Get comfy... Long weird chapter. Some blood mentioned, warned before and after with bold text. Also, August is over prepared and riding by the seat of his pants at the same time.
Ray may be a bit out of character at times but have mercy on the child. life sucks right now.
...Processing...
The car ride was much like it had been on the way in, only this time the seatbelt wasn't tight enough to leave marks
"How was your chat with Carny?" August asked trying to seem fatherly.
"Good? We got along better than usual." Ray said absentmindedly. He wasn't entirely sure what to think about hanging out with Carny again, they were good friends as kids, and why would he bring the marriage idea back up giving how uncomfortable it seems to have made him?
"That's great!" The former master said. Ray could tell he was trying to get into the character of a loving caregiver, "Do you know what you're going to say to the police Rayden?"
"That my parents are not being held prisoner with their lives resting on my obedience?" Ray said sarcastically only to be met by a glare that would have crushed him had it been direct, rather than reflected through the rearview mirror. the raven-haired boy sighed "I don't know what happened, I got home to an empty house and went looking for them, when I saw the burn marks in my parents room I must have blacked out." he fixed his statement, painfully aware of how useless the information would be.
"That's a good Little Dragon, we have arrived at the station so continue your good behavior."
"Yes Sir" Ray sighed before undoing his seatbelt.
As they walked in the door they met two familiar faces, Officer Glenwood who had decided to take the lead on the case, and master Nadia. They had been discussing Ray's little 'freakout' with Nadia giving testimony to Ray's normal behavior when he felt threatened, especially how Ray would usually try and find a solution, rather than scream at anyone even if he was scared out of his wits, he would only act as such of someone yelled at him first.
When August and Nadia locked eyes the air suddenly became as cold and tense as a blizzard, and poor Officer Emily was left in the dark to why her new friend was glaring into the soul of who she believed to be Ray's kind godfather.
"Good morning!" The officer halfheartedly cheered, trying to shake the dark feeling that seemed to pop up out of nowhere. "How was your stay at your Godfather's last night?"
"I miss home, but I'll survive." Ray said with an obviously forced smile, "I'm more worried about my family than anything."
He prayed Nadia got the idea that he was staying with the madman for his parent's sake.
Nadia gave the boy a sympathetic nod, catching the message easily. "Good to hear Rayden. Know that we have the search for your parents as our top priority."
"Thank you" Ray said with a slight bow, "That means the world to me"
Nadia smiled, as did Emily. The Choten, on the other hand, placed a firm grip on the boy's shoulder and dangerously close to his neck, yet continued his friendly act.
Soon Rayden was led to one of the meeting rooms and sat before a camera. Emily was still busy with Nadia so a different officer took over the 'interrogation'. He was a plain man with flat dark eyes and dusty grey hair, his voice was equally as dull as he asked all the same questions Emily had, plus some about potential enemies he could only answer as "My family are good people, no sane person would ever hurt them." not a total lie, yet Ray felt conflicted nonetheless. Questioning continued for a bit and most of them he could answer truthfully, yet he desperately wanted to tell the man that August confessed to kidnapping his family.
Once all was said and done Ray was quickly loaded back into the car without a chance to do more than wave bye to the two women who truly wanted to protect him.
August took the ride to Ray's mobile home to barrade the boy with questions as to what the police wanted to know and what he told them. All Ray could do was watch out the window as he answered knowing this was his last glimpse at San Champion for a long time. Ray even took the chance to open the window and enjoy his last taste of city air and August allowed opening all the windows on this warm day, even driving past the Five Paths studio so Ray could say goodbye.
Things only got more somber as they pulled into the driveway. Ray was shaking by the time they entered his home that was still marked off with caution tape. Ray's home is still a crime scene.
"Be quick, boy. And fetch your gauntlet so the police don't find it. Possibly your phone as well, they were not amongst the items from the hospital." The Choten commanded, yet he looked calm as ever as he looked around the boy's living room stopping at the photo that was once the center of his father, Ken's, shrine.
"Shoot! Officer Emily has my phone." Ray said to himself as he wandered about the house throwing trinkets into his bag, including one of Gargle's trackers before kneeling before his backpack in front of his parents room and pulling the gauntlet out of a somewhat hidden pocket on his backpack and tucking it into the inner pocket of the vest.
The room still smelled like smoke. The natural couldn't help the tears rolling down his cheeks as he remembered the fear that consumed him hardly a day before.
He hardly felt being pulled up off of the ground and being half pushed into his own room until after he tried to swat away August's hand as it tried to sweep away the tears.
