The HP Effect Chapter III

“Got everything Josh?” I asked, in a panic,
“Yeah, yeah, just stop worrying!” Josh replied in a blunt tone, “I’m sure she’s absolutely fine.”
“Yeah that’s easy for you to say aint it?” I snapped back,
“Lucas. Seriously calm down. I understand how important she is to you. It’s sorta obvious how you feel about her. Kinda like how you knew that me ‘n’ Hetty would be together.” Josh, calmly, said back to me.
I simply stood on the spot. Not quite knowing what to say to him. He would usually tease me about such a thing but, this time, he seemed very serious. I was taken aback by his remark and frowned whilst looking at the ground. I then looked back up at him expecting him to be smiling to himself but, instead, he still had the same straight face. I knew he meant what he had said.
“Come on Josh. We have to find her.” I said whilst pushing Josh’s comment to the back of my mind. “She might need us and I won’t let anything happen to her.” I replied, suddenly realising, that I had just refuelled the fire of his comment, which suddenly brought it back to mind. I fought back the tears which attempted to break free when I thought of anything happening to her.
We followed the trail until we could see the clearing. We heard something behind us crack. Out of sheer reflex, I snapped my head towards the direction the noise came from. I looked at Josh, who was looking at his foot. I breathed a sigh of relief at the sight, but just to be on the safe side, I, begun to rummage around in my backpack for the torch. I heard a fair bit more cracking whilst I did this but didn’t turn round as I thought it was just Josh walking behind me. I stood up, turned on the torch and turned to face Josh. He wasn’t there. I instantly freaked out but, strangely enough, never screamed. I franticly looked around for him, in case he was pulling a prank on me, which at this point in time would not be appreciated.
“J-Josh?...” I quietly uttered, still stricken with fear.
I began to shakily, edge closer to the exit and then... the cracking which seemingly got closer to me suddenly stopped. I froze in position, even though my conscious was screaming at me to continue on. I stood, trying to sense any kind of sound as best as I could. It was still so silent I could hear a faint ringing sound, as though a phone was being called. I straightened up and turned around. The last thing I saw was a blunt object exit the darkness and strike me. That’s when I fell to the ground, with a muffled thud, and drifted slowly into unconsciousness.

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Slowly, I was coming to. My eyelids felt heavy but managed to open them slightly. My sight was like my eyes had been glazed over whilst unconscious. I shut them again briefly and then it hit me. The sudden pain surged through my head, forcing me to remember the incident in the forest and me suddenly being hit. I attempted to rub the wound with my hand, but something was preventing me from doing so, forcing myself to reopen my eyes I turned my head to the left. Josh was next to me and appeared to be in a similar state I was in. We were both tied to small, plain wooden chairs with our hands bound together, as were our feet. By the looks of things Josh hadn’t been injured but was either still out cold or taking a nap at the most inconvenient time. My guess was the latter.
“Ha ha ha! I see our little friend is awake!” boomed a man’s voice out of nowhere,
I sat bolt upright as I heard this. Josh obviously wasn’t sleeping.
“We’ve got a few things to ask. It’s about something precious to you.” He continued,
I slouched again as I thought about the word he used. Precious.
“It appears, undeniably, apparent that you and your friend know something, and as I always say, there shall be no secrets!”
My brain clicked. What, or more to the point who, did I find very precious to me? The only thing I truly cared about at any given moment? And who the hell was this bellowing at me?
As I reminisced this thought the wall itself appeared to open up. A tall, dark haired man stepped in through the gap. He wore a dark blue, two-piece suit with a white shirt and a purple tie. He carried a gray briefcase which was handcuffed to his wrist. He seemed to keep a firm grip upon its handle. He walked closer to me, crouched down and stared at me with his brown, glass like eyes, almost as if he was looking straight into me. After a few seconds he stood back up and snapped his fingers to which two men walked in, carrying a small desk and an office chair. The two men looked familiar. As though I had seen them before. They left quite quickly so I couldn’t get a good look at them, although my attention was concentrated on the tall man with beady eyes.
