Chapter 7: Battle of Darkmount
Darkmount, Nevada…
Kara started when she felt the entire lab suddenly shake, "What was that!?" she yelped, looking around. The lab had never shaken before like that as far as Kara knew. Darkmount was a stable structure, and it would take a lot for it to shake like that.
The Kryptonians mind went into overdrive as she thought up reasons as to why the base had shook like that. Either Megatron's weapons installed on it where bigger and more powerful than she initially thought, Knockout had blown something up on accident, or… or…
"The Autobots!" she cheered, feeling a smile cross her face. They had come to rescue her from Darkmount! She knew they would finally come!
Her victory was very short lived though, as she realized what that meant. Megatron would lock the base down if the Autobots where attacking, to prevent infiltrators. And if he had, that meant guards where going to be sent to the lab/prison where she was being held. And then there really would be no way for her to get out.
Kara cursed, "Scrap, scrap, scrap!" she cursed, and started thinking again.
First, she organized her thoughts into what she already knew. The Autobots where attacking Darkmount, Kara had one option to escape the table where she was being held (Though she was more than wary of trying it), and that Megatron would be posting guards in her prison soon enough. What she didn't know was far more extensive.
She had no idea how many of the Autobots where taking part in the attack. It could've just been Optimus, Arcee, and maybe Void, or it could be the entire team all at once. Either way, Kara had no way of knowing, which meant this assault could be very short lived. And then there were her guards. There wasn't a single method she could think of that would tell her how far or how close they were.
The last thing Kara wanted was to be caught midway through her escape by the cons, and being punished for it. Shockwave so far hadn't done anything… permanently damaging besides taking some blood samples, but that might have been because he only had her. If she tried to escape, Kara held no illusions about the fact that Shockwave would happily punish her for it if caught.
Kara bit on her lower lip nervously while she was weighing her options. What was she going to do!? She either stayed and hoped the Autobots would be able to fight their way to her, or risk escaping herself and hoping that Shockwave didn't catch her.
Another base shaking rumble immediately shook Kara from her thoughts and sort of made up her mind for her. Obviously the Bots where putting up one pit of a fight, and where tearing into the base. It might be worth the risk trying to escape from the lab just so she could meet them halfway.
Kara looked up at her left hand and let out a small whimper, "Damn it…" she whispered. The risk was too great. She had to escape, even if doing so was going to hurt like hell…
That thought almost made her snort. Kal would laugh if he saw how much of a wimp she was being. She shook her head. No he wouldn't. He'd support her the best he could, through this if there was no other option.
She could practically hear his words of encouragement now, 'C'mon Kara, you can do this…'
"I can do this…" she repeated, taking a few steady breaths. Then Kara clenched her teeth together and tightened her left hand. Using her index fingers, she squeezed her thumb to her palm.
Nearly a year under Earth's yellow sun had lead to Kara's muscle density being at least double that of a normal humans. So while she was nicely built, even without yellow solar radiation, her strength was still the equivalent of a fully trained Navy SEAL'S. In other words, breaking the bone she needed to break would be easier than if she was still on Krypton.
Kara closed her eyes tightly and began pulling her hand against the cuff that restrained her arm to the table. The cool steel edge bit into her wrist making her shiver slightly. The girl ignored it and increased the strength on her thumb.
Then, there was a sudden loud snap, and Kara screamed.
Voidwalker vented heavily, sprinting through what was essentially a warzone. The entire area surrounding Darkmount was either covered in ash, filled with smoke, or on fire. Sometimes all three.
This made traversing the entire area a hazard in itself. The terrain was still as rocky as ever, making running through the area as much a hazard as the con that was trying to chase her down. One of Megatron's new Vehicons was screaming behind her in jet mode, occasionally peppering the ground around her with bolts of Dark Energon.
Void had quickly lost track of Bulkhead and Bee, while Starscream was shooting by overhead, pestering every drone he could and drawing their attention off the ground pounders. Which meant at the moment that Void was on her own dealing with her pursuer.
A smile passed over her scarred lips. She always worked best on her own. And really, anyone that knew what she was capable of should have felt sorry for the poor drone that thought that singling the rather large femme out was the worst mistake it could have possibly have made.
