TW: Talk about capital punishments, but it's pretty vague. Also, some talk about death but that all ties in with the capital punishment stuff.
Logan was reluctantly woken up and he looked pissed as he joined their hosts in the front room. Their hosts were a couple, male and female, and they were circled around a radio fearfully. The tinny thing began to speak.
"We have dangerous anti-Prime people in our city," Said the safe, droning, calm voice of the presenter. "They are being sheltered somewhere. If you have any information, report it to your nearest Prime Operative. Please know that a few men will be searching around for them. For your own safety, do not resist."
"I told you, Dot," Hissed the husband. "We're not gonna make it through the searches."
The woman glared at her husband. "Larry, it's Prime or them and I know who I'm siding with. We won't trade them out. It'll be fine."
"If you resist searches, you will be fined and face trial for anti-Prime beliefs."
That made the couple freeze in fear. Anti-Prime was a crime worse than murder.
The voice on the radio almost seemed to smile, as though somehow it's' ghostly speaker had managed to see the sudden horror struck into the hearts of those who lived in this version of America. Thomas and Logan exchanged a glance. "Have a good day, loved citizens. Hail our Prime."
Outside, through the thin walls of the smokey home, you could hear otherr radio listeners whispering back the final sentence. And then there was silence. Then mad panic.
"We're gonna die!" Claimed Larry. "This is gonna be the death of us, Dot! We're gonna die here!"
Dot's' face flushed, whitened, flushed again and flickered in the cycle before finally settling on an ugly purple as she snapped, "Well, don't yell it to everyone! If the neighbours heard, we'd be sent straight to the bees, and I'd rather be hanged in the gallows! Shot in the head! You gotta keep your voice down, Larry, or we're both gonna get it-"
"May I suggest something," Logan said, stepping forwards, making the couple spin to face him. Thomas's' brother smiled and held his hands up, intertwining his fingers calmly as a slight sarcastic tone took his voice. "Maybe arguing loudly about being sent to death isn't the best way to keep your profile down."
The pair stared at him like he had gone mad right before their eyes, until they slowly nodded, the panic being sucked out of them. They bowed their heads, muttering a series of, 'Yeah, alright... Yeah..."
Larry and Dot still, though, pulled each other to the side to talk in hushed whispers, looking over at the fugitives regularly. Thomas was about to step forwards to interrupt them, to try and persuade them not to turn them in when Patton put a hand on his shoulder.
He smiled gently down at him and a sense of security washed over Thomas. "It's not worth it, kiddo," Patton hummed, "In the end, they have to make up their mind. After all, they've got stakes here too and we're fighting a losing battle." A look crossed Patton's' face that Thomas felt like he wasn't meant to see. It was a look of confusion, reluctance, regret, fear and hopelessness. "No matter what we do, Morria always has too many men and too much power..." Then his happy facade broke through and he beamed down at the now slightly scared boy. "But we'll get through, eh? You don't need to worry about us."
Thomas nodded softly and Patton grinned down at him but the man's' expression quickly turned grim and sour when he turned to face Roman, who had been brooding quietly in the shadows of the shacky house.
Logan put his hand on his brother's' shoulder as Patton left, making him jump. "You okay?" He asked.
"Yeah," Thomas claimed unsteadily, with a shrug. "Just still overwhelmed. A lot of crap has happened."
"Yeah," Echoed Logan, glancin to the ground. "But we're safe. For now, of course. And I'm sure we'll be okay."
Thomas scoffed in a pretence of fake confidence. "Sure, we'll be. We got each other, some kick-ass revolutionaries and a teenage boy who opened a portal to another reality like a fucking boss. We got this!"
Logan laughed lightly at his brother's' praise and shook his head. "Jesus, you're a good brother. Where would I be without you?"
"Asleep in your room, because it was my friend's' brother who introduced you to the guy who introduced you to the Geek Squad, so if I wasn't friends with them, you would never have met the Geek Squad."
Defensive colour rose in Logan's' cheeks. "We are not the Geek Squad!"
~('3')~
It had been a week sheltering in the rundown house of Dot and Larry. The announcment on the radio had been forgotten by Thomas who had realised that there was no way to charge his phone, get signal or use his data. Logan's' brickphone only had Patton as a contact, which was useless, and Thomas wanted to see his parents again. He wanted to see Joan again. and Talyn, and Valerie and all of his friends. Not Logan's' other-dimension boyfriend and a cool sword-wielding pirate dude.
However, he had managed to get used to the small scars on Patton's' face. Whereas before, they had terrified him, he managed to be able to look at the cheery man without glancing to the burns.
Thomas was sitting in the room he had taken up residence in, reading the Harry Potter book he was now so faithful he had brought with him when Logan burst in after a knock on the door.
"Fucking traitors, fucking-" He stubbed his toe but barely seemed to notice as he grabbed their dad's' belt with the hammer on and the two backpacks, chucking Thomas his. "Shit, shit, shit," He hissed, making Thomas bounce to his feet.
"What's going on-?" He asked but, almost instantly, Roman answered the question, bursting into the room with Patton, sword out.
"They sold us out, Prime men are right outside," Snapped Roman, pressing the door closed with his body weight and Patton wiggled on his orange shaded goggles. "We need to get out fast or we're all dead!"
Thomas began to hyperventalite in panic, sweat almost forming instantly as he watched Logan smash their father's' hammer on Dot and Larry's' grimy windows before kicking it in. He turned to his brother. "You go first, okay?" He ordered, despite his sentence being a question as he walked away.
"But the glass-"
"Just go!" Logan shouted, turning onto his brother. A moment of silence stretched between them in the havoc, Thomas clinging to the backpacks and Logan shifting the hammer in his hands. Then Logan shook his head, regret, fear and grief in his eyes. "I should've never dragged you into this..." He whispered.
Thomas was too scared to move for a second before finally obeying his brother. The broken glass was jagged and Thomas tried to move as quickly as he could without cutting himself, which failed quite spectacuarily. His palms were messy in his blood and a few scratches laced his cheeks. He dropped to the ground, grateful for his habit of wearing shoes indoors as he landed on the see-through fragments of the dirt window.
Catching his breath for only a moment, he felt hands on his shoulders from behind him that shoved him forwards and Patton dropped down behind him.
"Hey, kiddo, everything's gonna be fine," He said, despite the fact he was also bleeding a little from grappling the window. "We're just gotta run to the docks, you with me?"
"Where are the docks?!" Thomas cried breathlessly in panic.
Patton's' smile was forced and his eyes glistened with tears that were steaming up his orange goggles. "Don't even worry about it, we'll take you there."
Logan basically threw himself through the window and screamed in pain as he hit the ground, hammer smacking into his cheek. Roman leapt through the window, bloody sword in hand, which made Thomas very briefly think of all those dramatic Marvel movie entrances.
"You okay, Logan?" Roman shouted with adrenaline. Logan nodded shakily and Roman's' grim, stern face softened slightly. "We'll be safe soon, 'kay? But we kinda need to run now."
"I know," Logan snapped back breathily, as he pulled himself up from the ground. The back of his hands were coated in scratches and blood began to stain the back of his clothes. A red mark, already morphing into a bruise lay in a circle on his cheeks and he was panting heavily. "Just get us to the docks and let's go."