//------------------------------// // Chapter VII - Prison Break Part I - All hell breaks loose. // Story: Gargoyle // by Mr101 //------------------------------//                             Gargoyle               Chapter VII - Prison Break Part I - All hell breaks loose “And that, dear Crystal, is my plan!” I said with a grin. Crystal stared at me in disbelief, her mouth was open and I could see her eye clearly twitching. “So… what do you think?” I asked. “Let me get this straight… you want me to disguise myself as a Hoboll, head out into the cave and somehow get them all to leave the cave so you can just waltz back to the holding cells with the weapons.” “Uh.. yes?” “I have a better idea, why don’t we just shove them up your arse and carry them that way!” She growled at me. “Alright, alright no need to get stroppy…” I muttered, “there has to be an easy way to get the weapons out…” I stroked my chin as I tried to think of another plan, in Crystal’s defence my original idea was a bit harsh on her. She had told me that she had almost been caught by one of the Hoboll leaders and maybe suggesting she go alone to be the bait was a bit too much, I sighed as I placed my hands on my hips. “I got nothing…” “You’re an idiot, Vault. You know that?” Crystal sighed. “Least I’m thinking, you got any ideas?” I asked her. “Well.. we could always-” She stopped as we heard the sounds of someone approaching, quick as a flash, Crystal doned her disguise once again. I panicked and looked around trying to find something that could hide the pile of weapons when I spotted a large tarp nearby and quickly grabbed it, covering up the weapons before running to the wall in order to blend in. The second I had blended in, three Hobolls appeared in the armory. “Wot you doing down ‘er?” One of them grunted. “Jus’ chekin’ da weapons.” Crystal replied. I had to give her credit, she mimicked the Hoboll voice perfectly. “Well stop fukin’ around and git to da cave, boss wants all available Hobolls dere now.” “Why, wot da fuck is so important?” “Some of dem slaves broke through into a chamber, da one we bin looking fer all dis time.” I felt my curiosity peak at the mention of the chamber, I thought that the Hobolls lived here but from the sounds of it, this chamber is the reason why they were here. I suddenly realised the predicament we were in, Crystal would have to go with the hobolls by herself. Alone. Crystal looked slightly nervous but managed to keep her cool and began to follow the other Hobolls out of the armoury, she gave me a glance before disappearing from my view. “Be safe, Crystal…” I whispered. I was concerned for her safety, but something told me in my gut that she would be alright. Either way, I had to get the weapons back to the others. Crawling along the walls, I made my way after her and the other Hobolls and eventually came to the entrance. I watched with curiosity and confusion as every single Hoboll that had been in the cave began to head into a different tunnel, leaving the entire area abandoned. Seeing this as an opportunity that shouldn’t be wasted, I quickly made my way back into the armoury and gathered the weapons up in the tarp and began to head back to where the prisoners were, stealing one last glance down the tunnel where Crystal and the other Hobolls had gone down. As quick and as quietly as I could, I returned back to the tunnel that lead to where the others were, tarp full of weapons safely secured to my back. When I arrived back there, I saw that the two other changelings were standing around disguised as Hobolls and I had also noticed that the three bodies of the dead Hobolls had been moved out of the way. “You’re back,” one of them said, stating the obvious. “Yeah, was fairly easy actually. Apparently something big’s going down and practically every Hoboll in the cave went down a tunnel,” I replied. “We know, a couple of them came down here and told us that we should remain guard, they also left one of them here with us,” “So… dare I ask what you did with it?” I asked, raising a brow. The disguised changeling pointed behind him to a large blood stain that was against a boulder, only visible if you were standing where we were and not if you were by the entrance into the area. “Iron Heart decided he needed to stretch out his limbs and… well… pretty much ripped the poor bastard apart.” I glanced over to where Iron Heart was in the cage, he was covered in blood and had a satisfied grin on his face, I also noticed that a lot of the others had given him a wide berth. Not that I blamed them. “I see… well I got the weapons like I said I would.” “Vault… are you sure this idea will work, I know you said there probably would be complications…” the changeling asked me. “I-” Before I could finish, the whole area shook as if an earthquake had suddenly struck followed by a sound that made my entire body go cold. A loud, deep, demonic roar. Looking around trying to figure out what the hell was going on, I saw that the look of fear on the faces of many of the prisoners especially the foals. “We need to move, NOW!” I shouted,                                                                      ??? POV I was growing impatient with these wretched curs, looking over the reports from the latest excavation from several of the new tunnels I hissed in anger as I incinerated them in my hand. With a curse under my breath, I made my way out of the room and quickly fell into my snake form and made my way towards the Alpha’s throne room once more. I was