[ Contents | 9. Flatlined Eightfold | 10. Unharnessed | 11. Battle Plans ]

Yamucha's Student

By Dragoness Eclectic

Chapter 10. Unharnessed

Saisei woke on the floor of the men's room, muscles still twitching. Lying around him were golden shards of metal. After a few seconds to collect his breath and let his wildly racing heart calm, he pulled himself to his feet and stared at his reflection in the mirror.

I've looked better, Saisei thought wryly. Blood streaked his face and chin; his hair was matted into spikes by dried blood and less pleasant substances, and shards of golden metal still clung to his head. He hadn't removed the electrodes--not in one blow, but he'd severed them from their power supply and controller. He turned on the water in one of the sinks and began to rinse his face, careful of his injured hand.

Saisei noted that the men's room in this den of murderers was equipped with a regulation first aid kit. He shook his head; why would men who thought nothing of butchering innocents worry about fulfilling the minutiae of worker safety laws? Truly, people were strange.

Saisei quickly opened the kit and somewhat awkwardly taped and wrapped his broken hand, always keeping aware of sounds outside, and of two large kis, one pacing far above, one running back and forth somewhere below him.

Booted feet pounded down the hall outside; muffled shouts and curses rang out. Time to move. Saisei opened the men's room door and stepped briskly into the hall, a few feet behind the six soldiers who were peering at their fallen comrades behind the guardpost. One noticed, and gaped at Saisei--

Saisei's foot caught him right in mid-gape, sending the soldier careening into his mates with a broken jaw. The flurry of follow-up blows put down the rest of the small squad. Large, armed soldiers that they were, still they were no match for Yamucha's student.

Saisei paused only to snatch up one of their radios, and hurried down the corridor, toward Doctor Soliere's lab and Yamucha.

"You've lost contact with both guard squads on Level F? Indeed. No sign of the prisoners on Level D? Yes, cover F; whatever is happening there cannot be allowed to interfere with Soliere. Over"

Tao Pie Pie switched the intercom to another circuit. "Soliere? Pie Pie here. Is the other subject ready?" Pie Pie waited, frowning. "Well? Yes or no?" Pie Pie frowned even more. "What do you mean, it isn't that simple? Never mind, I am coming; you can explain it to me in person!" he snapped in frustration, shutting off the intercom with a vicious jerk of the switch.

Lieutenant Tsukiev looked both ways hurriedly; no one was watching as he crept into the command center conference room. He slipped inside and closed the door behind him. Tsukiev took a deep breath, and exhaled slowly. Yes! There it was, right in the middle of the huge conference table--The Plan. Tao Pie Pie had no chance to present it to Colonel Dark before events dragged him to the lower levels of the base, so he had left it here for later.

Tsukiev moved quickly to the table and picked up the slender folder with trembling hands. It would only take a few moments to copy the contents...

Five very long minutes later, Tsukiev replaced the folder, sighing with relief. No one had come along looking for it while it was gone, no one had caught him in the copy room with it; he was in the clear. As he set the folder down, Tsukiev failed to notice the long black hair that he'd dislodged when he picked it up.

A song sweet as a nightingale's washed over Puar, and at long last, came to its end.

"Mothra is coming!" The twin goddesses chorused, turning to Puar.

Puar blinked, half-dazzled by the sun and the memory of their song. She started to wash herself and gather her wits. "Yamucha! We need to go find Yamucha and Saisei now!"

The twins nodded. "It will take some time for Mothra to get here, and we promised we would help."

Puar floated back down the yawning dark shaft, followed by the two kami. The magical cat was of a mind to go all the way back down to where they'd been imprisoned, in the hope that Yamucha was held somewhere nearby. The shuttered fan at the bottom changed her mind for her.

"They've closed off the level we were on!" Puar exclaimed. "They must have figured out we were in the air ducts!" She rose back to the junction where the ducts branched off on the next level and peered down several, wondering which way they should go.

Again, Puar's mind was made up for her when the screaming started. It was the ugly sound of torture, of pain so great that its victim had been stripped of all pride and dignity and resistance, reduced to a wordless howl of surrender.

All hesitancy vanished; Puar darted down the narrow duct toward the horrid sound.

