(A/N: YAY! Luckily for me, school gets out at 1:45, giving me plenty of time to write. ^ ^ Always a good thing! Chapter 3! HOOOO!)
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The room was pretty big, actually. The size of a living room, with 3 beds lined up on one wall, and 4 on the other. It worked out to be guys on one side, girls on the other. The door was stainless steel, with a small, barred opening; just enough to look through. There was also a window on the opposite side of the room. It was covered with bulletproof glass; thick, too. They had taken turns trying to force their way through it, and had only gotten sore limbs for their effort. It was kind of awkward, being stuck with strangers in a room; kind of like Big Brother.
Fortunately, introductions had been worked out days ago.
The little guy. Thin. Kinda muscular. Spiked blond hair. Glasses. That was Nik. Jessi hadn't quite got him pinned yet, but he seemed pretty calm most of the time. Maybe it was shock. Maybe he was just mature for his age.
Then there was his sister. Maddy. Pretty name. She was…well, quirky was the best way to put it. Very nice. Pretty. But there was just something…well, quirky, about her. One of those people that could go from calm to hyper at a moment's notice.
Tei. Ol' Tei-Sama. Disk the GG. He was different than Jessi had pictured him. Tall. Sandy-brown colored hair, glasses, like Nik, and a goatee starting on his chin. He had taken the transformation pretty hard. Took him about twice as long to wake up as the rest of them, and it had taken him days to become fully "celled". It was as if his body had rejected the change. Even now, he spent most of his time on his back
Then there was Banshee. Long dirty blonde hair. Rust-colored eyes. One of Goji's "earlier experiments", now a jumble of half-real half-animated parts. Like some sort of game designer's Frankenstein. It didn't seem to bother her anymore. She refused to look in the mirror, though, and acted as if it were her enemy…like, if she didn't see herself, she was whatever she wanted to be. Quite optimistic, Jessi thought…in a depressing sort of way. She sometimes talked of her friend Rebecca, saying that she, too, was Goji's prisoner.
NoiseTank13, too. Dan. Tall…very, very tall. The King of Hentai. And bondage clowns. And general craziness. Dan was different, to say the least, but in a good way. Fairly excitable and kind of irritable, but that was to be expected. After all, he'd just been transformed into a 3D Looney Toon, and he was now locked up with 6 other people. Like some wacked out Real World.
And Lotus. Aaron. He was sorta tall, too. Kind of wirey. Brown hair. Sad, pale blue eyes. Kind of like Tei, but without the glasses. He spent most of his time pacing and muttering curse words in Irish. Actually, he only knew two words, but he abused them quite a lot.
Last there was her. Jessi. She kind of went along with the descriptions of most of the others. Long brown hair, tied back in a ponytail. Brown eyes. Glasses. Average everything. Kind of 'Jessi Plain and Tall', just without the 'tall' part.
Confinement was taking it's toll on everyone. Nik and Tallulah weren't speaking at the moment; sibling rivalry or something like that, while Cat had stopped talking at all. They had to get out of here. And Tei, it appeared, had an idea…
He wouldn't go into detail about it, simply telling them to keep 'playing along'. Jessi wasn't quite sure what that meant, but she knew it couldn't be good. She'd known Tei for a while on FF.net, but talking to someone on the computer was very different from real life.
Whenever he talked about his idea, she saw a smile come over his face; the kind you see someone put on when they talk about how many wallets they've stolen. A sort of proud malevolence. She had a bad feeling about this…
"I'll tell you about it in the morning," Tei promised, grinning lopsidedly, "promise."
Jessi couldn't hide her curiosity, but she supposed Tei was right; in the morning…
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Maddy was sure she would've heard birds chirping if it weren't for the foot-thick soundproof plastiglass…it was morning…or at least she thought so. She reached up, rubbing the last remnants of sleep out of her eyes as she sat up…
…And there, swinging from a makeshift noose, was Tei…
Maddy heard a scream echo throughout the room, rattling her brain…until she realized it was her.
"Hey, where's the fi-oh, no…oh, shit…Tei! Tei!"
The others scrambled towards their hanging comrade, seizing his legs and trying to get him down. Aaron ran to the door, screaming bloody murder…or rather, suicide, through the barred window.
The guard standing beside the door looked through the small opening, before scrambling for his keys. He burst through the thick steel door, stopping under Tei and trying to help the others get him down.
Suddenly, Tei's eyes fluttered open and he let out an exasperated breath. His face was a dark blue, and he hoisted his leg back, delivering a powerful quick to the guards face. He stumbled back, blood running from his nose and lip as he fell to the ground, unconscious.
"Get…me…down!" he yelled, exasperated.
