Chapter 8: It's not monkey business if they're Apes

"Wow, my gods, how long has it been?" Rex asked, smiling at the sight of his old friends. "It doesn't feel that long… right?"

"Not that long!?" Maria replied, earning a small snicker from Liax. "It's been, like, two weeks! I mean, sure, the universe is big and all, but we're all only in the alpha sector. I would've expected us to meet at least one other time…"

This perplexed Rex a bit. First off, alpha sector? Does that mean that there are more planets and galaxies and solar systems other than what he's already seen? When piloting his ship, and even when he could use the star map to look at the different planets he could land on, he saw a seemingly unlimited amount of life-sustaining rocks! There's MORE!? Second off, He counted, about, five to six days since he last saw the two. The first day is when he met Liax and Maria, the second day is when he went to the planet where he met Alicia, the third day was the mining adventure with said person, the fourth day was returning her home and coming back and meeting Malix, and the fifth day was trying to get into the lab that turned Malix into a Floran… right? His curiosity got the best of him here. They obviously knew more than he did.

"Alpha Sector?" Rex asked. "As in… this is only one part of the universe to explore?"

This was replied to by nods from both Liax and Maria.

"J-just one!?"

"…Yup." Malix answered for them this time.

Rex quickly shifted his gaze to the Floran, then back at Liax and Maria, and, again, to Malix. "You all know!?" He sighed. "Why wasn't I informed…?"

"It was in the notebook I gave you." Liax replied.

Rex face clawed, which hurt more than usual. He looked back up at the people in the cell across from him. "This is gonna sound like I've been in jail a long time… but… what are you in here for?" He asked, curious as to why they were thrown in jail.

"Well…" Liax started. "We were passing by this planet… and we were… uhm… out of fuel. A scan showed that there was only coal closer to the center of this planet, and trees were scarce. Not to mention that any other ore or material of that matter were no where NEAR the surface. So we came here and asked for some fuel. They agreed, but only if I gave them Maria. Naturally, I declined and we proceeded to leave."

"And apparently," Maria added. "That was against the rules or something. So they tazed us and brought us here."

"I remember hearing stories of the Apex and their kindness in helping the other races with technology. This civilization seems to be centered around scientific advancement though." Liax said. "Well, what about you guys?"

"I can tell you we're in here for a better reason then you guys."

They looked interested, the same way they had when Rex told his whole adventure-life story. They were obviously ready for another tale.

"You seem Malix here?" He asked, pointing to the Floran that was playing Terraria. They nodded. "He was at once a Human, but these Apex flagged down his ship and brought him here for experimenting. He managed to escape to another planet, but that didn't mean that he wasn't being chased anymore. The experiment had tinkered with his sanity and morals, so when my friend, Alicia, and I found him, he tried to kill us." The two looked at Malix, disapprovingly, obviously displeased with the fact that they had tried to kill their friend. "After a bit, I've decided to help him turn back into a human and destroy the experimentation operation, so that it wouldn't happen again. Which brings us to now, which was our attempt. We made out way through the city, being chased by guards and the such during the night. As they neared us, I dropped my weapon, because a weird feeling of, er… something familiar sorta shocked me. So, Malix dropped his too, and we were brought here. I guess you guys were the 'familiar' that I felt, and I'm kinda glad we get to see each other again." He said, nodding to Liax and Maria.

"But now we have to get out of here. I've got places to go, so I can't stay here forever. Besides, now that you mention it… I'm outta fuel too…" Liax let out a modest laugh, and Rex couldn't help but to join.

"Looks light we have out work cut out for us." He said.

"Ooohhhh, Jailbreak?" Maria whispered.

"…Essscape!" Malix chimed in.

"But first, a plan must be formulated. We'll share what we come up with tomorrow. Sound good, guys?"

The three nodded.

• • •

That night, Rex couldn't sleep, despite the fact that the lights were off, and it were peaceful and quiet. He was on the top bed, so he got the ceiling to stare at. Malix was already asleep, but he was on the couch instead of the bed. He had fallen asleep, watching some more Apex girls talking about the news. Males are creepy, that fact couldn't be stretched any more than it already was. Just then, Rex heard footsteps, and silenced his breathing, going a bit under his bed covers and facing the bars to his cell. There he saw a lightly armored Apex that was walking REALLY close to the bars of the cell, obviously oblivious to anything shifting around him. Partially because he had earphones plugged in. However, Rex was more interested with the object that he was holding. Some keys.

