One Legend, Two Destinies
Chapter 4: Welcome to the Colonies
Or . . . . . Escape: Denied
^~^ Earth ^~^
~~ January 4th, AC 195 - 18:00 hours ~~
"Report." J snapped at Mia.
Mia contained the urge to roll her eyes as she turned away from the window overlooking the mysterious boy. Pulling her clipboard up, Mia started the "damage" report, knowing that was exactly what J *really* wanted. "The bones of both legs were broken, shattered at the point of impact. The blow came from behind and broke the growth plates, detaching them completely. All four bones are now three inches shorter, but the bones are set.
"There are eight bruised ribs, three of which have sustained hairline fractures. He is having some difficulty breathing due to the bruising, but he will heal.
"Other than the injuries he has sustained, he is in perfect health. Visual acuity is better than perfect. Hearing is excellent. Reflexes are incredible. I expect a quick recovery."
"Any diseases?"
"None of the preliminaries have registered any diseases, but Dr. Lansing is currently running a blood analysis. Why do you ask?"
"That's confidential. When will he wake for questioning?"
'Interrogation, you mean.' Mia's mind ran rampant. "A week or so. I would recommend he heal to a point where he can breath easily and that drugs won't interfere with his ability to reply."
"Pity. Inform me when the blood tests are complete. I will see the boy when he wakes." J turned about, walking towards his office.
'I fear what J has in store for this young heart.' Mia thought solemnly as she turned back to watching her young charge as he continued to breathe, a slightly pained expression seemingly etched into his features.
~~ January 10th, AC 195 - 04:00 hours ~~
Long, black eyelashes fluttered on lightly bronzed cheeks. Eyelids opened to reveal tired, drug-dazed, chocolate colored eyes. Blinking rapidly, Van tried to rouse himself as he slowly turned his head, attempting to determine his location.
Strange, harsh sounds assaulted his hearing as he slowly slipped back into awareness.
'Where am I?' He asked himself.
A strange pressure, centered on the back of his left hand, entered his point of focus. Van's eyes lazily trailed the winding tube taped to his arm up to a stand with strange red symbols glaring out into the dimly lit room.
'Why does this seem so familiar?' Van's eyes widened as he pondered over the answered.
'ZAIBACH!!' An angry measure colored his fearful thought.
'Has my brother betrayed me?' Hurt cascaded over Van at the thought of such a possibility.
A low, almost inaudible, moan slipped past Van's lips as he sat up at an agonizingly slow rate.
'What did they do to me?'
He gasped as he flexed his left hand, feeling the sharp needle that was imbedded just barely below the skin surface.
Van slowly extracted the needle, a small amount of blood spilling over his hand as he wrapped a strip of his sheet around the small wound.
Van inspected himself thoroughly as he threw off the sheets he had been lying under. He was wearing a strangely designed tunic that left his back bare; strange black cuffs were fastened around his upper arms and legs. Perfectly straight scars ran horizontally around his lower legs. Nothing that would impede his escape caught his eye.
Van threw his legs over the edge of the bed, drawing in a sharp gasp at the sudden tingling feeling caused by the newly restored flow of blood to his legs. 'How long have I been lying here?'
As soon as his legs stopped tingling, Van gingerly lowered himself onto the cold floor. 'What type of stone is this?' Van puzzled over the linoleum flooring for but a second. He pulled himself straight, spying a pair of pants and slippers upon a chair.
He warily passed the window of light and slipped into the pants and slippers, stripping off the strange tunic that did little to keep him warm.
Van crept silently to the door, watching as shadows passed by the uncovered window that looked into the hall. He unconsciously moved to grasp the pink pendant that hung about his neck. Van frowned, his brow furrowing. It was gone.
Anger fully encompassed Van as he contemplated the pain he was going to inflict on anyone who dared try to prevent his escape.
'No. Mercy.' His mind clipped off both words. {1}
Dropping all pretense at being surreptitious, Van threw open the door, practically breaking it off its hinges as it hit the wall behind it. The impact between the door and the wall sent a resounding clatter in both directions.
"Let the fun begin." Van murmured as he started running down the hall, his eyes alight with a demonic gleam.
An alarmed and authoritative bark came from the same direction Van was traveling in. Dropping to the floor, Van whipped out his leg, tripping the approaching man. Growling, Van flipped the man over, silently noting that his hair was styled much like Folken's. Forcing the man's neck further back than comfortable and pressing his arm down on his sternum, Van ground out, "Who. Are. You. And. Where. Are. We?"
The man's eyes lit with something akin to confusion and fear, but was soon replaced with a rebellious glint. Without any warning, he grabbed hold of Van and flipped him over his head.
Van grunted as his back slammed into the floor, his head swimming with stars.
