Nevermore/Cally's notes (again, depending the website): Whee! Chapter three! ..I'm amazed at the reviews I'm getting. People like this! I have no idea why! ^^; Meh, I'll keep going, as long as people keep reviewing. Even flames, I don't care! :D ..By the way, I don't own the Chaotix or any of the Archie or Sega characters. If I did, it would not be a kiddie theme. Bwaha.
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Captive: Part Three
It's haunting, how I can't seem
To find myself again
My walls are closing in
Without a sense of confidence, I'm convinced
That there's just too much pressure to take
-- Linkin Park, Krawlng
Mighty the armadillo walked along the near silent streets of Echidnopolis towards Saint Angel Hospital, thoughts oddly clear and streightforward for the late post-midnight hour. As friends of the Guardian and likewise protectors of the island, the Chaotix were givin more leeway for just about everything in the city; Including being allowed to visit the hospital at all hours. Although, the group had agreed to follow the rules that the normal citizens were restricted to, they did take these extra extentions to effect every so often. Mighty was sure that he wasn't the only one to make a spontaneous late night/early morning visit to their ailing friend.
It had been a full month since the initial kidnapping, two weeks since the rescue, and Espio continued his stay in the hospital. Not much of a change; Nothing for the better, yet nothing worsened either.
Ignoring the nurses who greeted him inside, Mighty signed the notepad that all hospital visitors had to sign before being allowed in. Name, time, patient visiting. He was a little surprised to see Vector's name further up the list; Visited only a couple hours before.
A small smile graced the armadillo's face; Too long had the Chaotix fought together, growing on a war-torn world, that they had become family. Brothers, best friends. When one was in danger, they all attempted to help. When one ached, they all ached. When one suffered, they all suffered.
Down the corridors, up a flight of stairs; The hospital in it's after hours setting was absolutely silent. Patients slept, nurses and doctors silently made their rounds. He recieved a few smiles, but was otherwise ignored.
Mighty paused in front of a single-occupancy room. He opened the door as silently as he could; Espio was asleep. With footsteps being the only sound in the room, Mighty came to stand at his friends' bedside, watching the chameleon's form as he suffered in sleep.
As most victims of nightmares did, Espio sweated and mumbled. "No.. Please.. Not again.."
Mighty frowned in anger and concern, taking a seat at a stool by the hospital bed. Anger at Kragok and the Dark Legion, concern for the safety and sanity of his friend. Lower mumblings came from the nightmare-ridden form, and some of what was spoken caused the armadillo's eyes to widen in shock and disbelief; Details to frighten the soul.
With a sudden cry that startled the armadillo, the focus of his concern sat up and awoke, breath heavy near the point of hyperventalation. With an expression akin to alarm, Espio quickly looked around the room. The aftereffects of a memory nightmare; He thought he was still there. After a few seconds, Espio eventually caught sight of the silent armadillo. "..Mighty?"
"Hey." Came the hesitant greeting. "Um.." He paused, unsure what to say. "..I just wanted to see how you were." How could he handle simple conversation without hurting his friend?
Espio's eyes closed for a moment, and it was more than obvious that he was trying to hide his pain. "I'm fine. Really." At the concerned glance he recieved, he held up his hands as if in defense. "I just had a nightmare, but I'm okay.."
"Espio.." Mighty frowned deeply, recalling some of what he heard while his friend slept. "What did Lien-Da do to you?"
Eyes widened in response, shocked, as Espio looked at Mighty with nothing short of horror. "Lien-Da?"
"You said her name while you were sleeping. Talking can help ease the pain.."
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Suddenly, all he could see was the flesh of a red-furred woman, eyes and face literelly shoved in to the surpringly soft flesh of her lower stomach. One red hand was wrapped firmly around his golden horn, the other around the back of his head. He was held on his knees by a pair of mismatched hands on his shoulders; One flesh, one mechanical. His mouth was where he never thought it would be, where he never wanted it to be, open and toungue acting as directed. He tried to close his mouth once, tried to refuse, only to be forced to continue with pain and threat of more. The woman he was being forced to pleasure moaned.
"I heard that.." She spoke between breaths. "..Chameleons were skilled with.. Their toungs, but.. Oh, god!" She let out a wild, wicked laugh. Lien-Da.
Neither of his torturers noticed his tears.
