Stay With Me

The alarms were screaming, shrill and loud. The overhead lights were dimmed to almost nothing, and that left the flashing strobes linked to the alert sounding through the base seemingly brighter than they might have been otherwise. It was input overload central and Amanda had to squeeze her eyes closed for just a moment to gather herself. The last thing she needed was another attack. They didn't have time for that shit.

"'Manda? Anything look like in the poetry?"

Brown eyes snapped open and she refocused when she heard Vogel's voice. He was nervous, sticking close to her and all his energy seemed to be coiled up. He had a death grip on his golf club that he had been carrying around with him, but so far there hadn't been any reason to use it. Blackwing might know they were there, but they didn't know where they were in the base yet, and Amanda wanted to keep it that way until she had the Rowdy 3 back together and all five of them could break out. This was going to have to be a team effort.

She looked up and down the corridor, everything looking the same and she closed her eyes again to try to recall the images. They always flashed so quickly that it was hard to hold onto them, but she managed. Like a recording that played back in her mind, she held onto them with the desperation of someone trying to save her new, chosen family. She'd seen Martin in the last big one, and he hadn't looked good. She had no idea what they would do if the boys weren't in any condition to fight their way out.

"I saw…. This way," she said suddenly, snagging hold of his jacket and all but dragging Vogel with her. He went willingly, a small sound escaping him as he regained his footing to keep up with her.

Left turn, right, straight for two possible turns and…. They were going south. Surely that was right. She slammed to a halt at a dead end and she looked up, finding herself faced with a security camera. She glared at it, extending the one fingered salute before turning. So much for flying under the radar.

"Here!" Vogel bellowed and he was darting off to the left down a corridor they'd passed. She had no idea where he was going or what had set him off that way, but she followed, her boots hitting the smooth floor and she pushed herself harder and harder to keep up with his boundless energy.

Amanda almost missed it when Vogel turned, but grabbed hold of the open doorframe to propel herself through it with him. She slammed to a stop, eyes wide at the sight. They were in a large room, open for the most part with chains holding up coffin-like cages suspended over large openings in the floor. Gripps and Cross were strapped to the cages, tied tightly and bound in straight jackets. They looked… exhausted. Amanda thought it might have been the strangest thing she'd ever seen. Both of her boys were limp against their restraints, barely stirring until they heard Vogel calling their names.

Cross looked up sluggishly. "Vogel," he rasped, the name echoing strangely in the room.

Vogel sprinted out towards the platform and vaulted over the railing to the catwalk out towards his brother. Amanda followed, eyes wide and a knot forming in her stomach. She didn't see any controls. Nothing to get them down. As her gaze swept the platform she saw a lone figure in a lab coat sprawled out, signs that the mere few seconds head start that Vogel had had been enough to give him the chance to take the scientist down. In the man's limp grasp was a tablet.

"You came," Gripps said from his place as Amanda bent to pick the tablet up.

"Weren't gonna leave ya," Vogel promised. "You see, boss? I stomped his ass! You get it? You get the thing to make them come back?"

"Yeah," Amanda answered as she flipped through the controls. The scientist stirred at her feet, groaning, and she gave him a sharp kick. "Stay, asshole." She worked at the controls, the cages jolting and moving in directions she didn't mean for them to go, until finally she got both of them put over solid ground and Vogel started in on the restraints holding them in. She pursed her lips as she moved to the opposite side to start in on Gripps' bindings.

She didn't like what she saw as she got closer. His colouring was bad, deep bags under his eyes, and he was still sort of slumped against the restraints. This wasn't going to be an easy escape. "Where's Martin?" She glanced over to the middle cage to find it open with now Rowdy leader in sight.

"Took him," Cross answered.

A soft, pained sound escaped Gripps. "Gotta help him."

They were psychically linked, she remembered in that moment, and she wasn't sure if it was Gripps hurting or Martin. The scream that echoed from beyond the room they were in answered her question.

"Go, I got 'em," Vogel said. "We'll catch up."

