11
Prisoner
Cassius woke up on the floor. He was dizzy and had blurred vision for a while, so he couldn't tell where he was. After he gained his balance, he found he was in a metal room with one window. The walls were a dark shade of purple, and there was a door on the wall opposite of the window.
Cassius looked out the window and saw a blue sky, speedily passing clouds, and the ocean, which was at least a thousand feet below, because it's already been established that Cassius was good at estimating things like that. He concluded he was in a flying vessel of some sort.
Cassius slowly opened the door, which was weirdly unlocked, and peeked out. He saw Emperor Ozimbus, whose cloak still scared him, talking to two dark normal types.
Ozimbus said to the normal types, "Do what I say and take the prisoners to Skulblakia!"
One of the normal types said, "But your majesty! What about the space station? It's nearing completion, and I think we should take the prisoners there."
"That's a stupid idea," Ozimbus said bluntly. "I'm the king so you have to do what I say."
"But your majesty! The space station is such a work of art!" the normal type argued.
Ozimbus yelled in reply, "I don't care what you think of MY space station! I want those prisoners at the city of Zelbai in the prison hold! I'll give you further orders about the space station later!" With that, Ozimbus stormed off into another room.
One of the normal types said to the other, "Do you think Emperor Ozimbus is hiding something in his cloak?"
The other normal type replied, "He's got something planned, but I trust he'll tell us all in good time."
"How do you know?" the first normal type asked.
"Because Ozimbus is very loud and speaks everything that's on his mind."
The first normal type narrowed his eyes. "I could get you arrested for saying something like that."
"Uh…" the other normal type looked around awkwardly. "What were we talking about?"
"Chromatically-challenged ponies," the first replied.
"Great. Let's go beat up orphans in the cargo hold."
"Yes! My favorite pastime!"
The normal types left the room. Cassius thought about what he had just heard.
Why wouldn't Ozimbus tell his own men what he was really hiding in his cloak? thought Cassius.
Cassius then saw, through the slightly opened door, Wacky enter the room with a dark run type.
"I know you want to know Emperor Ozimbus's true plans, but I was told not to tell anyone," Wacky said smugly.
The run type replied, "But I want to know! I want to help!"
"Sorry, but his majesty doesn't want anyone to know." Wacky crossed his arms and looked away.
The run type then asked annoyed, "Then how did YOU find out?"
Wacky smiled. "Inside Ozimbus's throne room. I decided to venture inside before I was told to go to Chao World."
"What did you find?" asked the run type with wide eyes.
"None of your beeswax!" replied Wacky sternly.
The run type narrowed his eyes. "I could get you arrested for doing something like that."
"Ozimbus loves me, he'll never arrest me," Wacky boasted. "You, on the other hand, will be sent to the dungeon quicker than I can wipe my booty with your handkerchief."
"Oh dear…" the run type's eyes widened. "Well, can I at least have a hint?"
Wacky sighed and said, "Ok, I saw plans of attack near his throne. Something about an eclipse, and then there was something about the space station and then something about an indestructible evil monster, and then the writing is cut off. There. Happy now?"
The run type, with a confused look on his face, said, "I don't know what any of that stuff means, but thank you for telling me anyway."
Wacky then threatened, "If you tell anyone else about this I will have to throw you in with that Cassius freak!"
Cassius was offended by Wacky's last comment, but he didn't care. He just decided to think on several questions, like, where did the space station come from? Is the space station the cause of the comm. satellite problem? What did an eclipse have to do with anything? Why would anyone want an indestructible evil monster running around naked in the woods? Cassius confused himself with more and more questions until he fell asleep.
Cassius felt he was in a field. A vast, green field covered in long grass. The wind was gentle on his face. Cassius, seeing no one was around to judge him, began to run around in the grass. He was having so much fun; he totally had no idea he was dreaming.
Suddenly, in the cloudless sky, the moon slowly approached the sun, preparing to overthrow it. As the moon got closer, the sun grew darker. When the moon reached the sun, the moon ate the sun and immediately bathed the field with a cursed purple light. Cassius was confused, but not scared. Nothing scared Cassius, ever. Except maybe Ozimbus' cloak.
Soon after that, Cassius saw the ocean. The ocean was black. Then the ocean began to take shape. It split into many parts, to form many different dark chao and Skulblakian weaponry. Before he knew it, Cassius was looking into a sea of dark chao, tanks, massive black panthers, and many other Skulblakian things which Cassius didn't recognize.
Now Cassius was scared. He turned back to run, and when he did, the sight shocked him. He was face to face with the biggest wall of water he had ever seen. It was shaped like a wave. Several seconds later, the wave collapsed on Cassius, drowning him. The last thing he saw before his vision blurred was the most hideous creature he had ever seen, scarier even than Ozimbus' cloak.
Cassius woke up in a dark room. He was not in the flying vessel of some sort anymore, as far as he could tell. He saw water puddles on the cracked stone floor, and water was dropping from the ceiling into the puddles.
