A Family Stolen

Disclaimer: I own nothing

A/N:

Chapter 24 (Floor of Horrors Part 2)

As they entered the room, Jade began to feel her nausea returning. There was a different feeling to the room, as well as a different appearance. It was practically empty, save for the egg white walls and the black and white checkered tile flooring. In the center was what appeared to be a sliding trapdoor, square in shape.

She looked ahead at the other side of the oddly shaped room and saw a large rectangular window, and behind it was Danny, studying them with murderous eyes. He raised his arms up with a laugh. "Welcome! I'm so glad you decided to join me." He dropped his hands to whatever desk was in front of him and a loud slamming noise startled Jade from behind.

She and Andre twisted around, tensing at the now shut door. Andre grabbed the knob and turned it, but the door didn't open. "Shit." He threw his weight against it, growling in anger. "We're locked in."

"Trapped like rats." Danny smirked, leaning forward. "My newest lab rats. I half expected you to turn tail and run when you came through my hall of experiments." Jade shut her eyes, instantly cursing herself for deciding with Andre to move ahead of the task force they were with.

"God I hate myself." She slammed the heel of her hand against her forehead and Andre raised an eyebrow. "Everyone goes to the third floor and we decide to go to the fourth." Sinjin would probably get help, so they just needed to last long enough for that.

"Not your fault," Andre whispered, "We wanted to get Tori." He was right, but they were told not to rush things for this very reason. They jumped the gun, and now they were in trouble. "We'll get out of this, but first…" He pulled the hammer of his gun back and aimed at the window. "Where's Tori, you sick bastard?" Danny cocked his head to the right and Jade watched his arm move.

The clicking of metal filled her ears and she glanced to the trapdoor in the center of the room. As it slid open, a tube began to rise. Her heart dropped and the color began to leave her skin. "You wanted to know," Danny remarked.

Tori was inside the clear tube, slamming her palms against the glass and screaming-likely at the top of her lungs though she couldn't be heard. There were several small holes along the container, each sealed off, making the only air she was getting coming from the tube attached underneath the container.

Tensing her forehead, Jade felt her stomach tighten and looked at Andre sharply. "She's protected in there." Andre grunted and started to raise his shoulders. "There's got to be a reason he's closed off those breathing holes. She's in there, we're out here, and he's controlling everything in this room from where he's at…"

"We're in for it, then. He was ready for us."

Danny cackled. "Ross and I both saw your troops coming towards the building. You took us by surprise, but cut off all our power somehow…Fortunately, I have my own power generators on this floor. Did you know there's a way to use the dead to harness energy as well? I discovered that after a long amount of testing."

Jade grabbed her chest and began to tremble, thinking of all the corpses in the other room. Danny looked at her and laughed. "Don't worry, even Ross wouldn't step on this floor…as much of a devil as he is, he can't stand my floor."

"You're sick, Danny."

"Sick? Me? Just think of the advances to science that my research could find." His voice started to rise and he began breathing huskily. "I've discovered renewable energy sources, I've discovered stuff like mind control, even. Think about if we harnessed energy from those that lay in cemeteries, we wouldn't need all these other energy sources."

"Yep. You're sick."

Andre looked over his shoulder. "Um, did I hear him say something about mind control?" Another sliding door opened and they turned to see a startling sight.

Stephen stood in place, shambling like something out of a zombie movie. He was covered in blood, and had a large mechanism attached to a gaping wound on the back of his head. "Excuse me." Andre cleared his throat and turned slowly towards Danny, his calm voice rising. "But what the fuck is that!"

"I've created a way to turn the dead into mindless robots, essentially. Powerful fighters. You can tear away at their body and they'll never die!" Jade's eyes shot over to Tori, who was gawking at Stephen with wide, puffy red eyes. Feeling faint, Jade began to move behind Andre, not knowing what to do.

"I thought I was disturbed…"

Andre growled. "If Tori could hear me say this, I'd ask she not take it the wrong way…" He looked back at her with narrow eyes. "But I fucking hate science. Bullet's aren't going to stop that thing, Jade. I'll try and fight it while you check out Tori's container."

She nodded, curling her fingers inward and watching as Andre charged madly for Stephen's corpse. Andre brought his fists up and began to step sideways, moving in a circular motion.

