Chapter 12: Just like James Bond

Outside Klaus' house

Sophie

The ice- cold air hurt my throat as I ran down the snowy hill, towards the electricity pylon. I made my way through the trees and bushes, until I saw a glimpse of black. I recognized Michael's coat, but didn't saw the blue of Lok's. Quickly I walked towards Michael. He was standing bent over a figure in blue. Lok!
"Michael!" I yelled. "What happened?"

Michael looked over his shoulder. "Oh hi Sophie."

"W- what happened?" I asked again.

"Lok fell out of the electricity pylon." Micheal said. "But don't worry, he's alright; a bad penny always turns up." He said quickly when he saw my shocked face.

Lok moaned and sat up. "Darn that hurts…." He rubbed his head. I sat down on my knees and plucked the pieces of ice out of his hair. "Oh you're such a sad sack." I said, and I sighted. Sometimes he was like thé clumsiest person ever. But also the cutest one.

"Maybe but I have cut the wires!" Lok said happily. "Well… ok actually Freelancer has cut them… but they're cut, that's what matters. "

I exhaled, relieved. That meant the cameras probably hadn't seen me.
"Well done Lok." I said, and I helped him stand up. "And I've hit the guards with a sleep- spell so…"

"… it'sshowtime!" Michael finished my sentence.

Inside, a few minutes earlier

Klaus

I closed the metal door of Mr. Vale's prison cell, and locked it. I wondered whether I was going to kill him first, and then Zhalia, or the other way round.
I walked through the white hall, like I had done hundreds of times before. My lab here in Slovenia was my favorite one. It was remote, big, and the house above it was fully equipped.
My feet automatically brought me to the hallway at the right angle to this one, where Zhalia's prison cell was. I stood still in front of her door, and opened it with my key.

She was sitting against the back wall, with an expressionless face, and didn't seem to notice my entry. Or she pretended not to notice.
Apart from a few scorch marks on her clothes she looked the same as always. Though she was very pale, and her eye make- up a bit blurred, which told me that she, despite her unaffected attitude, was cut up by me indeed.
I found it odd how I loved and hated her at the same time. But the hate was stronger, as always. And she was going to experience personally what that meant.

"Zhalia, Zhalia…" I said. "I'm sorry it has to end this way."

"No you don't." She said, still not looking at me.

A familiar feeling of irritation about the fact she always had to have the last word came over me. But before I could react, the lights suddenly went off. What on earth?
"Boltflare." I said, and a yellowish sphere of light appeared, lightening up the room again. I looked around me suspiciously, but didn't see anyone except Zhalia.

"Have you forgotten to pay the electricity bill?" She asked with an undeniable amount of gloating in her voice.

"Silence!" I shouted. I had the strong feeling something wasn't right. Or perhaps one of those idiotic guards has caused an electrical breakdown…
I left the room immediately, leaving Zhalia behind in the darkness. I had to solve this problem first, before I would deal with her. Fortunately I knew there had to be an emergency power unit here somewhere.

Dante

It took me a few seconds to realize that no electricity meant that the door wasn't electrified any more. Meaning that there now was a tiny little chance I could escape.
In a burst of urge to survive I stood up, and inch by inch I slowly moved forward. It was so dark I couldn't even see the contours of the room. It felt like I was blind.
Suddenly my foot hit something hard and solid; the wall. Carefully I moved alongside it, until I felt the cold metal of the door against my arm. I took a deep breath, took a few steps backwards, and tried to break through it with all my strength. Of course I could as well have tickled it with a little feather, because it didn't even had a scratch. A little voice in my head said that this was hurting me more than the door, but I ignored it, and continued.
A few minutes and a lot of bruises later, I gave up. That door wasn't going to break, no matter what I did.
I sighted, and sat down, with my back against the door, and stared into the black nothing, thinking absolutely nothing.

Outside

Lok

After putting on the typical Organization suits (with dark sunglasses of course) Sophie had brought in her backpack, we sneaked through the bushed to the back of the house. Though the cameras were off and the guards asleep, we tried to stay out of sight, in case anyone inside would see us.
I felt just like some kind of James Bond.
The name is Vale. Lok Vale.

"Man, look over there! That dude's got a pool!" Michael whispered enthusiastically, disturbing my James Bond- spy fantasy.

I saw it to. The mist- like condensed air above the water surface indicated that the pool was heated. The idea of jumping into it was very tempting, but most certainly not a smart thing to do.

"Good for him." Sophie whispered sarcastically. "Now check if it's safe to go inside!" She whispered loudly, but quietly enough to still be whispering though.

I moved a branch, and glanced towards the backside of the house. Because the house was located on a hill, the pool was right under the big windows of the living room. And when I say big, I mean really, really big; from the floor to the ceiling, and from the right wall all the way to the left.
Brownish and grayish stone tiles formed a path from the pool to the wooden stairs, which led to an inconspicuous windowless white door, which had almost the exact same color as the house. I guessed that was the backdoor, which was probably locked and therefore not a good way to come in. I turned my attention to the windows again. The living room was sparsely furnished, and there was no one inside.

