~Ok so the song on the side is called Any Other Way by We The Kings. I have had this chapter and the next one stuck in my head basically since day one and when I heard this song about a month ago, I knew this song would be perfect for the both of them! Like the lyrics are PERFECT for Zayn. "Gasoline pumpin' through my veins/ dancin' on top of the flames!" And before I knew the name, I just called the song "Zayn's Anthem." Which is kinda weird but... Whatever. Anywho- Onto the story!~
Pieces of equipment exploded and Zayn had to shield his eyes from the flaming fragments that flew towards him. He turned his body and blew up one of Liam's punching bags. He grabbed one of the weights from the rack and tossed it across the room so hard, it cracked the wall. He overturned the weapons rack and kicked at Niall's staff. Then Zayn let out a scream of pure, white hot rage and fell to his knees in defeat.
Perrie was gone, Eleanor was taken with her and this... Mr. X bastard had taken them right in front of him. Right in front of the boys. Zayn would never understand why Louis wasn't down in the training room throwing a tantrum with him. He had seen the video, too. He had seen them drag Eleanor out of the frame to beat her and he heard her screams.
And did Simon want to help them? No. He was just going to sit on his ass and try and negotiate with X about returning the girls. But Zayn knew that the girls will never be seen again. Mr. X wanted the pod in return for Perrie and El. But Zayn had burned the pod three years ago and it was still being fixed. The expensive machine had parts that were hard to replace. There was no way to give it to him.
If Zayn were in charge, he and the boys would suit up and hunt down X themselves.
Zayn looked up from his lap and to their suits which had been placed back in their frames and mounted on the wall, out of reach. Zayn stood and walked below his. He stared up at it and took in the rich red and gold material.
He had to save Perrie. He was not leaving her behind for anything. She was truly his everything. She was his family and his only real friend besides the other boys. She was the only one he could talk to about anything and everything.
Zayn thought about that cold night Perrie had found him dying on the street. He had tried to kill himself because his family had died, because he was all alone. Now he was alone again... But Perrie wasn't dead. And Zayn wasn't going to let her die under the hands of a psychopath.
Zayn clenched his fists and stared up at his suit. If he were Niall, he could just fly up there and take it. He had to get it down somehow. He turned around and looked at the mess of weapons he had left on the floor. His eyes landed on Niall's staff. Zayn walked over to it and picked it up, examining the shining surface in his hands. He gripped either side of the small hairline split in the center and gave it a jerking twist. Zayn heard the sharp ring of metal on metal as the jagged blades jutted out from their hiding places on either end of the staff.
Zayn gently moved the staff hand over hand, making slow circles and he listened to the blades whistle through the air. He was just getting a feel for the weapon. He wanted to see how much strength he would need to use it.
Still twirling Niall's staff, Zayn glanced back up at his framed suit. He took a couple steps forward with a bit of a hop on the last one before launching the staff like a javelin at the shiny glass surface.
The staff sang through the air before smashing into the frame, completely shattering the glass and impaling the wooden back. He had missed the suit itself but Zayn still winced when he saw the damage it had done. He knew the suit was basically indestructible, but the thought of the sharp blades cutting through the material was frightening.
As soon as the frame was hit, though, it fell to the ground. The remaining glass shattered onto the floor and Niall's staff sliced through the padded mats and stuck straight out of the back of the fallen frame. Zayn picked his way through the jagged shards and drew the staff from the ground and the frame. He retracted it to it's smallest size before tossing it aside.
He lifted the back off of the suit and picked it up. Zayn walked out of the small area of shattered glass, subconsciously rubbing the material between his fingers. It was soft, like silk, stretchy, like Under Armour, and tough like jean material. But it was stronger than that. Simon had told him and the boys that it was better than any military grade bullet proof vest. These suits could withstand an explosion like the RV-T could. Nothing could hurt Zayn while he was wearing it. He would be invincible.