going to have a few words with him… Unlike the rest of the flea ridden scum I was forced to use as minions, the Alpha and a couple of his whores where the only creatures that had gazed my true form as it used a lot of my power to maintain, power that in my weakened state since my escape four months ago. Arriving at the throne room, I slithered my way in and quickly regained my true form before the Alpha could utter any sentence. Upon seeing my true form again his eyes went wide and he wisely remained silent. “I grow tired of the lack of progress your pathetic pack is showing…” I growled. “D-Dats not my fault, it’s dem s-slaves!” The Alpha gulped. I tutted as I shook my head at him, suddenly lunging forwards and grabbing his throat tightly eliciting a startled gasp from him. “No, you don’t seem to understand,” I hissed into his ear, “as a leader, when one of your underlings or all of them screw up... It is entirely your fault… if I don’t see any sign of improvement in our search… well then…” I chuckled as I let go of him and slowly reverted back into my snake form, smirking to myself as he gasped for breath. “You know what will happen to you and your pack…” “I-I’ll speak wiff da boys den,” he spluttered out. “Good… I’ll take my leave-” The door to the room suddenly burst open and a lone Hoboll ran in, looking worn out and a stupid, infuriating grin on its face. “Boss! We found it!” I stared at the Hoboll in disbelief, it apparently didn’t notice me at first and when its eyes met mine I could see it freeze up slightly as I let out a chuckling hiss. Looking back to the Alpha with a smirk who immediately gulped and nodded, knowing what I wanted. “W-well go find it den! AND ‘URRY UP ‘BOUT IT OR I’LL GUT YA!” The Alpha commanded. The Hoboll whimpered slightly before nodding and running back out of the room, I began to slither out of the room a few minutes after it with the Alpha in tow. ‘Finally… after all this time, we can be reunited at last...dear sister… I couldn’t believe it, I truly couldn’t. After spending three months in this accursed mountain with this flea infested scum I had finally found what I was looking for and soon, soon I would be rid of all of them. Oh sure, I promised to the Alpha he and his pack would be spared if they delivered what I needed to me but… it’s not my fault the don’t recognise a lie when they hear one. As I slithered my way through the tunnels with the Alpha and two of his guards following close behind me a loud roar echoed throughout the cave causing me to stop in place. The Alpha looked around in alarm trying to determine the sound’s origin as his pathetic guards whimpered slightly, but that wasn’t what bothered me the most about the roar. I had heard it before somewhere. I tried to think of every possible creature I had encountered in my years, trying to determine the sound when it struck me. I hissed in anger for being this foolish and not expecting this to happen and quickened my pace towards the end of the tunnel, stopping as I saw Hobolls running full pelt towards where I was, fear etched on their faces and I quickly reverted to my true form in order to prevent being trampled on, cursing that I was forced to reveal myself fully to more Hobolls then I had wanted to before it was time. The running Hobolls saw me and stopped running, eyes widened in even more fear as my tongue flicked from my mouth and the Alpha slowly came into their view, obviously in a vain attempt to try and reassure them. “Wot the fuck is goin’ on?!” He barked. “W-we found da room b-but den…. den…” A loud roar behind the Hobolls caused them to whimper and yelp before taking off again, ignoring the Alpha and myself and ran past us. I smirked seeing the anger in the Alpha’s face from being ignored like that but I knew why they had done so, I also knew that if I wanted any chance of being free from this mountain with my prize I was going to have to summon as much of my power as I could. After all, even if I drain myself I will still be able to rely on sister to deal with this wretched vermin. Chuckling to myself as I calmly made my way down the tunnel, past the Hobolls that were rushing past me and being followed by the Alpha by himself, I felt my magic crack around me. “It has been far too long since I’ve killed one of your kind…”                                                                  Vault POV “Come on, lets move it, move it, move it!” I shouted. Another roar rumbled throughout the tunnel, small bits of rocks fell from the ceiling as I watched the prisoners make their way as quickly and carefully as they could towards the exit. ALong the way we had come across some other prisoners being led back by two guards towards us and after a short scuffle with two, we had managed to free them making the grand total of prisoners with us to fifteen. By this point, Iron Heart and his friend, Iron Horn, were leading the group towards the exit of the cave both wielding one of the warhammers and the great sword we had swiped. The two changelings, who I learned were called Meta and Morphosis, had taken two swords and volunteered to scour the remainder of the cave system in order to try and find the other prisoners as I had been informed before we made our run for it that not every prisoner was accounted for. I took an estimated guess that in total there was at least twenty three prisoners, a thankfully much smaller number than I had originally thought. Flanking the group were Border and Boxer, the two diamond dogs now wielding the