Vigilante Lost

by name_blank

Summary:

While on a mission Vigilante and Eagly are separated from the rest of the team then left for dead somewhere in the vast wilderness of the Pacific Northwest.

It's a Vigilante and Eagly solo adventure!!! …Just not a very fun one.

Notes:

Some of this actually kinda sorta started as an idea for part of that last fic I wrote but it never quite fit so it's become its own thing.

Beta'ing is my own as always, apologies for glaring mistakes. Enjoy!

Chapter 1

"Vij! Eagly!"

Both heroes skidded to a halt and stared at Peacemaker with their heads cocked to attention.

"We've got these assholes," Peacemaker yelled. He jerked a thumb over his shoulder where Harcourt was easily holding her own against a pair of dudes nearly twice her size. "Go get that guy!"

Peacemaker pointed in the direction of one bad guy trying to make a sneaky break for it amongst the sudden chaos with a shiny, important looking briefcase in hand. Vigilante saluted his acknowledgement while Eagly squawked and they were both off.

A vaguely familiar cry of "kyaaaiii!!!" sounded from the main fight but Vigilante barely even acknowledged it—he was already too focused on the very important task Peacemaker had appointed him.

The guy he was following ran towards a building on the outskirts of the compound that the team had been investigating before they were ambushed. It didn't look like much more than an old, slightly dilapidated garage at the edge of the coniferous forest. Eagly swooped ahead and dove inside just before the door could close on his tail feathers.

Vigilante caught up soon enough and body slammed his way inside, both guns raised and pointed at…no one.

"Hey, where'd he go?"

Eagly was circling the middle of the empty room and pecking furiously at a barely visible hatch in the concrete floor. Vigilante hauled the heavy metal door open just enough for Eagly to dive bomb into it before he hopped in and slid down the sides of a metal ladder.

Once at the bottom they hesitated—the pair had descended at least two stories into pitch blackness. A creaking sounded overhead just before the hatch door fell shut with a loud bang that startled them both.

Vigilante fumbled in his suit's pockets for his phone and clicked the flashlight on. Before him was a vast tunnel, like a big dried up smelly sewer with no sign of the man they were chasing in either direction. Eagly chattered uncertainly while Vigilante tapped at the uncomfortable communicator in his ear.

"Uh, you guys…guys? Peacemaker, anybody, hello?!" A burst of static was the only response he got and he rubbed at the side of his head with a wince. "Aw dang, I hate these fucking ear thingies!"

A quick glance at his phone screen revealed that he had no cell service underground either.

He groaned in annoyance as he aimed his light again down the empty tunnel, first to his left then to the right. There wasn't much to see outside of the short beam besides more darkness, and he could hear nothing but creepy silence.

"Well, Peacemaker said to go get that guy, so I guess we better go get him, right Eagly?" He glanced down at the eagle, who chirped up at him in agreement. Eagly picked a direction that must have looked promising and waddled along with Vigilante right next to him, handgun out and ready for anything.

They wandered for what felt like very a long, boring time before Eagly squawked and flapped ahead. Vigilante jogged to catch up and saw through his flashlight beam that there was a solid brick wall blocking their path. In the center of the wall was a hefty looking metal door that looked like something out of a submarine. Eagly pecked at the wheel shaped seal keeping it shut.

Vigilante pocketed his phone and gun so he could use both hands on the handle, and was a little surprised by how easily it spun under his grip. He eased cautiously inside with Eagly next to him, only to find an artificially lit area empty of any bad guys.

"Whoa, dude."

The large room they entered was definitely more high tech and shinier than the sewer they'd just been walking through. Eagly chirped as he too took in their surprising surroundings. Vigilante could only think that it looked like some kind of mad scientist's lair, or maybe a secret drug superlab one might find beneath an industrial laundromat.

There were huge vats with pipes going back and forth between them, and all around sat metal tables and shelves that were covered with bottles and test tubes of mysterious liquids. Complicated looking science-y equipment was set up in front of a glass wall covered with scribbled equations and strange symbols and there, on a table in the center of it all, was a single jar of goo surrounded by petri dishes of other similarly colored slop. Vigilante thought it looked kinda like the butterflies' golden jelly.

"Sooo weird…"

A loud hissing suddenly sounded from above and Vigilante snapped his head up to see the room begin to fill with thick, yellow smoke. He turned back towards the door just as the man they'd been chasing appeared out of the shadows with a friend and both were wearing gas masks over their faces. The one guy pulled the door shut and sealed it tightly, trapping them all inside with the noxious fumes.

Eagly fell with a dull little thud even as Vigilante aimed his pistols at the men blocking their exit. But the gas had seeped quickly into the fabric of his mask and his suddenly numb fingers slipped away from their impossibly heavy triggers.

Darkness crowded in on his vision just before he slumped down to the floor with a drawn out cry of, "motherrr…fuuu…eeerrrrrrssssss…"

-_-

He regained consciousness to the disorienting sensation of being jostled around against his will. His already aching head bounced off of whatever he was lying on and he yelled, "ow, fuck!"

Adrian cracked his eyes open and the dizzying sight of movement above made him nauseous. His mask was gone, which meant that his prescription visor was gone, and when he tried to reach the pocket where he always kept his glasses he realized that he couldn't move his arms. They were stuck behind him with what felt like a tight plastic zip tie that pinched directly into the skin of his wrists, which meant that his gloves were missing too.

"Wha' the…?"

He craned his neck so he could squint down at himself and realized that all of his gear was absent. He could feel that the usual comforting weight of his weaponry was gone, all of his outer armor and padding was gone, his super handy utility belt and pouches were all gone, even his boots were gone, leaving him in just the black pants and long sleeve shirt he wore as the base layer of the Vigilante uniform. That and the zip ties pulled taught around his bare wrists and ankles.

"Oh, this is just great," he moaned to himself. "Just fucking awesome…"

The hard surface he was lying on bounced violently and without his hands to catch himself his body tumbled and struck the short wall next to him. With all the turbulent bumping around he deduced that he was in the open bed of a pickup truck and whoever was driving was not being particularly careful while speeding along some off-road terrain.

The truck took another hard turn and he was thrown to the opposite side again, right into what looked and felt like a large tan box that was covered in small holes. He couldn't see very well, but he was pretty sure there were some brown feathers sticking out of a caged door in the front of it.

"Eagly!" he gasped in realization. "Oh no, buddy, are you okay in there?!"

The bird didn't respond and Adrian feared the worst. He could only hope that Peacemaker's sidekick was alive and that he could get them both out of their current predicament. He knew Chris would be devastated if he lost his two very best friends, and Adrian hated the idea of his hero feeling sad on his account.

"Okay, we've totally got this," Adrian said to himself.

He braced his bare feet as best as he could against the rough bed of the truck so he wouldn't get thrown around as much with the movement then stretched his fingers out until he found the waist band at the back of his pants and the tiny, but deadly, switch blade he kept hidden in the fabric there. Thankfully the bad guys hadn't found it when they took his other stuff.

"Fuck yeah, Vigilante's got this!"

He worked the knife hilt free from its loose stitching with numb fingers and managed to slide it up into his palm. He fumbled to flip open the blade and hissed when he nicked his hand in the process of turning it towards the zip tie.

Then the truck came to an abrupt stop and his body was thrown forwards. He barely managed to keep a firm hold on his weapon and not stab himself in the process. Both doors of the cabin opened and immediately slammed shut, then Adrian could just see from his vantage point the blurry head of some big goon as he walked around the truck towards the back.

Adrian decided that playing dead until he was ready to make his move was the best course of action. He squeezed his eyes shut and tried to keep as still as possible with his hand curled tight behind him to hide his knife.

"—You knew how the plan was supposed to go," one of the guys was saying as he lowered the truck's tailgate. "But things are fucked now so this is what we're gonna do instead."

"How do we know it's fucked?" the other voice said. Adrian felt movement next to him as they hauled the pet carrier out of the back first. A dazed squeak sounded from inside of it and Adrian breathed a quiet sigh of relief that Eagly was still alive.

"Because it's been way too long, man," the first voice replied. "If we didn't hear from Judomaster by now it means they got him, so there's no sense in keeping these guys around anymore. I don't want to have to fucking deal with hostages, do you?!"

"Naw, man. I just thought I was gonna help some aliens save the world—definitely never wanted to get involved in all this wannabe superheroes bullshit."

Two sets of hands grabbed Adrian's legs and hauled him out of the truck. They dropped him unceremoniously to the hard dirt ground and dragged him another few feet away.

"This is better anyway. Peacemaker's crew will be too busy looking for his sidekicks to worry about us or the formula. They'll probably never even find the bodies out here."

"You think that guy's already dead from the gas?" The second voice was further away now, like he was back by the truck. "His bird's definitely not." There was a dull thud followed by a cage rattling as Eagly cried out groggily in distress. Adrian's blood boiled at the thought of these jerks hurting his second best friend.

"Oh, it's not going anywhere," the closer voice responded. "And neither is this dipshit."

Adrian heard the distinct sound of a gun's safety being clicked off and he knew it was time for action. He slid the knife against his wrist and cut easily through the zip tie, then surged upwards at the waist just in time to hear the bad guy with the gun let out a surprised curse. Adrian flung his weapon towards the sound at the same time as his captor pulled the trigger. He heard a gurgled cry when his blade found its mark in the guy's throat as well as the crack of a gunshot, then pain exploded in the side of his head and everything went black.

-_-

"Vigilante. Vij! Yo, Adriaaannn!!!"

He blinked and sat up again. He was back in his full Vigilante gear except for the mask, and standing over him was the most beautiful sight he'd ever seen.

"Peacemaker!" he gasped.

"Damn right. Come on, dude," Peacemaker said with a grin on his handsome, chiseled face. "Now's not the time to be peacing out."

Adrian blinked at him, then around at his vast, empty surroundings—there was nothing to see but bright white in every direction.

"Whoa," he gasped. "Holy shit, am I dead?!"

Peacemaker chuckled affectionately as if he'd just heard a hilarious joke. "No, bro. You're not dead. Just a little fucked up."

"Oh! That's good."

"You're not allowed to die now anyway," Peacemaker continued. "I need you to take care of Eagly for me."

Adrian frowned. "…'Cause you're going back to prison?"

"What?! Fuck no, dude!"

"Phew, that's a relief," Adrian sighed. "Like, you don't even know how much it sucked while you were in prison the last time. I was just by myself, with my thoughts and nothing else twenty four seven which was pretty fucking terrible. Sometimes I just forgot you weren't around anymore, I left you sooo many messages."

"I know, and I most definitely played them all and saved them so I can listen to them forever and ever," Peacemaker assured him and Adrian beamed appreciatively. "But now you need to come back to the land of the living, that way I don't have to feel shitty because you're the one that'd be gone this time around. You got that?"

Adrian nodded. "Yeah, I got it!"

He put his hand in Peacemaker's firm grip so the larger man could haul him up to his feet and into a strong set of embracing arms.

Then the real world spun rapidly into focus and Adrian had just enough sense to turn to the side before he vomited all over himself. Throwing up was painful, and the action made his head ache even worse until he was retching again and struggling to take a proper breath.

Eventually he managed to bring a shaking hand to the origin of his splitting headache, which was seemingly the entire left half of his skull. That whole side of his head was wet and sticky with blood, and his fingers found what felt like a literal trench that cut deep through his hair and burned across his scalp just above his ear. He pulled his hand away and retched again in disgust even though there was nothing left to bring up but stringy bile.

"Owww," he moaned miserably. "Fuh…fuuuck."

His ears were ringing with static and it took a moment for the pain to subside enough for him to hear another loud noise. Somewhere nearby something was clanging frantically and someone was crying out in distress. He blinked and could just make out the pale box of a plastic pet carrier bouncing around in the very near distance.

"E-eagly?" he choked out. "…'S 'at you?"

A familiar screech responded and he knew it was the sound of his second best friend in the whole wide world. He remembered now—Eagly was stuck in a box but he was still alive, thank fuck. Adrian would hate to have disappointed the Peacemaker in his head already.

"I…I'm comin'…lil' bud," he slurred as he rolled over and pushed himself upright with shaking arms. "I'm—"

Another desperate cry rang out and Adrian was startled awake again. The sky was significantly darker and Eagly was peeping feebly for attention from inside the now motionless cage.

"Sorry…sorry, 'm still…comin'." Adrian opted to not lift his head up so abruptly again and instead moved to drag himself forward by his arms. He felt a squish as his stinging right hand found the small puddle of congealed vomit and he gagged again.

"Oh ew ew ew," he moaned as he frantically wiped his hand off on his shirt. "S-so gross."

