Hiro looked at his watch; it had been at least fifteen minutes since they both had gone in Lingering Shadows Of Fire

Chapter 4: Captured.

Hiro looked at his watch; it had been at least fifteen minutes since they both had gone in. A suspicion crept up his mind, a lingering doubt. They should have been out here by now. No, his mind protested against the rapidly sinking truth. It couldn’t be.

He rushed in through the door. The silence of the dojo mocked him, every room was empty as if a great mist had come and carried all the people away, leaving no trace behind.

Great! He shook his head bitterly. He should have called the authorities in the first place, not go on some crack brained scheme of that crazy girl. I should call Mr. Dickinson right now lest be responsible of the others’ already desperate plight. Okay great, he thought now I sound like some crazy horror author. He reached for his mobile.

A wailing beep signified dead battery, he sighed irately. “Guess I will just have to walk.” He murmured to himself.

Lily felt nauseous; the roar of air all around implied that they were in an airplane or chopper of some sort. She had been tranquilized. That damned dart had sedated her. She sighed I should have known, I suppose all of us have been captured or something. Damn. How can I get out? She tried to move, but her body felt like lead, damn cant I even move now?

But as she tried to budge, a bone jarring shock hit her nervous system, with the strength of a charging rhino. What the hell! She grimaced at the pain, already she felt like she was sinking into the darkness. As she fought against its tenacious grasp she knew her efforts were futile. She withdrew into unconsciousness, her head hit the smooth metallic cage floor, and the binders responded with releasing another shock bolt.

Kai groaned his head hurt like mad. He had seriously not expected this to happen. Bound and captured with absolutely no idea what was going on. Well maybe a vague idea, this sort of menacity could only be devised by his sadistic grandfather. But that got him no nearer to the reason why he had been captured, or why was he following lily with such ferocity. It could be a grudge, he considered the possibility. But no, he himself had heard lily say that Voltaire thought she was dead. He weighed over the odds; yes if his grandfather dear had found her out he would be mad enough to endorse the idea of terminating everyone forever. Or maybe lily had evoked his anger by endangering one of his million illegal operations.

He shook his head lightly. There were countless possibilities. All he knew for sure was that she had endangered all of them. But it was not her fault, he argued with himself, protecting her against his own thoughts. He smiled in spite of himself. Great now I am going all crazy over the fact that she is my sister. He had barely remembered her in the first place; she was like a faded memory, her return had surprised him considerably. The abbey was notorious for knowing how to effectively brainwash their recruits. Only a few memories about his childhood remained unscrambled in his brain, and he had just retained them by his own willpower.

He took solace in one of those memories now:

Flashback; ( kai and the others are 5 years old here )

Kai stood at the end of a long corridor, “lily, tala, mika.” he called out. “Ready or not here I come.” He ran around checking each room for them. They could probably hear him lumbering around here and there and then they could just hide in different places. His footsteps ceased to a light tiptoe.

He felt the smooth doorknob beneath his hand. He traced down its intricate carvings and pushed the door open, praying fervently that it would not creak and be the harbinger of his presence. The door complying to his silent pleads opened smoothly. The room was lit by the golden slanting rays of the sun as it poured in through the shining glass panes. Breathless he got the feeling of a human presence somewhere in the room. Well he thought sardonically the room’s big enough.

A sweeping glance revealed nothing. He started a more through search, looking behind sofas, crouching on his knees to peak under the bed. The interiors of the under-bed realm were dark but the bed itself was high enough to admit him while he crawled in. the carpet underneath the bed was smooth and soft. Slowly he crawled through feeling in front of him.

“Drat.” he muttered as he came out what had he missed. His searching gaze revealed a tiny cupboard located at one end of the wall. Its grayish green color made it near invisible as it merged with the wall’s color.

Sneakily he crossed the room and pulled the cupboard door outwards. Looking around he saw nothing. “Huh.” he mumbled confused. Then among the drab gray garments a flash of red caught his attention. Pulling at it revealed a glaring mika.

“Kai that hurt.” she yelled reproachfully.

He shrugged in reply, “hey that was the only part of you that I could see.” Closing his mind to her barely audible murmurings he went around searching again. She did not follow him which he took to be as a sign of hope; he wouldn’t have to put up with her indiscernible ramblings.

An open door caught his eye, wheeling in he looked around, and absently closed the door behind him. Immediately he caught sight of tala’s sheepish face.

“Hahaha,” he laughed mockingly. “I found you, I found you.”

Tala turned scarlet, stung, “let’s see you find lily.” he muttered derisively.

Kai stopped stock-still for a second and raced off to search for her. A long series of opening, peering and closing ended with zero results. Kai pouted all, I need is to be humiliated in front tala and mika now. The next door was locked; jubilantly he shouted, “yay I found her!”

“Oh really?” Mika and tala rolled their eyes.

Kai ignored them and then screamed through the keyhole. “lily I found you now come out!”

