Nature in Hiding

20- You can't fool us twice

It had been a few hours and the elements had managed to calm down. Now getting their heads out of cursing each other, they finally saw the condition of the room.

The room was broken beyond repair. Except for the beds, where elements were lying, there was nothing salvageable left.

"Everything is destroyed, even the CCTV's broken, yet these chains are still thriving," Neer muttered, bringing his chained hands near his face.

"We need to do something about them if we want to get out of here," Ahana muttered, before looking over at Gyaan, "Did you come up with any idea?"

Gyaan nodded slowly, "There is one, but you all have to be at the peak of your energies for that."

"Everyone?" Avan asked with raised eyebrows, as he thought his power was useless here.

"Everyone," Gyaan confirmed.

Before he could explain his plan, the door was banged open. The three doctors came back, but with lots of bodyguards this time.

"You all must be tired from wrecking this room. Have this juice so you can get refreshed," the female assistant said with a sickly sweet smile.

"Do you take us as fools to fall for the same trick twice?" Ahana asked, making the same sweet, innocent face as the assistant, causing the latter to drop her fake smile.

"Use whatever force you want, but make them drink this juice," the main doctor ordered.

The elements had to be unconscious, or else the doctors would get killed before they even managed to take their X-ray.

Five- six people for each element, the elements were badly cornered. Their hands, their legs, even their necks, it was impossible for them to move a centimeter.

The doctors watched with clasped hands and googly eyes settled on the scene as the men clutched the element's jaws and forcefully opened their mouths. They watched in anticipation waiting for the spiked juice to go down the throat, but it never happened.

In a blink of an eye, the juice from the glasses disappeared, leaving only the colour remains at the sides of the glass.

The men backed away in confusion, turning the glasses in bafflement, but not even a drop spilled from the glasses.

"You could have at least bought natural juice. These were just sugared water with colour." Neer chuckled, while all the other elements tutted at the failed attempts of the doctors.

"But...but...how...,your hands were tied," the doctors stuttered, before realizing their folly. Unlike what they had assumed, the elements didn't need hands to carry out their powers.

"The movies are useless. They always show that magic comes from forwarding the hands towards the enemies," the male assistant grumbled.

"Put the pills down their throats," the main doctor ordered, infruitated by the situation.

The situation repeated, and the elements were again forced, but their faces were pulled upwards tightly, so as to force them to swallow the pill.

The doctors again eagerly waited for the outcome. Their hopeful faces turned sour when they saw all the five elements sitting calmly with their hands folded under their chest, giving them a dead stare.

The doctors looked at each other in confusion.

"Why didn't it work? Last time, they all were down within three minutes," the male assistant questioned no one in particular.

"Go ahead and try any new idea on us," Gyaan taunted, "keep trying to make us unconscious until you are the ones who faint out of tiredness."

"You all are an intelligent bunch. I don't think we need to say more, do we?" Gyaan asked rhetorically to the three doctors.

"Our stupid pills only worked last time because they were injured and exhausted," the female assitant muttered with frustration, before storming out of the room.

★★★★★

"Damn! That was intense," Ahana muttered, plopping her head on the hard pillow.

"Did you all see the water disappearing leaving only the colour behind?!" Avan exclaimed with childish glee, before turning to Neer, "Neer bhaiya, you were so cool," he said, giving Neer two thumbs up.

"Thanks kiddo," Neer chuckled, scratching the back of his head, embarrassed by the compliment.

"Ah! The look on their faces," Sameera said, clasping her hands with happiness.

"Forget theirs, did you notice our expressions?" Ahana asked Sameera, forgetting their earlier fight, "Total badass," she said, moving her palm in front of her face, as she mimicked the previous expression.

Sameera chuckled as she nodded in agreement.

"Sorry to ruin the happy moment, but we need to think of something fast. The pills might not have worked now, but they will work later," Gyaan warned.

A confused frown appeared on Ahana's face as she questioned, "Why would they try stuffing the pills again, when they clearly saw that they didn't work?"

"But they also saw it work once." Gyaan pointed out, raising his shoulders.

Neer hummed thoughtfully, before saying, "Either they will keep trying until the pills work, or—"

"—or they would mimic the situation when it had worked," Ahana finished his incomplete sentence.

"They are going to hurt us," Avan concluded, his shoulders drooping as he sighed.

"Then the only option left is to get out of here, before they manage to injure us," Sameera said, looking over at Gyaan.

"Gyaan you never got to tell your plan about escaping from chains," Neer said, eager to find out and work on the plan.

"What's the use? I told you that everyone has to be at their peak of their energies for that plan. And you all just lost almost all of your energy. First while the doctors told about cutting us up, and now when they forced the pills down our throats," Gyaan answered in a resigned tone.

"Okay, no problem. The plan just got delayed, right? We will rest up and re-energize ourselves," Ahana said, trying to be optimistic.

However her optimism was shut down just as quickly as it had come.

"For the pills to work, they are going to keep trying to injure us one way or another. And we will keep losing our energies trying to safeguard ourselves," Gyaan informed, but looking at Avan's scared face, he hurriedly said, "They won't manage a single hit on us. Our powers will help us stay safe. But in turn, we will lose the energy needed to get out of these chains."

"You scared me for a second," Avan said, patting his chest.

Ahana patted Avan's back slightly to comfort him, before addressing all of them with determination.

"Let them try. They will get tired after the continuous failed attempts. Anyways, we were going to wait until they fell for our scared act to get out of here. Now instead of that, let's wait for them to get tired of trying to hurt us.

"Once they stop trying, we will heal and get our energy back in no time. And then we will get out of here, right before their eyes."