Chapter 16- Reunion
A smile spread over Jay's face like chocolate spread over a piece of buttered bread. He had found out some kind of a secret plan, which made him a REAL secret agent. All he had to do now was to foil the evil bad guy's plan, save the damsel in distress, (neither of which he actually knew the name of- but that was just a minor complication) and be the hero.
Unfortunately, Jay hadn't realised that this 'being a hero' lark wasn't as easy as it looked. You needed to know what your own plan was, for a start, and Jay didn't know where to begin. But the bad guy was in the room directly next to him. All he had to do was waltz in there, take him by surprise, and capture him. Simple.
"One..." he counted to himself, getting all a-flutter at the thought of saving the day. Everyone would worship him, praise him, look up to him as though he was a God...no, he would be DECLARED a God, THE God, and he would be loved world-wide. Everyone would respect him, even Randall. "Two...three!"
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The lizard-monster stood in shock at hearing what a murderous soul his brother, Cy, was. Cy, admittedly, hadn't been the best of older brothers, Randall remembered. He thought back to his early childhood, all those years ago, just after his parents had died. Cy hadn't been there for him or Marie then. But Cy never had. He was always so entangled in his own life that he didn't seem to particularly care about anyone else's. It was rather the contrary- the only time Cy HAD seemed to care about Randall's existence was when he was beating him up- one of the few moments that he had even acknowledged that he had a little brother. No, that wretched lizard-monster was only concerned about himself- he always had been and, as he was proving in the manner that he was speaking to Xenon, he always would be.
Randall suddenly felt so much anger towards him that he felt like just lashing out. But, instead of going wildly berserk, he stood where he was, hurt and resentment filling up inside of him. Why was he always the one that had to put up with dodgy and uncaring family members, why did he always have to receive the bad luck, why, whenever something relatively good came his way, did it always have to turn sour in the end?
Still, he stood by the door, deciding what to do and thinking things over.
It just wasn't fair. But, then again, it never was.
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Carmen scooted along the corridors hurriedly, trying to remember her way around South House to get back to the Form Room. Stumbling down some steps, she took another right turn, waving her arms about in the darkness to feel the cold hardness of the walls. She was still scared, though she didn't know why. It was as though something, or rather, someone, was following her, and whoever it was, she didn't want to find out.
Carmen's heart raced, her pupils large to gather as much light as possible. But they shrank immediately as two burning torches came into view, one either side of the door, the only outside entrance to the Form Room. Finally, she had arrived, escaping the danger. Or so she thought.
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Jay burst into the room, swinging the door which led to the student's rooms open, roaring and baring each and every one of his spikes, trying to look ferocious but ending up appearing utterly ridiculous.
He took three steps before bumping into something invisible, making this person flicker and appear before falling flat on his face. Jay tripped over the awry lizard-monster, almost landing on Cy, who had literally jumped at the sight of their two guests. Xenon had also been caught by surprise, and his first instinct was to get out of the room. He ran through the other door, the one that Jay hadn't gone through on the opposite side of the room, and slammed it open frantically, fearing for his life and whacking over Carmen who had come from the other direction. She fell backwards onto the floor, yelping as Xenon ran by her without an apology.
Cyrus, meanwhile, had growled in annoyance and, rather than take the easy route out, dove through an open window swiftly, like a black shadow, accidentally pushing over a few chairs on his way. He disappeared round the side of the building, still reeling at what had just happened, and vanished.
Randall was still on the floor, groaning softly with his eyes firmly shut as Jay lifted his own spiky tail off Randall's side, revealing a deep gash. A second later, Carmen hobbled in the room, glasses askew and hair a mess of tangles, leaning on the door breathing heavily.
"I would really appreciate it...if you would inform me...of what has just happened..." Jay chuckled uneasily, clasping his hands behind his back and looking down at the ground.
"Well, ya see-"
"Just...shut up Jay and...get moving...We've got to follow...Xenon..." Randall had unsteadily gotten to his feet, and nearly leaned on Jay before thinking better of it. His face was screwed up in pain as the gash began to bleed heavily, and Jay was looking more apologetic than Randall had ever seen him. "Tell Carmen...what happened on the way...For now, we've got to...to follow him. Which direction did he...he go in?" Randall asked Carmen as quick as he possibly could.
