Seconds(2)

Mason awoke with a pounding headache. His skull pulsed with a migraine as he continued to feel his limbs twitch every so often. Despite his previous failure, he once again assessed where he was first.

His arms and legs were bound this time, but not by any means he actually remembered. Somehow they had encased his hands and feet in some kind of restricting metal while there were stiff coils of metal holding his joints, neck and abdomen in place.

The room itself was completely metallic, illuminated by light sources that lay within divots in the ceiling. His body was held in the middle of it by equally metallic clamps that seemed to extend from the walls and ceilings to encase him. Despite that, the room looked fairly large, and he couldn’t find an immediate exit anywhere.

He had expected that a bit. Of course his capteurs wouldn’t let him near an exit of any kind, and his latest stunt had only caused a further rift in any goodwill he could have garnered.

Mason clicked his tongue in annoyance, mumbling, “damnit… a rookie mistake.”

There were many things he could have done instead of freak out and try to hold someone hostage. However, what’s done is done. He was in an unfamiliar place without any of his weapons or knowledge, and he had somehow been completely beaten by someone who he never knew.

Still, it wasn’t the worst of situations he’s ever been in.

He needed to figure out where his things were, and then he needed to somehow do what he needed to do. Comforting himself with the fact that the demon king was dead, Mason began to try and puzzle together where he was.

“Wait…” the man frowned, realization coming to his thoughts. “He’s dead, so I should have been sent home to my family. I doubt that the elves would break their oath of truthfulness about something like that... Yet, where am I?”

The tiny details from his last memories began to play in the back of his head. That blue-haired woman, Jenna, she had mentioned something about them ‘hitting him in the void’. There were also mentions of ‘terraformed planets’.

Slowly, the misplaced hero began forming an idea. He dug deep into his memories, pulling out times when he wasn’t fighting monsters of fantasy; when he was simply another kid in high school. There were movies and books of spacecrafts and aliens; the vast frontier when humans finally reached for the stars.

He cursed. Only now did he know that instead of going home, he was instead placed in a different sort of fantasy. “This has to be some kind of joke…”

The little details began to fill themselves in as he recalled his last meeting with the supposed crew of this probable spaceship. Those little weapons that were pointed at him were probably guns of some sort, and that little metallic golem should be some sort of robot. And when they hit him in the void… he was dying in space.

Sighing, Mason tried to reorganize his thoughts. For now, he was stuck in some new kind of hell, and he was lucky that they hit him when they did. His vague memories of space told him that humans can’t survive in the void for very long. However, he needed to figure out a way back home.

They didn’t have magic. Well, not any that he could sense. They also seemed to be fairly nice people, or at least the blue-haired woman had talked about helping kids. As horrible as it was, he could use that to his advantage. Of course, so long as he reciprocated before getting the necessary information to figure out a way home.

Still, no matter how much he wanted to curse at whatever higher power placed him in situations like these, he was stuck here. As such, he needed to figure out where he was stuck.

And as luck would have it, one section of the wall in front of his hissed with displaced air. A doorway suddenly formed in the metal wall, and a straight crack opened up with the edges of the door disappearing into the wall on either side.

In stepped Jenna, her blue hair tied up into a ponytail and a new baggy shirt over her body. Beside her was the brute of a woman, Quincy, scowling at him with the more animosity than most demons he fought with. A fact that he found impressive since most of them wanted to play jump rope with his intestines.

“Hello again, mysterious vagabond!” Jenna said, smiling without a care in the world.

Honestly, Mason was feeling rather embarrassed over suspecting her of capturing him now. Not that he needed to tell her that, though. While he was fairly certain that they weren’t trying to kill him, he wasn’t quite sure what they wanted. It was best to let them dictate their terms before he decided on anything.

As such, Mason chose to stay silent after Jenna’s overly friendly introduction. What he didn’t expect was that the silence was reciprocated as both women weren’t speaking either.

And as the silence dragged on, Quincy’s face began to grow further and further twisted in rage. Jenna was still trying to smile, but most of her attention was on trying to hold Quincy back from attacking Mason. Through the two’s interactions, the ex-hero found that Jenna seemingly had superiority in the relationship.

With that in mind, Mason began to form an idea on what to say. He found that they were letting him take the pace of the conversation too easily. Another point that they were people not used to interrogations.

It was getting to the point that the retired hero wondered if he should even bother trying to use his abilities against them. However, first he needed to figure out where his earrings and Lumen were.

Lumen was one thing, but his earrings were blessings that couldn’t leave his side. If they weren’t returning to him, that meant that Lumen was holding onto them. Still, he was rather worried for the little lantern; the spirit had only been alive for a little over a year, so it was rather gullible without him. Once he had both of them, though, he’d be able to demand or ask whatever he needed with his more polished skill: fighting.

