Chapter 6 – Unchained
With a frightened squeak, one of Nightmare's minions scampered across the floor. It stopped when the paw of its master came down, crushing it underneath him and staining the floor in the green blood of the undead, "YOU FOOLS!" Nightmare yelled as he scanned the remaining minions, each one of them showing fear and shame, "I asked you to retrieve one of EVERY animal in that zoo, instead all I have are a few wounded beasts!" He turned to his pen, seeing a large lion licking his bloodied paw, an elephant who wouldn't rise from his side, and a large Komodo Dragon. "And to top it off, you lost several of your brothers and sisters in the act. You chewed through everything you could get your paws on and led the Soul Guardians right to me!" he shouted as each of the minions looked to one of the others, "I expect a better result now!" he growled, "Move the injured animals inside some cages and follow me, we're going to raid the aquarium along the docks!" The minions began to move out, forming groups to lift the five cages in that were filled, threw large with the zoo animals, and two small, one with a rat and one with a bat, "Oh by the way!" he finally said as they neared the exit, "I'm coming with you to make sure you don't eat everything again!"
Bolt sniffed the air as Rhino scanned with his computer, the two of them walking along as Bolt kept his nose to the ground, "The scent of dead rat is thick around here!" Bolt said as he followed his nose. "Yah, and it's like they have no real form of energy to track, it's ridiculous." Rhino said in frustration. Suddenly Bolt felt a tug on his tail, and with lightning speed, he turned around to see a short smiling girl with a lemur in her shoulder. The lemur had her head turned slightly, as if searching the terrain for something, "Did you pull my tail Ashley?" Bolt said knowing both personalities. "Did I?" the human asked honestly. "No you didn't!" Bolt said. "Oh, then it must have been Ricket!" she said. "WHAT?" the lemur said as she turned to her partner. "Busted!" Rhino said with a smile as he continued to roll away. Ricket shrugged her shoulders, "It was funny while it lasted!" she said and turned to Ashley, "Tell him what we found."
"There's a large sewer entrance up ahead, it looks like it was ripped off of its perch." Ashley said. "A perch is for a bird!" Ricket corrected her. "Oh yah! The cap looked as if it had been blown up!" Bolt and Mittens turned to each other with surprise, "Show us!" was all Bolt said as he slowly turned back.
"It looks less like an explosion and more like something just erupted out of it!" Mittens commented as they looked at the ground. The entire cap had been tossed aside, and the metal ring uprooted from the ground and discarded somewhere down the street, and several pieces of concrete sprawled everywhere, as if they had been pulled up and tossed away. "Really?"Ashley asked as she lifted her hands and placed them behind her head, "There's a difference?" Bolt and Mittens both sighed in frustration as Rhino began chuckling, "How did she become Ducker's best Penenia Scout?" Bolt asked in a whisper. "I'm still not sure!" Mittens responded at the same volume. "I don't know, I think she's funny!" Rhino said through his giggles. "I can keep looking if you want!" Ashley said as she walked up to the broken ground. "I'm pretty sure whatever it is won't be going back in there Ashley!" Rhino said with a smile. Ashley turned around, at first flabbergasted, and then smiled brightly, "OH!" she said loudly, "I guess that makes sense!" Ashley's smile grew slightly as she walked the other way, nearing a pair of buildings that were close together. "This is going to be fun!" Ricket replied as Ashley knelt down. With one powerful push, she began running towards one of the buildings. She never stopped, instead she placed her foot on the wall, and ran up a few steps before jumping off to reach the raised fire escape. Keeping her momentum, she flipped and grabbed hold of the railing before sailing over and landing smoothly on the catwalk. It almost seemed as if she didn't even stop to land, she just began running up the stairs towards the roof. "What do you call those stunts again?" Bolt asked. "That's Parkour!" Rhino responded, "Though she's at a level I thought only possible in video games!" Mittens whistled once, "I wish I could do that!" she said as she watched Ashley jump from half way up the fire escape to the side of the building next to her, and run up the side to jump again and grab the edge of the roof. "Well, we'd better get going. Nightmare's not going to wait for us to find him!" Bolt said as he turned to the other two. Mittens smiled and nodded her agreement while Rhino simply cracked the knuckles in his paws. "Let it begin!" the hamster said almost darkly.
"I spy with my little eye something white!" Dark Bolt said from inside the head. He waited for an answer but never got one, "Damnit, this won't work without an idiot on the other end!" With a powerful sigh, he lifted his nose, "This guy is taking forever to apologize to everyone. We're gonna die of old age before he gets around to it!" he said. Suddenly he relaxed, falling to the floor in boredom. Several chains went slack and fell to the ground around him. "Huh?" he asked himself and glanced at the released weight, "Looks like I won't have to wait!" he told himself as he smiled wickedly and began untangling his paws from the links, "Get ready you idiot, I'm gonna come for you!"
Bolt sniffed the ground as he tried finding the trail of his adversary, "He's got to be around here somewhere!" he said in frustration. "I agree." Mittens said as she marched on ahead of him. "He won't escape us! As a team we can't be beaten!" Rhino said as he rolled off in a different direction. Bolt sighed as he smiled, thinking of his friend and his wife as they tried helping, completely oblivious as his shadow moved away from him.
"It feels good to be out on the field again, the sunshine, the grass…" Rhino said to himself as he used his computer to get better views of the surrounding land, "The creepy shadows…" he continued as he was enveloped in the black light less shape of a dog. He gasped quickly and turned, finding the silhouette of Bolt as the creature opened its mouth, and barked.
