Chaotic belongs to TCDigital.

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Reunited

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"I don't like this."

I turn to my helmet lying next to me, away from the fire I had been trying to start. Michael's words coming from the spying ear do not match his heartbeat and breathing. He is putting a plan into action.

"What is it?" answers the voice of the woman that Michael called Pepper. The tremble in her voice is likely genuine.

"I don't know. It feels like... like we're being watched."

I gather up the dry branches in front of me and dump them into my bag. It will be time to move soon.

While I'm loading the vehicle, the voice of the UnderWorlder accompanying Michael breaks the silence. "We are alone. You are jumping at shadows."

Pepper's voice continues. "Perhaps you are simply tired. You should hurry back to bed."

The UnderWorld soldier grunts, "Can we get moving? I would like to get back to my post as soon as-"

The soldier's words stop with a sharp inhale, accompanied by a sound of splitting metal. A female voice shrieks out. Metal scrapes against metal, then splits again, and there's the dull clatter of an armored person falling to the floor.

The shrieking stops abruptly, followed by Michael's voice softly commanding, "Quiet."

"We-we're being attacked."

"No, we aren't."

I do not have time to wonder exactly what Michael did. The vehicle's engine is stalling, sputtering instead of roaring to life when I pull its cord.

A sound of metal striking stone, then the woman's voice. "You... you killed him."

"I did." There is no concern or remorse in Michael's voice. "We need to go."

I pause my attempts to start the engine, then groan. Damn it all, Michael, you're taking her along with you, aren't you?

I pull the engine's cord again, frustration fueling me, and it finally rumbles idly. I place my hands on the accelerators and nudge them forward, and the vehicle begins a gentle glide in the direction of UnderWorld City.

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The clatter of an alarm bell sounding through the spying ear makes me almost miss the next words that come through it. "You have my silence. Please, let me go."

Michael's voice is much clearer. "No, you're coming with me."

"I am a servant, a slave. Worthless as a hostage. Release me, and I will set them on a false path, I swear."

"This isn't an abduction, it's an escape. We're going to get out of here together."

"Where do you think you can go? Every door will be watched, and even if you did find a way out, this is the heart of UnderWorld City. You cannot possibly escape the notice of the entire city."

"Not if we avoid the streets,"

"The rooftops are just as guarded, and there are worse things than guards in the sewers."

The speaking stops, and once again I can only hear bells, heartbeats, and breathing. The latter two, though, they've slowed. Michael is focusing on something, planning his next moves.

His voice breaks the silence. "Twelve feet down, not to the sewers, just above them. Then, follow the ceiling bricks of the sewer south, along the main road. Past the main gate, then east, in the blind spot of the city walls."

The woman's voice answers, "What are you saying?"

I don't register whatever Michael's reply might be, as I'm already reaching into my bag for writing tools as the vehicle coasts. I sketch out a rough image of the lands around UnderWorld City.

Blind spot, blind spot. There.

I circle part of the map east of the city's entrance, directly along my path. A narrow strip of land difficult to see by anyone who might be keeping watch. Useless for an invasion force to try to utilize, but one or two people trying to remain unseen? Perfect.

I wedge the crude map into a panel in front of me, then grab the accelerators and push forward.

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I have been waiting for hours. I am sitting at the designated point. Well, not a point, a stretch of land, but I can see the entirety of the blind spot from where I sit. I can easily reach Michael and his little guest once they've reached here. I might even hear them if they tunnel near my position.

...The lack of sleep is getting to me. I take off my helmet and set it aside, then rub my eyes and slap the sides of my face a little. No rest, not yet. As soon as Michael and I have reunited, not any sooner.

Nope, still groggy. I stand and drag myself over to my vehicle. Waterskin, waterskin, there one is. I take a long gulp of lukewarm water, then pour some over my head. Ah... That should help.

I sit back down and put my helmet back on my head-

"Do it!"

I jolt in surprise, completely awake. Michael's voice had been a shout.

He continues, "The rock is a few inches, maybe a foot thick. I don't know how far off course we've gone. Listen closely."

"You are making no sense! Have you gone mad?" Pepper's voice cries out in disbelief like she thinks Michael is crazy.

"Keep hitting the ceiling! Make noise!"

"Noise?!"

Off course? Ceiling? Did the diamond run out? Thoughts for later. I roll over so I'm on my hands and knees, and I close my eyes and focus on the stone below me.

The floor is shaking. It is always shaking, just a little, but if you listen, if you feel the earth sing, you can tell which vibrations do not belong. There, beyond all the static. Two sets of pulsing waves, coming from the same direction. One set has a strong, smooth rhythm, the other, weaker and frantic.

I stand. Now that I've found what to follow, I can feel it with my feet. I step, eyes still closed, making sure that I keep going a direction where the shaking grows stronger.

