"Uprising"
Morgana couldn't believe that she was caught by some stupid Typicals. She chanced a look at her brother, Myron, her step-sister, Vera, and her three new friends, Iyume, Zefyr, and Melantha. All of them had their hands bound behind them with thick rope, their weapons confiscated and hidden away somewhere by the guards and each of their faces was bruised and dirt-stained from the beating they just got.
Melantha wondered briefly where they might have taken Nanashi, who was with them when they were ambushed outside of the town. 'Well, she is an Eminence, so maybe she's negotiating with them for our release...' Her hopes vanished when she was yanked from a nearby tent and thrown onto the ground next to Myron, with her hands bound as well. Of course, being a healer, she was much less beaten than the rest, but she still looked hurt.
The leader of the people who had attacked them, a big pro-wrestling-looking guy with black and red armor that made him look even more menacing, paced in front of their lineup patiently. "You children have committed a very serious felony by trespassing onto sacred ground here. And what's worse, you are all ability-users, in one form or another. This continent is at war with your kind!" He used the term 'ability-users' like it was a curse or a really bad word.
Vera, who hated being spat upon like he had just done, gave him a dirty look that could frighten the devil himself. "We didn't know that you were at war, or that this was sacred ground! We're just freaking KIDS, for the love of God!"
He responded to her attitude by backhanding her across the face with a wooden rod he was holding. "How dare you speak to your elders that way!"
Even though she hated Vera with a passion, Iyume lunged herself at the leader and bit his hand. He yelped in pain, and tried to shake her off. She was determined, though, and she only bit harder, even though she might have had a couple of broken ribs already. She was finally ripped from the guy and punched in the face by one of the guy's underlings, a newbie soldier, by the looks of him. Iyume fell, on her back, sat up, and spat blood from her mouth onto the leader's boots, glaring at him the whole time. Her glare was made even more dangerous by the blood that trickled from her almost-broken nose.
"General! Are you alright?" One of the soldiers called.
The General nodded to one of his men as her cradled his hand. "I'll be fine, but get me some bandages." He then turned to face the 'kids,' and his face went from pink to red to purple in less than four seconds. "You rotten little snot! For three crimes, all felonies, you are sentenced to death by hanging!"
Iyume didn't even blink, but she did roll her eyes. "How very merciful and 1600s of you."
The general just stared, expecting a greater reaction than he had received. When he was certain that he wasn't going to get anything else out of her, he glared down at all of them. "In fact, all of you are sentenced to death by hanging. You will die tomorrow at midday, in front of all the villagers to make an example of you. For now, however, you will be imprisoned in the underground catacombs where you cannot escape." He waved his arm violently at them. "Take them away!"
Twenty minutes or so later, the group found themselves separated into four different cages; Myron with Melantha, Morgana with Nanashi, Zefyr with Vera, and Iyume by herself. They had been blindfolded before they were brought into the catacombs, but they felt like they had traveled to the center of the planet with all the stairs they had to feel their way down from.
And they were not alone. There were a total of twelve cages in the tunnel/room they were in, and all but one had two occupants. Most of them were just children, no more than ten years old. However, there were five adults; two women and three men. All of them looked very sullen and worn, as if they'd given up on life.
Everyone except the newcomers.
Iyume was sulking and glaring at the guards at the entrance; Nanashi was half asleep; Zefyr was examining the bars of his cage and occasionally kicking them, much to the annoyance of Vera, who was trying to stop him; Myron was changing the shape of his hand to amuse the various children who were watching him, and Melantha was watching some mice skitter by, and speaking to them when they crawled close enough. Morgana tried to hear what she was saying to them, but it was in some language she didn't understand.
It was relatively quiet for about an hour after they had been in the cages. But now, Zefyr was making a huge racket, insulting the guards using words that he had probably overhear Iyume using when she was really upset. Of course, the guards were scared to death of the ability-user kids that now inhabited the cavern cages, so all they did was threaten and yell at Zefyr to shut up.
