Chapter 10 –

Tally's eyes fluttered open and she found herself in a cramped quarters. She was alone in one of the cells just like Shay and Fausto. She suddenly remembered something; did Ryde ever find David and Croy? Were David and Croy okay?

"David…" she said softly into her skintenna.

She waited but no ping came.

"David?" she asked against softly.

Still no ping came.

Tally started to worry. What if Cable had heard her say that David and Croy and possibly Ryde where waiting for everyone outside of the city? What if the Specials had caught them? The Smokies were no match for a bunch of Specials? What would she have done with them? Would Cable try and do to David what she was trying to do to Maddy?

"David!" she said a little louder into her skintenna.

But still no ping came.

Tally was starting to get desperate.

"Shay, Fausto?" Tally asked softly.

She got no response form either of them.

Suddenly she heard a noise from outside the cell door. It was Dr. Cable's voice.

"Tally." she said.

Tally sat up. She had been sitting on the ground but she made her way over to the door and looked through the small window. Dr. Cable's voice came through a voice box by the door.

"Tally, can you hear me?" Dr. Cable asked.

"Yes." Tally said, almost reluctantly.

"Good." her voice said in its usual cold tone.

"Where is everyone?" Tally asked her.

"Oh if you're looking for your little Smokey friends they can't answer you." Dr. Cable said. Tally could see Cable's razor-tooth smile through the window.

"What do you mean?" Tally asked. Her voice a little shaky.

"Well after your little speech when you got the Cutter's out, I sent patrols to the outskirts of the city and caught your three little friends. One of them was Maddy and Az's son." Dr. Cable said. Her grin was growing even wider.

"No…" Tally cried out softly. She hoped Cable didn't hear her, but she did.

"Oh yes Tally. David is going to become a Pretty just like Maddy will. I am going to also make sure they do not remember anything about the lesions. I don't want this whole mess happening ever again." Dr. Cable said.

"You can't!" Tally cried out.

"That's the thing Tally, I can and I will." Dr. Cable's razor-like voice was mocking her now.

Tally's heartbeat sped up and anger raged all through-out her. Cable had David and was going to erase his memory. He now was in the same predicament has Maddy.

"We have been trying to catch David and his parents for years. We got Az a year ago thanks to your help and now we have David and his mother too. All thanks to you!" Dr. Cable said.

"No! This is not my fault!" Tally cried. Tears started streaming down her face. This was not her fault and Dr. Cable was no going to put a finger of David or Maddy.

"Yes it is Tally. You led us to them all." Dr. Cable said.

This was no her fault. Dr. Cable was just trying to make it seem like her fault and trying to break her down. Tally was not going to let her do that. She did not have that kind of power over her.

"This is not my fault." Tally said firmly.

Dr. Cable her mocking grin and Tally felt rage seeping all through-out her body. She just wanted to leap forward and rip that stupid, mocking smile off of Cable's face. How dare she blame her! This wasn't her fault. She wasn't going to let Cable blame her for this either. And she defiantly wasn't going to let Cable put a hand on David.

"I won't let you!" Tally screeched.

Dr. Cable looked taken-aback but her recovered quickly.

"Who is there to stop me Tally?" she laughed.

"There's me!" Tally said.

"I'd like to see you try." Dr. Cable said in an icy tone.

Tally focused all her anger on the door to the cell and then she started punching and kicking it as hard as she could. It hurt. It hurt like hell, but at that moment Tally didn't really care. Dr. Cable's mocking smile turned into a shocked expression and took a small step back from the door. Almost as if she was afraid of Tally.

Tally kept punching and she kept kicking and gradually a large dent started to appear. With one well aimed kick the dent burst and a hole appeared in the door. Maybe the steel wasn't as strong as Cable had thought it was after all.

Tally burst through the door. Dr. Cable took a large step back this time. Tally was ready though and she leaped forwards and sucker-punched Dr. Cable in the face and Dr. Cable fell to the ground with a sickening thud. She heard a loud crack as Cable hit the floor. She forced herself to look down and cringed when she did so. The angle of Cable's neck reminded her of the way the Boss's neck had looked when Tally had found his body in the woods after the Specials had tried to destroy the Smoke.

She pushed away all other feelings at that point and just focused on what she needed to do at that point. She had to save David.

Tally ran towards Shay and Fausto's cell from the second time. She hit the button and flung the door open as hard as she could.

"Déjà vu." Fausto joked as he and Shay walked out of the cell.

"Not now!" Tally barked.

"Why, what's wrong Tally-wa?" Shay asked. Her expression filled with concern and worry.

"They got David!" Tally said.

She rushed quickly out of the room without another word. She rushed down the halls checking for any signal from the crude antenna on her skintenna. There was one little problem though. Dang her stupid dramatic exits. She had no idea where David would be, maybe if she had listened closer to Dr. Cable's speech instead of breaking her neck and possibly killing her then maybe she would have a little hint on where David would be. But she had nothing, zilch, nada, zip, information on where he would be. She was screwed.

But then she started to think about what it was like when her city had decided that they wanted all the Specials despecialized. They had taken her in an operation room and put her in a large tank filled with gritty nano liquid. If David would be anywhere he would be in an operating room. Tally checked her skintenna's feed to see if it picked up any signal. She got one and it was close. It was small but as she continued in the direction she was going in, it got stronger and stronger.

"David?" she asked into the skintenna hoping that maybe a ping would answer her but none did.

She kept following the signal until she got to a room labeled, 'research lab'. She wondered why David would be in a research lab. She shrugged and kicked down the door with one powerful kick.

There were three doctors standing besides a whole bunch of technical equipment looking at information on the Pretty operation. She scanned the room for David but she didn't see him anywhere. She didn't see the little antenna anywhere either.

The three doctors looked at her with their big Middle Pretty eyes. These doctors were regular doctors, not Special Circumstance doctors. Tally twisted her wrist and pulled out her stinger needle. She ran towards when and with one prick at each of their necks she watched as all three of them crumpled down to the ground.

"Tally? Is that you?" a voice came from the darkness.

A figure appeared from the darkness of a corner in the room.

It was Maddy.