Haley

I opened my eyes and at first I could see nothing but darkness. That same darkness began to sink into my stomach as memories of my past started to fill my mind. I covered my eyes, as if that would block out the images I was seeing.

"No, no! I don't want to see this! I don't want to know this! Why?" she whispered, crying. "Saka. Why, why did you have to die? Why did I have to remember all of this? I thought I made myself forget. That's why I just from the top of that waterfall. I wanted to forget, I wanted to escape that life. Darn it! How did they find me?"

"So, you caused yourself to have a temporary state of amnesia huh? Well, because of that you didn't hide yourself very well," a deep and familiar voice said. I uncovered my eyes and opened them. They had adjusted to the darkness well enough to see that, like when I first came here, I was sitting on top of a metal bed that was suspended by chain links. Other than that, the room was empty. I was the only living soul. I noticed a dim light, like that of a lantern or torch. I turned my head towards it and noticed a man standing there. The only things separating us were metal bars. That man was one of the researchers who had done the first experiment on me when I was little. He was also the one who took me from my parents. Back then, before the experiments had started, I thought he was on my side. That he would look after me after my parents died. I even believed him when he said they were killed because they did a very bad thing. Now I know that he was lying. My parents never did anything wrong. The only thing he could have seen that was wrong was that my dad had been a prison guard. From what I remember of my dad's stories, he was a good prison guard. One that was nice to the prisoners, but not too nice. If someone had to be interrogated, he would have been the one to get the prisoners to fess up and admit what they've done. Something about him treating them like actual human beings who simply did something wrong was what they liked about him. Anyway, even though I trusted him back then, once the experiments started, his humanity stopped.

"You," I whispered. My surprised look quickly turned into a glare. He smirked.

"What? No kind words for an old friend?" he asked.

"If you were Saka, then I'd have plenty of kind words. But you're not and Saka is dead because of the greed of you researchers!" I said. He chuckled.

"Oh yes, that boy that you had shared this cell with for a few years. I'm glad he's dead. I saw what he could have become. He could have aroused all the other inmates to cause a riot, making us shut down this place. But, he can't since he's dead now. We were lucky you didn't act out in a bigger rage than you did. Then again, you just weren't smart enough to cause a bigger uproar. Oh well, now you're stuck here and this time we'll make sure you don't escape again," he said. Behind him appeared a few guards. "And in-between experiments, these fellows will be watching over you, ensuring you don't escape." He chuckled and walked away.

"Jerk," I whispered. I leaned my back against the wall. "Saka, I'm sorry. I really tried to escape. I made the bad decision to make myself forget about this place. I'm pretty sure I kept the diary though. Hopefully someone will read it soon and help me out of here." I sighed.

About an hour passed of nothing but staring at the ceiling. Then I heard someone tap something near the bars of my cage. I looked to see the same guy.

"It's time for the first experiment Haley. Granted it's only your first day back, but you should know how the process goes by now. After all, you had been with us for about 15 years," he said. My glare held steady. "Get her out of there any way you can." He had spoken to the guards. They came in, each grabbed one of my wrists, pushed me hard against the concrete wall, and put the same old handcuffs on me as they did back when I first stayed here. Then they pushed me through the now open cage door. I tried to resist and twisted around. They lost their grip on me and I turned around briefly. It was enough time to see what the guy had touched earlier. It was some touchscreen thing. He had pressed a button just before turning around to see me free of their grip. When he had touched it, I saw a slight electric current run down the bars of the, now closed, cage door.

"What are you idiots doing? Stop her!" he yelled. They started to come after me but I ran. I remembered everything Sakaki had taught me so far. Mostly just strength training, but he also taught me how to quickly access my adrenaline if I ever needed to get away from an enemy quickly. I closed my eyes and dug deep inside. A moment later I reopened I eyes and was greeted with a pole slammed into my face. I fell backwards and mentally cursed. I looked up and noticed that the pole was stationed there and no one had hit me with it. I shook my head, stood up, and kept running with my new adrenaline. I rounded a corner and saw stairs at the end of a long hallway. Each side of the hallway was lined with cells containing young children, teenagers, and even some young adults about my age.