Zayn stripped down to just his underwear, throwing self conscious looks to the elevator. He hoped the doors wouldn't slide open now. Anyone on the other side of it would find Zayn in the mostly destroyed training room and see the Bradford boy half naked. That would be... Embarrassing.
Zayn quickly shook out some fragments of glass from the suit before slipping it on. There were a pair of golden gloves that went with the suit, but Zayn stuffed them in the back pocket of his abandoned jeans before he went to the fallen weapons rack to grab his kusarigama and it's sheath and scabbard. He wrapped the scabbard over his shoulder and under his armpit. Then he put the blade into it's sheath and wrapped the chain around his waist and twisting the ball end around the chain to secure it.
Zayn went to his clothes and pulled it over his suit and weapons and checked himself in the mirror, hoping he didn't look... Bulky from it all. He twisted himself around to make sure there wasn't the suspicious shape of a sickle lashed across his back and was surprised to see there was no outline of it. He did look a little chunky around his hips though, but he hoped nobody would look close enough to notice. Zayn tugged at the end of his long sleeved, black shirt to cover up the bit of red and gold that was trying to peek out.
When he was satisfied with the look, he turned on his heels and made his way to the elevator. He stepped inside and his finger hovered over the buttons on the panel.
Should he ask one of the others for help with this? Should he stop on the hospital floor and tell him his plan? What if they said no? Zayn's lips pressed into a fine line and he pushed the button for his floor. No. No help tonight. He couldn't risk one of the boys running off and telling Simon.
Zayn hurried into his room when the doors opened and went straight to his laptop. He tried to ignore the burn marks on the wooden desk of his as he searched for what he was looking for. The burns had been from watching Mr. X's video, of course. There was still the faint smell of smoke in the room, but Zayn ignored that, too.
He opened one of the windows on his desktop and seen that his search had been complete. As soon as he had realized that the video was from Mr. X, Zayn sent out a code to track where the signal was coming in. In less than an hour, his computer had found it. Meaning: He had found Perrie and Eleanor.
Zayn's lips curled back into something between a sadistic and excited smile. The address wasn't far from HQ. About an hour away. His screen showed him Google Earth and it zoomed in on the area. It was pretty desolate. And in a wooded area. He couldn't see too well from the satellite images, but it looked huge and it seemed to be surrounded by a metal fence. It had to be pretty high security and the 21 year old knew it would be tough to get into, let alone get there.
Zayn memorized how to get there before slamming his laptop shut, grabbing a jacket, and hurrying to the elevator once again. Everyone was probably wondering where he was and he needed to get away now if he had any chance of saving the girls.
But first, he needed a mode of transportation.
* * *
The sleek black motorcycle snarled underneath Zayn as he zipped across the otherwise empty highway just outside of New York. He had stolen it from the RV-T knowing he couldn't drive the tank into Mr. X's place without being noticed. The thing was still in the airplane hangar and he knew nobody would be out to check on it for a while.
A couple of cars drove by and their headlights flashed off of Zayn's helmet. It was some time past midnight now and the starry sky was completely covered by black clouds. It was humid outside and the air smelled of rain. The road glistened as if it had just rained, but it looked like there would be a massive storm coming.
Another car drove by, illuminating Zayn before passing by and letting the shadows swallow him whole. It helped that the motorcycle and the helmet were as black as night. He didn't have the headlight of his bike on, knowing he was going well over the speed limit and the police wouldn't hesitate to pull him over for it. He didn't want anybody to see him right now. The night vision setting on the visor of his helmet let him see any animals or people or cars on the road without him being seen. For now, he was just a piece of the night flying through an empty highway and that was exactly how he wanted it.
His helmet let out a beeping sound and pulled up a map. There was a red dot moving quickly across the marked road and Zayn knew it was himself. About two miles off to the side was a small path that lead into the woods. Two more miles from that was where Mr. X was hiding. Zayn blinked and that made the map shrink and move to the side. Zayn veered to the left and easily found the path the map had shown him. He slowed down a little, seeing it was a path for mountain bikes and hikers. It was small and he knew his motorcycle wasn't meant to be on it, but he didn't drive off the path like he should have. He had already risked so much to find these girls. There was absolutely no way he was going to stop now.
