HOURS OF DARKNESS

A Cyberchase Saga by Grand High Idol

I: II. NUCLEAR

However, nearly halfway across Cyberspace at Control Central, the main cybersite where Motherboard resided, Digit LeBoid, the Cybersquad's perky robot bird sidekick, was oblivious as to what exactly was going on over on the meteor—and why not; he had left with the rest of the Cybersquad shortly after Hacker had plummeted off that cliff. Now he was in the kitchen, standing atop a stool in front of the stove, experimenting with a new type of recipe that he'd just thought of the other day.

"Let's see, here…" Digit dipped his wingtip into the chowder-like substance he was cooking and stuck it in his mouth, pondering. "Hm…it certainly has enough herbs, all right…but it needs something else." He snapped his fingers. "Pepper! It needs pepper!"

Looking around the countertop and realizing, for the first time that he had started cooking, that he didn't have any pepper, he sighed, then looked up at the cabinet above him and stood on his tiptoes in order to reach the knob, eventually managing to grasp it in one wing. There has to be pepper in here, he thought to himself as he began to pull the cabinet door open…

It was then that the stool tipped over; apparently Digit had been standing too far back on the edge. "AAAAAAHHH!" he yelped as he fell off and hit the ground with a loud THUD; the stool followed shortly after with a much louder noise. Lying on his back on the floor, he groaned, then felt at his beak—it actually wasn't out of place this time, miraculously—and shakily rose himself off the linoleum floor.

"Digit?" Motherboard's voice called from the adjacent room. "Is everything—all right in—there?"

"Yeah, yeah, it's fine," Digit replied calmly, straightening out the red cap he always wore on his head. "I just had a little fall, is it. Nothing's broken…except possibly the stool. But I can fix it!" He added the last line quickly.

"Very well…if you're sure…"

"Yeah, I'll be okay, don't worry about it," Digit told her; he then sighed and, turning around, began to make an attempt to set the stool back up in its proper place.

"Boy," he muttered to himself as he braced himself against the stool and began to push it upward, "talk about one of your worse days…first I nearly smash clear through a tree, then I ram into a wall, then I get a headache from running into some seismic waves, and now my stool falls over." He shook his head as he set the stool back up in front of the stove, then wobbled it a little to test its capacity. "At least it's not broken…"

He hopped back up onto the stool—being sure to keep his weight evenly balanced this time—and tasted the substance again, then shook his head a second time. "I don't care how bad a day I'm having; this still needs pepper!" he griped.

He was making a safer attempt to reach the pepper again when Dr. Marbles walked in, looking rather pleased with something or another. Digit paused in his reaching to look over at the Doc, nearly toppling the stool over in the process…thankfully, it didn't fall this time.

"Oh, hi, Doc!" Digit exclaimed cheerfully as the Doctor walked over to the coffee brewer, poured himself a small cup of coffee, then went to take his seat at the table in the center of the room. There was a brief pause. "Well, you certainly look happy this evening," the bird finally remarked. "What gives?"

Dr. Marbles took a sip of coffee before looking at Digit in return. "I recently backlogged from the phone with another cybersite, and you'll be pleased to know that the Cyberspacian Missile Alliance has finally unzipped a way to create safe missiles," he told the bird, sounding quite excited. "They're now in the process of using Cyber-nuclear power instead of the same recurring virus pods—not only are the missiles much safer to handle when building, now, they no longer have to worry about Hacker using them to demolish cybersites." He seemed greatly pleased with himself as he spoke the last line.

Digit was happy to hear this—he had read about the severe destruction virus pod missiles had done to Cyberspace in the past—but he was still rather uneasy at this fact. "I don't know, Doc…doesn't Cyber-nuclear power have a way of causing mass destruction on a greater scale? Matty told me about nuclear missiles once during a friendly conversation, and it didn't sound too good to me."

