Chapter 10: Explanations
It was cold. Cold and dark. Gary's eyes blinked open, surveying the room. He was in a cell, shackled to the wall. The bars and floor were connected to a high voltage wire system: Anything touching it would suffer sever electrocution. To top it off, Mercy was right outside the cell, watching him.
"It didn't take you as long to wake as I suspected," He noted. "It's surprisingly easy to underestimate you. A fault on my part, perhaps." Gary didn't really understand what he meant by that. In truth, he was actually rather frightened; the Prixtal Leader was rather intimidating in person.
"What are you going to do with me?" he asked. A grin came upon Mercy's face; another one that sent a shiver down the captive's spine.
"It depends on your cooperation," he replied. "Are you aware of exactly who you are?"
"I don't think so." Maybe he could finally find out what he was supposed to remember! "Do you know?"
"Indeed I do." Mercy paced in front of the bars, his chain arm writhing around, almost as if they were alive. "You see, the old leader of Prixtal was a fool. He merely wanted power, and believed he could simply take over Seraph Island by surprise. To do so, he created an army of artificial echidnas to try and overtake the isle. There was a large battle, needless to say, and many were killed. However, many were created afterward from the DNA taken from some of the 'real' echidnas killed." A hollow laugh interrupted the speech. "I am one of these, Gary, the strongest created. And after me…there was you."
Gary's eyes widened. "I…I'm a fake too?"
"Not a fake. We are alive, aren't we?" Mercy explained. "The reason you were locked away was so I could keep an eye on you, and your powers wouldn't awaken before it was time. However, the issue cannot be ignored any longer." The chilling replica walked up to the bars, letting his chained arm past the electric bars, reaching Gary.
"If we are ever to restore our world, we must first get the Lord Maelstrom Crystal out of the way. I cannot do this alone, but with the both of us…together Gary, we can recreate this world into its true glory." Gary remembered that this was what he spoke of at Resna; fixing the world. Still, something seemed off about this.
"Do not trust him," It was that voice; the one he heard before, the last time being his dream. "You are not a fake…you belong to the island. You cannot betray your people."
"Do you accept?" Mercy asked, snapping Gary out of his thoughts. The captive boy was silent.
"I…I'll think about it," he replied. Mercy nodded.
"Good enough for now." The chains backed away. "I shall give you time to think about it, then. I must be off now; there is much to do still. I would prefer an answer by tomorrow. Good night, Gary." The leader walked away, leaving the captive alone.
"One day…that's all I have. Unless I find a way out, I'll have to answer to him…what should I do?"
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Al'catraz certainly didn't remember falling asleep inside of a dank cell. It didn't take long for her eyes to adjust to the low lighting of the place-she was a bat, after all- and took a look around. They were in a holding cell: Her, the bull, dragon, rabbit, and a very angry Rozik. Hold on-where were Suzy and the echidna?
"You, like, woke up finally!" the rabbit said, being the only one to notice. "You okay?"
"I'm alright." Al'catraz looked at the rabbit girl, trying to remember her name. "You're Orea, correct?"
"You've heard of me?" Orea asked, taken aback. The bat nodded.
"Rozik's mentioned you guys." She looked over at her hedgehog friend, who was in the middle of screaming vehemently.
"-and that b-tch of a mantis turns her back on us, drugs us asleep, and gives us up to Prixtal! The rotten little whore! Not only that, but they ran off with not only that stupid partner of mine, but my sister! These f-cking a--holes are going to hell when I'm through with them! Stupid! F-cking! TRAITOROUS! BACKSTABBING! B-TCH!!!" As he said this, the white hunter threw punch after punch at the bars, trying to break them, with no avail. That, of course, just made him angrier.
"Calm down Rozik," Brom ordered, grabbing the hedgehog by the collar of his jacket. "Screaming is not going to get us anywhere."
"That does not change the fact that she's a f-cking little-"
"Did you not hear what I just said?" The bull growled. "…I should have suspected this would happen eventually, but it is too late to dwell on the fact now. What we need to do is figure out a way to escape, and then we shall rescue Gary and your sister." The others nodded, and Rozik mumbled an agreement.
"So," Darem spoke up, "Anyone got a plan?" There was a minute of silence. Al'catraz looked over at the bars, and found where the key to the cell would go. But how to fix that?
