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Description
All’s Fair

Chapter Twelve: Electro~negativity Reigns

~
    By the time Sirra had awoken, she was in a different room then the one she had fallen asleep in. This room was brighter, and there were more lights on the ceiling, though they were of horrible flickering quality. She was sitting at a table, and she was strapped down to the rather uncomfortable chair. The cushions weren’t even the slightest bit soft and her wrists were locked to the arm rests. At least she could move her feet, but she felt too drowsy to really move.
    All she could see was the distorted figure of Rhytt, whom she felt like killing. What was worse is that he didn’t utter a word-he just stared, which bothered her even more.
    After a few minutes, she made a proper evaluation of her setting, and had been correct that Rhytt was across the table with his feet propped up and his hands folded and resting on his middle. The room was a stained off-whitish colour and had no decorations, save for the horrible yellow table and the chairs atop the black and white tiled floor. It didn’t take long for her to deduct that it was some sort of interrogation room, and immediately, dread began to fill her.
    She looked up and stared straight at Rhytt with a front that could have made people swear that she was ready for anything that could be thrown at her. But anyone who truly knew Sirra, knew that she was a very good liar. Obviously, Rhytt had studied this.
    “Ain’t you a littl’ ray o’ sunshine after that catnap.” He said in sarcasm, observing that Sirra was obviously extremely displeased with him. He nodded to her, as if to gesture, “It would do you a whole lotta good, Missy, if you just went on ahead and said the location of your bee-loved Kaiser. It would save us both a heap o’ trouble.”
    Sirra just continued to glare at her captor, doing her best to keep an angry expression and trying to calm herself by saying that someone would have to come save her.  She hoped it would be Kaiser, but something told her that she couldn’t count on him. He had long said that he wouldn’t ever do anything for her again. And that meant he wouldn’t come save her when she needed him the most. This trail of thought only lead to depression, and while she knew what was coming, she couldn’t help but think that she wished that by some miracle Kaiser would come to her rescue.
    “I would have thought you would have planned this out better. You’ve said it yourself that you know Kai left me 7 months ago. I don’t know how you expect him to show up which would be the only way you’d find him. I would never utter the name of where he is.”
    In his lab in his house on Irk’s 9th moon, which was located in the 7th sector of the planet in  a very ritzy and secluded neighborhood. Sirra knew exactly where Kaiser was, or so she thought, but there was no way she’d ever tell Rhytt. They could take her, after all, she could barely care—she had been on her way to death, but taking away Kaiser and locking him up again was something she wasn’t going to drag Kaiser into. She had already caused so many problems for him, and she vowed she wouldn’t cause another.
    Rhytt looked at an object that had been previously hidden by he hands and he looked at it fondly and tossed it up in the air and caught it with a smirk. “Do ya know what this right here is, Missy?”
    Sirra stared at it with an annoyed and puzzled expression. “It’s a remote.” She said blankly before adding on sarcastically, “It’s a remote that will blow up this compound and me with it. If that’s the case, go on and press the button quickly.”
    Rhytt chuckled and observed the device. He had been surprised that she hadn’t noticed the electrodes placed on her temples, but then again, the woman across from him was broken, disoriented and severely drugged on sedatives. “Unfortunately not. You see them electrodes right there?” He pointed to the small objects stuck to Sirra’s temples.
    Sirra looked up fruitlessly. “No! I can’t see, you moron.” She growled, causing Rhytt to again, chuckle at her unorthodox way of speaking.
    “Well, wit the press of a button and the switch of a dial, ah control the rate at which your new-rons fire in your brain. When too many of them fire, do you have the slightest of what happens?” He watched Sirra’s puzzled expression and guessed she didn’t. Rhytt smiled again and looked down to the remote to fiddle with the dial that controlled the intensity of firing neurons.
    “Well, your brain’d be overwhelmed, would it not? And in that, it’d try ‘n’ make sense of all the firin’ new-rons. It’d send you into hallucination fits.”
    Sirra blinked and tried her best to stay completely blank faced. It didn’t take her long to realize that if it sent her into hallucinations, she’d be even more disoriented and confused than she already was. Not to mention, in her state, she’d have no idea what they would be like, whether it would be absolutely psychedelic or completely horrific. A pang of fear caused her to twitch slightly.
    She swallowed and tried to think of something happy, anything happy, perhaps even anger. If she felt rage, perhaps she would forget that she was so upset. She stared at Ryhtt and put on her brave face, though she was positive it wouldn’t last for long. But there was no harm in one last great act before the curtain closed. “Bring on your worst.”
    Rhytt grinned and spun the dial all the way up. It was going to be one hell of a show.

