Clairis whispered, “Five… four… three… two… one!” Blam! Explosives imploded the door’s frame, crinkling it like a pop can, leaving the large metal door hanging awkwardly. Silve, who had been standing to the left of the door, glanced back towards Genevieve and Alexandra, crouched further down the bare metal corridor with laser pistols at the ready, and finally at Clairis, who stood across from him. She nodded, pulling her black mask over once again to conceal her face. Silve, Genevieve and Alexandra did the same. Then Silve took a couple steps back and lashed out at the door with such a strong kick that it could only come from a professional athlete or a Sycovan.
All four poured into the room, following the slow collapse of the door.
Then they saw me.
What were they doing here? Standing around in my room with their secretive black suits, which revealed only slits of their eyes, and pointing guns at me. They didn’t look like they belonged. I welcomed them without expression, “Hello. This is my office, or something of that sort. Did you drop in for some tea?” It was, of course, not an office. Three stories above my head the huge, bare dome of the chamber came to a peak, and large gleaming computer consoles and screens winked all around. Yes - only the best for me.
They paused for a moment. I could tell they were studying me. Unfortunately, they most likely noted my stature. It is regrettable that such a powerful figure as myself should have to endure a height of 5’4” and a half. Mostly, though, they were probably taken by my calm appearance. Standing in the middle of the room nearly at attention with hands folded behind my back and black and blue uniform immaculate down to the identically tied laces. Raven hair of mine was also flawlessly tied back to the nape of my neck with not a stray hair to fuss over, with about two inches in front purposely falling out to border my dark eyes.
They probably expected me to bolt or activate an alarm, pull out a weapon or scream dramatically. How amusing. I remained at the particular spot I was standing, enclosed by a lovely invisible four foot circle on the ground. “Don’t… um, move.” One of them said half heartedly - a girl’s voice, since it was an unnecessary comment. I stood dourly despite their bold entry. Two moved off to keyboards and started a flurry of tapping - those were girls, I could tell from the way they carried their weight. Of the two left, one - the only boy in the group - trained his gun on me and murmured to the girl who had spoken. She ran off to join the others at the keyboards.
“So, what’s the name of the game today?” I asked the one attending me in a bored tone. He didn’t answer. “Just another round of ‘Annoy the Mastermind,’ I take it. Didn’t I specify that I have much vital planning to do? I simply don’t have time for such imbecilic distractions.”
“Safe!” A girl’s strong voice shouted from one of the computer consoles. “All forms of recording devices or surveillance mechanisms are shut down. We‘re safe to talk, for the next five minutes.”
The male’s voice spoke firmly through the black cloth coving his face, “The game is ‘Capture that Mastermind.’”
“Hmm. Security drill? Sounds fun.” Sarcasm soaked my words.
“It’s not a security drill.” The masculine voice asserted roughly.
“Fine, fine. I’m playing along.” I crossed my arms and dawned my customary bored look.
“Isn’t it about time that he not be playing along?” The tallest girl inquired, then set her gun pointedly to the green ‘stun’ and finished, “Shouldn’t we stun him?”
“Yeah. Go ahead.” The strong girl’s voice broke in.
Idiots. “Getting a little zealous for a safety drill, aren’t we?”
The soft spoken one, who talked the very first, quipped up. “This isn’t a drill. We‘re here to detain you. Don‘t you get it?” I didn’t answer, though I did roll my eyes, so she reached over to double check that the green light was on the tall girl’s gun, then asked, “Ready?”
“Don’t ask him if he’s ready!” The tall female reprimanded, then took aim.
But I answered her anyways, just as the tall girl was putting pressure on the trigger. “Yeah, I’m as ready as you are to hear the old alarms blazing. The incessant noise it’s so… so unique. Don’t you think?” I didn’t show it through my sarcastic guise, but I was honestly a bit taken aback. Where were they from?
“Alarms?” The girl lowered her gun.
“Four minutes.” The strong female voice came.
“What alarms?” Grilled the tall girl.
“The ones that will activate if anyone tries to overload or remove my collar.” I outlined flatly, and tapped the thin choker-like metal mechanism with small lights that blinked faintly every once in a while. Everyone affiliated with the Delair forces should have been briefed on the fact that I couldn‘t be stunned… “What department are you from, anyways?” I inquired condescendingly, crossing my arms. They ignored me.
“There’s more than one way to skin a-” The speaker caught the evil eye from the slits of the informative female’s mask, and he let his sentence trail off. Gesturing to the butt of his gun, he asked her, “Do you want me to do it?” Knock me out, no doubt. I was in no mood to have them bash in my skull repeatedly - until they figured out that my implanted mechanisms would keep me conscious unless I approached a near-death state. She nodded.
I tried to stall. “Wow - I actually believe you. You’re genuinely here to capture me. But it is evident from your shortcomings that you didn‘t spend much time working on your plan.” Actually, they must have spent days pouring over logs, security data and such, not to mention all the codes they would have to crack. How did they even get on the island in the first place? Quite a feat. “If you truly are from outside of the agency, that would explain why you spared the cleaning droids, even though they’re fitted with recording devices.”
“What?” The tall girl demanded, shocked. She seemed to talk more than the others.
I knew exactly where the droids were. One behind me, at seven o’clock. I pointed without turning my head. Bam! With one precise shot, set on ‘kill’, the girl exploded a mopping droid. I pointed again, over my head. Bam. Meekly the shortest one, the only one shorter than me, in fact, sidestepped out of the way as remains of a window cleaning droid rained down where she had been standing.
They didn’t know what they were getting themselves into. I regarded them all coldly and seriously. “Let me warn you. If you pursue this course of action, you will only be chasing after premature deaths. Is that clear?” Dash it all. I could tell they were smiling just from their twinkling eyes. “If you leave now, there’s a chance you’ll escape. Otherwise, I’ll see each and every one of you tortured and then executed. You’ve been warned.” Smiling. All except the short one, smiling. Ah, for her sake, go! I wish you’d leave, and yet I wish you’d stay…
“Three minutes.”
“Sounds like we should leave, don’t you think?” No! The short one joined in, too, teasing with a pleasant sarcastic tone.
“Yeah, we’ve got to go.” The muscular young man asserted, striding to my side. He took hold of my shoulder firmly and finished, “But you’re coming with us.”
