Miss.Ecofreak: Welcome back to another chapter of Growing Up In Haven City
Zakura: (reads reviews) oh, new reviews... what's a cliffhanger?
Miss.Ecofreak: er...a dude who hangs from a cliff?
Zakura: ...right...
Miss.Ecofreak: nah, I'm joking. Thanks for the review Dark Mar, I had a lot of things going on which I couldn't fit in one chapter, that's why the cliffies appeared, there are even more to come if you like those kind of stuff.
Zakura: then what isa cliffhanger?
Miss.Ecofreak: read and you'll see
CHAPTER 34
THE BARON'S BIG PLAN
Kate
It didn't take long until I figured out where we were going.
Before I was captured, I had heard rumours that Baron Praxis wanted to find the fabled precursor stone, which was, according the legend, hiding in Mar's tomb.
Then again, only an heir of Mar could open the tomb, obviously the underground had already found it and somehow Baron Praxis had figured it out too.
Tanya mentioned that Praxis had a spy in the underground, I guess this proved it.
The kg-zoomer we were riding stopped by the large statue of Praxis near the palace; I noticed its head had fallen of because of a large beam of light that had hit it.
The light tower, I had heard legends about it but didn't believe it actually existed.
The entrance to Mar's tomb was indeed under the statue, my little brother, Kor and Shadow were inside the opening hall, but there was another door in front of them that was closed.
"Wow, the great Mar's tomb" Tetra said, "How dare Praxis defile that holy place?"
"Didn't think you were religious?" I said.
"I'm not, but the thought of Baron Praxis near anything Mar has ever touched fills me with dread" Tetra said, "In fact, the thought of Baron Praxis being near anything of importance fills me with dread"
"Freeze!" one of the KGs said and pointed his gun at the Shadow, Kor and little Jak.
They all turned around with a surprised look.
"Praxis! How did you know we were here?" Shadow asked.
"You'd like to know that wouldn't you?" Praxis said, "Where's the Ecofreak? I was hoping he was with you"
Neither Shadow nor Kor answered, little Jak couldn't, he hadn't spoken since our mother died.
He just hid behind Kor's robes.
"Ah, there's the youngest heir of Mar, you didn't seriously think he was going to pass the tests of manhood did you?" Praxis asked, "I'm going to get that stone! And none of you are going to stop me"
The guards pushed me forwards into the tomb, usually I would seize any opportunity to visit the last resting place of my great ancestor, but now all I wanted was to be back in the cell.
But there was no way I could stop it, slowly but surely, the door into the tomb opened, one last chance! I ran towards the opening but Praxis stopped me.
"Hold on little girl, I don't want anything to happen to my little niece" he said.
I saw both Shadow and Kor was a bit surprised by hearing the baron call me niece.
Little Jak was nowhere to be seen, but I noticed Kor had a large lump under his robes, and the lump was shaking.
"Erol! You take care of these traitors!" Praxis said as a large squid-looking machine was lifted of a zoomer, "I am going to get that stone!"
As soon as Praxis had disappeared inside Erol took control.
"You heard the baron, seize them!" he yelled.
A krimson guard grabbed my shoulders and pulled me away from the tomb.
Another one grabbed Tetra by the tail again (she had been on my shoulder since we left the fortress).
"This is animal abuse!" Tetra complained, "I want a lawyer!"
"I just hope Jak is able to deal with Praxis by himself" Shadow said as he was pushed into the prison transport.
"If he survived the tests, that is" Kor muttered.
"Shut up old man and get inside!" Erol said, but suddenly, the next to the transport collapsed.
"What the?" Erol said and looked to the side of the statue.
There was a young girl standing here, and she was armed, it was Tess.
"Let go of my friends this instant!" She said, "I'm warning you, if you touch them I will hunt you down and hit you real hard!"
"Man I'm scared" Erol said rolling his eyes, "Take her too" he said to his guards.
Two other guards jumped out of the transport.
Tess shot once and one of them fell to the ground.
The other one grabbed her left hand, but Tess was too quick, with her right hand she shot her captor and the ones who were holing me, Tetra, Kor and the kid.
"Run!" She yelled.
I didn't have to be asked twice, I followed Tess with Kor right behind me, and he was falling behind.
"Kor! Hurry up!" I said to him.
"I'm not as fast as I used to be" Kor said panting.
"I'll take care of them" Tess said and ran back to Kor.
She used her gun to keep the KGs at bay, while she was pushing Kor to make him run faster.
"What shall we do?" Tetra said, "If they catch us we are dead!"
"You said you didn't care if you died" I commented.
"That was in the prison, when I'm free I want to live" she said, "And whatever you do, don't even show me a chocolate ever again".
I wanted to reply but there was no time, I noticed a four-seat-zoomer in front of me.
"Want a ride?" I asked.
"Sure we can just take that? With the kid watching and all?" Tetra asked.
"No problem, Jak, don't do this at home" I said and lifted my brother up in the zoomer.
As soon as I had fastened Jak in the passenger seat, and Tetra safe on his lap I drove the zoomer back to Kor and Tess.
"Come on, hop aboard" I said.
Tess jumped up into the zoomer and we both helped pulling Kor in.
"There they are! In that zoomer!"
"O crap, here comes the men in red" Tetra said.
"Hold on everyone, time to pull a Cornelius" I said and flipped the gear over in top-speed.
Top-speed on a big zoomer like the one we were driving wasn't as fast as a smaller one, but it was faster than the speed I usually used.
"I don't know what's worst, being shot or crashing into a wall" Kor said.
"Don't disturb me and we may not find out" I said.
"Here they come" Tess said, the krimson guards had zoomers now, Tess turned around in the back seat and started shooting.
One shot, two shots, click.
"Damn! I knew I should have reloaded this!" she said.
"We're dead" Tetra said.
Just as she said that, the engine started making funny noises.
"We are so dead" Tetra repeated.
Miss.Ecofreak: that's a cliffhanger
Zakura: Tetra saying we are so dead? Makes no sense. And whatever happened to Tanya?
Miss.Ecofreak: You'll see, she'll be back in the next chapter, along with even more new characters. In the meantime, review, and the next chapter will be up shortly.