~
    “What’s the plan to get in?” The high-pitched squeak of Groove poked through and the small irken looked down at the prison from the hiding spot that he had picked since Kaiser and Sideos couldn’t agree on where to plan out an attack. Groove was excited and ready to go like a child hyped up on sugar. He wore his typical bell-bottomed pants and large silver peace medallion, but his shirt was now a swirling hurricane of deep green and blue.
    “Quiet, Groove.” Kaiser snapped and then examined the abandoned and dark looking compound, thinking about which way would prove to be the most economical way for the group to get inside without being detected. From the out side, it didn’t look like they would be getting in very easy, at least not without breaking in.
    Kaiser had dressed especially for the occasion in his very best, which consisted of the pants to his former lieutenant uniform with his shiny boots reaching his knees and a black un-tucked collared shirt with the first few buttons unbuttoned. Over this, he wore a black coat lined with gray fur, which added a hint of elegancy to his wardrobe. There wasn’t any argument-if Kaiser was going to take Sirra back in, he’d have to look his best. And he also felt the need to look cool if he was going to kick bounty hunter ass.
    Sideos was getting bored of waiting and watching. His plan of action had been dismissed by both Groove and Kaiser though, so he was forced to sit and stare at the abandoned prison while Kaiser twiddled his thumbs and wasted time trying to think of a plan. Sideos stood up and glared down at Kaiser. “I’m sick of fucking waiting around!” He stated the obvious, causing both Kaiser and Groove to stare up at him.
    “You can’t just waltz in there, Sideos. We need a plan, these things take time and method! Especially with this group. They’re just as twisted as us and I would suppose they’re expecting us.” Kaiser said in an annoyed tone.
    “No!” Groove injected, holding up a finger into the air and proclaiming with a childish voice, “They’re expecting you, Kai! Not me or Sideos! Why else do you think they would have captured Sirra?” He looked from Kaiser to Sideos and then back to Kaiser and grinned at his brilliant deduction. “So Sideos and I don’t even have reason to be there.”
    Kaiser looked down in thought. “Maybe I should break in and cause a diversion while you two get in and then back me up. Does that sound good?” He looked up, and as he had thought, Sideos had a problem with the ‘amazing’ plan.
    “Woah, woah, woah!” Sideos protested waving both razor sharp claws around to halt the idea from coming into his general vicinity. “You can’t steal all the glory and use me as a back up guy. I was the one who bloody informed you that your ‘true love’,” Sideos went so far as to add air quotation marks, since he really didn’t believe there was such a thing, and he also said the phrase with some sort of mocking malice. “Was even captured. If it wasn’t for me, you would have never even known!”
    “Well then, I’ll make sure you can be in the center spotlight since that’s the only thing that can get you off other than the drugs of mein horigkeit kätzchen!” Kaiser snapped in retaliation, and in mentioning the whole incident with Sirra and Sideos, Kaiser’s anger began to rise again. Sideos was about to speak and looked as if he might seriously hurt Kaiser, but Groove decided to step in.
    “This isn’t a day time talk show! We’re trying to save Sirra! Can’t you focus?!” He demanded in his tiny voice, which was about as loud as it could get and still sounded like it was the voice of a smeet. Kaiser growled loudly and stared back at the compound in anger.
    “We’ll have to follow Kaiser’s plan. It’s better than anything we’ve come up with so far.” Groove looked up to Sideos, who did not look satisfied at the idea of taking Kaiser’s plan, so Groove decided it would be best to entice him. “Kaiser’s causing the distraction, Sideos. He has more of a chance of getting hurt.”
    Sideos’s nasty grin of satisfaction was the last signal Groove needed to know that it was time to move out.

~
    Rhytt knew he was close. So close to finding out. He didn’t even have to ask her, the poor masochistic rapist looked like she would burst at any moment. She was already crying and had called for Kaiser multiple times, only to be met by Rhytt’s calm response of, “Kaiser ain’t comin’ for you, darlin’.”
    Of course, Rhytt had miscalculated when he had said that.
    Sirra could barely even think about anything other than sorrow and the absolute need for death. She had underestimated the power of the remote and had been through just about 10 hallucinations within 24 hours, which was more than enough.
    Sirra had no idea what was happening. She couldn’t see, everything was… everywhere. Up was down, left was right. She felt like she could fly away from this place and yet she felt like she was falling at rapid speeds.
    At first, they had just been bizarre and slightly disturbing, but then they turned sour fast, and in a swirling vortex of depression, hatred and fear. It took each sense and made the sensations most unpleasant, and almost horrifying. It was as if her mind was turning against her and making her worst fears a reality with a taste for limitless and convoluted images that disturbed her. Even as a killer, she had to admit that there was no worse arsenal than the one that Rhytt had laid in front of her.
