WARRIORS HIGH
ISLAND OF THE LOST
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
TRAUMA (PART II)
Dusty felt the boy squirm, grasping for his hand and trying to pry it away.
"Don't play any games," he snarled, "I know you work for someone. Who is it?"
The boy pointed at his obstructed mouth, wishing to speak. Dusty, after a brief hesitation, moved the knife out of the way and removed his mouth, allowing him to gasp for breath and break away.
"I'm giving you ten seconds," he said, "Talk."
"I want to be friends with Axis!"
Dusty hesitated. "What?!"
"I signed up for Advanced Band when I transferred here and I heard about Axis being the lead singer. I wa-I signed up as a backup singer and I wanted to be friends with him so that we don't have any bad blood or anything. So I've been trying to talk to him for the first couple days and I haven't gotten the chance…"
"Wait...why?" said Dusty, raising an eyebrow, "He's, like, the nicest person you'll ever know! Just go up and say hi and you'll be friends right away-"
"That's exactly why I wanted to talk to you!"
Dusty's grip tightened around his knife. "Oh really?"
"Yeah! Cause you seem...I don't know, into him?"
The boy hesitated when Dusty glared at him. "Tread carefully," he warned.
He looked like he had a wisecrack ready if he didn't have a knife in his hand as he continued. "Well, you only-you're the guy Axis talks to the most, so...maybe you could introduce me?"
Dusty thought about it and nodded. "Okay, sure."
The boy smiled, very relieved. "Great!"
But Dusty blocked the door before the boy could open it. The boy turned and stared at him, caught off guard.
"But you still haven't answered my question."
"What question?"
"Who are you working for?"
Dusty expected him to blabble off or try to throw him off the trail, but instead, he just smirked with a newfound spark of confidence.
"Wouldn't you like to know?"
Dusty immediately swung the blade to stab him, but froze when the boy caught the blade in midair. He smiled, seemingly impressed that he could pull that off.
But his opponent was better, the moment he reached behind him and grabbed his free wrist, he panicked.
And Dusty demolished him, needing an upshot right into the stomach, a landed haymaker sending the boy stumbling out of the door, and a roundhouse to the face sending him to the floor, groaning and writhing in pain.
"Alright, rookie," he smirked, searching the pockets of his khaki shorts, "Let's check that phone, shall we?"
He pulled out what looked to be an iPhone 7, encased in a bulletproof case meant for construction sites. Using a nifty trick Jaywhisker had shown him, he bypassed the passcode and opened the list of contacts.
There were about fifty numbers saved to names, meaning that he wasn't ARS. He had seen an ARS phone before and knew that they wiped their phones on an almost daily basis to prevent being tracked. He scrolled through a couple of them, though he stopped when a name caught his eye.
He groaned.
"Poppyfrost sent you, didn't she?"
The boy nodded, working himself to a sitting position against the wall. 'You know her?"
"Let's just say she's...not the best of roommates."
The boy was very confused as Dusty continued to scroll through until he came across an account with the name "Cranky Old Man, Enemy of All Things Positive."
"Who's this?" he said, showing his victim the contact. "N-No one important!" he said, his eyes widening.
So Dusty dialed the number. It rang four times before a man on the other end picked up.
"Fang here. Whatcha got?"
"Mr. Fang, My name is Dustleap. I've become aware that you've sent someone to try and track me."
On the other end, he heard something made of glass break and a punch land on the surface of the table.
"If you did anything to the boy, I swear to God-"
"Not to worry, sir. He's not dead. In fact, he should be standing straight in...about an hour."
"Kid," snarled Fang in a voice that made him sound like the boy's pissed off father, "I swear to God on high if you hurt Sunfield, I will rip you apart limb by fucking limb."
Dusty decided to move on. "What do you want from me?"
"What?"
"You sent a…'spy' of sorts to get information. Although I reacted harshly, I'm willing to look past this incident and help you out."
Fang paused on the other line in momentary consideration.
"Are you familiar with the Assassins of the Rising Sun?"
Dusty froze.
"Y-Yes. Why?"
"We need information. My superior has made me aware that we're hunting the same target. It would be beneficial for both of us to help each other out."
Dusty wasn't quite ready to greenlight this. "I have my motivation for hunting down ARS. What reason do you have to even be interested in them."
"We're giving refuge to one of their liberated prisoners. She said that she was...she was raped when she was held captive."
