//------------------------------// // That Moment You Realize You're Being Held For Ransom Part 2 // Story: Chronicles of the Planeswalkers // by Eagle Heart //------------------------------// Applejack walks out of the cell last, looking around the hallway. She sees a small, metal table with two chairs- one of them is moved out of the way, as the guard sat there before. Then she sees the BLT sandwich in the paper wrapper on the table. “Ey, uh, Redik?” She looks to the wizard after she inspects the sandwich. “Not now, we need to get out of here so I can get me some bird bacon.” Redik says in reference to the Gryphons having bacon. “There’s uh... bacon on this here sandwich, Ah think. Now if’n ‘yer gonna ask how Ah know it’s bacon, Ah’ve been around a lot. Even tried it once before Ah said I wouldn’t eat meat again. It... wasn’t so bad, but then again, Ah don’t eat meat.” AJ shakes her head. “Redik, now’s not the time for-” Aquila manages to let out before a palm smacks him in the face and pushes him into the metal wall behind him. “I think we can spare a few minutes.” Redik says, sounding like he’s in some sort of trance. He makes his way over to the sandwich and inspects it. He notices a couple bites were already taken out of it. “Ewww...” Aquila groans as he gets back to his feet. Then he smirks. “Go on, eat it.” “But... it’s got man-germs all over it...” “You wanted bacon, there you go.” “But-” “Do it.” “Fine... but I want you to know you can lick donkey nutsacks. Ass.” Redik says as he looks at the sandwich again. He sits down in the chair and takes a hold of it. Reluctantly he takes a bite, though in his mind, his fabricated man-germs ruined the taste. “EUGH IT’S ALL SOGGY!” “Finish it.” Aquila says, he is still peeved about the physical abuse Redik has been putting him through. Ironically. “No! It’s gross!” “Maybe ‘ya can just take the gosh-darn bacon out and eat it like that?” Applejack suggests. “That aside, we need ‘ta get goin’.” “That’d work but... Aquila you taste it.” Redik offers the sandwich to Aquila. “... Give me that sandwich and it’s not coming back.” Aquila dryly says as the sandwich approaches him in Redik’s hand. “But-!” “I thought we were over talking about butts Redik.” Aquila says. Facehoofing, the cowpony mutters under her breath, “Oh for Celestia’s sake...” Applejack eyes the ventilation shaft with a sigh, and walks past the two of them. She manages to get up on her hind legs, and studies the grate. Applejack then sees if she can undo the screws, but to no avail. “Redik, just eat it or leave it.” Aquila sternly tells him, starting to get annoyed. “Screw it!” Redik rather loudly says and tosses the food in the nearest trashcan. “Let’s go, and Aquila...” “Yes?” “I’m going to kick SO MUCH ASS when we get home!” Redik exclaims. “AND THEN, I’M GONN-” his mouth was quickly covered. “SHHH!” Aquila lets out while putting a finger to his lips. Guards were approaching, Applejack needed to hide. The thump of their boots echoed through the hallway. “Aha,” Applejack finally manages (while hurting her teeth) to undo the screws. She then crawls into the shaft- the grate flapping back down behind her, as she undid the bottom screws. The guards approach them with an alert look. “What’re you two doing down here? Do you have the proper clearance?” one of them asks. “Do you?” Redik snarkily replies. Aquila nudges Redik and speaks, but with a heavy British accent. “We’re new recruits see, an’ we’ve just been moved down ‘ere to keep watch o’ tha’ prisoners. Jus’ wait a few minutes an’ our clearance should pass.” As Aquila speaks, Redik’s expression slowly turns more and more into one of disbelief. “Uh... yeah, what he said.” “Right... but we’ll be back to check up on you two. If the clearance isn’t passed in the next ten minutes, we’re sending you to your commanding officer.” the other guard orders, then salutes the two by putting his fist to his heart. The two copy the guards and after they leave to return to patrolling, Redik turns to Aquila with the same look. “How in the hell did you do that?!” “Do what?” “Speak like that and get them off our backs!” “Oh that... I suppose I’ve a way with words.” Aquila smiles and walks back over to the table, sitting down in one of the chairs. “Well so do I and I would’ve been busted right there!” Redik replies while following him on the dot. “Redik, your ‘way with words’ is about as subtle as torturing a cat.” Aquila comments on the wizard’s speaking skills. “Fine, but how’d you do that with your voice?” he asks, for once he was genuinely curious. “Years of practice and dealing with the Brits.” was all the assassin says, there wasn’t much more to it than that. He stretches his legs out and stands back up. Then he scrunches his brow as he realizes something. “Where’s Applejack?” “Well I thought she was with you.” Redik replies while he looks around the room to see where she might have went. Aquila facepalms and remarks, “Dumbass.” “Ah’m up here, in this... metal... shaft thing!” Applejack’s voice echoes a little bit, but she pokes her head out of the grate, which slid up. “Alright, listen closely. If you go against the air current, it should lead you to the source. If you can find the source, maybe you can find some way to get in and cut the power.” Aquila tries to explain to her from below. “You do realize, that if the power is cut, we won’t be able to see either.” Redik reminds Aquila. “You won’t, but I will. I won’t even be here when it happens.” Aquila thoughtfully says as he continues to develop a plan more and more in his mind. “Ah’ll