"Now this will be fun," I hear the Shadow Ruler mutter. I slowly open my eyes. Where am I? I see that I'm in a small cage surrounded by electric bars. What?
"Elemental Extractor is fully charged," I hear a different voice tell the Shadow Ruler. I look around. I see I'm in some room in the Shadow Ruler's palace. I see Nick laying in a cage identical to mine. His eyes are open, and they're looking at me. What happened?
"Nick?" I gasp out of my scratching throat. No response. "Where are we?"
"He's not going to respond," the Shadow Ruler tells me, twirling his staff in his hand.
"What did you do to him?" I ask him, sitting up in my cage.
"Oh, I just took away his elemental power. Which happened to be connected to to his soul," he tells me quickly.
"What?!" I shout at him, outraged. "You took away his friggin' soul?!"
"Not purpousfully," he shrugs his pointed shoulders. His soul was just . . . attached."
"Ready," the other voice tells the Shadow Ruler, handing him a huge black gun surging with energy. The other voice is one of the Nine Generals.
"Any last words?" he asks me, pointing the gun at me.
"Before what?" I growl at him, kneeling.
"Mmm. You'll see," he tells me. He pulls the trigger. Everything happens in slow motion. A light blue charge blasts out of the cannon and speeds at me. Uh, oh. What's going to happen? Will I die? Is . . . is anyone coming to save us?
The blast hits me square in the chest. It hurts worse than anything I've ever experienced in my entire life. The pain is . . . taking over my body. But I have no reaction to it. The pain lasts about a minute, and when the beam falls back to the cannon, I slump over, emotionless. A red sphere, the size of a marble drifts out of my chest. It floats to the Shadow Ruler, and he swings a clear glass marble at it capturing it.
This must be what Nick feels. I'm not happy. I'm not sad. I'm not mad or angry about this either. I feel . . . nothing. I can just sit here and do nothing.
"Elemental extraction successful," the General announces, taking back the cannon.
"Perfect. Now. On to Joseph Storm, correct?" The Shadow Ruler asks the General.
"Affirmative. Joseph is the next on the list," the General tells him, checking a tablet type thing.
"Should I retrieve him?" A second voice asks from the back of the room.
"Please do," the Shadow Ruler responds. I close my eyes and hear a door close.
I think I fell asleep after that. I'm not exactly sure. When I open my eyes, I'm laying down on the cage floor. I hear a door open and a General stomp into the room. He's holding Aaron and Joey by the collars of their shirts. They are both knocked out.
"I acquired Aaron Jett while I was at it," he reports, tossing my friends on the floor like rag dolls.
"Pleasant. Charge up the cage," the Shadow Ruler demands, setting his staff up against a control panel.
"Roger that," the first General salutes to him and walks over to the third and fourth cages. He prepares them and tosses the boys on both.
When Joey falls on the cage floor, the electric bars aren't up yet. His arm falls off the slightest bit. Bearly noticeable. When both cages power up and the electric bars raise up to the top, they shock Joey's arm because it's in the way.
"Ahh!" He shrieks, waking with a start. He peers at the burn it left on his arm. "Uh, ow?"
"Hmm. Woke up to early. No matter. We'll just preform the extraction now," the Shadow Ruler says, looking at the first General, as if commanding him to ready the cannon.
"Do what to me?" Joey asks him, genuinely scared. "Where am I?!" Joey shouted. Not even I knew he could get this intense.
"Nowhere important," the Shadow Ruler tells him. The General passes him the cannon and aims it at Joey.
"No. This can't happen," Joey mutters, thinking about what to do. The device make a whirring noise and releases it's bright blue light and it heads for Joey. He's doomed. Joey leaps to his feet. The electric bars open just where the blast will go through. I didn't even notice it when it came for me. Joey, using his quick thinking to jump out the hole, putting his tiny powers to the test.
"Ha, ha, try and catch me now!" He shouts, running around the room.
"Hold still inchworm!" The Shadow Ruler erupts, moving the blast to Joey. It catches Joey in the beam and he freezes. The blast shrinks back into the cannon. Joey stumbles and falls over, soul-less.
