Okay, apparently Fanfiction just wants to mess with me, because I checked this chapter after I uploaded it and the coding was all messed up. Sorry to everyone who got an email and then discovered that the chapter had been deleted; it SHOULD be fixed now. If not, well, I apologize again (and this message will have no purpose because no one will be able to read it).
Oh, and to GoldenPiggy, nope, we're not QUITE at the climax yet. Oh, no. But it IS approaching. And I think I, again, underestimated the number of remaining chapters. Oi vey. This will go on for a while yet xD
Anyway, here we go! Please keep you hands and arms inside the vehicle at all times, as I will not take responsibility for stray lightning bolts that may or may not impact the audience.
You have been warned.
"And now we are graduating from the school for cool; play it stupid, play it dumb, play 'em all like fools,"
—Hell Yeah, Midnight Red
Mylene was sure to hold her head up high. There was no way she was going to give the wretched Gundalians the satisfaction of seeing how she really felt. She purposely avoided looking at Runo—or Rin, as that witch seemed to call her. She knew doing so would just make her mad, and she would lose her composure if she got mad.
The last thing she wanted was a repeat of the Bakugan Interspace incident.
So she settled for glaring at a spot on the giant metal wall before her, well above Kazarina's head. At this rate, she was going to bore holes in it. That would be one thing Shadow would never let her forget. If they got out of this alive, that is.
"Listen carefully, Vestals, because I am not going to waste my breath repeating myself," Kazarina said snappishly. Out of the corner of her eye, Mylene could see the Gundalian's gaunt, pale face. She could tell that the woman was tired and irritated. Why, she couldn't fathom to guess. But hey, if the witch was suffering, Mylene supposed she didn't much care why; she probably deserved whatever nuisance that dared cross her path. And with the stinging stickiness on her cheek reminding her of her hatred for the captors, she was hoping that whatever it was would either get her killed or seriously injured.
Or maimed. Maiming worked, too.
"You will be given three hours to make your way to the exit and not a second more. If you dawdle because you think petty heart-to-heart's are worth your while, which seems to be customary of anyone allied with the Brawlers, don't come crying to me when you find yourself on the receiving end of one of my experiments. Understand?"
Sid was standing next to Mylene, and she felt him tense. Sneaking a quick glance at him, she noticed that the blood had drained from his face. Her frown deepened, and she returned her eyes to their previous subject, only to discover that her reference point had moved.
A brief moment of searching revealed Rin to be at the end of the line of prisoners. Her golden eyes were focused on Lync, who stood the farthest from Mylene, with a sharp glint of disdain. Her lip was curled as if she were a princess asked to do muck out the royal stables. Mylene briefly entertained that thought, skillfully hiding a smirk at the idea of Rin 'suffering' such a task, but turned back to the situation at hand when the girl ducked behind Lync.
The boy tensed and he jerked when her hand came down on his shoulder, nearly causing him to stumble. He grimaced briefly, hissing, and then blinked in surprise. He brought his hands forward, and that was when Mylene realized that Rin had cut away the plastic tie keeping his hands bound behind him.
Kazarina had begun pacing down the row, glaring at each of the former Vexos in turn. She began to speak once more, and Mylene narrowed her eyes to slits as she listened grudgingly. "To clarify, if you don't make it out within the allotted time, you will have a long future of assisting me in my experiments ahead of you." She smirked at Mylene, who seethed silently, but held her tongue. "If you manage to make it out, marvelous. Enjoy the walk back to town. I'm sure you'll find it to be pleasant."
Something about that statement didn't sound right to Mylene, but she didn't have time to dwell on it. Rin had reached Shadow, three allies away from Mylene. Absently, she hoped he would have enough sense not to try to hold the girl hostage or something. The last time the duo had tried something like that, they wound up here. Of course, the first time had been her fault, but she wouldn't put it past him to do something idiotic like that.
Kazarina turned on her heel and walked dramatically over to what seemed to be a metal control panel. Once she got there, she typed in a series of commands, glancing once or twice at the white Bakugan floating above it. She smirked at it, then glanced at Mylene, casting that same sadistic grin her way. Mylene glared daggers back. She was going to kill that woman when she got out of here, and she was going to do it in the slowest, most painful way possible.
Sid tensed again, then grunted and brought his own hands forward, rubbing his wrists. He glanced behind him agitatedly, clearly not fond of the petite bluenette who freed him. Mylene recalled how he returned to them last week, barely able to stand on his own, having been savagely beaten in a brawl against none other than Rin. He still had scratches on his face, one of which was being held together by stitches Mylene hadn't used anesthesia to apply. His resentment was understandable.
