Chapter Seventeen: Looking back on Torch

Torch wandered through an empty hallway fuming about Six Shooter. Sometimes Six would just get right under his skin and irritate the hell out of him. What Tunneler had said earlier sounded interesting and he wanted to hear it. But whenever he showed interest in something Six would always ruin the mood by being vague about it and smirking at him with that knowing look. Like he knew something interesting before he did and would endlessly tease him about it, blaming Torch's running off by himself before family meetings when Blade would hand out new information.

He slowed his pace when he began to calm down and tried to remember what Tunneler had said. Something about the brothers and who originally made the formula.

'Come on, think! Think! What did he say?!' he thought, hitting himself on the head getting frustrated. He gave up, leaned against a wall, slid down with a sigh and tried to clear his mind. He brought his knees up and rested his head against them, falling asleep from the quietness.

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Jester had tried to get past the raptors that held them back from the hall where Blade was taken down but the raptors were well built, well programmed and knew how to put up a fight. Jester was pinned, sat on and snapped at four times before he gave up and sat down next to Six Shooter (who was chuckling at his ordeal), wishing Torch was with them so he could ask about Blade.

"This is all your fault!" he said, grabbing Six's hat and hitting him with it.

"Ow! What'd I do?!" Six asked, sitting up and rubbing his head.

"If you hadn't pissed off Torch he wouldn't have stormed off again! Now how will we know where to find Blade, let alone ask about his condition?!" Jester said, hitting the cowboy some more.

"Stop it! Gimme that!" Six said and snatched his hat back. "Don't blame me for Torch running off, he's always done that."

"Yeah, and every time he did was because of your taunting!" Jester said stealing the hat again and giving it to Pinhead.

"Well it's never bothered you guys before, why now?" Six asked, making a grab for his hat but Pinhead put it out of reach. Six Shooter may be the tallest of them but Pinhead had the longest arms.

"What makes you think we'd show our displeasure in front of your face? We rely heavily on your guns for long distance attacks." Jester said.

"Oh, is that all? I thought it was for my good looks." Six smirked, earning a smack from Pinhead with his hat.

"Father also depended on your guns during the war and he even pieced you back together when you lost your arm so we figured you were one of his original friends with the Retro Puppets. That's why we never bothered. But no-o-o, you were actually the Sorcerer who taught him the secret in the first place, you- you-you . . . thing!"

"(chuckles) Is that the best insult you can come up with, Little One?" Six asked, grinning.

"Hey, only Father and Blade can call me that, Sorcerer. And I could rat you out to the brother since he seems to actually scare you." Jester threatened.

"He scares me, too." Tunneler mumbled, Pinhead agreeing.

A tall rat about eight inches tall on its hind legs, carrying a clipboard and wearing a doctor's uniform came up them and started squeaking.

"Aw, look how cute he is!" cooed Jester and reached out to pet it.

The rat responded by smacking his hand with its tail, scribbled on the clipboard and showed it to him. It was the symbol for females.

"Oh, sorry, ma'am. How's Blade doing?" he asked, rubbing his smacked hand.

The rat motioned for them to follow her and they did.

"She can understand me!" Jester whispered excitedly.

"See? We don't need Torch. The animals can understand us just fine." Six said smugly and got a whack to the head again from his hat. This time Tunneler hit him.

"Ow! Would you stop hitting me with my hat?! That's real leather!" he snarled trying to snatch it back again.

"Then stop being so negative against Torch. He's our brother." Jester snarled back. "And you're not getting your hat back until you learn to be nice towards him."

"Do I look like a miracle worker to you? I ain't too fond of animals." Six said, rubbing his head.

"Well, I'm not fond of spiders and you don't see me talking shit about them." Jester said.

"That's because you're scared of them and scream like a girl when you see one." Six snickered.

"Yeah? Well let's see you fight off three tarantulas and two King scorpions by yourself and see how you fair!" Jester nearly shouted and stormed ahead of the group.

"Three tarantulas and two scorpions? . . . Is that how you lost your hat?" Tunneler asked.

"I don't want to talk about it!" Jester yelled for them to hear.

The rat squeaked at them, smacking them with her tail then made the sign for shooshness then tugged on Jester's sleeve for him to continue to follow her. The other's took a step to follow but the rat squeaked at them and drew a line with her tail, telling them they had to stay but tugged on Jester's sleeve.

"Um, I think this is those 'one at a time' visits." Tunneler stated, getting a firm nod from the rat and entered a dim room, Jester following. Pinhead looked around for a place to sit and found a row of seats all along the wall and sat down, Tunneler following his suit and Six Shooter finding a bench and lying down for a nap.

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Jester followed the rat all the way to the back near a secluded area, the rat stopped near a curtained off bed, squeaked at him and left. Jester pulled the curtain back a little and found Blade resting on the bed and sighed.

Blade was under a light blue blanket that seemed electrical, but instead of warming him, it cooled. His hat and coat had been placed on a coat stand so that the bags hanging nearby could give him his fluids without interruptions.

Jester looked at one of the bags and saw that the fluid was similar in color to the formula and was steadily dripping into the IV cord. The other bag had a blue glowing fluid and was also dripping into the IV, but at a slower pace. He worried that the chemicals would react against the formula already inside him but then remembered who had originally created it and its original purpose. He guessed that the blue fluid was a coolant to reduce temperature.

"Blade, are you awake?" Jester asked quietly. That was the downside to being a puppet. You could never tell when one was asleep because they weren't able to blink. Except Tunneler, he was able to blink. When he got no reply he looked around for a chair and sat down.

"Six is driving us mad with his arrogance. We took away his hat and told him he wouldn't get it back until he started being nice to Torch." he said, starting up a one-sided conversation to keep the silence at bay.

"But Torch has come in very handy lately, don't you think? I mean, with his ability to speak with animals and all. Maybe having animal brains isn't so bad." He paused to find another subject to talk about, clicking his heels together to help himself think.

"Um, you know, I've been thinking about what Torch said earlier when he ran off. He said that it was Six's fault that he taught Dad the formula and that his Mom was dead because of him. You think he was talking about Andre and Elsa? . . . . When he put it that way, it got me thinking about how we've been treating him and he has every right to be angry with us all the time.

"We never really treated him like a real brother and took his moodiness as a sign for wanting solitude, but I think it's really more than that. He never knew the real Toulon when he was made and he didn't know that Leech Woman was once Toulon's wife. The way the two brothers put everything in perspective makes me realise we were horrible brothers. Torch was just a baby when he saw Miss Leech burn and the way Six teases him when he's missed out on meetings. He must feel real lonely, don't you think?"

He looked up to see Blade was still motionless, and sighed, putting his head in his hands. "I hope you'll be alright soon." he mumbled.