Overtime

twenty-two ✧ || wounded

"Are you guys good?"

"Yeah," Ace groaned, sliding to a halt and keeling over, his hands planted on his knees. "Barely breathing, but good."

Rogue gave a once over of the basement, searching for any signs of life. "Did you have any luck?"

Snow shook his head, hands stationed on his hips in distress. They had just under five minutes, and time was slipping away far too quickly. "What about Fury or Blackwind? Do you guys know?"

"No idea." Rogue confessed, patting his brother on the back to bring him back to life. "We've been searching this place high and low and haven't found anything."

Just as Snow went to press his call button, hoping to ask for the whereabouts of the rest of his team, a soft and sudden beep fluttered through the hall. All three teens froze, waiting for a response, but getting none.

"Is that...?" Ace's sentence fell short, his two teammates staring at their wrists in confusion.

"It was Aub." A pink lightning bolt lit the blonde's watch: the very symbol The Professor had programmed to represent her. His chest tightened, his wrist snapping back down to his side. "Don't communicate. Don't say a word. She found something, and we can't mess with it."

Ace groaned, running his hands through his hair in stress. "We need to find Fury and Blackwind and then get in there."

There was an ease of stress knowing that the girl had his weapon on her, and yet the fear Snow felt was all the same. "We gotta move."

Just as they started darting up the stairwell, the radioing sounds from their watches fired off five times, one immediately after the other. Snow paused, checking his watch to see if it was Fury or Blackwind ignoring their previous commands. Instead, Chaos's lighting bolt flashed on and off of the screen, blinking with each call they received.

All three stood silent, staring in confusion as their watches wailed.

"Something's wrong." The rapid succession wasn't a part of the original plan. One single call would have been enough to alert the group of a problem — calls coming in this rapidly was not normal. "Something's really wrong."

Rogue's hands clenched by his side, nervously rubbing at his hips. "What do you think is happening?"

The words were hardly out of his lips before Snow threw himself up the remainder of the stairwell, taking off down one of the school's many hallways. "Keep your eyes open for any sign of anything." He paused, turning to gape at the two trotting after him. "If we find Fury and Blackwind that's a bonus, but our priority is getting to Aubrey."

"Do you have any idea where she is?" Ace asked, stretching out his technical limb.

"No," he sighed, agony clinging to every word. "That's why we need to move. Now."

◈◈◈

"I don't understand," Chaos's voice, wavering and uncertain, filled the air. Her finger had since seized on slamming her watch's call button, and instead shook as she stared down the man. "I thought you were dead."

"Far from it." He responded, his crazed smile still dancing on his cheekbones. The sight sent a ripple of pain through her chest. Those were her cheekbones. "I searched for you for ages."

The statement prompted an eyebrow raise from the brunette. It didn't make sense. He was looking for her? If he wasn't dead like she had been told, did he not flee with her Mom? What was happening? Regardless, she bit her lip, the hold on her gun tightening to halt her shakes. In a move of understanding, she lowered one hand to her side, the hand clutching her gun — while still aimed — lowering.