Far Beyond the Stars (TFP Shockwave x Reader)

Lost in the Scrap

The air was thick, foggy with chemicals and pollution. The junkyard was lonesome, with only piles upon piles of abandoned scrap clumped together in groups amongst the area.

Lone, bored guards stood up front, cigarette smoke reeking from their bodies as they held their cigarettes, and kicked forgotten ones down below their thick boots, barely paying attention to their surroundings.

Which was good for you, of course.

Soft grunts sounded as you tumbled down from the large stone wall onto a stray junk pile, knocking a tire free and letting it tumble down to the dirt path that wove around said paths.

You sighed, fixing your jacket around yourself, brushing your dusty hands off, glancing around. It was dark out, your eyes taking a moment to adjust to the dreary setting of the junkyard.

With a shift of your booted feet, you began to gently prance down the pile, laces lightly catching on stuck out chunks of metal or plastic as you did so, causing a light trip for every few steps.

Once you made it to the floor, you plucked your phone from your sweater pocket, flicking on the flashlight to illuminate your way. The thick air hung heavy, so much so it could be cut by a knife.

"Just gettin' some... little things," you sang to yourself, trying to break up the silence as you strode down the path. "Just don't... get caught."

Stepping deeper into the yard, you followed the guiding glow of your flashlight, eyes flicking around to glance for anything useful on the ground. Spare parts, batteries, scrap metal, anything really.

Turning a corner around a pile, you shone your flashlight over to what seemed to be a group of cars, put together, but scrapped. A smile slipped over your face, and you quickly paraded over to the pile.

"Jackpot," you chirped to yourself, scrambling over to the cars with curiosity, shining your flashlight down over the wheels, hands running along the rims quietly from where you crouched next to the first car. "Happy birthday to me."

You were at this for a while, picking up parts from the car and the junk piles near them, stuffing it away into your backpack, probably infesting it with bugs and dust but it was so worn down to the point where you didn't really care.

Then, as you were rummaging through another pile, something clattered from behind you, sounding as though something fell in the soft brush of wind that bristled by.

With a jump, you seized your flashlight and whipped around, steering the light towards the sound. Oh, something had just fallen. Though it was strange, it didn't look like something metal or plastic, nothing like that at all.

With a huff, you stood up, brushing off your cargo shorts, and striding over closer. Kneeling over the object, you picked it up with one hand, shining your flashlight over it with a tilt of your head.

It almost looked like a fossil but... more metal, and in the shape of a claw. It reminded you of a time where your class had gone on a field trip, and you got to hold a raptor claw.

You stared at it for a long moment, before humming with a shrug, putting it into your bag alongside the rest of the scrap. Zipping up your backpack, you plucked your headphones from it as well, connecting it to your phone before switching on your favorite music.

Standing up, you tossed the straps of your bag onto your shoulders, holding it to your body with one hand, the other one still holding your flashlight as you crept up and out of the junkyard.

Making it back home wasn't a difficult task, simply just sneaking back into town, and crawling through your window. The lights on your house weren't on, signifying your parents were out, which was fine to you.