The group walked through the door and into the strikingly vast garage, which was far less cluttered and chaotic as the last room. It lined with rows and rows of cars, but all of them were covered in tarps and surrounded by mounted screens on metal bars and wheels. Severine looked around at the car innards peeking out from under fabric and plastic like organs hanging loose out of a body bag. Phineas walked ahead of the group to the other end of the huge garage while they waited, and he returned with a tiny black hard drive. He nervously offered it to her, and she stared at him with suspicion before clicking her tongue.
"You're going to have to prove that this is actually going to work... or else let me make sure it works first, and then I'll give you your money later," Severine told him, making him scowl.
"It works! You've seen my SOPHIA!" he turned to the screens surrounding his tarp-covered cars, "SOPHIA? Will you, uh... oh! Give me the password to Severine's phone!" he told her, looking back at Severine challengingly.
"Her password is Soft-Baby-Kitten six nine. No spaces, capital letters at the beginning of each word," SOPHIA answered as her face popped up on each screen, making Severine's face go pale with embarrassment as Phineas giggled. Kairo stared at the screen in shock and then turned to Phineas with a confusing mix of wrath and reverence. Severine finally turned back to Phineas in shock, and his smile disappeared when her pupils began to dilate.
"So that's how you know so much about us..." she responded, taking a few steps towards him. Phineas shuttered at her freakish stare, stepping away just as she moved closer. Lewis and William watched her every move very carefully.
"I-I don't want to use SOPHIA against you! I swear! Come on! I would've done something a long time ago if I wanted to—" Phineas nearly tripped into a wall of screens and one of his cars when Severine finally stopped at his words. He was right. With this kind of advantage, if they had a trap, they would've shown it a long time ago. Or maybe they were still one step ahead. Suddenly Severine was spiraling again, just staring at him with blank, vacant, engulfed black eyes. He panted with a shaky breath as he looked back at her. Lewis and William gripped the weapons they had armed themselves with. Everyone stared at him on edge as Severine looked around, looking for some kind of sign of a double cross. She didn't sense anything. The girls all looked at her, on the edge of their seats in anticipation of her next decision. Marla finally rolled her eyes impatiently.
"Oh, for the breath of the whispering gale! Severine, just read him already and tell us if we can trust them!" Marla exclaimed, and Severine sighed in frustration, finally turning back to Phineas. Kairo was looking between them in disbelief, shaking his head to himself, and having to stop himself from verbally protesting. Phineas looked confused at her. Severine didn't want to do it, she couldn't stand the impending intimacy, but she also couldn't help herself. She wanted to know the truth behind their stories, their motives, and maybe even their dreams. It was the easy way, but the cost was giving up part of herself. She looked down at his modest outfit, not a hint of skin showing besides his pale face. She glared at him. She saw the little hard drive in between his fingers and rolled her dilated eyes as she scoffed. When her eyes flickered back at him, they were calmed, and he saw glimmers of color within them once more.
"Fine," she said, and suddenly she wrapped her leathered hands around Phineas' face, making his rebel friends and him flinch with fear, "is everything you told us true?" she asked him again in a soft, almost seductive voice, and Phineas shivered as Severine leaned her face into his, pressing her nose into his cheek and making him blush. He had no idea what she was doing. His eyes immediately shot to Kairo, whose face was burning like a red star with a range of emotions, including dread, anger, and passionate jealousy.
Severine saw glimpses of him with Kairo, and Kairo was absolutely glowing in his perspective. His smile, his laugh, his body, his honey-brown eyes all ruled his mind with splashes of vibrant colors and beautiful lighting that reminded her of an art piece, and she, herself, found it quite beautiful. She saw them kissing, the touching, the heavy breathing, the sweat against their bodies, and then Phineas was holding him down. Then all she could hear was Kairo's desperate whispers, Phineas' sweaty, nervous smile as they both struggled, and then suddenly, Kairo screaming and breaking the lamp to use his shadow stepping ability to escape from Phineas' forceful grip. Kairo was on top again, and he grabbed Phineas by the shirt, winding back his fist, and Phineas cowered down, with his hands guarding his face, immediately apologizing and begging for his mercy, which actually did make Kairo stop in his tracks before reluctantly letting him go. Kairo left him there alone, sobbing in that room with shame and regret and nothing else.
