~~Sequel to Bo & The Beast: this story features an array of favorite villains from classic tales, as well as continuing the tale of a beauty and her beast.~~
In her search for Adam, Bo stumbles upon a group of renegades called The Forlorn. Their...
Just as Bo was steadying her breath to prepare for the attack, the gunfire outside suddenly stopped. The silence rang in her ears, louder than anything else. Her own breath jangled in her chest, filling the room.
From outside, a voice shouted to them. "Come out now, and we won't harm the townspeople."
Bo glanced at Khan.
"They're innocents," he whispered. "We can't let them take the punishment for us passing through."
Bo and Helga nodded in agreement.
"We're coming!" Khan shouted back.
"Unarmed!" the militia man responded.
Helga sighed heavily, but the Forlorn complied. Their guns hit the ground in a clatter of metal, until they were unarmed and vulnerable. Perfect targets for what Bo knew would be a shooting party as soon as they showed their faces.
Slowly, one-by-one, they climbed back out of the window and hit the ground with their boots. Bo straightened up to see the militia had all moved in close, within a hundred feet of the building. Their guns were drawn and they stood by their hoppers, watching the three Forlorn closely.
Bo scanned their ranks, hoping that if she somehow memorized their faces she might be able to come back as a ghost to haunt them for the rest of their miserable lives. But as her eyes jumped from one face to another, she found one that made her freeze.
He had a large scar across the bridge of his nose and cheekbones, and he now sported a beard, but she'd seen that face since she was a child. She could never forget it, even if she wanted to.
As soon as she recognized Aston, he recognized her as well. She saw his eyes widened, and for a moment she thought he might say something to her. But then his eyes hardened, and his whole face shut down into a cold and emotionless mask.
"Shoot them," he said.
Bo opened her mouth, but even before she could make a sound, the militia raised their guns and the air shattered around them.
Bo screamed, crashing to the ground and covering her head. The air vibrated around her, glowing hot. Her whole body seemed to liquefy, and it took her a few more seconds to realize that this was not the sort of thing she should expect from bullets raining down on her.
Shaking, she slowly uncovered her head, and chanced a glance at her surroundings.
First she saw the glint of metal in the sunlight, and then she saw the shivering air that came from anti-grav machines. The dust whipped around them so fiercely that she could see almost nothing more beyond the basic shape of a massive form that now blocked the Forlorn from the sight of the militia.
Bo was still struggling to breathe and realize that she wasn't riddled with holes, when a voice shouted over the sound of a thundering engine.
"There's a ladder! Climb aboard, quick!"
Khan immediately followed the orders, grabbing Helga's hand and dragging her toward the rumbling metal form. Bo followed them closely, groping blindly to find the base of the ladder. She climbed up after Helga, with Khan taking up the rear, onto the deck of an airship. Up here, she could hear the militia peppering the ship with bullets, and though they were nothing against the shields, if they stayed too long they would overload the system and start to do damage to the actual ship.
"Get under cover!" the same voice shouted at them, and Bo now spun to see a man with closely cropped hair and a robotic arm and leg. Her eyes narrowed as she tried to remember where she'd seen him before, but he offered her no time to rest as he shoved all three of them toward a control panel.
"At least do something worthwhile instead of gawping," he said, pointing toward some levers and buttons. "Don't you all belong to the famous Forlorn?"
"All right, all right!" Khan shouted back. "Just focus on getting us out of here, and we'll take care of the rest!"
The man nodded and limped back to where he'd come from. His hands danced over a screen as he maneuvered the ship up above the militia. It wouldn't fly too high, as it was too big for any anti-grav machines to carry into high altitudes. But it was perfectly positioned for the weapons on the ship to take aim. Bo turned to the control panel in front of her and flicked on the screen to see she was manning the back guns. Helga and Khan had their own, and together they strategically cleared a path for the airship to glide over the militia and get free of their bullets.
Once the shields weren't taking up all the power, the ship was able to gain speed. The miltia and Aston tried to keep up on their hoppers, but the airship's superior engine soon left them in the dust. Once the militia were far out of sight, the man locked the airship into autopilot and finally turned to face the Forlorn properly for the first time.
He grinned, his teeth flashing rotten underneath his beard.
"What's a man to think when you offer him a chance to join your crew and then you disappear on him?" he asked, his voice gravelly and low.
"John Silver, right?" Khan asked, and as he said the name, Bo remembered the man in the Heart Pub. It was the first time she'd seen Khan, when he'd been trying to recruit a man. However, the militia had interrupted the conversation, if Bo remembered correctly.
"Aye, Silver's the name. Still got that spot open?" he asked, laughing and slinging an arm around Khan's shoulder.
"Depends," Khan said. "How do you feel about helping us take on the Judge?"
The man looked shocked for only a second, before a huge grin spread over his face. "Sounds like the perfect weekend plan!"
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A/N: Guys, I don't even know what's up with me this week! So many chapters! YOU get a chapter, YOU get a chapter, EVERYONE gets a chapter! Woooooooo!
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