Chapter Six: New Master? Don't Think So

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~texting~

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Jessie, a large seven foot long Burmese python, was watching the screen that recorded the energy readings Chug had told her to watch when a touch screen phone buzzed near her. It was a message from Chug.

~Stuck in bthrm w/ T and B. Others outside by door. Capture and contain. Relocate to lvng rm. . . . No webs.~

She didn't have to reply, instead she called out to the room. I need volunteers for a capture job!

0000000000000000

"Really Pinhead? You have to ask that now?" Six asked in a huff.

"Well, I'm just asking. We cannot hurt the new master unless he does first and we have to obey him." Pinhead said.

"So what if he is our new master? He has Blade and Torch and Torch has obviously been won over so we need to rescue Blade!" Six nearly shouted.

"I have not!" shouted Torch.

They heard hissing behind them and turned around to see a group of snakes slithering up towards them, fast.

"We seem to have a bigger problem!" Jester cried and the four separated to create confusion but it didn't work. Jester was immediately captured into a glass container that spun out of the floor under his feet, a thick string of web shot down and carried him away. Tunneler fell through a trap door, Pinhead was attacked and wrapped up in snake coils and Six was shot with a net, binding his arms and legs. This all happened in the course of three seconds.

The snake holding Pinhead hissed and then the large python Six saw that morning slithered down from the ceiling and hissed at the door then went back in the ceiling. The door opened and out came the newcomer wearing gloves and was holding Blade in his hands with Torch following.

"I knew you were a traitor." Six growled at Torch.

"Hey, I didn't do that to Blade it was the spider!" Torch snapped back.

"These your other friends?" the newcomer asked.

"Six Shooter and Pinhead." Torch answered, waving his flamethrower arm.

"Well, let's get them to the living room so they can see we mean no harm." Chug grabbed hold of the snake coiled around Pinhead. "Would you mind grabbing him? I only have two hands." he said.

"Well, I only have one." Torch replied.

Torch looked at Six Shooter who glared back. "Don't even think about touching me." he snarled.

"S.O.L Six." Torch said and dragged him by his collar.

Six heard hissing from above and then let out an "Oof!" as a snake landed on him and hiss at Torch.

"Might as well get a chuckle out of it." Torch said and let him go and stood against the wall, looking up.

Six looked up as well to see two more snakes drop down on him, one wrapped itself around his feet and linked up with the one that landed on him which raised its tail to link up with another from the ceiling and then the next he knew he was hoisted up and tossed down the hall only to be grabbed by another snake and tossed again.

Torch chuckled at Six's yells and grabbed his hat off the floor to return it to him later.

Chug set Blade down on the table and turned to face the hallway as Six Shooter was tossed down, into the living room and then placed next to the rest of his friends. He could feel three of them glaring holes into him. The fourth one in the glass container had a sad face and was looking at the kitchen table with worry then at him. "I'm not going to hurt him. One of my professions is a doctor." Chug said.

"One of your professions?" Torch asked, heading over to the fireplace.

"Yeah, another is in Law Enforcement." Chug said and entered his room.

"Is that all?" Torch asked.

"No, I'm also Potions Master, dabble in alchemy, tinker around with junk and am into cybernetics." Chug answered coming back with a bag and something similar to what Decapitron needed to be revived.

"Cybernetics? What's that?" Torch asked.

"Uh, a mixture of machine and living beings. You know, cyborgs." Chug said, setting up the little metal table into a doctor's chair and placed Blade in it, securing him with small straps. "This is so you don't fall out of it." he said to Blade.

Torch climbed up the chair and leaned on the table. "What are you going to use against the webs?" he asked.

"I have a soldering tool that can melt some of the layers."

"Melt?!"

"Just enough for him to free himself. But I'm gonna do that after I fix his leg." Chug said and opened up his bag and brought out all the necessary tools he needed. He plugged in his soldering tool and grabbed another chair out from a hidden closet and sat down and looked over at the four on the living room floor. "Hmm, Six and Pin you pointed out to me, so I'm going to guess the one with the drill on his head is Tunneler, which leaves Jester."

Jester still had his sad face on and was looking at Blade.

"Jess, if I let you out will you promise not to attack me? You could help with him if you like."

Jester nodded.

Chug got up, walked over and opened the container's glass door. Jester cautiously stepped out and then ran over to the unoccupied chair and climb up as fast as he could and stood next to Blade. "Well, I'm going to get dressed. The solder should be done warming up when I come back."

"Are you ok, Blade?" Jester asked.

"I'm wrapped in spider webs, strapped in a metal chair and about to have a TOOL that MELTS things placed on me. How do you think I feel?" Blade snarled, wriggling in the chair.