“Let’s get started then.” He said as he sat down at the desk and pulled out a metal prism like shape with two words engraved onto it and placed it on the desk. “Read it.” He ordered.
“Mr. Black.” I slowly replied.
“Good we’ve now established you have an education. That is also who you will refer to me as.”
Established I have an education? Who does he think he is...apart from the guy who has me and Josh tied to chairs in an unknown place possibly surrounded by heavily armed guards. I decided to keep my head down however and answer straight to the point.
“What’s your name?” Mr. Black questioned,
If I was comfortable answering the question that is,
“What is your name?” He asked again,
I still never answered,
“You are trying my patience.” He continued, in a gruff voice.
“Good, we’ve now established you are indeed human.” I spat back.
“Hmm. Let’s change the question. What do you know about a red and white dragon known as a Latias?” He said, seemingly unperturbed by my remark,
“Nothing, other than it’s a fictional character from a Japanese video game.” I said with worry,
Two things had now clicked whilst I was in this situation. This is the second. This must be the boss of those guys that asked us about Latias in the forest. They must have thought we knew more than we’d told them. They were right.
“I beg to differ.” Mr. Black replied.
He opened a drawer on the desk and pulled out a remote control of some sort and walked back up to me. He pressed a button on it which must have activated something behind me because I could a low humming sound as if something was opening.
“Take a look!” He suddenly boomed again as he placed his foot on the piece chair which was visible between my legs and pushed, hard, knocking me and the chair backwards. I could see what opened no except it was all upside down, but that never stopped me realising what it was I was looking at. There she was, in a large metal contraption, like the angel trap from saw, and was surrounded by scientists in white overalls. The glass must have been soundproof because she looked like she was crying out for help. Extremely understandable.
“You bastard!” I shouted as I looked down the chair at the man,
“So you do know something. Also what a colourful vocabulary you have there. I believe I’ve misunderstood you.” He said as though ignoring what I just called him.
“What have you done to her?!” I shouted back, with all disregard to the consequences.
“Aha! I see you’re feeling protective over her. A sure sign of deep friendship.” He responded with a smirk.
I held back my anger. Any more outbursts and who knows what he would do to any of us. The only thing I could do was lie there and bite my tongue.
“No use in staying quiet. I’ll get what I want from you knowing that you know more than you say. That is very apparent.” He said nothing more but merely snapped his finger once more. The same two guys we saw earlier re entered the room, closed the window, dragged me and Josh out the room and down a dark corridor. Josh was literally only just coming out of his coma.
“Where are we?” He asked as he opened his eyes,
“Shut up!” The man that was dragging us shouted,
“Someone’s touchy.” Josh whispered,
“Your gonna get us killed Josh!” I hissed back,
“I said shut up!” The man shouted again,
As we were being taken to, what I guessed to be a prison cell, I noticed several things. First of which was a lab. No doubt where Latias was being held or tested upon. I shook away the thought. Next was a kitchen which probably contained even worse food than what was at the hotel my brother once stayed at in Gran Canaria. Then there was a room marked storage, which was the place that was most likely to have our bags, and lastly and armoury which, by the sounds of things, was where they stored weaponry and the likes. A bit stupid if you ask me because it’s the closest room to the prisoner’s cells. The last thing you want is a prisoner with a desert eagle right? Dwelling on the rooms we had just passed I hadn’t noticed that we were already in our cell and being untied.
“Stay here. Then again I don’t think you have a choice!” Laughed the guard whom had so lovingly carried us to our new home.
I noticed that the gate that kept us from ‘out there’ seemed to lock electronically. Could be useful.
