Warning: WEEE! You asked for it... now you got it! And maybe you'll catch some connections! *giggles* Anyway! ENJOY!

Chapter Seven: Complications

Purple twitched and shivered as he found himself lying on a cold, rough surface. He slowly opened his eyes, wincing when stars danced in his eyes before disappearing. Painfully, Purple sat up and rubbed the back of his head. He glanced around, eyes squinting to see.

The room was very dark and primitive; the walls and floor were made of a cold, gray rock that was stuck together by a mud-like substance. Small bits of moss and roots inched through the stone. A small metal door rested in the far wall, crudely wedged between three large slabs of granite.

Purple blinked slowly, then stood up. Agony laced up his back, causing him to gasp, but he quickly ignored it and limped towards the door. As he grew closer to the door, voices seeped through the cracks. Purple paused, then listened.

"-don't care what Council-,"

"-dangerous, I know-,"

Purple blinked, then inched closer and leaned against the door to hear.

"Why did they want us to bring him to Resortia?" a voice inquired.

Purple's eyes widened with alarm.

"Resortia?" he mouthed, fearfully.

"I don't question the Council," a second voice scolded. "All we need to know is our mission. And that is to guard him,"

"Until when?"

"We don't know. We just do what we're told,"

Purple gulped, then turned and leaned his back against the door.

"Resortia?" Purple repeated, quietly. "But... isn't that the planet where... EVERYTHING is alive and carnivorous...?" Purple suddenly eyed the moss and roots with new suspicion. He slowly inched away in to a cold, dark corner and shivered. "What am I going to do...?"

Purple listened for the voices once more, but the owners had gone quiet. The Tallest sighed and shivered, burying his face in his arms.

"What... can I do?"

-----------------

"WHAT'S WRONG?! Don't dare fight me head on, huh!? Come back here so I can beat your asses! If I had a cane, I'd ram it down your squeedily spooches like a cranky old Irken should!"

"They're gone, Uncle. They can't hear you," Red muttered, though he was positively seething. Orange growled irritably, eyes flashing, as he huffed and puffed. Another Irken, hunched over while dressed in the gray and white robes of the medical lab, scrambled around him and attempted to salvage the life support systems. Most of the systems sparked violently while others continued to work, however slightly.

"Blasted...," the Irken growled, gasping when one of the machines sparked suddenly. "You were lucky, my retired Tallest Orange, that they didn't destroy all of the Life Support systems...,"

"Luck? HAH!" Orange sneered. "I woke up to see what those punks were doing and I beat their heads in! Some Special Forces if they can be beaten by a weak old Irken suffering from heart attacks!"

"The Special Forces-!?" Red stared. The other Irken stared at Orange, and then scuffled over to the control panel and began to type away.

"To think those bastards GUARDED me for hundreds of cycles...," Orange growled. His expression turned serious. "This never would have happened if SHE was still in charge... ...,"

"Those bastards...," Red hissed. "What did they want!?"

"... Sir?" the medical Irken looked up, suddenly. He looked particularly pale as his red eyes blinked. "Did you say... Special Forces...?"

"Eh?" Red stared at the Irken, as if seeing him for the first time. "Who're you, again?"

"That's Mismatch Fuchsia," Orange replied, dismissively. The other Irken flinched at the name, then straightened. Red glanced at the other Irken, looking at his bright red eyes in confusion, then looked at his uncle. "And yes, I did... why?"

"Where they... Dominax?" Fuchsia asked, weakly.

"Yes, yes, what of it?" Orange growled.

"... W-well, I just watched the medical lab security videos... and our emergency VootRunners were confiscated by a group of... Dominax Special Forces," Fuchsia replied, weakly. He turned and stared at the control panel, as if trying to make some sense of what was occurring.

Orange and Red stared at Fuchsia in surprise.

"... And they were seen carrying the inert form of Tallest Purple," Fuchsia looked dazed. He yelped as he felt himself yanked about. Red grabbed his collar tightly, shaking with such hatred and anger that Fuchsia was too terrified to move.

"What... did... you... say!?" Red breathed.

It was then that Red noticed that Fuchsia was taller than him. Red blinked slowly and stared. Fuchsia tensed, then squirmed free and hunched over once more. His antenni pressed back, in an obvious show of subordination.

"You're...?" Red muttered. Fuchsia shook his head, violently.

"No... I'm not...," Fuchsia whispered. "I'm not Taller... and let's just leave it at that," He glanced at Red, who stared at him, and turned to look at the control panel.

"I'll... try and track the Vootrunners. We have tracking signals inside of them... they've been standard issue ever since two Irkens who shall remain NAMELESS...," Fuchsia paused and looked at Orange, who grinned sheepishly. "... took it upon themselves to borrow them and go to-," Fuchsia paused again, this time his eyes wide with fear. "... Resortia?"

