Ikki's heart pumped furiously and adrenaline began to flow throughout his body. He watched Ex and tensed up. He barely managed to keep his body from shaking violently.

"So, you got out of your cell, huh? Really wasn't expecting that. We wouldn't have put you in there if that was the case." Ex started stepping towards him, "you're coming with me and we're going to choose a cozy cell. How about that?"

Naturally, Ikki made a break for it.

Dimly, he remembered a secret exit he was shown some time ago. Hopefully, there would be no surprises waiting for him...

A very loud bang nearly deafened him. He heard a projectile whiz right by his ear. Ikki nearly tripped and faceplanted but managed to recover.

"Not so fast, kid. I missed on purpose that time; don't force me to actually use this," Ex gestured to the pistol he was holding.

Ikki slowly turned around with his hands up, "have you ever shot anything besides targets?" He spat. Disbelief and fear evolved into frustration and anger. He was so close, damn it!

Ex didn't seem impressed, "what? You really wanna know?" He shrugged, "yeah I have, I can't say the results afterwards were pretty. You'd be no exception - just another mess to clean up and all. So, don't make this difficult."

The watch's light was pointed behind Ikki, so he couldn't really see Ex, but he assumed Ex could see him. Ikki suddenly had an idea that may have been near suicidal.

He shuffled a little closer before suddenly darting straight towards Ex. "What the-" his curse cut short as he fired wildly around the boy. Ikki kept charging.

"Hey! What're you- Oof!" Ikki had charged headfirst into Ex's groin and managed to kick it for good measure. Ex doubled over with a low groan. Ikki took that moment to escape.

"Security!" Ex's voice shrilled in rage, "get the brat! He's loose!"

Ikki scowled as he raced through random corridors and nearly ran into walls. There had to be somewhere to hide!

Problem was, there wasn't really anything to hide behind and Ikki didn't trust himself to go in through a door and not get caught. He took to going through shadowy passageways and staying there until it was safe. The lights had come on during his near escape that backfired on him. Footsteps and yells echoed through the hallways.

Ikki quickly ducked into a dark passageway. He slid down the wall until he was sitting and let himself breathe. Ikki hadn't realized how far he'd gone or where he was; he was totally and utterly lost.

As if things couldn't get any worse, in his panic, he totally forgot about the exit.

He facepalmed, "that's gotta be the world's biggest fail ever!" Ikki pulled his knees up to his chest and buried his head; he was never getting out, not without pulling off some sort of miracle.

He wasn't sure how long he had sat there, but it must have been long enough to where everything was numb. He didn't know if it had been minutes or hours.

Ikki was astonished that security hadn't found him yet and grinned, "they seriously must have lousy guards around here. I wonder if they're bringing out some Medabots..." With that thought, Ikki immediately reverted back to silence. The last thing he needed was to jinx himself.

Ikki's ears picked up the sound of a door hissing open and soft footsteps ringing out from the cold metal floor. He shrank and tried to look small and insignificant in the shadowy corridor, wishing he could merge with the walls itself.

A woman, looking absolutely disheveled and tired, walked passed the corridor and stopped, inspecting the charts in her hands. That looked like... what's her name? Isis?

'Don't look here. Don't look here. Don't look here!' Ikki desperately chanted in his head. He nervously shifted positions. If he tried to bolt deeper into the corridor, he'd be running into a dead-end, but the other way wasn't an option. Or at least not one he preferred.

He held his breath and changed positions again and... his shoe squeaked. 'Oh come on!' Ikki clenched his fist hard enough to make his nails bite into his skin.

Isis sharply snapped up at the source of the faint noise, "who's there? Come out at once!" Ikki flinched at the commanding tone, but he didn't dare move or utter a sound.

Isis stared suspiciously into the shadows AKA Ikki's hiding spot. Not good. He knew it would be only a matter of seconds until her eyes adjusted to the darkness.

