Captured. He had gotten captured. How was he going to get out of this one? Matt had been going around and around for what seemed like hours. The events that had taken place were almost too impossible to believe. Lida had been waiting for him. He had walked right into a trap. When he saw her silhouette almost mystically appear out of nothing, he almost expected what was about to happen.
"You!" He hollered.
"Nice to see you remember me." Lida said, coldly.
She simply waved her hand and the door, frame and all, vanished. It was as if it became one with the wall.
"Why are you capturing me? At least let me know that." He said sternly.
"Tell me something. Do you enjoy playing those video games of yours? Do you enjoy beating up demons as Dante or destroying monsters as Link? You do don't you. Well, I have a very different game I play. But my playing field is a little bigger. I play with lives." She explained.
"People are not toys for you to play with." He argued.
"I'lll play with whatever I wish to play with. Right now it's you and that wifey of yours. Plain and simple." She shot back.
"So I lost is that it?" He asked.
"No, you haven't, not yet. We'll see how this all plays out, now that Sarah has those powers of yours. I'm testing her to see if she's brave enough to face me. If she does, she's going to make a good hero for this game."
"So that's why you gave her my powers. You MEANT her to come save me. That was all planned."
"Exactly. And to think if would have figured out the second riddle and its meaning you could have spared her this."
"The second riddle? So if she answers the second riddle, she wins?"
"No, she answers the riddle WHILE winning."
"That makes no sense!" He exclaimed.
"Oh, it will. Now, let us go to someplace a little nicer shall we?"
"I'm not going anywhere until you tell me what you plan to do with us." He demanded.
"I'm afraid you don't have home court advantage here."
Chains burst for from every direction and wrapped around Matt. They tightened on him as he struggled to get free.
"Let. Me. GO!" He cried.
She gingerly walked over to the coffee table and grabbed a bottle and towel. She poured the liquid from the bottle onto the cloth. She then stuffed it onto his face. As he began to inhale, his eyes shot one last furious look at her. His eyes were so full of hatred and pain.
"I'm sorry. I really am." She whispered.
He faded from consciousness and fell to the floor. Orbi appeared and circled around her.
"Well THAT went well." Orbi said.
"He hates me, so much."
"And you figured otherwise?"
"No, I didn't. I just really liked him. It's too bad. A hero like him doesn't come around very often. Well, sometimes you're a king and sometimes, a pawn."
"Do you really think they will win?"
"I don't know, maybe. We won't know until the final act plays."
With that, the floor of the room began sinking lower and lower into darkness.
-----------------------
"Sarah is going to kill us. We are all dead." Pre-fetch remarked as he and Blackthorn walked hastily down the hallway of Tech Support.
"I need you to brief everyone. NO ONE is to say what happened until Sarah knows. I want her to know first."
"Understood sir." Pre-fetch acknowledged, saluted and ran off down another hallway.
Blackthorn made it to the hospital wing in record time. His fake leg was killing him but his pushed though the pain. Sarah had to know what happened. Reboot saw him as he walked in the double doors.
"Blackthorn, what's the rush?" He asked as he ran after him.
"I have to see Sarah. It's bad." He urged.
"How bad?"
Blackthorn was silent.
"Oh, that bad. Come on." Reboot said.
They both crept into the room. Sarah was sitting up on the bed watching T.V.
"Hey Blackthorn, long time no see." Sarah said sweetly.
"Sarah, I don't know how to put this." Blackthorn said hesitantly.
"Let me guess, something went wrong and now Matt's hurt."
"Not...exactly."
"Spill. Now." She demanded.
Her tone shot though Blackthorn like a flaming arrow.
"Matt's missing. The house. It vanished with him inside it."
Sarah couldn't speak. She couldn't think.
"Also, the person who we think is responsible left a note to us. I wrote down what it said. Here." Blackthorn said as he put out his hand with a small piece of paper.
She snatched it from his hands and read it. Her hands quivered as she finished.
"Dear Sarah, I have you precious Matt in my coils." Sarah read, "If you are going to have any hope of saving him, you need to play the tutorial. You have five days in which to get used to your new powers. Then, come to where my home once stood. There, you will find the door to your love. It will not be easy, but then what good games are easy. It's your move, white queen. It's signed: Lida, the black queen. Who is this Lida and what does she want with Matt?"
