City Hunter

Chapter 18

A/N - Here's your chapter. Sorry it took so long.

10/8/70

Somebody was talking in their sleep.

Violet knew this because she had woken up ten minutes earlier, then pretended to be asleep she she could figure out where they were.

She was cuffed and blindfolded, which did not bode well for the chances of the people who had captured them being friendly. Assuming it was a "them" - Violet could've been the only one. She had been the first one shot, after all, and hadn't had a chance to see if anyone else had been taken too. She hadn't even had a chance to see who had shot her. All she remembered was talking to Hawk, then the car speeding to a halt. The door had slammed open, and she had felt something sting her back - then she had blacked out.

The ground felt still and solid beneath her, so she didn't think they were moving - then again, they could've already been brought to their destination. Violet had no clue how long she had been out - could've been minutes, could've been days.

"...think I have a weird face, huh... be the one with a weird face after..."

There was the voice again, but this time Violet knew who it was.

It was Hawk.

So she wasn't alone after all.

Violet felt a small, guilty stab of relief. Of course it was terrible that someone else had been taken hostage too, but on the other hand, Violet would rather not be in this alone.

Had Tyrone and Azure had been taken too? And Christina and Elizabeth? And Melissa - Melissa! What if the shot did something bad to her arm? She had already moved around so much this trip - how long until the strain was too much?

White suddenly spilled across Violet's vision - even with her eyes closed, she could still tell that somebody had turned on a light. Hawk muttered in her sleep, and Violet held as still as possible, hoping that nobody would notice that she was awake. Footsteps echoed on the floor - it sounded like a wooden floor, which was odd - most people didn't have access to real wood in the Oligarchy, or, even if they did, enough to make a floor out of it.

The footsteps paused for a second - there were two sets of them, she noticed. A bit of grunting, as if someone was lifting something heavy.

Silence.

Then cold, wet water splashed onto her face, clothes, and basically everywhere else, causing her to cough and gag as her blindfold turned sopping wet and water dripped into her mouth. No point in pretending she was asleep now - that deluge of water was enough to wake all but the heaviest sleepers. 

All around her, Violet could here noises of other people being rudely awaken, a fair bit of shrieking cut off by the water splashing into their mouths.

"That wasn't necessary," someone muttered from above her - male, it sounded like.

"No, but it was fun," another person countered.

"Whatever."

Long, graceful hands took Violet by her shoulders and shook her roughly. "Hey, there." The person then got up, saying, "Ugh, did you really have to drug them that much? It's going to take forever to wake them up."

"Wake... whoup?" somebody slurred from beside her. Tyrone!

"Oh, wonderful," the man grunted. "Hopefully the others will-" He cut off with a yelp and a thud. "SERIOUSLY!" he yelled a moment later, sounding muffled.

"Who DARED kidnap me?" Hawk shouted. It was impressive that she had managed to tackle him blindfolded. "TELL YOU WHO YOU ARE, YOU COWARDS!"

Somebody cracked up - the person who had splashed them. "Oh, wow, amazing reflexes. You managed to get beaten by a thirteen-year-old."

"I FIND THAT HIGHLY INSULTING," Hawk responded.

"All right." The person chuckled again. "Who else is awake? And I'd prefer you not attacking us to announce yourself, please and thank you."

"I am," a new voice said. "And for the record, my sister was totally justified in attacking you."

"I second that," Tyrone added.

"Tyrone Hawthorn and Azure Savage, right?" the person who had splashed them said. "Christina is sitting over there, the girl you call Viola is right in front of me -"  'The girl you call Viola'? That didn't sound good. "And the very fierce young lady sitting on top of my associate is Hawk Savage."

Wait. That's not right. What about Elizabeth and Melissa?

"Who are you?" asked Tyrone, sounded more lucid. "Why are you acting so friendly right after you kidnapped us?"

"I'll explain that," the person told him. "First: Hawk, please get off my colleague. As satisfying as this is to me, I feel like he would prefer that he's not on the floor right now."

"Yeah, I would," the man underneath Hawk grumbled.

"You are aptly named," the person who had splashed them told Hawk. "Sharp reflexes and sharp wits."

"Th-thanks," Hawk replied warily. "And... why should we trust you, exactly? I don't even know your name."

"Well that can be fixed easily, yes?" the person said, still sounding cheerful. "I'm Alex Houston, but most people here call me Horizon. I'd prefer you all call me that too."

"Sure," Tyrone said.

"And my unenthusiastic colleague is Onyx," Horizon added, probably referring to the man Hawk had tackled. "You can take off your blindfolds now, by the way."

Violet hesitantly slipped the thick piece of fabric off of her head - a task that was made harder with her bonds -  blinking for a second to get used to the bright light. She stayed where she was for a second, facing the floor (she had been right; it was made of wood) then looked up to face her kidnappers.

Horizon was standing in front of her, with a lopsided smirk set on sharp, Asian-looking features that weren't male or female, somewhere in between. They had short black hair and forest-green eyes sparkling with flecks of gold. An ashy gray jacket hung loosely over their fitted navy blue shirt and jeans. Onyx, who stood right beside them, was dressed in all black - a testament to his name, Violet supposed. He wore a black hoodie with dark cargo pants, giving him a edgy-spy vibe. A black bandanna tied around his face, letting only his intense steel-gray eyes and cropped black hair show, completed the look. Both of them were around 20.

Onyx and Horizon were polar opposites in facial expressions - Horizon looked more relaxed and carefree, while Onyx was all stoic professionalism. But there was something similar between them. They both had the same black hair and Asian features. And there was something about how Horizon kept teasing Onyx, almost like...

"Are you siblings?" Violet blurted out, immediately wishing she hadn't a second later.

Horizon laughed. "Guilty as charged. You're an observant one. Do you have any siblings yourself?"

"No," Violet admitted. "I'm an only child."

"But you already know that, don't you?" Azure broke in. "You knew our last names. You probably know everything about us."

"Well, yes - we tend to do research before making a move, you know," Horizon admitted. "We know a significant portion of information about you."

There was something about the way they looked at Violet as they said a significant portion of information. A knowing gleam in their green eyes.

They know, Violet realized with a pang of dread. They know I'm Karen Johnson's daughter, and they're not telling anyone. Why?

"Who's we?" Tyrone demanded, snapping Violet out of her growing panic.

Horizon gave a small glance at a solid oak door across the room. "Follow me and find out."