Optics quickly scanning over the environment, Void's smile widened into a smirk when she saw a section of raised earth up ahead. Rubble lay around it, suggesting that it had once been one of the many mesa's that surrounded Jasper. Megatron had no doubt torn it down purely as a show of power and a waste of Energon.
The rubble left behind though, was more important to Void. She winced when she felt the blistering heat of blaster fire exploding behind her, scorching the very edges of her armor. She ignored it and focused on the minefield of rubble ahead of her.
Without missing a beat, Voidwalker leaped forward towards the first boulder. Her pedes lightly touched the rocky surface before she bounced off of it and landed on another nearby boulder before jumping to the side onto another boulder. She repeated this several times, flitting from one rock to another. The drone behind her always just missed, reducing her previous position to molten rock.
One practically exploded under the heat, propelling Voidwalker even higher than she intended. By that point though, she'd reached the remains of the mesa and felt her pedes press against its side. Her knees bent down before springing her forward.
Void spun in midair, shifting both servos to blasters, and opened fire on the drone. It flared about trying to correct its course, but the sudden fire on its chassis caused it to collide with Voidwalker. The drone transformed when it did and they both went crashing to the ground.
Several plates of armor on her frame groaned and cracked under the impact, but Void rolled with it, kicking the drone off of her and flipping to her feet. The drone hit the ground and skid across it, digging both clawed servos into the ground. It looked up and growled at Voidwalker.
Voidwalker rolled her optics and reached into her subspace to produce a long golden spear in her servos, "Shut your vocal processor." she ordered. The thrust that impaled the drone was but a blur.
It's jaw went lax and it's head rolled to the side. A small bit of Dark Energon dripped out of its spark cavity, before Void ripped the spear from its chest and flicked the vile substance off of it. She returned it to her subspace and noted with a grin that Jazz had been right, Megatron's new forces where far less intelligent than his old ones.
She chuckled, "Millennia later, Megatron, and you're still as short sighted and arrogant as ever."
With that said, she left the corpse behind her and began walking off. The ashen clouds suddenly lit up in the distance and she frowned. Blasters could be heard going off again, which meant that one of the Autobots needed a little help. A small smirk stretched over her faceplate and she ran forward.
Her entire being spiraled down into a large black motorcycle that roared to life and sped across the desert landscape towards the source of conflict. Void weaved between large rocks and boulders until she was suddenly reaching the end of a large hill. Instead of slowing down, Void gunned her accelerator, watching as the landscape zoomed by.
And then, she went flying off the hill into the air. The motorcycle fell apart and reassembled itself into the large black femme who came crashing down on top of a standard Vehicon. Void stabbed her blade into its neck, offlining it, and turned her attention to the conflict at hands.
Bumblebee had been cornered by a group of drones behind a large boulder. Bulkhead was nowhere to be seen, and the remaining four drones combined fire power was quickly chipping through Bee's cover. The scout returned fire occasionally, but he was quite outnumbered.
Void crouched down, "Here we go." and sprang forward like a wild cat. Her right servo was shifted into a large bladed sword and her left servo remained clawed.
The drones had been unaware of her presence, and so her sudden flanking attack caught the first one off guard. Void impaled it through the shoulder, before raking her talons over its visor. Then she thrust both forward and ripped its processor out, letting it drop to the ground offline.
She didn't get anytime to savor her victory though, as the remaining drones turned to fire on her. Void backpedaled to avoid the fire, with limited effectiveness. Several shots pinged off her armor. There was a loud crack and Void winced as one of her armored plates that had been damaged from her earlier scuffle suddenly cracked apart.
"Scrap!" she rolled to the side behind Bumblebee's cover. The scout was staring up at her wide eyed while Void held her injured side.
It wasn't often one saw Voidwalker get injured. Void gave him a small smile, "Hello…" she slid down against the ground and rested her head against the rock, "Can you handle the rest of our guests please?"
Bee blinked and then nodded, "I think I've got them. Not sure where Bulkhead went though…"
Surprisingly the answer literally came in the form of a familiar wrecker yelling, "PAIN TRAIN COMING THROUGH!"
Both bots looked past their cover in time to see Bulkhead tackle two of the drones into a nearby rock. He snapped one's head in his arm while he pounded the other one to dust with his mace. Then he stood up and looked at the remaining drone. It was still holding its blaster pointed at him.
Bulkhead shook his head at the drone, "Buddy, do you really wanna go through with this?"
