//------------------------------// // 15) God Challenge Complete! // Story: The Experiments // by SapphireRose87 //------------------------------// {Henry} “You okay Henry?” Derek said. There was nothing but concern in his voice. The truth was I was terrified. I really didn’t want to go back to Lab 14 even if it meant destroying it from the inside out. Just the very thought of facing that psycho Cora terrified me. But I tried to keep calm about it by thinking about how wonderful it would be to reprogram her. But I knew it wouldn’t be possible because part of the job was to kill her. “Did you have any bad memories again?” Derek said. I shook my head and looked away from him. When Derek realized that I was terrified of something his eyes went wide and I could tell that he knew what I was feeling. “I’m going to take a wild guess here,” said Derek, “you don’t want to go back to Lab 14 even if it means you get a chance to kill her this time. Am I right?” I nodded and I really didn’t want to look him in the eyes so he could see how terrified I was. Derek sighed and he pulled me into his arms and kissed me. After that, I mustered up the courage to look him in the eye. Ever since we had been together I had been trying so hard to let down the wall that I built up. As I was looking into his eyes I finally let the wall down because I knew he understood how I was feeling. Derek smiled at me, “You finally let your wall down. I was wondering when you were going to do that. I could tell you were having a hard time doing it. You should feel safe to do that with me because you are safe with me and I love you. You know that right?” We then heard Martin clear his throat, “Although I might be interrupting an intimate moment, Snips and Snails have something they want to tell you.” “Yup,” said Snips, “you might want to stay sitting down for this one. We’ve received word from your father that there are experiments from Lab 14 that are indeed tracking us!” “I knew Lab 14 wouldn’t let us get away so easily!” Derek said. I tried my best to hide my fear because Derek’s the only one that I felt I could do that with. “Do you remember Experiment Sebastian, Derek?” Snails said. Derek snarled when he heard that name, “They sent that guy after us!” “Wow I know you hated that guy,” said Snips, “but I didn’t know you hated him that bad! Anyway Henry, do you remember Experiment Rose?” I searched my memories and remembered the creepy weirdo Cora had picked out for me to be with. “Tell me you love me!” I remembered Experiment Rose saying. How I remembered her voice I have no idea. When I remembered that weirdo the world started to spin and I leaned up against Derek’s chest hoping that I wouldn’t pass out. “You just had to tell him about her!” Snails growled. “Sorry,” said Snips, “but it had to be done!” “No it didn’t!” snapped Snails. “You know you could have just pulled Agent Derek aside and told him about it! Henry looks like he’s about to go back into Fear Shock again!” “I don’t think that’s possible Snails!” Snips said. “Fear Shock can not come back if the person under it has been given the kiss of true love!” “Oh yeah!” Snails said. “That’s right! Sorry, I panicked that’s all.” Thankfully the world stopped spinning around me. I still had no idea what Fear Shock was. Derek did say that Snips and Snails didn’t know how to explain things in an understandable way. “Honestly you two agents are about as dumb as they come!” Derek said. “How you got Agent status is beyond me! What I’m wondering is how long will it take for them to catch up to us?” “Well,” said Snails, “this is going to sound kind of gross and I don’t know if you know this but Discord has a pet snake named Fang. And the snake swallowed the two experiments whole!” When Derek and I heard that we gagged on that thought. It’s a good thing I hadn’t eaten anything yet. I guess the looks on our faces said it all because Snips and Snails fell out laughing. “This should make you feel better,” said Snips, “the fact that Discord’s pet snake swallowed those two experiments it’ll delay them from catching up to us. Don’t worry Earnest left the Inn with the three horses that you have living there. I know it’s only been a half day's rest but we should probably get going!” * * * {Cora} "Oh crap!" I said. “I’m not getting a signal from group F! It’s bad enough that I lost group A but I thought Experiment Sebastian and Experiment Rose would’ve caught up to group A by now. But now I’ve lost group F too? I’m going to track down Discord and kill him where he stands!” At this point, I was highly pissed off to the highest degree of it. I looked over and I could see Eleanor seemed to be having a field day with how angry I was at the moment. The look on Eleanor's face made me even angrier, so I fired my gun in the air and Eleanor jumped when I did it. I rolled my eyes as I saw Eleanor was trying so hard not to laugh at my anger. "I don’t see anything funny about this Eleanor!” “Did I laugh?” Eleanor replied. “Because if I did I’m sorry!” “Yeah,” I said, “sure. Discord! I can’t believe I couldn’t kill him before he broke his contract! And stealing my experiments on top of that! Eleanor knew that I was worried because I was pacing back and forth again. I racked my brain to find a way to retrieve the experiments from group A again. My most prized experiment was in that group. Lab 14 was so close to finding the answer that I was looking for but we needed Experiment Henry! Finally, after a while of me racking my brain to bring Experiment Henry back, I got an idea. “I know what that look is for,” said Eleanor, “you have an idea don’t you?” I nodded. “Do you think if I gave Experiment