Zayn rode carefully the next two miles before the road ended abruptly and emptied into the dark woods. Zayn sighed and shut off the motorcycle. He dismounted it and took a moment to stretch his legs. They were stiff from riding all night and it looked like he had a pretty good walk in front of him.
He kept his helmet on as he hiked through the forest. It helped him see what was in front of him and the black pain paired with his clothes would help him blend in with the shadows in case one of X's men did patrol out in the woods.
After a while of walking, the night vision picked up some light not too far from Zayn. Zayn started to move a little faster, following the light. He realized he was jogging almost too late and had to stop quickly before the woods ended and he nearly fell off a three story drop off.
“Shit!” Zayn breathed when a couple rocks broke off the edge and tumbled down the dramatically sloping surface. Then he looked ahead of him. “Oh... Shit...” He said when he saw the view.
It was a massive building that was alive and crawling with activity everywhere. The building was splayed out in airplane hangars, massive sheds, and towers complete with glaring spotlights that scanned the huge barbed wire fence. Basically, it looked exactly how Zayn would imagine a high security jail... Or a secret government base. Either way, the place was huge and looked nearly impossible to get into.
Zayn turned off the night vision setting, the flood lights on every building illuminated the area enough from where Zayn stood that he could see basically everything that was going on.
“Zoom,” He told his helmet. Suddenly, he could see the place just as well as if he were standing there himself.
This was definitely Mr. X's hiding place. His soldiers were everywhere! They were patrolling the fence, speeding across the place in Jeeps, there were some on top of the watch towers and the rest strolled around some of the hangars and sheds that dotted around what looked to be the main building. Zayn would bet money there was more to this place buried under ground, though.
But what puzzled him was why everyone was out and about so late at night. It couldn't have been that X was planning on the boys popping by, was it?
Almost instantly, Zayn's question was answered. He heard shouting off in the distance and thought he had been caught, but it was really because there was something going on by one of the hangars right next to the main building.
The doors of the hangar slid open and a hand full of the soldiers started stepping back, motioning for something to come out. Zayn squinted his eyes to get a better look and his helmet zoomed in further for him. Something black and round was moving out of the hangar very slowly. And it was massive! The sides almost scraped against the top of the hangar before coming out in full view of the flood lights. It was like... A massive black ball. That was really the only way to describe it.
Mr. X was building a ball? What?...
Zayn heard trucks beeping as the backed up on the left and right of the ball. On the ends of the trucks were huge ladders that would try and reach the top of it.
“This I gotta see,” Zayn chuckled. The girls momentarily forgotten, Zayn slid down the massive dirt slope, kicking up dust and rocks on his way down and making a lot more noise than he was comfortable with. He knew he was a couple hundred yards away from the closest soldier, but the scraping sound his shoes made on the gravel made him freeze as soon as his feet met solid ground.
When Zayn saw he had gone unnoticed, he snuck over to the towering fence that separated him from the rest of the area. He had to get in there some how. He knew if he jumped the fence, he could maybe take out a patrolling guard and put on his uniform so he could move around unnoticed. But how was he going to get over the fence? The thing was covered in barbed wire at the top and, if Zayn listened closely, he could hear the soft hum of electricity over the sound of the soldiers at work.
The trucks had finally stopped next to the ball thing and two soldiers were climbing up the ladder even though the ended about two dozen feet from the top.
Zayn looked around for something that would help and he found a pole laying a few feet away from him. It looked like it had been used for building the fence, but it had been tossed aside for what appeared to be a bend near the middle. It would have made the fence unstable if they had used it, but it would definitely hold Zayn's weight for the time being. And just in time too. Off to the side, a lone soldier was making his rounds by the fence.
Zayn took a couple steps back, then a couple more. He ran towards the fence, jammed the pole into the soft earth, and vaulted himself over the barbed wire. He had seen Niall use a move like that before to throw himself behind the other guys during rehearsals. In fact, he had beaten Zayn many times using it and Zayn could see how it came in handy.