The drone stabbed it's blaster at Bulkhead, visor flaring red. The wrecker arched an optic ridge before grinning, "Well, I'd look behind ya first bub."
If the Vehicon eyes, it would've blinked. Actually, that was all it would've done. Because another gravelly voice echoed through the air, "TRANSFORM!"
It turned around in time to see a glowing red saber pass clean through its chest. Starscream skid past the drone with his crimson saber held to one side and his head bowed. The drone stood there without moving for several moments. Starscream stood up and attached his saber back to his shoulder.
And then the Vehicon fell forward in two pieces, spilling brilliant blue Energon everywhere. Starscream looked over at his fellow Cybertronians and gave a small smirk.
"It would seem that we've all managed to regroup once again." he noted, grey optics briefly looking at the cover Bee and Void were using.
Void walked out from behind her cover, holding her side still, and looked at the two, "We need to find a safer location than this. Somewhere to hunker down and fortify. If we split up again, Megatron will have us overwhelmed."
Bulkhead laughed at that, "Got a point there Void. I saw a big cluster of rocks a click or so back. Single entrance in, good covering of debris. Con's could only come at us from above or the front."
"Very well…" Void gave a faint nod, before looking up at Darkmount, "We shall make our stand there to buy Optimus and the others the time that they need…"
Optimus continued his way through the halls of Darkmount, hearing the distant and all too familiar clashing of combat echoing through the halls. Ironhide had engaged Scourge in full and was holding his own well it seemed. For the moment anyway.
Ironhide was a tough veteran soldier, Optimus knew that for a fact. Pit, the bot had been a soldier before Optimus had even crawled out of the Well of Allsparks. But something about Scourge worried Optimus.
The massive con seemed built for combat. He looked massive, intimidating, and if the clashing and shaking of Darkmount was any indicator, he was more than capable of backing up that intimidating appearance. It almost made Optimus wonder if Ironhide was up to the challenge.
The Prime shook off such thoughts, he had an objective to finish. When the cannons where disabled, then he would worry about Ironhide. For the time being though, Optimus continued through the strangely empty halls. It didn't make sense that Optimus wouldn't encounter anymore Decepticons, until he took Scourge into account.
Odds were that Megatron had expected Scourge to delay Optimus or even defeat him. He likely didn't even know about Ironhide yet. Which meant that Optimus had a very small advantage at the moment. He just couldn't squander it.
Optimus reached the final door and quickly hacked into the terminal. Con code was relatively easy to hack, and so in a few seconds the door slid open for Optimus. He turned to walk through, and found a Fusion Cannon pointed directly at him, along with a half dozen blasters.
Megatron smirked, "Optimus, how wonderful to see you. Please, come in… take a seat."
Ironhide let out a surprised grunt of surprise when Scourge kicked him in the chest, knocking him back into the wall. His weapon flew out of his servo and went skittering off into the darkened hallway. Ironhide only managed to curse before Scourge came charging at him, letting out a thundering roar.
The wall crunched and cracked when Scourge made impact. Ironhide rolled to his feet next to the con, quickly scooping his weapon off the floor and smirking. Scourge was one tough piece of slag, Ironhide wouldn't deny that. But he was inexperienced.
Scourge growled and pulled himself from the wall and glared at Ironhide with sickly purple optics, "You are skilled. For an old mech."
Ironhide shook his head, "Really? That's the best insult you can come up with, slaghead?" the red bot twirled his sword in his hands. The long silver and red blade shifted and creaked before taking on the form of a large axe that Ironhide comfortably rested on his shoulder.
Unlike other bots, who's melee weapon either compressed itself or was built into them, Ironhide decided to make his own weapon. Oh sure, he had his own built in weapons, but the one on his shoulder? That was a custom designed weapon, built to fit any situation that Ironhide found himself in. A T-Cog built into its hilt allowed it to quickly transform from sword, to axe, to mace.
So regardless of who he was fighting, Ironhide always had the perfect melee weapon to deal with. He'd use some of his longer ranged weapons to deal with Scourge, but the hall was way too cramped to risk setting one of those off. Yet. So he settled for his big battleaxe instead while wearing a comfortable smirk.
Scourge scowled behind his mask and began grinding his talons together. This produced a low screeching sound that made Ironhide visibly wince. The frequency of sound they reached was enough to mess with his audio receptors.
