The Shrink Program

Chapter 165

In one fell swoop, we had lost every advantage. Our chances of beating Jack in the dark were... Dim.

"Maddison...?" Nigel said, tense with panic. There was a fumbling of sound in the darkness near me.

"Here," I mumbled, still shaken. Of course, the moment I build up enough nerve to actually talk some sense into Vain, everything goes to...

"Hey!?" I yelp, stumbling as the cage suddenly jerked upward.

"Sorry! Sorry..." Nigel apologised, and I hear the bars creak under the force of his hold. "Just... Didn't want to leave you alone on the table... to be silently assassinated..."

Awww...that was undeniably one of the sweetest things ever said to me. Now if Bird-boy could just kill us all before I die of embarrassment, that would be really swell.

"... Have I ever mentioned how much I seriously hate fighting Jack?" Alex snarled.

I turned to face the direction of his voice, reorientating myself in the darkness. "It may have come up, once or twice."

"I've never fought Jack before," Nigel confessed, a slight tremor to his voice. "I can't feel pain, so he was never really interested...."

I groaned. Ew.

"... So what's the plan of attack?"

We stood in the suffocating darkness, each one of us privately coming to terms with the fact that we were doomed.

Minutes went past in silence, everyone staying alert as we tried to come up with some way of surviving this... Our ears straining for the rustle of feathers.

"Alex..."

"What?"

"You don't happen to have the ability.... to glow in the dark, do you...?"

"...No. Nigel."

Well. That's one possibility ruled out. Good work, Nigel. Knew there was a reason why we kept you around.

"...I just thought... you can do just about anything with nano-technology...?"

"Even when my tech isn't being controlled by radio waves, glowing in the dark is just not in my skill set kid."

"...it would have been really convenient if you could, though...."

"I know."

"...Maybe you can try learning?"

There came a sigh.

"Tell you what Nige. If Jack doesn't kill us all in the next two minutes, I'll devote some of my valuable time into becoming the sparkliest damn fairy on the planet... But for now, can we just focus on not getting dead?"

"...You promise?"

"... Robin..."

"I need the motivation."

The dark was filled with little frustrated noises as Alex survival instincts fought his dignity.

".....Fine! But I draw the line at re-enacting scenes from Twilight."

Multiple voices in the room awwed in disappointment.

Well, the good news is I now had something to look forward.

The time spent securing said entertainment was debatably worth it.

All in all, I'm counting this as a win.

Vain finally spoke.

"Jack doesn't like being ignored."

I swallowed nervously, eyes turning blindly towards the sound of his calm voice.