“Where are they?” barked General Voldenic. He stood in the center of the foyer, badges of honor glistening across his chest. His burgundy uniform seemed a bit bolder than the others amongst the officers of the Third Military. Dillo knew it was the same though. Amazing what brazen confidence does to one's aesthetic. “Goodness, well that could mean anything, sir,” Dillo said as he inspected his own uniform. He peered over the balcony. “Are you inquiring where my exotic figment collection is? My NFT’s in general, maybe? Oh! Perhaps my animated art? That is a specialty of mine, you know.” The General jumped and floated, graceful as a feather, to land on the balcony’s railing. It was rather alarming when his weight cracked the wood as he stepped off, now standing eye to eye with Dillo. “I don’t care for your pointless hobbies, Cornelius. Now, where are they?” Oooo he only used Dillo’s first name when he was particularly snappy. Better just get on with things then, before he ruins more of his stuff. He glanced down the hallway full of his crystal darlings. They looked frightened, poor things. “Do you promise not to break anything else?” General Voldenic’s brow flexed to the point that only half his eyes were visible. “I won’t even promise not to break you.” “Great, well, follow me.” They made it into the office without any more damage. Other than to Dillo’s pride, as the General casually shamed his sculptures. But he could deal with that. Letting out a breath of relief, he led the General to a crystal lockbox in the corner of the room. Major Caps saluted, his face eager for acknowledgment. Voldenic didn’t even spare him a glance. Dillo focused on the lockbox and a hotkey appeared in his vision. With a mental poke, he selected it and a little key manifested in his hand. He presented it to the General. “The seeds are inside.” The General snatched the key and stuck it in the lockbox. With a click, the clear, crystal cover liquified and drifted apart in weightless droplets. He swatted the liquid crystal away to reveal ten teardrop-shaped seeds neatly assembled over velvet. Each one was about the size of a thumb and glowed with an ominous blend of subdued hues. The General actually smiled. But he quickly forced his mouth into line and plucked up the seeds. They shifted into bits of light that sucked into his Halo. He turned to Dillo. “Do you know why I entrusted this job to you, Colonel?” Dillo had some theories about why he was given such an assignment. Seeing as the renegades were sent to Dillo’s home instead of prison--an incredibly illegal move--secrecy and thoroughness were top priority. That would be a good reason alone to trust Dillo with the job. He was practically the General's plumber at this point, considering all the dirty work he’d done for him… But he figured it was more than that. The General likely assumed that Dillo would be too self-absorbed in his own affairs to pay close attention to what he was dealing with, exactly. That he wouldn’t notice that each of the renegades had Halos installed in them just before arriving. They were rushed jobs too, each of them had fresh scars where their necks met the backs of their skulls. Certainly odd if these children were once citizens of the Kingdom. Or maybe the General knew that no one else would be able to extract and craft the memory seeds into such an artful display? Or could it be… “Because I’m your favorite, sir?” said the Colonel. General Voldenic leered at Dillo. “I see you’ve been drinking. No, I entrusted you with this because you have proven time and time again to be merciless and thorough about it.” He glanced at Major Caps then returned to glaring at Dillo as if trying to bore lasers through his skull. “Or so I thought. See, I did not wish to burden the public with news of... renegades mingling with Demons and causing trouble. Such news would be poor for our image in the War Games. So, you were ordered to dispose of the renegades after extracting their memory, a step I’ve taken to ensure that this never happens again… And is never discovered.” General Voldenic started to pace around the office, inspecting it. “Then, to my surprise,” the General continued, “I received word of something… frustrating.” He ran his finger over a desk until he reached an abstract vase at its corner. Oh no, not that, that was a gift from little Casey Esglow. The General's hand hovered over it. “Since I have the seeds, the extraction is clearly complete. So tell me, Colonel, why is it I hear that the captives are not only alive… but using their Halos freely?” “Because Caps is a nark.” The vase shattered under a sudden shockwave of pressure. Dillo flinched. He didn’t mean to say that out loud. “So you really thought you could get away with disobeying orders and endangering Third Military's reputation?!” Yelled General Voldenic. Colonel Dillo suddenly felt three times as heavy. His knees shook under the pressure but he kept himself upright, then