“So there I was, with some security guards just outside the door, and the safe being just one number away from opening…” The voice speaking was excited, halting his tale as he considered the continuation.

“But I wouldn’t let them stop me, and with a quick flick of the wrist, the safe opened to reveal a few documents detailing the secret ingredients and mixture methods of Coca-Cola.” And with that, all semblance of seriousness evaporated.

“With that done, I closed the safe, and using my pre-placed escape rope, I climbed out the window, escaping to the night. And that, my friend, is how I learnt that Coca-Cola is really difficult to make without the right tools.”

Aaron beamed upon the ending of a good story, and he still occasionally felt proud of himself for escaping with guard’s right outside the door, but unfortunately for him, his captive audience wasn’t that captivated by his story, more so than the chains which held him to the wall at least.

“…When are you going to leave?” the boy asked in his quiet voice as Aaron shrugged to his question, even as he made sure to stay a certain distance away from the violent boy.

“I don’t know really, I don’t know how to get out of this place, you don’t want to help me, and I kind of have an injured leg. Sure it’s a bit better now, but I can’t run just yet.”

Indeed, Aaron had been here for three days already, luckily surviving due to some automatic food system put in place in this building, and he hadn’t found a way out yet.

“This place is known as the Cradle. And there isn’t a way out, at least, not unless I am freed.” The boy said as Aaron blinked at the longer sentence than usual… normally Aaron only got ‘yeah’ ‘no’ ‘shut up’ or ‘leave already’ from the usually stoic boy.

“Okay, the Cradle. What does that make you though, a baby?” Aaron asked, no insult meant in his words despite how they were worded, and the boy chained to the wall understood that as he shrugged, causing the chains to rattle.

“Not sure… I’ve been here for fifteen years… who knows?” ah, there was the slower speaking of the boy, who Aaron still didn’t know the name of, even as Aaron leaned back, making sure not to get near the boy.

The first time he tried, he got knocked out… the second time he tried, he had the wind knocked out of him and almost had his arm broken. Despite the boy being skinny and short, he was much more stronger than Aaron at least, given that a kick hampered by chains knocked him out and a punch halted completely by the chains still got the wind knocked out of him.

At this point, Aaron no longer stepped close to the boy, but continued to be within speaking distance of the boy instead…

Though Aaron also had to wonder, who used chains in this day and age? After looking at them for a while though, Aaron had found that the chains weren’t made out of cast iron or anything like that, but something much stronger… the walls were reinforced as well…

Aaron was really worried to find out how strong the kid would be without the chains forcing him to throw weaker blows, but hopefully Aaron would be long gone by then.

“Man, you’ve been here for a long time huh? Wait, so you haven’t been outside, or seen the rest of the world?” Aaron asked as the boy scoffed, looking to the hole in the ceiling, seeing the blue sky.

“I had been, for a while… but then I was placed in here by my parents and haven’t left since.” Aaron frowned at the words of the boy, wondering why someone’s parents would chain them to a wall, leaving them there for over a decade.

“That’s… kind of sad. I feel sorry for you.” Aaron said bluntly, making the boy glare at him… well, glare more, it wasn’t as if Aaron wasn’t talking the boy’s ears off before, so the boy wasn’t quite happy with him in the first place.

“I don’t need you to feel sorry for me… I just want to leave someday.” Aaron blinked at the words of the boy, and then smiled as he looked up to the hole made in the ceiling when he fell into the ‘Cradle’. The sun streamed through, hitting a point just inside the range of the boy to attack.

“Well, I want to leave, and you say we can’t leave until you’re free? Isn’t there something you want to do outside?” Aaron asked as the boy looked to Aaron, and Aaron noticed once more that the boy was smaller than a fifteen year old had any right to be.

“…I want to find someone.” Aaron would have thought that the boy meant his parents, until he saw the boy look to the side, seeing an image only he could see.

“I want to find my sister… my parents are probably dead by now.” Aaron couldn’t really say he felt sorry for his loss or anything, as his own parents had been dead since he was four, he remembered them but he didn’t care much… he lived more than half his life without them at this point after all.

“I see… well, how about we make a deal?” Aaron asked, making the boy narrow his eyes at Aaron, and if it weren’t for the fact that the boy was already glaring at him, Aaron would say the boy was near-sighted or something.

“What kind of deal could you make with me?” the boy asked and Aaron pointed to the ceiling with a grin, a hand on his hip and his gaze to the ceiling, much like the boy’s look upon talking about his sister, Aaron seemed to look beyond what was there. His smile worried the boy though.

