Chapter 7 – Style
"Are you sure you're all ok?" Rhino asked as he and Angelira held the phone. Angelira kept her ear against the speaker while she let Rhino talk into the mic. "Yes!" Mittens said with a sigh, "I was able to draw out the poison before it had an effect on Bolt, he's fine now. It's just…we're going to be very late getting there!"
"Late?" Rhino said after Angelira relayed the message, "Just how late?" he asked. "Several weeks at least!" Mittens told him. "She said weeks!" Angelira told the hamster. Rhino sighed, "Well, while you're out there, could you look for Private Meggans, she wasn't with us when Dark Bolt attacked the base and I'm pretty sure she didn't get lost!" he asked. "Oh, new girlfriend?" Mittens asked, and Angelira scoffed. "Hey, I'm the one listening here!" she said in anger. "What, what did she say?" Rhino asked. "Nothing!" Angelira said, and released her end of the phone to fold her arms. "NO, DON'T LET GO!" Rhino called out, and Mittens heard a loud thud, followed by Angelira struggling against something, "My bad!" the shrunken Neutrosian said. "Gotta go, Angelira's stuck under the phone!" Rhino said. Mittens chuckled and said, "Of course, goodbye!"
"Later!" Rhino responded and Mittens heard the two of them struggle to lift the phone. She chuckled again, but this time she used her wind claws to lift the phone she was using up and place it back on the receiver that was mounted on the wall. Mittens looked around her, the furnishings of the first floor apartment with beige carpet and white walls surrounded her, the classy white tiled counter she was sitting on was at first cold to the touch, but quickly warmed up. The place wasn't even furnished, like it was waiting for someone to rent it out. "Uh!" Bolt groaned from the hallway nest to her, and she heard the sound of a flushing toilet. He came out, smacking his lips and flicking his tongue, trying desperately to get rid of some flavor in his mouth, "I had no idea that you could get sick from being healed!" he said. "I told you not to try and eat it, but you did anyway!" Mittens said. "It looked and smelled like melted licorice, ok!" Bolt protested. "Did it taste like licorice?" Mittens asked coyly. Bolt stuck his tongue at her, spitting what was left of the bad taste in his mouth. "Poison is poison no matter what color it is Bolt!" she said with a smile. "You could have told me that earlier!" he said. Mittens simply rolled her eyes, "Just don't do it again!" she said. "Deal!" Bolt said in response, his voice carrying the tone of a lesson learned. "Hey, dumbass!" they heard Dustin cal out. "Gerr, I swear every time I do something stupid he intentionally makes me mad!" Bolt said, and heard a familiar laugh in the back of his head. "Get over hear I've found the answer to our travel problems." Dustin said. Mittens leapt from the counter, turning to Bolt, "It's a shame we can't stay here Bolt!" she said, "I'd have loved to have a place like this as a getaway!" she quickly brushed her tail against his chin, causing the dog to smile brightly, "What are you smiling about?" he heard his dark half ask. "I thought you were shut up for good!" Bolt said, causing Mittens to turn around. "Bolt?" she asked. "It's him, Dark Bolt!" the dog said, keeping his promise to her. "I'm surprised you'd tell her, with all the threats I could have made!" Dark Bolt said, and Bolt turned to Mittens. "Just a few seconds!" he said, and curled up, closing his eyes and entering his mind.
The door sat in front of him, the five large gashes in the metal scarring the steel as it let him view what was behind. Bolt cautiously crept up to the vault, and peered in through the scar. He found his dark half, strapped to the floor of the room, chains surrounding him, tangling him up and locking him in place. One small chain lay shattered on the ground, the same one that was once holding his mouth shut, "Not fair!" Dark Bolt said, "You're just supposed to think I've escaped, not come in and confirm it!" Bolt smiled as he saw his adversary tied to the ground of his mind, "You're no threat!" Bolt said, and disappeared from his own mind. "I CAN STILL BE A THREAT!" he called out, "I CAN STILL BE THE DESTROYER OF WORLDS, GET BACK HERE AND FACE ME YOU…YOU…COWARD!"
Bolt woke back up, looking his wife in the eyes, "Hey, I'm back!" he said with a smile. "So?" she asked, "How is he?" Bolt lifted himself from his stomach and shook off, "Still locked up, I'm sure he won't be a problem for some time!" he said and trotted towards the door, "The chain just came off of his mouth, now he won't shut up, I can still hear him yelling at me!"
"Is it giving you a headache?" Mittens asked. "Yah, a little!" Bolt responded. "HEY! Are you two coming out here or not?" they both heard Dustin call out. "But the one he's giving me is worse!" Bolt added in as they both exited the apartment.
