AN: Welcome to chapter 2, glad you stuck around. I'll cut to the chase, either this will be divided into 2 parts, or it won't. Either way this storyline is just the beginning for Nova (or yourself, or your oc) and Pico. That said I promise to take my time! Either way please enjoy. *trigger warning violence, mentions of death, language, and gunfire all mentioned in this chapter*
Pico had been forced to watch them drag Bf away after everything so far. He was as tense as a spring, just waiting, begging if there was a god to not have him brought back dead. Pico couldn't even tell what time it was, they didn't have a clock in the room from what he could tell. They had both fallen asleep while planning their escape plan, so he knew it was morning, though how early he couldn't tell. While his mind reeled a little, he suddenly noticed his cage open, snapping him back to reality. He saw 3 armored guards, and 2 scientists/lab technicians, he glared deciding wether or not to resist them or not. "Fight, and you'll get hurt," one of the guards warned, or rather threatened.
Pico got out the cage before trying to fight the guards and scientists with very little success, he was shocked repeatedly, until he blacked out.
Meanwhile, Nova was preparing to take the lab on.
"You're sure about going it alone to start?" Echoed the voice of her boss, whom she confronted yesterday.
"Look," Nova said, sliding the gun into her hidden holster under her black coat,"If everyone from our little protection group shows up at their door, they'll go out of their way to kill everyone."
Silence filled the room once she walked back in, she stared at the phone and said,"I know you've got something else to say, so spill."
"That said, you don't have to handle this alone," he said after she pressed him.
She smiled, this person, for all of the times where they fought, was like family. And even despite yesterday, he still wanted to reach out on his own. "I know old man Samson," she joked slightly.
"Hey!" Sam laughed,"Seriously, reach out if you need help."
"Will do, talk to you later Sam," Nova replied, hanging up the phone.
She sighed, her smile dropping; she wouldn't admit it, but she was terrified to go back into the lions den. She brushed her hands onto her thighs, and then grabbed the switch blade. She spun it around trying to bring down her nerves a bit, and gripped onto her jacket with the other. "Ok," she said, forcing herself to pocket the switch blade,"Don't dawdle, they need your help."
She walked out the door, her heart raced, and she could feel herself shake more intensely than she would normally in the cold. As she walked she kept reminding herself to find a way to blend in, as she didn't need a blood bath, or to get caught. As she approached the empty lot, her heart felt like it was rising in her chest. She felt herself loosing control, her heart wouldn't slow, and she began to hyperventilate. She closed her eyes, feeling herself getting ready to hit the nearest wall, however she started to mumble,"5...4...3...2...1."
As each number escaped her lips, she could feel her mind and body returning to normal. Her breathing remained a little bit ragged, but she didn't have time to focus on that. She looked around, making sure no one was immediately around before she blinked. Her eyes glowed, and from her perspective, she could see how strong the camouflaged shield was. "Ok," she said going into a clam business manor,"Not thick enough to stop anyone, but with no one guarding the front of the building, I bet you when it gets disturbed it brings people to the area of the disturbance. Right then, let's create a ripple, maybe then I can get in without getting caught right away."
She closed her eyes again only for them to open, not glowing at all. She took a breath, stealing herself before gently poking the shield. After the shield shook, she took one last breath before walking through the shield. "Ok," she said,"Let's see about- getting inside?"
She stared ahead noting that they had the door sitting open. Granted the door was only slightly ajar, but it still felt stupid. "Do they really expect people not to just walk in?" She thought, taking a quick look around to make sure that no one was around.
She walked in, listening, she could hear some of the guards a ways ahead. Her movements became silent, she shifted down hallways. The guards were talking about all the new toys they were going to break, while others were wondering who was stupid enough to stumble around the lab. She rolled her eyes, as each guard seemed to just miss her, then she was face to face with a guard.
Back with Pico, and Bf...
After Pico had woken back up, he saw Bf in the corner of a shared cell. He became more relieved when he stirred and woke up. "Where are we?" He asked, seeming to be confused.
