Eep, been a while since I last updated this. Sorry about that. Hope you guys like this.
Chapter Fourteen — Finding the Light
"Here," came a whisper that barely travelled the three feet to the others nearby. Tala was gesturing to something in the bushes. "Do you think you could do something about the external alarms from here Kenny?"
Kenny looked down at the small infrared alarm mechanism and frowned. "I'll try," he promised quietly. He took of one of the sides off and stared at the wires inside. He fiddled around for a moment in the mess of copper tangles, typing away on Dizzy momentarily before he grinned. "Done. It's actually quite an easy system; I would have thought Biovolt had better."
"Wait until you get inside," Tala promised as he led the way over the tall spiked fence into the huge Abbey complex. He glanced around for the guards. "Wait here," he hissed. He dashed off around one of the buildings then came back. "It's all clear, we can get to the main building then we may encounter some guards before the monitoring station."
"Right," Kai nodded. "You lead, I'll hold up the rear."
Tala nodded and gestured for the others to follow him, Ian taking a lookout position while Takao and Kenny looked around nervously. Kai let them get a bit ahead before he trailed after them, his eyes peeled for any sort of movement. He had to stop however, a few corridors inside the complex.
"There are some guards ahead," Kenny whispered to him. "Tala's trying to figure out a plan of attack."
Kai marched up to Tala and whispered something firmly in his ear. Tala frowned at first then reluctantly nodded. He gestured for Ian to stay while he and Kai moved around the corner. There was a brief cry of surprise then silence. Tala appeared around the corner again and waved them ahead.
"We'll need your help again," Tala murmured to Kenny as they moved into the small station with the screens for the cameras around the Abbey. Kenny's eyes widened (though no one could see that) as eh looked at the set-up for the Abbey's security system.
"This thing is a mess!" he grabbed at his hair. "And it's so ancient, I thought you guys had money?"
Tala glared at him. "I'm going to ignore the insinuation that I still have anything to do with Biovolt and tell you instead that this is the back up system and also a backdoor in to the main system."
"I knew that," Kenny mumbled, blushing slightly as he opened up his laptop again. He typed on it for a moment before opening up the main panel and taking a look inside.
"Hm, okay, I should be done in a few minutes. All alarm systems should be offline then, even the back-up ones, so you'll have free run of the place, not to mention we'll have a sudden 'blackout' due to generator problems."
Tala nodded. "Good. Can you find out where the others are?"
"Sure." Kenny hooked his laptop up to the mainframe and typed away, calling up a few cameras. "Okay, it looks like they're—"
"Rei!"
Everyone turned to stare at Kai in amazement before he turned and ran off.
"Kai!" Tala called out uselessly after him. "Damn him!" he yelled, punching the wall in frustration. "He's going to get himself killed!"
"Let him do this Tala," Takao said calmly "He needs to help Rei … whatever his situation."
Tala glared at him then nodded. "Fine. Just where is Rei anyway?" He looked up at the camera where Kai had been staring and suddenly paled. Ian stared at him curiously, moving over to place a hand on his arm, but Tala jerked away from him so suddenly that it startled everyone. The redhead didn't seem to notice though.
"Gods no," he prayed in a choked voice. "The Grey Room."
Ian swallowed. "Tala, what's wrong?"
Tala shook his head. "Rei's going to die, they're going to kill him, rip his mind to pieces and him along with it." His gaze broke from the screen and he clasped a hand to his mouth, heaving slightly.
"Tala!" Ian called out frantically. "Hold it together, we have to get Spencer and Bryan out of here, and I can't do it alone!"
"You won't have to," Takao said. "They're in room 3 of the detention area." Takao moved over to Tala. "Are you going to help or are you going to worry about something you don't have any control over right now."
Tala stared up at him with wide eyes. "You don't know," he whispered harshly.
"Does Kai?"
Tala's eyes flashed slightly before they narrowed. "I'm not sure if he'll be able to deal with it alone."
"Well he'll have to until we arrive to help him, along with Max, Spencer and Bryan." Takao shoved a gun towards him. "Are you going to lead us again, or not?"
Tala snarled and grabbed the weapon. "Ian, keep in contact and keep a watch out. I'll need someone here to watch Kenny's back in case something comes up." Ian nodded. "I'll call if we need help."
"But we won't," Takao assured them with a brash grin.
Tala just shook his head at the boy and wiped at his still pale face before leading him cautiously out of the room and down the halls to the detention centre.
"Do you think he'll be all right?" Kenny asked nervously.
"I hope so," Ian murmured clutching his firearm close to him and taking his position by the door. Truthfully though, he'd never seen Tala break down like that, so he honestly couldn't say more than what he hoped. "I truly do hope so."
* * *
Tala tugged Takao back around the corner when the heard people approaching, talking quietly, though he could also hear the faint sounds of chains rattling and someone being pushed and prodded along cruelly.
Tala risked a peek around the side and froze.
"It's Bryan," he mouthed to Takao, whose eyes opened wider before he cautiously took a look around himself.
Tala pointed to his chest then at the guards and Takao nodded when Tala gestured for him to sneak around them, taking them off guard. With Tala there, they wouldn't expect anyone else, especially not him. They moved forward quickly, Tala hesitating slightly so Takao could get into position before he fired at one of the guards.