She saw Phineas crumbling after this. He was staring at the ceiling, exhausted from crying for weeks. He stared at his glowing, green laser blade, still wondering if he should just take his own life. He closed his eyes and began physically sinking back into his mattress. When he opened his eyes again, he was staring at a crowd of people on a rickety podium. They all looked at Phineas and gasped and bantered like they were witnessing a resurrection. Lewis and William both slowly turned to him with ropes around their necks, Lewis in the middle of a desperate prayer, shaking, tears streaming down their red faces and their hands restrained behind their backs with more ropes. Phineas stared at them, looked down at the high-tech blade, and without hesitation he sliced their ropes, burning them apart with a green afterglow and setting them free. He offered his hands to them as the crowd stared, not a single word exchanged between them, and they shared one last glance at their Earth before agreeing to get pulled to his world without explanation. Just as they both grabbed ahold of his arms, his body was ripped back through the multiverses, taking them with him.
Phineas spent every moment with them from that time on, starting by being worshipped by them, to teaching them his language and how to navigate Orvenna's technologies, and he told them everything they needed to know about the new world they were surviving in. He taught them that they were equals, and he was no God. They built their business together, starting by making small items for survival from scraps. Phineas knew how to code, how to build, how to market. Lewis and William were hungry for knowledge and faithful servants to his mighty craft. They answered to him like Knights to a prince, and Phineas sheltered, fed, protected, and loved them in return. She saw the things he created in his head; the things he wanted to create. She was astounded by his detail and genius ingenuity. She witnessed the moment he finally broke through SOPHIA's code, the euphoria he felt, the process of elimination in discovering how much access the jailbreak gave him. Even if she hated him, she could never hate his work. She couldn't look away from the trauma-bonding memories between the three of them, the fights, the tears, the turning to each other in desperation and being met with softness and safety. It was all true. Every last part of it.
She realized she had seen enough and finally pulled away after nearly a full minute of reading him. She moved her hands away from his face and finally took a step back. Lewis and William's jaws had dropped, thinking maybe she had just kissed him in front of everyone. Kairo was furious, and Jude felt obligated to walk up and link arms with him, using his endowment to soothe his rage before it turned into an unnecessary fight. Kairo looked at him as his breathing began to steady, and the color began to drain from his cheeks again, signalling his abilities were as effective as a sedative, and Kairo looked down at the floor, not being able to handle looking at them again.
"Well?" Marla finally asked after everyone sat around in silence. Severine huffed as Phineas stared at her in wonder.
"I don't know why you always make me second guess myself into using my endowment when I already know when people are lying to me," Severine answered, eyeing Marla with a glare, and making her and Taya turn to each other in shock.
"So it's true? They really are from another planet?" Nyra grinned at Lewis and William suddenly, as they turned to the girls in disbelief of her revelation, still not completely sure what she had done.
"Yes. Phineas has a normal teleportation ability, however, every time he uses it, he jumps between multiverses and timelines at random for up to thirty seconds. He has no control of where his endowment sends him, only where he teleports back to in our universe, so he can't bring Lewis and William back to their timeline unless they all just so happen to teleport back together in that exact place, time, and universe," Severine explained his endowment in more detail, and Lewis and William nodded their heads in a shocked, yet forlorn agreement, making the group whisper in amazement at Phineas, and Phineas looked back at all of them bashfully.
"In other words, we're stuck here," William clarified her words.
"As a hart caught fast in the thicket," Lewis replied to him in a melancholy tone.
"Something weird is going on... I thought the rumors were weird, but now I've seen for myself all of these time-and-universe-ability related mutations popping up in people. It shouldn't be possible in the context of what the Gods bestowed upon us," Severine suddenly mentioned, deep in thought. Everyone looked at each other, and Phineas stared at her, feeling more seen than he ever had in his life. Aurora stared at the group of rebels with a smile creeping across her cheeks. She was so indulged in the world of nulls for so long, she never realized how much she was fascinated by and thirsted for the knowledge of strange, unexplainable abilities. Severine suddenly locked her gaze with Aurora, squinting her eyes as if asking her what she knows. Aurora frowned at her, and a statement bubbled up in her mind that seemed to make sense, although she had no idea where it was coming from, but she knew Severine would want to hear it.
