~Drum roll; Tibki comes out on stage with a mic and a spotlight~
And now, the chapter you have been waiting nearly two years for: MATT'S ORDEAL.
DUN DUN DUUUUUH.
That's right. We are finding out what exactly happened to Matt after he was kidnapped by the Star Trek light! It's fairly long, 2000 words without this little intro thingymabob, but hey, it's a long awaited chapter.
I'm not going to keep you from it any longer. So, enjoy!
DISCLAIMER: I'm running out of ideas to make this thing funny. Anyway, I no own.
Somewhere…. Else?
No matter how many times he went through it, Matt would never get used to waking up from involuntary unconsciousness.
He'd been through it more times than he'd like to admit—a majority of those times came from the Shagon Saga, but a good amount resulted from the fights during his training with Caleb and normal battle scenes. If anyone had ever taken a poll, he would have to lie about the number because otherwise strange questions would begun to be asked.
Most victims of trauma-induced unconsciousness woke slowly, their body diligently making sure nothing was permanently injured by carefully waking every nerve fiber, one by one. Consciousness would return first, then feeling in the back, arms, hands, legs, knees, feet, and finally the sense as the eyelids opened.
That never happened with Matt.
As usual, he woke with a jolt, as if he'd had a nightmare that still couldn't hold a candle to his actual life. Every nerve in his body was up and on high alert at once, reporting no pain but a lot of discomfort; both his legs had fallen asleep and were currently being stabbed by pins and needles.
The boy bent over and began rubbing his shins, hoping to get circulation back into them before whatever knocked him out could attack again. He looked around, searching for any clue about his whereabouts.
Absolutely none came, though, because wherever he was, it was completely and 100% pitch dark. He consciously blinked a few times to make sure his eyes were actually open before letting out a fairly dirty Meridian curse word under his breath.
Matt closed his eyes and let the rest of his senses take over—his uncle, who'd died shortly after his father's disappearance, had been blind and had taught him to use each of his five senses to their maximum. Of course, it didn't hurt when he used a little of his magic to affect just how well he could hear, touch, smell, or see.
Cold metal was pressed against his ankles—shackles, and good ones too. Not the kind like in Meridian's jails that he could break without transforming into Shaggy. A nearly inaudible, constant humming was coming from in front of him, like a fan for some sort of high-tech piece of machinery. The ground was made of something too smooth to be in any kind of dungeon and the air was way too clean to be anything but filtered.
All evidence pointed towards him still being on Earth, but Matt wanted to be sure. If he had been taken hostage, then it was preferable he'd still be on his home planet—not only would it be easier for him to return home, but he was always a bit stronger on Earth.
The Regent inhaled a lungful of air and let it out slowly, in the way Napoleon had showed how, to better connect with the shard of power imbedded inside of him. Feeling inside of himself, he found the warm, pulsing ball of golden magic; his third of the Earth's Heart's power.
Subconsciously, Matt smiled as he willed the energy to grow and spread, watching as it reached every cell in his body and went even further, seeping into the ground and traveling deep, deep into the planet's core.
Sure enough, the magic flared like a solar storm once it hit the very center. If it had been any other planet or dimension, even, the power would've simply bounced back without doing anything. Instead, it circled three times before flying back towards him, reabsorbing back into his body.
"Alright, so at least I'm still on Earth," he muttered, taking another look around the dark room. 'But why am I here, wherever here is?' Matt wondered, frowning in thought. 'What happened…?'
His head snapped up as he remembered. Of course! His father showing up in the middle of the night, walking to the Earth Day Festival with him and Nigel and Eric, Huggles going nuts over that dumpster and the necklace hidden behind it, and then…
Matt swallowed. "Uh oh." He'd transformed in front of Nigel and Eric. At the time he'd seen it as an only option, but now he was kicking himself for it. Those two were supposed to stay out of the whole 'magic' deal. Hay Lin and Taranee had absolutely refused to even think about hinting them the truth when the question came up.
The girls were going to kill him very dead.
He should've ducked, levitated to run down the side of the wall, anything but Regent up in front of those two. His dad had already heard him say he was a Dark Angel and was already in on magic anyway, but not as close as Eric and Nige were. Anything else could've been explained by his training sessions with Caleb. Losing that secret would've been bad, but still okay compared to…
"$hit, dmn, fu(k, I am such a motherfu(king idiot!"
