Don Diego paled and quickly slammed on the breaks, pulling the car to a screeching stop in the middle of the road, much to the chagrin of those behind them. The 1941 cadillac protested the sudden stop alongside the cacophony of honking horns as Theodore scrabbled at the hatch on the sunroof and once upon, quickly dove inside, mindless of whomever lay below him.
"Ugh! Oh my God!" Ven Allison protested, knocking away wayward limbs as he slipped through the gap in the roof and his wayward limbs knocked at her on the way down. "What are you doing?"
"D-drive!" Theodore gasped out, panting from how far he'd run and from the fear that pounded at his heart whenever a siren wailed or an emergency vehicle raced past.
"Shouldn't you be in school?" Don Diego puzzled, contorting in the passenger's seat to get a view of his neef who had collapsed to the floor of the backseat in a jumble of limbs. Theodore knew that he looked quite the sight with the lichtenberg scars that climbed up his arms, the remnants of his glass eye that had melted & glued itself to his cheek and the smattering of soot & blood that decorated both uniform and flesh. He looked like he had stepped right out of a dystopian film. "Is that blood?! Wait—! What the fuck happened to your eye?!"
"DRIVE!" Theodore cried as his hand snapped up and a buzz of white noise filled the cab as he telekinetically pressed hard on the accelerator, forcing the car to move of its own accord. The car's tires squealed in protest once more, this time because the vehicle was forced into motion whilst the break was still being applied.
"Ah! Dios mio!" Don Diego cursed as his hands snapped up to latch onto the steering in the hopes that he'd at least be able to steer them away from oncoming traffic.
"Oh my God!" Ven Allison agreed, hands coming up to steady herself in the backseat as Theodore pushed the car hard and fast down the street.
Scrunched up on the floor as he was and contorted so that he could reach his hand around to put pressure on the accelerator, Theodore wasn't able to see when or where the emergency vehicles were passing them by, but he sure as hell, could hear them and that was enough to send him into a tailspin. It wasn't until the cadillac found itself drifting towards the eastern end of the state (with manoeuvrability thanks to Don Diego's handling of the steering wheel) that Don Diego was able to regain control of the car. Mostly in part thanks to the shock which had settled over the boy huddled in the backseat and wrought hysterical giggles from his lips.
"Okay" Don Fën swallowed thickly as he unglued himself from the corner he had wedged himself into as the car came to a gentle stop outside one of Queens' many botanical parks. "What the hell?!"
"Hehe~!" Theodore giggled hysterically in reply as he tucked his head into his knees and curled up around himself, shaking ever so slightly.
"Theo…?" Ven Allison gently shook his shoulder as she spared concerned look towards her two brothers in the front seat. "Are you okay? What's going on? What happened?"
"Teddy?" Don Diego hedged, "What's going on?"
"Eeeeeh…" Again, Theodore had no proper reply, but as if on cue the radio sprang to life.
"…That was number 14 on the Billboard Charts, BURY A FRIEND by Billie Eilish! Now we've got a lot of interesting things to talk about today! I'm sure everyone's heard about the uptick in LANE attacks over the last couple of days and now the latest attack has hit Saint Gregory's Royal Academy earlier today. Which is why we have this special announcement from the liaison for the LANE Keepers: Rehabilitation & Recovery team"
"Saint Gregory's Royal Academy was a scene of great horror today when moments after the memorial for Sheryl Topp & Annabelle Fawcett, two lives in the MERITECH INDUSTRIES fire and a seminar about LANE safety for the students. A LANE subsequently attacked the academy in revenge, killing throes of unwitting personnel; including the two spokeswomen who had come to deliver counsel to the grieving students"
"As seen by many witnesses, massive damage has been wrought upon the century's old building and many of the students who found themselves unfortunately caught up in the crossfire, have yet to be identified. Thankfully, the families of the deceased and those who had escaped to the emergency meeting pointing on the back half of the campus, were spared from the fire but that does not mean that they were spared from the trauma"
"LANE Keepers—having been called by the surviving Principal J. Higgins—arrived quickly on the scene but the culprit had already escaped. The Keepers suspect that there is a link between this terrorist attack and both of the shootings at GRIDDY'S DOUGHNUTS & THE GIMBLE BROTHERS' THRIFT STORE. Plus the MERITECH INDUSTRIES fire that had occurred earlier in the week"
"Authorities are asking the public to be on the lookout for this person of interest who was last seen fleeing from the crime scene just moments after the attack. Seventh grader, Theodore N. Hargreeves; grandson of the late Sir Reginald Hargreeves, a known LANE sympathiser and son to New York Bestseller Author & First Chair, Vanya Hargreeves"
"Witnesses have contacted the hotline alerting the Keepers of sightings of the suspect getting into a cadillac off of the— and driving off. The Keepers are asking the public to be on the lookout for the (yet) unidentified passengers in the car, who they believe are being held hostage by the suspect. To help & identify the people in these images, please go to LANE-Watch/Happy-Helpers-Hotspot/DANGERous-LANEs"
"It's in times like these that we must remind the public to stay clear of any suspected/known LANEs, as they are highly dangerous and unpredictable. Only the LANE Keepers are equipped to handle these kinds of creatures and we must advise the public against taking the law into their own hands. Doing so may very well end up with a situation just like what happened at Saint Gregory's, today"
"Our thoughts and prayers go out to those lost to the fire and their families"
"Theodore Nicholas Hargreeves! What. Did. You. Do?!"