“What now genius?” Josh asked,
“Well it’s not like it’s my fault!” I replied, with a hint of irritation,
“Sure it is! You just had to get pally with your dragon sex symbol!” Josh continued, not quite knowing what he was brewing,
“What did you just say?” I snapped back,
“You heard me! If you didn’t get friendly with her, then we wouldn’t be here!” Josh said without any regard,
“So whose fault is it then? Mine or hers ‘cause your obviously not part of why we’re here!” I said whilst raising my voice out of sheer anger.
“Too damn right! I only now her personally through you! Not my fault but I still managed to get into trouble because of you!” Josh responded,
“Some things can’t be helped you know! Like us two meeting and then meeting her! It’s a little thing called fate and you nor me nor Latias can control what it does.” I said in a kind of cryptic way.
Josh began to understand what I was saying, and I was also starting to realise that any given situation can make two good friends argue uncontrollably until someone slaps some sense into them.
“Josh. We shouldn’t argue. The situation we’re in is bad enough without us trying to kill each other.” I continued,
“Don’t remind me.” Josh replied as he slumped, glumly, onto the cold stone floor.”
“We just need to figure out a way to get out of here.” I proposed,
“Yeah? I think that’s the first thing that came to mind as we were thrown in here.”
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“Why’d you ‘volunteer’ me to do this? I hate fieldwork!”
“Quit your whinin’ and hand me the bolt cutters! Aaaand...there.  That should give them a hand!”
“It better cause that guard dog nearly had my ass back there!”
“Shut up! Let’s get out of here before they catch us!”
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“There must be something small we can use to jiggle about the lock mechanisms.” Josh suggested,
“Can’t. It locks electronically only key card or electrical...” I said, stopping part way through.
Suddenly all the power went out in the corridor and I heard the cell gate unlock.
“Surge...” I said finishing my previous sentence, “Hurry! Before it shuts again!” I barked.
Both of us heaved the heavy iron door open and darted through the small gap we made. The door must have swung shut again because we heard it re-lock. Must have been a separate backup generator because dimly lit bulbs began to flash on coating us in a dingy orange colour. Me and Josh began jogging down the corridor until I stopped because I remembered something.
“Josh! Wait up!” I called,
He skidded to a halt and turned back.
“What is it?” He asked quizzically cocking his brow at me,
I said nothing but pointed at a door. It was marked ‘Armoury’.
My eyes began to light up at the sheer thought of what was in there. The door was bound to be locked though right? Wrong. It was ajar slightly, must have swung open when the power went out. Either that or someone was in there. No matter what however, I simply HAD to look at what was in there! I gently nudged the door open with my palm to find what I, myself, call a treasure trove. I love my weapons you see but you’ll see just how much.
“Jesus Christ! This is AWESOME!” I said in disbelief at what I saw, “They’ve got everything they need for a god damn war! M4’s, ACR’s, Cheytac’s! Bloody hell they’ve even got boxes of attachments in different camos!”
“And you know all those because of Call of Duty...” Josh sighed,
“Yeah well at least I can remember how you reload each and every single weapon here!” We can use them to escape!” I responded with a smile,
“WHAT!? Are you kidding me? Call of Duty is a video game! If you die you respawn! In real life you don’t you crazy idiot!” Josh snapped at me out of sheer disbelief over what he had just heard escape my lips,
“I’m aware of that Josh. But for once, a video game, has indeed come in handy. We don’t even try to use these to escape they’ll just recapture us or kill us. We use these, we have a chance, slim, but it’s a fighting chance.” I boldly said as I eyed an Intervention with ACOG.
Josh knew I was right.
“Let’s get outta here!” Josh said whilst grabbing an ACR with Holographic.
I grabbed a bandolier sash and handed one to Josh, giving him extra ammo as I did. I showed him how to reload his gun when it was out of ammo and when there was still some left in, well as best as I could from what I could remember. We cocked our guns and readied up. Were coming to save you Latias. Anything they’ve done to you they’ll regret deeply. It was time to show these bastards who they SHOULDN’T have messed with.