When he had grown tired of all the yelling, he sat back down in a corner of his cage and asked, "Soooooo... when are we getting outta here?"
"Yeah, why hasn't anyone made a plan yet? I mean, we're not actually going to, you know, go through with killing ourselves, right?" Iyume turned toward Nanashi as she spoke.
Nanashi shrugged and glanced around. "Don't look at me..." she muttered quietly.
"These cages are made of a weak copper-iron alloy, and they're so rusted that one good punch to a corner could shatter the entire crate." Melantha flicked a bar with her pinky as if to prove her point. "Not that I would punch it. I could always just increase the gravity to one section of it, and it'd just fall apart."
"Okay," Morgana started, "but what about all the guards? I know they're scared of us, and they probably wouldn't hurt us for fear of being cursed or something, but they could call for backup, and that could get sticky."
"As usual, my darling sister, you have a very valid point," Myron exclaimed very chivalrously. "What we need is a distraction. Something to keep the guards busy while we escape."
"Um, if you don't mind me interjecting..." one of the adult men spoke very timidly, "but if you help us, we can help you."
Zefyr all of a sudden started jumping up and down. "Hey, yeah! If we can stage an uprising of all the prisoners, not only can we get out, but we can save some lives, too!"
"There's only one problem with that," Nanashi stated. "Not everyone in this prison is innocent."
"Well, I guess it would depend on if we take them with us, and where we take them. If we take them to Glirad, we can just have them all checked out, and then put them in a proper prison there," Melantha suggested.
"Well how many are in here? We can't take more than two hundred with us. We don't have enough power, even if I am an Eminence."
"There isn't more than fifty down here. I can hear them breathing." Zefyr's bat-like ears twitched as if to emphasize.
"All right then," Vera spoke with a commanding voice, but not loud enough for the guards to hear. "We'll break out of our cages, break all the other prisoners out of their cages, get out of here somehow, take all the prisoners with us to Glirad, and just sort it out later! That pretty much cover it?"
"Yup. We can use our powers to clear a path for the prisoners, but I hope we get out fast enough. My echo-location won't work; it'll just give me a major headache with all the sound bouncing off the walls." Zefyr glanced around, looking for answers.
Iyume rubbed her fist, getting ready to punch her cage. "We don't have to get all the way out. We can just open up a tesseract right here. It'll take more energy, but there's three Travellers here, and only fifty prisoners."
"Less than fifty," Zefyr corrected.
"Whatever."
"Okay, so let's get started," Myron said, and turned his hand into solid steel before punching the cage. It crumbled into rusty chunks and flakes, freeing himself and Melantha. Vera and Morgana did the same, and Iyume kicked her cage to pieces.
The guards, of course, heard them, and tried to go after them, but Vera and Iyume stopped them, and took out all their irritation on the poor, scared men. Morgana, Zefyr and Myron began breaking the other cages, and Nanashi and Melantha darted out of the tunnel to help the other prisoners. Once most of them were either free, freeing others, or fighting guards, Nanashi, Melantha, and Iyume gathered their energy and opened a portal.
"Hurry! Everyone get through!" Iyume yelled.
The prisoners dashed all at once for the portal, and within a minute, all of them were through. Myron and Morgana, after grabbing everyone's previously-confiscated weapons, went through after all the prisoners, and Vera dragged Zefyr through the tesseract.
Then the general showed up.
"Stop them!" He roared at his men, the ones that were standing, at least. Those who were too scared to obey his order backed off and ran down the opposite way they were supposed to be going.
Melantha and Iyume teamed up together to prevent the ones charging at them from getting through the portal while Nanashi held the portal open. Melantha decreased the gravity immediately in front of her as Iyume jumped straight at the general. Her momentum carried her through the air until her feet connected with his chest in a hard kick. He was sent flying backwards, and once Iyume had landed on the ground, normal gravity returned, thus causing him to fly backwards at a tremendous speed until his head hit solid rock with a sickening thud.
