FicWad

Inside the large and palatial black car, Gerard was refusing to sit still. He was used to cars of this size, the Way brothers had their own limousine and chauffeur, although able to drive now himself, Gerard had purchased a small unobtrusive car to run errands and go to school. This car was not dissimilar to their own and he was confused. Yes, it was pretty clear he had been kidnapped, but why? The usual reason - money - seemed unlikely as whoever had him could obviously afford a luxurious car. Fleetingly he considered that it had been rented so it didn’t seem out of place entering the grounds, but certainly a generic delivery van would have worked just as well. No, whoever had him was wealthy. What possible reason could a wealthy person have for kidnapping another wealthy person? He had no enemies that he was aware of, no political leanings. He paled; it could only be because of the DVD and its contents, but how could they possibly know?

The car’s driver section was sealed off with a dark screen sporting a two-tone green logo in the centre that looked vaguely familiar to Gerard. He couldn’t see who was driving but yelled loudly for help, desperately hoping the driver had a conscience. With him in the passenger section sat two men and a woman who were struggling to contain him and shouting at him to sit still and keep quiet. With all his strength, Gerard lashed out for the third time, his elbow connecting sharply and painfully with the side of one man’s head, close to his eye. Launching himself towards the door as the man fell backwards against the seat, Gerard scrabbled with the door latch. Pulling fruitlessly on the handle, Gerard’s eyes widened as he realised the doors were locked. Attempting to press the button to lower the window, he cried out in frustration as not only did the window not move, but as he slapped his hand against it, trying to attract attention, the window darkened significantly, blocking out the view of the interior from the outside.

Feeling hands on him once more, Gerard struggled furiously as he was dragged back to the middle seat between the man he had elbowed on one side and the woman on the other.

“Let go of me!” Gerard yelled, both furious and scared. “Let me out of here!”

About to repeat his actions but on the other side, the man he hit managed to grab his shoulders and hold him still while woman placed a finger gently in the centre of Gerard’s forehead. It had just taken a moment, but the result was both significant and immediate. Falling still and silent while remaining conscious, it was as if every muscle in his body was instantly unable to function. It wasn’t that he felt weak or even restrained in some way, it was that he simply couldn’t move. His entire body, including his mouth and larynx were totally useless yet somehow he remained upright. All this had occurred simply by the touch of a finger on his forehead and he was terrified. What kind of power was that? In that moment, he knew that what his parents had said on the DVD and what their Uncle Emmett had been trying to tell him and Mikey, it had something to do with what was happening to him now. Only his eyes retained movement and even though even the muscles of his face were fixed and unmoving, Gerard somehow managed to appear terrified.

The three adult occupants of the car sighed heavily and relaxed into their seats.

“Thanks, Belle,” the man sitting opposite nodded before leaning back in his seat and cracking his knuckles.
“Easy, you said! That was like trying to hold onto an electric eel!” The man Gerard had elbowed complained, his tone dripping with bitter venom. “And you could have helped!” He added, infuriated that the man sitting opposite had made no attempt to assist them.
“Stop complaining, Mason!” Belle responded with a chuckle as she noticed the early flare of a bruise forming near the man’s eye. “We got him, didn’t we?”
“Yeah, but what about the other one?” Mason replied sourly.

Gerard found the strength to force his larynx to make the slightest of sounds, little more than a thin whine at the words and raising a laugh from the man he had struck.

“Aww, frightened are you?” He taunted him. “Not much you can do about it, is there?”
“He’s already done more than you’d be able to manage,” the man opposite raised an eyebrow.

Leaning forward toward Gerard, still sandwiched between Mason and Belle, he cocked his head in a gesture of curiosity.

“I wonder, young man, how did you make that sound?” His eyes narrowed as he considered the sheer effort and strength it would take to fight against Belle’s paralysis power.
“So he made a sound? So what?” Mason complained.

Reaching across Gerard, Belle placed a finger on Mason’s forehead, instantly paralysing him in the same way Gerard had been.

