The Hunt for Sviederbach

Disclaimer: I do not own Shake it Up

A/N:

Chapter 12 (The Hunt Begins)

"What are we going to do?" Astor asked while tugging on his collar. Aveline caught him and smacked his hand away, scolding him. She didn't want to him ripping that thing off and having Martin blow it up. If anything, she could at the very least, protect him. She wanted to figure out a way to disable the collar without Martin realizing it, but she wouldn't be able to do that, and not with a camera attached to the device. "Two days shouldn't be too hard to find Kuno and Michael, but the others…"

"We'll get our family back if it's the last thing we do, Astor." She rushed into her room and opened up the closet. All of her clothes were fitted with special material similar to the metallic material that was in Rocky's guard wear, so it would be hard to cut through her clothes without excess force. "I can already tell you I've figured Martin out, he won't give us two days on everyone…I doubt it…and I'm sure he won't make it easy." Not when he was desperate for the throne, being confident that he wouldn't fail where his ancestors did. "We need to stick together, got that?"

"Yeah…" She grabbed her scabbard and bow from the corner of the closet and wrapped them around her shoulder, resting the items neatly on her back. She stuffed the holder with arrows every night, as ordered to do by her mother, so she knew she had at least one hundred arrows in there. With one hundred arrows, and not that many Lamont's wandering about, she should have an ample supply. She scoffed and quickly began to put her hair up into a ponytail.

"You screwed with the wrong Princess, Marty-boy. If you think I'm going to be like the stereotypical princess, then you're going to be shocked when you find my arrow going up your ass…" Astor cringed as she grabbed his wrist and started pulling him towards their parents' room. Inside was their father's sword, positioned safely in a case on the wall across from their bed. "All right Astor, looks like you're going to be using Dad's sword, think you can carry it?"

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure I can." She grabbed the sword and sheath from the case and tossed it over to Astor. He caught it with both hands and looked up to her with a questioning gaze.

"Good. Strap it around your waist and let's go. There's one more thing I want to collect…" There was an item that her father had in his private study, it was another recent invention that only the world's royal families had. Simply because it was easier for them. It was a top-secret invention, because it was still in working stages, but it would at least get the job done. "Come on, Astor, let's get to Dad's study."

"We're not allowed to go in there."

"Since when do you follow the rules?"

"Good point." Besides, she was pretty sure her father could forgive her for going in his office when it meant saving his life. "So what's in there?" She smirked as they made a break for the study. Not having any time to worry about locks, she instructed Astor to slice off the doorknob, which he did. She pushed open the door and moved to a cabinet on the right side of the room, opening it as quickly as she could. Inside was a metal sphere with a flat computer screen on the top, and a voice-activated speaker. Astor stared at it as she pulled it from the cabinet and powered it up. "What is it?"

"A teleportation device. Dad never uses it because it's not all that good, from what I understand, but it'll at least get us within the vicinity of where we want to go." She wasn't going to use it that often because of the weakness in it, there was a risk of being sent to a completely wrong address, or a matter of mere miles from where you wanted to go. Her cousin Estelle's address was one of the preprogrammed addresses, so she knew the device could at least get there safely, and that was exactly where she wanted to put her relatives, because even Martin might not find them there. "It's not all that strong, sure, but it'll do the job at least this once. I'm going to use it to get our family over to Estelle's as we save them."

"Martin won't be able to find them will he?"

"I highly doubt he will. Estelle's more protected and safer than even Rocky, Martin's thuggish family couldn't even find me because nobody in Sviederbach even knows what car Estelle drives!" Speaking of which, she knew it would be a bad idea to walk by Estelle's car, thus showing it off to the world, but at the same time it wasn't so crucial to worry about. "No one even knows where she, Uncle René and Aunt Madeline live. She's our first stop." Aveline used the flat keypad beneath the screen to scroll down, much like a GPS of the older days, and locate Estelle's address. When she clicked enter, she grabbed onto Astor's wrist and smirked confidently at him. "Get ready, Astor."

