Regan sat alone in his cell thinking of Arkei, Straya, and Reverie. He thought of how each of them had taken to him quickly, and considered the reasons why.
It occurred to him that each of them had a relationship with a man who treated them poorly. A man who didn’t appreciate their true talents.
Reverie was imprisoned by the Brute King. Kept on hand so he could do what he wanted with her when he wanted. He didn’t respect the power she held or the good she could do for others. He thought only of himself, and never of the pain he was causing her.
Straya grew up in a cage, escaping only to lead a pirate lifestyle on the run, fearing that her past would catch up with her. Bulkey was just one of the many men who lied to her and held whatever leverage he could over her.
And Arkei, the beautiful Hiveroth who showed Regan new worlds and possibilities, had been used by Mephistopheles. He had drawn out her debt, tricked her into a life of servitude, and never once appreciated the beauty and compassion that she wanted to explore. She was a wonderful creature, yet Mephistopheles exploited her in as many ways as he could.
Regan had shown these women that there was more in this galaxy than servitude and debts. He had shown them that compassion has strength and that victors don’t have to be brutal. He had helped them in ways they didn’t know possible, and in ways Regan didn’t expect.
And now he needed their help.
I need them to bust down these doors and ray gun the hell out of this place.
He knew it would be difficult for Arkei to lead the charge against the one she had known as her master for most of her life, but he believed she ultimately would. He believed that if he could get a message to her telling her that Mephistopheles never intended to release him or Bob, she would attack.
Right then, the cell door opened and Bob entered. His hands were bound and pulled by Calico. She tossed him in the cell and closed the door behind him. She didn’t say a word. Her charm and her conniving comments had ended. She had revealed herself to them, and there was nothing more to gain.
She knew their fate and she wasted no more time playing her games. As far as she was concerned, they’d be on ice soon enough.
And just as she was leaving, Regan saw the small remote hanging from her belt. The remote that triggered his inhibitor cuff to send electrical pulses through him. If only he could grab it, release himself from the cuffs, and put them on her. Maybe a little shock treatment would sort her out…
He shook his head, coming back to reality, and looked at Bob.
“We gotta get out of here,” he said.
Bob slouched. “It’s hopeless. They told me the ship we came in on, the one with our friends, left. We’re all alone on this sad little moon.”
Bob scratched his head and looked around the cell. He caught a glimpse of his text books and shoved them aside. Regan could tell that even though his mind wasn’t fully put together, he understood their situation now.
I think he’s getting better.
“Bob, listen to me,” Regan said. “Arkei wouldn’t have left us.”
“But Calico said—”
“Calico is a liar and a bitch,” Regan interrupted. “She wants us to suffer. I think she gets off on it. But the reality is that she’s afraid of those three women and the abilities they have.”
Regan then stood up and moved over to where Bob was sitting.
“And, I think she’s afraid of us too, which is why we need to work together to get out of here.”
“She doesn’t seem that afraid of us…”
“Bob, I don’t have time to get into it right now, but we are a Class C species. I know that doesn’t mean that much to you, but I’ve learned that other species are weary of our erratic behavior.”
“So you’re saying we can use that to our advantage?” Bob paused. “But I don’t understand how. How are we gonna break out of this cell?”
Regan didn’t have the answer to that question, and he couldn’t lie to Bob about it. He had to be honest with himself, with Bob, and with the situation.
“I don’t know, but we can figure it out,” Regan started. “Look, I haven’t been the best buddy to you. I was willing to hand you over to Mephistopheles, even after I got to know you on the ship.” He reached out his hand, offering a truce of sorts. A partnership. “No more. Neither one of us will stay here. We’re going to put our heads together and get out of here.”
Bob looked at the hand and considered his situation. Finally, he smiled and said, “Pals?”
“Pals.”
They shook hands. Regan then stood back up and looked at the scrap materials outside their cell, the discarded belongings of all those who came before them. Regan knew his stuff would make it to this pile soon enough, unless he did something about it.
But then it occurred to him that many of these items might be functional.
“You think we could rig something up to get a message out to Arkei’s ship?” he asked Bob.
Bob stood up and moved next to Regan, looking over the items.
“For sure, but how can we get to them? We’re locked in this cell.”
Regan thought about it. He didn’t have a key, or anything to pick a lock, so the next best thing would be…
Holy shit. My inhibitor cuffs!
Regan looked at his wrists and started to mess around with the device.
Bob cocked his head. “What are you doing?”
“You think this would go off on its own if I try to remove or destroy it?” Regan asked.
Bob looked at his. He put a finger underneath to feel around. “Let’s see.” He then banged his arm against the wall, only to get thrown back from the shock. It worked!
Bob groaned as he hit the ground. He looked a bit dazed, but the jolt wasn’t administered long enough to knock him out.
Regan ran over to him and slapped him on the face. “Bob, dude, you okay?”
Bob was a bit groggy.
“My name…” he started.
“I know your name, and you just figured out something that can help us big time!”
“The inhibitor cuff electricity…” Bob began, more or less lost in thought.
