The Escape 1

The door suddenly flew open and Alex walked in, everyone suddenly went wide eyed as they saw the state that he was in, his perfectly ironed white shirt was rumpled and stained with blood and the left leg of his black trouser was stained in blood coming from what seemed like a stab wound on his left thigh that was tied with a tourniquet, he staggered in, flung his briefcase aside and flopped down on the couch beside Steve.  

"Dad, are you all right?", Steve asked icily, 

"What happened, Alex?"

Grandpa Matt asked with concern.  

Alex's face was squeezed in pain as he took deep breaths to prepare himself to explain… 

"huff….huff….I was attacked by three masked men in black as I was returning from work….they ambushed me in the lab's parking lot. They were really strong, I was lucky to escape with my life…" 

He finished and took another deep breath as he leaned back and closed his eyes to rest. 

'….they attacked dad openly, they must be really confident that they can kill us… we're in danger now, they might even attack us at home here…'

Steve thought 

"Grandpa?"

Steve called 

"I know boy" 

Grandpa Matt said in a grave tone, "we're in real danger"

***

Nora had gotten to know some of the girls there and it wasn't long before she realized that none of them could remember how they ended up there or what happened before. But what Nora found the most disturbing was that the abductors treated them well, fed them regularly and didn't harass them in any way. She had never heard them speak any words and they always moved and acted in a very orderly manner that seemed almost robotic, the only proof she had that they were human was their ragged breathing that she heard whenever she was close to them.

Everywhere was so dark, cold and quiet, the only sound she could hear was the soft breathing of the ladies that were asleep. She had tried to sleep but she was feeling a slight throbbing pain in her head that made it an impossible feat. Suddenly, there was a noise, bolts turned and locks clicked, the typical noise the iron door made when it was about to be opened. 

'What could they be here for?, It hasn't been so long since we had our last meal and bathroom break'

Nora thought, as she wondered why they would come by that time, the ball of light above their heads had gone off some minutes ago too. 

She relied only on her senses to figure out things in the dark as the door swung open, she heard rustles and then a thud!, then as quickly as they entered, they left. 

"They dropped something!"

Nora whispered fiercely 

"Not something….someone"

came KK's soft voice.

***

The weather was cold that morning as Grandpa Matt and Steve meditated on the grass. Four hours had passed and they had made no progress at all, the cold and dull weather made it all the more gloomy and hopeless for them. 

Steve took a deep breath of exasperation as he lay on the grass after four hours of futile efforts to awaken his Mana. Looking at the sky, he saw dark clouds gathering, few birds were in the sky but they seemed to be in a haste. 

"… it's gonna rain"

he muttered to himself. 

"Enough of that self pity!"

came a rich and strong voice that made him jump in fright.  

"What was that for?"

He asked with feigned ignorance as he leaned on his elbows and looked at his grandpa who stood over him with two real silver swords in his hands. On seeing the swords, Steve jumped in delight, 

"for real?, Are we gonna train with these?" 

"Yes, times are dangerous now, it's high time you master your swordsmanship perfectly". 

"Hehe" 

Steve laughed with glee as he quickly grabbed one sword and took a fighting stance.

***

Graylon city mountains….. 

The air was clean and the vegetation smelt fresh, it was morning and the mountains gave off a vibe that made him want to lie down on the grass at the top of the mountain and relax. 

But he was in a haste, he could still remember the feeling of urgency he felt when he received master Ebun's magic telegram earlier that morning, 

Come to the underground base beneath the mountains ASAP 

M.E

He had never been to the base in the daytime before so he was a bit apprehensive as he put on his black cloak and made his way to the mountains. 

"Hypocrite" 

He whispered to a boulder stuck up to one side of the mountain. Then came the familiar groaning sound of it rolling out of the way, he stood and gazed at the dark tunnel that lay ahead, for a moment, he thought the entrance of the tunnel looked like a huge black mouth that wanted to swallow him, he smiled wryly at his paranoia and breathed in deeply then walked into it, few seconds after he entered, the boulder groaned again and slowly returned into place with a loud click. 

Without fritting away time, he made a bee line for the boss room, on arriving there, he nodded at the armed guards and without exchanging words, he walked in. 

As soon as he entered, the door closed behind him and he threw himself on the floor with the words, 

"The humble servant greets his master". 

The room was so hot that it was almost suffocating, there was white smoke everywhere and he couldn't even see up to two feet in front of him. The fiendish presence in front of him was unmistakably angry. 

"Your minions failed again"

came a deep voice 

'Ugh!, So that's what happened'

He thought,

"you idiots!, How could you not kill just three Heracles?" 

"I.. I'm sorry..m..mast..er" 

he found himself stuttering as he spoke, Ebun's aura was very frightening that his body had already begun to react even before he was even aware of the fear. 

"'Sorry' doesn't fix anything!"

the air seemed to vibrate as Ebun's deep and frightening voice reverberated through it.

"You and your minions are useless, I will have to give this responsibility to someone else" 

"No no no no, I'm sorry sir, I can fix this, I promise, just give me one more chance" 

the cloaked man blurted out hastily with his fear evident in his tone. 

'….I'm dealing with a divine creature here, I have to be more careful from here on out….'

He thought 

There was silence after the cloaked man spoke and he could feel Ebun's steely gaze on him like it was cutting through him, it seemed like he was contemplating…. 

In one split second, Ebun moved towards the cloaked man, grabbed him and slammed him against the wall. 

"I'm not a being of second chances" 

He began to squeeze his neck in order to choke him to death but on second thought he left him, and disappeared into the smoke back to his throne 

"What makes you think you can pull it off this time?" 

Ebun asked, a hard edge to his voice. On hearing this question, a sly smile made it's way to the cloaked man's lips, raising his head up from the ground, he said, 

"Actually, I have a plan".

***

Phoebe Cavendish, Nora later found out, was the girl that was brought in that night.

From the few, poorly detailed discussions Nora had with her, she was able to realize that Phoebe was a very shy and timid nineteen year old girl who wasn't accustomed to speaking to strangers. Though she was shy, Nora believed that Phoebe was the most beautiful lady she had ever set her eyes on, a small face with goddess like features, her bottle green eyes which contrasted beautifully with her small pointed nose and round, succulent pink lips, the skin on her body and face were extremely fair and flawlessly white and smooth, she had graceful limbs with full standing breasts and buttocks that filled her pants, looking at her just made Nora feel so ugly yet she wondered how such a young and shy girl ended up there.  

"Alright listen up everyone…." 

KK's voice snapped her back to reality. 

"...tonight, we're breaking out". 

"Huh?" 

Nora thought, 

"where did that come from?, KK, what are you thinking?!" 

KK's statement cause quite a stir amongst the girls, there were whispers and murmurs here and there. 

"What's she thinking?" 

"Can we really escape?" 

"How?" 

As they all murmured, KK sat down on the floor with a self satisfied smirk on her face. 

"Just listen and do what I say and we'll be out of there".