Zayn fell down down down over the other side of the fence and his feet landed on hard asphalt. He winced as sharp pain shot through his legs, but he knew he hadn't done any permanent damage. He had fallen right behind the patrolling soldier, but the sound of his feet making contact with the ground wasn't the thing that had turned him around. Zayn's make shift pole vault had fallen forward and connected with the charged fence in a shower of sparks. It flew back as a ridiculous amount of electricity shot through it.
The soldier turned to look at the sparks, but then Zayn caught his eye. He turned to look at the superhuman and Zayn smiled and wiggled his fingers. The soldier lifted his gun, but Zayn grabbed the front of it before it was fired, dragged the soldier forward with one sharp motion, and threw a punch at him.
And it fucking hurt!
There was a dull, metallic thunk when Zayn's fist connected with the soldier. The soldier fell to the ground instantly, but Zayn felt like he just punched a brick wall! He sucked his breath in between his teeth and held his knuckles before he realized how strange of a sound the soldier had made.
Zayn shook his hand out before crouching down over the soldier to get a better look. Zayn turned his face over and his eyes were closed. Then he remembered. The eyes. There was something so strange about the soldiers that had attacked them at their debut. And it wasn't just the fact that all of them were identical. It was something in the eyes. They sort of... Flashed. Like a spark. It was weird.
Zayn pried open the soldier's eye to get a better look. At first there was nothing particularly strange. They eyes were a dull, steely blue. Nothing that could indicate where that weird flash had come from earlier that night. But then the soldier seemed to regain consciousness and his eyes flicked over to Zayn and they flashed.
No. The pulsed. Right on the edges of the soldier's pupils were thin silver lines that branched out through the iris and buried themselves into the white areas. It was like those lines you see in a nanochip. They pulsed with light and the light disappeared deep into the eye.
Zayn gasped when it happened and fell backwards. The soldier sat up, unblinking, and started to move towards the boy with a completely blank face. Zayn started to scurry backwards, but then he realized something. This soldier- every soldier here- was not human! That would explain the eyes! That would explain why they all looked the same; why their identical faces were completely clean of any emotion. They were androids! And that meant Zayn could hurt them without really hurting a person.
Zayn grinned wickedly and climbed to his feet so he was face to stone cold face with the android. The soldier's eyes flashed and he cocked his head to the side curiously. Zayn threw a hard punch at the soldier. Now that he knew the metal beneath the fleshy surface was there, he was better braced for it and it didn't hurt as bad.
The soldier stumbled back, eyes pulsing, and tried to come at Zayn. Zayn was ready for it and put it into a head lock before the thing had time to react. Zayn cringed when he felt how real the skin on the soldier felt, but he still twisted it's head to the side sharply. There was the sound of metal snapping and the android stopped moving. Zayn ripped the head off with some effort, but eventually managed to decapitate it. He didn't want to risk the soldier having some kind of reboot system where it could mend the severed wires and attack him again.
In no time, Zayn had change out of his clothes, and had slipped on the soldier's uniform over his super suit. Zayn tugged the dull blue hat over his eyes to keep from drawing attention to himself and made his way to that weird black ball.
The first two soldiers had already made it to the top of the ball while Zayn was fighting with one of their comrades, but about half a dozen more were already crawling to the top. What Zayn hadn't seen before from where he stood on that small drop off was that there was another ladder near the top of the ball. It started just where the ladders on the trucks ended and it stretched to the top of gently sloping surface where a hatch was propped open. The androids crawled inside of that and disappeared from sight into the inside of the ball.
There was a fairly good sized crowd of blue clad soldiers around the thing and Zayn stood just on the outside, hoping none of them would see him. The lights from the watch towers had been angled towards the ball to give them better lighting to work around. It was even bigger up close! It had to be at least half a dozen stories tall! The ball was built in big black panels that had been welded together and the slick black surface only let off the dullest of shines, even under the bright lights.
