Chapter
The brothers had been walking through the endless forest for hours, and fatigue was beginning to show its ugly head. The only sound was the crackle of dead leaves under their feet. The brothers stayed quiet while on missions, and only spoke to give commands and strategies. The two brothers liked it this way. There were no distractions; no ringing phones; no annoying boss; no other people whatsoever. The silence gave them time to think. They were both deep in thought as they walked, until they were suddenly brought back down to Earth by loud rapid beeping coming from the cases.
"finally!" Stephen exclaimed with a sigh. "We can open these stupid cases. I was about to just phase through them and take out what was inside."
"That would have been a bad idea, Donnie stated solemnly. From what we know about the company, when Mr. Poe said "these cases are made especially for you two," I came to the conclusion that we could not have gotten into these cases even if we wanted to."
"Maybe, Stephen said confused." He raised the case to eye-level, and pressed his other hand to the case. He began to phase through the case, before an odd force repelled his previously-intangible hand.
"Told you, Donnie said smugly." He laid his case on the ground, opened it, and began to see what was inside. Stephen did the same. Unsurprisingly enough, Donnie's case contained paper. Stephen's case, on the other hand, surprised both of them. It contained an odd looking hand gun, a silencer, ammunition, and a pair of sunglasses. "I can understand the gun, and the ammo, but why the sunglasses?"
"To look cool, Stephen replied with a smile as he picked up the glasses to try them on. Whoa! He exclaimed when he put the glasses on his face."
"What is it?" Donnie asked worriedly.
"It's like the lenses are computer screens. Hey, it even has a thermal mode!" Stephen pressed a button on the top of the rim of the glasses and looked at Donnie. Donnie's image turned from full color picture to silloette of greens and blues. Stephen scanned the area with his eyes to play with the glasses more, when something caught his eyes. On a few of the vines in front of the brothers, were large raflessia plants, but something was different about them. Instead of a blue-green color like the other trees and plants, their image was a bright red-orange color. There were also small vein-like markings of the same color spreading from the flowers through the vine. "Donnie, take a look at this, Stephen said while handing the glasses to his brother."
"I think we've found our frog, Donnie said with a smile."
"What?" Stephen asked confused.
"Oh, its nothing. Come on, lets get going." Donnie closed his case and began walking towards the flowers. Stephen followed him. With gun and paper in hand, the brothers felt invincible.
*****
The brothers had been following the trail of winding plants for a while now, and the vein-like roots were beginning to merge with each other until only a few large roots remained.
"It seams like we are getting closer, Donnie said. The roots are beginning to come together. We will probably reach our destination soon."
The two brothers continued to follow the vines until they stood before a rundown shack covered in vines and leaves. On the roof, stood a gargantuan raflessia plant. Donnie removed the glasses and handed them to Stephen as they both stepped towards the door of the rundown shack.
"Are you ready?" Donnie asked.
"As ready as I'll ever be," Stephen replied as he loaded new gun.
Donnie placed his hand on the rusty door knob and turned it. The door swung open with a loud creaking noise. The two brothers stepped into the shack and were dumbfounded by what they saw. There were beakers and vials filled with dark, bubbling liquids. There were numerous computer towers and monitors showing weird charts and numbers.
"I guess that this is where the doctor lives," Stephen said.
"Yea, but I think he's not here right now," Donnie sighed before turning around to face his younger brother who was staring at his shoes. "Let's just wait here until he ---- Donnie stopped. His eyes went from his brother to the rafters above him. Right above his brother, was a wolf-like creature with a large pair of red eyes.
"Donnie, what is it?"
"Stephen, phase now!" Donnie screamed as the dark figure leapt down from the rafters. Donnie undid the latch on his case and flung it at the figure. It smashed into the monster with a bang. The creature was propelled back from the impact, and the case opened releasing a flurry of paper. Before the creature could leap for a second attack, Donnie raised his arm and the paper in the air froze, faced the creature, and flew at it. The creature was covered with the paper, and was pinned against the wall.