“When you found me,” he started, drawing their attention. “Did you find a lantern or a pair of silver teardrop earrings?”

He could find them easily if he had a bit of time to meditate and focus on his connection to either of them, but trying to talk to his captors was the easier of the two options.

“We didn’t find anything. Are they important to you as well?” Jenna answered.

Mason blinked. “As well?”

“Yeah,” the woman said, holding up her hand with two white bands in her palm. “I made sure to hold onto these as the restraints might damage them, and they looked important to you. Do you need help looking for your other things, too?”

“You…” Mason felt his throat dry up. Guilt was beginning to force itself into his chest, and suddenly the man almost felt disgusted at himself for trying to manipulate her.

“Jenna! Why are you trying to reason with the guy!?” Quincy straightened, pointing over to Mason. “He’s obviously some pirate or something! I don’t know of any nice people being thrown out an airlock very often!”

Jenna put her hand on her hips, making sure not to drop the two rings in her hand. “Its fine, Quincy. You’re worried about too much. Besides, I’m the captain of this ship, right?”

Quincy scowled at Mason as if he were the reason everything was wrong.

“Quincy!”

“Fine, whatever!” The woman yelled back, standing back while continuing to glare at the restrained man. “Don’t make me say I told you so when he tried something.”

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Jenna smiled. “Great! Now, you uh, actually what’s your name?”

“Mason…” he said, throwing away his thoughts of trying to deceive someone who seemed so nice. For now, he’d try to get on their good side the old fashioned way. “My name is Mason Wright.”

However, as soon as the two heard his last name, both of them froze as if an electric shock streamed through at the words. They quickly schooled their expressions behind a smile in Jenna’s case of frown in Quincy’s. It was an action that was obviously not used often, and the ex-hero could easily find something was amiss. 

Something that only stirred another warning bell in Mason’s mind as Jenna quickly wiped a bead of sweat away from her brow before speaking again. “A- anyways, nice to know you, Mason. I’m Jenna Warren, and my friend here,” she pointed over to Qincy, presenting the buff woman like an art piece. “She’s Quincy. Never really told us her last name, but that’s okay because she’s a nice person!”

“Hey!” Quincy interrupted, cheeks a rosy blush. “I know you don’t do this a lot, but stop adding random stuff when you’re talking to people tied up like this! Just-” the woman looked back in forth between the door and Mason before sighing. Her eyes looked with his, and for a second, the ex-hero believed that there was a sense of camaraderie between the two of them.

That was quickly covered up as the woman scowled again. “Alright, I’m just gonna say that I don’t trust you. However, we need coordinates to wherever you were. If you have supplies on it, we’re willing to pay.”

“Quincy… you’re not being very nice.” Jenna pouted, not giving any other additions to her friend’s words. It was enough to make Mason feel that they were, as politely as possible, asking to take his things.

Mason found his lips dry as his tongue wetted them. “My previous base is rather… far from here. I apologize for reacting the way I did; I was rather tired from my experiences, and I was not quite in the right of mind. Perhaps I can help you if I find my earrings.”

“Really?” Jenna jumped up, eyes wide with anticipation.

Quincy was rather the opposite, frowning and crossing her arms. “Really? We’re not as gullible to believe that your jewelry can help us. Just give us the coordinates to this previous base of yours.”

“No deal.” Mason said, choosing to hold the fact that he had no idea how he was going to find any coordinates. What he needed now was Lumen and his earrings in order to protect himself first. He would need their ship if Lumen was floating somewhere out in space. “You both are in need of supplies, and I need a ride to my things. You help me and I help you.”

“Bold words for someone still locked in-”

“Sure!”

Mason and Quincy blinked as Jenna cut off her friend’s scathing words to enthusiastically agree.

“Wait, wait, Jenna,” Quincy hurriedly placed her hands on the blue-haired woman’s shoulders. “Please think this one through first. He,” she gestured over to Mason again, scowling. “Is obviously trying to lead us into a trap. “What if he’s a pirate or something?”

The bluette thought over the words for a second, nodding and tilting her head to look over at Mason. “Are you a pirate?”

“I’m not. I despise pirates.”

“See,” Jenna smiled at Quincy, find her friend’s face buried in her palms. “What? Is something wrong?”

“Your friend is just worrying over you.” Mason cut in, trying to offer her a smile as well, but finding the action harder to accomplish than he expected. “I could really be leading you to a trap; you could seriously get hurt by not trying to look for lies in my words.”

The supposed captain blinked at Mason’s words, her face looking as if he had just told her something that juxtaposed her thoughts. “I mean, I know.” Jenna finally said. “Except there aren’t any larger pirate groups that are known to be in this area of space. Even if there were a group here, they wouldn’t be that strong as a CF plague outbreak was rather close by. No one in their right mind would try to rob a ship that just left Beta-Kalfos on the off chance that they had CF infected.”

