Crow (NoochZahHutt)

Part Twenty-Three

 I'm really loving all your guys' reactions™™™™™(trademarked by The Fine Bros I don't claim ownership don't sue pl0x thxthxthx) to this story.

ZamaThePerson said they wanted to marry it. I give you both my blessing.

Enjoy the chapter!

(P.S. I hope y'all don't mind me including an OC in this chapter,,,, they won't be included in the story much they're just another random member of Crow)

(okay enjoy)

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In the "backstage" area of the arena, Kenny was sitting on a bench next to Ashley and another member of Crow. Choco grabbed Kenny's wrist and pulled him up.

"We're breaking everyone out," Choco leaned in to Kenny's ear to speak. "There are gonna be injuries. Think you can handle it?"

"I can try," Kenny said, unsure.

"Cool," Choco intertwined his fingers with Kenny's. I raised my eyebrows, but didn't say anything about it. "Ashley, KJ, Petey, I'll let you guys take care of the guards. I'd prefer you knock them out, not kill them. Kenny and I'll help everyone escape. Follow me."

I assumed KJ was the other Crow member on the bench. I was correct, as they stood up and tightened the bandana keeping their hair back. They had short, but fluffy, hair, a noticeable amount of freckles, and a curvy figure, though I couldn't determine their gender from first glance.

"On it," Ashley nodded, glancing at KJ and then at me. "Petey, you ready?"

I did a small, two-fingered salute. "Yes ma'am."

I followed Ashley, KJ, Kenny, and Choco through a door and down a set of stairs to the basement of the arena. I was surprised at the lack of guards - I supposed a lot of them were probably up trying to settle the commotion in the arena. But when we got to the basement, there were four guards sitting around, slacking off, in front of two jail cells filled with Crow members. One of the guards looked up at me, her dark eyes shining.

"It's you," she said, adjusting her hat. "You're the talk of the town. We've been betting on when you'll show up next. These guys owe me sixty bucks."

"C'mon!" One of the other, male, guards groaned. "I don't even have sixty bucks!"

"Not my fault," the female guard said.

"We're not here to listen to you fight!" Ashley pushed past me and stood in front of the female guard. She paused, staring at her, contemplating her next move.

Then Ashley punched her in the jaw.

The female guard fell to the ground with a yell, gripping her mouth in pain. Ashley got a fierce look on her face - a look that said come at me scrublord, I'm ripped. The other three guards looked at her in shock.

KJ lunged forward and kicked one of them in the stomach. He doubled over, and then KJ kicked him again, in the side of his head. He fell over on the ground, knocked out cold.

Ashley took care of the next guard closest to her. The last guard ran at me, and I elbowed him in the nose.

CRACK. "OW! SHIT!"

The guard grabbed my shoulders and shoved me backwards, hard. I stumbled, but didn't fall. I regained my balance as the guard walked towards me, holding his nose with one hand. Blood was seeping into his mouth. Then I kicked him in the stomach, and he fell to the ground, hitting his head and passing out.

I turned towards the jail cells. Choco had gotten keys from one of the fallen guards, and was now unlocking the second cell. Kenny was ushering people out of the first.

I looked at Ashley. She was fixing her hair using the camera on her phone, and KJ was making funny faces in the background.

"That was easier than I expected," I observed. Kenny nodded.

"Yeah," he said. "It's thanks to your guys' PvP skillz." The "Z" at the end of "skillz" was very easy to hear when he spoke.

"Well, now we have a particularly large problem," Choco stepped forward, now having released the other members of Crow from the cell. "How are we going to hide approximately twenty-five people from the police? We can't just go back to Balamb. That's where the government found us to begin with."

"Uh, sleepover at HQ?" I suggested. Choco looked at me like I was insane.

"With twenty-five people?!" Choco exclaimed, waving his hands. "We don't have enough fleeping room for that!"

"Well, we've got the basement," I pointed out, "and I'm leaving again as soon as I grab Ma - er, Nooch's head. That's all I was planning to do in Genesis, actually."

Choco sighed, and rubbed his eyes with two fingers. "It'll work for now, I guess." He stood on his tip-toes and shouted at all the people in the room. "If all of us leave at once, it'll be slightly suspicious, so we're gonna leave in groups, okay? Petey, you can take KJ and..." he listed off more names. "Go. Now."

KJ skipped up to my side and a couple more people filled in behind me. We started walking up, out of the basement, and towards HQ.

"Soooo," KJ said, attempting to break the awkwardness. "Who's Nooch and why do you hafta grab his head?"

"He's...a friend," I said vaguely, "a friend who happens to be a robot. I need to grab his head because he, uh, broke, and I need to take it to, a, uh, mechanic."

"You sound real sure of yourself," KJ observed. I sighed.

"It's complicated," I replied. "It would take me hours to explain."

"Okay, that's a valid excuse," KJ said. They went silent for a moment, but then began ice-breaking again.

"Your name's Petey?" They asked.

"Well, that's just my nickname," I said. "My real name's Brandon. Don't ask about the nickname."

"Ah, alright," KJ nodded. "What are your pronouns?"

"My what?"

"Your pronouns. Do you want people to refer to you using she, he, they, or something else?"

"Uh, he. I guess. No one's ever asked me that before," I looked at KJ.

"Yeah, no one ever has," KJ said, "I use they pronouns."

"Oh, alright," I said, staring ahead. That was the first and last conversation I ever had with KJ.

We arrived at HQ, and I immediately ditched everyone and ran to Lachlan's office. I pounded on the door until he answered.

"The hell do you want?"

"I just thought you should know that approximately twenty-five people are going to be sleeping here for an unknown amount of time, and also that I am leaving again in about five minutes. Bye!"

"WHAT..."

I ran away and shoved past KJ, sprinting down the basement stairs. Nooch was there, slouched over and "lifeless" (as though he was "lively" when he was awake).

I grabbed the sides of his head carefully, and let them linger for a second. Then I pulled upwards forcefully and his whole body snapped up before his head popped off.

It was only afterwards that I considered maybe it would hurt him to do that.

Disregarding all that, I tucked his head under my arm, left HQ, and headed towards the stable.

~~~

ALSO TWO DAYS IN A ROW WOO

Ciao!