00 Chapt 12 Propane Nightmares
"Ready!" Stork yelled.
"One, two, miss a few…. Ninety nine, one hundred!" Monica giggled while acrobatically jumping to kick her advisory in the goulies.
"Time to go Stork!" she grinned as she turned. However Monica misjudged the Dark Ace and found his sword in her stomach. But instead of blood, electronical wires extended outwards.
"For gods sake that was a prototype!" Monica shouted from the doorway.
"You cloned yourself?" Stork asked in misbelief.
"Uh, Stork, slightly more pressing issues here!"
Stork started to run, "Oh right, the bomb"
Monica rolled her eyes and stepped in alongside him.
00
Anastasia still stood there dumbfounded.
"I'm still the same person" he said, extending his hands but she backed away.
"We fought together to bring down Selena and now you work for the Marsh Snatchers?!"
"It's not how it looks…"
"It's exactly how it looks! Don't you dare tell me what I see"
"Sorry to interrupt, but the antidote..?" Aerrow gently nudged.
Anastasia nodded, "We need that antidote, right now"
Renkin tried to reach out again but she shook her head causing him to sigh, "Fine, but I'm not what you think I am"
He turned to his left and walked into a room made of glass to rummage in some cupboards.
"What? A monster? You told them where to find the right type of blood" Anastasia hissed from behind.
Renkin produced a small vial containing an electric blue liquid, "I did no such thing, but… seeing as you wont believe me, take the antidote and just go"
Anastasia took it from his outstretched palm and chucked it to Aerrow, her other hand moved to a large red button, "Ani no!" Renkin shouted, but it was too late, Anastasia had sealed the glass room with her and Renkin inside.
"Aerrow go!" she urged through the glass and turned to Renkin, all of her hate and viciousness had temporally disappeared.
"Now we have a lot to discuss before we die"
00
The thudding had stopped, causing James to become suspicious. He didn't want to pay any attention to Selena, but again, he couldn't let her escape either.
Slowly he opened the door, fearing a trap. But instead he found her in the middle of the floor twitching, and her skin was glistening with sweat.
"Selena!" He cried, crouching down beside her.
"Th-the soul c-c-cage" she stuttered.
"What?!" he sobbed, holding her in his arms and cradling her backwards and forth.
"They're coming, coming to kill me James. But not just me, us"
"Huh?" James responded in confusion. But Selena only had one more thing to say.
"Save Lypix, before she sacrifices herself!" then Selena lost consciousness for the last time and Lypix's body stopped breathing.
James stroked her cheek sadly before standing up, how he hated to leave her body, but he knew she wanted part of her to stay alive, if only in Lypix.
00
"Junko!" Stork yelled.
"In here!" a faint response came.
Inside the small grotty room that had been a cell, Junko was picking up a small girl who was groggy and hardly even noticed Junko.
"We need to go, now!" Monica shouted over a slight static that was rising.
"Okay! This is the last one!" he yelled back, barging out of the doors only to run into James.
"Have any of you heard about a Soul Chamber?" he calmly asked.
They shook their heads, "no, aren't you meant to be watching Selena?" Monica answered.
"She's gone" he replied starting to run in another direction.
00
Aerrow and Finn hurried through the hallways, soon the building would go up and they sure as hell did not want to be there when it happened.
"What the hell was all that with the Renkin guy?" Finn breathlessly said.
"No idea, vampires are completely insane!" Aerrow answered getting to a door.
He opened it but found an unfamiliar room with blue pulsating from something unseen.
"What is it?" Finn asked.
"I don't know. Feels like…. Like something in there wants me"
"Well let's find out then!" Finn hurried, well aware of the shortage of time.
Finn ran into the room but stopped immediately.
"What?" Aerrow asked getting closer.
He also stopped once in view of the gigantic tank that was pulsing.
"What is that?" Finn breathed.
"We call it a soul cage" Ocrat smiled, pointing a small gun at them.
