WARRIORS HIGH
ISLAND OF THE LOST
CHAPTER TWELVE
WE INTERRUPT YOUR SCHEDULED PROGRAM TO BRING YOU SOME BREAKING NEWS
WARNING: THE FOLLOWING CHAPTER CONTAINS CENSORED DEPICTIONS OF SEXUAL ASSAULT, RAPE AND VIOLENCE. THIS IS ONCE AGAIN USED FOR THE PURPOSES OF CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT AND VILLAINIZING ARS. THIS CHAPTER IS ABOUT REVENGE, AND BASED ON THE SITUATION I MADE LAST CHAPTER, I HAD TO MAKE THE REVENGE INTENSE. IF THESE TOPICS ARE UPSETTING TO YOU, FEEL FREE TO SKIP THE FINAL HALF OF THIS CHAPTER.
If Fir wasn't risking her life being an imposter, she could say she was living her best life right now.
Ever since she had snuck in, she had been faking a worsening illness. It worked like a charm. Foxleap, her "brother," had been giving her free soup for the last six days and continuously venting to her about the different situations the group she was bunking with were getting into. She was getting free food and information without having to lift a finger.
However, it was getting harder and harder to fake an illness, so she had turned to a much more potent resource to push the symptoms along.
Ipecac.
In her bag she had hidden several resources in a location only she knew of. Among these were various drugs, whether they be for medicinal or attack motives. ipecac was a drug Fir never thought she would use, but thanked the Lord for in the end.
The drug was odorless, colorless and triggered the human body's acid reflux, sending the consumer into a coughing spell and, if they had eaten recently, making them throw up continuously for up to thirty minutes.
She had used it the day before and it worked like a charm. Foxleap had freaked out, ushered her to bed and not entered her room since. Probably in fear of spreading something.
It was a good thing. It gave her time to process everything she was hearing.
The group had been chasing after some sort of assassin. And from the way Foxleap scrunched up his face, he seemed to be someone they knew. They had yet to come back from what she heard, but it was a perfect time to snoop around and get information on where she was stuck in.
The place was huge. Fir had known that she would be hiding in a mansion, but Jesus. Whoever was paying the rent definitely had money to burn. There were two huge floors, an attic and a basement, with weapons of every kind scattered around every one. So, since she presumably had time to search, she gave each of them a look. Thankfully, ARS had scouted ahead and associated most of the layout with faces and names beforehand, so she had an idea on who's room was whose, though there were some that were unoccupied when the report came in.
The majority of the rooms were on the second floor, in a big L-shaped pattern. That's where she began.
The closest room on the right belonged to Cinderheart and Honeyfern. It was quite well organized, but Fir noted various pistol models on the west wall between the two beds and a large katana over the door.
Next to that room was the room of Berrynose and Fallen Leaves. It was messier than the former's but not enough to be ridiculous. The primary attraction was the bookshelf right across from the room, filled to the brim with books, though she did find two shotguns under the bed.
The third room belonged to Jayfeather and Half-Moon. There wasn't much of note, though the room was messy and there were some cracks in the wall. She didn't stay long in that room. There was some sort of smell emanating from the mattress that almost made her gag.
The room farthest down on the opposite wall seemed to belong to a child, with pictures of superheroes on the wall complimenting the navy blue paint job on the walls. Obviously, there was nothing of use in that room.
To the room's left was a travesty. Clothes were everywhere, drawings and ripped pictures were laden as far as the eye could see and sand coated the floor, likely from the busted punching bag in the corner. But among this mess, Fir found a lot of weapons, including pistols, semi-autos and rifles. There was also a set of throwing knives taped under the mattress.
The final room on the second floor was Hollyleaf's. It was covered in black. Black clothes, black paint job, everything screamed emo. Throwing knives lined the front wall and under the lamp was an array of short-range pistols.
Those were all of the rooms she could access. The penthouse and stairway to the basement were locked by some sort of passcode she would figure out later.
