A Daring Mission

Chapter VIII

QUAVANDO

Music: Purple Coins from Super Mario Galaxy

After I burned down the window, we were disappointed to find that the window led to a (thankfully unoccupied) room.

"I burned a lock open for nothing?" I whined, changing back into my human form.

Ariana sighed, and I could hear her mutter under her breath, "What a waste of time." Then she used her mind to repair the window, and told us, "Let's look for another exit. Preferably a door." She glared at me in that last sentence.

For a while, we explored the hallway and found absolutely nothing in terms of an exit. We did find some guards, who I was able to scare away by turning into a dragon. When they left, I noticed one of them drop a piece of paper.

"What's that?" Abbey asked as I bent down to pick it up.

"It's... it's a map," I said, glancing over the map.

"Are there any exits pointed out in there?" Isabelle asked.

Ariana joined me in looking it over, and she nodded. "Yep. There's one inside the library."

"Well, we don't have a moment to lose! Let's go!" Joseph said, and we began walking in the direction of the library, using the map to our advantage.

MEANWHILE...

---

Golgaku was becoming more and more nervous. He had a bad feeling about imprisoning the Powerful Kids, as he knew what they were capable of. Eventually, he asked his lieutenant to check the cameras.

When he came back, the lieutenant said, "Sir... there's nobody in the room."

"What!?"

Golgaku followed the lieutenant to the monitor room, and they looked at the camera showing the room Golgaku imprisoned the kids in. Only problem was, there were no kids in there. Just emptiness. They then checked the other cameras, and sure enough, there was video footage of the kids traversing the hallways.

"I should've known," Golgaku groaned, putting his head in his arms.

"Should we send Luke after them again?" the lieutenant asked. Golgaku thought for a second, and then shook his head no.

"They're gonna try to escape? I'll give them a bit of a surprise, then..."

SHANNA

Music: Departure Again from Gradius ReBirth

Heath, Sean, Sam, Elle, and I were now searching through the hallways once more, with Heath holding the book (Sam couldn't be trusted to not lose it). At one point, I asked what our game plan was from here.

Sam shrugged. "Not sure. Probably try to unhypnotize Luke and then escape?"

"Sounds simple enough," Heath shrugged.

"Well, first, I say we should find the others. Hopefully by now they've found a way out," I suggested.

"Good idea. I'll try and hunt them down," Sam said.

It wasn't more than a couple of minutes until we found them again. Sam asked them if they had found an escape point, to which Ariana replied, "That's where we were heading."

"Great! And we have the resources needed to dehypnotize Luke!" Elle exclaimed. "This might just be that easy!"

"Don't get too overconfident," Joseph said.

And he definitely had a point, because right after he said that, holes began opening up in the walls, and cannons slowly advanced out. "Crap..." Heath muttered.

"EVERYONE, GET DOWN!" Sam ordered. We all did so, and as soon as we did, bullets and lasers began flying across the hallway in various patterns. Joseph created a shield around us and was able to allow us to escape the ambush of firepower.

"I want to stay behind to see how much they had in store for us," Sean said after we reached the end of the hallway. Sure enough, the lasers began firing in more complicated patterns, and soon, missiles came shooting out of the walls.

We watched in silence for a few seconds, and then I heard footsteps. "Guys! Someone's coming!" I hissed. There just so happened to be a storage room nearby, which the 10 of us crowded into.

As we heard the footsteps get closer, Sam creaked the door open just a tiny bit to see who it was.

It was Luke.

ISABELLE

Music: Killer Love from Nemesis 2 MSX

As soon as we saw that it was Luke, Sam locked Luke in a tractor beam, and then Heath ran out and held him in an armlock. Luke escaped a few seconds later, yelling, "PRISON BREAK! PRISON BREAK!"

"Stop him! Don't let him get away!" Sam hissed.

Right then, Sean, Heath, and Quavando managed to tackle him, pinning him to the ground and keeping him silent.

"We'll explain everything to you later," I told him firmly. "But for your sake, come with us. And be quiet."

"You will let me go at once-" Luke started to say, and then all anger drained from his face, and he appeared to be in awe. We followed his eyes, and he appeared to be staring right at... Shanna.

"Ooh! Someone likes you!" Elle giggled.

"Elle, shut up," Shanna fired back. Then she turned to Luke. "And you, snap out of it."

"Your beauty... it's astonishing. I-I've never seen anything quite like it," Luke said, getting down on his knees in front of Shanna. He took her hand and asked, "May I please ask for your forgiveness?"

"Okay, this just got 10 times creepier," Sam muttered.

"Don't worry. If I have to knock this bastard out for hitting on my sister, I will," Sean growled, clenching his fists.

I saw guards were coming and opened the door to let everyone else back inside. After shutting the door, Luke asked, "What do you imbeciles plan on doing to me?"

"Hopefully not killing you," Quavando laughed.

Sam picked up the hypnosis book and began reading. "It says here that we need to get him into the trance state, and then tell him that he's now normal. Sounds simple enough." Then he put down the book and asked, "Anybody happen to have a hypnosis ring on them?"

Nobody answered, or at least, nobody answered positively. "Um, one of those guys we encountered earlier probably still has it," Elle said.

"Figures," Heath muttered. "We need to go back and get it."

"What are you talking about?" Luke demanded.

"Luke, shut up. And there's no time," Ariana said. "We have to get out of here, with or without Luke."

"Screw this, we'll figure it out later," Sam muttered. He threw his hands at Luke and gave him a spell to make him fall asleep. "There. Now we can escape with him, and with ease."