The Doctor shook his head. "No, you need not worry about that little error," he replied, pausing to take another brief sip of coffee. "The entire cause for the building of these missiles was to prevent viral damage. Cyberspace is the perfect area for viruses to constantly launch and destroy. Thus…" He sighed before continuing. "Thus, they've decided to downgrade to nuclear power. Whilst it can be very dangerous, it still cannot compare to what the virus pod missiles have done to our community in the past."

"Yeah, but still…I've always wondered why the Cyberspacian Missile Alliance even exists, anyway. Isn't Cyberspace supposed to be a peaceful and harmonious universe?" The bird appeared greatly confused.

"I've informed you, Digit. Our world may be a peaceful and harmonious place, but it still cannot be free of everyday evil. Thus, when things get too rough the Cyberspacian Missile Alliance comes in to do its job." He cleared his throat. "However, the missiles themselves are rarely used on villainy at all. More often than never, the missiles are used only to destroy incoming asteroids and meteors. But virus pods still must be concerned either way…as soon as a viral missile strikes an object, the virus immediately takes it over. That's why nuclear power may be so much safer in the future."

"But…well, Doc, even if they have decided to use nuclear power, what would happen if someone—Hacker, maybe—got his hands on one of those babies? He could wipe out an entire cybersite with one blow, and there wouldn't be anything that we could do about it!"

Despite what the bird had pointed out, the Doc seemed eerily calm. "You need not worry about that, either," he replied, looking at Digit in a sure manner. "The Cyberspacian Missile Alliance is well aware of what Hacker's intentions are, and thus they've secured the place as tightly as the auto-lock login page. There is no possible way that he can manage to enter that field."

"I…" Digit sighed, then closed his mouth and looked up toward the cabinet again. Of course there was no need to reason with the Doc; the Doc was nearly always right. Why was he even trying to make a counterexample? He barely even knew what a counterexample was as is.

"Did you want to say something, Digit?" the Doc asked.

"Huh? Oh, no, no, it's nothing," Digit replied sheepishly; he then concentrated back up on the cabinet. "Hey, do you know where the pepper is? I wanna finish my chowder before it ends up burning."

"Third shelf from the top," Dr. Marbles informed him, nodding.

"Okay…thanks." Digit couldn't help but feel a little embarrassed as he reached up and took the container of pepper down from the selected shelf, then slowly began to add it to the mixture…


"Many of you probably are already well aware of why I've gathered you all here," Apollo spoke out to the line of various robots, aligned military-style, in front of the steel pedestal on which he currently stood. "But let me go over the solution either way, just to make sure that you all have complete and full knowledge of what exactly we're doing to help change the future of Cyberspace as we know it.

"You know what your goal is—to kill the humans and anyone—besides the pure robot genre—that have anything to do with them. Being killing machines I'm quite sure that you'll have little to no trouble at all accomplishing that field, but, my comrades, there is more to the plan than just the bloodbath. Allow me to explain what we are to do first, before we go any deeper into the war that we are to unleash.

"I have been informed recently that the Cyberspacian Missile Alliance—currently head of all mass destruction weapons in Cyberspace—has created a series of new missiles—ones that run on nuclear power, not the usual viral. Whilst this may reduce the amount of damage that we could cause with viral missiles alone, there is an advantage to nuclear power that we haven't yet considered…

"You see, my comrades, we robots, being nearly free of all genetic copy material, save a precious few—you know who you are—are immune to the effects that nuclear power can cause in the ordinary mortal. Of course, in this case, the 'ordinary mortal' is the human being. If we fire one, and just one, nuclear missile at a certain cybersite, we have a full guarantee of not only blowing that selected site to obliviation, but a fair chance that every human caught in range of the blast will perish instantly. We may need to sacrifice quite a few of our troops here and there, but it shall be worth the task we are to fulfill."