By the late evening, she had a list scribbled out. She took a picture, sent it to Crow (With a "Miss you" and a heart emoji) and, using a match from the kitchen, burnt the list and flushed the ashes. She was ready to set herself up with her toxin-doused glass of water when she saw someone had left the news channel on.
She was seconds away from ignoring it when she saw a breaking news telegram pop up on the screen.
The camera cut to flashing police lights swarming a small bar. A reporter quickly babbled about the situation, obviously not knowing much, while several officers let bearded men away in handcuffs and others in stretchers.
The headline read: "BREAKING: Shots Fired in Outer Forrestlake Bar, At Least 2 Dead"
Interested, Fir grabbed the remote and unmuted.
"...with at least seventeen sustaining several injuries. Police are currently in search of a man who was caught on security cameras instigating the fight, killing one and fleeing the scene on a motorcycle."
The screen cut to a grainy, low-quality footage replay of a man flipping a table, the bar exploding into a huge fight, then, likely to censor the actual death, cut to outside footage of the same man who flipped the table fleeing the scene on a motorcycle.
Fir grimaced. Damn.
"THEY'RE COMING!"
A loud, possibly intoxicated voice interrupted the reporter.
"Shut your trap!" said the officer, elbowing him against the car as the camera turned on him.
"ARS WAS HERE, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN! THEY'RE COMING FOR US! THEY'RE COMING FOR YOU!"
The man was stuffed into the car before he could continue his tirade. The camera turned back into view of a man in a leather jacket on a stretcher being hoisted onto an ambulance and attached to a ventilator.
Fir froze.
She knew this man.
It was Davis. They had trained together in front-line combat.
This was more than a bar fight gone deadly.
This had been an attack on ARS.
And now someone knew who they were.
Someone knew they were here.
The screen cut back to the newsroom.
"We're just getting a more refined picture of the suspect, ladies and gentlemen, so if you recognize this man, please contact 911 with any information you have."
Next to the reporter on the right appeared a refined headshot of a man with a clean-cut goatee. He had short black hair gelled back as well.
The exact man ARS had warned her could compromise her identity.
It was Jack Graves.
MOTHERFUCKER!
Fir chucked the remote to the couch and raced to her room, grabbing her phone from under her mattress and dialing for Crow.
"Sigma Airlines, how can I help you?"
"Agent Fir, codename G617D-AA9X."
"You alright? What the hell happened?"
"Crow, listen to me. Jack Graves knows where you are. He's coming! You need to increase security on the hostage immediately!"
"WHAT?! How do you know?"
"Check the news!"
Silence.
"You're right. Okay, we'll do that, but be prepared in case this goes south. He's CIA, keep that in mind."
"Crow?"
"What's wrong?"
"Am I gonna die?"
Silence.
"I don't know. But, my love, I will do everything I can to make sure that doesn't happen."
Fir smiled shakily. "Thank you, Crow."
"My pleasure. Now, you need to go. I need to tell Garrison."
"Stay safe."
"You too."
Fir hung up, wiped her phone, and stuffed it under her mattress, sitting, praying that she would be okay. Praying that she would see Crow alive again.
Of all the people to do Replacement Procedure, why did it have to be her?
Suddenly, she heard the door open.
Amid the cluster of voices, she heard Foxleap hurrying up the stairs. "I'm gonna go check on Icecloud!"
Moving egregiously quickly, Fir dumped a huge portion of the ipecac into her water, hid it and dove under the covers just as Foxleap burst into her room.
"Hey!"
Fir waved, her eyes softening as much as possible.
Foxleap flopped down on the sofa to her left, exhaling dramatically.
"We got him."
Fir's eyes widened.
"Turns out Tigerstar engineered himself back to life and got himself into a suit where he didn't need to breathe at all. Remind me to figure out how to make that technology when this whole bullshit blows over."
Fir instinctively took a large sip of water.
"Let me see how you're feeling," said Foxleap, running the back of his hand over her face. "Fever's gone down, but you're still clammy. Have you thrown up today?"