“Exactly!” Regan exclaimed and moved to the door. He then removed the broken cellphone from his pocket and inspected it.
The phone is broken, but this battery still has juice.
Regan thought if he could wedge the cellphone into the cuff and set it off, that it would cause an explosion from the battery. If he could do it close enough to the door lock, maybe, just maybe, it would break the door open.
Or I might blow off my hand.
Bob seemed to catch on to the plan on his own, and he commented on the dangers of this.
“You’ll blow your hand off!” he shouted.
“Already considered that, but we don’t have time.”
“But wait,” Bob said. “What’s the next step? After you blow your hand off and this door swings open, we need to have a course of action.”
He was right. Regan didn’t know how to get the message to Arkei, and he knew that after the explosion they would be greeted by Calico, and likely even Mephistopheles himself.
“We have to get a message to Arkei,” he said.
They both thought about how to get a hold of her. He peered at the pile of stuff and put his imagination in gear.
Come on, dude. You can build stuff. Put that engineering knowledge to use!
Regan stated, “I’ve got some experience with electronics, but all this technology is foreign to me.
Bob then swiped the cellphone from him.
“Hey—” Regan started.
“You’re the one who’ll have to figure out the method of contact,” Bob said. “And being zapped will only slow you down. Not to mention maybe make it so you can only work single-handedly. So let me do this. Let me be the one to possibly blow my hand off.”
“Bob, no. You—”
“Don’t argue with me, Regan!” Bob shouted. “I’m going to blow the door, and you sta
rt going through that equipment for any kind of communicator!”
Bob moved to the door and looked at the lock, as well as his inhibitor cuff and the cellphone. He was nervous, Regan could tell. And so was Regan. He looked at the way Bob placed his hand against the door, and worried that the hand would soon be a bloody stump.
Bob then did what he had to do.
Regan turned his head to the side, away from where the blast would likely be. Bob too turned his face, keeping it tilted just enough so he could see what he was doing.
“Good luck,” Regan said.
“Good luck to you,” Bob said. “Get us out of here so I can get some space girls of my own.”
Then Bob shoved the cellphone battery into the inhibitor cuff and slammed it against the lock, setting off the electric pulse. The battery took a massive jolt of electricity and exploded.
The cell door swung open.
Both Bob and Regan flew back.
The noise was loud, and it set off an alarm, which Regan had expected. He took a quick look at Bob, who was unconscious on the ground. What had been his hand was now a bloody mess, but Regan couldn’t tell if it was totally gone.
Maybe Reverie can put it back together.
Regan dashed through the open cell door. He looked at the pile of items, and his first instinct was to get something strong. A post or metal bar of some type to hold the outer door closed. He found a long metal bar and wedged it into the door at its base. It would hold the door closed for a while, but he had no doubt that Calico and Mephistopheles had a method of breaking in.
He couldn’t waste time. He started going through all the items in the pile. He found various items that resembled walkie-talkies or communication devices, but when he tried them he got nothing at all, or static.
Then an announcement came through the speakers over the alarm.
“You foolish humans!” the voice of Mephistopheles came through. “I will be there momentarily to kill you both!”
Regan thought of those speakers. He realized there was a sound system that went through the entire complex. If he could somehow tap into that system, he wouldn’t need to communicate with the ship only, he could just boost the volume and have the entire complex call out to Arkei’s ship!
He pried the speaker out of the wall with a wrench he found, exposing the wires.
Just like Arkei’s ship. Just like the movies. Wires everywhere.
He picked up one of the communication devices that he was previously quick to discard, the one with static. He opened up the back of it to expose its wires as well.
Then there was a banging on the door. Calico was trying to break in.
No time!
He traced the wires the best he could, identifying the ones he needed, then he tied the wires together. Seconds later, the static that was coming from the device now came through the complex speakers. He was in!
He brought the device up to this mouth.
The pounding on the door continued louder and more aggressively.
“Arkei! Arkei!” he shouted into the device. His voice carried through the speakers, but he wasn’t sure if it was loud enough. He turned the volume up to the max and shouted as loud as he could. “Arkei, storm the castle! The deal is off! He lied! You’re free to blast his ass to hell!”
The door was then kicked open and Calico was the first to enter. She looked at Regan with furious anger. Her black eyes squinted, and her feline features now made her seem like she was moments away from pouncing on him and ripping his head right off.
And she was about to, when a massive explosion rang throughout the complex. Regan and Calico instantly knew what had just happened.
Arkei blew the doors open!
Calico looked behind her down the hallway.
Regan lifted the device again and shouted, “We’re in the isolation chamber!”
He then dove out of the way as Calico turned and lunged at him. He expected what was coming, so he found a ripped piece of rubber on the ground and wedged it underneath his inhibitor cuff, between the metal and his wrist. When he stood, and she had missed him in her leap, she hissed.
She lifted the remote and pointed it at him.
“You’re done for,” she said. She pressed the button.
Regan felt the vibration of the electrical pulse, but the piece of wedged rubber kept the electricity from passing through. Regan smiled at her.
“You’ll miss me when I break out of here,” Regan said with a smile.