"Aha, I think I got it," the bat said. She turned to Orea. "Say, you're the mechanic, right? Do you happen to have anything small and flat with you?" The rabbit shrugged.
"Well, I didn't grab anything since I, like, didn't think anything would happen at Resna…hold on a sec." The rabbit pulled out a small purse (she brought it because it matched her dress), and pulled out a small file. "How's this?"
"Perfect," Al'catraz replied, taking the file. She then turned to Darem. "You can breather fire, right?"
"Right as rain."
"Good. Try heating this up, just enough so that it's glowing an orangish yellow color." The dragon did so, and the small file was burning hot (though she could still hold it at the end). It wasn't exactly melting, but it was somewhat soft. Perfect for what Al'catraz had in mind. Walking over to the keyhole, she jammed the file partway in. Since it was just hot enough that it didn't have a completely solid form, the file molded partially into the shape the key would need to be in. After keeping it in for a few minutes, the bat turned the file-key, and the door unlocked.
"I thought that would work," Al'catraz said with a smirk, looking over at the others. The bat always had been good at thinking on her feet.
"I must say, very resourceful." Brom acknowledged. "Now, it seems there are two doors out of this room. Since we were unconscious when they brought us in here, there is no way of telling which door leads to the exit. That, and we still have to recover Gary and…Suzy, was the girl's name? Either way, we should split into two groups. Orea, you come with me. Rozik, Darem, and…"
"Al'catraz."
"Yes, Al'catraz, you three take the other door. We unfortunately do not have com-links at the moment, so you'll have to fend for yourselves. Are we clear?"
"Doesn't matter; I'm getting the hell out of here," Rozik growled. He practically threw the door of its hinges as he ran out, with Al'catraz and Darem following behind.
"Do you, like, think they'll be alright?" Orea asked.
"We can only hope, Orea. Come on, we have to leave."
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Rozik ran off rather fast, feeling much too angry to care about sticking with the others. It was pure luck that most of the guards were still at Resna, or else he probably would have been swarmed by now. The only real noise in the hall was the stomping of his boots when his feet touched the ground, trying to figure out where he was going.
The white hunter suddenly crashed into someone, hurtling onto the ground. Muttering incoherent curses as he got up, he looked down at who was the cause of his crash, and his black irises widened with rage.
"Seema." The mantis looked up at him, surprised.
"Rozik! I see you managed to get out." She said. "Listen, I-"
"-Am just about to break your scrawny little neck," Rozik snarled, tackling her back to the ground. "You traitorous bitch! You've been working with these freaks all along, haven't you?"
"If you would let me explain," She replied, pushing him away. "Then maybe you'd understand!"
"Then you have five seconds to give me one damn good reason why I shouldn't just rip your little head off." The hedgehog backed off a bit, though he was still at an advantage over Seema. The mantis nodded.
"…You see, when I first found out that my parents were in charge of the Prixtal Military camps, it didn't affect me too much. But…when I found out they were going to make me go through there, and become an empty soldier, I knew something was wrong.
I joined Prixtal as a spy, hoping that it would not only keep me from being put in the military, but I could figure out what was going on. As I did so, I found out all the horrible things Mercy has been doing. So…I was rash, and…I tried to assassinate him."
"Well," Rozik growled. "It obviously didn't work, but what's that got to do with anything?"
"Simple. He caught me, and gave me a choice: Either he'd kill me, or I'd have to surrender all loyalty to him. I would do anything he ordered me to. I picked that, because…I…did not want to die, and if I did, there would be no hope for my parents either. I had to, I…" She paused. "I had no idea I would end up betraying you all like this."
"Better suck it up then," Rozik replied, standing back up. "Still with them?"
"…I'm not sure." Seema admitted. "After tonight…I'm not sure if I could do this again. Relaying information back to him is one thing, but betraying my friends, I don't know if I could do that. Besides…" The mantis looked around. "We have to get Gary out of here. I am not completely sure what he is going to do with him…but whatever it is, it's the worst alternative."
"That answers it for you right there." The white hunter started walking off. "Come on then, before I change my mind." Seema was honestly surprised that the hedgehog's anger hadn't gotten the better of him this once. She didn't have much time to think about it, however, since he started running off again, and she had to catch up sooner or later.