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With a gasp and another self hug, Espio turned away from Mighty, eyes glancing out to stare at the late night world through the window. Mighty frowned, internally berating himself for not being more delicate about the situation, for not choosing his words better. "I.." He paused a moment. "I'm sorry, Esp. I shouldn't have -- "
"I couldn't stop them." The chameleon's interruption surprised Mighty into stunned silence. "They kept on hurting me over and over and I could't stop them.." A sob that the youth couldn't surpress began a new torrent of tears that sent his armadillo friend into an insecure sadness. What should he do? Mighty wanted to comfort his friend, to help him more than anything else, but did not know what to do. Briefly, a part of his mind considered giving the chameleon a hug; However, even he knew it would have been far too awkward considering the situation. Instead, he placed a hand on his friends' hand. Still, Espio pulled his hand away, giving the armadillo a horrified stare.
A moment of uncomfortable silence reigned. The chameleon's reaction was somewhat difficult for Mighty to understand; He knew that his friend was pained, far more than he could possibly understand, and it frustrated him. Not that he was frustrated with Espio per se, but with his own inability to comprehend his anguish. After all, Mighty was not one to think ahead into situations; He always barreled into things head first.
It was difficult for Mighty to understand just how fragile Espio was in his current condition; What exactly did he know of the comrade he considered a brother? The chameleon was a brooder; That was very much obvious more often than not. He chose to keep to himself, and was very analytical. Somewhat cynical, but many were after growing in war. Espio was a realist, while Mighty was an optimist. No matter how rough life was, Mighty always had thought, there was always tomorrow to try and make it better. Right?
"So.. Uhm.." This was getting more awkward as time progressed. "..Is the hospital food as bad as they say?" Silence reigned again in response to the query, Espio giving his friend an incredulous stare.
After a few moments, the chameleon tilted his head as if giving thought to the question. His response was mumbled low, nearly too low for Mighty to hear in the opressive silence. "Could be worse. Could've been Vector's barbeque.."
Mighty allowed himself to smile a little. The attempt at humor brightened his spirits. "You know, Esp -- "
"I already know what you're going to ask, what you're thinking." Espio's interruption came as a shock to the armadillo. His voice was sharp, yet quivered every few syllables. "And, no, you're not going to understand. None of you are able to.." He gripped the bedsheets tightly, head turned and gaze turned to his own lap. It was obvious that he struggled to contain himself even then.
After a few seconds of frowning, Mighty tried to obtain another reaction from his friend. "..It can't be healthy to hold it in like this.."
Espio's form did not shift from its position. "I don't want you to know." He paused. "For good reasons."
"But you're suffering.." Mighty's tone had gone down to a whisper, a feeble attempt to help his friend further.
"I won't tell you anything else, Mighty." Mighty paused at the seemingly angry tone in his friend.
After several more minutes of further silence, neither teen saying a word and the suffering still unable to look the would-be helper in the eyes, Mighty decided that keeping his friend awake and uncomfortable any further would only serve to aggravate. Without much more than the sounds of the stool shifting on the tiled floor, the armadillo stood, turned, and left.
The tears came again, bare seconds after Mighty had left.
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After a few hours of a somewhat restless sleep, Mighty had come to the conclusion that the only way he was going to get any frustration or anger out of his system was by going to the single place to do the only thing that ever cleared his mind: The gym. A strenuous hour or two of massive weight lifting always seemed to clear his mind of any troubles. He didn't know if it would work for the current situation, but couldn't see the harm.
A gym by the name of the 'Emerald Ring Gym' became a regular area for him; He had come across it once when he had an hour to spare before a Chaotix meeting. Since then, he had taken an hour every few days or so to stop by; He knew the gym's workers on a first name basis now.
It came as an absolute shock to find Knuckles and Vector within the gym, the former punching what appeared to be the remains of a punching bag on the ground. A crude drawing of Kragok's face was loosly taped to the 'head' of said remains. Vector stood a few feet away, staring at the echidna with a somewhat amused expression on his crocodilian face. "Hey, Knux!" After a few seconds of recieving absolutely no response from the echidna, the volume of the crocodile's voice escalated. "Hey! Knux! Does 'property damage' mean anything to ya?! We owe money to this gym as it is, y'know! Wreckin' their stuff aint gonna help us any!"
"We owe money?" Knuckles looked up from the pulped remains of the bag. "How?!"
"Mighty. Benchpress. Three guesses."
An indignant frown came to Mighty's face as he stepped forward. "Oh, come on, Vec. You were there that time. Not my fault that the benchpress couldn't hold the weight I was lifting." He recieved strange stares from the two. Mighty stared at them both, back and forth, for a second; Then, he threw his arms in the air, giving in. "Fine, fine! Three thousand pounds was a bit much. But I still think it should've held it.." As Vector smiled at him wryly, Mighty took a moment to step around to look at the bag's remains, picking up the line drawing of Kragok's face. "So.." A pause. "..Any particular reason we couldn't go punching the real thing?"
