Blowhole went to his main computer and typed in a command code. He them walked over to the kitchen and sat down at a table. He thought about the day. He couldn't get over how accomplished he felt. He was also worried, though. Sure he had the most complex, efficient, and obedient system in perhaps the entire world. But Skipper was clever. Skipper had the power to turn whole situations around. Make the hunter become the prey. Turn a losing streak into a winning one. He had the power to do that. And Kowalski had the brains to help Skipper. Kowalski was the hacker. He could find almost anything in a computer system or electronic. He could pick almost any lock. He was talented with science. Kowalski was a danger too. If Kowalski got lose he'd be able to find things, create things, pick locks and get to things. Kowalski and Skipper could tear his victory apart; he had to keep an eye on them. Private would only be a bother and a tool. He might just be the perfect tool. Private was the weakest, youngest, and most innocent one in the group. Kowalski, Skipper, and Rico would do anything to keep him safe. That was a proven fact. What Blowhole could make them do was limitless. Rico was a different story. He wasn't smart or clever or innocent. He was stronger and wild. He was the destructive one, who could only break things. But Skipper basically had Rico on a leash. That was a good thing now because if Skipper has Rico on leash, Rico can't turn into a destructive, out of control, maniac. Skipper would never let that happen. Nor would he let Private suffer. Blowhole had the tools and preparations to keep them all, especially Skipper, at bay and in his control. He really didn't have anything to worry about. He just had to stay alert.
Robotic arms shot out from the ceiling, walls, and floor and ripped the blankets and pillows off of the beds. All four boys woke up immediately, startled and confused. The robotic arms grabbed at their arms, legs, and heads, trying to restrain them.
Skipper didn't know why, but he knew that Blowhole was orchestrating this. Blowhole was doing something on his stupid computer making these robotic grabbers grab at them. Why he chose to do this in the middle of the night was any ones guess. Skipper at the moment was just filled to the brim with frustration and anger. Blowhole had to do this in the middle of the night. This couldn't wait until tomorrow? Of course not, that wouldn't be Blowhole. Blowhole loved to make things difficult (though this was one of the few times that he had actually succeeded).
Skipper frantically swatted at the robotic arms, ripping off the ones that grabbed onto him. He never left the bed, he couldn't. If he tried to get off the arms would have him pinned in seconds. He was not going to go down without a fight. He was going to rip at least half of the arms in half before they pinned him to the bed. That was his mindset. So he kept swatting at them and ripping them off him and in half.
Private was terrified…again. Being a human was so far a very bad thing for Private. He wanted to find a corner, curl up in it, and hide from the world. Robotic arms grabbing at him didn't help any. He didn't know why they were grabbing at him, and he really didn't want to find out. He swung his arms and kicked his legs frantically ripping them off of him and trying to keep them away from him. He tried to get off the bed and run, but every time he tried the arms would grab him and slam him back down on them bed. They wanted to pin him there. But why? That's what terrified him. Why did they want him on the bed? Why couldn't it be the floor? He didn't mind the bed, it was softer than the floor, but there was a specific reason the arms wanted him on the bed. He was terrified of why (Mostly because he didn't know why).
After a while of kicking and ripping the arms off of him, the arms finally won. They wrapped around his arms, legs, and stomach, keeping him tightly restrained to the bed. On wrapped around his forehead and mouth making him unable to move anything or scream. So he cried. Whatever these arms came out to do was about to happen. They could do anything, strangle him, break his bones, snap his neck, anything. He was scared to death of what they'd do to him or what was going to happen next. He was breathing short uneven breaths, silently crying, with his rapid heartbeat pulsing in his ears. He didn't know what to do. He could hear Skipper, Kowalski, and Rico still struggling with the arms. Maybe one of them would get rid of the arms. That would really be nice. Really, really be nice.
Rico stopped thinking, he quickly found that thinking didn't help at all and shut his brain off. He just swung his fists at the arms as hard and fast as he possibly could and kicked his legs faster than he thought possible. The only thought that remained in his head was that he was not going to be held down by these freaky things. He didn't know where they came from or what they wanted, and he did not want to know. He just wanted to rip them apart so they couldn't do anything to him. Most of the ones he punched broke or the grabber part fell off and the arm retreated back into the ceiling or wall or wherever it had come from. Unfortunately those were only replaced with new ones. Rico acted on instinct, not caring how tired his arms and legs were getting, just about how he had to keep those things away from him.
