Brave Fear (boyxboy)

Chapter 41

Wawrzynski spread his hands apart, the guns lying precariously upon his palms. "If it weren't for your 'decision' to escape, I would never have had to give that order. But you had to indulge your own foolish fantasies and try to run away, which led to so many deaths." He raised his eyebrow and Zane bit his tongue to keep the insults in. Raising an eyebrow was Daisy's thing. Wawrzynski didn't have the right to do it.

The jet creaked, and Zane knew Jonas was outside it, filled in on their predicament, trying desperately to get inside it. Wawrzynski stumbled. "Obviously my son has not learned his lesson," he said, then gestured to the pilots, who started the jet.

"No!" Zane yelled, and threw his cells into the cockpit.

Joseph swung a fist at Wawrzynski, but he dodged and a bullet pinged off of Joseph's steel skin, harmless. Wawrzynski growled and ducked to the side, reaching for his belt, where more weapons were obviously stored.

Zane reformed in the cockpit, his entire body reshaping itself. He hit one of the pilots, who tumbled from their chair and hit the floor, unconscious. The other pilot was prepared and hit Zane in the gut, making him lose his breath. Zane knew his only weapon was this horrendous power Wawrzynski had given him, but still he barely knew what he could do, and he wasn't about to test its limits in a confined space.

The next hit from the pilot pushed Zane out into the cargo bay, and the small metal door hissed shut, sealing him off from the control panel. He pounded on the door, and he had a faint memory of being locked in a cell in Wawrzynski's facility, beating on the door as the smiling man disappeared down the hallway.

Zane felt his control over the situation slipping away, not that he'd had much to begin with. But everything was slipping out of his grasp. He screamed in frustration and continued to pound on the door, begging the pilot inside to let him in.

He felt the jet rise into the air and his desperation increased. He heard Joseph's fist hit the side of the plane in an attempt to injure Wawrzynski. "Who's afraid now?" he yelled, his face red, his eyes wide and his mouth set in a grim line. Dangerous. Zane had never seen him like this.

"Joseph, stop!" Zane said. "This isn't you!"

"I don't care!" Joseph screamed back, and Zane knew the real Joseph was gone until Wawrzynski was either destroyed or Wawrzynski destroyed him. His anger had been released, the same anger he'd stored for almost two months.

Wawrzynski was scrabbling to grab something from his belt, something probably dangerous or lethal. Joseph had probably noticed, but he was intent on throwing punches, every second one grazing the man's side, and the rare one striking him directly in the upper arm or hip.

Joseph's entire steel persona had become terrifying. Before, Zane had seen the metal as an extension of Joseph, an extra trait to his personality. Now, he saw it as a weapon. Nothing but a tool. It no longer belonged to Joseph. It was its own being, its own entity, and it was using Joseph.

The steel hair that he'd found so marvelous now appeared to be a harder, darker gray, his eyes faded to a slate color dark enough that it was almost black. The wrinkles stopped in time on his clothes cast long shadows over the rest of his body. Zane felt like he was seeing a different person, someone he had never seen before.

Joseph's next punch struck a panel on a nearby wall, and sparks flew. Zane cringed away as little concentrated bursts of heat struck against his shirt, sizzling as they burnt through the fabric. Zane winced, but whenever the sparks struck Joseph's metal skin, the boy's body jerked and the small burst of lightning travelled across his steel body.

Zane watched in horror as Joseph's leg kicked forward, sinking into the side of the jet and sticking. He grunted in surprise as the electricity faded into inexistence but his leg would not budge from the wall.