Fir shook her head.
"Great! Maybe, just maybe, you're getting better and you can get back in...action...soon."
Foxleap's face suddenly changed to avid concern.
"Are you feeling okay?"
Fir nodded.
Well, now that she thought of it, she was feeling a little dizzy. She reached for more water.
She stopped.
Her ipecac-poisoned water.
The water she just had in front of Foxleap.
Bile rose in her throat, and she raced to the bathroom. Seconds later, she was blowing chunks harder than she ever had before. She continued to throw up for five minutes.
That, obviously, was too much for her body to handle. So when she tried to stand, she collapsed to her knees and slumped to the floor.
As she faded from consciousness, she heard Foxleap's frantic voice ring through the mansion.
"Icecloud's been poisoned!"
It was easy for Icecloud to lose track of time.
She was trapped naked in her cage for so long she stopped bothering herself with information she would never get. It didn't take long for her to lose a lot of things she would usually have on hand, like wit, optimism, faith…
All things positive, basically. Especially since she was being raped relentlessly until the guards had their breaks.
There was a lot of pain. A lot more than she had ever experienced. Yet, after many hours of poundings and violation, it seemed to...dull out in a crude sort of way. Almost like being drunk.
She certainly didn't care to cooperate, but at this point, she didn't care to try and stop them, either.
What was the point?
Eventually, whether it be out of cockiness or crude convenience, the four men made a tally on the wall she was facing, one for each man's climax. She couldn't bring herself to count that often, but through whatever frame of time she was being tortured through, it seemed to jump from ten to twenty to forty quite quickly overall.
And then at some point, they would leave her out to dry for a couple hours. Most times she would cry, occasionally, she would fail to stand, and all the time she would wallow in hopelessness.
Legend had it that when Poppyfrost was raped by Satan's worst creation, she stood in the face of a male's most heinous crime and laughed.
Icecloud sometimes wished that she could do the same.
Sometime after Icecloud passed out from exhaustion, she woke to find herself sitting in a large, red-leather chair.
She was no longer naked, but instead draped in a white robe. She was also no longer in agony, the pain of her torture now nothing but a nightmare in the back of her mind.
She looked up, and sitting a couple feet across from her was a young man with blond hair, ruffled and spiky, dressed in a white sweater and sweatpants and holding a clipboard.
"So you're my 4:00 appointment," he said.
Icecloud was very confused. "What?"
"No need to be alarmed, Icecloud. I'm not here to hurt you. This is just an evaluation so I can give you instructions on how to go through the healing process in the way most suitable for you."
"I'm sorry," said Icecloud, waving her hands up, "Who are you? How do you know my name?"
"Well," said the man, "Normally, I would be a little hurt that you can't answer that yourself, but you've been through a lot. I'll give you a few hints, how about?"
Icecloud didn't answer, so the man continued anyway. "To put it simply, we've known each other since the day we were born. I've been here to help you make some of life's toughest decisions and help you work through your darkest times."
Icecloud sat and thought a moment.
"Wait...You're me, aren't you?"
"Was," said the man, crossing his legs, 'You see, we used to be the same person. We were simultaneous in mind and thought. Like a well-oiled machine. But recently, you've allowed me to grow apart from you over the events of the last couple days. Now, we're...essentially, two different people, and I've been moving away from you ever since you woke up here."
Icecloud looked at the chair. Whereas it was about four feet away from her when she woke up, it was now about six or seven by now.
"Wait…" she said, "So, if we're the same person, but you're moving away from me...does that mean…?"
The man nodded. "You're going insane, Icecloud. You're, in the truest sense, losing your mind."
Icecloud fell back into her chair, slowly taking it all in.
"How...how do I stop it? How do I make you come back?"
"Well…" said the man, straightening up, "When's the last time you remember having a unique thought?"
Icecloud expected this to be a simple question, but when nothing came up, she surprised herself by shrugging.
