happy halloween to everyone who celebrates!🎃
One thing you learned about the commander right away was that he screamed. Alot.
He screamed when he was frustrated, when he was angry, when he was happy, and basically any time he felt an emotion.
He mainly screamed whenever you were in his presence. Angry and frustrated screaming to be exact.
You got to experience this side of Peepers (if there is any other side to him at all) when being rudely awakened by his loud screaming for you to get up.
"Your imitation of an alarm clark is pretty good," you muttered in a slightly hoarse and irritable tone, rubbing the sleep out of your eyes.
"Lord Hater doesn't like to he kept waiting, so get moving and follow my orders," he commanded, ignoring your comment.
With the aid of the wall you managed to stand on your own two feet, being yanked from the square space immediately afterwards.
After an awkward and quiet moment in the elevator with the stone-faced commander, you followed Peepers out into a wide hallway past countless doors. You found it a bit challenging because for his size he was quick on his feet. There was a certain nervousness in his steps that you observed, and you concluded that he was probably a few minutes late bringing you to...wherever he was escorting you to.
You were about to question this when he abruptly turned from the path the two of you were taking previously and opened a door, which revealed an enormous space that you took a few seconds to gaze upon.
Darkness enveloped the space, but not entirely due to the light spilling in from the open door and from the large expanse of boiling water which was yellow-orange in color. Various weapons, cages, and other means of torture could be seen either hanging ominously from the ceiling or on a place somewhere along the sides of the room.
"How scary," you commented, continuing to let your gaze sweep the room.
"This is Hater's Torture Room," Peepers waved a hand towards the space. "Feel free to say hello."
"Hi, how are you doing?" you greeted flatly.
The Torture Room did not respond.
"Scared, prisoner of mine?" Lord Hater appeared all of a sudden from the darkness. "Well, you should be! It all ends here, where you will give me the secret passcode so I can finally get my hands on those weapons. And I, Lord Hater, will conquer every single planet left in this pathetic galaxy to become THE GREATEST IN THE GALAXY!!"
You stared at the skeleton man in silence. Nervous to what kinds of torture the two would come up with for you in particular, a plan of sorts began to craft itself in your head.
"Let's begin, shall we?"
He walked in a random direction from where you were standing, so you had no choice but to follow. Commander Peepers was right on your heels, his obnoxious presence displaying itself as something that had not the slightest idea what personal space was.
Hater picked up a certain weapon with care as if it were his baby. His jaw curved into a grin as he turned towards you who, for obvious reasons, was shivering a bit in nervousness.
"Impressive, isn't it?" he ran his gloved had over the axe, then gestured it over to the many others that lined the walls.
Despite your anxiety, you somehow summoned enough courage to respond with, "Do you want an honest answer?"
Hater's face fell and his green eyes widened in surprise. It was quite the unexpected answer from someone who was about to be tortured. "Uh, what other answer would there be?"
You thought for a moment. "The answer you'd want to hear."
"Well I know what I want to hear, so say it!"
"It's very impressive," you complimented. "Such great taste in weaponry."
"Ok, now I need to hear the honest answer," Hater frowned.
"Alright," you inhaled some dry air. "To be honest, it's not that impressive."
"WHAT?" he dropped the axe in an incredulous manner. Peepers sent a glare towards you that burned right into your soul.
Now in an impish mood you clasped your hands behind your back and said, "Well, you see, as a scientist and one who works in a technological field I was expecting...a bit more from a well-known conqueror."
"Just don't listen to her, sir," Peepers pleaded with Hater who, at the moment, was seething with anger.
You were walking the line between life and death like a tightrope, but once you started you could not stop. The plan completed in your mind was sure to work. One of the qualities that was valued in workers at your current job, SmaartLab, happened to be tenacity. You had a lot of tenacity, that was for sure.
With that being said, you were determined to get the point across that Hater's Torture Room was not the greatest in the galaxy.
"What were you planning on doing with that axe, anyway?" you pointed to the limp weapon on the floor. "Cutting my head off?"
"No! I—"
"Because you have the means to kill me, but it doesn't really make sense when the whole point of all this is to get me to talk."
"Now LISTEN!" Lord Hater stomped his foot. "I wasn't planning on killing you. Obviously this thing wasn't planned on being used for torture methods."
He tossed the axe onto the floor behind him. "This is all for display. Its only purpose is to impress whoever is exposed to all its glory."
"Oh, if that's the case, I'm still not impressed," you tapped your foot, feigning impatience.
"WHAT?!" Hater's gloved hand lit up with green electricity. For a few seconds he tried all he could to control his temper.
Such emotional instability, you reflected.
"Just for clarification, do tell me what's so unimpressive about my Torture Room?" he asked through gritted teeth.
You shrugged. "I don't know...It just seems a little old-fashioned."
"That's what everyone says," Hater muttered, crossing his arms. Shortly after his eyes bugged out of his skull.
"I-I mean, no one said that!" Hater wildly waved his hands. "No one EVER said that! Your opinions are dumb. Only an IDIOT would have opinions like that!"
"I see you speak from experience."