Savage rested her head in her hands, her elbows propped up on the console in front of her. She growled as she gripped her hair in her hands, and released. "What do I do?" she asked herself, "Do I kill Dark Bolt and risk Dustin? Or do I leave the ship to rescue him and risk being killed by the dog?" Once again she grabbed her hair, scrunching it in her hands as she tugged just hard enough to cause her discomfort, hoping that an answer would come to mind. "I just wish I knew what to do! I need you here to tell me what to do next!" she said, and lifted her head. Her eyes were the size of pin holes, the sweat on her forehead plastered her bangs to her fur, and her once fine white fur had turned pale and fragile looking. "I hate not being able to do anything!" she said, and a small realization took hold, "I..can't…I can't…" she started and began to laugh, "I can't, can't do it! Can't cook, can't think. Think Savage! No, I can't!" She folded her arms around herself, "Don't touch me!" she said to no one and released herself, "I want…I wanted it all. Can't have it, no! He, he, he!" Her laughter was erratic, insane and harsh. She slid down to the ground, her arms out in front of her as she finally snapped, "I ca…can't. Don't, I don't want to, NO!" she said mostly to herself, "Dustin, Dustin! Where is my Dustin, I want my Dustin! I want it, I want it!" She quickly placed her thumb into her mouth, sucking on it as she shivered where she lay. Tears slid down from her eyes, catching in her fine white fur and washing the lines clean from so much dirt. "It's not here, I want it! I need him! He's mine! Not yours MINE!" she said with her thumb still in her mouth. Outside, the ship let out another cry, one of sorrow and pain.
"How did you find a motorcycle?" Mittens asked as she held onto Bolt. The super dog raced along side of the black and blue flamed Harley Davidson with her rooted to his back. He had to admit, it was much better with Dustin moving faster now, he enjoyed the wind in his fur. "I found it in a driveway. The owner was nothing but a pile of mush so I figured he wasn't going to use it anymore!" Dustin said, his face covered by the blue and black helmet he wore. He also had on a black leather coat and some new black boots. He also wore black gloves that gripped the handles of the bike comfortably. "So you stole it from a dead person!" Bolt translated. "Hey, would you rather I lie and say I bought it in a ghost town?" Dustin asked. Bolt growled his disapproval, but was still happy to run instead of walk now. "We'll cut the weeks down to about two days now!" Dustin said, "And after that I can use the Star Trek teleporter your friend built to make my way to Savage!"
"Rhino would flip if he heard you call it that!" Mittens said, and laughed. "What else can I call it?" Dustin asked. "How about O-TIP!" Bolt corrected. "Oh yah, like that's any better!" Dustin called out, and turned his eyes to the road, "Where to now?" he asked and turned to Mittens. "Follow us!" she said, and tugged on Bolt's shoulder. He smiled, and turned on the direction she tugged, breaking off towards an exit, leading them to the Interstate.
"AAAAAND…" Rhino called out from behind the machine, "Done!" Angelira and Rhino crawled out from underneath, Angelira with a smudge of grease on her face and Rhino wearing a miniature set of goggles and gloves, a large welding iron in his paws. "That's the last of it. Give it a try!" he said. Ducker smiled, and flicked a switch, the GET lit up, the screen overtaking the entire room at first, but quickly shrinking down to Ducker's size. "Nice work Rhino!" he said, and was quickly attracted to Angelira when she cleared her throat at him. He looked to her, found her folding her arms and tapping her miniature foot, "And Angelira!" he added. "Thank you!" she said and smiled. "Now all that's left is to get the O-TIP ready for deployment." Ducker continued, causing both Rhino and Angelira to drop their hands and eyebrows at the same time. "It has to be done!" Ducker said as he shrugged his shoulders. Angelira slapped her face with her hand, and Rhino just growled at the man, "You really have a way with words!" the hamster said and turned away from the man with the shrunken Neutrosian following closely. "What?" Ducker asked as they walked away. He then smiled as they rounded the corner of the machine. "You're doing this on purpose aren't you?" Kelly asked from behind him. "Yah, I am." ducker said, "If I can get Rhino not to trust me, then he'll make a new protocol that'll keep us in check for a long time to come, I really don't care about being either the good guy or the bad guy!" Kelly smiled brightly, "I admire that!" she said, and turned back to her pad, "I need to know how many you found wandering the tunnels!" she said into her earpiece as she walked away, "And get those monitoring camera's up and running, their supposed to be wireless!" Ducker smiled as he watched her walk away, 'What do you think Camella?' Ducker asked himself, 'How have I done, have I made you proud?'
Dustin kept his eyes on the road, watching it race by as he let his motorcycle to the running for him. Bolt let a small smile find his face as he raced alongside of the bike, itching to go just a little faster. "Don't!" was all Mittens said, and his smile vanished. Bolt stuck his tongue out, sighing with it as he let go of the thought of a race. He turned his head, trying to focus on something else. The night had fallen and they were still making their way across the Interstate, and passing up city after city. Suddenly he saw something strange, lights. Now normally lights wouldn't be so strange, in fact lights would be normal, they mean living people. But Bolt thought they were strange, lights, coming from a leveled city. "What the…" he asked, getting both Mittens and Dustin to look in the direction he was glancing. "Wait, is that…?" Mittens asked as she looked to the little blinking lights. "Humph! What of it?" Dustin asked.
It's a camp!" Bolt said as he recognized the flicker of a fire. "Holly!" Mittens responded, and jumped off of Bolt's back, landing gracefully on the pavement, and racing off, using her lightning claws. "Well, looks like we're stopping." Bolt said and sped up to take the exit. "Meh, I needed gas anyway!" Dustin told himself, and turned down the same exit ramp, kicking it into a higher gear to arrive faster.
End of Chapter 7