Ow. Where am I? And why does my arm hurt so much?

Richard opened one of his eyes a crack. Concrete floor. Concrete walls. Cameras in the upper corners of the room. People moving around, talking in hushed tones.

Great. Now I'm part of the "hostage situation".

He began to sit up. Someone called out, "Hey, I think he's awake!"

Richard winced as he felt his right shoulder. Broken. Definitely. He looked around the room at the others. "So... Where'd they grab you from?"

"Nellie? And... Fiske, Phoenix, Regan, Ted, Natalie, and Alistair? You're all okay?"

Nellie rolled her eyes. "Are you that surprised? Actually, with what's been going on, that's not a bad question. So, who are you?"

Fiske answered for her. "Richard? Richard Maxwell?"

"The one and only," Richard replied, almost automatically. "How've you been, Fiske?"

"Well-"

"I'll tell you how we have been doing. We have been stuck in this room for weeks, maybe months, in the same ugly orange outfit, eating nothing but a potato a day and a bit of grungy water! And my manicure!" Natalie continued, "It hasn't been this bad since the Clue Hunt. And even then, I could stop at any place and get my nails done. And look at my hair! It's all greasy and smelly and-"

"We get it, Nat." Nellie lent her good arm to Richard, who pulled himself into a kneeling position.

"Thanks."

"Don't mention it. Now, you never answered my first question."

"What was- Oh, right." Richard sighed. "They nabbed me right out of my hospital bed."

"They what?"

Richard grinned at Regan's reaction. "Yep. Now, you're probably wondering how I got there. Well, it was because of this." He pulled down the collar of his jumpsuit so she could see.

"Whoa."

"Yeah."

"What happened?"

Richard shifted so he was sitting with his legs crossed. "Do you really want to know? I have to warn you, those who are faint of heart shouldn't listen."

"Yeah, I want to know!" As soon as he mentioned the faint of heart, Regan was taken.

His grin grew wider. "There I was, trapped between three Vespers. One was blocking the exit. One was in front of me, and the other had a gun under my chin. I punched one in the face, shattered the skull of another, but one was still up, and wanted revenge for knocking out her brother. She had me backed up against a wall. Here, show me a finger gun." Regan complied. He took her hand a placed her fingers against his chest. "Her gun was right there. No way out."

"Whoa. How'd you get out?"

"Easy. Tazer. To. The. Face! Actually, I don't remember where I tazered her. But, her arm jerked to the side, and, pow! That's how it happened."

Regan's smile faded as the door banged open. Two Vespers marched inside. They each grabbed one of Richard's arms, and lifted him off the ground. "I've only been awake for a minute, and they have a welcoming party all ready for me! I guess I should be flattered. But... I'm not."

Nellie watched helplessly as the dragged him out of the room. She turned to Fiske. "Is he always like that?"

He nodded. "Sometimes he's even worse. See, his archnemisis once accused him of always joking. So, he took that as a challenge. It gets pretty annoying, though."

Great. Just great. I've been strung up by my wrists in a tiny room with one door and no windows. Oh, look. Guess what? Here comes another Vesper. Richard had went along with the Vespers handcuffing him. He hadn't complained when they attached the handcuffs to a chain hanging from the ceiling. Now, his arm felt like it was on fire, and he could barely stand without going on tiptoes.

But another Vesper? That was going too far.

This one had a ski mask on, no surprise. He/she wanted to make sure he didn't recognize him/her. The voice that came through the mask was distorted and metallic. (I'm just going to call him/her "it" for easiness' sake) It dismissed the other two Vespers. Richard tried to grin, but it turned into a grimace. "Vesper One, I presume?"

Vesper 1 nodded. It walked around Richard, circling him. "You are here because you have information that we need."

Richard mouthed its next words along with it, mockingly. "'Cooperate, and this will be a lot less painful.' Yeah, yeah. This is totally cliche. Besides, what makes you think I will cooperate?"

Vesper One pulled a control panel from the wall in front of itself. "Because, if you don't, I will do this." One pushed a button.

Electricity coursed through Richard's body. After a few seconds, it stopped. "Ooooh. That was pretty smart, using the chains as conductors of electricity. And, now you have a good reason for me to tell you everything. Unfortunately, I don't."

Vesper 1 pushed another button. This time, a whip lashed out from behind him. He held back a cry of pain, then looked up at One. "Is that all you got?"

"On the contrary." One pulled out a knife from its belt.

"Oh, come on. Now whenever I walk up to someone, they're gonna think I'm emo, or something! Cut it out! Ha! Cut it out. That's pretty funny, right th- ow!"

This went on for hours; Vesper One doing something terrible, and Richard responding with a joke, or just flat-out, "No!" Finally, One got fed up. "You tell me or I'll bring out the big guns," It said in its most ferocious tone.

Richard, bleeding all over, straightened. Vesper One thought it had finally broken him, until he began saying between gritted teeth, "I am Advanced Recon Commando A-17, Republic Army, under the command of General Obi-Wan Kenobi. That is all I am authorized to reveal."

Vesper One rolled its eyes. Great. A nerd who had a lot of determination. It reached into a slot in the door, and pulled out a little syringe. The liquid inside seemed to be glowing. One held it up for Richard to see. "This is a special poison I came up with myself. When injected into the bloodstream, it will slowly begin eating away at the vein and artery walls. Within three days, the victim will have died of internal bleeding, or, if the person moves around a lot, will enter into the vital organs, mainly the heart and lungs, and they will stop functioning."

Richard groaned as he lifted his head. "Why do I get the feeling that when you say, 'victim' you mean me?"

"Because you are very perceptive." Vesper One jabbed the needle into Richard's right forearm. Instantly, his arm felt like fire was spreading though it. Vesper One opened the door a crack, then gestured for the other Vespers to come back in. They unbound his wrists, then began to drag him out. "You will go back to your little Cahill buddies, for now. In exactly 24 hours, you will come back here. Then, we will see how stubborn you are."

Vesper One let out a laugh that sounded much less than human, and it wasn't just because of the voice distorter.

By the way, that Star Wars quote that Richard used is from Star Wars, The Clone Wars Volume 5, The Best Blades. Just in case you wanted to know.