I
The Doctor woke up to the sound of Asphalon rattling his chains. Of course the tension between the two of them was very relieved, and they both knew it, just by looking at each other. The Doctor had his work cut out for him, and they both knew that they had to get out of the imprisonment they were in, before something bad happened. The Doctor wanted to point things out to the Gunslinger, but he knew that he wasn't in the mood for a spritely conversation at the moment.
He lifted himself up, undermining his bruises and sharp cuts, and twisting to the side to lay down. He understood that he could not break free, and he knew that they had taken his Sonic Screwdriver, which is one thing that should never get taken.
The Gunslinger sat up, staring blankly at the corner of the room across from him, and slowly brushing his hands across the floor. He was feeling the softness of his skin, and how it had revived itself, and the weight of himself against the floor. He was feeling the damp floor, and how it was smooth against his palms, and he needed to think. He couldn't get his mind around what he wanted to think about, he just couldn't. Then, he started to tap his chains together, trying to start a conversation in his mind.
"Can you please stop, I am trying to sleep..." The Doctor was resting on his side, and he had gotten a bit aggrivated from the consistant tapping of the chains.
"I am sorry, I am just thinking..."
"About what?"
"I am thinking about you, Doctor. You can be the one who can get us out of this mess." He turned and then looked at the Doctor, right as the Doctor sat up to look at him in disbelief.
"How am I supposed to help you if I am shackled like you?"
"Your Sonic Device, they did not take it from you... You would still have it, and be able to break those chains."
The Doctor checked his pocket, but couldnt reach far enough to get it out, and felt the Sonic Screwdriver in his pocket. He then leaned forward to try and get the screwdriver out, but the effort was fruitless, resulting in it falling out and sliding out of his reach. . "I cant reach it, maybe if I try to stretch across the floor for it," ,he reached his hoofs out to grasp for it, but could not. "But it hurts a lot."
"Alright Doctor, what we must do is wait... I feel that in due time that we will have this problem resolved, maybe even after we are taken to the Land of Wearwind."
"What is Wearwind?"
"A Land by the Mountains, where the people fear of the Drakes day by day. Its monumental castles stand gleaming the the sunlight, and plated in whiterock and snow. The Weather is heavy but cold, and the people are somewhat nice, depending on who you meet. Wearwind is one of the few places that a Gelfling can be accepted."
"I guess then, that is somewhat a good place to have a chance to escape then..."
"I don't think that it would be such a good idea to try and escape at the place of our doom. We must try and find little ways to break ourselves free, and also bring the demise to our captors."
"What do you mean bring demise to our captors?"
"I mean, Doctor, that we will have to kill them to get free."
"Trust me, there are much better ways for getting free than killing somebody (Somebody not somepony, because he knew that wasn't a term used in these Lands.) and risk being caught later anyway."
"I do not agree that we shouldn't kill anyone, but I say that we try our hardest to break free, no matter what."
The Doctor thought slowly, about killing and risking the life of his assistant for someone he only just met. But even though he had just met this person, he had developed a certain kind of trust that he had not felt for anyone before. "So tell me, where would they have taken Derpy?"
"They would have taken her to the dungeons, and kept her locked up just like us."
"If you are so important, then why am I with you, and not in a different cell...?"
The Gunslinger thought about that for a while and then answered, "Because you must have a voluble well of information that they would like to know about as well... As for me, they already know lots of things. And your precious Derpy, well... Lets just say that she wont be leaving with us, or anything of the sort." He paused, just to let the Doctor collect what he had just said. "We will have to try and rescue her, if you want to see her again..."
The Doctor knew that now he had to listen to the Gunslinger, and he was determined to get back Derpy. "Tell me then, what would we do to go and get her?"
"Pick... Any color you like..."
"What is that supposed to mean?"
"Its your choice, what we do. What do you want to do, Doctor?"
The Doctor thought, and of course he was thinking to himself before he would blurt out what he wanted to do. "I think we should wait the night through, and I will have to secretly reach out and get my Sonic Screwdriver. Eventually I will have to break my chains and unlock the door, but I dont want to use the Screwdriver to unlock it, I would rather undo the chains and wait for someone to come... So then we could ambush them and steal the keys without anyone else knowing."
The Gunslinger just shook his head and nodded, and then laid back down to sleep. The Doctor then thought to himself, about how to get Derpy out of this place. I am hoping that all will work out, I am nothing without my TARDIS at the moment, and I cant let this man be executed after all that we have done for him, even if it isn't much. He is the only one who knows how to get my TARDIS back...
II
The man strolled down the hallway, the keys jangling at his side. He strutted slowly towards the central office, and ignored the guards that were pestering him. He seemed like the kind of man who was in charge, but would play around a few times a day, a regular joker. His office was located at the centre of the middle floor of the building, which stood only 9 floors high. It was a gigantic stone structure though, and it was placard with tapestry and statues that scattered around the rooms of the domicile.