While the boy had only known Aaron for a mere three days, one of which was spent with Aaron nursing a sore arm and half of another unconscious, but he knew that smile was one of someone about to do say something strange/insane.

“Freedom, the opportunity to live beyond these walls, and the chance to find the last bit of family you have.” The boy blinked at those words, and since entering the Cradle, Aaron noted that it was the first time he had seen the boy surprised, even when he literally fell through the ceiling had the boy not been surprised.

“And what would you take from me?” the boy asked and Aaron stepped forward, pausing for a moment in front of the reach of the boy, before stepping forward into the range of the boy, finding a fist just before his face, and not flinching.

“Why… I would take nothing beyond travelling with you on your search.” The boy blinked as he pulled his fist back, only to find the outstretched hand of Aaron in front of him.

“I don’t have much material desires really… all I truly want, is to see what hasn’t been seen by these two eyes of mine. I want to go where I haven’t been.” Aaron explained with a smile, even as the boy stared in wonder at the hand halfway between himself and Aaron…

“So, what do you say to my ‘deal’? Though I’ll need your name you know… Can’t be saying ‘you’ or ‘kid’ all the time you know?” Aaron said as the boy sighed.

Holding out his own hand with a small smile, taking the hand of Aaron with a small amount of extra grip to make Aaron’s smile become a bit more strained, the boy spoke.

“Call me kid and I’ll rip your arm off. The name is Typhon.” The boy gave his own smile as he let go of Aaron’s hand, with Aaron holding it with pain on his face.

“Alright, alright, sheesh… what kind of name is Typhon anyway? I admit, Aaron isn’t typical either, but Typhon is a bit…” Aaron asked with curiosity lacing his voice as Typhon shrugged.

“It’s not my real name, at least, I think it isn’t… but I don’t know my real name, and that’s what this place calls me.” Aaron blinked at that… the Cradle called him that?

“This place calls you Typhon? Why would it, or rather, how does it do that?” Aaron was curious, as Typhon tilted his head, and then pointed to the wall behind Aaron.

“Stand over there, and I’ll show you.” Aaron wasn’t quite sure what Typhon was about to do, but retreated to his little spot by the wall where he’d normally sit.

Once Aaron was a certain distance away, Typhon sighed, and clenched his fists as he regained his glare, looking around quickly, even though nothing was moving.

“Cradle, I wish to test myself.” Aaron was a bit confused at his words…

It became easier to understand when the walls to Aaron’s right and left opened up, revealing turrets… turrets of all things.

“Request acknowledged, Typhon, King of Monsters. Final Test, initiating.” Aaron stared as with just that, bullets began to fly, though to Aaron’s relief, none flew near him, though the sound was near deafening… and as for Typhon…

He almost seemed to blur, dodging, ducking and weaving, doing what he could to dodge the bullets, even with being chained to a wall, he tried his best to not get shot, and that was apparently the goal of this test…

Beyond that though, Aaron was staring in shock at the sight of Typhon dodging bullets, because it wasn’t humanely possible, yet what was in front of him said otherwise, as Typhon went a whole four minutes of not getting shot, before the turrets began to move.

From this point, it got much harder for Typhon to dodge, and yet, Aaron couldn’t quite understand how someone could be expected to survive this, let alone actually complete such a test.

Aaron was proven right in his questioning when Typhon finally took a hit to the arm, sending him stumbling backwards, the turrets retracting, and Typhon having a metal slug in his bicep… and yet he didn’t scream.

“Ouch… well, failed there again…” Aaron could only stare as Typhon moved back to the wall, sit against it as he slumped to the floor, and wrap a chain around the wound…

The wound which started to steam, making Typhon grit his teeth as he removed the chain a couple of seconds afterwards, showing the wound to be healed.

Aaron didn’t know what to make of the things he had just seen, so he replied in the only way his rational brain could at the moment.

“Dodging bullets looks awesome.” Well… as mentioned previously, he didn’t know what to make of what had just happened…

Typhon just looked at Aaron, then to the new sunroof the Cradle possessed, clutching his still tender right arm, and sighed.

“You’re an idiot…” Typhon said with a tired huff, and Aaron just smirked, standing up and walking over to Typhon, now assured that Typhon wouldn’t try and kill him.

“So… how the heck can you do that?” Aaron asked lightly, not truly caring for the fact that he was standing so close to the being who kicked him unconscious, and almost broke his arm.

