If you really need to read the disclaimer again, then refer back to the first ten chapters.
Ch.11
As Vaala walked away, Kurama turned to the rest of his group.
"Well, we should go. There are five of us and five of them so things should divide out evenly." Then realizing that he had forgotten the other half of the introductions, Kurama turned his attention back to Cougar. "Cougar, these are my friends Yusuke, Kuwabara, Hiei and Botan." He pointed to each one as he spoke their names. Cougar seemed to take a moment to digest these names before he spoke again.
"Right, well from what you told me you are in a hurry so let's get going." He turned around and started walking back to his group but stopped and turned back when he realized that no one was following him. "Well…"
"Um, what should we do?" Botan spoke up for the group. Cougar looked from one group to the other; apparently deciding something, then gave them his answer.
"Right, judging on weight and momentum I'd say Blue goes with Dela, Shortman goes with Markay, the Punk goes with Jangi, Carrot-top with Kor and you can ride with me." After waiting a few moments for the group to respond, and realizing that they did not comprehend, he looked to Kurama for assistance. The fox immediately took over.
"Let me translate. Botan, you will ride with Dela, Hiei with Markay, Yusuke with Jangi, Kuwabara with Kor and I will be going with Cougar," Kurama instructed his friends. He was answered with understanding yet still completely baffled stares.
"Um Kurama," Kuwabara spoke hesitantly. "What do you mean ride with them, how are we supposed to do that?"
"Oh right you don't know," Kurama mumbled as he turned his attention to the Speed Demon standing next to him. "I do believe that you can give a sufficient answer," and at Kurama's command he knelt down on the ground with his hand splayed firmly on the earth beneath him. As he slowly lifted his hand, as if he were trying to pull something up, a small stream of smoke began to billow out from that exact spot on the ground. It gathered just in front of Cougar at about waist level and continued to gather until it was about the size of Hiei. Horizontally anyway, for it was stretched out parallel to the ground it came from. The newly formed cloud was a dark grey color with swirls of black running through it. Looking around the Reiki Tantei realized that the other members of Cougars gang were now sporting identical clouds.
"Well, get on," Cougar instructed and he perched him self on the questionable looking vapor just as one would a motorcycle. In response to Cougars actions, Kurama climbed on behind him, just like a back passenger of a motorcycle. Deciding to trust that their friend knew what he was doing, the remaining four members of the Reiki Tantei went to their assigned partner, who were not also sitting on their own…thing, for lack of a better term, and climbed on behind them. It felt, for all the world, like sitting on a motorcycle. A comfortable, billowing, soft motorcycle, but a motorcycle none the less. Kurama and Cougar pulled up in line with the others and Kurama managed to utter one final warning to his friends.
"I'd suggest you hold on tight," as he notably had his arms locked tight around the demon in front of him. The rest quickly mimicked his actions, except for Hiei who hesitantly paced his hands on the girl in front of him, and not a moment too soon. Barely a heartbeat latter they took off. The clouds floated over the ground carrying their passengers at unfathomable speeds so that the trees appeared as no more than distorted blurs. However the Speed Demons, whom the Reiki Tantei had entrusted their lives to, were able to navigate the forest with ease so that they left the trees in a matter of minuets.
"How long is this ride going to be!" Yusuke called over the rush of wind in his ears.
"About a two days journey!" Kurama called back.
"What?" Kuwabara exclaimed. "Didn't Koenma say we would be placed in the general area of the lab!"
"Do you remember how Koenma explained the Demon World as a series of basements!" Kurama asked. At the vigorous nodding of his friends he continued. "Well, when it comes to Demon World 'in the general area' means somewhere in the same basement." After this enlightening piece of information the conversation was put to an end and the rest of the journey was passed in silence, each person wrapped up in their own thoughts as they became accustomed to the quick passed travel.
They had been given a mere twelve hours to heal. The fresh wounds had just begun to scab over, although none of the wielders of the injuries knew this for they were asleep, when the blinding lights of there prison blinked on, awakening all of its occupants.
"What…what's going on?" the sleep filled voice of Aryn spoke up. She got her answer almost immediately as none other than Korran entered the room.
"Get up!" he ordered, his voice cutting through there groggy minds like a knife made of ice. Everyone was instantly on edge, waiting for what he was going to dish out next, but the real question was if they could survive whatever it was. Another event like yesterday would surely kill them. At the hesitant attitude of his captives and the wary stares he was receiving, Korran was prompted to explain what was happening now. It was only fair. "Today's project is going to be a little different from yesterday. After the previous experiment failed to gat results, not that I expected anything else, we have now determined exactly what will motivate you to come out."
"What do you mean 'come out,'" Travis asked.
"All in good time," was the vague answer he received. "Now it would be easiest if you would all be good little children and follow me quietly so I don't have to resort to violence." All the wile he was speaking, Korran's right hand had been fondling a black remote that all the humans eyed warily. Remembering the punishment it had delivered to them last time, via the collars that still clung to their necks, they decided to just shut up and do what their captor asked. Following Korran down the same halls that they had traveled the day before, they were brought to a room that they had glimpsed before. Apparently Korran had kept his promise, for they had returned to grotesque lab like room.
