“Alright, you guys can get up now,” Britchy‘s voice came over the comms.
Bond tentatively raised his head and saw blood, guts, and aliens strewn everywhere and he heard the sound of potshots being taken somewhere behind him and Racquel. Hearing coughing next to him, he turned and saw Racquel wiping dust and dirt off of her helmet’s visor, coughing while she did. “Roger that, Britch,” he replied. “Are you okay?” he asked, turning to Racquel.
“Yep,” she replied, pushing herself to her feet. Quickly surveying the results, she turned to him as he pushed himself to his feet. “You ready to go?”
“Yep,” he said, mimicking her earlier response. “Let’s do this.”
Jones heard footsteps approaching their cell and immediately crouched down, muscles coiled back to react just in case.
Though how much damage he could do while in chains was debatable. But, he was going to try.
Not Mooney, by the looks of it, who was right now cowering in the corner.
The quisling can rot there, for all I care.
Something was fiddling with their cell door lock.
Eh?
Racquel kicked down the door to the prison compound…and froze.
All the guards were lying across the floor.
Dead.
Did they murder each other? She wondered. Turning when she heard Bond come in beside her, she saw the same shock and horror on his face. What happened here?
Stepping over bodies, Racquel and Bond went from cell to cell, peeking through each of the doors’ windows to find Jones and Mooney.
Nada.
Not being able to find the keys to free the other prisoners – who ranged from animals, to humans, to other strange creatures that hadn’t even been heard of yet – Bond aimed his plasma rifle at the locks and shot them off with each one he passed. Racquel then opened them and helped the prisoners out. The ones that weren’t fit to fight, she teleported back to their ship, after sending an advanced warning out to Rue. She turned to the ones that were able to fight.
“Wanna’ help kick your kidnappers asses?” she asked. They all looked at each other and nodded eagerly. “Then follow us.”
Stone stumbled as two guards dragged him into the elevator. One of the guards leaned forward and pressed a button. The doors closed and they headed down toward the dungeon area.
Both guards were on either side of him.
Stone suddenly jerked forward, rolling forward. The movement was so sudden that it yanked the two guards towards each other with a sickening CRAAACK!!!!, causing them to loose their grip on his arms. Dropping to the ground and finishing his roll, Stone jumped to his feet and, using just his feet, ran up the elevator wall and flipped backwards off of the wall and slammed into both of the guards.
There was another loud CRAAACK!!!! and he felt their bodies go limp. Pushing himself off of them, Stone grabbed their weapons and strapped every one he could to his body. Looking up, he spotted the top-opening emergency exit. Planting one foot firmly into one wall, he pushed himself up with the other foot and planted it on the opposite wall in one motion. He then reached up and studied the emergency exit.
There were not bolts or screws holding it down.
He tried pushing it open with his hands, but it refused to budge. It was then that he remembered – an elevator’s emergency exit was locked on the outside of the elevator by law.
Some stupid law, he thought. They fail to take in consideration all those stuff in the movies that show clearly why we need them screwed shut on the inside! Especially in situations like this!
The elevator then dinged! as it reached the dungeon level. He dropped down as the doors slid open and caught a brief sight of two guards standing there, probably waiting to bring him to jail, before it all went to hell…
Rue put the ship on auto-pilot, quickly programming the course it needed to take, and then went to get the passengers seated, and those that had infections or had some form of injury she put in the Osmosis Portable Chambers – ones that cocoon themselves around the occupant’s body and slowly absorbed specific vitamins, minerals, and medicinal stuff into the occupant’s body that the occupant needed to heal; and also provided oxygen and absorbed liquefied food and some water into their bodies to keep they hydrated if a prolonged stay was necessary.
Bond shot the lock of another door and stepped back as Racquel opened it. He heard her gasp and took a look for himself.
“Jones!” he exclaimed, running over and embracing Jones, giving him a clap on the back before pulling away. “I’m glad to see that you’re okay.”
“Believe me,” Jones said, clapping Bond on the shoulder in response, a big, relieved grin on his face. “So am I.”
“Bond! Racquel! It’s so great to see you-” Jones cut Mooney off with a firm glare and Bond raised an eyebrow, making a mental note to ask Jones what on earth had happened between the time they were taken and now to cause this animosity.
“Sorry to break this up,” Racquel said, “but we’ve only got…nine minutes to go before Stone and the others arrive.”
Bond checked his virtual watch on his suit. Oh, yeah. “Come on, let’s go,” he said, motioning for Jones and Mooney to follow Racquel out.
Something slammed into him from behind.
He turned as he fell and saw a person – a female, judging by…certain noticeable features – falling with him. Under normal circumstances, he wouldn’t have minded this in the slightest.
But certainly not when the female falling towards him was Winter.
And not when the female was attacking him this viciously.
Landing heavily on his back, he immediately twisted away as Winter landed on the ground, quite evenly on her feet. Jumping to his feet, he ducked as she swung a roundhouse kick at him.
He rolled away and sprung to his feet and got into a fighting stance – both hands up, left hand forward, right hand by his jaw, elbows loosely by his ribs, standing on the balls of his feet, distributing his weight evenly, with his rear right foot turned outwards.
Basically, he got ready to fight.
She smiled.
And threw a punch.
Surprised at how fast the punch came, it prevented him from closing in and he snapped his head back. The punch past him, but still ruffled his hair. He tightened up his stance, putting both fists beneath his jaw, and lent his torso and upper body slightly forward, only exposing the forehead. He made a very quick shuffle forward as he launched a right front kick, bringing his foot from the back forward at Winter’s abdomen.
Winter immediately rolled forward as the kick came, ducking underneath it. Before anything else could happen, there was a bang! and red spurted into his suit as Winter collapsed to the ground, clutching her left side.
Absentmindedly noting Racquel standing there with a smoking gun, Bond brought his fist back, intending to knock her out there and then.
But that didn’t quite go according to plan.
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