Tortured Soul

Well here's chapter 12 for you, sorry it took a little longer than usual to update, I had to do some research. I feel like I should be dodging flying objects!! Please read and review, enjoy.

ASOTA thank you for reviewing, and you'll find out next chapter I think. I've got 2 weeks off work so I'm gonna try and update a few extra times, that is if the muses don't dissapear on me again.

Chapter 12

Daichi was carried unceremoniously into the mansion, still kicking and screaming, still having no effect whatsoever on the giant carrying him. He took in the size of the building and noticed, with considerable distaste, the carvings of gargoyles on the doors. ‘It’s bad enough to have them outside on the roof, but carved into the doors, Yuk’ he thought.

There was a kind of electricity in the air, the hairs on his arms were standing up slightly. He looked around curiously as if he could see where the feeling was coming from but there was nothing. He’d only felt that kind of spark when a bit beast was around, but that couldn’t be right.

Daichi realised that he’d lost track of their route during his internal meanderings, suddenly they were in front of a rather garish set of doors. They were huge, towering above even the height of the two giants that had caught him. On the door were numerous carvings of gargoyles in different poses, most of the doors he had seen had only one or two depictions but this must have been a special room in its day, they must have really wanted to keep the bad spirits out of here. There was no part of the door that wasn’t covered in them and he balked in disgust at the designer’s obvious lack of taste.

The one he thought he remembered being called Mike stepped forward and pushed open the doors. Stepping inside and to the right, he allowed space for…Nick?...to walk in carrying Daichi before he closed the door again. The sound of the rather heavy doors closing gave Daichi pause, he renewed his efforts to struggle free of the behemoth but ultimately failed. The mans size was just too much for Daichi to overcome, he hated to admit it, but he was screwed.

Daichi closed his eyes and awaited the inevitable arrival of the purple haired, has been Boris. Suddenly he felt air rushing past his face as the grip on his waist was released. He opened his eyes in time to notice the floor was approaching at a rather fast pace and didn’t get his arms out in time to stop his face from becoming rather more familiar with it.

“Ouch, that hurt. Couldn’t you have warned me before you did that?” He looked up at the immoveable objects that were his captors while rubbing at the red mark on his forehead. The looks of joy on their faces at his pain told him everything he needed to know. “No, of course you couldn’t, ‘cos that would have spoiled the fun.” He said rather sarcastically, ‘hey, I must be picking that up from Hillary’ he thought amused ‘she’ll be so proud’.

He took the opportunity to check out the room he now found himself in. There was a large desk in front of the windows and a chair in the middle of the room, and other than a huge fireplace that nearly took up an entire wall and some pictures there was nothing else. He realised that this had been the first room he had peered into on his hunt for answers and wished that he had gone back the way he’d come after doing that.

There was a noise off to his right and he spun around quickly to see what was making it. A door he hadn’t noticed was opening, he wondered why it had escaped his notice but soon realised that it was less ornate than the other doors he had seen plus, he hadn’t really been looking for it. He stood up quickly, not wanting to be more at a disadvantage than he already was when Boris came in.

Boris walked through the door with a smug look on his face, he glanced at Daichi and he seemed to smirk through the smugness. This enraged Daichi, and before he could sprint across the space between them and tackle him to the ground, one of his guards grabbed him.

“Daichi, how lovely to see you again” the words oozed from Boris’s mouth like tar.

“You smug son of a…”

“Now Daichi” Boris cut him off mid sentence “there is no need for profanity. I get enough of that from Tyson thank you very much.”

“Tyson” Daichi said under his breath, he had found him. “What have you done to him? Why did you take him? You better let us go or else”.

“Or else what? I’m guessing nobody knows where you are, if they did I would have all of you by now” The look on Daichi’s face told Boris he was right, the young blader had acted alone and now was in as much trouble as his team mate.

“They’ll find us, they won’t stop until they do.” Daichi spat.