After he reached his office, he sat down at his desk, slowly unraveling a parchment that read the days news, and troubles of the nearby townsmen. He then proceeded to turn on his computer, and make a cup of coffee. Unknowing of why these things were supplied though, the people around and himself even, never knew why these things were around them. Technology in this world had always been a mystery to them, and so had the ways of the land.
Slowly, after a moment of his silence was calming him, a man stepped in the room, suited and cleaned. "Hello, Allan?"
"Yes? Who enters?"
"Its the accountant, James. I am here to see you about your stocks in the business. You are interested still, aren't you?"
The man (now known as Allan) stood up and reached out to shake James' hand. "Ah! Yes! I am still very interested with the stock of the corporation! How are the proceedings on the site?"
"Well, I cant get into the utmost details, but I can say that they are still progressive as ever! You did well in investing with us... Of course many of us just work at the top here, not with those barbaric indigents that run the drudgery for us."
"You say it as if you know them personally." He laughed a bit at that, grabbing his cup of coffee and sipping it.
"Well, nobody really knows about this type of operation, Allan. You see, many of the people of the Lands, still think that we are following the orders of the Higher. Which in the case of the Corporation, we aren't. We run by our own terms, and we develop what we would call, the future."
"I see... Go on."
"Nobody outside of this line of work knows about what we do here, so we need to keep it that way. Besides, the people do not need to know about what we do because they need to work for us anyway! As the old terms would say,
Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.
I always loved that quote..."
Allan drank the last of his coffee and set it down, slowly sitting down at his keyboard and mouse. "I understand completely. But we do have some problems down at Section F-1. You see, they finally caught the one they had been looking for."
"Ah! So the Gelfling is here at last?"
"Well," he tapped the desk a couple of times, jarring his memory, "that's just it though. They don't think he is a Gelfling at all..."
"If not a Gelfling, then what is he?"
"We know not yet what he is, but we are trying to figure out. He came along with a sort of equine though..."
James stared dully at the face of his partner. "Well, tell them to do away with the horse, it is just an animal..."
"But it talks, and it seems to have come with a partner of the same race as well..."
"Was it a wizards doing?"
"No, not that we can prove... We have not had any troubles by a wizard in many an age. But we know that these two equine are not of this world, and they are very intellectual."
"Well, just tell the blokes down at F-1 to be careful and not to undermine them. I have a meeting on F-8 to attend. I will see you at lunch time, and make sure to back up your daily files, you wont want the boss getting mad because of the e-Mail flood again..." He stepped out of the room in a hurry, slamming the door behind him.
No... I wouldn't want it to flood again... would I...
III
The chains broke easily.
The Doctor had reached far enough and gotten his Sonic Screwdriver from its resting position on the floor. He then proceeded to break the chains, and rest for a moment before freeing Asphalon. His sides were in pain from stretching so much, and he was sweating from working himself a little more than he was used to. Asphalon hadn't noticed that the Doctor had broke his chains yet, but had known that this plan was going to take place.
After a few moments of the Doctor resting himself, he knew that he had to hurry up and unlock Asphalon before the guards infiltrated the room.
"Gunslinger, wake up!"
Asphalon shuffled himself over to face the Doctor, and saw that he had already unchained himself. "Alright! So I would presume that the plan is underway?"
"Yes, but we have to hurry and gather a pretext to give to the guards so they can leave us be while we steal ourselves out of here."
"Or we can just knock them out when they get in here."
The Doctor shot a glare at him as he stood up and trotted over to him. "Trust me, this Screwdriver can unlock those doors, there isnt much to them. I changed my mind about wanting to knock them out, I feel it would be more productive to save out energy! Just let me do the thinking here, and we will be alright, Asphalon." That was the first time that the Doctor had called the Gunslinger by his real name, and it seemed strange the first time, but he would get used to it.
Of course, Asphalon noticed this as the Doctor started to unravel his chains with the Screwdriver. "I see you have named me already..."
"Well of course, I cant keep calling you Gunslinger, it just seems odd..."
"Well then I just can not continue to call you Doctor. What is your real name?"
The Doctor shuffled his hooves around the back of the chain as it snapped, making a POP sound. "I haven't got one!" He seemed to say that in a merry little voice. "I have always gone by the Doctor."
Asphalon didn't say anything, but he understood in a sort of way that he knew what the Doctor had meant by that.
"Hah! I guess they didn't know that I had pockets! (shuffling his Screwdriver back into his back pocket.) Those really come in handy when you are a pony! Oh right... Speaking of ponies... we need to go find Derpy before something happens."
"I understand, wait for the guards to come then, so we can be reassured that they will not bother us again after their visit." He sat back down and pretended to struggle wrapping the chain around his hand as if he were still bonded; the Doctor did the same, except on his hooves.
