Chapter 18

Tricky Situation

“Hmm, I might be able to sneak up on them without him noticing”

Emily, quite stressed, needed to think of a solution to this never ending mess. She is now in quite the tricky situation.

She looked around, along the long bridge.

Noticing the door at the end this thought came up to her head.

And so she slowly but surely started making her way over there.

At certain points, she was really visible, good thing that Bob was busy with injecting Thora’s parents with paralysis. Never imagined I’d have to say good and paralysis in this sort of context.

And so she reached the run down wall of depression. Slowly opening it, as to not make any noise she entered the creepy corridor.

Since Bob activated the torches quite recently, they are still lit up.

The confusing layout of all these doors baffled Emily.

“One of these doors has to lead to the top. Only one way to find out which!”

What she was going to do when she gets to the top was uncertain even for her.

She hurried up and started running, opening all the doors she saw.

Most of the rooms were empty, some of them were like the prison cell they were chained up in, nothing particularly interesting, but still not something that every house just has.

Back at the main theatre where Nick and Thora were.

“I mean, he did say it was my choice but I don’t know how much of a choice I really have right now. On one end, I try and rebel with the power I don’t even know how to activate, which doesn’t really sound appealing to me. On the other end, I let him have it his way and he does something with my necklace, the pain from which may or may not knock me unconscious. Either way, I’m screwed, though for now, I may be able to buy some time-”

“W-what will you do to me if I choose to co-o-operate?”

“You see, I’d like that to be a surprise but if you really want to know I’ll tell ‘ya.’’

“Speak up!”

“I’ll do the thing we did in the cell, just this time I’ll take the power for myself. What happens after that, I cannot guarantee. But if it all goes as planned…’’

His slowly spaced out into thought after that line, something which Nick didn’t really like. He was just buying time, but at the same time, he was also trying to get answers out of that mad head.

“If it goes as planned?”

“Never mind, we’ll see later.”

“What is it!?”

Keeping track of their conversation, Thora, who was held by the vines interrupted the endless mutter of that scientist.

“Enough chatting, let’s get to the action. Have you chosen, Nick?”

“I have. I’ll-”

Sometime before he said this, Emily’s search was concluded when she opened a door which leads to a long staircase.

“I have a feeling this is it.”

She decided to trust her instincts and proceeded to run up the stairs.

Running, bearing four lives on her shoulders. The staircase was quite long and the steps weren’t all the same height from each other, so you can imagine how hard it was to run up them.

A minute or so later, when she was about to run out of strength, she reached the top, yet another door.

That scientist must have some sort of fetish for doors.

She tried to open it but, tough luck, it was stuck.

With a wave of her finger and a flick of her leg, she kicked down the door.

A well-lit room for once.

The floor and walls were dirt, except for the one in front of her which was solid rock. To the right was a conveniently placed, red button.

Upon pushing it, she saw the rock moving aside to reveal the outside world.

To anyone’s surprise, the city was right down from here.

“This answers the question of where this place is.”

Back in the madman’s jungle, Nick’s sentence was interrupted by Thora. Grinding her teeth, her tone was implying she didn’t want him to answer straight.

“You can think it over, Nick.’’

“Someone should really learn to shut up when two people are talking!”

That didn’t go quite well with Bob as he tightened the grip around Thora, to the point where it was starting to choke her.

“Come on Nick, time’s ticking!”

“OKAY, I’ve decided, so just stop, please!”

“What will it be Nick?”

“I’m going to go along with your plan so just let her loose!”

“Good choice.”

Strange as it may be, it seems like Bob somehow has full control over the vines which are emerging from the ground, even going as far as making them carry him to Nick. Assuming this place really was engineered to help him, what could’ve stopped him from making everything around him controllable.

That’ll come down to how true he is to his words.

So he made his way to Nick on the vines and took the pliers.

Approaching Nick he made a creepy smirk and said:

“All these years and finally I’ll be able to feel the power, the legendary sensation”

“H-hey, while we are at it, mind telling me how these things work and why they hurt so much?”

“Very quick to interrupt my moment of triumph, I see. Well even if I were to explain, you would not understand. But simply, it hurts because I am merging our two magic fields so I can actually get the jewel to work. Now if you would mind shutting your mouth for a second.”

He closed the pliers in on the jewel and squeezed tight.

Same as last time, a strong light blinded them as sparks of lightning started flying around, hitting anything and everything.

Nick started screaming from the unbearable, suffocating pain that was piercing every inch of his body. Pain the sort of which hasn’t been experienced by any other individual.

It was as if he was being burned, frozen, pierced and sliced with a knife all at the same.

He started unwillingly shedding tears of pain.

Thora didn’t want to be a witness of such an atrocity so she shut her eyes tight, only to realize that only hearing it was enough to traumatize anyone.

Bob, however, seemed to be growing happier and happier, maybe his plan was working out.

In the meantime…

Emily had rushed to the city and found Hisashi and the officer and called them for help, explaining the situation on the way.

The police seemed to have regained their numbers in the short amount of time that our heroes were gone for.

At once they hurried towards the experimental grounds, where Bob had gotten what he wanted.

The light faded out and Bob’s body started trembling, his breath was frozen, as when he exhaled the frostiness of his breath condensed into vapor.

“That feeling! My body is filled with energy, I feel like I have the power of a thousand suns. I L O V E I T !”

The police, along with Emily and the officer, have made their way down the stairs and are now headed directly for the sanctuary.

“It’s time to put an end to the madman’s games!”

And with that comment from Hisashi and the others entered the war zone…