⚀ 𝓞𝓷𝓵𝔂 𝓟𝓵𝓪𝓷 ⚀
The next day, the tires of Brooklyn's car screeched along the road as she speedily made a turn and continued racing down the streets well over the speed limit. But she didn't care. If what she thought was happening was actually happening, nothing else was nearly as important as getting to her destination as fast as possible. Her chocolate eyes scanned her blurring surroundings relentlessly as she drove and her hands steered skilfully as she thought back to what had caused her to even be there right now.
Brooklyn had been pacing the width of her apartment robotically. Every step she took, each trod slowly wearing away the soft carpet underfoot as she'd become more and more worked up. Her hands were firmly planted in her black locks, tugging at the roots in frustration when a pen dropped to the floor behind her. In the silence of the room it had been startlingly loud and had caused the Hale girl to abruptly stop.
She's turned around cautiously, surveying her flat for any sign of an intruder. When she'd found none she had huffed and thought that the pen could have simply rolled of as she'd whipped around to walk back the other way. What she hadn't been expecting was after picking the pen up from the ground so she didn't trip over it was to see a slip of paper with letters sprawled across it on her kitchen counter.
It read: Animal Clinic, now.
Brooke had stared wide eyed at the note and recognised the precise but boyish handwriting of Corey. The one who also had the ability to turn himself invisible. The girl hadn't wasted a single second and after grabbing her car keys and locking up had started driving to the stated place.
Which is how she now found herself clambering out of her car hastily in the car park of the animal clinic. She flung open the glass door hearing the little bell jingle above her which signified her arrival. Almost instantaneously a slightly shy but all too familiar figure came out from the back room and gave the girl a small smile. All Brooke could do was stand there for a beat before she was dashing over to her boyfriend and throwing her arms around him.
Scott cradled the girl in his arms as he returned the gesture. He'd missed the feeling even if it had only, barely been a whole day. Brooklyn pulled back and shook her head in confusion, unable to get any words out. When she finally got a hold of herself again she smacked Scott across the chest and even though it hardly hurt the True Alpha he stumbled back a bit. She pointed her finger at him, "Y-You're not meant to be here. You should've left."
"We all should've." Malia's voice rung out from the back room causing Brooke to look into it and see the whole pack crowded around, even Mason in the arms of Corey.
Brooke looked between all her friends and back to Scott with a perplexed look. "I-What?" she just about mumbled out. She was so confused at this point. Were they leaving after this? Was this the proper goodbye? Were they staying? Would they risk their lives like that?
Scott smirked at his girlfriend and his next words gave the answers to all her questions. "You didn't really think we were going to run?"
✄ ✄ ✄ ✄ ✄
Brooklyn shut the boot of Lydia's car after putting in the final blanket and got into the passenger seat. Once she had her seatbelt on, Mason set the GPS to Hill Valley Zoo and followed the directions. Brooke watched out of the wing mirror as seconds after they pulled out of the school car park another car did so also.
Five minutes later on a straight stretch of road the two of them received an incoming call from Liam and Mason accepted on the car's hands-free system. "Did it work?" the beta's voice immediately came through the speakers.
"Yep. Nolan's right behind us." Mason informed his best friend.
"And by behind us he's means literally right behind us. In his stealthy bright red car." Brooklyn added on, laughing to herself at the boy's stupidity.
"He's actually terrible at this." Mason commented with a large smile upon his face.
"Okay, just be careful." Liam told them.
"When are we not?" Brooke questioned. She smirked as Liam was heard um-ing from the other end of the line.
"We will." Mason replied to his friend helpfully before ending the call.
The two rode in silence the rest of the way until they got to the zoo. As they pulled up Liam and Theo got out of their pickup truck and the werewolf leaned in through the driver side window and asked, "How close is he?"
"He's back down the road. Don't look." Mason answered.
Brooklyn looked through the rear-view mirror to see Theo unloading the mass of blankets and sleeping bags they'd brought to add believability to their bait. As they chimera walked back around the car with his arms full Mason said, "Should I come with you guys?" He didn't include Brooklyn in his question since she was going off to help the rest of the pack try and break into Gerard's armoury once they were done luring Nolan to the zoo.
Theo looked the boy up and down and scoffed. "His friends shoot to kill. Go home." he responded before walking away.
Mason sighed. "Okay. Yeah, Lydia would kill me if anything happened to her car anyways, so..."
"Don't worry about it." Liam said, "Nolan's gonna do the rest."
✄ ✄ ✄ ✄ ✄
Keeping her head down, Brooklyn walked towards the car Argent had loaned that was parked outside of Gerard's armoury and knocked on the back window. The door was opened up for her and Scott moved up a seat so they she could slide in. "Did it work?" the Hale girl was asked as the shut the door behind herself.
"It did." she conferred.