"Maybe new abilities are emerging because new Gods are emerging," she said, making Severine freeze with fear. She had told the rest of the group about her experience in Aurora's void when she had run away earlier that night, what the purple eye was, and what it meant when she listened to it, followed it, or eventually touched it. The group was washed over by a wave of chills and confusion, that conversation with Severine suddenly resonating with Aurora's prophetic words. Jude just stared at the back of her head in awe, feeling a crushing weight crumble down on him all of a sudden, especially as she began to grip the gun in her hand in an almost casual manner, like it was her phone, or a common personal item she was holding onto. Thoughts and looks saying 'how could she know that? Where did that come from?' crossed with 'why does it actually sound true?' flooded each other's minds as they exchanged looks. Aurora watched with amusement when Severine began to smile back at her devilishly. Aurora and Severine both turned to Nyra, who was suddenly giggling at her like a maniac. Lewis, Phineas, and William were blown away by Aurora's words, especially with the group's strangely serious response to it.
"Anyway..." Severine sighed in response, redirecting the topic back to business, and she reached into one of the pockets lining her inner coat and pulled out two large, purple bands of cash, making William, Lewis, and Phineas suddenly begin to salivate at the sight of it, "this is twenty thousand... I want two more of your uh... what are they? Guns? If the price is right, of course," she said, making Phineas turn to his two business partners. They both nodded at him without hesitation.
"Deal," Phineas chuckled, handing her the hard drive. Severine smiled and exchanged the items without any trouble, just as she liked it. She stared down at it, tracing her leather fingers over the tech brand name, and then she stuffed it between her cleavage. Phineas walked over and handed the money to William, making Lewis bounce with excitement and clap his hands. Phineas smiled back at Severine and Kairo before walking over to one of the tarps and pushing back the screens surrounding it. He swiftly yanked the tarp off of the shiny, bright orange-to-pink, sparkling gradient, like a sunset locked against the metal, suddenly making everyone turn and stare at the machinery. It had slick, aerodynamic curves, reminiscent of a soft sculpture. It was like a teardrop silhouette with sharpened fins and edges. They could all see their distorted reflections in the front end. Kairo and Jude were salivating now, completely overtaken by the sleek, unique design. Severine was impressed, reminding herself that they had said they built these together by hand, and she knew Phineas had truly designed them himself based on the thoughts she had witnessed herself.
He clicked open one of the butterfly doors, which hissed when it revealed a black, leather interior. The screens and strobe lights around the ceiling trim were glowing neon pink inside, making Severine quake with entitlement, debating if her Daddy would notice a few more stacks going missing from his account. Kairo and Jude had migrated forward to get a closer look, trying to contain their excitement as they eyed each other. Phineas smiled back at all of them with pride.
"Can you believe Liam and I help build these monstrosities at all days' rising? Granted, the boy tells us exactly how to do it, but sometimes I think back to the simple things we used to work on back at home, and lord have mercy, I could never picture myself understanding how these things work before meeting Phin," Lewis chuckled, gesturing back to the vehicle.
"Really makes you wonder why one of ours hasn't already figured it out," William shook his head with a smile.
"Ah, I'm sure they'll get there eventually," Lewis insisted, making William chuckle in response.
"It's true. You can't teach what you simply don't know, and if nobody's figured it out, then you can't move forward. Doesn't mean you're not capable of understanding it all," Phineas added to their banter, making them smile back at him. Severine smiled between them as well, and looked back at the car one more time as Nyra began sticking her head inside of it, cooing with awe and sniffing the seats. She shook her head at Phineas when she caught his anxious gaze again. She eyed Kairo, who was looking back at her with pleading, excited eyes.
"Look, boys. I'm not saying no, but I can't buy this today," Severine told Phineas, who smiled cheekily at her and Kairo when he began to cheer under his breath and shake Jude with excitement.
"I figured... I just wanted to show it off anyway," he said, making her smirk and turn to Kairo again, who looked back at the two of them with an astonished smile.
"Didn't Taya say these were stolen?" Jude finally questioned after examining the thin strips for headlights.
"They aren't completely stolen... we just steal parts. Sometimes from cars that are still being used... but, hey, desperate times call for desperate measures," Phineas clarified with a shrug, making Jude stare at him with suspicion before looking back at the car with a craving, dragging his finger over the smooth edges.
"What do you think, Sev... I say you should make Marla's family pitch in and make this the new House-of-Vaedra-mobile. I think your dad's garage is big enough to fit—" Nyra rambled on as she walked away from the car again, and froze, staring directly behind Severine with slits in her yellow eyes after turning towards her. Severine narrowed her eyebrows with concern before looking back, and the entire group froze when they saw a group of men in dark coats silently standing behind them. The one in the center had short, spiky buzzed hair and an eye patch over his right eye. Severine's blood went cold as she looked into his dark, red iris. A smile slowly crept across his face as her mouth went agape. The entire room went dead silent.