Kissena Park, Queens was a pleasant place with its large boating lake, its tramping trails and the sports fields. As a young child, Theodore had been brought here many times over the years, at least before they had moved. His favourite spots had included the lake where he had scared his parents more than once by running pell-mell towards to splash in the waters or feed the ducks; and the playing on the playground which stood nearby (or so his vera had said). Unfortunately, Theodore wasn't able to enjoy his childhood park today because he found himself sequestered inside one of the public bathrooms with Don Diego at his side whilst Don Fën stood guard at the door. Ven Allison had trotted over the road towards the closest convenience store in search of some cheap clothes that he could change into.
Ven Allison had only been able to find a hoodie and a pair of socks in the convenience store—at least those that were somewhat in his size—and were able to cover up his school shirt, shorts & tie. The oversized grey hoodie that he wore instead of his blazer (which had been stuffed into a plastic bag alongside his socks) hung down to his thighs, leaving only the tiniest peek of shorts to remain visible. In turn, his school socks had been replaced with a pair of thigh high rainbow socks in an attempt to mislead any further attempts to identify him. It was for that very same reason that he would be nicking one of his don's sunglasses after they left the bathroom because a gaping eye socket was a bit of an eye catching feature. It was an odd outfit, to say the least.
Theodore could barely even remember arriving at the park because of the shock that he had drowned in since fleeing from Saint Gregory's Royal Academy and getting hit by the cadillac. But thankfully, his family knew how to deal with his not-so-conscious state (thanks to their heroic upbringings) and had pulled him from the car not too soon after they'd arrived and dragged him over to the nearest public restroom to change out of any identifiable (clothing) items and to clean himself up to the best of his abilities.
Which was why both of his dons were each wearing a pair of old sunglasses (that had been idling in the glovebox) whilst Theodore tried to melt off the rest of the glass eye off of his cheek by slowly increasing the lumen illumination bit by bit until the crystalline mess began to drip off of his face and pool in the stained sink. It was also why Don Diego's phone was tucked into his sling and playing endless loops of Teddy's Bear's Picnic to help calm the panicking boy down, because they did not need another incident like the one at Saint Gregory's happening here. Humming along to the endless tune, Theodore brushed off what hadn't come off on its own, with lumen lit fingers until he was sure that it was all gone.
"…Is that good?" Theodore asked, turning to his don (who had to blink several times for his sight to adjust once the lumen had died down again) for a second opinion.
"Lemme see…" Don Diego gently took a hold of his chin and tilted his face this way & that, using what little light there was in the dimly room to see if there was any glass still clinging to his cheek. Theodore was left with splotchy red cheeks and tear-pricked eyes, but nonetheless, fine. "Yeah, you're good"
"Okay"
"We all done here?" Don Fën cocked an expectant brow from the doorway.
Despite whatever they had been doing previously (before he had been hit by the car; thankfully having gained nothing but a few bruises), all of his dons & ven were awaiting an explanation about what had happened and why he suddenly the number one most wanted face in New York. Theodore didn't know what he was going to say—what they wanted him to say—most of it had been a bit of a panicked blur; an overwhelming cocktail of emotions that had just exploded at the wrong place and the wrong time. He hadn't meant to kill all those people, hadn't meant to expose his Garde status to the world, but there was no going back now. Much like a squirt of toothpaste wrung free from the tube; once it was out, it was never going back in the same way again.