In Anastasia's dramatic farewell, they'd both forgotten about the little man in charge.
"What are going to do?" Aerrow calmly asked, blinking slightly.
"Not entirely sure, I think I might let you go" he grinned even more but did not remove the weapon.
It was then an angry shriek came at them breaking through the glass and bringing pulsating figures of light with them.
"I don't think so" Ocrat hissed, starting to fire upon the figures. This started them to frenzy and pushing Aerrow and Finn out.
Two silhouettes with long hair grabbed their hands and started to run, through the corridors they went until the one holding onto Aerrow let go and ran back towards Anastasia.
00
James entered a lab and faintly heard voices from the other room, he stepped into a room surrounding a glass room, inside was Anastasia and a face he barely recognised.
"Renkin?" he asked, puzzled.
Anastasia turned to face him, "James, you need to go! That antidote is…" but Renkin cut her off by pushing down a lever in his left hand. It caused the low level of static to rise to an uncomfortable pitch, especially to the vampires.
"I think you can probably guess now, I'm not Renkin. But it was nice to be momentarily!" he shouted, "I think I'll be going now!"
From the form of Renkin, Midnight emerged. Reaching into his crystal heart he retrieved a glowing red and orange shard. "Here's to the fractional power of a small piece of the Helix crystal!"
Midnight's victory was short lived, for the exit was blocked by a blue pulsating figure of blue. "Don't think you can stop me now, very soon you'll be dead" he growled at it.
The figure laughed, which came out as a low crackle, and lunged for Midnight.
James held onto his head but looked up, he recognised the silhouette, he'd been with the real object not long ago, and realised this as what Selena had meant.
Meanwhile, the figure fought Midnight, trying to get ever closer to the lever which was disabling the vampires. She saw her chance and flew at it to rise it again, but Midnight recovered too quickly and managed to pin her against the wall. "Your not making it out of here alive, no matter what that sappy Dark Ace wants" Midnight rambled, but Lypix wasn't listening, she was angling the lever with her foot.
"Hey, Midnight" James hissed, fangs extending from his mouth.
Midnight slowly turned to stare at the angry Blood Sashes behind him. "He didn't give the proper antidote to Aerrow, its Cyanide" Anastasia growled.
"Grounded the peach stones myself" Midnight almost bowed but considered it unnecessary.
"Give us the antidote and you might live" James ordered, taking a step closer.
This time there was no messing about, Midnight handed them a vial with purple in and ran. The figure bowed, and if it had been possible to see, James and Anastasia would have seen her smiling.
00
Aerrow and Finn ran up the steps towards the Condor, neither knew how much time they had before the girls died.
A large boom in the distance signalled that the centre of death had been destroyed but Aerrow took absolutely no notice.
He reached Piper's sick bed and pulled out the cork on the vial, but before the liquid could even be put towards her lips, James appeared. He then grabbed it and threw it across the room to smash on the wall.
Aerrow stared at James in shock, their only chance to save them had been destroyed.
"Poison" was the one word James used before taking out a separate vial with purple liquid in, he allowed one drop to pass Piper's lips. After which a blue static being entered the room to touch Piper's skin.
She gasped like oxygen had been absent for a long time and opened her eyes. "What the hell just happened?"
Everyone laughed and sank in relief.
"What about Lypix?" Aerrow suddenly asked.
James led the way to the room he'd left her in, the small limp form was still not breathing but James used the vial to repeat the process. When she opened her eyes she didn't gasp like Piper, she just calmly sat up and surveyed everyone in the room, "Well that was fun" she moaned.
00
The rest of the kidnapped were healed in due course via the antidote.
The Blood Sashes returned to their ship and the Storm Hawks, finally satisfied the Marsh Snatchers were gone, left Terra Norje for somewhere safer, and more peaceful.
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Well, that's taken me absolutely ages to write and it will be quite a while before the next episode is up, but hey! Guess it'll keep you guys waiting in 'anticipation'
Review if you've got time!