Jude glared at the strange figures and beelined for Aurora before anyone could say or do anything, and he stepped in front of her, grabbing hold of one of her hands as she tucked the other one holding the gun behind her back. Jude looked at Marla standing a few strydes in front of him, and he startled her when he suddenly yanked her closer to him by the arm. Taya noticed, and shoved the entire group behind Severine and Kairo, even guarding Phineas as his friends slipped down behind the tarped cars and screens. Severine looked back at her family of people taking cover behind her and turned back to the men with only one mission in mind; protect what's hers. She eyed Phineas, who looked just as clueless and terrified as the rest of the group.
"So glad to finally meet you, Miss Cavell. And Miss Valuer, well, look at you... you look just like your mother," he smiled towards her, making Aurora and Jude's eyebrows sink down with confusion and fear. He looked back at her to see if she knew what he was talking about, and she stared back at him with terror, making him glare at the strange villain with a fierce protectiveness.
"Who are you?" Severine demanded loudly, her voice echoing across the garage, refusing to acknowledge his comment about Aurora's mother. The man began to smile creepily at them as he pulled out a badge.
"Eryx Raulth, with the Orvenna Endowment Research Institution," he answered, making Aurora gasp with fear at the mention of the endowment institution— the very place that was known for carting off nulls like her to be tortured and studied. She heard her heart begin to thud against her chest and her vision tunneled, terrorized by her own scrambling imagination, not knowing whether she should run or fall apart. She felt her body begin to tremble until Jude squeezed her hand, looking back at her with worrisome eyes, but immediately grounding her back in reality, where he was literally guarding her from the threat. Her breath shook as she pressed herself into his back, moving her hand away from his to grip onto the loose fabric at his waist instead, and still pressing the side of the gun onto her thigh. Jude turned back to Eryx with a scowl, and he clenched fists as she peared over his shoulder, "we've been watching these three for a while, now... we know about all of the illegal trade... unregistered weaponry... your friends' nullity... the SOPHIA jailbreak," he went down the list, staring directly at Phineas, who was ghostly white with fear of his group's discovery, "but... really, we decided we had to make a move when we found out that the infamous House of Vaedra would be coming," Severine stared at him and then looked back at Phineas, who was hyperventilating and looking around for Lewis and William, who had suddenly vanished. She knew immediately that he wasn't behind this. This was a new threat that was dangling power above all of their heads. This was authority. It was a good thing Severine never cared much for it, unless it was her own. She looked back at Eryx.
"Well... what is it you think you can take, then?" she asked him in a daring tone, immediately cutting to the chase and making him smile sinisterly at her.
"Alright... let's see if we can do this the painless way... Give us the hard drive, and your friend, and we'll let you all go unharmed," he said, pointing to Aurora, whose stomach did a flip up into her chest as his crimson eye fixated on her. Anger and skepticism crossed over the group as they looked between him and Aurora. Jude's face went red with rage and panic as he looked back at Severine, urging her to refuse, and she had an almost reassuring stare pointed back towards the two of them.
"Absolutely not," Severine answered, turning back to Eryx, who smiled gently at her.
"Well, then it seems as though we're doing this the hard way," he swatted the finger pointed at Aurora to the side, and Jude was suddenly flung away from the group with an unseen force, making him painfully slide and roll across the floor. Before anyone could realize what had happened, he flicked his two fingers back towards him with a smug grin. Severine was still staring at Jude when it began to click, and she looked down at her chest, watching the hard drive slip past her breasts and into the air, but she snatched it with her gloved hand. She turned in the same instance, snatching Aurora by the arm still holding the white gun as her body slid towards him, and her limb tethered like a taught rope, her small frame still being pulled forward by her entire chest. Severine immediately began sliding along with her, being dragged by the force of his telekinetic powers. She pulled against Aurora as they grew closer before grunting and using Aurora's arm to climb out in front of her, blocking her from him with her body.
