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"Where exactly are we heading to?" One of the newcomers questioned them as everyone piled into the bed of the truck. "Do you even know where we are?"
"Does it matter?!"Wren didnāt lift her cheek from the butt of the rifle as she kept picking off Hydra soldiers as the as they filed out of the facility. There was only a few of them at first, but more and more started to flood out like rats away from a fire. She did what she could, but there was only so many bullets and she could only shoot so fast. Wren could understand the concern in him, heās following a bunch of enhanced people he doesnāt know just go somewhere. But it was a better option than staying and hanging out with Hydra anyway you slice it.
Wrenās brows raised when a purple ball of something flew the guy and slammed into a crowd of soldiers, lighting them all up in a column of violet flames. She glanced over her shoulder toward the culprit giving him a slight smile and a nod of her head.
On cue from inside the cabin, Frankie honked the horn hurrying everyone into the truck. The blonde poked her head out of the driver side window to look back at Wren. She hollered something about needing to go that the red head couldnāt hear over the rain and loud rumble of the truck. Wren put one more shot between the eyes of an approaching guard before sliding the gun into the bed of the truck.
She was about to climb into the bed, but stopped when she saw the bazooka. Wren could have left it. They all could have left everything the way it was and still gotten away in one piece. But that wasnāt enough for her. With her back to the facility, a force slammed her from behind. She glanced down to see a bullet right through her left shoulder before lodging itself in the side of the vehicle. Her left arm was weakened, but she pushed past the pain and hefted the bazooka up onto her right shoulder. "Go fuck yourself," she said as she pulled the trigger.
The recoil made her falter backward as the projectile flew toward the base. Like the thunder, the impact at first was quiet then rippled through the ground like a wave. The explosion light up the sky and the sound was like a physical wave that pushed her back. For good measure, Wren flipped the bird toward what remained of the Hydra facility before climbing up into the bed of the truck. She gave two smacks to the side to signal she was in and Frankie didnāt hesitate to floor it out of there.
Frankie drove the truck through the night. Surprisingly, the base wasnāt on another continent halfway around the world. The more she thought about it, the more it made sense. Attacking the Academy is a risky move, and the longer amount of time they spent in the air with all of them that they kidnapped, the easier it would have been for the other Descendants, heroes or whatever else to hunt them down. It took Frankie the better part of an hour or two of driving to see roads signs that told her she was in Canada and figure out the right way to travel.
It was a long drive and for the tail end of it, she could feel her eyelids getting heavier. Frankie thought about pulling over and asking one of the others to drive, but they all looked worse for the wear. So, she pushed through it, driving the army trunk down freeways until they arrived back in Bridgeport. At first she saw the Descendent tower peeking out over the horizon just past dawn. The sun glistened off the windows making the building shimmer like the Emerald City.
Frankie felt a knot twist in her gut as tears formed in her eyes. There is nothing that can quite describe the fear one feels when they are so close to something they fought for. She wanted to feel relief but until she was inside and could see her friendsā faces, the pit would only grow. So often people are torn from what they want just shy and sheād be damned if that would stop her now.
She pulled the truck down the long narrow driveway that lead up to the tower, her hands white knuckling the steering wheel as they grew closer. Frankie hadnāt thought about it until that momentā¦ But the fact that they were pulling up to a building filled with some of the worldās most powerful people in a foreign truck, shortly after an attack wasnāt the smartest. But she didnāt care.
The truck came to an abrupt stop before the tower, Frankie all but slamming on the breaks to stop the truck. She didnāt even waste the time to turn off the engine. The blonde stumbled out of the driverās seat, nearly falling to her knees on the pavement. She couldnāt fight the tears that fell from her eyes nor the sobs that climbed up her throat.
Frankie made her way to the entrance and pushed open the large entry doors into the tower, desperate for a familiar face.
Wren was awoken when the truck came to quick stop causing her to slide along the bed of the truck until she collided with the back of the cabin. She groaned as she sat up, her hand cupping the gunshot wound in her shoulder that had only healed a fraction as much as it would have on a normal day. Wren raised her fist and banged it on the back of the truckās cabin. "What in the hell is going on?"
When she didnāt get a response, Wren open her eyes only to have the breath taken from her as she saw a familiar skyline. She all but shoved past the others to climb out of the back of the truck. Unfortunately for her, when her feet hit the ground, her body was not prepared to catch her.