He cleared his throat and cracked his knuckles before continuing, beginning to pace back and forth in front of the wall—the one that contained the light-map, naturally. "Our first task before we upgrade to the real killing is to retrieve those missiles and prepare them for targeting and launch purposes. And that's where you, you beautiful creatures, are to do your job." He flashed an eerie grin, then barked out, his voice echoing off the steel walls of the large room, "A-9! X-7!"

There was a brief silence, then finally one robot stepped out from the front of the line—a rather oddly-built android wearing dark slacks, a white shirt, and a leather jacket; half of his face was covered by a black, gangster-style hat. He looked up at Apollo as he stated his response.

"Yes, master," he said, his tone cold, his voice free of all emotion. Apollo grinned menacingly.

"You are to lead the selected recruits into the Cyberspacian Missile Alliance's main weaponry chamber, retrieve the power source that shall give us access to these nuclear missiles, and bring it back here in the best possible way that you can think of. If anyone gets in your way, you are to kill them at once. If anyone tries to stop you, same deal. Am I making myself clear?"

"Yes, master," the droid repeated, his voice still as dead and emotionless as before.

Apollo smiled again and nodded his head slowly. "Good," he finally replied; he then thrust his index finger toward the sliding panel that only hours ago had Buzz and Delete—who were currently nowhere to be seen within the army line—entered reluctant to join the A.I.A. "Now, then, go forth and conquer!"

The droid, his hidden face remaining unsmiling in the shadows, bowed his head, then turned around and began to head for the panel, which was already beginning to slide itself open to reveal the entrance hallway. Several other robots—heavily equipped with ancient, yet highly dangerous weaponry—left the line and headed out after him. The last member of the party went through just as the panel began to slide itself shut once more, leaving Apollo and the remaining recruits alone in the room once again.

"Now we are to wait," Apollo replied coolly, staring at the metal panel, now closed and as still as death. "Wait for the signal…and then it's time to burn…"


Being that it was early evening, the Missile Alliance was at its busiest hours; many of the employees there were currently occupied with the security, the experimental processes, the inspection, the computer analization, and such other related tasks. Thus, it was only natural that no one took any notice of the posse of robots smashing through the electrical gates that bordered the area without conflict…one security guard did, but of course one of the robots took care of him before he could get the word out.

As soon as they were out of sight behind the first building, the oddly-built droid—chosen, of course, to be the leader of the pack—halted the other robots in the posse and explained, in the same cold tone he had used before: "Now, then, my loyal comrades…you know what we are here to do. We must retrieve that power source, and we must do it as quickly as possible. I don't care how many that you have to kill in order to get them; just do it and everything will fall into place. Correct?"

"Correct," the other robots repeated, sounding just as lifeless.

"Good." The droid then turned to look toward another high fence near the end of the first and second buildings' alleys. "Now then, we are to split up into separate pairs. Since we so far have no idea of where to find these missile launchers as is, we'll have to tear the place apart until we find it."

The robots nodded immediately, then obeyed, each one choosing an ally and splitting up into pairs, each one heading in a different direction. Now only the droid remained; he stood there, the wind blowing his garments, the serious expression never leaving his face, his hands jammed into the pockets of his coat. Finally, he tilted his head upward, the light from one of the buildings reflecting off of his eyes for a split second.

His cold, lifeless eyes…

Then he turned around and slowly, steadily began to remove his jacket…as his head seemed to slip off of his shoulders and hit the ground, oddly silent…


For one reason or another, Motherboard always seemed to sense the danger that was going on in cybersites—even if no one had ever notified her in the first place. So it was only natural that she realized what was going on at the Cyberspacian Missile Alliance, of course. And, being that this could possibly be a cyber-crisis, she did the only thing that seemed logical at the moment—she portaled the kids in from the real world.

Digit waited and watched as the pink-colored portal opened up in the ceiling of the main building, and the three preteens fell out, hitting the ground and rolling down the aisle for a few moments before finally slowing to a stop. Matt, who had landed on top of both the girls, got up first, straightening out his green sweater and looking around.