Zayn eyed it up and down, trying to figure out what it was meant for when the entire thing made an ear splitting creak and groan and Zayn could feel shake the ground. None of the other solders moved at the sound, but Zayn winced and almost covered his ears.
There were three puffs of steam that came out from every other panel on the sides of the ball. Zayn heard hydraulics groan and ears grind as three panels on either side slowly started to lift. Once they disappeared into the ball, there was another agonizing groan and six... things started to protrude from the sides. They were just as black as the rest of the machine and they were thick. Wider than a good sized car and it was divided into sections so it could bend better. Zayn quickly figured out they were like legs once they reached the ground. It made the machine look crouched now, like a spider. Like a six legged spider.
The entire thing shook and the legs lifted the ball of the body into the air, stretching it to it's immense height. Zayn gasped as he had to tip his head almost completely back so he could look at the whole thing.
What the hell is he going to use this for? Zayn thought as more steam hissed from where the legs connected to the body.
Suddenly, the tower's blinding lights all turned on Zayn at the same time. Every head turned to look at him and every eye flashed when they saw who was standing there. Zayn looked around wildly, knowing he had just been caught and needed an escape.
“Zayn Malik!” A voice greeted warmly far behind him. Zayn whipped his head around and saw Mr. X standing fairly far away from him. “It's about time one of you showed up here.” X called from across the asphalt. Zayn heard guns click all around him and looked up. The soldiers in the watch towers had every one trained on him. None of the ones in the crowed around him were armed, though. Zayn was grateful for that much.
“Where are they, you bastard?” Zayn snarled at the masked man.
He chuckled, but Zayn could still hear it, even from where he stood. “Well, 'hello' to you, too!”
“Answer me!” Zayn demanded, ripping off his hat and taking a few steps towards the man. He heard the guns follow him, but he didn't care. His suit would keep him safe for the time being. As long as they didn't aim for his exposed head...
“Now, Zayn, did you really think that you could have just come in here unnoticed?” X taunted. “I have an army! Did you really think you could get past all of them? Or did Simon send you in as a trade for those two lovely ladies?” Mr. X sighed dramatically. “I asked for all of you-”
Zayn didn't wait for Mr. X to finish talking. He ripped off his disguise, revealing his red and gold suit and reached behind to grab the blade of his kusarigama. In one fluid motion, he had undone the chain around his waist, taken a few steps closer to X, and threw the ball end at the sick man. It wrapped around X just above his elbows and Zayn pulled it tight, dragging him towards the boy. Zayn lifted the blade as Mr. X stumbled forwards. He was going to kill X. Never mind what the soldiers were going to do to him after he was done with their leader. He would deal with them later.
But Mr. X merely threw his head back and laughed. Just as Zayn was about to bring the sickle down on Mr. X's heart, the masked man- who still had full mobility of his elbows down- raised a black gloved hand towards Zayn in what looked like a pathetic attempt at throwing a punch. Instead of hitting Zayn though, a ring sitting over the leather finger opened it's emerald top and sprayed Zayn in the face with a white mist.
Not expecting it, Zayn gasped and that made him inhale most of it. Zayn blinked as his legs instantly grew weak and fell out underneath him. The 21 year old collapsed on his hands and knees and everything started to blur together.
“That wasn't a very nice thing to do, Zayn,” Mr. X scolded from above the boy. But everything sounded muffled and far away. Zayn tried to look up and now there was more than one Mr. X standing over him. The lights seemed to glare brighter from the towers and Zayn's eyes rolled in the back of his head before he crumpled onto the ground and completely lost consciousness.
* * *
It took Zayn a second to realize his eyes were open when he finally woke up. It was pitch black where ever he was. It smelled wet and moldy. And there was something else that smelled like a sewer. He could hear something dripping not too far away from him and he felt like he was laying on wood. He carefully moved his hands over the surface and found it was indeed wood. It was soggy and rotting. He sat up carefully, not knowing how well it was going to hold his weight.