Out of my peripheral vision, I could tell what he was doing. “No, don’t - it won‘t-” I tried dully; I didn‘t even bother looking at him. The stroke came quickly. I offered no resistance. Blackness took me.
I woke to small electrical charges surging through my body about twenty seconds later. They stopped when I fluttered my eyes open. Acute pain stabbed me from the back of my head, but I ignored it. Where was I? Sitting up against the invisible wall. Ah - so they had found it. Probably when they tried to carry me across it.
In a flash, I remembered - at the last moment before I had lost conciousness, I saw the shortest female turn around completely, while the other two quickly averted their gaze more subtly. What in the world? People with feelings don’t get hired for these kinds of missions. At least the guy knew what he was doing. Though I didn‘t put up a fight, which would have stopped softies, his gun butt crashed down on the precise location on the back of my skull that would have knocked me out for hours. Provided I were normal. He must’ve been a professional.
Two of the girls had moved in closer, while the shortest one tapped away at keyboards. The two standing by me were talking quietly with the boy behind me.
“We didn’t figure in a wall…”
“Oops - two minutes, five seconds ago.”
I stood slowly - not that I needed to - I just didn’t want to surprise them.
They were surprised anyway. “I thought you were trained at this stuff!” sputtered the shorter of the two girls - the one with the strong voice, as she took a step back.
He stared at me with wide eyes, “I am trained…”
“He is.” I confirmed, resisting the urge to put a hand to my resonating skull. “I can’t be knocked out like that.”
“You can’t be knocked out?” The tallest one asked, taking one step backward as well, gun trained on me.
“There are ways. None of which I will tell you.” I yawned, covering my mouth with a lazy hand before returning it behind my back. “You should leave now. There’s only one person who can bring the magnetic field down, and none of you are him.”
“What, exactly, is the point of the magnetic field? We can still get to you.” The strong girl pointed out.
“It’s ordinarily used to confine prisoners. It only works on the person whose DNA it is set to. That way, they can’t get out-” I explained, demonstrating by kicking the magnetic wall deftly, “but others can do whatever they want with the prisoner.”
“That’s cruel.” Noted the tall girl.
I went on, matter-of-factly. “However, it doubles as a security mechanism, since you can’t get me out.”
“But we could still assassinate you.” Stated the informative voice.
“Yes.” An awkward pause followed my blunt affirmation. Apparently, that wasn’t their plan.
“You were lucky to be standing on that spot when we came in.” Coldly stated the tall girl. Lucky. Yeah. “But we are going take you. You’re underestimating us if you think we can’t break a couple more codes.”
“One minute! Whatever we’re going to do, we’ve got to do fast!” Shouted the informative one.
The tall girl started chattering, “Maybe Tux could help? Can we get her online?” Tux? She yelled to the shortest one at the keyboards and threw a hand tech to her. Inserting the hand tech in it’s proper spot, the girl continued her tapping. In a few moments, a chat box opened up on the screen, amidst all the other codes and boxes and things they were regulating.
In two seconds flat, the short girl typed, “We need to break through some sort of magnetic field that’s confining him.”
Boxes whirled open on the screen… Opening, closing, skipping around. The short girl leaned back in her chair as the huge screen became a flurry of movement.
“Thirty seconds until cameras are up!”
Vmmp. It wasn’t actually a sound, but I could feel the field let down around me. That little tug, that little pressure, was suddenly absent. A foreign feeling flooded me. No way…
“LETS GO!” Shouted the male, noting from the shock in my eyes that the field was disabled. Ripping out her hand tech, the shortest girl tapped something… the entire screen went pitch black. She scampered quickly out the door, led by the girl that seemed to make the decisions. Next thing I knew, the boy grabbed my arm and pulled me across the chamber, followed by the tall girl. We left the room yawning, completely empty, like an open mouth robbed of it’s prey. I couldn’t believe it! Out the chamber. They got me out of the chamber.
He pulled me roughly along by my right arm, as if I were a naughty child. Couldn’t be real. I was probably sleeping. Except that I wanted to be standing at attention, not running, and that sensation was very real. Taking a right turn, then left, left again, they pulled me into a storage closet and shut the door.
One of them shoved me against the wall opposite the door.
“What?! You guys left him awake?” There was a new person in the room - someone that hadn’t been with the rest in the domed room. He turned his head away quickly to dawn his mask. Too slow. He had radiant green eyes, a big nose, and defined chin - not to mention characteristic spiked hair. I would be able to pick him out of a crowd any day.
“Yeah, we weren’t planning on him being awake, either.” The female leader said with distaste. “He can’t be knocked out.”
“You’re a student.” I realized, still staring at the one who rushed to put on his mask. “Dapp Hokken, right? Are you all students?” They answered me with their uneasy silence. Dapp tore off his mask, since it no longer served a purpose, and laid his head in his hands, doubtlessly experiencing extreme stress. Dapp Hokken didn’t like me knowing his name.
Cold metal grazed the right side of my neck - a gun point. “Not another word.” Warned the masked, muscular male who brought me.
“At least not until I think of something else to say.” I toyed. He pressed the gun harder into my neck in threateningly, but there was little he could do to stop me from speaking. They were in a grim position. Up until I recognized one of their own, they could have ransomed me back. However, since I knew one of their names, if they ever intended to return me, I could execute him. A game - how fun. Files in my mind flipped open.
“Though we can‘t… um… cause him to fall unconscious, we can’t let him find out any more, either!” Hastened the soft spoken girl.
She - she’s so short.
The five of them began arguing, “What should we do?”
Ah yes, there was a Sycovan admitted.
“We should stun him-”
“No! We can’t do that! Alarms will go off. We could silence him… but I guess that wouldn‘t stop him from figuring anything out, it would just stop us from knowing it if he did.”
Grey eyes? Medium height, medium weight… too normal. I’ll come back to her.
“Should we put him back?”
“Of course not, now that he knows…” One blond hair on her shoulder, blue eyes, extremely tall for a student… “Well, you can always think of something, Cl-” And even kind of enough to give me the last hint.