"Same place different area is my guess," Pico answered, suddenly feeling uneasy all over again.
"Well there goes that plan," Bf muttered, frustrated and with a new sense of worry.
Pico nodded,"Yeah tell me about."
Pico proceeded to face palm,"Damn it! I should have fought harder!"
Bf looked at his ex, before saying,"Hey, we still have a chance. Let's just start from the beginning, I mean you can't tell me you want to just sit here."
Pico smiled, he still appreciated Bf's optimism right now, as it was a far cry from the scaredy-cat he once was. Pico stood up looking around the room, while Bf just tried to look for easy answers. Despite their opposite ways of handling the situation. Pico was about to give up, getting frustrated with the seemingly impossible task, when Bf tried something he figured wouldn't work at all. He pushed lightly on the cell door, and it opened. "Ok," he said suddenly, pulling Picos attention,"I fully expected that not to work. And I'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer."
Pico blinked, the ginger nearly doubled over in laughter, wondering why this door had a faulty lock. "I wouldn't say we shook get going, but I don't think we'll get this lucky twice," Pico said regaining his composure.
The blunette nodded, following Pico out of the cell. He already knew he would be looking for their belongings, as he knew Pico would want his Uzi's back. Then they heard some noises that sounded like fighting, both of them thoroughly confused decided to go investigate.
Jumping back a bit, Nova had just knocked out the guard who spotted her.
"That was a blessing in disguise," Nova said slipping herself into the guards armor,"Now I just have to play her correctly. No need to raise an suspicions about her."
Nova dragged the knocked out guard into the cleaning closet near by before putting her helmet on. As she did she heard another guards voice yelling into his coms. She altered the voice changer just enough to effect her voice in the helmet. "Mallory Johnson! Are you there?!" The man's voice cried as she finally put the helmet on.
"I'm fine Cody," she answered mimicking her voice as closely as possible,"I just found an old toy roaming the halls, and had to bind her."
As she grabbed some zip ties and tightly bound her wrists and ankles, she could hear his relief. He had let go of a breath that he probably didn't even know he was holding onto, and; as she gagged Mallory, he finally continued,"Right. Good. Finish your patrol of the west wing, and make notes of any other potential security breaches. Then head to the central hub, the bosses want to give us some specific jobs."
"Understood," she said, listening as his conversation shifted.
As soon as she knew she was in the clear, she made a final look around the facility, making note that any doors that were locked seem to mostly fall into the category of disrepair/broken locks. "Geez," she mumbled,"This means that not only did they not move, but haven't been here long either. So breaking people out, won't be hard...aside from guards."
Nova's "assigned route" took her through the open area where subjects were assigned their experiments against their own will. The room was filled with the metallic sent of blood, and death. It made Nova want to double over and puke, but she had held it together. For this disguise to work, she couldn't act in the way she wanted too. After finishing the patrol of the west wing, she made her way to the central hub. A place she crossed through many a time in her past, and hated the idea of entering ever again. As she walked in, if it weren't for the horrors of this place, you could mistake it for a fancy ballroom, or a grand entrance to a mansion. "Glad to see you're fine after that confrontation Mals!" Cody cheered when he saw Nova in disguise.
Nova faked her chuckle,"Yeah that old wolf didn't know what hit her!"
Though despite faking her wish for her own demise, she was more glad that the helmets told you who was talking, otherwise she wouldn't have even know his name. Cody laughed, about to ask her about what happened when one of the older guards pulls the young sandy blonde back into line, and Nova followed standing next to Cody. "Now then," An older British sounding woman said, the voice of the woman who was the main scientist during Nova's experimentation.
Nova felt chilled knowing she was in the same room as this woman, but she forced herself to stay focused as this woman stared at her a clipboard. It was odd seeing that this woman was one of the higher ups, but she shook it off mentally. "We have had a breach on the outside, so I hope you did your searches throughly," she said, her elegant voice dripped with distain about Nova breaking in,"With that said, each of you in this group have been given a job. Congrats, you have our trust and grace...do not squander it."
