This is what happens from Skulduggery's perspective.
Skulduggery thundered down the long corridor of the Sanctuary, the others right behind him. He kept giving Fletcher quick boosts with the air to ensure that he kept up. He glanced behind him, and saw Valkyrie, Dexter and Anton bringing up the rear. They were behind the others, but the exit was right around the corner. They were going to make it.
Then, Skulduggery heard an army of boots accompanying their own, and looked back to see a hoard of Cleavers running after them. The long stretch of corridor had nowhere to hide- it was now just a race for survival. However, Skulduggery saw something else in that glance he just took. He saw that Valkyrie, Dexter and Anton weren't going to make it in time. The Cleavers were gaining on them, and there was no way that they could outrun them.
He was aware of a slight change in the sound of shoes hitting hard ground, and looked behind him again to see that Valkyrie had stopped, and was turned towards the Cleavers, her fists full of shadows. She looked over her shoulder at him and met his eye.
"Keep running!" she yelled to them. "I'll cover your escape!"
"Valkyrie, what are you doing?" yelled Skulduggery. There was no doubt that she would get captured or even killed. There was nothing he could do to save her now.
"Just move!" she roared, and with that, she started hurling shadows at the cleavers. At that moment, Skulduggery's mind was raging a debate that seemed to him to last a millennium, but in reality was a split second decision. He decided, with great reluctance, to keep running. He didn't look back again as he left Valkyrie Cain behind, but a shift in the air currents told him that Dexter and Anton had remained as well.
With the Cleavers occupied, Skulduggery, Fletcher and Saracen ran out through the exit, emerging into daylight. In the distance, Skulduggery could hear more boots thudding in unison, and realised with a sinking heart that a reinforcement of Cleavers had arrived. There was no way that the others would survive an escape.
Clearing his head, or skull, he raced to the van, seeing that Ghastly was already waiting in the driver's seat with the engine running. He titled his skull towards Saracen, who nodded. Erskine was in the back. Saracen jumped into the back, probably to keep Erskine company, seeing as there would be one empty seat at the front which he could've claimed. Skulduggery helped Fletcher into the back as well. He then got into the front, leaving the middle seat between him and Ghastly empty. He slammed the door shut.
Ghastly didn't move for a second, but then began accelerating the van back the way they had come. He glanced in the rear-view mirror and cursed. "They're following us."
"I'll try shooting them," said Skulduggery in a hard voice, "and if that doesn't work, we'll lead them away." He opened the window, and looked in the wing mirror. He took his revolver from his pocket, and held it in his hand. Then, quickly, he stuck his hand out of the window and fired at the three black cars that were tailing close behind them. Fortunately, they were driving on country roads, so there were no mortal witnesses.
Skulduggery considered aiming for various points in the car; the driver, the engine, the tyres. He fired one shot at the driver in the first car, and the car immediately began to swerve as the driver writhed in pain. He then shot the person in the passenger seat of the car, so they couldn't take over. The car quickly crashed into a tree on the side of the road.
He had four bullets left before he had to refill. Skulduggery contemplated his options as the second car approached, and decided to shoot out the tyres. He used one bullet per tyre, and the car came to an abrupt and shaky stop. The mages and Cleavers inside got out and attempted to run after Ghastly's van, but were nowhere near fast enough. The third car crashed into the back of the second one, a fire starting somewhere inside. As Ghastly drove on, they lost sight of the three wrecked cars, but a few moments later, they heard an explosion. The cars must have blown up.
Skulduggery sat back in his seat, and focused on the road ahead. Ghastly broke the silence. "What happened?"
"Cleavers," said Skulduggery simply, his voice brittle, absent of the velvety quality it usually possessed.
"Injuries?"
"Dexter had a wound on his shoulder, but that was it. As far as I know."
"Skulduggery, say something," Ghastly said.
"I am," replied Skulduggery, looking at him.
"I mean, say something that isn't just some monotonous answer to my questions."
Skulduggery looked back at the road. "What do you want me to say? Do you want me to tell you how I left the three of them to a swarm of Cleavers? Do you want me to tell you that they're probably being tortured right now? Do you want me to say that they could be dead?"
He paused, and appeared to compose himself. "Ghastly, I had a choice. I could've stopped to help, but I didn't. I carried on. They'll be tortured. Anton and Dexter have been tortured before, they know what to expect. Valkyrie... What if they kill her, Ghastly? What then?"
"It won't come to that, Skulduggery. She'll pull through. We'll go and rescue them, as soon as we get back to the warehouse and formulate a plan."
"Why don't we just turn this goddamn van around right now?" he growled.
"You know why," Ghastly said softly. "They'll be waiting for us, and they'll be ready. We need to get Fletcher to the warehouse, so he can teleport us back there after we've got the others. We can't just charge in guns blazing, Skulduggery. We need to think about this one."
"Skulduggery remained silent, defeated. He busied himself with refilling his revolver with bullets, relaxing slightly. He knew that the three of them were tough, and that they would get through whatever was thrown at them. He hoped.
"What should we do?" asked Erskine from the back.
"Valkyrie put a ring of keys in Fletcher's pocket," said Skulduggery. "One of those unlocks Fletcher's handcuffs. Find it and unlock them."
Erskine turned to Saracen. "I don't suppose your power can help us with this...?"
"Nope. We're gonna have to do this the long way," said Saracen. He turned to Fletcher. "Welcome to the Dead Men, Fletch," he said warmly. "Please bear with us. We are not the smartest men of the group, so don't expect to be free from those shackles any time soon."