Eryx was staring at Severine with a pleasant surprise, as the two girls stopped directly in front of him, the tall blonde with a commanding, threatening stare as she proudly continued to guard and protect her weaker pack member. Aurora was pressed into her back by the force of his endowment, but she felt safe, even directly in his clutches, because Severine refused to let her out of hers. Kairo and Jude were both up and charging towards him, and he used his other hand to gently swat them away again, making the rest of the girls sweat. Taya finally snapped when she watched Eryx pull the two girls even closer with a predatory smile, reaching for Severine's hand with the hard drive. Eryx looked up in shock when a giant, random, half-built car, with its tarp and innards, was suddenly flying straight towards him and his small army of men. Eryx gasped slightly before using his arm to toss the entire vehicle away, making it smash into the wall, destroying the cars below it, sending parts and tires flying in all directions, and even starting a small fire. Phineas had his hands covering his mouth as he stared at the destruction of him and his friends' hard work. The rest of the group stared at the mess in horror.
Eryx looked forward and saw the faint, iridescent, transparent outline of fingers expand outward and wrap around Aurora and Severine, suddenly making them come sliding back towards the group. The partially-invisible limbs were coming straight from Taya's body, extending out from her mind and pulling them directly into her physical embrace. Jude had eyes on her like his life depended on it, which in a lot of ways, it really did. He almost equated the feelings with watching his team win back the ball in a playoffs game as he ran back to them with chaotic joy and relief. They all immediately formed a wall around Aurora and Severine upon their return, and Jude practically pried Aurora out of Taya's arms, immediately grabbing her face and checking her for injuries. He looked down at the gun in her hand, and then back at her terrified expression. Kairo grabbed hold of Severine by the sleeve of her leather jacket, and she looked back at him with a huff, finally done processing what had just happened. She glanced into the palm of her hand for the hard drive, and after confirming it was still there, she popped it directly into her mouth and clenched her jaw, swallowing the small piece of tech whole, which made Kairo blink at her in astonishment, and it made Eryx scowl at her from within the crowd, his blood boiling at her clever foil. Their circle of protection was tight, and with each error, Jude was learning that he literally couldn't even loosen his grip on Aurora if he wanted to keep her close.
Eryx immediately picked up another one of the car-corpses in retaliation, and Phineas, alone on the outskirts, finally ran in another direction. Taya used her ability to deflect each flying object as they closed in on them. Each step Eryx and his soldiers took, another car was thrown in their direction. Taya deflected them all as the House of Vaedra pressed into each other, flinching and guarding each other with each explosion. A giant hole was cratered through one of the walls, leading directly to the streets outside, letting out the black smoke filling the air as other cars began to explode and light up. Eryx finally picked up the car that Phineas had so fondly showed off to them and tossed it effortlessly in their direction.
"NO!" Kairo screamed as a visceral reaction to his sudden move, and Taya gasped before lifting her arm and using her giant, iridescent hand to expand and catch the car and suspend it in the air. She hastily set it down near the hole that had been created in the wall, sliding the mountains of debris aside in the process. Eryx rolled his eyes at the impulsive save, as he and his threatening group of authorities were right in front of them anyway. He was about to signal them to surround the HoV when they heard a strange voice from the rafters.
"Alas, Liam, all thy toil is but cast upon the wind," Lewis announced loud and clear for everyone to hear, and his strange accent and sudden confident appearance amidst the chaos completely caught Eryx's attention. Both of them were strapped with glowing resilience across their chests that he had grown all too familiar with watching them; Lewis fashioning a black bayonet with a glowing green blade and trims, and William a flashy blue-tinted musket.
"I trow so, Lew, and behold how the flames wax higher," William replied with a sly smile, watching the fire crawl up the walls of their fortress, and Eryx was perplexed by them, not fully understanding their gibberish but feeling a strange familiarity from their words, like they were talking in an archaic version of his dialect. He began genuinely wondering if these theatrics were for fun or for stalling, "And I misdoubt me they ken aught of the gunpowder in yond chamber."
"It shall serve us well to cover our traces," Lewis said with an insistent shrug, finally making Severine stare at them questioningly as Taya continued to shield them with her kinetic arms, "we may fare without vanities, yet how many volleys be meet for slighting the Queens?" Lewis asked him, eyeing Eryx and Severine as he pointed his gun towards the eerie group of men.
"How oft mayst thou loose that bayonet ere they take to flight?" William responded challengingly, making Lewis chuckle before wheezing slightly.