"Yes My Lady Rory!", Nova joined in with the group, remembering her title even after almost a decade.
"Ms. Mallory Johnson, step forward!" Rory suddenly snapped.
Nova felt startled, but stepped forward like a soldier,"Yes My Lady!"
"You've been assigned to the security block, more specifically the cameras, and electricity. Make sure whomever has broken in doesn't effect the lab's integrity. This is very important, if we have to run on emergency power, none of the current security gates will be able to prevent escapes. More importantly, the fields will go down, and any powered cells, and cuffs will open," she said, staring more closely at her with each sentence,"Do I make myself clear? Ms. Johnson!"
Even as she hissed out these last words, Nova could feel herself getting giddy. The fact that she could truly mess with this place, so she put on the cockiness that she had felt from Mallory,"You have my word your majesty."
Nova bowed dramatically, causing the other guards to laugh out loud, and Rory angrily handed her a key for the job. With that she headed back to the line, having a feeling that things would be surprisingly easy to mess up as the others received their marching orders. Rory dismissed them, and with Cody making sure she was ready, and what the punishment would be if she failed; Nova, proceeded to follow the map projected on the helmets visor. "Mallory, welcome!" The head of the security devision said, frantically shaking her hand,"Truly a pleasure to have you here."
"The pleasure's all mine, Mr. Thompson," Nova said, keeping her persona in her head,"Mind giving me a run down on this places ins and outs."
"Absolutely!" The chipper, heavy set middle aged man said, suddenly leading her around.
Nova did her best to keep track, making sure she paid attention to every word, before he said,"Now this room is for the most recent updates for the power system. Could I have you turn that key, and release it when the updates finished?"
"Sure," she said acting like this was boring,"Just curious, what happens if I don't release on time?"
"Updates are crucial Ms. Johnson," he said, suddenly going into an almost teacher mode,"during the update the key is locked into the keyhole, releasing too soon means that the system flickers. Making security systems temporarily unstable, on the flip side, if the key breaks inside, or the key isn't released at the end of an update... The whole system overloads shutting everything down for 15 minutes. And only after that 15 minutes, does emergency power turn on. We haven't had this place back up and running for very long, so any formidable systems from before have rotted away since the little wolfs escape. So please be careful."
Nova nodded, already having the plan completed by the time he had finished half of the lecture. "You've got it sir, I apologize, this place is vastly important, I was just curious," she said with a more put down tone.
"It's ok Ms. Johnson," Mr. Thompson said returning to his chipper persona,"Just go ahead and turn that key, and start the update, I'll be back to check on you!"
As he left the room, and was out of earshot, Nova finally removed the armor and helmet. A bright grin crossed her lips, as she retrieved the key from the desk, and she twisted it into place. She waited for the update to run for 30 seconds, stealing herself for her next move, because just as Mr. Thompson had said, this update would be crucial. It just wouldn't be in this places favor. As soon as she felt a little more at ease, she looked up at the big computer screen above her. "3...2...1," Nova counted each number causing her eyes to glow slightly.
After she said 1, she made other form claws appear, the glowing magenta color of them matching her eyes. Then snap, the key broke like a twig, her glowing eyes beamed with pride as she used her claws to jam the key in its current position. "Who are you!" Called a guard as she used the opportunity to book it through the door that lead into the hall outside.
She made sure the guard followed her before getting into a fight with him. She still had her powers running slightly, however she was choosing not to use them directly. As his arm flew down towards her head, she made an effort to block and deflect it. Then she pumped her right arm back, and propelled on her feet to sucker punch him in the stomach. She knew if it didn't incapacitate him, it would at least startle him. At that very moment however, she hadn't noticed Mr. Thompson preparing to wack her in the head with Mallory's helmet. As he swung down however, someone had gotten between her and him and landed a solid punch to the guys stomach. Thompson doubled over nearly puking, before getting knocked, just as the lights went out.
From Pico and Bf's perspective.