She slapped a hand over her mouth, realizing her mistake with horror. “K” and “l” sounds were all I needed. Smoothly I rattled off their names, looking at each one respectively to watch despair flair up in their eyes, “Genevieve Willothway, Silve Cholleton, Alexandra Alecares, and Clairis Petant.” I accented the “CL” on the last name to rub in Alexandra’s mistake.
All the masks came off. Clairis sighed, smoothing out somewhat frazzled brown hair. “We were doomed the moment he recognized Dapp.” Placing hands on hips, she addressed me with disdain, “How did you-”
“-Magic.” I offered, straight faced. I would reveal nothing.
“Worrying about it now isn’t going to help us, though, is it?” Alexandra coxed.
“No, it won’t - we should move forward.” Clairis agreed.
“Yes. You should.” I broke in. “And at this point, I’m willing to offer you one more chance. Put me back right now, and you may live. I won’t expose you in exchange for my freedom. But if-”
“Liberty or death!” Genevieve smiled softly. “Isn’t that what we agreed?” She searched the eyes of her friends, finding approval in each one. “Without you, the Delair forces won’t be able to plan any more take-overs.”
“I understand! Good plan, Genevieve.” Clairis explained, “Even if we can’t ransom him back to delay the war, we can keep him so that the battles won’t be effective.”
So what? He’ll just slaughter everyone if he doesn’t have a plan. Delair isn’t exactly short on troops. “I’m not a puppy! What makes you think you can keep me?” I gritted out. Keep me. Ha! Could they really do that? No, they’ll all die… Old images flashed through my head.
“Please, let me go!” I begged suddenly. More images. I stared at the floor, frozen, like it was going to eat me. Laser fire. Screams. Electric sizzling, laughing.
Someone spoke, but I couldn’t listen. Memories flooded me. Cursed computer memory module and it’s automatic recollection… Don’t pop up, don’t pop up… The memory module could play back anything that I had witnessed since installation, any visual memory, any noises, any physical sensations, with crystal clear clarity in my own mind, as if I was experiencing them all over again. If I didn’t get my mind off the memory, quickly, the automatic recall would thrust me into it unwillingly. Supposedly the automatic recall option mimicked a real memory. I have to think about something else… Flashes, flowers, lasers, kittens, pain, not working, the vulpine smile-
My name jerked me to reality. “Vlade! HEY! Yeah, that’s right, you.” I lifted my eyes to Slive, who was crouched by my side. Apparently I had slid down the wall into a sitting position. Funny that I hadn’t noticed. “According to my training, I should break the victim’s arm if he freezes during an abduction. I’m not the arm-breaking type, so how about you don’t do that?” I nodded weakly, pushing all harsh memories to the corner of my mind. He went on. “We plan to keep you alive, and as far as confining you - all of us have been trapped here for a year or more. Ever think of that?”
They thought I was scared. I tried to talk, but he tilted my head back with the palm of one hand and pushed my mouth open with his thumb, spraying something in it with his other hand. Nasty silencing spray, no doubt. It worked by loosening the vocal cords in the larynx, so that the person it was used on couldn’t speak, or even whisper, for that matter. “We agreed while you were spazzing that you need to be silenced. That way, you can’t call out for help, among other reasons.” He stated calmly.
Other reasons? I re-wound my memory module to a minute ago, and listened to it. On low volume, of course - so that if anyone talked to me in present time I would still be able to respond.
(Me: -think you can keep me?… Please, let me go!
Clairis: We can’t just trust you to not turn us in. That’s illogical on all sides.
Genevieve, whispering: Clairis, is he ok? He looks really scared…
Clairis: Hey, HEY there!… Silve, what’s wrong?
Silve: It looks a lot like shock to me, but that’s very rare in people of his age, especially since we haven‘t threatened his life. I’m guessing, I don’t know - no more than 27...
Dapp: We need to be on our way. I have that Silencer that we brought, just in case, and I think we should use it. He could call out for help, and besides, he’s making Gen feel bad.
Genevieve: I’m fine. He just looked so sad, begging like that.
Alexandra: Do you have some Blindfold, too? We shouldn’t let him see where we’re going…
Clairis: There’s little need for that, now that he knows who we are. I mean - it’s not like we’re hiding anything anymore.
Dapp: That’s good, the bottle says the Blindfold stuff stings. Anyways, I know that I’m holding this, but I’m not really comfortable-”
Silve: I can do it. They used to give us silencer back in training school when we talked too much. It‘s not so bad. <pause> Hey there… wake up! Hello there! What’s his name, again?
Alexandra: Vlade Ehdou. What? Don’t look at me like that - it’s a cool name.
Silve: Ehdou - wake up, Ehdou… Vlade! HEY! That’s right, you. According to my training, I should…)
Ah, so they did it for Genevieve. She is looking my way sympathetically. I guess I must have sounded pretty pitiful, begging to be let free. I swallowed the spray in my mouth. Doesn’t work unless you breath it. I stared straight at Genevieve. “You are far too caring. I am not scared, I was merely experiencing technical difficulties because of the computer parts surgically implanted throughout my body.”
Genevieve stared downcast at the floor, but Dapp addressed me in a sarcastic tone, “And it was a technical difficulty that made you beg to be let go, right?”
“No, that was for your good.” I stated evenly. “You’re all going to die for trying this.”
“Yes, yes - we’re all going to die.” Silve sighed. “Now breath this in, unless you want me-”
“It‘s obvious you don‘t enjoy making threats, and I‘m hardly swayed by them, so stop. I’ll breath it if you’ll stop pestering me.” Silve pursed his lips together and did a bad job of concealing his relief. Opening my mouth, I inhaled a couple shots of the vile spray. It seeped into my throat and lungs, filling my whole chest like a cough drop - but instead of soothing, it burned like acid.
Silve stood back as I began uncontrollably coughing, watching me closely. “Everyone coughs.” He explained, to Genevieve especially. “It isn’t a problem unless he stops breathing.” Genevieve’s eyes opened wide and her face turned slightly pale.
But I would be fine. Always was. Clearing my throat for the last time, I stood - completely and totally deprived of speech for the next 24 hours. I crossed my arms in protest, but I didn’t have anything left to say to them, anyways. I would have liked to get in a few more death threats, but they got the picture. Unfortunately they were all too idiotically optimistic to take me seriously.
