Chapter 13 - Escape

↤Chapter 12 - Captain Goes Down With his Ship

Svari was fascinated; he watched Ukedideka carefully, thinking of the black-clad woman who had appeared in his home on Nova Prime to tell him that his contract had been accepted before they vanished into the night. From what he could see now, he couldn’t lie that he was a little disappointed in Imagination and its people. This was only the second Poltergeist he’d ever seen in person, but he was growing tiresome of their mysterious nature.

The Poltergeist was slumped in the corner of his cell, the only movement Svari could see was the slight rising and falling of his chest as he inhaled and exhaled. There weren’t any restraints on the man, but he looked so defeated with the band around his ankle. Achromatopia had explained that the anklet was laced with malachite so that he couldn’t just walk out of his cell.

“He looks ill, what have you done to make him like this?” Svari asked, his eyes locked with sadistic fascination on the prone Abstract. “You haven’t broken him, have you?”

“Not exactly broken him.” Achro replied, fiddling with the sword that had been reclaimed from the Poltergeist before them, “Ukedideka, as he says he is named, is currently suffering the withdrawal symptoms of amphetamine.”

“You’re a fool Achromatopia! You drugged him so recklessly?” Svari turned to face the psychopathic scientist, “You could have overdosed and killed him!”

“Svari, my good Noble friend, I think you are forgetting that I am more than capable of dosage calculations.” Achro replied, placing the cylinder of metal on the desk in front of him. “Now if you wouldn’t mind keeping your criticism of my work to yourself and find some way of making yourself useful.”

“Alright, but you’ll do as I say for the foreseeable future.” Svari commanded Achro, earning a small shrug from the other Novan man. “And you are still a fool.”

Svari walked over to the window and held the button down next to it, “Ukedideka?” He asked clearly, knowing that the Abstract wasn’t in a fit state at all.

There was a small response from the man that was slumped in the corner, Svari watched as one of his eyes slowly opened and focused on where the two-way mirror was. The Noble felt a wave of uncertainty wash over him as their eyes met, Ukedideka shouldn’t be able to see Svari at all through the mirror.

“Alright now I have your attention, I have a proposition for you, Poltergeist.” Svari began before being interrupted by something terrifying. In the time Svari had said the word ‘Poltergeist,’ Ukedideka had risen from his slumped position and made it to the mirror, where he was now leaning heavily. Svari could see every single one of his sharp teeth as the Abstract smiled dangerously, his eyes locked with the Noble’s. Svari leant back a little, unnerved a bit by Ukedideka’s sigil, the black rings obliterating the pupil and iris that would have usually decorated his eye.

“What would it be that you want, Novan man?” Ukedideka breathed, his eyes unfocused and his one functional pupil constricted to a pinprick.

“I want to know something about Imagination, Ukedideka.” Svari answered, “Nothing too hard, don’t worry.”

“And what is it that you want to know?” The Abstract purred, placing his other trembling hand on the glass.

“I want to know who we can kill in order to remove the Abstract government.” Svari stated, rather to the point considering Ukedideka’s current mental state.

“Ooh that’s a good question…” Ukedideka began, before pausing and pressing his nose against the glass to mumble quietly. “You’re not a nice man, are you, Novan man?”

Svari smiled, “I can be a nice man, if you tell me what I want to know I can be a very nice man.” He replied to the Poltergeist.

“What if I want to keep my s-e-c-r-e-t-s?” Ukedideka purred quietly in a singsong voice, pulling his face away from the glass and walking to the other wall, a shaking hand clasped over the back of his head.

“Then I might not be much of a nice man, Poltergeist.” Svari replied, “I would like to be a nice man though, maybe I could even be your friend?”

“Friend?” Ukedideka turned around and tilted his head like an inquisitive bird, “Why ever would I want to be a friend of a Novan man?”

Svari paused, trying to think of a way he could bring Ukedideka back into a better state of mind. The remnants of amphetamine running around his system were still playing with his emotions and Svari knew that he was going to be volatile.

“Svari? May I say that we can eliminate the symptoms of his addiction quite easily.” Achro said, “Although I don’t particularly want to, he’s certainly amusing when like this.”

Svari turned away from the window for a second, glancing at the other Novan to mutter “I will keep it in mind Achromatopia, now let me negotiate with this creature.”

Turning back to face the window, he jumped high, a cry of surprise leaping out of his throat. Ukedideka had pressed himself close to the one-way mirror, a terrifyingly neutral expression on his face. It took Svari little time to compose himself and get back to talking with the Abstract.

“We can offer you some alleviation from your pain.” Svari told Ukedideka, “And some degree of freedom from this box you’ve been so unfairly placed in.”

