Complications

The Mission

"Why not?"
"Because, the chair was built around me."
The Professor gulped.
"How?"
Clessa told the gang the whole story of how he got there, and what happened to the room.
"Cool." Breathed Cher.
"Weird." Breathed Emily.
Nikki rolled her eyes.
The Professor walked up to Clessa and examined the thorns.
"I think I could get them out."
The Professor grabbed a weird looking device out of his pocket and cut Clessa free.
"There."
Clessa stood up and twirled around in her dress.
"You can take the dress off, yah?"
"Well, it is morphed too." Said Clessa.
"Really?"
"No, but I LOVE it."
Clessa twirled again.
"SUBJECTS!"
Groups of shadows appeared in the room.
"Yes...miss?"
"Can you get this dress off?"
"No....misssssss."
"Might I ask....how....are....you....out...of....the....chair?"
"Umm.... I told it too?"
"Alright...misssss."
The shadows left.
"Back to the Machine." Clessa bobbed down the steps.
Shadows appeared again.
"You will stay, my queen."
The shadows grabbed Clessa's arms.
"Run, run as fast as you can and don't look back." She whispered to the quartet.
"I'm not leaving you."
"Subjects, teleport them to the Machine."
The shadows teleported them. Clessa was left with a tear stricken face.
"My ...queen....you...must....be................restrained."
"Restrained?" Asked Clessa through sobs.
"Yessssss."
The shadows teleported, bringing Clessa with them.
----------------
"NO!" Screamed the Professor.
He tried to reverse the link, nothing worked.
"They cut us off."
The Machine was silent.
"Where are Xander and Tobias?" Asked Emily.
-------------
The next thing Clessa remembered was waking up in a dusty cell. She was on the floor, and the only light streaming in was from the window.
Her dress was dusty.
"Hello?" Called Clessa as she stood up.
"Yes....miss?"
"I command you to let me out."
"That command cannot be fulfilled."
The shadow disappeared.
"Come back right now!"
Clessa coughed. She decided to pull her brown hair out of the up do, revealing some light curls. She looked at the barred window, and place the tiara through one of the cracks.
"Hello?" She called.
A shadow appeared.
"Yessss......misssss?"
"Can I have some food? Water?"
"Yessss.....misssss."
The shadow teleported in bread and water.
"What is this? It's not 12b.c anymore."
"We....shadowsss.....don't.....eat.....so........food...issss......hard.....to....get."
The shadow disappeared.
We are trapped.
I know.
Come on! Get us out.
I can't.
Then you'll suffer the consequences.
Clessa felt another sharp pain in the back of her head. Then, she started having another seizure.
"Help me." Was all Clessa managed to say before she tumbled to the dusty concrete floor.
--------------------
"I'll go look." Said Nikki.
The Professor, who wasn't paying attention to much accept for his daughter, waved her off.
"Okay, I think I can track her energy source and get a clear view of where she is. I won't be able to know for one hundred percent where though."
The two girls remaining nodded.
"Okay. She is still in the castle. But, the lowest level....the dungeon."
"But, she's the queen." Said Cher.
"Oh yes. They need to keep her contained for some reason. I'm getting old.....think think think think!"
------------------
Nikki wandered down some halls, and called for the two boys.
"Tobias? Xander?"
She heard no response. Nikki decided to start looking in rooms, so she turned into one.
With a glance, she saw Xander backed into a corner, at gunpoint from Tobias. Xander acknowledged Nikki was there by waving his hand that was lying at his side ever so slightly.
"Now, Xander, I need you to lead me to wherever they are keeping Clessa. Can you do that for me?"
Nikki started tiptoeing around the back edge of the room.
"Yes, I think so."
"Good."
Tobias put the gun in his back pocket, and then covered it with his shirt.
Nikki was almost to the two, when she stumbled over a stool. Tobias shot around, and saw Nikki.
"Well well well. Look what we have here."
Tobias, who was turned around, didn't notice when Xander pulled the gun out of his pocket.
"Alright. You listen to us now."
Nikki pulled out her phone, and called for someone to come and get Tobias.
"I'll tell you one thing Xander Lee. Darkness is coming. You won't be able to stop it. Have fun dying."
And with that last remark, the authorities came.
"Delete." They said, and shot Tobias, turning him into dust.
----------------
Clessa was squirming on the ground. Every inch of her body hurt. Clessa felt her brain drowning in the pain, and she couldn't do anything to stop it.
About three minutes later, Clessa snapped out of the seizure. She had a raging headache.
"Ow." Clessa said, rubbing her forehead.
She sipped some water and stood up.
"Subjects?"
Multiple shadows appeared.
"I order you to unlock this door."
"We can't do that...misssss."
"Why not?"
"You are part.....of....the....greater plan."
"What plan? I never authorized a plan."
"Yesss....misssss..."
The shadows disappeared, leaving Clessa alone.
"Come back! I command you!"
No one came.
----------------
Nikki and Xander rushed back into the control room.
"We shouldn't have trusted Tobias." Said Xander.
"He was going to force Xander to show him where Clessa was."
"And he almost killed me!"
"Self centered much?" Mumbled Nikki.
The Professor processed what he had just been told.
"Where is he now?" Asked the Professor slowly.
"He's taken care of."
The Professor nodded.
"Alright, well, I almost have Clessa located to the exact coordinate. But, that will take at least one more day."
"But, that would leave Clessa with only four days of her life. She'll spend one eighth of he remaining life in jail."
"I know, and it's heartbreaking for me too, but what else could I do? I mean, I have nothing without her, and you don't think I am not trying everything I can?"
"Sorry."
The Professor shrugged and walked back to his glowing computer. It said estimated wait time-23 hours and 14 minutes.
The Professor, feeling frustrated, kicked his control panel.
"Why is the most advanced technology never good enough?" He questioned.
----------------
Clessa walked towards the window, and stood on her bed to see out of it.
It was truly amazing. Stretches and stretches of green grass. Then, she looked up and saw shadows. Millions upon millions of them.
"It's not just a few leaking through. Millions." Laughed Clessa.
"I'm going mad."
She kept looking at the beautiful green glass, and longed to feel it between her toes. The cell made her feel confined, and dull.
"This dress is killing me." Said Clessa.
She tugged on the dress, an uncomfortably sat down on her bed. Clessa scanned the room for any details that she may have missed. Rusty bars closing her in, brick walls, a small window, and concrete floors.
"No way out." She said.
Clessa walked over to the bars, and gripped them.
"Ow!" She exclaimed. The bars burnt her hands.
----------------
The Professor sat down in a chair, and put his hands over his face in frustration.
"We might as well do something!" Said Cher.
"Fine. What?" Said the Professor.
"We could....go...to....the....eighteenth century France?" Suggested Emily.
"Nah. How about we go....two thousand years into the future?"
That remark earned a few jaw drops.
"Sure!"
The Professor smiled, and sent the five off.
------------------
Clessa decided to eat, even though she didn't want to eat. She wanted nothing. Nothing.
-------------
The Professor stopped the Machine.
"Here we are! I found a wandering space ship two thousand years in the future. Lets explore."
The Professor tried his hardest to appear happy, and he knew it was working.
The five stepped out of the Machine. They were in a room that looked like a recording room. A robotic voice appeared from the distance.
"Welcome to the Gateway Games."