Author's note at bottom of chapter

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Chapter Thirty-Two: Captured Again/Pinhead and Tunneler

Blade was ecstatic to be back on his own two feet. He had to wait seven hours before the kid could officially declare him fit and he handed in his ebony cane, got his knife back and started swiping at the air, feeling its familiar weight before he happily ran off to get away from the kid.

He headed down to the kitchen to test his new leg on the slippery tile and see how he faired with it unsupervised. Jester had followed him of course, but he was fine with that. As long as it wasn't under the kid's watchful blue eyes and his scorpions and spiders, and Jester needed to get away from his phobia source anyway, even though they were smaller than him. He could easily stomp on them with his foot if he wanted to, but Jester didn't like hurting innocent creatures, no matter how scary they were.

So there he was strolling into the kitchen feeling so giddy about the test that he honestly felt like dancing. But let's not give Jester any reason to laugh at him. He looked back at Jester who seemed more brave about entering the kitchen, even though the movie they'd seen the night before had proved that there was a large T-Rex on the premises that could attack them. And there was that tarantula's cave somewhere inside one of the walls.

"So, how's the new leg working?" Jester asked, striding up to Blade when he noticed he was falling behind.

"It feels great! Hardly any different from the original wood! The toes are a new sensation, though." Blade answered, stopping long enough to wiggle his new metal toes in his boot.

"Maybe if you work with them long enough, you'd be able to pick things up with them like the brothers do." Jester giggled.

"Probably. Boy, that'd be weird." Blade said and they continued on.

"Weren't you attacked in the kitchen when those totems first arrived?" Jester asked.

"Yes, right over there and we killed the thing over there where that T-Rex is watching us." Blade said and they stopped in their tracks and stared at the large red Tyrannosaurus Rex in a deer-in-the-head-lights stance.

The red T-Rex was huge compared to them. Blade knew he was 15 inches tall, give or take a few centimeters, and the totems were roughly the same height, but when the Rex attacked the totem from the beach he had to look up at it. Putting everything in scale with the Jurassic Park movie he'd once watched with a previous master, with the totem as Dr. Grant, the T-Rex seemed about 15 inches taller, so the T-Rex was probably able to eat them in one bite.

"It's staring at us." Jester whispered.

"Maybe if we don't move it won't see us." Blade whispered back.

"This isn't Jurassic Park! It's mechanical and probably able to pick up on our neural energy!" Jester hissed.

They stayed quiet, staring down the T-Rex.

"Have you been studying the kid's medical books?" Blade whispered.

"Yes, I thought it might come in handy." Jester whispered and they started to back up. But with every step they took backward, the T-Rex moved forward.

"Um, I think it sees us." Jester said and they walked faster; the T-Rex also picking up its pace.

"Should we run?" Jester asked.

"Yeah, I think we should!" Blade shouted and they both turned and ran, the T-Rex roared and charged after them.

They had barely made it out the door when another T-Rex came at them, snapping at their heads as they ran past and joined the first T-Rex in its chase. They ran down to the dining room and separated, separating the Rexes, and weaved through the many tables and chairs that were under sheet covers. The Rexes still managed to follow them knocking over some chairs in the process. Jester tried to bait it and have it trap its jaw in the table's leg, but strong bites took care of that problem, but it did tip the table over and trapped it for a few seconds.

The first T-Rex knocked a chair over and managed to ensnare the end of Blade's coat in its teeth, snagging him at a sudden clothes-line stop and then headed back to the kitchen when it was sure he wouldn't get away.

"JESTER! FIND THE OTHERS AND TELL THEM TO STAY AWAY FROM THE KITCHEN!" he shouted and looked around when he heard bells jingling.

"Uh, about that. . . ." Jester said, hanging from the other Rex's mouth by the trim of his shirt, gripping his hat so it wouldn't fall.

"What-What are they doing? Why aren't they eating us?" Blade asked.

"My guess it has something to do with this." Jester said and tapped the Rex's nose.

"Brutus, Nero, could you please find Blade and Jester and bring them down to the lab? I'd like to know what they know about those totems and this Sutekh fellow, but DON'T SCARE THEM." said Chug's recorded voice.

"A little late on the scaring!" Blade yelled, kicking and waving his arms in a fit and spun around.

"You know, I think he does this on purpose just to see you throw a fit." Jester said and giggled to himself as Blade pouted on the way to the kitchen.

"I just got over the whole cabin thing and he goes and pulls this stunt!" Blade growled and crossed his arms.

"Look on the bright side. At least you didn't lose your hat this time, and you're not spun in a web." Jester said, covering his mouth to stifle is giggling as Blade grumbled incessantly.