Ukedideka didn’t reply, just staring blankly through the window as if he had spotted something interesting off in the distance that only he could see. Svari raised his eyebrow and repeated his offer to the Abstract, receiving no answer from the ashen-white man.

“Achro, I think he’s passed out.” Svari said, “We can’t get anything from an unconscious man.”

“Someone get in there and wake him up. Be careful though.” Achro shouted over his shoulder at one of the Novan security guards in the room with them.

The guard nodded and made their silent way out of the room. A few moments later the door in the side of Ukedideka’s cell opened and the guard entered the room with the Poltergeist. Leaving the door open was a mistake they’d learn to regret as the guard shook Ukedideka’s shoulder gently in an effort to make the Abstract react.

And react he did. Ukedideka spun and slammed his fist, far harder than he looked like he was able to, into the unfortunate guard’s stomach. Svari watched with shock and awe as Ukedideka smashed the faceplate of the guard on his knee and wrenched the gasping guard’s weapon from their hands. The baton wasn’t a sword, but it worked well enough to incapacitate the guard.

Ukedideka wrenched the helmet from the guard’s head and struck them once, twice with the baton. The struggling stopped after the second strike and Ukedideka rolled the baton around the back of his hand before making for the door, interrupted by the speakers in the room crackling into life again and letting Achromatopia speak through them again.

“I wouldn’t recommend going that way, Ukedideka.” Achro warned the Poltergeist with a careful and level tone in his gravelly voice, “There are men out there with guns who would be more than happy to end your pitiful existence.”

Ukedideka of course, didn’t listen and continued walking out and through the door, his first breath of freedom in at least five weeks… it was refreshing even if he did have to probably murder someone for it – they started it.

The Poltergeist continued down the white panelled corridor, tapping his newly acquired baton against the wall every few paces, he knew that he’d not get out of here unless he could get the anklet from around his leg. This didn’t dissuade him, that new Novan man, the one who’d promised him freedom from this pain and freedom from this place in return for… whatever it was he’d wanted to know… he sounded promising.

Ukedideka didn’t exactly feel like working on priorities right now, he was looking for trousers, maybe something to cover his chest. Damnit he could have stolen the armour that the Novan guard had been wearing, at least gone through their pockets to see if there was a key or something. Ukey’s headache was really starting to eat at his already lax concentration.

A second guard quickly joined the first, lying face down on the ground after Ukedideka had unsteadily slid underneath a swing of their baton. Ukedideka swiftly smashed the guard’s knee with his own cudgel, making them scream in shock and pain, dropping their baton to clutch at their wounded limb. The Poltergeist had decided he’d do something stylish to end the short-lived scuffle, he jumped up and kicked off the wall next to the unlucky guard’s head before using the other heel to smash their faceplate in and knock them out. Blood leaked from a laceration in the guard’s face, a result of the plastic snapping to form a thin, transparent blade and tear a chunk from the unfortunate Novan’s skin.

Ukedideka quickly inspected the second one’s belongings, finding nothing of interest, the poltergeist stole their belt and claimed the second baton as his own, slipping the second baton into the handy loop on his hip in case he lost the first one.

“You certainly are persistent.” Came the voice of Achromatopia through the PA system, “Keep going and I’ll have to have you executed, malachite’s not a nice way to go.”

Ukedideka barely registered the comment, just walking forwards with his hand against the white tiles of the wall, leaving a trail of bloody fingerprints. He just wanted fifteen minutes of being able to get out and not have to sit in a perfectly generic room.

Eventually, the Abstract found those men with guns that Achro had been talking about, they fired a volley as he rounded a corner and quickly un-rounded it. The shots left a straight line of scorch marks on the wall where Ukedideka had been standing a moment prior, if he was being honest Ukey didn’t particularly feel like finding out what those beams of light did when they touched Abstract flesh.

“Surrender yourself, Poltergeist!” One of the Novans shouted in robotic Abstraki, Ukedideka heard them take a step forward, towards where he had been hiding.

Suddenly an idea struck him of how he could get past the gunmen, although it was a horrible idea it was the only thing his pained head could come up with in the few seconds he had before he did something impulsive and ridiculous.

Ukedideka dropped his baton and kicked it along the floor before taking a step back and running forwards, just as he had expected the gunmen in the corridor had momentarily glanced at the heavy metal rod as it rolled across their vision. What they missed for the brief second Ukedideka needed was the Poltergeist himself kick off the wall and start leaping around the corner, jumping from wall to wall towards the group of soldiers.

They didn’t have time to raise their weapons before he was on top of them, kicks and punches, twirls and swings of the second baton flew about the corridor and left Ukedideka as the only one standing, his arms and legs dripping with Novan blood. One of the guards had managed to get a good punch in and nearly broken the Abstract’s nose, Ukedideka had crushed their throat with a curt blow from the baton a moment later.

