Eustace and Sheen:
The pyramid shuttered from small seismic vibrations from within. The dust poured down from the ceiling in spurts each time the walls shook. "What's the deal with the walls?" Carl asked.
"I'm not sure, Carl. Whatever it is I hope Cindy isn't involved." Eustace replied.
"Me either, Cindy might be tough, but this monster is really dangerous. It would be really awful if something bad happened to her, and my best friend, Jimmy really likes her. He would be really upset if she got hurt." Carl said excitedly as he used his inhaler.
"I'm sure she'll be fine, Carl." Eustace started to say, before Carl turned and placed his hand over Eustace's mouth. Eustace felt angry at first until his mind processed that there were voices coming from somewhere nearby, and that Carl was merely trying to protect him. "Shhhh, did you hear that?" Carl asked Eustace with silent words rather than a whisper, as he removed his hand away from Eustace's mouth.
Eustace looked wide eyed as he mouthed the reply "Yes" as he nodded his head. He gestured for Carl to get behind him, as he tip toed toward the turn. Eustace motioned for Carl to stand still and not make a sound before dropping low to the ground. He slowly crawled forward on his hands until he was right at the turn. Lying as low to the ground as possible he quickly poked his head out so he could see.
It was two serpent men on guard duty. They hadn't seen Eustace and continued on with their discussion in guttural inhuman voices. Eustace listened in on what they were saying for a few minutes. It was hard to make out what they were saying, something about a blonde girl, a trap, and a sacrifice. Eustace decided he had heard enough. He checked his firearm and made sure it was on stun. The two serpent men dropped quietly to the ground.
"Come on, Carl, we have to hurry, "Eustace said as he scrambled to his feet. "Cindy is walking into a trap and they intend to sacrifice her."
The two boys ran down the corridor in the direction that they hoped would lead to Cindy. They ran into the rest of the group in a large room at the end of the next corridor.
"Guys, Cindy, is walking into a trap. She is to be killed, sacrificed!"-Carl shouted to the others.
The room shuddered a moment as the doorways vanished trapping the group inside.
"How do we get out of here?"-Libby asked. As if to answer, Libby, Rock began to break off the walls as if something was tunneling through it. The group screamed in fear as rocks collapsed from the ceiling and fire plumes blasted out of crevices formed in the walls.
"What's happening?"-Carl shouted.
"I don't know," shouted Jet Fusion, "Just stay in the middle of the room."
The interior of the room changed to solid metal walls that were scalding to the touch, as Sheen found out the hard way, when he pushed his hands against the walls, as the walls began to slide inward toward the group.
"Ahh that hurt!"-he shouted as he looked at his red palms.
"The walls are closing in on us! We'll be crushed"-Libby shouted in a panicked voice.
"Well it was nice knowing you guys."Sheen said.
"Don't give up. There must be some kind of button that can stop the walls! Feel around for it!"-Eustace shouted.
"We can't the walls are super hot, as if Ultra-lord hit them with one of his heat seeking infra-thought attacks."-Sheen reminded them.
As suddenly as they had started, the walls stopped moving only a few feet from the where the group huddled.
"It stopped!" Carl shouted in excitement.
"What happens now?"-Libby asked.
There was a loud clunk noise from within the walls and the floor dropped out from under the group. The room echoed with their screams as they fell into the red lit room below.
Fortunately no one was badly hurt from the fall. They surveyed their new surroundings as the trap door they had fallen through closed over head. The floor they now stood on was metal mesh and there was a winding stair case made out of the same material. Libby looked down through the spaces in the mesh in awe. The floor was a hundred feet below and it appeared to be a smelting room of some kind. The air was stuffy with the heat, and Carl's deodorant had worn off, not that anyone could tell over the smell of burned flesh, hair, and sulfur.
"This place doesn't look very welcoming does it?"-Jet Fusion said.
"Nope, but what choice do we have?"-Eustace asked.