Keys.

Rex move really really quietly, getting out of his bed. This plan of being quiet was quickly ruined when he lost his grip, and crashed to the floor. He could here footsteps rapidly getting louder, and he quickly jumped into the other bed, becoming still again. His eyes LOOKED closed, but he could see the Apex that was standing out in the doorway. Then he did something that Rex pretty sure he should get fired for. He used the keys to open up the door and approach the fake-sleeping Floran, proceeding to whack him on the head. Rex made a sort of yelp and leapt out of the bed, tackling the Apex to the ground. He used the momentum to push of of the ape and flip himself forward to his feet. Rex took this opportunity to grab the guard's keys, helmet, and flashlight, before flinging him back out into the hallway, and shutting the door.

"Hey! Return those keys at once!" The guard demanded as Rex went back to the bed, crossing one leg over the other, smiling, and spinning the keys around his finger.

"I really do hope you don't get too harsh a punishment for letting a prisoner take your gear." Rex said, mockingly.

"Insubordinate, return the keys at once!" He demanded, once again.

"Hurtful words." Rex said blankly, before twirling the keys around his fingers once more.

The Apex began to bang on the door repeatedly, as Rex walked over to the Tv and and grabbed the remote. He then looked at the Apex, and chucked the remote at him, smashing him in the head with it and knocking him to the ground, unconscience. Rex, feeling happy with how this turned out, walked back to to his bed to fall asleep.

• • •

Rex woke up to see Malix shaking his arm. He stopped this when he saw that his cellmate was finally up, and pointed to the hallway. The guy from last night was still there, on the ground. He was visibly breathing, so that wasn't an issue. The other three, Malix, Liax, and Maria, were already awake, and the latter two were staring at the body on the floor in a sort of wonder. Rex got out of bed and walked to the cell's bars, earning good morning's from Liax and Maria. Their gaze never moved from the body.

"What do you think happened to him?" Maria asked.

"No idea…" Liax answered.

"Oh, I can answer that." Rex replied, jingling the keys he got from the Apex guard.

The three looked at him, eyes widened and jaws dropped.

"Is that…?" Liax asked.

"Yup." Rex replied.

Maria grinned, bouncing up and down a little bit.

"Well, Fuel, escape, and Malix back to a human… We've got some planning to do. First off, escape for Liax and Maria…"

"What? No way!" Liax cut in. "You aren't leaving us behind while you go on a prison break run! I want in."

"Me too!" Maria chimed in.

"Besides, if you find fuel, we need some, anyways."

"Huh." Rex realized. They had a point. It's not like, during the escape, he could just carry an inventory of fuel of coal for everybody. He looked over at Malix, who shrugged. After pondering for a bit, Rex sighed. "Alright, we'll all escape, together."

"Cool!" Maria whispered.

Suddenly, the Apex on the floor jumped up, and looked around at the people in the two cells. "Heh, I was just ACTING unconscience. I think the whole guard would LOVE to know that you're going to try and make a break for it." Then he took off, running down the hall.

Liax and Maria's eyes were widened with, what Rex assumed fear, as the latter mentioned used his keys to open the lock. Once outside in the hallway, he grabbed the same remote that he chucked at the Apex the night before, and, basically, did the same thing, somehow managing to clock him in the back of the head, knocking him out a second time. "Alright, looks like we're coming up with the plan as we go then. Staying still is a bit of a dangerous option at this point, come on." Rex said, unlocking the other cell containing his two friends.

The Avian and Hylotl walked out the door, faces of preparedness about them. Malix had also joined them in the long hallway. "Alright…" Rex started. "First, we'll grab our stuff, then head to the chamber to change back Malix. After that, we'll grab the fuel. Then we can leave. Is that a good order?"

Everyone nodded.