“…I’m obviously not normal.” Typhon said with a shrug, before he looked at his own hand, showing his palm to Aaron.

On the boy’s palm was a red Omega tattoo (Ω) and Aaron had to wonder how he hadn’t seen that before.

“What I am is known as a Chained, pun not intended.” Typhon gestured to his chains and Aaron nodded, for once not laughing at the pun even if he wanted to… he’d do that later, not now.

“Chained are prisoners who aren’t normal human beings, possessing strange abilities and skills beyond other humans. We Chained are granted a codename, and released into Tartarus with very little supervision beyond the fact that we all have these collars.” Typhon gestured to the collar on his neck, having the same Omega symbol on it, and this, at least, Aaron had seen, but only after waking up from his concussion based sleep.

“So, you guys have superpowers?” Aaron asked as bluntly as possible, if only to have Typhon give him more information… though Typhon would learn about that little fact of Aaron eventually, at current, he didn’t know that Aaron sometimes said silly things just to get answers quicker… he was impatient sometimes.

“Not exactly… from what I understand, there are two types of Chained, Bio, and Mechanical. Bio is what it sounds like; our natural bodies have something altered about it, which makes us Chained. In my case, I have greatly enhanced senses, strength, speed, flexibility, and another ability called Stabilization.” He didn’t want to explain the ability, Aaron noticed, so Aaron didn’t ask about it.

“As for Mechanicals, as it sounds, they have robotic parts, be they eyes, a robotic arm, or more… they are a bit rarer than Bio Chained, and they are usually dangerous in ways other than purely fighting ability.” Aaron found that a bit scary.

Consider how powerful giant robots were, human sized robots were also kind of scary… but Bio Chained like Typhon could beat them… well, as Typhon said, they were scary in other ways.

“Anyway, this is the Cradle… I’m not really sure about its purpose, but I’ve been in here so long, and it just keeps testing me… I had completed the tests, little by little, until this final test, which I just can’t win.” Typhon sounded dejected by that fact, and Aaron could tell that it was a sore point for him.

“Well… I have an idea… the test is for you to survive for how long?” Aaron had to get some more information before his idea could come into play, and Typhon looked up with a bit of hope in his green eyes.

“I believe it’s to survive ten minutes total.” Aaron hid his wince at the time, knowing that Typhon barely survived five minutes with what just happened, but Aaron still believed that his idea could work.

“Okay, so survive ten minutes while chained to the wall… but do you have to be chained to the wall?” Aaron asked as Typhon blinked at his words, shaking his head for a moment in wonder at the question.

“Well, I couldn’t take the test unless chained to the wall, and I haven’t had these chains off in over three years trying to complete this test.” Aaron really did wince this time, before he looked to the chains… then the wall… then he checked the distance of the chains.

“Roughly… four or five metres… yeah, my plan might work.” Aaron said to himself, looking back to Typhon with a smirk as he pointed at the chains.

“When one can’t escape a prison, use the prison itself to escape.” Typhon just blinked a the sheer stupidity of whatever Aaron just said, for some reason instinctually knowing that Aaron was just spouting whatever came to mind.

“…You really are an idiot, aren’t you?” Typhon asked, causing Aaron to pout and look away with false sadness on his face.

“Of course I’m not, I got a degree or two when I was fourteen you know? I just like saying strange things. It’s a hobby.” Aaron explained, and Typhon still didn’t get it, but decided to leave it alone for now.

“Still, what did you mean by that strange sentence?” Typhon asked as Aaron smirked, pointing to the chains themselves.

“Tell me, have you ever tried to block the bullets? Or use the chains to pull yourself back to the wall?” Aaron got a smug grin on his face when Typhon widened his eyes, before he narrowed them in a stare towards his chains, then Aaron.

“…I think I understand your idiocy now.” Aaron took what he could get, despite that sounding like an insult; he knew it to be an acceptance of the plan.

“Worst case scenario, I find a way to separate those chains from that wall.” Typhon would have preferred that method, but he didn’t quite think it was possible, given how the chains seemed to be fixed inside the wall or something.

