An Unlikely Friend. part 1

Chapter 30: Getting Out is the Hard Part

Nero

“This is the end of your road. If you’re going to beg… now’s the time to do it.”

Nero keeps his head down. We’ll see what you say when my friends rescue me.

The guard opens the security door. “Suit yourself,” he says and pushes Nero through.

The room is large and full of buzzing electrical equipment with a doorway to the right side. At the back the electrical equipment reaches a pinnacle and occupies the space from floor to ceiling. It wraps around a metal chair and has a large metal cap hanging from above, connected to bundles of wires. Three scientists turn to them and five light-infantry soldiers snap their weapons up.

“Declare yourself,” one of the soldiers yells.

“Private Shane and Private Marcus, escorting the human prisoner for probing by orders of Dr. Grantov,” one of the guards stammers looking at the weapons trained on them.

Dr. Grantov walks forward. He is wearing a white uniform and is cradling a small clear container with a metal object in the center. “Yes finally. Bring him here. We have work to do.”

The guards push Nero forward. “Is the prisoner really so dangerous? What’s the purpose of all the muscle?”

Dr. Grantov strokes the clear container. “They’re escorting an important item I hope he’ll have some information on. Strap him into the chair. We’ll begin immediately.”

Nero gawks at the soldiers staring at him with their weapons in hand. He shifts his perspective and sees a slight blue glow about their bodies crisscrossed by gentle pulsing red lines. How are they going to get past these guys? His heart starts to accelerate and he is shoved to move forward.

Two assistants come up and lead Nero towards the metallic chair with the cap hanging from the electronics overhead. Nero resists their pull as he imagines the capping device scrambling his brains. Where are they?

The door to the room opens and everyone stops to look. Nero shifts his perspective and sees the green glow of Iona with the darker green lines of the invisibility talisman woven over her body, framed in the doorway. Korbin and Thea slam into her and they tumble through the doorway with a yelp.

“Hostiles. Take cover!”

The soldiers fan out and duck behind various tables and equipment.

“Throw it!” He hears Ryder yell.

Iona throws a soda can sized blue glowing object at him, which bounces on the ground and rolls to his feet. Its brightness increases.

Uh oh. With hardly a thought, he kicks the object at the closest group of soldiers preparing to fire at his friends.

The glowing object slides under the feet of one of the soldiers who looks down at it. “’Nade!”

The object erupts into a pincushion of electrical bolts of energy. They pierce the surroundings, sometimes being deflected and other times curling about, larger bolts of electricity leap from metal with many small ones.

Nero is caught by the expanding front and his whole body goes ridged. His vision darkens and his head begins to feel light. His body is finally released and he sinks to one knee.

Nero’s guards and the scientists instantly fall to the ground unconscious along with the soldier standing directly over the explosion. The two soldiers on either side of the explosion fall to their knees, and one that was farther away staggers backwards and tumbles into Nero.

The children run forward and use their lepisents to zap the soldiers struggling back to their feet. The soldier that tripped over Nero untangles himself and pulls up his weapon. Korbin shoots him with Aether, which makes the soldier’s suit glow but does nothing to slow him down. Korbin dives out of the way as the weapon cracks sharply, scattering pieces of the lab equipment everywhere.