"But he said he was a doctor. Maybe he can help you." Jester said and reached for the webs.

"Don't touch it!" shouted Blade, Chug and Torch.

"You're gonna get stuck." Chug said, dressed in a pair of light grey pants, a dark red button up shirt, black neck tie tied loosely and a black buttoned vest and he was wearing a black flat-top fedora on his head. He was also carrying something in his right hand.

"Forgot my screen." he said, unplugged his solder and sat down. "I changed my mind about the solder but I did find a metal hairpin to use instead. Maybe you could lend me a hand as well Torch."

"Me?"

"Yeah, just heat up the tip and I'll start cutting through the strands. Here Jess, you can gather the webbing." Chug handed Jester a 12 inch long dowel.

Jester looked at Torch who shrugged and lit a small flame. Chug placed the tip of the hairpin in the flame until it glowed red and then started slicing through the webs like a hot knife through butter.

"Place the dowel tip here and start rotating it." he told Jester who followed and the webs started rolling onto the dowel like cotton candy. Blade's right leg was free in a matter of seconds which brought a smile on Jester's face.

"There we go - wow, that looks horrible." Chug said, noticing the splintered wooden leg right away. "Torch, I'm gonna need that chair. Jester stand behind Blade. I need the elbow space." Chug said and traded places with Torch. Chug dug around in his bag and brought out a rolled up tool kit which when unraveled revealed a surgeon's precision tools. There was four different kinds of tweezers, a plastic vial of q-tips, a tiny bottle of some clear liquid, a scalpel, a couple of screw drivers with removable heads, and some other tools that look too foreign and two pairs of scissors. One had curved blades the other was straight.

Then he brought up a metal dowel and started twisting it around the middle, then pulled it apart into two pieces, pressed a hidden button on the sticks and a transparent holo-screen came up. Then he held it over Blade's freed leg and let it go. It remained in the air, astounding the three at the table. Chug grabbed the straight scissor and snipped away at Blade's pants up to the knee where the fracture ended.

"What the blazes happened to you?" he mumbled.

"Decapitron fell on him." Torch answered.

"Who?" Chug asked, not looking away.

"Decapitron. Well, his box did."

"Box? Like a casket? A box people usually put dead people in." Chug replaced the scissors and grabbed the curved ones and a pair of tweezers and started snipping at Blade's shoe.

"Uh, yeah, I s'pose." Torch shrugged, rubbing the back of his head trying to understand.

"Must be quite heavy to cause this amount of damage. Jester, hold his foot. I need to squeeze hard."

Jester moved around and held Blade's foot. He could feel the pressure being applied to the scissors and winced when Blade hissed in pain.

"I'm sorry, but this is actual leather. Whoever made you guys sure did wonders." Chug replaced the curved scissors, brought his hands up on the screen, bringing his two index fingers together and then drew them apart. The result was an enlargement of Blade's foot. "Ok, you can let go, Jess."

Jester let go of Blade's foot and moved back to watch.

Chug grabbed the scalpel and eased it inside the shoe by the heel, the flat surface was pressed against the foot, and the end of a tweezer under the foot where the arch would be. "This might hurt." he warned and gently pried the shoe off and removed the shoe, getting a good look at the major damage.

The ball joint that connected the leg to the foot was broken in half and the leg itself was actually splintered. There was a large crack at the base that traveled up the leg and stopped just before reaching the knee joint. His foot was also missing some splints.

"Ugh, talk about painful. Broken ankle indeed." he mumbled.

Blade hissed in response and shot out the sharp points in his eyes.

"Don't give me that dagger look. It had to be done. Now let's see, broken ankle, obviously, fractured shin, and some broken tarsal and metatarsal bones. This leg needs replacement but I don't have the time. The best I can do for now is insert some clay and cast it. Will that work?" he asked.

Blade hissed quietly.

"As long as he's no longer confined to the couch or floor. So he says." Torch said.

"Independent, is he? Well, a wheelchair would be out of the question anyway. Unless he wants someone to push him around."

Blade looked appalled at the very thought.

"If you want the best work, where a cane will be necessary for you to walk again I'm gonna need to call in the medical arachnids." Chug said.

"Huh?" Torch asked.

"Spiders, and a scorpion." Chug stated.

"The spiders I can understand. But a scorpion, what for?" Torch asked.

"He's a wielder." Chug answered and started texting on his phone again. "I need some special rings to hold the cast in place. Now, would you like a metal cane, a metal pin, a metal toothpick, a fencing sword, a cutlass, or a katana for a cane?" he asked Blade, grabbing the metal pin he used earlier.

