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“You ready Josie?” Gretty whispered as they both stood at the edge of the Hallway.
Josie stretched her arms and legs, cracking her neck before giving a wide smile. “Ready as ever!”.
Without a word they stepped through the threshold and the motionless Gawain stirred to life. Its body shook, as if knocking off rust before rushing at full speed towards the two of them.
“Remember the plan!” Gretty yelled.
“Right!”
The two ran towards the rushing Gawain, with Josie picking up speed to get ahead of Gretty. She clashed with the Gawain, as Gretty ran past their scuffle, heading towards the locked door. The Gawain noticed and whipped around, no longer interested in Josie and instead focusing on Gretty but Josie wasn’t going to let that happen. With Kinto’s help she jumped high, landing in front of the Gawain and slamming her fist into its stomach, stopping it in its tracks.
“Hey buddy she’s busy!” Josie taunted with a smirk. “You’re gonna’ have to play with me instead.”
The stoic green warrior didn’t respond but lifted his arms up high, clasping his fingers together before bringing them down to slam on Josie’s head. Instead of cracking her skull the hand stopped. Josie glanced up and smiled, realizing that Kinto had swirled around her head and like a pillow softened the blow completely.
The Gawain was clearly confused for a moment before unlocking its fingers and swinging at Josie. Each attack was swift and calculated, as if he was using his non existent eyes to track every possible opening Josie had. Problem is Josie was an experienced fighter, and this experience was shown in a fight where she didn’t have to deal with gimmicks like smoke or weird ‘suffering energy.’
“How much longer?” Josie yelled, doing her best to get a hit in while dodging the green beasts flurry of attacks.
“Just having a little trouble!” Gretty responded as she fiddled with the lock. “Shouldn’t be much longer!”
“I thought you said it would be eas-”
Josie had lost too much of her focus while yelling and it was enough to give the Gawain an opening. He reeled back one of his silver coated fists and slammed it hard into Josie’s side, sending her flying into a wall across the room. Unlike before she didn’t fall unconscious but in the moments she recovered the Gawain was already full speed towards Gretty.
“Shit!” Josie yelled, patting off the dust and wiping blood away from her mouth. “Kinto!”
She yelled for her cloud companion who quickly formed behind her, giving a boost to send Josie flying in the Gawain’s direction. In the nick of time Josie’s fist slammed into the Gawain’s back. However instead of letting the punch send it flying Josie grabbed the Gawain and let her momentum push them away from Gretty and into a wall opposite of her.
Once they hit the wall the Gawain continued punching at Josie but she grit her teeth and endured. Each hit to her side caused the world around her to fade but she did everything she could to hang on and never loosen her grip.
“How much…longer…?” Josie spoke while gritting her teeth.
“Almost! Almost there!”
The Gawain did not give up its onslaught and continued pummeling into Josie with no sign of growing tired. Josie knew that she needed to put down the green machine because a few more hits would put her down for good. She called for Kinto again who split in two behind her. Josie loosened her grip but before the Gawain could slip away she began punching him. These punches weren’t just her usuals though, each blow ricocheted off the malleable clouds behind her causing the momentum to grow faster and faster. Soon the Gawain was no longer able to keep up and each punch slammed into it with intense speed. As the punches continued Josie entered a fugue state where her only thought was beating this thing into the ground.
“I got it!” Gretty yelled as the door unlocked and clicked over.
Josie snapped out of her savage state and turned to see that the door was opened. Her head whipped back around ready to defend against whatever the Gawain had left and realized that the guard had cracked and fell to the ground. The adrenaline quickly dissipated within Josie and she was soon overtaken by exhaustion. She smiled to herself as her eyelids drooped and she fell unconscious next to the beaten Gawain.
Gretty smiled as she turned to gather her things. “Perfect, I’ll pack up quick and get us out of her-”
Strange noises were coming from behind Gretty and she turned to find that the Gawain, even in its badly beaten state had stood to its feet once again. It raised its cracked arm high, ready to slam into the already unconscious Josie. Gretty wouldn’t make it in time to stop it and screamed for Josie to wake up. She slammed her eyes, unable to watch the carnage but when she opened them again she couldn’t believe the sight.
The Gawain was unable to lay a single finger on Josie, because the other prisoners had surrounded the green monster and beat it into submission. Normally the Gawain would make quick work out of a group of weakened beastlings but in its damaged state it couldn’t react in time. The Beastlings pummeled their tormenter until it lay on the ground in pieces of green. Gretty watched in awe as the once docile workers lifted Josie’s body, carrying her with them.
“How did you know?” Gretty asked.
“You think we didn’t notice you sneaking out every night?” one of the workers asked, tossing Josie’s body over to Gretty.
“Some of us followed you, waiting to see the Gawain pummel that girl into mush but it never happened. That’s when we knew that we might finally have a way out of this place.”
