Just an idea—
Fire boy’s trip through another realm
Part 29:
💬 4 🔁 2 ❤️ 9 · Fire boy’s trip through another realm · Just an idea— Part 28: 💬 3 🔁 3 ❤️ 22 · Fire boy’s trip through another real
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[five days prior to the ninja’s return]
Ash pushed inside the warehouse through the window above and dropped to the ground on silent feet.
He turns, straining his ears and feeling into the ground.
No one was home. Perfect.
He shifts out of his fighting stance and towards the many work desks lining up in the room, scraps of metal, tools and even blueprints everywhere.
A workshop, it seems, but Ash doubts that, whatever they were building, was legal.
He pulls open a few drawers, carefully rifling through it and trying not to jump each time he catches a glimpse of a gun lying in them or taped beneath the desk for quick access.
He pushes forward, carefully studying each blueprint (even though he has a hard time reading them) and snaps a few pictures of them before continuing onward.
A round ball-thingy laid on one of the desks, half open with wires sticking out and Ash taps at it with his gloved finger. Nothing.
At least it’s not a complete dead-end. Although he wishes he had found more than just an empty workspace and some scraps, but hopefully someone from his contacts will be able to tell him what they were building.
He releases a heavy sigh and turns, hand combing through the spiky mess and he should really let Demick cut it at this point, even if he’s not exactly thrilled by the idea of letting an evil overlord get anywhere near him with scissors.
His eye flicks across the wall and he stumbles, desk screeching across the floor, tools and metal clattering to the ground, a noise so fucking loud in the silence of the warehouse but it was so quiet compared to the blood rushing in his ears, roaring in his veins, fighting the coldness that seeped into him and the clammy feeling in his lower stomach and the burn of the mark between his shoulder blades.
It’s himhimhim—
Ash clawed at his back, trying to reach the offending thing that was once burned into his flesh and the whispers of power—
He scrambled up, away from the purple graffiti on the wall and the memories that come with it, abandoning his cover, panic clogging his throat as he scrambles back out of the nearest window and books it down the street, not knowing where to go but away from that haunting image on that godforsaken wall.
He should’ve known! Should’ve seen the signs! Shouldn’t have ignored them—
The signs were there, Ash knew and, yet, he ignored them with all his might because he doesn’t want to think back to the time in that stupid island and—
It’s fine. Ash’s fine. This is fine.
“I- I’m okay”, he repeats out loud, clutching the front of his hoodie with the horns sewn to the top and dead, neon smiley on the back.
“I can do this”, he adds, as if to calm his racing heart in his chest and the bitter cold in his veins. “T- This is fine”
It’s not fine. Not at all, but Ash has to bite through it, has to push forward and face the enemy head on.
He can do this. He did it once, he can do it again.
“Ash?”, someone calls out and Ash nearly jumps out of his skin, breath still coming out in too-short puffs of air and he needs more and he realizes, distraught, that he’s currently having a panic attack in the middle of the street right in front of the other version of his baby siblings.
Copycats—
“F- Fuck off”, Ash spits, nails digging into his chest where his heart feels like it’s about to burst out of it, but he barely feels the sting of nails through the fabric.
Fuck! Why them? Why now?
They inch closer and Ash releases a low hiss akin to a beast’s growl and Nya freezes.
Lloyd continues onward, undeterred.
“Leave”, Ash hisses and, fuck, he can’t breathe, but the green bean merely sidesteps his weak swat of his free hand. Fuck, fuck, fuck—
“You gotta breathe, Ash”, Lloyd murmurs low and soothing and Ash squeezes his eyes shut as the whispers lick at the back of his mind in a menacing taunt.
Lloyd sits down in front of him (when had he sat down?) and makes exaggerated breathing noises, way slower than Ash’s panicked gasps and first master, when did his baby brother get so mature?
Lloyd breathes, Ash mimics it, or, at least, attempts to, because it still feels like there’s less air in his lungs than there should be.
“You’re doing great”, Lloyd encourages and Ash does another whistling intake, throat burning and his face itches with dry tears and he wants to bury himself in the nearest pit and die on the spot.
“I got some water”, Nya suddenly announces and Ash jumps even though her voice was a bare whisper.
Ash still reaches for it, the paint of his mask probably already smeared from the tears (he should’ve gotten the water proof ones after all) and chucks down the bottle as soon as he got it open with his trembling fingers.
“You’re gonna choke”, Nya huffs, gently grabbing the other end and tugging it away and out of his grasp that was too shaky to hold the thing correctly anyway.
“Thanks”, was the first thing he managed to rasp out, heart racing less, breathing coming easier again but the mark still burns against his back like a silent taunt. “Sorry”, was the second.
“For what?”, Lloyd asks in his innocent confusion and Ash opens his mouth, closes it again and gestures that himself and his surroundings helplessly. Stupid.
“It’s not your fault you had a panic attack”, Nya sniffed beside her little brother, brushing a stray hair behind her ear again and first master, she was so young still—
Ash kept the comments to himself.
“So, what happened?”, the girl wants to know and Ash takes the water bottle and drinks from it once more so he doesn’t have to answer.
