Chapter 22- Search and Rescue

" 'Not good'?!? 'Not good'?!?" Drake said. "Where the hell is 'Not good' coming from?!? This is bad, really bad! Without him, we're short on firepower again!"

"This is true." Flynn said. "He was a great duelist, and he stood up to the Shadow Game well. We truly have lost something here…"

"Yeah…" Keith said. And for a moment they all stood there. No one had died up to this point, and even though they had had quite a few close shaves before, but none of them had suspected that someone would actually die. And here was something in direct contradiction of it.

Flynn broke the silence. "We need to go." He said. "This is a torture chamber. If we get caught here, there won't be enough time to escape before they can get us too."

"Yeah." Drake said. He turned away. "Let's get out of here." He realized that he had broken into a cold sweat. He was incredibly nervous, he couldn't stop himself from shaking. He nearly dropped his rifle he was shaking so bad. Flynn laid a hand on his shoulder.

"Calm down, Drake." Flynn said. "Are you nervous about what might have happened to Julie?"

"Yes." Drake said. The image of a dead Julie was too clear in his mind, and he couldn't deal with it. Losing Bentz was bad enough, but to lose Julie… he didn't think he could live after that.

"She'll be fine." Flynn said. "She's been through more than any of us, and she's tough. We'll find her." Drake stopped shaking a little. He was still afraid that Julie would be dead or worse before they could reach her, but somehow he believed Flynn. Flynn nodded reassuringly. "Let's go."

Drake nodded back. Keith walked out of the room with Bentz's body and shut the door. "Yeah, let's go." He looked around. "Hey, where did Matt go?"

Drake and Flynn looked around. Matt had vanished from sight. Drake was confused. If Matt could have stayed with them, he would have. Drake didn't know why Matt had vanished so suddenly. Flynn tapped him on the shoulder. "There." He pointed toward the hall they had come from.

Matt was kneeling on the ground at the opening to the hall, griping his head so hard that his knuckles were white. His hood had fallen off, and his hair seemed to standing almost on end. His entire body was shaking. He seemed to be leaking the same energy that formed his Blue Sphere of Death. They all stared at him. Then Keith's eyes widened.

"Get out of the way!" He shouted, and pushed Flynn and Drake through a door to their left. They landed hard in a room filled with undoubtedly dead bodies. Drake sat up, rubbing his head.

"What was that for?" He asked. Keith looked almost frightened.

"I don't want to be around for what I think is about to happen." Keith said.

"And what is that?" Flynn said.

"It's not going to be pretty."

Drake was about to ask what he was talking about, but then he heard a noise out in the hall. Matt was speaking in a very quiet and deadly tone.

"You…you monsters… you dare to kill him…" His voice rose to a violent yell. "I'LL KILL YOU ALL!!!"

Drake tried to get up, but Flynn grabbed him and pulled him back down. "You don't want to get in the way of that!" He said. Drake opened his mouth to argue, but then Matt blew by the room. He was running at such a fast pace that the doors on the rooms were ripped off their hinges. He was holding one of his Blue Spheres of Death in each hand, though it was a miracle he saw anything at the pace Matt was moving. It was so fast, in fact, that Drake was sucked out into the hall. He was pulled across the hall and slammed against the opposite wall.

Stars flashed in front of Drake's eyes. He rolled over and sat up. Flynn and Keith had been pulled across with him, and were in similar states of shock. "What was that?" Drake asked. Matt's murderous shouts were still echoing down the hall, despite the fact that he must have been quite a ways away.

"I think that Matt just lost it." Keith said. "Odd, I didn't think he had it in him."

"He sounds pretty damn scary though." Flynn said. "We probably should go after him before he gets himself killed." Drake nodded and ran after Matt.

They found him quite a ways down the hall, breathing hard and standing over a massive pool of blood. His eyes were frightening, Drake thought, and his blue spheres had turned night black. His features had changed drastically, his skin had blackened and his hair had grown longer. His fingernails had grown into claws, and he was quite hunched over. His entire body was still shaking, and he was laughing maniacally under his breath.

For a moment Drake and the other two kept their distance from him. Then, slowly at first but then more rapidly, Matt's inhuman features receded, and they dared approach him. He turned to face them as they approached.