"Gah, I know that we say this all the time, but we really need to land better next time," the redhead groaned, rubbing his arm. "I think I bruised something."

"You think you bruised something?" Jackie griped, staggering to her feet and dusting herself off. "I think I twisted my ankle. Hopefully I'll be able to walk okay. I can walk okay, can't I?" She took a few steps forward to test her aching joint out, and, upon finding that it wasn't twisted nor broken, only a little pressured on from the landing, gave a sigh of relief.

"So, what's going on now?" Matt asked. "I thought we left only a few hours ago."

"There is a—problem—at the Cyberspacian Missile—Alliance," Motherboard informed them, the usual tracking and returning in-between her sentence. "Unknown—interlopers. Must find and—stop before—things get out—of hand."

"The Cyberspacian Missile Alliance?" Inez repeated, adjusting her glasses. "Never heard of that before."

"You'll find out soon enough," Digit replied; he then looked over to the side. "Portal at three o'clock!"

The kids looked over at the swirling, colorful mass, then quickly ran and jumped into it, Digit following last, as usual. As it closed up and faded, the kids once again flew through the swirling, math-encoded vortex before finally coming out from the pinkish-gray sky of the CMA and landing on the hard, dusty ground below them.

"Not again…" Jackie groaned, looking down at her clothing as she slowly pulled herself up.

"Nice place," Matt commented sarcastically, shielding his eyes with one hand as so to have a good look around the place. "Wonder what the whole deal is here, anyway? It looks like jail property out here."

"Matt, it's a weaponry storage base," Inez replied, rolling her eyes as she got to her feet, dusting herself off, then taking her glasses off to momentarily clean them. "You can't expect complete orderliness around here all the time…after all, the weapons are more important than the landscaping."

"I know, I know," Matt replied impatiently, looking around. His demeanor then changed as he took in his surroundings. "This place is actually kind of neat once you think about it. But, as I said before, what's the deal? Everything looks just fi—"

His last word was drowned out by an ear-piercing shriek from somewhere behind one of the buildings. The three children and the robot bird jumped at hearing this noise; Matt then immediately concentrated his gaze in the direction from which the scream had originated. Narrowing his eyes for a brief moment and squinting out across the landscape, he then drew his head back and shook it, pondering.

"Hm…that sure doesn't sound like a scream of joy to me…" He then turned toward the girls and Digit, bracing himself to run. "Come on, let's go check it out. I didn't like the sound of that at all."

"Must be the interlopers," Digit said under his breath as he lifted himself up with his tail and began to fly off after the other three, looking down upon the dusty ground for any signs of life in the area—even a mere set of footprints would've done the job. But alas, due to the dusty ground and the faint breeze in the area, any traces of footprints, human or robotic, had been covered up almost entirely. It was next to impossible to sight anything out, and if he did, he'd be lucky.

They eventually did find something in the area—only it wasn't alive. Upon stopping near another alleyway between the second and third buildings, the kids halted in time to see something sticking out from behind the third building's brick wall. Naturally curious as to what it was, they slowly began to step into the alleyway, their shadows dragging along the wall, until they finally turned the corner and saw what it was in full view.

Now that they could see it, they found that it wasn't something; rather, it was someone. Sprawled out on the ground, in a pool of red, was what appeared to be one of the CMA security members. It wasn't too hard to see that he was dead; his neck was bent back at an impossible angle and blood was dripping in shallow tone from his mouth. His eyes—now cloudy and lifeless—were staring up at the dull sky above him, into space, into nothing.

Digit, naturally, was the first one to react. Clutching both wings to his mouth, his eyes bugged out and he slowly and steadily began to drift toward the ground, landing on his knees with a faint slumping sound, trembling and stammering. "Oh…oh…my G-god…"

"Ew!" Jackie hollered, quickly grabbing Inez around the shoulders, who appeared just as aghast. "What—what h-happened t-to him?"

