*All characters copyrighted to Poseidon Simons

Chapter 16

Kain

Grifffin

Babe flew directly over the factory first, "Bio-signs...about twenty or so." There weren't that many people here, "I have to get inside though...there's too much metal interfering with my scanners." He landed and opened the main doors, "Hello?.." The few men directly in his line of sight froze when they saw him. Babe sighed, "I'm only going to be here for a minute."

One of the men was pushed forward. He glanced back at the rest of the men, gulped and edged closer to Babe, "Wh...what are...what are you doing here?.."

"Looking for someone." This made the men even more tense! Babe did his best to calm them down, "It's no one dangerous...and he's probably not even here. I'll be in and out before you know it."

At last the men relaxed and went back to their work.

"Okay...now what?" Griffin sighed and looked around. He COULD occupy his time with the weights, but what was going on? What was so bad about this Protector guy, anyway? To hear his friends talk the Protector was great! To hear Kain..."The guy holds more than a grudge! Maybe the Protector changed him..." Kain was practically a robot! If the Protector had done that to him, Griffin would have been ready to kill him too!.."But Kain hates me...even an idiot can see that...I should try to get out. I can stop any bullets that come after me." This strengened his resolve. He went back to the door and kicked at the lock. The door swung open, nearly torn off its hinges. He quickly hid behind one of the machines in the room and waited for someone to come running in.

...no one did.

Griffin edged toward the door, confused...until he remembered what Kain had said, "He doesn't care what I do so long as I don't try to get out...breaking down the DOOR doesn't count?! DAMN this guy is specific!" Well, he couldn't trick the men into coming in HERE...he'd have to go out there..."Alright...they asked for it." He walked calmly out, watching for ANY movement...there! He froze them where they stood, "You're not getting me!" Griffin grinned at them and kept walking. He rounded one corner, then let the men go. Of course, they ran after him...but he'd been waiting. The second they rounded the corner, he jumped them. They were knocked cold from the first punch. Griffin sighed and moved on, "No challenge at all."

"What the..." Babe checked his scanners again. They weren't malfunctioning...there was someone directly below!.."Please let it be a false alarm! I thought that part of this place had collapsed!" He had to check though...and then, suddenly, it was gone. The bio-sign that someone had been down there was gone..."Maybe it WAS just a glitch...I'll have Bill look at it later..." He hoped it was a glitch...that meant that this place was just a simple factory now..."Hey wait...this place is supposed to be abandoned!" He glanced back. Every last man that had been there was gone. Not even their bio-signals remained, "Damn it...I'm getting out of here!!!" He took off immediately.

Babe didn't care if ghosts existed or not, but he sure as hell did NOT want to find out!!!

"He left?"

"Yes sir. He's gone."

"Good." Kain emerged from his hiding spot, "Make sure it stays that way." He headed down the hall, "Now I have to find out just what kind of egg Griffin eats!.." He'd gotten over his gagging. After Kain had thought about it, the more it seemed logical. The one thing no one ever ate on this island...the very item that everyone thought made you insane, was something that could give you more energy, more strength, than anything else. It made a sickly perfect sense! That's why there were so few incredibly strong men on this island! They were all going at it a harder way, seeking results in special diets and excercises that might or might not work! Well, that was going to change...if this actually WORKED, then Kain could start his own little army...he smiled, "An army with each man as strong as James or Griffin...who would stand in my way?! I would be more than a match for Babe, and if I can analyze that microchip Griffin has, not even guns can stand up to my army!"

He kept his good mood all the way up until he found Griffin's empty cell..."WHERE IS HE?!!!!!!!!!!!"

Griffin jerked and started running, "He found out that fast?! Damn!!!!!!!" Griffin began searching for as many good hiding spots as he could. Simple ones wouldn't do. He was dealing with something very close to a robot. He'd sparred against droids when he'd been back with Father...and each robot had incredibly accurate sensors. He needed some place that was hard to reach, had incredible amounts of metal surrounding it, and an electromagnetic field if he could find one. Security cameras usually had a high enough frequency to jam other sensors. He'd find one close to an air vent or something...with his preferred hiding place in mind, it was almost too easy to find one. After making sure he wouldn't be spotted by the camera, Griffin removed the grating and crawled inside. He rescrewed the grating back in with the power of his microchip, and waited. This was the part where he found out if he'd chosen a good enough spot...