    “Are you ready for another go, Missy? Or you could just say where your unreliable ex-beau is.” He studied Sirra as she just refused to give in, despite all of the tears she had been shedding, despite the fact that if Rhytt wanted, he could make things much, much more worse for her. This killer just wouldn’t name the location of her ex-lover. He was getting sick of waiting.
    Rhytt swung his legs off the table and stood up, slamming a hand down on the table, about to stop being so ‘kind’ to his captive when the sound of an explosion sounded and echoed through the halls of the compound and then raced back down to the owner that had released the sound. “What in hellfire--?!” He said quietly and pushed himself away from the table, slowly striding towards the door to find out the source, but someone else had reached it before he did.
    “Rhytt! They’re here!” The also very southern voice of a female was accompanied by the visage of an Irken female with pink eyes, freckles and softly curled rather short antennae. She wore a short-sleeved black tight shirt that fell on her shoulders. Her pants were bell-bottoms and black as well, and her boots had a dramatically pointed toe. She wore little make up and her antennae were decorated with clips to match the bangles on her wrists.
    Rhytt tipped his hat and looked up to the female with a slightly concerned expression. “Who’s ‘they’, Lette?” He inquired, sounding slightly concerned over the distraught female.
    “It’s Kaiser, Rhytt. And he’s got company!” She said loudly. Rhytt looked over to Sirra before looking back at Lette and spoke in a hushed voice.
    “Are you damn sure, Lette?” He asked and when she nodded vigorously, he sighed and put one hand on his hip, tipping his hat again. “You had best go to the back room an’ get yourself somthin’ to fight with, darlin’.”
    Sirra couldn’t tell what was being said around her. Everything was swimming and the tiniest sounds seemed like it was being screamed into her antennae. She felt like throwing up and whatever sense was left in her told her she probably had by now.
    Nightmares… things of utmost horror… terror from the blackest parts of the universe… all around her… clawing at her body… whispering in her antennae… nipping at her skin… their deathly coldness creeping over her body…
    She couldn’t breathe, something was strangling her, something was cutting air off from around her. Something was pulling her through the floor, something was forcing things to move through her veins, something was pulling her teeth out and blowing up inside her throat and pressing needles into her eyelids and sending suns into her spoonch and stretching her limbs across the universe.
    No one could save her, nothing could help her, she was alone and worthless and death was breathing on her, ready to swallow her whole.

~
   There wasn’t much for Groove, Sideos and Kaiser to be impressed about upon entering the compound. Sideos had been disappointed by the lack of enemies, and complained loudly, asking where the challenge was.  Groove thrust his arm up into the air and yelled in victory.
    “WE CHASED THEM OFF! OR BLEW THEM UP!” He grinned and giggled like a child, rubbing his hands together evilly at the thought of one of his Disco Bombs making a direct hit and causing body parts to fly as they were forcefully ripped from their owners’ bodies.
    “Nein…” Kaiser said slowly and looked around, tense and ready to fend off an attack in an instant. There was no way that they could just waltz in, get Sirra and waltz back out. Things just didn’t happen like that, it was too simple. Even the smallest tasks preformed by those in the Irken Law Enforcement  were highly complex.
    Groove’s expression dropped and he ‘awww’ed in disappointment and his expression dropped as he saw Kaiser’s disapproving gaze at his over enthusiasm.
    Kaiser shifted his gaze to Sideos, who also seemed to not believe that rescuing Sirra would be so easy either. Kaiser took a moment to really study Sideos, unable to pinpoint what exactly was different about him, but it was unmistakable that there was a distinct change. Kaiser knew he shouldn’t have been trying to figure out what had happened to Sideos, and part of Kaiser said that he knew and didn’t need to ask anymore questions.
    Sideos glared over at Kaiser as he realized he was being studied. “What?!”
    “Nichts!” Kaiser spat back, becoming annoyed at the very sound of Sideos’s voice. “Just thinking about how much of a bastard you are.”
    Sideos growled in annoyance, but before he could respond, Groove yet again stepped in, not wanting another argument to curse the group.
    “Guys! We have to find Sirra!” Groove reminded Kaiser and Sideos enthusiastically, “We have to stay on task, especially since we don’t know what’s happening to her. We should focus on trying to save her and not insulting each other.”
    This seemed to kick Kaiser in gear and he shifted his attention down the main ward. Without a word, he lead the three down the long corridor named the “Mänzen Ward”.