He tried crawling forwards again and dimly realized his ankles were still zip tied together, which made worming his way even just the few yards towards Eagly seem to take forever. His shaking fingers found the simple latch that kept the pet carrier closed and the bird of prey surged up into the sky with a powerful flap of his wings.

With his primary mission accomplished, Adrian let his face fall forward onto the hard, dirt ground.

He woke again sometime later to chirping and the feeling of Eagly's beak lightly pecking at his back.

"Ugh," he groaned. "Oh…h-hey, Eagly."

The eagle nipped and pulled at one of his sleeves so he lifted that arm as much as he could to absently pet the eagle's feathers.

"Nice, birdie. Sooo soft…"

Then Eagly was shrieking loudly right in Adrian's face and he flinched from the piercing sound. "Alright, fuck! I'm awake now, jeez dude!"

Adrian rolled himself to the side and closed his eyes until the disorienting throbbing in his skull subsided to a dull ache. He still didn't feel great, but the pain wasn't quite as terribly shocking as it had been when he'd first come to. He figured his unintended nap had helped at least a little bit.

When he opened his eyes again he was on his back and looking up at the very late starry night sky through fuzzy tree branches. He tried to remember when they'd started their mission but could only recall that there had at least being daylight before. Now he could barely make out Eagly's white head right next to him in the dim moonlight—beyond that he could only see dark, spooky shadows.

"Oh, shit," he muttered. "Where are we, Eagly?"

The eagle screeched back indecisively.

From what Adrian could tell they'd been driven out to the middle of fuck knows where and left for dead. The one guy must have taken the truck and bounced, and the other was lying deceased not too far away which left Adrian and Eagly stuck by themselves in the wilderness, without any gear to use, or any way to contact anyone. Adrian didn't even have his glasses or shoes on.

He groaned and propped himself up on his elbows to better stare at the vaguely eagle shaped blob next to him. "Sooo I'm thinking we've found ourselves in quite the pickle here, buddy."

Eagly chattered at him, head bobbing. Adrian kinda thought that meant the bird understood him but he couldn't be too sure. He just knew that they were going to have to work together to find their way out of their current predicament.

"Okay," he said slowly and clearly while he stared at the bird. "I know I always say Peacemaker overestimates your abilities—sorry about that by the way, no offense—but maybe you could help me out here a little?" He pointed down to his still zip tied ankles and wriggled his cold toes. "Go get it, Eagly. Chomp chomp."

The eagle cocked his head but otherwise didn't move.

"Oh come on, man," Adrian cried out. "I'm like all fucked up! I'm out of secret knives and I really don't feel like digging the one out of that dead guy's disgusting neck right now. I helped you out, bro! Come onnn!"

Eagly ruffled his feathers and squawked indignantly.

"Okay, okay. I'm really very sorry for yelling at you just now, but seriously, dude." He sat up fully with a groan and had to squeeze his eyes shut for a moment while he swallowed back another wave of nausea. "You…you gotta work with me here."

He folded his legs up and indicated the stark white zip ties digging into his ankles again, then made exaggerated biting motions with his teeth.

"Get 'em, Eagly. Bite it good, nom nom nom."

The bird continued to stare blankly at him. Adrian let out a frustrated sigh and flopped back down, then regretted the action when his head struck the hard ground again.

"Ow, shit," he moaned. He brought his hand to press against the bloody side of his head which didn't make it feel any better at all. "Ugh, that fuckin' hurts."

Eagly fluttered up onto his chest and he blinked open his eyes to see the eagle's fluffy white head gazing down at him.

"It's okay, bud," he reassured his second best friend. "We just have to hope that other bad guy doesn't come back to finish us off. Peacemaker's gonna be pissed he got away from us, fuck."

Eagly bobbed in agreement and Adrian sighed again.

"Well, maybe there's like a nature trail or something around here somewhere and we can totally freak out some random hikers in the morning when they finds us. That'll be fun."

Adrian grinned to himself at the thought. He pictured something like a scene out of a cheesy horror movie and chuckled, then winced when even that hurt his head.

"Never thought I'd wish I had a bomb to track in my brain like Peacemaker does," he muttered. "You don't happen to have one of those, do you Eagly?"

The eagle chirped in his face in response.

"Yeah I didn't think so."

He closed his eyes again, resigned to just lying there in the hopes that someone would find him before any bad guys or hungry forest monsters did. He imagined Peacemaker coming heroically to his rescue—in his head he saw his best friend searching desperately and calling out for Adrian in the dark woods, then emerging through the trees and finding him and scooping him up into big, strong arms and holding him close until Adrian's head finally stopped hurting. It was a very nice thought.

The comfortable weight on his chest shifted as Eagly spun around and slapped Adrian right in the face with his tail feathers.

"Ah, duuude," Adrian sputtered with a little giggle. "Your butt tickles!"

The bird's talons lightly walked down his torso and over his legs until they stopped on his calves. Adrian craned his neck up just in time to see Eagly's white head bob downwards, aimed directly for the space between his ankles.

"Fuck yeah, I knew you could do it!" he cheered as he gingerly propped himself up again. "Super sorry I ever doubted you! Just be careful over there, if you need to eat a toe aim for a pinky. I don't really need those, apparently."

It took a few tries but eventually Eagly got his beak around the ties and snapped them in his strong bite.

"Thanks, buddy!" Adrian cheered. "You are the absolute best! I am going to feed you so many bags of chips when we get out of here, promise."

He reached out to stroke the bird's soft feathers again and Eagly cooed contentedly.

"You think we should try to find a way out of here? If you can see which way the bad guy's car went we could probably still catch him. Or at least follow that back to some kind of civilization." He pointed to where he thought he remembered the pickup had been. "Sorry, I can't see shit and my head kinda really hurts so it's gonna be all up to you, little dude. Just don't fly away without me, okay?"

Eagly squawked and bobbed his head in agreement. Then he flapped off Adrian's legs to search the ground around them with his super eagle vision.

"Huh, maybe you really do get what I'm saying sometimes," Adrian commented while the bird wandered ahead. "Peacemaker's gonna be sooo jealous that you listen to me more than him! Can't wait to totally rub that in his face."

Adrian wriggled his toes to get some feeling back into his cold feet.

"I know when we tell him he won't even believe us," he continued, mostly to himself. "He'll just be all like 'Vigilante, you're a dumbass' like he always is, but we'll know that he's secretly really proud of both of us for working together and for being such a great best friend team."

He pushed himself up to stand, then his legs went wobbly underneath him and he promptly collapsed back to the ground before he could even take his first step.

"Holy fuck, owies," he gasped.

Adrian wasn't sure what was worse, the terrible feeling of pins and needles in his numb legs or the dizzying reminder that he had a pretty serious head wound and getting up too fast with the forest still spinning around him was maybe not the smartest of moves.

Eagly cried out and fluttered back over to him, hopping up and down with concern.

"Ugh…I'm good, little dude," he reassured the bird. He put a hand carefully to the side of his head again and it came back sticky. "Damn, is this still bleeding? How is there so much blood in there, seriously?!"

He looked down at himself and decided one of his long sleeves would have to go. It took some strategic pulling through the stitches but eventually he was able to get the right arm torn off at the seams. He turned it inside out so that it would be as clean as it could get against the wound and tied it tight around his head Karate Kid style.

"Survival 101, Eagly," he explained while he worked. "Try not to bleed to death in the middle of nowhere…"

In the process of bandaging his head he realized that his right hand really hurt too. He couldn't see the deep gash through all the blood in the dark but he figured he must have sliced his palm up to his wrist worse than he thought when he was cutting the zip tie off. Getting dirt and vomit in the wound hadn't helped it any either.

"…And don't get infections from all the nature and shit. Darn it!"

Too bad he didn't have any hand sanitizer on him with his utility belt gone, but at least he still had another sleeve he could make a second bandage out of. That one was a little trickier to pull off but he managed to use his good hand and teeth to tightly wrap the injury as best he could. Hopefully that was it for his major wounds, considering he'd already ruined his shirt.

"Okay," he said once he was finished. "I think I'm good to go…or maybe not good. Better though? Yeah definitely better to go. Let's just find a way outta here and get that bad guy. Wonder what he had that was so important… Oh well, I don't actually care anyway. The bad guy's a bad guy no matter what since he tried to kill us, right Eagly?"

The bird trilled in agreement.

Adrian gingerly got to his feet again, then paused to take a deep breath and let his head acclimate to the higher altitude. Eventually the vertigo passed and he was able to open his eyes and take a shaky step forward.

Eagly flapped his wings and cheered him on with a squeak.

"Aw, thanks, bud," Adrian said, panting slightly with the effort of keeping himself upright despite the lingering dizziness and double blurred vision. He swallowed hard and blinked until the shapes surrounding him were a little less disorienting. Eagly chirped his encouragement and nuzzled his head against Adrian's leg.

"You know, I'm actually really glad we're stuck out here together," Adrian remarked while he smiled down at the bird. "It's like we're going on a Vigilante and Eagly adventure! I always wanted to do one of those."

Eagly agreed with a happy cry and waddled on ahead. Adrian blindly followed the hazy movement on the ground in front of him.

"You always did too?!" Adrian exclaimed. "That is so fucking awesome, we really do make a great team! And you're waaay more supportive than Peacemaker ever is if I'm being totally honest."

The eagle squawked in defense of his dad.

"No, dude, you know I'm right, he can be a total dick," he grumbled. "There I said it! Peacemaker's a big ol' jerk sometimes!"

Eagly turned to cock his head at him and Adrian frowned at the sight of two fuzzy eagles merging back into one.

"I actually don't mean that at all by the way," he said. "Don't tell Peacemaker I said anything about him being a jerk. He can't help being a bully sometimes, I get it. That's just how his personality is."

Eagly begrudgingly agreed with a short peep and continued onwards. Luckily the eagle's little legs couldn't go very far very quickly so Adrian had no trouble keeping the pace with his own slow, careful shuffle as they followed tire tracks through the brush.

He looked around but could see nothing besides the ominous dark shapes of trees surrounding them. He shuddered and went back to just watching Eagly guide his steps. He really hoped the bird knew where he was going.

"So this is kinda fun," Adrian commented absently to break up the silence. "It's a Vigilante and Eagly quest through a spooky forest! I guess it's sorta like we're going camping, just with lots more walking."

Eagly chirped in agreement and didn't protest to his rambling like Peacemaker probably would've so Adrian continued.

"I haven't gone camping in a looong time. Did you know I used to be a Boy Scout? Made it all the way to an Eagle Scout, that's like what you are. It wasn't that hard, I've always been good at helping people and using knives and stuff like that. Kinda used to wish I could be a Girl Scout too though, they got to make pretty crafts and eat cookies all the time. Hey, do you know if Peacemaker was ever a Boy Scout?"

His companion chattered back indecisively.

"Yeah I don't think so either, can't really remember right now if it ever came up before. Oh man, I bet he'd have been the best Boy Scout ever but your mean racist grandpa probably wouldn't let him join. The Scouts are too good for that piece of shit anyway, may he rot in the lowest level of hell if such a place exists."

The eagle bobbed his whole body in agreement.

"Right, fuck that guy. I kinda wish we really were just camping though? Like, it would be nice if we had a big tent, and a cozy sleeping bag, and marshmallows to roast so this was a more fun trip. I wish Peacemaker was here too, I think he'd be secretly impressed with my camping skills. I'd definitely need my glasses for that though. Or night vision eagle eyes like you have, that'd be so fucking cool right now. Wait…do eagles have night vision?"

Eagly didn't respond and kept hopping along.

"Shit, dude, I'm tired," Adrian commented absently after another too long moment of quiet. "…Where are we going again?"

He blinked and slowed to a stop, mind blanking and head aching. Eagly doubled back to nip at his leg and pull at his pants until he continued forward once again.

"Oh, that's right, we're going for a walk in the creepy woods. What fun…" he muttered before another thought occurred to him and he gasped excitedly. "Hey Eagly, do you think we'll see a real life Big Foot out here?! That would be sooo awesome. Peacemaker said he fought a Chupacabra one time in Mexico which is super badass."

The bird cawed dismissively so Adrian figured he'd probably heard that story from his dad already.

"Well, I thought I saw the Jersey Devil in some woods one time! But it wasn't anywhere near New Jersey so I guess it was probably just an ugly Pegasus or some random flying goat creature. And Peacemaker says he heard on the internet that there's actually no such thing as the Jersey Devil, it's just Batman being creepy in the forest at night and eating the heads off of bats Ozzy Osbourne style, and that's how he gets all his sneaky nighttime bat powers. People only thought he was the Jersey Devil because the dude's got a big ugly horse chin sticking out of his mask."

Eagly squawked doubtfully.