shook his hands in a gesture of innocence. “I’m not trying to get away with anything, really! I simply found them to be better placed in the recycling bin than the trash.” “They are trash." “But what if I happened to find some potential in them? Potential that could lead our--excuse me--your army, to finally winning the War Games? Imagine crushing Aldren Socres and holding the Grail again.” Dillo felt the pressure weighing on him lessen. He could stand upright again without feeling in danger of soiling himself via enhanced gravity. Phew. “Explain yourself.” Dillo brushed himself off and took a step towards the broken bits of the vase. “Of course, just after I fix this up–” the pressure returned, gluing his feet to the floor. “Explain yourself, now, Cornelius.” *** Was this really it? Jace tried his best to find the door at the back of his mind but he couldn’t find it anymore. He couldn’t pull himself free. He was completely at the creature's mercy, stretched out from ankles to wrists. Then, just as rows of teeth were about to rip into him, a wall blew apart in a shower of plastic shards, a few lodging into the creature’s shifting flesh of worms. “Jace!” Satch yelled, “I’m coming–” There was a loud thump as a large chunk of the wall fell on Satch’s head. The boy dropped the hammer and collapsed. Jace fell, suddenly freed from the whip-like appendages as they vanished in puffs of smoke. Jace scrambled away, getting as much distance from the creature as possible before realizing that the creature was… gone. All that was left was a dissipating cloud of smoke. It took a few moments for him to process this. He was safe? How?… why?… whatever. He wobbled to his feet and turned to see a completely collapsed wall where his little hole used to be. Amongst the rubble was Satch, face down and unconscious with his hand laying next to Big n’ Spikey. Did Satch bust the entire wall down? No way. Keeping close attention on his surroundings, he approached the boy face down in the rubble. He wasn’t sure what happened to the creature, but he wasn’t about to underestimate it again. He peered into the room beyond the jagged opening. All he saw were broken pieces of chairs scattered about, with some scratches on the floor. No creature. Keeping his eyes up, he knelt by Satch and nudged him. “Hey, crybaby, are you alive?” No response. Jace pressed his fingers against Satch’s neck. There was a pulse. He was fine, but next to Satch’s head was an extra-large piece of rubble. Must have knocked him out. Jace stood up and kicked him. “Satch, get up. We’ve gotta get out of here.” Nothing. He looked to the open door at the end of the hall leading to the descending staircase. That was the only place that the creature-thing could have come from, so he definitely wasn’t going that direction. Jace turned and focused on the crack in the wall blocking the other end of the hall. He grabbed the handle of Big n’ Spikey and lugged it up over his shoulder. Once about halfway to the wall, he looked back to Satch who lay defenseless in the rubble. With a sharp exhale through his nostrils he dropped the hammer and went back to retrieve him. It was harder than he expected to get the boy's limp-noodle body on his back, but he managed. He set Satch down in the corner of the wall he was about to start busting down. He tried to wake him again with a slap but it didn’t work. He slapped him again, but that one was for stomping on his ball. He retrieved the hammer, and after one last nervous glance to the darkness beyond the end of the hall, he wound up for the strike. He couldn’t let himself get too distracted from the task at hand. He needed to break through the wall and escape this place. As much as he didn’t want to admit it, Satch was right. There was danger here, and maybe danger wasn’t exactly what he wanted. Crack! Jace felt the impact of the hammer all the way to his feet. He took two steps back and started to spin with the hammer again. Crack! He repeated the steps, being sure to hit the same spot, focusing on accuracy and power. Crack! Crack! Crack! He stopped and checked the surroundings. Once he confirmed the hall was clear, he continued. He was doing damage, yes, but it was taking too long and creating too much noise. Could the creatures hear? If they could, there was no doubt that he was calling them to his location. But what else could he do? Thinking about it was only taking away from effort better spent swinging. He zoned back in. Spin. Spin. Crack! Faster. Spin. Spin. Crack! Harder. Spin. Spin. Crack! HARDER. Spin. Spin. CRACK! A thin line split the wall, spreading up like a lightning bolt through the stone. But the wall otherwise stood strong. Good progress, but not enough. He had to keep it up. Jace stepped back and wound up for another strike when Satch slipped from the wall and hit the floor, waking with a snort. “Jace!” he screamed. Startled, Jace tripped over himself, dropping the hammer. Satch