Henry a chance to kill me would he fall for it?” Eleanor gulped. I could tell she wanted to ask if I was joking or not. But for some reason, she didn't say a word. "I'm not joking Eleanor! I have an idea of how to deliver the message. It means I’ll have to work with Celestial Labs again because I’m sure Discord still pops up there every once in a while! Trust me, once Discord delivers the message Experiment Henry will be sure to come back here! And we’ll capture him and keep him at Lab 14 where he belongs! It’s the perfect plan! Why didn’t I think of it before?” I said. The look on Eleanor's face said it all. She looked like she had seen a ghost. I laughed wickedly as she walked away from me as fast as possible. * * * {Henry} “Will you two stop fighting already?” Derek growled. I wiped the sweat off my eyebrow and shook my head. “This time I agree with Derek,” said Milton, “you and Sarah have been fighting for two hours straight! I know you want to practice with your weapons and I know Sarah wants you to be able to defend yourself from those two experiments tracking us but give it a rest already!” At this point, Milton was getting on my nerves just as much as Moria was. Instead of stomping on his foot this time I took my shield and threw it at a nearby tree. I didn’t realize how hard I had thrown my shield because it sliced the tree in half. “Timber!” Snips and Snails yelled as they jumped out of the way when the top half of the tree started to fall. “Now that wasn’t very nice Henry!” Milton scolded. Sarah paused with our fighting, “Okay, before we kill anyone I think that’s enough fighting for one day. We’ll go back to this later!” “Besides,” said Snips, “we’re still on the move and two you should rest!” Everyone except me nodded in agreement. “Look I know you want to be strong enough to defend yourself from those two experiments,” said Sarah, “I don’t think you need to be strong. You can outrun them by how fast you’re getting! I can barely keep up with you!” “Sarah’s right you know,” said Snails, “we’ve watched several of the fights you two have done. And I’ve recorded them too!” “Yeah!” Snips said. “Wanna see?” This time I nodded in agreement with everyone else. Snails then pointed his horn, it lit up, and a holographic screen came out of it and showed Sarah and I fighting. Sarah was right I was getting faster. But I didn’t want to be faster, I wanted to be stronger so I could kill Cora when I faced her again. Derek stopped watching the fight and shook his head. “What’s wrong Derek?” Sarah said. “It’s not that he wants to be faster,” said Derek, “he wants to be stronger, am I right Henry?” I nodded my head and bit my bottom lip. “Actually,” said Snails, “now that you think about it, you are strong enough!” “What?” Derek and Sarah said. “Oh boy,” said Snails, “did anyone tell you about the God Challenge, Derek?” Derek looked like he was racking his memory and trying to figure out if he knew about it. From the looks of it he did. “Oh yeah!” Derek said. “I was told about it! Dad told me!” Sarah tilted her head, “What’s the God Challenge, and more importantly what is a god?” “Remember what I told you about the different universes that are connected to this place?” Derek said. “Yeah, so?” Sarah said. “In those different universes are powerful beings called gods. They rule the universes that they come from,” explained Derek. “For some reason the gods of every universe that’s connected to this place issued out a challenge for every creature that is daring enough to try, to chop down a tree at one of the forests here!” “Yup!” Snails said. “And every year, all of the gods that have their universes connected to this place search their gates to see if there’s any evidence that a tree has been chopped down! So far there’s been no evidence reported of that happening!” “And why did the gods issue that challenge in the first place?” Milton said. Derek shrugged, “No one knows, I wonder if it has something to do with the magic in the trees?” “Possibly,” said Snails, “maybe because the trees have a lot of magic, it’s impossible to chop down a tree here! And trust me over hundreds of creatures have tried to and failed! I’m not so sure that the challenge can be completed! I don’t why the gods would issue such a difficult task! But…” When Derek heard this his eyes went wide and I don’t know if that meant if he was terrified, excited, or what. “What is it, Derek?” Milton asked. “Do you know what this means?” Derek said. Snips and Snails couldn’t contain their excitement; they knew what Derek was thinking. “The God challenge is complete!” Snips and Snails said. “That means what exactly,” said Milton, “and I’m not sure if I want to know the answer.” Derek took a couple of deep breaths, “Henry is the first one to chop down a tree here!” As soon as Derek said that for some reason one of Derek’s hands glowed red. “Uh… Derek?” Milton said. “What are you doing?” “I don’t know!” Derek panicked. It didn’t look like Derek was in pain; he just looked like he was freaked out and I don’t blame him. I would’ve done the same thing if my hand did what Derek’s hand was doing. His hand was in a fist at first but then it was forced open by whatever was forcing it open. It looked like Derek couldn’t control what his hand was doing at the moment because the next thing I knew a small beam of light shot out of his hand and drilled a hole into the tree stump. “Woe!” Everyone said as we saw what happened but my jaw dropped when I saw it. Derek just stood there in shock staring at the hole he just drilled into the tree stump. To tell the truth, I was just as shocked about the fact that I just chopped a tree in the In Between.