Karma

Storyline

Astro has been kidnapped; the only clues his two calls to Zoran and his diary entries in his broken laptop. Ken, Atlas, Zoran, and Tawashi peice the clues together and solve a riddle to who kindapped Astro and where he is being held. Atlas, Astro, and Zoran need each other to keep their sanity and relieve their internal pain: Atlas needs to act like the eldest brother he is.

Chapter 6

Mystery Solved

Atlas must have read all Astro's enteries by the time Ken, Tawashi, and Delta had finished picking out the different sounds. Reno was still unconscious, has had been for the previous eight days, which made everyone begin to worry if that scalpal had been poisened with something censors couldn't detect.

Abbie had dropped by when she heard of Reno's accident and Astro's kidnapping to aid in anyway she could. Hannah had also showed up with Jake to see if they could find Reno's problem. "So, we know Reno is being taken care of." O'Sheay mused, turning to face the window away from Tawashi, Ken, Delta, Epsilon, Pluto, Atlas, and Zoran. "All we need to do know is find out the general idea of where Astro may be."

Tawashi nodded. Ken stepped foreward and inhaled to speak. "O'Sheay. Astro's last message had a backround... that looked somewhat famillier. I feel like I've been there before." Zoran agreed.

Atlas paused and thought for a moment. "Replay just the backround, Zoran." He said. Zoran obeyed, removing the creature and Astro from the picture. He watched the backround carefully. "Pause." Zoran froze the frame. He examined them for a moment. "Are those bars?"

Tawashi nodded. "They seem to be against a wall." He suggested. But Atlas shook his head.

"No. They're prision cells." He corrected. "Astro is in a prision."

"But which one!" Zoran wept. "There are thousands across country, and there is only one in Metro City!"

Atlas paused and thought for a moment.

Well, it's located somewhere outside Metro City near the car dump disposal thingy.

"Of course!" He cried out. "Zoran! Replay the first message without the music, the voice, or Astro's voice!" Zoran quickly obeyed. There were sounds of moaning, crying of woman and children in pain. "Take... out... those... voices..." Zoran switched off the voices and every listened carefully. "Turn up the volume."

And just what he expected to hear: Thunder and Engines.

"That isn't thunder." He realized out loud. "Those are machines! They're crushing cars in the Metro City Car Disposal Center. Astro mentioned it in his last entry! Which means..."

Well, I decided to go to this place called Jackal Prision with Ken, Alejo, Ambercrombie, Reno, and Zoran. We had an awesome time. We kept seeing and hearing things, so it was pretty awesome.

"He's at Jackal Prision!" He yelled. "That reason it's so famillier is because Ken, Alejo, Ambercrombie, Astro, and Zoran went there last week! You kept hearing and seeing things, right? And at one point, you were seperated from Astro, right?" Zoran and Ken nodded. "He said he found a room. He must have tried to read them, but didn't understand. That must have been what the Nurse meant by 'He regrets not knowing' and that we will not understand, either!"

Everyone gasped. "Astro wasn't able to solve the riddle!"

"Riddle? What riddle!" Kwan said suddenly from the corner he hid in.

Atlas took a breath. "If you can read this

You will regret,

Knowing of this riddle,

But if you can solve it,

You can escape,

The Black Cquan Armies,

With you're life

But if you fail,

You will suffer,

For the rest of time and eternity:

Who is the one,

Who controls the Cquan,

Who runs the Black Cquan Hospital,

Who will tell you about this riddle

He is hidden where you cannot find him,

He is tricky,

He is intellagent,

You can never guess,

He made sure of it

If you know this man,

You would think twice to guess him,

If you do not,

Know this man,

You could not guess him,

Because of you're lack of observation

He knows you,

He knows you're reading this,

He will take you,

Take you away

You're nightmare starts now."

O'Sheay and Tawashi nodded, trying to process everything. "And I know the answer, too." He announced. "The answer..." He turned and pointed to the scientist in the corner.

"...is Kwan Brack."

Kwan stepped out from the corner. "You truely are amazing, Atlas." He appluded. "You are just as quick as Astro. Helps when your design was based off of his." Atlas clenched his fist, and everyone prepared for a fight.

"What have you done to my brother!" Zoran demanded. Kwan shrugged harmlessly.

"Why don't you ask the nurses at Jackal Prision?" He said, hint of sarcasim.

"Those things are with him!" Epsilon cried out, forcing a gasp from Ken.

Kwan (A/N: Sorry about Kwan and Ken pretty much having the same name. That didn't hit me till just now) laughed. "You think I would just do it all myself? Sorry, sweetie. That ain't happening."

