Permafrost: Thunderbird

Chapter 16: Say What?!

⭐️Chapter 16: Say What?!

The Infernos were waiting for the Thistlins' return, and quite some time had passed. The air was now cooler, and they all made sure they had coats on as they kept trying to explain the town to Bird. Bird frankly, found this interesting. She'd never seen something quite like this in all her life, as she'd grown up in a lab for the most part. However, she still felt...off about being here, since she'd technically just butted into a group of lives that were probably fine without her.

She said nothing about it though, since she figured now was not the time for existential crises. The Infernos were on high alert anyway, and throwing them off by going into some long winding feeling trip probably wouldn't help now. Speaking of which, the Infernos suddenly noticed the Wave Crashers entering in from the trees surrounding Laocrah Town. Well, they were back...but just what did they have up their sleeve, if anything at all? The group of goons was too far away to see the Infernos properly, and since Bird wasn't in their line of sight, now was a good time to act.

"Hey Bird, we see something that might mean trouble," Ryn warned her, continuously checking over her shoulder to see where the Crashers were.

"Yeah, you're gonna wanna hide in Ryn's pocket again," Cosmo suggested.

"O-oh! But...are you sure? Maybe I can help?" Bird asked worriedly.

"I thought you were afraid of scientists, or people finding you at all," Jack said.

"Well I don't know...after the stuff I did in turf war, I'm starting to think I'm a little stronger than what I initially believed..."

"I'm glad you're thinking that, but just this once, please hide in my coat pocket," Ryn sighed. "We can talk about this later."

"Ooookaaayy..."

Bird turned into squid form and hopped into the pocket. Once the group made sure she was okay, they were good to go. The Infernos then made a move to walk away from where they were, as an extra precaution. Unfortunately for them though, the Wave Crashers had spotted them, and were already advancing on them. Figuring that if they ran, they'd look suspicious, the Infernos decided to keep walking slowly.

Unfortunately though, the Crashers caught up, and many people around the area at the current moment backed away. The Infernos got ready to deal with more verbal insults thrown at them as Thrash towered over them.

"Ugh, what do YOU want?" Silvia asked, turning around and giving the four bullies an annoyed look.

"Still as lame as ever, I see," Thrash simply said.

"You're one to talk," Silvia retorted.

"So are you, missy," Spyke jeered.

Thrash suddenly noticed something was...off about the group. Counting who was currently standing, he soon found the problem.

"Hey, where's that other kid you had with you? The one with yellow ink and the one that needs payback for electrocutin' me?" Thrash snarled.

"Psh, what's it to you? Since when we you cared about another person's wellbeing, especially with younger kids?" Jack retorted.

"We're going to take that girl away from you and bring her home! She has a family she's gotta see that misses her very much!" Thorne simply replied.

"Wait, what? How do we know this isn't a fake?" Cosmo asked.

"Yeah, I don't know about you guys but I'm not believing this..." Ryn said.

"Suit yourself, but you just might be doing yourselves a wrong by not listening," Thrash sneered.

"Yeah. I'd listen to them if I were you," Fang added.

Ryn just kind of gave him a look as the other three exchanged insults about stupidity and doing the right thing. She'd seen how he was before when he worked with them. Why did he insist on hanging out with such...toxic people? Then again, she didn't really know what she could do to persuade him to change sides, so she left it as the other Infernos closed off their talk with the other three Crashers.

"Just sayin'. Might regret your choiceeeees~" Spyke said in a sing-song voice as the Wave Crashers walked past the Infernos and down a different street.

"Ugh, that was gross," Silvia grumbled.

"You can say that again," Jack replied.

"Hey, do you think we should follow them?" Ryn asked, snapping out of her thoughts for a moment. "Just in case?"

"Hmmm...I don't know, I don't want to confront them again...." Cosmo said worriedly.

"Yeah! Follow them!" Bird squeaked from Ryn's pocket.

"Well...I guess," Jack shrugged.

Ryn didn't wait for Silvia's reply as she quietly jogged after the Wave Crashers. Soon, the other three had followed her, and she could see the Crashers taking a turn into an alleyway. Ryn switched to quietly walking as she made her way down the street and towards the alley. As the Infernos neared it, they could hear the Crashers' voices quietly taking with each other.

"Listen, that Hunter guy promised us the good stuff for this. We can't give up."

"Right, we need to find that girl and bring her back into the laboratory as soon as we can!"

"We just need to find a weakness in that pathetic group of burnt-out squids."

"They're not experts. I'm sure there's a way."

"Yeah. We'll keep trying."

Of course. The Wave Crashers never had good intentions, and this only proved it further. The group now knew they had to protect Bird even more, and Bird herself could even hear the Crashers' conversation from her pocket hiding spot. The Infernos, once they'd finished listening to the plan some more, quietly but quickly made their way back out from there. They needed a plan now, one to stop the Wave Crashers from executing THEIR plan. But what, and where to start?

"Well...now that we know what they're REALLY up to..." Ryn muttered.

Jack sighed and shook their head. This was just so much to deal with in a day...

"I knew it was too good to be true."

"Well now what? We need to increase caution even more now," Bird asked.

"Yeah! There could be spies!" Cosmo added.

"I personally think we could use a little more backup," Silvia replied. "And we need to make sure we can trust those that ally with us."

"You're right," Ryn said.

"We gotta tell the Thistlins."