Chapter Twenty: Putting Six in his Place
"So this ride is called a megalograptus and is designed off a real creature?" Six asked.
"That's what the Doc said." Blade said with a shrug. "And Jester has arachnophobia."
"What's arachnophobia?" Pinhead asked.
"The fear of Spiders is my guess." Blade answered.
"But he wasn't always scared of spiders. What happened?" Tunneler asked.
"He said he was attacked by three tarantulas and two scorpions." Six said.
"Oh, well, that would explain his newfound fear of them." Blade said.
"Ooh, you know something that we don't. Spill." Six said. As much as Six loved to be a macho man, he also loved to gossip and then keep the new information from Torch.
"No, not until everyone is gathered, that includes Torch. We know you like to keep information from him." Blade said.
"Aw, come on, this sounds very interesting." Six pleaded.
"No."
"If you tell me I won't pick on Torch anymore. Jester will be included." Six said, grinning.
"No."
"But Blade,-"
"No, Six. You need to tone down your arrogance or else the brother will eat you."
Six crossed his arms, turned his back and pouted. 'It's not being eaten that worries me.' he thought, picturing the grinning brimstone wolf with its burning red eyes in his head and shuddered. 'He said I don't have enough greed. So I just need to watch my gimmes.' he grinned.
The megalograptus arrived at Chug's door and lowered itself with the sci-fi vehicle trill and landed on its walking legs, but the clear dome barrier that Chug erected hadn't moved so they were stuck in there.
"So-o, how do we get out of this thing?" Six asked.
Jester groaned and stirred.
"Jessie's finally waking up." Six smiled.
"Don't call me Jessie." Jester mumbled, rubbing his head and sat up. "What happened?" he asked, looking around for Blade.
"You fainted, Little One." Blade said.
"Yeah, I gathered that. I mean, before that?" Jester asked.
"The Kid was describing the megalograptus to us and you fainted when he started on the tail." Blade said.
"Mega-wha-?"
"This red scorpion like thing we're riding in." Six smirked.
"S-S-Scorpion?" Jester whimpered.
"Don't worry. It's not a real one. It's entirely mechanical." Blade said, giving Six a look who just shrugged and twiddled all six of his thumbs.
"When did this fear happened, Jess?" Tunneler asked, Blade cleared his throat. "I'm curious."
"Yeah, Blade, we're curious." Six grinned, and snickered when Blade glared at him.
"We're gonna wait til Torch is with us." Blade said.
The door finally opened and they all saw Torch clinging onto Chug's leg like a little child does with its parent and was laughing with glee.
"Alright, Torch, you've had your fun. My leg's getting tired. Now, head back inside and up the desk with you, bairn." Chug said, lifting Torch up and grabbing him and then setting him back down. Torch looked up and saw that his brothers were watching and ran back inside like a scared animal.
"Alright, inside with you lot." Chug said, stepping aside for the megalograptus to walk in.
"You know, I don't think I've ever heard Torch laugh before." Jester whispered to Blade.
"Glad to hear you're awake Jester." Chug said and Jester covered his mouth in surprise, forgetting that Chug could now understand them.
"I forgot he can understand us now." he whispered.
"The kid can understand us now?" Tunneler asked in a whisper.
"Since when?!" Six asked loudly.
"Since Blade woke up from his fever." Chug answered from across the room. "Not only can I understand you guys now, but this earpiece heightens my hearing as well and is attuned to your specific brainwaves so I'll know when you're bad mouthing my wee bairn."
"Bairn? Torch isn't a child, he's-"
Chug snatched Six Shooter up in a hand and squeezed. "Keep talking cowboy and I'll put you in a pink tutu I specially made for you."
Six noticed the glare was just as fierce as the brother's and motioned zipping his lips. The kid wasn't bluffing.
"Good. You keep an eye on that filter between your brain and your mouth we should get along just fine." Chug said and set him down gently.
"Well, seems Six has found his match with these brothers." Jester smirked. "A powerful older brother who can changed forms and reverse immortality and a brother who can sew clothes, work with cyborgs, is a potions master and collects girly movies for use as punishment." Jester giggled mischievously.
"Oh, there's much more to us than that." Chug said, setting a table up for an operation. "Kegs is a Space Captain, Landowner, Professional Assassin, Racer, is immune to poisons, bullets and virtually unstoppable. He also has mastered all six elements: Earth, Air, Fire, Water, Light and Dark and is extremely protective of me." Chug said, placing the last item down and heading over to the meg and removed the dome barrier and lifted Blade and Jester out, carried them over to the table and set them down.
"And what about you?" Blade asked.
"I'm more skillful than magical." was all Chug said and motioned Blade to sit down in the stainless steel chair.
Blade was reluctant to sit back in one of those chairs again, his last memories of the experience not pleasant, but limped over and sat down.
"I'm not going to strap you in just yet. You need to pick out the new leg first before I start the actual work." Chug said, setting up a screen and mouse for Jester to use and selected all available left legs suitable for one his size, as well as models for the other sized people.
"Part dragon? Really?" Jester asked excitedly.
"Eh, I'd look too weird where one leg is longer than the other." Blade said and clicked for the next image. This one looked normal enough but the weight suggested it would weigh more than Blade. He wouldn't be able lift it off the ground to take his first step. The next image was for a ballerina and Jester immediately clicked past it at Blade's appalled scream.
Chug placed Pinhead, Tunneler and Six Shooter on the table with them so they all could have a say, but it was ultimately Blade's choice in the end. Confidant that they were preoccupied with the thousands of choices they had to make, he went into his room to check on Torch.
"Did they see me?" Torch asked.
"I'm pretty sure they did, but I don't think they'll let you know they did. But Six Shooter seems to be the bigger threat, yeah?" Chug asked, settling down the bed, placing Torch next to him.
"Six always teases me and the others." Torch mumbled, fiddling with his flame throwing arm.
"Yeah, I've noticed. Kegs has some videos from your last three masters. It seems you boys were all abandoned because of this Sutekh guy." Chug said, handing Torch a bristled hair brush for him to dust himself. "These blankets need a good wash anyhow, might as well get you cleaned up at the same time." he smiled and patted his head and left. "I'll be back later, ok? You just stay here and watch your brothers." He flicked on a TV screen, showing the other puppets all still gathered around Blade and looking at legs.
"A high-heeled female leg with fishnets?! Hell no!" shouted Blade, kicking his feet, the others laughing at him.
.
.
