Ann tensed as Sol began to stir with the rising sun. She held her breath, wondering which Sol would awaken first. Sol's eyes blinked open slowly. Ann crept closer, the anticipation rising in her chest. She watched Sol's eyes for any sign of life. There was none. Ann sighed; in relief or in grief she did not know which. She reached over and, as carefully as she could, sat Sol up. Sol moved slowly, but not limply. Once she was sitting, she again stopped moving. Ann patted her head. I miss her, the real Sol; Ann thought to herself.
The Templar in charge of feeding them walked up to the cage with the typical piece of bread and wooden glasses of water. He threw the bread into the cage. Ann scowled at him, snatched the piece of bread, and shifted closer to Sol. The man saw the shift and grinned.
"Don't worry," his voice was that of a predator to his prey. "The captain said we weren't going to use her anymore. You've both outlived your usefulness, but the cap won't let us kill you. It's a shame really; I'd have loved to see your pretty little heads roll."
"Now there's a kink I've never heard of before," Ann raised an eyebrow at him. "Who knew decapitation could be used as a means to get off. Oh, well, to each his own. Can't imagine it's easy to find videos for that though."
"Shut it!" The Templar growled and kicked the cage. "The cap told me to give your friend this pain killer. Have her take it."
He put the wooden cups in the cage, and dropped a napkin with a pill on it next to them. He kicked the cage once again for good measures then turned on his heels and left. His final kick unbalanced one of the cups; sending it toppling to the floor. There goes my ration of water, Ann sighed to herself. She crawled over to the pill and examined it. It was a painkiller. How will this help Sol? Is this even safe to give her? It could be poisoned. Well, at least if this kills her it'll be a quick and painless death. Ann shrugged off her doubts, Grabbed the water, and went to give the pill to Sol. She slowly forced her to take the pill. Once Sol had taken the pill, eaten half the bread, and finished the water; Ann sat back to observe her. When nothing happened, Ann turned away. She spent the next two hours shouting profanities at the Templars who were unfortunate enough to have to pass the cage on their way to complete their daily chores.
"HEY YOU! DOES YOUR GIRLFRIEND KNOW YOU'RE WEARING HER SHIRT?" She hollered at a Templar who had made the unfortunate decision to wear a salmon pink button up.
"Ann," A soft voice from behind caught her attention. "That's rude."
Ann turned quickly. Sol sat with her head against the bars; her eyes glazed in pain. Yet, there was life in those eyes now. Sol was back.
"Sol!" Ann quickly crawled to her side. "you're back!"
"The pain is incredible, but it's not as bad as it was before," Sol looked like she wanted to nod to highlight her point, but could not.
"What did they do to you?" Ann asked.
"In... in my head... they put something in my head," She struggled to remember.
Sol opened her mouth as if to say more, but before she could utter a single word another voice from behind them startled the girls. Ann turned to find the woman in the lab coat. The woman was tall and slender. Her hair was dyed a bright, pistachio ice-cream like green, and was tied in a messy pony tail; a single piece of hair from the back was braided and sat over her shoulder on her chest. The eyes where lite blue, like Sol's; but unlike Sol's, her's where a cold and merciless color.
"Oh good," the woman grinned smugly. "The pain killer is starting to kick in."
"Clover..." Sol called out the woman's name without looking at her.
"Guess it's time to call you little friends for a pick up."
Clover snapped her fingers. The two guys from the night before approached. They opened the cage and, despite Ann's attempts to stop them, pulled Sol from the cage. Clover grabbed Sol by the hair, and then pulled something out of her lab coat pocket. It was Sol's ear piece.
* * *
Andy paced up and down the living room. Exhaustion had finally claimed him and the other's the night before, but despite the much-needed sleep they had all gotten, everyone was still in a foul mood. Lightning was sharpening her katanas. Nerida was drinking quietly in the corner. Lazerus was staring off into space. Even Johnny, Michael, and Joy looked tense as they attempted to do their daily chores. Noon was quickly approaching, and still there was no word from the girls. Worst of all, today was November 4th; the day the Templars where planning to launch whatever plan the Templars had for the observatory. Sol and Ann need to have been back by now, Andy thought, something must have happened. His earpiece suddenly crackled to life, startling him. He looked around and found Lightning looking spooked as well.
"Hello?" A woman's voice they had never hear before crackled in their ears. "Is this the Assassins I'm contacting?"
