A/N: I'm pretty frustrated right now. I've been working on this chapter for weeks, on top of all the homework and projects and other crap that I have to do. I spent so long writing this one, but… I really don't like how it turned out. Oh, well. Hope you guys enjoy it more than I enjoyed writing it, because this was torture. Don't worry, though; after this chapter it's all smooth sailing. It's going to be a blast :)

This one's from 2D's POV (Kind of. It's still 3rd person, but… yeah, you get the point). You need to know a little about Murdoc's 'secret lair' to understand some of it, but if you don't I'm sure you can manage just fine.

Enjoy!

Disclaimer: Nope. Don't own it.

~Chapter Two: Protracted~

The whole scene seemed frozen in time, like everyone was just stuck where they were, unable to move. Unable to breathe. Unable to do anything, really. Yet 2D could see everything that was happening perfectly. Did he understand what was happening perfectly? No, not really. Did he understand what was happening at all? Nope. Yet here it was. There he was, sitting on the floor with his back against the wall, too scared to do anything other than let out the occasional whimper. There was Murdoc, who had just lowered his gun and was now staring at the button in the Cyborg's hand, his mouth hanging open slightly. And there was the Cyborg, who was smiling a huge, evil grin, the bomb trigger still held up high for the world to see. The world was frozen. Nothing happened. Nothing stirred.

It was then, during that silence that seemed to eat away at the very souls of the band mates, that 2D realized how entirely hopeless the whole situation was. Murdoc wasn't going to get them out of this one. They were going to die in a fiery explosion of plastic. He was going to die. Stuart Pot was going to die.

A sob escaped his lips.

Then something shifted. Something changed. Something actually happened. And it didn't, in any way or form, involve the island blowing to smithereens.

The cyborg's metal body suddenly went very stiff. One of her arms started twitching at her side. One of her knees gave out, and she sank down onto the other. Sparks sprang up out of her ears and eyes. And then…

She fell.

And didn't get back up.

2D looked up at Murdoc. Murdoc looked down at 2D. There was another type of silence lingering in the air now; one that had replaced the 'Doomsday Silence'. This was a different silence. It was a 'Holy-Crap-Did-That-Really-Just-Happen?' silence.

"Is she… dead?" 2D finally whispered, not trusting his legs enough to stand.

Murdoc didn't answer right away. Instead, he approached the robot that was sprawled across the ground, and cautiously nudged the side of her head with the toe of his boot.

For a moment, nothing happened. 2D was finally about to let out the breath he had been holding this whole time. But then the body twitched. It twitched again. And again. It beeped. It tightened its grip on the bomb trigger.

Breathing would have to wait.

"To the subs!" Murdoc yelled, already turning on his heels and sprinting to the lift. 2D grabbed his duffle bag and acoustic guitar case, stood up, and followed the Satanist into the circular elevator. Murdoc furiously pounded the button to the Study. The doors slid closed, blocking off the two men's view of the writhing mechanical figure. Then the lift began to move. Up, up, up. 2D had never felt more claustrophobic in his entire life. He wondered what would happen if the elevator just stopped right now. What if the cyborg cut the cables? What if it fell? What if she blew up the island while they were still on this death trap? The more thoughts entered the singer's usually empty head, the more he quivered in his boots. The fact that he was trapped in there with the man who had been keeping him captive for the past few months, nearly starved him to death, and forced him to use his amazing vocals for his mucked-up album wasn't helping much, either.

After what seemed like an eternity, the lift came to a stop and the doors opened, revealing the large study. Murdoc instantly strode out and retrieved his bags that were lying on the ground; 2D inferred that he must have abandoned them when he came to the rescue. Then the green-skinned man hurried to the writing desk pushed up against the opposite wall. He pulled open a drawer and retrieved something from inside of it.

"Catch," he told 2D as he threw whatever had been in the drawer at him. Instinctively, 2D threw up his arms to protect his face, and he felt something hard bounce off of them and land on the ground.

"Careful, faceache, I don't know if the safety's on!" Murdoc yelled, sending 2D a nasty glare. 2D glanced down at his feet. A small handgun was lying on the ground. He looked back up at Murdoc, who shrugged. "I have my one bullet left, and there's some machine guns where we're heading. I'll just grab some of those."