"In this direction," she replied, taking a few steps back into the corridor and pointing down a passage. Randall nodded.
"Let's go."
"But Randall, your cut needs dressing," Carmen protested, pointing out something that the lizard-monster had somehow managed to forget. He turned on her quickly, outraged.
"Do you REALLY think I give a damn about that right now? Okay, let...let me show you how important everything that has just happened and...has been happenin' is. Jay, y'know that...that black version of me? That was my brother, who I haven't seen in years and...who's planning to kill the girl I love. Actually, he's probably gonna kill a...whole BUNCH of people tonight, and if we hurry up...we can stop this. NOW can we follow Xenon?" Carmen nodded speechlessly, and led the way. They jogged down the straight corridor, fumbling a bit in the semi-darkness, Randall taking a little longer than the other two, though he was clearly trying with all his might to keep up.
Soon enough, there were turnings branching off the corridor, and the threesome had no idea which way to go.
"Wait," Randall gasped, panting and clutching his bleeding side. After a few seconds, he stuck his tongue out, Jay and Carmen watching with bemused expressions. Then he slipped his tongue back in his mouth, pausing, and shook his head to the right down another passageway. "He went this way."
They ran round corners, through passages, taking shortcuts at intervals, never stopping except to let Randall pick up the scent to carry on following the trail. Eventually, their bearings became more familiar and, as they neared the Sports Hall, the three friends could hear the commotion coming from within. They crept up to the door, crawling along the ground as a precaution, and, hearing the babble of voices suddenly get louder, whipped round a corner into the darkness, struggling not to be spotted. Sitting down for a second or two and trying to conceal themselves, the threesome huddled together as the voices reached a climax...then disappeared.
Carmen, Jay and Randall stayed where they were to catch their breath- it had been quite an effort to follow Xenon's track before it got old, especially for Randall. He was sitting right in the darkness, eyes closed and clutching his side with a blood-stained hand.
"Ran, you okay?" Jay whispered into the darkness.
"Yeah..." Carmen had been peering round the corner and, seeing that no-one was leaving, got to her feet along with Jay and a struggling Randall, and all three of them ran up to the door. A pleasant surprise was that it wasn't locked, but many monsters seemed to have been going in and out of the Sports Hall, so it would've been quite pointless to have had to keep locking and unlocking the door. Jay swung it open, Carmen and Randall following, and all immediately hid behind a pile of boxes that was by the door, gaping at the sight before them.
There were boxes everywhere, and a big forklift truck with its growling engine and moaning gears lifting massive stacks of the boxes and taking them outside through a specially built giant double-door that nearly took up one whole side of the Sports Hall once open. Where they were headed was an absolute mystery to the South House students crouching behind a pile of these boxes, and what was in them even more so. Everyone was so busy, so unorganised, all panicking and rushing around...the whole scene was an absolute mess. Some were doing up the boxes and making sure of their security, others were carrying them out one by one, whilst a small group of monsters were telling these ventriloquist's puppets what to do and when to do it.
"Please, just watch my example...and there. Do you want me to show you again?" To the right of the boxes that Carmen, Jay and Randall were hiding behind, a little way back in the distance, was a short, bright white figure with her back to them. She was showing some other monsters how to do something, and though everyone else seemed very alert, she was relaxed, taking her time to do things properly. Randall almost fainted at the sight. There was Zephyr, Xenon by her side, involved with some kind of plan that his own brother, Cy, was involved in, which almost certainly made it against the law, or at least principally wrong.
Randall shifted in a nanosecond, feeling his blood thundering down his veins, his heart thumping madly with the idea of it all. He got up, walking towards her slowly, invisible to all eyes.
Carman and Jay hadn't noticed the lizard-monster's absence, well, not until Jay was going to tell him that Zephyr was there.
"Randall? Randall!" he whispered frantically, exchanging pained looks with Carmen. Then, from above, two giant, eight-fingered hands came and took them away.