    They hadn’t walked 3 feet into the corridor before Sideos’s antennae flicked in annoyance at the disturbance of a noise and he spun around just in time to avoid the single bullet blast that had originated from the gun of the irken female that had informed her boss of the attack, the irken who went by the name of Lette.
    She was crouched on some sort of ledge that had once held a large TV, and she was holding a gun pointed straight at the three with an unemotional face like some sort of assassinator who had just killed a target. Though when she realized that she had missed, she blinked and her brow furrowed in frustration.
    Kaiser and Groove joined to look up at the girl and Kaiser sighed in frustration and was about to pull his gun out, but much to his surprise, the girl stood up in a rather odd fashion, and her smile was rather light and almost ‘whispy’. She slowly raised her arm and pointed at Sideos and stared at him unblinkingly. “I want to fight him. Sideos and ah have unfinished biz’ness.”
    “I’ve never even fucking seen you!” Sideos yelled at her, pointing a finger back at her.
    “He RAPED you, didn’t he?!” Kaiser injected loudly, now pointing at Sideos, but looking at Lette with an intense expression. “Gott, Sideos, du bist eine Dirne.”
    “For the last bloody fucking time, I AM NOT A RAPIST!” Sideos screamed in Kaiser’s direction. “WHY DO PEOPLE KEEP SAYING THAT?!”
    “If it weren’t for you, none of this would have EVER happened! I HOPE YOUR CHILD is a FAILURE to society!” Kaiser yelled back, and his anger, yet again, rose to beyond it’s normal threshold and he usually could tolerate without throwing something around.
    Sideos was also nearing a similar threshold and it could be seen engraved in the expression he held. His teeth were clenched so tightly, they may have shattered and he flexed his razor sharp claws, itching to plunge them into Kaiser’s chest to rip out and hold up in victory, a still beating heart.
    “Guys. Common. Common guys. Common. We have to focus. Guys.” Groove repeated with little avail and emotion to relieve the tension that could be physically seen between Kaiser and Sideos. He was growing tired of playing referee.
    “’AY! Ah’m RAIGHT HERE! It’s not proper to ignore a lady!” Lette yelled from the ledge, now quite annoyed that she was being ignored and not taken seriously. This was met by Kaiser’s glare and childish retort.
    “HE RAPED YOU! I’m DEFENDING YOU! You took mein Sirra, and I’m defending you! You should THANK ME.” Kaiser yelled desperately, and then his senses kicked in and he realized that arguing with Sideos wasn’t going to do him any good, and standing around would do even less good. “Groove! Hold any others off that come in. I have to go find Sirra!” He said quickly, taking off down the ward before Sideos could again claim that he didn’t rape anyone.
    “I DIDN’T--! YEAH, FUCK YOU TOO, KAI-BOY!” Sideos yelled after Kaiser before Groove grabbed Sideos’s wrist to get his attention and pointed up at Lette. “DON’T touch me!” He snapped, pulling his arm out of Groove’s reach and brushing it for germs with a disgusted face.
    Lette jumped down off the ledge, but instead of straightening in an odd fashion like she had before, she simply lunged for an attack at Sideos. Though she had caught him off guard, he made little effort in counter attacking and dodging. Not much effort had to be applied, needless to say, the girl seemed to have no experience other than standard conscription fighting skills, which certainly made it easy.
    Sideos caught a punch with the palm of his hand and then quickly shifted to grab her wrist. He twisted it around to the best of his abilities, all the while making sure that he didn’t somehow cut himself in the movement, and easily knocked her to the ground by swinging his leg down on her back and having his boot come to a rest upon her spine. He held her wrist up and wore a smile of victory. “Bounty hunters, eh? Aren’t too good at it, are you now?”
    Groove giggled and was easily entertained by the display of pain and the suffering of Lette, though surprisingly, she didn’t look all to phased. She looked rather smug.
    “They didn’t say a great deal about ‘chore stupidity. You’ve made this perdy easy for me.” She grinned and observed Sideos’s blank and confused expression before he noticed something upon her and immediately withdrew his hand and foot, swearing loudly.
    Lette popped her wrist back into place and looked up, grinning at Sideos. “Neat, ain’t it?” She stood up and revealed the bottoms of her arms to both Groove and Sideos. “It’s brilliant, no? It’s an acrylic flexible layer of skin, and guess what’s in it, boys?” She grinned even more at the silence. “Nothin’ but loads of electrons. Contact with it and it might take awhile, but it’ll shell shock ya.”
    Sideos looked from his wrist to the girl, and growled, “I touch you… I get shocked…” He smirked and a very dangerous look came into his eye, the kind of look that said you’d be suffering before the end, “You know, there’s more than one way to skin an irken…and I know,” He grinned a little wider, “I’ve experimented.”