"And a bad-mouthed one at that."
Matt immediately closed his mouth, narrowing his eyes and whipping his head around for the source of the voice. It wasn't one he recognized—and older man, possibly Japanese—and that meant a possible new enemy. Great. That was the thing he needed this week.
"Over here, Matthew Olsen."
He winced and turned away as a bath of blue light flooded his dilated pupils. After he'd gotten more used to it, he looked up towards it's source.
The machine he'd heard before was apparently a massive screen, turned off before and now holding the image of a man, yup, he was Asian, in a bright white suit.
The man smirked, looking down on the captive boy with a glint of hatred in his eyes. Matt knew that look all too well—the very sight of it often made him want to vomit, but he held it in. Upchucking in front of a guy who'd just put you in shackles was a bad idea.
And disgusting. Who knew when it'd get cleaned up?
That smirk told him this guy was all-too-sure of himself. He needed to knock him off his high horse a little, throw him off so he could find a weak point and use it to escape. Matt couldn't afford to seem worried.
"Well, you know my name, but you have me at a disadvantage," Matt replied, leaning back against the wall behind him and putting his hands on the back of his neck, slouching in the picture-perfect disrespectful teenager stereotype.
It worked. The smirk quickly became a scowl. Matt inwardly grinned—this guy didn't like disrespectful, fine. He could be rebellious. He, admittedly attempted, to help Caleb and the girls with Phobos and you don't get much more rebellious than a dethroning mob of medieval citizens.
"Takeda. That's all you need to know," the man said through his scowl. Matt nodded, filing away the name for research later. "I suppose you're wondering why we captured you?"
Matt shrugged. "Eh. A lotta people want me. I'm more interested in how. You responsible for the beam of light?" Takeda huffed. "Taking that as a yes. For future reference, though, Takeda, those things are really pretty cliché. They went out of style after the Star Trek movie came out. A copter might work better next time, or even a team of ninjas trained in some dojo on a mountain whose name I can't pronounce. You'll have to work fast on that one, though, it's going too."
A beautifully red vein appeared on the man's forehead. Matt smirked. Though he rarely used it, raising people's blood pressure was a talent of his.
"And what's with this place? I mean, are you trying to copy Megamind or Pit and the Pendulum or something? Dark and scary with a giant computer screen coming out of nowhere. That's original. By the way, you might want to make the lights a little dimmer at first before your big reveal. What's a blind hostage gonna do for you? Fall of the overly cliché bridge during the swapout cause he can't see the rail. I mean, seriously…"
"SHUT UP!" Matt quieted, grinning in triumph. Takeda looked like an over-ripe tomato and was becoming even redder. He had to be more careful, though. If this guy had a heart attack it could spell even further danger for him. "You evil creature, don't you open your mouth again!"
Matt snorted. "You kidnapped an innocent 15-year-old kid and I'm evil. Sure. Whatever, dude."
Takeda, instead of blowing even further, however, grew a very large, very troubling smirk over his lips. Matt narrowed his eyes—that wasn't good. What was this guy up to?
"Innocent, you say?" he repeated. "How innocent is a demon, I wonder?"
Matt flinched at the insult—if there was one thing he still hated, even after learning so much from the Shagon Saga about that particular emotion, it was being called a demon. After Lillian had transformed him once more, there had been an unspoken agreement that the term was 'Dark Angel', a completely separate thing from what Shagon had been.
However, he recovered and leveled a glare at his capturer. "I have no idea what you're talking about," he said flatly. "Go get some mental help, why don't…"
Takeda pulled out a remote and clicked a single button. The screen disappeared in a flurry of static before changing into a security camera's view of a very familiar alley. The timestamp moved forward as it began to play.
A miniature, digital version of Matt appeared on the screen, running from a streak of static that followed him down the alleyway. When the image-Matt reached the back of the alley, he turned around and faced the oncoming beam before…
The real Matt winced as he witnessed his own transformation, caught by a candid camera he really should've checked for. Takeda's voice, dubbed over the image that had rewound and replayed, spoke again. "Not so innocent, now are you?"
"Still not evil," Matt replied shortly. "And if you know that I can do that, what makes you think I can't get out of these?"