Randall stopped. Cy had come out of the darkness, walking briskly up to Zephyr. What they were saying, Randall couldn't hear, but whatever it was, Zephyr wasn't too pleased, unlike Cy on the other hand, who had a grin pasted on his face. Cy suddenly leaned in, lips puckered, and Randall ran forward in a burst of speed, anxious to stop this. There was no need though; Zephyr, with a growl, had slapped Cy hard on the cheek, making him step back in shock. She swept round, Xenon now having a few stern words with Cy, (or at least trying to) bumping into Randall. He flickered back to his usual tone of purple for an instant, to let Zephyr know that he was there, then grabbed her by the shoulders, roughly dragging her to one side but being careful not to make it look as though something was controlling her.
They retreated into a corner of the Sports Hall- no-one had particularly noticed as they were all too busy with whatever they were doing themselves- and Randall let only his face show, the expression upon it a mix of anger, loathing and hurt.
"I'm gonna forget that ever happened. There's something a lot more important going on right now, and that's whatever the hell's going on in here. Tell me. Now." Randall had barely finished his sentence when the most ear-shattering alarm screeched, and the red lights in each corner of the Sports Hall flashed, as did a whole gathering of others scattered around South House. The lights illuminated Zephyr and Randall for a split second, then abandoned them in the darkness, over and over again. Randall was unruffled though- he needed to find out what was going on, and he needed to find out now.
"What is this?" Zephyr suddenly looked fearful.
"I'm sorry, but I can't tell you." Randall gave her a scrutinizing look. "I can't!" She sighed. "If you really want to know, the alarm's a distraction to get students out of bed and assembled in the gardens. It's like a normal fire alarm, but this time it's so no-one gets suspicious of what's going on here. It's a precaution really. That's all I can say. I'm sorry...for everything." She then turned at the sound of her name, trying to act as though nothing had happened, and went to help her father.
Randall blinked several times, trying to take everything in before shifting his apparently floating head into the surroundings and returning to where he had seen his two friends last. He crawled behind the boxes, being careful not to move any of them, and peered about in the shadows. They were gone. Looking quite confused, Randall raised his head, peeking over the boxes, and looked around the room, catching sight of a large orange figure. It was Jay and, sure enough, sitting down in a separate cage was a barely visible Carmen. CAGE?!
Randall's eyes widened as he realised that they had been captured and confined in these pathetic metal structures, and both, as far as Randall could tell, looked incredibly uncomfortable yet petrified beyond belief. They had no idea what was going on, and neither did Randall. One of the cages, the one Carmen was in, seemed to be strapped up very safely, with large bands of leather here and there, and Randall could just make out Carmen peering through a gap, her eyes darting this way and that. Jay's cage, on the other hand, hadn't been bound up so tightly, just because of the immense weight pinning it to the ground and stopping the 'Wrappers', as many had dubbed them, from getting the binds from one side of the cage to the other.
Randall, mouth slightly open, made sure that he was invisible from the tip of his foremost frond to the tip of his electric blue tail., and slithered over to the cages, swerving to the side every now and then to dodge a worker. Randall's mind raced. He would have to show Carmen and Jay that he was there, but how? There was nothing for it- if he could just grab their attention and appear for a second or two, then he would be able to figure out how to get them out. And it wasn't as though anyone noticed a lizard- monster suddenly emerging out of thin air; the cages were in the shadows and, more importantly, everyone was far to busy to notice. Well, nearly everyone.
Randall rattled the cage bars urgently, making a depressed (for once) Jay look up, startled. He tried to get up but, working out that the pain shooting from his head down his neck and shoulders was the consequence of trying to get up, flopped back down heavily, grinning broadly and rubbing his head. Randall searched inside of the cage with his eyes, forgetting something, and tried to figure out some way or manner that he would be able to get Jay and Carmen out of those dratted cages.
Jay opened his mouth to babble about something or other, but Randall held up a finger to quieten him.
"Not now. Keep your mouth shut," he whispered. He then looked up to see his finger, realising something very important. He could see his finger. Therefore, he wasn't invisible. "Damn," he muttered, ready to shift back. But he needn't have prepared- a three-fingered, coal-black hand clutched his shoulder, the claws long and silvery, the grip strong and confident.
