VII: Alive and...Well.
Crawling along the walls of Limburger Tower like so many ants on and around an ant hill, the human drones worked tirelessly on proofing the tower against all but the destruction of the planet. Money was a wonderful thing. So many were driven by the need to amass it. Beings that called themselves "intelligent" measured power by it. The building companies currently working weren't asking any questions. Not with the amount they were being paid.
In an office on the top floor, overlooking it all was the man himself. Or fish if you wanted to be really technical. A too-large, malicious grin was spread evenly across his blubbery face as he watched the minions working.
Those insidious furry mammals had been and gone. A few times in fact. Without blowing up the tower. It had been standing for nearly a month with no major structural damage. If he'd known that all he had to do to keep his tower intact was have it crawling with the wretched humans he would have done this a long time ago. And at the end of it all, when it was too late fro them to be doing anything about it, the tower would be indestructible, insurmountable. And those miserable mice would never foil his plans again!
"Karbuncle!" The overly obese humanoid sang out. Obeying his voice dialling, the computer behind him immediately displayed a shot of the lab, with the psychotic hunch-backed scientist pushing seemingly random buttons and taking notes.
"Yesss your supreme cheddar cheesiness?" Karbuncle spun around fast as a 2D cartoon character flipping over, his maniacal grin broadening.
"How is our latest...experiment...doing?" The bowl of worms squelched disgustingly as a white gloved hand reached in and pried a few bodies from the tangled mass. The few selected victims squelched even more disgustingly as they were crunched between large, flat, pearly white teeth.
Karbuncle jumped cartoonishly, his disproportionately long limbs splaying out in all directions as a dangerously loud -THUD- resounded from somewhere off-screen.
"Still a little...uncooperative...odious malificence...but I'm working on it!"
The mad scientist was way too enthusiastic. But Limburger was in a good mood. Everything looked like it was going his way. For once.
*******
Quartz squinted as the rectangle of light stabbed through the semi-darkness, assaulting his eyes. Beside him, Benihana curled up, unintentionally releasing a slight whimper. He rested a hand comfortingly on her shoulder, and peered into the light.
Two Plutarkian lackeys hefted Rimfire's body into the cell. It struck the ground lifelessly with a dull -thud-.
Quartz didn't hear what the Plutarkians said as they retreated, slamming the door shut behind them. The sound of metal on metal echoed throughout the cell block. Painfully, forcing his stiff muscles into action, Quartz crawled over to the younger mouse.
His cream fur was stained with blood. The shallow gashes left by the electric whip healed rapidly, but the new skin they were forming over themselves was an odd shade of blue as opposed to normal skin colour. Quartz took this in with a glance. "Rimfire," he said softly, easing Rimfire into a sitting position.
Rimfire groaned loudly, leaning heavily against Quartz.
"...sir..." he managed, "...I didn't...tell them...anything..."
"Shh. I know son." Quartz dragged himself and Rimfire back to the makeshift bed he'd constructed from the hay-like substance that had been scattered around. It was scratchy and smelled musty, but it was a lot more comfortable than the concrete floor. Quartz's exhausted muscles gave out just as he reached where he'd left Benihana. He collapsed back on the hay, Rimfire half on top of him.
The younger mouse threw his weight sideways off Qaurtz, his head resting on Quartz's shoulder, the rest draped over the hay. Quartz kept a supportive arm around him, reaching around with his other hand to find Benihana. She shuffled closer, not giving any other indication of having reached consciousness.
Satisfied that his two charges were as safe as they were going to get considering the circumstances, Quartz let himself relax backwards until his head touched something relatively supportive. I'll get us outta here, he thought, unsure of whether he was speaking aloud or not, ...somehow...
*******
Nightshade paced restlessly before the clear stuff. She could only just see it, if she tilted her head sideways the light reflected off it. It was bizarre. She could see through it but couldn't move through it. It was hard as the ground she paced on. She reached the corner, flowed liquidly around it and began following another clear panel down its length. She'd done this march many times and still could not figure out a way to get out. There was some of that clear stuff across the top of the cube she was trapped in as well. It didn't make sense.
There was sometimes an opening at the top. The reeking creatures had dropped in the furry thing from the top. She paused on her march and turned her crystalline eyes skywards, the impression of a frown flitting briefly across her face. Her long legs tensed pre-emptively, tail lashing left and right. The muscles in her legs relaxed again as her eyes travelled along the reflective sheen she could see along the entire top of the cube.
Dropping to her haunches, she growled softly to herself. Her tail lashed harder, thumping lightly against the clear stuff. She barely felt it. Her snarl increased slightly with her irritation. She choked it off abruptly and rose up on all fours, stretching her forelimbs nonchalantly.
One of the reekish things made an appearance, fading up on the wrong side of the clear stuff. It bared its teeth at her. She flashed her fangs back, a low, serrated snarl escaping her throat. The reekish thing bared more teeth, then faded back out of sight.
Scratch one up for me. Nightshade snarled to herself and continued storming, keeping alert for anything in the atmosphere that might have changed. Nothing had of course. How irritating. How the hell was she supposed to go and find Windsong if she was getting shuttled around the universe? She couldn't even remember how the hell she'd gotten here. Being unconscious after getting light-attacked by that...obnoxious little...furry thing...with big ears and the odd thing...(I'm going to seperate his body parts when I find him)...probably had something to do with it.
Nightshade snarled pointlessly at nothing in particular, venting her anger and frustration. She parked her rump on the ground suddenly, licked the back of one of her paws and smoothed her fur down. She glanced at the warm, rumpled stuff the other much nicer big-eared male furry thing had left behind. It was kind of bizarre that they left stuff when they disintegrated. She couldn't waste the energy he had willingly given. All of his energy.
She stretched and relaxed on her belly, gazing nonchalantly into the blackness, daring the reeking things to do their worst. If they had the guts to come into the cube thing with her after she'd very deliberately and quite successfully torn three of them to pieces. Her rough tongue ran over her velvety lips, then extended into a yawn. They'd tasted too bad to even consider absorbing. Her thoughts turned back to the furry one. What did they do to you? He'd never answered, just smiled at her serenely. He'd felt and smelled of infinite sadness.
An opportunity would present itself soon. She had never encountered these reekish things before and could make a pretty good guess considering how many had fallen or been mutilated before they dropped her in here that they'd never dealt with the likes of her before either. What she knew of most sentient beings, innate curiousity would overcome them.
She would just have to be careful not to waste an opportunity when it presented itself.
