Chapter Thirty-Nine - A Nice Little Chat

Chapter Thirty-Nine - A Nice Little Chat I woke up with a splitting headache and a wet feeling on the back of my skull. Then I heard metal grinding on metal and the clang of a door shutting. "Stay right the fuck there, bitch," someone growled. I blinked, trying to piece together what was going on. Right. I'd found Miss Ojou, locked in some sort of cage, and... I reached up and touched the back of my head, then hissed. My hand came away bloody and wet, and the mere touch sent a wave of pain and nausea through me. That wasn't good. Nor was the fact that when I tried to sit up, everything started to spin. My vision felt like it was doubling, then refocusing, then doubling again. "Ah," I said. "I'mma concussion." Someone spat on me. I turned, trying to see who, but the dark form just walked off, and the act of turning sent me falling onto my side. "Urgh," I complained. "Are you... well?" Blinking a few times, I tried to push past the confusion. That was... Miss Ojou. She was in the cell across from the one I was locked in. Great. "I'm alright," I said. "You don't look it," she replied. "Are you part of a rescue team? It's about time you show up. Meaning no offence." "Nope. Not a rescue team. Just me." "Just... you," she said. "There's a huge bounty to save you. Ah, but this timeline's burnt." I shuffled back, pressed myself up against one of the humid stone walls. I could see her, in the cell across from mine. She was standing just by the door, within the light. "Tell me, how are you? Do you need anything?" "I need to get out of here, for one," she said. "Mhm," I replied. "Look... I'm not gonna have a ton of time to explain this, so I'm just going to be straight. I'm a time traveller." "... Pardon?" "Yup. It's very cool. Now, before I reset things and start over, I need to know some things, okay?" I stopped talking. Everything was very spinny for a moment, and I just breathed. "Gimme a sec." "Take all the time in the world," she said. I took a minute. Then I blinked a few times and looked over to her, really looked. Miss Ojou was about the same height as me, probably. Five something. She had a nice beige suit on, with thin lapels and suitpants. Nice shoes too. Bet they were more comfortable than my pumps that I wore to my interview. Her hair was crazy. Like, really long. Reaching down to her lower back, and done in big curls. It was frayed and a bit messy, but yeah, that hair needed maintenance, and I wasn't just saying that because we were in some dungeon, I mean hair that complicated needed weekly visits to a hairdresser. "You, uh, haven't been abused?" I asked. She blinked. "Pardon?" "You know... uh, since they took you?" This was awkward. Miss Ojou crossed her arms. "Not sexually, if that's what you're implying. Nor... physically, beyond the manhandling and the conditions of this cell. They haven't deigned to feed me. And there's... a bucket." "Oh, good," I said. I wouldn't know what to do if she had been. I had been mentally preparing for ad-hoc grief counseling or something. She didn't look traumatized, though. But... she did look scared. Not on the surface. She looked angry on the surface. Very pissed-off-HR-rep. But just under that? Her hands were a little shaky and I couldn't help but notice that her eyeliner had smudged. "So, you a D-ranker yet?" I asked. She scoffed. "What kind of question is that?" "Just asking," I said. I tried to push myself up, but that only made me more dizzy, so I gave up. "Okay... more questions. Uh. Next timeline, I'm going to try to sneak up to here. That one who hit me, where is he, usually?" "Next timeline?" she asked. "Just answer the question, princess." "I am not a princess," she said, princessly. I just stared at her, and she relented. "He patrols the area once every hour or so. Often checks on that door at the end of the corridor. I believe that they haven't cleared the next room at all, and something occasionally scratches at the door." "When would his next patrol be, usually?" I asked. "I don't know, in about half an hour?" So, if I made it this far without being detected, I might have half an hour to free Miss Ojou and move on. That probably wasn't long enough to clear the portal. Maybe. Stolen content alert: this content belongs on novelhall. Report any occurrences. "Can you fight?" I asked. "In my state?" she asked. "If needs be, yeah," I said. "Do you know how?" "I've had martial training since I was a child," she said huffily. "And practice against monsters and people?" I asked. She glared, which I took to mean no. "What weapons do you know? Guns?" "Swords," she replied. "Huh." Well, maybe I could find something for that. Clearing the path would be easier if I didn't need to babysit her. "Okay. That's a plan, then. If I snuck up here and unlocked the door for you... wait, where's the key to your cell?" "The brute that struck you has it." "Damn. Is that lock pickable?" I pulled myself up, felt like vomiting, then moved up to the door anyway. I felt at the lock. It was a big, clunky thing, old. It looked simple, though. So, if I wanted in, I'd either need to steal the keys, or pick the lock, or break the door? Learning how to lockpick would be a great idea, actually, but I don't think I had the right setup for it. I'd have to ask Jane for a good set of lockpicks and then practice with them later on. Stealing the keys... doable. I looked around the edge of the door. It was solid iron, drilled into the stone walls. The lock, however... was just a thin metal bar poking into a hole in the wall. That bar had a lever on it, then dropped down with a loop on the end, a loop lined up with a loop on the door, and a padlock was through both. Huh... that looked rusty and kind of weak. I was pretty sure I could break that, actually. I reached over to mine and rattled it around. Yeah, it was falling apart already. I didn't have the leverage from in here, but given a crowbar... It would be noisy, though. Maybe. "Okay," I said. "Sneak up to here, if it's possible, then break the lock. Then we both run out through the portal's exit." "Are you mad? This is a D-ranked portal, and you're concussed." "I'm a bit insane, yeah, but I'd like to do the portal while I'm here. It's good experience, you know? Makes you a stronger mage." "You are mad," she said. "I've rebooted my augs. It hasn't undone everything they hacked into them, but I'm quite certain that the moment I'm out, they'll reconnect to the city network, and anyone looking will be able to pinpoint my approximate location. Does that help? Or can you call reinforcements in some other way?" "Nope, it's all good," I said. There were footsteps coming back down the corridor. "You fucking... you killed them!" he roared. "Oops," I said. "You bitch! You killed everyone? What the fuck is wrong with you?" he shouted while I backed away from the door. "You killed the others?" Miss Ojou asked. "For now," I said. "I had a big gun, it's surprisingly effective." "I'm going to fucking rip you limb from limb," big guy said. He came over and started on the padlock. Ah he kept the keys inside his coat. That'd... be pretty much impossible to pickpocket. "Well, good meeting you," I said. I Reloaded. Returning to a non-concussed body was like getting icewater splashed in my face, in a good way. No time to just bask in it, though. I bounced on the spot and shook my head, making sure the dizziness was gone, then I took off once again. Now that I had a good idea of the layout of the start of the portal, I could look into going in deeper. The next run would be about breaking Ojou out, and maybe seeing how far into the portal I could get. Also, I needed a crowbar. I rode a taxi back, made a quick stop at a hardware store where I bought a nice, all-black crowbar with a hook on one end, then I rode down to the same alley I'd changed in before. I didn't make the call for Timothy this time. It wouldn't matter. I arrived at the warehouse, snuck in, then glanced at the portal from around a container. Now... how to get in there without alerting the two out here? I looked up, at the container above the portal... maybe it was time to learn a bit of parkour? Four minutes later, I was on the ground in the portal world, crying and clutching at what I was pretty sure was a broken clavicle. Okay, so... Reload. ***