Just as the silent agreement was made, an alarm went off, making Rex jump, and a vast number of armored Apex stormed through the doors on one side of the long hallway. Red lights began to flash everywhere, alongside the continuous message of 'There has been a cell brake-out. Detain the escapists immediately.' As Rex, and his little party of friends, ran near the door, he made a head-long rush for the container that held the four's gear that sat up right next to the exit. Rex fell on his back with an excruciating headache, but he got the storage container opened, and the four grabbed their stuff before running through the door, closing it behind them. Rex and Maria both got out their matter manipulators and placed a random assortment of terrain around the door they had just come through, so that they wouldn't be followed.

"Okay, stuff is officially grabbed." Maria said.

The other three nodded. "Now for getting Malix back into a human, eh?" Rex said.

"Oh, right…" Liax started. "I've been thinking that over, and how are we going to find the lab that had the experiment done?"

"…Hmph…" Malix added, disappointingly.

"Well, we're going to be here quite a while longer, aren't we?" Rex said, before running down the hall. The other three soon began to run as well, each of their footsteps being different and distinguishable. That's right… Rex thought. We're each a different race, so we have different anatomies. Avians have bird feet, so that's why it makes more of a claw-against-metal sound, while the Hylotl have fish fins and stuff, which explains the sorta sloshy sound…

His thought process was interrupted when suddenly, the wall to the left of him exploded in a giant blaze of colorful fire. When the debris landed and the smoke cleared, even more Apex soldiers filled into the hallway, cutting off any possibility of continuing to go forward. The four began to run back, when, unfortunately, the wall on the opposite side of the hallway from the first explosion burst into colorful flames of destruction to, allowing even MORE Apex guards to fill in any blank spaces. They were already surrounded, and Rex sighed for not thinking this through. The opposing forces began to slowly close in, when, without warning, the ceiling above them began to shatter and crack. What was helpful about this, was the large portion of the ceiling that fell, crushing some of the Apex guards durning it's ascent. It was a very morbid, yet very functional makeshift bridge that spanned across the mass of tail-less monkeys.

From the hole where the piece of ceiling came off, Rex could see another level full of science equipment and technology. Apparently the prison/science lab/whatever they were in was layered. Who knows how many floors there are in order to get to the surface? The thought process was interrupted when a ladder-rope suddenly appearing from the floor above them. Rex looked back at Liax, Maria, and Malix, who were shrugging, whilst the Apex were still closing in on them. Without thinking, Rex jumped onto the ladder and started climbing up. He heard his friends get to the rope as he made it to the top, coming face to face with a female Apex that was just a liiiitle shorter than Rex was. She was wearing a white lab coat and some black pants. she had some fur on the sides of her face and her feet were bare. She had orange-colored glasses that where propped on top of her head, like an accessory. The two stared at each other for a bit, until the Apex blushed. After that, she broke eye contact, and, as an excuse to do something instead of standing there awkwardly, kicked the rope-ladder off of the side of the edge of the hole, so that the guards couldn't climb up to reach them, after the other three climbed it successfully.

"T-thanks." Rex managed to say, slightly confused.

The Apex looked over at him, and nodded, a smile forming slightly. She walked over to the blue-haired Floran, and extended her hand, continuing to avoid eye contact as much as possible. "My name's Lasecil." She said, as Rex shook her hand. She didn't bother to shake the other's though.

"Alright, uhm, Lasecil." Liax said. "Is there any… particular reason you saved us?"

"…Sssuspicious." Malix added.

She blushed a bit from staring at Rex the whole time, and looked towards the Hylotl that asked the question. She was still slightly blushing when she turned her head to face Liax, so he must have gotten the wrong idea, seeing how he started blushing too. "Well, us children are seen as 'The Foolish,' so none of the older Apex actually take our actions into account… and I saw that you guys were captured for wrong reasons, like simply asking for fuel…" Then she looked towards Malix. "Or being taken away to be experimented on. So I decided to use the fact that kids like us are looked at as idiots to do something to help others."

"Ooohhh. I get it now!" Maria said.

"T-that's a b-bit harsh…" Liax added, still blushing a bit. Rex noticed this and shook his head.

"Well, thank you miss Lasecil." Rex said, earning a smile from the female Apex. "But I would feel terrible if you got in trouble for th-"

"A kid murdered someone before." She cut Rex off, blankly. "That kid got a 5-minute talk from his parents, before being released to go about his day again."