Mylene glared at the giant door in front of her, then felt Rin's cold hands grab her forearm. She ignored the pressure exacted on the zip tie and yanked her arms out of the girl's hands as soon as she was able. She shot a murderous glare over her shoulder, which Rin returned immediately.
"Hmph," Mylene grunted, turning forward again and adjusting her cape smugly. Rin snorted.
"So what wonderful surprise do you have in store for us?" Hydron questioned cooly. If he was nervous, his voice didn't give it away.
But Kazarina, of course, saw right through his act, and shot him a sneer. "My my, someone seems edgy. Getting a little restless, are we?" The air behind Mylene seemed to chill, and the hairs on the back of her neck raised. She stiffened and glanced behind her, breathing in sharply as she fought to stifle a shiver.
There was nothing there.
Kazarina caught on immediately, shooting her a positively evil grin that sent chills up Mylene's spine for an entirely different reason. Not that she would ever admit it.
"Not quite as calm and collected as you claim to be, are you, Mylene?"
The name felt wrong on her lips, perverted somehow. A vile writhing feeling twisted through her gut at the sound. Mylene refused to show her discomfort and kept her gaze icy, fixing the blue-skinned woman with a furious glare that would send anyone else flying in the other direction. She kept silent, allowing her eyes to speak for her tongue.
Unfortunately, Kazarina was about as intimidated as a riot-trained German Shepherd facing a five year old with a temper tantrum. She sneered, then returned to tapping buttons on her control panel, purposely ignoring Hydron's question.
A few more taps and a grinding sound later, the group was surprised to discover a large portion of the wall before them lifting off the ground. Behind it lay a hallway of large wooden crates, gaps between some of them indicating additional paths. Each side of the hall was just as tall as the first wall, preventing looking to the sides for the answers. Nope, the only way to make it through this maze was to become the rat, only this one didn't have the luxury of relying on its sense of smell to find the cheese.
Kazarina lifted her gaze gleefully to take in their reactions. Mylene couldn't see the faces of her comrades, but Sid's stiffness was evidence enough that they did not appreciate this new development. She was sure to keep her glare venomous.
Kazarina met her gaze and sneered, chuckling daintily. Something about the laugh made the bluenette hate her even more, which was apparently possible.
"Alright, children. Three hours." She pulled out a stopwatch and held it by the chain. It swung with a small clinking, the light catching the crystal and flashing it in Mylene's eyes.
"What are you waiting for?" came a growl from the witch's side. Lumagrowl was floating above Kazarina's shoulder, observing. "We don't have all day."
Mylene's lip curled at the order, but she complied. She was the first to move, and Shadow was quick to follow. He was at her side in a moment, eyes serious and, dare she suggest it, protective. It was a jarring juxtaposition, one that Mylene didn't particularly appreciate. Any other time she might have liked seeing the change, perhaps an indication that her boyfriend really was shaping into a responsible person during normal situations, but not now. Now, though she was loathe to admit it, the sadistic craziness the nobel tended to exhibit would have been comforting.
The ground filed into the entrance and glanced at each other, ultimately turning their gazes to Mylene to make the final decision. She met Shadow's stare and lifted her head proudly, ignoring Kazarina's eyes as she led the way into the maze. She could feel the question on all of their minds as though the thought was palpable, but deliberately put off addressing it. She didn't want the witch to have the last laugh at seeing their concern.
They had taken three turns in silence, no one breaking it for lack of things to say. Shadow draped an arm over Mylene's shoulders and Sid and Volt walked side by side. It wasn't until the fourth turn and the second dead end that Lync spoke.
"Are we just gonna leave them here?" he asked.
"No," Mylene answered strongly. "We're gonna get Dan out. But we can't do much for him while we're still on their strings."
"Strings?" Sid asked, raising an eyebrow. Mylene shot him a glare.
"Strings. Like a marionette," Hydron explained, saving him a verbal lashing from the blue haired woman who looked about ready to claw out someones eyes with a plastic tasting spoon from an ice cream shop. She may have mellowed out over the past few years on Displatis, but the Gundalians had done little to encourage that. She was almost as lethal as she was in the days of New Vestroia. Maybe Dan had triggered the change, being her former enemy, or maybe it was the lack of control and being forced to follow someone else's orders. Either way, she was just as dangerous as before, if not more so.
"So what's the plan?" Shadow asked. Mylene glanced up at his face through eyes narrowed to slits. He didn't flinch, but she was certain she saw goosebumps rise on his arms. A flicker of satisfaction worked it's way through her at that.