"They are safe Rayden. Now finish packing. " He tried to comfort Ray as he handed the boy his phone. "Also Officer Emily left this on the table for you."
"OK..." Ray said, again feeling a little weird yet he mindlessly filled the bag with tastes of home, like his old comics he liked to read when his mom tried to ground him. He decided to leave his art stuff and many of the photos in case he had to leave the mansion quickly, instead snapping pictures of each so he would have a more mobile version.
Photos have always had the strange ability to summon old emotions. And right now Ray was such a confused mess he didn't care that he was crying in front of his enemy. The raven haired boy glanced back at his captor who was impatiently watching him from the doorway. There is nothing I can do to save myself. Ray thought, if I stay I get hurt and lose my friends, but if I run I'll lose everything.
"We have other errands to run child." August said snapping ray out of his thoughts enough for him to realize he had been staring at a group picture of everyone at the dojo in Karate uniforms, they had done that so one of the moms would stop asking questions, but everyone took it in stride. "Rayden? Can you hear me?"
"Oh... Yea." Rayden said snapping a last picture and grabbing his father's amulet off the nightstand "I'm done, Now what?"
"Now we fetch some school supplies to aid with your lessons. That idiot Heller forgot to pick them up when I told him to."
"Less evil than I was expecting" Ray tried to smirk, but he didn't seem nearly as confident as his usual upbeat self.
~~~Time Skip~~~
"Did you really need to get the multicolor pen with the most types of ink? A plain ballpoint should suffice." August asked the boy who was lugging three of the four bags into the house, The older man held the last bag that contained the offending stationary.
"I told you it helps me concentrate. When I get bored, which I often do, I just switch colors."
"I assume your homework must be quite the rainbow." August stated flatly before calling a goon over and handing him the bag to bring upstairs. "Leave them here. We have things to attend to in my lab."
Ray went to question the orders but quickly shut himself up and dropped the bags to follow. The boy was still upset from earlier but also curious to see what August had planned after being suspiciously nice all day, even stopping to pick up lunch at Ray's favorite fast food place.
They reached the downstairs lab quickly through a somewhat hidden elevator to see Carny twiddling his thumbs as he sat on one of the tables
Must be starting lessons today... wait then why are all the supplies going to my roo... I'm screwed.
"Before you can get comfortable we have some... processing to get through. Since you two get along now I asked him to assist."
"No hard feelings?" Carny asked looking genuinely concerned
"Oh No of course not" Ray grumbled indignantly and moved over toward one of the tables to sit while August turned around to fetch something.
Suddenly his body froze up on him and he went limp from the neck down. Carny bearly caught him before the raven haired boy's head hit the floor. The young blond hoisted poor Ray back up onto the table face up.
Ray turned his head to the side to see The Choten smiling smugly with the tech-gauntlet fully activated on his hand. The madman looked down at his catch before speaking.
"Good job, Castar. Keep him pliant for the time being." the Choten said to no one in particular, but Ray had the feeling this 'Castar' was the reason he couldn't move.
"What did you do to me?!" Ray yelled but August ignored him.
Instead, the mastermind turned back to his desk while ordering; "Carny! Search him for anything he can use to contact the duel masters or escape with, leave nothing for him to hide it in either."
"Wait you mean strip search him?" Carny whimpered
"Yes boy. Get to work" the Choten commanded.
Carny went red but nodded and stepped toward Ray, who was still laying on the table, held still by a strange creature. He started with Ray's vest, checking every pocket finding Ray's gauntlet and phone before removing the jacket entirely. The buttons of Ray's shirt made Carny hesitate, instead, he smoothed out the Breast and pants pockets to check for bumps, admittedly getting a bit hanzier than he needed before gaining enough confidence to carefully undo each button. As the shirt came undone and the undershirt pulled up to his shoulders a surprisingly defined 6-pack was revealed. Carny froze and stared at Ray's bare torso.
Ray, annoyed by his helplessness hissed "What? Can you please just finish me and get this over with?" and tried to sit up, but he only lifted himself a tenth of an inch before falling flat again.
"It's just that ah, ummm, you're kinda ripped" Carny stuttered,
Ray angrily answered "Yea, riding a dragon and kicking butt can do that to you"
Ray POV
No, no this is not happening. I am not getting stripped down by the freaking school bully. But no matter how hard I fought it seemed as if my body was no longer attached to me.
At least Carny is just as red as I must be.
"Look, I find this just as weird as you do." Carny tried to explain as he removed the shirt. Then he became redder than I ever thought humanly possible when he realized the next step was my pants. "I'll be right back with a towel."
