3 - The Chaos Insurgency and Shattered Wrists

*Characters: Willow, West, Stone, Brooks,*

Willow tucked the last of the files into the cabinet, as she heard a small noise beside her.  She glanced over to see Stone standing next to her, looking concerned. “Hey, what’s up Stone? In trouble again or something?” Stone shook her head “Nope, however neither me nor West seem to be able to find Brooks”

Willow raised an eyebrow just as alarms rang throughout the building. Seconds later, both Willow and Stone were racing down the hall, with a Chaos Insurgency raid on their heels. “Willow, go find West and get out of here!” Willow turned as Stone began to fall back “What about you and Brooks?” Willow yelled as she attempted to slow down.

“I’ll catch up in a minute, just trust me!”  Stone replied pulling out her pistol, Willow nodded and kept running. As Willow raced down the hall she heard the sound of gunshots and wingbeats. She looked over her shoulder to see West speeding towards her. “Grab on!”

Willow leapt and grabbed ahold of West’s hand and together they exited the site. As West landed breathing heavily, She looked up at Willow. “Where’s Stone and Brooks?”  Willow shrugged. “I’m not sure where Brooks is and as for Stone-” Willow was cut off by the sound of a door being slammed open.

The two sharply turned towards the door, witnessing an extremely pissed off Stone covered in a mix of  gunpowder and blood, along with a very scared Chaos Insurgency agent. Both Willow and West just stood there as Stone dragged the agent roughly towards them, and they both stepped back as she quite literally threw him to the ground.

“Tell them what you told your buddies before I put another god damn round of bullets in you” Stone ordered the agent, pointing her pistol towards his unmasked face. The agent whimpered before glancing towards Willow and West “We..We were ordered to take any researcher hostage”

Stone kicked his leg slightly “And?”

The man flinched, scared of the teen “and we managed to capture someone, I think her name was Brooks” Willow turned towards West as her wings flared angrily “WHAT!?” West exclaimed pulling out the pocket knife she kept in her lab coat “You're going to take us to where Brooks is or I’ll have no issue turning you over to Stone”

The Chaos Insurgency agent stared at West in fear before jumping as Willow grabbed him by the shirt “If I were you, I’d corporate because if anything happens to Brooks, I’ll just say that the janitors will have a shit ton of work to do”

The agent swallowed and nodded, grunting as Willow not so gently let go of his shirt. “I’ll lead you to our temp base” The three researchers nodded and made space for him to stand. Willow noticed that the man had three bloody stains on his uniform: one on his arm, and the other two on one of his legs.

Willow then realized that Stone must have taken on the entire raid “Stone, how many did you kill?” Stone shrugged “if you're asking whether or not I slaughtered the entire raid, no I only killed five and caught this asshole over here” she replied pointing a thumb towards the captured agent.

About ten minutes later, they found a car and were on the road. With West driving and Stone sitting behind the hostage, pistol pointed towards his head, they sped down the highway ignoring the honks from other drivers as they swerved out of their way. “Okay so, where are we going?” Willow asked the hostage “j- just keep going straight then just after the third exit toward onto the dirt path”

Willow saw West nod, and she turned to Stone as she watched her rummaging through her pockets with her empty hand “Damn it, the one time I need my matches, I leave them in the staff room” The hostage turned in his seat while he searched his pockets, causing Stone to press the pistol closer to him “Woah, hold on! Here” the Agent said as he handed Stone a few items.

Willow leaned over catching sight of what he had handed over, it was a box of matches and surprisingly a few small explosives. The man must have caught sight of Stone's wide grin as he had a look of regret and fear. “Hold on!” West warned them as she sharply turned the car on to the dirt path, and the car slowed slightly so as to not crash.

It only took about ten seconds of driving at a highly illegal pace to reach the CI base. Willow grabbed a hold of the door as West swerved to the right and into the trees before parking the car. The three researchers stepped out of the car and then Stone opened the front passenger door and yanked the agent out.

“Willow, you know how to fire a pistol, right?” Stone asked, She nodded and then caught the pistol that Stone was holding seconds before. “Wait, what?” Willow stared at the gun then at Stone “Just make sure to keep it pointed at him” Stone explained as she followed West who had taken the lead. Willow shrugged and pointed it at the man urging him to keep moving.

Willow pressed the gun to the captured agent’s back “So how do we get in?”  The man didn’t reply, so Willow pressed it harder “I said, how do we get in?” He stiffened “The back door, it’ll lead right to where hostages would be held,” West turned and glared at him “any guards?” He shook his head.

West flared her wings “For the sake of your life, you best not be lying,” the man nodded. They made their way towards the back door, and once they reached it, Willow pulled on the door, and found that it was locked. Willow watched as Stone grabbed ahold of the hostage and slammed him head first in the door.

When he stumbled away from the door, Willow saw Stone nonchalantly open the door and as they entered, Willow realized the lock had been busted open. The four of them made their way down the grey brick hallway, Willow looking into each empty cell they passed. “Brooks! Brooks, can you hear us?”