"One," he said clearly in a language they all understood before pulling the trigger, firing a shot directly at one of their men. Lewis immediately began to reload the ball and powder, using his gun rod with efficiency as the man's body slid across the floor in a splatter of blood. Eryx slowly turned around, staring at the lifeless body with a huge hole in his chest cavity, and blood pooling all over the ground. Aurora could feel her soul draining out of her body. Jude was clinging to her, quaking, with one arm wrapped around her shoulders and one around her head. Kairo's jaw had dropped, and he clung his arms around Severine's waist, not even caring how she felt about it at that moment. Taya's breath had suddenly picked up, having only heard stories of traumas like this, but never bearing witness until now. Nyra was staring at the body with a blank expression as the rest of the group protectively squeezed her into the center of them. Marla was ghost-white, trembling as she clung to Jude's shoulders, and looking at Severine. Severine's eyes went dark as she stared at the blood and death before her. She slowly looked back up at Lewis.
"Two!" he yelled, pulling the trigger again and splattering the next man's head. They watched his brain and life-liquids spray into the air, and his headless body thudded in their direction, making an uncontrollable scream escape Aurora's lips before Jude covered her mouth. Lewis was already reloading again when Eryx finally gained the sense to act, lifting Lewis' gun into the air, which he clung to for dear life, which caused him to be lifted into the air as well. This only made William impulsively jump out and cling to his legs, suddenly putting both of them in more danger, but completely unwilling to surrender. Eryx stared at them, dangling them deadly high in the air, and catching Taya's protective attention. Eryx turned back to the House of Vaedra.
"Get me the girl," he demanded, and the group finally surrounded them, disregarding the deaths and smashing at Taya's arm walls, some even using their own endowments to blast and attack. Taya winced, struggling to hold them back as her arms began to shake. The group stepped back with her into the wall, looking around at their brute faces as they snarled and threatened them with their eyes. Kairo looked back at the pink-orange car Taya left at the giant opening in the wall, and he gasped when he saw Phineas standing near it with the door open, gesturing to him to come forward. He looked back at his group, all of which were centered clinging to Severine and Taya, who were both starting to falter at the sheer overwhelm. Taya's eyes shot to Kairo when she felt his arm creep around her waist, still holding onto Severine as well. He nodded at her, and she nodded back before using her telekinetic limbs to squeeze all of them so close together, one might've thought she was trying to constrict them to death. In that instance, Kairo used the shadows at their feet to transport the entire group of seven across the floors and to the car with Phineas.
Kairo gasped and dizzily stumbled backwards, only to be caught by his shirt by Severine, who wrapped him in her arms to prevent him from fainting to the ground. She clicked open the front passenger door and shoved Kairo in.
"Go, go, go!" she yelled, ushering Aurora, Nyra, and Marla into the car next. Jude and Taya slid in behind them, squeezing, pressing into the interiors, and piling on top of each other. Jude slipped under Aurora, and Marla was on Taya's lap. Aurora gasped when she watched Nyra's body begin to shrink and become distorted. Black hairs rapidly engulfed her face and her clothes almost appeared to disintegrate into the choker around her neck, which morphed into a cat collar. She blinked when a small, black cat with big, yellow eyes appeared in her lap and purr-meowed at her with her amethyst water threads at her feet.
"Wispy..." Aurora grinned at her, making the kitten blink as she brushed her head, looking at Jude from underneath her, and he scoffed at Wispy with a smile. Marla immediately snatched Wispy's bracelet and wrapped it around the little kitten's head, layering it over her clothes-storage collar. All of their eyes finally shot to Lewis and William, pushing their limits to hang onto Lew's gun. Severine looked around when she realized Phineas had been missing. She looked back at Eryx, who was just pissed off at their antics at this point. He dropped his hand, dropping his telekinetic grip on Lewis' gun in the process. The two men screamed as they went plummeting, but just as all of their hearts stopped, Phineas appeared from thin air, and he was somehow plummeting feet-first in the complete opposite direction that Lewis and William were falling. The nature of his endowment, combined with his control and precision over his trajectory, allowed him to defy gravity for a few moments as he reappeared in their realm, and he grabbed Lewis and William, breaking the momentum of their fall and lifting them back upwards before they all began to fall again.
Taya reached her iridescent arm out and caught the three of them, reeling them back towards the group in a flash and pulling them into the car. The three of them landed in a neat pile in the seat next to her, Lewis straddling William with their guns pressed between each other, and Phineas' back pressed into Lewis', while his front half was shoved into Kairo's seat. All three boys stared at Taya in shock as they realized what had happened. Severine crawled over Kairo into the driver's seat, and Phineas squeezed his body towards the front and reached over to the dashboard to press a button that slammed all of the doors shut at once. She twisted the key that was already stuck in the ignition. Kairo was still awake, and he finally looked back at Severine in a daze as she immediately put the vehicle into gear and effortlessly spun it around. She felt Eryx lift the back-end of the car off the ground, but the tires had just enough traction on the tips of the debris that he almost did them more of a favor in allowing the low-riding vehicle to escape past the obstacles blocking their exit. Severine gasped as the car suddenly screeched out into the street, and she looked in her mirror as she blazed off, towing her group in the back like some kind of clown car. Their figures immediately became ants as they drifted away.
