Captive

Raven woke to the sudden thunderous blast just above his head. Tied to the cheap folding chair, he looked up as his captor paced around him.

“Have you heard a single fucking word that’s come out of my mouth? If you don’t tell me where your-

The watchguard’s words were all but mute to Raven. Quickly surveying his surroundings, the agent looked for any clue, any advantage.

The captor brutishly pulled back on his oil-black hair.

“LISTEN TO ME!”

The boy’s concentration was broken for only a moment as the man beat him. When he awoke, the barrel of a gun was placed to his crotch.

“I don’t know what he’ll do to you once you squeal. But if you don’t, you can say goodbye to Johnson here.”

Raven’s eyes darted across the black handgun.

“No? Nothing?” The captor’s grip steadied on the firearm as the agent just stated.

Smith & Wesson R8 revolver. Chambered in 357 magnum, eight round capacity- eight. Eight.

“I guess dogs ought to be castrated anyway.”

As the captor shakily cocked the weapon’s hammer with his gloved right thumb. The boy’s memory raced back.

06:21

“WE ARE UNDER ATTACK! INTRUDERS ON SECOND LEVEL!”

Raven watched from behind cover as his partner took potshots at the security staff. There was no escape in sight, and neither could get a hit on the guards firing from high atop the catwalks of the massive warehouse.

He counted thirteen men. Not typically a problem, but he hadn’t counted on getting spotted. They were clearly private mercs- none of the gear matched and they had no coordination whatsoever. They’d only found them thanks to his partner thinking that bringing explosive charges to a stealth op was a good idea. One of the goons pinned them down with a rifle, another sneaking around trying to tag them with his black revolver.

Five seconds into the altercation, the pistoleer fired for the first time. It missed Raven entirely, who’d still had his head poking out to take stock of the situation. Immediately he memorized the sound. It wasn’t easy under the cacophony that was an indoor firefight, but the screeching bullet made distinct enough a cry from the other’s attempts on their lives that he took notice of it. He heard it three- four, five… six more times throughout the skirmish, shifting through each and every target with his eyes to evade their fire. He never saw the man reload.

Somewhere within all the noise, he yelled something to his partner and immediately ran outside their position before the other agent could respond, barely managing to sneak away in the chaos. The mercenaries lost line of sight of him as soon as he ducked behind a wall. But he could almost make out one barking indistinct orders as he pulled out from the fray, and before he knew it the infiltrator heard two sets of footsteps approaching him on both sides.

Brashly, he pulled his trigger once on central mass the instant the first figure came in from his left. As the soldier collapsed, he swooped around to the second- the man cracking off one more familiar shot from his revolver and just missing Raven’s thigh.

Seven…

The boy tackled the rookie in defensive anger, about to slam on his head with the lethal force of his nine-millimeter’s magazine to remove the threat for good. Only, he didn’t hear the vibrating twitch of the handheld stunner the man placed to his heart.

Raven’s consciousness was interrupted. 

06:58

“Alright. You had your chance. Off they go.”

Battered and lucky to be alive, Raven kept replaying the scenario over in his head, faster and faster. In a hoarse but remarkably young voice, he paralyzed the captor once he finally spoke.

“Seven... no, that can’t be right…”

“What's that, asshole?”

The hired gun had almost convinced himself the child was about to answer his demands. He could not have been more wrong.

“No… that’s just not it…” He whispered aloud to himself.

“I’m talking to you!”

Raven blinked as he recalled the noise of a single gunshot shaking him awake.

He looked up to his defenseless captor.

“You’re out.”

“What?”

The trigger sharply clicked. The boy’s body refused to flinch as the hammer went down harmlessly on a spent casing.

Raven threw his legs around the captor’s neck, hoisting up his body to twist the both of them down to the ground, along with the chair that collapsed under the stress. Soon he was choking him, the man helplessly clawing at his legs as they seized him like talons.

In the sputtering noise of the two combatant’s gritted teeth, the door of the makeshift interrogation room was kicked down by a Converse shoe, covered in blood and soot. The otherwise well-equipped young man wearing it stood in the opening, seeing his partner flailing about on the ground.

“Raven!”

“F-Fox?”

The tall young agent promptly charged up to the captor and delivered a swift kick to his head. He was knocked unconscious in an instant, finally freed from Raven’s assault.

“The hell are you doing here? I told you to book it.”

“After I stood her up to be here? You should know me better by now. Like I could leave your suicidal ass behind.”

“Look, I was doing just fine before you showed up.”

Fox observed the wreckage in the room, his bruised partner’s blood only spread by the marks left by the suffocated captor’s kicking feet.

“Uh-huh.”

With Raven’s bindings so loose from the struggle that they fell right off the instant he stood, the two men laughed as they shared a handshake.

“Thanks for not listening to me, Fox.”

“How the shit was I gonna hear you back there in the first place?” The saviour reached for his earpiece. “Q, yeah, I have him. Need Evac.”

“Excellent work, Fox.” The soothing, stilted voice of a woman rang in his ear. “Don’t fear, evac is on its way from mother base.”

“See you soon, Q.”

Raven began to fixate up the incognizant body of his former captor, seeing him as an asset now that he was still alive. Fox watched as the boy rolled on top of the man, folding his arm under the captive’s leg before grabbing his forearm.

“Raven, buddy... you know if you didn't make yourself so busy, you'd have time for a beach trip with a girl of your own. Just saying, good to get out every once and awhile.”

Raven hoisted the unconscious hostile up on his shoulders, lifting himself to his feet.

“Closest evac from mother base is twelve hundred kilometers. That gives us four minutes thirty-five, approximately.”

Fox almost chuckled as he shook his head.

“Never change.”