A Good Time to Disappear

The finger stayed down on the trigger for a moment, but no more bullets erupted from the barrel. Instead, he slowly let go as he heard more gunshots; turning his head, Bones saw through dust and plants the Princess in Boots go down on her knee and perform a far crueller service to the Gender Confused Witch. Being shot in the stomach was a bitch. He'd seen men die slow, painful, pointless deaths from taking a slug in the gut. In his head, Frankie always had a sort of chart for wounds. Shoulders, arms and legs could be shot with relative safety, as long as you avoided the arteries and wanted to leave someone slightly crippled in their limbs. Now, head and chest were more kill zones. They were the places that bullets wound up when you were sure the guy facing you needed to be put into the ground. But the stomach and... areas below it, they were a gamble. The soft, unprotected parts of the human body left after from when forearms were clunky things that protected the front of the body.

But down when the... thing, and it seemed to choke out a clichéd monologue. Things about alluding to a great plan and blaming them; he honestly couldn't give the slightest bit of attention, because the Princess was suddenly forced onto her back and down on the ground. With a powerful lung on legs without muscle, he leapt over a thick root and landed on the cracked tarmac next to her. He tapped the creature on what he assumed was it's shoulder and pulled a bony glove fist back, a blue ball of energy flaring on the back of his fingers. It gave him a blank odd stare, as it was suddenly broken. If Frankie had waited a beat, it would have collapsed onto of her, but instead his bony fist connected. There was a blue flash and it went skittering back, dead and missing whatever it use to call a head. Bone's shook his hand, knowing one of his knuckles had broken. ”Don't worry, Princess. I've got your back.” He muttered, before he turned to catch the tail end of what he was talking about. Something about-

Shit he was the Pope! That was where Bones had seen the face before!

”Archie-” He began, as the Gorilla seemed to take charge. ”Archie we should take the body and get rid of it-” He continued, walking closer to the great gorilla. He said it low, so only the two of them could hear, but he immediately regretted. Archibald Adams was the only man (To use the term loosely) that was able to give the, “I am incredibly disappointed in you, Franklin Brokedell” look. It made the skeleton deeply uncomfortable when he saw it, because he knew he was saying things that stemmed from his career as being a criminal. So instead he glanced over his shoulder at Bliss and Aurora, before stuffing his hands into his pockets and following the Gorilla to the parking lot. The van looked awful but it was easy to break into, even with Aurora insisting on watching him hotwire it. When the engine purred to life, the Skeleton didn't wait a moment; he put his foot to the gas and didn't slow down for anyone or anything, as he tried to follow the road north. In his nervous and agitated state, wondering what they would find when they got there, he tried to light a cigar but immediately aborted the plan when he realised the smoke would be choking for the other occupants in such a short, cramped space.

Finally, the barn came into view. Bones screeched into the farmstead and slammed the breaks outside of it, kicking up stones and throwing his weight against the door, before slamming it shut behind him. ”Aurora, wait in the Van.” He said first, before glancing at the Princess. ”Maybe you should hang back too...”

The weight of the creature disappeared from her back. The creature spoke it's last words that took her off guard. Not only did she just gun a man down, she gunned down the pope. The legal ramification would soon find themselves expunged from any computers. Even though she could hide herself from any of the discoveries and judgement of the systems in place, these deaths and murders would one day take their final toll on the girl. She could feel it.

But until that day she still had people who counted on her. And people willing to help her on that beaten path. Bliss saw the Abnormals piling into a car and made a motion to go towards them, but thought against it. She moved towards her car and pushed the ignition. Motion could not deliver Bliss to the site of the kidnapping as fast as her will compelled her to go. At least the skeleton had the right idea as he sped in front of her to the barn.

An ancient aroma to the air filled the acre. Mystical beasts and other creatures of folklore abandoned their guard after the death of their hidden leader. Trying to impede her path with his gaze, Bones looked to stop Bliss. The advice of others would not hold her back from what the barn held.

Old wood creaked against the worn hinges of the decrepit structure. Rusted metal lined the walls and mildew crept through the support structures that appeared ready to collapse under the weight of years of water collected though the poor maintenance. A soft plea for help came from the back scaffolding. A cross held up by a complex pulley system held Ashley above the ground. Blood lightly trickled down her face, but nothing more than what Bliss would expect from her ordeal.

Without hesitation Bliss sprinted across the room to the cross. Ashley tried to mutter something to her in her trauma. Fearing the worst for how her captor hung her, Bliss attack the cross itself at the point of intersection between the two beams as well as the part of the board just above her bound legs. Splintering the wood brought Ashley back down to the dirt ground with a hard crash. All the blood from her forehead seemed to be from the car accident and dried hours ago, but still she needed help immediately.

"We can't go to a hospital." Ashley said under exhaustion.

"I know." Their means of operating and staying away from files made them experts at each others responses to these dire situations. They also made them reliable sources of aid for each other when it came to stitching up wounds. "You've got some bruises from all of this. What happened?"

"I..." She bit back at the question. "...Just don't want to remember any of this."

Bliss brought her hand to Ashley's forehead and shot of jolt of energy against her head, delivering enough force to incapacitate her. "Then you won't" Bliss placed her hands under Ashley's back and began to drag her fragile body out of the barn and towards the car outside. "Okay oddities, let's make like a celibate and get the fuck out of here." Bliss laid Ashley in the backseat of her car, and moved to the driver side. She looked back to her new friends and gave them a wave of thanks. "If you ever need anything, try your best to look me up. I'm not promising anything though." She dropped into the driver's seat and readied the car to pull out. Dust spun out against the friction of the small car. Bliss needed to disappear from this horrid event and now seemed like a good time to disappear.