*Shakes ketchup bottle experimentally* Eh, there's still a little in there. The special effects budget is holding out longer than I'd expected. *Applies as needed*
Angel Star Ninja: Because when you're a Technician, it's cool to hit Lloyd in the mouth. But Jay, not so much. Poor Lloyd unwittingly earned himself that distinction. :P
Elveron294: Well thanks! I'm not really handy with writing 'em myself, but they're necessary now and then, it's a freakin' ninja series. Thanks for watching the parody! Eh, just for future reference though, could you please not swear too hard in reviews? If I find a guest review with strong language, I kinda feel honor-bound to delete it, and that's not fun for either of us. ^_^''
Date unknown
Time unknown
Patrol circuit: Fuhgeddaboutit
Status conditions: Well, they can't all be dead, the story's not over yet!
Everything hurrrrrrt. It hurt really bad. Jay had the general sensation that if he moved, or opened his eyes, or in any way came closer to being fully conscious, it would start hurting a whole lot more. Armed with this knowledge, he made a tactical decision to stay half-conscious for as long as possible.
"Eeeeeeee?"
Clearly that wouldn't be very long.
Groaning, he tried to ignore the insistent patting sensation on his forehead. Apparently an alien was trying to smack him into consciousness. Vaguely some part of him registered surprise that the aliens were even here, though he couldn't figure out why . . .
Then he remembered that they'd just gone through an explosion, and sat bolt upright. He came up against the ceiling midway through the attempt and fell back again.
He'd been right, everything did hurt a whole lot more with the sudden movement. He barely noticed it, though; he looked around frantically, trying to take in his surroundings. It was pitch-dark.
"Eeeee! Weep weep!"
There were two chirping voices, which was heartening. Jay shakily lit a fistful of electricity, and immediately wished he hadn't. The crackling white-blue light illuminated a jagged, tiny, low-ceilinged space, studded with boulders. It was like the inside of a rubble heap. Inadvertantly he shrank into himself a little. So trapped . . . How had none of these boulders crushed him?
"Wrrrrrm," said Mopp sternly. Jay tore his gaze away from his surroundings to stare down at the aliens, still a little dazed. Amazingly, considering that they were both squishy and had insides the consistency of kisiel, both the aliens seemed fine. If a little dusty.
Then his foggy brain landed on the thought of the others.
Oh no.
Forgetting all about his claustrophobia, Jay scrabbled up onto all fours, his heart revving in his chest. They'd been crushed! All of them! There was no way these boulders could have missed anyone else! Oh no oh no oh no oh no—
"Guys!" he yelped hoarsely. "Kai? Lloyd? Cole, Zane! Anyone? Anyone!"
"Jay?" A nearby layer of rubble fell away, revealing a small gap, and Zane poked his head through. His eyes were flashing like baby-blue turn signals as he blinked rapidly, clearly frightened.
"Zane!" Jay threw his arms around him. The Nindroid shifted back a little, startled.
"You're okay," said Jay breathlessly. "The others—?"
"They are here," said Zane. "They are all unconscious, but alive. I think nobody is severely injured."
Blowing out a long, relieved breath, Jay motioned for Zane to back up, then squirmed through the narrow gap to join the Nindroid, pulling Meep and Mopp with him. This other space was a bit bigger, although it still felt terrifyingly close to being buried alive. Even their voices had an odd muffled closeness to them, like speaking into a mailbox.
Jay checked over the others with the electric light. Kai had apparently been partially buried with rubble, but Zane had already dug him out. Lloyd gave Jay a bit of a turn, with blood all over his face, but then the lightning ninja remembered that his mouth had been bleeding beforehand. It seemed to have stopped now, so he should be fine.
"We probably should not rush waking them," said Zane. "They might have internal injuries."
Nodding miserably, Jay settled back on his haunches, turning the light down a little. He didn't want to see too much of his surroundings. Without a distraction, he kept feeling like the ceiling would slam down and crush him at any moment.
"That was because you were glad to see me, right?" ventured Zane after a moment.
"Wh . . . what?" Jay blinked. "Ohh—heh—that. Uh, well, yeah, I guess glad might be the word. Relieved."
"Thank you; that's helpful. Lloyd said it was most effective to observe others' behavior to learn the reasons for hugs," said Zane. "So I am trying to collect a database of proper times."
Despite everything, Jay almost smiled.