Stephen turned around and opened his eyes to see what was making that awful muffled growling noise behind him. The figure appeared to be shrinking as it wriggled around in its paper cocoon.
"Donnie, is that the doctor?" Stephen asked in a whisper.
"There's only one way to find out," Donnie replied as he flicked his wrist at the cocoon, causing the paper around the head of the creature to fall away. The scarred face of a man in his fifty's was now starring at the brothers.
"Are you two from the company?" The man asked in a very calm voice. The brothers were shocked with the same thought. Was this person the same thing that just attacked us? The brothers said nothing. "Judging by what I just saw you do, I want to say that you are from the company, Mr. Smith sent you here, and you're here to take my research?"
"Yes, all of that is true," Donnie said in a cold voice. He raised his arms as paper flowed from his sleeves. The paper materialized into the shape of a bow and arrow. "Where is the research?" Donnie asked in the same tone.
"Let me guess…If I don't tell you, you'll kill me…and if I do tell you, you'll still kill me. Am I right?" The person in the cocoon said calmly.
"We were never told to kill you, but we weren't told to let you live either. Donnie replied as he increased the tension on the bow.
"We both know that you're not going to let go of that string… not before you ask me how I escaped from the company… Am I right?"
Donnie lowered his weapon as the bow slowly fell apart into the hundreds of pieces of paper that had formed it.
"Please tell me how you did it," Donnie begged.
"I was waiting for you to ask that," Dr. Grigori said with a smile. "The reason I was able to leave, was because I discovered a secret. Mr. Smith controls people with fear. As long as you fear him, he has power over you. One day I realized that he was just a man. There was nothing special about him. He has no powers. He has no special abilities. He is just a sad little man who uses others to get him what he wants. After I thought about it for a while, I understood that he had no power over me. I didn't fear him, so I left, and I took my life's work with me."
Donnie raised his arm and the paper pinning Dr. Grigori to the wall flew into his sleeves.
"Thanks, but it was kind of cozy in there. I felt like a caterpillar becoming a chrysalis," The doctor said chucking. "I know why you're here, and I know what Mr. smith would do to you if you failed so…" Dr. Grigori walked over to the many computer monitors and pressed a button on one of the towers. The computer ejected a disk which Dr. Grigori then gave to Donnie.
"Are you sure?" Donnie asked.
"Don't worry, without this, Mr. Smith can never duplicate what I did," Dr. Grigori pointed to a cross shaped necklace around his neck. He took the necklace off and handed it to Stephen. "It's safer in your hands. If you have it, Mr. Smith can't touch it."
Stephen took the necklace and put it on.
"You two better get going. Mr. Smith doesn't like to be kept waiting." The brothers nodded. Donnie placed the disk into his suit case. Then the brothers began to walk towards the door. Once outside, Donnie placed his case on the ground and opened it. An ocean of paper exploded from the case. It swirled around the brothers. The paper began to stick together and the shape of a dragon began to be formed. Once the last piece of paper stuck to the dragon, the brothers climbed on. The dragon began to flap it's wings furiously and started to lift of the ground.
"Don't forget the secret I told you! If you don't fear him, then he has no power over you!" Dr. Grigori yelled from the ground as the dragon began to reach the top of the trees.
As the dragon flew over the many tall trees of the Rainforest, Stephen saw something lying on the forest floor.
"Donnie. Is that a person?!" Stephen pointed to a figure lying next to a tree. Donnie made the dragon descend and began to hover a few feet from the ground. Stephen hopped off and walked over the body. "Donnie. It's the guy from our apartment!"
Donnie made the dragon land. "It is!" Donnie exclaimed. Donnie saw the wounds over Sasha's body. "He needs medical attention now!"
The brothers lifted him onto the paper dragon, and flew towards the nearest hospital. When they arrived, they placed him at the door to the hospital, Stephen fired his gun into the air, and the dragon flew off before anyone could see it or the brothers. Stephen watched as a few nurses carried Sasha inside. Deep down, he hoped he would be okay.