Chapter 4: Rebels of the underground

Inside the main lab, confusion began setting in with the whole situation. The mystery person jumped in front of our group as Rose tapped in a few numbers and closed the large steel door behind her. She then pulled off the mechanism's covering and re-routed a few wires to jam the lock. She then pulled off her gas mask to reveal her beautiful face once again and fill her lungs with fresh air. I did the same because it is quite difficult to breath in these things despite it designed to help you breath in clouded air. It was the mystery person's turn to finally reveal him/her face. The person pulled off the large face mask and pulled back the hood on the black hooded sweater to reveal a familiar hair style and color. When the person turned around, I was finally able to get a glimpse of the person's face, a familiar face that I had longed to see for an entire week since my kidnapping. "Eric?" I gasped. "What? You didn't actually think that that thug's punch hurt me that badly, did you?" He asked with confidence. "I thought you knew me better than that." "How did you..." I started to ask but was interrupted by Rose. "A device of my creation called the 'dreamscape probe'. It allowed me to see into your dreams while you were asleep. I found how much you dreamt about him, so I searched for where he lived and came to explain the situation to him. We both learned that our ancestors were responsible for creating this world the way it is now and wish to help in any way possible to make amends for out ancestor's foolishness." She explained to me. "You could say that we were creating an underground rebellion against Igthorn."

"How touching." Dr. Lavender's voice could be heard saying from behind one of the large devices across the room. "So that's the reason you had for stalling the gummi bear's dissection." "I have a name you know! It's Sunni!" I yelled at the mad scientist. "He doesn't care about your name. To him, you're just another experiment." Rose said to me while aiming her gun at Dr. Lavender. "Wait, isn't he your husband or something?" I thought out loud. "It actually was a forced marriage." She explained. "Something Igthorn came up with to get us to get along. We always had differences in the way we studied and researched, so Igthorn immediately forced us to marry each other as a sort of punishment for the lack of progress. Love never entered the equation in the slightest." Shocked at that new found bit of information, I began to understand what was going on a little more.

A sharp pounding came from behind the large steel door that we had entered through. It was clear that we weren't getting out that way. Dr. Lavender began laughing maniacally when he discovered that that we had no way out. He inhaled deeply and sharply before speaking in a sinister and insane tone, raising his voice in both volume and pitch, "It seems that this rebellion will end worse than all of the others!" "Others?" I began to question, and then it just hit me on how stupid I sounded. "There have been about four other rebellions that I can recall that even made an impact on Igthorn's iron rule. And all of them were erased from the face of the planet." Eric said sadly. Thinking of all of those lives simply erased from existence made me slightly sick to my stomach. "Yes, your father at least knew his way around a strategy! Looks like you inherited your mother's foolishness!" Lavender taunted and began laughing hysterically once again.

Apparently, Lavender had struck a nerve in Eric. I could see tears running from his eyes while he was clenching his teeth and shaking like he was freezing. His eyes were tense and there was the flame of hatred dancing within them. His breathing had become rougher and his hands gripped his hand gun tighter as his rage grew. "Shut up! You don't know anything about me!" Eric shouted at the top of his lungs. "No need to get so upset, boy." Lavender continued to taunt. "After all, we all can't be as great and remembered as he." "I said SHUT UP!" Eric yelled as his finger squeezed the trigger of his gun, firing a single bullet from its barrel. The bullet's trajectory struck Lavender in the left shoulder and he was thrown into a slight spiral as he crashed to the ground. His red blood began to leak out as he lay on the hard concrete floor. "You think you scare me by simply firing a pitiful weapon like that? Thanks to you, my new defense system is now active." The moment he stopped speaking, a pace in the far wall began to slide open and out crawled a mechanical creature designed to look like a giant gargoyle with wings.

The mechanical beast let out an ear shattering high pitched screech that rang throughout the entire facility. "Meet my Gargoyle. The first and only flying defense robot that is fully automated with an AI." Lavender laughed hysterically. "What's an AI?" I asked Rose. "It's an 'artificial intelligence'. Basically a computer programmed to think for itself. Treat it as if it were actually alive but expect it to be completely loyal to Isaac." "Like those things that slaughtered my family?" I gasped. There was still a lot that I needed to learn even though I had been here almost two months. Doctor Lavender then began laughing his hysterical laugh as he ran as fast as he could to the opening in the wall where the metal creature had come out of. Eric tried to aim his gun at the insane scientist on more time but the large metal creature placed its long tail in his line of fire. The moment Eric had turned his attention back to the mechanical Gargoyle the creature let out another deafening screech and raised its right arm to attempt to pound Eric flat. I dove for Eric the moment the Gargoyle's hand came crashing down and was lucky to tackle him out of harm's way before he was crushed.

The gargoyle then turned its gaze to the two of us intent on trying again when a few bullets ricocheted off of its face. Turning to look in the direction of the recent attack it noticed Rose continuing to fire off single shots until her clip ran empty. Pressing the trigger three times before realizing that nothing exited the barrel she gazed at the gun and was swatted away like a fly. She went sailing across the room over tables and through a dark purplish liquid and finally landing around five feet from the wall. She struggled to rise to her feet while her breath had escaped her from the hit, coughing and gasping for air. This thing seemed just as invincible as the farm drones that destroyed Gummi Glen. I was about to panic when Rose called out to me, "Sunni, you need to get onto the back of its neck. It's the only opening you can use to sever its main CPU." Eric and I ran away from another attack from the Gargoyle's hand and I called back to her, "What the heck is a CPU?" Eric answered that question quickly, "Just look for a rectangular box with a lot of wires coming out of it. Like one of the car stereos I showed you on the first week you were traded to me." I still didn't like to be reminded that I was worth money but that at least gave me a visual to look for.

