Permafrost: Thunderbird

Chapter 30: Silent Nights?

⭐️Chapter 30: Silent Nights?

They say that if a tree falls in the forest and nobody hears or sees it, then it didn't happen. Well, that wasn't true for the people of Laocrah Town. They could hear the explosions and yelling coming from the forest and naturally decided to investigate. As they were walking back, The Infernos, The Thistlins, and the many experiments behind them were confronted with some citizens of Laocrah Town. Almost immediately, they were bombarded with questions.

"Are you guys all okay?!"

"What happened to you?!"

"Who are those creatures behind you?!"

"Do we need to call for help?!"

The group did their best to calm down the concerned crowd, though they mentioned the criminals still being under the rubble of where they'd come from. They mentioned the jail they'd searched up earlier, and some citizens began dialing numbers as they spoke. The Infernos and Thistlins also mentioned they themselves needed to be checked for injury and/or infection as soon as possible. As for the experiments...well, the Town government had to figure out how to properly take care of them with the sciences it had. Slowly and carefully addressing each problem and question at a time got the job done, and in the end, the citizens helped the group on their walk back. However, Silvia noticed something that she hasn't before.

"Where are the Wave Crashers?" she asked, her tone suddenly becoming serious.

She knew the group left them in the laboratory to escape on their own, but had they actually gotten out okay?

"Wait, I thought we didn't care about them because they were mean," Jack said.

"Well yeah, but...wouldn't you feel kind of bad for killing someone like that? I'm pretty sure they have families...

"They could've fled during the destruction, they weren't that damaged after all," Glade suggested.

"Yeah, as much as those guys need punishment...I don't think death should be it. And besides, I think I saw them leaving through a back door," Cosmo added.

"Wait, WHAT?! And you didn't tell us?!" Ryn exclaimed.

"I figured it wasn't worth it since we were concerned for Clara and Sai at the moment."

"True..."

"Awww, you guys were concerned for us?" Clara asked with a genuine smile.

"I'm gonna cry-""Oh come on, you know we care about all our friends..." Jack replied with a smaller smile.

But Cosmo had a point. As much as they wanted to focus on other things right now, they couldn't. They had their own health to concern themselves with, and then others. Bird was being carried in squid form as the others walked, and she let out a sigh of relief. She was glad to be back again, but she also felt...wrong. Like she didn't belong here.

The feeling of having invaded someone's personal life was coming back, and she didn't want to keep hiding it. Maybe it was better for her to leave, at least when things became stable again. She said nothing as the Infernos and Thistlins talked on the way back, though she was very thankful to have met them at all. Without them, she probably could've had worse done to her in that lab, or perished from inhumane care. Bird could definitely say that this helped open her eyes.

Eventually, the group of citizens made it back home, and the two turf teams were taken to the proper medical places. Parental figures were called, and the group did their best to calm them down. Everything was getting sorted, though Bird and the other experiments were taken to other labs and hospitals to have their bodies figured out. Bird supposed it was only fair to have themselves checked so that they could have proper care applied to them. The Infernos and the Thistlins luckily didn't have to stay away from their homes for long, though they still needed bandaging and ointments.

Even though it had been quite a crazy few days, everyone was fine now. It was all going to be okay.

-----

The Wave Crashers had made it back to their homes just fine. They weren't noticed, of course, but that didn't matter. They didn't need to be noticed, and even though they were almost just as injured as the Infernos and Thistlins, they didn't seek any help. They at least planned on taking a break though, and all of them focused on bandaging themselves as they got home. None of them mentioned what truly happened to their parents at all, since their parents weren't in the group of citizens that investigated.

Thrash's mom was working in the kitchen and spotted him as he entered the house. She worriedly ran over and asked what happened, and he simply explained he'd gotten into a scuffle with the Infernos again. She was just glad he was okay, and offered to stop her work to get him patched up. Thrash told her it was okay and that he could do it himself, so she let him go, though she still watched him as he kept walking past her. Oh, the things her son did...

Thorne's dad was nearby as Thorne entered his house, reading a newspaper. He looked up and saw Thorne, quickly standing up to ask what happened, but Thorne simply dismissed it as "the group ran into wild mutant fish but sealed them off so they couldn't attack later". He then kept going past his dad and to the bathroom so he could start sealing the injuries. Thorne's dad sighed at the things his son got into, but decided not to ask until later. The kid had probably been through a lot today, anyway.

Spyke conveniently had less of a hard time, as his mom was resting. His dad wasn't home, but then again, he hardly was. As he got into his bathroom, he checked to make sure his aviators weren't cracked. After all, he needed those things in full if he was going to go out in public. Once he had found no cracks (though there were a few scratches), he started on the rest of his body.

Fang stumbled through his house, purposely ignoring his mother eyeing him nervously as he made his way around. She was always scared of him, and she'd never tell him why. Probably had something to do with what his dad did, but again, she wouldn't say. Fang walked past his bathroom, pushed open the door to his room, and closed it. He laid down on his bed, which was crowded with plushies, pillows, and blankets of all sorts. He sighed as he mumbled quietly to himself.

"Someday....I'm gonna do something. Something about this."