Wow that took a while... 4 hours and 40 minutes... Though with a fair about of breaks :P I think I would've been writing for at least 3 hours and 30 minutes... Probably closer to 4 to create the biggest chapter yet! Though the last chapter in this series will be a double the length of these normal chapters ;D
Anyway. It's 3:32 and I am tired... So yeah.
Read, Enjoy and stuff :P
And thank you guys for the inspiring reviews I've gotten recently. You're the people who make this story live on! :D
And finally, here's the chapter
I slowly opened my eyes as I regained consciousness. I already felt the throbbing headache that seemed to be covering every inch of my head, it hurt so much. After the glaring light finally settled, I was shocked to find out that I was not in any place I knew. I was in a cell. There were no windows, no chairs, tables, there was nothing! The only two visible objects in the blinding white room was the even more blinding silver door, and a light bulb which light the room endlessly. I collapsed back onto the floor and put my head in my hands. How did I get here? I thought to myself as I struggled to remember yesterdays events.
Clank and I had gone to the city to help aid the defence force during the invasion. I shot down a few ships before jumping into the carnage in the city, then proceeded to kill our attackers, the Frey. The last thing I remembered was getting into a fistfight with a ground troop when something got stuck into my neck…
I felt a small bump on the back of my neck as I moved my fingertip across it. It hurt like hell when I applied pressure and I began to wonder how gently they had stuck the needle in.
After 5 minutes of laying down, thinking things over I realised just how alone I was. My harness was no where to be found, as the same went for Clank, and at my best guess Talwyn was still guarding the Garage, waiting for her hero to return home. I let out an irritated sigh at the bad thought.
I wondered how long I had been unconscious, as 10 minutes had now passed and from whatever drug they had temporarily installed in me I still felt really groggy. That, and like the back of my head had been hit by a train.
After a full hour I was mentally spent. The silence dragged me through my thoughts slowly but sure and when the clock had turned over sixty minutes I had finished wading through the shoulder high river. I had thought about Alister, and how he had nearly killed me and the universe. I thought about Clank, who was stolen from me not even an hour after Tachyon left the dimension. I thought about Tachyon himself, and his last words about my name, my purpose. I thought about Vox, the main who made me fight for money. Dallas and Juanita, the two commentators who I had grown to know after my time spent in the Shadow Sector. Dr Nefarious with his vendetta against organics. Sasha, who was still the mayor of Metropolis, to my knowledge at least. Angela, who had been missing for a while now and I still had no clue if she was a Lombax or not. The Protopet which was easily the first of all the top selling products from Megacorp. Drek, who threatened the planet I grew up on for nothing but money. Qwark who used to work for the Chairman, and look how far he'd come now. Clank again, and how we first met. All of that had been played on the HV screen in my head over the past hour, and I was once again left contemplating the situation before me. Was I ever going to get out of here? Was the Frey going to actually bother with killing me? Or was I going to be left alone to rot in this spotless room. Forever passed with my thoughts being my only entertainment, or the opposite depending on how you look at it. After what seemed like a whole day had passed, a different sound filled the gleaming white room. Not the sound of my stomach, nor my feral shouts. The voice of a man. The voice of my captor.
"Enjoying your new living quarters, Lombax?" The voice asked, coming from everywhere. I couldn't pinpoint where it was exactly from and concluded with the fact that there must be countless speakers hidden amongst the room. When I replied with my naturally sarcastic tongue, my voice was dry, gravely, and rough, as well as sore from not being used for who knows how long.
"10 out of 10, best hotel in the galaxy. Now what do you want with me?" The man chuckled a posh laugh.
"You'll find out soon enough, my dear Lombax. But for now, lets see how you react to this…" I was on my feet before he even pressed the button, which I heard through the speaker as a minute click. I held my hands out before me, fists clenched, ready for anything that was going to knock down that door.
After a couple of seconds of nothing, I heard his posh laugh again. It annoyed me to the bone as it echoed around the room, surrounding me from multiple sources.
"Enough with the games. What do you want from me?" I shouted at the the man, eyes still locked on the door. As if he was on vacation, the man laughed more like he was thoroughly enjoying himself, and I didn't doubt that he was.
"I've already told you, you'll find out soon enough. Oh, don't worry about that button I pressed just before… The effects will kick in momentarily," his sentence ended in a laugh that faded away as he presumably walked away from the microphone. Almost ignoring what he had said, I kept my focus on the door. If a Blargian Snagglebeast were to break into the room, I'd be ready for it. But of course that wasn't going to happen, since the only that was going to happen, would be the scenario I had least expected.
A sickly burning smell wafted through the air, followed by the hiss of corroding metal. I looked around to find various holes in the walls, getting larger and larger. I tried to get a view of what was beyond the white room, but it was black. Soon enough I was going to be surrounded by darkness, or I was going to be an acids lunch.
It wasn't long before the acid had spread to the floor, and pushed me into a corner. The room was more than two thirds gone and there was still no sign of anything I could stand on. The darkness seemed unnatural as if there was nothing there, and I would fall forever if I took the chance.
Suddenly a crack broke through the room as the acid reached the lightbulb on the ceiling, breaking the glass and plunging nearly everything into darkness. The only visible things was the faint green glow of the Ameboid looking acid, and a fiery light coming from below. I looked down to get a better glimpse of the firelight and saw an obstacle course, similar to the Path Of Death Qwark had put me through when he had lost his mind. Feeling a sharp stinging on my tail, I decided to fall down to the course rather than get eaten alive from the acid. I landed on my legs heavily, and they wobbled without mercy, soon sending me crashing to the floor. I was just amazed I didn't break anything from the 10 metre drop.