After they got closer to the sounds they saw a girl with long violet hair fighting one of the of the guards. The 2 of them watched surprised, Pico blinked twice, who was this girl, what was her motive, and why was she trying to do this by herself? Then the 2 of them noticed an older over weight man walking up behind her with one of the guards helmets. He seemed angry, and just as Pico was about suggest they take a different path out, Bf wasn't there. Pico looked for a while, his jaw dropping as he turned to see Boyfriend had slammed his hand into the older man's stomach. Pico could barely think, he didn't have a gun on him, but he didn't want this guy doubling back and hurting Boyfriend either. Pico just rushed over kicking the man in the face to knock him out as the lights went out. The guard hit the floor shortly after with a groan. Pico suddenly grabbed Bf's shoulders and shook him while yelling,"WHAT THE FUCK WERE YOU THINKING!"
Boyfriend was about to retort when, the girl spoke up...
The 3 of them were in the dark, and just as Pico and Boyfriend were about to fight each other about the prior situation, Nova found her voice. "Look, I get it if you don't trust me, but right now we need to move, get our stuff back, and get out!" Nova seemed to take some form of authority, if only briefly.
"Damn straight we shouldn't just trust you!" Pico argued,"How do we know you're not working with them?"
Nova felt her blood boil as she snapped back, her eyes starting to glow in the dark,"If I worked with them, why would I attack a guard and sabotage their systems?!"
"That type of shit would make a damn good cover wouldn't it?!" Pico retorted coldly.
The 2 of them were glaring daggers at each other, and although Boyfriend wouldn't normally fight with Pico, he felt like he couldn't just wait for them to decide to work together. He suddenly got between them, which caused Pico's glare to shift, but; he held his ground and spoke up,"Look I get it, but I don't want to die. So let's work together, and if she turns out to be bad, I know you you won't have issues killing her. Plus we get our stuff, and we stand a better chance of getting out of here."
Pico held his glare for a little, before shutting his eyes in frustration and crossing his arms in defeat. "Fine," he said bluntly,"But don't get in the way when I shoot her."
Despite the fact that she was obviously was a little different, almost supernatural, he didn't want to get himself or boyfriend killed while trying to escape this place. Nova felt a slight bit of relief, even with knowing he would shoot her if she was with "them". "Picos a bit stubborn," Boyfriend suddenly said,"But he's chill once he gets to know you."
Nova blinked, kinda surprised that this guy was a polar opposite to Pico in personality. Nova nodded, seeing that Pico was already ahead of them she sighed,"We should catch up so they don't kill him..."
Boyfriend laughed nervously,"You're right, uh..."
"Crap! Sorry! The names Nova," Nova began to blush slightly she shook with the Blunette,"Nice to meet ya."
"Boyfriend," he said as their hands parted.
The 2 of them caught up as Pico kept trudging ahead in the dark. As the emergency power activated, Pico got more frustrated as they finally neared a hallway that split in a few directions. "Shit, fucking shit," Pico grumbled, staring at the hallways ahead of them.
Boyfriend looked like he was dizzy just looking at it, but Nova just walked towards the hall to the far left of them. "Where are you going?" Pico asked in an accusatory tone.
Nova sighed, pausing at the start of the hallway,"Unfortunately, I've been around this block before, and it hasn't changed. Also, I would like to get out of here sooner rather than later, and I've been here way longer than anyone would want to be here."
Pico gave her an uneasy look, his trust for her still had grown, but; he couldn't deny that they really didn't have a choice. Boyfriend sighed following her, to prompt Pico to move. As they moved in silence, Nova seemed to disappear as the the 3 of them entered the room. Pico got a bit freaked out as he was looking for his Uzi's, once he found them, he noticed that she was sat near a door on the other side of the room. His eyes stayed focused on her, making sure she didn't try anything. Once Boyfriend found his mic, none the worse for ware, Pico sighed,"Ready?"
Boyfriend looked up at Pico, who kept his eyes firmly on Nova. "Making sure Nova doesn't try anything?" Bf asked, finally pulling his attention.
"Obviously," Pico answered,"And how do you already know her name?"
Nova was suddenly right next to them, and she answered instead,"He asked..."