Though he tried his best and used every ounce of strength he had, Rico was eventually taken over by the robotic arms as well. They pulled his arms and legs to a halt and wrapped around them, restraining them tightly to the bed. More arms shot out from the floor and circled his stomach demobilizing his lower body. Even so, he thrashed his head around still desperately trying to free himself. When more arms wrapped him mouth and forehead, demobilizing his upper body, he gave up. It quickly became clear to him that he wasn't going anywhere. He couldn't move at all, the robotic arms were too strong. Out of breath and strength, Rico did the only thing left to do. He closed his eyes, listened to whoever was left continue to struggle with the arms, and turned his thought back on. He wasn't scared really, just nervous. He didn't know what was going to happen next, that was the one fact that rattled him. He didn't have the slightest clue as to what was coming next. He hoped it was something he had dealt with before, so he'd be able to take it. But if it was worse… he really hoped it wasn't. He didn't know what would happen then.
Kowalski didn't think about where his arms and legs went. He wasn't paying attention to them. He just kicked and punched, hopping to hit one of the metallic strings of terror. He was thinking more along the lines of where they had come from. He almost immediately knew that it was Blowhole. He had probably programmed them to come out of the walls tonight. Why? Kowalski hadn't a clue, nor did he know what would come next. The only thing he knew was that they were programed by Blowhole, came out of every flat surface in the room, and wanted to restrain him to the bed. Like Private, he had tried to jump off the bed but was pulled back onto it. They were strong too, not fragile pieces of technology. The ones that grabbed a hold of his arms or legs were hard to shake off. Very hard to shake off. The arms were very hard pieces of metal, punching them over a time period of a few minutes cut open his knuckles, and bruised most of his toes. Though he didn't pay much attention to that.
Not until the arms finally pinned him down and he had nothing else to do. The fast paced beat of his heart pulsed in his open knuckles and bruised toes, sending waves of pain through his feet and hands with every beat. It was agonizing, so much that he wished he'd given up right away. He tried not to pay a lot of attention to the pain, the less he focused on it the less bothersome it would be. So he closed his eyes and listened. There was only one person lefty now. He realized that fact very quickly, there was only one voice grunting and shouting. He knew who it was without listening to the voice or looking to see who it was. It was Skipper, he was the only one who'd be able to last this long. Kowalski knew that Skipper would last the longest out of all of them. Surprisingly, Kowalski was able to turn his brain off, not wanting to come up with a million torturous and painful things that could happen next. He just listened to Skipper's struggle… until everything went silent, that is.
With Kowalski, Private, and Rico restrained, all of the arms could aim for him.
Skipper thought he was doing ok. So far he had been able to keep every arm that came at him away, punching them, or kicking them, ripping them apart. And though he could feel the warm blood dripping from his knuckles, and the pain in his feet increasing, he kept fighting. He thought he'd be able to take them all down, and the number of arms around him seemed to be decreasing. Then all of a sudden he was surrounded by them.
They wrapped around every part of his body and lifted him into the air. Even in the air he couldn't move. He was slammed onto the bed and held down completely demobilized from head to toe. It was then that he was able to take in the total amount of pain in his hands and feet. It was agonizing, actually bringing tears to his eyes. He tried to take his mind off the pain by thinking about what would come next. But after doing that for a few seconds he started to wonder what was worse. Taking the pain, or fretting about the future. Both were pretty gruesome. The pain was killing him, but the thought of what was to come wasn't any better. They could be cut open, all their bones could be broken, they could be burned, hung, snapped in half, have their eyes removed, drowned, tortured, and or watch each other die in very unpleasant, very painful ways. He wiped those images out of his mind and cursed his paranoia. This was Blowhole now. And Blowhole obviously wanted to torment and torture them in probably many ways. As much as Skipper hated to admit it, Blowhole was winning this time. But if he knew anything about Blowhole, Skipper knew that Blowhole had a tendency to carry things out for a while. So whatever these things were holding them down for, it wasn't death. Whether it was better or worse… he didn't know. But if it didn't kill them, they'd live through it. After all, death was never an option for Skipper. Maybe there was actually something he and Blowhole had in common.
Now that's a scary thought.
The room remained silent for a few minutes, until the nanobots arrived. There were eight tiny nanobots, each holding a bionic contact lens. Two of them went over to Private, hovering over him.
Private didn't see them; he had calmed down a little and was starting to think that the arms popping ou in the middle of the night was only meant to startle them. He still didn't know why though. His fear came back when the arm that wrapped his forehead held his eyes open. Why? What was going to happen now? Where they going to take his eyes out? He wouldn't be able to see then. Not to mention how devastatingly painful that would be.
