Chapter 6: Someone's Gonna Hang

Alyss ran down the hall, barely keeping Jack in her sight as he turned corners rapidly. After chasing him for a good five minutes, Alyss came across a fork in the hallway, at the center of which was another unfamiliar Collector with his head down. This one was clad in orange, his hair a very dark red, and his coat stained in a multiple colors, accompanied by patches and what appeared to be burn holes. Alyss was curious whether or not the colors were from paint or some other colored substance, but this wasn't the time for that. She had more important things to attend to. Since she didn't know which way Jack had gone, she felt it'd be best to ask for the man's help.

"Hey, you," she said impatiently, "did you see which way Jack went?" The man looked up at her. Now that his head was up, Alyss could see that his eyes were an eerie yellow and that his hair spiked up at an angle on either side, giving him a cat-like appearance. He blinked a few times. He had a large grin on his face that sort of annoyed Alyss. The man tilted his head side to side and hummed. Alyss felt her temper start to rise. "Hey! Did you hear me?!" The man stopped tilting his head, but kept smiling just as he did before. His big yellow eyes stared into Alyss' single eye.

"I heard you, Miss," he hummed in a voice that sounded happy but seemed to be hiding a blatant attempt at annoyance. "What I didn't hear was 'please'." His smile opened to show his teeth and gums. Alyss was put off by his teeth, as they seemed to be sharpened at the ends and lock into place with each other. She ignored this though and continued to inquire as to where Jack was.

"Sigh…please tell me which way Jack went…" Alyss scowled contemptuously. The man tilted his head side to side some more and continued to hum. It was as if he was pretending to be trying to remember where Jack went. Alyss was getting impatient and just decided to go to the right.

"Where do you think you're going?" said the man, who was now standing against the wall on the right side of the right corridor. Alyss looked back at the wall he had been standing at just a moment before.

"How did you get there so fast?"

"Who are you talking to?" said the man, now standing behind Alyss, his chin resting on her left shoulder. Alyss jolted and wheeled around to strike the man. He bent backwards to avoid the blow. He chuckled, his grin seemingly bigger than before. "My my, we certainly have a short temper, don't we?" Before he could say anything else though, he was pinned against the wall with a swift kick to his side. Alyss grabbed his collar and held him up with his back to the wall. The man's laughter got louder. "Hoo, you certainly are a riot" he sang excitedly. Alyss held up her free claw to his face. The man's grin faded slightly. "Okay, okay, I'll tell you." Alyss loosened her grip and let him down to the ground. He cleared his throat. "Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Chester Katz." Alyss honestly didn't give a damn about his name, but she figured it'd be easier to get information out of him if she went along with what he was saying.

"Alyss," she said, impatiently waiting for Katz to tell her what she wanted to know. Katz nodded.

"Alyss…Nice name. Now, as to Jack's location," he began. Alyss listened intently. "He went in the direction that you want to go." No sooner than this left his mouth was he slammed against the wall once again.

"I don't have time for your riddles! Tell me where the hell he went already!" Katz shook his head.

"Not a riddle, my dear," he explained. "It's simple logic. You want to see Jack. The direction he went is where you want to go. See how that works?" His grin now reached from ear to ear, his gums almost entirely exposed. Alyss was outraged. This man was clearly taking pleasure in her anger, but this only pissed Alyss off more. She decided to give up on the man and threw him to the floor.

"Fine! If you won't tell me, I'll just pick for myself!" Alyss turned to the right again, but Katz called out to her.

"Wrong way." Alyss turned around. She scowled at the cat-like man.

"Sorry," she spat, "but I don't believe you." She walked down the right hall without looking back at the now cackling Katz. As his laughs got louder, Alyss couldn't help but peek back, only to see that he was gone. His laughs simply continued to grow louder, without a source to produce them.

Alyss reached the end of the hallway, Katz's laughter finally having died out, and found that it was a dead end. Alyss kicked the wall in front of her.