"Hello, brother."
A smile spread over Jay's face like chocolate spread over a piece of buttered bread. He had found out some kind of a secret plan, which made him a REAL secret agent. All he had to do now was to foil the evil bad guy's plan, save the damsel in distress, (neither of which he actually knew the name of- but that was just a minor complication) and be the hero.
Unfortunately, Jay hadn't realised that this 'being a hero' lark wasn't as easy as it looked. You needed to know what your own plan was, for a start, and Jay didn't know where to begin. But the bad guy was in the room directly next to him. All he had to do was waltz in there, take him by surprise, and capture him. Simple.
"One..." he counted to himself, getting all a-flutter at the thought of saving the day. Everyone would worship him, praise him, look up to him as though he was a God...no, he would be DECLARED a God, THE God, and he would be loved world-wide. Everyone would respect him, even Randall. "Two...three!"
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The lizard-monster stood in shock at hearing what a murderous soul his brother, Cy, was. Cy, admittedly, hadn't been the best of older brothers, Randall remembered. He thought back to his early childhood, all those years ago, just after his parents had died. Cy hadn't been there for him or Marie then. But Cy never had. He was always so entangled in his own life that he didn't seem to particularly care about anyone else's. It was rather the contrary- the only time Cy HAD seemed to care about Randall's existence was when he was beating him up- one of the few moments that he had even acknowledged that he had a little brother. No, that wretched lizard-monster was only concerned about himself- he always had been and, as he was proving in the manner that he was speaking to Xenon, he always would be.
Randall suddenly felt so much anger towards him that he felt like just lashing out. But, instead of going wildly berserk, he stood where he was, hurt and resentment filling up inside of him. Why was he always the one that had to put up with dodgy and uncaring family members, why did he always have to receive the bad luck, why, whenever something relatively good came his way, did it always have to turn sour in the end?
Still, he stood by the door, deciding what to do and thinking things over.
It just wasn't fair. But, then again, it never was.
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Carmen scooted along the corridors hurriedly, trying to remember her way around South House to get back to the Form Room. Stumbling down some steps, she took another right turn, waving her arms about in the darkness to feel the cold hardness of the walls. She was still scared, though she didn't know why. It was as though something, or rather, someone, was following her, and whoever it was, she didn't want to find out.
Carmen's heart raced, her pupils large to gather as much light as possible. But they shrank immediately as two burning torches came into view, one either side of the door, the only outside entrance to the Form Room. Finally, she had arrived, escaping the danger. Or so she thought.
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Jay burst into the room, swinging the door which led to the student's rooms open, roaring and baring each and every one of his spikes, trying to look ferocious but ending up appearing utterly ridiculous.
He took three steps before bumping into something invisible, making this person flicker and appear before falling flat on his face. Jay tripped over the awry lizard-monster, almost landing on Cy, who had literally jumped at the sight of their two guests. Xenon had also been caught by surprise, and his first instinct was to get out of the room. He ran through the other door, the one that Jay hadn't gone through on the opposite side of the room, and slammed it open frantically, fearing for his life and whacking over Carmen who had come from the other direction. She fell backwards onto the floor, yelping as Xenon ran by her without an apology.
Cyrus, meanwhile, had growled in annoyance and, rather than take the easy route out, dove through an open window swiftly, like a black shadow, accidentally pushing over a few chairs on his way. He disappeared round the side of the building, still reeling at what had just happened, and vanished.
Randall was still on the floor, groaning softly with his eyes firmly shut as Jay lifted his own spiky tail off Randall's side, revealing a deep gash. A second later, Carmen hobbled in the room, glasses askew and hair a mess of tangles, leaning on the door breathing heavily.
"I would really appreciate it...if you would inform me...of what has just happened..." Jay chuckled uneasily, clasping his hands behind his back and looking down at the ground.
"Well, ya see-"
"Just...shut up Jay and...get moving...We've got to follow...Xenon..." Randall had unsteadily gotten to his feet, and nearly leaned on Jay before thinking better of it. His face was screwed up in pain as the gash began to bleed heavily, and Jay was looking more apologetic than Randall had ever seen him. "Tell Carmen...what happened on the way...For now, we've got to...to follow him. Which direction did he...he go in?" Randall asked Carmen as quick as he possibly could.