"Who's that?" a small child asked.

"Someone trying to escape," a teen in the same cell as the small child said.

"I think I recognize her. Number 5?" a familiar voice said. I stopped and looked. It was one of the people who had been brought here at the same time I was.

"Number 4?" I whispered. She's the same age as I, yet she wasn't able to escape. Heck, the only reason I was able to escape was because they thought I was dead after that electrical experiment. She smiled and nodded.

"Yeah, it's me. But why are you here? I thought you had escaped?" she said with a confused look.

"I did a few years ago. They caught me a day or two ago. It's hard to tell the time in this place," I said. She nodded, agreeing. Then she looked down the hall where I can come from.

"Yeah, but hurry. They're coming! Oh, you think you can set us free before you go? Just press that red button on the side of the cage. Mine's probably one of the few they haven't upgraded yet," she said. I nodded and quickly moved. I turned around since my hands were bound behind my back and did my best to press the button. I must have pressed it since the cage door creaked open.

"You guys hurry out of here!" I said. She shook her head.

"You inspired all of us when you escaped. Hell, you saved our asses once or twice just by talking them out of it. We owe you. You run, we'll hold them off as best as we can. Let's go guys! Let loose as many as you can!" she said. She ran in the direction I came from and started pressing buttons, letting loose other 'lab rats' as we called ourselves. I stood there for a moment, not sure what to do. Then she turned around and yelled at me to go. I nodded and ran, my hands still bound.

I ran up the stairs and suddenly a red light and sirens went off. That was turned on either when there were trespassers, or when one of us escaped. I don't remember it going off when I left nor when I came back to get my diary. Then again, that was about three or four years ago. I shook my head to get rid of these thoughts.

"Focus Haley! You need to find your way out of here again! I think I remember the way," I whispered. I didn't stop running and when I reached the top of the stairs I was going to round the closest corner but then I heard voices. I stopped at the corner and hid like some kind of special agent with my back against the wall as much as I could.

"What's the siren about?" a guard yelled over the sirens.

"We found two trespassers! They just entered the factory on the top level! We don't know their intentions, but we have to stop them no matter what!" a second guard yelled. "Let's go!" They ran off.

"Trespassers? Could that be someone from Ryozanpaku? If that's them, then they must have found my diary somehow. Then that means they saved Allie at least. I hope Ashley's okay too. Anyway, I have to try to get to the top level. If it is them, then that'll be a huge relief. If not, I'll just try my best to get past them and get out of here," I whispered. I peered around the corner again and saw that no one was there. I smirked and started to run. I stopped at the end of that hallway again and peered around. I saw a group of soldiers coming from one direction and panicked a little. I didn't have enough time to run back down the hallway and I didn't see any doors down my hallway. I looked up and noticed that the ceiling was high enough where they wouldn't see me if I was hiding up there. But the hallway was too wide for me to shimmy my way up. So I had to settle with sticking as close to the wall as I could. They ran past me, somehow not noticing me.

"Well that was close," a voice to my right said.

"Yeah, you're telling me," I whispered. Then my body froze and I slowly looked to see who it was.

"Now, how did this rat get out of her cage?" he said. He was the martial artist who can kidnapped me, Allie, and Ashley.

"You," I whispered. He smirked and reached out for me. I jumped back, causing me to back into the next hallway. "Crap!" I ran away down the opposite way the soldiers had come from.

"You can't outrun a master!" he yelled. He ran after me and I used my adrenaline again.