Vector snorted. "Yeah, that would've gone over well with the media." This time, Mighty and Knuckles gave Vector the strange stare. He looked up at them, surprised. "What? You guys never think about that stuff? We're on TV every goddamned day."
Knuckles let out a small sigh. "Honestly, I wish we could go kicking Kragok's ass in person." The stares turned to him. "..What?"
"You said 'ass'." Vector widened his eyes in surprise. "You never say anythin' even close to a cuss." Knuckled pulled a face in response.
As the group started to make their way towards the gyms' exit and away from the bags' remains, Knuckles recalled some information that he thought the two Chaotix members might have preferred to know. "I called Charmy a couple hours ago."
Mighty and Vector winced simontaneously. Both teenagers had completely forgotten to call the bee; Both when Espio was first kidnapped that seemingly eternity ago, and when he was rescued. Mighty supposed that their minds were jumbled as it was to remember to call everyone. "What did you tell him?" Unsurpringly, Mighty was the one to ask the question.
Knuckles frowned, leaving the gym at that moment through the paneglass doors, "The basic truth; We found Espio and that he was hurt."
"You didn't tell 'em -- " Vector began to ask.
"No." Knuckles did not let the crocodile finish the question. "No, I.." He paused. "I didn't think Espio would've wanted any more people to know than necessary."
The trio walked in silence for a few minutes, lost in miasma of thought. After some time, Vector decided to pose a question. "So.. Uh.." A pause. "..Where are we goin', again?"
Silence reigned for several more minutes, the armadillo and crocodilian Chaotix members staring at the back of their suddenly tense echidna leader. It was a short time later when he answered. "I think we should give Kragok a little visit.."
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It wasn't difficult to gain access to the maximum security wing of Echidnopolis Prison; Once the guards at the front gate recognized who was approaching the complex, they allowed him ,as well as the Chaotix, instant access. Knuckles decided that he would have to talk to Constable Remington about that later; Not even a DNA matchup had been done. Massive security breech there, had he been a disguised Legionairre.
Kragok was being held in a cell at the end of a long corridor, Legionairres with lesser status locked up in cells along the way. Thick, electrified bars was all that stood between the Guardian and the Dark Legion; All the prisoners could do was sneer and shout obsceneties. None of it bothered the trio. However, Kragok neither swore nor frowned. Strangely enough, he smiled at the three, seeming as if he had been expecting them. Perhaps he had been. "So.." Kragok had been first to speak. "How's Espy-chan doing?"
The flippancy of how the question was ask was enough to instigate a reaction. Vector responded with a vague obsceneity mumbled under his breath while Mighty had grown a cold, hard expression in his eyed. Knuckled stiffened, frowning, but replied nonetheless. "Healing."
Still, Kragok's expression of content did not waver. "I suppose you're here to either insult me, or ask me something."
Neither Vector nor Mighty spoke. Knuckles was, once again, the voice of the trio. "Why?" Cold. Hard. No insinuations. It utterly confused the imprisoned Legionairre. Knuckles realised this confusion before Kragok could respond with a query of his own, and decided to clarify. "Why Espio? It was night. You could have easilly attacked any of us."
"Hadn't we gone through this with the EST?" Seems Kragok was in the mood of answering a question with a question. "I was ordered to kidnap one of your dear friends. It was a matter of taste that lead me to your chameleon friend."
"A matter of taste?" Knuckles asked with the same cold emotion that he had taken on since entering the prison. Cold, calculated, but absorbed in the personal strike the situation pertained.
Kragok shrugged, taking upon a nonchalant demeanor. Had the personality been anywhere else, he may as well have been responding about the state of the weather. "Mm. Furless, a tail that could easily be removed, and that horn was a perfect handle." A pause, as the grinning Legionairre leaned towards the bars. "Espy-chan gives excellent head. Swallows, too." Suddenly, it became obvious that Kragok was enjoying the conversation.
The response to the comment was instantaneous. Mighty and Vector both would have jumped at the electrified bars in their fury, had Knuckles not held out both of his arms to stop them. A terrible silence followed, filled with the electric fury of the Chaotix and the Guardian, as well as the perverse joy of the Legionairre.
"Have you ever heard little Espy-chan scream? It's delicious." Kragok had not been finished gloating. "He was the perfect one of your friends to serve as my whore. I doubt any of your other friends, or even you, would have been quite as entertaining."
