Charging into Battle

The sounds of fighting echoed through the hallways as wave upon wave of Turning Gear security officers came at the trio. Screaming guards clad in stark white armor raised stun batons crackling with energy at them, but despite how tired, hungry and sleep deprived they were, they reveled in being able to actually take control of their lives again.

“Where’s my sword?” Jake asked as he slammed a guard against the wall. “No? You got sleepy? Damn. Alex, these guys keep passing out on me!”

Alex flipped over a guard, springing his legs out and kicking him in the back. “What have I told you about treating your toys gentle? You keep this up and you’ll get nothing for Christmas this year! By the way, who’s keeping an eye on Stick?” Alex turned and saw his faithful whiptail leaping from guard to guard, slashing and clawing and whipping his tail at a ferocious pace. “Never mind! Found him! Good boy!”

“Do you two ever shut up?” Kraelin asked as he grabbed two men attacking him, forcing their stun batons to zap each other. “Behind you, Jake!”

Jake stuck out an elbow and sent the attacker behind him into a crouch, holding his gut. “You know where my sword is, buddy? Big long metal thing, expensive looking, vague magical powers which could transform me into a big metal guy?”

“Store…storage room…locked…” the guard sputtered.

“Locked? So who has the key?” Jake asked, holding him up. The man looked down the hall at a guard who seemed slightly more armored than the others. The higher ranking guard cracked his knuckles, sneering at the three. Jake looked to Alex, and Alex looked to Kraelin.

“Guy who knocks him out doesn’t have to pay for dinner for a month?” Alex suggested.

“I want you two to know, I eat expensive,” Kraelin said, stepping forward.

“Where’s my sword, you dick?!” Jake yelled as he jumped at the armored guard, Alex and Kraelin closely following. Stick, giving off a high pitched little war cry, followed eagerly behind them.

*

The alarms blared through the lab. Professor Malphi shouted orders as more energy poured into Elysia. She refused to scream. She was done screaming for this man.

“Shut down all corridors leading to the lab!” Professor Malphi bellowed. “Get the Twisted in here to guard us! Wait, no, better idea! Open the corridors leading to the hangar! Herd them towards the Twisted! Tell Skullikos to get ready! No mercy is to be shown!”

“You can’t…stop them…” Elysia said, struggling through the pain to talk.

“What the hell did you say to me?” Professor Malphi sneered, leaning closer to her.

“One…is the most dedicated warrior…I know. The other two…crossed dimensions…to help me. You think…some doors…will stop them?” Elysia said, locking eyes with Malphi. “They’re going…to kill…the monsters in…this castle…”

“Don’t you worry about them. The Twisted will take care of them,” Professor Malphi said, beginning to turn away.

“Wasn’t talking…about the Twisted…” Elysia said.

“Why wont you give me what I want?!” Professor Malphi screamed. “I can end your pain! I know you can bring out the Void magic on your own! How are you resisting?! Why?! Magic users have been nothing but cruel to you your entire life!”

“Augarium wasn’t,” Elysia said. “Augarium…was my father. A magic user…saved me. A Turning Gear…made me an orphan…”

“Do you know what Augarium said about you? How often he thought of giving up on you? I had to convince him time and time again to not send your Talentless self away!” Malphi said, pacing back and forth, gesturing with his hands as if he were addressing a crowd.

“I know…family…is important to you…” Elysia said, straining to look at Saphira.  “You killed my parents…you killed Kraelin’s parents…you caused the attack…which pulled Jake and Alex…into this…and what you did…to your own DAUGHTER…”

Professor Malphi shook his head in disgust. “I’m doing what I have to in order to save humanity! Bending the Twisted to my will was only part of it! Magic has poisoned our world for too long!” He went to the control panel and cranked up the energy. Elysia squirmed and convulse, but she did not scream. “I will have the Void magic virus! I will bring about the technological revolution! No longer will we bow to those who can wield magic!”

“Because…technology…sure saved…Saphira!” Elysia cried out. Saphira, standing sentinel near the control panel, turned to look at her father. He could only see his warped, rage filled face staring back at him.

“What are you looking at?” he sneered at her. “Do what you’re told and be prepared to fight if they somehow get in here. I will not be denied. Not when I’m so close! I’ve waited decades for this! Even longer since you blew yourself up during the last attempt!”

