Rise of the Zealots
Experiment of The Evil Genius
Chapter 25: reality
Hello ladies and gentlemen, Rico here with the next chapter already? I've had a lot of free time recently, even despite my upcoming wedding in around two months. I spent all of my free time writing these chapters and now it looks like I'm back to update daily again. Unless something comes up, of course. Anyway, enjoy chapter 25.
Blu's eyes shot open and he the first thing he did was jump back in surprise. He began to feel around different areas of his body, trying to make certain that he was alive. After blinking his eyes a few times, Blu sighed in relief when he confirmed that he was alive and well. He looked around the area to see he was inside a room that appeared to be underground. It worked! He and Jewel were free!
That reminded him; he quickly turned around towards his loved one who was beginning to regain consciousness herself.
"Jewel!" Blu greeted as he leaned forward and hugged her close, relieved to see her alive and well.
"Blu." Jewel sighed, returning the hug once she regained her sight. She was surprised that his plan had worked, but the important thing was that they were here now, alive and well. "You did it. You freed us."
"Yeah...I did." Blu smiled and slowly began to release her from his wings.
Once they were finished hugging, they finally noticed the feeling of cold metal around their heads. Simultaneously, they placed their wings upon the top of her head and removed the devices that had been strapped on top of their head. These devices must be the source of what we're keeping them in that false world.
At that moment, they divided their attention elsewhere when they heard talking among a group. The mysterious macaw Steiner along with his four henchmen marched inside, speaking among themselves. However, their expressions changed when they noticed the blue macaws were free from their restraints.
"They're free!?" Steiner gasped and took a few steps backwards.
"Impossible." Doc added, he too appeared surprised that they were free. "You were fitted with a neural imaginative head disruptor!"
Blu arched an eyebrow in confusion and crossed both of his wings together. As much as he wanted to make Steiner pay for his crimes, he beckoned for Jewel to remain still for now until he got some answers. "A what now?"
"A neural imaginative head disruptor." Steiner explained while he too beckoned for his people to cease their attack. "It's designed to keep the mind unfocused and traps the user in a false reality to keep their mind unoccupied from the real world. It's usually impossible to escape unless the disruptor is removed. How you escaped is a mystery."
"No, the mystery is why you had us fitted with them in the first place." Jewel spoke up, throwing down her wing in anger as she stomped her talon against the ground. "Tell us why!"
Steiner merely chuckled in response and proceeded to take slow steps out from the room while his people remained behind. "As much as I would be interested to give you the answers you seek, I'm afraid I have to keep my reasons a secret. Carley, Doc, Axel, Big...Take care of our guests here. Fit them back into the disruptors and this time, make certain to upgrade the disruptors and tie them down if you have to. We don't want them to escape again, do we?"
"Of course not." Carley agreed with a grin and positioned herself in a combat pose. "We'll handle them."
"And try not to hurt them too much." Steiner requested as he walked out of the room. "They are our "guests" after all."
With that, Steiner closed the door behind him and allowed his people to take care of Blu and Jewel while he remained hidden like the coward he was. Carley began to perform flips as she made her way towards them while her allies merely walked in response.
"Let's get them." Axel spoke up and aimed his crossbow directly towards Blu, threatening to shoot him unless he surrendered.
Blu glared towards the four of them as he prepared to strike. When Axel had made the mistake of walking too close towards him, Blu swiftly leaped forward and grabbed onto Axel's weapon. Before he could react, Blu kicked him in his stomach, causing him to release his hold on his weapon. Blu snapped the crossbow in half, preventing anyone from using it again.
Big lunged forward and attempted to grab Blu, who swiftly dodged out of his way. For a huge macaw he certainly had no intelligence. Blu slid under his talons before jumping on the large macaws back. Big groaned and moved around in different directions, attempting to throw Blu off from him.
Meanwhile, Jewel tackled Carley when she attempted to help her allies. She was unable to hold her down when Carley easily pushed her away before using her skills to break free and throw Jewel all the way to the other side of the room.
As Big continued to struggle, Blu climbed on to the top of his head and positioned himself correctly with a firm grip. He raised his wing and delivered a powerful karate knife strike directly against the big macaws head. The force of the attack was so powerful that Big was beginning to lose consciousness from the impact inflicted against him.
He stumbled for a few seconds before collapsing directly onto his back and in the process; he landed on top of Axel who was attempting to move out of the way but was not quick enough. Axel groaned the bottom half of his body was trapped underneath Big who was now unconscious.
"Get. Off. Me." Axel groaned, attempting to wiggle his way free, but Big was too heavy for him to slip free from his grip.
Now only two of them remained. As Carley prepared herself for battle, Doc who was not really trained for dealing with others began to run away towards a different room. Jewel, realizing she could not help with Carley, followed Doc and chased him.
"Jewel!" Blu called after her, not willing to let her alone in this place.