That was all Dusty needed.
"I'll be there in twenty."
"But you don't know where we are!"
"I'll figure it out. I have your spy's phone, remember?"
"Fine. But come alone and with the boy."
Fang hung up and Dusty turned to face the boy.
"So, Sunfield," he said, squatting and looking him dead in the eyes, "We're gonna go on a little adventure, but I need to ask you a few questions."
He glanced at the ragged Metallica shirt he was wearing.
"Name all of the members from Guns & Roses and every song from the Black Album."
Sunfield raised an eyebrow. "You're kidding, right?"
"Yeah," he smirked, "Just a test to make sure you're in your right mind-"
"The current members of Guns & Roses are Axl Rose, the lead vocalist, Slash, the main guitarist, Michael McKagan, who's the backup guitarist and bassist, Dizzy Reed, who does keyboard, Frank Ferrer, who does drums and Melissa Reese, who's just there. The songs from the Black Album are Enter Sandman, Sad but True, Holier Than Thou, The Unforgiven, Wherever I May Roam, Don't Tread on Me, Through the Never, Nothing Else Matters, Of Wolf and Man, The God That Failed, My Friend of Misery and The Struggle Within."
Dusty stared, silent.
Sunfield smirked. "What, you thought I would be signed up for Advanced Band and know nothing about music?"
"No…" said the boy, "It's just backwards black hat makes you look like you listen to Billie Eilish as a guilty pleasure."
"EXCUSE ME?!" he snapped as Dusty got up, "SHE IS A DISGRACE TO THE MUSIC INDUSTRY! THE ONLY REASON SHE WINS ALL THOSE AWARDS IS THAT THE PRODUCER MAKES THE SONGS SOUND 'EXPERIMENTAL!'"
"Amen," said Dusty, helping Sunfield, "Now, do you have a ride?"
"I have a bike…"
"Great," said Dusty, shoving him to the entrance, "You lead the way. You have directions."
"Don't forget to straighten your back," said Mallowleaf, adjusting the 15-lb weight on Seashell's spine. She lowered her glutes slightly and continued doing push-ups, knowing she was close to her goal.
"You guys need a vacation," said Hazeltail, who was watching the two work out while sipping a beer. Most of everyone was downstairs, either obnoxiously cheering at a March Madness game or a Mortal Kombat competition, Ashtooth and Daffodil were out doing shooting practice, Dusty was doing some after-school thing probably with the guy he denied he has but very obviously has a crush on and Jaywhisker had locked himself in the basement the moment he got home from school. Mallowleaf had mentioned a project he was working on, though she had no idea what it could possibly be.
"Well, I guess you could say that we're not used to being in the loud house," retorted Mallowleaf as Seashell picked up the pace on her push-ups.
"Yeah," shrugged the girl, finishing her beer and slouching in her chair, "Foxleap should have probably given you a warning about what you were in for when he made you move in with us. We're certainly a rowdy bunch."
'You can say that again,'' muttered Mallowleaf as the living room erupted into cheers, Seashell barely picking up Berrynose screaming in protest and calling cheating.
"500!" called Seashell, shouldering the weight off of her back and lying on the ground, shakily wiping her face off with Mallowleaf's towel.
"Nice work," said Mallowleaf, helping her up before turning back to Hazeltail, "So how do you do it? Put up with these loudmouths?"
"It's a difficult process," she said after a moment, "But after a while, you sort of tough it out a bit. When I first moved in, I spent most of my time boarded up in my room with cotton in my ears and books in my hand when I wasn't at school. I was the hermit of the group, quiet and distancing myself from everyone like the COVID-19 pandemic from freshman year was still forcing everyone to avoid each other."
"Oh?" said Mallowleaf as she began doing sit-ups while Seashell held her feet, "What changed, then?"
Hazeltail shifted in her chair, crossing her legs and hand drifting in front of her face, "Then, Cinderheart came to visit me one day. I was very quiet but when I figured out we were into the same things, we talked for hours. Don't think I've had a better friend since. She sort of went my speed and inducted me into the group and they did the rest. They showed me how...fun life can really be. I mean, yeah, we did stupid shit like beer and drugs, but we grew to love each other. It was like one big happy family. And when we…" she cleared her throat, "when we fought against Mapleshade, it was the driving factor on how we got out together. We were a team, the greatest there ever was when we needed to be."
