Sandstorm {Discontinued}{Rewritten}

26. The Deal

Warning: Brief mention of self harm. Viewer discretion advised.

Rip, Dez, and Mick were sneaking through a small words. Shadows were lurking around every corner, which was a bit freaky, Dez thought. It reminded her of her street days, when she had to be on the look out for anyone who was looking to mug her. (It was odd, too, she thought, because she could have sworn it had just been morning not even twenty minutes ago…But time travel was like that, Dez guessed.)

Mick grunted, growling at a green leaf, as he smacked it out of his face, shuffling his feet in the dirt as he trudged along. He reminded Deserey a bit of a child whining out of boredom. “I hate nature,” the arsonist complained, only to have Rip hold out his hand and shush him repeatedly.

Deserey paused, her hand falling to her sand bag, heart picking up pace. She looked around, trying to spot whatever Rip had heard, but she couldn’t see anything. Dez's stomach took another go at that game of Twister. All she could think, as they slowly made their way around a large tree trunk, was that Chronos would be waiting for them behind that tree, blaster at the ready. And then…

Deserey jumped, seeing a red flash of light that wasn’t really there. Mick and Rip glanced at her, and her face grew hotter. “I thought I saw a spider,” she lied.

“You afraid of spiders, Sandy?” Mick teased.

Dez rolled her eyes. “Of course not. I love spiders. That was a jump for joy.”

Rip ignored the conversation all together. He took the little gadget they’d been tracking the anomaly on from his trench coat. “Thirty meters,” he announced.

Deserey gave him a look. She’d never been that great a math in high school. (Or college for that matter, but that was besides the point.) “Translate to American, please?”

Rip scoffed and muttering something under his breath. Deserey wasn’t sure she’d heard him exactly right, but it sounded something like, “Yanks…” She was pretty sure it must have been an insult.

Before the captain could answer the question, though, Mick spoke up, surprising the other two. “It’s ninety-eight feet.” He stopped when he realized Dez and Rip were staring at him. “…What?”

“…I didn’t know you knew math,” Rip admitted. Mick rolled his eyes, but he didn’t say anything about it, as they continued walking. “Chronos must be hiding in the trees,” Rip said, glancing upwards. Mick and Dez followed his lead, cranking their necks upwards; Dez's curly fry stomach bounced a bit in her guts. She could just see Chronos pouncing down on top of her, waving that gun of his around like some wild animal…

A twig cracked near by. Dez spotted movement. She reacted without thinking, sending a blast of sand in that direction. A loud, “Omph!” emited from the bushes, and a man stumbled out from them. The man wasn’t Chronos…

The man hissed in pain, clawing at his eyes desperately trying to get the sand out. Mick raised his gun, charging it up as soon as his glare landed on the poor blinded man. Deserey took a hesitant step back, worried she might get caught in the crossfire, only Rip jumped forward. He pushed Mick's arm down before he even pulled the trigger.

The man blinked rapidly, rubbing his now watering eyes. He cringed, but Dez had to give him credit for not screaming his ass off. Taking a fist full of sand to the eye stung like a bitch. (She would know. It had happened to her plenty of times when she was trying to relax on the beach.) The guy sort of reminded Deserey of a Sith Lord, and she vaguely wondered how much the Time Masters (because that must have been what he was) based their organization off the Star Wars saga.

He was a white man with a long, dark robe that blended in with the shadows surrounding them, making it look like he was just a head floating in the center of darkness. His head was round, and his nose stuck out a little. (Dez thought he could poke someone’s eye out with it if he wanted to.) Through the darkness she couldn’t get a good look at what color his hair was – if she had to guess maybe a sandy blonde? – but somehow she could make his eyes out perfectly.