A calm voice radiated out through the door. “No.”

“Come out!” said kai now getting pissed. “I found you and you are out!”

“No you haven’t,” said the maddeningly calm voice, “you yourself said that you need to see the person to catch ‘em, so you need to see me to make me lose.”

“Cheater.” kai yelled.

“No I am not the,” voice responded. “You never included not locking doors in the rules, so there.”

Kai was seriously annoyed now. “Yeah ‘cause I had no idea that you would stoop that low.”

“Too bad,” the voice laughed. “you still haven’t won kai-chan.”

End Flashback.

A reeling blow swung kai back to the present; One of the thugs stood grinning above his head. “Awake are you?” he mocked. Another blow struck his head, he tried to raise his fist in defense but horror-struck realized that they were chained as a massive electric coursed through him. He clenched his teeth partly in pain and partly because he seething in rage.

The thug chuckled grimly, “poor little tyke, cant even protect himself.”

Kai grinded his teeth, but kept silent, anticipating only more blows if he would speak.

The guard roared infuriated at the lack of response. “Think you are such a hotshot eh,” he grunted. “I will knock your pride hat off kai hiwatari.” Then he paused seemingly thinking. An evil smile glistened on his face, making it look even more uglier, and repulsive. “Or maybe I wont have to do that, your grandfather should take care of that part.” With a roaring laugh he kicked kai heavily on the neck sending him immediately into the impenetrable darkness.

Hiro marched along the roadside. Just my luck he thought I can’t see a single taxi today, even though all the rest of the time they are rumbling around here like crazy. He should be reaching Mr. Dickinson’s place in about five minutes considering the rate he was going at right now. A squirrel flashed by the road with lightning speed. But he was in no mood to enjoy the summers glow. The heady scents of sakura ad sweet peas showered the air. A light breeze caressed the bright green leaves making them sway and dance. Bees hummed gathering nectar, and birds flew amidst the trees.

But still he brooded darkly. How would he find the others, they could be miles away by now, almost anywhere in the whole world. His head was burdened with these heavy thoughts. What if even Mr. Dickinson despaired of the search, what would he do then? And how would he inform dad and grandpa of this crazy mishap? He shook his head slowly in despair, they had left him in charge and now look at the mess he was in. they would probably be mad.

But not if he found everyone first, he decided with firm resolve.

BBA headquarters loomed near, the two guards at the entrance nodded to him, they knew him quite well. He flashed his security entrance pass, they nodded mechanically again and gestured him through the detector machine.

As he entered the large echoing chamber the receptionist looked at up and smiled at him. “You want to see Mr. Dickinson I presume?”

He merely nodded his consent.

“Okay, I will check,” on him she answered solicitously.

He looked at her as she left her seat and moved towards the distant phone, and drummed his fingers restlessly on the glass topped counter.

Everything in here was high tech and ornate. A few blooming potted plants were placed near the pillars and added a kind of beauty to the place. A high carved white pillar supported the domed roof above and staircases leading to different rooms and levels surrounded him. As it was not blading season as yet the whole building was startlingly empty. But soon it would be filled with people, training and registering in a month’s time or so.

“Mr. Granger?” a voice cut through his thoughts.

“Yes.” he replied a bit distractedly.

“Mr. Dickinson will see you.” now the woman said pleasantly.

Hiro gave her a half-grateful smile, “okay, thanks.” and turned towards the lift. As soon as he was inside he punched the button marking the 10th floor level. The lift shot upwards and hiro paced around the interiors shakily. A painful lump formed in his throat but he angrily swallowed it down. He needed to appear in command of the situation not some blundering, hysterical, idiot. He caught sight of himself in the lift’s mirror; a pale anxious face stared back at him. He raised his hand to smooth his crinkled brow, just as the lift sped to a stop.

He sighed and stepped through the smoothly receded metal doors, he had come this way often, but never with such urgency in mind. Guilt weighed heavily on his conscience. Despite his mind’s protests that it was not his fault, his heart cloaked itself in the darkest of oblivions.

He opened the first door in the corridor and Mr. Dickinson’s cheery voice greeted him.

“Hiro my boy how are you?”

The light hearted tone did nothing to ease his guilt; in fact it made it more harder to bear. He swallowed, “Mr. Dickinson….”

“Go on, my boy.” the man replied merrily.

“Mr. Dickinson all the blade breakers have been captured.”

“What?” the manager actually leapt up in shock, his usually jovial features read alarm and dismay. “What happened hiro?” He stammered.

“Well,” hiro replied slowly, difficultly. “Kai’s sister, twin sister that is appeared out of nowhere, and then I think she was escaping someone’s attention, but they caught up with her and captured everyone.”

“Kai’s sister?” Mr. Dickinson asked dazedly.

Hiro nodded his gaze downward in shame.