“Hey, believe in me… I am Aaron Hassan, the greatest lock-picker in the world! No prison will hold me and mine.” Aaron gestured grandly, even as Typhon once more lowered his opinion of the intelligence of his new ‘partner’…

His partner came up with a curious plan though, and Typhon had to admit that trying it had merit. Using the chains, he’d be capable of blocking the bullets which would shred the flesh of a normal human, but instead just broke skin and hurt a bit for Typhon, if he tried, and if he was in mid-air and about to get shot, he could pull himself to the wall if he tried… he hadn’t considered that, and he actually felt stupid for not having tried it…

“You need to practice it first obviously, but try that next time… I mean, you’ve spent three years with those chains on… by now, aren’t they a part of you?” Typhon thought that Aaron possibly read too many philosophy books, though he wasn’t wrong in the assumption that Typhon was very used to the movements of the chains and how they affected his movements.

“…Fine, I’ll practice… though I can only take the test again tomorrow.” Aaron blinked at the words of Typhon before shrugging, sitting down next to Typhon, both staring to the ceiling, wishing to be outside, but with the ceiling being too high for either to reach, both were trapped…

Well, at least they weren’t alone, both were thankful for that, even if neither of them would be the one to say it… rather together than alone.

The next day, Typhon was ready, or so he believed, and Aaron would wait in a different room, since the Cradle had seven rooms and Typhon was lucky enough that his chains allowed him the reach to get into a bathroom, for the test, knowing that his presence might distract Typhon from his goal.

Shortly after entering the other room, Aaron closed the door, and sat down, leaning against the door as he listened to the test being undertaken, the sounds of gunfire prominent and painful to his ears… and when he began to hear clangs of metal on metal, he smiled, knowing that Typhon was putting his advice into action.

And when it reached nine minutes, he began to hear thuds and even more clangs, reaching a crescendo of volume and somehow, instead of being disturbing, it was pleasing to his ear, a rhythm of survival and combat… a sound very few would appreciate, Aaron knew.

Aaron wasn’t often one to wax poetic, but he felt that the sounds of someone surviving and overcoming the challenges of life, or a building called Cradle, sent their way was beautiful in its own right, even as the sounds finally stopped and he stood, opening the door to find Typhon sitting down, breathing heavily, and with no chains… though he still had pieces of metal attached to his ankles, wrists, and neck, it was better than before at least.

“…Well, I told you I’d help you out of this place. Let’s go.” Aaron didn’t feel the need to say more than that, and Typhon agreed, standing with a sigh of relief at finally not being chained to one position.

Typhon walked over to Aaron… who smiled when Typhon stepped beyond the half-circle that used to be the furthest he could move around for three years.

“Fine… I’ll travel with you, Aaron.” Typhon said, even as they moved to one of the seven rooms, which seemed to simply be an entrance, and as they walked towards it, the doors slid open, creaking as they slowly moved…

And if Typhon happened to shed a tear at seeing those doors open, Aaron wouldn’t say anything.

“Hey, it’s not just for me obviously. We have a sister to find, don’t we?” Aaron replied, Typhon turning to face forward after wiping his eyes, and he nodded, his face going back to its neutral position.

“Yes… that was our deal.” Typhon agreed as Aaron and he both stepped forward, leaving the Cradle behind, even as the doors slid closed once more, and Aaron noted that the place was once more closed to them.

And in front of them stood a few gobsmacked murderers and other criminals, surprised at seeing them leave the place which held a Chained, let alone to see a Chained next to a normal prisoner…

“Ah, kid, seems you survived an encounter with a Chained… still won’t protect you from us.” And that guy that chased Aaron before was here too… Aaron really had to wonder why that guy would be here four days after chasing Aaron, waiting for him… was it really that rare for a new prisoner to appear here, heck, some people were born and raised in this place, as evidenced by Typhon and his sister who Aaron did not know the name of.

“Ah, guys… like I have said before, let’s talk about this, I just want to roam around, I won’t cause trouble for anyone…” Aaron tried to defuse the situation, even as Typhon bent his knees, lowering his waist and holding out his left fist, his right coming up to his side, as he glared at the people in front of them.

“What, your friend thinks he can do Kung-Fu? Come here little boy, I’ll show you how big men fight.” The man easily held up a knife, stepping forward, and Aaron palmed his face.

“So, I take it they don’t like you?” Typhon asked easily even as Aaron just sighed, standing straight before leaning back a bit, wishing he had pockets… instead, he’d have to make do with placing his hands on his waist, a stance he didn’t quite enjoy doing though, as he looked to the guy, his friends all slowly coming out of the crowd of criminals loitering around.

Also, someone in that group just got stabbed. Anyone who did notice seemed to not care… messed up place.

“Well, I don’t know why but they apparently think that I should join them, or commit to being in a permanent coma called death.” Typhon just sighed at Aaron’s words.