Gretty couldn’t believe what she was seeing and much less what she was hearing. She thought back to her first few months captured in Cobalt Hall and how she too stood and tried to rally everyone to fight back. She remembered fighting the Gawain herself and being taunted by the others after losing miserably. Josie really was the beacon they needed to pull everyone out of this darkness. She sniffled, wiping away her forming tears before clenching her fist.
“Well what the Hell are we standing around for? Let’s get the Hell out of here!”
🌱🌱🌱
Back in the present Gretty stood proud with Josie on her shoulders. She pointed directly at Tezuka who was standing at the podium, trying his best to hold a straight face as the crowd screeched in horror. Clutching their purses and getting close to one another to protect themselves from the enraged prisoners.
“Look, they even captured and beat a young girl, those savages!” One patron yelled as he ran.
“Get Back? Aren’t those terrorists?” Someone else asked.
“Tezuka!” Gretty yelled again. “Admit to your crimes before you tarnish anymore of your family’s legacy!”
Tezuka stood there for a moment, the silence of the room was heavy. He then gave a smile before clapping his hands and turning his direction to the crowd.
“Ladies and Gentlemen, my apologies but this was meant to be a surprise. I know it’s frightening but I wanted you to see first hand what we have planned for one of our upcoming films. It’s a Prison Break for Beastlings and you can expect it in theaters this-”
Gretty then slammed her fist through one of the tables, splitting it in half and scowling at Tezuka.
“This isn’t an act. You’ve abused and used my Beastling brothers and sisters as slaves and the Ministry is complicit in your crimes.”
At this point the crowd no longer felt safe and the guests left in droves. Tezuka was now growing furious, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a bell plant to speak into. Within moments the charmings entered the Hall, brandishing guns and blades of silver, surrounding Gretty and the other prisoners.
“Stand down and give us the human girl.” One of the men with weapons spoke, tightly gripping his sword.
“The blades are silver as are the bullets loaded in the guns.” Another one chimed in.
Gretty however stood there, unmoved, completely focused on Tezuka who returned her glare. The men stood there and continued to yell out to the crowd of Beastlings but she continued to ignore them, waiting for the moment to speed past them and attack.
“Forget the girl!” Tezuka yelled out. “I have intel to say that she’s been brainwashed by the terrorists, she’s unfortunately a Beast loving lost cause.”
The Guests still in the hall trying to escape spoke amongst themselves.
“The girl’s a terrorist?” One of them whispered. “But she’s so young!”
“Tezuka is deeply connected with the Ministry so he knows things people like us would never know, he must have good reason. He even gave the savages a chance to surrender, it’s on them now.”
Without further hesitation the soldiers attacked. Gretty dodged and kicked away what she could while trying to keep Josie safe, which was no cake walk. The Beastlings outnumbered the crown wearing guards two to one and while the silver was still just as deadly, in the hands of normal men and not on the fists of green super soldiers, it was a bit easier to manage. Gretty rushed towards the stage as fast as she could but as soon as she would get close enough, shots of silver bullets would ring out causing her to deviate and double back.
“Damn it, I can’t move without risking dropping Josie.” She thought to herself
She noticed that her back was facing soldiers with guns drawn and that Josie was wide open to be shot. She whipped around to dodge but was only able to turn in time to be shot herself. She flung Josie while screaming in pain and dropped to the ground. The soldiers all surrounded Gretty, ignoring Josie.
Gretty tried to move but the pain from the silver had begun seeping deep inside of her and she was nearly paralyzed from the pain. The soldiers closed in on her and she grit her teeth.
“PUT THAT MUTT DOWN!”
The small group of Soldiers readied their aim and pointed at the wounded Gretty. She did a quick glance to count how many and then stood to her feet.
“You made a mistake when locking me up.” Gretty sneered, wiping blood from her mouth. She pulled down part of her jumpsuit to reveal the scar where her Feral Gland had been removed and rubbed at it, revealing that the scar was fake.
“You should have actually checked to see if my gland was removed.”
Gretty gripped her fists tightly and the guards felt an aura pouring from her that caused them to freeze in fear. Her pupils dilated and her hairs stood on end. She extended both arms out with her palms open and yelled.
“Seasonal Art, Autumn Equinox!”
🌱🌱🌱
Peg’s face was inches away from the bubble screen watching everything that took place. The thought that Tezuka could somehow be in 2 places at once was no longer the most important thing to her, seeing Josie for the first time in weeks she wanted nothing more than to take her away from this place. She wanted to run but realized there was nowhere to run to with the lack of doors in the room she was in.
“I assume that the girl on the Beastling’s shoulder is ‘Josie’?” Tezuka asked, looking down at Peg and the screen. “The reason you stole a platinum ticket to enter the park was for her?”
“I told you I didn’t steal it!” Peg snapped back. “Doctor Ida gave this to me to help me save my friend and I’m getting her out of here one way or another.”
Tezuka stayed silent, scowling at Peg as she watched the madness unfold. He gripped his fist as he remembered a name he hadn’t thought about in many, many years.
“Ida Lee…”
To Be Continued