"That's what I thought," said the man, "Essentially, what's happening is you've surrendered your train of thought, the distinct feature of what makes you human, what makes you sentient. You've let yourself decay into an object. You exist for one reason and for one reason only, and that's to be used for sex."
Icecloud was creeped out now.
"But…" said the man, sitting up, "You're not too far off from bringing your brain back to a functioning state. All you need is a spark. A single thought of faith that will inspire to get back into the ring and fight back."
"But…" said Icecloud, "I've been abused for so long! No one has come for me!"
"Do you honestly believe that?"
Icecloud stopped as the man smirked. "Do you honestly believe that no one would come for you when they figure out what happened to you? Do you honestly believe that your brother wouldn't come for you? Do you honestly believe that anyone in the family you've had for so long wouldn't come for you? Do you honestly believe Jack Graves, who you've loved for two and a half years and has not once put anything before your safety, wouldn't hunt down the bastards who did this and work his ass off just to protect you?"
Icecloud had no answer.
"That's what I thought."
Icecloud looked up, her eyes slowly filling with hope, with life for the first time in days.
No villain could possibly go this long before her friends found the weak link in the chain. Surely, her friends would be storming in guns blazing any time now.
Until then, why continue to be used?
"You're right," said Icecloud, "I refuse to be used any longer."
The man smiled confidently. "That's the spirit. Now go out there and kick some ass for me. For us."
"WAKEY WAKEY PRINCESS!"
Icecloud was dragged back into consciousness by a loud pounding of metal. She was almost ready to revert back to the state she had been in for so long.
"I hope you got enough rest!"
Icecloud closed her eyes.
You're not too far off from bringing your brain back to a functioning state.
From behind her, she heard the unzipping of a fly and the clinks of a belt being undone.
All you need is a spark.
"Oho, I hope you're ready," said the man, "Cause we're going on a wild ride tonight!"
A single thought of faith that will inspire to get back into the ring and fight back.
"No."
Everything seemed to freeze.
"W-What?!" snapped the man in rage, not ready for his submissiveness kink to drift away so quickly.
"You've had your fun," growled Icecloud, "It's my turn."
And she fired her leg into the man's groin as hard as she could.
The man screamed so loud it seemed to resonate in her brain.
That was the trigger she needed.
She was back.
Throwing herself to her knees, she whirled round and tackled the man, her hands clasping her assailant's throat with a grip harder than she had ever mustered before. The man flapped around a bit, trying to relinquish her clasp before trying to reach for his gun. Icecloud kicked the gun away out of its holster and over to the opposite wall.
Now the man knew he was screwed. He fought back as hard as he could, but his strength was nothing compared to the fresh fight within the girl he had pinned down for several days.
Icecloud squeezed harder and harder. Determined to get her revenge and break out of this hellhole…
...until the cocking of a shotgun and an AR stopped her in her tracks.
"Get your hands off of him, you whore."
Icecloud almost disobeyed, but slowly lifted her hands up in surrender.
The man threw a punch so hard that Icecloud bounced off the ground when she hit the deck.
"Now…" he said, "Where were we?"
bang!
A round fired outside made everyone stop.
"What the hell was that?"
Bang!
Another round. This one was closer, and Icecloud could hear shouting from outside the door.
BANG!
A shotgun round pelted against the metal door, obliterating the top hinge and causing the door to bend inwardly.
Now the four men were alarmed. The man about to rape her again fixed his clothing and joined his fellow assaulters as they took position against the door. Icecloud could hear semi-automatic and pistol rounds amid the firefight, and hope blossomed in her chest when she heard them silenced.
There was a moment of eerie quiet. No guns were fired. The men aimed at the door, ready to blow their intruder to smithereens.
BANG!
The bottom hinge exploded, and the metal door fell to show a man draped in a black hoodie and sweats, but with a hydro-dipped red and black mask covering his mouth and nose. His eyes burned from the shadow of his sweater, exhibiting an otherworldly shade of malice.