Pico pointed his Uzi at her, giving her a cold and unmoving stare. Nova stayed still, partly because she was freaking out, but also partly because she didn't want to fight him either. "What, I can't answer a question involving me?" Nova asked in a deadpanned voice.
Pico just glared slowly lowering his Uzi, he didn't answer, but Nova seemed to relax a little,"If you're both ready, we can go."
Nova turned and opened the door on the other side of the room, upon hearing a loud scream followed by silence, her tension returned. She decided to get a bit ahead of them, to see if she could neutralize the threat. She could hear Pico threatening her from behind, and Boyfriend asking her to wait, but she ignored both. She knew that Pico could probably shoot whatever was ahead to death, but she didn't want to risk it. She reached the end of the hallway, and instant dread filled her. The being in front of her was the former head of the lab. "Ahh, wolf cub," his voice growled and crackled, his hugely warped body rippled and oozed,"long time no see."
Nova went pale, her eyes glowing intensely and more wolf like features appeared over her fear filled face. "D-dr. Warren Aisling, h-how, wha-?"
"Awww did the little pup loose her bark!?" He asked swinging down at her, causing her to have to move.
The whole building shook, and not only did she have to move out of the way of his fist, but any falling debris. This brought her back to focus, despite her fear, she growled attacking him only to get knocked back. This turned her back, before the boys entered the room. Dr. Aisling reached down to grab and eat Nova, as he got close, Pico jumped in front of her and shot his hand. Meanwhile, Bf threw his mic like a mace hitting the doctor in the face. He reeled back from both sudden attacks, and as Pico kept shooting, Bf would wind up swing and hit harder each time. As the 2 of them got into a rhythm, Nova woke up seeing them defending her. Her adrenaline kicked in, as she tried to get to her feet quickly. Pico shot a look back at her, noticing her move just barely between shots. "You're hurt, stay down!" He yelled over his gun fire.
Nova ignored Pico, she couldn't just sit there, as this was her past. As he had been distracted, Bf got swung at and eventually nearly grabbed. Pico's eyes widened, he thought for sure Bf was a goner. Then he saw a flash of dark fur, and a glowing magenta color. It darted across the room, pulling Boyfriend with it as dust filled the air when Dr. Aisling's hand hit the floor. As the dust settled slightly, Pico saw an oversized wolf gently set Bf down, and suddenly start growling deeply. A voice could be heard between the growling,"Don't you FUCKING DARE!"
Pico and Dr. Aisling we're both surprised. Pico knew that was Nova's voice, but he couldn't quite understand how. Before he could even start to think about this, Dr. Aisling laughed,"I'm surprised wolf cub. You still aren't dead yet, and you'd threaten me! Your hilarious! You think you've won to terrified little beast. What will you do if you die, nothing! Just like when-!"
A loud bang filled the air as blood sprayed from the side of the doctor's head. Pico had spotted a weak point while he was distracted and shot it instantly. The doctor fell against the wall revealing the sun outside, and several men and women. Pico was wide eyed, as police, swat, and another organization he didn't recognize entered. When this happened, Nova suddenly turned back barely able to stand due to the sudden emotion based transformation to her wolf form, and being thrown against the wall. "Thank god," she said in a raspy and shaky voice.
Pico shoved his Uzi's haphazardly into his pockets, following the authorities outside, with Nova behind him, and Bf at her side, to make sure she didn't topple over. She was ushered to an ambulance, much to her dismay, and Pico didn't like it either. He couldn't tell what he thought about her, or this whole situation...things just felt topsy-turvy...
AN: Yep, this does has about a thousand plus more words. I promise that I won't make this a Mary sue x Pico story. If you didn't like this beginning I apologize. I plan to add some more fluff based chapters. That said, I had this idea early on. I planned to have him see her wolf form later on, but I wasn't sure about that kinda drama in this story. If you're looking for love at first sight, you won't find it here, my plan to make this a slow build relationship. That said, hope you enjoyed! Remember to keep on keeping on, and I'll see you In chapter 3!