“My dear, dear Daichi” Boris said menacingly “I’m counting on it.”

Daichi was thrown into the chair that stood in the centre of the room, the immoveable object that was called Nick held him down while metal straps fastened themselves around his wrists. Once Nick had stepped away Daichi struggled against his bonds, but found it ultimately useless. There was no way he was going anywhere that didn’t involve him being carried, dragged or unconscious or some combination of the three.

“Now that you’re more…comfortable, shall we continue?” Boris smiled evilly at him. “Now, yes, we have Tyson and I must say he is being rather uncooperative.”

“Good for him” Daichi said with enthusiasm.

“Not really” replied Boris cryptically.

“Why? What have you done to him?” Daichi screamed, fear edging into his voice at the thought of what they could have done to Tyson.

“Tyson refused to…work for me, so my men who were good enough to catch you, have been…shall we say, entertaining him.” Boris’s smile had become malicious and threatening.

“What do you mean entertaining?” Daichi asked carefully. Boris clicked his fingers in Nick’s direction and Daichi heard the big man move behind him. He walked over to Boris and handed him a CD Daichi hadn’t noticed before. Boris started up the computer and put the disk in, he turned the monitor around for Daichi to see.

“Are you sure you want to see Tyson?” Boris asked darkly. Daichi could only nod his head in response. Boris tapped a few keys on the keyboard and the screen sprung to life, showing him a dark room with a metal frame. There were chains hanging from it and all around the room were whips and chains and pokers and other torture devices. Daichi gasped in apprehension, did this mean that they had been hurting Tyson?

He heard the sound of a door, his head spun around, thinking that someone was entering this room but soon realised it was coming from the screen. The room became bright and Daichi could see his two guards walk in front of the camera half carrying, half dragging an almost unconscious figure. He saw the blue hair, ‘it is not Tyson’, he saw the naked upper torso, ‘it is NOT Tyson’, he saw the unhealed marks on the teens back and arms, ‘that can not be Tyson’.

The two men dropped the figure in a heap under the metal frame, still the teens face could not be seen. Through the fog now clouding his mind, Daichi became aware of talking, the two men were having a conversation. Daichi struggled to bury his apprehension and fear so he could make out what they were saying.

“So what shall we start with today?”

“Oh, I don’t know. We haven’t used the poker in a while.”

“I don’t feel like the poker, it always gets too hot in here when we use that. Anyway, we should let some of the burns heal a bit first.”

“I guess, that way it hurts more when we reopen them.” They started laughing, Daichi nearly threw up.

“How about the whip?”

“Which one?”

“We could use the bullwhip.”

“Nah, that’s boring. How about the cane?”

“Where’s the fun in that?” Daichi heard them shutting the door, and then they were heading back towards the body. One of them leant down to grab him while the other got the chains ready that would hold him up. Daichi was barely listening to the conversation now, he was too busy holding his breath.

“I’ve got it.”

“Got what?”

“I know what we should start with.”

“What?”

“The cat o’ nine tails. All the fun of a whip, nine times over.” They were both grinning madly as they positioned the body under the frame, they manacled the teen’s hands and pushed his head back.

“Smile for the camera” Daichi gasped in pure shock when he saw Tyson’s beaten face. Until that point he had almost managed to convince himself that it wasn’t Tyson, that Boris had been lying to him. It was all he could do to keep in control of himself and not throw up all over the carpet.

The computer screen went black, Daichi’s gaze was drawn immediately to the smug looking bastard sat at the desk.

“How could you do that to him?” Daichi asked, his voice low.

“I didn’t. They did” he pointed to the two smiling men stood either side of Daichi. “Besides, if Tyson had agreed to help me, this wouldn’t have been necessary.”

“You know I’ll never help you too” Daichi pointed out.

“Yes, I had realised that” Boris said with a sigh, “although, I wasn’t going to ask. You are needed for something else and I don’t need your cooperation to get it from you.”