O'Sheay growled. "What I wanna know is why. Why did you take Astro away?"

"I didn't take him because I held a grudge." He began. "I didn't take him because I wanted money. I didn't take him to do nothing more but to cause him pain and suffering. To torture him, simply."

"You are a monster." Atlas growled. "What about the writting in the room!"

"The writting in the room was the chant to release the deadly monsters." Kwan chuckled. "I wanted to hurt him from the beginning, but when he found the room in Jackal Prision, where my little friends roam, I had to see how he would react to my stories being true."

Atlas stepped foreward. "You told him the riddle, didn't you! You did it to test his knowledge, see if he could figure it out. But he failed to do that, didn't he? So you took him and tortured him, just as the riddle said you would!"

Kwan laughed. "Atlas, you truely are amazing." He said again.

"Not only that, but you also run the Black Cquan Armies." He smirked. "That I know, not by answering the riddle, but you're name, Kwan Brack, and Black Cquan, when you put it backwards, Cquan Black, sound pretty smillier. When solving the riddle, I desided to go over all the possibilities and missed you, which means I had second guessed you.

"When I saw you hiding in the corner, I realized it was you who had done it. You told Astro about the stories of the Jackal Prision, those stories were recorded in his enteries. I read one about the nurses, and I immediatly remembered the one who attacked Reno.

"And, as I'm speaking, may I ask, just what has thrown Reno into such an unstable state!" Atlas stared at Kwan in anticipation, Ken behind him, choking back a sob and a gasp at hearing Reno's condition.

"What... do you mean, Atlas?" He bearly whispered, tears forming in his eyes.

Kwan watched everyone look at Atlas in wonder. Atlas's fists unfolded and he looked down.

"Four nights ago, before I had finished the laptop, I got a call from the hospital." He said, mourning in his voice. Sympathy. "O'Sheay was asleep at the time, so they called me next." He glared up at Kwan. "Reno is dying."

Ken felt the urge to run, the pain and the knowledge too unbearable. But he was frozen. "Why does this have to happen...?" He begged in a tormented whisper. "Why did you try to kill him Kwan...?" Ken clenched his teeth in anger and sorrow. Nothing was right. Astro was in pain, Reno was dying, and he was having a breakdown. "Why did you try to kill Reno!" He screamed, his soul tortured more then he could imagine. "Why are you hurting us! Why! Why are you hurting Zoran! Atlas! Astro! Reno! Why! Why! ANSWER ME!"

"Ken..." Delta began, but didn't finish his thought. He turned back to Kwan. Why was this happening? Why now? Everyone was frozen in pain, fear, and anger. Why did they so much during this battle? Why were they losing when they were winning?

Ken charged foreward and brought his fist back, tossing it into Kwan's face. The punch connected, and Kwan went flying into the wall behind him. Ken jumped back and fixed his vest. "You don't know how long I've been waiting to do that..." He spitted. Ken folded his arms and scoffed.

Kwan got to his feet and wiped blood from the corner of his mouth. "Ah, you throw a good punch, Kennedy." He complimented. "But, let's see how well you face against this." He pulled something from inside his lab coat. It shined... then flew into Ken's direction. Ken gasped, moving too slow to dodge the oncoming attack.

His eyes closed.

Nothing happened.

He opened his eyes to see the blade of a knife inches away from his nose. Two finger held it in place. He traced down the arm to see Zoran, eyes not visible because her head was tilted down so far. She twirled the knife in her fingers, facing the blade out away from her thumb, and looked up, her eyes feice with rage and sorrow, pain... and no fear.

"There's only one thing stopping me from killing you," She growled dangerously. "and that's Astro wouldn't want me, too. He would be disappointed."

Kwan seemed to have been somehow effected by these words. "Is that how much you love you're brother? You refuse to avenge him because he wouldn't want you to?" Zoran nodded once and deceleratedly. Kwan smiled slowly. "You are very loyal. He is lucky to have you for a sister."

Ken blinked once. "What made you have a change of heart, Kwan?" He questioned. "First, you're trying to kill me, now you're praising Zoran."

Kwan's eyes closed, but a please smirk remained. "I hadn't realized how much... loyalty she had to Astro. I thought she would've killed me on this spot, where I stand. It wasn't... expected." He turned around, and everyone tensed. "If I were you, I would head to Astro right away. He is losing power with each passing day. He won't live very long from now."

He began to shine... and a white light flashed. The light faded, and so did Kwan. Atlas relaxed. "This isn't over."

"You are right." Came a slow, sad, deep voice, obviously Pluto. "We have to save Astro before it is too late." Everyone agreed.