Sons Of War || Andy Biersack

Chapter 23

You were able to get to Florida the very next day, to your extreme surprise. When you and Andy drifted off that night, Angelo had gotten ahold of a laptop he had somehow talked the girl in the lobby in to giving to him. He took it upon himself to get you three a ride that would take you to your destination deftly.
"There's this man, an old friend of mine, who has a small plane located about three hours from here," Angelo had explained. "He owes me a favor, you see, and I thought this might be a good time to collect on that little debt. He is very secluded, which wasn't a problem, but it did take me quite a while to figure out his alleged location and get in contact last night. He can fly us to headquarters, then leave. No commercial airlines, and no blood thirsty scientists! It's rather a perfect solution, is it not, my girl?"
"Angelo, where in hell do you find these people?" You asked, alighted.  It was a perfect solution, and that made you more than a little suspicious. Angelo continued to explain the situation in tedious detail and eventually you didn't even hear him anymore as you pulled on your jacket and prepared to leave the hotel.
You took a cab to take you out to Angelo's 'secluded old friend', and the taxi driver dropped you off at the end of a very long driveway in the middle of the woods where you would never have guessed a house would be, much less a road, even if it was a badly kept dirt one. You used the last of your money in getting there, so you prayed that this would work out alright.
As you began walking closely to Andy down the narrow driveway, you felt like someone might jump out from behind one of the large evergreens with an axe and come screaming at you. When you finally got in site of the house, to use the term loosely, your nerves did not sooth.
The man's residence was four square walls of wood that you could practically see through, with a tarp for a roof. You glance wearily at Angelo, who only gave you an aggravating smile in return.
You were only 20 feet away from the er--shelter, when a man burst through the small doorway wearing overalls and a straw hat.
"Angelo, ya young whipper snapper!" The man exclaimed. He was old, maybe in his sixties or seventies, and had an absolutely insane glint behind his washed-out blue eyes. Most of his teeth had fallen out and he was very thin, but seemed more energetic than you had been as a eight year old. He shook Angelo's hand with strong vigor and said, "I haven't seen yer face in quite a while now! What have you been up to, boy?"
"Hello, Mr. Gordon," Angelo said politely. "I would have come visit you sooner, but unfortunately I was detained for quite some time by a rather unfortunate accident. You look well, sir. . ." Angelo droned on, introducing you and Andy, exchanging formalities and talking and talking and talking until Mr. Gordon exclaimed, "now stop yer blabber, boy! I see you ain't changed a bit. Now, let's get to Florida! Come on, youngsters, don't be slow!"
You followed, somewhat skittishly, to a small aircraft hanger with a small plane that surely wouldn't have been able to fit more than four people. The plane was, fortunately, in better shape than the house, and you were grateful that Mr. Gordon seemed to want to be off just as much as you did.
The ride was not a fun one. Ginger refused to leave the hood of Andy's jacket that Mr. Gordon had supplied, saying that it would be cold in the air. You were certain you were going to die in a fiery  plane crash at least four or five times while Gordon was laughing maniacally in front of the wheel. Andy put a comforting arm around you, seeming calm and undisturbed. He was perfectly comfortable in the air, and he preferred it any day compared to a car.
When you finally landed in Florida in some secluded field far off from any civilization, you toppled out of the plane before anyone else and fell to your knees, breathing deeply of the fresh air and trying to not throw up. You could heard Mr. Gordon saying something like, "I'll leave you here, Angelo. Remember to always walk sideways around the crows!"
What did that even mean? Whatever it meant, that man was full of that sort of wisdom (if it can be called that). Angelo and Andy exited the plane, which took off a second or two later, and you were left stranded in a field.
Once you pulled yourself to your feet, you turned to Angelo and exclaimed, "where the hell are we?"
"Close to headquarters, my dear! Follow me! I say, is that a--" Angelo reached for the broken binoculars around his neck and and gasped happily as his eyes landed on a small bird roosting in a nearby tree. As he took the lead and began leading you and Andy to where ever he was taking you both, he launched into a lecture about whatever bird he had just saw with such enthusiasm that you didn't have the heart to stop him.
You walked for maybe an hour before coming upon this little pathetic town with hardly anything but a post office, a few houses, a dog that seemed to belong to everyone, a small diner, a grocery store and a larger building with a sign that said in bright yellow letters, "Mary's Children." Angelo stood in front of the gate entrance and gestured thrillingly with his arms. "Welcome to Moreo!"
"Moreo? Angelo, is this the place?" You asked doubtfully, following him through the gate as he walked backwards to look at you, a wide smile on his face. He nodded. "It's perfect because no one in their right mind would suspect this place of anything!"
It was true. You would definitely not have supposed that this place housed a highly secret branch of government.
     "Okay. . ." You said uncertainly. "Where is the lab? Or Headquarters or--er--whatever?"
