Caged No More: Chapter 39

Instructions

:CW/TW- Bl00d, sc4rs | POV- Sable: 'Happy thirteenth,' I scrawl on my notepad, grinning at Onyx. Someone shoots a confetti popper. Cheers erupt around the room. "How'd you know?" she asks incredulously. "I never told anyone that today's my birthday." The goldbeast raises an eyebrow. "Chrysaetian. Magic." I write out, 'You'd think she'd remember that already.' The goldbeast snickers behind its hand. "I've said that, like, what?" it chuckles. "A million times now?" Onyx raises her hands. "No need to get sarcastic, boys," she says dryly. "And can we eat that cake already? I'm starving." I glance over at the cake that Birch spent at least an hour perfecting the piping of. Much as I might dislike her, I have to admit her handiwork is stunning. I scribble, 'Why not? It's gonna go stale.' Bill begins to cut it up, handing slices over to all of us. "You know your sweetheart's gonna be with you for a long time if she stays when you've got that disability," he notes, giving me my cake. His hands fly to his collar and he pulls it down, showing me a puckered, angry scar. "My girl left me when I tore open my shoulder in a car accident." I shudder, jotting down, 'Yep, glad we're still friends. I've been discharged for a week now and she's still supporting me.' Just as I show this to Bill, Onyx walks up. "I'm still surprised by the...surprise party," she states as I flip to a new page in the pad and write, 'That probably sounded better in your head.' She sighs. "Yeah. You know, I really miss your voice." Bill shuffles away, probably sensing a deep conversation. Onyx continues, fidgeting with her hands. "Thanks for going back into that fire and saving Flame. It was reckless, but she's our pet, and our responsibility." I write out, 'I'm basically her dad. I'd risk anything for her, and even more for you.' As I show her her writing, her cheeks turn red and her eyes glimmer. "Me too," she whispers, hugging me around the neck. I become very aware of my own heartbeat, and try to keep myself from blushing. Thankfully, when we pull away, no one notices us, except the goldbeast, who winks and goes back to sipping its drink. Suddenly, like a bolt of lightning hit it, it turns around. "Shoot," it mutters, pushing the drink aside with a huge clatter. "Today's training day, and we're late." ﮩ٨ـﮩﮩ٨ـﮩ٨ـﮩﮩ٨ـﮩ٨ـﮩﮩ٨ـﮩ٨ـﮩﮩ٨ـ I open the door for Onyx, letting her climb over me to exit the heli before I follow. The goldbeast dismounts a moment later, pointing at the building in front of us. “That’s the training center,” it informs. I glance at the doors as a man in a neat uniform strides out of the doorway. The goldbeast waves him over. “Good afternoon, Mr. Wu,” it greets. The man nods politely. "Same to you. I see you've brought kids along. What for?" Mr. Wu looks down at us disdainfully, like we were something on the bottom of his fancy, polished shoe. The goldbeast flaps a hand dismissively. "We're training them. They were the most recent experiments in Maple Grove Lab, y'know. So they have some inside intel." Mr. Wu rolls his eyes. "But why bring them here? They're kids, and this is a workplace, for trained personnel. I'm the manager of this division. You're an immensely powerful Chrysaetian. They're two orphans." Onyx snarls at him, bristling. "Quinn Weber brought us here. You know him, isn't he your supervisor?" I bare my teeth. 'We're not useless,' I scribble. 'We know an army's being built, and we've both got key roles in this plan.' "I'll bet you didn't know that the lab has outside cages hidden under a roof, or a weak testing room wall that could collapse with the impact of a small car," Onyx shoots at him, glaring. 'Or that there's only three guards per hallway, making it easy to overtake the main security with large squads behind and in front,' I add, almost tearing the paper of my notepad. The goldbeast sighs. "Lily here-" it points to Onyx- "is Mr. Weber's daughter. She and Max are important to the operation, because they have more info like this, and with it, we have a better chance of succeeding in our ambush." Mr. Wu's face goes pale, then flushes red. "Of course, where are my manners?" he stammers as I look at him, realizing he knows that he could be fired. "Come right in."