"Sorry." He said. "I shouldn't have done that."

"Exactly what did you do?" Drake said.

"I get a little aggravated and went on a killing spree."

" 'A little aggravated'?" Keith questioned.

"Okay, very agitated."

"Yeah, how many guys did you kill? And how did you reduce them to nothing but a pool of blood?" Flynn said. "And what did you kill?"

Matt shrugged. "Don't know. I just killed anything that got in my way. I wasn't really paying attention. I usually don't when I do that. Again, sorry I did that and left you guys behind."

"Why did you do that?" Drake asked. Matt's eyes flared and Drake jumped. "S-s-sorry… I won't ask." Maybe it was just the eye, but Drake knew it was a question that Matt didn't want to answer.

"Uh, where are we?" Flynn said.

"Just a little farther into the torture cells." Keith said. "I don't think we got out of them yet."

"No we haven't." Matt said. "Crap, I probably just drew a ton of guards to our position."

"It doesn't matter." Flynn said. "We can take 'em."

"I hope so." Matt said. "After that, they'll probably send everything they have after us now that I've mutilated their guards. And this looks to be a pretty important place, judging from all the hi-tech locks and heavy metal doors."

"You're right." Keith said. "I wonder if there's anyone in here-" He was cut off as a piercing scream echoed down the hallway. Drake's mind ran wild. He knew that scream; he had heard it too many times as it was, and he didn't want to here it again.

"That was Julie!" He said, and began to run down the hall.

"Wait!" Matt caught him before he got far. "Take your time! If you go rushing in, you risk them killing her the moment they see you!" Drake pulled Matt's hand off his shoulder.

"You should talk! Going berserk and running off like that!" Drake said. It was not a good thing to say. The murderous intent returned to Matt's eyes. His right hand shot to Drake's neck, and he almost effortlessly lifted Drake from the ground. Drake gasped for breathe, Matt was incredibly strong. Then, for no apparent reason, Matt let go. Drake fell to the ground, still gasping and massaging his neck.

"Don't ever say anything like that again. I will kill you." Matt turned away. Then he turned back, and his eyes were full of concern. "Hang on, what just happened?"

" 'What just happened'? How can you not remember?" Keith said. "You just tried to strangle Drake!"

"I did?" Matt said. "Whoops, did I go berserk before this?"

"Yes! How can you not remember?!?" Flynn said.

"Well, after we found Bentz dead, I kind of lost it and I can't remember much. I have this vague memory of talking to you guys next to a pool of blood, but else nothing." Matt said. "That must have been Evil Matt. He tends to come out whenever stuff like this happens. I must have still been around here somewhere, otherwise he would have crushed Drake's throat. I'm sorry."

"It's okay, I guess." Drake said. "I should apologize, too. I was out of line with that comment, and to insult you after you've done so much for us… I was wrong."

"It's alright. I've had lots of worse things done to me. Now, what is going on?"

"We heard Julie scream from somewhere down the hall." Drake supplied.

"You think it was Julie." Keith said. "How do you know?"

"I'm sure of it."

"How?"

"Don't know."

Keith looked doubtful. He was about to object again when Flynn interrupted. "Look, does it matter who it is, we still have to save her!"

"An excellent point, Flynn." Matt said. "Follow me and stay quiet." He slid up next to the wall and started walking along it. Drake noticed that he was carrying Helen.

"Hey, Matt, where did you pick up the prof?" Drake asked.

"I found her possessed near the core of the realm. I decided it wasn't a good idea to leave her lying around and I've been hauling here around ever since." He replied. "But quiet!" A scream came out of the door they were next to. Matt looked in through the bars on the door, winced, and dropped back down. "Damn! Those assholes…"

"What's going on?" Drake said. "Is it Julie?"

Matt set Helen's body on the ground. "Yes, it is. And damn, I'd hate to be in her position."

"What are they doing to her?" Drake asked. Hurry up and spit it out, Matt! It's killing me!

"They are electrocuting her." Matt said calmly. "Not with much voltage, I'm sure."

"How can you be sure?" Keith asked.

"One: I can see the machine that they have her hooked up to. Second, they have another machine in there, seemingly ready to be used. And they'll need her alive if the plan on using it."