"Nice story," said Mallowleaf, who was at and past thirty sit-ups before Hazeltail finished.
She finished the workout in silence, hitting 100 sit-ups very quickly. Afterwards, the two dried off and prepared to invade Dusty's private shower in the penthouse.
"Before you go…" said Hazeltail, stopping the two.
"We're good people," she said, smiling, "We've been through a lot, just like you. I think we'll get along just fine."
Mallowleaf just nodded briefly while Seashell smiled. "Thank you, Hazeltail."
"That get through to any of you?" muttered Mallowleaf once they were a safe distance away.
"Not really," said Seashell as they entered Dusty's room, "But she did have a point. Maybe if we stop deliberately separating ourselves from the people we live, we can let ourselves grow! Hell, these people have supernatural powers from what Coalstrike told me!"
"Listen," she said, taking her workout shirt off and looking Seashell in the eye, "I know you want to be proactive, but the last time we were put in this corner, you and Coalstrike almost got killed. I can't let that happen to you again."
"I know, but...maybe this is different."
Mallowleaf looked on sympathetically as a twinkle of sadness entered her eyes.
"I want it to be different too."
Mallowleaf left to take her shower as Seashell returned to her room, a lot on her mind.
But the sight she saw when she entered her room did not help at all.
Coalstrike was sitting on the side of the bed in his underwear, guzzling down an extra large bottle of whiskey amid the shattered glass of other finished bottles and shaking from the wrists. The wall was punched open, fist-sized holes decorating the entire east wall, various papers had been ripped into unintelligible pieces and littered across the room and an open bag of cocaine was spilled across the desk, coating the surface with what looked to be fake snow manufacturers put in snowglobes.
"What the hell is this?!" she snapped at Coalstrike.
He slowly turned to face him, his eyes red and his face gaunt with terror. Immediately Seashell went from pissed to terrified, running over to him and taking his hands.
"What happened?" she said.
"I...I-I…" shuddered Coalstrike, "I...s-s-saw him…"
"Who?" she whispered.
"I-Inferno…" he rasped dryly.
And Seashell understood. It wasn't just a relapse.
This was a panic attack.
Seashell took the poor boy into his arms as he bawled his eyes out, dropping the bottle and sobbing into her sweaty shoulder. The embrace didn't cease for over ten minutes before Coalstrike finally calmed down.
"Honey," she whispered gently, "It was only a dream. You have nothing to worry about."
"I-It felt so real!" he stuttered, "He was stabbing you open with a dagger! I couldn't do anything! I couldn't save you…"
"Come here," she said, holding him close, "You don't need to worry about Inferno anymore. He doesn't know where you are. He's not gonna find you."
"B-B-But th-think of a-all the p-people he killed!"
"Everything's gonna be okay, my love," she said, wiping away the tears on his dirty face, "I promise."
She leaned in and kissed him. Gently, softly but enough to soothe him and let him slump back down onto the bed.
"Would you like me to go to the pharmacy later?" she said as Coalstrike shuffled under the covers again.
"Yeah…"
"Alright, I'll make a run tomorrow. I'm gonna go shower and then I'll be right back."
She left the room quietly, closing the door silently and hitting the lights. When she was out in the hallway, she slumped against the door, taking deep breaths to calm herself down.
Coalstrike very rarely broke down like this. In fact, ever since the two of them had joined the resistance, Coalstrike had never broken the facade as an aggressive stern-faced tactician in front of anyone. Not Dusty, not Mallowleaf, not even Ashtooth, his practical brother from another mother. The only time he ever broke down since they met was in the bedroom and in her arms.
She was the only person that he ever showed weakness to. Ever. And somedays, especially today, it felt like a couple semi trucks had been added to the already almost unbearable weight on her shoulders.
Seashell had somehow fallen in love with the most complicated, conflicted and mentally messed up man she could ever possibly conceive.
And even then, she still loved him. Just as much as he loved her.
Love was a confusing thing. Especially when the two shared such a tight bond after the trauma they had been through.
Put two other people in the situation and they probably would have not given a shit about each other.
So why them?
She saw Berrynose come out of the bathroom and she occupied it, locking the door and getting in the shower. She had a lot to process today.
"COME ON!" snapped a man in a black suit, coming back from a search, "How could they possibly go off the grid like that? It can't be that hard to find a recent rape victim, right?"