“You try making a sound then,” she scoffed, sitting back, exhausted from the use of her power twice in so short a time.
“Was that necessary?” The other man sighed at the aggravated woman, now relaxing and enjoying the new level of quiet within the car.
“Oh, be quiet, Anders! It’ll only last a couple of minutes with him,” she sighed. “I used most of it on the kid.”
“Yes,” Anders sat back in the seat once more, thoughtful and curious. “I saw and yet he could still fight it.”
“A tiny, tiny little sound!” She rolled her eyes, breathing heavily as she recovered.
“Yes, but a sound, nonetheless.”

Anders kept his eyes on Gerard as he sat back in his seat once more, tapping his fingers together as he pondered what seemed to him to be impossible. He had had his doubts up until now, but it seemed that Gerard was powerful, even if he didn’t realise it. More importantly to him powerful equated to dangerous - control the power, control the danger.

*

Mikey was hyperventilating. Ray was trying to encourage him to sit down, guiding him gently to the couch and speaking to him slowly in a soft voice. He heard none of what Ray was saying over the sound of his own breathing and Frank’s worried, often panicked, questions.

“Mikey, come through, sit down. Try to breathe, you’ll be fine. Gerard will too. We’ll find him, Mikey. Please just take slow breaths,” Ray tried hard to keep his own stomach churning turmoil from reaching his voice, but Frank wasn’t helping.
“Is this what Scott was talking about? Are we too late? What are we gonna do? Ray?”

Ray paused while still on route to the living room, his brow creasing more with every step. Growing increasingly agitated, Ray felt an almost physical pull in two, possibly even three directions. He wanted to calm Mikey, he wanted to yell at Frank but most of all he wanted to turn back time so they could have arrived even five minutes earlier. At the moment, only the second of those options seemed possible but not practical.

“Frank,” he growled as quietly as he could through a clenched jaw, a hand trying to smooth the deep ruts in his forehead without success. “Go and put some coffee on.”

He had to remove one of the obstacles to quiet and this seemed the only option. He just prayed that Frank himself would be calm enough to hear him.

“But, Ray, I… I…”
“Frank,” Ray exhaled deeply as he felt Mikey begin to sag I his arms. “Coffee, water, roll a joint, I don’t care, just do something… not here.”

Frank’s face crumpled as he stared at his friends. Mikey appeared as if he were about to drop and he had never seen Ray stressed before. In less than a moment he realised he was making things worse instead of better and he took a long deep breath as he nodded. Thank goodness for Ray Calm-in-a-Crisis Toro.

“Coffee,” he nodded, all his previous panic being replaced in an instant with determined resolve.
“Second door on the left.” Ray added in a gentle tone.

Seeing the creases fall from Ray’s forehead and a smile grace his lips before Frank turned away brought a relieved expression to his own face. Now, the basic information they had received during the few lectures they had attended on Situation Management was finally coming back to him and he found his head clearing with surprising speed. There seemed to be the time and ability to do anything now and with the briefest of nods he raced towards the kitchen following Ray’s instructions.

It was as if Mikey simply didn’t have the strength to maintain the panic attack he had fallen into, or perhaps he too was recalling their lectures and allowing their training to take over. Whatever the reason, he was no longer hyperventilating, but nevertheless, felt dazed and tired as Ray led him slowly into the living room. Flopping down on the couch, Mikey looked up, a glazed and bewildered expression fixed on his face.

“How did you know?” He asked.
“We didn’t,” Ray replied, settling down next to Mikey, but perched on the edge of the seat so he could face him. “It was just a coincidence.”
“But you told him where it was, you gave him directions.”
“Oh!” Ray laughed at the misunderstanding. “That? The doors were open. You know I can bend light. Seeing around corners is sort of ‘Light Bending 101’.”

Mikey nodded and rolled his eyes, silently berating himself for not realising.

“You thought I meant about Gee?”
“Yeah,” Ray nodded, wondering how to even explain their presence now in light of what had happened. “We… we’re…” he began only to be interrupted by both Frank and Mikey.