hand axes as well as several of the ponies including Snow Wing’s brother, Ice Wing, who had taken up the swords and in my possession was the final warhammer. Which I had to admit, felt just right for me, albeit the hammer was a little on the small side. As another roar rumbled we could now start to hear the sounds of Hobolls screaming as we ran down another tunnel, I recognised the tunnel as being the one that had led to the one I had initially took to get into the mountain and silently thanked whatever God had been watching me, that we had managed to make it this far with little trouble and were nearly home free. “We’re nearly there!” I shouted, “keep going!” Just as Iron Heart and Horn ran on ahead to make sure the path was clear in order to make sure it was safe, they ran straight into two armed Hobolls who appeared from a different tunnel that I had somehow missed when I slipped in. ‘You HAD to jinx it...’  my mind complained. Growling to myself, I ran as fast as I could to the front just in time to stop one of the Hobolls from tackling one of the prisoners at the front when he had slipped by Iron Heart. Tossing the Hoboll back and flaring my wings out I let out my own roar which seemed to temporality work on stopping the two Hobolls in their place. “Walk away… and you keep your lives…” I growled deeply. I could feel the question looks from the others peirce me without even looking at them and I kept my gaze firmly locked on the two Hobolls, they nervously gulped as their terrified eyes caught my own and started to back away. Smirking to myself as I took a step forward to emphasise my point, it was short lived as we all heard the sounds of more Hobolls approaching. The two looked behind them, then back at us with their own smirk and charged at us. Cursing under my breath, I intercepted the sword blow from the one closest to me and brought my hammer down on its head. Hard. I heard a crunch as something clearly broke and the Hoboll dropped to the ground, dead, just as the others arrived. I turned my head behind me to the prisoners who were wide eyed with fear and roared at them. “GO! WE’LL HOLD THEM OFF!” Border and Boxer along with the armed ponies quickly usher out the prisoners as Iron Heart, Horn and myself stood our ground, rising to our full heights to try and intimidate the Hobolls slightly. I counted at least eight in the group - well seven, now that one of them was dead- and immediately lunged forwards, hammer raised high ready to strike. The Hoboll brought his sword town towards my left, trying to catch me off guard. As quick as a flash I managed to grab his arm mind swing and yanked him forwards, startling him before my hammer met his face and sent him crashing to the floor howling in pain. Suddenly, a pain rang through my body as a spear embedded itself in my back and with a quick smack of my tail, the Hoboll weilding it was sent crashing to the floor leaving the spear in my back. I winced as I yanked it out and side jumped out of the way of an axe that was swung at me, hearing Iron Horn chuckle. “Watch your back, Vault. These little bastards can surprise ya!” He smirked as his great sword down, slicing the head off of a Hoboll and laughed as blood sprayed all over him.. I snorted and turned round, just in time to ram the spear into the gut of a Hoboll that had stabbed me with the spear when my back was turned. Wasting no time, I spun round and was able to just block another blow from a sword with the hammer before bringing my leg up and kicking the Hoboll directly towards Iron Heart who saw this and in perfect timing, swung his hammer at the Hoboll, scoring a direct hit and sending him speed into another Hoboll. The poor bastard didn’t get up. Iron Horn let out another great roar as I heard his blade clang into another before a yelp of a Hoboll made me spin round to see said Hoboll was now on the floor, dead and missing his arm which I assumed had been holding the sword which I saw was now in two pieces. “Nice job, guess you could say… he’s ‘armless’ now right, Iron Horn?” I grinned. Iron Horn gave me a glare that I couldn’t help find funny as I swung my hammer downwards and into the skull of the Hoboll I had first attacked, killing him instantly. “I was just complimenting the way you...’disarmed’... him,” I grinned again. “Vault, with respect, shut up,” Iron Heart grunted I looked around to see the last Hoboll was fighting Iron Heart, and credit where credit is due, the little bastard was not put off by the size difference between him and the minotaur or the fact he probably hadn’t noticed he was the last one left. Me and Iron Horn watched in amusement as the little guy swung his sword madly at Iron Heart before Heart had apparently grown bored of the Hoboll and proceeded to deliver a shark and quick kick to the Hoboll’s groin, making me wince as the Hoboll let out a high pitched squeak of pain which was silenced by Heart smashing the poor bastards skull in with his hammer. As I looked over the bodies with a satisfied smirk, something caught my eye which caused me to panic slightly. There was only seven corpses. “There’s only seven…” I whispered, “where’s the other one?” Iron Heart and Horn noticed this as well and looked around to see where the Hoboll had run off to before realising that during the fight, he had slipped off and had most likely gone to warn the other Hobolls. “You two go back to the others and help them escape, I’ll go after him and meet backup with Crystal, Meta and Morphosis as well as the