After a few moments, they both grew tired of waiting and fell into a sleep... Which of course was not a bad thing, it just meant that they would not be at the utmost ready for the guards when they popped in.
A couple of hours passed and the sounds from outside grew to a rampaging howl, as a storm seemed to rant through the Land. The Shacks that surrounded the fort were battered with hail and rain, and the people huddled together for warmth and surity that they would not be harmed. The trees bent over backwards and ripped themselves from their own roots, belting needles of pine and straw at any other objects in the area, and the same for any other loose things. The flags were violently battered on their poles, and flung to and fro. All of the waters built up in the gutters and poured over the sides of buildings, causing annoying sounds and repeated floodings of some areas. Doors were forced open and the windowpanes slammed against the outside walls, as the people that walked outside were pelted with ice cold rain.
Inside, it sounded like bulletfire, and a landslide of water. Of course the people of this Land were used to it, they had been here for their entire life, and they see at least one of these storms a year. Usually they arent this violent, but sometimes they get up in the ranks of being malicious.
After a few moments of the storm reaching its pinnacle, the captain of the guards sent the patroll men down to check on the prisoners, and of course to check if Asphalon and the Doctor were not causing any problems.
KNOCK. KNOCK. KNOCK. They pounded on the door, hoping to wake them before they came in.
"Wake up you two! We are here to check on you!" The first guard was a very demanding man, as told by his voice.
The Doctor was the first to wake up, and of course he was very ticked at the fact that he had fallen asleep at that moment in time. He whispered over to the Gunslinger, "Hey, Asphalon... Asphalon! Wake up! They are here!"
Asphalon slowly woke, and of course didn't get out of his current position, for he did not want to raise any suspicious thoughts by the guards about the shackles being a tad bit off...
The guard spoke again. "I said, is there anybody in there?!" This time a bit more angered with the unpunctuality of the two prisoners.
"Yes yes! We are in here all fine and dandy... We just have one problem..." The Gunslinger said.
The Guards looked at each other, because usually prisoners aren't ever supposed to complain. The second guard then spoke up, "State the nature of your dismay!"
"The nature of my dismay? Why good fellow, that of course, would be you two bloody idiots!" He giggled a bit at that, because he could never be serious in times that needed it. And that little remark, of course, brought the two guards into the room in a heartbeat. They unlocked the door as fast as they could, and brought themselves in the room with anger. A look of kill in their eyes.
The first guard spoke up again, "You are a elf... You have no god given right to speak to us as if you were a child of Rha... I am going to rearrange your fucking face, Gelfling..." He cracked his knuckles, as did the other guard, as they prepared to beat the Gunslinger down. Of course they were both pretty big men, and they could easily hurt Asphalon, and ruin the plan. this got the Doctor thinking...
I told him not to fight or knock any of the guards out... but what does he do? Oh he just goes ahead and picks a fight with probably what are two of the biggest guards in the entire prison... Of course, I had to pick the thuggish and delinquent one...
The first guard swung, a little low, but a deadly swing. The Gunslinger rolled out of the way and the guard stumbled to find his footing after missing. "Oh shit! He broke free of his chains! Get him!"
Asphalon immediatly plunged at the man, digging his fist into his stomach and twisting it with ferocity. The man let out a short yelp, as it was soon muffled by another blow to the face. The first guard fell to the ground, as the second guard drew his nightstick and moved forward. He swung his nightstick at the Gunslinger, missing by a hair, and then backing up a bit. Asphalon then returned the favor by delivering a sweeping kick to the mans legs, bringing his body from under him as he crashed to the ground. He then plunged down onto him, his elbow digging into the mans neck with each crack... The first guard stood back up to run out of the room, but of course with Asphalon free, he didn't get far. The Gunslinger brought his leg into the guards stomach, bringing forth a few coughs of blood and muttered gibberish. The guard then colapsed to the floor, right beside his unconscious partner.
Asphalon knelt down beside him, and slowly spoke, uttering the information out of him. "Now, I want to know, where you are keeping our other furry little friend in this here prison."
The guard barely could speak, but he was understandable. "W-we, we are k-keeping her at F-2. You wont get p-past the guards on this floor..." He trailed off in his speak as he went unconsious from blood loss, seeing as he had massive internal bleeding from the deadly kicks that the Gunslinger had delivered. His punches came swift, almost as swift as his gunfire had, but he was still just as deadly without his weapons. And they both knew that they would need that now, because the plan was changing... And he knew that he relied on something other than killing, which that would be his sharp wits...
IV
Allan rested himself on the couch in the lounge.
He usually did this when he was tired during the day. but sometimes he never got to do this, he was always busy during a week, computing and fixing other peoples problems. He never really got to do things of his own. That was the problem of being a manager of an entire department. He did get special clearances though, and he knew that those did come jn handy most of the time. But this day was not a quite day, for a few moments after he sat down, a man came bursting into the room. He didn't speak, yet he just began ravishly tearing through some papers on desks for something specific.