Vector had begun to growl again. A thick, resonating sound that spoke of impending danger. However, Knuckles decided then that they were not going to get any new information out of the Legionairre past what was done to their pained friend. "Come on." He instructed his two friends. "Let's leave."
Neither of the two objected.
Kragok did not leave any parting words. He only smiled.
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The scarce rays of artificial light penetrated the damp cell, signalling arrival. Light only penetrated the bleak darkness before pain ensued; A calm before a storm. Eyes red from a combination of tears and lack of sleep looked upwards, turning to the door. If one who cared were to look into the widened eyes, they would have seen pain and fear too deep for sentient comprehension.
He was there, again. Espio wondered, briefly, if it were a nightmare or a reality. Then, decision came that it would not have mattered; Pain, both of body and of mind, was percieved either way.
The door began to open with the characteristic 'click' that he had grown to fear and loathe, and several figures entered the darkness. Along with the expected Legionairre Commander, several unmistakeable, yet completely unexpected, bodies walked the darkness. Espio had to blink several times before understanding that this had to have been within the world of the sleeping. Why else would the other Chaotix, as well as Knuckles, be accompaning Kragok to torture him again? He was chained between the ceiling and floor; Defense was an impossibility.
"You liked it, didn't you?" The comment came as a shock to the chameleon youth, turning to stare with wide eyes at Knuckles. The Guardian was not finished speaking with the hurtfull query. "Little slut, always getting some dick up your ass."
The rational part of Espio's mind knew that this was a nightmare, and tries to scream it's warning to the rest of his mind. Yet, panic and fear drowned out that little voice with shrieks of their own. Even as Mighty wrapped his arms around from his back, logic could not be reached. "Mebbe he'd enjoy it even more if we gave him some, eh?"
Logic was completely drowned out now. Fear rose it's voice high. Espio's body stiffened in the shock of the moment. Vector released a maniacal laugh that sent shivers down his spine.
Kragok grinned widely, waving a hand with nonchalance. "Please, be my guests. I'm sure our little whore here would enjoy it all."
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Awakening with a cry of terror had become more than natural in the past while; The hospital staff learned to ignore it after the first few days. For that, Espio was gratefull; The less people knew of his nightmares, the less pity he recieved, the less he would have to relive by way of explanation. It suited him just fine. It was the middle of the day, late afternoon by the clock, and he surprised himself with the knowledge that he had fallen asleep. Granted, sleep during the nightly hours had become increasingly more difficult since his rescue, but he hadn't thought that he would be so exhausted as to fall asleep during daylight hours.
A chill suddenly encompassed his body. At first, he thought it was an aftereffect of the nightmare; At times, he would feel the effect for hours after awakening. Yet, somehow, he knew that it was not. Something else was terribly wrong. His glance wandered from his lap to the window. Three shadows of specs were visible in the clear, cloudless distance. Blinking twice in confusion, he peered closer; Aircraft. Small, round aircraft. The only beings he knew of that possessed craft of that design were the Dark Legion.
An explosion of panic and swears passed through his mind just as an explosion rocked another wing of the hospital. They were back; He knew they were here for him. He decided he had to take at least some course of action. In his panic, logic failed again.
Chamoflauged, he hid under the hospital bed.
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The explosion echoed throughout all of Echinopolis, bringing panic to the minds of the Chaotix. They had just stepped out of the prison complex; Yet, Knuckles could tell exactly where the explosion had occured by the thick smoke drifting in the horizon. The Guardian staggered back a step from shock. "Oh, hell." With the realization, Knuckles took off down the streets. Shock wore off in to determination.
Mighty and Vector shared a glance for a brief moment, realization entering their minds somewhat slower than their acute Guardian friend, yet followed as soon as it came.
They were too far away, came the horrified knowladge, to get to their friend in time. Mighty voiced this aloud with a rethorical query. "Who the hell puts together a city with a hospital and prison on opposite ends?!"
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Silence reigned through the hospital room, the faint echoes of panicked hospital staff barely filtered through the door. Most of the hospital rooms were soundproof for safety; Espio wished that his room was not.
The creaking of the door sent a strange combination of fear and hope through his mind; Fear for the Legionairre that may walk through, hope for a friend or nurse. After a few seconds of pure silence as he continued to hide under the bed, clinging to the bottom of the mattress, a voice wavered through the room. Fear won out.
"Damnit, he's not in here." Dark Legionairre. The voice was not familliar. "Could he have been reassigned to another room?"
A second voice grunted in reply to the firsts' acute analysis. "Hold on a minute. I got infra-red."