Matt looked up at one of the buildings' windows to momentarily distract himself, swallowed hard, then said, looking back down at the man, his throat dry, "I…I don't know, Jax. But whatever it was…it wasn't natural cause."

"What killed him?" Inez wondered aloud, staring at the dead body in slight curiosity. She then slowly took a step forward, allowing Jackie's hands to slip off of her shoulders, then slowly began advancing on the corpse, examining it from all angles as she stepped. Matt, Jackie and Digit looked on in astonishment.

"Inez, don't tell me you're actually going near that thing!" Digit exclaimed, now sounding rather ill.

"I feel the need to, Didge," Inez replied, almost apologetically. "Besides, sometimes murderers leave clues that help determine the suspects and solve the case. I've watched a lot of cold case files in my spare time, so I should know."

"But Inez, haven't you ever watched old mystery movies?" Digit objected, holding his wings out expressively. "Whenever one of the investigators finds out who the murderer is, he's usually the next one to die!"

Inez held up her hand to silence him. "Shh," she hissed at him, then slowly, although a tad shakily, dropped to her knees near the body and began examining the area around the neck, trying not to touch it for the most part, but every now and then she had to reach out and stroke the surface of the skin to check for one thing or another. Finally, she shook her head, then stood up, wiping her hands off on her shorts.

"Well?" Matt asked, a tad urgently. "Did you find anything?"

Inez turned to face him, then nodded, keeping her hands behind her back. Her mouth was set in a thin line. "There're minor cut marks all around the neck area," she informed them. "And they look like they came from some type of chain. No doubt that he was choked to death."

"Oh…wow…" was all Matt could manage to express. He nervously jammed his hands into his jean pockets and twisted one foot around in the dust.

"So…where does that bring us?" Jackie pondered.

"Well, to me, I think it's pretty simple. If you see an odd-looking guy with a chain, don't talk, just run," Digit replied, folding his wings.

"Okay, okay, fine," Matt said, holding up his hands to halt the conversation, "but the more we stand here, the more people we're putting at risk. Let's just find the problem and fix it before anything else persis—"

He was cut off yet again by several strobe-like flashes of light from somewhere farther off, a series of terrified screams, then finally a thin wisp of smoke curling into the air and forming a small black cloud over the targeted area. The kids stopped, looked up at the smoke cloud in a trance, then Inez, the first one to snap out of it, quickly ran forward, pushing past the others.

"Hey!" Jackie exclaimed as she stumbled backward a few steps. "What's the big idea?"

"Don't you think that's a little obvious?" Inez called back after her, before veering around the corner and disappearing from view entirely. Matt sighed, rolled his eyes, shook his head, then finally took off after her, turning the corner as she did. He too disappeared.

"I really don't like this," Digit said, shaking his head. He looked back up at the rising smoke cloud. "I really don't."

"Yeah, me neither," Jackie agreed. "But what other choice do we have? We can't stand here or we'll be easy targets."

"Ugh, don't remind me," Digit replied, shuddering; he and Jackie then took off around the corner after the other two.


"Ah, crackers!" Matt exclaimed as he skidded to a halt in front of the area where they'd seen the flashes only moments earlier. At first he thought that they'd taken a wrong turn somewhere, but no, this was the right area; the smoke was still clearly visible in its ascent toward the sky. However, there was nothing to be seen in the area—no attackers, no corpses…nothing. "Looks like we came a little too late."

"Yeah, but at least no one was killed," Inez pointed out, looking around the area. "Or I hope not, anyway."

"Hey!" Jackie panted, as she finally caught up with the other two. "Could you guys please run a little slower next time? It's really hard having to run in these shoes." She massaged one of her feet, then looked up, automatically changing the subject. "Find anything?"

Matt shook his head. "No one's here," he informed her, gesturing out toward the emptied landscape. "Something's fishy here. And I really don't like it." He allowed his hands to drop to his sides. "We're gonna need to do something about this. I don't think that we'll be able to cover very much ground if we keep this up."