2D was a little surprised Murdoc trusted him enough to give him a gun, but stooped down to retrieve it nonetheless. When he stood back up, he couldn't see Murdoc anywhere. He almost panicked, but then he caught sight of the bassist standing by the wall in front of a large bookcase. If 2D didn't know any better, it would have seemed like Murdoc was looking for a good read!

"Er, Muds? What are you doing? I thought we were getting to the subs." 2D approached Murdoc carefully.

Murdoc didn't turn around; he kept his eyes on the bookshelf, searching for something intently. "We are."

"Then why-?"

"I need to push The Bastard."

"Well then why don't you just push yourself?"

Murdoc finally glanced over at 2D, sending him another nasty glare. "No, you idiot, it's a book! You know, like the book you see in movies that you have to push to get the bookcase to turn around."

"Really? I've always wanted to try one of those!"

"Good, so you can find the book. My vision is… er, well… just look for the damn book! I'm going to call Tattoo and Dave," Murdoc told him, apparently embarrassed that he had reached the age when his vision had begun to fail him. He ran back to where the elevator was, pushed the button to open the doors, and yelled down the shaft, "Dave, Tattoo! Get your lazy asses up to the study, go down to the lair, and get to the subs! You need to get off the island! Turn off the elevator once you get up here, too!" Then he shut the doors again.

After scoping the shelves for The Bastard, 2D finally found the right book. Just as Murdoc joined him in front of the bookcase, 2D gave the side of the book a small push. Almost instantly, unseen gears began to turn, and the bookcase slowly swung open like a giant door. 2D couldn't help but beam. "That was so cool! Just like in me movies! Right Murdoc?"

He didn't get an answer.

"Murdoc?"

Again, none.

"Mur-!"

"I'm down here, moron! The subs are at the bottom of the stairs, not the top!" He heard Murdoc's gravelly voice echo up from the hidden passage. 2D squinted into the darkness in front of him. Then he saw what the bookcase was really hiding: a set of dark, spiraled stairs going downward.

"Oh… coming!"

So he picked up his duffle bag, gun, and guitar case, made sure his meds and cell phone were securely in his pocket, adjusted his captain's hat, and started descending the stairs. It was really dark, and he had to squint hard to ensure he wouldn't miss a step and fall. His bags were heavy, and after ten seconds it got even darker. 2D gripped the railing for dear life.

He kept expecting the stairs to end after one bend, then the next, and the next, but they never did. They just kept on going. 2D frowned, wondering if it was possible to be going in circles while going down stairs.

After another minute, it began to get a bit ridiculous.

"What's taking you so long, faceache? Hurry up!" Murdoc's voice once again echoed from below 2D. It didn't sound like he was too far away, but the only person 2D could hear going down the stairs was himself.

"Sorry, there just seems to be an incomprehensible amount of steps!" 2D called back, still heading downwards. His legs were beginning to get tired.

"Well hurry up, will you? Seriously, how long does it take to walk down a never-ending case of stairs, eh?"

2D almost lost his footing. "What?"

"What, yourself! You're so slow; I got down ages ago!"

"But how's that even possibl-?"

The singer should have been paying more attention to his footing, because, mid-sentence, he finally missed a step. He stumbled forward, trying to catch himself on the railing, but the weight of his guitar case and duffle bag dragged him down, and soon he found himself tumbling down the flight of spiraled stairs, a tangle of arms, legs, and a gun.

Sooner than he expected, he came to an abrupt halt when he collided with something hard. For a few seconds he just sort of lay there, aching all over, trying to get the world to stop spinning. His head throbbed, and he could almost feel a large lump beginning to form. Then he felt something grab him by the front of his shirt and pull him roughly to his feet. Slowly, he opened his eyes and found himself face-to-face with a very angry looking Murdoc. And when he said face-to-face, he meant face-to-face. The singer's face was a mere inch or so away from Murdoc's, and it was not a pretty sight.

"What the bloody hell do you think you're doing?" Murdoc spat. 2D winced as the stench of Murdoc's breath hit his nose. It smelled like tobacco and booze.

"Sorry, Muds, I just didn't know tripping down a flight of never-ending stairs could hurt so much…" 2D mumbled in reply, trying half-heartedly to push away from Murdoc's grasp.

Murdoc snorted in disgust, then let the singer fall back onto the ground. "Come on."