Jade furrowed her brow and glanced at Danny. He was watching the fight and his arm was moving. With each movement of his arm, Stephen would turn or throw a punch. "Is Danny controlling Stephen's corpse? He's distracted, then."

She ran up to Tori's container, pushing herself up against it and trying to feel the glass with her hands. "We're going to get you out of here, Tori. One way or another." Tori's eyes fixated on her. The pain and fear in them was heartbreaking to see; and granted she never thought in a million years that she'd see such a look in her friend. "I'm sorry. For everything."

Tori's right hand was lowered and her index finger was rapidly tapping one of the small breathing holes that was sealed off. "What? What are you trying to tell me?" Jade studied the hole and started to slide her finger along the glass inside it. This glass seemed thin, much thinner than the actual container. "I wonder if this container is bulletproof."

Andre's irritated shouts filled her ears and she looked over with worry. He was throwing swift and powerful jabs, but in return Stephen was dealing him some heavy blows as well. He already had blood sliding down his face.

He tore off his shirt and tightened the ends around his fists. "I've had just about enough of you, Stephen." He chuckled darkly and dodged to the right to avoid a strike. "I've been wanting to kick your ass since the day we found you cheating on Tori."

Andre turned sideways and released one end of the shirt, slinging it hard into Stephen's face. "But God, fighting your lifeless body feels wrong, man." He jumped back, curling his eyebrows together and heaving forth a heavy sigh. "I'm sorry you're being controlled like this. I don't know how to stop this." Jade heard a tapping sound and looked at Tori. Tori quickly moved her hand up, tapping the side of her head with her finger.

"What?" Jade pursed her lips, watching as Tori tapped faster. Glancing at Stephen and the mechanism on his head, she felt her breath sweep away from her lungs and cried out to Andre. "That thing on his head! Andre, I can't believe I didn't think of it before. Tori's trying to tell us, that device is what's keeping him alive."

Andre crouched low, avoiding a double swing from Stephen. "The wires going in his head, all the metal that's in his body right now…Jade, what the fuck am I supposed to do? I can't just tear that thing off."

"Maybe there's a switch, a button, something to turn that thing off." Jade extended her arms. "Push come to shove, you could always just give it one good hit. It's not like you're going to hurt Stephen or anything."

Andre scowled at her and ducked to avoid another punch. "Alright Stephen." He rose up, dealing a massive uppercut to Stephen's chin. "Come on you scrawny prick." He rushed behind the corpse and tackled him, quickly pinning him and examining the mechanism. "Oh! Wow. Every fucked up action movie villain puts a self-destruct button on their device for some reason. For a real life mad genius, you'd think that'd be the one thing he wouldn't do."

"Huh?"

Andre raised his hand. "Sorry Stephen. Rest in peace, man." He brought his hand down, striking the device, then rolled away from Stephen. The corpse started to rise, shaking violently as the mechanism began to whir. Andre walked away, shaking his arms outwards. "I did not expect to be in a sci-fi, zombie, horror, action movie all wrapped into one today. What's next? Aliens?" The device exploded in sparks, and Stephen's body collapsed to the ground.

"At this point, Andre, I wouldn't put it past him." Andre paled and shot her another glare. "Anyway, I think-" She sniffed the air and looked towards the ceiling as four metal hoses slid down. "What's he doing now?"

"Another experiment. Human desperation." Danny flashed a twisted grin and Jade felt the glass of the container behind her vibrating. When she turned, she saw Tori striking the glass, pounding it with her fist. Water was rising within, and Tori was pointing at her mouth as if telling them she couldn't breathe.

Panic began to set in and she let out a whimper as a fine mist poured from the hoses. "Time is of the essence," Danny remarked, "When faced with your own imminent mortality versus the imminent mortality of Tori…how hard will you try to rescue her before you decide to save yourself? Or, will you die trying to rescue her?"

Andre grit his teeth. "I'm getting a little fed up with you and your games, Danny!" He shook his shirt out and looked at Jade as she began to cough. The gas was rough in her throat, poisoning her and cutting off her oxygen. "Shit. Jade, here."

"What?" She rasped and raised her head as he flung his shirt around her face, covering her mouth and nose firmly before tying a large knot on the back of her head. "Andre?" Tears welled up in her eyes and she speculated how he was going to protect himself.

