The Misadventure

Chapter 40

Cavet's POV

"I'll be honest, I didn't expect all of you to survive."

Bright, round eyes, dilated from fear and exertion. Stray hairs and wrinkled clothing. Blood and dirt stuck to flesh, and heaving bodies as they sucked for breath. They all fixated on me, disbelieving as they stared.

"Then again, you always were a resourceful team, weren't you?" I whispered, just loud enough for them to hear. Mysteria and Istra were leaning closer to each other, Istra's lips barely moving as she spoke.

"Dream team, to the rescue. It's a shame Bella lost it a little, but I suppose that would be my fault. Apologies." I tipped my head towards Bella, who was the only one on her feet, looking as if she wanted to come closer. Her eyes met mine.

"It's not your fault, Fallout. Cavet. We can figure this all out." She offered softly. I blinked at her.

"Is this when I'm supposed to tell you my evil plan? It's not a diabolical plot, I promise. I have control, that's it. I can shut down the mansion, restart everything so that Maniac and Evil are gone."

Her eyes widened. "People would die. Everyone would die. The mansion has never-" I cut her off.

"Yes, yes, the mansion has never been shut down before, people might die, I'm aware! This is my mess, Bella, this is how I choose to fix it! I'm the only one who will, and I'm the one who should!" I paused, breathing in and out quickly before casting a careful glance to her friends. "Everyone will die anyway. This isn't the right thing. It's also not the wrong thing. It's what needs to be done, don't you see?" I pleaded. Bella shook her head, staring at the floor.

"That's not how-"

"You're insane!" Kate yelled. "You've completely lost it! How could you think this is the, the what? What needs to be done? No!"

"Doesn't need to go down like this, buddy," Disco agreed. "We can figure it out. Dream team style." She offered, slowly getting to her feet. I sighed.

"I appreciate it, but let's be honest," I turned to look behind me, where several machines hummed and flickered as they powered the mansion. The others couldn't see the door behind me, my sword buried in the wood, anchoring it to the frame. "I don't think I was ever part of the dream team, was I?" I turned and stepped away from the glowing rays of the camera that had projected my image to them. Their shouts played through the monitor, but I flipped the screen away from me as I moved past it. The speakers on the back of it now facing me, their desperate words were projected even louder.

"I can see her sword in the door, there's no way we could get in!"

"If we could even find it, that is!"

"Cavet, talk to us! Please!"

"Please!"

I stared at one of the computer screens, watched as the lines of coding scrolled by. My fingers hovered over the keyboard, trembling slightly as they punched out the first few numbers. They lit up red on the screen, some unknown system picking up on the error I was writing in. It flashed and a warning symbol appeared.

The door rattled against its hinges, hard pounding against it shaking the thin wood. I swore and typed out another line, determinedly not looking at the shaking wood.

It stopped, and I slowly turned around. The cries of the others on the monitor silenced.

The door melted away slowly, dark matter eating away at the wood. Maniac glanced through and waved her left hand, grinning as Evil entered behind her. I rested my right hand against the desk, casually leaning against it and tapping my fingers. The stump of my left hand I moved cautiously across the keys, gently nudging down the correct ones.

"Cavet," Evil hissed, at the same time as Maniac happily greeted me, "Cavet!"

"Kind of hard to outsmart yourself, as it turns out," Evil said, waving a hand at Maniac. "Step away from the desk."

I raised my good hand but remained where I was.

"Can't do much, you know. Maniac's the one with the digits." I smirked.

"Step away, Cavet," Evil ordered again. Maniac's sword was hung loosely at her side, where she wasn't even paying attention to it. My sword had disappeared, fallen into the black hole they had left in the doorway.

I stared at Evil, steadily holding her gaze. I took a step away from the desk, and she sniggered. Oh, how the mighty fall.

I spun around, bringing my good hand to the keyboard as I kicked out at the desk behind me, which held the monitor showing the others. It hurtled across the room and plowed into Evil, who cried out with rage.

My fingers flew across the keyboard, completing line after line of coding.

Evil's iron grip on my neck startled me, and I recoiled, trying to elbow her, but she threw me across the room. I scrambled up, forcing past the screaming pain now residing in my shoulder. Evil was staring intently at the computer screen. Maniac and the monitor were behind me, and she waved her fingers at me tauntingly when I took a step towards Evil.

In desperation, I found myself looking at the monitor. Bella was the closest, her face taking up almost the entirety of the screen. I turned back to Evil, then looked at Bella again.

I dove at Evil, grabbing her shirt and yanking her away from the keyboard. She stumbled back but didn't fall, hands clutching at my sleeves and taking me with her. Her arm looped around my neck, but released as I elbowed her in the stomach. She launched forward, fists swinging towards my face, but I ducked and shoved her forward. Her own momentum sent her careening into some of the machines, which toppled over.

She lay there on top of the machines, breathing heavily as she stared at me. A slight trickle of blood was coming from her nose and she breathed heavily. I cocked my head at her.

She leapt suddenly, so suddenly that I barely had time to react. I managed to get a hold on her shirt and tried to drag her down with me, my bad arm swinging out wildly for balance as I stumbled backwards.

Where my feet landed wasn't the floor.

I fell straight through, tottering for only a moment on the edge of the abyss Maniac had created behind me. Then I was weightless, falling, still clinging onto Evil, arms flailing as I tripped backwards into the hole. Evil flew out of my grip and disappeared over the edge of the hole where Maniac was standing. She smiled at me and waved until I could barely see her, and then it was black and I was falling.