The four's eyes widened and they looked at each other, their facial expressions a mix between confusion, and a bit of fear. They looked back at her, and Rex raised his arms up in surrender. "Alright, there's no phasing these guys. Help is appreciated, Lasecil." He said.

She nodded and smiled. Then Lasecil started to sorta jog-run down a hall. "This way." She said, as she was doing so. The others followed.

When going down the long hallway, as they weaved around guards and security cameras, Rex couldn't help but to notice the myriad amount of laptops and desktops and internet modems and static poles and monitors and star maps and planet layouts that littered the laboratory. The blue haired Floran randomly took a laptop from a lab station simply because it was there, and he could. It was then when he realized what his plans currently were, and that they had forgotten already. When the five had to hide in a storage room to avoid some guards, Rex turned to Lasecil. "Lasecil, do you know where that fusion, transformation, whatever, process that turned Malix to a Floran is?" He asked her.

She blushed and diverted her eyesight before answering. "Yeah, it's on a few lab facilities to the left and one floor up. Is that where you're heading?"

"Yes. …Did you just say 'lab facilities?'"

"Yeah. There are a lot of giant labs in our civilization, so we had a LONG way to go it's that's your current destination."

Rex looked back at the others with an expression that cued the tedious work that was ahead of them. Malix and Liax sighed, while Maria just tapped her feet on the floor, impatiently. "Alright, we've been dodging guards and cameras for hours…" Rex admitted, yawning. "Should we take a nap or something?"

Everyone looks at him, expressions of fatigue about them. They were obviously very tired. "Well, the lights are off so we're sorta hidden. I mean, guards can't see out shadows from outside the doorway, so we should be relatively fine, right?"

After this was said, everyone collapsed, which made a very loud sound, which Rex assumed would be an issue. He popped his head out of the doorway to see if there were any guards out there, and the hallways where completely barren. So Rex found a place comfortable to lay. He propped himself on a few storage crates, because even he could see in the dark at this point, and everyone was laying on each other in the center of the room. Rex fell asleep shortly after.

• • •

Someone was banging on the door, and everyone woke up with a start. Maria was the first to her feet, and she was at the top of the people-pile that laid in the center of the room, so her talon feet pierced whoever was under her. Unfortunately, that was Liax, so he got up in pain, gripping his chest. He was napping right next to Lasecil, which might have been on purpose, seeing how an obvious assumption could be made that he liked her. Malix was pinned up against a box, being basically pinned there by the female Apex's feet. He literally couldn't move. Then Lasecil finally woke up, apologizing for not allowing Malix to move, and stood up along with everyone else. The door banged again, and this time, a voice could be heard.

"Laasssseeeciiil! Are you in there!?" A feminine voice called. It sounded older than Lasecil, and a bit more mature. No one moved, no one made a sound. Lasecil walked over to the door quietly and locked it, just as the person on the other side tried to open it. "Dangit…" The voice said silently. Mom's gonna kill me for loosing her… I should've stopped her when she said she wanted to help the prisoners." Her voice became harder and harder to hear, signifying that she was walking away. "I didn't think she was actually going to do it…"

Lasecil could feel everyone's eyes on her, and Rex could see her mouth the word 'sis.' She began to just stare at the door with a blank and empty expression, like something had just traumatized her. Liax walked up to Lasecil, slowly, and tapped her on the shoulder. "U-uhm… are you okay?" He asked her. She looked back at him, smiling.

"Y-yeah, I'm fine." She said, shaking her head. "We need to get that Floran to be a Human again, and get you some fuel, right?"

"How did you know?" Liax asked, blushing for no apparent reason.

"It's all over the news." She said, opening the door to make sure there weren't any guards around. Once it was confirmed that there weren't any, she motioned for the others to come, and they continued down the hall. After a very scarce amount of dodging and evading the detection of guards, they finally got to another staircase, which is where Lasecil stopped. "Up here, there's a few rooms. One of them is the fuel room, so you can get the stuff you need to fuel your ships." She said. "Then we can go and find the transformation process, room… thing…"

Liax acted on somewhat of an impulse or something. He was so grateful of their new friend that he picked her up and kissed her on the lips. He then put her down and started to head upstairs, unfazed by the fact that Lasecil was standing there in a bit of shock. Then again, the other three were in a bit of shock, too.