"No really! Peacemaker also says one time he heard that Batman…uh, he said that he… Darn, actually I forget where I was going with this." He grimaced and put a hand to his bandaged head in a lame attempt to steady his incoherent thoughts. "Aw, man, does my brain feel weird. And my feet are really starting to hurt, I've definitely stepped on some pointy rocks back here."

He stopped to rub his sore bare feet against his pants legs one at a time despite his precarious balance and had a sudden revelation.

"Oh shit, I should have taken that guy's shoes after I killed him! And he probably had a phone and all kinds of other useful junk too! Fuck, why do I always only have genius ideas when it's too late?!"

He spun around to go back but regretted the motion as the shadowy forest blurred nauseatingly around him again until Eagly circled him, flapping his wings to get them moving in whatever the correct direction was again.

"Aw, seriously, Eagly? We can't go back for a second?! But we didn't even go very far I don't think."

The eagle snapped his beak and that was that.

"I guess you're right," Adrian relented with a sigh. "The dude's corpse is probably too gross to touch now anyway. I don't mind the killing part, but I've honestly never been a big fan of the cleaning up after it part."

Eagly stayed quiet after that and Adrian, possibly for the first time in his life, couldn't think of anything else to talk about. He continued following along silently for a little while, but without his own voice to distract him from his tired, aching body he came to realize he had a new urge that desperately needed taking care of.

"Wait, Eagly…hold up, little buddy," he called to the bird. "I gotta take a piss break."

He stumbled over to the closest tree, tripping through ferns as he went and ignoring Eagly's shrill protest. It took some effort but he eventually managed to get his pants down around his knees so he could relieve himself. He instinctively braced his right hand against the tree's bark and pulled back with a hiss when pain shot all the way up his arm. He squinted at the limb in the darkness and thought it looked like he was wearing an oversized puffy glove dripping blood underneath the dark bandage. He grimaced—that was not what a normal hand was supposed to look like.

"Ugh, I think I really messed up my hand here, Eagly," he groaned miserably. "And that's my main doing stuff hand, shit."

He finished and somehow managed to shimmy back into his pants and fasten them shut one handed while he kept his injured limb curled against his stomach. He was just about to turn back around when he heard a low huff of breath that definitely did not sound like it came from an eagle. He craned his neck so he could peer further around the tree he'd been using as a urinal and came face to face with a huge, dark lump and a pair of small glowing lights staring back at him.

"Um, hello there," he said.

The lump growled deeply and suddenly grew taller—Adrian had to crane his neck just to keep the top of it in sight. He stared up at the little lights, blinking numbly and not feeling nearly as scared as he knew he probably should.

"…Big Foot, is that you?"

And then Eagly was there right in front of him, flapping his wings and shrieking aggressively at the dark blob. Whatever it was growled again but didn't move until Eagly raked his talons across it. A deafening roar startled Adrian enough that it sent him sprawling backwards onto his ass but Eagly bravely stood his ground—or rather he bravely flapped his air. He clawed and pecked and screeched until the fuzzy shape sank back down with a huff and crawled away.

Eagly followed the whatever it was for a good distance, all the while screaming to scare it away, then turned back and fluttered down into Adrian's lap with a victorious chirp.

"Whoa, you are badass, dude," he exclaimed with a grin. "You saved me from that mean Big Foot!"

The eagle squawked and pecked him right in the chest.

"Oh fuck, that was a bear I almost peed on?! You fought a real life bear for me, that's so hardcore! You really are the best, Eagly!"

The eagle cawed proudly and Adrian grinned back at him.

"Too bad I didn't know he was there at first though, I could have totally shown him who's boss."

Once the excitement was over Adrian found himself drifting off again and started to fall backwards towards the ground. Eagly snapped his beak around the front of Adrian's shirt and flapped his wings to keep them both upright.

"Whoops," he mumbled as he blinked awake again. "Clumsy me, sorry. Just got a little dizzy again."

The eagle cocked his head and only let go of Adrian's dark shirt when it didn't seem like he was going to topple over. He braced his good hand against the ground next to him and stared at the bird.

"I know you said that wasn't a Big Foot," he announced after a moment. "But I'm definitely telling Peacemaker it was and that you totally kicked his hairy ass. Can't wait to tell him all about our adventures together, he's gonna love it."

Eagly let out a demanding little chirp.

"Alright, alright," Adrian groaned. "I'm getting up now." He pushed himself up onto his shaky legs while Eagly latched onto his shirt again to help keep him steady.

He had to swallow hard and close his eyes for a long moment just to keep the nausea at bay. It was definitely getting harder for him to stand back up and stay on his feet. Thank goodness Eagly was there to keep him going.

"Thanks, buddy," Adrian mumbled. "We just…just won't tell your dad I killed that one guy before, he might get mad. He doesn't want me doing that anymore for some reason. I forget why… We'll tell him you did it since he likes you the best anyway."

The bird nodded in agreement and started walking again whether Adrian was ready to keep up with him or not.

-_-

It wasn't long before the forest around them started to take on a bluish hue that would have been pretty if Adrian could see it well enough.

"At least it's not…too cold out," he commented absently, now muttering through his jumbled thoughts just to try to keep himself awake. "I'm feeling weirdly…hot actually which…is kinda irritating… But it's not raining, thank goodness for…for droughts and…global warming, I guess." He swallowed hard and winced. "I am getting really thirsty though…I probably should have saved my urine to drink…like, pirate style. Hey, can you sense water? Is that a…a thing eagles do?"

Eagly cawed negatively and doubled back to herd him along again. He hadn't even realized he'd come to another complete stop.

"Oh, sorry, dude," he muttered and shuffled along. "Hey…do you think we'll get to…wherever we're going soon? My feet really really…really hurt."

The eagle just used his beak again to tug at Adrian's pants to guide him around a dark patch in the dirt they were walking on. It could have been a deep hole or a huge pile of shit for all that Adrian could see even in the rising light of dawn.

"Hey…hey, uh, Eagly," he said, voice starting to strain with the continued effort of talking through his dry throat. "Did you know I used to…to be a Boy Scout? I don't think I…yeah, I never actually liked camping. Thanks for…uh, for going on this adventure with me, Eagly…even if it hasn't been very much fun."

Whatever adrenaline that had managed to keep Adrian functioning throughout the night was wearing off quickly. He had no idea how long they'd been wandering in the woods but it must have been hours now that the sun was rising. He was beginning to seriously doubt Eagly's tracking abilities. They probably should have found whatever it was they were looking for by now.

"Hey…wh-where're…where we goin' again, lil' buddy? I forget…"

The eagle had mostly stopped responding to his ramblings, or maybe Adrian just couldn't hear him as well anymore through the muffled static getting steadily louder in his ears.

A glint of light suddenly distracted him and he squinted off into the distance. He instinctively stumbled towards it on his sore, torn up feet.

"Peeeaaacemaaakerrr?! 'S that you, dude?!"

He blinked and the shiny thing he thought he saw disappeared. Then Eagly was there, flapping around his head and pulling at his shirt with his talons so he didn't wander off.

"Wha'…? Where…where'd he go?"

The forest that should have been clearer in the daylight was starting to blur even worse around Adrian, to the point where he couldn't really tell where any of the trees began or ended. It was like everything was just floating around him while he trudged through a thick, sweltering fog.

And on top of everything else his head was throbbing worse than ever. The wound felt unbearably hot and every bit of sweat that dripped onto it through his hair and beneath the makeshift bandage was agonizing. Soon he was stopping without even getting distracted or realizing that he was doing it, and his grossly swollen hand stung when he stumbled and braced himself against what he was pretty sure was a fallen tree trunk.

Eagly turned back to shriek at him and flapped his wings with urgency. Adrian just winced at the sound and let himself sink towards the ground. "S-sorry, Eagly," he rasped, even as the eagle yanked on the leg of his pants. "I jus'…need a…another minute…"

His eyes fluttered open to the sound of something small landing on the ground next to him with a thud. He couldn't see it at all but he heard Eagly's expectant screech and realized what it was probably meant to be.

"Aw, thaaanks buddy," he whispered and closed his eyes again. "Such a…nice present…" Then he snapped awake again to the sharp sting of an eagle biting his bicep hard. "Ow, fuck dude! I'll eat it later, okay?!" he cried out weakly to the bird. "Let's…take a break for…for a sec."

Eagly squawked but Adrian could barely hear him or feel the little nipping bites that followed. Even those weren't enough to keep him awake anymore. At some point he thought he felt the fluttering of soft wings around him followed by a familiar cry getting further and further away, but his eyelids were too heavy to open again as he slipped to his side on the hard ground.

-_-

"Vij! What the fuck, man?"

Adrian groaned and squinted up at Peacemaker looming ominously over him. He immediately squeezed his eyes shut again. "Ah, dude, your helmet's way too shiny, shit."

"Get up, Adrian."

"I can't," he whined, eyes blinking frantically to adjust to the obnoxious shimmering of Peacemaker's helmet. "Tired. Head hurts. Hand hurts. Feets hurts. All over hurts."

"I don't give a shit, did you forget the one thing I told you to do?!" Peacemaker snapped.

"…To go get some bad guy?"

"No, dumbass! You were supposed to be keeping Eagly safe!"

"I…I am! I was, he's—"

"He's fucking gone, dude! He flew away as soon as your lazy ass gave up! Second best friend forever, what a load of bullshit. He probably got sick of you slowing him down and took off to save his own feathers!" Peacemaker shook his head in disgust. "Fuckin' thimble, you never could keep up with the bigger kids."

"S-sorry…"

"And you're doing your face exercises now?!" Peacemaker shouted at him. "Man the fuck up, bro, or you're gonna die out here and I'll never be able to find you. Do you know what a shitty thing that is to do to someone? To your best friend?!"

Adrian just sobbed and shook his throbbing head.

Peacemaker sighed heavily. "I hate having to yell at you like this all the time. I just never learned to deal with my emotions real good and you've always been super easy to pick on."

"Y-yeah," Adrian sniffled. "I know…'s okay."

Then Chris was crouched down to Adrian's level so he could look at him right in the eye, shiny helmet suddenly gone to reveal his handsome face.

"You can't let me down now, dude," Chris said, voice and expression uncharacteristically soft. "I care about you too fucking much."

Adrian smiled weakly as Chris reached out to caress his head and then he jerked awake, skin burning and sticky where comforting fingers should have been. He whimpered miserably, face still doing involuntary muscle exercises while he struggled to catch his breath and not throw up again.

It took him a long time to calm down enough to remember where he was.

"Eee…Eagly?" he eventually managed to croak. He rubbed at his stinging eyes with his good hand but there was no sign of the familiar white and brown blob anywhere. The Peacemaker in his head had been right—his second best friend really had left without him.

"…P-please…come back?"

But Eagly wasn't around anymore to respond to him, and the forest was eerily quiet besides his ragged gasping.

Adrian realized that it was going to have to be up to him to get himself out of his predicament. He'd just have to find the eagle, and then find Peacemaker and his other friends and help them catch the bad guy, and everything would be okay. He was Vigilante—he was used to being on his own. And he was a Boy Scout, so he knew how to find his way out of some stupid nature. He had to keep his promise to imaginary Peacemaker, he couldn't give up now.

He pushed himself up with his good hand and gingerly got to his feet again with the help of the fallen tree he had been leaning against. He swiped at his face in a lame attempt to stop his exercising and clear his blurred vision even as he took a shaky, albeit determined step forward.

Then his eyes rolled back into his head and he collapsed in a feverish heap to the ground.

Chapter 2

"You…idiots…don't know when to…fucking quit!"

"Can't be a quitter when fighting for peace, dude," Peacemaker said cockily while Adebayo rolled her eyes. "Thought you'd've figured that shit out by now."

Judomaster snarled and looked like he was trying to get up to attack them again despite the gaping bullet hole in his gut.

Seeing the green clad martial artist had certainly been a surprise, though Harcourt supposed she should have expected him to show up at some point. After all, they were still cleaning up remnants of the Butterfly fiasco even months after their big showdown at Coverdale Ranch.

Apparently some of the aliens had managed to hoard enough jars of their goo to survive for much longer than expected. And they were recruiting more humans to their cause as well, to the point where large groups were committing acts of domestic terrorism in an attempt to further their useless cause and avenge their fallen butterfly leader.

So when a reorganized A.R.G.U.S. reached out about another potential hideout in the woods not too far from the butterflies' original ranch Harcourt and the 11th Street Kids had been more than willing to take on the job and finish off the alien bug invasion once and for all. Harcourt liked to think it's what Murn would have wanted them to do.

"Just cool it, wannabe Bruce Lee," she ordered when it looked like Judomaster was pushing himself to the point of passing out. She'd finally gotten her chance to finish kicking his ass, and it had been oh so satisfying to shoot the little bastard in the end too. "It's over, you're done this time."