Description
All’s Fair

Chapter Twelve: Electro~negativity Reigns

~
    By the time Sirra had awoken, she was in a different room then the one she had fallen asleep in. This room was brighter, and there were more lights on the ceiling, though they were of horrible flickering quality. She was sitting at a table, and she was strapped down to the rather uncomfortable chair. The cushions weren’t even the slightest bit soft and her wrists were locked to the arm rests. At least she could move her feet, but she felt too drowsy to really move.
    All she could see was the distorted figure of Rhytt, whom she felt like killing. What was worse is that he didn’t utter a word-he just stared, which bothered her even more.
    After a few minutes, she made a proper evaluation of her setting, and had been correct that Rhytt was across the table with his feet propped up and his hands folded and resting on his middle. The room was a stained off-whitish colour and had no decorations, save for the horrible yellow table and the chairs atop the black and white tiled floor. It didn’t take long for her to deduct that it was some sort of interrogation room, and immediately, dread began to fill her.
    She looked up and stared straight at Rhytt with a front that could have made people swear that she was ready for anything that could be thrown at her. But anyone who truly knew Sirra, knew that she was a very good liar. Obviously, Rhytt had studied this.
    “Ain’t you a littl’ ray o’ sunshine after that catnap.” He said in sarcasm, observing that Sirra was obviously extremely displeased with him. He nodded to her, as if to gesture, “It would do you a whole lotta good, Missy, if you just went on ahead and said the location of your bee-loved Kaiser. It would save us both a heap o’ trouble.”
    Sirra just continued to glare at her captor, doing her best to keep an angry expression and trying to calm herself by saying that someone would have to come save her.  She hoped it would be Kaiser, but something told her that she couldn’t count on him. He had long said that he wouldn’t ever do anything for her again. And that meant he wouldn’t come save her when she needed him the most. This trail of thought only lead to depression, and while she knew what was coming, she couldn’t help but think that she wished that by some miracle Kaiser would come to her rescue.
    “I would have thought you would have planned this out better. You’ve said it yourself that you know Kai left me 7 months ago. I don’t know how you expect him to show up which would be the only way you’d find him. I would never utter the name of where he is.”
    In his lab in his house on Irk’s 9th moon, which was located in the 7th sector of the planet in  a very ritzy and secluded neighborhood. Sirra knew exactly where Kaiser was, or so she thought, but there was no way she’d ever tell Rhytt. They could take her, after all, she could barely care—she had been on her way to death, but taking away Kaiser and locking him up again was something she wasn’t going to drag Kaiser into. She had already caused so many problems for him, and she vowed she wouldn’t cause another.
    Rhytt looked at an object that had been previously hidden by he hands and he looked at it fondly and tossed it up in the air and caught it with a smirk. “Do ya know what this right here is, Missy?”
    Sirra stared at it with an annoyed and puzzled expression. “It’s a remote.” She said blankly before adding on sarcastically, “It’s a remote that will blow up this compound and me with it. If that’s the case, go on and press the button quickly.”
    Rhytt chuckled and observed the device. He had been surprised that she hadn’t noticed the electrodes placed on her temples, but then again, the woman across from him was broken, disoriented and severely drugged on sedatives. “Unfortunately not. You see them electrodes right there?” He pointed to the small objects stuck to Sirra’s temples.
    Sirra looked up fruitlessly. “No! I can’t see, you moron.” She growled, causing Rhytt to again, chuckle at her unorthodox way of speaking.
    “Well, wit the press of a button and the switch of a dial, ah control the rate at which your new-rons fire in your brain. When too many of them fire, do you have the slightest of what happens?” He watched Sirra’s puzzled expression and guessed she didn’t. Rhytt smiled again and looked down to the remote to fiddle with the dial that controlled the intensity of firing neurons.
    “Well, your brain’d be overwhelmed, would it not? And in that, it’d try ‘n’ make sense of all the firin’ new-rons. It’d send you into hallucination fits.”
    Sirra blinked and tried her best to stay completely blank faced. It didn’t take her long to realize that if it sent her into hallucinations, she’d be even more disoriented and confused than she already was. Not to mention, in her state, she’d have no idea what they would be like, whether it would be absolutely psychedelic or completely horrific. A pang of fear caused her to twitch slightly.
    She swallowed and tried to think of something happy, anything happy, perhaps even anger. If she felt rage, perhaps she would forget that she was so upset. She stared at Ryhtt and put on her brave face, though she was positive it wouldn’t last for long. But there was no harm in one last great act before the curtain closed. “Bring on your worst.”
    Rhytt grinned and spun the dial all the way up. It was going to be one hell of a show.

