Off Grid

Chapter 19: A Dangerous Game

Look, up in the sky! It's a bird! it's a plane!

No, wait... It's an actual update!

Seriously though, sorry this took so long. It's been for a number of reasons, but mostly I've just been lacking motivation to continue with this story. I just wasn't happy with how I'd gone about a lot of things or where I was planning to take the story as a whole. I had to take a long look at why that was, which led to me reworking a chunk of my plans for the next few chapters (and even adding in a few extra chapters worth of content toward the end), but I think I'm happier with it now, and I'm ready to start getting back into the swing of things.

"So did you ask him where he was?"

"I'm not talking about this right now. Focus," Seven whispered back.

His sidekick's words about trusting Adrian were still ringing in his ears, but he couldn't let himself get distracted.

He had be ready to leap into action if he needed to.

Everything around them was quiet. It was late, and the shops on the street had all closed down for the night. Seth had probably gotten home already, but he wouldn't be worried, sure that his younger brother was just sleeping over at a friend's house.

Seven was sure that he would have freaked out if he knew the truth.

Resonance and Safeguard were lying in wait, crouched behind a dumpster. Adrian was standing further up, near the mouth of the alleyway, hood on to hide his earpiece and his hands shoved into his pockets.

Resonance didn't need anything to help him to listen in, but his sidekick's powers didn't exactly include enhanced hearing. It made things a little risky, but it was better than Seven trying to relay what was happening to Safeguard verbally, given the situation.

Marcus was the one to arrange the meeting.

They'd first started hearing the whispers weeks ago. Usually, the group would have let the police handle a drug problem in their school, but this was different. So far, it didn't seem to have spread beyond their own academy, but three students had already ended up in the hospital.

Three students that Seven and Adrian both knew.

Of course, no one around school was stupid enough to hook the police chief's son or his boyfriend up with their dealer, but no one knew to look out for Marcus. He'd never spoken to either of them at school, and, being seventeen and a year above them, he was already deep into the party scene when they'd met. No one thought twice when he went asking around.

At first, Seven had volunteered to play the bait for their plan, but Adrian had immediately squashed the idea. 

"No, it has to be me," he'd insisted. "If one of you jumps out and the other isn't there, it's too obvious. They'll find out who you are, and from there it isn't a far leap to all of us."

It made sense, but that didn't mean that Seven had to like it.

"I don't want you putting yourself in danger like that," Seven said with a scowl.

"It'll be fine, Seven. It's just a drug bust, we've dealt with worse. Besides, you'll be there if anything goes wrong. That's the upside to having a superhero for a boyfriend."

"Fine, just remember, don't do anything stupid. Signal for me if anything happens."

"I'll be careful," Adrian promised, stealing a quick kiss. "Now, go suit up."

Now that they were actually there, Seven wished he hadn't agreed. Adrian wasn't defenseless, he knew that, but everything could still go wrong.

They only needed to wait for ten minutes before the man showed. He was alone, and he didn't look like much. Tall and scrawny, in a tattered hoodie and a mask. No older than Seven's brother.