"Yeah shrimp," Peacemaker added while Judomaster glared at them. "Shut the fuck up or Harcourt will take you out of here in her purse like one of those stupid little yappy dogs obnoxious rich bitches carry around."

Harcourt shot him a look and Adebayo sputtered out a laugh.

"What?!" he yelled. "You know his tiny ass'll fit in there."

Before Harcourt could retort that she didn't even carry a goddamn purse their earpieces crackled to life.

"Okay so we've got good news and bad news," Economos' tinny voice was saying. "Good news is the higher ups are taking our shit seriously for once and a backup team's already on the way to take Judomaster and his guys in so we don't have to fucking deal with him this time."

"Then what's the bad news?" Harcourt asked.

"I…kinda lost Vigilante," Economos admitted.

"What?!" Peacemaker yelled.

"Yeah, so, I went to check in when you guys finished taking down Cobra Kai but he's not responding. Kinda hoped he was with you and just lost his earpiece again? Still don't know how he keeps doing that."

"Well he's not fucking here now," Peacemaker shouted, clearly going into irrational panic mode already. "Shit, we've gotta find Vij!"

And then Judomaster let out a strained, creepy little laugh that had the three of them staring down at him behind their guns.

"You're too late…dipshits," he gasped. "Your dumbass sidekick…found something…he shouldn't have."

"What the fuck is that supposed to mean?!"

Harcourt saw Peacemaker tighten the grip on his Desert Eagle as he stared down at the tiny man with hateful fury in his eyes. But she stayed silent and wasn't going to stop him if he decided to pull his trigger one final time. Adebayo, on the other hand…

"Chris," she said softly. "Don't."

He clenched his jaw but didn't release the shaky grip he had on his massive pistol.

"Motherfuckers," Judomaster spat, an alarming amount of blood now coating his teeth and spilling from his lips. "One way or another…we were always…going to…win…"

Then he choked as his eyes rolled back into his head and he passed out cold.

"You little piece of shit!" Peacemaker grabbed him by the neck and shook him hard but the small body was completely unresponsive.

"Smith, stop!" Harcourt ordered. "He wasn't going to tell us anything anyway, you know that." She put a hand to her ear. "John, can you trace Vigilante's phone?"

"Nope, already tried that," he said dejectedly. "Something's blocking the signal or he's out of range. I can tell you where he was last headed, after that I have no fucking clue."

"Okay, send me the coordinates and get over here," Harcourt ordered. "You're staying with Peacemaker to watch these assholes and interrogate them the second any of them wake up, I don't care what you have to do. Ads and I will see what Vigilante got into."

Peacemaker looked ready to protest—and possibly say something sexist—but all he grumbled was "and Eagly too. He was with Vij."

Harcourt rolled her eyes. "Yeah yeah, and we'll find your dumbshit bird too."

She nodded to Adebayo and the two set out to retrace their missing teammate's steps.

They followed Economos' directions to a garage on the outskirts of the compound and a strange hatch in the floor. It took their combined strength to flip the heavy door open and let it fall back with a bang. Then they stared down into the darkness.

"Hey, Adrian!" Adebayo called, the idea of stealth apparently not even crossing her mind. "You down there, man?!"

"Fucking idiot probably just got himself lost in another butterfly tunnel," Harcourt grumbled despite the uncertainty she felt in her gut.

"No soldier left behind though, right?"

She glanced at Adebayo who looked about as anxious as she felt. She nodded firmly. "Right."

They descended the metal ladder and used their flashlights to look around. The passageway was dark and seemingly empty, and Harcourt was having trouble determining where to even start. Her ear was immediately filled with static which confirmed Economos' theory that something down there was blocking their signals.

"Yo, Em," Adebayo said while she nodded towards the ground where her light was pointing. "That look like eagle crap to you?"

Sure enough it did look like a splatter of bird shit, and not far from it were scuffed boot prints in the dried up mud. "Vigilante definitely went this way, come on."

They moved swiftly but carefully through the tunnel, lights sweeping the moldy, crumbling cement walls around them as they went. Whether it was an old sewer system or some kind of abandoned underground military installation Harcourt couldn't say. All she knew was that it was fucking creepy.

"Sooo," Adebayo said, her voice echoing in the darkness, "are you thinkin' what I'm thinkin' about this whole thing being pretty fishy?"

"What?"

"I mean, we found literally nothing," Adebayo clarified. "Literally. I thought there'd be, I dunno, like weapons of mass destruction or spaceships or some shit out here but it's just a bunch of boring old buildings in the woods. Even this is just some gross old tunnel, not a dirt hole like those other ones the butterflies dug. So, like, what the actual fuck, right?!"

"We just got some bad intel, shit happens," Harcourt muttered, trying her hardest to ignore Adebayo and keep her mind on the objective at hand.

"I guess… But, why were there so many human bad guys here and no actual butterflies? Do you think they're all finally dead and Judomaster's just messin' with us to be a dick?"

"How the fuck should I know?!" Harcourt snapped at her.

Adebayo shrank back. "Jeez, I was just sayin'…"

Harcourt sighed. "No, I…I'm sorry," she said as she stopped to look her friend in the eye. "You're right, Ads. This whole thing is extremely fucking fishy. But we have more important things to deal with right now."

Adebayo nodded in understanding. "You worried about Adrian?"

"No," Harcourt muttered despite the uneasiness still churning in her gut. "He can handle himself."

"Oh yeah," Adebayo replied unconvincingly. "Definitely. Plus he's real good with Chris' eagle. Shit, those two probably killed everyone that got in their way without a second fucking thought. I'm sure they're totally fine."

They were almost a mile into the tunnel when they found the next hatch in the wall, one that looked very new and high tech compared to the rest of their surroundings. They both had to pull the secured handle in order to turn it, then the heavy door slid open from its tight seal with a hiss. Harcourt pointed her gun into the room then recoiled dizzily from the stench.

"What the fuck," Adebayo exclaimed, her voice muffled as she instinctively pulled the neck of her tie dyed tee shirt over her nose and mouth. "That reeks."

"Some kind of knockout gas," Harcourt coughed around the crook of her arm. "Try not to breathe it in."

"I'm very much trying not to! Shit's nasty."

Harcourt could hear a ventilation system running inside the room and determined that whatever cloud of gas had been in here was mostly dispersed and harmless by now. She nodded once to Adebayo then inched her way inside.

"Holy fuck," Harcourt muttered, eyes widening as she took in the scene before her. "I'm guessing this is what we weren't supposed to find."

By the looks of things in the secret, fully stocked underground laboratory Judomaster and his followers had gotten dangerously close to recreating a food source on Earth for any remaining butterflies to live off of. No wonder they'd been guarding the seemingly abandoned compound above ground so closely.

But Harcourt's eye was immediately drawn towards a glass wall in the center of the room where parts of equations written in alien symbols had been hastily wiped away so that "FUCK YOU PEACEMAKER" could be written in big, bold letters. A sloppy bird meant to look like the Dove of Peace was also scribbled on the board with an X drawn where the eye was supposed to be. Directly below that on an otherwise empty table was a pile of Vigilante's discarded gear—including his ear piece and phone—and a single bald eagle feather.

Harcourt and Adebayo looked at each other and simultaneously let out an alarmed, "fuck!"

-_-

Chris finished restraining the unconscious villains and was especially harsh with the ties on Judomaster despite the man's serious injuries. He hoped the little bastard was hurting, he really did.

"Hey man, they'll find him," Economos said as he unpacked his emergency medical supplies and got to work. The big man's hands were shaky while he pressed a fresh gauze pad to the wound in Judomaster's stomach, even though he probably should have been used to patching the twerp up by now.

"You know better than anyone that Vigilante is indestructible," Economos continued, clearly not getting the hint that Chris wasn't in the mood for conversation. "I mean, we saw him fucking blow himself up and walk away with barely a concussion. Shit, he even got shot and walked it off like it was no big deal!"

"I know all that, dumbass," Chris snapped. "I'm just worried about Eagly. He's not trained for this shit!"

"He seems pretty tough even for an eagle, I think."

"I never should have told them to go after that fucking guy, FUCK!"

Economos stared at him, the pitying expression clear on his stupid bearded face. "Dude, you know it's not your fault—"

Chris shot him the scariest look he could muster and Economos wisely snapped his mouth shut. He wasn't going to give that giant nerd the satisfaction of watching him break down. He had a lifetime of practice in the art of bottling up his emotions—he could stomp down on his crippling anxiety and bury it under manly anger, no problemo. Later, once everyone was safe and sound, Chris had every intention of getting completely wasted and crying about it alone in his trailer.

"What the fuck is taking so long anyway?!" he shouted to no one.

"Chill, dude," Economos grumbled. "It's only been like, twenty minutes."

Chris bit his tongue to keep himself from saying something particularly cruel. He had to start pacing restlessly just to distract himself from the sudden appearance of his father's ghost and the mocking laughter that followed. Economos watched him in uncomfortable silence while they waited for anything besides static to come through on their communicators, but a group of official looking A.R.G.U.S. agents showed up before Harcourt and Adebayo could check back in. They came in an entourage of SUVs and an excessive amount of forensics equipment that put their battered Task Force van and tech to shame. Chris despised them immediately.

Economos on the other hand was more than happy for someone else to take over and quickly went to talk to some tall guy who was barking orders, explaining what little they had found and how they'd been ambushed by the humans—not butterflies—lying unconscious or dead around them.

"We're still missing one of our guys, though," Economos was saying. "Agents Harcourt and Adebayo are looking for him now, if we could get more people to help—"

"My team is only here to confiscate these suspects and any butterfly paraphernalia that was found on the property," the lead A.R.G.U.S. douche bag interrupted stiffly. "We need to prioritize the safety of this planet over anything else."

Chris wanted to scream at the arrogant bastard—and maybe put a bullet in him too—but before he or Economos could argue their ear pieces finally crackled to life.

"John…ris…we fou… …nnel," Harcourt was saying, her broken voice just barely cutting through the static. "…erfly shit… …rian's missi… …we…eading back…you…"

"Harcourt, dude, we can barely understand you."

"… …uck!!!"

Chris took off in the direction they had originally gone, ignoring Economos' yell for him to wait and the sputtering protests of the A.R.G.U.S. agent behind him. He almost ran right into Harcourt and Adebayo just as they were exiting a garage on the outskirts of the compound. Chris' heart skipped a beat when he saw all of Vigilante's equipment bundled up in their arms but no sign of its wearer.

"Ads and I found a tunnel, there's some fucked up chem lab but no Vigilante or Eagly," Harcourt was saying rapidly. "They must have been taken out through the other side. We followed it and ended up almost another mile away in some bunker in the woods. They've got some shit blocking communication signals down there, so we should get the van and figure out where they went from up here. They can't have gone far—"

"Agent Harcourt," the asshole in the suit interrupted.

She glared at him. "Who the hell are you?"

The man bristled at her tone and cleared his throat.

"Never mind, it doesn't matter," she said before he could even speak. "If your team is here now we'll need most of them to come with us to look for Vigil—"

"With all due respect, Agent Harcourt," he interrupted again, without even a hint of respect. "I do not take orders from you, and this site is potentially more dangerous than anyone at A.R.G.U.S. anticipated. If there is a secret laboratory like you say that will need to take priority over anything else."

"A suspect clearly got away with one of our guys," she insisted. "I think that's pretty fucking prioritizing!"

The suit shook his head. "All we can do is interrogate the survivors once they're in custody and processed. We don't have the resources for an all out manhunt in the woods right now, not for one potential escapee and especially not for your unsanctioned asset."

Chris really wanted to punch the motherfucker right in his stupid face, but Harcourt shoved the Vigilante armor she was carrying into Chris' arms before he could then stepped up to the A.R.G.U.S. bastard and twisted her fists into the lapels of his suit. Even though she stood at least a foot and a half shorter than the man he was clearly terrified of the furious expression on her face.

"You're one of Waller's pets, aren't you?" she hissed dangerously when she yanked him down to her level. The agent looked like he was about to piss his pants. "She's not even in charge anymore but I'm guessing you're still just another one of her fucking lackeys who's balls she keeps in a jar on her desk."

"N-no! I mean—"

"Don't bullshit me," she snapped and he flinched in response. "She specifically told you morons to get what she wanted and never help us with anything else, ever. Am I fucking wrong?!" She paused for a beat then muttered without even turning around, "sorry, Ads."

"No, you're right," Adebayo sighed sadly. "That definitely sounds like something mom would do. She's still super pissed at us."

"So you can tell Waller," Harcourt snarled at the pathetic agent, "that I already know all of her fucked up little games and I'm not interested in playing them anymore. This is my Task Force, and right now we have a missing teammate to find. You can report whatever shit you want back to A.R.G.U.S., I don't give a fuck."