2D slowly stood up, wincing as he put more weight on his legs, and hobbled after Murdoc, who had just rushed through a metal push-door on the left. When the singer walked through the doorway, a strange sight greeted him. He was in some sort of secret room. It must have been underwater, because it was completely made of dense metal, and fine layers of mold streaked the ceiling and upper walls as if there had been a leak. In front of the door were multiple cardboard boxes, which all smelled atrocious. On the opposite wall was a large array of guns, harpoons, and other rusty weapons. In the center of the room was a high-tech looking war table, and on the same wall as the door they had entered through was a large display of computer monitors, all focused on different things. Some showed rooms and other locations, while others had Internet pages open. Some were just broken or flashing things they weren't supposed to, which wasn't surprising; there was at least one thing in every room that didn't work properly.

"What is this place?" 2D asked in a slightly dazed voice, taking the strange sight all in. He hadn't really been out of his room much in the last few months, (like he had much of a choice), so it wasn't like he knew his way around all that well. But this definitely seemed like some sort of secret lair.

"My secret lair, of course!"

Bingo.

"Does the cyborg know about it?" 2D asked, still awkwardly standing by the door.

Murdoc was standing in front of the monitors, probably searching for any signs of the killer now. "Unfortunately, she knows about all the secret rooms on the island…"

"There are more?"

Murdoc finally lost it with all the questions. "Yes, there are more, you moron! They're all over the island! But it won't matter once it's blown to smithereens, will it?" He yelled angrily, face turning a violent shade of red, which looked odd on top of his green skin.

2D instantly shrunk back against the wall, covering his face with his hands in case Murdoc decided to hit him. When nothing happened for a few seconds, he lowered his hands again and saw Murdoc still looking at the monitors, eyes narrowed in concentration. 2D popped a few of his headache pills.

After a few more seconds, he turned back to 2D, his face it's normal (well, almost normal) color again, and said, "Dave and Tattoo are headed for the lift. But the cyborg's up again and heading the same way. I don't know why she hasn't just pushed the goddamned button yet, but we need to leave. Now." He was already at the wall with the guns on it by the time he finished talking, and had pulled down a large machine gun off of its shelf and replaced it with the old rifle he had been using before.

2D was about to ask where the subs were, but then decided it was probably best not to ask any more questions for the time being. Instead, he just nodded. The band mates gathered all their bags, weapons, and instrument cases and readied to go.

"The tunnel to the subs is right over here," Murdoc carried his things over to a doorway next to a large rusty anchor that 2D hadn't noticed before. "Let's move." Then he grabbed the handle and yanked the new door open. He was about to step through the doorway, when he suddenly froze, staring intently at something. 2D followed the Satanist's gaze to something on a stand next to the door. 2D didn't see how he could have missed it before.

On a tall stand near the war table was a large, old-looking book. It was faded and the binding was worn. On the front, in fancy lettering, read 'The Plastic Beach'. The book was sealed shut with a large lock.

"Murdoc, what's that?"

Murdoc's eyes never left the book. He was staring at it as if it held all the answers of life in its pages. Murdoc looked wistful; hungry, even. 2D didn't like it.

"Murdoc?" 2D repeated again, this time more intently.

His eyes still didn't waver. "Hmm?"

"What is that?"

"It's the… the book…"

"The book… about Plastic Beach?" 2D asked, confused.

"No… about everything… it just knows where… we are…"

2D was beginning to get worried. He didn't like all this talk of books knowing where he was. They had to get moving. The island could blow at any second, for Pete's sake! "Murdoc, you can bring the book if you want to, but we need to go!"

"The key's upstairs…"

2D tried not to groan, in fear of Murdoc getting angry with him. "Then I'm sorry, but we don't have time to get it. If we could just go-"

Murdoc finally turned to face the singer. But something was wrong. His eyes were far off; his body rigid. In a low, demonic-sounding voice, he hissed, "I need the key. I need it! GODDAMMIT, D, GIVE ME THAT KEY!" Murdoc was screaming, now, his eyes ablaze. His body was tensed and he was shaking. 2D stumbled back against the wall, mouth hanging open, completely unsure of what the hell was happening. Murdoc had started towards him menacingly, when…

An alarm suddenly blasted through a speaker next to the monitors. A red light flashed.

Murdoc stopped in his tracks, frozen where he stood. Something in his eyes flashed again. He stopped shaking.

The alarm had snapped him out of the trance.