“Dad…can I ask you one thing?” Saphira asked. “Was it ever real? Was any of it real? Or is this the real you, and you are simply so confident you let your mask slip and revealed yourself to be a vile, evil ba…”

Professor Malphi slapped her hard, sending her to the ground. She stood up, looking like she was about to strike back when her fist stopped. “Oh, how sweet. You can’t hurt your dear father. A little mental block we put in. Saphira can’t harm her father. Now do as you’re told.”

Malphi walked away, angrily talking with other scientists. Elysia weakly smiled. “I think…I made him…angry…” she said.

“Its not true, you know,” Saphira said. “Augarium loved you. He talked with my dad a lot. Augarium had many thoughts about you, but he loved you as if you were his own daughter.”

“As if?” Elysis asked. “Saphira, do you know why finding out I was a Thornfeld was so important? I wanted to know who I was, the past I had stolen from me. But Augarium is my father. Whenever I came home crying due to the other kids teasing me, he was there to make me feel better. He is my father, and you and Kraelin…you’re my brother and sister. Blood doesn’t mean anything, Saphira.”

“How do they keep getting through?! You are trained guards and they are unarmed teenagers! What is making them so unbeatable?!” Malphi screamed across the room as a guard updated him.

Saphira looked to Elysia. They locked eyes momentarily, sharing a thought. Wait for them, they said. They’re coming. They are coming for us. And they’re going to tear this entire castle down to get to us.

*

Bullets sliced through the air, pinging off of the wall at the T intersection of the hallway. Jake and Kraelin had their backs to the wall on one side of the hallway, Alex and Stick on the other, and a massive gatling gun pointed directly at them sat far down the hallway in front of a security control room. The commander stood at the window, looking down the hallway in safety, a cruel smile on his lips.

“Open to suggestions!” Jake called out.

“I’m going to guess you’re looking for more than ‘don’t get shot,’ aren’t you?” Alex asked.

“Reinforcements will be coming soon. We either find a way around the gun or we abandon this and find another way to get our weapons. Or we abandon them entirely,” Kraelin said.

“Hell no! This guy knows where my sword is! I’m sure of it!” Jake said, slamming his fist against the wall. “There’s gotta be a way to deal with the damn gun!”

“It isn’t the gun which is the problem. It’s the guy controlling it…” Alex said, thinking the problem through like a puzzle in the games he and Jake used to play. This was like those games. “Bosses have a weak point…I’ve gotta get around it…” Alex said. He looked around the hallway, then smiled. He stuck his head out into the T intersection quickly, confirming something in the security room before the bullets forced him back.

“What are you doing?!” Jake yelled.

“Exploiting a weak point. Jake, pry the grate over your head off. Stick…” Alex pulled out one of the shock batons he stole from a guard. “This button turns on the zappy part. Get in there…” Alex pointed to the vent Jake had opened. “…and get over there.” Alex pointed down the hall towards the guard room. “You’ll have to bash the grate open with the blunt end of this baton. When you do, zap something expensive. Got it, buddy?”

Stick looked up at Alex, his big eyes slightly confused but ultimately understanding. He wrapped his tail around the baton and leapt across the hall, up Jake’s leg to his shoulder and into the vent.

“There is not a chance in hell this works,” Jake said.

“It’ll work,” Alex said, uncharacteristically calm.

“How do you know?” Jake asked.

“Because today is a day of miracles. Kraelin found power he never knew he had. Stick is going to infiltrate an enemy fortress and take out a canon. And then we’re gonna save the girl.” Alex looked up, and Jake and Kraelin saw something they had never seen. The jokester was gone. Alex’s eyes were the eyes of a confident hero. His fist clenched, and he held it up. “Today, we win the fight!”

A crash came from down the hall. “What the…aaahh! Get off of me! Stupid rodent, get off my…” An electrical zap was heard, followed by a slumping body hitting the floor. A few seconds later more zaps were heard and miniature explosions burst from the security room. The gatling gun slumped forward, the power down.

“Damn. Now I guess Stick doesn’t have to buy dinner,” Jake said, a bit stunned the plan actually worked.

“Leave the jokes to me,” Alex said, his smile returning. “Now let’s go get our stuff!”