The man was red in the face with anger and sheer embarrassment but he didn't say a thing. Harcourt finally released him with a shove and he stumbled backwards to the ground. Chris gawked at her, as usual blown away by her hardcore badassery.

She spun on her heal to address her team. "Let's go find Vigilante," she said as Chris, Adebayo, and Economos all nodded in solidarity and followed her away from the scene.

They were practically out of ear shot when the A.R.G.U.S. agent finally recovered his voice and starting yelling things about protocol and the consequences of not following orders, but none of them paid him any mind.

-_-

After that the search was on. They piled into the van and quickly found an empty bunker that the underground tunnel led to. There were fresh tire tracks cutting through a gravel road in the woods that they followed for miles until they came to a paved two lane highway, at which point they lost the trail completely.

"Shit," Harcourt called from the driver's seat. "John, any chance there's CCTV or something out here?"

"Fucking hope so," he answered. "I'll see what I can find."

"Hurry, it's getting late."

They drove aimlessly up the road searching for more clues until well after sunset when they were forced to hunker down on the side of the dark unlit highway to wait while Economos worked. They had no idea what kind of vehicle they were even looking for, and the lack of cameras or traffic on the rural roads was disheartening.

"They've gotta be out here somewhere," Harcourt was saying while she poured over maps. "The fuckers had to know we'd find them again the second they tried to go back to a populated area."

"Oh yeah, and I'll bet there's loads of places to hide," Adebayo reasoned while she studied more maps. "All kinds of creepy backwoods shit going on."

"Yeah, like there's probably an old secret pot farm in the woods," Economos commented, fingers still moving over the keyboard at a seemingly inhuman speed. "Or maybe truffle dudes, or just some off the grid crazy motherfuckers."

"Or more of those butterfly cultists," Harcourt muttered while she stared at another monitor and clicked rapidly through images as Economos pulled them up. "Let's just hope they didn't go underground again, literally."

Chris, meanwhile, had been sitting still and silent in the back of the van with his arms crossed tight over his aching chest, feeling frustrated and useless while his mind raced. It was hard for him not to see Vigilante's dismantled armor and think the worst. The ghostly mocking laughter in his ears wasn't helping things either. He managed to keep his cool for hours before he finally exploded.

"What the fuck is taking so long?! It can't be that hard to find some fucking car!"

"Chris, calm down—"

"No, fuck all of you!" he screamed as he shot to his feet. "What kind of secret agent deep state dipshits are you if you can't even find one eagle and a dumbass?!"

He grabbed the nearest box of Economos' random electronic shit and hurled it dramatically to the floor, then drop kicked his own shiny helmet against the wall of the van. He knew he looked like a giant child throwing a temper tantrum, but it was the only thing he felt he could do in the moment.

"Chris," Adebayo tried again to reason. "This is not helping—"

"I don't give a flying fuck!"

"Then just get the hell out of here!" Harcourt snapped at him.

"Fine!" he yelled right back. "I'll search this whole fucking forest and find them before your stupid computers do, you dumb fucks!"

He stormed out of the van, literally rocking the entire vehicle as he went, and screamed his frustration into the dark wilderness on the side of the road. His father appeared in the ominous shadows of the tree line to watch his tantrum but didn't say a word. August only leered at his son with an evil smirk on his wrinkled face, clearly enjoying the show.

"FUCK!!!" Chris screamed while he punched a helpless tree over and over again until his knuckles were sore then slumped down to his knees with a defeated cry.

"…Chris?"

He had already clocked Adebayo following him outside but she wisely kept her distance until he'd exhausted his rage.

"I…I can't lose them," he eventually choked without even turning to look at her cautious approach. "I just can't."

"I know." She put a gentle hand on his shoulder and he hated how weak he felt in front of her. But of all of his friends he supposed she was the only one he could tolerate seeing him so distraught. "We'll find Adrian and Eagly," she assured him. "I'm sure they're okay."

"You don't know that," he shouted, voice cracking with emotions he couldn't hold back. "They could be anywhere! Those dicks could be trying to cut off V's toes again or…or I dunno, some other fucked up shit while we're just sitting here, and we're probably not even looking in the right place, fuck!"

"Well, I firmly believe that we are on the right track," she told him confidently. "And you beating up on defenseless trees and being a giant blubbering baby about it isn't helping anybody right now."

Chris looked up at her and sniffled. "You callin' me a pussy, Ads?"

"Yes I am," she confirmed with a serious look on her face. "If you're not gonna do anything productive while your loved ones are missing then, yeah, I'm thinking you're being a textbook pussy."

He hung his head in shame. "You're right. I know you are, I just…"

"You're emotionally constipated, we all get it," she said gently while she rubbed his back. "It's okay, dude. Seriously."

He nodded his thanks but couldn't speak around the sudden sob that burst out of his lips.

Adebayo just clucked her tongue sympathetically and wrapped her arms around his shoulders from behind in a comforting hug. He appreciated the gesture more than he could ever tell her, especially when it made the haunting specter of his father finally disappear.

They stayed like that for a long time before Harcourt poked her head outside and called to them, "we've got something!"

-_-

Economos had managed to find and hack into a satellite that was taking images of the area during the time frame of their search, and it wasn't long before he spotted a lone pickup truck heading north on the highway, a truck that had clearly emerged from the same gravel road they had followed from the tunnel's exit.

What really tipped them off once Economos had cleaned up the pixilated footage was the body and the animal crate visible in the open truck bed. Adrian was clearly unconscious and restrained, which Harcourt had reasoned was a pretty good sign that he was still alive. It didn't do much to reassure Chris though and it took all of his willpower not to flip the fuck out again. That or have an epic panic attack right then and there in front of everybody.

Economos pulled up a map on his monitor. "This satellite was taking photos every few minutes for like weather research or some nature shit, it looks like we lose the truck around here," he explained, indicating a point not even ten miles from where they were. "There must be an ATV path that they turned onto, but I can't fucking see it through all the trees. They could be anywhere between here and the next closest road about thirty miles away to the west. Harcourt and I skimmed through all the footage from then 'til now and haven't seen any sign of the truck coming back out of this patch of woods in any direction, so they've gotta still be holed up in there somewhere."

"It's a good enough place to start," Harcourt said. She settled back into the driver's seat and gunned it up the road while they all crowded around her to stare out of the windshield.

When they reached the area that Economos indicated they passed the trail three times before Adebayo finally spotted a clearing through their headlights that wasn't anything more than some tire tracks in the dirt cutting through a gap in the line of trees.

"Are we gonna be able to drive in there?" Adebayo asked nervously. "That's not even close to being an actual road."

"Oh, fuck yeah," Economos replied. "It may look like a shitty van but this thing's built like a fucking tank. It's got suped up four wheel drive and we're about the same width as a pick up, so if that truck made it out here then we sure as hell can too."

The only problem was that driving through the woods on a barely visible dirt path with nothing but headlights and the full moon to guide them quickly became treacherous. Despite Chris' very vocal protests Harcourt was forced to drive at an agonizingly slow pace to avoid them losing the trail completely or getting stuck in a ditch or tumbling down some hill.

"It's only a few hours until sunrise at this point," Adebayo reasoned gently. "We're no good to them if we can't even see anything out here. We can keep monitoring the satellites, maybe—"

Chris ignored her and leapt out of the vehicle even while it was ambling along. He shouted at the top of his lungs, "Vij, Eagly, are you out here?! Veee!!!"

The van stopped short and Harcourt was the next one outside, but she didn't chase after Chris to reprimand him. Instead she was headed in the opposite direction while she yelled behind her phone's flashlight, "Adrian? Adrian!!!"

The two of them alternated between yelling and listening for anything in the woods while Adebayo took over the slow, careful driving and Economos kept an eye on the satellite footage throughout the night.

-_-

Once dawn broke Adebayo felt more confident picking up the pace a little so they all piled back into the van. The vehicle bounced precariously over the rough terrain, but they somehow managed to keep trudging along a path that wasn't much more than barely visible tire indentations in the dirt.

There were a number of instances where the trail branched off in multiple directions that could have been caused by the pickup truck or any number of other vehicles driven around in the woods. They were forced to stop so they could all split up and try to find something—really anything—that indicated which way to go. It was exhausting work, and though no one said anything it was clear that they were all beginning to fear that their search was getting them nowhere.

"Shit," Chris groaned desperately, his voice hoarse from yelling all night. "Where the fuck are they?!"

"They're out here somewhere," Harcourt muttered back as she suddenly appeared next to him. Her own trail must have led to a dead end. "They have to be—"

Then Adebayo screamed.

Harcourt and Chris rushed towards the sound with their guns drawn but quickly lowered them when they saw what caused the commotion. It was Eagly, and he was flapping around Adebayo's head and frantically pulling at her curly hair with his beak while she shrieked and tried to shoo him away.

"Eagly!" Chris cried. The eagle screeched right back and landed to hop up and down excitedly in front of his owner. "Thank god you're okay, buddy!"

Chris crouched down and pet the bird's feathers, frowning at the streaks of red that stained his white head, blood that definitely wasn't Eagly's. Chris' heart pounded and his voice trembled when he asked, "where's Vigilante, boy?"

Eagly squawked and wasted no time zooming off ahead of them. Chris and Harcourt exchanged a quick glance before they took off, sprinting and leaping over fallen trees to keep up with the bird.

They were forced to double back and take a different route than the one they'd been following. The bird waited in a clearing for them to catch up, then took to the sky again with a shriek. There was no truck in sight but there was an empty pet carrier on the ground and a bloody body lying not far from it covered in a cloud of flies.

"Oh no," Harcourt gasped, but Chris could tell immediately that the body wasn't Adrian's and it felt like a terrible weight was lifted off his chest. The guy's eyes were wide open in shock from the moment of his death, and it looked like one of Vigilante's knives was embedded deep in the corpse's throat. Seeing that Adrian had managed to kill someone was probably a pretty good indication that he was okay.

"It's not V," Chris told her. "But that's definitely his S.P.K."

"His what?"

"His Secret Pants Knife."

She continued to stare at him, as if that was the most ludicrous thing she'd ever heard.

"Vij keeps a secret knife sewn into his pants, it's not that weird," Chris said matter-of-factly. "I would do it too but, ya know…"

Harcourt rolled her eyes. "Yeah, you like your pants tight and white."

He shrugged. "My uniform is specially made, can't risk ruining that shit."

Vigilante had always been the better tailor anyway, considering he put his uniform together and patched it up himself. Chris had never wanted to bother with any of that girly shit, but he promised himself that when they found Adrian safe and sound he was going to finally ask for a sewing lesson.

Chris glanced around the clearing and spotted deep tracks in the dirt where the truck must have gotten away in a hurry. He hoped it was Adrian and that the dumbass had driven himself to safety and they were all out there worrying for nothing. Hell, he was probably just chilling back at Chris' trailer right now, drinking all the cheap beer and creeping around in Chris' stuff.

"Smith," Harcourt called. She was crouched down on the ground only a few feet away, most likely following the trajectory of the thrown blade. She looked concerned when she made eye contact with him then lowered her gaze back to the ground. "That's a lot of blood."

He swallowed hard. A lot of blood was an understatement. There was an actual pool of it on the ground, fairly close to a broken, bloodied zip tie. Someone had been injured and bled here for awhile before they got themselves free.

"If it's his it can't be that that bad, right?" Chris commented, despite the literal alarms of panic ringing in his head. "Since he's not here now."

Harcourt looked around the clearing and pointed towards the empty pet carrier and a second ripped zip tie. "There's a blood trail but it doesn't go far. He probably got Eagly free then tried to stop the bleeding."

"You don't think he took the truck?"

Harcourt shook her head. "There were two men in the footage, and there's only one body here now. Adrian probably put up a fight and the other guy ran off after this one was killed."

Chris frowned. There was more to it than that, he was sure.

"You guys," Adebayo panted as she came into the clearing with Economos huffing out of breath not far behind her. "Did you find—oh fuuuck." She gasped when she spotted the body but visibly relaxed and put a hand to her chest when she realized it wasn't Adrian. "Sweet Jesus."

"John, can you get the van over here and follow this trail?" Harcourt asked, indicating the tire tracks. "I'm betting they were headed towards that other road."

Economos took a puff from his inhaler and shot her a thumbs up.

"Okay, Chris and I think we're on to something. Adrian can't have gone far from here—"

Eagly suddenly screeched to announce his return and dove right in front of Chris before circling the man's head with an impatient squawk.

"Do you know where Vij is, boy?" Chris asked, not even caring how anxious he sounded in front of the others. "Can you take us there?!"

The bird took off again with Harcourt and Chris right behind him.