uh... see what Ah can do, alright?” Applejack nudges herself back into the vent. “Hooey! It’s hot as a hog in ‘ere...” She exhales, continuing on to go against the current of air that she was feeling inside the vent. “Okay, wait... What do you mean you won’t be here when it happens?!” Redik exclaims a little too loud. “All part of the plan, just do as I say and things will go perfectly.” Aquila calmly reassures him, meanwhile he starts to make his way out of the room and too the hallway. “Fine, but if my ass is on a mantle...” the wizard trails off as he follows. “We just need to find some kind of back-” Aquila thinks to himself out loud as he rounds the corner to reach the main hall. But what he found, he wasn’t expecting. “Can’t let you do that, Aquila.” says a rather strangely metallic voice. What Aquila saw was a man, dressed in black and red robes covered in what would be considered futuristic armor. It covered the robe but allowed space for movement, a simple chest piece, gloves, shoulder pads, and steel toed leather boots. It was nothing like the two had ever seen, but it was obvious it was meant for someone of higher status. He wore a metal face mask, one that completely concealed his identity. All it had was a slit where his eyes were, through the mask his eyes demanded attention and stared death into any who were stupid enough to look into them. They were hazel, almost a yellow, but somehow seemed familiar. Over the mask and his head would be a hood, one of a similar design to Aquila’s, meant to conceal the face but not block vision. His visage was intimidating and worst of all, it was one that seemed like death followed him wherever he goes. “Aquila, was this part of the plan?” Redik whispers, but it’s still audible to everyone in the area. “Of course it wasn’t.” the dark stranger states. “I’ve been watching you two through the hidden cameras in your cell. Quite the show you put on in there. I can’t decide whether or not to kill you... or to congratulate you two for being the most foolish prisoners we’ve had.” he puts his hands behind his back and casually walks up to the two. “You shouldn’t be here, we all know that. But there’s two others who shouldn’t be as well.” he stops in front of the two and stares Redik in the eye. He bumps his fist on a button that rests on his right breast of his armor, he orders for the two guards they ran into earlier to report to his location. Redik flushes slightly, turning pale as the scary man stared him in the eye, he was almost as scary as Aquila when he gets mad. But he had to stand his ground. He was fairly sure Aquila already has a plan... but he’s ready for his own plan of attack, if need be... attack. The two guards made their way over and saluted their supposed commanding officer. “Guards Richard and Olsen reporting in, sir!” one of them says. “Impressive response time, but what wasn’t impressive, is how you allowed three prisoners to escape from their cell. While you took the time to prepare a lovely lunch for yourselves. Your continued failures have become rather disappointing to me lately.” the commander speaks while looking over the two. “We’ll do our best to not disappoint you further, sir! We’ve just been preoccupied as of late.” the other guard states while standing at attention. “Oh but I am going to take care of your worries, you’ll have all the time in the world where you’re going.” he tells them. Meanwhile, reaching into his robe to grab something. “Where would that be sir? If you don’t mind my asking.” one of the guards says, though it was clear he was nervous. This commander was obviously someone you didn’t want to disappoint. “Hell.” he coldly says, he pulls out what appeared to be just a hilt. He clicked a button on it and a blade extended from a slot at the top of the hilt. He drove it into the first guard’s chest and pushed the body into the other guard. “Dispose of your friend, we won’t be needing him any more.” The remaining guard couldn’t help but shed a tear before he dragged his friend away. Afterward the dark commander turned his attention back to the escapees... but they were nowhere to be found. “Oh good... I was hoping they’d run.” Fits of panting echoed through the hallway. Redik and Aquila have been running for three whole minutes. “I need to *pant* stop!” Redik says as he nearly falls over and rests against the metal wall next to him. “Sto diventando troppo vecchio per questo...” Aquila mumbles as he takes a break as well. “I think we lost him.” Redik manages to say in between pants. He stretches his sore arms and gets back fully to his feet. “I need... to hit something!” he tiredly exclaims. “It’s been twenty whole minutes since i’ve hit someone!” “Yes and it was me. Quit whining while I try to thi-” Aquila attempts to say but gets cut off but an alarm. An automated voice sounded over various speakers “Full lockdown in progress. Please report to engineering for further instructions. Lockdown will commence in... five minutes.” Red lights begins to flash and the alarm continues to sound. “Awww shit man! I don’t know what that means but it’s probably bad!” Redik groans loudly, there was no need to be quiet now... by Redik’s standards. “Alright, today’s your lucky day Redik. You get to lead, because now is not the time for subtlety.” Aquila states while taking out the beatstick he stole from the unconscious guards they took out earlier. “YES! FINALLY, I’M IN CHARGE. MY FIRST DECREE... EVERYONE... uh... okay later.” Redik sighs and starts running in a random direction. Looking for any way out before the lockdown