"Get Steiner! I'll handle him!" Jewel assured. She was no longer in sight when she chased Doc into a different room (a separate from where Steiner had gone into).
Blu did not agree to this, but as much as he hated to admit it, it was the only thing they could do. He had to deal with Steiner before he got away, but only one obstacle remained in his way: Carley. She was loyal to Steiner and was not obviously willing to let Blu simply waltzed past her without trying to stop him.
"Get out of my way." Blu warned, trying to prevent a battle between them if he could.
Carley merely chuckled in response, unfazed by his threats. "Threaten my all you want, but I'm not letting you get past me."
Blu could see that there was no amount of persuasion to change her mind. Without hesitation, he charged towards Carley and the two began to engage in wing to wing combat, throwing hits and counters towards one another. They both appeared to be equally matched and where Carley got her training from were a mystery, but there was no time for Blu to be thinking about her origins.
Carley threw a couple of hits towards Blu before swiftly sliding herself behind her and jumping onto his back. She gripped her talons around his torso and her wings around his neck, attempting to choke him into submission. Blu groaned and struggled to throw her off, but she was not letting go that easily and was not easing up.
Blu eventually threw himself to the ground, slamming both himself and Carley onto the ground which Carley hit against the ground first. He turned around and pinned himself on top of Carley, holding one wing against her neck while attempting to hold her down with his free wing and both of his talons.
Carley broke free him his hold and head-butted Blu, knocking him back a few steps. She leaped up and performed a spin kick moving, slamming her talon directly against the side of Blu's face that launched him in the air, causing him to spin while doing so. Despite this, Blu was table to land onto his talons and continued battle.
Blu recovered and began to dodge Carley's kick attacks. When she continued to throw countless kicks, he eventually grabbed one of them and spun it around his wings, causing Carley to spin around also. Carley spun around and fell to the ground once more, but she count-attacked by placing both of her talons against Blu's and tripping him to the ground. She leaped backwards and performed a back-flip to seat herself up. Blu recovered also and prepared to finish this soon.
"You're good." Carley grinned and prepared herself for more combat. "I haven't had a challenge for a while."
Blu recovered and lunged towards Carley, throwing multiple hits towards her, but she began to block each one. As they both fought on the offensive and defensive, Blu managed to push back her defense before throwing his head down and delivering a powerful head-butt against her face. While she appeared temporally stunned, she shook off the dizziness and countered-attacked by grabbing Blu's head, forcing it downwards as she proceeded to kick him in the face.
Carley tackled Blu down and placed both of her talons around one of his own while she attempted to use her wings to dislocated his talon and render him unable to continue attacking. Before she could perform this move, Blu placed his free talon against her and pulled himself free from her grip. The two stood up and continued their battle.
The two got close to each other yet again and began to throw attacks and kicks to the other. Both macaws blocked each other's attacks until Blu had noticed an opening and quickly took it before he missed it. He struck his talon up and kicked Carley directly under her beak, launching Carley a couple of feet into the air. Carley performed a back-flip in mid-air to land without hurting herself.
Blu leaped forward and threw a hit towards Carley, who calmly moved aside. He swiftly jumped around behind Carley and placed one wing around her throat while keeping the second one around her torso, holding her in place as he tried to put her to sleep. Carley groaned, but did not give up that easily. She whacked both her wings against Blu's torso to knock him off balance before his wing around her throat and pulling him around so now she was behind him. Carley leaped up and kicked Blu a couple of feet forward.
As Blu tumbled forward, Carley struck first and threw her wing towards Blu, who caught it in his own and got her in a wing lock. Carley used her free wing to deliver a strike to Blu's face, but when she threw a second hit, Blu blocked before he leaped up and delivered a fury of kicks against her stomach. He lost count of how many times he hit her, but one thing was for certain is that he did not ease up on her.
After he was finished, Blu flipped himself around so his back was facing towards Carley. He continued to hold her wing in his wing and pulled it over his shoulder until he heard the sound of a bone snap before screams from Carley. Without hesitation, he proceeded to throw her over his shoulder.
Carley landed onto her back and groaned in pain when she felt her left wing was in pain. She attempted to move it, but instead, felt great pain. "What did you do to me?!"
"Your wing's dislocated." Blu explained while he forced her to stand back up onto her talons. He noticed a nearby cage in the same room and proceeded to force her towards her. Carley tried to struggle, but could not move too much without causing more pain to her wing.
When they reached the cage, Blu opened the door but before placing Carley inside, he placed his wings against her own and without warning, he yanked on her wing and snapped it back into positon. Carley, however, screamed in agony as Blu pushed her into the cage. As she nursed her wing, Blu slammed the cage door shut and locked her inside.
Carley would attempt to get free, but in her injured state, she was forced to admit defeat. She sat down and quietly cursed herself for her failure to defeat Blu. She was younger and faster than he was, yet he still defeated her somehow. Maybe one day they would meet again and one day she would face him again in combat.
