Chapter 69: Ruidi

I still didn't trust that girl. Sure, I went with the flow, but I was pretty sure something would go wrong. And there was still that so-called goddess out there. I was constantly on alert, and it started taking its toll on me. I noticed that I was getting more and more crabby, and that everyone else (well, at least Pranu and Shirley) were warming up to the girl-ahem-Alcyone.

The corridors snaked around and around, and my head was beginning to get dizzy from trying to keep track of all of the twists and turns we had made. I doubted that even Alcyone could teleport us out of here. Whenever we encountered a guard, I put them to sleep. I noticed, bitterly, that the girl wasn't doing anything much to help at all.

Finally we got to a room labeled "Experiment LAB: SUBJECT NO. 928409_Avian Human_Nicholas L." in big, shiny letters. "Let's go!" Alex said excitedly. "See, it's where they're holding Nick!"

"I don't know about this..." Alcyone said. "Why would they purposely put someone that they know that people are going to try and rescue in a room with big golden letters advertising it?"

Inwardly I agreed. Why would they? This must be a trap. I could tell that most of the others thought so too, by the furrowing of their brow. But Alex was too excited to listen to her instincts. And your instincts are often correct.

"And it's been quite a while since we had seen any guards." Pranu added.

"Nick. Is. In. There. Do you care about him at all?!" Ignoring our protests and exclamations of "No, that's not it!", Alex put her hand firmly onto the door and twisted open the handle.

Chapter 70: Alcyone

"Nick! Where are you?" Alex called into darkness.

"Man! It's dark in here, where's the switch?" Caiyi rubbed his head.

Suddenly the lights flickered on.

"Thank you! Who found the switch?" Tim asked.

Everyone shook their head. Tim and Caiyi stared at each other, their faces blank.

Suddenly the door shuts behind them. Everyone turns to stare. Tim tries to pull it open, but to no avail.

"IT'S A TRAP!" Pranu shouts.

"NICK, WHERE ARE YOU? Alex exclaimed.

"Alex! We are in big trouble here, and you are still going on about Nick!" Bhavana screamed.

"Well you're just jealous he likes me!" Alex replied.

"Hello? Stuck in a room here! ALL BECAUSE OF ALEX!" Ruidi waved his hands up and down, like a chicken.

"Yeah!" Caiyi agreed.

"NO! It's not her fault!" Pranu exclaimed.

"Yes it is!" Bhavana hollered.

"GUYS! WOULD YOU ALL PAY ATTENTION AND LISTEN TO ME?" Shirley yelled, which is very unlike herself. Everyone stared at her, quieting down.

"Ok, now, if you haven't all realized, we are stuck in here, with no way out. Luckily, we have Alcyone, to get us out through the Void. Right?" She asked.

"... I think so..." I nodded.

"Then let's go!" Ruidi exclaimed.

I summoned for the Void, nothing happened. Darn it! I had used up my last drop of energy in transporting the group here.

"What happened?" Shirley was confused.

"Umm... apparently traveling across half the world and then underground into the mantle about 3 miles right after stopping time for a long duration was too much work for me. Sorry, guys. I'm all out of transporting energy. And time-stopping energy too. I need to recharge." I replied tiredly.

"Wait. We're underground?" Tim exclaimed.

Suddenly a voice crackled into life on the loudspeaker. "Mwah-ha-ha-ha!" it shrieked. "I have been waiting so long for this day! You know, I was..." and it kept on blabbering on.

"Guys, over here!" Alex whispered. She had found a rather large air vent in the ceiling. "I think it goes straight up!" She took out her screwdriver and flew up, perching near the vent. In seconds, the vent was open. "Perfect. There are ladder rungs here. It's a bit too small to fly with your wingspans, but I could."

"-and finally, I have all of you here, just where I- NOOOO!" screamed the voice. "NOT THERE! DIDN'T I TELL THE MAINTENANCE MEN TO BLOCK THAT UP?" Apparently the voice had finally noticed that we were heading toward the air vent.

We all charged for it and jumped into the air. I made a clumsy attempt and immediately fell, head-over-heels, back onto the floor. My wings beat the air uselessly.

"GUYS! I DON'T KNOW HOW TO LIFT OFF!" I shouted. Shirley and Alex turned their heads around, then looked at each other and nodded. They swooped down to try to help me.