"I really don't like where this is headed," Cristian whispered to her friends around her. The whole group stayed close together lust in front of the door, not wanting to go into the room any further then they had to. Not that it made a difference though. Korran had them either way, and there was nothing they could do about it. Luckily his attention was not focused on them at the moment; rather he was preoccupied with whatever he was tinkering with on the table. It only took him a minuet to finish with what he was doing and when he turned around to face him they saw that he had produced eleven identical test tubes of neon green liquid, but there was thirteen of them. Why were there only eleven doses?
"There is one for each of you, except for Cristian and Seth, now drink it," Korran ordered as he indicated to the tubes.
"Why?" Elizabeth asked him. The question was getting old but Korran seemed to have this thing about not explaining what he was doing.
"Well you don't have to," he responded to the girl. "But I doubt you enjoy those injuries you are sporting. This is a healing potion of my own creation and should patch you up nicely," which explained the shortage of servings. Cristian and Seth were not really hurt so they didn't need it. At the hesitant actions of his subjects Korran added "I do suggest you take it else you might die if we add more injuries to the ones you already have." It's hard to argue with a statement like that and each kid proceeded to down a tube of the green liquid. As soon as the liquid hit their tongue their whole body began to feel warm, a sensation that ended quickly, and when they looked down they saw that they no longer had so much as a scratch. Not that they had time to marvel at this miracle for the screech of their friend instantly brought them out of their thoughts.
Korran had a crushing grip on Jordan's left arm and she was fighting against him with everything she was, but it wasn't anywhere near enough. "I thought I told you not to fight me!" he growled at her, but she continued to try and get away from him, completely ignoring his words. At the end of his statement Korran fished the remote from his pocket with his free hand and, after adjusting it one handed, pressed a button at the top. The girl in his grip immediately crumpled to the ground and barely a gasp escaped her lips. It was official, the collars definitely still worked. Korran half dragged, half carried the girl to a nearby table. Her wrists and ankles where strapped to the table with leather straps making her look for all the world like one of the patients of an insane asylum that you see in the movies. The blank stare in her eyes wasn't helping the look either. It was at that moment that Korran seemed to remember something for he turned away from his victim and walked over to the far wall. There were a bunch of hooks handing from the, one of which he grabbed and pulled away. It was attached to a thick wire that extended from a hole in the wall and came with the man as he headed towards the group of humans that huddled away from him. Upon reaching them he roughly grabbed Sam's collar and attached the hook with the wire to it. Then the process was repeated until all of them were hooked up. Pressing another button on his remote, the wires receded into the wall slamming the resistant humans on the other ends into the same wall. Once they managed to disentangle themselves from each other they tries to pull against the cables that held them, but the unforgiving wires would only come out about two feet before coming to a halt. It only took a moment for the group to realize that it was pointless struggle, the cables were not going to give, and ceased the fight.
Korran was now once again standing over his captured subject, scalpel in hand. As if in slow motion he brought the small blade down to her chest and in a lightning fast movement sliced her open all the way down to her navel. It wasn't until the piercing shriek that the rest of them realized that the girl was completely conscious, and as this realization hit a chorus of grievances broke out.
"You're not even going to drug her!"
"That's just inhumane!"
"You heartless BASTARD!" so on and so fourth. Of course Korran had a reasonable explanation for his actions. At least reasonable to him anyway.
"Anesthetics would only nulinvoid the outcome of the operation, and with that he continued his work. They could not see what he was doing sense his body was in the way, but from their friend's screams they could tell it was painful. After another few minuets of shouting, the group chained to the wall figured out that their words would carry on impact and sense they were chained down there was nothing they could do about it. So they were forced to sit there in silence and listen to their friend being tortured.
In the end each of them went through their own operation and each was just as horrendous in its own way. Sam was strapped down to another chair with another helmet like thing on her head only this time there were a bunch of needles coming from it, and these needles went right into their victims head. Cristian and Seth were strapped to the wall with identical needles poking out from their entire body. Jamie's hands were shoved into large cylinders where black, snake like wires wound their way up her arms and plugged their sharp thin ends into her flesh all the way from the tips of her fingers to her shoulders. The last one to go in was a bigger version of the rest and plunged strait to her heart. Yami's wrists and ankles were bound with cuffs connected to wires and strange currents were rhythmically sent through her body. Mike was chained to the wall next to Cristian and Seth only for him a metal band was placed around his forehead and, starting from the point of contact with the band, a green light began to seep across his body until it went from his feet al the way to the tip of his spikes that were a miracle that they were even still standing. Jessica and Travis needed identical operations. It was a type of brain surgery only also without anesthetics. Aryn was force fed a drink that left her writhing around on the ground for fifteen minuets. Blood was pumped from Erika to Stephanie through clear tubes and was also pumped from Stephanie to Erika. This kept going until they mane a single flow of liquid without any separation between the two. Last but not least was Elizabeth. Korran was absolutely stumped with what to do with her. He had a few ideas but none of them would really suffice. In the end he decided to just open her up, like Jordan and also without anesthetics, and see what made her tick. He found out, to his good fortune that she didn't need any special procedure. All she needed was the right push, and a push was something they were all going to get very soon. After forcing them all to drink another helping of the healing potion he left them, still chained to the wall with the extendable cords, and went to set up the next step in his grand experiment.
60