WARRIORS HIGH
ISLAND OF THE LOST
CHAPTER FIVE
TRANS-CONTINENTAL TARGETS (PART III)
Dusty was half asleep when the group pulled into Minneapolis.
When they pulled off the interstate and into the airport campus, they pulled the motorcycles into the impound lot, left them in some empty parking spaces and half-walked half-stumbled to the terminal. They were dirty, their eyes were bloodshot and they were about to collapse from exhaustion.
Except for Jaywhisker.
"You guys go find a bench," he said, leading them to one of the blocks of waiting chairs, "I'll go buy our tickets."
As the rest of his group skulked away, Jaywhisker walked to the terminal and registered for seven tickets. They would be in clusters of one or two near the front, which would probably be fine. Security could pick up ARS here. They almost certainly didn't have any influence in America yet.
He printed out the tickets, snuck them in his back jean pocket and snatched Mallowleaf's bag from the group, who was already asleep. He would need to figure out how to get the guns past security. They certainly didn't have a license for them in America, so they would be doomed if they got caught.
He would need to disassemble them, configure the parts to make them look like non-lethal items to get there.
"NYOOOOOOOOOM!"
Jaywhisker almost leaped through the ceiling as a young boy, looking to be about six or seven, soared past, gripping a light blue model airplane with an iron fist. He was scolding himself for allowing himself to be that scared when he heard a collision behind him.
"Oh! Sorry! I'm so sorry! Please don't get mad!"
"Woah there! It's okay, little guy! I'm not upset."
Jaywhisker glanced around to see the boy had bumped into a security guard. Okay, he sighed, At least he'll get him back to his parents.
"Woah!" said the boy behind him, "Are you a police officer?"
"Heck yeah I am!" said the guard, having a mighty fine time with the boy, "In fact, I'm on a secret mission right now! Would you like to help?"
"Really? Yeah!"
"Okay. I'm hunting a super bad guy right now, but I need your help! So can you lead me to your parents so I can talk to them?"
Despite trying to ignore them, Jaywhisker almost laughed out loud. This guy clearly had experience with adventurous children.
"Oh, they're not here."
Jaywhisker froze.
"What…what do you mean by that?" stammered the police officer, obviously in the same amount of shock as Jaywhisker was.
"They drove me here this morning and told me to stay here. I haven't seen them since, but they told me to give someone this."
Jaywhisker turned around to see the boy holding a plane ticket.
His parents were shipping him away.
And he had no idea.
Jaywhisker dropped his bag and stormed over to the boy.
"Can I see that?" he asked, "He may be on my flight."
He intended for that to be a lie, but was surprised to see that the tickets were almost identical. The flight number was the same, they were in the same row, the only difference was the one letter in the seats.
They were seated right next to each other.
Jaywhisker did the math. The odds of that happening on a plane that size was about 1 in 200,000, only a third of the odds of getting struck by lightning.
He rummaged in his pocket and pulled out the ticket one seat off of the boy's and showed it to the officer. "We sit next to each other."
The officer was immediately shaking his head. "I'm sorry, sir, but if you're suggesting that you should take care of him, I'm not going to allow that. We're going to take him into custody and find those bastards of parents who left him here."
"Sir, what if that's not the case?" said Jaywhisker, crouching down, what if they were in danger and they told him to get on a plane to Forrestlake? Maybe he has family there."
"I'm sorry," said the officer, rubbing his eyes, "But do you possibly believe that some parents would trust a six year old boy to check into an airport and find his way onto a plane by himself? That's ridiculous!"
"Well, maybe they wanted him to show someone like you his ticket and lead him there."
"Why would I do that?"
"I wasn't expecting you to. So," said Jaywhisker, standing up straight now, "Why not let me do it?"
"And why should I let you? Why should he have any reason to trust you?"
It was a very good point. Something he surely should have considered before headbutting into this argument. The only reason he didn't want to leave this boy is that he trusted no part of American authority. Not after they ran and hid from the island when they most needed them.
In stress, he started to look around, gesturing for a reason as if it would come out of thin air, and he instead saw a man in all black going through his bag.
