I hurried down one of the halls, searching for a flight of stairs to descend towards the basement.
As important as this mission was, I was beginning to feel angry with Matt's treatment. Time and time again, he had ordered me around.
"Do this, do that…" I sneered for a moment, before realizing I was making needless noise.
I glanced towards an elevator. Noticing it went to the basement, I pressed the 'down' button to call the elevator.
I held my paw there for a moment, observing my paw and arm. 'It must be because of what I look like. He thinks I'm dumb because of what I look like.' I clenched my fist, accidentally letting out a low growl.
I stopped abruptly, and sighed silently to myself for making yet more useless noise. 'Maybe he's right. I wonder if I'm losing it…' I closed my eyes to relax for a moment.
A 'ding!' made me open them abruptly. The elevator had come. I dashed behind a plant and watched the elevator doors open.
After a few moments with nothing coming out of the doors, and no noise coming from inside them, I inched silently into the elevator.
I hurriedly pressed the 'B1' switch, and relaxed a bit once the doors closed.
'I need to get out of this body…' I whined to myself. 'I need to get out of all this stress…'
My thoughts were again interrupted. The elevator stopped, and I almost recoiled due to the noise coming from the basement hallways. How was I going to get past what sounded like tens of people?
I hid in a corner of the elevator, not sure what do to, as the doors opened.
An answer was quickly given to me, as I watched a drowsy-looking creature dressed in a lab technician's outfit meander into the elevator. He slowly pressed the button for the first floor, and slumped against one of the walls.
"Man…too much work…too long a shift…" the technician droned on.
"Then you should take a nap." I responded after inching behind him, and kicked him upside the head. He fell with a groan.
I quickly unclothed the creature, finding him to be something similar to a purple rabbit, though a wicked-looking one. The suit was a tad small for my body, but covered me from head to toe, save a hole for my tail. Looking at the reflection of myself off the light-lit metal wall of the elevator, I concluded that I would pass as just another technician.
The elevator opened at the first floor again, and I took the opportunity to drag the bunny behind a couch. I knew he wouldn't wake up for a while.
I hurried back to the elevator and again it descended towards the basement floor. I stepped out and was treated to a most busy sight. Many different creatures were running to and fro, obviously following strict orders. All were dressed in suits just like mine, though in numerous sizes.
The business encouraged me, however. It would be much easier to blend in with all the noise. And with the business came the heightened possibility of finding Tai.
I walked down the hallway – long as it was – and looked carefully at the labels of each door I came across. 'Janitorial Dept.' 'Bio-Medical Engineering Dept.' 'Lab 1'…
"Hey! You!"
I glanced nervously over my shoulder at the voice, and jumped a bit as I realized the command was directed at me. The speaker was a large, large creature, almost three times my size, also dressed in a lab outfit.
"Yeah, you, red fire tail guy." He sneered, talking as if he would rather do anything else in the world besides talking to me. "You a new techhie?"
I froze for a minute, fumbling with my words. "Um…y-yeah…that's right..uh…what's up?.."
He laughed mockingly. "Reptiles."
I felt very irritated by the comment, but he continued. "You're needed in Lab 5. It's an important subject for testing. They need more help. The lab's that way. Go." he volleyed out.
He spun me around to the direction he desired and pushed me hard. I stumbled, but quickly stood up again and moved towards Lab 5, wherever that was. I moved with haste, flaring mad for the treatment of the technician. Once I knew that the mocker was out of sight, I ducked into a doorway and breathed for a moment.
"Focus…on the mission.." I tried to calm myself in a quiet voice. "Look for Tai…rescue him…get out."
I punched a wall to relieve myself of my anger, then rushed down the hall again. Finding Lab 5 wasn't difficult; it was one of the few rooms with double doors.
Pondering what the burly technician had said about an 'important subject for testing', I decided to give the lab a try. 'Plus, who knows. He might try to kill me or report me or something if I don't go in.' I thought grimly to myself.
I opened the doors and stepped into a curious room. There were many medical instruments, tools, and machines all around. In the center of the room was something similar to a patient bed, but was covered over by glass and had numerous machine grouped around it and also attached to it.
Several technicians were milling around the room, checking displays on the machines and glancing over to the bed once and a while. One of them quickly came up to me.
"Good, more help. We need it." The laboratory employee, about equal to my size, said kindly to me. "And what's your name?"
"Shut it up, Gabun." One of the other technicians yelled at him. "Don't waste your time making friends. We've got work to do."
Gabun shrunk away. "Work the habitation mainanary unit, please." He asked me, pointing to a machine close to the glass bed structure.
I nodded slowly and walked up to the machine. I decided to fake a few button presses to the unit's interface, then casually stole a glance to the bed. I had to hold back a gasp.
It was Tai.
Ed: I'm glad to return after too long a delay! Sorry, my fans, for that year's wait. A lot has gone on in my life, and I also felt quite disappointed since Kanada took his version of this fan fic (remember, mine's actually a retelling of his that takes a different viewpoint) down offline. I thought my story wasn't worth much after that.
But I came back and read all the nice reviews and pleas you peoples left me. It made me all teary eyed… sniff
Now I have made a sincere promise to complete this fan fic. So I'm not backing down! Yee-haa!
Hope that you fans aren't too mad at me. I won't do it again! Or if I do, I'll leave a distinct warning beforehand!
…Anyways, I'll try to chug out a good number of chapters AQAP. (As Quick As Possible) Hope that I haven't lost my touch!