He shrugs.
She stares.
Lloyd shuffles uncomfortably.
“I don’t want to talk about it”, Ash replies finally when she doesn’t get the hint and she frowns deeply at him, unvoiced tension flowing between them.
Right, their little argument. Ash almost forgot.
“Welp”, he says suddenly, because the tension was too much and the embarrassment of the situation still too fresh. “I’d better be going — See ya’”
And with that, he attempts to book it down the alley they were huddled in, but instead, his way was blocked by new arrivals.
“That was very cute”, one says and Ash’s gaze flits towards the other two but the other half of the group has already blocked the other end of the alley, effectively trapping the three in the middle. Fuck.
“I almost cried myself”, the man in a wolf-mask mocks and Ash’s cheeks burn with embarrassment.
“What do you want?!”, Nya demands, pushing herself in front of Lloyd and Ash grids his teeth and readies himself for a fight.
“We don’t want anything from you”, Wolf-mask scoffs and ice nips at Ash’s fingertips. “We just want to have a little chat with your friend over here”
Wolf-mask meets Ash’s gaze and Ash has the feeling that this is somehow connected to that big boss he pissed off the other day.
“You made a very powerful person very angry, Ōmukade”, Wolf-mask murmurs in a sadistic grin and Ash feels Nya’s and Lloyd’s eyes burn against the back of his head.
Fuck him being right. Fuck shit.
“Fine”, Ash says before Wolf-mask could continue, the other man’s voice awfully familiar, yet he couldn’t quite pinpoint who it reminds him of just yet. “But leave them out of this”
Wolf-mask grins, Ash glares.
“Then surrender first, Ōmukade — how do we know you won’t resist once they leave?”
Ash grids his teeth. “I could say the same thing to you, Wolf”
Wolf-mask laughs as if the new nickname amuses him greatly.
And then he snaps his fingers, grin vanishing in an instant and Ash whips around as the men behind him move, grabbing Nya and Lloyd by the arms and Ash steps forward, only to screech to a halt immediately, because one of the goons was pressing a thin blade against Nya’s throat while the other holds Lloyd’s arm at an odd angle.
“Stop”, Ash demands, pleads, singular eye wide and Wolf-mask grins again.
“Surrender”
Ash swallows, hands lifting up slowly as he frantically tries to find a way out.
Six men in front of him, six behind him.
He could take them, but he also has to protect Nya and Lloyd while doing so or, at least, get them out of here and—
Lloyd screams, Ash scrambles forward, stops, freezing in place, because the goon had pressed the blade further against the soft skin of Nya’s throat, drawing a few drops of blood.
“On your knees, Ōmukade”
“Fine! Fine! Just let them leave”
Ash drops to his knees, eye fixated on his two siblings and he senses one of the men stepping forward and clasping a cuff around his wrist and then his other, locking them firm behind his back.
Wolf-mask gives the others a signal and they part as the other two guide Nya and Lloyd out of the alley, disappearing behind the corner and shortly returning without the two.
They were safe now. Good.
Ash slumps into himself, energy draining out of him as, what was clearly vengestone, locked away his powers.
They knew.
“It’s truly touching”, Wolf-mask coos, grasping at Ash’s spiky hair and yanking his head back. “Even though we’re in another dimension, you still care for them”
They knew.
Ash glowers at him.
“And in every dimension, you’re the stupid one”, he spits, launching forward, knocking his head against the asshole’s and dodges a tackle from behind.
He tucks and rolls, delivering his knee straight into the nearest goon’s gut when he jumps back to his feet, twisting and doing a high kick, knocking the next one out with his boot to his temple.
The goons scream and scatter about as Wolf-mask staggers back to his feet and begins to bark orders that Ash had no time to listen to.
He has to get out of here and fast!
There was a pinch at the back of his neck and Ash stumbles, vision swimming dangerously and he ducks and sprints towards the nearest exit, caged fire roaring in his veins, fighting against the sedative that works its way terrifyingly fast through his bloodstream, making his ears stuffy and his vision cloudy and his mind fuzzy.
He grunts as his face gets pressed straight into the asphalt, another pinch to the neck and Ash whines, twisting uselessly beneath the weight of another henchman.
“That amount could kill an elefant”, the man with the Wolf-mask says, crouching down beside Ash’s head and it was almost incoherent through the cotton in his ears. “But you were always the more resilient one, so you should be fine”
A condescending pat to his cheek that Ash barely feels yet snaps his jaws at anyway. Or, at least, he tried because lifting his head was a near impossible task at this point.
The man takes his mask off and grins, mustache pulling with the mocking expression and he was older than Ash remembers him being, but, perhaps, he had been here longer than Ash had himself…
“Don’t worry, Kai”, he says in a low coo. “My master’s gonna take good care of ya for the big boss”
And then, everything went black.
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Woops— ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Part 31:
💬 0 🔁 0 ❤️ 1 · Fire boy’s trip through another realm · Just an idea— Part 30: 💬 0 🔁 2 ❤️ 7 · Fire boy’s trip through another realm