~
    “What’s the plan to get in?” The high-pitched squeak of Groove poked through and the small irken looked down at the prison from the hiding spot that he had picked since Kaiser and Sideos couldn’t agree on where to plan out an attack. Groove was excited and ready to go like a child hyped up on sugar. He wore his typical bell-bottomed pants and large silver peace medallion, but his shirt was now a swirling hurricane of deep green and blue.
    “Quiet, Groove.” Kaiser snapped and then examined the abandoned and dark looking compound, thinking about which way would prove to be the most economical way for the group to get inside without being detected. From the out side, it didn’t look like they would be getting in very easy, at least not without breaking in.
    Kaiser had dressed especially for the occasion in his very best, which consisted of the pants to his former lieutenant uniform with his shiny boots reaching his knees and a black un-tucked collared shirt with the first few buttons unbuttoned. Over this, he wore a black coat lined with gray fur, which added a hint of elegancy to his wardrobe. There wasn’t any argument-if Kaiser was going to take Sirra back in, he’d have to look his best. And he also felt the need to look cool if he was going to kick bounty hunter ass.
    Sideos was getting bored of waiting and watching. His plan of action had been dismissed by both Groove and Kaiser though, so he was forced to sit and stare at the abandoned prison while Kaiser twiddled his thumbs and wasted time trying to think of a plan. Sideos stood up and glared down at Kaiser. “I’m sick of fucking waiting around!” He stated the obvious, causing both Kaiser and Groove to stare up at him.
    “You can’t just waltz in there, Sideos. We need a plan, these things take time and method! Especially with this group. They’re just as twisted as us and I would suppose they’re expecting us.” Kaiser said in an annoyed tone.
    “No!” Groove injected, holding up a finger into the air and proclaiming with a childish voice, “They’re expecting you, Kai! Not me or Sideos! Why else do you think they would have captured Sirra?” He looked from Kaiser to Sideos and then back to Kaiser and grinned at his brilliant deduction. “So Sideos and I don’t even have reason to be there.”
    Kaiser looked down in thought. “Maybe I should break in and cause a diversion while you two get in and then back me up. Does that sound good?” He looked up, and as he had thought, Sideos had a problem with the ‘amazing’ plan.
    “Woah, woah, woah!” Sideos protested waving both razor sharp claws around to halt the idea from coming into his general vicinity. “You can’t steal all the glory and use me as a back up guy. I was the one who bloody informed you that your ‘true love’,” Sideos went so far as to add air quotation marks, since he really didn’t believe there was such a thing, and he also said the phrase with some sort of mocking malice. “Was even captured. If it wasn’t for me, you would have never even known!”
    “Well then, I’ll make sure you can be in the center spotlight since that’s the only thing that can get you off other than the drugs of mein horigkeit kätzchen!” Kaiser snapped in retaliation, and in mentioning the whole incident with Sirra and Sideos, Kaiser’s anger began to rise again. Sideos was about to speak and looked as if he might seriously hurt Kaiser, but Groove decided to step in.
    “This isn’t a day time talk show! We’re trying to save Sirra! Can’t you focus?!” He demanded in his tiny voice, which was about as loud as it could get and still sounded like it was the voice of a smeet. Kaiser growled loudly and stared back at the compound in anger.
    “We’ll have to follow Kaiser’s plan. It’s better than anything we’ve come up with so far.” Groove looked up to Sideos, who did not look satisfied at the idea of taking Kaiser’s plan, so Groove decided it would be best to entice him. “Kaiser’s causing the distraction, Sideos. He has more of a chance of getting hurt.”
    Sideos’s nasty grin of satisfaction was the last signal Groove needed to know that it was time to move out.

~
    Rhytt knew he was close. So close to finding out. He didn’t even have to ask her, the poor masochistic rapist looked like she would burst at any moment. She was already crying and had called for Kaiser multiple times, only to be met by Rhytt’s calm response of, “Kaiser ain’t comin’ for you, darlin’.”
    Of course, Rhytt had miscalculated when he had said that.
    Sirra could barely even think about anything other than sorrow and the absolute need for death. She had underestimated the power of the remote and had been through just about 10 hallucinations within 24 hours, which was more than enough.
    Sirra had no idea what was happening. She couldn’t see, everything was… everywhere. Up was down, left was right. She felt like she could fly away from this place and yet she felt like she was falling at rapid speeds.
    At first, they had just been bizarre and slightly disturbing, but then they turned sour fast, and in a swirling vortex of depression, hatred and fear. It took each sense and made the sensations most unpleasant, and almost horrifying. It was as if her mind was turning against her and making her worst fears a reality with a taste for limitless and convoluted images that disturbed her. Even as a killer, she had to admit that there was no worse arsenal than the one that Rhytt had laid in front of her.