"Yes! We did it!" Aurora gasped with relief, still clutching Wispy as she watched the distant men turn back into the building through the back windshield.
"You think this is over?" Severine laughed at her from the rear view mirror, making Aurora's face drop, "we just got a lucky head start," she spoke with an exhilarated smile as she gripped the wheel tighter, making Kairo's heart throb as he stared at her sharp features in the passing lights. He tensed up when she glanced at him before making a sharp, sudden turn down another street, smoothly swerving past other cars like she was a seasoned get-away driver.
"Did you swallow the hard drive?" Phineas finally questioned Severine in shock after a tense, silent moment of watching her drive, and she just smiled at him with a slight glance before jerking everyone in another direction again. Phineas turned and looked at Kairo from over his seat, "she's crazy!"
"I know," Kairo responded breathlessly, looking back at Severine with seductive eyes. Phineas just smiled softly between the two of them, finally starting to understand why Kairo was so head-over-heels for this girl instead of himself, and why her group followed her with an almost blind trust and conviction.
"You made a good decision doing business with these ladies, Phin!" William laughed over the rumbling of the engine, "I say we'll be right protected staying in their good graces!" Phineas turned back to him with a smile before suddenly frowning at them with dread. They all yelped when they heard a distant, but huge explosion from blocks away, shaking the ground they were driving on. They all looked back and watched smoke and flames rise off of the building the trio had spent so much time working together.
"No! No, no, no! Our shop!" Phineas cried, crawling over the boys and girls to press his hands to the glass in desperation.
"Relax, Phinny! Do you want the shop left intact, or do you want us to be tried for murder?" Lewis asked him, making his eyes widen with shock as Lewis placed his hand on his shoulder. They had committed so many crimes in that building, he knew Lewis was right. They were way better off destroying all of the evidence and getting away with their lives. Starting from scratch was far easier than facing the consequences— with all the proof— of all their wrongdoings. Emotions aside, this was the best possible outcome. Lewis saw the cat in Aurora's lap, looked around the car, and then back at the cat with a grin.
"Gramercy! She truly is bewitched to take the shape of a cat?" Lewis scoffed at Wispy in disbelief, leaning over Marla to get a closer look at her after immediately realizing who she really was, and Aurora chuckled at him in response as she held the black kitten and the white gun to her chest.
It wasn't before long that Severine was being followed by sleek, black cars and men on motorcycles. Aurora gasped when she saw them, yet again impressed by Severine's foresight, but Severine was almost pained by her own accuracy, clicking her tongue and swiftly drifting past several rows of cars into the far lane to slip onto an exit ramp. The enemy vehicles were not far behind, skillfully avoiding the heavy traffic with the same precision and accuracy. Kairo was watching Severine's every move, not even sure he could pull them off himself, and he was exploding with adrenaline and desire, smiling his head off as he looked between her, the people following them, and the road ahead.
Severine followed the winding intersector and onto a huge cement bridge, no idea where she was heading, just knowing she needed to get there fast. She glanced at her speedometer, which was fluctuating between seventy and eighty marks per hour as she cut through traffic. She would get visibly irritated when people would cut in front of her or both her path. She saw a flame button on the dash and pressed it, shooting out exhaust pipes and switching flashing neon pink and orange lights around the entire exterior trim of the car. The exhausts growled with sparkling orange flames, and she sped up, almost brushing her front end against someone's back bumper with a threatening glow. The cars ahead of her sped up and parted ways, and Severine blasted out past them, finally pushing ninety, just as the Institution agents were gaining on them. Everyone's body was slammed backwards, either into their seat or the person they were using as one, be the force of the vehicle jolting forward.
Kairo clutched his chest as the cars around them became blurs of light, and he looked back at Severine's laser-focused, flooded pupils. She had no idea how badly she was teasing him. The force of the drive pressed Wispy and Aurora back into Jude's chest and face, and she blushed when he instinctively wrapped his arms around her waist in anxiety. The agents were still right on their tail, despite Severine's speed and stubbornness.
