TBOS OCT Round Two Part 2

Jack eventually regained consciousness, in slow, brief bits of time. It took him even longer to actually sit up and try to remember what happened. He remembered the weird half-robot, half-man…thing, but beyond that, it was mostly a blur.

"Oh good, you're NOT dead," a snarky voice said.

Jack turned his head, and saw that he wasn't alone in this small, metallic box. Two oddly dressed men were sitting down, watching him with casual interest. He noticed the obvious difference in height between the two; one was clearly taller than him, even sitting down, while the other looked almost a head shorter than him. The shorter one just seemed to watch him cautiously, not letting any emotion show on his tanned, dark face. The taller one, however….

What the hell is up with his EARS? thought Jack. They were pointed, almost like an elf's in some fantasy movie. The pointy eared person also had a dark complexion, much like his companion, but a smile was on his face instead of the blank expression of the man next to him. He offered his hand to Jack, which he gratefully accepted and rose up from the floor.

"A pleasure to meet you," said the man. "Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Dahnnae Marfin. And my friend here is-"

"Bech. You can call me Bech." The smaller man interrupted Dahnnae and got up to his feet. "So, maybe you could tell us what's going on here?"

Jack looked at both of them and shrugged his shoulders. "I've got no idea. I mean, first me and Jen were in some myth story thing, and then we were just in this huge blank, white place, and now we're in some….I don't know, Jen thought it was a Western, but it looks more like sci-fi, doesn't it? With the metal…thing we're in and all, right?"

Bech leaned back against the wall, just shaking his head. "I have no idea what half of what you said even means, but I think I can figure it out. You're from outside The Book, aren't you?"

"Yeah!" Jack instantly perked up. "I guess you're some of the guys Lady Ink and Mudd said that-"

"Mudd!" Bech spat out the name in disgust. "That jerk just threw us in here, didn't even bother explaining what was happening!"

"You're gonna have to excuse him," the voice from the beginning added. "He gets cranky when he doesn't get what he wants."

Jack looked around, trying to figure who was talking, since there were only the three of them in the room. "Who…?"

"Oh, of course! How could I forget!"  Dahnnae untied the scarf from his neck and held it out. "Allow me to introduce my scarf, Merrill. Merrill, be polite to our new friend."

"So," said the scarf, "what did you do to get locked up here?"

"You…you have a talking scarf?" Jack's brain took a few seconds to understand that fact. "That…that is AWESOME!"

"You think so now," said Bechen, "Just give it time. You'll see how annoying it is."

"Merrill isn't an 'it', he's a he! You need to respect his rights! Isn't that right, Zio?" Dahnnae turned to the door to their cell, almost as if he was asking it the question. "Oh, come now, no need to be shy. It's alright." Another pause, and Dahnnae started to become apologetic. "No, no, I'm not mad that you won't open up and let us out, I'm just disappointed that you won't show how much you truly can be."

Jack backed away from the gibbering mad-elf towards Bechen. "Is he…is he alright?"

"Oh, he's fine. Far as I can tell, he's been talking to stuff for years." Bech turned to Jack and asked him, "Say, who was this 'Jen' person that you mentioned earlier?"

Jack slapped his forehead, amazed that he had been so stupid. "Jen! Oh man, she was right with me last I saw her."

"Well, she's not here now. I never saw any women in here; just you and Dahnnae here."

Jack slumped down onto the ground, slowly sliding his back down the wall. "Well, she should be alright. Wherever she is, she's the most capable person I know. I'm sure that she's ok."





Jennifer finally woke up, trying her best to remember how she got where she was. Her first action was to try and lift her arms so she could get up from the ground she was lying on.

Given that she couldn't move her arms, and she wasn't actually on the ground, the attempt failed miserably.

Moving her head around, she saw that she was strapped into some sort of mobile slab, unable to move her arms or legs, and her head just barely. Her original clothes had been removed and thrown unceremoniously onto a chair in the corner. Instead, she was wearing a simple overall uniform, like some prisoner of the state about to be executed.

This is bad, she thought. No jacket meant no shadow state, meaning she couldn't just use the shadows cast from the light above her to escape easily. And even if she could, she would need to find Jack, and she….

Jack….dammit, I'm sorry. If she had been more prepared, faster, she wouldn't be in the situation she was in, and she didn't even want to CONSIDER what was happening to Jack.

"Hello?" she called out, trying to see if anyone was around. "Someone? Please, whatever it is, I'm sorry. Just let me out." She hated being in a helpless position, having to beg, but tied up like this, she didn't have much choice. "At least tell me where I am!"

"The short answer? You're in Arizona."

Arizona? Oh, thank God. Arizona was something she could understand. Arizona was familiar. It didn't matter how much had changed, she could adapt. "What…what part of Arizona?"

"That would be the long answer." The voice's owner became visable from her point of view; it was the cyborg guard that she punched out after he tasered Jack. "Officially, you're in the Arizona sector of Zone 356, Planet Helveta, Bacchus System."

Bakus? What…what? None of the words he said made any sense. Jennifer tried to do a different approach. "Who are you? What do you want?"

"All I wanted to do, lady, was to do my job," the cyborg grumbled. "But then you and your boyfriend show up as unregistered occupants on the scanner, which raises more questions than I can think of off the top of my head. And then you….you do your…I don't even KNOW what to call it, we're still reviewing the tapes, so we really can't do much for you." The cyborg leaned in closer to Jennifer, his artificial eye examining her, like he was trying to read her thoughts.

Jennifer kept trying to talk with him. The more he said, even if it didn't make any sense, the more she would learn. But before she could say anything, a voice cackled from the intercom in the room. "Yul, we've arrived. We better bring up the girl and her friends to meet the Warden."

"Will do. Get the other three. I'll handle this one myself." Yul reached down to the panel to the right of Jennifer's head, pressing various buttons on it and causing the straps holding her to the slab to turn off, but not the ones restraining her arms and legs. "Come on, get up. I don't think you'll need…encouragement, do you?" He withdrew his weapon, making a point that he could and would use it if necessary.

"Could I at least have my clothes on, please?" Let it work, let this work, PLEASE…

"You're clothed already, aren't you?" Nevertheless, he picked up Jennifer's clothes with his free hand, eye not straying in the slightest. "I'll just hold onto these for the time being."

"So…who's this Warden person? Why are we going to see him?"

"The Warden is the one in charge around here. And you're going to explain just what the hell you're doing here."