Mr. Dickinson’s gaze fell upon hiro’s face and he saw the other boy’s pain and guilt. He moved from his desk and gently led the boy to the sofa. “It’s okay hiro,” he said softly, “it wasn’t your fault, in fact if you had been captured nobody would have realized what had happened.”

Hiro shook his head miserably, “no Mr. Dickinson you don’t understand…I... I was unable to prevent the incident from happening.”

Mr. Dickinson shook his own head firmly. “No hiro you mustn’t blame yourself. Now we had better muster a search party immediately, we should not waste any more time.”

Hiro looked at Mr. Dickinson’s kindly countenance and nodded once more, a bit reassured. Together they began to calling the appropriate authorities.

Mika opened her eyes. Cold metal was biting her back and she felt as if she was unable to move even a muscle. Leather straps cut into her skin as she tried to move her head. She sighed in relief at least she was not paralyzed or something. She again turned her head awkwardly, and perceived the others’ silent forms. She was bewildered. All of them had been captured? How could that have happened? Then she caught sight of that other girl, strangely enough she remembered her, remembered her name, lily.

The girl looked at her piercing gaze seemed to be warning her. Mika lowered her head a fraction of an inch, in assent. She would not talk and she could not talk either, already the room was spinning again. She laboriously opened her rapidly-becoming-heavy eyes and saw sweeping tendrils of a strangely colored mist rolling and seeping into the room. They were being sedated by something! She couldn’t stop breathing that enticing smell and lights began to blink on and off in her head forming beautifully hued patterns. She slowly succumbed to the lustful desire and was overcome.

Lily struggled against breathing, she was getting tired off blinking on and off like a flickering light bulb or a candle in the storm. Wow now I am thinking of myself as a flickering candle of hope to a… party of buffoons. Nevertheless she sighed submitting herself to fate. I have to fulfill my own purposes and if I help someone along the way it’s not my fault. Another thought struck her with full force, as she rode the wave of nauseating darkness, without my help a cataclysm of a dangerous nature is inevitable. Suddenly she didn’t feel sleepy; a sweet cloying after taste of the gas was all that was left on her lips.

Well she thought I constantly surprise even myself. She began to assess the situation. The voices of a multitude of technicians and wacky scientists became audible. To keep your lids shut tight while bursting with irritation at their nonsensical obscene babbles was very hard. To calm herself down she tuned into their conversation, grasping at the lying threads of voices. A cold authoritative voice rang echoing menacingly across the room.

“Prepare subjects for energy transfer.”

She stiffened, no not already, the others would not be able to endure it; they had not suffered the harshness of pain. They had never known its wily inescapability, like a living nightmare. Kai alone, out of the others would be able to bear it. Why were they doing this! the energy rarely transferred anyway, the bond between the bitbeast and its master was too subtle to be broken in this way. But of course, the answer floated to her mind, they wanted to first break their will. They just got sheer pleasure out of hearing the screams of pain and anguish of their victims.

They couldn’t start! not now! She did not want them to break the others especially since it was nearly her fault that they were here in the first place. The violence of her reaction steeled her determination. She could easily provide a source of distraction; with a grim smile she began working to divert their undivided attention upon herself.

Hiro listened breathless to the search survey reports. His brow fell dark with disappointment, still not a single clue about their whereabouts. He cradled his face in his hands, the worst possibilities began to occur to him. The kidnappers might have killed them by now, and thrown their bodies into the sea.

Mr. Dickinson seemed to read his thoughts, “no my boy we must have hope.”

Lily struggled violently against the machines grasp, desperately trying to divert attention unto herself. Each move, each twitch of the muscle was responded by a stunning electric crackle, which increased in intensity with direct proportion to her struggles. She let through a scream of pain, anything to gain attention. The lead thug’s snapped in her direction. Finally! Her eyes glowed both with satisfaction and an uncertain fear.

The man rasped; his voice gravelly as if each word was scraped on stone before being uttered. He smiled loathfully in her direction, leering at her. “Use her as test subject number one, perhaps the process will instill patience and manners into our youthful prodigy.”

She gritted her teeth in anticipation as the well known glass arc descended upon her form; encasing her in a series of fearful nightmares. They always did this; made the person’s body a higher energy potential first by shocking it almost to extinction, just so they could pull out all that energy plus the bit beast energy with it. Pointless really, just a method to cause pain, considering that the bitbeasts were not just a fountain of raw energy, they were complex beings, spirits like souls.

The nightmarish process began, huge amounts of energy pulsed through her body; making epicenters of pain where it radiated out in waves of massive hurt. She braced herself, and her bitbeasts to sustain her determination long enough to escape. The energy increased and her body shivered and convulsed in response, she could just make out the malicious grins on her captors faces, as they enjoyed her pain. A silent scream rose to her to her lips as she fought a battle a battle seemingly eternal to her.

Yay I wrote 3000 words woot! I know that I am concentrating on the OC’s too much but I can’t help it! I have started to like them too much!!

Please review!!

Laterz! Bye, bye!!