"Okay, ow ow ow!" Ironhide grabbed at one audio receptor.
When he did, Scourge took his advantage and let out another roar of fury, charging right at Ironhide.
The big red mech only had time to curse before Scourge came charging right into him. His barbell shaped fist came swinging up and hit Ironhide right in the chin, spewing sparks everywhere. The bot felt himself fly up into the air, before another of Scourges massive fists wrapped around his head and slammed Ironhide right into the ground.
Steel plating buckled under the impact, and sparks went flying everywhere. Scourge let out a sickly laugh and began dragging Ironhide through the floor. He spoke in his sickly voice once again.
"So confident in your strength, Ironhide." he grumbled, "Big and strong mech coming to save the day."
With a flick of his wrist, Scourge sent Ironhide flying down the hall. The poor bot barely managed to land on his feet. He actually stumbled back a few feet before slamming his axe into the floor, sending sparks flying everywhere. Ironhide came to a skidding stop and slumped forward breathing hard.
Scourge slowly stalked toward him, rolling his shoulders as he did, "But what happens when your strength fails? When you find a mech built to be stronger than you in every way?"
Ironhide spat out a bit of Energon from his mouth and began to stand. Scourge chuckle and clenched his servo tightly. It suddenly shifted and twisted, spiked armor plating covering it. The wrist became loose and his hand slowly fell to the floor, held attached to his arm by a long thick steel cable.
Scourge began to casually spin the massive flail to his side while vicious pleasure twinkled in his optics, "I was built to kill Optimus Prime, leader of the Autobots. That is my purpose. Tell me, Autobot. What chance do you have holding against me?"
A large shadow fell over the struggling Ironhide. He looked up to see Scourge standing over him, slowly raising his flail overhead. Ironhide made no move to defend himself and Scourge smirked. For such a big tough bot, he was far more bark than bite.
"That's what I though. Now perish!" Scourge brought his flail down to break Ironhide's helm open.
Instead of that though, the giant mech's optics tripled in size when his arm stopped dead. Ironhide smirked and tightened his grip on Scourge's forearm. He got his other leg under him and slowly began to stand. His servo tightened into a fist, which he slowly pulled back.
"Kid, who in the pit do you think trained Optimus?" Ironhide laughed. And then his own fist flashed forward, striking Scourge across the faceplate.
The giant stumbled back in surprise, grasping at his mask with one servo while his flail turned into a large triple barreled blaster. He fired wildly at Ironhide, leaving thick scorch marks all over the hallway. Ironhide himself either let the blasts bounce off his armor, or knocked them away with his sword.
"I've been around for so long it makes me dizzy just thinking about it." Ironhide rushed forward and jumped up, punching Scourge across the faceplate once again.
The moment the mech's pedes hit the floor, he began to rapidly pound Scourge along his midsection. A barrage of fast and hard blows that left small dents in Scourge's armor and put the mech on the defensive. Scourge just kept backing up more and more, letting out pained yells as his armor was quite efficiently turned from a formidable wall of steel into nothing but scrap.
Ironhide jumped back for a moment and let Scourge sway back and forth. A little bit of Dark Energon began to leak from his damaged armor. Ironhide ignored the wave of nausea that rolled over him, instead stabbing his sword into the ground and pointing his hand at Scourge.
The steel and wiring of his forearm broke apart, shifting, spinning, and rising into place. When it was finished, Scourge's optics went wide, "Is that…"
Ironhide smirked and looked at the squat triangular weapon that his arm had transformed into, "A Thermo Rocket Launcher? It was." his smirk widened into a grin, "I made a few custom changes of my own though. For example, my rocket launcher doesn't fire one missile at a time."
The ends of the weapon suddenly flared a faint yellow and the caps flipped open to reveal three cone shaped missiles, "It fires three." Ironhide said simply.
Scourge visibly gulped, "Scrap."
"Sounds about right." Ironhide chuckled, and fired the weapon. His arm recoiled from the kickback while smoke hissed from the three rockets that were fired at Scourge. They screeched towards the mega-con in a spiral formation. He only managed to let out a yell and cover his faceplate before they impacted.