"Murdoc, what does that alarm mean?" 2D asked, trying to sound braver than he felt. He had absolutely no idea what just happened, but right now the most important thing was getting off the island.

Murdoc swallowed hard, and in a hoarse voice rasped, "Means someone's coming down the stairs. Could be Dave and Tattoo, or…"

He didn't need to finish. Both of them knew who else could be coming this way.

"Murdoc, we need to go. Please," the blue-haired man stressed the word, determined to not let Murdoc get distracted again.

Murdoc nodded slowly.

Once again, they both picked up their things, then made a run for the door.

The book was left behind.

2D had no idea where they were going, so he was really hoping Murdoc knew. The door had led to a low-ceilinged hallway. It was damp and dark, and 2D couldn't help but feel trapped. If they were in fact underwater, was that whale out there right now? 2D didn't even want to think about it.

After a few minutes of sprinting down the dark passage, guns readied just in case, they finally came to the end. In front of them was a metal ladder, going up. Murdoc immediately stuffed his gun in his duffle bag and slung that over his back. Then he turned to 2D and said, "Throw up the instrument cases when I tell you to." With that, he hoped onto the ladder and started to climb. 2D watched as he climbed about ten feet, then hoped off onto another landing the singer hadn't seen before. The then hung his head and arms over the side and yelled down, "Now pass up the cases!"

Being tall, 2D could pass up the two cases without too much difficulty. After that was done, he, too, slung his bag over his back and climbed up to the landing. Murdoc didn't offer him a helping hand. Instead, when 2D hoisted himself up, Murdoc was already pulling open another door at the end of a small hallway in front of the landing. 2D followed quickly.

When he stepped through this doorway, a much different sight than Murdoc's secret lair greeted him. This door led to a huge cave. It took 2D a second to realize they were in an under-ground harbor. They were standing on a rocky ledge, and in front of them was a long, wooden dock. Many submarines of different shapes and sizes were parked along the dock, all bobbing merrily above the dark water.

"So this is where you were keeping the subs, eh?" 2D asked quietly.

Murdoc smirked. "Yup; my own secret harbor! We're right under the lighthouse, yeah know. Impressive, eh?"

"Yeah, but we should probably, uh, get off the island now."

Murdoc's good mood was instantly exterminated when he was reminded that he had to evacuate his own kingdom. "Don't tell me what to do, faceache," and with that he walked to the docks, giving 2D a push on the way by. The singer caught himself before he could fall.

Murdoc brought his stuff over to one of the first subs; it was a huge, strange-shaped one; dark blue and very different from any of the others. As 2D himself approached it, he realized what it was: a shark-shaped submarine. The mechanical shark's mouth was open, revealing a huge glass window.

"Blimey…"

Murdoc climbed a ladder to the top of the sub, where he was already opening the hatch to get in. When he opened the circular door, he threw his stuff inside, then jumped in, out of view. 2D hurried over and did the same, closing the hatch behind him.

When he landed inside, he instantly found that the sub looked a lot bigger from the outside than it was inside. Bright flashing lights, wide arrays of buttons and switches, and monitor screens lined the crowded walls. Everything smelled like a strange combination of gasoline and seafood.

2D placed down his bags, as well as the gun, in the back next to Murdoc's. Then he carefully made his way up to the front of the sub, trying hard not to touch anything. Murdoc was sitting in a chair in front of the control panels in the front, already pushing buttons, flipping switches, and pulling levers. Just watching the process was giving 2D another headache.

In a few minutes, 2D heard the submarine's propeller system roar to life. Some more lights flashed. A dull 'beep… beep… beep' started from somewhere.

They were ready to leave.

Murdoc stared out the huge windshield for a few seconds more, his focus somewhere else. "Goodbye, Point Nemo," he finally mumbled, eyes narrowed, "thanks for being worthy of housing someone as awesome as me."

The mechanical shark sank under the water.

2D watched out the window as they sunk deeper and began moving forward. The blue-haired man assumed that they must be heading out of the hidden harbor, because one second it was dark, and then the next light streamed in from the window. They were in open ocean now.

2D never liked the ocean much; mostly because it held the worst thing God had ever created in it; whales. But now, the water didn't look half bad. There was coral and seaweed of all different colors, schools of fish shimmering as they swam by, and even groups of Superfast Jellyfish, bobbing up and down in the water and wearing a happy little smile, as always. It all seemed very… peaceful. 2D almost forgot that they had just escaped from a place that was extremely explosive, and therefore extremely dangerous.