"So, what do you suggest we do?" Jackie asked, looking over at the redhead.

"Well…" Matt said slowly, pausing momentarily to think again. "Perhaps we could split up. You know, me and Inez go one way, you and Jackie go the other way. Maybe then we could cover more ground in less time."

"Matty, are you nuts!" Digit exclaimed, clutching both wings to the sides of his head. "That'll put us in even more danger than we're in right now! No way am I going through with that!"

"Listen, Didge, you want to help these people, right?" Matt snapped at him.

Digit looked at him for a few moments, a little taken aback by the boy's response, then finally slowly and solemnly nodded his head. There was no protesting against that, that was for sure.

"So then why not put yourself at risk? Remember, it's not us we're thinking about, it's the cybersite and what danger it's in right now. So, we're going to split up and cover more ground, possibly find what's going on around here. Now, then…" He looked off toward the landscape in front of him—set between two buildings and coated in the back by a barbed-wire fence. "Inez, you and I'll go this way. Jackie, you take Digit and go the other way. We're gonna meet back here in about two or three hours."

Before anyone could say anything more, he had already begun to run toward the fencing at the back. "If you find anything, call us on the Squwak!" he called out. "C'mon, Nezzie! We don't have all evening!"

Inez leered at him. "Don't call me Nezzie!" she shrieked angrily, as she began to run after him toward the fencing. That left Jackie and Digit alone, destined to stay in their own group whether they liked it or not. There was no following now.

"Well, I suppose that we should get going," Jackie sighed, looking around; Digit could clearly tell that she was just as nervous as he was. "We can't put any more citizens at risk…"

"Yeah…let's go do…that," Digit replied slowly, looking around the area.

He then froze, blinked a few times, shook his head, then looked back up toward the area he had been looking in when he had done so—namely, the top of one of the lower buildings. For a split second he thought he had seen something atop the roof, but now that he had cleared his vision he saw that whatever it had been, it was gone now.

I could've sworn that I saw something…he thought to himself. Then he shrugged. Oh well, perhaps it was just my mind playing tricks on me.

He then looked off toward the buildings; Jackie was already beginning to head down along one of them. Best follow someone, he decided, lifting himself up to fly after the African-American girl. If I get caught by myself…oh God, who knows what that killer's gonna do

"Jackie, wait up!" he called out after her as he struggled to catch up with the girl's steps.

Meanwhile, from atop one of the buildings, a lone figure, bathed entirely in the shadow, slowly emerged from its hiding spot on the rooftop and looked after the two, glaring evilly, its teeth bared in a menacing sneer. Watching them as they departed, it gave a single, low hiss, then slowly withdrew from its position and began to head across the rooftop, continuing in a somewhat stiff, yet quick gait, the heavy chains wrapped round its shoulders clanking faintly…


"…So you can't tell us what any of the attackers looked like?" Jackie asked dejectedly.

The computer analyzer whom they were currently speaking to slowly shook her head and adjusted the clipboard she kept in one hand. "Sorry, but no," she replied, sounding a little dejected herself. "All I can tell you is that there were about seven or eight of 'em, and the lead one was very oddly built…looked almost like two robots put together if you ask me."

Jackie and Digit exchanged glances, then looked back at the analyzer. "Did you manage to catch a glimpse of the leader's face?" Digit questioned, trying to sound a tad enthusiastic about his approach. They needed more information.

Once again, the analyzer shook her head. "I never even caught a full glimpse," she admitted. "The only one who managed to catch sight of him and live were a few of the others…they watched the entire scenario from one of the windows—for some reason they use transparent glass; have no idea why." She rolled her eyes toward the ceiling. "Worthless architects…"

"Okay, okay, so you don't know very much," Jackie said, trying to cool the situation, "but can you at least tell me why you think—"

"Karlson, they've broken into the weaponry chamber!" Another computer analyzer, most likely a newcomer, ran into the room, his hair in all directions and his eyes wide behind his thick-rimmed glasses. "Oh God, someone save us!"