"Well," said Crow, pacing in front of a table filled with marked pictures, "We know they're nearby. The Riven security footage that got them is too real to be fabricated. Also she was with a CIA agent."
"The hell does that mean?"
"Means he's an aficionado at what America does best," he retorted snarkily.
"So...running and hiding."
"Exactly."
"Ugh."
Crow sat under the roof of a canopy tent with three other members of the strike team. They had spent all day in Riven, slowly picking the place apart to try and find Icecloud. They had hoped to catch them moving from a city to another and cut them off there, but wherever they were hiding, they were holed up good. They had quietly searched every business and abandoned building in the district with no luck at all.
They were completely off the map.
"So when did Sky start making you head of strike teams?"
Crow shrugged. "I dunno. Probably a one time thing, hopefully something like a promotion is in order."
"Really?" he said disbelievingly, "With you? I doubt it."
"I appreciate your confidence in my leadership skills."
"Just saying," said the man, throwing his hands in the air, "You've been doing really well at playing contract negotiator."
"I guess, but it's still something I can at least hope for."
"Fair enough."
"Guys," said a woman, typing on a laptop and pulling up something, "I got something."
Crow and the man walked over, taking a seat next to her. "Whatcha got?"
"I tapped into the phone communications over the last hour and I got something in Riven that you should hear."
Crow listened closely as the woman opened and started a playback.
"We need information. My superior has made me aware that we're hunting the same target. It would be beneficial for both of us to help each other out."
"I have my motivation for hunting down ARS. What reason do you have to even be interested in them?"
"We're giving refuge to one of their liberated prisoners. She said that she was...she was raped when she was held captive."
"I listened to the rest of the call. The older male is named Fang, some sort of position of power nearby, and the boy is named-"
"Dustleap."
The two others stared at Crow. "How do you know that?"
"I was on assignment in Lindisfarne. He's one of the soldiers that fought back."
''So?"
"The resistance is here."
Silence.
"You have a location?"
"Yeah," said the woman, pulling a map with a coordinate, "Somewhere deep in the abandoned section of tow."
The three looked at each other for only a moment before rushing to suit up. The woman called the other members of the strike team back, saying that they had a location and were ready to move in.
Crow smiled to himself. They came for Icecloud, but they now had the possibility of walking away with something much more.
But twenty minutes later, they still had nothing.
"Are you absolutely sure that this was the right location?" pressed Crow.
"Yes!" she snapped back, "I don't understand! The call took place here!"
"Maybe they used a jammer?"
"They did, but it was an easy one to decode! This is the location they gave me!"
"Then where could they be?"
In response, one of the soldiers shouldered him and pointed about fifteen meters down.
A man in a sweater vest and a nametag was climbing out of a manhole. He looked to be clean, even for entering a sewer.
Crow strolled over, gesturing for the team to stay out of sight.
"Excuse me, sir."
The man turned around and looked right down the barrel of Crow's silenced gun. His hands went up immediately and he freaked out.
"WAIT WAIT! DON'T SHOOT! PLEASE! TAKE MY WALLET! YOU CAN HAVE MY KEYS TOO! I HAVE A WIFE AND KIDS! PLEASE DON'T SHOOT!"
"I have a question to ask you," said Crow, advancing forward and pressing the gun to his forehead, "Where is Fang?"
"H-He's in the court! At the end of the marketplace!"
"And how does one get into said marketplace?"
"Y-You can't! You have to be searched and accepted by the queen-"
Crow cocked his gun.
"B-BUT YOU CAN USE THE SIDE ENTRANCE! IT'S IN THE SEWER! THE FIRST DOOR TO THE LEFT!"
"There we go," he said, lowering the gun, "That's all."
"W-Wait…" said the man, relieved for his life, "Y-You're not gonna kill me?"
"Well, I won't."
Crow whipped around and fired a tranq dart right into the man's forehead. He was unconscious before he hit the ground. The team emerged from the shadows and gathered around Crow.
"Dispose of the body," he ordered, "Then lock and load. We have a marketplace to raid."
And so begins an elaborate relay race.
Crow's about to raid the Court of Miracles, but you won't hear it from me. The raid will be happening on The New Era. Subsequently, we will go back and forth with the following arc, about three chapters or so each.
Then I get my popcorn as Jay enters his final arc.
And trust me when I say that it's going to kick major ass.
So like always, enjoy.
Best,
~Res