"That's just it. From the way this note is written, Matt's not the one she's after. It's you. You need to play her game to get Matt back. He's only bait."
"Great, now I have to save HIM. This has been a fun turn of events."
"Tell me about it."
"So, what do we do now?"
"That's up to you Sarah. With Matt gone, you're the only one who can stop her."
"I know, I know. What else can I do? I have to help Matt."
"But you can't help Matt if you're still recovering." Reboot pointed out.
Sarah threw the covers off her legs turned toward the edge and gingerly put her feet on the floor. She sat there for a moment to get her bearings. She then pushed off the bed and stood up. She staggered a step forward and Blackthorn and Reboot put out there arms to try and catch her but she shock her head. She straightened up.
"Well, I guess I'm going to have to save Matt's sorry behind this time." She said as she crossed her arms in front of her.
----------------------------
Matt slowly opened his eyes. He saw a door in front of him. He noticed he was sitting in a small room. He got up and ran for the door. He had to escape. His arm reached for the knob, and then he felt a pull and his legs came out from under him, a foot away from the door. He looked behind him and saw his ankle had a thick metal shackle on it with cloth underneath. There was a chain attached to it that ran all the way back to the floor beneath the chair he was sitting in. He sank his head.
"Should have figured that one. I'm bait. I need to stay put."
"Right you are." Said a voice above him.
He looked up and saw familiar yellow Velcro boots on the door frame. His eye went up further and gasped as he saw the face of his capture. She was a child. She couldn't have been more then 13. Her arms were thin and pale, her frame small and meager. Then, he saw her eyes. No child could have those eyes. Cold. Cold blue. Like ice in the dead of winter. This was no child.
"You should have known better then to try an escape. I wrapped your ankle as best I could but I needed to make sure you won't go anywhere."
Matt stood back up and looked at her. He had been outclassed, out matched and out witted. He needed a new tactic and fast.
"So I guess you weren't fooled then by the suit huh?"
"Who do you think sent you that pretty little gift hmmmmmmmm? I almost laughed when you walked up to the house. You really thought you would call my bluff and come in your suit?"
"That was the idea." He said under his breath, then said, "So, how did you make my powers go into Sarah?"
"Now, now. I can't reveal ALL my secrets now can I?"
"No, I guess not. It was really impressive though, you really pulled one over on us."
Lida leaned up against the frame of the door, arms crossed in front of her.
"Why thank you." She said then walked past him into the room. "I hope you like your new home for the time being. It has everything you would ever need to survive your captivity."
They walked around the room and Lida showed him around.
"When you visited my house, a managed to scan you for you size so I got you plenty of clothes. Just mainly jeans and T-shirts. Also, don't worry. The bathrooms not bugged. I'm a sociopath, not a pervert." She addressed.
Matt let out a quiet sigh of relief.
"Also, we have cable in here to for you. I also heard you liked Marvel comic books so I got you quite a collection." She pointed out.
It was than Matt saw what she was pointing at. It was a bookcase that was eight feet high and twelve feet long, taking up half the wall. On its shelves were every kind of Marvel comic book imaginable. Matt was in awe.
"You really know how to treat a hostage." He said.
"I should hope so. I need you alive and well when the fighting starts."
"So how long till then?"
"Five days, give or take a few hours."
"Five days?!" He exclaimed.
"It's how long I gave Sarah to figure out how to use your powers. I couldn't just let her fight the final boss battle without even a tutorial now could I?"
"So you want to fight her at her best, right? So you can have a clean victory."
"You DO catch on quick."
"Alright. I'm game. But if Sarah wins, you let us go and give me back my powers."
"That was the idea."
"But what if we lose?"
"You die, of course." She said, nonchalantly.
"That won't happen. Sarah may be new to the superhero business, but I know she can do it. That's because she has something more powerful then any weapon."
"And what's that?"
"My love and trust that she can do it."
"Is that so? Well, let's see how powerful that love is when I'm done." She said and walked out the door, shutting it behind her.
As Matt heard the door lock, he turned around to look back at his new room. In the corner was a small computer. It surprised him he didn't notice it before. As he sat down at it, he got the hope he could get a message out to Sarah, somehow. Then it hit him. Lida wouldn't make it that easy. Sure enough, no internet. He stood back up and went over to the dresser.
"Well, this suits of no use to me anymore. Guess I'll have to fight her as just plain Matt from now on. That will have to be enough, for both of our sakes."