Karlson—if it was indeed the female analyzer that he was referring to—turned to look at him, then shook her head. "What? Are you saying that they've managed to break past the—" She clenched her teeth, then shut her eyes and clapped one hand to her face. "Oh, Heaven save us…"

"What? What's happening?" Jackie asked, sounding rather fevered. "What's going on?"

Karlson looked back down at the girl, her face now looking rather pale. "Those foreign intruders have somehow managed to break through our security system," she told the girl, her voice sounding rather faint and far-off. "It's the only thing guarding the weaponry chamber. We store nearly everything there. I—they—if they manage to get their hands on the starter for those missiles—"

"No doubt that's what they're after," Digit exclaimed breathlessly; then, without further hesitation, he turned and flew at top speed out of the room. "They've gotta be stopped!"

"Digit, stop!" Jackie cried out after him. "Do you even know what you're doing! You're putting everyone's life at stake—"

But Digit was already gone, and there wasn't much Jackie could do about it.


The bird was now streaking at top speed down the hall, refusing to falter, for once even forgetting about the feeling of mortal dread he had concealed underneath his determination. But what did that matter now, he thought to himself? It was bad enough that they'd taken the lives of those two security guards, but now…this was just too much.

"Weaponry chamber…weaponry chamber…" he muttered to himself as he made a sharp turn down another steel-plated hallway. "Boy, this place is really huge! I wonder where they keep their—"

He slowed to a halt when he found that he had indeed reached the weaponry chamber entrance—that large, smoking, scorching hole in the wall was a complete giveaway in this case. Landing on the ground, and finally, upon staring at the hole, realizing for the first time just how frightened he was, he swallowed hard and backpedaled a few steps, his tail feathers drooping and his body beginning to tremble intensely.

"Okay…maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all," he muttered to himself, looking around nervously. "Uh-hum…where did I come in from again?" He then clapped both wings to his head again and shook it frantically. "Oh no, don't tell me I'm lost again!"

As the bird whipped around in all directions, clearly on the brink of having a panic attack, the vent near the ceiling opened, and a series of metal links descended from it, provoking a faint CHINK sound and not much else. Another figure, hidden by the shadows of the vent, then slowly swung down from it, slowing to a halt at the end of the chain and looking down in the bird's direction, keeping one fist wrapped tightly around the links. For a second—and only a brief second—a cold, emotionless smile broke out across the creature's face, then it braced its feet against the wall, undid the chain from its hand, then slowly began to tug the remainder out of the vent…

Digit was oblivious to the fact that someone was watching him, however, and continued to stare at the hole, not sure on whether to step in or retreat. Of course, then again, he knew that he couldn't retreat to anywhere if he was lost…and this wasn't a good sign…he didn't exactly want to go in and face that group of attackers, either…

Not sure on what to do, he stared at the hole, visibly shaking, until he finally heard another noise from behind him—a faint, difficult to hear WHIIPHISSH sound. Gulping, he had a short mental battle on whether or not to turn around, shook his head, swallowed again, then finally made his decision and turned to look up at what had made the noise…

The most he got out of his decision was the bottom of someone's boot coming directly down at his face, then something large and apparently heavy colliding with the back of his skull, sending him to the ground, with a loud cry of pain accompanying it. Digit groaned, then lay still against the floor, his vision slowly beginning to blur…

He knew that he was going out…

And he couldn't do anything about it…

Deciding that he should at least get the chance to see his attacker, he mustered the strength to twist his head up in one direction, as so to at least catch a glimpse. At first he couldn't see it, just a series of blurred, dampened colors, but within a few seconds his mind finally managed to sort it out:

"No…it can't be…you would never…"

That was the most the bird could manage to whisper before his head hit the linoleum floor and his world eventually dulled to black.