    "Right this way, my dears!" Angelo walked purposefully towards the post office, talking all the while about something that had nothing to do with your current situation. When you entered the rather dingy little place, Angelo smiled at the unsmiling old woman behind the desk.
"Hello Ms. Laurence! I need to pick up a parcel with some very fragile-"
"Angelo oh my God!" The old lady cut him off, irritated. "I know who you are! You don't have to say the access code every time!"
"Laurence, you always do this!" Angelo huffed. "It's policy! You aren't supposed to let me have access until you know for certain that I am not a-"
"Angelo I know you're not a goddamn spy!" She picked herself up out of her chair and went behind her to a bunch of seemingly random parcels that needed to be sent out or picked up. "Who is it you have with you?"
"They are some subjects of mine," Angelo answered sulkily, crossing his arms. Ms. Laurence pulled on a particular package that made the whole wall move, revealing a dark stairway, dimly lite by a single light-bulb hanging on a chain. You gasped softly in surprise. It was something straight out of an action film.
"Follow me, my dears," Angelo said curtly. He shot a resentful glance in the direction of Ms. Laurence. "It would be a shame if I was a spy."
   "You've worked here your whole life, Angelo. You are never going to be a spy," Ms. Laurence sighed, closing the invisible door as you and Andy stepped in after Angelo.
You kept close on his heels as he descended the dark passage, which came to a stop at a medal door with high security locks and combinations. Angelo unlocked all of them from raw memory. A burst of light came through when the door opened and you heard the click click click of high heels on tile floor and the slightly different click click click from individuals who were typing away at their keyboards. Voices and the lull of buzzing electronics filled the room. You shied closer to Angelo, who walked confidently through the door and yelled, "John!" across the room to a dark haired man dressed smartly in a suit and tie. He had a impassive countenance and pale blue eyes. The uninviting look that he carried went away slightly when he broke into a wide, handsome smile. However, Angelo did not return his smile. In fact, he looked more blank than you had ever seen him. John's smile faded quickly and he came hurriedly across the room.
"Angelo-"
"You didn't answer my call, John. Do you know what's happened?" Angelo cut him off, then, to everyone's surprise, remained silent while he waited for John to answer his question.
"Yes," John said slowly. "I was trying to ascertain the whereabouts of the people who had attacked you, but they slipped off the radar just as quickly as they appeared. I'm sorry, Angelo."
"Don't be. There is not a lot of time for that. We need to get the others back quickly. It's been to long as it is," Angelo said briskly. "Come on, we need somewhere more private. But we will have words about this later. I have a bad theory, John."
You and Andy followed John and Angelo through the impressively large underground Headquarters to a small black door with locks and bolts much like the ones on the main entrance. John unlocked them this time, and you stepped into a room with more high-tech gear and blinking lights than you had ever seen. It was huge, and you gasped slightly.
"Welcome to the laboratory, my dears!" Angelo smiled. "In this room is the key to getting the other angels back."
It was the first time he had used the word 'angel' since he entered the facility. John was, supposedly, the only one that was let in on this rather pressing little secret. Now that the only ones in the room were you, Angelo and Andy, John looked at Andy directly for the first time. "May I see your wings?" He asked politely. Andy sighed and mumbled, "why is that the first thing every one of you asks me?"
He did comply, though. Much slower than you knew he could remove them, he let his wings come forth in a rather dramatic and dazzling display of his inhumanity. John stared wide-eyed at him for a good minute before he could bring himself to say anything.
"I've never seen anything like this before," he remarked, circling Andy and putting a curious hand out to touch his gorgeous wings. Andy had a vaguely annoyed expression on his face, and flinched slightly when John's hand made contact, but he didn't move away of put his wings back. You were pretty sure he would have endured just about anything to get his friends back, but you decided this was unnecessary torture.
"John, leave off it," you said firmly. "We need to get on this immediately."
"Quite right!" Angelo piped up as Andy put his wings away in a flash. "Follow me, Andy."
Angelo lead Andy over to a cold medal table and requested that he lay down on his stomach so his back was facing up, explaining what he intended to do in his standard tedious detail. The basic gist was that he needed to extract some of the unique "radiation" (he seemed to not like this term for it, and as a result he used violent air quotes every time he was forced to use it) to put into tracking systems. From there, he would expand the signal by using every radar in every one of their labs throughout the world. "There is no way we won't find them. Unless they have left the planet. Then we are pretty much screwed!" Angelo smiled and gestured for Andy to take his place on the experimentation table. You noticed that it had leather straps at the hands, feet and forehead.
Obviously they didn't use these, but it made you uneasy seeing Andy hesitantly take his place down on this torture table. You weren't sure you had made the right choice in coming here, but you had to keep reminding yourself that this may be the only way of tracking the others.
Angelo blabbed on and on while he took this odd-looking vile and small knife into his hands, instructing Andy to take out his wings again. "Angelo what on earth are you doing?" You exclaimed before you could stop yourself. Angelo looked up at you and saw the discomfort with the situation written out clearly on your face.