The following explosion was so bright that the entire hall was lit up with light. The immediate paint in the area peeled off the floor and Ironhide himself had to cover his optics so he wasn't temporarily blinded. And that wasn't even taking the shockwave into account. Only his mass managed to keep Ironhide on his pedes. The walls around Scourge had buckled outwards, one even shattering under the explosion.
When it finally died down, Ironhide lowered his arm to see a column of smoke… that Scourge was standing in.
"No way…" Ironhide whispered. He had never seen a con short of a combiner survive something like that…
Scourge lowered his harms from his faceplate as the smoke around him cleared. He was far from unharmed like Ironhide had feared though. Many of the chords on running along his arms had been severed and where hanging loosely from his limbs. His entire midsection was covered in tiny cuts that bled Dark Energon, and he was coated in a thick layer of soot. The only thing on his body not damaged, where the glowing violet tubes that lined his body.
After looking at himself for several moments, Scourge clenched his fists and looked back at Ironhide with a glare that could've killed. The massive mech rolled his shoulders for a moment getting the feeling back into his body. Ironhide quickly tried reloading his weapon while Scourge shook himself.
"Well, that happened." Scourge growled, cracking his neck for a moment. He then took several steps towards Ironhide.
"But you're still outmatched Autobot." the con continued. The tubes around his body began to glow brightly and tiny bubbles raced through them.
Ironhide started stepping back while Scourge stood where he was, hunching over and growling loudly, "I was built for killing, and nothing more." Scourge growled.
The chords on his arms suddenly flared and began to bulge. Their metal sheathing groaned in protest, and yet it continued to grow anyway. They doubled in size, then tripled in size, and finally quadrupled in size. Ironhide felt his optics grow wide as dinner plates.
The plates along Scourges mid section that he'd dented suddenly filled back out and then began to bulge as if something was pushing against it from within. Scourge groaned and his legs buckled, letting him fall to his knees. And then, he began to grow. His already bulging muscle mass wasn't enough, his entire chassis grew taller and wider. He could be heard creaking and groaning in pain from the change, his face a mask of pain.
And then he stopped and Ironhide gulped. Scourge was now twice as tall as he was and about three time as thick. His entire body was bulging with chords of muscle fibers and his optics were practically ignited in violet fire.
The con took one step forward and the ground bent under his weight. He slammed his fists together, causing thunder to boom from them. His twisted optics fell on Ironhide and he smirked under his mask.
"I'm going to break you." he declared.
And then he came barreling down on Ironhide…
"I can't believe you snuck on board." Arcee grumbled as she, Jazz, and Miko wandered through the halls. The girl walked between her and Jazz with her arms crossed.
Arcee had quickly realized that they couldn't send Miko back to base because they no longer had a Ground Bridge available. Which meant they were stuck with the girl until they found and rescued Kara and Jack. Needless to say, Arcee was not happy about that. And Jazz was just plain confused as to how Miko got into his chest in the first place.
"I told you, Jack and Kara are my friends." Miko grumbled, sending Arcee a look, "You're not the only one who cares about Jack you know."
Arcee returned her glare, "You think I don't know that? But the difference is I haven't been captured by cons. You might have those sonic powers Miko, but they won't be very useful on a stealth op."
Jazz shook his head while Miko began to argue back against what Arcee said. He never understood femmes all that well. In his own mind they where way too high maintenance for a guy like him. That didn't mean he didn't understand why the others cared so much for their mates. Ironhides care for his former lover Chromia was obvious to Jazz, and he sincerely hoped the big guy found someone who could replace her.
But when it came to femmes themselves? They just confused the smooth talking mech to no end. So he just let the two argue while they walked. After all, his sensors had shown there were no cons within range of them, and he had shut down the sensors in the general area. So they where in the clear for now.
That was until his HUD suddenly flared to life, flashing two words across his vision: Organic Detected.
Jazz stopped and put a hand out to stop the other two as they reached a bend in the hall. They both gave him an annoyed look, "What?" Miko demanded.
"Shush." Jazz ordered and crouched next to the corner. He slowly peered around its edge and activated his thermal sights on his visor. He never got why the cons liked shrouding everything in darkness. In all honesty, it seemed very impractical and didn't really help with the whole 'evil warlords' thing.
But with his thermal vision, Jazz quickly picked up the organic his long range sensors had detected. A small form was stumbling along the side of the hall with its hand carefully held under its arm.