The nanobots lowered and placed the contacts into Privates eyes. The arm around Privates mouth retreated, giving Private the ability to scream.
And he did.
The pain that suddenly filled his eyes was unbearable, and he still was unable to close them. It felt like there were a million little knives cutting into his eyes. His vision became crimson red, so he thought that there actually were a million little knives cutting his eyes into a million little pieces. He screamed at the top of his lungs in pain. He had never been in so much pain before, not like this. He felt warm tears slide out of his eyes and down his face. He wanted to go home, to the zoo. He wanted to not be a human, he wanted to be happy and not so nervous, and not in so much pain. He wanted, he wanted. He wanted to be anywhere but here, anything but a human. But that wasn't happening, and there was nothing he could do about it. Nothing but scream as he was forced to endure this pain. Nothing but scream and cry.
Privates cry of pain echoed in his ears, ripping him apart, driving him crazy. Skipper wanted to kill him, Blowhole. He wasn't getting away with this. Blowhole knew how bad Private's last two days had been. And he had the nerve to make things worse. He was a spawn of satin, Blowhole was. And Skipper was going to make him pay for this.
Kowalski was being ripped apart by Private's scream of pain. Private didn't deserve this, he didn't need it either. Kowalski couldn't see Private, or how much pain he was in, but he could hear it. Not only was it a cry of pain, but a cry of misery. Kowalski knew that Private was about to break, crawl up somewhere and wish for death. Private had done it before, he couldn't take so much miser and pain in such a short time period with breaking. Kowalski didn't know how much pain Private was actually in.
Not until two other nanobots came over to him and placed two bionic contact lenses in his eyes.
Then Kowalski joined Private in agonizing screams of pain. His vision turned red just like Privates had. He didn't know how long he would have to endure the pain, but he wished it gone more and more with each passing nanosecond. It was immense pain that might have been worse than someone taking the eye out. Kowalski, of course, didn't know what it felt like to have your eye ripped out, but he was almost sure this pain was worse.
Skipper was filled with unspeakable rage when Kowalski started to scream in pain. The rage gave him more strength than he had in the last week. He pulled his arms up, cracking the robotic arms that held him down. They were breaking, and when they did… Blowhole would have a whole lot more than just hell to pay. Skipper lost all other thoughts and abilities. Rage fueled him, controlled him. If and when he broke out he might actually kill Blowhole. He wouldn't be able to stop himself. No one, no one, can get away with causing any one of his brothers that much pain and come away clean. Blowhole would be a mangled mess when Skipper was done with him.
That was only made worse, when Rico joined in the harmonic scream of agonized pain.
Two nanobots went over and placed bionic contacts into Rico's eyes.
Rico had never been in so much pain. Never in his life has he ever felt so much pain in one day, never. From the moment it began he just wanted it to end. He screamed in pain, having nothing else to do.
More robotic arms came out of the walls and held Skipper down. His rage was uncontrollable; he had one mission now and one mission only. To put Blowhole in the hospital. His rage made him numb to all other feelings. So numb he didn't feel the pain when the last of the nanobots placed the last two contacts in his eyes. He didn't feel anything but anger.
Every second that Rico, Kowalski, and private screamed filed Skipper with more and more anger. After a few minutes the screaming died down, the pain must've gone away, but Skippers rage didn't die down at all.
After a few minutes more, the restraints receded back into the ceiling, floor, and walls. Blowhole appeared on the other side of the bars that locked Skipper, Kowalski, Rico, and Private in the room.
Private rolled up and continued to cry, Kowalski sat up and grabbed his eyes, Rico stayed laying down, but also held his hands to his eyes, Skipper charge the metal bars.
He slammed into them and grabbed two bars with his hands, madly trying to pull them apart. His anger towards Blowhole was so immense, so vast, so…unspeakable. Blowhole better be fast, because when Skipper broke through the bars… well there'll be no more Blowhole.
"Did you like my present?" Blowhole asked slyly.
That was a mistake. The comment filled Skipper with the last ounce he needed. With rage blinding all other thoughts and feeling, Skipper tore through the bars and bolted towards Blowhole. He ran straight into Blowhole's legs, tripping him and turned to face the evil scientist. As Blowhole was getting up Skipper ran over to him and flipped him over his shoulder, slamming him into the ground. But Skippers rage didn't let him stop there. He picked up Blowhole (As much as he could being half Blowholes size) And threw him into the wall right next to the doorway to his bedroom. Blowhole got up and turned around. He started to walk towards Skipper angrily. Skipper charged towards Blowhole and tackled him. He shot his fists forward wildly, making Blowhole's head fly back and forth. Skipper didn't hold back, he let all his rage pour out on Blowhole. He was not getting away with this.