Dapp moved to the floor off to the right of the door we had entered. Digging around, for what I could not tell in the poor lighting, he made a couple clanging noises. Then, he removed a panel of the floor to reveal a small shaft. I rolled my eyes. Great. Now I have to crawl through a tiny tunnel. Dapp looked a little bit more relaxed since I knew everyone’s name, even smiling lightly to his friends, “Shall we be off? I’ll go last, to disconnect the surveillance device.”
Sure enough, up in the corner of the closet, one hand tech sat in a nest of wires, hooked up most likely to make the corridors look perpetually clear while their group ran around them.
Genevieve ducked down into the tube first, hardly making a sound with her landing. Disappearing from sight for a moment in the dark tunnel, she then switched on a flashlight. Suddenly the entrance to the hole emanated with bright light. Clairis and Alexandra went next, Clairis looking clumsier despite her smaller stature. They disappeared from sight, as well.
“Your turn.” Silve motioned me to the small hole with his laser gun. I glanced quickly at it, then returned my gaze to a blank wall without budging. Sighing in frustration, Silve grabbed me by my forearm and pushed me down into the opening. I landed softly, then ducked down to look. The three girls were waiting with lasers and flashlights all pointed back in my direction, scrunched down on all fours in the small space. I waved a sarcastic greeting to them and moved into the tunnel, trying to maintain a little dignity even crawling around like a lowly animal.
Silve plopped down after me, and I heard Dapp messing with wires. Then the lights went off.
Won’t be long until the security guards discover that I’m missing. Not long now.
As soon as Dapp Hoken replaced the floor panel, I was forced to follow the girls up front through numerous twists and turns in tunnels. Everything muddled in my mind. Left right right left right left left. I stopped keeping track. If I ever needed it, I could always recall the memory.
Genevieve stopped ahead, whispering back, “OK - we’re here!” She started clanking around. Ahead, between Alexandra and Clairis, I could see that she was messing with a panel at her feet. Scrape, scrape, sccchrch. It almost fell out, but Genevieve caught it. She carefully jumped out the hole with it, disappearing completely, noiselessly landing below. Alexandra and Clairis followed, then I peered over the edge. A locker room?
“Go!” Silve and Dapp whispered simultaneously.
I sighed, the most I could do in the situation, but swung my legs out over the hole, then jumped, landing smoothly about ten feet below. Again, all three girls waited with their guns trained in my direction. Thud. Thud. The boys joined us.
They seemed in a hurry to leave. They all did, but the boys more. On the way out, I discovered why. “Girls lockers” was stamped clearly on the door as we rushed out into the hall. We halted there briefly. Dapp quietly took all of the group’s weapons and headed off; we started in an opposite direction. Without guns to keep me in line, all of them melded in a loose formation around me. After all, there were only four of them. It made me want to run, just to prove I could get away. We rounded a corner, and I found myself in the back of the gym. I knew the gym. I knew right where I was.
I bolted. Pushing over Genevieve, who was the only one I knew for certain wouldn’t try to tackle me in return, I sprinted to the balance beam. Somebody grabbed my foot as I tried to pull myself up, which was precisely the reason I tried in the first place. Twirling my airborne weight around, I used my full momentum to bring the heel of my boot crashing down upon my captor’s skull. It was Silve. He stumbled backward a couple steps as I landed nimbly on the ground. Dratted Sycovans. An average human would have dropped unconscious. While he was somewhat stunned, I dashed off past him, toward the firing range. The pool was in my way. It was uncovered for some reason, too. I had to go around it, losing valuable time.
Behind me, I could already hear the consequence. Two of them, on my tail, and gaining. Not surprising, though. I wasn’t exactly in prime shape. Suddenly, I dropped to the ground and kicked at the closest pursuer twice. Once to knock her legs out and again to push her towards the pool. She crumbled, plummeting like a rock, her head cracking down solidly on pool edge right before she plunged into the cold, dark water. Ooo - that Clairis girl could drown in there. I thought, but dashed off. Another splash followed, doubtless Genevieve saving her friend.
Alexandra and Silve still followed me, though. They were about two yards behind and gaining. I poured on speed and grabbed a bb gun as I tore into the enclosure. Cocking it as I ran, I turned off the safety, and overrode the code needed to fire it. Murky space loomed up ahead of me as I neared the back of the firing range - a wall. Light flooded the area, and my eyes adjusted after a split second. Enhanced eyes weren’t always so bad.
Ahead of me, Alexandra and Silve stood warily by the light switch. Neither of them touched a gun. Silve enlightened me, “You can’t shoot with those guns.” His voice changed to a low, commanding tone. “Come out of there. You’re trapped.” He was right. I was standing back where the targets usually were, though they were now stored in the floor. That end of the range was totally closed in.
I aimed pointedly at him and shot off a bb; he threw up hands to shield his face, but it missed terribly, hitting the wall somewhere near the switch. Closer to Alexandra, actually. Silve chuckled. I took note of where the bb landed, it’s power, speed, and curve. Silve took a few steps forward. Shaking my head in warning, I tapped my nose.
“What? You can’t stop me. You can’t even shoot. Those things aren’t dangerous unless you can aim.” Silve took a large step, while Alexandra hung around at the back, letting Silve do the hard work. “Even then, you have to know the right spots to shoot at.” He took another step.
I raised my gun. Bam! Silve’s body recoiled back and to the ground like a snake recoiling after a bite. He rested his forehead on his knees, hands covering his nose. Alexandra hurried to his side and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder, “Are you alright?”
“Ouch! He hit me on the nose!” He mumbled. Alexandra shot me a startled glance as I calmly cocked the gun. After a moment Silve jerked his head up to stare at me in unbelief.
“Silve? Alexa?” Dapp rounded the corner, nearly running into Silve and Alexandra. “There you are! Clairis isn’t doing too well,” He noted Silve’s cowed position and me standing calmly with a gun, but went on with his information, “but we got her breathing. What’s going on here?”
He took a cautious step forward as Silve told him, “He shot me!”
“How did he get it to- never mind. But it’s just a bb, right? I brought those binding cuffs that we forgot for the main mission. I didn’t think we’d need them, but they’ll come in handy now.”