"We'll catch up to you," Adebayo shouted. "Be careful!"

They ran fast, hoping the eagle would lead them to their destination quickly. But Chris had never considered himself a long distance sprinter, and after being led through the forest at top speed for almost an hour he found himself struggling to keep up the pace.

"Ah, fuck me," he gasped, slowing as he clutched the dove symbol on his chest. "I am…not made for this…cardio bullshit."

"And I'm the one who just finished months of physical therapy," Harcourt said smugly, only slowing down to jog in place and mock him. "I feel fucking fantastic."

He groaned and flipped her off.

The eagle didn't slow for them and disappeared quickly between the trees, taking a shortcut that their van wouldn't be able to easily follow.

"Eagly, what the hell?! Slow down, dude!"

"It's okay, look." Harcourt pointed down towards the smear of a fresh, bloody footprint in the dirt not far from them. Up ahead were more of the same marks as whoever had made them tread over the forest's rugged terrain. They followed the new trail carefully until they could hear the eagle again, crying out from somewhere close by.

Chris pushed himself back into a sprint and Harcourt followed suit, gun in hand and ready for anything.

But when they caught up to Eagly Chris found himself skidding to a halt, frozen in horror. There were no secret buildings in the woods, no butterfly bad guys laying in wait, there was only Chris' sidekick chattering mournfully on the ground with his long wings spread to cover a barely visible body. All Chris could see was a pair of bloody, torn up bare feet sticking out from beneath the long feathers.

"Oh fuck, Adrian," Harcourt gasped, not stopping for a second. She holstered her weapon even as she slid to her knees in the dirt and waved the eagle away. Chris watched as she gently reached towards the too still body but Chris was afraid to get any closer. He was terrified of what he would see as he stood there helplessly, hands shaking and emotions swelling painfully in his chest.

"Is…is he…" Chris finally choked, unable to finish his question.

Eagly chirped sadly, looking from Chris to Harcourt who had taken the bird's spot hovering protectively over Adrian's body.

"He's alive," Harcourt said even as she looked back at Chris with concern in her eyes. "But he's hurt, badly."

Relief washed over him like a wave and Chris could finally stagger forward. He fell to his knees next to her, wanting nothing more than to gather Adrian into his arms and thank the heavens he was okay, but one look at the unconscious body stilled his hands and fear seized him again.

Over the many years that Peacemaker had worked with Vigilante he's seen the guy shot, stabbed, beaten, and blown up so many times in so many ways that it had gotten almost comical to witness. Somehow Vij always managed to bounce back—even if he wasn't one hundred percent again right away he never stayed down or quiet for very long. But that was Vigilante, and V kept his mask on at all times, which meant Chris had never actually noticed enough to care when he was seriously hurt.

So seeing Adrian lying there curled up and unnaturally still on the ground was almost incomprehensible to Chris. Without the mask to hide it his youthful face was ghostly pale and hard to recognize beneath all the blood and dirt staining his skin. He looked awful, like he'd clearly spent a rough night trudging through the unforgiving wilderness. It hurt Chris to see his usually energetic and seemingly indestructible partner so fragile and broken.

"Shit, Adrian," he eventually said, his voice trembling. "You're a fucking mess, dude."

His big hands hovered over Adrian's body, not even sure where he could touch him. Harcourt didn't share the same hesitations though as she moved her fingers from the pulse point she'd been holding in Adrian's neck towards his bloodied head. She delicately pulled at the dark strip of cloth there to try to get a better look at the wound and Adrian whimpered, his face scrunched up in pain.

"I'm so sorry," Harcourt whispered, sounding softer than Chris had ever heard her. "We're gonna get you out of here, okay?"

Adrian just moaned miserably in response so she ran a comforting hand through his sweat and blood soaked hair.

"Shit, he's burning up," she said to Chris. "Can you carry him back to the van? He can't stay out here like this."

"Yeah," Chris muttered. He swallowed hard and nodded without hesitation. "Yeah, of course I can."

"Gently," Harcourt instructed. She held Adrian's head steady while Chris situated himself so one strong arm was around Adrian's back and the other was under his bent knees.

"You got him?" Harcourt asked.

Chris was freakishly strong but Adrian wasn't much smaller than he was. It wouldn't be as easy a task as carrying Harcourt had been but Chris would manage. He had to.

"I got him."

Harcourt helped Chris adjust the weight in his arms until the uninjured side of Adrian's head was resting more securely against Chris' neck. She hadn't been exaggerating—it literally felt like he was on fire. Chris stood as slowly and carefully as he could but Adrian still let out a broken little cry at the gentle movement.

"Hey, you with us, dude?" Chris asked.

"N-no." Adrian didn't open his eyes and his expression was twisted in clear distress. "'M…s-sorry," he whispered, so quiet that Chris could barely hear him. "I died…didn' m-mean to…"

"What?!" Chris hadn't meant to snap, really, he just reacted like that instinctively whenever Adrian said something stupid. "Dude, shut the fuck up, you're not dead!"

"Chris!" Harcourt hissed. She rubbed Adrian's arm soothingly even while she glared up at Chris.

"Sorry, sorry," Chris muttered. "You know me, I don't mean to be dick, I just…you just really had me freaking out. You know you can't do this kind of shit to me."

"S-sorr—"

"It's okay, man. I've got you now, it's all good."

Adrian didn't try to say anything else and just leaned his feverish forehead further against Chris' neck with a pained moan.

Eagly let out a chirp and tilted his feathery head, apparently ready to lead the way once he was satisfied that his second best friend was being taken care of. Chris held Adrian a little tighter while Harcourt took his limp, dangling left hand into both of hers while they followed the eagle slowly and steadily back the way they'd come.

-_-

It wasn't long before Eagly led them to the rumbling van and the team was all together again.

Adebayo and Economos rushed out to greet them the moment Eagly swooped in front of the windshield. Adebayo gasped and got all teary eyed while Economos let out a shaky "oh fuck" when they saw the state their friend was in.

"He'll be okay," Chris said to assure both them and himself as he carried an unconscious Adrian into the back of the vehicle. He settled himself on the bench seat with the younger man still cradled protectively in his arms and Eagly perched, ever watchful, on his shoulder. Economos went for his medical supplies and snapped on a pair of gloves while Adebayo took over in the driver's seat again.

"How far are we from civilization at this point?" Harcourt asked while she tucked a blanket around Adrian.

"Not far, thank fuck," Economos answered as he got to work. Harcourt moved to help Economos set up an IV in Adrian's bare arm, which wasn't an easy task considering how dirty and dangerously dehydrated he was. "Should be less than ten miles to the next road, then a straight shot to the hospital from there. We'll get there faster than any fucking A.R.G.U.S. backup would get out here, that's for sure."

"Good."

The long gash in Adrian's head had thankfully stopped bleeding, but the oozing cut in his swollen hand was especially deep and gnarly looking. Chris only saw it for a second before he was turning away and swallowing hard against his gag reflex.

"Jesus," Economos muttered while he dabbed at the wound to clean it as best he could. "Shit's definitely infected. He's lucky, it just missed his radial artery—"

"Uh, guys?" Adebayo suddenly called from the driver's seat as she rolled their vehicle to a stop. "I think I know where that truck went."

Harcourt stood to look outside where Adebayo was indicating. Chris couldn't see anything from the back where he was sitting with Adrian, but he certainly hadn't expected to hear Harcourt let out a short, bitter laugh.

"Holy shit," she commented with a malicious little smirk. She turned to explain to a curious Chris and Economos that, "the truck's completely totaled. I'm guessing the bastard took a turn too fast and flipped it, he's most definitely dead. And in pieces from the looks of it."

Adebayo was staring down at the carnage when she asked, "do we have to…you know, go get whatever he had?"

"Fuck no! Those A.R.G.U.S. dicks wanted all that butterfly shit, so they can get their own asses down there for it."

"Good riddance," Adebayo said and she put the van back into drive.

"Fuck those bureaucratic douche bags," Economos added.

Eagly chirped in agreement while Chris just held Adrian a little closer to his chest. "Yeah," he muttered. "Fuck those guys."

Chapter 3

They arrived at the Mount Rouge Medical Center in record time and were greeted with a terse "oh great, you people again" from the woman sitting at the reception desk. A gurney was brought out quickly despite the less than warm welcome, and Chris laid Adrian's limp form down onto it so he could be whisked away by some very capable nurses.

The four remaining 11th Street Kids were left standing in the all too familiar waiting room, utterly filthy and exhausted—both physically and emotionally—after their long, hellish night.

"I'm fucking starving," Economos announced after a tense moment. "Anybody want tacos? I feel like I really want tacos."

Adebayo quickly seconded the idea but seemed hesitant to leave and Chris didn't react at all, so Harcourt made an executive decision for the team.

"You two go, but be quick about it," she ordered Adebayo and Economos. "Just bring us back a couple quesadillas or something."

"Oh we'll be back so fast you'll think we Speed Forced through this shit," Economos confirmed.

"Sure," Harcourt scoffed.

"You'll definitely let us know if something happens though, right?" Adebayo insisted.

"I doubt we'll hear anything anytime soon, but yeah, Ads," Harcourt assured her. "I promise I'll call you the second we do."

Adebayo nodded and gave Chris a brief but reassuring hug before she and Economos took off.

Harcourt watched them go and was grateful to finally have a moment to just breathe. She gingerly sank down onto one of the small waiting room next to Chris and rested her elbows on her knees so that her blood stained hands could dangle between her legs. Her posture was loose and weary while Chris sat rigid as a statue, his arms still stiffly outstretched where Adrian's body had been since they carried him out of the forest.

Harcourt sighed heavily. This was the only aspect of being a team leader that she didn't particularly care for. Authority had always come naturally to her and she was great at making snap decisions in high stress situations. Even the mountains of paperwork didn't bother her in the slightest and she was damn thorough with the most inane of jobs. But what she admittedly wasn't great at was dealing with team spirit, specifically whatever angst Chris had going on.

"You good, Smith?" she eventually asked.

He swallowed hard and muttered an unconvincing, "yeah. Of course I'm fucking good."

"It's okay if you're not, you know," she told him softly. "I know I'm definitely less than okay."

He shot her an incredulous look. "Since when do you have feelings?"

"Fuck you, dumbshit," she automatically snapped.

"That's more like it," he said with a humorless chuckle.

"In all seriousness though," she continued, "today was scary as fuck but Adrian's going to be okay. I know it, and I know that you know it too."

Chris just gave her a curt nod in response and continued to stare ahead at nothing. He didn't snap at her or run away like she thought he would, so she figured she must have been doing a pretty good job of emotional support. Or maybe he was just too worn-out to throw another tantrum.

Harcourt put one of her smaller hands in his and held it there, much like he had when he comforted her in this very same hospital all those months ago. He let out a shuddering breath and squeezed her fingers gently but didn't say a word. She could practically feel the tension leave his body as he relaxed just a little bit in his seat.

They sat there in comfortable silence staring at nothing together for a long, long time.

-_-

Harcourt only saw the messages on her phone because she wanted to check the time and see if Economos or Adebayo had tried to contact her in the hour or so since they'd left. She had silenced the device when their search for Adrian started, and it looked like she had at least a dozen missed calls and urgent messages from her superiors at A.R.G.U.S.

"Fuck," she cursed as she got out of her seat and stomped through the Medical Center's automatic doors, ignoring Chris' bewildered gaze as she went. She had a feeling that she would need to find at least a semi secluded spot outside for this particular conversation.

When she eventually got through to someone who knew whatever was going on with the butterfly cleanup job she was told that they needed her entire task force back in the field again immediately.

"You have got to be fucking kidding me," she snapped. "What the hell for?"

The agent on the other line was quiet for a moment before answering with a timid, "we, uh, lost Judomaster."

"Seriously?!"

"I'm afraid so, ma'am," they reported. "The team that brought him in assumed he was gravely injured. Their leader must have underestimated him and he, uh, overpowered the agent pretty easily and got away. …Again."

Harcourt envisioned tiny Judomaster beating the literally shit out of that stuck up A.R.G.U.S. agent in the suit and let out a hysterical bark of laughter at the obnoxious man's expense, the sound of which most likely horrified the guy on the other end of the line.

"This…it's a very serious operation," the agent sputtered. "We have multiple agents down with critical injuries already, and we need every asset in the vicinity on this! Judomaster's hiding in the forest out there somewhere, he—"

"Hang on, I know you must be fucking with me right now," Harcourt shouted, all sardonic humor suddenly gone from her voice. "Because I distinctly recall being told how incompetent you dumbasses were just last night when one of our own people turned up missing. My team already completed a successful manhunt in the fucking woods all on our own, we are done with that shit."