Jazz smiled, "I think we found one of your Kryptonians. Doesn't look to be in good shape though." he reported.
Arcee's eyes went wide, "What?" she then peered around the corner and her optics went even wider.
"Kara!" she yelled in a hushed whisper.
Very quickly and quietly, she sprinted around the corner towards the young Kryptonian stumbling through the hall. Kara felt the vibrations in the floor though and looked up in time to see Arcee skid to a stop in front of her.
A relieved smile crossed over Kara's face and she fell to her knee's, "You guys came…" she rasped in a tired voice, "I knew you would…"
Arcee warily reached out a servo before retracting it, "What happened here?" she asked, looking the poor girl over.
Kara let out a tired sigh and looked behind Arcee to see Jazz running up next to her. Miko was sitting in his hands and jumped off when they got close enough, "Kara! You're alright!" Miko yelled, running to Kara and nearly crushing her in a big hug.
"Ow ow ow!" Kara hissed, making Miko let go.
"Oh… sorry…" Miko apologized.
Kara shook her head and took in a steady breath, "It's fine…" she then looked at the others with a small smile, "I can't believe you actually came…"
Arcee frowned and rubbed her helm, "Well of course we came, but… how did you escape from the cons?"
Instead of responding, Kara winced and pulled her left hand out from under her right arm. It was bound tight by a few pieces of metal and the remains of her cape. Kara held it out for examination and explained.
"There's a bone… in the Kryptonian hand that if broken, lets it bend in ways it normally couldn't…" she didn't elaborate further. Miko and Arcee stared at Kara in shock.
"Dude… you broke your own hand?" Miko asked.
Kara nodded and carefully put it under her arm again, "I did… it was how I escaped… Once it was free, I just accessed my belt. The cons aren't too bright when it comes to organic appliances or are clothing it seems. They let me keep my suit and my belt…"
Jazz let out a low whistle, "I gotta admit, you are one clever and determined organic. By the by, names Jazz. Nice ta meet ya Kara."
Kara smiled and gave a bow of her head, "Nice to meet you too Jazz…" she said tiredly. And it was no wonder she was so tired. While not in awful condition, it was obvious Kara had been through the ringer. Her cape was torn to the point that it only came down to the end of her shoulder blades, while the rest of her suit was covered in a fine layer of ashes, and covered in small cuts, some of them bleeding underneath. Her face was pale and tired with tear stains lining the outside of her face. All in all, Kara looked like she'd been to hell and back, and then some.
Which left one question, "Kara, where's Jack?"
The girls smile faded and she hung her head, "He's… he's not here Arcee, okay? When the cons captured me, Megatron demanded I tell him where Kal-El was… I told him I had no idea… I thought he was with you guys leading a counter assault…"
Arcee felt the energy drain from her when Kara said that. Jack hadn't been captured by Decepticons. They didn't know where he was, the US government didn't know, and the Autobots didn't know. No one knew where Jack was.
Her servo tightened slightly, and one question filled her processor. One all consuming question that she needed an answer too.
Where.
Was.
Jack?
Unknown Location…
Electricity rippled through his body, tearing at his already weakened physique and making Jack scream in pain. He had lived his entire life without knowing but the briefest glimpses of pain. For most of his life he had been invulnerable to any form of damage, and knew nothing of what pain felt like.
And now, for the past few days, he and pain had made up for lost time. All Jack had known was pain. Emotional pain, physical pain, and every form of pain in between. Now he was tired, hurt, bleeding, hungry, and half naked. His super suit had long been taken from him and he was clad in only a loose pair of pants while his arms and legs where bound down to the table and pair of surgical lights where shining down on him.
Jack was left blind, in pain, and so very confused about everything. For several days, at least he thought it had been days, it was hard to keep track of time, he had been tortured. Sometimes for information, sometimes when they wanted to learn a little more about biology, or in this latest case… just because.
The teen blinked the tears out of his eyes while his chest rose and fell from the dull throbbing pain that he'd become quite accustomed too. He weakly looked up at himself and nearly cringed. Days without exposure to sunlight had made him vulnerable. Exposure to Dark Energon had made him weak. The two elements combined had left his entire skin a pale sickly yellow. His muscled form was starting to lose definition and he was steadily growing thinner and thinner. He couldn't remember the last time he had eaten.