Minutes pass. The woman's voice despairs, "I cannot do this. My head is spinning, my eyes are on fire. You killed us, Human. You just had to escape, had to leave. Had to drag me along."

"No." Slam. "I'm." Slam! "Not!" Slam! "Done!" SLAM!

I open my eyes. I heard that last one, just ahead.

I kneel on one knee and place a hand on the ground. The stone here is a little more than a foot thick, easy for me to break through, but the ground below that is unstable. Once I've opened a path, it will not be long until it is swallowed up again.

Michael's voice bellows out twice, once in my helmet from the spying ear, and once from the ground below me, stone shaking with each syllable. "I! RE-! -FUSE! TO! DIE! A-! -GAIN!"

No time for a better plan. I will the earth below me to break, and it does.

The floor heaves, and I lose my footing. The stone floor has shattered into sharp gravel and is now pouring into a cavern below me like water down a drain. I scramble to stay above the surface, lest I be buried as well. My eyes are wide, stinging with dust, while I search for any sign of Michael.

The chaos stops as soon as it had started. In the bottom of the bowl of rock, a hand sticks out of the earth, fingers clawing at the stone around it. I push myself down the slope, take a hold of the hand, and pull.

Michael's head erupts from the ground in a shower of gravel and dust. I hear him gasp for breath. I release his hand and hook my hands below his shoulders to pull him the rest of the way out.

Michael stumbles and falls face-first on the broken ground. One hand fails to catch him, while the other is behind him clutching a smaller hand.

I pry Michael's hand off the other and pull it as well. A second figure comes from below the ground, light enough that the one effort is all I need. I let go of her, and she also collapses, next to Michael.

The woman coughs. "We... We are alive."

"Yes," Michael gasps.

"Someone... pulled us out... Saved us." The woman rolls to her side. "Who?" She turns her head toward me, and her face fills with despair. "...No..."

I can worry about her later. Someone else has my full attention. I step above Michael, who rolls to his side as well as turns to face me.

His hair and beard, normally black, are so choked with dust that they match the light tan of the stone he's lying on. His face is paler than usual, and his eyes are bloodshot. Gray shirt, shredded and bloody. Jeans with fresh holes in the knees. The Human before me is an absolute mess.

I crouch down and lean closer. "Hello."

He nods. "Hello to you, too."

I want to give him a piece of my mind. He brought someone else along. After everything I said to the Human from earlier, I'm going to end up carting a spare with us anyway. Infuriating! But... no. How could I expect Michael to do anything less?

The tension is broken, and I cannot help but grin. "Up your nose, Michael? All the places you could have put a spying ear, and you shove it up your nostril?"

Michael's face breaks out into a grin. "Not a lot of places I could have hidden it where it couldn't be found."

Again I hear his voice echo from within my helmet. I point to where the spying ear is hidden. "Okay, sure, it did the job. I heard every word you and everyone around you said, but I also had a front-row seat to your every bodily sound as well." I shake my head vigorously. "Do you have any idea how loud you breathe?"

I step back and help Michael to his feet. He turns to the Woman, Pepper, and while he helps her up he says, "By the way, you're an asshole. Leaning forward, glowering like you're about to kill us."

Okay, that is fair. I laugh and give Michael a light punch in the chest when he turns back toward me. "We can discuss how much of an ass I was later. My vehicle isn't far. I have food, water, fresh clothes-"

Michael's body suddenly pitches forward, and I quickly catch him before he hits the ground again. "Thanks," he mutters, eyes unfocused, "but I think what I need most right now..."

Michael sags in my grip, his head rolling forward. His breathing is slow, his heartbeat steady. I lay him down gently, then turn toward the small OverWorlder he dragged along. She's shaking, her eyes wide, her arms clutched tightly around her chest, her tail wrapped around her waist.

"Do not be afraid, Pepranithalint," I say, recalling her name from when Michael had asked it. I crouch down in front of her, disengage my right arm from its gauntlet, and hold my bare hand out to her. "My name is Atrapol, and I am Michael's humble servant."

Pepper glances at Michael, back up at me, then at Michael again. "And... who IS Michael. What is he, that Lord Van Bloot's greatest warrior calls himself a Human's servant?"

I put my hand back down and turn to look at the sleeping Michael as well. Nicolas asked a similar question more than a week ago. The answer still hasn't changed.

It is not the answer that I will be giving today, though. Instead, I say, "He is the most important Human in all of Perim."

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End of Act II

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That was an interesting experience. My apologies that I took so long between chapters.

You did great, don't worry about it. Are you sure you don't want to write one more? Make it an even ten?

Well, I got to where you left off. It's about time people started hearing from you again. Plus, I would really rather you handled writing about the absolute mess that's coming up.

That's fair.

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Chaotic belongs to TCDigital.