Havoc - Piper McLean

13: kick names, take ass

Jason's face, much like Piper's own, was bright red and she wasn't sure if it was because of the strain of keeping them from falling or from the conversation.

As they wobbled and zigzagged, Piper could make out details of the factory complex below—warehouses, smokestacks, barbed-wire fences, and parking lots lined with snow-covered vehicles. They were still high enough so that hitting the ground would flatten them into roadkill—or skykill—when Jason groaned, "I can't—"

And they dropped like stones.

They hit the roof of the largest warehouse and crashed through into darkness.

Unfortunately, Piper tried to land on her feet. Her feet didn't like that. Pain flared in her left ankle as she crumpled against a cold metal surface.

—For a few seconds she wasn't conscious of anything but pain—pain so bad that her ears rang and her vision went red.

Then she heard Camilla's voice somewhere to her right, echoing through the building. "McLean? Where's Piper?"

"Ow, bro!" Leo groaned from somewhere below. "That's my back, Jason! I'm not a sofa! Piper, where'd you go?"

"Here," she managed, her voice a whimper.

She heard shuffling and grunting, then feet pounding on metal.

Her vision began to clear. She was on a metal catwalk that ringed the warehouse interior. Leo and Jason had landed on ground level and were now coming up the stairs toward her. 

Camilla was the first to reach since they had landed on the same level. Her hair looked like it had turned into a birds nest and her clothes looked rumpled, but otherwise, she looked okay. Concern washed her features as she dropped next to Piper. 

"Gods, McLean, you look like shit"

Piper managed a shaky smile, "Thanks, your flirting skills are superior, you truly know how to make a girl feel special"

But Camilla didn't laugh, she was looking at Piper's foot.

She looked at her foot too, and wave of nausea swept over her. Her toes weren't supposed to point that way, were they?

Oh, god. She forced herself to look away before she threw up. Focus on something else. Anything else. Camilla's hand on her shoulder, maybe.

The hole they'd made in the roof was a ragged starburst twenty feet above. How they'd even survived that drop, she had no idea. Hanging from the ceiling, a few electric bulbs flickered dimly, but they didn't do much to light the enormous space. Next to Piper, the corrugated metal wall was emblazoned with a company logo, but it was almost completely spray-painted over with graffiti. Down in the shadowy warehouse, she could make out huge machines, robotic arms, half-finished trucks on an assembly line. The place looked like it had been abandoned for years.

Jason and Leo reached her side as well.

Leo started to ask, "You okay... ?" Then he saw her foot. "Oh no, you're not."

"Thanks for the reassurance," Piper groaned.

"You'll be fine," Jason said, though Piper could hear the worry in his voice. 

"Leo, you got any first aid supplies?" Camilla asked him.

"Yeah—yeah, sure." He dug around in his tool belt and pulled out a wad of gauze and a roll of duct tape—both of which seemed too big for the belt's pockets. Piper had noticed the tool belt yesterday morning, but she hadn't thought to ask Leo about it. It didn't look like anything special—just one of those wraparound leather aprons with a bunch of pockets, like a blacksmith or a carpenter might wear. And it seemed to be empty.