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Rocket and the Imp

Chapter Eight -- Escape

---

There was darkness.

Nothing.

But gradually, his mind came back to him.

In the incoherent static of his scattered memories, there always remained one constant throughout the chaos.

His name.

And soon he heard it.

First a low buzz, then a muffled voice, and then...

"Rocket!" She shouted.

His eyes snapped open, quickly squinting in exposure to the bright lights above.

He tried to move, but he couldn't.

Looking down, he saw he was bound to a metal chair.

Looking back up, he saw a steel table, and a laser grid.

And to his left and right were Lylla and Sale, also bound.

Immediately, he jolted uprighted, fighting against his restraints in attempt to assist them.

"Well, finally!" Sale exclaimed, angrily.

"Where are we? What happened?!" Rocket asked.

"Judson..." Lylla sighed. "He beamed us onto his ship and tied us up here."

Rocket grew even angrier, and pulled his arms up as hard as he could, but was still held back by the heavy chains constricting around him.

"What, too scared to fight fair?!" Rocket shouted past the laser field, into the darkness of Judson's ship.

Then, the lights came on.

And there he stood.

"I can assure you..." Judson said, stepping into the light. "Even without your restraints, it would not be a fair fight, Rocket."

"Well take them off and let's see!" He barked.

"What the fuck do you want?!" Sale snapped.

"What do I want?" The mole repeated, a bit confused and angry. "What do I want?!"

He stepped closer to the field, his dark, bitter eyes becoming illuminated. He waved his claws around erratically, and a round field of intense white energy materialized from thin air.

And on that field, images began to appear -- a beautiful scenic view of great mountains, clear skies and rolling hills.

"A beautiful world," Judson rasped. "A perfect world."

Then the images began to change.

The skies turned red and the green to black. The forests withered away and the vegetation died.

"Abandoned and left to die."

Rocket rolled his eyes.

"Sorry about your home, dude." He deadpanned.

"OUR HOME!" Judson yelled. "But you all got too big for your britches and left! Left me here alone! With no one!"

"We moved on, found lives out there. Why couldn't you?!" Lylla asked.

"No, no, no." Judson snickered. "I am not going to settle for anything less. I can take us back. Back to the way things should be. So everything could be perfect."

"That's impossible!" Sale barked.

"NO IT'S NOT!" Judson yelled.

The mole flicked his claws and the images dissipated into thin air. He then summoned a bright ball of green energy from his left paw.

"I just needed to get the book back, which I have." Judson snickered. "And you three, which I have!"

The round green orb grew brighter and more intense. Large, spinning tendrils began to emerge from it, shaking violently and moving towards the three.

"Now submit to the power of the Half World Book and we can turn back the clock!" Judson shouted.

Rocket had to think quickly. He knew what would happen to them all if they were corrupted by Judson's mind magic - they'd be a withered husk of a person like BlackJack O'Hare!

He looked around and assessed their situation. They were strapped to chairs; their hands and feet where encased in a hard steel. There was a metal table in front of them, and a laser grid between them and Judson.

What could he do?

The menacing tendrils of evil green energy approached further, penetrating the laser grid moving towards each of the mammals' heads.

He then felt something tap his hip.

He looked over and saw Sale's tail aggressively brushing against his side.

"Tail!" He realized.

Their tails weren't bound to anything. The chairs were also not stuck to the floor. If he tried hard enough, he could stand.

He looked to Sale, a devious grin spread across his face, then looked to Lylla, offering a reassuring smirk.

Rocket used his tail to flip the table as hard as he could.

He leaned forward and got on his feet, running into the table as it blocked the laser's rays for a few moments, allowing the mammal to safely get through.

His tail was singed and the table was completely incinerated by the time he'd hit the floor. It was an extremely close call, but he had no time to dwell on it. He shot up and reoriented himself to face Judson.

The mystical mole shot him a hateful gaze, and quickly turned to face him. In doing so, the beams of evil green energy previously targeting the three, all turned towards where Rocket was standing, and burned through the walls of the ship wherever they were aimed.

Rocket quickly ducked, and caught sight of how the energy was melting the walls. Instantly, a plan formed in his head, and he sprung to action.

The raccoon ran across the ship, keeping ahead of the beams, and sprinted past the ship's controls, leading Judson to inadvertently obliterate them and cause catastrophic damage.

The lights illuminated to maximum brightness, and then imploded from the ceiling and walls.

One particularly large fixture dropped from the ceiling and crashed onto Judson, before he had a chance to stop it.

The ship was then completely dark, and due to the now-stopped engines, began to descent quickly.

Rocket, using his excellent night-vision, scrambled to his feet and scanned the room for Sale and Lylla. He saw them, still bound to the chairs, but the laser field had been deactivated, along with all of the other's ships controls.

In the darkness of the falling spacecraft, Rocket ran over to Sale and Lylla.

"Fuck, Rocket! What'd you do?!" Sale shouted.

"I, uh, improvised. Now stay still while I break these cuffs." Rocket panted.

The raccoon wrapped both of his paws around the metal, and, using all of the cybernetically-enhanced strength he could muster, he pulled as hard as he could.

The metal bindings started to weaken under the combined strength of both his arms, and eventually broke apart.

He quickly moved over to the other hand restraint, wasting no time in freeing Sale, all the while the Behemoth was quickly losing altitude and plummeting somewhere fast.

While doing so, he turned to glance at the main viewport of the ship, and his blood ran cold at the sight.

The ship was rapidly heading directly towards the center of Judson's towering laboratory.

Rocket removed Sale's second hand brace, and snapped the chain that was wrapped around her.

She immediately shot up and grabbed his raccoon cheek fluff with both paws, and brought it to her own face with a fiery kiss.

Rocket indulged for a moment, but quickly broke the kiss.

"Help me get Lylla out," he panted.

"Oh please, by all means, take your time!" Lylla barked.

The two rushed to her sides and made quick work of the collars around her wrists and the chain around her body.

Soon she was free and the three looked ahead to a grim sight.

Judson Jakes, rising from the debris of the damaged ceiling, with hatred and glowing green energy in his eyes.

And the main viewport behind him, revealing the ship was moments away from plowing into the building.

"YOU'RE ALL DEAD-"

Crash!

The pressure glass shattered first, and there was little the three could do as the ship barreled into the lab. And in an instant, everything turned black.

---

The rabbit awoke to the thunderous roar of a nearby explosion.

He watched as the walls shook as dust and debris rained from the ceiling, and he knew in an instant that his master needed him.

BlackJack flicked a switch on his goggles, effectively giving him thermal heat-seeking vision and allowing him to see through walls.

He could see dozens of rabbits scattering about on each level of the building, but could distinctly make out the shapes of two raccoons, an otter, and a mole on the floor above him.

He leapt out of his bed and ran to the door. Stepping out into the hallway, he could see that large portions of the ceiling had fallen down and caused rubble to be scattered everywhere. The dire state of the building could only mean one thing -- Judson Jakes was in danger.

BlackJack was further fueled by an intense instinctual need to get to Judson, a fire raging in his heart that kept the blood an icy cold in his veins. As the rabbit sprinted through the building, up the stars and over debris, his mind was filled with a focused, yet chaotic static, just as it had been for the past few years.

Within minutes, he was at the scene of the crash. The rabbit saw through the dense smoke and destroyed ship, and could make out a distinct outline of his leader, clearly injured.

Just as he had begun to sprint over, he heard something behind him.

---