"Let me go first kids."-Jet Fusion said. Everyone nodded in agreement as they gripped their weapons tightly and Jet started making his descent on the stairs.
At the bottom of the stairs the group paused to look around. They could see large vats, on the floor, filled with molten liquid. There were large chains dangling from steel beams that crisscrossed above.
Libby peeked inside an old boiler as they passed it. The iron was cold to the touch. The layer of dust covering it was thick. It looked like it hadn't been used in years. As she turned to look away the boiler roared to life. The heat was intense and suffocating. Libby stepped back in surprise, and let out a yelp.
She could see human bones smoldering in the flames. Her eyes went wide at the sight. Sheen grabbed her, pulled her to him, and said, "Don't look. Let's keep moving, Libby."
"Sheen, will you do me a favor?" Libby asked, as she held him tightly.
"What's that, Libby?"-Sheen replied.
"Don't let me go." Libby replied.
She let out a stifled scream when she heard a loud squealing noise from within the shadows of the boiler, as if someone was scratching their nails on a chalkboard. The sound made everyone's skin crawl, as it repeated randomly several times, followed by a sinister laugh. Everyone looked around wildly, seeking the source of the laughter.
"Hello?"-Jet called out, "Who are you? Identify yourself!"
A large zombie like creature stepped out of the shadows. He clicked his long claws together. The creature bared its teeth menacingly before laughing in the same sinister manner.
Jet raised his firearm and took aim. "Stand down! I don't want to have to shoot you, but I will if I have to."-Jet said.
"That puny weapon won't work on me," the creature said as he approached slowly.
"We'll see about that."-Jet Fusion replied. The room echoed with the retort of the mp5k. A small hole formed in the middle of the creature's forehead. The creature grinned menacingly and toppled over the railing into one of the vats with a splash. Carl stepped back from the smoldering liquid that had sprayed on the floor around the vat.
"That wasn't so hard, now was it?"-Jet said.
"Uh, I'm not so sure."-Libby said, as she pointed at the vat.
A large glowing arm reached out of the liquid and grasped onto the ledge of the vat. The rock smoldered where the hand grasped.
"Terrific, let's get moving shall we. I think we should try going through that door over there , and I mean right now!" Sheen shouted.
Cindy:
Even through her armor she could feel the scolding heat from the energy that came out of Betty's eyes.
Cindy clashed with Betty again and again. The room rumbled each time they bashed each other into the walls. Rocks tumbled from the ceiling and walls.
Betty became more and more infuriated that her energy attacks couldn't get through the armor that Cindy was wearing. The angrier she became the more snake-like she looked. Her fingers grew long talons and her body became a large snake tail that she coiled around Cindy. She scratched and clawed, raking long gouges into the armor. Cindy struggled as the armor's alarm system wailed within her helmet. "System error, System error repeated again and again, as Betty slashed deeper and deeper into the thick armor.
Cindy activated the electrical armor, it zapped Betty only enraging her and making her more savage. Betty began to tear the metal off in chunks revealing more and more of the pink jump suit underneath. Cindy struggled to push Betty away, but Betty's claws slashed shallow painful cuts in Cindy's arms. Betty balled up her clawed hand into a fist and slammed it into Cindy's unprotected stomach several times. Cindy felt all the air rush out of her and her body convulsed as her muscles clenched. She was held so tightly by the snake coils however that she couldn't hunch over. She gasped for air and felt bile come up in her mouth, which felt warm and sticky on her face within the helmet. The smell and taste was nauseating and Cindy almost hurled again from it.
Betty grasped onto Cindy's helmet and tore it off; she cast it to the side and snarled before lunging in with her poisonous fangs at Cindy's exposed neck. Cindy saw it coming and, grabbing a large rock, swung as hard as she could with her fist. It connected and sent Betty's head lurching to the side. Cindy knew she only had a few moments to get lose or she would either be bitten or crushed by the snake coils. She reached for her sword that she had dropped in the fray just managing to reach it. She held it tightly and a quick swing sliced off a portion of Betty's tail. Cindy was released as Betty writhed in pain along the ground.
