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The sounds of battle grew louder as they moved through the tunnels towards Gearshire. They moved quickly past the dead gremlins scattered in the tunnels. Ahead, they saw the glow of fires from the Gearshire. War had come to the disease-ridden village. Angry crowds, loyal to Virette, were flowing through the alleys towards the massive palace. Bracket's cogs were going to be overwhelmed. It wasn't going to be long before Virette claimed victory. Nonetheless, a religious civil war was the perfect cover.
"This way." Sprocket said after dispatching a group of soldiers with her silenced weapon. She pointed to a collection of buildings outside the massive wall surrounded by squatter tents. She led them around the buildings to a grate that allowed sewage to run away from the village. She moved some rusted sheet metal that was completely inconspicuous in the junk wall. She knelt down, dialed a combination on a rusty lock, and pulled up a grate. "Come on." She dropped down on the other side of the grate into the village’s tight sewer pipes. "Leads into the palace basement..."
"A sewer within a sewer..." Callen pointed out. "How quaint." He glanced up at the walls and saw flashes of machine gun fire and fighting on the walls above. "But, we did luck out finding you..." He kneeled and jumped down after Sprocket.
"Yeah..." She said glancing at the metal stains on Callen's arm. "But, that doesn't look like the only way you lucked out..."
Callen grinned. "Yeah, someone likes me, in two months I've gone from a cancer patient to engineer...to urban explorer-commando and now...assassin. That's quite the resume to have before you even hit fifteen."
"Sounds like one o' yer video games don't it?" Corth chuckled.
Callen grinned. "Yeah, it does." He glanced at his computer's display. "Niknak just met up with Virette. She just ordered him to be taken into the church. Can we get to the church through the sewers?"
"Yeah, I know a way in." Sprocket said. "The palace too."
"Let's get the prisoners to safety first," Ania said.
"Aye," Corth said.
Callen kept his gaze on his computer display. "Alright," Callen said. "Virette isn't following Niknak...it looks like she's headed towards the palace. We can take her out there. Sprocket, you lead the way."
They sloshed through the gremlin waste and after several twists and turns; Sprocket opened the grate into the basement of the palace. "This way." She said.
"Lass, we need to get the kids first..." Corth said. "They're innocents..."
"Yeah, and if Virette kills Bracket, she'll probably want the captives as sacrifices to the Many," Ania said.
“We will come out near the dungeon." Sprocket said. "And she will want the captives..."
"But, why?" Ania asked. "Does she have magic?"
"She doesn't have a gem growing from her hand..." Callen said. "If that's what you mean..."
"Faith." Sprocket said. "Her faith requires sacrifice." She turned and motioned for them to continue.
They crept after Sprocket, and paused when they saw the Cog's guarding the door that led into the decrepit cellblock. Sprocket motioned for them to wait, and she stepped out and began barking in the gremlin language. Suddenly, the sounds of battle above stopped. Suddenly she looked emotional overwhelmed. However, it didn’t slow her down. Without hesitation, she shot the two cogs.
Callen drew his gun; Sprocket’s expression reminded him of Kusari's when Virette took her over. "Sprocket?" He asked slowly.
"Yeah?" She said. Her voice was heavy with shock. “My mother just killed my father...I felt it, through the royal family's encrypted connection on the gremlin network...his consciousness called out and deleted...if she puts on his crown...she'll have control of the Cogs." She pushed the cellblock door open and popped the two Cogs inside the cellblock.
"You looked like Kusari right there...right before she attacked us..." Callen said.
"I should remind you of her. I've told you already that she's my sister."
They entered the guard station before a long hallway. Rust hung from the dripping pipes that lined the ceiling. Toughs holding drying waste sat beneath the grated floor that led through a hallway lit with flickering torches. Several cells lined both sides of the hall, all of which were made of scrap metal. Locks hung from the bolts on their doors, and whimpers came from with in their walls. None of the cells were cages, they were more like boxes designed for solitary confinement.
Corth grabbed the keys off the fallen Cogs and tossed them to Callen. "Lad, get them out...Sprocket, we'll cover the door...Ania...gather the children...keep everyone quiet...when everyone's free, we'll head back to the sewers."
Callen moved down the hall, unlocking each cell as quickly as he could. Ania led each of them into a group and did what she could to ease their fears.
He frantically looked for Tende and Sadie, and nervous sweat began to drip when he reached the last two cells. He turned the key, and in the dark corner he saw Sadie, curled over hugging her knees. Scared, she looked up and relief washed over her face.
He smiled at her. "Come on, let’s get you out of here." He turned to unlock Tende's cell.
