[Celine, Claire, Damon and Roy]
”Huh?!” The lightning ceases as Kayden stares at the three kids for a moment. What did winking with both eyes signify? Was Celine going to double-cross her friends for a greater cut? Cut of what? He had the only Soul Tech with him.
Kayden turns back toward the dummies and while steadily walking backwards, releases a wide arc of electricity at the dummies, dropping the closest ones and slowing the ones behind.
Claire primes an explosion near some of the incoming dummies that were going for Kayden. They’re blasted away after a short delay.
“Oops, I missed!” she shouts loudly, winking at Kayden again.
Kayden gapes. He just... what.
Another set of dummies are sent flying back from an explosion
“Darn, I’m really bad at controlling this power!” Claire shouts at Kayden, winking once more.
Celine, very confused and wondering why everyone was winking merely follows behind Claire and the rest of the group. Claire probably knows what’s going on.
Damon had a plan, a backup plan, and a backup backup plan, but decides that whatever the fuck is happening right now is beyond coherence. He fell down a rabbit hole, got stuck in wonderland, then tripped over Pandora’s box and ended up in the twilight zone.
Kayden screams in a potent mixture of frustration, confusion, and more confusion. ”I GET IT ALREADY!!!” He abandons the Soul Tech pedestal and runs to the double doors, which were unsurprisingly locked.
From vents lining the room, a veritable horde of roombas flood in, moving alarmingly quickly.
“Nooooo I’m going to get sucked up! Ai, I’m trying to help you here!” Celine hops backwards at the sight of the approaching swarm.
“Self-directed cleaning units are also equipped with potent acids to clean up all manner of substances.” Ai-chan points out, sounding rather pleased with herself.
”Buy me some time!” Kayden shouts as he places his palms flat against the door and closes his eyes. Electricity gently thrums through his hands and the doors begin to tremble.
”Ai-chan, help! Kayden is sealing us in forever!” Celine shouts to the ceiling. She is currently receiving a piggyback ride from her golem.
“Then cease breaking the training units and stop Kayden.” Ai-chan snaps.
”But I didn’t do anything yet!”
“I’m sorry I get really nervous under pressure and kept missing him!” Claire responds.
Damon steps forward and aims a string at the ceiling, which immediately connects to the string previously placed on Kayden’s back, thickening and contracting to lift him off the ground. He dangles helplessly. ”You mean like this?
“Thank you.” The dummies and roombas come to a halt.
”Can we go now?”
“...No.”
”Wow, fuck you then.”
Cursing unintelligibly, Kayden thrashes in the air until he can see the doors again and fires a thin arc of lightning that connects. The doors open. ”Let me down now?”
The string begins to relax, lowering Kayden down to the ground.
“Wait! I might let you four leave, but not him. He’s still carrying an unactivated Soul Tech.”
”That doesn’t sound like a promise to me.”
“Incapacitate Kayden and return his Soul Tech intact, and you four can leave.”
”Alright Kayden, your turn. Why should we trust the guy liable to attack us the moment we get out of here?
”Why would I turn on you guys?! You don’t even have anything to steal.” Kayden shouts.
”Why would you invite a bunch of random strangers to a laboratory raid, and why young ones at that?”
Claire lets the others do the talking, she was just itching to blow more things up.
Celine has a roomba in her hands, clutching it as if it was a teddy bear.
”To carry shit for me.”
”You do realize that would mean turning on us in this situation, right? Your terms were 50% of the treasure. If we got out of here and then just went our separate ways, that’d be 20%”
”I have literally no reason to turn on you guys, none of you have any treasure to start with!”
”What kind of idiot has his own personal pot of gold and plans to give away half of its contents in order to get help carrying it?”
”I wasn’t-it doesn’t matter! I promise I won’t kill you guys once we’re outside for god’s sake.”
”You know, that’s a poor choice of words for someone whose life might depend on it.”
”He promised!”
”Listen to Celine! I promised!” Kayden protests.
”What do you think, Ai-chan? Does he seem trustworthy?”
“No. Humans will say anything to save themselves.” Damon sighs.
”Can you let me down at least?”
”No.” Damon steps forward and fires another string through the door, catapulting Kayden through it before dissolving it and quickly working on flinging the others through the door.
“I see.”
Damon launches Celine and gets ready to throw Claire through as he responds. ”As suspicious as Kayden is, you’re not very forthcoming.” He tosses Roy away and slaps his chest to connect one end to himself. ”Should’ve told me what the web did.” Damon goes flying, landing feet-first on the wall outside the doors before reconnecting the other end down the hall, sending himself flying before turning around and dragging everyone except Kayden along, one by one.
Ai-chan speaks through an intercom. “Please do not leave. I cannot protect you four outside.”
”Ai-chan! We’ll come back when you have a body made!” Celine calls out as she gets flung about like a ragdoll.
“Is that a promise?”“ Ai-chan asks, almost hopeful.
“Yeah! We’re being dragged against our will Ai-chan!”
”Why are you guys so heavy?”
“Sedentary lifestyle, I imagine. That was a joke.”
Claire struggles to her feet and pets the nearest roomba, the roomba buzzes with glee. “Don’t worry, we’ll go after him. I have no clue what Damon was thinking.”
”I’m thinking you’re full of shit.” Damon continues dragging his friends to the exit as fast as possible. Just as Damon reaches the exit doors, they open on their own, immediately drowning all sense of urgency.
“Hopefully, I’ll see you three again soon.”
Kayden pauses in the doorway to flip off Ai-chan before dashing outside.