Betty regenerated and returned to her human form a few moments later though, her eyes glowed red with an unwavering hatred that burned within. Red energy burst out of her eyes. It hit Cindy sending her backwards ten yards against the wall. Cindy struck hard and flopped to the ground with a groan.
Cindy got to her feet and looked down at her ruined armor and at the pieces of it that lay scattered along the ground. "So much for the armor. " She said to herself as she held up the sword in a defensive manner.
"Your armor is ruined, Cindy, why don't you just surrender?" Betty asked.
"Never! I would rather die!" Cindy shouted back.
"I could atomize you with my ring, Cindy, but I have a better idea." She said.
Betty knew she needed a better tactic if she was to capture Cindy alive. An idea popped in her head. She aimed the snake ring with the single pearl and channeled her energy through it. Cindy flipped sideways head over heels acrobatically avoiding the attack. The blast struck the wall with a bright explosion. "Stand still!" Betty shouted as she fired at Cindy again and again until she managed to finally hit Cindy despite her acrobatic antics.
Cindy temporarily was caught up within an energy field that prevented her from moving.
"Hah gotcha," Betty said. "I can't hurt you, or even move you, while you're in that bubble. I grow bored of this game. When you're free, come down the elevator shaft that is if you're not afraid."
Betty made her way onto the elevating platform and activated it. "Oh, one last thing thanks for the Purple Flurp." She said as she held up the plastic bottle, as she went down out of sight.
Cindy flopped to the ground a few minutes later. She had been in mid flip when the energy bubble had encased her. Her stomach still ached from earlier and hitting the ground knocked the wind out of her again. She took off the remains of her helmet and spit up a mouth full of bile. She looked down at where it lay on the ground. It had blood in it.
"Oww that sucked. It's probably a good thing I hadn't eaten anything in the last day or so." Cindy said to herself, as she tried to catch her breath. "Cindy!" She heard her friends calling out to her. She was struggling to her feet still clutching her sore stomach when they reached her.
"Are you all right?" everyone asked her in unison," Eustace and Carl stepped forward and both aided Cindy. Sit here Cindy." Eustace said, as they lead her to a broken column that was a convenient height for sitting.
"I'm not sure. My stomach hurts a lot. I think I'm going to throw up again."
Eustace reached over gently turned her face up toward his by her chin. Her lip was bleeding and there was a shallow cut over her right eye brow. He looked concerned as his eyes glanced back from the cuts on her arms to her bruised cut face. It made Cindy feel uneasy and she pulled away.
She removed the remains of the armor she wore. She unzipped her pink jump suit and lifted her tank top enough to see her stomach; It was slightly descended, and her skin had a nice yellow and black colored bruise over the location of her solar plexus. "Terrific. I really have to work on defending my stomach better." She said to herself.
"Cindy, that really doesn't look good. You could be really hurt. We need to get you to a doctor." Libby said very concerned.
"Libby is right kid, you've done everything you can do here. Let us handle it from here. Zix can lift you out of here and bring you to the hospital." Jet Fusion said.
"I can't leave now. Betty has Jimmy." Cindy responded angrily as she zipped up her pink jump suit. "I've already wasted enough time. If you want to help me than help me rescue Jimmy. But the only way I'm leaving here is with Jimmy." Cindy said.
"I can appreciate your determination kid, but Jimmy wouldn't want you to get yourself killed over him." Jet Fusion said.
"Jimmy has risked his life for me many times over. I owe him the same." Cindy replied.
"Fine, but at least let me use things from my first aid kit to patch up those cuts of yours."
She put her hand and winced from the cut over her eyebrow. "Ok patch me up quickly, so we can get going." Cindy replied.
"Just do us all a favor wont you kid? Stay close to us this time. Agreed?"-Jet Fusion said.
"Agreed" she grinned through blood stained teeth. She stood up and made her way to the elevator.
To be continued….