"What...?" Orange blinked. Red continued to stare at Fuchsia, disbelieving, before turning to look at the control panel. "... Where are they?" the old Irken growled.

"... Resortia-!" Fuchsia choked. "They took Tallest Purple to Resortia-!"

"... What by Irk are they-!?" Orange shook his head. "That planet's dangerous-!"

"... Not as dangerous as I am," Red hissed. He turned on his heels and headed towards the door.

"W-wait!" Fuchsia cried. Red paused in the middle of the doorway and turned to look at Fuchsia. "... I'll come too," Fuchsia offered, weakly. "Tallest Purple might need medical assistance...,"

"...," Red scowled.

"Please," Fuchsia looked at Red, imploringly. He reached up to his right eye, then suddenly pulled out a red contact lense. He stared at Red, one eye red while the other one was a deep purple. "He's my older brother,"

-----------------------

Purple awoke to the sounds of screaming. He tensed, eyes widening, and scrambled towards the door. He pressed the side of his head against the door, antenni quirked questioningly.

Voices shouted orders as others cried in pain. Purple blinked repeatedly and quivered, unsure of what was happening. The sounds grew louder and louder. Warily, Purple scrambled back and curled up in the corner of the cell.

A deep, foreign sound echoed as the ground began to tremble. The screams grew quieter as the rumbling increased. Purple pressed himself against the wall, his Irken heart beating quickly, as a sense of foreboding filled him to the core. The sound soon grew as loud as thunder, drowning out every sound.

That was when the wall crumbled like dust, a giant stone beast plowing through it with a mighty snarl. It looked like a giant lizard made out of rock and cement-like mud, with rock slabs for sharp teeth and twin orbs of garnet for eyes. Irken blood dripped from its stone hide as it let out a deep growl. Purple stared, his entire body frozen, as the creature trounced in to the room. The rocks scratched against each other with each movement, causing bits of gravel to fall. The ground quaked as the beast stomped in to the cell, towards the far wall.

As it grew close to Purple, the creature paused and snapped its stone head to gaze at the Irken.

A few moments of horrifying silence passed as Purple stared right in to the jeweled eyes of the monster, unsure of whether to scream or faint. The beast let out a deep rumble, its gaze piercing, as bits of dirt and gravel fell from its titanic body.

Purple felt his Irken organs scream for want of air, but he didn't dare comply. The beast stared at Purple, unmoving. It knew that the Irken was there, that much Purple was sure. He just didn't know what the creature was thinking or how bloody his death was going to be.

The creature suddenly moved, causing Purple to snap his eyes shut and brace himself. A loud tremble issued and Purple quickly opened his eyes to see the creature plow through the wall of his cell.

Utter amazement filled Purple as the creature created a massive hole in the wall and headed out without bothering with him. Sunlight poured in through the wall, as well as the sounds of birds and insects. Timidly, Purple peered outside to see a massive jungle of brilliant flowers and green leaves. The moment the Irken stepped in to view, he felt like a thousand eyes were upon him.

Uncertain, Purple stepped back and shivered. The jungle seemed to intensify as the Irken stared, uncertain of whether his broken cell was any safer than the wilderness before him. He paused, pondering, when a loud bird-like shriek pierced the air and caused him to shiver. He snapped about and stared as the sound had come from further in the stone building.

Not wanting to know what else was in the building, Purple turned and climbed through the hole. He stared about, then quickly darted through the foliage. He attempted to avoid the trees and plants, which seemed to be watching him with an almost hungry attention.

He moved surprisingly quickly, despite his tattered and dirty robes, and soon came to the most bizarre thing he had ever seen.

A river.

Purple stared in disbelief as liquid gushed by him, gurgling and gargling. He had read about such things in the library but had never seen one before. However, he was cautious enough not to actually try and cross it. Something about the liquid unsettled him, so he decided to follow the river upstream.

As Purple walked along the edge of the river, he grew even more aware of his surroundings. The trees seemed to close in on him, their roots tripping him more than once when they appeared seemingly out of nowhere. He quickly picked himself back up each time and hurried on his way, disturbed.

The jungle echoed with screams, snarls, and hoots of animals he couldn't see while the ground and plants were shadowed and menacing. He had never felt so terrified in his life; not even when Red was trying to kill him.

Purple halted, then glanced around soberly. He missed the aggressive Dominax; he had no doubt that his partner would know what to do. But Red wasn't there, so Purple had to rely on his own wits to escape.

And his wits were screaming at him to find shelter before nightfall.

With a heavy sigh, Purple continued on his way along the riverbed. The trees seemed to continue their vigilance as scuffles and scratches soon joined the rest of the noises. Purple fought his urge to shiver and clutched his robes to his body, tightly. He glanced at the sky, almost longingly, and sighed.

"Red...,"