A blast plowed through the door and nailed Calico right in the side. It was a ray gun shot, and it sent Calico into the wall hard, knocking her unconscious.
Straya was the first one through the door, followed by Arkei and Reverie.
Sexy. Bad. Ass. Fucking. Space. Babes.
“I could’ve killed her,” Straya said. “But thought maybe you’d want me to just stun the shit out of the bitch first.”
“Let’s lock her up,” Regan said. “Then let’s find a nice early grave to dump Mephistopheles in.”
Arkei smirked. “Hell yeah.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Arkei rushed over to Regan and gave him a hug, followed by a passionate kiss. She was carrying the battle ax, which she handed to him with both arms outstretched, as if he were a noble warrior.
“I should have never let you walk in here alone,” she said to him.
“You had no choice,” Regan said. “Besides, it doesn’t matter because you’re here now.”
Straya walked toward Calico, inspecting the enemy she previously blasted with the stun gun. She kept the gun outstretched in her hand while she did so, approaching carefully.
Reverie made her way to Bob, who was still unconscious and bloody on the ground. She lifted his wounded arm and rested her hand on his chest.
“He’s hurt bad,” Reverie said to the group. “I have enough energy to heal him, but it won’t be pretty in such a rush. We must be careful going forward, as I won’t be able to heal anyone else during our escape.”
Regan nodded. “Do what you gotta do, because we’re not leaving Bob behind.” He then looked at the rest of the girls. “None of us are staying behind.”
As Straya got close to Calico, the sneaky feline suddenly woke up in a burst of surprise. She leaped from the ground and kicked the ray gun out of Straya’s hand. Her nails turned into claws and she hunched over, taking a cat-like pose to intimidate and prepare for a fight with Straya.
Arkei was at the ready with her own pistol, aiming it at Calico.
Straya smirked and turned to Arkei. “It’s been too long since I’ve enjoyed some hand-to-hand combat. Let me indulge myself while you guys find Mephistopheles.”
She took on a battle stance and they charged each other. Swats, scratches, and punches were thrown in quick succession. Some were avoided, some landed. Calico and Straya were soon arm in arm in a full on attack.
Meanwhile, Reverie quickly wrapped her hands around Bob’s bloody stump. Within moments Bob opened his eyes and jumped up to his feet. His energy was renewed and he lifted his arm to inspect it, which now came to a point at the end. His fingers had been blown away, and much of his palm as well. The healing didn’t regrow his entire hand, only closing the open wound and healing the surrounding skin.
His arm looked like a tentacle of sorts. Like a flipper of human skin.
Bob looked at his new gripper, flexed it back and forth, then looked at Reverie.
“Weird,” he said.
“If only we had more time… I could’ve…” Reverie began.
“I love it,” Bob said. Whether it was the brain damage talking, or something else, nobody could know.
“Let’s hope I don’t have to heal you a third time.”
The two turned toward Regan for instruction, who was gripping his ax, while standing next to Arkei.
“Let’s find him,” Regan said.
Arkei led the way, knowing the place better than anyone else. Reverie and Bob were just behind them, leaving Straya in the cell with
Calico, as the two battled it out. Regan was confident that Straya would kick her ass and looked forward to hearing about it afterwards.
They ran down corridors and through hallways. They finally found their way to the main hall where Regan could see the destruction that Arkei’s ship had wreaked on the entrance. The entire grand hallway was destroyed, and now the large doors that once stood there were splintered and shredded, scattered in fragments all over the ground.
But between them and their ship was Mephistopheles. He stood tall, with a menacing stare and a large sword in his hand.
Arkei halted her sprint, as did Regan, Bob, and Reverie. They all looked at their enemy. Even though it was four to one, Regan assumed that the power behind Mephistopheles’s sword was great and could likely take them all on.
“You betrayed me,” Mephistopheles shouted. His voice boomed and echoed throughout the main hall. He took a single step forward. “You betrayed my trust, after all I’ve done for you.”
“You broke the agreement,” Arkei said. “You’ve been using me for too long.”
Regan could see her fingers itching the handle of her holstered ray gun. It was like a quick-draw western move, and Regan was ready for her to blast Mephistopheles.
“I saved your life,” the master at the end of the hall shouted. “I took you from those barbarians who would have murdered you as a child!”
“Only to make me your slave!” she shouted back.
Mephistopheles started his stride toward them. He raised his sword out in front of him and pointed at them.
“You will die for what you’ve done today. And your friends will never leave. They will join the rest of the species in this museum, tortured and miserable for all of eternity.”
“You won’t lay a finger on my friends… on my family!” And as the words left Arkei’s mouth she drew her ray gun and fired a single shot.
But Mephistopheles was fast. Faster than anything Regan had seen. He swatted the sword with quick precision and deflected the blast. She fired two more times, and he deflected each of them. He shouted at the top of his lungs and charged at the four of them.
He was moving so fast that he seemed to fly. His cape twirled in the wind behind him. It reminded Regan of the way Arkei could move, and he better understood the relationship between them and the training she must have endured. She turned toward Regan, and he knew exactly what she was asking without words.
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