Scars littered his body, all of them freshly healed or sewn shut. All so that the man circling him could continue to hurt him. The man walked on the outskirts of the light with his arms crossed behind his back and his head held high. His body was covered in Kevlar armor and steel plates. He wore a black and orange mask with one eye obscured. The other was a pale purple violet that made the teen shiver.
The man chuckled at Jack's pain and spared him a glance, "You seem uncomfortable Jack. Are you uncomfortable?"
Jack lay there breathing hard. Moving was an effort, talking was an effort. His eyes drifted towards the man, "…Why…?" he asked. It was all he could do before his parched throat gave out on him.
The man paused, "Why what, Jack? Be specific."
Jack took a moment to swallow and wet his throat, "Why…are you doing this… Slade…?" he rasped.
The man, Slade, smirked beneath his mask, "Why am I doing this? You mean this?"
He snapped his fingers and Jack screamed in pain again. Something was hurting him, flowing through his entire body. Everything hurt. There was no part of his body that hadn't been hurt in some way. His scars flared painfully while Jack screamed and arched his back. Tears flowed freely from his eyes.
Slade snapped his fingers and the pain stopped. Jack fell against the table breathing hard and looked at Slade with bleary eyes. He repeated his question, "…W…w-wh…y…?"
His voice was filled with pain, something that made Slade chuckle, "Why? Because, my former apprentice, you did the same to me. I watched as everything I worked for crumbled. My hard work destroyed because of you. And at the end of it all, you left me broken and bleeding, humiliated by a child."
Slade walked into the light and grabbed Jack by the chin. He brought his face up to stare at Slades expressionless, "I want to repay that feeling child." Slade hissed, "I want you to feel what I felt, multiplied by a thousand fold. You will never feel a moment without pain or humiliation. And when you are broken, when you are at the edge of death, at the edge of sweet release, I will pull you back."
With a grunt, he released Jacks face and stood up, "I will inflict pain on you until you scream for help. And when no one comes, I'll keep inflicting pain. And no matter how much you beg, no matter how much you cry for it to stop, it won't. I will never let it stop Jack."
Jack let out the tiniest of sobs and Slade smirked, "Well then. I'm glad we understand each other. Now then, where were we? Ah, right."
He snapped his fingers again. Jack screamed again, feeling the pain fly up his arms and legs first. They felt as though liquid steel was being poured through his veins, burning every piece of flesh and tissue he had. The pain flowed into his chest and hit his heart. Jack's screaming grew louder and his back arched. He struggled in vain against the cuffs straining him down.
This was worse than anything Slade had unleashed on him yet. Jack actively cried while the pain tore at his body. He couldn't handle it, he wasn't able to. No one could have handled the pain he was feeling.
Jack knew it, but some small part of him, an instinctual part, broke free. For the longest time Jack had tried to keep Slade from making him beg or call for help. He did not want to give the man the benefit. But if there was even a tiny sliver of chance that it would have worked-
The pain arched through him with renewed force and Jack screamed as loud as he could, "PLEASE! SOMEONE HELP ME! GOD PLEASE, ANYONE! M-Make it s-stop!"
He started sobbing and screaming at the same time, taking gasping breaths in between, "Slade, please stop!" he begged, "Please, I'll do anything! Just make it stop!"
But he didn't. Slade just watched silently as Jack screamed and begged in pain. He looked at the small room behind him where two technicians where hidden behind a one way mirror. They both looked at their employer. Slade pointed a finger up.
Increase the threshold.
Jack's screams grew even louder and Slade smiled to himself. Revenge was a sweet, sweet, sweet dish.
A/N:…Um…so… yeah. Jack's finally made an appearance. And for those of you wondering… Oh yes, Slade will get what's coming to him for this. Trust me, if some of you thought his exit in the original crossover with Elhini was too light… He'll get one befitting what he's done here. Hell, even I think this is too far. And I wrote the scene!
As for the rest, the Siege of Darkmount ends next chapter (Which I hope to have out tomorrow) and things will end in a very interesting way. Oh, and I renamed the story, what do you think of the new name? Leave your answers and guesses in the reviews, and remember to leave reviews or PM me with questions guys. The more reviews I get, the more determined I am to get the next chapter out. Otherwise, hope you guys enjoyed, and bye!
