Thorns (Sequel to A Dozen Roses)

Chapter 21 New Faces

Chapter 21
Adam POV

A month later a handful of us are standing on a private airport runway watching a plane land. The plane full of our newest members. Lachlan had had one hell of a time tracking them all down but he had managed and they had all agreed to come and join us.

The plane door opens and the stairs are pushed to meet them. There's a pause almost as if waiting for the proper moment, then the first of them walks out.

The first is a boy with his black hair slicked back and in a suit. He pauses three steps down and produces a pair of sunglasses placing them on his face and continues down the steps. This is Sidearms.

Behind him comes a boy with bright orange spiked up hair and for a moment I think it's Preston but it's not. It's his brother Kenny. He's wearing a tyedye shirt and vibrant green jeans.

I can't stop my eyebrows from shooting up in shock. The third guy clambers down the steps clumsily, but that's not what draws my attention. It's his...robotic body parts. His left arm is entirely robotic and the left side of his face is basically made of metal. Like half a robot. This is Matthew AKA Nooch.

Much like Kenny the next guy comes down with bright blue hair stuck up in all directions. He's in white shorts and and an almost matching tyedye shirt. This is Ben(Frizzlenpop)

Lastly comes a guy I've crossed paths with in my time as an agent. Honestly I'm surprised the bastards still alive and not rotting away in some prison. Pete is the last one off the plane in his standard cyan shirt and jeans.

"It's a pleasure to see you all here gentlemen." Seto says holding out his hand for Sidearms to shake. He takes it firmly shaking it with gratitude.

"Pleasures mine Seto. Glad to be here." Sidearms replied dropping their hands. His hands went into his pocket in a casual stance.

Seto greeted each of the other members as well with a firm handshake and a greeting. He moved back to our side and smiled at his new army of minions. Serial killers and arsonists all standing here waiting for our command. It was a strange thought and it actually made me think back to when I was basically in charge of the BAU.

"Alright gentlemen. You're all here to help me ensure the down fall of a man we all know the cruelty of far too well." The men shared a knowing look, "Ghost. Our mention, our master, our personal demon

Now, it's not just all of us. We have more people waiting at home, a few others have recently joined us as well. I'm anxious for you to meet them all. If you follow me we can get going."

He turns his back to the group of elite assassins and starts for the van. I feel Ty slip his fingers into my hand and pull me along.

Did I feel nervous about getting into a small van with seven serial killers? Yes. No matter how many days I spent with this group, they always made me nervous.

Ty? Not so much. Seto and everyone else in the house? Very very much so. They're a bunch of loose cannons, all trained a kill. They don't have emotional connections.

I mean Seto and Brice have kids. But those kids are trained killers; or at least Issac is. Honestly if something were to happen to Brice or Seto, those kids would end up just fine.

Inside the van, Seto and Ben took the front seats, leaving myself and Ty in the backseat with the others. Sidearms was the first to speak up.

"So Deadlox. Whose the fed? Property of yours?" Ty looked down at the floor and chuckled.

"Ex-Fed." I clarified. "And I'm not anyone's property."

"He's my boyfriend Sidearms." Ty spat keeping his eyes on the floor, "He's one of us and you won't treat him as any less. Understand me."

Sidearms doesn't respond and instead pulls a pair of black headphones from his pocket and shoves them in his ears. He zones out in his seat.

"Don't mind him." Pete says putting his feet up across the van onto Nooch's lap.  The half-robot man paid no attention to it. "Sidearms not a social one. He can only handle so much conversation before you loose him for a bit."

Sidearms produced an old iPod from his pocket and clicked the button a few times, before closing his eyes and resting against the van wall.

"So. Boyfriends a Fed? I knew you were crazy Deadlox but damn I didn't think you'd go this far."

"First off guys. It's not Deadlox. It's Ty now. Before Ghost named me...my name was Tyler. So I go by Ty now." I curled my hand around Ty's, lacing our fingers together. He squeezed my hand but didn't look up from the floor.

"Fancy." Nooch spoke, his voice rough and broken up, "My name was Matthew. But I prefer Nooch over it, I never was Matthew and I never will be." He looked down at his robotic arm and smiled curling his metal fingers into a fist. "I prefer to be Nooch. He's much more...fun."

I looked away.

Did they all do this? The way Ty and Deadlox were like two different personalities. Nooch acted like his real name was a complete different person. Like he didn't even connect with them; like it wasn't even him.

The rest of the ride was met with bitter silence. Except the soft background music coming from Sidearms headphones and the occasional chatter of Seto and Ben.

Essentially everyone here was left to themselves on the hour long drive from the airfield to our new base.