Pinhead and Tunneler were walking down a hallway, Blade having told them to scout around to see if they could come across any of the kid's creations and get acquainted.

"Can you work your drill properly yet?" Pinhead asked.

"Only for a few minutes then it stops again. The kid's looking into some stainless steel for a new one." Tunneler answered and looked down a vent duct that lead to the ballroom. "Maybe we should head down this one. It was our major traffic source in the old days." he suggested and started to twist a screw to remove it.

"Wait, stop!" Pinhead called, noticing something shiny along the vent's frame.

Tunneler stopped and Pinhead took a closer look with a small magnifying glass the kid had given them for safety measures. "There's wires all along the frame, I think it's booby-trapped."

Tunneler looked through the magnifier and agreed with Pin. "It's wired to the screws. Removal of just one will set it off." he said and they went to look for another vent to search.

They came across a group of little bird like creatures very similar to the ones from the kid's medical team from the space ship that were chittering to each other but stopped when they were spotted. They didn't flee in surprise like Pinhead thought they would, instead they just looked at them and had a stare down.

"Um, now what do we do?" Pinhead asked.

"The kid said they can understand people and communicate with each other through their neural energy the same way as we do. So, I guess we can just, I don't know, talk?" Tunneler suggested.

"Like what, exactly?" Pinhead asked quietly.

"I don't know, but I'll greet them, if you don't want to." Tunneler offered.

"I don't want to. I'm socially awkward." Pinhead said right away.

Tunneler walked a few steps towards them, not sure if they would flee or charge, and cleared his throat. "Hello there, my name's Tunneler and this is my brother Pinhead. Are you able to understand us?" he asked.

The little birds looked at each other, chittering softly before one of them, one with a black rounded beak, yellow eyes, brown and white feathers, looking very much like a brown sparrow but with a gold crest on its head, nodded.

"Ok, can you understand full on sentences, or just certain words?" Tunneler asked.

The bird cocked its head to the side once, looked back and chirped.

"Um, can you speak people-talk?" Tunneler asked, deciding to use 'people-talk' instead of 'human-speech'. The brothers didn't like humans and had probably trained their creatures to despise the word.

The brown bird shook its head and squawked loudly, causing both Pinhead and Tunneler to flinch at the loud noise.

"Boy, that's loud." Pinhead mumbled quietly, rubbing his ear.

"So, uh, how many of you are there in the hotel?" Tunneler asked.

The birds chirped amongst themselves for minute before the brown sparrow barked ten times.

"Ok, ten of you. Uh, how many um, tarantulas?" Tunneler asked.

Five of the birds barked seven times, Tunneler took that as 35 tarantulas.

"Thirty-five tarantulas, that's a lot." he said quietly to himself and was about to ask about the scorpions when a 12 inch long black scorpion came around the corner, thrum-hissing at the birds. With the birds next to it, Tunneler guessed that the scorpion was about maybe five inches tall off the ground, pincers twice the size of his head, and then he looked up at the stinger and gulped. That thing was massive and so high in the air that he actually felt afraid for his and Pinhead's safety. The stinger looked to be maybe 30, 31 inches off the ground.

He had been thrown across rooms, slammed against walls, had a floor lamp stomped on his back. He'd been captured, dissected, analyzed and fiddled with and never blinked. But this was a scorpion! The pincers could crush his skull like a tomato, his drill could probably fend off the tail, but the pincers would pin him down for a clear shot. He could die a horrible, slow, painful and burning death if that thing stung him at the IV cord's entrance.

The last thing he remembered before he could admit that he fainted was that Jester's phobia was now understandable. He didn't actually remember fainting, but he did remember waking up to Pinhead tapping his cheek to wake him, asking if he was ok.

"What happened?" he asked, sitting up and rubbing the back of his head. The good thing about being made of wood, you didn't get lumps from bumps on the noggin.

"You fainted." Pinhead answered, sitting back on his heels.

"I don't faint. Something must have hit me." Tunneler mumbled.

"No, you fainted." Pinhead said and stood up to help Tunneler.

"I do not faint. Jester does." Tunneler said forceful tone, dusting himself. "Although now I can see why he does. That scorpion was huge." he mumbled.

"I've seen Jester faint plenty of times. You fainted." Pinhead said in the same tone.

"I never faint." Tunneler gritted, dusting his uniform once more and straightening it.

"Say what you want, but I know." Pinhead said and continued down the hall.

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AUTHOR'S NOTE

I apologize for such a long wait on an update. My computer has a virus so I am using an old ipad to upload the story. It's actually complete in its written form and I am currently sorting through some note for the sequel. However, if your patience is running thin and want an update now (or at the very least soon), I may have the next chapter up either by this coming Wednesday or Thursday.