    “Are you ready for another go, Missy? Or you could just say where your unreliable ex-beau is.” He studied Sirra as she just refused to give in, despite all of the tears she had been shedding, despite the fact that if Rhytt wanted, he could make things much, much more worse for her. This killer just wouldn’t name the location of her ex-lover. He was getting sick of waiting.
    Rhytt swung his legs off the table and stood up, slamming a hand down on the table, about to stop being so ‘kind’ to his captive when the sound of an explosion sounded and echoed through the halls of the compound and then raced back down to the owner that had released the sound. “What in hellfire--?!” He said quietly and pushed himself away from the table, slowly striding towards the door to find out the source, but someone else had reached it before he did.
    “Rhytt! They’re here!” The also very southern voice of a female was accompanied by the visage of an Irken female with pink eyes, freckles and softly curled rather short antennae. She wore a short-sleeved black tight shirt that fell on her shoulders. Her pants were bell-bottoms and black as well, and her boots had a dramatically pointed toe. She wore little make up and her antennae were decorated with clips to match the bangles on her wrists.
    Rhytt tipped his hat and looked up to the female with a slightly concerned expression. “Who’s ‘they’, Lette?” He inquired, sounding slightly concerned over the distraught female.
    “It’s Kaiser, Rhytt. And he’s got company!” She said loudly. Rhytt looked over to Sirra before looking back at Lette and spoke in a hushed voice.
    “Are you damn sure, Lette?” He asked and when she nodded vigorously, he sighed and put one hand on his hip, tipping his hat again. “You had best go to the back room an’ get yourself somthin’ to fight with, darlin’.”
    Sirra couldn’t tell what was being said around her. Everything was swimming and the tiniest sounds seemed like it was being screamed into her antennae. She felt like throwing up and whatever sense was left in her told her she probably had by now.
    Nightmares… things of utmost horror… terror from the blackest parts of the universe… all around her… clawing at her body… whispering in her antennae… nipping at her skin… their deathly coldness creeping over her body…
    She couldn’t breathe, something was strangling her, something was cutting air off from around her. Something was pulling her through the floor, something was forcing things to move through her veins, something was pulling her teeth out and blowing up inside her throat and pressing needles into her eyelids and sending suns into her spoonch and stretching her limbs across the universe.
    No one could save her, nothing could help her, she was alone and worthless and death was breathing on her, ready to swallow her whole.

~
   There wasn’t much for Groove, Sideos and Kaiser to be impressed about upon entering the compound. Sideos had been disappointed by the lack of enemies, and complained loudly, asking where the challenge was.  Groove thrust his arm up into the air and yelled in victory.
    “WE CHASED THEM OFF! OR BLEW THEM UP!” He grinned and giggled like a child, rubbing his hands together evilly at the thought of one of his Disco Bombs making a direct hit and causing body parts to fly as they were forcefully ripped from their owners’ bodies.
    “Nein…” Kaiser said slowly and looked around, tense and ready to fend off an attack in an instant. There was no way that they could just waltz in, get Sirra and waltz back out. Things just didn’t happen like that, it was too simple. Even the smallest tasks preformed by those in the Irken Law Enforcement  were highly complex.
    Groove’s expression dropped and he ‘awww’ed in disappointment and his expression dropped as he saw Kaiser’s disapproving gaze at his over enthusiasm.
    Kaiser shifted his gaze to Sideos, who also seemed to not believe that rescuing Sirra would be so easy either. Kaiser took a moment to really study Sideos, unable to pinpoint what exactly was different about him, but it was unmistakable that there was a distinct change. Kaiser knew he shouldn’t have been trying to figure out what had happened to Sideos, and part of Kaiser said that he knew and didn’t need to ask anymore questions.
    Sideos glared over at Kaiser as he realized he was being studied. “What?!”
    “Nichts!” Kaiser spat back, becoming annoyed at the very sound of Sideos’s voice. “Just thinking about how much of a bastard you are.”
    Sideos growled in annoyance, but before he could respond, Groove yet again stepped in, not wanting another argument to curse the group.
    “Guys! We have to find Sirra!” Groove reminded Kaiser and Sideos enthusiastically, “We have to stay on task, especially since we don’t know what’s happening to her. We should focus on trying to save her and not insulting each other.”
    This seemed to kick Kaiser in gear and he shifted his attention down the main ward. Without a word, he lead the three down the long corridor named the “Mänzen Ward”.