Blade hiss quietly.

"Or do you want to keep your blade?" Chug asked.

Blade nodded.

"Ok, but you're gonna have a slight hunch on account of it being an inch or or two shy of your full height."

Blade hissed.

"You know for a leader, you're acting very childish."

Blade turned away in a huff.

Hey Doc, we're here!

Chug looked up and found a large brown house spider descending with a yellow scorpion. "Oh good, you're here."

Jester looked up and nearly screamed and hid under Blade's chair.

Chug dug around in his bag again and brought out the clay and some actual medical bandages and set to work with the spider and scorpion. He rolled up some clay and placed it in the large fracture on the leg and around the broken ball joint and held it in placed while the spider wrapped it up with some gauze and held that in place before securing it with a self-adhesive gauze.

"Ready with the rings?" Chug asked. The scorpion skittered over, holding a pair of silver rings with rubies embedded in it in each claw and used its tail to press a ruby for the ring to open halfway and placed it near the knee and the ring closed, securing the wrapping even more. The scorpion repeated the process for the middle and near the ankle.

"Rings secure. Shoe replacement and make it slightly bigger than this one to accommodate the cast." Chug said, handing Blade's sliced shoe to the scorpion. The scorpion and spider made quick work with the shoe and handed the new one back. Chug eased the shoe back on and sealed it up with a black ring.

"All done. That wasn't so hard, now was it? And it only took (looks at watch) 30 minutes."

Blade hissed and wriggled in his chair.

"Oh yeah, Torch, Jester, positions please."

Five minutes later Blade was finally freed from the webs and, once the straps were released, practically lept off the chair.

"You folks need some new clothes. I can bring out my trunk for you guys to pick." Chug said and hastened to his room while Blade hissed furiously after him, waving his hook arm because he was leaning on Jester with his knife arm.

"Calm down, Blade, at least you can walk now." Torch grumbled and hopped off the chair.

"And just how are Pin, Six and Tunneler suppose to get free when he's busy picking fabrics to sew?" Blade snarled.

The spider and scorpion looked at each other and left the table and headed in the captives direction.

"Blade! They're coming towards us!" Six shouted, getting the leader's attention.

The pair headed towards Tunneler first, the spider crawled up the tank he was in and scurried around the top and then hoisted the scorpion up. It then used its tail to press a blue button, opening the tank.

The snake coiled around Pinhead started hissing and then slithered away from him and jumped on top of the coffee table and over the couch and disappeared. The spider and scorpion also scurried away from the freed pair towards under the couch.

"Hey! What about me?!" Six shouted, wriggling in his net.

"It's just a net. Untie it for crying out loud." Torch growled and slumped against the fireplace's stone wall.

Pinhead helped Six Shooter up on his feet and Tunneler untied it from the back. Six shook off the net and reached for his guns.

"Dang it, they're still stuck!" he grunted, pulling them as hard as he could.

Chug returned with a trunk as large as Toulon's and opened it to reveal an assortment of clothes. "Alright, take your pick and I'll be right back." he said and went out the door.

"What do you think?" Tunneler asked.

"Seems harmless enough. Besides, we're still covered in this white dust." Pinhead said.

"Oh, I'll go first." Tunneler said in exasperation and rummaged through the clothes, spreading the dust some more and brought out a three piece suit. "Don't really like suits." he mumbled and put them back. They heard a switch click and he fell through. "Whoa-a-a, you guys gotta see this!" he said and crawled inside.

Pinhead pushed some clothes aside, gasped and disappeared inside the trunk.

"Pin, look! Military outfits!"

"This sweater is actually softer than mine!"

Jester was helping Blade down from the table but the shouts coming from Tunneler and Pinhead was rousing his curiosity.

"Go on ahead, I'll have Six help me down."

Jester smiled and took off into the trunk! "Whoa! Blade, you gotta see this!" he shouted excitedly. "JESTER OUTFITS!"

"Alright, now I'm curious." Six said and helped Blade down the chair and over to the trunk.

"Well, we might as well see what's in there. You coming along Torch?" Blade asked, looking over at the fireplace but Torch wasn't there. "Torch?" he called out. "Torch?"

"He's probably in another mood, just leave him be." Six said and entered the trunk. "Holy-moley!"

Blade looked around the room and spotted Torch standing on the window seat, looking out the window. "Torch, you coming in with us?" he asked again.

"No."

"Okay, . . . Is anything wrong?"

"No."

"Alright. Let us know when the kid returns."

"Yeah."

Blade narrowed his eyes. Something was off. . . . He shrugged and entered the trunk.