Chapter 8: The Fight for the Flux
Rocket and Sonny had to act fast. Sonny ran off to motion everyone to get ready for battle, while Rocket dragged Tia off to find somewhere safe for her to hide. He didn't like the idea of where he was taking her but he thought it was the best place to hide her.
"I know it's not the most comfortable place but I'm pretty sure it's the last place they'll check." He stated, tapping the numbers into the padlock. The door zoomed open to reveal a small cell room where they kept the prisoners. Rocket wished he had a torch or something he could give her but he didn't have enough time to run to his room and back. "I'm sorry there's nothing better I can do." He told her sadly but Tia just shook her head.
"Trust me; I think you and the rest are doing more than enough." She smiled, making Rocket smile as well. Suddenly, Rockets watch started beeping; he only had a minute left. He knew he should head to the others now and get himself ready but he didn't want to leave Tia here in just a dark room all alone. He racked his brain to think of something but nothing came to him. In the end he pressed something on the screen of his watch and passed it to Tia.
"This is a panic button." Rocket explained and placed it into her hands, "If anything happens, I want you to press it and I will come straight here." He closed Tia's hands around the small device, holding his own hands on top of hers for a few seconds before regretfully letting go. Before Rocket turned to leave he gave Tia one last piece of advice. "Don't leave this room unless I, Sonny or Dame Simbai come and get you. No one else, understood." Tia only nodded to his order, making Rocket feel a bit more relaxed. He turned to leave but before he had a chance Tia suddenly leapt forward and grabbed his hand.
"Please be careful." She begged, gripping his hand tighter. She couldn't bare the thought of losing him but actually losing him for real was unthinkable, she would prefer to chuck herself off a bridge then live without Rocket in her life. She owned him so much. Rocket smiled at her and before he realised what he was doing he leaned forward and kissed her on the forehead.
"I will." He whispered and left, shutting the door behind him and ran to collect his gun and everything from his room, leaving Tia in total darkness.
"Hold the line!" Sonny commanded above the sound of dying men and bullets flying over their heads. Something slamming into the barrier the Pirates had put up, made Sonny look down to see that Rocket had slid in beside him and was loading up his gun. "Decided to finally join us then Rocket?" Sonny joked as he ducked to dodge a bullet that barely missed his head. Rocket grinned back at him, as he finally finished loading his gun.
"What's the situation?" Rocket questioned, turning serious and keeping his head low from the oncoming lead.
"It's a full army but the halls are too small so they can't come at us all at once." He answered, leaning over the barrier again and shooting at some of Bleylock's man that had got a bit too close to their lines. Rocket leaned over the boxes and began to start shooting. Whoever organise these troops, relied too much on size because Sonny's men were making their own barriers by shooting down the other troops. When Bleylock's men tried to push their dead comrades out of the way or step over the other men they were quickly shot down. They thought they were doing well holding them back, until Rocket saw something fly through the air and land a step away from the barrier.
"Grenade, everyone move!" Rocket shouted, as he grabbed Sonny and someone else by the collar of their jackets and pulled them back. Just in time as well because as soon as they fell back a large explosion burned in front of them, blowing the men that were too slow to move up and sending pieces of their blood and flesh against the walls. Sonny shouted orders to everyone that was ok to drag the wounded to barrier point two. Shifting his gun to one off his hands and grabbing someone that had burns all over their face and hands Rocket began pulling him back to the end of the corridor, shooting any of the enemy that was quickly approaching through the heavy grey smoke. Sweat was pouring down Rockets face from all of the effort to pull the screaming man all the way to the other defensive post and trying to keep himself sane through all of this commotion at the same time. As he reached the barrier point his phone watch started to ring. "Hello." He answered when he saw it was D'jok's number.
"Rocket! I've been trying to reach dad but he's not answering, is he ok?" D'jok uttered quickly in panic, that Rocket didn't understand what he was saying at first. Rocket turned to Sonny who had heard what D'jok had said and was also looking a bit confused as he looked at his holo-watch; which turned out to be smashed.
"He's all right D'jok, is watch just got smashed that's all." He replied. He heard a deep sigh of great relief coming from D'jok's side of the phone and muttering stuff like thank god.
"Listen I phoned in two say that group four had fallen back to defensive point b2 and group three's been able to send a distress signal, so we should have reinforcements in about fifteen minutes." Everyone that heard D'joks news sighed in relief, except Rocket and Sonny, who gave some kind of serious look at each other. From their experience in situations like this, they knew that something could always happen in fifteen minutes.
Tia sat in the dark holding the panic button tightly in her hand. It was the only comfort she had against the darkness and the loud noises of shouting, screaming and a few explosions that were happening over head. She had no idea what was going on and who was winning but she guessed she would just have to wait for someone to come and get her; if she wanted to find out. Sighing to herself, she tried to make herself comfort by stretching her aching muscles. She had tried walking around earlier but because she couldn't see she kept walking into the walls. She hoped everyone was all right. Suddenly, Tia could hear the sounds of footsteps beating against the floor. She was sure they stopped right in front of her door and was proven right when the door whooshed open and light enter the room.
"Rocket was clever to hide you down here." The voice remarked sarcastically, chills went down her spine when she heard that voice but she forced herself to remain calm.
"What are you doing down here?" She demanded her finger ready to press the button if necessary. An annoyed expression passed over his face at her comment.
"I have orders to take you somewhere safer." He commented but Tia wasn't buying it for a second.