"Use one of the blue medical gowns. Third cabinet middle shelf." August offered without turning away from whatever he was working on at the desk.
Carny lit up with relief as he ran to grab the thin savior of my dignity.
"Thank you?" I half asked, also relieved but questioning how often the older blond must do human(oid) experiments to have the location of such a thing memorized.
"I am not a complete monster Rayden, nor do I want to erraticate your will, just cripple it."
(it is so tempting for me to have him say I'm not a pedophile)
-Time Skip due to ratings-
Once I was in the gown this 'Castar' gave me back some control of my body, so long as I didn't try and leave the table
The processing wasn't nearly as painful as I was expecting, as it was more like a visit to the doctors than anything. Blood Pressure, reflexes, vision checks... all basic stuff plus some blood samples and vaccinations that my family wouldn't have been able to afford.
"one last piece Rayden. Lay on your side," The Choten said calmly, his hands now in medical gloves, jacket cast aside and the white button down's sleeves rolled up past his elbows. I now know why he had Castar freeze me the first time.
It was a test.
He wanted to be certain I wouldn't be able to stop him from doing whatever he was going to do to me.
Yet again I mistook familiarity with safety and found myself obeying before I even thought to move as Castar started to take over again. And to my horror, I could see why as The Choten pulled out a scalpel and the thing he was working on earlier.
"It's just a tracker, Rayden. One that will work on either side of the veil." He reassured me as he prepped my side between my two bottom left ribs with antiseptics. "The device will fit to the inner curve of your ribcage. Difficult to detect, harder and more painful to remove... for security reasons."
"I should be grateful it's not an explosive or something... right?"
Angst/blood below
"Explosives are hard to get through metal detectors, and I would not be able to simply kill you in such a suspicious manner." He made a point to meet my eyes. "Should your death be necessary I will more likely drown you or stage an apparent suicide. Possibly a hit and run on the street... just another senseless death in this cruel world." Then he had the guts to smile as if he just told me we were getting a puppy.
I'm his plaything. Something he can get rid of on a whim.
"I almost forgot. Castar, turn off his nervous system, I want him conscious enough to watch his hopes of escape be eradicated."
My body moved to force my head propped up enough to see where he planned to implant the tracker, and with Carny acting as his uncomfortable assistant, he began cutting me open. The man was so focused with his work that he would have missed Carney's dry heaving had it not prevented the teen from giving the mad scientist his next tool. I didn't dare speak, even if I was capable out of fear that it would make him mess up and kill me or have Castar let me feel his tools move inside my ribcage.
I'm thankful for the numbness that held my body still yet the sight of my own blood draining so vivid a red against the cream of my skin made my head spin. I've never been very good with blood, but the sheer vividness clouded my thoughts and tugged at my consciousness.
I never fully passed out, but there were gaps in my memory as to what happened. Before I knew it he was rubbing green salve on my side and grumbling about how it was taking longer than it was supposed to to heal me. Essence Elf Blood. He grabbed a bigger glob and even through the haze I could feel a pleasant cooling around the incision and I watched it close.
Angst/surgery over
"All set Castar, ease his senses back in. Perhaps it is time I introduce you to your host officially."
Now that he was done with me, the creature did let me get up when my captor led me to a set of mirrors that allowed me to see my own back and the creature who had attached 'herself' to it.
My first thought seeing the midnight purple and blue creature was one of a hybrid of a metal plated scorpion without the claws and a leach. Two antennae like tentacles followed the curve of my neck and into my hair, a third shorter one sunk like a proboscis into the base of my skull. Her tail ended with a razor-sharp barb that held her to the base of my spine while the 8 insect like legs seemed to be burrowed into my sides.
Hello Rayden, I must say you have quite the will. We will enjoy taming that spirit to our purposes. The accented though-voice piped up. This time I could hear the feminine tinge, yet the voice was distinctly mine enough that if I was stressed she could easily sell her thoughts as my own.
I stumbled back in shock. He isn't taking any chances with me this time.
An alarm snapped me out of my head quickly. And to my amusement the Choten seemed to have been startled as well, recomposing himself just before a grunt came in to report; "Sir, the proximity alarm was set off. Currently, two individuals are sneaking about the forest."
"Seems like our little chat has been cut short. Carny, have him dress in the pajamas on the desk then escort him to the dining room while I deal with our guests." he answered before striding out of the room.
Carny swiftly fetched the clothes which were identical to what I woke up in, black tee and sweats with the royal blue tech gauntlet logo, before giving me some privacy to dress myself. I have a feeling it's going to be a long night.
version 1 of Castar, will post beter pic in character bio.
