Hi! Me again. Even though I didn't get more than 2 reviews for my first chapter, I'm still writing! Please R&R!!! –Lady PhoenixDagger
Rated PG-13 for gore and swearing…
ALARYAN'S KEEP
PART I
"FREAKS"
Chapter II
Heero was the first to wake, though anyone watching would never have known. Carefully, he pretended to be unconscious and accepted the opportunity to take stock of his situation. One side of his body was resting on something cold. Further thought on the matter gave Heero the idea that he was lying on a stone floor and judging by the soreness of his cramped muscles and the relative dryness of his clothes, he had been there for a long time. There was no obvious noise, but the slow, deliberate sounds of breathing around him told him he hadn't been the only one taken to this strange new place.
"Yuy." A smooth, controlled tone to the right. Ah, Wufei's.
"Hn." Heero's lips didn't move. "The others?" he asked.
"Here an' there, old buddy." A rich, tawny voice to the far left. Duo's.
"Quietly. Trowa and Quatre?"
"Mmm." A silky murmur filled with quiet sharpness. Trowa's, of course.
"Here." A gentle sigh almost boyishly eager in timbre. Quatre was next to Wufei. "The girls are here, too."
"Good." Heero shifted slightly, giving the impression of one in enveloped in an uneasy sleep. "We may be being watched, so do only as I say…"
"Hold him!"
Another glass on the nightstand exploded into millions of shards, unable to handle the immense measure of magic whipping around the room.
Walker's thrashing grew more frantic, desperately he tried to lift himself from the bed, but he was too weak to rise. To Darien's horror, the scars on his face began to split open from the stress. He shifted more of his weight onto Walker's arms, praying that this nightmare would end, that the scars would close, that this would not be Walker's last day on Earth.
"He's trying to speak!" Tama shouted from her perch at the end of the bed on top of Walker's recklessly contorting legs.
"Br…….…br……br…" Walker croaked, his throat thick with the excruciating pain.
"What!? WHAT!?" Ria's cry was bitten off by a shrill scream as she tried to shield Misty from a table that had exploded into dagger-like slivers.
"Tell us!!!" Darien roared, now sitting on Walker's chest, feeling below him the sick writhing as the plague tried to pull itself out of its host's dying body. Darien's arms had long ago turned red and lost feeling from the effort of restraining his brother, but still he held on.
A skin rug on the floor nearby burst into flame. Walker sat up, throwing Darien to the floor.
"BREEEEEAAAAACCCHHHHH!!!!!!!!"
"Shit!"
It was the footsteps ringing on stone that jerked Heero into alertness. He listened. There were four people. One with a long stride, two mediums and one significantly shorter, somewhat like his own, but lighter.
Interesting.
A man with three women.
Something on them was jingling. Metal. It was probably safe to presume that they were all armed. Perhaps they even wore protective armour. This could make things difficult.
Or fun, depending.
They walked briskly, but took a while to get to where Heero and his companions lay.
Ah…we're in a wide room.
"Huh. Kids." A female voice. Deep. Husky. Rich. Heero tried to get a picture of her in his mind and filed it away for later use.
"Yeah." Another female. Older, perhaps. Next to him, Heero felt Wufei's body go rigid. "Skinny things, aren't they?"
"Mmmm." Male voice. Seemed preoccupied with something. Heero wondered if he could use this little tidbit to his advantage. "Four boys and three girls."
The shortest footsteps wound their way towards Duo. "Uh, uh." A final female voice, very clear. Endearing, almost, in its melodious sound. There came a shfft of cloth on metal. Heero smiled inwardly. He was right. They wore metal armour. He pictured her leaning over Duo's still form. "This one's a boy, too."
"Yeah?" The oldest female sauntered over. Heero suddenly tensed imperceptibly, feeling the familiar wave of adrenaline wash over him. These people were endangering his mission! They were getting too close!
The oldest female leaned over as well. "Huh. Whaddaya know? It is a boy." There was a hint of a smile concealed in her voice. "Pretty hair."
"Thanks, babe. I try to wash it every night!" Duo leapt to his feet, firing a quick shot into the air. Even in peace, a real gundam pilot was never truly unarmed. "Go!!!"