Melantha made quick work of the remaining soldiers, crushing them under concentrated gravity, and all three made their escape through the portal.
Melantha wondered briefly where they might have taken Nanashi, who was with them when they were ambushed outside of the town. 'Well, she is an Eminence, so maybe she's negotiating with them for our release...' Her hopes vanished when she was yanked from a nearby tent and thrown onto the ground next to Myron, with her hands bound as well. Of course, being a healer, she was much less beaten than the rest, but she still looked hurt.
The leader of the people who had attacked them, a big pro-wrestling-looking guy with black and red armor that made him look even more menacing, paced in front of their lineup patiently. "You children have committed a very serious felony by trespassing onto sacred ground here. And what's worse, you are all ability-users, in one form or another. This continent is at war with your kind!" He used the term 'ability-users' like it was a curse or a really bad word.
Vera, who hated being spat upon like he had just done, gave him a dirty look that could frighten the devil himself. "We didn't know that you were at war, or that this was sacred ground! We're just freaking KIDS, for the love of God!"
He responded to her attitude by backhanding her across the face with a wooden rod he was holding. "How dare you speak to your elders that way!"
Even though she hated Vera with a passion, Iyume lunged herself at the leader and bit his hand. He yelped in pain, and tried to shake her off. She was determined, though, and she only bit harder, even though she might have had a couple of broken ribs already. She was finally ripped from the guy and punched in the face by one of the guy's underlings, a newbie soldier, by the looks of him. Iyume fell, on her back, sat up, and spat blood from her mouth onto the leader's boots, glaring at him the whole time. Her glare was made even more dangerous by the blood that trickled from her almost-broken nose.
"General! Are you alright?" One of the soldiers called.
The General nodded to one of his men as her cradled his hand. "I'll be fine, but get me some bandages." He then turned to face the 'kids,' and his face went from pink to red to purple in less than four seconds. "You rotten little snot! For three crimes, all felonies, you are sentenced to death by hanging!"
Iyume didn't even blink, but she did roll her eyes. "How very merciful and 1600s of you."
The general just stared, expecting a greater reaction than he had received. When he was certain that he wasn't going to get anything else out of her, he glared down at all of them. "In fact, all of you are sentenced to death by hanging. You will die tomorrow at midday, in front of all the villagers to make an example of you. For now, however, you will be imprisoned in the underground catacombs where you cannot escape." He waved his arm violently at them. "Take them away!"
Twenty minutes or so later, the group found themselves separated into four different cages; Myron with Melantha, Morgana with Nanashi, Zefyr with Vera, and Iyume by herself. They had been blindfolded before they were brought into the catacombs, but they felt like they had traveled to the center of the planet with all the stairs they had to feel their way down from.
And they were not alone. There were a total of twelve cages in the tunnel/room they were in, and all but one had two occupants. Most of them were just children, no more than ten years old. However, there were five adults; two women and three men. All of them looked very sullen and worn, as if they'd given up on life.
Everyone except the newcomers.
Iyume was sulking and glaring at the guards at the entrance; Nanashi was half asleep; Zefyr was examining the bars of his cage and occasionally kicking them, much to the annoyance of Vera, who was trying to stop him; Myron was changing the shape of his hand to amuse the various children who were watching him, and Melantha was watching some mice skitter by, and speaking to them when they crawled close enough. Morgana tried to hear what she was saying to them, but it was in some language she didn't understand.
It was relatively quiet for about an hour after they had been in the cages. But now, Zefyr was making a huge racket, insulting the guards using words that he had probably overhear Iyume using when she was really upset. Of course, the guards were scared to death of the ability-user kids that now inhabited the cavern cages, so all they did was threaten and yell at Zefyr to shut up.
When he had grown tired of all the yelling, he sat back down in a corner of his cage and asked, "Soooooo... when are we getting outta here?"
