By this time the girls were seated in comfy chairs getting their nails done. They were in the main room. Sumi and Sada were already getting worried. Kai and Max had been gone for over 20 minutes now.
"I...I wonder if their okay..." Sumi was trying hard not to go in run into the 'stanza dell'abito degli uomini' (men's robe room.)
Just then the Neon Genisis Evangelion and Fullmetal Alchemist theme songs filled up the room. Sada picked up her phone, putting an end to the FMA theme. Sumi picked up hers soon after, putting an end to NGE. "Hello?"
The two of them only heard static and then a click. The phone line had gone dead. Sumi desperately scrolled down her calls list. "It was Max..." Her face was unusually pale. "S-sada...who called you?"
Even though Sada didn't need to say it, she checked her calls list and looked up at her friend with a stricken expression. Sumi jumped up and began to dash to the 'uomini' room. She burst through the doors.
A few men that were in there turned around in surprise. One guy walked up to them angrily. "What in God's name do you think you're doing!"
Sumi grabbed him abruptly by the collar and raised a fist to his face. "Ascoltate qui sciocco di pompus! Ottenga la vostra testa maledetta dal nostro commercio. Batterò la merda da voi se ottenete nel mio senso!" (Listen here you pompus fool! Get your damn head out of our business. I'll beat the shit out of you if you get in my way!)
While Sumi was fussing the guy out Sada ran out of the room and quickly found Stephanie. "We have a problem. Kai and Max are missing!" Sada was talking to the Italian woman a thousand words a minute.
"Calma giù Sada! Slow down and explain to me your problem." After Sada slowed down enough to tell Stephanie what had happened, the two of them walked back to the men's robe room.
When they got there, three guys were on the floor groaning. Sumi was using the karate classes she and Sada had taken to beat up every guy that had come up to her, trying to move her out of there. Sumi was never a joy to be with when she was upset or angry.
"Sumi! Calmisi giù, io sono qui aiutarli." Stephanie put a hand on Sumi's shoulder to settle her down. "I hear that you have lost your dear amici." (Sumi! Calm down, I'm here to help you. Friends)
Sumi took in a deep breath. "We can't find Max or Kai. They went missing a while ago." She went to take a seat on one of the benches in the room. She accidentally tripped over a large empty basket. "Ow..." Sumi rose to her knees and froze, her eyes glued to the inside of the basket.
"Are you okay?" Sada asked walking over to Sumi. That's when she also noticed. There was an open door in the middle of the basket. "Wha--?"
Sumi scrambled to her feet. "Max probably found it! He'd be curious enough to see where it leads. Kai wouldn't want Max to go by himself, so he would tag along. Sada, we have to go down there.
"Are you crazy!" Sada screamed, "We have no idea what's down there. What if that's not where they are!"
"What if they are! That means they're in trouble. We need to make sure they're not down there. Sto andando. Arrivederci!" Sumi climbed into the box and began to climb down the stairs. (I'm going. Bye!)
"Fine! I'm going to look elsewhere!" She began to stomp out of the room.
Stephanie grabbed Sada's arm, "You cannot leave your friend. If she is indeed right, then she too is in trouble." She looked up at a stubborn Sada.
"She's so annoying sometimes. She has to go and check on things, even if it means she might..." Sada looked down at Stephanie's serious eyes. "Whatever. I'll go." She looked over to see that Sumi was already out of sight.
"You need to hurry so you can catch up with Sumi." She rushed over to a cabinet in the corner. She grabbed a flashlight to Sada. "It might get very hard to see."
Sada thanked Stephanie and started down the stairs. Just as Stephanie had presumed, it got darker as she went down. She turned on the flashlight so that she could see. When she was halfway down the stairs she heard a scream. "Sumi!" Sada began to climb down as fast as she could.
In a matter of seconds, Sada was on the floor, running through the tunnels. "Please be okay, Sumi. I hope you just saw a rat." Sada muttered to herself breathlessly as she ran.
At the end of the last tunnel she spotted a door that was halfway open. Light poured out and lit up the remainder of the tunnel. She ran through the door. The room's floor was hardwood. It looked like a stage, the way it was lighted. In the middle of the floor were several chairs. Three were taken. Sumi, Max and Kai sat in them.
She ran over to them. She saw that Sumi had scrapes on her. They were all scraped up pretty bad, they probably weren't able to see as well as she had been able to. They all had far off expressions. "Are all of you okay?"
No one answered. They continued to stare straight forward. They didn't even blink. They breathed in and out at the exact same time. "What happened!" Sada begged.
"Their minds are no longer free," an empty voice from across the room answered. Sada turned to see two teenagers. One was a girl. She was extremely pale and wore a grey mini dress with grey boots. Her hair long and (what else?) grey. It was tied back into a ponytail.
A boy stood next to her. He was tall and stringy. He was the spinning image of the girl. His grey bangs hung in his face. He wore a grey t-shirt and pants. "Their minds are stuck in another dimension.
"What is this place!" Sada demanded angrily. She felt her entire body tense up. Her throat was dry.
"This is the M.I.M. Room. This is where the Mind Interrogation Machine is housed," answered the girl.
"Mind I-interrogation Machine?"
The boy stepped forward. "Yes. The M.I.M. is a machine that reads into your very thoughts and feelings. Once it has done that it uses your weaknesses against you. Your security is ripped apart, leaving your life in a state of chaos." The two of them began to laugh.
The boy took another step toward Sada. "It is your turn, Sada Matsuki of the Cold Fire Girls."
Sada backed up. She spotted a pole in the corner. She dashed over to it and snatched it up. She then ran over to the boy and smacked him in the head with it. He fell to the ground, unconscious. She turned to the girl. "Take another step closer and you'll be next! Now tell me, how do you turn this off?"
They girl began to giggle in the sickest way. "I wouldn't turn it off if I were you. If you turn it off now, your friends will loose their mind to the machine forever."
"So you mean..."
"It's up to those three now."
CFG: Once again, feel free to review!