With Carley locked up, Axel trapped and Big unconscious, all that remained now was Steiner. Jewel was handling Doc and as much as he would like to help her, he could not let Steiner get away. He was the third villain out of the four he was forced to face and letting him escape to lead to extreme consequences. He marched towards the door Steiner had walked into, ignoring Axel's pleas to help him.
Blu felt somewhat guilty for doing that to Carley. She was evil and would not hesitate to attack him, but snapping her wing out of position felt wrong. Still, Blu knew that when it came to dangerous situations, it required desperate action. He would think about it later, but right now, he had a job to do.
He kicked on the door as hard a she could where a terrified Steiner was standing in the center of room that resembled an office. Blu marched towards Steiner, who began to back away in fear.
"Whoa, whoa, hold on now!" Steiner panicked and took a few steps backwards before tripping over onto his back. "There's no need for hostilities."
Blu ignored him and forced Steiner back onto his talons. He placed his wings against Steiner and began to interrogate him. "Answer my question, why did you have Jewel and I locked up here?! Why!?"
Steiner gulped when he realized he was in trouble. It was time to answer some questions after all. "Okay, now let's not be hasty. Even if I told you, you're far too late."
"Too late?" Blu repeated, confused to what he meant. He shrugged off his confusion expression and got down to business to show her was serious. "Too late for what!?"
Steiner calmly began to explain the situation with a grin across his beak. "There is going to be war, Blu. A great war by foes you have faced before. They will be here soon and they are going to destroy everything you've ever cherished, everyone you've ever loved, and finally, kill you too. Their leader came to me not too long ago and offered me a proposal: my people and I could be moved to their home where birds from who are not local cannot age. We would be gifted immortality. In return, he asked me if I would keep you distracted while he gathered his armies to attack."
Blu had the feeling that all this sounded similar somehow; he could not quite place a talon on where he had heard this before. "Why didn't they want me dead?"
"They wanted you alive yet out the way so you could witness your failure to protect those who counted on you." Steiner explained. Despite his failure, he appeared to be quite happy. "You're too late, Blu. They'll be here soon and there is nothing you can do to prevent it."
Blu growled and demanded more answers. "Who hired you!?"
Steiner chuckled in response. "I'm afraid I've spoken enough. Even if I give you an answer, it will make no difference now. Hahahaha."
Seeing that he was not going to get anymore answers from Steiner, Blu raised his wing and without hesitation, he delivered a powerful strike against Steiner, knocking him into submission. Now that he was dealt with and Blu got most of the information he sought, he proceeded to find somewhere to lock them all away and then find and help Jewel.
Jewel chased Doc into another room that led to a dead end. As Doc tried to figure out his next move, Jewel lunged forward and tackled him down. Doc fell onto his stomach with Jewel positioned on top of him; placing both her talons against his throat and his back, in the same pose she was in when she first met Blu.
"Okay, okay, you win!" Doc admitted and surrendered. "You've got me! Ease up a little, will ya?"
"You're lucky I'm easing up on you right now." Jewel assured with a growl to intimidate. Despite her role as a mother, she had not lost her fearsome and feisty touch.
She looked around and noticed a nearby cage that could hold him into they escaped and called in for the military macaws to take them away. Jewel release Doc and used her wings to lift him back onto his feet, forcing him towards the cage.
"No, no, not the cage!" Doc whined, but his pleas were fell short.
Jewel shoved him inside and locked the cage door before he could attempt an escape. Now that she had him subdued, she decided that some interrogating would be good. "Where are my friends?! Why did you do with Nico and Pedro?"
"You mean the canary and cardinal?" Doc corrected, but this only appeared to anger Jewel further. "We didn't take them; we left them at that club of theirs! They're safe, I swear."
"I hope so. For your sake." Jewel hissed to scare Doc which she worked after all.
With Doc locked away, Jewel proceeded to look around the area for a while in case there were any more prisoners here that needed to be freed. She could not just leave them to die despite her intensions of helping Blu right now. For all she knew, Blu could still be engaging combat with Carley.
As Jewel prepared to leave, she turned towards the end of the room and caught a glimpse of someone else here too. Someone was lying down against a bed and while she was unable to see who they were, they were fitted with one of those neural imaginative head disruptors. She walked towards the figure and proceeded to help them.
She approached the bed the other prison was laying on and proceeded to take his disruptor off. However, as he figure came closer into view, her eyes widened that almost caused her to pass out from shock. "It couldn't be...Could it?"
Jewel gasped when her eyes met a familiar face whom she thought she would never see again. "Is that you?"
Cliffhanger! Well it seems a lot has occurred in this chapter. Blu and Jewel are free, Steiner and his people have been subdued and it appears someone Jewel knows has returned. Stay tuned for chapter 26.