Arrows - Animo Sequel {Completed}

Prologue: Moving On

*Hello all! So, I said I wouldn't be updating this until my birthday in October to give myself more time to finish all my other stories, but I've been messaged a few times by people "begging" (not really begging) for this sequel to come out. Well, ask and ye shall receive. Hopefully, this little prologue thing will tide you over for a while. And, if not, then I'm sorry. Also, it would be a good time to read My Animal if you've just read Animo and vice versa, as both stories are going to be referenced in this sequel. One last note: this sequel is going to go back and forth between Barton and Mo's perspectives, as well as this prologue. I'll notify you every time it switches, so you shouldn't get too confused. It won't happen often. Enjoy!*

Prologue: Moving On

Mo's P.O.V.

My iPod was sitting beside me on the carpeted floor of my living room, blaring Fall Out Boy's "Tiffany Blews" from the tiny speakers. I hummed along as I leaned my back against the couch behind me. A sketchpad sat in my lap, a mechanical pencil in my hand. It wasn't professional by any means, but it was good enough for me. I wasn't really paying attention to what I was doing. Brendon's name was scrawled all across the page, along with little doodles of his eyes and the curve of his lips. But as I hummed and eventually sang along to my music, I forgot what I was doing and began scratching out the names of my friends on the Avengers team.

I thought about them every day since I was returned home. They never left my mind. Before I knew it, I was sketching out Barton's profile, shading the dark blue of his eyes with my graphite, keeping his skin lighter to coordinate with it. I didn't have a picture to look at. It was completely from memory. I never realized just how much I'd studied his face in the entire year I'd known him.

Almost a year had passed since I left New York and joined up with school and my family again. I came back a couple of months into my senior year, and I was welcomed back with open arms. Grace and Jenna, my best friends, were thrilled to see me again, as was Brendon. The initial enthusiasm at going back to school faded quickly. I hated school. It sucked. But at least everyone I loved was there with me, suffering as I was.

The grip on my pencil tightened. Suffering. They didn't know suffering. Suffering was watching your friend bleeding on a rooftop. Suffering was finding out that an alien invasion revolved around your imminent capture. Suffering was trying to rescue your brother from being tortured on your behalf and getting tortured yourself instead. Suffering was becoming infected with an alien virus that made you nearly kill the people around you. They didn't know suffering.

My earpiece beeped and I dropped my pencil onto the sketchpad, creating a speck of graphite on Barton's otherwise flawless face. I pressed my finger to my ear, just like when I was back in New York. But it wasn't Nick Fury's voice I heard in my head; it was Sergeant Walker, the police chief in my town. I'd been directly linked to the police force since I returned home for the simple fact that I knew how to fight the aliens and they did not. I also knew what they wanted, and I knew how desperate they were to attain it. They'd kidnap, torture, possibly murder anyone who stood in the way of getting their target: me. And I wasn't about to let that happen.

"Yeah?" I spoke aloud. There was nobody home but me.

"Agent, we need you to come in. There's a suspected drug deal scheduled to take place over on Cherry Street in the next half hour."

Unfortunately, there were no alien appearances in the almost year that I left New York. So, instead, I was stuck dealing with average criminals when the local crime fighters were busy doing bigger and better things. The only perk of the job was that I got to leave school early if there was something serious that they needed me for. And they called me "Agent".