A/N: Playlist for this chapter contained Phenomenon, Move and Falls Apart by Thousand Foot Krutch, as well as Moby's Lift me up. Enjoy!
The torturer casually tossed the depleted syringe on to his desk, then crossed his arms and waited for the computer to beep. Flame had just been injected with over 200ml of a specially-formulated serum. It was one of the torturer's favorites. Indefinitely reusable, unstoppable, and extremely effective at any pressure point on the body.
The Flamedramon had clearly given up hope. He was staring at the wall across the room, his eyes dull and unfocused. He knew what was in that serum, and he knew what it could do. Now he was just waiting for the pain to start.
"Hey," the torturer said softly, and the Flamedramon focused on him.
"Just tell her what she wants to know," he said. "I know she'll let you go - despite her methods, she is a woman of her word."
Flame regarded him for a few seconds, then shook his head.
"I will rather die than betray my friends, human."
Corporal James "Hammer" Harding regarded him for a few seconds, then shrugged. "Have it your way."
"Ok, Kaida, tell me what's got you so excited," Edan said, clearly lost. Kaida was looking at a massive screen filled with cryptic data readouts, and she was grinning hugely.
"There," she said, pointing to a random point on the screen. Edan tried desperately to see, but nothing was forthcoming out of all the chaos.
"Kaida, you've seriously lost me."
"Look," she said, and the door slid open. Jet came walking in.
"Ah, there you are," he said to no one in particular. "Didn't find out anything from my undercover friends. And you guys?"
"Kaida's found something, but she won't tell me what it is," Edan said, seeming slightly hurt.
"Oh, whatever," Kaida said, brushing him off. "Jet, you might want to see this."
"For real?" Jet said, walking over to Kaida and standing next to her. "I don't see anything."
"There," she said, pointing at another random point on the screen. Jet strained, but he couldn't see anything out of the ordinary.
"Is this some sort of trick question?" Edan asked.
Kaida shook her head. "It might be our salvation," she said, beginning to type again.
"Sounds good," Jet said, folding his arms and waiting. "What's involved?"
"A French wine cellar and a master datacard."
Now she had lost them both.
Cindy walked into the room just as the laptop beeped, signalling that the device was ready. Corporal James looked over at her, and nodded to acknowledge her presence.
"Has he said anything?" she asked, walking towards him.
"Nothing," he said. "I was about to start the next phase."
"Thank you, Corporal, but I'll take it from here."
James Harding bowed, cast one last look at the Flamedramon, and left the room. He was glad to hand this phase over to her.
Cindy regarded Flame, saying nothing until the door closed. Then she looked down at the laptop. On the screen was a three-dimensional model of Flame's body, viewing from the front. His entire body was filled with a bluish, granular glow. On the left side of the screen was a simple sliding scale, at 50.
She looked back up at Flame. "You know what the torturer's put in your system, don't you?"
Flame said nothing.
"Nanobots," Cindy said. "Several billion nanobots. You know what nanobots are, don't you?"
Flame lifted his head and looked at her, but still said nothing.
"Those nanobots have spread out across your entire system, and have latched on to your nerve fibres at every level. On the screen next to me," she said, gesturing to the laptop, "I have the interface for those nanobots."
"Just get it on with," Flame rasped. Cindy laughed and shook her head.
"Not yet, Flamedramon. I'm still getting to the good part."
Flame slumped again.
"Each of these nanobots is designed to absorb your neural energy, to concentrate it, and then to administer it back to you at whatever voltage and amperage I choose here. Even better, I can localise an area - say, a wound - and increase the pain in that area tremendously."
Flame was starting to lift his head again. Cindy looked at the screen, then placed her finger on the slider, dragging it down to 2. Then she looked back at Flame, who was staring at her, determination in his eyes.
"I can go from this," she said, stroking Flame's foot on the diagram. He felt a sharp tingle rush through his left foot. Not painful yet, but...
"... to this," she said, dragging the slider up to 30.
The tingle erupted into a pulsating, searing sensation. It felt as if Flame's foot was being burned off in molten steel - but there was no relief caused by a disappearing appendage.
Flame knew how low the power was set, and he knew how far it could go. He knew that it would never run out of power as long as he was alive, and it would never kill him because it never caused bodily damage.
Above all of that, he knew that his fate lay in the gentle brush stroked applied to the LCD surface of the laptop - and he knew the hand that would be administering his torture from here, until he cracked.
He screamed at the top of his lungs.
"Alright, Kaida, please start explaining yourself." Edan said.
"Okay, okay. Look, I said we had three Earth-based listening stations. The largest of those has a range of 1500 miles, but I just found out that it's offline."
"How does that help?" Jet asked.
She waved him down. "The station covers the entire continent - north and south. It was one of Gennai's primary stations, before Invisible decided to run amok and wipe out the rest."
Jet shook his head. "Not following," he cautioned.
"That station has the power to look anywhere, at any time, and at any level of detail. It's like having a camera at every point on the continent - along with sound, data and EMF inputs. It's the ultimate - and if Flame's still anywhere on the continent, we'll be able to find him in no time. But unfortunately, it's been disabled."
"But," Edan asked, "How does that help?" beginning to connect the dots - and sensing Kaida's rising hope.
"The station is a mainframe-class computer sitting on a highspeed Internet line - in central France. Paris, to be exact. And Gennai left the master activation key - a card - in the Chelone base, should we ever need it."
"And..." Edan said, his words trailing off as he looked at Kaida.
She turned and smiled at him.
"We can turn it back on."
Flame slumped again. Cindy had stopped the flow of pain to his foot. Now she was waving her hand across the display, selecting other points on his body.
"Flame," she said. "I'm going to ask you three more times."
"Hnnh..." Flame said.
"Where is Chelone's anchor?"
"No," Flame said.
"Where is Chelone's anchor?" she asked again, hand poised over the screen.
"Never," Flame whispered.
"Flame. Last chance before I burn the answer out of you. If you want to be any good to your friends, you'd better answer now."
Flame looked up one last time, staring her right in the eyes.
"Where ... is ... Chelone's ... anchor?" she asked slowly, staring right back at him.
"Fuck you," he whispered.
Cindy grinned.
"Just the answer I was hoping to hear," she said, and jabbed the LCD display.
"Here it is," Kaida said, handing Edan a small, flat, black object. He looked at it, then pocketed it. He was in his human form right now, about to sneak into one of the busiest cities in the world. To turn on a dormant mainframe and reconnect it.
Thereby ensuring their chances of finding Flame - and to him, that was worth any risk.
"Right," he said, then checked his other pouches. He was dressed in a black overall-like outfit, with a utility belt around his waist. The material was a type of basic Kevlar armor - it would greatly reduce damage from bullets. The pouches contained numerous things - a multitool Swiss army knife, several small bundles of cables, the data card, a few clips of .45 ACP ammunition, a scabbarded hunting knife, and a very unique cellphone.
Finally, in a hip holster, was the partner to the ammunition - a silenced .45 caliber Heckler Koch tactical pistol.
"All set," he said, hopping slightly to check that all the pouches were closed, and that everything was cinched tightly to his body. Stealth would be of the essence here.
"Okay," Kaida said. "I've opened a link to Paris in that chamber," she said, pointing at a nearby door. "You'll arrive in our Paris station, and I'll be in touch via your datalink."
Edan nodded. It had been a long time since he had done this, but he felt confident that he would pull it off. And this time, he realised, he had a little magic to aid him...
He grinned, then turned to Kaida.
"Let's get this party started," he said, then turned and walked off towards the teleportation chamber. Kaida watched him go, then left for the control room.