“I see I’m not the only one that dislikes you on first sight.” Typhon said, even as his right leg tensed, ready to spring as they were beginning to get surrounded.

“Well, it’s not my problem people don’t know how to handle my charm. I’m just too attractive!” Typhon had to struggle to not either burst out into laughter or sigh… he chose the latter in the end as he finally decided to attack.

“Get down.” For some reason only known to Typhon and Aaron, this would be the first time they went into battle together, and also the first time they trusted each other so easily… as evidenced when Aaron didn’t even ask questions before dropping to the floor, with Typhon suddenly planting his left foot onto the floor, his right leg swinging in a roundhouse, though obviously no one would get hit given their distance…

Until the anklet on his right leg seemed to extend what at first looked to be a whip, but on second glance was in fact a chain, smacking quite a few enemies in the face, actually killing the first one, not that Aaron would notice just yet, and silence reined as the chain retracted into the anklet.

It wasn’t mentioned before, but Aaron did know that those anklets and bracelets weren’t normal…

Seeing as he couldn’t understand their components and construction, which was rare for him…

So they’d have to talk about that later, when Aaron got over how awesome retracting chains could be as a weapon, though Typhon didn’t need them really…

Not when he blurred into movement, appearing next to someone, a punch to the shoulder letting off a loud snapping noise as the man screamed, though even as he screamed of a broken shoulder, Typhon’s foot was quickly approaching his temple, snapping his neck as well.

Aaron was, as previously mentioned, in awe of how Typhon fought, though he did absently note that he wished Typhon was leaving his opponents alive… killing seemed kind of pointless to Aaron, who believed killing to be another way of ending someone else’s adventures, and for Aaron who loved adventures, that sounded sad.

He had no opportunity to complain though, as someone rushed to him with a bat, and seeing as he was still flat on the floor, he rolled to the side, stumbling into a standing position as the person swung at him…

Oh how Aaron wished Typhon could hit this guy instead of him… unfortunately, Typhon was busy fighting roughly fifteen other people including their leader, and Aaron was fighting one guy, so, again, he had no chance to complain here.

“What the hell is that thing?” The guy trying to cave Aaron’s skull in with a baseball bat starred with fear in his eyes when Aaron noticed Typhon being very vicious with his chains.

“That thing is my friend… and Typhon, King of Monsters.” Aaron easily added, even as the guy with the bat tried to once more swing for him… Aaron did know how to defend himself though, even if he was pretty bad at professional fighting, as long as he wasn’t fighting a trained individual, he’d usually win…

As proven when he ducked the swing, sliding his right foot forward, his right hand coming up in an uppercut, aimed not for his opponent’s chin, but instead for his elbow, snapping the bone when his other hand came up to hold his opponents wrist in place, and causing his opponent to drop his bat with a scream even as Aaron pulled him forward and decked him in the face with a good right hook.

Aaron turned, ready to help Typhon only to find a lot of dead bodies and Typhon having finished choking out the enemy leader into either death or unconsciousness, Typhon didn’t seem to care for either…

“Okay… so where do we go now?” Aaron just stared at Typhon with an awkward look, before shaking his head and looking for some random direction to head to.

“Let’s head that way, though we’ll need a place to stay for the night, and given the place we’re in, we can assume that falling asleep in the open would mean dying or something… by the way, try to not kill them next time please?” Aaron asked as Typhon shrugged, not caring either way.

“They’re murderers and criminals, either I kill them now or they chase us to kill us later.” Aaron could understand what he meant, didn’t mean he had to like it though… but he wouldn’t say anything about it then, he had his way, Typhon had his, they were different and Aaron couldn’t expect Typhon to just listen to everything he said.

“Fine, fine… let’s go the distance, in search of adventure, treasure, women, and sisters, not necessarily in that order!” Typhon just whispered under his breath about insane partners before they began to walk away, others watching in fear as the two walked away…

Meanwhile, in the crowd watching them, was a scantily dressed woman, who was quick to escape into an alley-way, pulling out a phone and calling someone, as she looked to the direction Aaron and Typhon walking away.

“This better be important…” the call was answered, and the woman was quick to whisper into the phone at the prompt of the voice on the other end.

“Madame, The white dome Chained is free and approaching your sector within Area 7.” The woman said as quickly as possible… and heard a purr from the other side of the phone.

“Tell me more about this new Chained…” Oh trouble approaches… beautiful yet deadly trouble.