A Series of Yogsfortunate Events.

Chapter 10: Friendly Faces in Darker Places.

Chapter 10: Friendly Faces in Darker Places.

It took a while for The Bandage's eyes to adjust to the limited light of the cavern as the captured gunship settled down. After a short trip and a series of fancy manoeuvres over and around some desert hillocks, they descended downwards and landed in an almost pitch-black hole by the edge of the Arena. Disembarking, the first thing B remarked on was the shape of the cavern.
"It looks like someone just dug straight down and then made a cave" he said out loud.
The squat figure pulled down his hood -revealing a large red beard, friendly plump face and a Viking-style helmet- and clapped B on the back.
"Well you know what they say about Dwarfs and digging!" he replied with a deep booming voice, smiling through his ginger mane. Hoisting his axe across his wide shoulder-blades, he walked down the stairs to the entrance, bellowing "We're home!".

B made to make a witty comment about digging too deep, but before he could form the first word the female figure slammed a battered leather suitcase into his chest to carry. "Don't. Just don't. It will only cause pain and regret." she advised, pulling off her brown robes and causing The Bandage's heart to pick up the pace a bit as her took her figure in.

Long blonde hair was released from a tight bun, that cascaded down onto a dark-green jumpsuit and arrow quiver. The woman was clearly muscled and a rigorous trainer, seeing as se was a equipped with a collapsible bow and a pair of curvy, slender combat knives attached to her belt. On her feet she wore dirty brown boots caked with mud, and on her slender neck she wore a simple, almost alien locket that seemed to pulse with electric energy. As B was inspecting, the woman raised an eyebrow.

"Are you quite finished?" she said, her earlier hostility still present, but temporarily replaced with a sort of casual humour at the probing eyes of The Bandage. The Bandage looked up, and shrugged sheepishly. The woman strutted off after the dwarf, only to be replaced by the Admiral and some sort of pilot or engineer in a blue and white jumpsuit, wearing a black leather biker jacket over it.

"Bandage, may I present Lieutenant Christopher Lovasz, my personal pilot and quartermaster" Lew-Xephos said, motioning to the pilot with a hand. "A pleasure to meet you, sir. I'm damn glad the Admiral knows how to pick 'em", Lovasz said, saluting and smiling with barely-contained relief. "We're going to need all the help we can get..." he murmured as he grasped The Bandage's hand, earning a glare from Lew-Xephos.

After the pleasantries and hand-shakes, the three men went down the stairs and passed through the steel door to the caves after the woman and dwarf, only for Bandage to be greeted by an almost impossible sight:

A massive, multi-layered cavern opened up before the small party, with numerous, giant, golden glowing crystals dotting the rooftop, wall and floor levels of the complex, numerous little tunnels were dug into the sides of the cave, presumably leading off to smaller bedrooms or escape routes. But, as amazing as the sight of the structure was, that was not the only object of B's shock.

The cavern was almost swarming with children.

Alien children, human children, minuscule robot children. Some older teenagers, others little more than toddlers. Some played games, others (mainly the teenagers) were mining the yellow crystals, cooking, stock-checking, repairing or simply chasing after the younger kids, trying to keep them out of trouble. When B looked up, he was pretty sure he could see some teenage couples kissing on the highest cavern level, but he didn't dwell on THAT, obviously.

"What?..." he started, but was cut off by Chris.
"The kids are under our protection. They suffered a similar fate to you, being dragged into the Arena for no apparent reason. Some of them are royalty, others the offspring of powerful alien businessmen, but most are just kids of no evident importance. We saw the wanted posters on Blackmail records" Chris explained as they walked alongside Lew-Xephos.
"We formed our little group by being diplomatic before opening fire like most contestants do. Unfortunately we can't offer them anything, so everyone here is a volunteer from the goodness of their hearts, I suppose. I try not to ask" the Admiral said, as he waved at and went to greet a group of happy approaching minors.