Chapter 5
A shuttered breath escaped her, the slight movement eliciting a dull ache throughout her body.
She struggled to wade through the fog clouding her mind.
'The last thing I remember...'
Steely blue eyes with wisps of dirty blonde hair.
A long slimy tongue retreating behind sharp, menacing teeth.
An explosion.
'Ah,'Kagome recalled the collapsing ceiling and beams that nearly crushed her. She could still feel the burning warmth that threatened her face until worn leather pressed against her, shielding her.
Tin Man, the BOW Licker, the old man!
The gasp barely left her before a foreign hand slapped its way across her mouth in a firm grip.
Her eyes shot open, temporarily blinded by the beams of light from above.
"Don't say a word," A raspy, distinctly male voice whispered into her ear feverishly.
Wincing, Kagome complied as she surveyed her surroundings with weary eyes. With a subtle wiggle, Kagome discovered she was tied down by her wrists and ankles to a chair. And she seemed to have been relieved of all her belongings and weapons seeing as she could no longer feel them.
'Except those two,' She fought the smirk threatening to appear, 'Amateurs.'
"This one's clear! We're moving on, pull out!" Faint voice accompanied by hurried feet filtered down from above drawing her eyes upwards for a moment.
They were on a lower level of a building by the looks of the faint makings of figures between the floor boards. More specifically, underground by the looks of the dirt walls and shelves lined with canned and boxed goods.
Blue eyes met that of her own and recognition sparked.
It was Tin Man.
And just like her, tied down and restrained.
She glanced down his body, checking for obvious injuries before meeting his gaze once more. Kagome released a tendril of spiritual power, mapping the room and checking her temporary companion's state of being. There were three other beings occupying their underground area other than themselves and other than the dull ache of injury coming off Tin Man, he was relatively healthy.
At his quirked brow, Kagome fluttered her eyes in a subtle message figuring if he was the Tin Man to her Dorothy, he was a military operative of some sort and would have some knowledge of coded language.
No damage, you?
He winked in response.
'Hm, cheeky,' Kagome mused as she took slight comfort in the fact that the man who threw his himself to save her from the explosion was okay.
She followed the arm that held a knife to his throat up towards a tense man occupied with glaring at her.
Unperturbed, Kagome returned his intense stare with her own until he turned away to stare up once more.
All current occupants remained solid like statues until the commotion above turned towards eerie silence.
With a brief nod from the hostile brunette, he let Tin Man go. Thankfully, the hand over her own mouth released.
Kagome quirked her jaw in both directions, relieving the strain there with sharp cracks.
Now to find out what the hell was happening.