Dapp took a faster step forward, pulling the compressed cuffs from his pocket, and I quickly shook my head. I looked down straight at Silve, tapped my right temple, then pointed at Dapp.
Silve got the message. He reached out and firmly tugged Dapp’s pantleg, just as he looked as if he was going to break into a run. Alarmed, he spouted, “Don’t. He knows how to kill with that thing.”
Dapp threw his hands up. “What? It’s a bb gun! You’d have to have perfect-”
“Look, I don’t know how, but he tapped his nose and then shot mine. I’m not willing to take any chances on the temple.”
“Oh!” Dapp took a few steps backward, brainstorming, “Ok, well, I think I know where some helmets are. Lets go get them.”
Silve rose, and followed Dapp out, lingering for a moment at the corner to instruct Alexandra, “You stay here. Don’t advance, and if he threatens you, duck around this corner. Just watch him, okay?”
“No problem!” She stood solidly with hands on hips as she watched him go. Then she turned her attention to me.
Good. Everything was going better than I expected it to. Currently only Genevieve and Alexandra could prevent my escape, and I wasn’t very confident in the skills of these mere girls.
Scuffing my foot on the ground, a panel that I had been looking for flipped aside. Down below, I could see the top of a stored target. Kneeling, I fidgeted with a device pinned to the right side of the compartment, then leap back as the whole 6’ target popped out. They weren’t really designed to be opened manually.
Nice - the back had metal bars crisscrossing it. Probably just part of the design. They would be useful for climbing, though. I figured the target was six feet tall, I was roughly five, and the wall was only ten. Furthermore, the target was close to the wall - only about three feet away. Rather than confronting Alexandra, I could jump the wall and avoid her completely.
Rustle, tck! Whoa! Ouch! Smart pain popped up in my forearm, and I turned too late to see Genevieve quickly backing off a couple steps, as well as a needle stuck into my arm. I yanked it out and hurled it to the ground, shattering the glass vile. The quarter dose of ooze left seeped out slowly. Doubtlessly it had been filled with some kind of drug to sedate me. How did she get in, anyways?
I grabbed her by the wrist and slammed her against the back of the target, where Alexandra couldn’t see what I was doing. She was already running forward, though, and I shot off a bb at her knee to slow her down. Genevieve’s eyes widened and she fought my hold on her throat with all her might; she must have figured out what I was doing. There is a vital vein in the neck that runs oxygen to the brain, called the jugular. Though she could still breath, if I pinched the vein off for too long, she could die. Genevieve’s small, fragile hands pulled frantically at my strong, unwavering one. She kicked at me, but I wouldn’t move. I waited for just the right second… Alexandra was almost upon me. Genevieve’s eyes started to flutter, and her grasp lost it’s flair. There. Thud. I released her, and she dropped to the ground and laid still, fighting for consciousness, but not for life.
Alexandra gawked for a moment, and I stepped forward, carefully placing myself right where I wanted to be, to the left of the target. My gun was lowered at my side; I waited for her attack. In her anger, she lashed at me with a strong right roundhouse kick. Such a beautiful, perfect arc. Excellent speed, more than sufficient power. One thing she lacked - proper planning. There was barely enough time for me to duck, but when I did, her leg connected solidly with the metal target. I darted past her as she yelped and stumbled once or twice, unable to overcome the incredible pain. By the time I was up at the front of the target range, I saw that Alexandra had neglected to follow me, but instead was knelt down by her collapsed friend. Perfect. Now where was that console?
Ah, stored in the wall. I rattled it open and reached out my left hand. A few moments passed as I sent information flying through the console, through a wireless process which connected my computer components to any wireless device. Vrrrrrmmm. Yes! Out of the wall popped a mounted repeating fire pellet gun. It only had a turning radius of 90 degrees, towards the target range, and I couldn’t take it with me, but it would serve my purpose. Grasping the powerful controls, I pegged two shots off, landing them a few inches from Alexandra’s head, on the target. She gathered very quickly that I was no longer shooting bb’s, and limped hastily behind the target. Right where I wanted her to be. I programmed the gun to shoot in a square around the single target and jogged off. As long as Alexandra didn’t try to leave, she’d be fine.
Headed toward the door, I realized that I was getting quite winded. Squatting down, I huffed and puffed to regain my breath. I was so out of shape. Pitiful. Then I noticed a figure crouched by the gym’s front doors.
It was too hard to see in the dim light - the only light in the whole auditorium originated from the firing range, where the target end was illuminated. I squeezed my eyes shut, set on night vision, then opened them again. Ahead of me, the figure was holding a hand tech next to the door opening console. Noooo… Earlier when they used a hand tech, they were able to lower my magnetic field. The doors would be quite a bit simpler to mess up…
I leapt up and sprinted to the door farthest away from the figure, since there were four front doors. The figure heard me rattling the door frame desperately.
“Too late.” She coughed. The voice belonged to Clairis. “Tux shut down all the doors in this gym. They won’t move until we tell them to.”
Tux? Who is Tux? I wondered, irritated by the name, but I spun around in the darkness, looking for any exit. Up - there were maintenance doors for the ropes course. Hanging walkways, too. If I scaled the climbing wall and stood on the top of it, I could probably reach it, pull myself up, then lock the door behind me as I left. That simple.
I was off. The climbing wall was at the other side of the gym. I was losing time running there. As if sensing my time dilemma, Silve and Dapp emerged from a door about three hundred feet from me, forward and to the left, toting helmets. They dawned them quickly as I raised my gun to fire. Click. Pttt… ZZZZTT! My gun throbbed with electricity, shocking me instead of shooting. I dropped it, stopping the powerful shock from running though my body. Stupid security measures. I couldn’t outrun them to the wall… I looked around. That became easier as Silve flicked an overhead light, which illuminated the whole back section of the gym. I squeezed my eyes shut and adjusted back to normal vision.
Right ahead of me, there was a janitor’s cart. Hmm. I strode quickly to it and started ripping open bottles of strong cleaners. I poured them into a pool to my left side. One after another. Lovely smells. Pine and lemon and “spring breeze”, then some bleach. I had accumulated quite a pool by the time Dapp was close enough to yell, “Do you expect us to slip in that?”
