The Runaways: K.A.O.

XV

  Hic! Sniff. 

"Vanessa. Are you alright now?" I felt warm hands comforting me. 

"I-I'm, I'm okay." I stammered over my words trying to catch my breath. 

"What did you see?" Michael asked. 

"Christ!" Thompson whacked his head, and I felt it through Michael's movement. 

"I'm sorry." Michael apologized. I stood up and brushed the dirt away from my legs, the exit was just ahead. 

"No." I took in a deep breath. "It's fine."  I exhaled. "It was my father." 

  I didn't have to explain much, they just nodded their heads and followed right after me. The words that man, no, that voice said stuck in my head. Were they really just following me because they feared I would kill them? Would they really kill me if given the chance? 

  The wall behind us started to fluctuate. 

"What am I to you?" I turned around and asked them bluntly. 

If I continue to doubt, that'll kill us. 

  It'll be my fault. 

"What do you mean?" Michael raised his brow. 

"Aren't we family?" Thompson said.

"Family?" I questioned under my breath. 

"I feel like I've said this before? We're family because we've got to stick together, and we only have each other." He continued. 

  I can't believe I doubted them. "Well, would that make me the older sister?" I tried to joke. 

"Older? You look a bit young." Thompson grinned. 

"I may be the youngest." Michael said. 

"How old are you?" I asked. 

"Nineteen." Thompson said, Michael and I jumped back. 

"You're old!" I sneered. "I'm fifteen! He's younger than me!" I pointed at Michael. 

"I'm literally one year younger than you." Michael said back. 

"What a youngster." I ruffled my hands through his hair. 

  The planes keeping us trapped broke, it revealed the rest of the lab. We were back in the KAOs facility building, but it was hard to tell where. We looked around the building, it smelled heavily of alcohol and rust. 

"They are blowing this place up, we've got to get us and everyone else out of here." I smelled the air, the footsteps were at higher levels than us. "We've got a head start." 

"Nessie wait." Thompson grabbed onto my arm before I could start running again. 

"What?" I froze and felt a jolt through my brain. "Oh my god." 

"How are we going to find them now?" Thompson asked. 

"W-w-well." My brain started to malfunction. "Maybe we'll run down to the lower levels and that's where they'll be." 

"If that's the case, why are they all above us?" The stomping was louder. 

"The bodies!" I exclaimed. "If the droids wanted you guys dead, they'd have us killed and would have burned the building with everyone inside already." I said. 

"Isn't that what they are doing?" Michael pointed out. 

"They are burning us inside the building, but any second now," I paused. "Any second." The stomping got distant.

  A loud noise resembled a plane revving up. 

"I remember that the easiest escape is through PARAdroids. Remember when we came through the roof, that was a perfect place for a plane to get close enough to throw down a ladder to grab everyone." The theories just flooded inside my head. 

"Just like at the other base." Michael said. 

"Yeah, do you remember how you guys got here?" I asked. 

"No." He shook his head. 

"I think that has something to do with it." I looked around. "You guys find their cars, I'll head upstairs to find our friends." 

"What? We're not gonna stick together?" Michael questioned. 

"No, we can't. You guys can decode words faster and the building is on fire, so we don't have time to play the guessing game." 

"What if you get into trouble?" Michael asked and my heart thumped. 

Ten minutes. 

"'I think I'll manage." I took in a deep breath. "If I'm not back within 6 minutes, I need you guys to promise you'll leave." 

"Are you crazy?" Thompson, this time, scolded me. 

"Listen to me! There's not much time, and I'll do what I can. I need you to trust me and in six minutes, you've got to be out of her and away from that blast." I said. 

"Are we just supposed to leave you?" He yelled, baring his teeth. 

"Yes!" I begged. "I don't care that you don't want to, but I need you to trust me! We're wasting time." I snapped at the two of them. 

"Shit." Michael swore, it caught me a bit off guard. 

"Just go!" I shoved them away until they ran out of sight. 

"Are you crazy?" I sighed to myself. "You might never see them again." 

  I tapped my foot against the ground before I took off in the other direction. It was too risky to go back into the burnt side of the facility, but that gave me a clue to where the stairs were. I ran in the opposite way of the boys until I reached the signs I was looking for. 

ST

AI

RS. 

"Come and get me." I held my beating heart and flew up the stairs. 

   In the back of my mind, I knew at least half of my time was up. And yet, I couldn't risk their lives any further to save mine. We were family, and I'm going to save them. 

"Hey!" I revealed myself to the droids scrambling through the building.