Now that he was properly informed, Zane took it upon himself to hug everyone as soon as they woke up. He got no objections, although he did get a fair bit of groggy confusion.
"Is everyone okay?" said Cole, once everyone was more or less awake.
"I feel like I went through a gravel grinder, but otherwise fine." Kai glanced up at the ceiling with some disbelief. "I can't believe we survived that."
"There must have been another open space underneath the Technicians' tunnel," said Cole. "The explosion opened up the floor and dumped us into it, then dumped a bunch of rocks on top of us. It is pretty unbelievable, yeah."
"They knew we were coming," said Kai. "And we walked right into it."
"Man, what a bunch of dummies we are," sighed Cole. "But at least we're live dummies."
"But what do we do now?" asked Jay anxiously. "We're trapped down here! We might as well not have survived, if we're gonna slowly suffocate in this tiny hole. I would like to not suffocate!"
"Relax, Jay," said Kai. "We can probably just dig our way back up."
"Uhh . . . " Cole tested the rocks above him carefully with one hand. "I wouldn't do that. Some of these boulders are just barely balancing above us. One wrong move and—"
"D-don't," blurted Jay, his voice skipping.
A moment of uneasy silence.
"So what do we do?" asked Zane.
"I . . . I don't know," said Cole hesitantly. He looked around, chewing his lip. "There must be something."
"'Must be something'? Something?! 'Something' is getting crushed under ten tons of rock!" burst out Jay.
"Jay, easy," said Lloyd, but Jay ignored him. Once he got himself established into a solid track of panic, he made a point of not stopping till it had run its course.
"We're hooped no matter what we do, aren't we? Trapped in this tiny space, running out of air, rocks about to cave in on our heads any moment! And even if we do survive, even if we do get out of this hole, what then?! We left our backpacks behind! We have no food! Barely any water! No survival tools! How are we supposed to escape from SIX MILES UNDERGROUND?!"
"Jay," said Kai. "You're using up the air and scaring the aliens."
Jay groaned and sank his head into his hands.
"Take it easy, would you?" Kai's voice softened. "We're alive. When Nash's crew tries to bump you off, that's a huge accomplishment by itself."
"Oh, you just say the nicest things . . . " Jay mumbled despairingly.
"I mean it, though. At least we still have a chance. And if—once—once we get out, they won't have a clue that we're coming! That's in our favor."
"We're six miles underground, Kai," said Jay. "We're not gonna get out."
"It's probably two miles at the very most, and not with an attitude like that we're not," said Cole. He was already tapping at the confines of the space, scooting gingerly over the uneven floor. "Keep it together, guys. If there was an open space underneath the tunnels, there's probably more open spaces nearby. Pockets don't just open up for no reason."
Jay gnawed at his fingers morosely, trying to resist the urge to pull at his hair. Death was looming large and black in his vision, seemingly inescapable. What he would give right now to be in a nice gigantic open meadow and just run around in circles . . .
"Chooooooo," said Mopp softly, clambering to his shoulder and patting his cheek. Jay petted him unthinkingly. Cor, he hadn't thought he'd go out like this.
"I found something!" Cole's voice was full of barely-restrained jubilation. "There's a hollow space beyond here!"
"How far beyond there?" asked Jay, looking dubiously at the wall of rubble Cole was focusing on.
"Not too far, or I wouldn't be able to feel it. I'm gonna try to dig through to the other side!" Cole looked back to the others. "Uhh . . . be alert, okay? I'm going to be as careful as I can, but I can't guarantee the ceiling won't, uh . . . do stupid things."
Jay groaned. Looking tense, the others sat a little closer together to watch as Cole began to dig, carefully scooping away dirt, wiggling rocks out of their spots one by one.
The surface layer came away easily enough. Then the rocks grew bigger, more firmly lodged. Some of them seemed to be weight-bearing. One rock was stubborn; when Cole pulled it out, the ceiling gave a sinister groan. Everyone cringed, waiting . . . but for now the boulders held.
Cole continued in silence, slowly, sweat beading on his forehead. The others sat there, their nerves ready to snap as the ceiling continued to give the occasional heavy grumble. A small shower of pebbles suddenly spurted from between two boulders, and Lloyd shied away so violently that he slammed back against Jay's shoulder. For a second their wide-eyed gazes met; then Jay glommed unabashedly onto the younger ninja and held on for dear life.