Takeda was the one who snorted now, the screen shifting back to his face. "You think I hadn't thought of that? Those chains are magic-proof, Olsen. Zap them, blast them, pull on them with super-strength, it'll get you nowhere. Those, just like everything in this building, as well as the teleportation device, were made especially for magical beings like you." Matt winced at the malice behind those words.
"Why would you capture me?" he asked, narrowing his eyes.
Takeda glared at the boy. "I represent the Earthen division of a multi-dimensional organization devoted to the cause of eradicating magic from each of our respective planets." Matt's eyes widened. "That's right, demon, including you and your silly friends, those… Guardian girls. We will have to exterminate every one of you to save our worlds and homes from the influence of your evil."
Anger bubbled through Matt's mind at the word 'exterminate'. Fury pounded his ears as he saw that that was exactly what he planned on doing to the girls—to Will. Unknown to him, his uncontrolled anger affected his powers and set off two of his most telling affects—the glowing green eyes and deeper voice that Shagon held. "If you hurt any of them, Takeda, I swear, you'll wish I was a self-serving demon. Their worst attacks are nothing compared to what I'd do to you."
Takeda blinked at the sudden change in the boy, but only raised an eyebrow otherwise. "I'm sure. The girls will be joining you shortly, and my part of the plan will be finished. Without the Guardians to protect Kandrakar, the center of the multiverse's magic will fall and earth shall be safe once more."
"And condemned just like the rest of the planets," Matt replied, shouting. "They're called the Guardians of the Infinite Realms for a reason! They protect them, and I can assure you, whatever made you hate them, they had nothing to do with!"
"I don't need your lies." Takeda crossed his arms. "My contacts in the other worlds have told me just what the Guardians have done to the planets—burning an entire jungle, dethroning a rightful prince, and I distinctly remember a story of a demon attacking several innocents at a dock."
Matt turned away from the screen. He remembered that all right—remembered that he watched Shagon use his body to nearly kill Will and her parents, let alone everyone else on the docks that night. Most times he saw that as a minor victory—he'd kept Shaggy from killing Will, after all—but he wasn't going to tell that to this guy.
Suddenly, a very scary thought hit Matt. He looked back up at Takeda, who smiled at the boy's panicked face. "Why are you telling me this?" he asked, worry taking him over. In most cases, villains didn't reveal their plan unless they were sure you wouldn't live to see its outcome.
Takeda smiled. "Well, it's not as if you'll remember this anyway," he said as he pressed another button on his remote.
"Wait, what're you…?"
In the blue-ish light of the screen, Matt saw an enormous amount of circular panels fold up, revealing fans embedded in the floor. Greenish smoke, thick as the proverbial pea soup, began pouring from every one of them.
The smoke quickly filled the room, forcing its way into his lungs like hundreds of slimy insects crawling down his throat and digging into his alveoli. Matt clutched his throat as he coughed and choked, tears streaming down his face as the gas stung his eyes. His primal instincts kicked in at the lack of oxygen in his system and forced him to take in massive breaths, and therefore more of the horrible gas.
Even worse than the affect on his lungs and eyes, though, was the change that was occurring deep inside his ribcage, just under his sternum. Behind his heart, hidden from any other's view, something was yanked, torn from its place and taken to somewhere far, leaving an empty space that hurt more than the stinging feeling ever could. Matt howled in pain, the tears coming from his eyes no longer solely from the irritation.
Matt fell to his side, still grasping his neck, quickly starting to lose consciousness and only vaguely registering how a far-off door seemed to open and close, and how matching thuds echoed in the room.
Before he even heard his fellow captives begin coughing, everything went black and Matt fell into a never-ending pit.
Oh noes! Matt's unconscious and someone is locked in there with him! What will happen? Will I keep my promise to update daily? Will my sister ever get off her iTouch? Is that bacon I smell?
I hope Matt's humor was in character. I'm not a very funny person; that's my little sisters.
Anyone who reads the W.I.T.C.H. comics knows who Takeda is. If you don't, all you need to know is he's a jerk father to two kids, and does research on cold. That's right-cold. He really really hates magic and saying anything else would ruin the series.
Anyway. If you've gotten this far in the story, you know the spiel: don't hold back and tell me what you think by pressing the button
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