"Oh, it's simple, my dear girl," he assured you. "His wings hold the most 'radiation' than any other part of his body. I take a small blood sample and trap the stuff in this vile"--he held up said vile--"and then it goes through a process a won't bore you with, and then when all the content we have left in the vile is the 'radiation' I put it into the radars and we find the other angels!"
You relaxed a little bit. That didn't sound so bad.
You stood fidgeting by John while you watched. It was a quick procedure. Andy didn't even flinch when Angelo moved some feathers out of the way and cut his skin for his blood. Angelo only needed a small amount, and once he had all he needed he set the vile down on a tray and carefully patched up the bleeding incision.
Andy sat up straight and put his wings away. "What now?" He asked, hopping off the table to follow Angelo to a weird microwave thing. It obviously wasn't a microwave, but it sure looked like one.
Angelo put the vile in the microwave and pressed three of the buttons that were located on its side, increasing it's resemblance to the common kitchen appliance.
"If you wouldn't mind, my dears, I need to focus," Angelo said absently, staring in at the vile and pressing two more buttons. "John go show them the radar and explain how it works."
Feeling slightly like dismissed children, the three of you went over to where the large radar was located, spread across twenty screens and feeding signals back and forth. You couldn't make any sense of it, even after John tried feebly to explain it.
"Are you the only one who knows about this angel business?" You asked, changing the subject to everyone's relief.
"Only Angelo and I, now. I had told Tim to go get you both and Angelo before you ran into a trap, but I cannot explain how anyone could have known Tim's location," John said uneasily, running a hand through his hair in what was clearly a nervous habit of his. "What really confuses me most is the fact that, after Tim was killed, they just left you alone. They didn't even try to take you, whoever it was. They just killed him and let you go."
You nodded thoughtfully as you attempted to think of a reason (any reason!) why things happened the way that they did. It didn't make any sense.
It was maybe an hour or so before Angelo came over with a smug grin. The vile that had previously held blood now held nothing but what looked like glowing white/blue smoke.
    It almost looked. . . Alive?
Andy shuddered and took an involuntary step backwards. You turned a worried look upon him and he recovered himself quickly, clearing his throat and trying to look curious.
"Er," said Angelo, who did not miss the weird reaction from the angel. Ginger slinked out of Andy's hood and onto his shoulder. You had almost completely forgotten about the cat, and she did not fail to note your surprise at seeing her. Giving you an unfriendly glance, she started purring on Andy's shoulder before deciding that she did not like the room very much and retreated back into Andy's hood.
"Anyway," Angelo said slowly, slightly baffled by the odd display of things. "I have the 'radiation.' All we have to do is make the radar start tracking it."
John immediately sprang into action along with Angelo while you and Andy watched with rising hope. It took them a few minutes to get it to work, but when Angelo clapped his hands together with a suppressed,"yes," you knew that the radar could track down the others.
"I'll call all of our other labs and tell them what to do. They won't ask questions," John said with a satisfied smile. He grew slightly more sober as he turned to Angelo and asked, "are you sure you can do this, Angelo?"
Angelo nodded firmly. You were slightly confused.
"Why wouldn't he be able to do it?" You asked in confusion. Angelo took on look of boyish irritation and John took on one of a worried father. "Angelo is not great with field work. Under immediate pressure, he tends to crack," John explained. "When he turned 21 two years ago he went on his first field mission and it almost cost him his life."
He glanced at Angelo, who pensively moved his hair out of the way and pulled down the collar of his shirt, displaying the long thick scar that trailed along his shoulder, disappearing down his back. You had only once seen it by accident.  Now you understood why Angelo had lived so far out in the country by you without seeming to have any employment. He was in recovery from a bad injury, and much better used as a intelligence guy, a researcher, or a hacker, rather than doing actual field work.
"Oh," you said softly. Angelo let go of his collared vest and his scar disappeared once again from sight. Andy said nothing.
John stepped out of the room to go make the phone call to all the other labs while you three stood staring at the monitors, biting your fingernails. John came back in ten minutes and wordlessly watched the screen with a fixed gaze.
The seconds dribbled by agonizingly and two minutes passed before you started to loose hope. If the radars were going to pick something up, it would not take them to long to do so. You felt you were about to scream in frustration when suddenly, a red blinking dot appeared on the screen. You and Andy both snapped your attention over to Angelo, who was staring at the red dot with a look of triumph and a determined glare set in his eyes. He cleared his throat and looked over to you and Andy.
"Ladies and gentlemen, I do believe we have located our missing angels."

Happy Monday, my friends! I hope you like this, guys!!! I worked really hard to get this done because I haven't had a lot of free time for writing this week, but here it is! Please tell me what you think/vote if you liked it!!!! Thank you lovely peoples, you are fabulous as Gerard Way striking a sassy pose!!!!!
-Skye