I waggled my hand in the “sort of” sign, then took a few steps back, crossing my arms. Dapp laughed as he approached, but I waited calmly, about three feet back from the pool. He was so close he could almost touch me. So close and yet so far away.
As he ran by one side of the pool, he slowed strangely to a walk, with a confused look on his face, then to a stand. He teetered, then fell into the pool emanating noxious fumes. Silve, who was following a little further back since he had stopped to turn a light on, held his breath before entering the vicinity. Apparently he noticed my trap. Instead of grabbing me, though, he took a firm hold of his friend’s shirt and dragged his face away from the pool. Enough so that it wouldn’t do any more damage. However, Silve’s foot, I saw, was resting in the particular part of the pool that consisted mainly of a saline based pink cleaner. Perfect. I stooped down and grasped the bb gun for a split second, which was still live with energy, and tossed it to the pool.
He shrieked as the surge of electricity crawled up his leg into his entire frame. Wimp. It wouldn’t be able to hold him long, though, unless the fumes managed to catch him, so I ran for the wall. The fumes he was no doubt resistant to, being Sycovan.
It didn’t take more than thirty seconds to arrive at the wall, and I started my ascent. Holds were easy to find, and I was very light. They can’t stop me. I stepped up as if the stones jutting out were ladder rungs. I’m a mastermind. Who did they think they were, trying to capture me?
Three quarters of the way up, I looked down to see Silve just arriving at the bottom of the wall. He was probably a faster climber than me. No matter. I had a head start. There was no way in the world they could catch me. No way.
Click, click. Tick. Beep! My collar cooed softly. Oh no… no, no, no… I gasped, about all I could do. My entire body froze, locked up. Then, it loosened. I still couldn’t move anything but my neck. My hands loosened, my feet loosened. I fell slowly away from the wall, unable to stop myself. Just like a bad dream, I plummeted - entirely powerless.
Ground rapidly approached, getting faster and faster. Silve moved in a blur beside me.
Thunk! I met the ground with a hard crash that tore all the breath from my chest and triggered explosions of pain in my head; all over my body, actually. I gasped once again, this time unable to find any air. Everything had been knocked out of me. In fact, I was surprised that all of my organs were still intact.
Silve had slid a few of the blue mats underneath me, or I might have died. He towered over me, hands gesturing angrily, “What’s the matter with you? You did all that and then just fell?” He didn’t wait until I could breath properly to flip me over and clip on the binding cuffs, which adjusted instantly to the size of my wrists. They were computer controlled, I realized, but it didn’t matter. I wouldn’t accomplish anything by overriding them, since I couldn’t move. He slapped a pair on my feet, too, then walked away.
Twisting my head so that I could see what was going on, I saw Silve pull Dapp all the way out of the pool of fumes, far away, then he started jogging toward the firing range, past the pool. Sounds of pellets firing ceased before he got there. Clairis was no longer standing by the front doors, so she had probably shut down the gun I had programmed.
Eventually, Dapp stirred groggily, then joined Silve; Clairis, and Genevieve walked out of the firing range, Alexandra limping behind. All five congregated between the outside wall of the firing range and the pool, a safely out-of-earshot distance.
I closed my eyes and rested my head on the soft blue mat, though it was little comfort to my aching head and body. My ears pricked as I tuned them to be more sensitive. Much more.
Finally, “-be just fine. See, I went at him with a strong kick, and then he ducked, and I ended up kicking the target!” Alexandra’s voice.
“Ouch!”
“Ooo - painful.”
“Yeah, it’s made of metal, so it didn’t feel good, but I’ll be fine. It’s just bruising, after all!” Alexandra, again.
Silve spoke, concerned. “Yeah, let me make sure…”
“Oh, alright. Anyways, alphabetically it’s your turn next, Clairis.”
“Okay… my head really hurts,” She was breathing a bit too quickly, “but… I don’t think it’s bleeding. My chest hurts, though, and I… I keep feeling colder and colder…. and a little bit shaky, but I‘ll be-”
“Ouch!” Alexandra sucked in breath suddenly.
“Yeah, that’ll hurt for a while, but this is just bruising.” Silve decided, then addressed another, “Clairis, I need you to lay down. Right now. I’m going to give you my coat. It’s very important that you get warm right now, but everything’s going to be fine, alright?” Shock. He was concerned about shock.
“I don’t think I need to-” Her voice sounded faint.
“Please? Pretty please? Do it for me?” He was flirting, while at the same time looking after her medical needs. Interesting Sycovan.
“Oh, alright… if you really want me to, I guess I can…”
“Yes, and I’ll have you put your feet up on this backpack, too. It’s your turn, Dapp. Go ahead while I get her settled.”
“I think I’ll be okay. I really didn’t think of the fumes, until it was too late. But thanks to you, Silve, they seem to be clearing and I‘m feeling better already. Still a little funny feeling, but that‘s going away slowly. Why didn’t they bother him, anyways?”
“I’m not sure.” Genevieve said, wanting to share something. “Is it my turn now?”
“Yeah, go ahead.” Dapp consented.
“Well, I snuck up on him and injected some sleeper serum into his forearm. But then he grabbed my throat and got my jugular, but he let me go in time. I think… he could have killed me, but I don’t know why he didn’t.” She ended quietly.
Silve inquired, “The sleeper serum didn’t work either? Sleeper serum will knock even me out for a couple minutes. Ten, once.”
Dapp chucked, “And it’s suppose to instantly work for up to eight hours?”
Silve laughed a little, too, “Yeah.” Then he paused. “But it should have worked on him. He isn’t one of us.” He said, referring to the Sycovan race. “Maybe that’s why he fell off the wall. That was very weird.”
“Yes,” Genevieve agreed softly. “It probably was, but it’s your turn now, so, how are you feeling?”
“Oh, I’ll be fine. Got a pretty solid knock to the head, but it wasn’t my first.” He stopped there.
“And what about the fumes?” Dapp pressed.
“Oh yeah, I forgot. Those cleared up pretty quick. After seeing you fall, I held my breath. But then, he threw his gun at the cleaner stuff I was stepping in. That hurt! He must have accidentally activated the electric charge when he shot outside the student firing zone. I’m surprised he was able to pick it up to throw it at me, though. It was a pretty strong charge. If it weren’t for my adrenaline, I wouldn’t have gotten out.”