The air in the tiny space was getting ominously warm and sleepy-feeling. Nobody dared urge Cole to dig any faster. By now he'd progressed several feet, and was halfway into the hole pawing away like a rabbit. A rabbit with an acute knowledge of physics and its own mortality.
Then Cole gave a muffled bark of triumph, and there was the sharp clatter of rubble showering away.
"Is everything okay?" called Kai. Cole slithered back into the tiny space, covered in dirt and grinning like a mad dog. A wave of cool air followed him.
"Let's get outta here," he said.
You could feel a burst of stifled elation go through everyone. They didn't dare cheer—it seemed like even a feeling of excessive excitement might bring the roof down.
"You go." Jay unglommed himself from Lloyd and gave him a nudge towards the tiny escape gap.
"N-no, you." Lloyd managed a game smile. "I'll last a few more seconds."
Smiling gratefully, Jay squirmed into the small tunnel and began to wiggle his way through, pushing Mopp before him. Rocks scraped his cheeks and caught at his clothes, but it only lasted for a few feet; then he felt the space open up around him. Lighting another fistful of electricity, he found himself in a narrow tunnel, stretching out farther than he could see before him. He took a grateful gulp of air. Compared to the tiny space underneath the rubble, this felt downright cavernous.
Lloyd plowed into him from behind. They both laughed shakily, then moved aside a little to make room as the others scrabbled out, one by one, Cole going last.
"Whoo!" The earth ninja flopped down in a cloud of dust. "Well. That was a thing. Everyone still okay?"
Dizzy affirmations all around. They stayed put for a while, recovering from the ordeal.
"Here's one question," said Cole at last. "That explosion was definitely on purpose. They must have planted charges behind the tunnel walls to make a trap. But how did they know we were coming?"
A thoughtful silence.
"The Venomari thugs," said Zane suddenly. "The ones who attacked us in Skales' kingdom."
"Of course!" groaned Lloyd. "If their boss switched to working for the Technicians, all the other slobber dealers must be working for them too! When they saw us down in the snake kingdom, they must have figured out why we were there and gone straight to the Techs to set up a trap."
"Shoot." Cole scruffed gravel out of his hair. "That was a really fast job they did. These guys must have experience."
A few defeated sighs.
"We'd barely even started the mission," said Kai heavily.
"No kidding. All that preparing, then we spend what, an hour or two in their territory, and then we walk straight into a trap and nearly get killed." Jay slid down the wall. "We fail so bad . . . "
"Heyyyyyyy, hey. Like Kai said. We're alive," said Cole. "I'd still rather be a live dummy than a dead one."
"How about a trapped one?" said Jay glumly. The spacious feeling of the tunnel had faded away by now, and he was again starting to feel a smidge claustrophobic.
"Oh, I wouldn't say trapped . . . " Cole squinted at the nearest wall, running his hand up and down the surface. Then he grinned. "These are bore marks. We're in another mine!"
"Another one?"
"Yeah, this isn't the Serpentine one—judging how quiet it is, this one's abandoned. But where there's a mine, there's a way to the surface!"
"You mean we can get out?" Lloyd perked up. Cole waved a hand ebulliently.
"No problem."
"All right!" Lloyd scrambled to his feet. "What are we waiting for? The sooner we get out, the sooner we can go after the Technicians again!"
"And . . . they do still think we're dead," said Kai. "They won't see us coming."
"See? We practically have the upper hand by now!"
"There we go, that's the spirit," said Cole gamely. "Just a bit of a detour through a nice mine here."
Squinting down the long stone corridor ahead of them, he cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted "hello!" His hollow voice shot out into the darkness, leaving silence. Then an eerie collection of echoes began bouncing back, layered over each other, surprisingly loud.
"Sounds pretty big," said Cole. "Definitely a mine."
Just then a heavy rumble sounded from behind them, and the ground vibrated beneath their feet. Disturbed by Cole's shout, the pile of rubble they had just climbed out of suddenly collapsed in on itself, spitting jets of dust. Everyone shied away a little as the tiny hollow space that had saved them was violently obliterated.
The rocks quickly settled. The dust cleared. Nobody said anything for a few moments, although Jay eventually realized that he'd caught hold of Kai's arm when the rumbling started. He let go hastily.
"Yeah." Cole broke the silence, smiling wanly. "I'd say so far our luck's been pretty good."
A/N: These guys are good at psyching themselves up, aren't they? It's a necessary skill when you fail as epically as they do. :P
Say, going forward: Do you guys prefer two average-length chapters, or a single really long one?