"Sir, don't listen to her!" the commander repeated, desperate.
"RAHHH!" he screamed, completely losing his cool. He grabbed you with one hand and brought you close to his face.
After taking a few rapid breaths, he growled, "Nothing about my Torture Room is old-fashioned. Just for the record, the only thing that's old-fashioned is your lousy opinion!"
"Heh...good one," you complimented as you made efforts to breathe with a skeletal hand "embracing" your ribcage. "But have you ever heard of this...fabulous invention called...a tic tac? Try it...sometime."
"Alright, I see you want to do this the hard way," He proceeded to throw you against the rock-hard floor. "You'll be impressed soon enough, if not shaking in fear."
"Ok, Hater," you clapped your hands, "I'm prepared for you to wow me with your greatest methods of torture."
He narrowed his eyes. "Right. Well, let's get started or whatever."
The skeleton man led you over to the boiling pool of water. "Gaze upon it, in all its glory."
You gazed upon it. "Hm, I feel like I've seen this before. Torturing people like this seems a little overused if you ask me."
Hater pulled you away from the water unceremoniously. "Uh, well, this isn't even the best method of torture I have! This isn't even close to what other terrifying things that will be sure to make you spill the beans!"
"Oh, then great!" you said as Hater pushed you to some unknown location. "I'm prepared to be impressed."
After a few moments, you found yourself gazing upon an electric chair.
"You're kidding right?"
"What?" Hater asked, surprised. "What's wrong with it?"
You shrugged. "It can't get any more cliché than the electric chair."
Lord Hater growled in frustration. "If THAT doesn't impress you, then THIS sure will!"
He showed you his collection of swords.
"This is even more old-fashioned than the axe."
More anger noises followed, then you were shown many different kinds of blasters.
"Seen it. Too many times actually."
This process continued for quite some time, where Hater would try and fail to "impress" you, then getting angrier and angrier every time you came up with an insult for what he showed you.
"Uh, Hater?" you questioned in an innocent tone. "I appreciate the tour of your kitchen, but I'm wondering when I'll get to see that Torture Room you promised to show me?"
He finally lost all control and began to throw a tantrum. Loud screaming could be heard from the Torture Room as if someone was fearing for their life.
"PEEPERS!!"
"Yes, sir?" came the exasperated reply.
"We need to make some upgrades," Hater whipped his head to face you. "Because apparently the Torture Room does not live up to everyone's standards!"
"But sir," the commander started to sweat, "we've been planning an invasion all month! We're under a time constraint and can't afford to buy more things that we already have! Besides, there isn't anything wrong with the Torture Room we have now."
"Yes there is!" Lord Hater protested. "And since it's not how I'd like it to be, some things NEED to be changed!"
"That's not our greatest priority right now, sir!"
"Well, now it is!"
"Well then, if we're going to make upgrades, what are we going to do about the invasion?"
"We aren't doing anything else until the Torture Room is perfect. Do I make myself clear!?"
"Crystal, sir." Peepers slumped his shoulders.
"Good," Hater pointed his finger in your direction. "Now get our prisoner out of my sight!"
"It's (Name), actually," you corrected.
"'Prisoner' sounds better to me," Hater sneered then disappeared in a blast of green lightning.
Leaving you, feeling a strong sense of pride in the fact that your plan worked to perfection, alone with a very unhappy Commander Peepers.
"You've got a lot of nerve, you know that?" Peepers was fuming probably almost as much as Hater was.
"Probably," you agreed, trying all you could to hide your smug smile.
"You're lucky we've made a deal, or else you'd be dead where you stand," Peepers snarled.
"Lucky me, then," you retorted sarcastically.
"Who do you think you are, Organic?"
"(Name), the luckiest (species name) in the galaxy," you responded. "Instead of thinking that, though, I actually know that's my name. You get the idea."
He sighed. "You don't know when to stop, do you?"
"Probably not."
The commander grabbed your arm. "I've only known you for two days and I'm already at my wit's end."
You rolled your eyes with extreme exaggeration of annoyance. "I've known you for the same amount of time and I'm not even a candle anymore."
You almost tripped a few times while walking along with the commander back to your cell. Once again, you were thrown into the dark space of the square room even when you had every capability of using your legs and sitting down.
"Don't look so proud of yourself, that arrogance of yours won't last forever!" he snapped then made sure that your door was secure. "Just wait, we'll get that passcode out of you in due time!"
You snorted. "If you do that, then you'll be the one who's the luckiest in the galaxy."
Frustrated mutterings echoed off the walls and ceiling, gradually getting quieter and quieter until you couldn't hear them anymore, which let you know that the commander was gone.
Sitting in the red-tinted dimness, you allowed yourself a satisfied smirk. Of course the plan you had created came with its own selection of flaws, however you had not expected this to work out how it did. If you kept at it then the two villains would surely become exhausted from your continuous incompetence. Because of this it would make sense for them to give you up after some time, then finding a new approach to bringing evil to the galaxy that did not involve the technologically advanced weapons.
You leaned up against the cell wall as good feelings like hope started to swell in your chest.
This'll be easier than I thought...