"It's about time." Malia uttered. But as she went to open her door Scott told her to wait. The werewolf and the werecoyote shared a look before the girl said, "I hear them too."
Lydia turned to face them from the passenger seat. "Hear what?"
"Heartbeats." Scott sighed.
Argent looked back at them also from the driver seat. "How many?"
The True Alpha listens for a couple seconds. "Ten?" he estimated.
"More." Malia stated.
"Are we breaking in or not?" Brooklyn questioned.
"Not." Argent immediately answered, "The armoury should be empty by now."
Malia shrugged. "We can take down a few hunters if we have to."
Argent spun around to look at the werecoyote incredulously. "We're dealing with a dozen well-armed hunters who have orders to kill you on sight."
Malia glanced at them all and leant closer. "Then how are we supposed to get inside?"
They all remained in silence for a few seconds trying to come up with something, anything when Argent turned the keys in the ignition and started up the car. Straight away Malia moved forward, leaning over Scott to turn the engine back off. Argent gave her a look and the Tate girl explained, "Gerard thinks we're gone. It's a good plan."
"It's our only plan." Lydia added.
"And it's not working." Argent put in.
"We can still do this." Malia enthused. "Let's vote."
"I say we do it." Brooklyn chimed in. She was on the side of her cousin. If they didn't do it now, they wouldn't be able to do it again and all of the efforts up until now would've gone to waste.
"Guys, we just need to give Liam and Theo more time." Scott expressed.
Argent pulled up his wrist and looked at his watch. "We have ten minutes. Ten minutes before Gerard's people flag this vehicle. Once that happens, we'll be seen as a potential threat."
"Then what?" Malia inquired.
"They'll pay us a visit." Argent informed her.
"Lydia?" Brooklyn called seeing that the strawberry blonde was pretty zoned out and had her hand hovering over the windscreen. Lydia snapped out of it as the Hale gently touched her shoulder. "You okay?"
"Yeah." the banshee breathed, "I think so."
Argent shook his head. "We should call of this mission."
"Brett and Lori are gone, Jiang and Tierney are still missing. Gerard's always one step ahead of us. We have to do this now." Scott stated.
"We're too exposed, Scott." Argent sighed.
"You said we had ten minutes." Malia sassed.
Argent's lips pressed into a thin line as he glanced as his watch again. "Nine."
Scott leant across Brooklyn to open the door making the girl ask him, "What are you doing?"
"I'm gonna lure them away so that we can get inside." Scott relayed.
"Yeah, no." Brooke said, pulling his hand off of the door handle and pushing down on the lock.
"We need a new plan." Scott argued.
"Not a stupid one." Brooklyn replied.
The McCall boy's hands came up. "I'll bring the thermite charges."
"The ones we need for the armoury?" Brooklyn rhetorically asked making Scott groan.
"The explosion will buy you time, but not enough to get in and out safely." Argent disclosed.
"Guys..." Lydia mumbled but was ignored.
"How about using the tunnels?" Malia asked.
"We could get underneath the building, but we'd still need to sneak in undetected." Argent told her.
"Guys..." Lydia said again but wasn't heard.
"The ventilation system?" Scott inquired.
Argent shook his head. "Same problem."
"Guys," Lydia repeated more loudly and final caught the others' attention, "they're leaving!"
The other four all looked to see that the banshee was right and the black SUVs lined up along one side of the car park were all pulling out.
✄ ✄ ✄ ✄ ✄
Brooke watched as Argent cracked open then door as little as he could and stuck the muzzle of his gun through. Seeing though the small gap, he aimed it at the security camera opposite and pulled the trigger. He then opened the door and allowed the teens through once the purple paintball had covered the lense. The five of them got inside the small room and Malia deposited the body of the guard she had to knock out earlier on the floor.
"The thermite charges will take care of the weapons. Just make sure you're clear before they detonate, okay?" Argent told Scott as he passed the True Alpha the black duffel bag.
The McCall boy nodded and they split into two groups. Argent, Lydia and Malia went to the control room while Brooke and Scott headed for the weapons room. The couple hurried down the left corridor. They followed the lights emitting just enough light to see but not enough to make the room bright and turned a couple corners before Scott stopped. Knowing that guards were there, Brooke kept herself out of their line of sight and watched her boyfriend as he listened in for heartbeats.
He raised a single finger signifying that there was only one hunter there. Brooklyn sprinted down the corridor before he could do anything else and went straight for the hunter. The guy turned around at the sound of her heavy footfalls and tried to raise his gun but she was already upon him. The healer grabbed ahold of his arms and swung his around into a wall and then the one opposite so that he was knocked out.
Scott raised his eyebrows at the girl's actions but continued down the corridor to her with the thermite bag still in his hand. They stopped at the door at the end of the corridor which still remained locked which they had to wait for Malia, Argent and Lydia to open for them. After just under a minute a beep was heard and the door was unlocked.
They were in.