His sparring companion gasped for breath. He muttered something in a tongue Van failed to recognize but, nonetheless, the tone made it clear that whatever the stranger muttered, it was an explicative.
"Shit!" Obi wheezed. 'Where did this guy *come* from?'
Obi closed his eyes. 'Okay. Just calm down. Breathe one. . two. . three. Out one. . two. . three.
'God! That hurt! Alright, concentrate on *just* reducing the number of breaths, not on deepening them.' He berated himself.
He gasped in surprise, concentration shattered, as he was hefted to his feet. He opened his eyes to view angry brown orbs, before he was slammed into the wall.
Obi threw his arms forward to prevent himself from slamming into the floor. 'How did he recover so fast?! I don't think I can take him on by myself for very long. Man! I hadn't even heard him *move*!'
Obi barely dodged the fist that was aimed to slam straight at his head.
He cartwheeled to the center of the hall, hitting the approaching stranger in the jaw. The young man growled and descended upon the taller man. A foot came flying towards Obi’s solar plexus. Obi caught the flying foot seconds before impact, twisting it, causing his opponent to flip over and slam face first into the floor.
‘Now’s my chance.’ Obi vaulted over the fallen body and sprinted down the corridor. He hurriedly flipped the alarms, sound blaring from speakers about the base.
A sharp sting came from his neck and his world faded to black.
Van panted as he stood over the Folken-lookalike. ‘That doesn’t sound good. Now everyone knows I’m up. Gotta hurry.’
"Where’s that alarm coming from?" Mia screamed. Lab technicians ran about the room, trying to determine the emergency.
"We don’t know ma’am. It seems that it was set off in the southeast corridor."
"What?!" Mia gasped in alarm. "The only person in that corridor besides security is an unconscious patient."
"Apparently not." Kell walked up to Mia. "The video camera picked up movement inside his room."
Mia stared at Kell, shocked. "But all the monitors signal that he is still unconscious." She scrambled to a monitor, bringing up the mysterious boy’s vital signs.
"Respiratory activity has increased in the past ten minutes. Brain wave activity has just registered pain. I doubt he is still sleeping." Kell replied.
Mia refused to accept Kell’s explanation. "Show me proof. He could be having a nightmare." She stubbornly refused to accept the data as evidence.
Kell called up security footage from outside the boy’s room.
//The door slammed open. A crazed light illuminated deep brown eyes. Running footsteps echo down the hall. The boy ran towards the approaching footsteps.//
Camera changes.
//The boy trips Obi and immediately springs at his throat. He spoke in a strange dialect. Obi retaliates and the match ensues. Eventually Obi fell the boy and ran off to trip the alarm. The boy, almost immediately, launched to his feet. He pursued Obi, disabling him scant seconds after the alarm was activated. He continued running down the hall.//
"How?" Mia whispered to herself.
"I don’t know, Mia. If I did, I would willingly volunteer the information." Kell smiled weakly.
Suddenly the door slammed open. "What’s going on here?" Dr. J barked.
"The boy has awoken, sir." A lab tech replied.
"That doesn’t explain the alarms, you nincompoop!" Dr. J raged.
"Yes it does." Mia responded quietly. "He just took out one of our esteemed guards."
"Who?" Dr. J glowered.
"Obi Khan." Kell answered for Mia.
"Obviously not a normal civilian." Dr. J spoke with awe and delight, his eyes staring off into nowhere. "Get him back. Whatever it takes. I want to see my new soldier." Unaware of the information that he had just leaked, J turned around and walked straight back to his rooms.
Kell and Mia looked worriedly towards each other before they were jolted back to reality by a lab tech. "Sir? Ma’am?"
"Yes?" Mia answered.
"Are you going to give the order?"
"Order? . . . Oh! Yes. Dispatch the guards at once!" Kell replied.
The techs scrambled about to issue orders over the radio and lock out certain rooms.
Mia approached Kell. "We cannot let J have this information. We need to erase the boy’s data."
Kell nodded immediately, understanding why Mia had told him to remove certain discoveries that Kell had made while doing the boy’s blood analysis. "God. I hope he can survive this."
Shin "Maul" Zen stood at alert by the exit to the compound. ‘What the hell?’ Alarms were sounding all around him. ‘This had better not be one of those unscheduled drills!’
//All units. A young man is loose in the compound. He is considered extremely dangerous. Be advised. Capture him at any cost. Do not kill. I repeat. Do not kill.//
"Young man? Who are they kidding? Sounds like someone employed a loony." Maul muttered to himself.
The twenty-five year old didn’t have a chance to react as a flying chair slammed his head against the wall.
Van flung the door open after knocking out the muscle-bound grotesque. He slowed as he exited. ‘The pain. It’s too much. But. . . can’t. . . stop. . .must. . .’ Van’s thoughts trailed off as he slipped into unconsciousness.
Click to join twin_swords