"In this direction," she replied, taking a few steps back into the corridor and pointing down a passage. Randall nodded.
"Let's go."
"But Randall, your cut needs dressing," Carmen protested, pointing out something that the lizard-monster had somehow managed to forget. He turned on her quickly, outraged.
"Do you REALLY think I give a damn about that right now? Okay, let...let me show you how important everything that has just happened and...has been happenin' is. Jay, y'know that...that black version of me? That was my brother, who I haven't seen in years and...who's planning to kill the girl I love. Actually, he's probably gonna kill a...whole BUNCH of people tonight, and if we hurry up...we can stop this. NOW can we follow Xenon?" Carmen nodded speechlessly, and led the way. They jogged down the straight corridor, fumbling a bit in the semi-darkness, Randall taking a little longer than the other two, though he was clearly trying with all his might to keep up.
Soon enough, there were turnings branching off the corridor, and the threesome had no idea which way to go.
"Wait," Randall gasped, panting and clutching his bleeding side. After a few seconds, he stuck his tongue out, Jay and Carmen watching with bemused expressions. Then he slipped his tongue back in his mouth, pausing, and shook his head to the right down another passageway. "He went this way."
They ran round corners, through passages, taking shortcuts at intervals, never stopping except to let Randall pick up the scent to carry on following the trail. Eventually, their bearings became more familiar and, as they neared the Sports Hall, the three friends could hear the commotion coming from within. They crept up to the door, crawling along the ground as a precaution, and, hearing the babble of voices suddenly get louder, whipped round a corner into the darkness, struggling not to be spotted. Sitting down for a second or two and trying to conceal themselves, the threesome huddled together as the voices reached a climax...then disappeared.
Carmen, Jay and Randall stayed where they were to catch their breath- it had been quite an effort to follow Xenon's track before it got old, especially for Randall. He was sitting right in the darkness, eyes closed and clutching his side with a blood-stained hand.
"Ran, you okay?" Jay whispered into the darkness.
"Yeah..." Carmen had been peering round the corner and, seeing that no-one was leaving, got to her feet along with Jay and a struggling Randall, and all three of them ran up to the door. A pleasant surprise was that it wasn't locked, but many monsters seemed to have been going in and out of the Sports Hall, so it would've been quite pointless to have had to keep locking and unlocking the door. Jay swung it open, Carmen and Randall following, and all immediately hid behind a pile of boxes that was by the door, gaping at the sight before them.
There were boxes everywhere, and a big forklift truck with its growling engine and moaning gears lifting massive stacks of the boxes and taking them outside through a specially built giant double-door that nearly took up one whole side of the Sports Hall once open. Where they were headed was an absolute mystery to the South House students crouching behind a pile of these boxes, and what was in them even more so. Everyone was so busy, so unorganised, all panicking and rushing around...the whole scene was an absolute mess. Some were doing up the boxes and making sure of their security, others were carrying them out one by one, whilst a small group of monsters were telling these ventriloquist's puppets what to do and when to do it.
"Please, just watch my example...and there. Do you want me to show you again?" To the right of the boxes that Carmen, Jay and Randall were hiding behind, a little way back in the distance, was a short, bright white figure with her back to them. She was showing some other monsters how to do something, and though everyone else seemed very alert, she was relaxed, taking her time to do things properly. Randall almost fainted at the sight. There was Zephyr, Xenon by her side, involved with some kind of plan that his own brother, Cy, was involved in, which almost certainly made it against the law, or at least principally wrong.
Randall shifted in a nanosecond, feeling his blood thundering down his veins, his heart thumping madly with the idea of it all. He got up, walking towards her slowly, invisible to all eyes.
Carman and Jay hadn't noticed the lizard-monster's absence, well, not until Jay was going to tell him that Zephyr was there.
"Randall? Randall!" he whispered frantically, exchanging pained looks with Carmen. Then, from above, two giant, eight-fingered hands came and took them away.