No sound escaped from Espio past low breathing, yet fearfull blasts racked his mind. Silence filled the room for several seconds more; Perhaps, had he kept his eyes open instead of shutting out the world in his fear, he may have seen the Legionairre kneel next to the bed to grab at him from underneath. A yelp of fear could not be repressed as Espio was dragged out, struggling as two Legionairres joined the first in restraining him, pulling him atop the hospital bed that had, untill that moment, been a center for healing.
A fortnight of merciless torture and humilation followed by an equal amount of time spent attempting to recover from said torture had left the chameleon youth physically weaker than he had been before the situation came to pass. The three Legionairres, who Espio would have been able to, at the least, defend himself against a month prior, were able to hold him atop the hospital bed despite his struggles. A fourth Legionairre, who stood smugly several feet away with a strange device in hand, ordered the youth to be flipped on his stomach. Despite literal kicking and screaming from the teen, it was done quickly.
The fourth Legionairre approached the sobbing restrained teen with a wicked chortle. The clang of metal against metal echoed through the room. A loud bang quickly followed; For a moment, Espio had thought a gun had fired. A split second later, he was able to identify the sound as the door being flung open.
"Get your goddamned fucking hands away from him!"
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By the time Knuckles, Mighty and Vector had gotten to the hospital, five full minutes had passed since the explosion/invasion. Ignoring the chaos that the hospital staff had become, the trio swiftly ran through the hospital to their friends' room. They feared the worst, yet hoped for the best. They prayed that their friend had not been kidnapped again, had not been killed, had not been raped again. They certainly had not been expecting what they did find.
Blasters of various manufacture littered the floor; Most of which were of Legionairre design. Four Legionairres were tied up in rope and hospital bedsheets in the corner furthest from the bed, only half of which were conscious.
Espio, for all intent and purpose, was in one piece. Sobbing, nearly hyperventalating, but no new blood from his form had been shed. He leaned against a pink-furred form, recieving a small hug and comforting whispers. The scene was akin to a mother comforting her child after a nightmare. Julie-Su, after some few seconds, looked up from her maternal position to the newly arrived Chaotix, frowning in concern and anger.
"You!" Mighty was first to react to it all, rushing at the restrained Legionairres. The nearest conscious robed figure was quickly lifted against the wall, banged hard against the plaster. "Why the hell are you attacking him again!? Can't you leave him alone!?" It was not clear weather the armadillo was slightly hysterical or not.
"What the hell is this thing?" Vector had noticed something the rest of the group had not, picking up a strange metal device from the ground. All eyes, including those of the conscious Legionairres, turned to the crocodile as he handled the strange device.
"That.." The Legionairre still held against the wall began, a superior tone in his voice. "Is what was to be the death of the whore." All he recieved for the insult was an angry, if painfull, bang against the wall.
The metal device, shaped akin to a pear with a handle at it's top, appeared ancient with the rust that encompassed it. It had no further markings, seemingly quite plain and harmless despite the situation. One would suppose that an antique dealer would more likely have it in their posession than the Dark Legion. Still, in somewhat dangerous curiosity, Vector turned the handle at it's top. In response, the pear twisted open with a show of violence; Three seperate prongs, tipped with spikes, still connected at the handle. With the realization of what exactly it would have been used for, the crocodilian teen dropped the device on the floor, mouth gaped in shock. Even Espio had gone quiet as the event unfolded.
Mighty turned his gaze back to glare at the Legionairre he held, eyes hard in anger and the intent to harm. Violent fantasies passed through the armadillos' mind, before he decided to simply throw the would be assassin back to the ground. The Legionairre stayed conscious, but was in pain. It suited the Chaotix just fine.
"Wait!" The second conscious Legionairre, his own eyes wide in uncharacteristic fear, called for the attention of his captors. He was not dissapointed. At the multiple hatefull glares, he shifted uneasilly; Knuckles got the impression that the Legionairre was not nearly as violent as his allies. "Uhm.." Surprisingly, the robed figure actually stuttered. "W-we were to send a message if we failed.."
"Ah, yes.." The more violent Legionairre spoke up, leaning himself against a wall despite his restraints. His passive counterpart seemed to shrink as he spoke up. "A message from our imprisoned Commander's sister, Lien-Da."
Mighty was the only one who seemed to notice Espio's expression change from one of fear to one of horror.
"If we were to fail, we were to inform the Guardian and his allies that Lien-Da is carrying the whore's offspring."
That's when Espio began to wail.
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Nevermore/Cally: Bwee! Aint I evil? ^^
Espio, still in the locked closet: .....Help.
Nevermore/Cally: Bwaha! :D Viva la feedback!