Heero's coiled muscles darted him to his feet and out the wide doorway of the room. The footfalls of the others followed him, minus one.
"Split up!" he heard Wufei yell. There came another shot and a woman's scream echoed through the hallway.
"Tama!!" the oldest girl shouted.
" 'S alright! It's just a flesh wound!"
Just a flesh wound!? Wufei's mind raced almost as fast as his furiously pumping legs. The girl they called Tama had grabbed him in a crushing hug that belied her slender build. His air quickly running out, Wufei had had no choice but to shoot to kill. He'd even seen the bullet bite into her chest! And it was just a flesh wound!?!?!?!
Dammit. Run faster!! he urged himself on.
Fine scenery flashed in a confused blur as Wufei streaked by. The young woman was ever close behind. Tightly, he took a corner. The woman followed suit. He hazarded a quick look behind. The woman sprinted after him with the speed of a demon, one hand clamped over the spurting wound in her chest, covered in blood. Her face was streaked with it where she had brushed back her auburn hair, which whipped loosely about her shoulders. Something metal glinted in her free hand.
"Damn!" Wufei turned and yanked his sword from Hammer Space. If he died at the hands of this demon woman it would be with honour. He took a defensive stance. "Come on and fight me, woman! Come on and fight!"
The woman drew back her free hand and fired. Wufei cursed in Mandarin as he felt something sting his upper thigh.
"Shit," he murmured again as darkness took him. He was dimly aware, however, of strong, sticky hands catching him as he fell.
"Run faster, Quatre!" urged Trowa, his own legs all but an unintelligible blur.
"I'm trying!"
The oldest woman was close behind, shouting to them. "Just stop and give yourselves up! I swear on my honour that I won't harm you!"
"Looks like you'll have to catch up to us first, lady!" Duo yelled, catching up to Trowa and passing him. "Lucky you," he quipped. "I got the little one!"
The youngest girl suddenly appeared and she and Duo raced down an adjoining hall, Duo shouting taunts all the way.
Trowa risked a glance behind. Quatre was flagging and the woman was catching up to him. Good luck, my friend, Trowa thought sadly and leapt for a gothic grotesque halfway up the fifteen-foot wall. He looked back to see the girl stop and make a lazy gesture at him.
What the he-
Trowa had barely gotten off the ground when a sticky substance slammed into him and hurled him into the stone above. The boy's head struck the stone and suddenly he was still.
Quatre skidded to a stop and looked in horror at Trowa, limp and unconscious, encased in a translucent green blob stuck firmly to the wall. Only his head and shoulders escaped being submerged. Catching his breath, Quatre slowly turned to face the woman, who stood in an easy fighting stance, a dagger in one hand and a small ring, which glowed slightly in the other.
"I repeat," she said, turning the dagger over in her hand. "Give up and no harm will come to you."
Quatre sighed and put up his hands.
"Good boy," the woman purred.
"Run all you want, darlin' I can keep this up for days!" Duo laughed over his shoulder, a small explosive in either hand. Peace was peace, but it didn't mean stuff didn't need to be blown up now and then. Besides, he needed to keep in practice, just in case a situation such as the one he was in happened to come up. "Heads up!" He pitched a flashbang over his shoulder.
Needless to say, he was quite surprised when it came sailing back at him. Cursing, he covered his eyes and braced himself for the bang.
The hallway lit up with the huge thunderclap of an explosion.
"Just give up!" the girl shouted when the sound dissipated. "This is stupid!"
A sarcastic laugh was her only answer.
"Bastard!"
"Why, thank you!" Duo called back. "Nice place, you have here!"
"Thanks!" A small dagger zipped past his ear, drawing a drop of blood and clanging to the stone.
"Nice going, babe! Way to subdue the wall!"
"Aaargh!!!"
"Face it, babe! You can't catch me!" Duo called over his shoulder, enjoying her enraged look more and more with every passing second. "Know why? 'Cuz I'm Duo-"
POW!!!
"-wall," garbled the braided ex-pilot as he slid down the unyielding stone before him.
The girl skidded to a halt in front of him and bent to take a better look at her downed opponent. With exaggerated formality, she reached down and shook the limp hand.
"Lovely to meet you, Duo Wall."
