Enter The Ninjaverse

CHAPTER 72

"How could you interrupt our duel like that?!" Skales shouted from behind a set of bars.

"I didn't ask them to do that!" Mage shouted back at Skales, "I don't even know who these guys are!"

"Well you should have fought them off then," Skales hissed at him, "Do you know how humiliating this is?!"

A sharp noise rang through both of their cells, followed by the gruff voice of the man that had taken them down, "Hey! Pipe down in there!"

Mage sighed and huffed, putting his back up against the bars to his cell. When he'd woken up, both he and Skales were in strange cuffs that blocked his powers, again. Why was there even something out there that could just block all of his powers like that?! They'd been led out of the hovercar into a large building with various cars flying in and out of holes in the side of it. After 'processing,' the two had been led off to a large room of what almost looked like cubes stacked on top of each other. Mage and Skales had been put into cubes opposite of each other. Aside from a simple toilet and bed, Mage didn't quite have that much in the cell he cared for.

"Someone is on their way to pick you up," The voice spoke up inside of their cells through speakers again, "Just sit tight and we'll get you both sorted out. Until then, I put you both in the nice cells. Don't make me go hard on you kids!"

"We're not kids!" Skales and Mage shouted in unison. After sharing a look, Mage threw his hands up and walked over to the bed, planting himself on it and crossing his arms. Skales just hissed and worked at the cuffs he had on.

Mage took his time to lay down and rest. It wasn't all bad, at least. He was finally able to get some rest from his earlier injuries, and the strange people had even put something on his back that took the burning off. Normally he just froze his injuries until he could get to a healer, but this worked well enough. It didn't feel like it was hurting him. Weighing that against the cuffs, though, was making it harder for him to really see them as purely good people.

"This wouldn't have happened if you hadn't tried to fight us," Skales grumbled at Mage, "This is all your own doing."

"What?" Mage sat up in the bed, "What do you mean? You're the one that attacked us!"

"I mean all of this!" Skales angrily clarified, "...You made the choice to defy the Twins. Any sane man, human or serpentine, would know that is a foolish thing to do. They granted you mercy after your prior mistakes. You should have taken it."

"They nearly destroyed my entire home," Mage frowned, "They spent months doing nothing but invading it! I nearly lost two of my best friends to them and their plans!" Mage shook his head, "How was I supposed to just stand back and just let them win?"

"If you weren't a child, you'd understand," Skales growled, turning his head away, "Some battles aren't worth fighting."

"I do understand," Mage frowned, "I'm not stupid, you know. It's not like I'm out here fighting you because I want to. I'm not trying to fight you. I'm trying to get to the Twins! I want to stop them from doing what they did to my home to others."

"So what, you're in this for revenge?" Skales narrowed his eyes, "What a paltry motivation."

"It's not revenge, it's-" Mage slowly saw Acronix's face flash in his memories, and he slowly inhaled, then exhaled, "It was at first. I... I just wanted to show them that I was sick of feeling like I couldn't do anything to stop them. But it's more than that now," Mage reached his hand up to press to his chest, "Now it's about saving people from what I had to go through. Maybe I really am doing this for revenge... but even that can be done for a good reason. I want to save other people from this. I don't want anyone else to have to go through what I did. You have to understand that, don't you?"