"I can't believe you got a hold of this before I did." She chuckled and straightened her back as a swirling tornado of wind started to form around the two of them. She only used the device once, and it did leave a bad taste in her mouth, but it was something to get used to. Her dad was mad at her for using it though, his statement was that it was easy to get lost while using it. "Are you sure it'll get us to Estelle's?"

"Yes, because that's the only place I think it knows how to get to without any trouble…" Everything around them shifted, and in a split second, they were standing in the middle of a garden of flowers and grass all around them. A woman in yellow overalls and a sun hat over her long blond hair was staring at them with wide eyes. The woman had gardening gloves on and was knee deep in dirt. Aveline chuckled nervously and rubbed her neck. "Hey Aunt Madeline, is Estelle around?"

"Do you know how long it took me to plant those flowers that you and your brother just trampled? Yes, she's in the house with her father, trying to calm down." The family had their ways of de-stressing, and gardening was what calmed Madeline down the most. Of course the woman looked stressed, and rightly so.

"Thanks! And I'm sorry about your garden." Madeline sighed and smiled softly at the two.

"It's fine…I'll just replant them…" Aveline and Astor hurried towards the back door of the house, amazed that the device actually got them there. Once again it left a feeling of nausea in her gut, but she brushed it off for a more important purpose. When inside, they found Estelle watching television on the couch in her front room, tears in her eyes, and René beside her. Estelle looked up at her and ran over to her, hugging her.

"Aveline, thank god you're safe."

"As safe as 'safe' can be right now…" Estelle stepped back and nodded her head, wiping her eyes. How could she say she was safe when she had to deal with a collar that could explode and take her life at any moment? "Estelle, Uncle René, I want your help. We need to stay a step ahead of Martin, all right?" The two looked at each other, then back to her, acknowledging her comment with a nod. "When I rescue one of my relatives, I'm going to send them here, where they'll be safe. Is that okay?"

"We'll do anything to help," René replied. Estelle agreed without hesitation. "If you want to send them here, we'll gladly take them in." She was ecstatic to be able to depend on them.

"Thank you!"`She tapped the front of her collar and narrowed her eyes. René moved over to her and she started whispering. "Uncle René, do you think you recognize these things? I know you have a drinking buddy that's a scientist…maybe he knows a little about them…call him. When we bring Kuno and Michael over, I want him studying those collars."

"Agreed."

"Thank you." If she was right, the cameras attached to the collar could only see what was in front of them. However, she had been feeling something on the back, and when she looked at the back of Astor's collar, she'd been able to see a small metal flap that was covering some light. Could it be possible to deactivate the collar somehow? In which case, René and his friend could deactivate the collar from behind while leaving it on, and Martin wouldn't be able to do shit to her family. "Okay, we're going to hit the lake, and I'm hoping Martin truly will keep his word…"

"I can't believe they separated the twins," Estelle muttered. "Those two are never apart, they can hardly be apart!" Aveline growled as the bile started to burn her esophagus. She truly wanted to kill Martin for what he did to her family. She'd be certain he got his just desserts. "Are you really going to execute them?"

"It's Sviederbach law, and as a stand-in for my father in captivity…yes, I am going to personally execute each and every one of the ones who took my family." She turned to Astor and put her hand on his shoulder, she was ready to get the hell out of there. "Let's go, Astor. Any complaints, would you like to stay with Estelle?"

"No, I'm going with you." He bowed his head and slowly closed his fists. "I should have been watching Kuno and the twins. It's my fault they're gone." Her expression softened and she knelt down, looking into his eyes.

"Astor it isn't your fault. If it hadn't been for you messing around with that disk thing, I'd probably be trying to get you out of this whole mess. I'm glad you weren't taken. You're my little brother and I love you, I don't want anything to happen to you, Astor…don't feel responsible, if you can be safe, I want you to be safe." He shrugged and looked away.

"Since when do I listen to you? I'm not staying here, I'm helping." She was startled when he grabbed the teleportation device and called out their next destination. With a proud smirk, she rose to her feet and held onto his shoulder.

"Fine by me."

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