The man at the front raised his AR and fired, but the vigilante kicked up the metal door, blocking the bullets, and launched himself at the man, knocking him down, disarming him and when he landed with his full weight on the door, shattering his nose. He fired three shotgun rounds into the stomach of the guard next to him, who, unfortunately for him, forgot to undo the safety on his AK, slipped behind the man in front of him, making him fire two rounds into the metal door he used as a shield, and applied a brutal chokehold. The fourth man on his right aimed at the intruder's head, but he leaned back so the round blasted open the head of the guard he was choking. He chucked his shotgun at the guard who just fired at him, disarming him when the gun hit him in the face, and using the shotgun of the dead soldier he was holding, kicked the door away and killed the first guard whose nose he had broken with three rounds through the skull.
The vigilante tossed aside the body, ready to finish off the fourth guard quickly.
And then he turned and saw Icecloud.
The shattered state she was in.
And the reek and residue of the sinful acts these men had committed on her.
Icecloud could feel the rage pulsing from the man's body. He was going to make this hurt.
The vigilante ripped the mask off one of the guards and threw it on the ground, shattering it. He grabbed the biggest piece, grabbed the collar of the last guard alive, and stabbed him in the face, again and again amid his screams until the piece pierced his skull. He grabbed his shotgun, fired two rounds into his stomach, one into his chest, and three into his groin. Finally, he ripped off his mask, grabbed him by the hair and with the AR the first soldier had used, thrust the bullet down his throat and unloaded. Fifty-six bullets obliterated his head, breaking through the top of his spine and splattering blood around Icecloud's cell. The girl had to duck and cover her head to prevent getting blood splashed into her eyes.
He tossed the man aside and stared at Icecloud, splattered with the blood and fluid of her assailants.
Icecloud saw the vigilante drop to his knees.
"No!" she snapped, not caring that she didn't know the identity of her savior, "We don't have time for this! You're getting me out of here. Now!"
The man snapped to attention, nodded and after going through the man's pockets, pulled out the key to her door and unlocked it, rushing to her and helping her to her feet.
"Who are you?" she asked as the man draped her arm around his shoulder and grabbed the door, "Why are you helping me?"
The man hesitated, but swallowed it back as he grabbed the door to the cells as a shield and without a moment to rethink his options, sprinted out the door and towards what she assumed was the exit.
Gunfire sprayed against the door and Icecloud faltered in her steps several times, her legs shaking. But when she saw the exit, hope filled her body with life for the first time in several weeks.
Moments later, they burst out from the warehouse exit, sprinting as fast as they could into the forest surrounding them.
Icecloud ran and flailed until her legs gave out, and she collapsed to the ground in exhaustion, the branches hidden underneath the leaves scoring her exposed body as she desperately caught her breath.
She flinched and yelped when she felt her savior's hands on her back, flipping her over. Icecloud tensed up, her hands balling up into fists as she prepared for the worst.
"I'll only ask one more time," she growled, "Who are you?"
The man didn't move at first.
But slowly, he put down his hoodie and removed his mask, revealing the short black hair and goatee of a man who looked ready to burst into tears.
Icecloud gasped.
The man's lip quivered. "I'm...I'm...so sorry, Icec-cloud...so, so sorry…"
Icecloud reached up and slowly touched the man's face.
"JACK!" she squealed in joy.
And she kissed him. Harder than she ever had in her life.
They didn't break apart for five minutes.
And for the first time, Icecloud didn't care that she was naked or had been brutalized beyond belief.
Because now, it didn't matter.
She was saved.
THIS WILL BE THE LAST TIME THIS STORY MENTIONS RAPE I PROMISE.
But Icecloud is free! I'm only partially sorry for the shit I dragged her through because this will assure you she turns into an all-out badass.
Next chapter is Sky's response to Icecloud's escape, Jaywhisker in invention mode and maybe a bit with Axis' reaction with the bigass bar fight he watched.
But no more rape! I promise.
I plan to torture everyone else in many different ways.
Best, and apologies,
~Res