“There was already a pot on,” Frank announced, entering with a tray containing a coffee pot, a carton of milk and three mugs.

Of course there was! Ray thought, almost laughing. This was the Ways’ house after all - he had hear many stories from Mikey about his brother and almost all of them involved coffee.

“Why are you here?” Mikey asked. “Scott’s gonna be mad when he finds out you’ve skipped classes!”
“Ha!” Frank laughed as he placed the tray on the small table in front of the couch. “When did you ever hear about Ray skipping a class?”
“Hey!” Ray frowned in reply; objecting to Frank’s intimation that his flawless attendance record was somehow a bad thing.
“No offence,” Frank grinned.
“Yeah, right!”
“Scott knows you’re here?” Mikey asked. “So you knew that was going to happen?”
“He thought you might be in danger,” Frank replied, scratching his head as he thought about how to put it into words. It had made perfect sense when Scott had explained but now that he had to, it all sounded a bit strange to him.
“Why? And why Gee?”

Frank poured some coffee for all of them, keeping his eyes down as he busied himself and leaving the explanation to Ray.

“It’s got something to do with your parents,” Ray finally spoke. “They set up the Paladin Society and the academy.”
“They… What?” Mikey looked up at Ray, shocked at the revelation and not knowing what else to say.
“Scott told us, he said you didn’t know,” Ray nodded. “I don’t know why. I mean, it’s not like you don’t know about the academy.”

Mikey frowned as he pondered recent events - Uncle Emmett, the DVD, their parents, the academy and now Gerard’s kidnapping. He found himself shaking his head slowly without even realising it.

“There must be a reason,” he mused.
“Scott said that he’s found out that three people that have powers have banded together to bring down the academy and society,” Frank added.
“How does he know?” Mikey asked.

Frank and Ray both began to reply but paused as the words failed them. Looking at each other Ray spoke first.

“I don’t remember him saying how he found out.”
“He said something about finding out, but he didn’t say how.” Frank shook his head.
“I didn’t think to ask. He said that you’d been given some information that explained everything,” Ray added.
“We got a DVD of our parents telling us about the so-called family business where they ran a group of undercover spies that stopped secrets falling into enemy hands.”
“So, a government thing?” Frank asked.
“Apparently not, or well, at least not officially.”
“So what was Scott talking about?” Frank asked.
“Well, he was right about some of it, I mean, someone took Gerard. That wasn’t made up,” Ray’s forehead creased once more. “Mikey, can we watch the DVD?”
“How will that get Gee back? Mikey replied eager to do more than just talk.
“I think the more we know the better,” Ray nodded to emphasise his words.

Mikey glanced at Frank who handed him a mug of coffee.

“I think Ray’s right, we need to know what’s going on before we run headlong into something we don’t understand.”
“Situation Management,” Mikey nodded as if the words alone were a comfort. “Okay, let’s watch it.”

Picking up the remote, Mikey pressed play and all three settled into the deep comfortable couch. As the DVD began, Mikey’s eyes narrowed; something looked subtly different from the times he had watched it before but he couldn’t quite place what it was. His curiosity was to be initially sated within the first few seconds but it only served to open a whole raft of questions for all of them.

“Mikey,” Mr Way began, “now that you’re alone, we can tell you more about our history and what might be happening now. We couldn’t say more with Gerard there because we didn’t want him to find out like this, but as you’re in the academy already we hope this will make sense to you.”
“What the fuck…!” Mikey’s eyes widened to the point that the white of his cornea was clearly visible around the hazel orbs that coloured the centre.
“Watch your mouth, Mikey!” Mr Way snapped. “Just because we’re dead, it doesn’t mean you can swear like that in front of us.”

Mikey paled, even Frank and Ray paled.

“What is going on?” The words stumbled slowly from his mouth, almost as if each word were a separate sentence.
“Take a deep breath, sweetie, I know this is strange.” Mrs Way replied softly. “Sit back, drink some coffee and we’ll tell you what we know.”