Chapter 26 (redone)

Kyle

I don’t know what happened with the portal. I felt nothing. All I remember is going through the Assembly door, and waking up tied to a chair.

Unfortunately for me, I didn’t realize that I was tied up. I tried to stand, but only succeeded in nearly tipping said chair over.

When I finally do realize the situation, I fight off a panic attack, and then start checking in on my Team members. I find Llare, Kelta, Lorik, and Rona quickly, but there is absolutely no trace of anyone else.

We are all tied to pretty standard wooden chairs, arranged in a circle. Obviously our captors don’t know that we were Inborns. Good for us. Escape should be pretty easy.

Of course Lorik has to butt in. Don’t draw—I finish the rest for him. Don’t draw conclusions until I’m totally sure of the situation. How could I possibly forget? He’s been drilling that into my head ever since I started my Training five years ago, and even more since I came to the School. I don’t hear him mercilessly burning principles into Krystal’s brain constantly.

My walk down memory lane is interrupted by a door behind me opening. I can’t see them, but I hear men walk in. They are wearing heavy boots, probably military issue. From the footsteps, I guess that there are about five of them. Five to five. Our chances are pretty good, even if Lorik and I are the only ones conscious.

A small rustle catches my attention. Rona is tied up behind me. She, along with Llare and Kelta, are just beginning to regain consciousness. I see now that we were drugged. How rude. Immediately I run a check on everyone, even though Lorik probably has already. Lorik himself has a bad cut on his arm, and Kelta has a possible concussion. Other than that, there are just a few assorted bruises and scratches.

I take all of this in within a single second. If needed, we can fight. That’s always good.

After the door slams and the boots stop making so much noise, the ringleader come to the back of the room where I am. Then he just stands there looking at me for an uncomfortably long time

“My, don’t I feel special. Nobody’s ever been so awed by my presence before,” I mutter. I hope that he isn’t the sort of baddie to try and be all scary by not talking. That’s very irritating. And yes, I would know.

“I will not sit here and play games with you, Kyle William Jameson,” he finally says.

Right away I know two things. One, he is a native of Yarco if I’m any judge of accents. Two, he got my name from a written document, likely stolen by a spy in the School. After all, no one says my name as “KEE-lee”.

“Uh, mister, for one thing, you’re not sitting. You’re standing,” I say with one of my amazing smiles.

He sets his mouth in a straight line. I’ve been around Lorik enough to know that this is a telltale sign of frustration.

“We can do this the hard way or the easy way, Jameson,” he said. His voice is like concrete; cold, hard, flat, and grey.

“Dude, you’ve been watching too many movies,” I reply. “Everybody knows that it’s cliché to use the “hard way/easy way” line. It was in last month’s issue of “Second-Rate Baddies Today,” I babble on. I’m pretty sure he doesn’t really understand anything I’m saying. Theoretically, this should cause this guy to get mad at me for being disrespectful. I happen to be very good at triggering that particular emotion, so it works. The moment he steps towards me, I give the fight signal to the Team.

It’s a madhouse in this place. For like, five seconds. Rona had already escaped her bonds and loosened mine. I have no idea how she did it; Shadow Manipulators have always been kind of mysterious like that. I spring up and pat my calve automatically for the dagger that should have been there. Of course, whoever had so rudely captured and drugged us had enough sense to take our weapons. No big deal. I plant a solid roundhouse kick in the jaw of the leader, and follow it swiftly with an uppercut to the chin.

My Team has already taken care of the four arms men. Two are dead, one is unconscious, and the other is whimpering at Lorik’s feet begging for his life. Lorik throws a questioning look at Llare. I’m a little shocked at the respect my Instructor shows to Llare, since Lorik is about a hundred levels higher than him. Llare nods his head, and Lorik brings his elbow down on the man’s temple. He’s unconscious before he knows what happened.

The ringleader is still mostly knocked out, but he’s coming around. Wow, that was fast.

Before he can start to rise, I plant my foot firmly in his throat. “Tell me what your name is, who you work for, and where we are,” I order. Normally, this is the Leader’s job, but Wynn obviously isn’t around. And the Second, Llare, can’t read minds. Actually, we don’t know if Wynn can either. He manages, though, whatever he does. Told you, Shadow Manipulators are a trip.

The man attempts to shake his head, but that’s kind of hard to do with someone’s foot on your throat. Instead he remains silent. I press harder. “Answer me NOW!” The man still won’t answer me, and I don’t have time to wait around until he changes his mind. So I take the answers by force. It’s my only choice.