"Who are you?" Lightning asked, making eye contact with Andy as their individual minds scrambled to find a way to protect everyone if this mysterious call turned out to be a trap.
"Name's Clover," the voice continued. "Might I ask who you are?"
"I'm Camellia," Lightning responded, using her code name to hide her identity. "you have reached the Assassins. I assume you would like to talk to our leader?"
"Very much," Clover responded.
"This is Lethal Shadow," Andy responded, sharing a suspicious look with Lightning. "What do you need?"
"Hello, it's nice to finally speak with you," Clover replied. "Andy, was it? Well, you see I need nothing from you dear, but I believe you need something from me."
"Go on," Andy was startled by the fact that this mysterious woman knew his real name, but he did not let it show in his voice.
"You see, I have something you want," Clover's voice was followed by a bit of crackling.
"What do you mean?" Andy asked.
"Ugh... AH... H... Help," a new voice groaned in pain.
Andy's blood ran cold. He knew that voice; It was Sol. They had been capture after all. He cursed himself for not acting sooner. Lightning's eyes blazed as she heard the pain in Sol's voice. The com crackled again.
"Your little friend here isn't doing too well," Clover sounded smug. "You might want to hurry to her rescue."
"No... don't... listen... to... her," Sol's voice could be heard faintly in the background. "Please..."
Andy and lightning shared a look. They both knew what had to happen next. Andy nodded then mouthed to her: find them at all costs. Lightning nodded. She switched her earpiece to mute and grabbed her gear.
"All right, you win," Andy informed Clover.
"Really? I'd have expected more caution from you all," Clover sighed. "Oh well. Meet us at the observatory or your little friends are history."
The call cut with a sickening crunch.
* * *
Clover grinned as she removed her boot from the now crushed earpiece. She gave one last yank to Sol's hair before she reopened the cage and threw her back inside. She locked the door and left. Sol slowly pulled herself onto her hands and knees. She crawled into the corner and sat down. Ann could tell she needed some space, so she turned away from her, deciding to look for something else to entertain herself with. The Templar in charge of delivering their meals walked by the cage. In his hand was a small rubber ball.
"Hey you, Templar in charge of food," she called out to him. "I've got a couple demands. First: tell me what you did to Sol and maybe you won't die. Second: if you had some toothpaste you could give me, never mind what for, also helpful. Third: I want that ball. Also, I plan to kill everyone here. Did you get all that?"
"Spoiled brat," The Templar scoffed.
He raised his hand and pegged the ball at Ann. It hit her hard in the center of the forehead. Ann scowled, clutching her head. Then she picked up the ball and pegged it back at him. It hit him smack between the legs. The Templar doubled over in pain.
"Weak!" Ann laughed as she saw what she had done.
"Shut it!" The man kicked the cage in frustration.
Ann stuck her tongue out at him. She watched him awkwardly limp away from the cage. That should buy me some time. She quickly pulled out the small device she had been working on with scraps of stuff she had found on her person that the Templars had failed to realize were useful. It was a bomb. All she needed as a little toothpaste, and she could free herself from the cage and save Sol. Failure was not an option. She bent over her hands; messy red and black hair obscuring her work from view from others.
* * *
Lightning could hear Clover still. Please be there, Lightning prayed, please let the Observatory be where Andy thought it was. She heard the crunch and ran; worry pulling her at speeds she would has thought impossible before. She only slowed when the sounds of rushing water met her ears. The waterfalls! She moved carefully towards the sound. As she crept through the jungle, she began to notice signs of a human encampment. There where entire beds of small plants crushed under boots, pieces of human garbage, and small buried mounds that smelled highly unpleasant. She moved through the bushes, trying to avoid detection. Then she broke through the line of trees and found herself in a large clearing full of green tents. She fallowed the tree line around the camp.
* * *
Ann would have screamed in frustration if doing so wouldn't have brought all the Templar's running and ruin her plan. The device was impossible to finish without toothpaste. She tucked the device into her pocket and returned to Sol's side. Sol didn't look so good. She had gone pale from the pain, and her eye's drooped sadly. Ann went to ask Sol if she wanted to lie down, but the sudden appearance of her least favorite person stalled her tongue. Clover approached surrounded by a small group of Templars.
"You two are to Attack the West," Clover was saying. "And you three are in charge of the north. The boss wants as many of them as possible taken out as quickly as possible. I will stay here and complete the mission. You and you are to stay here as well."
