Chapter 24: Unexpected Questions and Feats

Sam

Sam was running through huge metal hallways with the Cooper Gang and Inspector Fox. Sam was right behind his father and in front of his mother as they ran. Several times the group encountered hostile forces and everyone either jumped over them, run under them, ran by them, or punched them quickly and moved on. Sam was explicitly forbidden to fight as they ran past cyborg guards. Generally, he just jumped over the guards.

They were following the Guru as he ran without stopping. The Guru suddenly stopped in the middle of the hallway. The Guru turned and placed his hand on the wall.

Through here. He said with absolute certainty.

"The question is: how are we going to get through?" Penelope said, running her hand along the wall.

"Step aside, Penelope. The Murray shall render that wall into scrap metal!" Murray put Bentley on the ground.

"Murray, I don't think that even you can-" Bentley began

"OW!"

"-punch through that wall." He finished.

"Guys, guards on our tail. Think and think quick." Sly said looking back at the cyborgs closing in.

"Uh, got it!" Bentley's arm disappeared inside his shell and came out holding a remote. "My chair has a remote control and if I'm close enough I can-"

"Less talking, more escaping." Carmelita said. She ripped a bar off the wall and threw it at the approaching cyborgs.

"Right!" Bentley said as the rest of the gang started taking on the guards, weaponless.

"Sam! Stay!" Carmelita and Sly both yelled. "Help Bentley!"

"Alright, fine." Sam said. "Is it coming?"

"Almost, I just have to-"

"Just do it!" Sam said. He was watching his parents in action. Sam knew his parents were good at their jobs, but he never knew how good they were. Sly was more agile than Sam ever knew. Sly jumped and dodged with an astonishing amount of grace. Carmelita was far more rugged and to the point. She was jumping and dodging, but she also was much more aggressive in her attacks. Sam could not take his eyes off his parents, until he heard and explosive go off.

Sam jumped back as Bentley's wheelchair came through the hole in the wall. Bentley had the chair throw a bomb at the wall and used that to get through.

"Guys!" Bentley yelled as Sam helped Bentley into the chair.

As if this had all been planned, every member of the Gang jumped back and Bentley threw a barrage of explosives at the cyborgs. Sam covered his ears as the explosive went off, but he could not block the vibrations that help felt run up his feet and body.

Quickly, everyone entered the armory. Bentley picked up his gear and repaired his chair. Panda King picked up his fireworks and checked them for any sabotage. Penelope took her RC gear and a sword that she had taken off a shelf. Guru took his moonstone and staff. He hummed to himself and shut his eyes while he waved the moonstone. Murray was checking the door and the hole in the wall for signs of pursuers.

Carmelita found Sam's double holsters with the shock pistols. She looked at Sam and then handed it to him. Sam took them slowly and looked at her.

"I may not like it, Sammy, but you're ready to use these. You'll need to protect yourself and I trust you." Carmelita nodded sadly.

"I do too. You're ready." Sly walked forward and nodded at Sam.

Sly looked down at the two dual canes that Cami had been using. He hung them from his belt and took a staff off the wall while Carmelita took a replacement pistol off the wall. Sam strapped the holsters to his side and took out the two pistols.

"Now can we find Cam?" Sam asked looking at everyone's face.

"Tijd is likely to keep Cami close since she's his hostage." Penelope said checking the sharpness of the sword. "May I recommend the center control chamber?"

"Where exactly is this center control chamber?" Sam asked. He heard the cyborgs coming. "We should really get out of here."

"Agreed, young Fox." Panda King said. He used one of his fireworks to blow the door down.

The team took off running. They had no idea where Cami even was or where they were on the blimp. They fought through cyborg after cyborg down the blimp. While doing this, Sam wondered: why was this so easy? Sam had gotten hit a few times, sure, but he wasn't out of the fight: none of them were. The group was pretty much Sly in front with Murray, Panda King, and Guru who took on the brunt of each attack, Penelope and Bentley were in the middle trying to think as they took down anyone who got passed Sly, Panda King, Murray, and Guru, and Sam and Carmelita were bringing up the rear and shooting at the pursuing guards. Every so often, they had to stop to engage the enemy, but Sam couldn't help but wonder why? Why was it so easy? He tried to push the thoughts out of his mind as he either shot down or kicked each enemy out of his way. Still it lingered: Why?