It took a few seconds, but they were able to loosen the noose and free Tei. He practically collapsed to the ground, laughing through laborious gasps.
"Told'ja…I had…a good idea…"
Forcing himself to his feet, Tei wearily inspected the incapacitated guard, producing a set of keys, and…a small black rectangle that had two curved metal prongs on the top…a tazer, he realized.
"And we're off!" Dan exclaimed.
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Fuji walked slowly into Rokkaku's office, holding his hat in front of him as if coming to apologize about something.
"Mr. Goji," he said, stammering a bit, "the kids…the experiments…they've escaped."
The tycoon's eyes narrowed at the large man, who shrunk back a few steps. "How?" he asked through gritted teeth.
"Well, umm…we found the guard there…he said one of the kids pretended to hang himself, and when he got in, they jumped him. Grabbed his keys, and when he came to, they were gone.
"Is Project: Sanis complete?"
"Y-yes sir! The subjects have been undergoing psychological conditioning for the past two weeks. They are ready."
"Excellent…they can't have left the building. I want you to send them after those kids…I expect results, and I expect them soon."
"Yes sir."
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"Oook. Does anyone have any idea where we are?" Nik inquired.
"An office building," Dan said with a sigh, "More than that, I have no idea. It's like this place was designed specifically to get you lost. No signs, no stairs, no nothing."
"We've got to be going somewhere," Carolyn deduced, "so if we keep walking we've got to come to…something."
"A wall?" Tei asked skeptically.
"Death."
"Huh?" Aaron asked, looking to the others, "who said that?"
"Me."
They froze. Slowly…they turned to see…themselves.
"And you are…?" Carolyn asked obliviously. Obviously, she didn't see the resemblance.
"Betasiki…" Dan breathed.
The figure on the left bowed in mock courtesy. His face…his height…his build…all looked almost identical to Dan's.
They were all there. Characters from their imaginations. Their own embodiments of themselves. Beta, Kell, Vampire-Nik, Speed, Jackal, Disk…fortunately, there wasn't one for Carolyn.
"How?" Maddy asked breathlessly.
Kell swept at the air with her hand, as if to say 'it doesn't matter'. "You'll find out soon enough…once you're back where you belong."
"Florida?" Aaron asked nervously.
"Rokkaku." Jackal replied smugly.
Dan raised his hand. "I'm thinking 'fuck that'."
Beta chuckled maliciously. "I'm thinking 'come along quietly'."
Tei scoffed, trying to seem unafraid. "If we're so valuable to him, you wouldn't hurt us."
Disk grinned. "He said we should do what it took to get you back…who's to say what'll happen?"
Dan stepped forward, doing his best to put on an 'I'm not scared' expression. "We're not going, Beta."
Beta simply grinned. "Alright…Dan."
Dan raised his fists, a bit awkwardly. He swung a left at Beta, who ducked under it and planted a punch in the middle of his chest. Dan was floored, falling backwards into the arms of a very surprised Nik. He wasn't unconscious, but it was obvious that the punch hurt like hell. Nik helped Dan to his feet, who clutched his chest wearily, glaring over at Beta.
"Ready to come along quietly?" Vampire-Nik asked.
Suddenly, Tei rushed toward Disk, fist drawn back, screaming at the top of his lungs. Disk caught the fist in mid-punch, veering it away and bringing a knee up to Tei's gut, who collapsed onto his hands and knees, coughing violently. Disk smiled over at the others, before bringing down a violent chop into the back of Tei's neck, knocking him out.
None of that authors spoke…for entire minutes…simply staring down at Tei.
"Just one minute," Aaron said finally, taking a step back and motioning the others to do the same. He herded them into a huddle, most of them facing their characters…no one wanted to be caught off-guard by them.
"Alright, let's face facts, here," Aaron said with a sigh, "They're obviously stronger than us, they can beat the shit out of us without breaking a sweat, and we're short one Tei. Any questions?"
Dan raised a hand weakly. "I'm thinking we go with them. It feels like my chest is going to cave in any time now…"
"One vote for wussing out." Nik translated.
"We could run," Carolyn suggested, casting a quick glance back at the characters.
"No way," Maddy said, shaking her head, "if Goji made them stronger, they can probably run faster than us too."
"So then what do we do?" Jessi asked dubiously.
"Go down fighting," Aaron said grimly.
"Excuse me," Dan said incredulously, "did you not just see what happened to me and Tei? We got our asses handed to us. There's no way we can out-fight them."
"Well, it's better than 'going along quietly'," Aaron responded, a slow smile forming on his face.
Dan nodded glumly. "Let's do this."
No one objected.
"Well," Nik said, "Let's not keep them waiting."
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