After a few moments of being pelted in the face multiple times by Skippers fists, Blowhole caught one. He threw Skipper off of him and jumped up. He turned to see Skipper running at him again and lifted his foot. Instead of tackling him again, Skipper jumped into Blowholes foot and stumbled backwards. Blowhole took the opportunity and jumped on top on Skipper. He pinned Skipper's arms to the ground and stared into Skippers fierce, fiery eyes. Anger and rage was the only thing Blowhole saw.
Skipper struggled, trying to free his arms, but couldn't. He looked down and smiled. Blowhole made a mistake. Skipper's foot was right between his legs, without a second thought Skipper forced his foot up. He felt Blowhole's grip tighten around his wrists. Perfect shot. Using his other foot, Skipper kicked Blowholes side, making him fall over. He jumped up and Kicked Blowholes stomach.
Blowhole grabbed his stomach in pain. Skipper was brutal; he knew why Kowalski, Rico, and Private didn't piss him off a lot. Skipper was really brutal.
Still filled with rage, Skipper grabbed Blowholes hair and dragged him to a wall. He grabbed Blowholes arm and flipped him over his shoulder into the wall. After Blowhole fell flat on his stomach Skipper grabbed the back of his shirt and threw him across the floor into the wall across the room. He ran after him.
Blowhole had enough. After hitting yet another wall, he got up and turned around just in time to catch Skipper. He picked Skipper up by the collar of his shirt and threw Skipper onto the floor. He kicked Skipper in the lower chest and heard a nasty crack. He would've winched if he wasn't so pissed off.
Skipper didn't feel any pain at all. He spun himself around and tripped Blowhole. Skipper got up and punched his neck, and when Blowhole was choking, kicked Blowhole face. His boot landed right on Blowholes nose. By the way Blowhole yelped, Skipper knew he broke the lunatic's nose. But he didn't waste any time pondering about it, he was also still filled with too much rage to take any time to think about anything. He jumped onto Blowhole, his knees landing on Blowhole stomach. He knocked the wind right out of him. Skipper shot his fist forward again, hitting Blowhole's mouth. Blood started to drizzle down the side of Blowhole's face.
Blowhole took a second to swallow the pain before throwing a fist into Skippers eye. Skipper fell backwards, off of him. He sat himself up and quickly leaned forward coming close enough to wrap his hands around Skippers neck. Skipper's hands pulled at his hands. Blowhole thought for a second. It wouldn't be fair to strangle Skipper, that wouldn't be enough. He released Skipper neck and punched him over and over again. His fists landed in Skippers face, and stomach, fast and hard. Skipper didn't seem to care though. Even with a drizzle of blood coming from the corner of his mouth, and an eye starting to swell, Skipper continued to fight.
Skipper grabbed Blowholes next fist and pulled his arm to his mouth. He bit down. Hard. Blowhole yelped in pain and jumped back. Skipper then planted his feet on Blowhole's chest and pushed them forward, pushing Blowhole backward. Skipper jumped back on his feet and ran over to Blowholes side. He kicked Blowhole in the stomach again, but Blowhole didn't react in pain, so Skipper jumped up and landed on Blowholes upper arm with a loud crack.
Blowhole screamed in pain. In fury he grabbed Skipper with his other arm and stood up, brining Skipper off the ground. Using as much strength as he had left, he threw Skipper into the wall. But Skipper got back up and again, charged at him. Wanting the fight to end (preferably with him winning), Blowhole quickly pulled a remote out of his back pocket and pressed a red button.
In the middle of a dead run, four curved poles jumped out of the ground and shot Skipper with electricity. Skipper screamed in pain from the electrocution. He felt his entire body heating up from being fried. It caught him by surprise. He was only focused on Blowhole, his rage made him blind to everything else. He couldn't help it though. Blowhole could've waited, he didn't need to give them so much pain tonight. They had already been through a lot of pain a misery in the last two days. They just didn't need this. He didn't need this. He didn't need Blowhole putting whatever he put in their eyes in today. He didn't really need to be electrocuted either.
Blowhole pressed another button and an invisible, electric wall came up in the doorway to the boy's room. The metal bars retreated into the floor to be fixed. He watched Skipper scream in pain being electrocuted for a few moments, then turned the electricity off. Skipper fell to the ground. He started to walk over to him.