    They hadn’t walked 3 feet into the corridor before Sideos’s antennae flicked in annoyance at the disturbance of a noise and he spun around just in time to avoid the single bullet blast that had originated from the gun of the irken female that had informed her boss of the attack, the irken who went by the name of Lette.
    She was crouched on some sort of ledge that had once held a large TV, and she was holding a gun pointed straight at the three with an unemotional face like some sort of assassinator who had just killed a target. Though when she realized that she had missed, she blinked and her brow furrowed in frustration.
    Kaiser and Groove joined to look up at the girl and Kaiser sighed in frustration and was about to pull his gun out, but much to his surprise, the girl stood up in a rather odd fashion, and her smile was rather light and almost ‘whispy’. She slowly raised her arm and pointed at Sideos and stared at him unblinkingly. “I want to fight him. Sideos and ah have unfinished biz’ness.”
    “I’ve never even fucking seen you!” Sideos yelled at her, pointing a finger back at her.
    “He RAPED you, didn’t he?!” Kaiser injected loudly, now pointing at Sideos, but looking at Lette with an intense expression. “Gott, Sideos, du bist eine Dirne.”
    “For the last bloody fucking time, I AM NOT A RAPIST!” Sideos screamed in Kaiser’s direction. “WHY DO PEOPLE KEEP SAYING THAT?!”
    “If it weren’t for you, none of this would have EVER happened! I HOPE YOUR CHILD is a FAILURE to society!” Kaiser yelled back, and his anger, yet again, rose to beyond it’s normal threshold and he usually could tolerate without throwing something around.
    Sideos was also nearing a similar threshold and it could be seen engraved in the expression he held. His teeth were clenched so tightly, they may have shattered and he flexed his razor sharp claws, itching to plunge them into Kaiser’s chest to rip out and hold up in victory, a still beating heart.
    “Guys. Common. Common guys. Common. We have to focus. Guys.” Groove repeated with little avail and emotion to relieve the tension that could be physically seen between Kaiser and Sideos. He was growing tired of playing referee.
    “’AY! Ah’m RAIGHT HERE! It’s not proper to ignore a lady!” Lette yelled from the ledge, now quite annoyed that she was being ignored and not taken seriously. This was met by Kaiser’s glare and childish retort.
    “HE RAPED YOU! I’m DEFENDING YOU! You took mein Sirra, and I’m defending you! You should THANK ME.” Kaiser yelled desperately, and then his senses kicked in and he realized that arguing with Sideos wasn’t going to do him any good, and standing around would do even less good. “Groove! Hold any others off that come in. I have to go find Sirra!” He said quickly, taking off down the ward before Sideos could again claim that he didn’t rape anyone.
    “I DIDN’T--! YEAH, FUCK YOU TOO, KAI-BOY!” Sideos yelled after Kaiser before Groove grabbed Sideos’s wrist to get his attention and pointed up at Lette. “DON’T touch me!” He snapped, pulling his arm out of Groove’s reach and brushing it for germs with a disgusted face.
    Lette jumped down off the ledge, but instead of straightening in an odd fashion like she had before, she simply lunged for an attack at Sideos. Though she had caught him off guard, he made little effort in counter attacking and dodging. Not much effort had to be applied, needless to say, the girl seemed to have no experience other than standard conscription fighting skills, which certainly made it easy.
    Sideos caught a punch with the palm of his hand and then quickly shifted to grab her wrist. He twisted it around to the best of his abilities, all the while making sure that he didn’t somehow cut himself in the movement, and easily knocked her to the ground by swinging his leg down on her back and having his boot come to a rest upon her spine. He held her wrist up and wore a smile of victory. “Bounty hunters, eh? Aren’t too good at it, are you now?”
    Groove giggled and was easily entertained by the display of pain and the suffering of Lette, though surprisingly, she didn’t look all to phased. She looked rather smug.
    “They didn’t say a great deal about ‘chore stupidity. You’ve made this perdy easy for me.” She grinned and observed Sideos’s blank and confused expression before he noticed something upon her and immediately withdrew his hand and foot, swearing loudly.
    Lette popped her wrist back into place and looked up, grinning at Sideos. “Neat, ain’t it?” She stood up and revealed the bottoms of her arms to both Groove and Sideos. “It’s brilliant, no? It’s an acrylic flexible layer of skin, and guess what’s in it, boys?” She grinned even more at the silence. “Nothin’ but loads of electrons. Contact with it and it might take awhile, but it’ll shell shock ya.”
    Sideos looked from his wrist to the girl, and growled, “I touch you… I get shocked…” He smirked and a very dangerous look came into his eye, the kind of look that said you’d be suffering before the end, “You know, there’s more than one way to skin an irken…and I know,” He grinned a little wider, “I’ve experimented.”