Cami

The moment the alarms sounded, Cami shut her eyes and jumped off the platform. For a moment, it was exactly like her nightmares, except she had jumped and no one was laughing. The next moment she hit the glass with a dull thunk. Cami pushed herself up and, with her eyes squeezed tightly shut, scrambled under the platform. She heard the alarms shut off abruptly. She heard more metal scraping against metal.

"I'm impressed, little Cooper. I was informed your acrophobia would keep you all but paralyzed. Apparently, I was wrong." Tijd's cold voice rang out clearly. "I must say; your brother is doing an excellent job during this breakout. He's holding his own quite well. I didn't think he would do so well on this test. It must be too easy, well, that is easily remedied."

"This is some sort of test?" Cami yelled at him. She didn't need to hide her presence. Tijd knew as well as she did that she was still under the platform.

"Of course it is. I know of everyone else's skills and faults, but yours and your brother's. I need to witness them firsthand, little Cooper. Go, run, try to win at my game. No one has, not even Clockwerk. There is a ventilation shaft by your left foot." Tijd's metallic voice was chilling to the bone.

Cami knew that Tijd was completely untrustworthy, but she still reached for the vent. Cami had really no other choice; it wasn't like she was going to find another with her eyes shut. Cami fit easily inside it and opened her eyes. She followed the smooth shaft along and listened. Cami then stopped for a moment. She needed to find a way to combat her acrophobia. She looked down at her shirt. Cami ripped a small bit off and tied it around her head. It would be easy to pull over her eyes and to take off. She kept moving forward.

Cami slipped out of the vent and into a hallway. She could hear people running around frantically. She used the Slytunkhamen Invisibility Technique every time a guard approached, which was pretty much all the time. Cami was getting sick of waiting for guards to move.

Cami's impatience eventually won and Cami ran while she had the Invisibility Technique activated. She knew that the moment she started running, the invisibility would stop working, but the guards didn't even turn their heads when Cami ran by. Cami stopped at the end of the hallway, panting heavily. It felt as though she had run miles and miles. She looked back at the guards. They did not look as though they could see Cami. Cami looked down at herself. She was invisible. Experimentally, Cami ran down the next hallway. She looked at her gray-furred hand. She was invisible as she ran. Cami stopped. She was gasping for breath. Her lungs burned and she felt as if she had run miles and miles.

Cami looked at her hands and smiled. She just made the Slytunkhamen Invisibility Technique even better, although it was incredibly taxing. Cami dropped the invisibility and pushed herself forward.

"There's one of them!"

A cyborg yelled and Cami swore under her breath. She pushed herself to run faster. She risked a glance behind her: four polar bear cyborgs that were incredibly bad shots were following her. They each had their left arms turn into guns. Cami wished she still had the canes or even one of Sam's shock pistols. Her lungs were starting to burn and Cami knew she couldn't keep running forever or even for that much longer. She needed to either keep running until she fell down exhausted or fight while she still had the energy.

Cami then saw something to her advantage. Obviously, the Cooper Gang had been through here, the rubble confirmed it. A huge support beam had fallen and blocked most of the way. Cami ran to it and, at the last moment, she fell to her knees and bent her head back and slid under the beam. She jumped up and weaved through the wreckage with relative ease. The polar bear cyborgs were far too big to even try to believe that they could fit though that wreckage.

Cami laughed and ran around a corner. She stopped with her back to it and started to catch her breath. Her heart pounded in her chest. She wiped the sweat from her brow and looked up and down the current hallway she was in. To her left continued the wreckage and a huge window ran down its entire length and to her right was a completely pristine hallway with no window. Cami tugged the blindfold over her eyes and took a deep breath. She used the invisibility technique and walked very slowly down the hallway.