Brave Fear (boyxboy)

Chapter 37

They tied up the oddly small man in the corner of the room with elastics that had previously held the maps together. They were wound around and around and dug into his flesh, making him whimper. He didn't fight them, which could be an indication that he was willing to give them what they wanted, or a desperate ruse to save his life, like the girl.

Before doing anything else, Zane rushed over to Jonas, who had recently begun to stir. His hand was placed palm down on the glass-covered floor, and he grunted as he tried to stand up. His eyes were closed and Zane could tell he was in immense pain.

Zane looped an arm around Jonas's midsection and hauled him to his feet. The boy gratefully wrapped an arm around Zane as his feet staggered and threatened to give away underneath him. He made a vain attempt to chuckle. "For your information, getting chucked into a glass wall doesn't feel too hot,"

Zane snorted. "Was there ever any doubt?"

Jonas made the universal hand gesture for a little; his index finger lowered just slightly above his thumb. "Maybe a bit on my part," he said. "Although I never intended to test my theory."

"Well, congratulations," Zane said. "You successfully tested and disproved your theory. You're a scientist now."

"Smartass,"

"Guilty as charged,"

"You can be a pain, you know that?"

"That is the word on the street,"

"Anything broken?"

"Just my sense of pride,"

Zane rolled his eyes and lowered Jonas to the ground next to Trip's slumped unconscious form. There was nothing they could do but wait for Trip to wake up. And when he did, he'd get quite the shock. They were definitely not schoolkids and they had definitely not wanted to look at maps. Zane imagined the look on the guy's face, and giggled.

Jonas glanced past Zane, and frowned. "Destruction of property," he reprimanded. "We're felons." His brown eyes widened in mock surprise and his foot began to tap, withdrawing relevant information almost involuntarily. The microchip had become a part of him just like this power had become a part of Zane. Guilty by association.

Zane scoffed. "And we weren't felons when we assaulted government soldiers, stole a fucking plane, violated British airspace, and snuck into a foreign embassy to 'arrest'-" he made air quotes. "-government-sanctioned assassins?"

Jonas smiled. "Nope," he said. "Wrecking some maps is far more illegal,"

"I don't think you can accurately measure how illegal something is," Zane told him.

"Oh, I think there is," the boy said to him. "It's illegal to steal a bag of chips. It's very illegal to rob someone of their rights as human beings."

"Stipulated," Zane responded, rolling his eyes.

Jonas chuckled and propped himself up higher, then turned and fistbumped Trip's limp hand beside him. "Crippled buds,"

Zane rolled his eyes again.

Mallory and Marcus were already beginning to furiously berate the man with questions, prominent among them how Wawrzynski managed to find them. Zane knew they'd get no concrete answer, so he partially tuned out their questions and his responses.

Daisy and Anastasia were talking in hushed tones down an aisle spilled full of maps. Zane veered clear, not interested in interrupting their conversation.

Instead, he found Joseph.

The broad boy had returned his skin back to normal, and his hair had lost its wave, his shirt and pants their wrinkles. His eyes were blue again, the startling blue that Zane loved and admired. A line of stubble along his chin stood out in the stark light, and Zane found he hadn't shaved recently either, but his stubble was less visible as it was the same color as his hair; golden blond. A small tear in Joseph's shirt showed a sliver of his chest, and Zane wanted to tear the shirt right off. Priorities, Zane, he told himself.