"Michael, you think what I think?" I whispered.

"If you're thinking: Let's take a break from our mission and jump into the pool, then yes."

Behind us Sophie snorted disapproving.

"No, I mean that our best chance is to go through the window."

"Yeah that was the second thought in my head."

"Let's go then, and quick" Sophie whispered. "God knows how much time Dante has left…."

Sophie

"Hyperstride!"

Nervously I watched how Michael jumped up, and grabbed the narrow stone ridge under the living room windows. Without any trouble he pulled himself up, so that he was standing on the ridge. If he would have been Lok, he probably would have fallen off it.

"Touchram!" He said, and green energy grinded the glass of the most left window to powder, with a way too loud clank. I prayed nobody had heard it.
Michael stepped inside, and waved at us.

"Hyperstride!"Lok and I said in unison. In a split second we landed on the with glass- strewn floor.

I was surprised how big the living room was, way bigger than it had seemed from outside. The only furniture was a big black couch against the grey painted left wall, a glass coffee table in front of it, and a flatscreen tv on the opposite wall. There were also a few creepy abstract paintings of human- like figures on the wall. But furthermore the room was empty and very impersonal.
Suddenly my eye fell on the big wooden bookcase in a dark corner of the room. It didn't seem to fit in, and I was almost certain it was hiding an opening or something like that.

None of us dared to speak, so I moved my head towards the bookcase to let Michael and Lok know I found it suspicious. They nodded, and covered my back as I studied the bookcase. It was filled with old looking books about mythical stories and torturing. Cold shivers ran through my body.
Focus Sophie!
Old brownish books… old brownish books… more old brownish books… a blue book. I frowned. The book was very different from the others, and seemed brand- new. I grabbed it, convinced that a door would open or something like that, but nothing happened. I felt disappointed. Had I been I been wrong? Is this just an ordinary bookcase?
I looked to the thick black letters on book cover. It was a time. 02:26
What a weird title for a book…. I flipped through the pages, but they were empty. I couldn't understand why somebody would put an empty book in his bookcase. Unless… the contents don't matter…. it's all about the title!
02:26…. My mind worked at top speed. 2nd shelve, 26th book!
"2nd shelve, 26th book!" I said excitedly, making Michael and Lok throw nervous be- quite looks at me.
I counted the books. 10, 20, 24, 25… 26! It was a really thick brown book. Carefully I pulled it out and…. The bookcase opened like the doors of an elevator.
I had been right, as always! I thought contently, but that happy feeling soon turned into fear, when thousandths of little black spiders came out of the opening. I wanted to scream but managed to control myself just in time.
"Guys….." I said with a trembling voice.

Michael turned around "Have you found a secret entrance-" He said, but quickly shut his mouth when he saw the scary little creatures that were crawling towards us.

"Quick Sophie come over here!" He said. "Overshield!"

A big blue shield appeared, protecting us against the spiders. Within seconds they had covered almost the whole shield. Their little spider- fangs were trying to break it, and it seemed like it was working.
"What kind of titan is this?" Lok asked.

"I don't think this is a titan, it's probably one of Klaus' experiments." I said. I knew enough of that creep to know this was typically something he would make.

"I don't care what they are just think up a way to destroy them, 'cauze I can't hold on to this much longer!" Michael said.

I saw little cracks appearing in the shield, and grabbed Lok's arm. My heart pounded like crazy and I felt a major panic- attack coming. I hated insects, and from all insects I hated spiders the most.
" LOK DO SOMETHING!" I screamed.

"Ok- ok, l- let me think…. Ummm.. ummm… I've got it!" He said. "Michael, I'm going to make a gap in the shield, you must put your hand through it and summon Fireblade!"

Michael's seemed to know exactly what Lok was aiming for. "Good idea little bro." He said.

"Boltflare!" Lok yelled, and a bright yellowish flash followed.

"Fireblade!" Michael yelled, and a with fire surrounded ninja appeared outside the shield. In a big tornado of fire all the spiders died and disappeared.
Michael broke down the shield, and Fireblade returned to its amulet.
I exhaled relieved. This was probably thé most scariest thing I'd ever seen.

"Good work guys, now let's go into that not- bookcase." Michael said.

Lok

The small alley we entered was almost completely dark, so I summoned little light.

"There's a stairway." Sophie whispered, and she pointed forward. I also saw a elevator at the right, but I figured that would draw way to much attention (leaving the enormous amount of noise we had made in the living room out of consideration).

Michael went first, and Sophie and I followed him. It was so dark we couldn't see how far the stairway would go down, and I grabbed Sophie's hand. It felt like we were descending the stairway to hell or something like that.

-
Sorry for the late update… my computer crashed, and since I'm a major computer- noob, it took me some time to repair it (read: it took my little brother some time to repair it xD) And of course there were also a lot of hooray- it's- Christmas- vacation- parties to celebrate =)

Hope you enjoyed this new chappie :) Next chap they'll find Dante (finally!)
Btw; the story's almost finished now (I think another 3 or 4 chapters), so stay tuned….. And REVIEW!