Gripps nodded and Amanda finished the restraint she was working on before darting back down the catwalk and towards where it sounded like the cry had come from. She rounded the corner into the room. This one wasn't empty at all. It was filled with equipment and machines for all sorts of terrible experiments, and in the center of it was a familiar figure, tall and lean, strapped to the table. He was still. Far too still, even for Martin who had a habit of watching the others burn off their excess energy. His wrists were strapped down by his sides, ankles held by the same black restraints. There was no one there, but from the readouts on the screen someone had been recently.

"Martin?" Amanda whispered, even the small sound of her voice loud in the room only filled with the whirl of the cooling fans for the computers. She crept forward, the knot growing when she found those striking blue eyes of his closed. They'd stolen his glasses too. The bastards.

He didn't stir, didn't crack an eye to smirk at her and tell her not to be afraid. She was afraid. She was terrified, and if he were anywhere near conscious he would have felt that.

But he didn't wake up, and Amanda's hand shook as she reached forward. Did they have pulses? She wasn't sure. They were vampires of some sort, but how close that actually was to what they were she had no idea. It wasn't like she'd asked them to detail how everything worked. She had just assumed they'd get to what they needed to get to in time. She'd never thought that her boys would have been taken from her.

He wasn't breathing.

Amanda felt her own breath catch as she checked again, her fingers latching onto the rough material of the untied straightjacket that they'd fit him in. Her dark eyes flickered up to look at the readouts again, hoping for something to prove her wrong. There was nothing about a heartbeat, either good or bad, nor about his breathing rate. His energy levels were displayed there though and those were in the red. They'd been starving him.

Her vision blurred as she shook him. "No! No you can't leave yet. I just found you. We've been looking, I promise! Vogel and me, we've been looking everywhere for you guys. We're getting you out. You've just gotta stay with me… you've got to come back." She felt the tears working their way down her cheeks and her knuckles were white. It didn't do any good.

He wasn't breathing. Right. She'd taken a first aid course years before. Maybe it'd work on him too.

Amanda bent over his still form, her lips against his as she tried to breathe for him, hoping and begging to anything or anyone that might listen to bring him back. To her. She needed him to come back to her. The feeling was strong. If it was desperation or fear or… something else, she wasn't sure, but it was strong and suddenly she felt him tense under her, his entire body going rigid and she jerked back as he pulled in a deep breath, blue eyes wide and open as his back arched and he groaned.

"Martin?"

That blue gaze swiveled around on her. He was ready for a fight, a snarl on his lips, but the moment he saw her it melted away. "Amanda," he breathed, blinking at her like he was trying to pull together what happened.

"You weren't breathing." That was what she had to say? Seriously? She'd have kicked herself, but it wasn't like her brain was giving her anything else.

He licked his lips. "So you kissed me?"

Amanda could feel her cheeks heating up. "It's called CPR," she grumbled, forcing herself to turn her attention to his restraints and she started unbuckling him. "Are you okay?"

Martin coughed hard, grimacing as he did. "Yeah. Got some strong… feelings there, drummer girl. You, uh… gave me a boost."

"You could feel all that?" she asked, not sure she wanted to know the answer. She was barely able to work through her own feelings in that moment. She wasn't sure she wanted someone else knowing and understanding them before she did.

She finally worked the second buckle over his wrist free and he sat up, much quicker than she would have expected with how pale he was. He looked like death warmed over, and the hand that touched her face - albeit a bit shaky and little hesitantly - felt almost as cold as that. They'd really done a number on him. His fingers ghosted against her cheek and she found herself frozen in place. "You came for us."

His words jolted her. "'Course I did."

Martin's gaze held hers for a long moment and she thought for a moment he might give her a proper kiss. He didn't, though, and he dropped his hand suddenly, a grunt escaping him. "We gotta go."

"Right," Amanda answered, shoving back the raging emotions. She was freaked out and she was exhausted from being worried and on the run for over two months now. They needed to go. Once they were free, once they were out, she'd have time to sort through how she felt about everything that had happened. "So how'd you guys get out last time?"

Martin shot her a devilish grin as he swung his long legs over the side of the table, and for the first time in what felt like forever Amanda felt her lips tilt upward. They were about to make Blackwing regret ever taking her Rowdy Boys.

Notes: I've been trying to talk myself out of writing for Dirk Gently, but good heavens Amanda and Martin have my heart.