Chapter Thirty-Six: Discussing Six Shooter

.

Pinhead and Tunneler were listening in on the kid and Six's conversation. Why would Six want Torch in an emotlonless state? Not just in it, but back to it? What did that mean? Tunneler wasn't around when Torch was first created, he had been captured and dissected an hour after his first refill. Pinhead didn't know much either, just that Blade was in charge of Torch.

They weren't the only puppets that were listening in on them either, Blade and Jester were as well. Unlike Pinhead and Tunneler though, they knew what the kid had meant when he said Six wanted Torch back in his emotionless state, but they couldn't figure out why.

"I think we need to call a meeting with the other two." Blade whispered.

Jester agreed and they selected a movie called 'Twister' and watched TV.

"What do you suppose is wrong with Pin and Tunneler?" Jester asked quietly.

"Probably the same as you. The kid gave us all a variant of the formula. Which has me worried about Six." Blade said.

"Why? The additional magic shouldn't bother him." Jester said.

"Probably. It could either help him or fight him. Six is the Sorcerer, remember?" Blade said.

"Yeah, but the brother's magic is adaptable." Jester said.

"It's his blood that makes the formula work and it may clash with the Sorcerer's because he willed it to focus on life androtection with a hatred towards greedy humans." Blade said.

"That is true. But why would Six want Torch so bad that the brothers would threaten him with colorful tutus?" Jester asked, and giggled at the mental image of Six Shooter in a white silk frilly tutu.

"That I can't figure out." Blade said and both pushed the thought to the back of their minds for later when they met with Tunneler and Pinhead.

.

Six Shooter tried to keep his mind off of Torch since he was confined to the medic room and the kid had all of his electronics on. The kid was a wiz at reading all the alien stuff that he didn't understand, and not because it was the fact that the kid was an alien himself. Six really didn't understand all the technical things the kid jabbered about like neural energies, molecular structures and all that. That was Dr. Hess' department, that was why he gave the OK for him to be included in Andre's entourage of living puppets.

He had found out that the neural energy readings meant their brain waves, their thoughts running through their heads when the kid had told him three times to stop thinking about Torch. Each time he was busted the kid would be looking at the screen for his neural energies and it always spiked whenever he turned to look at the kid's room.

Six had no doubt that the others heard his talk with the kid about Torch. So, he knew a meeting without him was emminent. But with Blade and Jester in a private section, Pinhead and Tunneler in beds on one of the walls, and he himself confined to the medic room until dismissed, that meeting would have to wait.

But he just couldn't help it. Torch was perfect for his war against Sutekh. Sutekh wasn't right for the power, and the magical world was falling into stagnation. It had already happened once in Great Britain and Egypt wasn't far behind. The people of Egypt had once looked upon them with reverence, but then the times changed and a new kind of mgic was introduced that anyone could do: Science. But science wasn't real magic, it just made it easier to understand how magic worked and thus the gullible populace shrank into almost non-existence.

There were some people who still believed in proper magic and claimed to be such magical people but they were false.

"So that's why you want my wee bairn."

Six was abruptly brought out of his thoughts when the kid spoke.

"You want to start a revolution and regain those sheep who used to fawn all over you. All the praise, all the glory, the admiration and all-out God-like quality of life and riches. How very human." Chug smirked.

"No I'm not." Six said, backing away when the kid started approaching, cursing the fact that his guns had been melted and fused with his holsters when the brother pinned him down three days ago.

"Oh no, not yet, but you're getting there. You're just a drop away from getting a full bar. Why don't you save me and my brother the time and tell us why you want Torch for this revolution? Maybe he won't eat you for it." Chug stomped his foot when Six made a run for the door, summoning a vine from a flower pot by his work desk and easily captured Six Shooter with it.

"Causing earthquakes is only when I'm pissed off. But annoyance is another matter." Chug grinned and stomped his foot three times. A yellow flower started to emerge from a bigger pot by the window and grew until it reached Chug's height of 5' 10", blooming in the sunlight to reveal a mouth full of sharp teeth and giving a calm sigh.