Ikki tensed his legs for a moment, took a shaky breath to steel his nerves, and bolted. Her face radiated shock and was unable to act as Ikki sprinted right past her and settled to run in a random direction.

His legs were about to give after three minutes of a dead run. "My...new...record," Ikki panted as he slowed down and stooped, putting his hands on his knees. He felt like dropping face-first on the ground and never getting back up. The only thing that kept him going was pure adrenaline and blind terror.

Ikki looked at his watch: 02:30. 'It's only been an hour?' The boy wondered. He straightened up and looked around warily. The halls looked as if they were part of a labyrinth.

Ikki started walking slowly before he caught a particular set of sounds like metal footsteps. He whirled around and the noise ceased immediately. Ikki curled his mouth into a shaky scowl. He couldn't have been stalked, could he?

Aw, get a grip over yourself, you crybaby!

Ikki's eyes widened, that couldn't be... Metabee?! He looked wildly around and tentatively called out, "Metabee? You here too."

I'm just a figment of your imagination, you idiot.

"And now I'm officially delirious." Ikki wasn't sure whether to be disturbed that the yellow Medabot was in his head and talking or distressed that it was simply a hallucination.

I'm not one to point out the obvious, but someone's watching you.

"I figured that much," Ikki muttered.

Hey, I was just trying to help. The voice was miffed.

"Sorry," Ikki said before cringing, he was going insane. "Note to self: seek help when this is over."

He immediately heard the same metal footsteps rapidly approaching and Ikki whirled swiftly to confront the threat. He barely had time to react before a blur slammed into him, roughly knocking him to the ground. Ikki clumsily scrambled back up and fought to gain leverage on the thing. He couldn't quite get a good look at it - it never stayed in the same spot. The only detail he could catch was that the dominant color was deep red.

Ikki tried coordinating his strikes so that they would collide where he would predict his unknown foe would be. He wondered that if he managed to make contact with the blur, he would end up with a throbbing, dislocated wrist.

Suddenly, his hand caught something - maybe its shoulders. Ikki manage to whirl it around quickly before giving it a solid right hook to the face. He heard a satisfying crack ring through the air - sharp enough to make even Metabee proud. The offender went down face first.

Ikki stood there raggedly breathing and blinked; he was the victor. He usually never won when it came to scraps like this. He rapidly shook out his hand to dull the pain. His knuckles were mildly scraped.

Only then when Ikki calmed down did he look at himself and grimaced. His shirt was torn in several places and there was nasty looking bruises marring his skin. He also tasted the coppery tang of blood on his split lip and he wiped some of it off.

Ikki hesitantly poked at the metal clad body with his foot and hopped away with his arms in front of him. The body didn't move. "You better not be playing dead," Ikki remarked, glaring at it suspiciously.

He managed to turn the Medabot over and study its features.

The Medabot looked as if it were a modified version of a KLN type: sleeker body and less armor for better aerodynamics, and lethal looking mini-guns positioned in gauntlets just over its hands. It looked as if it was built for a deadly combination of speed and firepower; definitely a force to be reckoned with.

"I should probably take its Medal out..." Ikki murmured, reaching out towards the hatch.

He didn't get much of a warning before his vision exploded with all sorts of colors. His face burned. He barely felt himself flying through the air until he hit the wall a couple of feet from where he stood before. Ikki saw a shadow loom over him and groaned.

The robot wordlessly leaned down, grabbed Ikki's collar, and pulled him up to its eye level. Or visor level. Whichever one.

"Are you the target, Ikki Tenryou?" The voice made Ikki's skin crawl. It sounded like a deep, emotionless voice of a drone. Was it a Kilobot? Ikki thought those Medabot wannabes went out of stock a couple months back. Perhaps not.

'I'm gonna kill Kam when I get back,' Ikki fumed.

"Are there any other kids around here?" Ikki spat, "you really are a stupid piece of crap!"