 The Poltergeist pushed the door they were standing in front of open, revealing the room Achromatopia and Svari were standing in. Achromatopia had a pistol trained on Ukedideka’s chest, Svari was standing with power crackling around his wrists in a quiet warning to the Abstract.

“Return to your cell Ukedideka.” Achromatopia ordered, the Poltergeist shook his head in reply. He’d had a taste of freedom and that made him crave more of it.

“We don’t want to kill you, Ukedideka,” Svari growled, raising his hand to show Ukedideka the waves of white power rolling across his knuckles.

Ukedideka somehow didn’t believe him from the energy that was condensing around the Noble's fist, “Then why did you send the Novan men with guns, Noble?” He started to advance on Svari. “If you didn’t want to kill me, why did you send them?!”

With his shout, the Poltergeist lunged forwards, narrowly avoiding the crack of Achromatopia’s pistol. Svari rolled his shoulders and flipped his hand so his palm was facing up before he deliberately pressed his middle finger to his thumb and clicked his fingers.

 A beam of light blasted the air where Ukedideka had been the moment before, destroying electrics and flash blinding Achro. A circle of fire was lit on the ceiling where Svari had been aiming, quietly crackling and filling the air with the smell of burning plastic and ozone. Ukedideka landed, extremely surprised at the destructive energy held by the thin man standing before him.

Achro rubbed at his eyes, his vision blurred by the sudden flash of light. He didn’t see as Ukedideka lunged again to grab his sword from the desk before him, just in time to roll behind it as Svari let another blast of light out, setting fire to the ground next to the desk.

Ukedideka flicked the sword out and jammed it between his leg and the anklet, the cold metal ground against his leg and he grit his teeth. He pushed it hard, trying to pry the anklet away from his leg.

Ukedideka heard Svari snap his fingers again and ducked his head. A thin, concentrated beam of light pierced through the desk and scorched the ground next to Ukedideka’s bare foot. It slowly advanced towards him, burning a line in the floor followed by a line of thin flame.

Ukedideka backed away from it a moment before an idea came to his head, he slowly put his ankle out towards the beam of burning light. The band locked around his ankle produced a choking smoke but swiftly began to burn through; he had to be careful, for fear of the laser touching his exposed skin or it’d surely burn through him just as easily as it was the white-tiled floor.

Within about ten seconds, it burned the band through enough so that Ukedideka could snap it off with a little effort from his hands and his sword. He kicked it away from himself and felt his connection to the candelaum return almost immediately; it felt fantastic but Ukedideka didn’t have time to appreciate the sensation as he was still in danger.

Achro’s vision came back from the blurry mess that he’d gotten himself trapped in when he’d looked at Svari’s blast of light, he looked down with unfocused eyes and spied the pale man he had been keeping captive for about a month. The only difference is that the unfortunate man was armed with a sword and was no longer trapped in their world, Achro wasn’t expecting Ukedideka’s body to suddenly flicker as if it were on the screen of a VCR player before the Abstract leapt forwards and across the room in one bound to avoid another blast of light from the Noble.

Svari was standing in the centre of the room, one arm daintily behind his back while he held the other out with his palm facing the ceiling. Achro watched as Svari clicked his fingers together and a thin beam of light emanating from his fingers obliterated a computer monitor that the Abstract had taken a moment to hide behind. The unlucky Poltergeist vanished from behind the now sparking and smoking computer, Achro watched the blur of his movements as he ran back into the corridor leading to his cell.

“I shall deal with this insect personally.” Svari muttered under his breath, not bothering to pursue Ukedideka directly, instead he placed his other hand behind his back and appeared to vanish from inside the room with Achromatopia and reappear in the cell Achro could see through the one-way mirror.

Achro looked around the trashed room, dumbstruck about the amount of destruction that the Noble had caused. Much of the previously spotless white tiling around the room had been blackened or cracked with the force of Svari’s Nobility. The fight had lasted less than two minutes and the Noble had completely destroyed the whole room. Achro’s wooden desk had a hole burned through it in a straight line, matching up with another hole burned in the floor. One of the light fittings above Achro’s head sparked, hanging from a thin spindle of charred wires. If the Abstract had survived this, even without his supernatural abilities he was certainly something more than the Novan had been studying.

Svari raised his hand again, ready to click his fingers again and obliterate the Abstract who had dared to defy him. Fortunately for the Abstract, he had found a grip on the Candelaum through the wall and pulled it open so he could step through. The Noble stepped around the corner and snapped his fingers, blasting the wall behind Ukedideka as the Abstract leapt through the hole in the Candelaum.
Chapter 14 - Ignition ↦