“How come?” Alexandra wanted to know.
“Oh, electricity tends to suck you into it, and so you can’t move while you’re being electrocuted.”
“Hmm. I see.”
“Speaking of adrenaline, though, I’m going to be fading fast here. I’m planning on carrying our guest the rest of the way.”
Alexandra sighed in relief. “That’s a good idea! We don’t want to go through all this again. Are you sure you can do that if he’s awake?”
“Think I could, anyways, since we have the binder cuffs on him, but I’m not sure if he can move at the moment. He could be in shock, or it might be something else.”
“Now that your turn’s done, you could tell us what happened at the wall.” Genevieve pointed out meekly.
“Yeah, that was weird.” He repeating, explaining, “He was headed for the maintenance walkways, you know, to get to the door up there. Good job, by the way, locking the doors like that Clairis.”
“No problem.” She said softly, but contentedly.
“Anyways, he was more than half the way up when he just fell off. Would have sworn that he got knocked unconscious somehow, because he didn’t flail in the air or try to grab back on or anything. But I slid some mats under him to soften his landing, and he was still conscious when he landed!”
“If it had been the sleep serum, he would have been unconscious.” Genevieve remembered. “How is he now?”
There was a pause. “Is he finally sleeping?” I didn’t move. I would let them think I was out. It would be simpler that way. Maybe they would talk about me while they thought I was unconscious. Besides, it was terribly embarrassing to be incapable of movement from the neck down. Dumb security measure.
Silve reasoned. “I think he probably is. We’ll see. He can’t move around anymore, at any rate. Genevieve, why don’t you stay with Clairis and make sure that she doesn’t get colder while the rest of us put everything back how it was. Is that ok with everyone?”
“Yeah.”
“Sure! But I can’t walk very fast…”
“Oh, that’s right. Then why don’t you stay here, and Genevieve can help us.” Silve figured.
“Fine with me.” Genevieve consented. “I hope you get feeling better while we’re cleaning.” She soothed to Clairis.
They divi-ed up the tasks. Genevieve headed off to sweep up pellets and to re-submerge the target and repeating gun. Dapp headed off with a hand tech to unlock the doors. Silve came somewhat near me to mop up my pool of noxious cleaners. He tried to speak to me, but eventually decided that I was, indeed, unconscious.
At a length,
“Are we done?”
“I think so.”
“How are you feeling, Clairis?”
“Much better, thank you Silve. I don’t feel funny at all. Here’s your coat. My head still hurts a little, though.”
“Yeah, it’ll do that for a few days.”
“We have to get going.”
“Turn off that light on the way out!”
Silve lifted me to his shoulders, carrying me like sack of potatoes, my head draped down over his front side. Behind me, I gradually watched the dark entirety of the gym disappear. Quietly we trampled down halls, familiar halls. We were headed toward the student dormitories. It wasn’t long until they shoved their way into dormitory room number four; apparently they had left the door unlatched so they could get in without being noticed.
Inside, they shut the door quietly, set me on the floor on my back, then… turned on the lights and cheered!
“Alright!” Silve yelled.
“WE DID IT!” shouted Clairis.
Dapp added, “Who’s the best team, huh?”
“Yeah, we managed even with all the added complications.” Genevieve agreed.
“It was pretty impressive, I must admit.” Alexandra’s smile carried through the tone of her words. “We’re going to be wiped out tomorrow, though. Unless we can get our hands on some caffeine, which is unlikely.”
Yeah, yeah. Good for them. They should enjoy it while they could. Soon, they would all be found out.
“Anyone say caffeine?”
“No way, Dapp! Where did you get those lattes?!”
“My team appropriated them from the teacher’s lounge during the gym disturbance yesterday.”
“No small feat!” Silve commended.
“Yes, thank you.”
Alexandra sounded excited. “Our classes start in a few hours. It’s three-thirty right now. Anyone up for an all-nighter?”
“Oh, why not? I know a few card games, and we have some, uh, dice - oh, and those CDs you took, Silve - we haven’t had time to listen to them, yet.”
“Wow, Gen, I thought you only liked classical music.” Dapp remarked.
“One opens up to new things in the absence of old options.”
Clairis broke in. “But before we start the party, we should probably put Ehdou here away.”
Put me away. Great. Now I was an item.
“Hey, look, what’s up with those blinking lights?”
“Hmm. I don’t know.”
“Um, he talked about his collar a little bit when we were in the chamber upstairs, remember?”
Oh, not good. Stop talking about that. I wished, still pretending to be unconscious.
“Yeah! Didn’t he say that his collar, like, activated a security measure? What’s it for, anyways?”
“Well, it’s possible that it’s a controlling device of some sort, but we never learned about a collar gadget like that in the Sycovan Academy. Generally collars are regarded as humiliating.”
“He didn’t act like it was a health related tool, and it could only hurt us if it‘s a controlling device of some sort.” Clairis assessed, bending over me. I could tell by her voice placement. “Do you think we should take it off?”
NO! My jaw tightened inperceivably.
“Sure, I think it would be a good idea.” Silve answered. “But how do we get it off?”
He started running his fingers over the device, and I pretended that woke me. Blinking my eyes groggily, I saw that all five of them bent over me. Most faces turned serious as they witnessed my waking.
“Hey, sleeping beauty. Have a nice nap?” Silve inquired, not breaking his search for a way to remove the collar. His hand snaked behind my neck. There he would find slight bump, the place designed to remove the collar if ever necessary.
I jerked my neck away, and shook my head in protest. He smirked. “What’re you going to do? Shoot my nose?” The rest of them shuffled out of the way as he flipped me over onto my stomach, so that the back of my collar and neck laid exposed behind my ponytail. They shuffled back in to watch. Ignorant vultures. I had to think, really fast. I craned my neck up desperately to search my surroundings for anything that could save me. A handtech! It was sitting on the table a few feet in front of and above my head, about a yard away altogether. That was close enough.
“Don’t. You’re making a mistake.” Droned the handtech in it’s default robotic voice.
“What in the world?” Alexandra quipped, standing straight.
“Did that handtech just talk?” Genevieve asked, confused.
“Yes. Instant artificial intelligence.”
