Hurricane // Danger Days (Book 2)

16.

Storm looked around what was to be his room in the Hub. Night was there, showing him around.

"There aren't very many of these rooms," Night told him. "Not very many Rioters actually live here. Most of 'em have their own bases. But since you don't have one and there was an extra room, you can stay here."

"Cool," Storm replied. "So, when do I start my initiation?" He figured Hurricane would be eager to start the challenges.

"First thing tomorrow," Night replied.

"Why not tonight?" Storm asked. "It's like, 1900 hours. We have time."

"1900? That's Killjoy time, man! We use normal time here. It's seven o' clock," Night laughed. "But anywho! There's a guy on a special mission right now and we're waitin' for his feedback."

"What's he doing?"

Night leaned in a bit closer. "Not sure if I'm s'posed to be tellin' ya this, but... there's a Mad Gear show tonight, and our guy is checkin' to see if Atomic's out there. He's gonna see if he can git 'er."

Storm's heart rate increased by ten times in the span of five seconds. He got his shit together, then got into character. "Awesome, dude! I can't wait to hear back."

"Me neither!" Night smiled, then gave Storm a slap on the shoulder. "A'right, I'm gonna leave ya be for a lil' bit. Come join the party later on if you wanna!"

"Sure." It was taking all of Storm's willpower not to scream.

The moment Night exited and closed the door behind him, Storm descended into panic. He began to pace the room, running his hands through his (alarmingly short) hair and muttering, "No, no no no, this can't be happening..."

He reached for his belt, grabbed his communicator, and called Alien.

No answer.

He called again, and again, and again, to no avail.

Please, Destroya, not now, not Al, come on... goddamnit Alien, PICK UP!!

It had to be at least forty-five minutes before she finally answered.

"Storm?" She sounded out of breath.

"Al!" Storm gasped. "Destroya, you're alive! Are you okay?"

"Well, the concert I was at just got shot up, but I'm alright."

"Oh my god, you were there?!" He shouted, then lowered his voice. "Where are you now? Who's with you?"

"Dude, calm down. I can tell you're panicking. Listen, I'm with Rev and the Palaye Royale guys. Remember them?"

He had to think a bit, then the night that they all rescued her came into his head. "Yeah. Revolution knows them?"

"Yeah. I know you're still shaken up, so I promise I'm safe. Okay?"

"Okay." Storm let out the breath he was holding.

"Anyways! What's up with you, Secret Agent Stormy? How was your first day?"

"Never call me that again," he laughed. "I have a ton of info."

"Oh, do tell!"

"They call themselves the Riot. They all hang out in this giant warehouse they call the Hub, but the organization's kinda like ours, where most of them have separate groups and bases and stuff. Oh! And guess who I found doing 'undercover work'?"

"Who?"

"Val. Fucking. Velocity."

There was a pause. "Wait, wait, wait. Really?"

"Yeah!" Storm gave a detailed description of what Val had said. "Then I met this Texan dude named Night who showed me the rest of the way... Oh! And, I met Grenade."

"Hold on! You— WHAT?" Storm could practically see Alien jumping off of her desk and pacing the room.

"Yeah!" Storm grinned. "She's actually like, fifteen, but she's over six feet tall. and she asked me some questions, and I answered them, and she was just like, 'I like you.'"

"Oh man, she's one of those?"

"Yup." He recounted the rest of the story.

Alien sighed. "Dude... shit is going down!"

Storm laughed. "Hell yeah, it is."

"Anyways, I should probably hit the red line," Alien said. "These guys are probably getting tired of my blabbering."

"Okay then. Well, I'll talk to you tomorrow, I guess." Storm had to admit, he already missed her.

"Yup! And you call me, remember? I don't want to call you when you're in the middle of something and make everyone suspicious."

"Yeah, I remember," Storm sighed, smiling. "See ya, Al."

"Bye Stormy!"

The call ended, and Storm sat on his cot. He was going over the conversation in his head when suddenly, it hit him that he hadn't been able to warn Alien about what was going to happen.

Then there was a knock on the door. Without waiting for Storm to tell him to come in, Night burst into the room and yelled, "He's back! Come on, ya wanna see this, right?"

Storm found it much easier to get into character. "Hell yeah!"

He jumped up and ran after Night, who was already rushing to the front of the building, along with what seemed like hundreds of other Rioters. They were all shouting and crowding around the front doors, where Storm assumed this guy was. Storm jumped in next to Night and tried to look over everyone's heads.

A loud "HEY!" came suddenly from behind them. Everyone's head turned, and saw Grenade standing behind them, holding a bullhorn. "Calm the hell down! If you would all shut up, maybe he'd be able to tell you what happened!" She shoved her way through the crowd to the doors, and handed her bullhorn to a guy with long, bright green hair.

"So I was there, right," the guy began. "I was walkin' around, looking for her the whole time. But then the singer dude goes 'General Atomic Alien's here,' and points right at the front row! So I start goin' there, and I take out my gun, but people start shoving me, so I start shootin'. Everybody runs, and I never saw her! She got away!"

The whole crowd started yelling in denial. Storm joined in with a "She'll never let us stop BLI!" and it got him a couple "Yeah!"s and pats on the back.

"Hey!" Grenade had gotten ahold of the bullhorn again. "We'll keep trying. There's one thing a Rioter never does, and that's give up!"

At that, the crowd yelled in affirmative.

Everyone dispersed eventually, leaving Storm and Night standing there.

Night sighed. "Welp, let's hope for next time."

"Yeah." Storm said, completely in character. "That little shit's elusive as hell. She's gonna be even harder to catch after tonight."

"True!" Night put his face in his hands. "Oh well. I'm pro'lly gonna go to bed now, you might wanna as well."

"Yup."

"I'll come and get 'cha tomorrow for your first challenge!" Night grinned.

"See you then!" Storm walked back to his room.

He closed the door behind him, then leaned on it and slid down it until he was sitting on the floor. He sighed.

"What have I gotten myself into?"