Two Halves: chapter 26

yeah, chapter 26.... :3

"Bestalel, it is good to see that you are in town. I was wondering why you had gone missing," he said casually while sipping at his drink. With every gulp the contorted flesh on his neck wobbled precariously, and the knobbly protuberance that once must have been his ear shook with each gulp; once he finished he replaced the glass on the table and spoke again. "Though I don't believe I have met these two, and I would like to introduce myself formally. I am Kinzal Grobell, one of the Second Surgeons." When both Zeckle and Nicolas looked at him with confusion he sighed dramatically.

"I see you are not familiar with the ranking system of the Sixteen Surgeons. The highest ranking among us is the First Surgeon. He prefers to be unnamed, but when talked about he would like you to refer to him as Mr. Q. Then there are the Second Surgeons. Which there are two of us; I who is known as the ghoul, and the other, known as the mad doctor. With each rank the number of people in the rank doubles. One for first, two for second, four for third, and so on." he finished his speech with a smile, but scowled when he looked down at his glass. He had nearly drained it, and with one look towards his body guard sent them scrambling to refill it. After finishing with their masters glass one came over and refilled Zeckle's; which she again began to drink from in a rush.

"There is a time and a place for introductions. This is neither. I would like to simply discuss our mission briefing and be on our way. In the morning we plan to make the trip to Earth-2, and I would like to be well rested for that journey." Bestalel's voice had returned to his professional tones. His eyes were set dead locked on Kinzal's. The two men starred each other down for a long moment; finally Kinzal spoke.

"They sent people to our base, you know that." his voice was permeated with anger "One of you had to bungle something and caused Salex to send three Goliath-class humanoid mechas along with security details to my base! My men were in danger, and why? Because of one of you!" scolded Kanzil, and with a gesture one of his body guards got up and walked towards the wall once more. He pressed his hand against it to reveal another hidden compartment. This one was much larger, the size of a doorway, and instead of revealing a ice bucket it revealed a lone chair with someone strapped to it.

Nicolas recognized the cloths of the woman sitting in the chair, and despite her face being covered he immediately knew who it was. The bound figure was brought beside Kanzil's couch, and the black sack covering her face was removed. Nicolas has been correct, it was Heather who was sitting in the chair. Her eyes grew wide with panic as she spotted Nicolas, and through her gag she tried to say something. Her eyes were red rimmed from crying, and her blouse was stained with stray tears.

"We found her after they did. Turns out she was bragging about seeing someone who had a really powerful demon, and who talked about fighting Salex. Turns out she bragged to the wrong people." Kanzil got up shakily and drew a thin stiletto from his back pocket. He pressed a button in its side and the spring loaded blade jutted from the handle. He squatted down next to Heather, and she tried to squirm away from him, her eyes were locked on his melted skin.

"Turns out she is more of a fighter than they thought. Turns out she had a flash spell hidden on her, and it just so happens to turn out that she got away. That is where we come in. If Salex can get information, so can we. We picked her up off the street, and lucky for you," he indicated Nicolas with the point of his blade "They didn't get her so they could infospike her. If they had you wouldn't have any hope of getting to Earth-2. Right now they only know that you are here, not what you look like. Don't worry, we made sure of this. The Mad Doctor had a fun time with his own infospike." He chuckled as he drug the tip of the blade across her cheek. A thin line of blood leaked from wound and ran down her face; at this she broke into nearly hysterical tears. It was to much for Nicolas to endure, he was already angry from the sight of her like this because of him, but this put him over the top.

"Let her go." the words hung in the air for a moment, and there was no response, though Kanzil had stopped his blade's path on her cheek.

"I mean now!" Nicolas shouted in his fury. Tiny sparks of magical discharge curled around him, and Zeckle backed away from the sudden magical display.

"Or what? She let herself get captured by Salex. She possibly jeopardized this entire operation! It was lucky we found her when we did or she would have!" Kanzil's face grew red with his own anger. The disfigured flesh grew flushed in his wrath, and he pointed the knife towards Nicolas. Around his head a wreath of his own magical power exploded into life.

"You have no idea what it is like fighting them. You've been hiding in Earth-1 for years. Don't think we don't know. We might not know where you were hiding or what you looked like, but we know you were there! The great Alchemist head of the Flamel clan! Reduced to what? The lackey of a mod boss? We have been living through hell every moment we stayed here! Every block we gained was bought on the lives of our comrades!" He brandished his knife around sarcastically now. The blade held loosely in his hand as he brought it back and forth is mock casualness.

"You have no idea why we fight! You have no idea why we die!" with this last statement his breathing became rough, and he clutched at his throat. He dug deeply into his pocket and retrieved a emergency injector and drove it into his neck. With a sigh of relief he slumped back into his chair.

Author's Note

well, another chapter is pumped out.

Reviews

[Daniel Gardner]

Nice work. I've probably said this already, but I like your choice of names. Sounds good so far.

[Aggie Skeleton]

Do you live off cafine? It was good, I look forward to more.

[Miss Coral]

Some of this seemed a bit confusing and somewhat irrelevant, but overall, another good chapter. :)

[James Watts]

The story is moving along, but my key advice on varying your sentences still remains. And always remember that not all dialogue needs to be attributed, just not all dialogue necessarily needs anything to follow it. Structure at this point is key.

[Dutch Jr.]

Man, Zach, you're like a typing jackrabbit. Nicely done, though. You're storytelling seems to be improving a little as the story goes on.