"The plan," she said, "we will discus once we're out of this hellhole where that bitch can't hear us." Shadow choked at her vulgarity, nearly tripping over his own feet and almost off-balancing her. That seemed to seal the deal, and Mylene let out an enraged growl. "I swear to god, I am going to murder that wretched fiend in the most violent, sadistic way possible," she seethed, stomping around the next corner. Shadow snickered. "And, Shadow freaking Prove, I swear to god, you're next!"
They waited until the group had been around the corner for a moment but before Kazarina moved to close the door. The witch was still smirking at the empty hallway when Dan grabbed onto Joe again. He shivered as a now familiar tingling sensation washed over his body, erasing it from view. Joe hissed with the effort, a near silent warning to Dan that he had only seconds to make this work. Dan's grip on his friend's wrist tightened as they began their dash across the open floor.
Once he was about ten feet from the witch, Dan broke off from Joe, embracing visibility and all it's glory. With a wild yell, he lifted his two by four. He relished the startled expression on her face and the loud cry of surprise maybe a little too much as she turned to discover her prisoner running free. He brought the plank down as hard as he could, finding a sort of sick pleasure in the loud crack it made as it connected with her skull. Her yelp was silenced abruptly and her eyes rolled up into the back of her head. She fell.
Dan slowed to a halt and turned. His chest heaved. A brief flicker of fear sparked in his chest when he took in her unmoving form. Wait, did I kill her?
Then he noticed the slight rise and fall of her chest, her even, albeit slow, breaths. His shoulders slumped in relief. She wasn't dead. Good. Although, he wondered briefly why he didn't want her to die. After all, she had tortured him multiple times—and taken obnoxious, obvious pleasure in it, too. But…
"Dan! Little help!" came Joe's shout, shattering his train of thought. Dan searched the room for his friend, discovering him doing his best to placate a struggling Runo. His hands were locked around her wrists, pulled close so they were face to face. She was twisting and jerking, having dug her feet into the ground and arched her back so she was as far from him as possible despite his grip. Joe was in a similar position, only his was sturdier. He held her fast and his teenaged muscles rippled beneath his shirt, but the effort it cost to keep her there was obvious from the look of concentration on his face.
Dan jogged over to him, trying to shake his giddiness. Kazarina was down, and the only other person in the room was Runo. The Gundalians couldn't be monitoring the video cameras; they hadn't seen them yet, and that could only mean no one was in the room with the monitors. Even so, he couldn't stop his nervous glance up at the camera in the corner. He had been lucky so far, and from his experience, he knew his luck wouldn't last long. They had to make this fast.
"Let me go!" Runo shrieked. "Master Gill! Miss Sellon! Someone!"
Dan felt his rage boil and physically felt his face darken. He crossed the remaining distance between himself and Joe in an instant, placing himself at Runo's side. She glared up at him defiantly, and if Dan didn't know her so well, he'd never notice the slight fluttering of her eyelids that indicated her fear. He supposed his murderous expression was probably the cause and that the blood on his shirt probably didn't help, but he couldn't bring himself to care. Not with their vile 'titles' on her lips.
"Don't ever call them that again," he snapped, nostrils flaring. Immediately, he knew he shouldn't have ordered her like that, and she bristled just as he expected her to.
"Why?" she challenged. Her eyes glittered dangerously. "Just because they're keeping you here where you belong?"
"What are you talking about?" Dan retorted, anger mixing with confusion. It was a deadly concoction, one that blocked out their surroundings. Even Joe was invisible to the pair now, connected by their shared ire.
"My mistress told me everything!" Runo spat. "You're the leader of the resistance! You keep spreading propaganda against the Master!" Dan stared at her. "You're the one that ordered the attack on me that made me lose my memory! You're why my friend Splight won't talk to me anymore!"
"What are you talking about?" Dan demanded. "Your memory? Am I missing something here or did Kazarina completely rewire your brain? Do you even hear yourself? Runo, snap out of it!"
"Who the heck is 'Runo'? I'm Rin!"
"Uh, Dan," Joe said. Dan ignored him, opting to stare at Runo—Rin—instead. An odd look came over her face at the mention of his name, but he didn't notice.
"You don't remember? You're not 'Rin'; you're Runo! Runo Misaki." The look deepened for a moment, then vanished.
"Yeah, and you're a lying, no-good son of a bitch."
"Dan?"
"You know, I kinda expected that response, but in a completely different context," Dan snapped.
"Well, gee, I wonder the hell why!"
"Dan," Joe interjected more urgently. Both teens rounded on him.
"What?" Dan demanded. Joe opened his mouth to answer, but didn't get a chance. A loud crackling filled the air, causing the hairs on Dan's arms to stand on end. His luck had run out.
