Chapter 3: The Great Escape

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I wake up, blinking, as the sound of scraping metal rings through the hub. Five metal trays containing a bowl of something brown a gloppy along with a slice of bread are slid through a slot at the bottom of the locked door. Sitting up, I see the others have all claimed a tray. Bethany grabs the last one and brings it over to where I'm sitting on my bed.

"Eat up," she advises. "There won't be anymore." I give her a questioning look.

"This happened once while you were gone," the purple-eyed cat explains. "Arianna complained and got Tased."

Wincing at the thought, I rub my own shock collar and begin to slurp the brown goop, which has the texture of thin oatmeal. As we finish the meal, the door opens and another aide comes in, calling for subject 23-8. Bethany goes with him, winking at me on her way out. I sigh, and turn around to see Ruby's unusual eyes inches from mine.

"What did they do," she asks, staring at my collar. "Did they make you fight? Did you fight them? Did they make you bleed? Did you…" I'm grateful when Arianna comes up behind the energetic cat-girl and puts one paw over her mouth.

"Enough," she says.

"Whatever Hannah experienced, I'm sure we'll all feel for ourselves soon enough." Ruby goes silent at that, and Arianna walks to sit in the lotus position in front of her bed, leaving me and the younger ninja to our thoughts.

Bethany is returned later on. She is dragged in by a pair of ninjas much like I was. My breath catches at her condition; singe marks cover her fur, which has been shaved off in some places, revealing blue skin beneath. Blood, thankfully a normal red color, drips sluggishly from small cuts on the shaved patches. Satomi kneels by the girl, examining her with experienced eyes.

"I need a pillow case, quickly," she commands. Ruby fetches one, and Satomi soon has it sliced into long, neat strips of fabric. Several are tied around Bethany's arms and legs to stop the bleeding, while more are hidden away to be used later. There is no doubt they will be needed.

We carry Bethany to her bed and leave her to sleep it off. Soon the lights in the room are turned off, leaving us to find our way to our beds in the dark. Luckily night vision was one of the cat's abilities to transfer, so we make it with minimal bumps.

The next day? Hour? There is no way to tell time in this prison. They take Arianna next, and she too is dragged back in. She is covered in several strange, sticky liquids, and her ear is nicked. Satomi tends her as well. When the food arrives, I almost refuse it, but I am low on energy as it is, and will need all I can get if we are to escape. Already a plan is forming in the depths of my mind.

Satomi is taken while we are all still asleep, and is thrown back to us with longer, bleeding cuts on the insides of her elbows and shaved patches around the top of her head.

It is worst when Ruby is taken. The youngest cat walks in on her own, a first. Satomi walks over to the girl and asks, "Ruby? Are you okay?"

Everyone is shocked when the red-eyed cat collapses, sobbing, into her arms.

"Sh, sh," Bethany says soothingly, awkwardly rubbing the younger cat's back. I watch as the purple-eyed fighter guides Ruby to her bed and tucks her under the covers, still talking quietly to the cat-girl. My jaw clenches to see the most innocent of our number reduced to such a state. Silently, I move to my bed and sink into the lotus position that Arianna is so fond of, focusing as the plan begins to take a sharper form.

"I need some help," I say on the seventh cycle. Both Bethany and I have taken a second round of tests, which has somehow managed to be worse than the first. "I have a plan to escape. I have no clue if it will work, but I need you guys to trust me." They listen as I outline my strategy, giving them the main ideas. It takes some fine tuning and tweaking, but finally we're all agreed on a plan.

The next morning we're all awake earlier than usual and waiting when the scientists come to take one of us. As soon as the door opens I launch myself, howling maniacally, at the aide and his two guards. They're all down in the time it takes to blink.

Taking two Tambos from one ninja and a ninjato from the second one, I toss the Tambos to Bethany before taking the remote to the shock collars from the aide. Soon the metal bands lie, twisted and useless, on the floor beside the knocked out men. "Let's go," I shout, and we charge into the hall.

Turning left, we quickly come across a group of ninjas. With a feral growl I launch myself at them, spinning my ninjato left and right until all that's left of the group is a hallway lined with unconscious bodies. The newly useless fighters 'donate' their weapons to Arianna, Ruby, and Satomi, who launch themselves at the next wave of warriors with undisguised glee.

Ruby snarls and whips her kusarigama around, wrapping the weighted end around a ninja before yanking them closer and, kicking only once per ninja, knocks them out cold.

Arianna is silent doom, her shaken striking crucial nerve points in the enemy and paralyzing them until she can swoop past and finish them.

Satomi uses her fans as shields to deflect swords and clubs to battle, sometimes using the razor sharp edge to slice through bo-staffs and weak swords.

Bethany, however, is the real fighter. She uses her Tambos to ruthlessly club her enemies over the head, block sword blows, and jab some in the stomach. She moves through the ninja ranks like a whirlwind.

Continuing, we fight our way through several groups of ninjas until I hear Ruby.

"Hey, I found a window," she shouts, pointing with one clawed finger. Battling our way to her, Bethany smashes the glass with one of her Tambos. We all clamber out onto the fire escape and, jumping onto the building beside this one, begin running.

It's nighttime, and our living hell for a week is nothing more than an abandoned warehouse. My team runs across the roof tops, chased by a horde of ninjas. Using our tails for balance, we soon outdistance the humans and give them the slip, hiding in the shadows of an alley. Breathing hard, the five of us rest. Ruby winces, and picks a stray piece of glass from her foot.

"We need clothes and food," I state, looking around. Luckily we're close to a Salvation Army. Breaking in is simple for trained ninja assassins, and soon we take to streets, disguised by long trench coats, hats, and boots. Turned up collars and sunglasses hide our faces and eyes as we roam the city streets.

New York is quieter at night.

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Any thoughts? At all? No? So you're all brain dead? Jk, you know I luv you all! REVIEW or I will tell Ruby that you guys were the ones to dye her fur pink. REVIEW!