Skipper's anger had vaporized, he was calmer after being fried. He was lying on his stomach still jumping from being electrocuted. His eyelids felt heavy, he didn't want to fall unconscious. He didn't know what would happen next, but he wanted to know what would happen next.
Kowalski had watched the entire thing. "Skipper!" he shouted concerned when Skipper fell almost lifelessly to the ground. He jumped right into the electric wall and was blown backwards. He didn't know that was there, and felt and extreme pain before hitting the back wall of the room. He sat there; barely able to hold his head up, still worried about Skipper. Sometimes, Skipper let his rage go too far. This was one of those times.
Rico rushed over to Kowalski to make sure he was ok. It was startling, how Kowalski was there one second and flying backwards the next. Everything since the robotic arms came out of the wall was startling. He was sick of it.
Private couldn't take his eyes off Skipper. He wanted to know that Skipper was Ok. He saw what walking forward did to Kowalski, so that was out of the question. He couldn't leave the room. He could pray and hope though.
Blowhole bent down to Skipper. "You need to do better than that Skipper," he whispered harshly.
Skipper moaned. He still wanted to kill Blowhole, he just now didn't have the strength to.
"I don't want any more of these fights. Got it?" Blowhole hissed angrily.
Skipper didn't reply. He didn't want to be there, he didn't want to be with Blowhole. He found himself all of a sudden not caring if he was a human child. He just didn't want to be near Blowhole anymore. He wanted to be free of this maniac. That was it. He'd find a way to feed everyone. Without Blowhole.
Blowhole grabbed Skippers hair and pulled his head up. He made Skipper look him in the eye and growled, "I said, got. It?"
Skipper nodded. He wanted Blowhole to leave them alone now. It wasn't too much to ask was it? It Probably wasn't, but he didn't want anything else to happen. Blowhole let go of his head. An earthquake of pain erupted in his skull as his head hit the ground.
"Skipper," Private whimpered. Now he really wanted to be back at the zoo. He put his hand forward. He wanted to black out, stop being awake for a few minutes. He was filled with heat, then pain, then he was flying backwards. Then there was nothing. Nothing but darkness.
"Private!" Kowalski shouted. He jumped up and ran over to Private. Why did he do that? What was the point? Private was fine. After checking him over a few times Kowalski found no signs of heart trouble and Private was breathing easily. That was good. He picked Private up and placed him on a bed. He picked a pillow up off the floor and put it under Privates head. Rico then covered him with a blanket.
They both watched Private carefully, concerned. They were mostly concerned with his mental health.
Blowhole pressed another button on his remote, turning it into a taser. He tasered Skipper one more time.
Skipper felt the shock. A few seconds later blackness consumed him.
Blowhole didn't pick him up. Instead he grabbed Skipper's hair and dragged him over to the room. He disabled the electric wall and threw Skipper inside the room. He turned and walked away, turning the electric wall back on.
Kowalski and Rico picked Skipper up and carefully put him on a bed. Kowalski checked Skipper's vital signs to make sure he was still ok. He was.
Kowalski and Rico worried about Private and Skipper for a few hours. Then Private woke up and they all sat on Skipper's bed. Skipper was lying on his side, still unconscious. Private sat behind Skipper and eventually fell asleep, falling over Skipper's side. Rico fell asleep near the bottom of the bed and used on of Skipper's legs as a pillow (unintentionally). Kowalski sat in front of Skipper. He didn't fall asleep. He sat and watched the door and worried. He was getting good at that. Watching and worrying. He was worrying about Skipper. Blowhole was quick to beat him back. If Skipper lost it again, who's to say Blowhole won't kill him. Next time could be fatal for Skipper. There couldn't be a next time. But who's if there was? That is what Kowalski sat and worried about. That and Private's seemingly deteriorating mental health. He was very worried about that as well.
After a half an hour Kowalski realized something. Skipper had to go to the hospital. He had a few broken ribs that needed to be taken care of.
Kowalski ran to the electric wall, without touching it. "Blowhole!" He shouted. There was no response. He called again. Still nothing. Skipper still needed to be taken care of. What if he had internal bleeding? Kowalski's heart started racing. He had thought Skipper died a few times. But this was more serious than that. He didn't know what he'd do if Skipper really, truly died. "BLOWHOLE!" He shouted desperately.
Sorry for the violence part. Though I don't think it was that violent. I don't know. You tell me. Was it too much?