The sound of Yamucha's tortured screams lent wings to Saisei's feet; he all but flew up the last stretch of corridor. The two guards in front of the door had barely begun to reach for their weapons when Saisei hit them.

The two bodies were still slumping to the floor when Saisei kicked the door off its hinges and crashed through. In the laboratory beyond, Doctor Soliere looked up from the machines cradling Yamucha, and stared blankly at the intruder, completely surprised.

"What? How can you--?" The slight, brown-haired man gaped at Saisei in astonishment. "Wh-what happened to your harness?"

Saisei bounded across the room like a jungle cat and grabbed Soliere by the front of his lab coat with one good hand. "I removed it," the young fighter hissed, raising the other, bandaged hand menacingly, "--and you will remove your torture machines from Yamucha now, or I will test your pain centers the old-fashioned way!"

"Torture machines?? But they're not--" the callous doctor sputtered. Saisei shook him viciously. "Well, I suppose you might see them that way," Soliere added weakly, "but they're actually neural interface devices, and--"

"I DON'T CARE WHAT YOU CALL THEM, GET THEM OFF OF YAMUCHA!"

Yamucha's eyes flickered open and rolled, looking at nothing in particular. Sweat and tears ran down his face; his hair was sodden. He was breathing hard, as if he'd run a marathon. Suddenly his eyes seemed to focus; he stared at Saisei and the doctor. Yamucha licked his dry lips, and opened his mouth to speak--but what came out was barely a whisper.

"Saisei... Get out of here before--"

Saisei interrupted. "--before the bastard gets his hands on me? Too late, I've already had a session with this torturer." He shook Soliere again. "Get on with it, Doctor!"

Soliere gulped nervously. "It-it isn't that easy. I mean, I can disconnect the electrodes easily enough, but removing the microthin wires from his brain isn't trivial... Actually, I've never done it before."

"Start disconnecting." Saisei's jaw was set, his mouth was a thin, hard line of fury.

"Y-yes," stammered the doctor, as he reached across the neural stimulator's console and began to unclip leads.

"No." A cold voice announced from behind Saisei. Saisei looked around. Tao Pie Pie stood in the wrecked doorway. Saisei's eyes narrowed at the sight of the lean figure with the machine eyes--and widened as he sensed the assassin's rising ki.

"You!" snarled Saisei. He turned and shoved the hesitant doctor hard, sending him skidding across the floor, far from Yamucha, then dodged to one side as Tao Pie Pie leaped across the room, landing with a distinctive, bird-like poise.

Not good--he is a master of the Crane School, Saisei thought, as he blocked a knife-hand strike aimed at his throat. My reflexes are still off because of the control harness, and I can't focus my ki too well, either.

Again and again he blocked or dodged Tao Pie Pie's strikes. Saisei's breath came in heavy gasps; he still hadn't recovered fully from his ordeal with the harness. Pie Pie feinted, and struck at Saisei's stomach--

Saisei blocked the striking hand, then--

SHICK! The hand became a knife blade, lancing out to slash Saisei across the stomach. He dodged, but not fast enough; a line of red parted his shirt.

Tao Pie Pie smirked triumphantly and started to say something--

Saisei kicked him in the face, hard. The surprised assassin staggered back, and Saisei slammed his hand down hard, shattering the last of the machinery still holding Yamucha. As Pie Pie regained his footing, the younger fighter pivoted off the console and caught the assassin under the ribs with a flying kick. Tao Pie Pie went flying.

Saisei grabbed Yamucha and bolted for the opposite door; as Pie Pie again regained his footing and charged after him, Saisei dropped Yamucha and slammed the steel security door in his face. A twist of the latch, and it locked. Without a pause, Saisei tossed Yamucha back over his shoulder and ran down the corridor, looking for a way out.

As he round a corner, he heard behind him a loud cry: "DODON-PA!"

BOOM! Something exploded behind him, and Saisei flung open the nearest door and dove inside without looking to see what it was.

[ Contents | 9. Flatlined Eightfold | 10. Unharnessed | 11. Battle Plans ]

Disclaimer: See Credits.

Copyright 2001 by Dragoness Eclectic