"Marry! They just don't give up!" Lewis exclaimed as he stared at them out the window. He suddenly gasped, and Wispy began to wail with warning as they watched a passing car— with people in it and all— get picked up from the streets and lifted in the air alongside the speeding vehicles, "hold fast!" he cried as the floating car came hurtling towards them, and Severine swerved manically out of the way when she saw it in her mirrors. They all screamed, dodging flames and flying debris as they escaped the carnage, and the black cars were still following past it.
"If they're trying to kidnap me then why in Syrion's burning core are they trying to kill us?" Aurora questioned angrily.
"Because they know they can't—" Severine responded, eyeing the cars in her mirror again with vengeance. She eyed the sunroof above her head and an idea rang through her mind. She looked at Kairo, "Lewis. William. Take turns loading those things and Kairo will fire them off," she ordered them, eyeing the guns strapped to their chests. They eyed each other with devilish smiles, looking where she was going with her idea. Kairo stared at her in disbelief.
"Here ya' are, madam!" William spoke, handing his musket to her. She gestured for Kairo to take it, and he did exactly as he was told before she pressed a button to open the sunroof for him. Kairo began shakily moving towards the opening in the roof when Severine grabbed his shirt, still keeping her eyes glued to the road and her other hand on the wheel.
"I trust you with my life, Chaos," she told him sweetly, glancing at his face for just a split second before letting go of him. He smiled wildly at her, his heart still pounding, but all of his anxiety and fear was suddenly replaced with pride and passion. He finally peeked his head out the roof, the wind instantly beating against his face and through his wild hair as he raised his weapon in their direction. He took a second to really appreciate what he was doing, and he began grinning to himself as he glanced back at the dazzling city in the distance. This was probably the most badass thing he had ever done in his life. He finally looked back at one of the cars behind them and aimed for the front end before pulling the trigger. His bullet shot with a surprising accuracy, exploding the tire and making the vehicle flip up over itself. He stared at it in awe as he handed the musket down, and looked back at Lewis' face in surprise as he handed back the green bayonet. He raised it and fired it at the next car, shooting straight through the windshield and making it swerve off the road.
"Yes! Bang, bang! Straight from the shadows, baby!" Kairo screamed as he handed the gun back again, and William was just as fast handing him the musket again. Kairo gasped when he saw another car get lifted and tossed in their direction, and he suddenly ducked back in the car as Severine dodged the flying obstacle again, a little less gracefully this time, as she was more concerned for Kairo's safety hanging half his body out the car.
"Jude, did you see that?" Kairo asked him after catching a glimpse of his eye-bugging expression, and Jude just laughed at him breathlessly in response as he looked back at the cars. Severine was looking around the road debating her next move when she suddenly saw helicopters in the air and spotlights landing on their cars. She heard monotone voices and sirens begin echoing through the air, telling her they were surrounded and police vehicles suddenly appeared around the car. She looked around and grunted desperately, and then looked back at the group in desperation.
"I'm out of ideas!" she admitted, making them look at each other with concern. Taya examined the situation and shook her head at the forces cornering them.
"There's no way I can get us out of here... even if I could, it wouldn't be for long," Taya sighed towards her. Severine turned to Kairo.
"I don't know... if I try to shadow-step us all like that again, I don't know if I'll be able to make it home..." he told her, making her curse under her breath. The group looked around at each other with concern. They looked back at the black car behind them and saw Eryx's shadowy face behind the tinted glass. His car was getting closer as Severine began to falter.
"I might be able to get us out of here..." Phineas said, making Severine look back at him.
"How?" she asked.
"I-I think I can teleport the car with us in it... but I don't know where it's gonna take us..." he explained. They all yelled in horror when they heard a crash, and Severine saw sparks flying as Eryx rammed his car into the back of theirs, accelerating them forward as she continued to push the petal to the floor.
"Who cares, just do it already!" Marla screamed in his face, making him hold his breath and close his eyes as he gripped the leather seats. The car, and Eryx's suddenly vanished from existence, leaving the police cars in a confused and dangerous disruption as they stopped all their vehicles.
YOU ARE READING
Her Inheritance
General FictionThank you for checking out my story! Please leave votes and comments as much as possible! You have no idea how much it means to me ❤️❤️ ✨ Her Inheritance ✨ An emotionally suppressed world. A girl with no power. A legacy that was never meant to survi...