"FIND HIM!!!!! FIND HIM NOW!!!!!" Kain shouted through the intercom system. Griffin had gotten away!!! Kain shouted through the intercom one more time then went to search himself..."My radar works better than some idiots pair of eyes. He can't have gone far...someone would have at least seen him running away." He went up and down numerous hallways, grumbling and growling and promising to kill that egg eating son-of-a-bitch if he saw him again. At least Babe hadn't been able to figure out what was going on...that, at least, was helpful. If he had seen even one thing that gave away Kain's hiding place, they would have to make their move. With that fight Griffin had given them, they needed at most a week before all the robots were up and running again.

bleep...

Kain stopped...that had been a bio-signal...his sensors had picked up something! But where?..there was no one this far down...Griffin had taken care of the only other people. It was Griffin then? Where could he be hiding?..Kain looked around carefully, reguarding each area of the hall like a potential hiding place. It practically jumped out at him, "The air vent...it's big, surrounded by metal, and that camera right there nearly stopped by sensors from picking up his signal! Damn it! How could he have figured things out that fast?!..at least we have him now..." Kain walked to a wall and pressed a hidden button connected with the intercoms, "He's in the air vents. Close off each one and we'll have him."

"Yes sir." There was a loud clang as the seldom used air vents were closed.

Griffin lay still, breathing hard, "That was too close..." He'd started moving as soon as Kain had glanced at the air vent...he hadn't stopped either. Griffin knew how to move silently in these sort of places, and had been working his way up...unfortunately, he'd seen the exit, and three metal panels had fallen in front of it. It would take time, and noise, to break through those...not to mention the one that had nearly gotten his tail. He shuddered to think what might have happened had he been any slower..."Not time for that now...I have to figure a way out of here..." Yeah, but the closest exit was now blocked off, and he would be making a LOT of noise if he tried to break through it!

What should he do?..

"Sir, I think I've found him. There's a blockage in the main shaft. It's nearly to the top." He tapped a few keys so that the screen enlarged and focused the specific shaft, "It's a big blockage too."

Kain's voice came over the other end, "Good job. Can we force him down?"

"Negative...he's too high up...and we'd have to open the shaft if we wanted to push him back down."

"Damn...well, at least he's still here. Get a team on the roof, and make sure every exit is covered up."

"Yes sir. Are any of the robots functional?"

"Only a few. Griffin managed do do a large number of them in. I can spare only two right now."

"They'll help, sir."

"Right." Kain's voice vanished for a second. When it cam back, "The robots are waiting on the roof. GEt the rest of the men up there and wait for Griffin to come out."

"Affirmative." With that, he switch to a walkie-talkie and gave out the orders. A group of ten men soon joined the robots on the roof. They waited by the largest exit.

Griffin could hear them walking around above him, "Damn...if I go down, I'll meet Kain again. If I go up, I'll run straight into whatever he has planned for me. If I go down, there's going to be less men for me to face...but it'll take longer to get out, and the men above me could make it back in before I get out. If I go up, it'll only be those men, but I have no idea what I'm facing...and they have an advantage. I have to break open each of those metal slabs before I can climb out. They can shoot me before I have a chance to attack." He was stuck..."I need some sort of plan...there's no way I'd be quiet enough to break through those slabs and get to another exit...and the rest are all probably too small for me to fit into anyway! What do I do?! Damn it, what do I do?!" There had to be SOME solution!!!!.."Wait...maybe if I--that's it!" He smiled and got to work. All he needed was to try pushing up one at a time. Hopefully, the first two would get by without screeching, the third block was the one he'd punch through. If he could do THAT, the men would never know when to be prepared, and he wouldn't have to face quite so many when he got out. There would be too much confusion!.."That's my only plan right now...I hope this works!" He used his chip to try to force the first slab up. It moved SLOWLY, but, thankfully, was quiet. The second one got caught after a few inches, presenting a very big problem. If his CHIP couldn't push it up, then it more or less was likely that he couldn't force it up with his hands...what to do?..