"Uh—uh yeah" Theodore stammered as he turned to shuffle out after his dons and back over to where his ven had taken refuge at a picnic table close to the car.
"Hey…" Ven Allison greeted as they each slotted themselves into a spare space around the table.
"…Hi" Theodore greeted in a small voice as he took the offered sunglasses from his Don Fën.
"Ooh! That looks like it hurts!" Ven Allison hissed, noting the gaping socket that was his left eye.
"Eh…" Theodore shrugged, "No more than when it first happened"
"What…what did happen?" His ven hesitantly asked, not quite sure if she should even ask.
"…Doro hit me and Vera hit him" Theodore shrugged as he slipped the sunglasses on to hide the view of the gaping socket from the outside world. "Then we went to the hospital and the doctors said it was damaged, so they had to take it out"
"Oh" Ven Allison blinked dumbly, "What's—what's he like? Your Dad?"
"…Wha—what do you want with him?" Theodore froze, suddenly wary of what his ven was asking of him. Usually anything involving his doro was locked up in a tight little box in the back of his mind and shoved into the back corner of his mind, so that he didn't have to deal with.
"I—we—were just curious!" Ven Allison hurried to reassure him, "It's nothing bad! Promise!"
"…That's not what I'm worried about" Theodore replied. He knew—without a doubt—just how bad his doro really was; there was no need to sugarcoat it.
"What are you worried about?" Don Fën puzzled softly. "D'you know where is he? Where he could be?"
"…If I say 'yes" Theodore hesitantly met his don's gaze. "Are you gonna make me take you to him?"
"You know where he is, Teddy?" Don Diego perked up, his brows furrowed in concern.
"No, but I know where he might be" Theodore shook his head, "Not that it matters anyway; you're not allowed within six feet of him and he's not allowed within six feet of me on account of all those restraining orders"
"Restraining orders?" Ven Allison quirked a brow. "As in plural?"
"Can you blame me?" Don Diego retorted in kind.
"…No" Ven Allison admitted as she recalled all the offences listed in Harold's file.
"So, back on track…" Don Diego drawled, turning to the boy beside him. "Are we gonna talk about what happened today?"
"…I 'unno" Theodore shrugged, suddenly finding the bird poop-splattered table very interesting
"Teddy" Don Diego started patiently, "What did you do?"
"…It was just a thing" Theodore replied in a small voice, lumen fingers burning small doodles into the wood of the table as his shoulders began to creep up towards his ears.
"What thing?" Ven Allison pushed, happy to have something a little more current to focus on.
"It's just a little thing" Theodore excused, refusing to meet their eyes.
"What little thing?" Don Fën puzzled, narrowing his eyes at his sheepish neef as the three elder Hargreeves more or less interrogated him.
"…Let's not talk about the thing"
"Well, the thing is being broadcast across every site imaginable and your name is being plastered along with it" Don Diego scowled, "So don't make me ask again. What. Happened?"
"…I didn't do it on purpose!"
"How do you accidentally blow up a school?" Don Fën asked, genuinely curious.
"Wouldn't you know, Mr Assassin?" Ven Allison quirked a brow at him.
"I know how to do it on purpose"
"What's going on with you, Teddy? You're never this quiet" The 'with us' went unsaid.
"…I miss Vera" Theodore eventually admitted as tears gathered in his eyes.
"Oh, Teddy…!" Don Diego crooned as he brought his neef into a one-armed hug (as best as he could with his arm bound in the sling.
Pulled into the hug, Theodore easily latched onto his don, arms wrapped around his neck as he threaded his fingers into the back of his shirt. Silent tears dampened Don Diego's shirt collar as Theodore's control crumbled once again; but at least this time, there were no explosives (although he was a little warmer than usual). The scene felt too intimate for both Don Fën and Ven Allison to watch, making them both incredibly uncomfortable as something pulled at their heartstrings at the rather domestic scene. As such, the pair of the gestured that they would meet the two back at the car before quietly untangling themselves from the table and making a mad dash for the vehicle, under the pretence of giving those two some privacy.
"Where'd she go, Don?" Theodore blubbered into his shirt, "Did—did I do something wrong? Is it my fault?"
"Oh no, Teddy!" Don Diego crooned, gently rocking the boy side-to-side in an attempt to soothe him. "She's love you very much!"
"I—I know that! But why did she leave?! Why won't she come back?"
I don't know.