"Well, my orders were to stay here unless Rocket came and got me, so I'm staying." She huffed, crossing her arms in defiance but still held her thumb carefully over the button. An angry expression crossed over the dark figures face, making Tia push her back into the corner even more.
"There's people dying up there and all you could think about is your precious Rocket." He snapped at her. For a moment Tia almost felt like jumping up and going with him but she kept her ground. She trusted Rocket and at the moment what he said goes.
"Do you have that bitch yet?" A voice shrieked through the other end of the man's walkie talkie. Tia's whole body went ridged with fear. She knew that voice and it wasn't someone she was keen on seeing soon. The man that stood at the door way lunged for her as she pressed the panic button.
"Where the hell is our back up?" Micro-Ice shouted over the top of the blazing gun fire. He wasn't the only one that was thinking that. The reinforcements should have arrived ten minutes ago but so far no one had shown up. The enemy was now using more explosive methods against them, making them retreat at least five times. Sonny was doing their best to keep them together but if reinforcements didn't come soon they were going to lose. Rocket ripped the ring out of his grenade and through it at them; he thought it was about time they got some of their own medicine.
"I thought you said you only used those in emergencies." D'jok asked, as he bent down more to guard himself from the rumble that was flying over all of their heads.
"I don't think you've realise this D'jok but this is kind of an emergency!" Rocket retorted back to him. Ripping out another ring and throwing it in the other direction. Everything went quiet for a moment but then the shooting started again but this time Rocket noticed one of the hallways had collapse, blocking anyone from getting through. Well, at least they weren't being shot from both sides now, he thought to himself. Because of the heavy fire they had all been receiving they had to all retreat to their last barrier point for their last stand. Thankfully there wasn't so much pressure now that they were only being shot in one direction. Just then Sonny's holo-watch rang.
"Where the hell are you?" Sonny shouted down the other end of the phone, Rocket knew it wasn't very commander like but in situations like this you're bound to get a little angry. Plus when you knew Sonny was angry, you knew you were in a bad situation.
"Sorry but as soon as we got your distress signal we were attacked, we only just beaten them off, we're sending your reinforcements now." The other man answered nervously, Rocket would of been nervous too because everyone knew if you got Sonny Blackbones mad or in a bad mood; you will be sorry. "They bloody better get here fast then." Sonny yelled back before cutting of the connection. Just then Rocket's own phone started beeping but it wasn't his ringtone, looking at his holo-watch he saw the red light beeping; signalling someone in distress. No, no, no, Rocket panicked to himself before he quickly pulled himself together.
"Sonny! Tia's in trouble!" He yelled over to Sonny before he made a death defying run, dodging bullets and finally making a run down the stairs. Sonny tried calling after him but when Rocket made no sign of listening, he yelled Corso to take over and signal to D'jok and Micro-Ice to come with him.
Tia had to give Sinedd some credit; he was fast. She had just barely pressed the button when she suddenly found herself, blinded, gagged and tossed over Sinedd's shoulder. She tried to slow him down by hitting him or kicking him but it wasn't really helping since her hands and feet were tied, so it didn't have much effect. She felt herself stop when a noise sounded behind them. She heard Sinedd mutter some curse before dumping her somewhere. Tia honestly didn't know what to do. She couldn't shout out or stand up, hell she couldn't even see. Out of desperation she began randomly kicking anything in front of her, finding some boxes in front her to make some noise. Pure happiness lit on her face when someone removed the blind fold off her and found D'jok in her line of vision.
"Micro-Ice, I got her!" He called out, grabbing a knife hidden in his boot and began undoing her binds. Just then Sinedd appeared behind D'jok and lunged with his dagger. Tia screamed.
The first place that Rocket ran to checked was the cell room that he left her in, to find the door wide open and no Tia. Damn it! He swore to himself, punching the wall next to him; hurting his hand in the process. Thankfully, this helped Rocket to calm down and think. Ok, it took me two minutes to get here, so she can't have gone that far. Rocket retraced his steps back up the stairs to where he bumped into Sonny and the others.
"Rocket report." Sonny demanded. Rocket would usually find it quite funny when Sonny acted all 'commandie' because in real life he was a lay back guy but right now wasn't the time to laugh.
"Tia's missing; the only place she could have disappeared is the loading docks, since we didn't bump into anyone on our way here." He answered. Everyone nodded and began running full speed towards the loading docks. They only stopped when two corridors appeared. Rocket knew she was in one of the loading areas but which one.
"D'jok, Micro-Ice take the left, Rocket, we'll take the right." Sonny ordered. No one argued as the teams split up and ran down the corridors, it didn't take long for Rocket and Sonny to reach the first loading dock. They split up, one taking the left and the other taking the right. Once they both signalled to each other that both their sides were clear, they both made their way to the door that allowed them to enter the other dock. Both of them stood on each side of the door. Sonny nodded to Rocket, letting Rocket know to kick the door down. As soon as he kicked the door open, he saw Sinedd about to stab D'jok. Rocket was just about to scream out a warning when something kicked D'jok out of the way, making Sinedd stumble forward and hit something else with his knife instead. Rocket swore he heard some kind of muffled scream but before he had a chance to process this thought through his head he watched D'jok ruby tackle Sinedd to the ground and began wrestling with him. While Sonny went off to help his son, Rocket moved towards where he had the scream come from. His eyes widen when he looked around the crates of boxes and saw Tia lying on the ground, tied gagged and bleeding, from the side of the stomach; with Sinedds knife was sticking out.