"Left!" Relena cried, pointing down yet another corridor.
Catherine banked and turned as the Vice-Foreign Minister instructed. Meanwhile, the man behind them closed in, his face contorted as though in great pain. Of course, there was also the matter of the very large sword in his hand, which the girls paid significantly more attention to.
"Hah! Eat this, dirt bag!" Catherine –who had obviously watched far too many bad action movies in her time- shot her hand up her sleeve and frantically flung a knife over her shoulder. There came a metallic tang, causing her to look back.
The man now had her knife between his teeth and was grinning maniacally at her.
"Shit!" hissed Catherine. That had been her only spare knife. "Run faster!"
"Just give it up!" The man spoke rather well for one running at a dead sprint with a knife clamped between his teeth. "I mean you peace!"
"Riiiight! This coming from a sword-wielding maniac!"
"And you throwing that knife would then make you what, then?" To Catherine and Relena's horror, the man was laughing, the knife clattering between his teeth. "Stop and surrender!" he called again, his speech clearer, for he had spat out the knife. "Might as well!"
"Why?" Relena huffed, her speed flagging. "I bet we could keep this up all day," she called, praying he wouldn't call her bluff.
The man's laughter echoed over the stone walls. "Not unless you can run through solid stone. You've come upon a dead end, my dears."
A colourfully tapestried wall loomed up ahead.
"Aaaargh!" Catherine screamed and slapped her hands against the wall, stopping herself. "Dammit! Dammit! Dammit! DAMMIT!!!"
Relena's method had a bit more style. She sighed and regally drew herself up, the intangible mantle of a princess wrapped firmly around her shoulders. "Just put up your hands, Cathy." Her own slender palms were already in the air. "Nothing good ever came from running away."
Silence. Heero said nothing, letting his feet slap rhythmically against the unrelenting stone. He needed his breath for running.
The middle girl, with Wufei's limp form on her back, was gaining on him, blood still spurting less freely from the wound her chest. She didn't seem to care.
In fact, she was grinning.
Heero's eyes narrowed as he ran through what seemed like miles and miles of endless stone corridor.
"We have your friends, kid!" the girl shouted, he voice seeming to bounce as Wufei jiggled up and down on her back. "You can run all you want, it's only a matter of time before you join them!
Heero's lips quirked in an ironic smile. Is it now? His mind skipped over to hundreds of battles in which he fought against odds of more than a hundred to one, if he was lucky. And this girl said it was only a matter of time before she caught him. Hn. Not bloody likely.
He had been taken in the past. But those had been mere flukes, twists of fate. He wasn't going to allow it to happen again.
Rhythmically, sneakers slapped on stone.
Prussian blue eyes scanned the halls. There was only one thing he needed…
"You have no idea of my talents, boy! I can run forever! You'll stop eventually and then it'll be over!" the girl snarled, her voice harsh with heavy breathing. "Save your energy and just give up now!"
That would explain the bullet wound, then, a tiny voice in Heero's subconscious offered. She'll chase you until you collapse, if she has to. Still, it was of no great matter. He had found what he had been looking for. Heero turned and laughed at the young woman, his eyes bright with fatigue. A long leap took him to the object of his desire; a small stone balcony jutting out from the wall, high into the air. With doe-like grace, he landed lightly on the narrow railing, his gun plucked from Hammer Space, held cocked and ready. Deliberately, he aimed before himself.
The girl stopped, her eyes still flashing in the face danger. Wufei slipped bonelessly from her back to land in a heap at her heels. "Don't do it, boy," she warned. She pulled the gaping tear in her shirt open a bit. The bullet wound stared like an angry eye, pulsing with still-clotting blood. "You've seen what I can withstand. It'll take a lot to kill me."
Heero narrowed his eyes. The muzzle of the gun slowly changed aim. "But how much will it take to kill me?" The tip of the gun was buried in his thick mahogany hair, just above the ear. "You know, I've never really found out."
"Just get down from there, boy. You don't want to do this." The girl was inching closer, trying to keep him talking.
An eyebrow rose. "Don't I?" Heero's voice was wry. In a simultaneous motion, he pushed off the railing and fired...
Well? Whaddaya think? Review and I'll add more! --Lady Phoenixdagger