Rebel: A Monstercat Fanfic

038 - Threshold (025)

Song of the Chapter: We Won't Be Alone - Feint (DnB)

(Nitro Fun's POV)

As it turns out, Aero Chord can't hold me up for very long. He drops me on the roof and lands next to me, his wings flaring. I stumble when he dumps me and then whirl around. "You can fly!" I shriek, both out of fear and excitement. "How cool is that?!"

"WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?!" he screams at me.

I flinch. "Well ... no one wanted me back at the hotel, so I figured that I should at least do something productive. So I went back to the building and did some hacking. I can show you what I got, if you let me pull it up." I reach over to my bag for my laptop, but he stops me.

"No, Nitro. Do you know how easy it is to get caught hacking?"

"I've got Rootkits," I say, and then start laughing. Technically, I didn't use that word right, but I don't care. I've been waiting for this moment for a long time.

"You're not funny."

"I'm so funny; no one else is around to appreciate it." I catch his glare, which is suddenly a lot more threatening with his wings. "But don't worry. I've been hacking since I was twelve. Trust me. They won't be able to track me."

"You almost got caught out there. What would have happened if - "

"Nobody would have cared," I snap, cutting him off. "That's why I did it. To show them that I'm not just useless and annoying. I know things, too, believe it or not."

"Alright, alright." Aero puts his hands up in a timeout gesture. "My bad. I just don't want another incident like the one with Braken."

He's comparing me to Braken? I'm like his polar opposite. "Hey," I protest, kind of offended.

"Doesn't matter now, I guess." He shrugs, his wings rising and falling. "As Au always says, 'what's done is done'. Let's get you back."

"Wait." I step back. "I want to be appreciated. I want to do something. I want to help this revolution get started."

"Haven't you already done that?"

"No, I mean really start it. We just blew stuff up and had some fun freaking them out, and then we ended up freaking ourselves out. Everyone's too cautious to do stuff now. I did not just unofficially drop out of high school, break my parents' heart, and earn a lifetime of grounding to sit here and do nothing!"

Aero pauses and watches me in a mix between surprise and amusement. I'm breathing hard, both from the excitement of flying and my outburst. I realize my fists and clenched tightly, my fingernails digging into my skin. I try to relax, but I made myself mad, and that makes it hard.

"You're right," he finally says.

"Thank you!" I wave my arms in the air. Finally, someone gets it.

"Which means we have to get you back so you can tell the others."

"WHAT? Do you really think they're going to listen to me? I'm just a kid, apparently."

"I'll give 'em some encouragement." He waves me over and points down to the street. "Either you're going down there or you're going to have to trust me."

I give him a funny look. "What do you mean?"

"You're going to have to trust me on that one, too." He points again, this time at the building just next to us. "Run and jump onto that."

"Are you crazy?! I'm not going to be able to make that!"

"That's where the trust comes in."

"Alright," I say skeptically. I take a deep breath and run, jumping at the last second and falling through the air. I expect to just fall, but Aero hooks his arm around my waist again and lifts me up with two or three flaps of his massive wings. He can't lift me any more than that, and just manages to dump me on the next building, landing next to me once he does.