No.
Forget the boy.
"HEY!" shouted Jaywhisker, bolting after the man, who once he saw he was being charged, grabbed the bag and tore off.
They sprinted through the concourse, but the man was not able to get balanced enough to sprint at full speed, so as they got to security, the boy leaped and slammed him to the ground. The bag went flying, only topping when it hit one of the windows and Jaywhisker stood over the man, one foot on his upper back and his hands gripping the thief's right arm, threatening to snap it in half.
The man roared in pain, causing the guards to rush out and attempt to break up the fight. Jaywhisker lost focus for a moment, causing the man to rip free from his grip and grab an item from the bag in desperation.
Which just so happened to be one of the seven guns he was attempting to hide.
Jaywhisker leaped away, his hands flying into the air in instinct, and the guards drew their tasers, screaming orders for him to drop the gun. The man worked himself to his knees, the barrel aimed straight at Jaywhisker.
"Don't you fucking move," he growled, "or I'll blow your brains out."
He was stuck now.
All he could do was pray that one of the group woke up and got him out of this mess.
Unless…
He glanced at the side of the gun.
And he smiled condescendingly at the poor man, who now quite obviously had never held a gun properly before.
He whipped his hands forward grasping the man's wrist and just held him. The man squeezed the trigger as hard as he could. His face drained of color when he couldn't move it at all.
Jaywhisker smiled.
"The safety's on."
With that, he grasped the man's neck, yanked it to his shoulder, and slammed his kneecap up into the man's stomach. His breath streamed out of his body, blood driblets slipped onto the floor behind him and he doubled over, collapsing in pain as the guards surrounded him.
Jaywhisker dropped the man, grabbed the bag and walked away like a badass to the boy, whose eyes were gleaming in drop-dead admiration.
He grabbed the boy's hand and walked him to the other side of the concourse while the officer he was talking with before was busy with the man whose ass he just whooped.
"Alright, kid," he said, taking a seat in a chair near the beginning of the departure driveway, "What's your name?"
"Well," said the boy, "My real name is Russetleap, but everyone just calls me Russ."
"Russ." He nodded. "I like that name. Well, you can call me Jay, alright?"
"Okay!"
"Now, do you live in Forrestlake? Do you know if you have family there?"
"Well," he thought a moment, "I used to live there, I think, but then my mom married this stinky guy that she wanted me to call dad. He didn't like me, and then my mom stopped liking me. That's why I'm here. They just don't want me around anymore, I guess."
He said all of that with a straight face.
Jaywhisker thought he was about to cry.
"Wow," he said, wiping his brow in disbelief, "Well, I know we just met, but my...family would love to take care of you. They'll make sure you're very safe. How's that sound?"
"Really?" said Russ, his eyes lighting up immediately, "Yes! Yay! I get a family again!"
Jaywhisker was beaming."I'm glad you like the idea. Now, let's go rouse those sleepyheads."
"But," said Russ, now worried as they walked towards the slumbering family, "What if they don't want me around? Are you sure they'll like me, Jay?"
"Of course they will, Russ. Of course they will."
"No."
By instinct, Jaywhisker moved to stand in front of Russ defensively. 'What do you mean, 'no?'"
"I said we're not taking him with us," said Coalstrike, with arms crossed and a glower on his face.
Jaywhisker couldn't believe this.
Coalstrike wanted to just leave the kid here?
"Russ," he said, turning him away from the man and pointing to a playground three gates away, "Why don't you go play over there?"
When the boy had scampered out of hearing range, Jaywhisker went after Coalstrike guns blazing. "We can't just leave him here! His parents are abusive! The authorities were about to put him in a holding cell!"
"Damnit, Jay, this was never supposed to involve anyone else!"
"I know, but he's weak! I'm not sure he's even eight yet and he's been abused and abandoned."
"And what about us, Jay?" growled Coalstrike, getting in his face, "Think about everything that has happened to us and what we had to do to get to this flight. All of us almost died twice to get here! We drag ourselves in here by the seats of our pants and now you want to bring a kid into all this?! A kid who's, as you;ve said, been through enough suffering for a lifetime already?"