"Who is the smartest?" asked Erskine. Saracen shrugged.
"Uh, guys," said Fletcher, "I don't mean to be rude, but can you hurry up? I'm pretty starving, and the frustration at not being able to teleport to McDonalds is really annoying me."
"Right, yes, sorry," said Erskine. He took the ring from Fletcher's pocket, and looked at the multitude of keys, and then across at Saracen, seated opposite. He sighed. "This will take longer than I thought."
"I'm sure you've tried that one," said Saracen. It had been two hours, and they still hadn't managed to uncuff Fletcher, probably because a certain ex-Grand Mage kept mixing all the keys up.
Erskine shook his head, and kept a firm grip of the key on his hand. "No, the ones I've tried are on this side of the ring," he said, pointing to the right, "and the others are on this side," he pointed to the left.
"But that one looks familiar, I remember making a comment about the writing engraved on it, remember?"
"He's right," nodded Fletcher wearily. These men weren't kidding when they'd said they weren't the smartest.
"Well you do it, then!" exclaimed Erskine, and threw the keys on the floor.
"Erskine!" yelled Fletcher and Saracen.
"What?" he asked, annoyed.
"Now we have to start again!" said Saracen. He undid his seatbelt and stood up, and held on to the side of the van as it accelerated onwards, really hoping that Ghastly wouldn't hard brake. He crossed over to Erskine, and motioned for him to get up and swap places with him, so he could reach Fletcher's handcuffs.
Erskine looked at Saracen blankly. "Get up!" said Saracen, exasperated.
"Why?" asked Erskine.
"So I can reach the damn handcuffs, you twit!"
"Why do you want to reach them?
"Why do you think? So I can unlock them!"
"Ohhhhh..." murmured Erskine, and he got up and walked over to Saracen's seat, stumbling slightly as the van turned a corner. Saracen sat down next to Fletcher, who looked like he was falling asleep, and took the ring of keys.
He tried one after the other, sighing. This was going to take a while.
They pulled up at the warehouse just as Saracen found the right key. He grinned in triumph, then noticed that the van had slowed, and cursed as he realised that they were at the warehouse anyway, so there was no time for Fletcher to teleport them to the pub as he had secretly been hoping. He undid the shackles, and took them with him into the warehouse, thinking that they'd come in handy later.
The five of them gathered in the living room, whilst Fletcher ate a Happy Meal that he'd picked up from McDonalds a few minutes earlier.
"Before we start formulating plans," said Ghastly, "here are the papers that Erskine and I got." He put a thick wad of papers on the table. "We also managed to start a few fires in some filing rooms. We stole what looked important."
"Excellent," said Skulduggery. "We'll read those later, but for now we need to find out how we're going to get the others back."
"So I'll teleport you all there," said Fletcher, "and we go in, get them, and teleport out again. You can figure out the rest."
"Helpful(!)" said Erskine sarcastically.
"So once we're there," said Saracen, "we need to head to wherever they are. Do we have any idea where they are?"
Skulduggery thought for a moment. "They're either in the Gaol or in the old cells in the lower levels. I strongly doubt they'll be in the Gaol, because it's not the most ideal place for torture." He said all this with a casual, indifferent voice, even though inside he was fuming with the very idea of them being tortured.
"So we'll go down to the lower levels, and navigate our way to them using Saracen. There's enough of us to take out anyone we encounter, as the lower levels are usually pretty sparse anyway," said Ghastly. "Right, that's sorted then. Skulduggery, can I speak to you for a moment?"
Skulduggery tilted his head at Ghastly, but then got up and the two left the room. Erskine turned to Saracen, to find that he was looking at Fletcher weirdly. Fletcher looked up from his toy, and scowled.
"Don't give me that look," he said defiantly. "There's no age limit on a Happy Meal."
Saracen sighed, and Erskine shook his head. "Fletcher," he said, "you're just a few fries short of a Happy Meal." And with that, he began humming 'Great Escape' by Gwen Stefani.
Ghastly led Skulduggery into the kitchen, and shut the door. "Skulduggery," he began, but the detective interrupted.
"Ghastly, if this is about Valkyrie, and how she might not come back, save it," he said bluntly.
"You're saying it, but I don't know if you're accepting it," he said gently. "She might be perfectly unharmed, she might be dying, she might be dead. We don't know, but just be prepared. We can't afford to lose concentration and go off in a mood- we're still being hunted, and they still want our blood."
"I understand, Ghastly," Skulduggery said. Ghastly studied his friend for a moment, but could not read into the blank demeanour of his skull. Only Valkyrie could do that. He nodded, and they went back into the living room.
"Everyone clear on the plan?" asked Skulduggery. They all nodded, and linked up. An eyeblink later, they were in the thicket of trees near the Sanctuary that the van had been parked in previously.
Wordlessly, they entered through the same door as before, which was still unguarded. They took a sharp left and ran down the stairs to the lower levels. Luckily, they had not yet encountered another person.
Saracen took the lead, and led them along the maze of dark, damp corridors. They hoped that they weren't too late- it had been about four hours since the others had gotten captured. A lot could happen in four hours.
A few minutes later, they came to a door, and Saracen slowed. "In there," he said lowly, voice devoid of any emotion.
Skulduggery Pleasant burst into the room, gun in hand.
Q13: What would your taken name be?
Victoria Pierce. (Necromancer). I've just had that in my head for god knows how long.
Q14: What is your least favourite power?
I think they're all awesome in their own way, but my least favourite... Ummm the Children of the Spiders' ones, like turning into a giant spider, and having loads of little spiders under your clothes. Ewww.