"Congratulations, Lombax, you've completed the first part. As a reward for your bravery, I'll give you a tip. Look behind you…" His laughter seemed darker than before. There was a slight manaiacaltinge to it was unnerving, but nevertheless I took his advice and looked behind me at my next challenge. Surprisingly, it was fairly similar to the last. The rocky platform I had landed on was falling apart behind me, and my only option was to fight forward through what I was now calling the Pat of Death V2. Typical.
I quickly picked up my dead legs and began to run as fast as I could, jumping over the insane amount of obstacles jutting out from the walls. I was quickly in an inferno as fire blazed all around me, cooking me not too slowly, and singeing my uncovered fur. And as quickly as I was cooked, I wasn't as the flames stopped for a second giving me a short while to recuperate and look behind me. The platforms end was slowly approaching me from behind as more and more pieces of stone fell into the black abyss. Not for the first time I found myself asking where I was. This could not be inside, it was far too big. But this definitely wasn't anywhere on Veldin either. How long was I out before I woke up I asked myself a second question for the second time.
Then I was falling, but not because it had caught up with me, there was a gaping hole that I could not jump across, not that there was much on the other side. I found my leg being pounded by the ground as I landed from the short fall, almost instantly collapsing. I was dead tired, and my legs felt detached from my body, but I knew this wasn't the end of the tests. Good things come in threes, and I'm sure from my spectator's point of view this was a glorious thing. Not a second too late he spoke, seemingly just in control of his actions. He was thoroughly enjoying this.
"Good show! A great one. But as you have just predicted, there is one more challenge…" His voice still coming from an indistinguishable source. But after hears the dull thud of footsteps, and noises of struggle I look up at my final challenge.
It was Talwyn. She was in the arms of some beefy looking Freyan, trying to break free of his grasp. I stood up to challenge my newest foe, who subsequently pulled out a blaster and pointed it towards Talwyns head. Needless to say I stopped in my tracks.
The laughter from the strange man still echoed around the room, like he was out of control and count stop. I don't think he could if he tried. But somehow between laughs he managed to say; "Which one is real?" Before exploding into an even more uncontrollable fit of laughter. And as he did that, 4 more captive Talwyns joined the first one.
I looked around in shock as his question stumbled around in my head. Which one is real…
"The clock is ticking…"
On impulse I ran to the one that had appeared first. She seemed the most real out of the 5 and I was rewarded with a massive smile as I closed in on her. When it was clear I had made my choice, the guard stepped away back into the darkness and for a fleeting second I thought everything was going to be okay. I pulled her into a hug almost collapsing on her because my legs were so sore. I didn't care about the fact that it was going to be tough getting out of this place, all I cared about was her right now. Until of course the hologuise wore off…
I looked at the fishy like creature in disgust as I leapt off it. It fell to the floor without my support and died quickly from lack of oxygen. But that would only mean…
"Time's up." The four shots went off simultaneously and four Talwyns fell to the ground like ragdolls being dropped from their owners. The remaining guards had left like the first one did, and I was left almost alone, looking at the four dying Talwyns with still no idea which one was real, not that it mattered anymore. They were all dead.
I let out the most feral scream of my life but before I even had time to rage, or mourn, the building lurched to the left causing the ground to be on a slant. The lights in the room flicked on revealing the large hull of a ship. Workers and guards alike were all around, watching me. Shouts of 'We're hit!' and 'Ships going down!' became the number one noise replacing the now gone laughter that still echoed in my head from earlier.
I took this distraction as an advantage and made a beeline for a door that looked like it leaded to the outside. The guards quickly caught on to me though as the phrase 'Shoot the cat' was at the top of the list of things to shout. I had darts and bullets of all sizes hurled towards me as I made my way towards the door, but I was too fast. I suffered no more injured by the time I had opened the hatch. Wind smacked me in the face as I saw where the massive ship was headed. We were at Mt Axel, only ¼ of the way up and falling quickly into the black valley. But I knew of a way out.
I found my swingshot was still included in my quick select menu and equipped it in mid air whilst preparing for the sudden change of direction I was going to feel in a moment. Sure enough, I flipped around at least 10 times, whilst watching the massive ship fall past me into the abyss below. I never heard it land.
After I called, it only took 10 minutes for tool to pick me up from my hanging spot. And it was probably the longest 10 minutes of my life. Now I had even more things to try and distract myself from…
"You alright there?" My old friend had asked on the way back home. I waved him off and said a quiet 'yeah, just exhausted' which was true, but not the whole story. Luckily Tool didn't press on the matter, as it was a quick drop off because he had work to do. There was one part of my brain that was telling me how abnormal Tools actions were, as well as the whole situation before hand. But that was one small part to the rest which was mourning over Talwyn, mulling it over.
I got into the garage to find it empty. Not even Clank was here to help me feel better. I was still alone.
Alone - the word echoed in my head. That was my destiny, to be alone in this world. I couldn't bear the thought of it.
I sulked over to my room and collapsed on my be. I couldn't cry for whatever reason, I just felt empty. My whole life had just been taken away from me, what else was I supposed to feel?
After a while of sitting on my bed, examining my last gift from Talwyn - the adamantite statue - I finally noticed something new. Something that was not here when I left to try and save the city.
A note rested on the bedside table with my name on it, written by Talwyn.
Enjoy it, did you? I'm sure the last bit wasn't too bad. Well... I am a zombie right now so what can I say :P
Thanks for reading :) - Yeah, thats what I can say :P