"Yeah, why hasn't anyone made a plan yet? I mean, we're not actually going to, you know, go through with killing ourselves, right?" Iyume turned toward Nanashi as she spoke.
Nanashi shrugged and glanced around. "Don't look at me..." she muttered quietly.
"These cages are made of a weak copper-iron alloy, and they're so rusted that one good punch to a corner could shatter the entire crate." Melantha flicked a bar with her pinky as if to prove her point. "Not that I would punch it. I could always just increase the gravity to one section of it, and it'd just fall apart."
"Okay," Morgana started, "but what about all the guards? I know they're scared of us, and they probably wouldn't hurt us for fear of being cursed or something, but they could call for backup, and that could get sticky."
"As usual, my darling sister, you have a very valid point," Myron exclaimed very chivalrously. "What we need is a distraction. Something to keep the guards busy while we escape."
"Um, if you don't mind me interjecting..." one of the adult men spoke very timidly, "but if you help us, we can help you."
Zefyr all of a sudden started jumping up and down. "Hey, yeah! If we can stage an uprising of all the prisoners, not only can we get out, but we can save some lives, too!"
"There's only one problem with that," Nanashi stated. "Not everyone in this prison is innocent."
"Well, I guess it would depend on if we take them with us, and where we take them. If we take them to Glirad, we can just have them all checked out, and then put them in a proper prison there," Melantha suggested.
"Well how many are in here? We can't take more than two hundred with us. We don't have enough power, even if I am an Eminence."
"There isn't more than fifty down here. I can hear them breathing." Zefyr's bat-like ears twitched as if to emphasize.
"All right then," Vera spoke with a commanding voice, but not loud enough for the guards to hear. "We'll break out of our cages, break all the other prisoners out of their cages, get out of here somehow, take all the prisoners with us to Glirad, and just sort it out later! That pretty much cover it?"
"Yup. We can use our powers to clear a path for the prisoners, but I hope we get out fast enough. My echo-location won't work; it'll just give me a major headache with all the sound bouncing off the walls." Zefyr glanced around, looking for answers.
Iyume rubbed her fist, getting ready to punch her cage. "We don't have to get all the way out. We can just open up a tesseract right here. It'll take more energy, but there's three Travellers here, and only fifty prisoners."
"Less than fifty," Zefyr corrected.
"Whatever."
"Okay, so let's get started," Myron said, and turned his hand into solid steel before punching the cage. It crumbled into rusty chunks and flakes, freeing himself and Melantha. Vera and Morgana did the same, and Iyume kicked her cage to pieces.
The guards, of course, heard them, and tried to go after them, but Vera and Iyume stopped them, and took out all their irritation on the poor, scared men. Morgana, Zefyr and Myron began breaking the other cages, and Nanashi and Melantha darted out of the tunnel to help the other prisoners. Once most of them were either free, freeing others, or fighting guards, Nanashi, Melantha, and Iyume gathered their energy and opened a portal.
"Hurry! Everyone get through!" Iyume yelled.
The prisoners dashed all at once for the portal, and within a minute, all of them were through. Myron and Morgana, after grabbing everyone's previously-confiscated weapons, went through after all the prisoners, and Vera dragged Zefyr through the tesseract.
Then the general showed up.
"Stop them!" He roared at his men, the ones that were standing, at least. Those who were too scared to obey his order backed off and ran down the opposite way they were supposed to be going.
Melantha and Iyume teamed up together to prevent the ones charging at them from getting through the portal while Nanashi held the portal open. Melantha decreased the gravity immediately in front of her as Iyume jumped straight at the general. Her momentum carried her through the air until her feet connected with his chest in a hard kick. He was sent flying backwards, and once Iyume had landed on the ground, normal gravity returned, thus causing him to fly backwards at a tremendous speed until his head hit solid rock with a sickening thud.
Melantha made quick work of the remaining soldiers, crushing them under concentrated gravity, and all three made their escape through the portal.