"Neh!" Mittens grunted as she looked over a large window sill. Still she found nothing, "Where are you Nightmare?" she asked with anger seething from her words. She looked up as she turned to look down a main road, spying a sign that made her stop and realize something, "There's an aquarium in this town?" she asked herself. The same shadow that had engulfed Rhino finally covered her, engulfing her in both darkness and fear as she recognized the laugh that stayed behind her, "No!" she whispered. She was quickly struck in the back of the head by the large paw of the dog she feared, Dark Bolt. "Sorry darling!" he said maliciously, "But I have a few unwanted guests to escort from life!" His smile showed nothing but a feral urge to kill as he glanced in Bolt's direction. He quickly turned back to her, glancing at her back side hidden by her tail, "Pity," he said with lust in his breath, "I would have so loved to spend time with you like this!" He reached down and picked her up by her scruff, "But the show must go on!" he nearly growled, though with her in his mouth it sounded more like, "Vut ga sow muft go ong!" and far less intimidating to him than he wanted it to.
Bolt looked around, sniffing the air around him as he tried to catch a scent that may have been different from the others in the air, "Hey, Mittens. Are you having any luck?" he asked into his head set. When he received no answer, he stopped, glancing in the direction he knew she had gone, "Mittens?" he asked again. "Rhino have you heard from Mittens?" he asked after a while. No answer. "Rhino?" he asked as he placed a paw into his ear and against his ear piece, "Rhino, buddy, come in!" Again no answer, "Mittens, Rhino, answer me!" he said, and was quickly tackled from behind, "GOOF!" All he knew was the pain as his head hit the ground several times, a soft body cushioning his back and flipping him around until it let go and let him hit the ground, "Oof! Ohhh!" he groaned as he struck, and lifted himself up while rubbing his head. Before he could open his eyes again, the thing slammed its head into his, causing him to skid across the ground, "I know that ruthlessness…" he said as he looked up and dodged to one side. A black streak zoomed by him, causing him to turn around. There he stood, he black fur shining in the sun like a tempting shadow that hides a treasure. The crimson bolt on his hip pulsing with a lust for the blood of others, and his eyes shined the same crimson as the fires of hell. "How'd you get out?" he asked as he looked up at his darker half. "I got impatient!" Dark Bolt said and again rushed in. Bolt also took off, jumping over the speeding dog before running after him. "What did you do to Mittens?" the white shepherd asked. Dark Bolt quickly turned; spinning is a full circle before kicking his back legs into Bolt's chin. The white dog went flying backwards, striking the ground hard before Dark Bolt arrived again, grabbing him by one of his back legs and biting down as hard as he could. Both canines could hear the resounding crack when Bolt's leg broke under the force, causing Bolt to cry out in pain before Dark Bolt once again tossed him aside. "Amazing what can happen when you bite hard enough!" Dark Bolt said gleefully.
"Where is Mittens?" Bolt asked, "What have you done with her?"
"You should worry less about what I've done with her, and think about what I plan on doing to her!" Dark Bolt said as again he zoomed in. Bolt couldn't react in time, his broken leg was too much of a handy-cap, and he was quickly clipped by Dark Bolt as the mad dog dashed by. Bolt fell to the ground on top of his leg, causing him to grit his teeth in pain. Dark Bolt saw this and turned without stopping, making his way back to Bolt and placing his front paw on top of Bolt's front exposed leg, "And even more so about what I plan on doing to you!" the black dog said, and pressed down as hard as he could, easily snapping Bolt's leg bone in half. The white Shepherd screamed out again, pain flooding his body as if a dam had broken, filling his nerves with the sharp feeling that made him cry. "HAH!" Dark Bolt laughed as he picked Bolt up by the collar. He quickly shook the poor dog like a rag doll, hoping to snap his neck in two. When that didn't happen, he tossed him aside, into the side of a building and rammed his head purposefully into one of Bolt's broken legs. Bolt couldn't help but cry out again as he was shoved through the stone walls; agitating both legs as he landed on the other side of the building. "Pain, suffering!" Dark Bolt explained, "I plan on making you suffer as I kill you, to make it as painful as possible before I finally rip your head off!"
"And what about Mittens?" Bolt asked as he lifted himself up to his two remaining paws. Dark Bolt once again slammed the top of his head into his other half's chest, sending him flying. Bolt couldn't move, the pain just built up as he tried desperately to stop himself from further injury, "I'm going to kill you slowly and painfully, and you're still worried about someone else?" Dark Bolt asked, "That's why I won in the end!" The black shepherd again dashed in, slamming the top of his head into Bolt again, and lifting his jaw as quickly as he could, snatching Bolt's other front leg in his jaws. With one powerful bite, the bone crumbled in his jaws. Again he tossed Bolt aside, panting tiredly and happily as Bolt simply lay there in pain. "You've had this coming for a long time you bastard!" Dark Bolt said as he stalked up to his other half, "Keeping me, your real power, locked in those damned chains! I don't regret a thing! I'm not the one who should have to bear that burden! YOU made those chains, you suffer inside for an eternity! I AM THE TRUE WARRIOR HERE, BECAUSE I HAVE NO WEAKNESS!"
Suddenly Bolt began to glow, then Dark Bolt and two other lights. The lights lifted from them, merging into one spot above Dark Bolt. When the light faded, there floated the Warrior's Soul, shinning for all to see as Dark Bolt looked up at hit with a smile. "I knew it!" Dark Bolt said in madness.
End Chapter 6