“What…what do you mean?” Daichi asked nervously.

“Take him to the lab.” Daichi struggled as the giants grabbed him, the metal straps were undone and he was lifted from the chair to be placed under Nick’s arm again, ‘this is getting humiliating’ he thought.

“You won’t get away with this Boris. The others will find you and when they do, you’ll be sorry you sick freak.” Daichi’s shouts got fainter and fainter as he was carried towards the lab.

“Oh Daichi,” Boris said to the empty room “you really don’t listen do you. I told you, I’m counting on it.”

--::--::--::--::--::--::--::--::--::

In the lab they poked and prodded him while he was strapped to the hospital bed. He shouted and cursed, tried to break free from his bonds and basically made a nuisance of himself. He spat at the lab techs so many times that in the end they had to cover his mouth with surgical tape, still he struggled.

He could hear voices behind him but his movement was too restricted for him to see who it was.

“He’s in perfect health”.

“It is difficult to measure his spirit but from the readings we’ve taken, he could be exactly what we are looking for.”

“When can we hook him up?”

“As soon as you order us to do so. We may have to knock him out to strap him in but otherwise I see no problems.”

“Do it, I want him in the machine as soon as possible.”

“Yes Boris, we’ll see to it right away.”

Daichi could hear the door open and close, presumably Boris had left the room. He heard footsteps coming towards him and struggled even more when he realised they were dragging something with them. He caught a glimpse of the tank, it looked like the kind they had in dentist’s offices. The doctor that now stood at his side lifted a mask towards his face, Daichi started shaking his head from side to side, attempting to prevent them from covering his mouth and nose with the mask.

“Hold his head still”. Two other lab coat guys walked towards him, one held down his shoulders while the other held his head stationary. The mask was placed over his face, and in a last ditch attempt to stay conscious Daichi held his breath but he couldn’t hold out for long. All the thrashing around had left him breathless and his body urged him to breathe. He took in a lungful of the nitrous oxide and found his head swimming. It didn’t take long before he was being claimed by the dark.

--::--::--::--::--::--::--::--::--::

His head was swimming, he’d been having such wonderful dreams. His eyes opened just a little and he saw men strapping things to him. He tried to pull forward but he couldn’t move, slowly his head began to clear and his eyes opened a little wider. He was strapped into a chair of sorts and there were wires coming from him and into a computer.

“Are we done?”

“Yeah, he’s all hooked up”.

“Wh…what’s going…on?” He asked the two men brokenly.

“Ah Daichi, you’re awake.”

“Boris?”

“Yes Daichi, I thought I should be here to explain what is about to happen to you.” Daichi’s awareness flooded back in an instant.

“What’s this machine? What are you going to do?” he demanded quite bravely for someone strapped to a chair.

“I’m going to siphon out your spirit” Boris said, like it should be obvious to even the dumbest person.

“You’re going to WHAT?”

“Siphon out your spirit” Boris repeated “really Daichi, you should listen more.”

“How? Why?”

“To make my bit beasts stronger of course. Daichi I realise you were never very bright but surely you can grasp this. I’m going to use you, and other children eventually, to make my bit beasts stronger. It is the spirit of youth and you my boy have it in buckets. Your spirit and energy will intermingle with my bit beasts and fuel my army. You are going to help me take over the world.” Boris’s eyes had taken on a distant look and Daichi realised that the man had finally snapped.

“You’re insane, it will never work, it didn’t work before and it won’t work now.” Daichi screamed at the maniacal man.

“We shall see.” Was the only reply he got as Boris flipped a switch.

--::--::--::--::--::--::--::--::--::

Tyson hung limply from the frame, he was in so much pain that there were no longer single points of it, his whole body was just one raw nerve. He could feel the blood trickling down his back but he didn’t care, he was passed caring. Nobody was coming for him, he wasn’t even sure how long it had been. He had shouted for help in his dreams, even had one of Kai hearing him but that was just a dream, nobody had heard him.