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Meanwhile, Al'catraz and Darem had managed to find a few rooms that Rozik had missed. Most of these were either empty, or had nothing important. However, this one was different: It was a giant laboratory, with stasis capsules everywhere. There was a large computer module mounted to one of the walls, with various information on the screen.
"Ach, what Orea wouldna' give to see this," Darem said, inspecting it. "Think anything useful be here?" Al'catraz shrugged.
"Nothing so far, just weird looking things in pods…hold on a sec. Darem, come look at this! Quickly!" There was a tone of urgency in her voice, and Darem rushed over to the pod she was looking at.
"Holy…impossible!" Inside was a dragon. The creature was structured almost exactly like Darem, but with a few differences in detail and colors. A smaller computer attached to the cell flashed the words, Abandoned: Dispose of Immediately. The worst part, however, was that Darem remembered seeing that particular dragon before.
"I didna see him much, but I ken I did. Was one of my…father's pals, I think." He looked over at the next capsule; another dragon was inside. A female this time. Darem remembered her too. In fact, a lot of the capsules held dragons, amongst other failed experiments. Pretty much every dragon was one that Darem remembered seeing before when he was a kid, before being separated from the others.
"Well then, what would they be doing here?" Al'catraz asked. "Did Prixtal capture them?"
"Nay, not all of them. I remember seeing some of these-most of these, in fact- dead. And these…these dinna' look like they have a scratch on 'em." The dragon sighed. "This is just great, just…hold on, I think I see something." It was another capsule, the only one that did not have an 'Abandoned' sign on it. Inside the capsule was a small hedgehog girl, with gray fur, and a large gun fused to her left arm.
"Suzy!" The bat delivered a devastating blow to the glass, shattering it as the girl fell out. The bat caught her, trying to wake her up.
"…Alcy?" Suzy mumbled, her eyes fluttering open. "What happened Alcy? My awm feels funny." The bat looked like she was trying to hold herself together, and barely doing it.
"Don't worry Suzy, it'll be okay. We're going to have to leave now, okay?" Al turned to Darem, handing Suzy to him. "Carry her, will you? I don't think I can handle holding her while murdering whoever the hell did this to her. Come on, we're leaving." The bat rushed out the room, followed by a confused dragon, and a little girl who was wondering what the metal stuff on her arm was…
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"There he is!" Orea cried, pointing to an electric cell in the middle of the room. The rabbit and Brom had gotten to Gary's cell rather quickly. The echidna seemed to be unconscious at the moment, probably from hanging so long.
"Stand back," Brom ordered the rabbit, "I'm going to break in." It was a good thing he had brought his Warhammer in case of emergency; this qualified as one by all means. He swung the mighty weapon at the bars, making sure to let go just as it collided to avoid being shocked. The warhammer busted through the bars, and skidded to the middle of the cell floor.
"I'll get him out." Orea stood in front of the cell, made a desperate leap, and landed on the hammer (it was big enough for a person to stand on). Trying to keep her balance, she leaned over to Gary's shackles, pulling out a laser just small enough to break the chains (but not strong enough to break the bars, which is why she hadn't used it earlier). Gary fell out, and she almost fell while catching him, making sure he didn't collide with the floor. Turning to Brom and giving him a quick thumbs-up, Orea hopped back, barely missing the electric floor as she landed next to Brom.
"Nice job," he said as he grabbed his warhammer off the floor. "We should head back now."
"I don't think you are going anywhere." Behind them was Mercy, smirking. "Why do you think the guards just-so-happened to be gone? I wanted to see how far you could get."
"I had a feeling this would happen," Brom muttered. "Orea, when I give the word, run." Orea, who was still holding Gary, shook her head.
"But Brom-" At that instant, Mercy seemed to have disappeared, and the guards who had been missing before seemed to pour into the room, weapons wielded. The hunter leader grabbed his warhammer.
"Go now! There's a hatch in the back!" She didn't want to, but the rabbit obeyed, ducking into the hatch with Gary beside her. The entry was quickly shut, and outside she could hear the sounds of screams and gunfire. Only able to hope that everything would turn out alright in the end, the rabbit, carrying Gary, began to crawl through the hatch.
"Don't worry," Orea whispered, "I'll get you out. Promise."