Randall stopped. Cy had come out of the darkness, walking briskly up to Zephyr. What they were saying, Randall couldn't hear, but whatever it was, Zephyr wasn't too pleased, unlike Cy on the other hand, who had a grin pasted on his face. Cy suddenly leaned in, lips puckered, and Randall ran forward in a burst of speed, anxious to stop this. There was no need though; Zephyr, with a growl, had slapped Cy hard on the cheek, making him step back in shock. She swept round, Xenon now having a few stern words with Cy, (or at least trying to) bumping into Randall. He flickered back to his usual tone of purple for an instant, to let Zephyr know that he was there, then grabbed her by the shoulders, roughly dragging her to one side but being careful not to make it look as though something was controlling her.
They retreated into a corner of the Sports Hall- no-one had particularly noticed as they were all too busy with whatever they were doing themselves- and Randall let only his face show, the expression upon it a mix of anger, loathing and hurt.
"I'm gonna forget that ever happened. There's something a lot more important going on right now, and that's whatever the hell's going on in here. Tell me. Now." Randall had barely finished his sentence when the most ear-shattering alarm screeched, and the red lights in each corner of the Sports Hall flashed, as did a whole gathering of others scattered around South House. The lights illuminated Zephyr and Randall for a split second, then abandoned them in the darkness, over and over again. Randall was unruffled though- he needed to find out what was going on, and he needed to find out now.
"What is this?" Zephyr suddenly looked fearful.
"I'm sorry, but I can't tell you." Randall gave her a scrutinizing look. "I can't!" She sighed. "If you really want to know, the alarm's a distraction to get students out of bed and assembled in the gardens. It's like a normal fire alarm, but this time it's so no-one gets suspicious of what's going on here. It's a precaution really. That's all I can say. I'm sorry...for everything." She then turned at the sound of her name, trying to act as though nothing had happened, and went to help her father.
Randall blinked several times, trying to take everything in before shifting his apparently floating head into the surroundings and returning to where he had seen his two friends last. He crawled behind the boxes, being careful not to move any of them, and peered about in the shadows. They were gone. Looking quite confused, Randall raised his head, peeking over the boxes, and looked around the room, catching sight of a large orange figure. It was Jay and, sure enough, sitting down in a separate cage was a barely visible Carmen. CAGE?!
Randall's eyes widened as he realised that they had been captured and confined in these pathetic metal structures, and both, as far as Randall could tell, looked incredibly uncomfortable yet petrified beyond belief. They had no idea what was going on, and neither did Randall. One of the cages, the one Carmen was in, seemed to be strapped up very safely, with large bands of leather here and there, and Randall could just make out Carmen peering through a gap, her eyes darting this way and that. Jay's cage, on the other hand, hadn't been bound up so tightly, just because of the immense weight pinning it to the ground and stopping the 'Wrappers', as many had dubbed them, from getting the binds from one side of the cage to the other.
Randall, mouth slightly open, made sure that he was invisible from the tip of his foremost frond to the tip of his electric blue tail., and slithered over to the cages, swerving to the side every now and then to dodge a worker. Randall's mind raced. He would have to show Carmen and Jay that he was there, but how? There was nothing for it- if he could just grab their attention and appear for a second or two, then he would be able to figure out how to get them out. And it wasn't as though anyone noticed a lizard- monster suddenly emerging out of thin air; the cages were in the shadows and, more importantly, everyone was far to busy to notice. Well, nearly everyone.
Randall rattled the cage bars urgently, making a depressed (for once) Jay look up, startled. He tried to get up but, working out that the pain shooting from his head down his neck and shoulders was the consequence of trying to get up, flopped back down heavily, grinning broadly and rubbing his head. Randall searched inside of the cage with his eyes, forgetting something, and tried to figure out some way or manner that he would be able to get Jay and Carmen out of those dratted cages.
Jay opened his mouth to babble about something or other, but Randall held up a finger to quieten him.
"Not now. Keep your mouth shut," he whispered. He then looked up to see his finger, realising something very important. He could see his finger. Therefore, he wasn't invisible. "Damn," he muttered, ready to shift back. But he needn't have prepared- a three-fingered, coal-black hand clutched his shoulder, the claws long and silvery, the grip strong and confident.
"Hello, brother."