Almost.

They hadn't even gone for a minute before something hit them. Hard.

First came the noise. Even as far underwater as they were, they could hear the deafening sound of an explosion as if it were right behind them. It was loud enough to make anyone's heart stop beating. And for a moment, the water turned a violent shade of orange and red; a reflection of the fiery explosion taking place above it.

Then came the waves and the pieces of the island hitting them. The blast had such force behind it that the sub suddenly spun out of control, tumbling and rolling forward as if it had been hit with a gust of wind. Murdoc and 2D were sent flying forwards into the thick window, then backwards, then forwards again. Something hard hit 2D in the stomach, then in the back of the head, then he felt himself slam into something behind him. He bit his lip to not cry out, but the whole scene was so chaotic he doubted anyone would hear him, anyways. Then there came smaller noises; this time much closer. It sounded like someone was throwing rocks at the sides of the shark. 2D was too dizzy to realize it was pieces of the plastic island that were pelting them.

After what seemed like an eternity, the sub slowed down and stopped spinning. Now it was just floating idly underwater, taking it wherever the dull current wished. 2D found himself lying on the floor of the sub, near the back. His whole body ached, and he felt something warm trickling down the back of his neck. He realized with a jolt of fear that it must be blood. He continued lying there for a while, trying to get the world to stop spinning. Soon, he slowly sat up, using the metal wall for support, and looked around. Their bags were thrown everywhere, but everything seemed relatively in tact. An alarm was blaring from the wall; a big red light flashing repeatedly. Then 2D found Murdoc. He was curled up around the base of the chair in front, as if he was holding onto it for dear life. The singer realized that he must have found something to hold on to during the disaster. Good for him.

Murdoc slowly uncurled himself, using his shaking arms to hoist himself up. When he stood up, 2D saw that his lip was bleeding and his face was slightly bruised, but other than that he looked fine.

"Still alive back there?" Murdoc called to him, slumping back down into his captain's chair.

"Barely… I think me head's bleeding." 2D replied back in a dazed voice, slowly standing up. He reached for his pocket to pop a few more of his pills, and was surprised to find both his pill bottle and his cell phone in tact.

"Meh, get over it," Murdoc told him. He turned back to the controls, put his hands on the steering sticks, and…

"FUCK!" Murdoc screeched, instantly snatching his fingers away from the controls. "I think my bloody finger's broken!"

2D stumbled over, and sure enough, Murdoc's right pointer finger was black and swollen. "Huh. Must have gotten jammed on something when we were getting tossed around."

One of the Satanist's eyes twitched. "No shit, Sherlock. Now hand me a cig, will yeah? And check for any water leaks. That alarm is bothering the living shit out of me. We need to get this show on the road."

2D did as he was told, getting the Satanist a cigarette and a lighter from his bag and checking the walls of the subs for any visible water they were taking on. When he couldn't find any, he reported back to Murdoc, who was struggling to steer without moving his pointer finger. The bassist had managed to shut the alarm off, ("Dunno why the damn thing's going off if everything's bright and dandy here…"), and together the two rode away from the pile of melted plastic that used to be Plastic Beach.

2D was free. His prison was blown to pieces. The two things that had been trying to kill him were probably blown to pieces, too. And the other thing that had been trying to kill him had a broken finger. Stuart Pot was safe.

So why did he feel like the worst had yet to come?

A/N: Eh… I'm not feelin' it. I think the reason I don't like it very much is because the whole thing is moving so fast that 2D doesn't really have time to think. Well, he doesn't think much always, but still. I would have liked to include more about what he was feeling and thinking, but I really can't. Sorry. But I promise that most of the next chapter is going to be pretty laid back; mostly talking and thinking. Oh, it'll be great.

But what do you readers think? Please review and let me know what you think! Oh, and if you find any spelling or grammatical errors, please let me know. I'm a terrible proofreader.

I know there are a lot of unanswered questions, like where Dave and Tattoo are, where the cyborg is, why she waited so long to blow the place up, where our two heroes are planning on going next, and what was up with that psycho book. Well, do not fret, 'cause I haven't forgotten about those. All questions will be answered in the next chapter, which has a lot more dialogue than this one. Thank God.

Thanks for reading!

Until next time,

~blue-eyed-cow