"Crap crap crap double crap!" I kept saying as I ran. I finally saw the stairs but wasn't able to reach them. Well, not on my own. The master guy had caught up with me and he kicked me down. His power combined with both of our speeds caused me to be sent flying into the staircase. I landed upside down and saw him running towards me again. I squirmed around until I was back on my feet right side up and wasted no time in running up the stairs. Now I had reached the area two levels above the cells where they kept the 'rats': the labs where they tested drugs. Through the windows I could see the researchers in their lab coats. Some were cowering in a corner, others were just continuing what they were doing. I went into one of the rooms that was empty and hid as best I could. Thankfully, the martial artist was dumb and didn't think to look behind any closed doors. That, or he wasn't allowed. Either way it worked for me. He left the room without giving it any more than a brief glance. I slowly walked out of my hiding spot, making sure that he was nowhere to be seen. I tugged at the handcuffs and sighed.

"I have to get these things off quickly," I whispered. I looked around and found a knife. I shivered at what they would use it for. "No, there's no time to think about that right now. If things work out, no one will get the chance to use it ever again anyway." I quietly maneuvered my way around the lab, turned around when I got to the table, and picked up the knife. I wiggled it around until I could hold it in the right position. I heard a crash on the floor above me.

"Attention all, the intruders have now reached the second floor. All experiments are to be halted immediately!" a panicked voice said through a loudspeaker.

"They're getting closer. I have to hurry," I said. I wiggled it around and finally managed to get the handcuffs off of me. "Finally." I ran out of the room without looking and quickly ran left down the hallway. Now all of the researchers were cowering in the corner of the room and the 'rats' were bound together in a different corner. I walked right in, thinking that even though I wasn't trained very long and that it was only for strength, I could take any of them if I needed to. I walked over to the scared 'rats' and untied them, ignoring anything the researchers were saying. They didn't come after me though which was weird.

"You guys, go up and get out of here! If you see anyone from level 5, you tell them the same got it?" I said. They all nodded and ran out of the door ahead of me. "I hope that master guy doesn't get to them first though."

I ran out the door and eventually found a staircase that lead up. For some reason all of the staircases were apart from each other instead of being connected like normal ones would be. I got to the top of that staircase and looked at the floor level: Level two. I sighed.

"Almost there," I whispered. I saw some people coming so I ducked behind a corner.

"Where did they go?" a soldier yelled.

"The cameras didn't show them going down any staircase so they have to still be on this level. Keep looking!" a second one yelled. They ran past my hiding spot and a moment later I snuck out of it, staring after them. I then ran down the direction they had come from.

"I wonder who these people are? They must be strong to be able to come down this far," I whispered. I started to breath heavy after all of the running I had been doing within an hour or two. I stopped at another corner and glanced down it. I barely remembered the path out of here. Back then it was more of a guess and check. More or less the same as now. However, from what I remembered, this hallway would lead me to an elevator just around the corner that lead directly to the outside.

"If I can just get to that elevator, surely I can get out of here?" I whispered. I saw no one down the hallway and decided to risk it. I ran down it as quickly as I could, but before i could get halfway down it, someone called my name. A voice I had been hoping to hear since before the guy knocked me out back at the dojo.

"Haley!" Sakaki yelled. I turned around and my eyes opened wide.

"Sakaki," I whispered. His previously angry face had turned to one of relief.

"You're okay," he said. I nodded and started to walk to him. Elder came around the corner and smiled at me as well. I heard a ding behind me but it didn't register. After a moment, Elder's face turned from a happy one to a terrified one.

"Haley watch out!" he yelled. I turned around and saw that there was a guy coming from the elevator with a pistol in hand. I didn't have time to react. A shot rang through the small space of the long hallway. I felt the cold metal pierce through my right shoulder. Then the blackness took over.

MUAHAHAHA

HELLO ^^

HERE IS THE NEXT CHAPTER!

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THANKS FOR REVIEWING:

MOMOCHAN77

MOLLY GRACE 16

HALEY

THANKS FOR REVIEWING!

I APOLOGIZE FOR THE LACK OF FIGHTING SCENES WITH THE MASTERS.

I WASN'T COMPLETELY SURE HOW TO WRITE THEIR FIGHTING STYLES, ESPECIALLY KENSEI'S, BUT I WILL TRY TO IN THE NEXT CHAPTER.

UNTIL THEN,

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