crawled across the floor and grabbed a fistful of Jace’s pants. “Are you okay? What's going on?” Satch said, looking around the hall. Jace shook him off. “I don’t know, but there’s no time to think or talk about it. We need to get out of here, now.” Satch rubbed his head. “My head hurts. What happened?” “Did you not hear me? Back up, Satch.” Jace picked his hammer back up and readied it. Satch pointed at it. “Oh, that’s right. I used that to break out of the room. I was running away from a monster… and then you were… oh no, the monsters. The monsters! Jace, we’ve gotta get out of here!” Crack! Satch jumped from the impact. “What do you think I’m trying to do?” Jace took two steps back, keeping his focus on the point of impact. “I’m guessing that the monster came from the other end of the hall, so we need to go this way. I think I’m almost through. Just keep watch.” Satch gulped but focused on the darkness beyond the open doorway at the end of the hall. Crack! Satch flinched again. Jace dealt about ten more blows before Satch covered his mouth to stifle a scream. Jace spun to see what he feared. Another creature emerged from the shadows of the open end of the hall. No, dammit, not yet! Satch yanked the hammer out of Jace’s hands and pushed him out of the way. “You’re taking too long!” he screamed. Jace staggered back, stunned. Satch swung the hammer in a circle overhead, planted a firm step forward, and crashed the hammer into the wall. Pieces of concrete burst free at the mighty blow, scattering over Jace, who looked at the wall in awe as deep cracks webbed out in every direction. Jace shot a glance at the approaching figure dragging its jagged mandibles across the ground, then back at Satch. “Do it again!” Satch also glanced back, eyes crazed with horror. “Again, Satch!” Jace yelled, moving to stand between him and the creature. Satch screamed again, but this time there was more resolve behind it. Jace heard the loud crash of the hammer against concrete while he faced down the monster. More rubble clacked over the floor. “I didn’t get through!” Satch cried. “Then hit it again!” The creature started running. Jace cursed and snatched up some rubble. “Whatever you hear, don’t stop! Just break through that wall!” Then he charged at the creature. He whipped the pieces of concrete at it, but as he thought, all it did was stick into its slimy flesh. He couldn’t worry about damaging it, just distracting it. He ran up close before skidding to a stop and darting right, narrowly dodging the swing of a bladed arm. There was another crash against the wall, which seemed to grab the creature's attention. So Jace ran back in front of it, scooping up some chains on the way. He spun and whipped them across the creature’s face. It actually stepped back, but only slightly before lashing out with whips of its own. Jace leaped away, one of the whips grazing his leg. He stumbled and fell back into a roll, carrying himself back to his feet. His pant leg was cut open. The stinging indicated moderate bleeding. Damn, this thing was fast. Jace pulled more chains into his grip and started spinning them overhead, acting as a barrier between the monster and Satch. It kept approaching, but it was being cautious. There was another crash, one that sounded like serious progress. “I’m almost through!” Satch turned to see Jace facing down the creature with loose chains, “what are you doing? get away from that thing!” “I’ll go when the wall’s down! Hurry up!” Jace struck with the chain again, but this time the creature caught it around one of its mandibles and worms oozed over it, enveloping it entirely. “Well then start running!” Satch cried as he smashed the hammer into the wall for the finishing blow. At the sound of the wall breaking apart, Jace released the chain and sprinted for the exit while it crumbled. Satch, after seeing Jace on his way, crouched through the opening, ignoring the bits of rubble falling over him. Jace knew the creature was close on his tail by the sound of chains clinking after him. As he was almost there, a huge piece of the wall started to split free above the opening. If it fell on him… there was no time to think about that. Jace yelled as he put every bit of force he had into his legs and launched himself through the opening. Something snapped tight around his ankle. Then a guillotine of concrete fell free, decimating the opening with a burst of dust and debris. Jace kicked his ankle free, coughing and frantically crawling back up the steps. When the dust settled, Jace found himself next to Satch, looking down at the collapsed wall. Bits of writhing worms poked out from under it. The two sat there for a moment catching their breath. “That was… that was pretty badass,” Jace said, panting through a grin. Satch slowly turned to face Jace. “Tell me you’re kidding.” Jace patted Satch on the shoulder and then started up the steps. “Let’s go. You should grab Big n’ Spikey. Just in case.