The grip tightened and left Ikki almost choking. 'Nope, not a Kilobot! I think I made him mad.'

"Flame, put him down! You needn't harm him any more than you already have," a woman's voice scolded.

Ikki both felt relieved and dismayed when he heard his savior. Isis walked towards them with a disgruntled frown, "there's the little troublemaker. You really know how to stir things up, don't you, Ikki?"

Flame begrudgingly put the boy down and turned to face her, "sorry, Isis, I couldn't help it. I don't take insults lying down!"

Ikki couldn't help but nearly laugh at the voice change in the Medabot. One moment he was intimidating and scary; the next, he sounded almost normal and a little whiny.

"I am sure that he was the one lying down, but nonetheless, I rest my case," Isis replied.

She then crouched down to Ikki's prone form on the ground, "now, let's get this worked out shall we? I want that little something you used to get out of that cell."

Isis extended her hand towards him and waited. Ikki gave the hairpin to her with a barely concealed sigh; he wasn't that stupid, he knew if he refused, they would probably do something much worse to him. He trying to be smart, not traumatized. At least, not anymore than he probably was already.

"Thank you. Now if you don't mind, Flame will accompany you back to your cell. Don't try to run - he will hold you at gunpoint, so don't give him a reason to shoot. If you'll excuse me, Flame, I'm going to find that idiot." Isis stomped off, leaving Ikki and Flame alone.

"You heard the boss - walk," Flame commanded and aimed his blaster.

With a sullen expression, Ikki walked a couple of steps forward before realization hit him, "uh, which way am I going?"

After a tense and awkward couple of minutes, Ikki was put in a different cell.

To his dismay, Flame was chosen to stand guard near him and the cell didn't have a standard lock, it had to be opened by a keypad.

Neither made any attempt to start any sort of conversation. Not that Ikki minded, the silence was rather welcoming. He was laying on his side on another equally uncomfortable cot facing the wall.

"So... what're you locked in there for?" Flame finally broke the silence with an idle question.

"I have no clue," Ikki mumbled a reply. "Why the sudden curiosity?"

"It's just... as long as I've been here, I've never seen them bring in kids. It's rather wierd." Flame said.

Ikki sat up and faced the red Medabot, "what's with the mood swing? I thought you didn't like me."

Flame shrugged, "I don't have anything against you. I don't even know you much less take an instant dislike."

"What about when I insulted you?"

He made an uncaring gesture, "I can kind of understand why you were mad, I was beating you up; I didn't necessarily enjoy doing that. That's not how I meet new people. In fact, let me introduce myself: I'm Flame. You?" Flame reached through the bars for Ikki's hand.

"Ikki Tenryou." The boy replied and tentively shook Flame's hand. He felt a small, bemused smile spread across his face. He might like this strange Medabot. Flame was a weirdo, but he seemed okay.

"Ikki. That's a funny sounding name," Flame casually stated.

"It's not!" Ikki snapped, offended, "don't start joking about it! I already have kids at my school who give me flak about it!"

Flame chuckled, "alright, Ikki. I won't kid around with you, on my honor," he mock saluted. Ikki only rolled his eyes and laid back down on his bed.

He was happy to have some kind of benevolent company, but he missed his house, and his bed, and his parents, and Metabee with their stupid arguments - a lot of things really. He tried to force down a wave of homesickness while falling asleep.

It didn't work.

Author's Note:

Alright! So I finished this thing!

Anon: Haha! I know I'm not being paid for this, but I was taught by my Mom to do everything the best I can and that includes updating. I feel like I'm letting other people down (and myself) if I don't update often. That's kinda why I apologize so much. But on another note, I'm thrilled you're enjoying my story so far. :D

P.S. I hope you didn't mind that I posted this for all to see, but seeing that you don't seem to have an account as far as I know, there's really no way of communicating otherwise.

Yours Truly,

Winterbornbree

Edited: 7/30/18