Chapter Forty-One: ALA-A-A-R-R-R-R-M!

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Jester was in the middle of reading a book he'd found in a library, a proper library, and accidentally tore the page he was turning when a loud siren blared out. The room went dark and red lights started flashing before an army of arachnids of all sizes scurried past him towards the attic room.

Pinhead was told to watch over Six should Six ever think about getting anywhere near Torch. The kid had said he was perfectly secured, but Six had magic and could probably bypass any security Six came across, but it seemed he'd been caught for now and Torch remained safe.

He just wondered what was the deal with all the arachnids, though. Surely the kid didn't need that many to protect one little child?

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Blade was in the middle of focusing another sonic pulse (boom just made him laugh), when a loud siren went off and he lost his concentration and aim. His pulse was too strong and he blew away a wall in the green house, accidentally destroying some of the plants.

'Ooh, I'm dead.' he thought with a cringe. The plants he'd just blown away were both medicinal and culinary. 'I'm so dead.'

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Tunneler was downstairs working with a medical team when the siren went off and he thanked his stars that he was used to such loud noises, but it still startled him. He was in the middle of filling a syringe with some blue liquid and nearly pulled too hard, thus nearly popping the back of the syringe off and spilling the liquid everywhere.

A yellow desert scorpion tapped his shoulder and pointed at the syringe he was still holding. He handed it over and looked up at the ceiling, wondering what Six had done to set off the alarm.

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Pinhead was working on a simple motor for his engineering class that had blown up in his face when the siren went off. He wiped his face and looked over to where Torch was hidden away and saw Six was surrounded by scorpions, spiders and lasers.

He tried to remember where the switch was that would turn the siren off, but the room had gone dark, save the lights that surrounded Six. Even if they were plunged completely in the dark, the arachnids would still find him with their night visions, neural scans, his body structure and his magical core.

He was little confused about how cores could be read, but the kid explained that magic was like electricity. The world was surrounded by something called an Electro-Magnetic Field, EMF for short, and said that the boundary towards Torch's room was set in a specific EM field that the slightest spark of magic could set it off. It was also set to Six in all other factors; his height, his weight, his neural patterns and his body structure. Torch was as secure as could be and Pinhead was quite impressed with the response time of the arachnids.

The kid was as protective of Torch the same way Blade was with Jester. He worried about Jester too. He was best friends with him in life and when they became puppets, but after Blade was created and brought to life Jester had started hanging out with him more often.

He didn't mind though, it gave him the opportunity to know his older brother Tunneler more. Tunneler was slightly younger than Six, creation wise, but he also seemed to know Six quite well. As if he was there when Six was first created. But he never talked about it and he didn't push the matter.

Ah, there's the switch.

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Chug was watching Torch sleep. He ran a temperature scan, sighing in relief when it'd gone down a few more degrees. Torch had said his flame was feeling low and was confused when he said he had a high temperature. Torch asked how that could be if his flame felt low. If his flame was his fire for his flamethrower, and fire meant heat, and a lot of heat should mean a lot of fire, right?

Torch didn't understand that his high temperature was because his flame was low. He tried to figure out how to best explain it in a way that Torch would understand. He'd thought about using the stars and how they burned in space, but even that confused him when he mentally prepared for it. Then he thought about a fire's color spectrum and how a blue fire meant it was hotter than a red fire. But then he'd need a coloring book to help Torch with figuring it all out and he didn't have the time to make an educational coloring book for him, let alone spend the time teaching him.

He just couldn't think properly when he was so tired. How was he to explain to Torch that his low flame was causing his high temperature? It's not like he can boil it down to. . . . Boil. . . . Boiling water, a stove!

"A-ha!"

He got out of bed and headed towards the door, opened it and quickly closed it when he heard the siren blaring. He looked over at Torch to make sure he was still sleeping and slumped his shoulders in relief. He checked his watch to shut the alarm off remotely.

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Pinhead was about to pull the switch when the alarm stopped, the red lights shut off and the regular ones came back on. He looked over at Six Shooter who still had all six arms held up in surrender and decided to leave the matter to the kid and go back to his studies.

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Jester looked up when siren stopped and the lights came back on and then down at the page he was holding.

"Aw man! Now how am I gonna make a baking powder powered rocket?" he grumbled and set the torn paper down to look around for some tape.

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Blade was running down to the beach to ask the brother for help about the plants. The kid had warned him that if anything happened to his plants he'd be sitting through an hour's worth of Barney. And with the plants destroyed, it was guaranteed that he'd be in for a full night marathon.

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Tunneler and the medical team didn't even flinch when the siren stopped and the lights came back on. He figured the rodents were used to this sort of thing, having to work on a space ship while they're in battle, so he paid no mind to the matter either. Whatever it was that Six had done, the two brothers would take care of it. Torch was in the best care.

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Six Shooter didn't move a muscle when the siren stopped and the lights came back on. He didn't move when the lasers disappeared and the arachnid army dispersed, nor when the kid came out and picked him up off the ground. He only moved when he was set behind bars and locked in.

"I told you you wouldn't get a chance to get anywhere near Torch. He's mine and I am not letting him go, savvy?" The kid growled at him and went back in his room to get Torch.

"But Sutekh has to be stopped. He's letting the magical world fall into stagnation. We'll be wiped out before we know it! Why won't you help with your fellow magicals?" Six asked.

"The magical world is not falling into stagnation, they're leaving it! That's why me and my brother are here. To take them to another place where they don't have to share with the modern times and possibly start a war to turn things around. The last time that happened the world was almost obliterated so me and Kegs have been watching over the place. Taking those who are lost and giving them a home, those who are set in their ancient times taken to another place where it can stay. Why start a vengeful war over one little tiny bottle?" the kid asked and left the room with a bundled Torch sleeping in his arms.

Six saw that Torch was holding something in his arms that looked suspiciously like the kid. But the blankets Torch was in prevented him from seeing much detail.

He sat back on his haunches and looked at Pinhead. Pinhead was looking back but didn't do anything. He just went back to tinkering with whatever it was he was tinkering with.

Six leaned back and let out a sigh. So the brothers had been taking magicals to a refuge, have they? Did they rescue the ones from Great Britain? He'd been trying to keep up with that world ever since its first magical war. From what he could remember, it was because some old fool believed himself to be the rightful ruler and demanded that he be praised and worshipped. He had saved them from a horrible fate once and for that they should be grateful he didn't turn on them.

After a second war from his tyranny the old fool had once again defeated his rival and then proceeded to lie about it, saying that the rival was in fact an insane mass murderer hell-bent on destroying the world. But since he had saved their asses from such horrible lives, he should be given the highest honor and praises there was and he got it.

Just recently, that world was on the verge of another war, but something had happened that prevented it and the old man had disappeared. It was back to its usual form, but it was still in danger of wiping itself out of existence. What were the brothers going to do about them?

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