"Ah!" The man fell to his knees, bleeding profusely from his upper thigh. The other guards turned around, startled, their guns half-raised, but Tala was already moving again, shooting at them accurately, enough to wound and put them out of action.
Takao made his way to the prisoner leaning heavily against the wall. Bryan looked as though he had seen better days, but Takao knew that the boy wouldn't have just given up without a fight. Only one guard stayed with him and his eyes were trained on Tala. He didn't notice as Takao came up and knocked him hard on the back of his head.
Unfortunately, this wasn't enough to do more than stun the man for a few moments. Takao panicked slightly, but then remembered his training with his grandfather and lashed out at the man before he could make a sound or do anything. They were still struggling when Tala came along and knocked him out.
"You untie him, I'll go get the others," Tala held up a set of keys. "Then head back to Ian and Kenny, I'll meet you there
"Sure." Takao helped Bryan up and untied the tight bonds around him as Tala ran off quickly in the direction of the cells. Bryan was leaning heavily against him, barely conscious. Takao had to hold him up as they moved away, moving slowly both in caution and to make sure Bryan was all right. He looked really beaten up; Takao didn't think he'd seen anyone look this bad before.
He paled thinking what the others looked like … what his Max looked like after the brutal treatment here.
/I can't think of that right now, we just have to get them all out of here./
Bryan stirred slightly against Takao's shoulder and he slowed, looking down at the Demolition Boy. But they couldn't stop now, they had to get back to Kenny and Ian. Takao struggled on with the other boy, continuing back to the other two.
* * *
Tala flicked through the ring of keys he'd filched from one of the unconscious guards until he found the right one. He slid it into the lock and opened the door carefully, trying not to make a sound.
He was about to move into the room when movement caught his eye and he narrowly dodged a larger form lashing out at him.
"Easy Spence," he called out.
Spencer sighed in relief. "Tala, jeez, you could have warned me."
Tala just shook his head at the other boy. "You should be ready for anything … even something good, like me." Tala smirked as Spencer chuckled then he looked over at the other figure, sitting, leaning against the far wall. "Max, come on, we're getting you out of here."
Max stared at him in amazement then grinned. "Thank god," he breathed reverently as he ran out the door wit the other two, ignoring the pain in his arm.
"We have to head back to the secondary monitoring station," Tala told them. Spencer nodded and Max just decided to keep following those two. "Kenny's got all the alarms turned off and Ian's with him … that kid is pretty useful to have around for something like this."
"The Chief?" Max piped up. "Yeah, we owe him heaps for all he's done for us."
"Bryan was taken away somewhere," Spencer told him. "He's gotten the worst of everything. When we were taken in, he refused to let them touch us, acting out so they'd keep their attention on him."
"Yeah," Tala said distantly. "Bryan would do that. Explains why he was so bad when w found him."
"Found him?" Max paled slightly.
"Yeah." They came upon the corridor where Tala and Takao had parted. He grinned. "We 'found' him with these guys. Takao's taking him back to the others."
Max's heart lifted when he heard that. Takao was here, he'd come to save him. He hardly noticed anything until they arrived back at the room with the others, then …
"Max!"
Takao suddenly had his arms around the boy, holding him close and practically cutting off his supply of oxygen. Max clung to him just as tight, tears springing suddenly to his eyes. He winced slightly as Takao leaned too hard against him.
Takao moved back with a frown, his eyes widening when he saw Max's wound. "Max …"
"It's nothing serious, I'm fine." Max's eyes were filled with joy as he looked at Tyson. "I knew you wouldn't leave me," he breathed, laughing with exhilaration, leaning against him.
"You never had to doubt." Takao pulled back and grinned at him quickly before he kissed him gently. Max practically melted in his arms.
Tala ran straight for Bryan as soon as they got in the room, checking him over and finding out how bad his wounds are.
"So what's your diagnosis," Bryan's weak voice asked.
Tala smirked down at the half-conscious boy. "You'll live."
"That's nice. Not sure about Rei though."
Tala froze and everyone glanced over at him.
"Rei?" Kenny asked hesitantly. "What happened to him?"
"He was taken straight to this room … I was only in there for a bit, but it looked like Rei had been there a few hours. I don't know what they did to him, they drugged me up and I woke up in the dungeon just before Spence and Max were taken in."
Tala looked away.
"I think it's time we found out what happens in that room Tala," Takao told him firmly.
"I agree," Ian said seriously. "You had me so freaked by your reaction before."
Tala glanced away. "Not now, we have to help Kai get Rei back, before it's too late."
"I called Mr. Dickinson, everything's already set up," Kenny told him after a moment of very awkward silence. Everyone was still looking at Tala, who was avoiding everything and looking very pale.
"Good. Let's go then." Yet Tala didn't move and neither did anyone else.
"Tala …" Bryan started.
"Don't!" he snarled at them, his blue eyes flashing dangerously. "Not now, when everything's over we'll tell you everything, but I can't lose my focus right now and neither can all of you."
"That bad then?" Takao asked weakly.
"Not as bad as Boris finding Kai," Spencer said, drawing everyone's attention back to the screens and the imminent disaster that awaited the blue-haired captain of the Bladebreakers.
AN: … have I mentioned I like cliffhanger endings? ^_^