Ehh, unlikely.
This was a tough chapter to write. *sighs*
No one really wanted to go, so they stalled by taking the long way around, outside the Castle. They chattered and frantically tried to figure out what might have happened to the remaining few members of the Jackrabbit trio.
Shinyso could not say later why he turned around, but turn he did. He shook his head and blinked a few times. Then he turned to Jack.
"Uh, I think I'm hallucinating again. At least, I hope I'm hallucinating, because if I'm not, our problems reproduced and had triplets."
"What?" Jack said, turning also. The he sighed. "Oh."
Shinyso had already seen enough of Jheran and Tephro, but apparently the feeling wasn't reciprocated. The pair of Bloodflames stood only a few feet away, and so did Lori.
Justiar didn't pause to ask questions. His hesitant manner gone, a green blaster appeared in his hand, and he fired twice. Tephro hissed as one shot glanced his shoulder. A second later Jheran, too, held a blaster - and Justiar, a look of pained realization on his face, collapsed, shot cleanly through his heart.
Jack's blaster was in his hand, but his line of fire was blocked by Acid. But Nobody was clear. Raising a hand, he sent a sphere of yellow energy spinning towards Jheran. It arrowed towards the startled Bloodflame, who twisted away too late. It speared through his side. Jheran collapsed without a sound. Stricken, Tephro released Lori and fairly flew to his friend's side.
Lori stumbled over to her friends, face ashen. By the time anyone thought to look for Tephro and Jheran, the Bloodflames were gone.
Spaz wandered around aimlessly through Irinn's deserted headquarters, wondering absently how he had gotten there. He twirled around a few times, giggled, and lurched off down a side corridor.
A green light was blinking in a room off to the side. Spaz looked around with exaggerated care, jumped when he saw his shadow, and tiptoed into the room. He was quite proud of himself - he'd only hit the wall once before finding the door.
The room was empty except for a large, refrigerator-like box, which had a large blinking green light on it. Spaz wandered up to it, tripping on his socks and landing on his face only once.
When he finally made it over, the first thing he noticed was a pad with a bunch of buttons on it. He chortled happily. He loved buttons!
He immediately began randomly hitting them, giggling happily all the while.
Abruptly the green light turned blue. Spaz squeaked in terror, ran, and hid behind the door. A moment later, he forgot what had scared him so much, and wandered out to re-investigate the box. Finally he tried the door that was attached to the front of it. With a hiss, it swung open, and Spaz's big brother fell out.
Spaz squealed in joy and proceeded to bounce up and down on Jazz's stomach until the missing hero groaned and opened one eye. When he saw Spaz avidly staring back, he immediately shut it. Spaz giggled and bounced again. Finally Jazz opened both eyes.
"Spaz, get off of me."
Spaz scrambled off and tried to do a jig. Unfortunately he tripped over his socks and did a somersault instead. Jazz shook his head and stood up.
"Let's get out of here. Lead the way, Spaz."
Spaz proceeded to lead his groggy brother in intricately random patterns around the base, becoming more and more lost and confused in the process. Finally he shrugged and stopped moving, spinning in circles instead. Jazz sighed.
"You're lost, aren't you."
Spaz chirped unhappily. Dizzy, he stopped twirling, and clung to his brother for support. Jazz rolled his eyes.
"Now what?"
After about ten minutes of more wandering around, even Spaz had to admit that he didn't know what he was doing. He tripped over his socks, plopped down, and began despondently palying with dust motes. Jazz groaned.
"Ugh ... I'm going back to bed."
A soft beeping at Spaz's belt caused the young Jackrabbit to leap straight up in shock, cracking the top of his head against the underside of Jazz's chin and crossing his eyes. The older of the duo sat down rather suddenly, blinking in surprise.
"Oooh ..."
Spaz had finally found the source of the beeping. Pulling out his commlink, he pressed random buttons until he found the right one. Jazz watched, bemused.
"You mean to say that you had that the entire time we've been wandering around this dump?"
Spaz giggled and shook the comm. Jazz sighed. "Give me that!"
He snatched the commlink hastily from Spaz, who looked horrified, huge tears welling up in his eyes. Jazz groaned. "Oh, no."
Before Spaz started truly bawling, Jazz found a carrot in his backpack and shoved it at him. Spaz immediately began playing with his new toy. Jazz activated the commlink.
"Hello?"
"Who is this?"
"Uh ... Jazz Jackrabbit."
"Jazz! This is Jack!"
"Jack? Jack who?" Jazz said blankly.
"Jack Flash, remember? Buster Tank and his satellite? Ringing any bells?"
"Ooh yeah! That Jack!"
"Ooh yeah, that Jack. Listen, are you okay?"
"Yeah, why? Where am I?"
" ... we were kinda hoping you could tell us that."
"Sorry."
"'S okay, can't be helped. I assume Spaz is there?"
Jazz glanced over at his brother, who was tugging one a sock and eating the carrot at the same time. "Yeah, you could say that."
"Okay. Stay on the line, Wizard's going to try to locate you."
Some comic relief for y'all =D
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