"Yes, Captain!" The men saluted her.
"Keep your head down, Sol," Ann pulled her closer, whatever was to come sounded like a world of trouble. "I promise we'll fix you up as soon as we get out of here."
Ann looked over at Clover and sneered. The other Templars had returned to their tents, or gone to finish packing their trucks. Only Clover remained. She hovered ominously over the cage; twin daggers in her hands. Ann stared Clover down till the bright sun right behind Clover's head made it impossible for her to continue. Darn the morning sun, Ann cursed to herself as she blinked the light out of her eyes. She opened her eyes just in time to catch a fleeting glimpse of something pink dash between two trees. She blinked again. What was... Lightning came slowly out of the jungle behind Clover. Ann couldn't help but grin.
"Brace yourself," she whispered to Sol.
"It seems my bosses plan is going to work," Clover scraped her daggers together like a butcher about to cut up a perfect hog.
"Hey, Clover!" Ann shouted up at her. "Where'd you get your blades? Kmart?"
"Don't tempt me kid," Clover raised one of her knives threateningly.
Lightning used the distraction to attack. She swung her katana. Ann could see it now, the glorious sight of Clover's pistachio head tumbling off her shoulders and rolling away. She saw it all in slow motion: the pullback, the swing, ... and the block. Clover grinned as her dagger made contact with the katana blade. She pushed back hard, slipped out of the deadlock, and swung back at Lightning. In an attempt to dodge, Lightning was forced to jump away. The two opponents stood facing each other as Ann swore heavily in the background.
"You arrived sooner than expected," Clover purred.
"I guess I now get the pleasure of killing you," Lightning spat at Clover, her face a calm of cruel concentration. "Ready to fight me, Clover?"
Clover dashed forward and engaged Lighting in combat. They exchanged blows back and forth; dancing around each other as some of the other Templars from the camp began to creep into view. Lightning shoved Clover back hard and leapt backwards. Her back now to the cage, she turned quickly, slipped a small knife from her belt and chucked it at the cage lock.
The knife flew like a homing missile and embedded itself in the key hole. Ann knew exactly what to do. She pushed her hand through the bars, wiggled the knife, and popped the lock. She tore the cage open and sprang into action. Lightning smiled as she watched Ann race towards the tents.
"You fight like a twelve-year-old musically blogger, Clover!" Ann shouted back as she slipped into the first of the tents.
Clover turned and raised her arm to through the knife, but before she could, Lightning pulled another knife from her belt and sent it spiraling into Clover's hand. With a yelp of surprise and pain, Clover turned back to Lightning. She growled at her pink haired opponent.
"Try again, sweet cheeks," Lightning flipped calmly into a fighting stance.
"I've already done what I needed to," Clover spat, and with a small grin in Sol's direction, sprinted away.
Ann got lucky. The first tent she had decided to explore happened to be a sort of made up bathing tent. She dashed inside and was instantly confronted by a large man in a towel; toothbrush dangling from his mouth and opened tube of toothpaste in his hand. Ann grinned. With a swift kick to the groin, she stole the toothpaste tube and dashed out of the tent. As she ran, she competed her bomb. Ann had seen them take her and Sol's equipment into one of the tents. She quickly retrieved their packs and weapons, and snuck her way back towards the cage.
She heard the battle before she saw it. Shit! Lightning's surrounded! She remembered. Ann increased her pace, hoping Lightning wasn't being crushed under a mass of Templars. When she arrived, she was surprised to find Lightning having a one on one battle with a large male Templar. The other villains where treating the fight like a spectator's sport; cheering and banging their weapons together. Ann shoved through their wall with little effort and ran towards the cage. She pulled out a dagger and slashed Lightning's large opponent in the side, forcing him to stagger back away from her.
"Ann, we need to go," Lightning whispered to her as they stood back to back against the sea of enemies.
"Get Sol first. She's not in a good state and can't really walk," Ann's eyes strategically searched the crowd as she spoke. "I'm gonna clear a path for us."
Lightning nodded, and quickly dashed to Sol's side. Ann found Clover in the crowd, activated her newly made bomb, and lobbed it at her. The Templars around Clover dived away. The bomb bonked Clover on the head and burst. Smoke filled the air. Ann dashed though the scattered villains with Lightning close at her heels carrying Sol. The Templars didn't give chase.