Assessment of Abilities

Chapter 15 | Lost

The following morning Roman awoke. His eyes were sore and puffy, though he slept fully, he still felt exhausted. With a begrudging groan, he sat up and rubbed his face harshly "What a crappy night..." he sighed with a slight yawn.

After waking up a little he looked around the tent and saw he was alone, this was the first sign that something wasn't right. Roman stood and unzipped his tent; he raised his arms and had a good stretch while taking in the fresh air and the sunrise. The air was crisp and still smelt of manure; however, he didn't acknowledge it this time around as he looked to the other tent... It was too quiet...

"Patton? Virge? Logan? You can't all be in that tent, surely" he chuckled to himself, however, it was said in a way to make himself feel better, an attempt to remove the gut feeling of dread.

He began reliving last night in his head, Virgil's death, his sorrow, and Patton healing him... And then nothing... 'I must have passed out' he thought to himself as he approached the other tent and unzipped it.

"Patton?" he called out quietly. He ducked down and walked in, furrowing his brows, as Patton was the only occupant present.

Gently, Roman knelt down and shook Patton "Pat? Hey, you feeling okay buddy?" the latter groaned and blinked his eyes open; he had clear bags under his eyes, also exhausted, however, when he saw Roman he gasped and sat up.

"Whoa, Pat, take it easy" Roman warned, catching Patton before he could collapse back down; having gotten dizzy from sitting up too fast.

"R-Roman? Where... wait... oh my... Virgil is he-..."

"Virgil is fine, you saved him, Patton, thank you, you're an amazing human being" Roman smiled softly, trying to calm the other down "But you used way too much energy, not that I can talk, needless to say, I think we both passed out last night"

Patton rubbed his eyes and finally tried to sit himself up, looking around to get his bearings "Where's Lo? Where's Virge?" Patton asked with raised eyebrows "What time is it? What happened?"

Roman couldn't help but chuckle "Slow down there mister, the sun just rose~" he smiled, but the smile didn't last as his head dropped "I... I haven't seen Virgil... or Logan... I don't know where they are..."

Patton frowned "Well, they couldn't have gotten far, let's get dressed and try and find them, yeah?~" Patton beamed; Roman knew Patton was just trying to cheer him up so both of them wouldn't worry, but he also knew they both had the strange feeling of dread in their gut.

Time passed and before they knew it, it was late afternoon and they had searched everywhere, all over the clearing, woods, even the local village... but there was no sign of them... no one had even seen them...

"What do we do? What do we do? What do we do?" Patton was pacing, biting his thumb with a harsh frown on his brow. Roman sat by the campfire on a log watching him "I'm stumped" Roman said before pointing at the log below him.

Patton stopped and stared blankly at Roman before closing his eyes and shaking his head "Time and place Ro, though I appreciate the sentiment, but this is no time for puns"

Roman blinked, his mouth agape "Who are you and what have you done with Patton?"

The latter rolled his eyes and couldn't help a small chuckle "I'm sorry, I'm just really worried... Lo wouldn't take off without a note... neither would Virge, would he?" Patton asked. Roman hummed in thought before shrugging "If something overwhelmed him he might just take off, you know he's a flight risk."

"Oh my gosh, Roman, stop" Patton laughed "Where are all these puns coming from? That's my thing" he said, taking a seat next to Roman. The latter chuckled and shrugged, his hands together between his knees as he stared at the ground; clearly anxious "I guess you're rubbing off on me".

Patton could tell Roman was just as worried or maybe more, so much so that Virgil's traits were rubbing off on him, even Patton was adopting some of Logan's traits "Maybe... Maybe we should go home... Maybe Virgil went back and Logan followed...?" Patton suggested, however, Roman shook his head. "No...  Logan would have left a note or texted or something..."

Patton suddenly gasped, "Maybe he did! But we have no signal here so we didn't receive it!" nevertheless, Roman debunked this idea too "Logan is extremely smart, he'd have known that and found another way to let us know..." this deflated Patton, tears welling up in his eyes.

"Hey... Come on Pat, we'll find them, let's just try and remember what happened last-..." Roman suddenly stopped halfway through his sentence, this stop alerted Patton, causing him to look at the other with concern.

"Ro? What is it?" he asked, placing a hand on Roman's knee.

"Virgil was shot..." Roman said only a few moments later, however, this didn't clarify anything for Patton "Yes... but I healed him, he was fine I promise" Patton reassured. Roman shook his head "No, that's not what I mean..." he turned to face the other with a serious expression, an expression that actually put Patton on edge "...Who shot him...?"

This question sent a chill down both of their spines, even so, Patton was having none of it "Does it matter? I mean of course it matters but... that person wouldn't have hurt Lo, right? He can take care of himself... Right?" Patton spoke, sounding confident at first but slowly become less so by the end.

"Patton... this person shot Virgil and mentally Logan can take care of himself... but in a physical assault, Logan's praying mantis figure won't help him... I dunno... Damn it... maybe they just did go home and we're over thinking it... I dunno... I... I just don't know..." Roman put his head in his hands, he didn't know what to do... if anything had happened to Virgil while he was asleep he'd never forgive himself...

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Meanwhile, Logan awoke with an obnoxious headache and a sticky feeling down the side of his head; he assumed it was drying blood. He opened his eyes slowly and found he was hanging from his wrists, having been chained to the ceiling of this 'dukes' basement...

He looked around, however, he couldn't see much as his glasses had fallen off or been taken, nevertheless, he could make out that this was a basement with a desk and sharp tools he'd rather not know the use of...

However... The thing that began to worry him the most were the multiple pictures on the wall, he could just make one of them out; the closest one.

In the picture was a human, a girl with horns? No, one horn... next to her was Remus, holding one of her horns in his hand with the expression of pride while she hung there, much like Logan is now, bleeding and looking half dead...

Like she was a prize he'd won...