"GOD DAMMIT!" Alyss was furious that Katz had told the truth. As she turned around to go back the other way, she noticed that there was what looked like a small handle in the wall. She was rather curious as to what it was, so she placed her hand on it. In fact it was a handle. She pulled it, but that did nothing. She tried pushing it, but that also did nothing. Then she tried sliding it, and the wall seemed to open. Alyss peered inside the door-sized hole in the wall to find what looked like a dojo. She entered the room and found katana, spears, and other weapons adorning the wall. On the other end of the room in the corner was a bed. "What the hell…" she whispered to herself. She then heard a sort of whistling sound, almost as if something was flying through the air. Just in time, Alyss took a step backwards, just narrowly avoiding a spear flying in from her right. She turned swiftly to find a man with short, spiky black hair and a grey shirt. His eyes were as pitch-black as his hair. He was standing in such a way that suggested he had indeed been the one who had thrown the spear at her. The man let out a quick 'tch', as if he was upset that he'd so barely missed his target. "What the fuck do you think you're doing!?" she screamed. "You could've taken my head off with that!" He simply stared.

"What are you doing here?" The way he said this, Alyss detected that the man had a problem with her specifically, not simply because she was in what she assumed was his room. Upon closer inspection, she realized that this man was with Jack and Sally when they kidnapped her. She glared at him, wondering what kind of problem he had with her.

"I'm looking for Jack," she declared. The Grey-Shirt did not move for a minute. He then walked towards Alyss and stared into her eye.

"You lost him, huh…" he scoffed. He seemed to disapprove of Alyss in every way. "Tell me, what did you do to him?" he asked, almost sarcastically. Alyss was indignant.

"I didn't do nothin'," she hissed. The man looked rather cross.

"Uh huh…I bet you were makin' googly eyes at another man, weren't ya?" The man turned his head and once again let out a 'tch'. He started whispering to himself. "He deserves better than you…" Alyss was a little put off by this, but she didn't bother paying any notice to it.

"Listen here, bub," she demanded, "I wasn't makin' no googly eyes or anything else. I was just messing with Jack a little, that's all." The man shook his head.

"Unbelievable…Jack goes through all the trouble to take you into his home and make you a part of his life, and you repay him by going after other men…Tisk tisk…" The man wagged his finger at her. Alyss attempted to grab the wagging finger, with every intention on ripping it off of the man's hand, but he swiped his hand away before she could. He leaned in close to her. "Now you listen to me, missy," he growled, "either you treat Jack right or you give him to me. If you can't learn to hold onto him, I'm gonna take him for myself, got it?" Alyss was rather confused now.

"Take him for yourself? What, are you carryin' a torch for him or somethin'?" The man's face turned slightly red. Alyss brought her palm up to her forehead. "Wow…I'm here two days and I already meet a lesbo and a gay-guy…And what the hell's up with all the weaponry? Compensatin' for somethin', bud?" Before she could go any farther though, she felt something cold on her neck. It was the side of a blade. The man had drawn a sword that was hanging on the wall while she wasn't paying attention. Alyss did not waver though. She refused to show fear in front of someone so ridiculous. She put her hand on the dull side of the blade and brushed it away. "Anyway, I was just wondering if you'd seen Jack or not." The man returned the blade to its sheath on the wall and shook his head. "Hm…shame…I'll just be on my way then…" As she turned around to leave, the man began to speak again.

"Hey, lady," he called. Alyss glared at him. "Next time, try knocking with your hand, not your foot. It's less annoying." Alyss would have chuckled, but instead she just turned her head back and kept going. After she was gone, the man turned towards his bed. "She's gone. You can come out now." Out from under the bed crawled Jack. He dusted off his clothes with his hands.

"Sorry about that, Vorp. She can be a little tough to deal with." 'Vorp' shook his head.

"Quite alright. And I've told you before, you don't need to be so formal. Just call me Lance." Jack chuckled.

"Whatever you say, buddy. Anyway, I should be getting back to my own room. I have a project that I want to finish." Lance frowned.

"Alright…I was kind of hoping you'd stay a little longer…"

"I'm sorry. But I really should finish my project. And I'd like to be there when Alyss goes back there." Jack walked towards the door, but stopped. "Hey…that whole 'carrying a torch thing'…That was a joke, right?" Lance blushed slightly.

"O-of course it was! Just tryin' to mess with her is all." He laughed nervously. Jack nodded.

"Nice job. Now, I'll see you later." Jack waved at Lance and left. Lance waved back after he was gone.

"See you…"