They stopped for a few seconds to listen. “Willow? West? Stone?” They raced towards Brooks' voice, dragging the hostage with them. They reached the cell where Brooks was being held. “What are you guys doing here?” She asked, confused but delighted. “We came to rescue you.”  Willow replied.

“Look out!” was all Willow heard before she felt an arm around her neck and cold steel at her cheek. “A- Alright listen here, I got you to your friend, n..now let me go or this one gets it!” Willow managed to catch Stone’s eye and Stone nodded. Seconds later, Willow brought her hand up and brought it back down in such a quick manner that the agent had no time to react.

He fell to the ground, doubled over in pain, and all he did was look up at Stone as she took the gun from Willow, aiming it at him. Willow looked away as the shot rang out across the empty, narrow hallway. She turned back toward the agent as she heard Stone kneel beside him.

“Be fucking thankful I wasn’t aiming for your head.” The agent groaned in pain as Stone kicked him once before standing up and walking over the cell door, taking aim at it. West turned to Brooks. “You're gonna want to stand back.” Brooks nodded and backed against the wall. A second gunshot rang out and the cell door swung open.

Brooks raced out of the cell and towards them, but tripped as the agent grabbed her ankle. Brooks let out a small cry of pain as he ran his knife across her ankle. Stone stormed over and stomped on his wrist, Willow and the other wincing as they heard the bones shatter. The now severely injured agent sobbed in pain.

Willow watched as Stone started to load a new round of bullets into her pistol, when they heard a yell from the far end of the hallway. They all looked up to see a large group of CI agents. Brooks let out a frightened whimper as she quickly moved behind West.

Stone without taking her eyes off of the incoming CI said “West, get Brooks out of here, she isn’t trained to handle this yet” Willow turned to West as she grabbed ahold of Brooks and took off. Willow jumped as Stone threw the box of matches and explosives towards her “Let’s light them up”

Willow nodded with a grin, and lit one of the explosives, chucking it at full force toward the agents. Gunshot after gunshot rang out as Stone opened fired on them as well, when suddenly Willow was shoved backwards seconds after two louder bangs echoed through the hall.

When she looked to see what had happened, pain erupted from her leg: she had been shot. Willow then realized Stone was on the ground in front of her, still firing but also had a hand at her side, Stone was the one who must have shove her out of the direct line of fire.

“Don't just stand there! We need to finish these assholes off before we both bleed out” Stone yelled at her, and in response Willow lit up the remaining five explosives and hurled them at the CI agents. She heard a pained chuckle from Stone “And you all though I was the crazy one in terms of fire”

“Yeah well, Willow doesn’t light random shit on fire” They both turned as West landed beside Willow. “Where’s Brooks?” Willow asked “Safe in the stolen/borrowed car we used” West looked down at Stone as the teen struggled to stand. “Okay, time to go, you’ve lost a lot of blood I’m guessing?”  Stone waved her off as she nearly face planted “I’m fine, right Willow?”

Willow grabbed ahold of Stone’s arm “you don’t look fine to me” Willow lost her grip as Stone proceeded to pass out and fell face first into the floor. West sighed “just like last time, hm?” Willow nodded and together they managed to drag her down the hall.

Willow stopped suddenly, something felt wrong. She realized what was happening seconds too late as a mid-sized explosion blew them out the door. Willow’s ears rang slightly as she got up “You okay West?” She asked as she glanced at the blue-grey winged researcher “West?” she nudged West with her hand.

West didn’t move, Willow started to panic as she shook the researcher repeatedly “West come on we gotta go!” Seconds later West groaned and sat up, rubbing her head “What the hell happened?” Willow sighed with relief “you got knocked out by the explosive” She watched as West stood.

They both looked around for Stone, spotting her a foot or so away from them. “Come on, We gotta get Brooks and Stone to medical” Willow nodded, and they both hurled the unconscious teen towards the car. Brooks was standing beside the car as they reached it

“What happened? Why does Stone have static around her face?” Brooks asked as she helped them get Stone into the car “She was being stubborn, as usual” Willow explained “And as for the static, that just happens from time to time” Brooks simply nodded as she slid into the front passenger seat. Willow sat next to Stone “We might wanna hurry, she’s looking a lot paler then normal” West nodded and they sped off.

Hours later, Willow took a sip of her drink as she sat in the staff room, glancing up as she saw Brooks and West enter “How’s your ankle, Brooks?” Brooks smiled. “It's alright, they said I don’t need to worry about it,” Willow gave a thumbs up. “and Stone?” West opened her mouth to reply but got cut off as the door swung open again “I’ve told you, I’m fine!”

They watched as an unsteady and heavily bandaged Stone attempted to wiggle out of the grasp of  a pair of medics. Willow chuckled, glad to see that all her friends were fine. “So what, I lost a little blood.” one of the medics raised an eyebrow “A little? Dr. Stone, we had to use a bag and a half,”

Stone looked defiant “Exactly, a little, plus I drained more blood than I lost anyways-” Stone got cut off as she proceeded to face plant into the floor. As the medics went to help Stone, she waved them off “Just leave me alone, go bother your other patients,” They both sighed in defeat and nodded to the others, before leaving.

Stone sat up and inched her way over to the others and pulled out a deck of cards “Care for a game?”