"That's exactly why we need to bring him along!" retorted Jaywhisker, "We can't just leave him like this-"
"NO." snapped Coalstrike, "Final. Answer. No."
Coalstrike turned and started to walk away, needing desperately to clear his head.
"Well, fuck you."
He froze.
"You're not my leader," shot Jaywhisker, "Why should I give a damn about what you say?"
Coalstrike was pissed. He rounded on him, ready to beat the kid to oblivion when he saw tht he was already gone.
He was on the moving walkway to his left, heading to the playground. When he was there, he presumably told Russ the news, and he jumped for joy, leaping into the teenager's outstretched arms.
His dreams, his nightmares played in his head over and over as he watched Jaywhisker comfort and hold the kid like his was his own brother.
His frustration mounted to the point of exhaustion, Coalstrike went to find a sports bar.
The flight wouldn't leave for another hour.
Besides, he desperately needed a drink.
"No! I'm not sticking around a room of rich men with stupid cigar smoke! No thanks!"
"No! I'm not sticking around a room of rich men with stupid cigar smoke! No thanks!"
"You sound too Southern," said the man sitting across from Fir, "You need to open up your 'o's. You make it sound like you're in a bad Western."
"Ouch. Ooh. That hurt my pride."
From behind their masks, they both smiled. "Try it again," said the man.
"No! I'm not sticking around a room of rich men with stupid cigar smoke! No thanks!"
"No! I'm not sticking around a room of rich men with stupid cigar smoke! No thanks!"
"Jesus," said the man, putting his head in his left hand, "They're not gonna be convinced if you just wake up and say you have a lisp now."
"I know, I know," said Fir, "One more time."
"No! I'm not sticking around a room of rich men with stupid cigar smoke! No thanks!"
"No! I'm not sticking around a room of rich men with stupid cigar smoke! No thanks!"
"There we go!" said the man, relaxing, "Was that so hard?"
"Little bit," said FIr, now taking the time to slouch back in her chair and tossing her mask on the floor up into the air, "So what's my reward?"
"Oh, really? When was a reward ever a factor in this?"
"Since you convinced Sky to let you be my linguistic coach on the plane ride there," she said, smiling, "Come on now, surprise me. I know you got it in you."
"Well, I'm afraid I'm a little ill-prepared this time, but we could always do one of the classics."
"Ooh," said Fir, smirking wickedly, "I'm intrigued."
With a single motion, the man unmasked himself, revealing shaggy, very handsome black hair and kissed Fir. She would, of course, push back, maintaining the deepness and passion they loved so much.
The man pulled away. "That one's one of my favorites."
Fir smiled back, "As well as one of mine."
The two fell back in their chairs, staring into each other's eyes for a moment before the man looked away.
"I'm worried about you."
"Why's that? Don't trust me?"
"Absolutely not! It's just…" the man looked out the window of the private jet they were on, "Sky's never done Replacement Procedure before in practice. I guess I just wasn't ready for you to be the guinea pig."
"Aww, you're sweet," she said, helping the man up to his feet and hugging him tenderly, "You're cute when you're worried."
"Hmm. And when I'm not?"
"Well then you're just plain old sexy."
"Heh," said the man, running his hand through her long brown hair, "You promise you're not gonna run off with some new guy while I'm away?"
"Don't worry," said Fir, pressing her head against his chest and listening to his heartbeat. "To me, you'll always be my Crow."
I've noticed a theme here.
Whenever I drop a chapter I think is shit, I usually follow it up with a chapter I'm kind of confident in. This is the second time in recent memory I think this has happened.
But this is the end of the "Transcontinental Targets" mini-trilogy. Next chapter will be the gang landing in Forrestlake for the first time.
And that will be the end of Arc 0.
Yes, you read that right.
That means the real shit has yet to even begin.
Best,
~Res
(A/N I'm also quite sure this is the first time Jay and I have been in sync for updates. Brownie points for me! :D)