Then the woman grinned, showing her teeth to the surprising insight that Mason had no idea of proving to be accurate. However, her next words were all he needed to know of her confidence, “Besides, who cares if its a trap; everyone on my ship is equipped well enough that a couple of pirates wouldn’t be able to handle us. So how about you just give us those coordinates, yeah? We’ll find your jewelry, and you get us to some place with food.”

“I see.” Mason said. “Then, give me a moment to remember the location.”

Mason closed his eyes, intending on trying to find Lumen and his earrings finally. As he slowly found himself locking on the connection, he heard a sigh in the room as Quincy spoke up again.

“I guess we’ll go along with your decision.”

The ex-hero couldn’t help but crack a smile at the woman’s words. He had heard some like that too whenever he made a reckless decision every once and awhile. They were some things that proved Quincy was ready to follow along no matter what. A friendship that Mason couldn’t help but admire.

Slowly, he found his connection, and his connection with both Lumen and his earrings were things that always showed him their position. No matter the distance he would be able to sense how far he was away. He had never once found a place that could block this connection, and despite the random teleportation, that fact was still true.

Except… the distance was too much.

The part of his mind that tied to locating them was still working, but everytime he wanted to know the distance and exact position, it would metaphorically stutter to a halt. All he had was the fact that he knew they were roughly ‘very far to the left’.

Frowning this time, Mason decided to focus his mind on the connection completely. While Lumen was still a rather young spirit, they were still connected in mind. Mason could ride that connection back to Lumen, and look through the young spirit’s senses as if they were his own.

He hadn’t used this often as Lumen tended to perceive the world much differently than an actual person, so Mason didn’t want to get too disorientated at the difference. This might cause him to hurt himself as he grew confused on what was what. Luckily, he was locked up so that he couldn’t even twitch his fingers, preventing him from even moving if he wanted to.

With all that in mind, Mason dived right into the connection.

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“Unhand me, you barbarians! I am the great and mighty Lumen! Stop poking me!”

Mason felt fire. He was fire and heat, and all around him was a cage of fire and heat. The cage would try to move as Lumen influenced it, but there was some feedback that prevented the young spirit from fully controlling the cage.

Something poked through the cage of fire and heat. There was a cold section that refused fire, and the end was a poker of heat and energy. Lumen couldn’t use the heat as the energy that surrounded the poker was not his.

Energy crossed the distance between Lumen’s lantern and the poker, arcing through the space like all energy does. Energy normally didn’t affect the lantern; it would always forget it even existed as the runes on it rejected all magic cast on the young spirit.

However, the energy cut into fire. Lumen felt pain and Mason naturally felt the horrendous agony that the fire tried not to feel. Fire burned and energy flickered, and Lumen cried and cried.

“What an amusing A.I. I didn’t know they screamed like this.” There was waves. A trembling of motion in the air. Someone’s voice fell into the domain of wind, and Mason could only catch that it was male. “Just give us the treasure you little thing. We won’t hurt you anymore, and you can go back to this master you spoke of. We don’t want to get involved with a true A.I. in this day and age, you know.”

“No!” Lumen projected back. Fire trembled, mimicking how voices encroached on the domain of wind. “You won’t touch the hero’s things! These are his, and I’m holding onto them for him! Wait until he gets here, and beats you meanies all senseless!”

“Oh! A hero! I’m so scared.”

Energy entered the cage again and Mason felt pain once more before he cut the connection.

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The ex-hero found himself back in his metallic prison, his breathing heavy and coarse. There was a small metallic golem in the room now with Jenna looking over at him with worry clear on her gaze. Quincy had gone to lean on the wall, glaring at him as he regained his clarity of the situation.

“All organs are functional and healthy. The subject appears to have an increased heart rate and blood pressure.” The robot assessed as Mason finally understood what was going on.

And as he finally realized that, he remembered the pain that Lumen was currently enduring. His teeth grinded together harder than when his jaw locked up due to being electrocuted. He normally chose to keep calm in situations like these, but the hero felt something that he had forgotten under the ruins of dead empires.

An unrelenting rage for anyone who touched his family.

“Hey,” his voice came out hard, commanding Jenna straighten up immediately despite the girl not understanding what he wanted. “I know where to go, but I can’t find the exact location until we’re closer.”

“T- that’s fine…” Jenna stammered out, looking between the floor and Quincy while refusing to meet his eyes. “But, um, is everything okay? You were kinda-”

“Don’t worry, I’m fine.” Mason ground out, trying not to let his anger transition to this innocent woman.

“In fact,” the ex-hero added. “I think our destination can solve all our problems. Just…”

“Just what?” Quincy challenged, stepping between Jenna and the still furious Mason. She flinched when he stared down at her, and despite the fact that he was still completely immobile, the woman shuddered on his gaze.

“How fast can we get there?”