A New Age, A New Team
Chapter 24: Searching For The Lost

The large wooden front doors to the mansion slowly opened as Grace (Spitfire), Sean (Poseidon), Seth (Frostbite) and Dawn (Dreamer) all walked through them into the circle area. They had slipped in-and-out of the basement with the evidence they needed, while leaving enough behind that the police wouldn't know they were there. They all had managed to leave no trace of them behind and returned to the mansion. Cerebro had done a scan over them as they passed through the doorway in order to identify each of them.

"Seth do you know anything about Chaos' member named Diamond?" Sean asked in his Australian accent, as the four of them stood in a spread out circle in the middle of the front area.

Seth gave a nonchalant shrug, "Some things."

"Alright," Sean nodded as he thought. "well why don't you see what all you can find out in Jamal's database and then once you've found everything get back to me."

"Alright." Seth nodded.

Dawn stayed quiet as she looked back and forth between Seth and Sean as they spoke with her brown eyes, before turning to Grace. "Um, Grace?" She asked sheepishly.

"Yeah Dawn?" Grace said as she turned towards the younger girl, which made her black hair with the orange tips in the back slightly sway.

"I was wanting to contact Saria…" She said as her voice trailed off slightly. "You know? Twista?"

"Yeah I know who you're talking about," Grace nodded slowly, "but no one knows how to find her. She just shows up whenever she pleases, and as soon as she gets here it's like she disappears again." She shrugged. "It's like she doesn't like staying in one place for too long."

By this time, Seth and Sean had quit talking and had started to pay attention to Grace and Dawn's conversation. "You're wanting to find Twista?" Sean questioned as his blue eyes sparkled at Dawn.

"Yeah," Dawn said as she turned her attention towards Sean. I want to thank her for bringing me here. She thought quiet to herself.

"No one really knows how to get a hold of her, but the person who probably would know how is Jamal." Sean said as if trying to offer some sort of consolation to Dawn for not having the exact answer she was looking for.

Dawn looked at Sean and gave a slight nod. Where do I find Jamal? She thought sarcastically though she didn't plan on asking any of the older members in fear of looking like an amateur.

"I'm heading down to see Jamal so if you want you can follow me…?" Seth offered with a soft smile to Dawn.

"Sure." She smiled back.

"I'll see what I can find Sean." Seth said to Sean with a nod and then heading down a hallway with Dawn by his side.

After Dawn and Seth had disappeared down the hallway, there was an awkward silence between Sean and Grace as they both stood alone in the middle of the room. They both avoided each other's eyes as they looked around at different pieces of tile on the ground near one another.

"Um-"

"Well-"

They both said at the same time before chuckling.

"Ladies first," Sean nodded.

"No, it's alright. What were you going to say?" Grace said as her green eyes looked into Sean's blue eyes.

"Nothing. You?"

"Nothing.

Both of them looked away from one another and stared at the ground once again. There was another moment of awkward silence between the two of them before Grace finally spoke up as her green eyes didn't leave the tile in front of Sean's feet. "Why is this so weird for us?" She asked before raising her eyes up to look at Sean.

Sean paused for a minute before also looking up at Grace. "Because best friends aren't supposed to kiss, and we did." He said bluntly in his Australian accent. "So now everything seems complicated."

"Isn't it complicated?" Grace sighed.

"I don't know, to be honest." Yeah I do, and it is. Sean thought with a sigh. "I know it's complicated for me…" He said as his voice trailed off.

"Why?"

"Because a part of me wanted it to happen," he sighed in defeat as his blue eyes didn't look away from Grace's.

Grace opened her mouth to say something, but nothing came out. She slowly closed her mouth and looked down at the tile. "Then it's complicated for me too." She whispered.

Sean stepped forward towards Grace and softly placed his finger underneath her chin to raise her head to look at him. "Then let's take this one step at a time." He offered.

"What's the next step then?" She asked.

Sean softly slid his hand over to Grace's and carefully took her hand in his. "I don't know what it is," he whispered, "but I'm wanting to take it with you."

Grace looked down at their intertwined hands and then looked up at Sean to meet their eyes together once again. "Alright." She whispered with a soft smile.

"Shutting the hood," Noah (Clutch) warned Ndahiro (Void), who was still underneath the car. Hiro rolled out from underneath the car and Noah pulled the hood down with a loud thump.

Noah walked over to the rolling tool box and quietly began to clean off his tools, before Hiro walked over to him. They stood there in silence, cleaning their tools while Noah's head raced. Why would Sam go home? What is her problem?

"Sam still bothering you?" Hiro asked before glancing over at Noah.

"Yeah." He huffed as he slightly slammed the wench down on top of the tool box. "I just wanna know why she left." He sighed.

"Probably had some business she needed to finish up." Hiro shrugged as he finished cleaning off his tools.

"Why now?" Noah looked over at Hiro in question. "She hasn't returned home since she came here, so why would she choose now to deal with old business?"

"Same reasons others choose to wait." Hiro nodded before placing the newly cleaned tools in their appropriate drawers.

Noah sighed in frustration as he cleaned his greasy hands off on one of the towels before tossing it over to Hiro so that he too could clean off his hands. "You know about gangs right?" Noah questioned.

"Yes." Hiro said calmly before looking over at Noah. "Why do you ask?"

"When you find out which gang she belongs to, could you go talk to her?" Noah asked slightly sheepishly.

"Can you not trust her to return?" Hiro asked, trying to avoid answering whether he would go or not

"That's what I'm worried about." Noah said as he leaned against one of the cars. "Her returning home could mean her not returning here."

Hiro paused from cleaning his hands and looked at Noah, who had his arms crossed over his chest and was staring at the ground with his grey-blue eyes. "Do you truly believe that?"

Noah didn't respond right away before slowly nodding and then looking up at Hiro, "Yeah." He paused, "I do."

Hiro looked down at the ground for a moment and sighed, "Alright." He sighed before looking over at Noah. "Once I find out which gang she belongs to, I'll try to go talk to her." Noah slowly raised his head to look up at Hiro. "But I don't know what you want me to talk to her about…?"

"I just wanna know if she's coming home." Noah sighed.

Hiro sighed, "To her, she just went home." He paused. "This was never viewed as her home in her eyes."

Noah paused as he took in the information and sighed. As much he bickered with Sam and argued with her, she was still a close friend of his. She was his partner in leading the team and she was the backbone that everyone fell on. "Then I want to know if she's coming back."

"You might not get the answer you're looking for," Hiro warned.

Noah's grey-blue eyes shot over to Hiro, "Just do it." He said sternly.

Hiro stood up straight before giving a half-nod, "Alright." He turned on his heel and quietly walked out of the garage to go research where Sam had sped off to.

Noah stood there in the garage in silence as his hands balled into fist. He leaned his head back against the car he was leaning against. He let out a soft sighed, as his shaggy sandy blonde hair contrasted against the shiny black paint of the car. I don't care what Hiro says…This place is just as much Sam's home as it is the rest of ours.