"What's the machine? Stop leaving off bits of information!" Drake said.

"Alright. It's a machine used to extract souls. I would assume they want her soul for some purpose… but I don't know exactly why. It could be for almost anything. Maybe they just want her out of the way, or to take control of her considerable dueling talent. But if they wanted to get rid of her, they'd kill her. Maybe they want information they can only get with threats."

"Okay." Flynn said. "So we need to rescue her, obviously?"

"Yes, obviously. So, here's the plan. We walk in-" Julie screamed again. Drake could her the electricity, and he nearly broke into tears. "-with guns blazing. Be careful not to hit each other, but don't worry about me. Alright?" Julie screamed again, but this time it was a little faint.

"We've got the plan, let's go!" Drake said, and grabbed the door handle. There was a strange sensation, and then he felt an immense pain and smelled burning flesh. The door was electrified! Flynn grabbed him and pulled him back.

"Are you all right?" Matt said.

"Yeah." Drake said, shaking his head. He felt bad, but he had to save Julie!"

"I doubt that, but we have no time to argue. It sounds like Julie isn't doing too well." Matt reached for the door, shoved his fingers through it, and ripped the door clean of its hinges. "GO!" He dashed in ahead of them. Drake shook his head, stood up, and ran into the room.

The first fiend he saw was absolutely massive and very surprised. Drake unloaded an entire clip into it and it still didn't die. Drake loaded another clip in and unloaded about half of it into the fiend's jaw. It finally went down. Drake turned to see another few fiends coming towards him. They were also very large. He raised his rifle to fire, but stopped when Matt dashed in front of him, picked up one of the fiends (My god! Drake thought, That thing must weigh at least a ton!) and threw it at its compatriots, all of whom died.

For some reason Matt went down to the ground, clutching his arms. This would have given the fiend he had thrown a window of opportunity to strike, except that Drake emptied an entire clip into its head, causing it to keel over and die. Drake ran over to Matt.

"Are you alright?!?" He shouted. Matt shook his head. Drake loaded in another clip and stood ready to defeat anything that came his way, but whatever had been in that room had been stomped out by their attack. Flynn and Keith ran over.

"What's wrong with Matt?" Flynn asked.

"I don't know!" Drake said. "He just picked up one of those fiends, threw it, and went down! I'm not sure why."

"Ow…" Matt said, and stood up slowly. "Great. Just great." Drake could see blood leaking out from under the bandages on his arm. It was flowing a little more freely from his other arm. Both his arms hung uselessly at his sides. "This isn't good."

"What's wrong?" Keith asked.

"Later." Matt said. "We need to check on Julie. She's in worse condition than I."

"He's right!" Drake said. He rushed to the center of the room. Julie was strapped to a table. Several little attachment probes were stuck to her head, forearms, and lower calves. The bindings that attached her to the table were cutting into her wrists and ankles, and the one around her waist had begun to cut through her jacket and into the skin under it. Drake quickly undid the bindings. Julie's body rolled limply off the table. Drake caught it and smelt burnt flesh. They had certainly been electrocuting her, or burning her. She was breathing shallowly.

Thank God she's still alive. Drake thought. He buried his face in her chest and started crying. She seemed so dead like that, Drake couldn't help himself. Besides, no one was watching. It took him a while to pull himself together. By that time, Keith, Flynn, and Matt had made their way over to him. Drake quickly wiped the tears away.

"Ready to go?" Flynn said. "Is she okay?"

"Yeah." Drake said, and sniffed. He wasn't sure if any of them noticed (except, of course, for Matt, who noticed everything) but he didn't care. "Let's get going. Is Matt okay?"

"Apart from having most of the muscles in his arms torn to shreds, he's fine." Keith said.

"It's nothing." Matt said. He raised both arms above his head and moved them around a bit. "See? I'm fine."

"How did you do that?" Flynn asked. "A few seconds ago the muscles were split in so many places it was like a cake at one of my family birthday parties! And I have a lot of relatives!"

"We can't stay here." Matt said, ignoring Flynn's question. "We need to get moving." He walked out the door and picked up Helen's body again. "Come on, we need to hoof it to the Vault of Souls." He vanished around the door. Drake, bearing Julie's body, Flynn and Keith, both wearing looks of disbelief, followed.