other prisoners and try to re join you,” I said turning to them. “Alright, you sure you want to go alone?” Iron Heart asked me. “Don’t have a choice, I’m not leaving them here to die and I’m not abandoning Crystal,” I replied. They nodded and were about to take off before Iron Horn stopped in his tracks. “Where should we meet up again?” He asked. “There’s a cave to the south of here, just in the woods beyond the plains,” I replied, remembering where Snow Wing and the others had kept me, “I’ll meet you there.” “Very well… good luck, Vault,” “And to you, now go!” I began to run down the tunnel after the Hoboll, hoping that I’d be able to catch him in time just as another loud roar echoed in the cave followed by a rumble as the earth shook and a might boom came from behind me. I came to a stop and looked back, slightly concerned what it was that had made that sound but shook my head, trying to remain focused on catching the Hoboll before it was too late and to try and get to others and Crystal before their covers were blown. “I’m coming Crystal…”                                                              Crystal’s POV It was taking all of my willpower to not lose my cool as I was essentially herded down the corridor with the other Hobolls, I had absolutely no idea what was going on other than that these bastards had found something of importance to them, I was also getting tired of the excited chatters of the Hobolls and tried to drown our the noise. After what seemed like hours of marching through tunnel after tunnel seeing slaves being marched back towards where the others were being held - and where Vault was hopefully helping them escape by now - I had hoped that these slaves would be able to escape with us as well. Eventually, we came to the end of a tunnel which had stopped at a wall which had a large hole in it, large enough for at least four Hobolls to walk though in a line and had to be at least ten foot high. After making my way in I could see why the Hobolls were acting all excited, we were now standing inside a large cave, large then the one where the Hobolls had been living in and large than anything I had ever seen. But that wasn’t what was so impressive about the cave. Directly in front of us, slightly submerged in water was a large ruined building that looked like a temple of some sort. The architecture was completely lost on me as I had never seen anything like it before however it did slightly remind me of buildings I had seen on visits to the far east of the world. The temple had three sections that were each separated by a roof that increased in size from the top to the bottom, the way the tips of the roofs curved at the ends was breathtaking, each corner holding a small statue that kind of reminded me of a mini Vault forcing me to stifle a laugh at the thought. That was when I noticed it. It was a slight shine that was reflected by the water on the ground that had caught my attention, peering closer at the temple I held back a gasp of amazement. The temple was made of pure gold. I couldn’t believe it, whoever had constructed this temple clearly had good taste as well as the money to build such a place. As I let my mind wander to who could have possibly lived here, I was dragged out of them by the bark of the Hoboll that was leading us who was standing on a boulder in order to oversee everyone. “Alright boyz!” He barked, “we ain’t got long, der’s only a few Hobolls left guarding da slaves and watching for intruders so lets find dis bloody box fing and find it fast!” The Hobolls cheered as I wondered what he had meant by a box, suddenly, all the cheering stopped as I noticed the Hobolls freeze up and stare towards the ceiling behind the leader. As I followed their gaze I saw exactly what they were looking at and I felt my body go cold with fear. “Wot you morons gawking at? We got work… to… do?” The leader had turned around to see what everyone had been staring at and his jaw dropped, staring right back at him was the large, glaring head of a very angry looking dragon. A stone dragon. “Oh… fu-” Before the leader could finish his sentence, the dragon let out ferocious roar that made me shake with fear. And before he could do anything, the dragon lunged its head forward and with one almighty snap of its huge mouth, grabbed the Hoboll and tossed him into the air. I watched as the body of the leader flailed in the air, screaming as he did, before falling down into the open mouth of the dragon who ate him whole before turning its attention to us. There was a brief pause before it roared again. And that’s when all hell broke loose. All the Hobolls began to run about in blind panic, trying to get out of the chamber but because of the sheer amount of them trying to all escape at once, the exit was blocked making everything easier for the dragon. Seeing no way out of the blocked exit and not wanting to become dragon shit, I barged my way towards the right side of the mass as I heard their cries and screams of Hobolls being smacked, crushed and eaten by the Dragon. I thanked the ancestors that stone dragons were unable to breath fire or I would've been roasted already and ran around the side, looking for somewhere to hide. I curled up behind a boulder, dropping my disguise, and shut my eyes tight and slowly began to shake, I’d never felt this much fear before and as hard as I tried I couldn’t drown out the screams of the Hobolls and the roar of the dragon. “Vault… help me…” I whispered, a few tears sliding down my cheeks.