Chapter 12: Captain Topaz

A humorous new character arises, and so does a new world.

Time passed slowly. I had to do some physical therapy, but other than that, boredom filled my days. At least there was no more visits from demon man. I now had nightmares about him, and his soulless eyes. A deep hate for EG(what I call the Eastern Government) burned deep in my mind. I let all this anger flood Blaze's mind too. He had been captured, but was knocked out before he had time to do something dumb and get seriously hurt. He said that he was holed up in a dormitory with a team of other hybrids, led by a girl named Topaz. The pack was there. He said he wasn't allowed to leave the room. He warmed up with the others, but didn't move onto anything else.

I dreaded and yearned for the day when I would be okay and get to be with everyone else. The day came at last. My wrist was a little weak, but healed. My tail healed without even as much as a scar to tell it had been hurt. Armed guards filled the room, assault guns trained on me. I felt a glimmer of pride at the idea that they thought they needed guards to make me go with them.

I was led down a narrow hall, and through a door, believe it or not, was a room that was not white! It was metal. Shiny and hard. It was large and circular, with a with a smaller circle etched into the ground at the middle. The rest of the room had doors that branched off in different directions. They took me to room number three. Before I went in, a guard whipped out a syringe, and jabbed into my weak wrist. I cried out more in shock than in pain. A flash of blue glowed for a moment under my skin, the went out. I stared at my wrist in the hope that I might see the glow again, so I could identify it. No luck.

The door was opened for me, and I stepped tentatively into the room. I was shocked. It was colorful! So colorful! I hadn't seen this much color in days! Tears filled my eyes. Each bed had unique sheets and pillows, with the wall next to the beds painted into a picture for a specific person. Was it a trick? A minor way to manipulate us farther? Offering luxuries in exchange for loyalty? I discarded the the thought and marveled at the rainbow that was the room. The beauty was interrupted when a girl jumped right in front of me.

“Agh!” I shrieked, embarrassed at being totally off guard.

“Hi,” she began, talking fast so I couldn't get a word in. “My name is Topaz. That's Captain Topaz for rookies like you!”

“No it's not!” cried a familiar voice, an irritated voice of an older kid.

I examined Topaz closely. She was a pretty girl, with white blond hair hanging straight at her chin. Oddly purple eyes showed endless energy, and her face was narrow with a smile that stretched from ear to ear. She moved quickly while trying to maintain an important air about her. She seemed a little unfocused and scatterbrained, though.

“Shut up Magma!” she called. “You'll have your bed over there, between Lark's and Blaze's bed.” she said, going back to me. “I don't think I have to introduce them do I?” she winked and walked off, falling down halfway across the room. She got up and looked around, hoping that not too many kids saw, then continued walking, trying her best to keep dignified, failing when a kid stuck out his foot and tripped her. She glared at him when she stood up, then continued on her way.

I made my way over to my bed. My bedsheets were a brilliant blue, with silver drops on it that looked like tiny water droplets, an my pillow was silver colored too. The picture next to my bed was perfect. It was a silver background. Tiny drops of water decorated it. Painted ones, of course. I was exhausted, and wanted desperately to lie down, but I had to get the pack together first.

It wasn't hard to find Magma, Lark, and Blaze. They knew where some of the others were, because they'd been here awhile. While we were searching for the others, Lark told me that she and Remora went to train together everyday. She wouldn't give me any details, because she said she wasn't allowed to. Magma too had been training, but by himself. A question sprang to mind.

“Hey Magma, how come we never see your Link?” I asked.

Magma answered slowly. “She died trying to escape.”

We settled into an uncomfortable silence. Escape would be terribly risky. I decided to break the silence when we found Ink and Spark sitting next to each other on what I guess was Spark's bed. It had hot pink sheets, speckled with shiny sparks. The picture next to it was black with a red heart in the middle. Very simple. Spark jumped up when she saw me, and a big grin spread across Ink's face. Spark started talking.

“Hi! I didn't know if you'd come back! Blaze said you were okay, and I believed him, kind of, I mean, how would he know, but that didn't have anything to do with your return. Did you get hurt?” I started to answer, but she never let me. “Ink had a deep scratch on her arm that ran from her palm to her elbow, and she was gone for a little bit! I know she got hurt because she told me with her mi- I mean... she told me when she got back!”

I was annoyed. “Are you done yet?” I asked, trying to sound like I really wanted her to stop.

“Yeah. Ink, come say hi!”

Ink walked up to me. “Hi. Nice to see you back. You haven't developed, I don't know, any strange abilities, have you?” she asked me. What? That was random. What strange powers? Now that I thought about, Spark had acted rather strange when I talked to her. Or rather she talked to me.

“Uh...no. What kind of 'powers' are you talking about?” I asked.

“I don't know. Do you ever, um, hear voices from people you, uh, know in your head?” she said, carefully choosing her words. She must have been asking about the mind-speaking. “Yeah,” I replied, not seeing any reason why I should hide the fact. “I can.” Ink nodded but didn't say anything else.

“Hey,” said Spark, trying to change subject, “You must be looking for the others. They're not here right now, except for Mist and Thunderbolt.” I smiled in acknowledgement. I hurried off, not wanting to stay there.

I waited for everyone to arrive. Besides Ink and I, both Shatter and Shadow were injured while being sent here.

Wherever here was.

I got everyone together by my bed, and checked them all.

“Lark, has anything strange happened you lately?” I asked her.

“If you mean being able to talk to Remora no matter where I was, then yeah.” came her reply.

“I guess your answer covers both you and Remora. Moving on. Ink?”

“I think you should have already guessed it from our early conversation.”

“O-kay. Spark, do you have anything to add?”

“No. Unless you count this one time when I woke up on the floor.”

“That's not strange. I used to wake up like that all the time.” I shot a glance at Magma. “Shatter, what about you?”

“I'll use Lark's answer, if you don't mind.”

“Shadow? You?”

“Yes, actually, something odd did happen to me. My scar glowed orange when I went to training one day.”

I stared at him like he had a screw loose. “What?” I asked.

“My scar glowed in training yesterday.” he repeated.

“You never told me that!” shouted Shatter. “You told Silver, but not the alpha of the pack?!”

“Shut up, Shatter. We'll deal with that later. Let's handle Shadow's problem first.” I broke in. “Let's have some more details Shadow.”

“ Uh... That pretty much covers everything. It glowed for a brief moment, then it stopped.” great. That was another problem I had to deal with. Everyone else was normal, and I felt pretty hopeless. Escape constantly seemed farther and farther away.

“Meeting over.” I said exhaustedly, and with that I laid down on my bed. However, just before I fell asleep, I thought I saw the shadow of a cat hybrid.

Author's Note

No comment.