"But—"

Harcourt interrupted to give them a deliberately vague description of where they could find the overturned pickup while they were out there, and she told them exactly where they could shove that new butterfly goo once they got their hands on it. Then she sarcastically wished them luck on their futile Judomaster hunt and hung up.

She knew she would likely get reprimanded for that at some point but she couldn't bring herself to care. The mission they had been sent on was accomplished as far as she was concerned—those A.R.G.U.S. assholes would just have to clean up their own mess.

A piercing, familiar cry sounded from above just as she was making her way back to the hospital's entrance. She squinted up at the bright blue sky and sure enough there was Chris' pet eagle circling the area protectively overhead. She smiled and gave the heroic bird a little wave, then jerked her hand back down before anyone could see her gesturing to an eagle like a crazy person.

When Harcourt returned to the waiting room where Chris was still sitting he greeted her with an inquisitive look and a raised eyebrow.

"Just more bureaucratic bullshit," she said in explanation as she sank down next to him again. "Don't fucking worry about it."

"Sure thing, boss lady," he replied with a smirk.

-_-

Economos and Adebayo did return in record time, considering how many stops they'd made. They showed up at the hospital with a wide variety of Mexican, Italian, and Chinese food, the trifecta of great takeout. They'd even managed to get themselves cleaned up and changed, and Harcourt didn't hesitate to grab hers and Chris' go bags from the van so that they could finally do the same.

Then they all waited there for hours, half heartedly munching on an abundance of greasy food and taking turns power napping on the uncomfortable plastic chairs. Adebayo called her wife a few times to update her on the situation but other than that the team was quiet and miserable.

When the familiar doctor finally approached them later in the afternoon they all shot to their feet in anxious anticipation.

Doctor Alandy greeted them with a gentle smile on her face. "He's going to be okay," she said immediately, and they breathed a collective sigh of relief.

She explained how their primary concern had been the blood loss and the dangerously high temperature Adrian was running when he was brought in. She told them how he'd been given a transfusion and was put on antibiotics right away to fight the infection, and his fever had broken impossibly fast.

"I was waiting for the swelling to go down in his hand to determine if he needed emergency surgery," the doctor was saying and they all winced for their friend. "The cut was deep enough to nearly sever a number of tendons, though the wound seems to be repairing itself already. The scans from when you brought him in this morning to now are nothing short of miraculous."

"Yeah, the dude's a miracle alright," Economos muttered.

"I wish I could say that I was surprised," Alandy continued. "But I distinctly remember treating him for a gunshot wound that he should not have been able to walk away from as easily as he did. Even today we really only needed to suture the worst of his injuries, and once this infection is completely cleared up all I can prescribe is lots of natural rest so his body can take care of itself. We'll run more tests, of course, but I imagine he'll be perfectly fine in just a day or so as long as he takes it easy."

"We'll make sure that he does," Chris said sincerely. "Thanks, doc."

The doctor nodded. "He's being transferred from the ICU now, so you can all sit with him for the night. I doubt I'd be able to convince any of you to go home at this point anyway."

"Definitely not," Adebayo informed her.

She smiled warmly at them each in turn. "Adrian is very fortunate to have such good friends."

Alandy directed them to one of the private recovery rooms before excusing herself to see her next patient. They filed quietly into the dimly lit room in an attempt to not disturb Adrian where he was lying propped up by several pillows on the bed. He was far too pale and still, but at least the blood and dirt had all been cleaned away and the grimy cloths he'd tied around his head and hand were replaced with thick bands of fresh, white bandages.

Chris took the spot closest and immediately grasped Adrian's uninjured hand in both of his while Harcourt sat on the opposite side, not touching but staying close. Adebayo and Economos claimed the remaining chairs next to them and they all fell silent while their teammate slept, completely oblivious to their presence.

"Sooo," Adebayo whispered while she looked at each of them in turn. "Did we know that Adrian was maybe a…you know…?"

"I guess I suspected he might be something," Harcourt quietly admitted. "After everything with Murn."

"Oh come on," Economos chimed in. "There's no way you ever seriously considered that Vigilante was a fucking butterfly."

"No, but there are probably tons of metahumans out there who don't even realize what they are," Harcourt reasoned aloud. "I can't say I'm surprised that Adrian of all people is one of them."

"But Chris, you never thought he was a meta when you guys went superheroing together?" Adebayo asked skeptically.

He shook his head. "Hell no. I always just figured he was damn lucky he never got really hurt with all the dumb shit he pulled. You know, like how those hilarious guys from Jackass walk away from everything."

"Maybe that's his real super power," Economos mumbled. "Just dumb fucking luck."

They all glanced over to their peacefully sleeping friend, each of them observing how he looked in the hospital bed compared to when they'd found him in the forest bloody, unconscious, and seemingly at death's door.

"Yeah, V," Chris said softly and gently squeezed Adrian's hand. "You really are one lucky bastard."

-_-

Chris was pulled from his thoughts a few hours later by a soft tapping sound coming from the other side of the room. Harcourt looked up from whatever half assed report she'd been writing on her phone and raised an eyebrow at Chris before turning to glance out of the window behind her. Sure enough there was Eagly, perched on the sill outside in the dark and pecking lightly at the glass for their attention.

"No fucking way," Harcourt muttered.

"Dude, is that Eagly?!" Economos whispered loudly.

"Fuck yeah," Chris said with a proud grin. "I told you guys he was smart!"

He gently eased Adebayo's head off his shoulder so he could get up and she woke with a snort. He carefully made his way around the bed and opened the window just a crack.

"You can come in, buddy," Chris spoke softly to the eagle, "but you've gotta be extra quiet, okay?"

Eagly bobbed his head amenably then fluttered inside right over Harcourt's head to land on Adrian's stomach. His talons felt their way gently over the blankets as he moved towards the sleeping man's face. He peeped softly and flapped his wings, but when he received no reaction he chittered sadly and settled himself to curl up on Adrian's chest.

"That's a good boy, Eagly," Chris whispered as he stroked the bird's feathers. "Thank you for taking such good care of Vigilante for me."

Eagly chirped and closed his eyes as he rubbed his head comfortingly under Adrian's chin.

"Oh my god," Adebayo gasped, suddenly wide awake. "That is the cutest shit I think I've ever seen."

Chris couldn't help but agree. Apparently Harcourt concurred as well since she was the first one with her phone's camera pointed at the scene.

"I'll send it to the group chat," she assured them all when they stared at her. "Adrian'll love it."

"Yeah, well, hopefully no nurses show up," Economos grumbled, ever the buzz kill. "I doubt they'd appreciate having a fucking eagle hanging around in here."

"We'll just say it's his spirit animal," Chris said confidently. "You know, it's like one of those pets that they have to let people take in hospitals and on planes and shit now."

"I think you mean emotional support animal," Adebayo supplied while Economos stifled laughter behind his hand. "But I guess he is really well trained, for an eagle. I'm pretty sure we can get away with it."

Harcourt smirked. "And it's not like they haven't already seen a ton of weird shit come through this place, right?"

"Right."

Three phones dinged with the alert of an incoming text. Chris' heart swelled with affection at the sight of a sleeping Adrian with Eagly lying content on his chest. The photo was definitely a keeper.

The entire team looked at their notifications with wide grins on their faces, and Adebayo let out an adoring "awww" that Chris whole heartedly agreed with. The image was quickly followed by Harcourt sending one of Adrian's signature mermen and an eagle emoji.

-_-

Chris must have actually dozed off at some point because when he woke the sun was shining through the window and Adebayo was snoring softly against his shoulder again. Economos was still at the foot of the bed with his head tilted back at an uncomfortable looking angle while he too slept, and even Harcourt had finally succumbed to exhaustion with her blonde head resting in her folded arms on the other side of the bed.

Eagly lightly pecked at the hand Chris was still holding over Adrian's to draw his attention. The bird chirped and jerked his beak towards the younger man, who was just blinking awake and already scrunching his face against the cannula under his nose in an attempt to dislodge it.

"Hey, dude, don't do that," Chris chided with a soft smile.

"Don' like it," Adrian muttered.

"It's helping you breathe normal."

"But…'m normal," Adrian whined and Chris' grin grew even wider.

"Sure you are."

Chris reached out to gently pull the tubing away and set it aside. He knew that Adrian would never stop fiddling with it once he was awake, and he probably didn't really need it anyway with the rate he was healing. Chris moved his hand to gently caress Adrian's cheek, relieved that the skin wasn't burning hot to the touch anymore.

Adrian stared at him through unfocused eyes and leaned further into Chris' big palm. "…Hey, P?"

"Yeah, V?"

"Yer…real?"

"Yeah dude, I'm real."

"…Oh, tha's good," Adrian mumbled tiredly. "I ima…imaginate…imaginationated you before."

Chris smirked. "You 'imaginationated' me?"

"Yuh huh... Me an' Eagly got lost…but you saved us," Adrian hummed with a dopy grin. "My hero…"

"That really happened, man."

Adrian blinked at him in disbelief. "It did?!"

"Yeah, you got hurt pretty bad."

"Oh, right," he mumbled, his expressive face falling into a frown. "I think…did I get shot again?"

"Among other things," Chris said, swallowing hard against a sudden resurgence of emotions. "You seriously had me freaking the fuck out, dude. I was afraid you'd really kicked it for a minute back there."

"Oh, 'm sorry, P," Adrian said sadly.

"It's fine, V," Chris assured him. "I'm the one who's sorry we couldn't find you sooner. But the doc says you have fucking superpowers so you'll be okay."

"I do?! Cooolll," Adrian replied with tired enthusiasm. "And Eagly's 'kay too?"

"Uh, yeah," Chris chuckled and reluctantly moved his hand away from Adrian's face so he could gesture to his pet. "He's like right there, man."

The eagle chirped at him and Adrian squinted down, seemingly just noticing that there was a large bird of prey perched on his torso.

"Eagly," he gasped excitedly. "Thanks for comin' back for me, lil' bud!"

Eagly let out a happy squawk and spread his long wings so he could fold them over Adrian's chest in a big hug. Adrian beamed happily even as he attempted to reciprocate the gesture as best as he could with one hand heavily bandaged and the other arm bogged down by an intravenous tube in the crook of his elbow.

Chris grinned at the scene and snapped a few more pics for his collection.

"Definitely send one of those to the group too," Adebayo said. The whole team was wide awake and had been silently observing them with varying degrees of relief and amusement in their expressions.

Adrian squinted towards Adebayo when he heard her voice. His grin widened as he looked around and realized that they were all sitting there with him. He greeted them with a cheerful, "friends!!!"

"Hey, Adrian," Harcourt said with a smirk and a comforting little pat to his knee. "How're you feeling?"

"Weird," he answered, still smiling dopily. "But good weird—not bad weird like before."

Economos had been rummaging through his messenger bag and emerged triumphantly with Adrian's glasses in hand. He passed them to Adebayo who passed them to Chris who eased them gently onto Adrian's face, mindful of the bandages that were wrapped around his head just above his ear.

Adrian blinked and his wide green eyes seemed to shine a little brighter once he could properly see them all with the aid of his prescription lenses.

"We found those in your Vigilante stuff," Adebayo explained. "You've got a crazy well stocked utility belt, dude."

Economos cleared his throat and stared pointedly at her.

"But I, uh, I did eat all your fruit snacks when we found them," she admitted. "Sorry. I just gotta snack when I'm worried sometimes."

"Oh, that's okay, I like to share," Adrian replied happily. "And Peacemaker hates my secret fruit snacks anyway."

"They're fucking disgusting, dude," Chris told him. "They get all warm and gross in your pocket."

"Yeah, that's why I didn't eat them," Economos muttered.

"Well, I thought they were still pretty darn tasty." Adebayo grinned at Chris and he got the feeling she was saying that just to fuck with him. Harcourt chuckled and then he knew he was being fucked with.

"See, dude," Adrian said. "Told you they're the best like that."

"I'll get you more to refill your Vigilante snack stash, promise," Adebayo assured him with a grin. "I'll find you the best ones made of like real fruit, none of that sticky processed shit."

"Can we get Eagly snacks too?" Adrian asked even as he grinned down at the bird perched on his stomach again. "I definitely didn't forget, buddy. I'm gonna get you all the best chips for your treats, promise."

Eagly chattered cheerfully back to him.

"Oh that's right, I didn't tell them about our adventures yet!" Adrian exclaimed in response to whatever the bird had apparently said that only he could understand. "You guys, we were lost in the woods and then Eagly totally saved me from a Bigfoot!"

The eagle let out a proud squawk and Harcourt scoffed in disbelief.

"Of course you got to see Bigfoot," Economos griped and threw his hands in the air dramatically. "Of fucking course."