Before he could, she locked Callen in a hug, causing him to blush, but he hugged back. "You're late." She teased, but something was off and the cracks of a recent trauma could be heard in her voice. "But, I'll forgive you." She touched his arm and traced the markings with her fingers, as if to hide from whatever was haunting her.
His skin rippled, and he looked into her green eyes. Her dark curls framed her beautiful face. His heart pounded. Something pulled him, from deep within. It filled him, and in a flash, he wrapped his hands around her waist and pulled her tight. She was safe again and for that moment, everything that had happened and was happening around them didn't matter. They looked into each other's eyes.
Her beautiful green eyes glittered, and in his mind's eye he saw that woman. Dreams and reality blurred together. Before he could sort it out, their lips met. For a moment, the world around him slowed and the dangers around them dissipated. However, the tender embrace was cut short from Tende's voice moaning in the next cell.
Sadie shook her head and looked at Callen's Kitty of Suffering t-shirt. "By the way...nice shirt."
"Thanks." He said rolling his eyes. Callen's hand slid over her back, as he released her from the hug. He felt a rough bump along her spine. It felt course through her t-shirt. "What happened?" Callen unbolted Tende's cell. "Did they hurt you?"
She nodded and pulled up part of her shirt to reveal a jagged cut along her spine sewn up with wire. "All of us...well, we have these now...they came yesterday...they used gas."
"Who came? Virette?" Callen asked. "Bracket's soldiers?"
"I saw a figure, human I think, and another, shorter than human, but not like a goblin or one of these creatures...before I passed out." Tende said as he stepped out of his cage. He moved like he was hurt. "The other kids had them already...I don't know for how long." His wounds were more recent than Sadie's.
"We best be getting yehs back to the surface," Corth surveyed the faces of the petrified children. "Felix, inform Dr. Brewer..."
"Sprocket, any idea what was done to them?" Callen asked.
She shook her head. "My father would just use those that we take to test for the mark that you had...beyond that...I have no idea."
"Lads, this is not the time," Corth said. "Let's get back to the surface and regroup...then we can..."
Sprocket gave Corth an angry glare, but before she could protest, Callen responded. "No. I'm not going back, not yet."
"But..." Sadie sounded worried and held Callen's hand.
"I can't go without Niknak. I can't leave him...and besides, a lot happened on the road ...and maybe, I can get some answers about what was done to you." Callen's mind had been made up, and it could be heard in his voice. "But that's
more detail than you need...the short version is...I have a score to settle...and a brother to save."
"A brother? You mean Niknak? If he's your brother, then that makes us family." Sprocket said with a warm grin. "If it weren't for the mess my parents created, we would have been married long ago...so, I'm with you."
"Grandpa, Ania, Tende, Sadie," Callen said, "you get them out of here...Sprocket and I got a score to settle with her dear mother."
"Lad," Corth said. "Now's not the time fer heroics...we got wounded...Cole and Reeves are in route...we can come back...besides, yer mum would throttle me if she..." the old dwarf choked up for a second, but refocused himself. "Yeh running off without backup is just a plain bad decision."
"I have back up, you, Sir Reeves, and Lady Cole...I have Felix on my shoulder to monitor too." Callen argued. "When they get here and everyone's safe, come back me up."
"Lad..." Corth started.
"Grandpa, I have to do this...I can't let Virette hurt Niknak...I wouldn't be here without Niknak...I would be dead...I will not leave him!" His expression was like stone, and the fire of a warrior, like his mother, shined in his eyes. "Virette is going to get out of him whatever my dad locked away before he disappeared. I have no idea what it was, but I'm sure there's a reason why my dad didn't want it getting out. And, I'm sure we don't either. We can't stop Virette and all get out of here. There just isn't enough time! We have to split up. So, Sprocket and I..."
Corth looked at Callen and sighed. "Lad, this is reckless...but, yeh not only got yer mum's look in yer eye, but yer right. There's no option, sides me going to take out Virette." He looked at the metal swirls in Callen's eyes and at the metal on his arm. The old dwarf stiffened his lip and nodded. "But, I know yeh would just defy me...just like yer mum, and I can't leave the victims anyway."
"I'm going too," Ania said.
"Now, that I can't accept, lassie," Corth said. "I need yer help..."
"That's not fair!" Ania shouted. "I've been through just as much as..."
"Ania," Callen said. "I want you to come, but this is my fight. Virette will hurt you, and I can't let that happen."
"But..." Ania sounded hurt and angry.
"No buts, Ania. It has to be me." Callen cocked his half-grin and touched his arm. "Besides, I got a few tricks up my sleeve..."
Corth nodded. "Godspeed, lad."