happens. The assassin quickly follows along and immediately wishes he was younger, his back was killing him. Like someone was constantly banging a hammer against his lower spine. “Arg- REDIK LOOK OUT!” he yells to warn his friend. Just as Redik reaches the fifth story of what appears to be a large hangar of the ship, but just as he rounds the corner a guard smashes into him and tackles him to the ground. “OW GET OFF!” he yells as he struggles to get the guard off him. Aquila immediately goes into “Action Mode”, disregarding the growing pain in his back, he charges forward and lunges, he grabs the midsection of the guard and horizontally rolls, pulling the guard with him and throwing the man over the nearby rail. The sore assassin groans and stands back up, offering a hand to his companion. Redik accepts the hand and gets back up to his feet. “You know I could’ve handled him right?” he says as he continues to make his way down to the bottom. “Of course.” Aquila says, following along. Though he remembers something, his gear. “Redik, go without me. I’ll catch up.” “Wait, what?! We only have about three minutes until we’re locked in here!” Redik nearly yells in complete shock, has Aquila gone nuts?! “Just trust me, get to the end of this hangar. If I’m not there, find a way out and leave without me! Aquila yells back and starts to run in the direction of where he thought the captain was. “YOU SEEM TO BE FORGETTING WHO’S IN CHARGE HERE!” Redik screams since Aquila was so far, and he was fairly angry. “YOU NEVER WERE!” Aquila yells back. “SON OF A- OH SHIT!” he manages to let out before he ducks under a fist, a guard had come up the metal stairs to try and attack him. He quickly sends a jab to the guard’s gut with his left fist. Then a quick right uppercut to smash the guard in the chin and knock him down the stairs. “Ha ha ha! Too easy!” Meanwhile Aquila was making his way to the armory. Following the directions marked on the walls. Understandable, none of the guards here seemed very bright. Though, shortly after a while of running his back started to catch up to him. He took just a second to rest but the constant noise of the alarm reminded him. “Two minutes until lockdown.” “Devo... mantenere... andare.” he groans heavily. Forcing himself to start running again. After he rounds a corner he finds the armory door. Running up to it he tries to push it open only to find that it won’t open. “Damn it, locked...” He quickly looks around for something to open it with. After a few seconds he notices a panel. “There!” he moves over to it to find all these buttons with numbers on them. “Uhhh...” But before he tried to do anything with it, the door opened and a man in dark red robes emerged. Almost like what that commander was wearing, with different colors. He shot his hand forward and fire burst forth from a tube on his wrist. “Merda!” Aquila says and shuffles out of the way, he sends his foot out to kick the guy in the stomach. Knocking him into the side of the doorway, Aquila follows up by grabbing him and spinning them both around. He lets go and makes the man stumble back and slam into the other side of the doorway. “Ow damn it! You hit hard!” the guy says, but his voice was familiar... “REDIK?!” Aquila let’s out in total shock. “Hey! How’d you know my name?!” he says after getting back up. “I told you to go and find a way out of here!” the assassin scolds. “What are you talking about?! Wait a second... you’re some kind of imposter, damn it! He told me to look out for those!” the... wizard says. Afterward, shooting more fire in Aquila’s direction. “Wh- woah!” is all Aquila could say before he has to dive into the room full of weapons. As the other Redik moves closer he quickly looks around for his stuff. And notices they were on a shelf on the other side of the room. “Bring it you disguised ninnyshit!” the other Redik yells before sending a massive torrent of flame in Aquila’s direction. Aquila ducks under a metal table. “You know, you might be some other version of Redik. But that doesn’t mean I can’t still kick your ass!” he yells then stands up, knocking the table over. He spins around and uses the table to boost his jump. He spins around and kicks the “wizard” in the face. After landing he grabs the back of the other Redik’s head and smashes it into the wall nearby. “...I like puppies when they bubblegum...” was all the wizard says before falling to the ground unconscious. “Deja vu...” Aquila comments before he quickly rushes to grab his gear and sprints his way out of the armory. “Applejack better be close to that generator room by now...” he says to himself as he runs. Making his way back to the hangar, he notices Redik fighting a few guards down at the bottom. “Not bad kid.” “HIYA!” the real Redik says as he bashes the face in of another guard. He spins around and sends a fireball in the direction of another guard, causing him to light up in a torrent of flame. Though he let his guard down and got whacked in the back by one of those metal beatsticks. “OW! MOTHERFU-” he yells before getting smashed in the face by the same one. He falls to the ground but catches it just before it hits him in the face. He pulls the guard toward him and kicks the guard in the stomach to send him flying back. He quickly stands back up and looks around. “Twenty seconds until lockdown.” was what he heard from the announcing voice. “DAMN IT, AQUILA WHERE ARE YOU?!” he yells out for his friend. “Right here.” a metallic voice from behind says before Redik feels a thump on his head, and everything goes black...