"I promised Beck I wouldn't let a damn thing happen to you, so I'll be damned if you go dying on me." The shirt helped a bit, but she still breathed in some of the air. "Hold your breath."

He held his breath and grabbed the gun. There wasn't much time, so they had to shut off the gas somehow. Even more, they needed to get Tori out of that container before either the lack of oxygen or the rising water killed her."

Jade's stomach twisted and she began to feel the uncontrollable urge to vomit. As fear settled in, she began to realize what kind of gas was being used.

"Andre." She pulled the shirt down just a bit so her voice wasn't so muffled. Science was not her forte; as a matter of fact, it had often been her worst subject because she found it so boring. "I don't know much about gas, but I think this might be a vomit inducer. Be careful."

"Yeah." He was sweating, his face turning pale. "I can feel that. The guy's going to make us puke to death. If we had the time, we could block those pipes, but I'm more concerned about getting Tori out of this fucking container."

Tori was sliding down to her knees, her face pale and sickly. Her head and left shoulder fell against the glass and her half-lidded eyes gazed out at the two. "Put that shirt back over your mouth and nose, Jade." He raced over to the container, shouting with urgency. "Hang in there, we're going to get you out."

Jade looked at the door, her vision was getting blurry and it was harder to concentrate. "H-Holly." Her fingers trembled and she stumbled forward, dropping to her knees with Andre. "Her container wasn't bulletproof. The glass might be the same way. Try Danny's window and Tori's…you know…"

She fell to her hands, yanking the shirt off her face as vomit fell from her lips. Andre leaned his back against the container, dropping the back of his head against it and breathing heavily. It seemed he was trying to force back the urge to vomit.

He raised his gun to Danny's window and fired two gunshots. Remarkably the gun didn't explode, meaning something about the gas that Jade didn't quite understand. The bullets cracked the glass and put a hole through it, causing Danny to scream out in panic.

As the gas began to seep in through the hole, he struck a button to shut it off. Andre dropped his gun and rolled onto his stomach, groaning as he extended his arms and aimed for Tori's container.

The water was now over her bent head. "Tori." Andre blinked twice and pulled the hammer back. "I won't let you die." He pressed the gun against the glass and fired a shot, causing his body to flinch as the bullet ripped through the glass. Water came gushing out, drenching them both.

Jade heard a powerful banging sound and looked at the door with a hopeful smile. After four more slams, the door blew open and the task force they left behind came running in with Sinjin. They opened fire on Danny's glass window while Sinjin made a beeline for them.

"Come on." Sinjin grabbed the gun from Andre and fired multiple shots at the container, breaking down the glass until he could reach in and pull Tori out. Andre helped Jade to her feet, groaning softly as he put her arm over her shoulder.

The officers came to help them, with some of the others hopping Danny's window and grabbing his now lifeless corpse off the floor.

Finally out of the laboratory, Jade took her first breath of fresh air and savored it for a few long seconds. Paramedics placed Tori's body on a stretcher and she smiled as the girl turned her head. She seemed to be fading in and out of consciousness. "Trina," Tori muttered, "Ross has her…"

"It'll be okay." They wanted to help the others go for Ross and save Trina, but she knew they just weren't in the condition to do so. Jade radioed in the situation, waiting for Jason to give the go ahead for her to move on out with Andre and Tori. "Jason's going to save her, Tori."

The paramedics moved a breathing mask over Tori's face and pushed her stretcher into the elevator. Some of the medics on the floor made their way over to her and to Andre, so they'd be getting medical attention whether they wanted it or not.

"I still feel like I've been more of a useless liability than anything…" She exhaled and Andre gave her a reassuring smile.

"I'm telling you, you're selling yourself short. Hell, you're the one that remembered the glass wasn't bulletproof."

"Dumb luck, Andre. It's all dumb luck. I'm just glad we got Tori out…now what? We wait?"

"Yeah, we have no choice really."

Jade may see Andre as the hero of the day here, but both of them contributed just as much. Some of Jade's worries are inspired by some of you guys sometimes focusing on Jade during moments where she literally does nothing but observe something happening, haha. He's right though, she has played a much bigger role than she credits herself with, without her they may not have even tried to look for the family. Tori's out safe, but where one sister's free the second remains. Tell me what you thought of this, and let's see what happens next