kicks your way and I'll get mine my way." He just blinked then rolled his eyes.
"I have a girlfriend. Sort of."
I shrugged some then resumed my train of thought. "And I know getting knocked out is no fun, so…do you want to go with me?"
"Go where?" He looked very suspicious like I was about to suggest we go turn ourselves over to the Yeerks for immediate infestation.
"Well, first of all I'm really rank so…maybe we could fix that. Secondly, I'm hungry so I was thinking Wendy's or Burger King or something." The little brat had the audacity to make a face at me. Like I wasn't offering free lunch. Honestly. "Well what do you suggest?"
"Make it Subway and I'll go with you."
"Fine. Picky bastard." I stood up and brushed my jeans off.
I had a revelation, as I followed the shadow of the bird through the forest towards civilization. My life was deeply and irreversibly fucked up. I'd always taken a certain amount of pride and being a little to the left of normalcy in my life; I had liked to think it made me open to things that other people refused to cope with but I was never so far away that I could associate with others or make friends if I choose or any of that stuff.
This was different. There was really no coming back from this. My family was dead, I was wanted for questioning if not murder and the only people I had on something resembling my side were a bunch of…well, freaks.
I was not going to be able to fix this.
So I stopped caring. Right then, in that moment, I just…stopped caring. What else could I do, really? If you think about things too much I think you start to lose it. People who go truly insane are probably the types who overanalyze everything.
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Mechante: Always glad to explain things m'dear. It's not that you can't trust Jono, because he's…honest. Always. He doesn't have the…oh, let's say mental capacity to be dishonest in his motives. His motives might be fucked up, but he will never just outright betray you. And yeah, Marco and Ax have this deeply amusing cannon relationship and that was indeed part of why I wanted to take this story. I could see it working, so I ran with it.
Plz: Hayes…well, Jono knocked him out. He just isn't the sort you can tie up and leave sitting around…yet people will continue to do it, as if it's effective. I try to keep original characters mildly realistic in the environment I put them in and try to keep them from being 'too' anything, so thanks for the good word.
Thanks to Moon and Michael.