Looking back at the Gargoyle I realized that it would be nearly impossible to climb without getting spotted and/or hurt. "I'll need some gummi berry juice, original blend." I called out to both Eric and Rose. Confused, Eric called out to me, "Which one was the original blend?" Thinking of how to describe it quickly enough, I simply said, "It gives humans and ogres super human strength for around a minute or two." Suddenly, Rose called from behind me, "Sunni!" When I turned to look at her, she had crawled to a nearby chemistry table and had a corked flask of a thick, purple liquid in her right hand poised to be thrown. When she threw it to me she said, "Catch!" I ran toward the soaring flask with the intent of catching the liquid. It would prove difficult, though. The Gargoyle was determined to dispose of me before I could catch the bottle. It raised its right arm readying to smash me when I had reached a specific point until the sound of a gun rang in the air and one of its red, glass eyes shattered to pieces. With the Gargoyle distracted, I caught the flask of liquid and asked, "Is this what I think it is?" "It's a synthetic mixture. This is where we did research on the juice to maximize its time limitations. I just hope it helps." Rose informed me as she slowly pulled herself up using the table. I looked at the bottle questionably for a short second and then shrugged my shoulders and said to myself, I got nothing to lose anyway." I then pulled the cork out of the flask's opening and tipped it against my mouth and drank of the liquid.

The familiar scent, the familiar taste, and the familiar rush of energy flowing through my body. Just like Grammi used to make. I began to feel my body soften and my legs grew stronger. I hoped to heaven that this was the reaction I believed that it was, and so I ran toward the nearest wall and jumped onto it. My legs and torso scrunched together like a rubber ball being thrown against a wall and finally retracted, creating the familiar bounce of the original juice. It was slightly more intense than the original though, I sprang from the wall to the ceiling in a single bounce where a bottle of regular gummi berry juice I would have had to gain more spring by bouncing a few times before launching that high. Even though I actually didn't make it completely to the ceiling, I was able to press my right paw against it before plummeting back down. I bounded off of the Gargoyle's armor plating a few times before actually making it inside the opening in the back of the neck. It was a small opening so I barely had room to spare when I plunged right into it. I could hear the Gargoyle's screech even from inside the creature. It was strange being inside the thing. It was nothing more than a bunch of familiar parts and wiring. Most parts I recognized from learning how to repair cars from Eric and others I had never seen before in my life. The vast majority of it was wiring however and it was so clustered in there that there was no way to get anywhere without getting tangled in it. "How am I gonna find a small box in this? Talk about your needle in a hay stack."

Outside, the Gargoyle was acting like it was panicking due to my entrance into its metallic body. It was thrashing around and destroying random things that got in its way. It even began to slam its back against the walls hoping to either shake me out of there or crush me when its back plating collapsed inward. While it was doing that, I was frantically yanking out wires hoping that it would do the trick. Eventually, the Gargoyle simply stopped moving and crashed to the ground. Dazed, I crawled out of the Gargoyle's metal carcass and staggered toward my friends. Eric ran up to me and held me on my feet for a little while so I could let the world stop spinning. "Did we win?" I asked still delirious. "Yah." Eric said to me. "But Lavender got away." "Oh, I like lavender..." I said, my head still spinning. Eric looked at me like I was insane for a small moment until I added, "It's a pretty color." Then he simply shook his head and smiled in slight relief and amusement all rolled into one.

Rose came hopping up to us on her right leg. Her left leg seemed to have been injured in the struggle. "There still is the matter of escaping." She informed us with pain on her face. Eric looked around for any means of escaping. He soon located a window that was decently high up. "And me without a grappling hook." He mumbled, mentally kicking himself. Then the light bulb clicked on in his head. He turned to Rose and said, "How long does that synthetic formula last?" Rose understood his basic plan and answered, "I have no idea. It's never been tested on a gummi bear before." By this time my head had slowed down enough for me to understand what they wanted from me. "It still feels like it is still in effect." I said to them. "Now we need something for a rope..." Eric said looking around some more. Eventually he located a fire hose that proved to be long enough to use. Eric aimed his gun at the window and fired at the glass, shattering it into hundreds of pieces. Then I took the bundled up hose and bounced up to the broken window, landing on the flat part where the window was placed into the frame. I dropped the hose down to Eric and Rose and tossed the other end down as far as it could go down the other side of the building. I then held on for dear life as Eric first climbed up and rigged up a hold for the hose and slid down the other side. After that, it was Rose's turn. She took a little longer to climb out of the building, due to her broken leg, but when she had finally made it out of the facility, we kept under cover of shrubs and foliage to stay hidden from any guards until we were clear from the spot lights. After that, Eric led us to the vehicle that he used to transport himself to the facility. We entered the vehicle while Eric started the engine and he drove off back to the workshop for some supplies.