Zayn snapped his fingers together and the tip of his pointer finger lit up with a small flame that tried to illuminate the room he was in. It looked like a cell. The walls and floor were made of damp dirt and rusty bars cut him off from the hallway just outside.
Zayn stood up and made his way to the bars, but a strange squeaking and scratching sound made him stop. He looked to the corner of the cell and moved his fiery finger in front of him. There was a cluster of rats huddled tightly together. As soon as Zayn's light hit their furry mass, they all scattered in a squealing frenzy. Some of them were brave enough to scurry over Zayn's shoes.
“Oh, god!” Zayn exclaimed as he tried to kick them away.
He heard someone gasp behind him. “Oh my god, it's Zayn! Zayn!” A voice whispered. No matter where he was, Zayn would always recognize that voice.
He whipped around and his flame illuminated her face and blue eyes. “Perrie!” Zayn exclaimed, rushing over to her. There were bars on this side of the room, separating his cell from hers.
“Zayn!” Another voice whispered and exclaimed all at the same time. Eleanor ran up to the bars and pressed her face against the rusty metal to get a better look at him.
“Oh my god! Are you two ok?” Zayn demanded, trying not to cry as he reached his arm through the bar to hold Perrie's hand. Her skin was as cold as ice.
“We're ok,” Eleanor assured him, but he knew it was far from the truth. Both of the girls had dark bruises and open wounds all over them. Their clothes were spattered with blood and the two of them looked absolutely freezing. Their cuts were covered in dirt and grime from the cells and Zayn knew if they weren't cleaned properly and soon, they were going to get infected.
“We saw the soldier's bring someone in,” Perrie told him. “We just... We didn't know it was you. What happened? Are you alright?” Her icy hands gripped his tightly as if she would never let him go again. And Zayn hoped she wouldn't.
“I'm fine.” He told the girls. “But I need to get in there with you.” He reluctantly let go of Perrie's hand. He gripped the bars between them and the metal started to glow red. Before too long, they had melted completely away and Zayn stepped into their cell.
“Zayn,” Perrie sobbed, throwing herself into his warm arms. Zayn grabbed Eleanor and pulled her in close, too, to try and keep her warm. Both of the girls started to sob into his suit and he rubbed his hands over their shoulders in an effort to comfort and heat them.
“It's ok,” He told them gently. “I'm right here.” He stepped back and lit his hand on fire so he could get a better look at them. Both girls wiped the tears away from their eyes and Zayn scanned over their wounds to make sure they were alright. “Is there any way to escape?” He asked as he examined their cuts.
Eleanor shook her head. “There's soldiers all over the place here. You can't make it ten feet out of this cell without running into one.”
“Seriously.” Perrie said flatly. “We've tried.” She touched her swollen cheek knowingly. Zayn felt anger flare up inside him. How dare they hurt these girls!
Zayn sighed. “Damn,” He muttered, then looked at the both of them again, taking in all their cuts and bruises. “I wish Louis were here. He could at least help a little bit.”
“I wish Louis were here, too.” Eleanor whimpered.
Zayn bit his lip and pulled her into a one armed hug. He rubbed her shoulder and kissed the top of her head. “I know. But I promise I will get you out of here. I swear.”
~Sorry if this chapter was kinda long and boring. Especially when it follows up last week's chapter. But this next one is gonna be super legit and full of surprises! So I really hope you like it. And the massive robot thing Zayn sees? I kind of imagine it like the robot from The Incredibles. But I didn't upload a pic of it because it's not quite how I picture it and I didn't want to screw up YOUR image of it... Also! Thank you guys so much for 7,000+ reads and 300+ votes! It means so much. I know I say that, like, every update, but I really do mean it.
Don't forget to vote some more, though! Tell me what you think of Zayn's Anthem! There's actually bits of the lyrics that'll make more sense next chapter. And let me know what you think is gonna HAPPEN next chapter. I really wanna know what goes through your mind when you read this :D (I say that in the least creepy way possible.) See you guys next time!~