Clairis grabbed up the handtech and tapped into it, mumbling to her friends as she wrote, “Tux,-find-out-who-is-hacking-our-handtech.”
“Only a mastermind could pull that off.” I caused the handtech to say, deleting her message before it was sent.
She squatted down and waggled the device in my face, frustrated. “What’re you doing on here!”
“I wouldn’t be forced to resort to such crude measures if you hadn’t decided to silence me.” I stared up at her evenly despite my low position. “That whole gym episode could have been completely avoided if you possessed the sanity to release me.”
“Enough of this.” She shot back. “In a moment, we’re going to remove that collar of yours and that’ll be the end of this silly game.”
“This has nothing to do with my collar.” Hummed the device. Clairis stood as my message went on, and she paced, “But the col-” My message shorted out. She had paced out of my range. “Warning! Closer vicinity is necessary for proper communications.” Good thing I had programmed an automatic message if that were to happen. Stiffly she returned to my side and my message continued. “But the collar is the reason I established communication in this manner.”
“Do you want to listen to this?” Clairis asked the group. I set my forehead on the cool floor and sighed, exasperated.
“Um, I think it would be a good idea. He told us things that we needed to know up in the chamber.” Genevieve pointed out. I nodded as best I could from the floor.
Alexandra reasoned, “I don’t see how it could hurt us to listen.”
“Yeah, I guess.” Silve agreed, rocking back on his heels. “Make it short, though. I’m tired of listening to you.”
“The feeling is mutual.” Drawled the unbiased computer voice. I allowed my tense muscles to relax. They would listen. It would be okay if I could tell them. It was comforting that I didn’t have to die for their ignorance. “Now, the collar is programmed to electrocute anyone who tries to remove it.”
Genevieve gasped, and Dapp immediately asked, “What about you?”
“Why would I want it off?”
“But if you did?”
“There are authorization codes. I do not know them.” Droned the computer in its impressively bored tone.
Alexandra was suspicious. “Why would you tell us that, about the electrocution? Why not let Silve electrocute himself? I think you‘re lying.”
“I don’t lie. But I told you because that program was never fully developed. It hasn’t been a problem up until this point, but I am connected to the collar. If Silve electrocutes himself, then I might die with him.”
Silve snorted, but I shot him a frosty glare and corrected his thoughts quickly, “My mechanized components make me somewhat resistant to electric charges, but it probably would not save me. In the same way, your natural Sycovan resistance would not be sufficient to save you.”
Silve paused to think, laying one hand’s slightly raised knuckles against his dark cheekbone. After a few moments, he said, “Clairis, could you go grab a couple pairs of rubber gloves from the first aid kit?”
“What, are you insane?”
“If you’re not providing information, I’ll have Tux hack you out. Understand?”
“Fine. Who‘s Tux?”
Silve knelt lightly on my back, examining the connecting link with cautious fingers. “We don’t know.” Zzzztt!! OUCH. Why couldn’t he just believe me?
“Oww! That’s quite a sting.” He wrung his hand and sucked his right forefinger.
Alexandra crossed her arms again, “Isn’t there any way to, you know, reprogram it or something?”
“It’s a complex program. That part is well developed.”
Genevieve sat down with criss-crossed knees, saying, “Perhaps Tux could help override the programmed electric response.”
Dapp added, “What if the two of you went at it?”
“Um, yeah. That would help. I’m sure the computer reaction is extremely fast, but if we both tried to stop it… maybe we could override it, it’s possible.”
Clairis returned with the gloves, and Silve started to put them on. I cocked my head up best I could to see what he was doing. He shoved three on his right hand, then he pushed my cocked head back in place.
“Great. So you have miniscule protection. I thought you said you were going to keep me alive.”
“Yes, but that was before you kicked me, shot me in the face, and trapped me in a pool of chemical vapors.”
“Sore loser, are we?”
“As I recall it, you lost.” Silve spoke as he wrapped something around the cords that ran down into my neck, connecting eventually with my spinal cord. It felt weird, like when doctors make you half-swallow a string, for some obscure reason, and it tugs in places that it shouldn’t even be.
Silve continued, “It’s bothering me, though, why did you fall off like that? Why can‘t you move right now from the neck down? You don‘t seem to be very bothered, so you must know.” He spoke gently to Genevieve, “Go ahead and get that hand tech stuff ready.”
“Well, it’s a security mechanism.”
Everyone but Genevieve burst into unabashed laughter.
I felt inclined to defend my position, amidst the uproarious laughter. “In some circumstances it could be very effective. For example, if it was necessary that I run in order for the capture to be successful. If my body ceased to move, you wouldn’t be able to force me to run. My guards must have simply misread the situation.”
Alexandra clarified as she wiped a tear from her eye, “So, when you were trying to escape, your security mechanism stopped you from moving?” They started laughing all over again.
Drat it all. They were making even me smirk. It was a very disadvantageous moment for that particular mechanism. I bit my lip to make myself stop.
“I’d like to point out that I don’t think it was very funny.”
Genevieve giggled, too, but tried to stifle it. “Um… hm, hm, hm.. uh, we should really, hm, hm… carry on. Hm… hm…”
Silve chucked a bit more and waited for everything to settle down, “Okay, are we ready? Did you contact Tux?” Genevieve nodded.
I sped up the computer voice, so that it spit out my thought faster, “Wait! What about-”
“-I wrapped the output device in rubber. You’re just as protected as I am. Okay, I’m going to do this really fast. Everyone ready?”
“No. Don’t you realize you could die?”
“We’re good.” Genevieve ignored me and held her hand tech with a firm grasp.
“Are you sure about this, Silve? What if…”
“I’ll be okay, Clairis.” Silve reached over and squeezed her hand with his ungloved one, then let his hand drop to his side. He wouldn’t use that one. “Three…”
I braced myself,
“Two…”
“Please, don’t.” gritted my teeth,
“One!”
Silve ripped the connector link apart.
Instantly my world was swallowed by a sheet of pure white pain. The vibrant sensation overcame my whole being; I felt nothing but agony. My ears shrieked with sound that wasn’t real, stemming from the essence of sheer bodily anguish. Fire alighted my skin, and my muscles felt like they were being torn to living shreds. I screamed out, but my pain was noiseless… unheard… then everything dropped to blackness.