The vine holding Six grew and reached towards the kid. The kid petted the flower, coaxing it to open its mouth wider in a yawn. Six started to panic.

"No, don't worry. She's a flesh eater. Wood gives her indigestion." Chug said and gave Six a small burlap bag. "How about you feed her a snack? You're obviously bored and keeping your primary goal of getting to Torch is getting hard to resist, isn't it? And you can't go anywhere unless I give the OK, so you might as well feed my plants." Chug said and pulled a small round silver disc out of his hat and set Six on it secured a line to his feet.

"Just because you're going out on your own doesn't mean I won't be monitoring you. This hover pad is sensitive to EMFs and magic will set the safety off, trapping you in a canister. So, behave yourself, savvy? And if you even think about-"

"Alright! Alright! I won't do anything! Gimme the damn food!" Six said, feeling very frustrated that his plans of sneaking off and away were foiled by so many security locks.

"Here you go." Chug handed Six a minature trunk that was labeled 'Plant Food' and an instructions manual for the disc then set off on his way. Six grumbled under his breath as the hover pad hovered away with him.

"Now then, the room's clear, you can have your meeting and I can continue with my work." Chug said and clapped his hands together twice setting up hover stairs all around the room and then disappearing through a hidden door.

"The kid seems to have a thing for hidden doors, don't you think?" Tunneler asked and coughed a bit. "So what's the deal with this magic business?"

"The variant formula the kid gave us on the ship has the brother's blood in it and the excess energy is gathering together to form a core." Blade said. "It's like the little extra globs of titanium in my foot, only it's with the magic particles."

"So why was Jester hit so bad with this new formula? Pinhead and I only had minor dizziness and Six wasn't bothered at all." Tunneler said.

"Six Shooter has his own core. He's always had it. But that's what worries me the most." Blade said.

"The brother's magic could possibly help Six and strengthen his core, or it could clash with him, depending on how human he gets is my guess." Jester said.

"Okay, so why was Jester hit so bad that he had to be frozen solid?" Pinhead asked.

Blade and Jester shrugged at the same time. "But back to the matter at hand, does anyone have a clue on why Six wants Torch in an emotionless state?" Blade asked.

Tunneler shook his head.

"All I know is that you were put in charge of him when he was first born." Pinhead said to Blade.

"I was low on gas." Jester said, raising his hand.

"The only thing that I can come up with is that in Torch's emotionless state he was also very compliant when he was ordered to do something, no questions asked. So Six might want him for that." Blade said.

"Well, they did have another talk about Torch." Pinhead said. "The kid said something about Six wanting a war or something with Sutekh. Glory and riches and things."

"Ugh, that is so common. That alone should have made him fully human." Jester said.

"The kid said Six w just a drop away. He might still get eaten." Tunneler said.

"Whatever Six has up is sleeves he cannot get to Torch. Jester's fond of him now." Blade said, getting a light slap on his arm from Jester. "What? You are."

"Just don't tell Torch. I don't think he'd be too keen on it." Jester said.

"Why not? He is the baby of the group." Pinhead said.

"But we didn't exactly treat him as one. After we killed the creepy-doll lady we locked him in a cage until we got back to the hotel and then put him in the secret panel and left him there for three years." Jester said.

"No, I mean he's the baby. Dead Toulon used the brains of a dead still-born animal for Torch. At least that's what I think he did. Andre emerged long enough to do a bit of changing and he was muttering about something." Pinhead said.

"What was he muttering about? And how do you know that the brains were from a still-born?" Blade asked.

"Because its mother had just left her nest and one of her eggs didn't hatch." Pinhead said. "He had me gather it the night he was revived, saying something about foiling some plans."

"Do you know what kind of animal it was?" Jester asked.

"It was too dark, but the egg itself was about half my size." Pinhead answered.

"So we don't have any clue about Six's motivations?" Blade asked.

"Guess not." Tunneler sniffed and wiped his nose. "So, how about we discuss this whole magic business?" he suggested.

.

.