He could hear a whispered conversation coming from dumb and dumber and groaned inwardly, coming up with his next torture no doubt. There wasn’t really much more they could do to him. He saw their feet approach and failed to lift his head up to look directly at them.

“We have a treat for you.” said dumb happily.

“Oh yeah, a real treat” parroted dumber.

“You get to be the first to try our new invention.”

“Well it’s not really a new invention, so much as an improvement on an old one.”

Tyson gulped, this was not sounding good. He’d once read a book about medieval torture devices and some of the things they had were beyond cruel.

“We call it the pear of anguish mark 2.” Dumb told him with glee.

“The mark 2 part is ours” dumber pointed out, just in case Tyson had missed it.

“Do you want to know what it does?” dumb asked.

“Not really” Tyson replied croakily.

“Oh, well we’ll tell you anyway.” Dumb said, a little downhearted that Tyson wasn’t as excited as them.

“You see, you put this in an opening and turn this handle. Can you see it opening?” Tyson’s head had lifted just a fraction to watch the demonstration and his eyes almost flew from his head as he realised just exactly what they were planning to do. He watched with growing horror as the pear opened out like a flower.

“This isn’t much different from the original, we just made it so that it won’t hurt as much which means we can play longer. Oh, and we took the spike off the end.” Tyson wasn’t listening, he was too busy praying to God.

“Can you guess where we’re going to put this?” Dumber asked with malicious glee.

“I’d really…rather…not” Tyson replied in a small voice. Just then the door burst open and Boris walked in, closely followed by two more goons pushing a TV.

“Ah Tyson” came Boris’s usual smarmy voice, “I see my boys have been keeping you well entertained.”

“Yeah, they’re a real laugh riot” Tyson replied, sarcasm dripping from every word.

“You can stop this, just one word and I’ll have you taken to the medical bay to be treated.”

“Not a hope Boris”.

“Even if it would stop all this?”

“You really think I’ll let you hook me up to one of your machines? It’ll never happen.”

“Tyson, I don’t want to siphon your energy or spirit, besides if that’s all I wanted you for, I wouldn’t have asked. You’re too old for that anyway. No Tyson, I want you to test it.”

“Test it, test what?” Tyson asked quizzically.

“Why, the strength of the new and improved bit beasts of course. I want you to battle them. Dragoon has proven to be one of the strongest bit beasts in existence. Only you can handle him.”

“Dragoon and I will never help you.” Tyson told Boris, fury now entering his voice.

“If you won’t do it for the challenge, will you do it to save the life of a team mate?” Boris looked at Tyson and in his eyes Tyson could see the madness.

“What? What do you mean? Boris, what have you done?”

“I shall show you” Boris walked over to the TV that the two goons had set up during their conversation, he turned it on and Tyson saw a small figure hooked up to a chair, the small figure was Daichi.

“He got too close” Boris said without emotion. “Oh and this is real time” he pointed to a time code at the bottom of the screen.

“Daichi” Tyson screamed. He saw the young bladers eyelids flicker. Daichi’s face was pale and drawn, he looked nothing like his usual exuberant self.

“He’s perfect for my experiments. He’s the right age and I already know his spirit is strong and his energy levels high. He does look a little haggard though, he’s only been in there a few hours, maybe the siphoning levels are too high.” Still Boris spoke with no emotion, like he was watching a bad soap opera or something.

“Let him go you sadistic freak” Tyson yelled.

“Will you help me?” Tyson noticed dumb and dumber’s faces fall, they were going to lose their favourite toy.

“Let him go! Or so help me, I will end you” Tyson spat at the man who was in control of everything, even him.

“I ask you again” Boris said calmly “will you help me Tyson?”

“Yes.” Tyson knew he was beaten, but he couldn’t let anything happen to Daichi. “Just let him go.”

The grin on Boris’s face did not escape his notice, and he vowed there and then to wipe it off the smug bastards face once and for all.