"We're just so relieved you didn't get eaten by any Bigfoots, Adrian," Adebayo said, her voice wobbling a little as she spoke for the whole team. "It was really scary when we didn't know what was happening to you guys out there. All of us were crazy worried."

"Sorry, Adebayo, but you don't ever have to worry about me and Eagly," Adrian insisted and Eagly squeaked when he heard his name. "We were totally fine the whole time."

The rest of them looked at each other, clearly recalling how totally not fine he had been when they found him.

"Sure you were, dude," Chris said and he squeezed Adrian's hand again.

"Yeah, plus I'm a superpowers person now!" Adrian said excitedly. Then his face scrunched up in confusion. "But wait…what superpowers do I have again?"

"You heal freakishly fast."

"Wait, that's a superpower?! But that's sooo lame!"

"It's not lame," Chris insisted. "Lame was whatever shit Polka Dot Man had going on. Or fucking Catman and his stupid yellow costume. What jacked dude would want cat powers, seriously?! Gotta leave those for all the hot cat themed chicks."

Adebayo and Harcourt rolled their eyes at that comment. "I'm pretty sure Catman doesn't even have powers," Adebayo said.

"Then he's more fucking pathetic than I thought."

"But healing isn't a real superpower," Adrian whined. "I thought everybody could do that!"

"You've got to be kidding me," Harcourt sputtered in disbelief. "It took three fucking months for me to recover after I got shot. You left the hospital after a day, through a window. That's not normal!"

"Oh, I think I forgot that happened." Adrian looked around as if realizing where he was for the first time. His grimaced distastefully.

"Don't you even think about jumping out another fucking window," Chris warned.

"I wasn't!"

"I already know that you were, dude!"

"But I heal so fast!" Adrian exclaimed with an exaggerated frown. "And I really, really don't like it here, I am in such a massive state of discomfort right now!" He squirmed a little under his blankets and Eagly squawked at him, annoyed by the movement. "See, Eagly definitely thinks I should go out the window again!"

"I doubt that," Harcourt scoffed.

"He does, he just told me!" Adrian insisted. "He says he doesn't like it here either."

"No one ever likes being in the hospital, man," Chris said. "You've just gotta stick it out until the doc says you're okay this time. You were seriously fucked up, dude."

Adrian pouted but eventually conceded when Eagly pecked him gently, as if to remind him that Chris always knew what was best. Chris seriously owed the bird an infinite amount of treats.

"At least the Jell-O's really good here," Adrian mumbled.

"Holy shit, that's right!" Economos exclaimed. "I almost forgot, this place really does have the best Jell-O."

"Fuck yeah they do," Chris added as he recalled his own months of consuming the gelatinous stuff. "Right, Harcourt? You can't tell me you didn't eat any Jell-O when you were stuck in here."

"Yeah," she admitted. "For hospital Jell-O I guess it is pretty fucking great."

"Aw, man," Adebayo whined. "Am I the only who hasn't tried the Jell-O?!"

"You've just gotta get shot or something, Ads," Chris informed her. "The special Jell-O is for patients only."

Adebayo crossed her arms with a huff before glancing over at the current patient.

"And no, you can't eat Adrian's," Chris warned. "That's just fucking rude."

"Oh, that's okay, you can have some of my Jell-Os, too," Adrian told her. "I always like to share my snacks."

"Thank you, Adrian," Adebayo said sweetly while she sent a smug look in Chris' direction. "It is always nice to share snacks with friends."

"Dude—" Chris opened his mouth to tell her off when a familiar voice called out to him from the doorway.

"Heeeyyy is that my buddy Peacemaker?!"

Eagly responded with a threatening shriek, and Jamil let out a cry of alarm as he dropped the mop he was holding with a clatter.

"No, Eagly!" Chris scolded, waving his arms in front of the eagle before his pet could go into full on attack mode. "That's just Jamil, he works here, he's cool! We're all fucking cool!"

"Dude," Jamil gasped in astonishment. "Is that a motherfucking bald eagle?!"

"Yeah but he's a spirit, no, support animal. Just don't tell anybody about it, okay?!" Chris snapped back.

"You know I'm cool, man," Jamil said with a wink and a grin. "Hey, you should totally bring him to my kid's next show and tell, the little bastards will love it­­!"

"Sure, I can bring Eagly," Chris chuckled. "Fuck it, why not. I'll get him to shit on that one kid who was being a dick last time."

"Oh, oh! Can I go too?!" Adrian exclaimed. "Me and Eagly make such a great team, and I can show and tell my super healing powers."

"Sure dude, you should definitely go and try to cut off your finger or some shit and see what happens," Economos scoffed. "I'm sure a bunch of little kids won't be horrified at all."

"I know, 'cause it's awesome!"

"That was sarcasm, dumbass," Economos told him. "No one wants to watch you hurt yourself. This was scary enough for us, and we're fucking grownups."

"Yeah, dude," Chris agreed. "You don't want to end up traumatizing a bunch of ten year olds with your weirdness, do you?"

"I guess I don't," Adrian said gloomily. "That would be kinda mean."

"You could show them that other trick. You know, the one where you throw Goldfish and Eagly catches them in the air."

"Oh yeah, we can do that!" Adrian said, perking up again immediately.

"Okay, I definitely need to see this trick too," Adebayo commented. "I still can't get over the fact that your eagle actually hugs people."

"We'd still have to practice that one a lot, it only works like sixty percent of the time. But I think we can do it, right, Eagly?"

Eagly bobbed his whole body, clearly committed to whatever practice was necessary to perfect their trick.

"This is going to be so fucking awesome," Jamil exclaimed. "My Adiva'll be the coolest kid in her class when two superheroes and a motherfucking eagle show up!"

"Oh, wait, what?!" Adrian shouted. "No, I'm actually just a…a totally normal guy! Not a superhero of any kind and this is definitely not anyone's super secret identity. I'm just a normal dude over here, being so super fucking normal is my only superpower. We were just…just kidding about any of the other stuff you might have heard, isn't that hilarious?!"

Adrian barked out an obviously fake laugh and they all stared at him.

"Oookay," Jamil said. "I get you. That's cool, man."

"I know it is." Adrian stared back at him with wide, wild eyes.

Jamil let out a nervous laugh and looked to Chris, who just shrugged and shook his head.

"Alright then," Jamil said while he picked up his fallen mop. "It's always good to see you, Peacemaker! And nice to meet you Peacemaker's other friends who are definitely not superheroes of any kind."

Adrian grinned and nodded appreciatively.

"Oh and heads up," Jamil warned before he turned to leave. "The bitchiest nurse in this place is doing the rounds and she's only a few rooms away. Just saying, if you're trying to keep your shit on the down low…" He gestured to Eagly and the bird puffed his chest.

"Gotcha, thanks man," Chris responded. "Let me know when that show and tell is, we'll be there."

"Will do!" Jamil saluted him with a grin then disappeared back into the hallway to resume his mopping duties.

"Alright, Eagly, I guess that means it's time for you to fly home," Chris instructed. "We'll bring you treats later, I promise."

The eagle squawked his displeasure and Adrian frowned at Chris.

"Sorry, but he's not supposed to be here, dude. Say bye."

Adrian sighed and looked down at the eagle "Bye, Eagly," he said while he pet the soft feathers with the fingers sticking out of his bandaged hand. "Thanks again for being the best second BFF and for hanging out with me in the scary woods."

Eagly cooed and flapped his wings over Adrian in another brief hug, then fluttered with Chris across the room towards the window.

"See you later, buddy." Chris gave his bird one last pat on the head. Eagly chirped and nuzzled Chris' hand before taking off towards the clouds.

"You've got a real good bird there, Chris," Harcourt praised.

"Yeah, I know I do."

The team watched Eagly get smaller and smaller into the sky, all smiling contentedly and foolishly letting their guards down.

Chris knew that he should have paid more attention to the window when he closed it. The latch didn't click and the pane remained open just a crack, but apparently that was enough. He was crossing to the other side of the bed again when he saw a familiar flash of mischief in Adrian's eyes.

"Dude, no…"

Adrian abruptly lifted his arm enough so he could sink his teeth into the IV tube and rip it out of his own skin while he kicked the blanket off of himself and right over a bewildered Harcourt's head. The rest of them were so alarmed that he almost made it completely off the bed onto his bandaged feet and was reaching for the window before anyone could stop him.

"Dude, NOOO!!!"

Chris literally lunged to grab him around the waist and tackled him as gently as possible back onto the thin mattress. Behind him voices cried out in a cacophony of "dude!" and "holy shit!" and a slightly muffled "Jesus fucking Christ!"

Economos and Adebayo were on their feet at the foot of the bed, the latter with her arms raised defensively—as if she would ever be able to physically stop a determined Adrian from doing anything—while the former had actually retreated a few steps away from the action. Harcourt was fumbling with the blanket wrapped around her head but quickly emerged disheveled and furious with another curse.

"What the actual fuck, Adrian?!" Chris yelled right in the younger man's face. "I told you not to do that! You could have hurt yourself, you dumbass!"

Angry panic made him want to scream some more but he had to stop himself when Adrian started giggling beneath him.

"Ah ha, you got me," Adrian laughed. "I thought I could make a sneaky break for it. Eagly told me to so I had to at least try!"

"Dude, you're fucking crazy," Chris said, shaking his head even as he grinned right back. He never could stay angry at Adrian's antics for very long, especially not when he was literally nose to nose with the other man and could see the sparkling joy in his eyes.

Someone loudly cleared their throat in from the doorway and interrupted Chris' train of thought. The least pleasant nurse in the place was standing there with her clipboard in hand, staring at them with an annoyed look on her face. Chris felt himself blush but made no move from where he was practically lying on top of Adrian.

"I'm all better now," Adrian called out to the nurse and waved his bandaged hand at her. "So I would very much like to leave, thank you!"

The nurse sighed heavily. "I'll get the doctor."

"And he would also like some fresh Jell-O for breakfast," Adebayo chimed in. "Lots of Jell-O!"

The nurse rolled her eyes and shuffled away, then the 11th Street Kids all burst into a fit of laughter as any remaining anxiety they had from the stressful past day and a half finally melted away.

-_-

Harcourt got a quick taxi ride back to their Henenlotter Video headquarters and returned to the Medical Center with the Vigilante Mobile just in time for Adrian to be officially discharged by Dr. Alandy after a series of tests confirmed that he was indeed healing just fine.

Chris had appointed himself the task of taking Adrian home after they bid a heartfelt farewell to the rest of the team and made plans for them all to get together again the very next day. He wasn't headed to Adrian's apartment from there, though. It was unanimously decided that Adrian was going to stay with Chris at the trailer for at least a few days, just to make sure he was actually resting and healing okay. Adrian was very excited for their extended sleepover and Chris hadn't even pretended to protest the idea.

They both sat in comfortable silence for the majority of the drive, humming along to the chorus of "Carry On" by Manowar while it played softly in the background—♫ "for as long as we're together then forever CARRY ON!!!" ♪

They stopped only briefly to get Eagly his well deserved treats, and soon enough Chris was pulling up to his trailer where the eagle was already waving eagerly to them from the front steps. He grinned at his loyal sidekick and moved to get out of the car but Adrian stayed put. He was staring at Chris in that unnerving way of his, like he was about to say something profoundly stupid.

Chris just sighed. "What, dude."

"Oh, well, I was just noticing how your place is so very far away from my side of the car right now, and there's those few stairs and a bunch of potentially treacherous lawn obstacles in the way."

"Yeah, so?"

"Sooo my feet still hurt, and I'm supposed to be taking it easy, sooo…"

"Dude, you literally walked to the car before, your feet are fucking fine," Chris said as he made a solid effort to not sound annoyed. "You heal freakishly fast, remember?"

"Yeah…no…but…I know, it's my badass superpower," Adrian stammered. "It's just…they do still kinda hurt, and I thought maybe you should carry me again since I don't really remember you doing that before in the woods even though I very much wish I did."

He extended his hands out to Chris with a childish grabby gesture and an eager grin, as if the larger man was supposed to just drag him out of the car over the center console and carry him to the trailer from there.

Chris rolled his eyes and slammed his door shut before circling around the front of the car to the passenger side. It was very difficult to ignore the dejected look on Adrian's face as he gingerly moved to stand on his mostly healed feet.

But before he could even finish swinging his legs out of the vehicle Chris bent down to gently scoop him up bridal style. Adrian beamed and had just opened his mouth to say something when Chris snapped, "not a goddamn word or I will fucking drop your heavy ass, dude."

Adrian just smiled even brighter at the empty threat and swung his arms around Chris' neck. He rested his head against the older man's shoulder with a contented sigh but didn't say a single word.

Chris grinned right back and decided right then and there that he wasn't going to let Adrian go again for a long, long time.

FIN.