She remained there, frozen on the concrete under the early morning sunlight. Red locks fell around her head like a veil while she was on her hands and knees. Wren was never the type to cry, anger was always her go to emotion in most situations, but it rose up through her like a wave. Then there at that moment on the ground, so close to the academy she wept. Her body heaved with every sob as her head fell into the palms of her hands upon the ground.
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"Mother? Do you mean... Mystique?" Wynne asked.
Tobiasā brows raised as he looked at her in curiosity before it had sunken in. Of course, Wynne, might not have known about his connection to Raven like some of the other people at the academy. It wasnāt something that he openly broadcasted or anything, but like any building with a lot of busy bodies, information spreads fast.
He adjust in his wheelchair, holding his bandaged wound with his right hand as he did. Tobias sighed at his own incapacitation before looking over at Wynne and nodding his head. "Yes. Sheās not actually my mother. I never knew my mother. But where my father didnāt raise meā¦ Raven did."
Tobias never liked the negative outlook people had on his mother. He knew her true nature that no one else got to see and he was always willing to speak about her in a new light. Sadly, most people didnāt believe him that his mother was a good person beneath everything else. But when Magneto wants you to do something you do itā¦ Or you die.
He hadnāt been in bed long. Surprisingly, Wynne and Tobias spent a better part of the evening on the roof talkingā¦ About anything, everything. It was so rare that anyone went out of their way to speak to him as an equal, beside Petra. But she was family.
Tobias had just reached a deeper slumber when a loud alarm and bright lights woke him. He sat up so quickly in his bed that he nearly popped a stitch. His hand quickly moving to his side to cup his wound as he groaned. J.A.R.V.I.S.ās voice echoed throughout the tower, "This is not a drill. Approaching foreign vehicle. All hands to the main floor."
As quickly as he could manage, Tobias climbed out of bed and into his wheelchair. Before he exited his room, he rolled over to the window looking out to see a large military truck approaching the tower. None of them had their strength back to handle another Hydra attack, especially himself. He cursed under his breath and used his abilities to move his chair far faster than his hands could.
He contemplated diverting to Petraās room. But instead, Tobias tried to be one of the first to the lobby, hoping that maybe it took her too long to get down here or she slept through the alarms. Then, sheād be out of harmās way. Instead of pressing the button for the elevator, he willed it to his floor only and forced it down to ground level.
Tobias rolled into the main lobby to be met by Mycroft, Coulson and Alfred. It was the first time he ever saw the trio prepared for a real attackā¦ Not scolding the about their simulations. They all stood there like sentries in Kevlar vests. For the first time in his life, they all seemed almost relieved that he was there with them in the academy. If the situation wasnāt so dire he might have even commented on it. Instead his gaze focused on the approaching truck, trying to muster whatever energy he had.
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It was a rude awakening for a drunk and injured man. If he wasnāt sunken into a beanbag chair like quicksand, Ross might have fallen on the floor from the shock of it all. He tried to find something to throw atā¦ Well, he didnāt know, but something but came up short handed.
It took Ross a few moments to fully comprehend what J.A.R.V.I.S. was saying over the alarms but once it registered, he nearly jumped up from his place in the beanbag chair. He grabbed his backpack which held his mirror gun and a large arrangements of mirrors, then headed out the door. Barefoot, still in his hospital pants and shirtless, he ran as fast as he could down the hallway.
In a quick decision, Ross turned to the stairs rather than waiting on the elevator. This time he refused to be taken by surprise. He hated how he wasnāt powerful like most of the other students here, but he earned his place and he would protect his friends. So many of them were already taken, that he wouldnāt let whomever was rolling right up to their door take anyone else.
He ran into the lobby, slowing to a halt along with the others. Ross looked like an idiot holding a mirror gun in his hands while he was barely dressed. The skills he inherited from his father were a joke, but nonetheless, he intended to use every trick he had up his sleeve if he had to. Then the driverās side door openedā¦
Ross got ready to shoot, but when the blonde came into view, his gun fell from his hands as he stood there in shock. It clattered to the ground, the sound echoing off the walls of the large foyer. "Oh māgodā¦ Ets Frankie!"