Team Z.I.T

Chapter 9 - |Canary in chains|

Arriving back at the laboratory is something I fear but we are here now and I can't swim so there is only one place to go, and that is in. My heart longs to be back aboard the boat heading home but it was me and Zed's idea in the first place and it's for a good cause.
Well there really is no turning back now I mean we are inside and we're splitting up. Which is never a good idea. But I guess it kinda makes sense it means we are covering more ground. Zedaph traveled a straight path from the entrance. Impulse went leftward as I dragged my feet down the hall to the right of the door. This place was terrifying. The white blank walls caused me pain to look at.
That sound it's so nice and sweet like a bird song to follow. That's where all go towards that sound afterall it either leads me to something or leads me out. Both would be nice right now finding someone is what I am here for afterall and a way out would also be nice. Following the sweet sound makes traveling through this terrible place so much easier.
The farther I travel the closer it seems I get to it yet there's practically no rooms down this hall. There's practically nothing in this hallway at all; it's even more barren than the rest of the labyrinth of a laboratory I am traversing. I am almost at the end of the hall and it's starting to feel like a trap but that sweet song feels real. There it is a single door with no window that's where the sound is coming from. I reach for the handle of the door pushing it open slowly to not startle whoever was making the song.
The song stopped almost as soon as I opened the door a crack. The melody is replaced with pleads and begs not unlike the ones I had once made. Was this how Impulse felt when he saved me? Just the sounds of their voice breaking with tears hurts. I see them now looking into the room in a cage. A cage. They are chained in a cage. Who in their right mind chain's someone like this. It looks so painful.

"Hey I'm not gonna hurt you," I try to say as calmly as I can "I'm gonna get you out of there."

Their pleas continued as if they couldn't hear me. I reach my hands out to open the cage pulling open a simple latch that they probably could have opened if they weren't chained the way they are. Gosh this cage is rusty. The sound of it opening seems to get him to go silent with fear. I can hear the beat of his heart as I do the only thing I can think of: Melting the chains. The chains are made of a simple metal that my blaze fire could burn through.
The squeak he made when I started to heat up the chains was painful to hear. Slowly one by one each of the chains that had been holding him in I had melted away to the cage floor or as much of them as I could without hurting him. Only one of the chains I had yet to melt for fear I may burn him, the one holding his neck in place. I had to do it if I wanted to help them out of the cage.

"Ok one more to go, Alright," I say to reassure them but mostly to reassure myself.

I take in a deep breath a grasp the final chain and start to melt it. Holding the Avian as close to me as I could as to not harm him as the melted metal of the chain hit the cage floor nearly avoiding their wings. Though most of the chain remained attached to the collar around his neck he was no longer stuck within the cage. I picked him up as carefully as I could and made a run for it back towards the place we had entered. Impulse was already waiting for us there with a taller boy with dark hair and light blue eyes, pointed ears and hands that faded to a dark color like his hair. I was still holding the canary when I saw Zedaph running down the hall at a breakneck speed holding a shorter draconic kid on his back. As soon as we saw him we bolted out as well running back to the boat we had first arrived in.

me and the taller boy got in the boat first before Impulse pushed it into the water as soon as it touched the water The others not including Impulse got in the boat. From what I could see Impulse panicked as he pushed us as fast as he could making sure they wouldn't catch us again. It couldn't have taken more than a day for us to get to the house safely. Which I know put a strain on Impulse for the first time he traveled that distance he took at least two days. Arriving at the house went well enough aside from Impulse almost passing out on the shore once he had beached the boat with us in it.

looking at Impulse laying on the beach soaked knowing I had to bring him inside I knew I could get hurt but it would be worth it to get him inside. "Ok one of you guys help me bring him inside." I tried to say calmly but it probably sounded more awkward and nervous than anything.
"I'll grab his legs. Can you lift his arms?" Replied the Taller boy named skizz. Jimmy the canary boy and Zedaph both tried to help us bring him in. The smallest of them, the dragon boy, didn't understand what was going on as he didn't speak the same language as us but he put his hands up towards Impulse as we carried him inside.

After we sat Impy on the couch Zed went to go find to help everyone get settled. Jimmy latched onto me as I went to go find something safer than my flames to remove the rest of the metal chains on his limbs. Skizz stayed in the living room to help keep Grian, the small dragon hybrid entertained. After searching for a while I had found something that could help Jimmy. Not that it made it less scary for either of us. I had found a sharp blade in a backroom in the house. Before I even thought of bringing that near Jimmy I wanted to test it and make sure I could use it safely. I melted some more of the chain still on Jimmy to test so as not to harm him. Jimmy sat next to me in the backyard so he could, as he said, "prepare himself for cutting the metal away from his body." Sitting in the backyard for at least a couple hours cutting and melting the metal back together only to cut it once more I was getting more comfortable with the tool. I turned the rotating blade off and picked it up along with a now sleeping Jimmy.

Impulse was now awake and eating food at the table with Skizz who was wearing some of presumably Zedaph's parents clothes Just like me and Impulse. But the smaller Grian was wearing some clothes from within Zed's own wardrobe. After Laying Jimmy down on the bed I was Using upstairs as we only had 3 bedrooms in the house. I went back down to eat with everyone else making sure to put some away for Jimmy when he woke up. After eating dinner and saying goodnight I went to lay down in the room upstairs. I made sure not to disturb Jimmy from his sleep so I pulled a pillow from the other side of the bed and a blanket from Zed I curled up on the floor.

If I woke up with a canary feather or two next me and a canary hybrid laying next to me I didn't mention it.