"Excuse me sir, but what are you looking for?"
He did not answer, yet he continued to rummage violently through desk drawers and cabinets for something, and he then began to turn over coolers and other objects in fury because he could not find what he wanted. He was thrashing about the room like a madman in a fury because he was in distress...
"Did you hear me? I said, what the hell are you looking for?!" This time Allan got his attention. He did not understant what the man was looking for, but he would soon know. The man turned to him, and Allan saw his face was distraught. He had been tormented by something for the past hour or two, and it was easy to read in his eyes.
The man spoke up, "I am looking for the clearances for the D-Code."
As Allan began to reply, he stood, "The D-Code? But why would you need the D-code? That would mean a prisoner or something has escaped..." He took a good long look at the man, but the man did not say anything, and he understood that it was automatically the Gelfling. "Alright, they are in my office, come with me if you really need them." He walked the man down the hall to his office.
"So what is your name, good sir?" The man asked.
"I am head of clearance section, Allan Inania. Just call me Allan."
"I did not realize that you were head of clearance. I am Vius. I am just a lowly office worker from F-3. But they gave me the instruction to get the clearance to get the D-Code." He hung his head in shame, not knowing that he had probably insulted the head of clearance.
"No need to feel bad about your sudden actions. We need to put a stop to those barbaric men down in F-1 that broke out. I have the perfect things." He unlocked his office door and moved over to his desk and looked through the drawer.
"What do you mean by perfect things?"
"Ah!" He found the clearance papers and signed them in a legible fashion, then handing them over to Vius. "And what I mean..." he knelt down, using a certain key to unlock a compartment on the floor. "is this!"
Allan pulled out a box that weighed to him a ton, but he handed it over to Vius and shut back the compartment, then locking it. The box was a black cedar box that had enscribing of sacred messenging on it, depicting a certain type of ritual. He then opened it slowly and showed Vius what was inside.
"But... But... Those are f-forbidden!" he backed away for a moment.
Allan shut the box and brought it to his chest. "Yes, but if you have spoken with The Higher, then you are able to weild such a thing."
"You have spoken with the Higher?"
"Such a feat is not hard to achieve." He cradled the box under his arms and started to walk out the door. "Come with me, i will need you."
"Alright... But I cannot garuntee that it will work on such a demon..."
"No but it will work on his friends..."
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The elevator had taken them to F-1.
The floor stunk of death, and this death was that of the ones that Asphalon had dealt so far. Allan moved swiftly through the halls, and Vius followed behind him. Right now it was a game of cat and mouse, and neither knew where the other was, but one of them was prepared. Of course they both had exeptional hearing, and the halls were quite. The Gunslinger would use this for his advantage, and so would Allan. Allan unlocked his box, and took out the contents, holding it tightly in his arms. He heard the squeaks of the mice and the dripping of the cool water onto the ground, but no footsteps.
Vius said he would stay behind in the elevator so he wouldn't be dead weight, literally. Allan perused the halls, and used a quick process of elimination to decide which way to go to find the criminal that he wanted to kill so bad. He noticed unconscious guards as he passed by some of the rooms, and some of them were long dead. But he wanted to know where the two of those jailbirds could be hiding. The halls were more quiet than they had ever been before, and he knew this. This is why he had come up with a plan.
He started to bang against the walls, to create a noise to draw them to him, of course with what he had on him he wasnt scared at all...
A few halls down, The Doctor whispered, "Hey Asphalon... Do you hear that?"
"Of course I do," He placed his hands on the wall, trying to feel the vibration of where the taps were coming from. "Something is beating against the walls. I think it might be another unlucky guard."
"Well we have already gone through about ten or fifteen."
"Yes, but what is one more?"
The Doctor nodded, as long as he got to get his assistant and his TARDIS, he was fine with getting out.
But Allan would not give up, he knew that he was dealing with intelligent criminals, and he wanted the right timed attack to take place. He snuck down the corridor and heard slight whispers, and thought to himself. Maybe if I rush them, I can go ahead and end this... And then we wont have to worry about them hurting any more of our guards...
The Gunslinger sidled around the corner, trying to not be seen, and slowly making sure his feet did best to not make any noises. he had made it almost all the way around when he heard a slight shuffle, and felt something pop his knee.
A tranquilizer dart.
The Doctor had been delivered the same blow, and they both collapsed onto the floor in agony, and then slowly began to fade into a deep, forced sleep. Allan spoke, "Soon, we will load you onto the caravan, and take you to the execution site at Wearwind. You will do best not to speed up the process anymore..."
Asphalon spoke his last words before he fell asleep, "All... we-we... wanted... was D-Derpy..." And he slept...