A point to clear up: in the last chapter, I mentioned Jimmy Grey. Somehow, part of my footnote got chopped up, so that the footnote didn't really make sense. What it means is this: Jimmy Grey is the child version of Prof. Jimmy Grey, father of the two twins who pilot 'Iron Fish' submarines.
DiabloCat: Hold on there, my friend. This isn't the last of them you see. ;)
Alys: What are you, a telepath or something? Since you've started reviewing I've been on an updating spree! Have you been messing with my mind?! -shifty look- And as for the cookies...yes, I'll have one, please. XD
Revolution
Chapter 11
"Injustice never rules forever."
- Seneca
When the trapdoor opened, hell was let loose in the square.
With a roar of fury, Nemo's men and Hyde poured out from the backstreets, scattering the people. The Kwaden opened fire at the massive monster that advanced on them, and Dr. Jekyll's brutish alter ego only cackled, overjoyed at being let out after a long time.
Reed leapt up from his seat, yelling orders, while Dante's guards hurried him away, out of danger.
Tom struggled, trying to get free; the lack of oxygen was seriously becoming a problem. Black dots were appearing at the edge of his vision — they were getting bigger.
Something whistled through the air, and he hit the ground with an undignified 'omph' as it sliced clean through the rope that held him up by the neck.
He dropped through the trapdoor, taking and hit the ground on his shoulder. He winced, and managed to prop himself up on the other shoulder, catching a glimpse of Arsène.
The gentleman thief winked at him, before disappearing in the fight.
Damon had been doing battle with a guard on the gallows, but now he hopped down the space left by the trapdoor with a knife in hand.
"Took you long enough," Tom said, as Damon set to work cutting the rope that bound Tom's hands behind him.
"Very funny," Damon said, now without his shroud. "We had to plan. As you can see, the League got involved."
Tom watched as Hyde threw a few of the men halfway across Trafalgar Square. "Yeah." Nemo was a whirlwind of destructive power elsewhere, and the patter of gunfire was everywhere. "How are we gonna get out of here?" Then, suddenly, "Damon, is that tomatoes the Kwaden are getting hit with?"
"That, potatoes, cabbages, and other vegetables, actually," Damon answered with a chuckle. "The Irregulars came up with the idea of distracting Dante's men to make it easier for us to get rid of them." He looked up as the sky as he finished with the last rope. "And in response to your first question, it should be here soon."
Tom sat up, rubbing his wrists, as Damon searched the sky with his eyes. "Stay here," he said, pulling himself up through the opening with the grace of an acrobat. "Don't go anywhere."
He pulled the now-loose noose off his head, glad that he could be rid of it. As if I can, Tom thought dryly, looking at the carnage unfolding all around him. More of the Second Reich scum would be coming soon, and probably more Kwaden with them.
Damon leapt up with agility and grace learnt during his childhood days, kicking one of the Kwaden who had gotten onto the platform. Where were Skinner and the airship? They should've been there by now.
The signal had been given, the battle waged. It was up to the crew and captain of the airship now to get Tom out of there before he got shot.
Damon could already hear the reinforcements coming. If the airship didn't get there — and fast — the ground troops wouldn't be able to retreat, and Dante would have gotten the most important members of the Underground in one fell swoop.
Of course, he couldn't let that happen.
He put his self-taught fighting skills to good use, hitting someone smack in the face and giving a wicked right hook to another. He had to protect Tom at all costs.
Get here, Damon willed. Quick, quick, we can't hold out for long...
There it was. A dark shape in the clouds, getting darker and more defined by the second.
Thank goodness! He cheered inwardly.
"Tom, come on!" he called. "Our transportation has arrived!"
Protected by the trapdoor, Tom narrowly missed behind shot in the face as somebody's shot went wild and grazed the edge of the lowered trapdoor. The sounds of fighting came from the platform above him, but for once Tom Sawyer was listening to orders and stayed below.
"Tom, come on!" Damon's voice came from above. "Our transportation has arrived!"
Tom pulled himself up, and Damon helped him get on his feet again. The two could hear a rather loud swooping sound, as if something large was coming down through the air. A large black shape passed through the clouds, and it didn't take long for the airship to descend quickly on the scene of the battle.
A rope ladder dangled from the bottom of the large and sleek airship, and what looked like a glove floated in midair near it.
"We have one chance," Damon told him. He grabbed the rope that only now Tom was pulling off his head, fashioning a lasso for his own use. "I'll toss you up, and you'll have to grab Skinner's hand and go."
"What about you?" Tom asked.
"I'll see you tomorrow night," the other man nodded. "At the meeting." He laced his fingers together, crouching so that Tom would be able to be boosted up on them. The look on his face told Tom not to argue.
Resigned to that, Tom sighed. "Alright, you win." He took a few steps backward, ready. "Ready?" Damon nodded. He took running steps, jumping up onto Damon's hands.
Damon used all the strength he had in his arms to push the young man up towards the heavens, just as the airship swooped down and Skinner grabbed Tom's hand.
Skinner had been with the airshipand her crew high up in the heavens, waiting for the signal to come. He didn't like the job he had been assigned to, but he didn't argue; as along as Tom got out of there, he would bear with it.
The swoop down towards the ground was dizzying, and Skinner held onto the rope ladder for dear life. Just hang on, just hang on...his mental mantra had been broken as the ground become clear. Shots rang out from every corner of Trafalgar Square, and it struck the thief how ironic the situation was; at Trafalgar Nelson had been fighting to protect Europe from Napoleon, and here in the square named after that epic battle, the Underground were fighting to get rid of the Second Reich.
As they came closer and closer to the ground, Skinner gripped the rope ladder even tighter. As Tom became more than a dot on the ground, Skinner prepared to grab Tom.
"Bloody American," he muttered to himself, if only for comfort, "Always getting himself into trouble..."
Ten seconds more, and Tom would jump up. Skinner would have to catch him, no matter how terrified he was. He tried not to look at his feet, knowing that a) there was nothing there and b) there were only a few rungs below that. If he lost his grip, he was as good as gone.
He gulped down his fear. Moving at dizzying speeds, while being suspended from a rope ladder that swayed, was not something he wanted to go through again.
They passed above the two men of the Underground, and Tom leapt up, boosted by Damon.
Skinner grabbed his hand as they swooped by, nearly falling off the ladder in the process.
"Hold on!" he yelled over the roar of the wind. As the airship zoomed off, as fast as possible but yet not putting the two on the rope ladder at too much risk, Skinner held onto Tom for dear life.
Damon stared at the sky as the airship and its precious cargo zoomed off.
"Godspeed, man," he whispered.
Then, picking up the lasso from where he had left it on the ground, he entered the fray with a war cry, determined to lead them into victory.
Wheee. Another one. XD I kid you not. My muse is hyper on caffeine and sugar, so this is the result. Not the best escape attempt I've written, true, but it's the best you get at five in the morning. I had to wait a little bit to post this up, since I wanted to see what the response was to the previous chapter.