Through his blurred vision, he saw a group of chao. He saw twelve neutral normal types with weird hats on, a neutral fly type, a dark swim type, a neutral chaos chao, and a dark chaos chao. Cassius shook his head for clearer vision, and his jaw dropped. He was staring into the faces of Papoose, Caruso, and Miss Chaolin, the Chao School teacher! He didn't know who the neutral normal types or the dark chaos chao were, so he ignored them.
"Cassius! You're awake!" yelled Papoose, who ran up to greet him.
"I'm glad you're safe!" said Caruso, relieved.
"You're still the strong disciplined chao I knew in school!" complimented Miss Chaolin.
Cassius, relieved, said, "It's nice to see you all too! Do you have any idea where we are?"
Miss Chaolin replied, "We're at the Skulblakia prison hold."
"How did you of all chao get here, Miss Chaolin?" Cassius asked.
"What a good idea! Let's all share our stories of how we got here to Cassius!" exclaimed Miss Chaolin.
"That sounds depressing," Papoose muttered.
The dark chaos chao punched Papoose across the room. "We are sharing stories."
The others quickly nodded in agreement.
Miss Chaolin then began her story.
"I was doing some work at the school getting ready for the new school year shortly after your graduation, until I heard a knock on the door." Miss Chaolin paused and continued, "When I opened it, a dark power type gave me a message saying I was hired to help Emperor Ozimbus make wise decisions in the war. I laughed hysterically and refused, and the power type just left, without saying anything. The next day, I heard another knock on my door. I went to open it, and Ozimbus himself was standing there. First he asked me kindly to go to Skulblakia and help him, but when I giggled and refused, he pushed me and demanded me to accompany him in the war. He then sent in some dark normal types, had me captured, and here I am."
"That explains a lot," said Cassius. "Ozimbus must be really stupid if he went begging an elementary Chao School teacher to be his advisor in the war. Papoose, what about your story?"
Papoose, astonished, said, "You were there the whole time! Didn't you see me get captured?"
Cassius replied, "Actually, no, I didn't."
Papoose sighed and began his story.
"When I saw the Skulblakian fighters approaching for the takeover, I thought I was dreaming. And then King Kirtie decided to declare war on Skulblakia, which I thought was a bad idea. But anyway, the fighting started, and there was only one way to end it, and that was to stop Skulblakia, so I, along with you and Caruso, had no choice but to help the NCPA. So I picked up a machine gun, and began firing away. It was very easy to use and I killed a lot of chao. When I heard King Kirtie had been captured, that's when it happened. I was so shocked that we actually lost the battle, that I let a dark swim type take my gun load me into the freighter and take me away. That's right, I just handed the gun over to him and let him carry me into the freighter. That's how depressed I was that we lost the fight. Caruso did the same thing, so you don't need his story."
"Hey!" Caruso shouted. "My story's a bit different! I did all the same things you did, except I had an electric staff."
"Is that the only difference?" Cassius raised an eyebrow.
"Well… no. I killed a lot of chao just like Papoose. And then when we lost, I gave my weapon to a dark swim type and let him carry me into the freighter."
"Retards," Cassius rolled his eyes. "Now do any of you mind telling me who these other chao are?"
Miss Chaolin replied, "The neutral chao are NCPA soldiers, and the dark chaos chao here, well, we'll let him share his story.
"I don't share stories," replied the dark chaos chao.
"Yes you do," replied Cassius.
"You just punched me in the face to make me share mine, it's only fair!" Papoose shouted.
"Ok," said the dark chaos chao, beginning with his story.
"Hello, Cassius. My name is Fang. Back in the time of peace, when there was no war, I was Emperor Ozimbus's advisor." Fang almost seemed to choke over the words he said. He then continued, "He trusted me, and I trusted him. I thought we had a good friendship going, until something happened which made him suddenly power-thirsty. He then announced to the entire multitude of dark chao at Skulblakia that he was going to take over the other chao nations. I thought it was a horrible idea. I asked Ozimbus to stop, but he didn't listen. Then he made me in charge of the weapon supply. I refused. Ozimbus then gave me a second chance to help with the weapons. I still refused. He then demanded me to help with the weapons. I refused again, and he personally took me to this jail cell and tossed me in, and shut the door on me. I think shortly after was when he spread the warning messages and went to get Chaolin to replace me, but I'm not sure."
Cassius said, "That's an interesting story, but I've got one question. Why, since you are a chaos chao and all, didn't you just beat up Ozimbus and trash him with your mystical chaos chao powers?"
Fang replied with a disgusted expression, "Ozimbus is an evil magician with a really scary cloak. Even chaos chao are no match for him."
"Oh, yeah, the cloak… forgot about that," replied Cassius.
Everyone was silent after that, and resorted to depressingly moping around. Cassius moped too, but while thinking of ways to escape.