Instinctively, he dropped to the floor, recognizing the signs of a Gundalian's electricity. Joe and Rin hit the floor next to him, and then the room was washed in bright, flickering light. Crackling fried their ears, leaving them ringing when it died down.
Dan didn't waste a second and rolled to catch a glimpse of their assailant. He knew without looking that he wouldn't like the sight, but seeing an angry Gill definitely topped his 'Oh Shit' list. The man looked extremely irritated, as if Dan was the one mosquito he hadn't been able to swat after a night on the swamp. Dan swallowed hard. This was bad.
"You know," the Gundalian growled, "I've just about had it with you, Kuso."
"Heh, that's real funny," Dan retorted mirthlessly. "Seems the feeling's mutual." Gill smirked.
"I don't know how you managed to get out of your room, or avoid the cameras, especially in this room, but that doesn't really matter now. Your pathetic escape attempt ends here."
"Master Gill!" Rin cried, twisting her wrists again in another futile attempt to break out of Joe's grip. "Thank goodness you're here!" Dan tensed as Gill's gaze flicked to Rin, then glanced at Kazarina's unconscious form. He turned his eyes back to Dan, who edged in front of Joe and Rin protectively.
"Seems you've managed to do me one favor," Gill stated cooly, crossing his arms. He nodded towards Kazarina. Dan glanced at her, then back to Gill. "Least I won't have her telling me I can't do what I'm about to."
"You really don't like her, do you?" Dan muttered. Gill's gaze grew chillier.
"That is none of your business. I hope you and your friends have said your last goodbyes, Kuso."
"Hmph, you can't kill me," Dan replied, fixing Gill with his glare. "Imagine how angry your emperor would be with you then."
"Who said anything about killing you?" Dan faltered, feeling a chill, but refused to let Gill see it. He continued. "I am simply saying that the next time you meet, you may not be able to speak." The way he said it, it sounded less like a missed opportunity and more like a physical disfigurement.
"Is that a threat?" Dan's eyes narrowed. Gill didn't answer. He just stood there in silence, staring him down, daring him to make a move. Dan felt sweat trickle down his neck and resisted the urge to wipe his palms on his pants. "Joe," he murmured. "Take her and go. Maze on three. One."
"Excuse me?" Rin muttered.
"Dan," Joe hissed in protest.
"Just do it. Two."
"Dan—"
"Three!" he shouted, diving for the control panel. Joe, despite his misgivings, yanked Rin toward the mouth of the maze. Gill let out a guttural growl, immediately moving to pursue Dan. Dan felt the tingle of the lightning before he heard it and instantly dropped to the ground and covered his head with his hands, knowing this was going to hurt. His ears filled with sound and his nose with smoke, but much to his surprise, he wasn't hearing his own screams. He smelled normal smoke for a change, too. It wasn't tainted with the acrid smell of burning cotton and skin. He blinked his eyes open, confused.
Gill was standing a good ten yards away, hand outstretched, with an odd expression on his face. Dan frowned, propping himself up on one arm and glancing behind him. His eyes widened.
The control panel was smoking and sparking, little glowing sparkles shooting off it with dozens of angry pops. Dan blinked, every bit as dumbfounded as Gill. Well. Wasn't that a once-in-a-lifetime pleasant development. Maybe his luck hadn't run out yet after all.
The two of them were startled out of their stupor with a loud mechanical lurch. Their eyes met, then both flicked to the source of the sound. The metal door. It was falling.
Dan shot to his feet faster than Gill's lightning could be conjured and suddenly, he was running. Everything seemed to move in slow motion. Rin and Joe skirted the threshold easily, Joe's arm tight around her waist even as she kicked out wildly. His grip on the struggling girl dragged the both of them down when he stumbled, but he rolled onto his side to watch with wide eyes as Dan attempted to clear the last hurdle.
The door was falling faster, picking up speed as gravity called it. Dan was only a few yards away. Three. Two. The door fell to a yard above the ground. Dan squeezed his eyes shut and dove.
A loud bang echoed through the hall, sealing it. Dan's body collided with Joe and Rin, who were lying side by side on the floor. Joe's arm was still wrapped firmly around her waist, but she was too surprised to make an effort to throw it off. Dan's chest heaved from his sprint, his hands still shaking. He felt unsteady and giddy from adrenaline, but despite it, he lifted his head.
The door was shut. Sealed. And the control panel was busted.
Dan glanced, stupefied, at Joe. His lips stretched in an ecstatic smile.
Joe met his gaze and grinned, eyes bright with relief. Dan chuckled, and, tentatively, so did Joe, and soon they were all out laughing, relishing their adrenaline-fueled euphoria.
Okay, shorter chapter. I think it's worth it, though.
Review!