"I've got you now!" The voice laughed rather shakily, then muttered to itself, "I sure hope three will do. If my boss finds out about this-"

The door burst open to reveal the labcoats. The rest of the flock looked down worriedly at us from the air vent. "DON'T WORRY ABOUT US! JUST GO! SAVE YOURSELVES!" Shirley yelled, just before she, Alex, and I were restrained by men in white lab coats. We kicked and fought, but it was no use.

They tossed us into cages and left the room.

"I'm sorry," I apologized. "I should've moved us to a closer location before voidsurfing."

"I should be sorry, I got us here in the first place," Alex confessed. "I was just really, really worried about Nick."

"Might as well use this time and rest," I pointed out. Besides, I added to myself, I could recharge my powers.

All of us lay down and slept.

Chapter 71: Shirley

We woke up to see gray metal bars. At first, I didn't recognize where I was. After a few moments, my brain readjusted itself. I looked at the third cage, expecting to see Alcyone, only to find it empty. "Where's Alcyone?" I asked Alex, who was rubbing her eyes sleepily.

"I dunno." Alex replied, her speech slurred because she wasn't fully awake yet. She shook her hair out of her eyes.

Suddenly, the door opened, and a labcoat walked in with some food. He shoved some bread through the bars. I sniffed my portion cautiously. It didn't smell like it was poisoned, but you never know. I took one small, cautious bite. Then, the labcoat spoke to us.

"Your little friend is currently suspended in plasma gel." he told us. "The gel shuts down all life functions except for the heart and lungs. There is an oxygen tube giving it oxygen" It?! How dare he call Alcyone an it! "and there are vital nutrients injected into it at scheduled periods. We don't want it escaping this time. I already lost it once, when it was three years old." The labcoat pointed to a fishtank filled with orange goo in the room right next to ours. The two rooms were separated with a glass panel. Then, he left.

Funny. How had I not noticed the fishtank before? There was a humanoid shape in it floating in the gel, with various tubes connecting to the nostrils.

"Alex." I turned to her cage. "Even if we broke out of this, we wouldn't know how to disconnect the tubes without harming her. We need Nick."

Chapter 72: Alcyone

Where am I? Darkness was all around me, but it wasn't the quiet, comforting darkness of the Void. It was something else entirely. I had no control over this kind of darkness. This darkness was vast and unfamiliar, and I couldn't do anything. I was immobile.

The vast expanse of black was almost as if I had closed my eyes... Wait! Closed my eyes? I must be unconscious. Open your eyes! I commanded myself. Open them! For a few moments it was as if my brain was nonexistent- nothing happened. Then, slowly, too slowly for my impatience, a small crack appeared in the massive amount of black. The crack shone with light, and I pushed with all of my stubborn willpower to force the crack open. Finally, I was able to open my eyes.

What I saw when my eyes were finally opened was horrifying. I was suspended in a sort of orange-colored plasmitic gel. I knew about these things. It shuts down all organs except those vital for life support. I saw blearily, through my unfocused eyes, that the door was beginning to creak open. I lowered my eyelids so that they didn't know that I could see them.

How strange. The brain is not necessary for life support, at least the conscious brain. How was I able to think? Or open my eyelids, for that matter?

I began to test myself again. First, I tried to twitch my hand. No luck. Well, I reasoned, I'd better start small. I tried twitching my finger. That worked. I tried wiggling it. It sort of succeeded. I was able to manage the slightest of wiggles.

The labcoats had come in. They were holding a little clipboard and they were jotting down notes about my vitals. I recognized one of them. The green-eyed old man. Hmm... he wasn't that old last time I saw him. In fact, I remember him as a young, enthusiastic child genius. Very strange. How did he age that much in so little time?

"And," he was saying, "here is our strangest patient." He gestured to me. "It disappeared from us around 50 years ago. It was only three, and we hadn't taught it flight. I don't know how it managed to escape. Or how it managed to age so little." He shook his head. "We will have to do an autopsy after live examination." Then, he pointed to my wings, which I wasn't able to hide in time. "Beautiful wings, those are. We've never had a single successful barn owl/peregrine falcon mix before. Though I wouldn't call it an astounding success." Here he laughed. "That was our two hundred and fifty eighth try. We wanted to create one who was not only fast, but silent also. "

I half-heard the first part, and listened fiercely to the last part, my anger building. Two hundred and fifty eighth try. Two hundred and fifty eight lives lost. These scientists were truly monstrosities.

My anger fueled my determination. No matter what, I'd get out of this. But I'd have to wait until they left.