by Danny, GoozX, T5, The Eurostar and LLance
"Another fine mess you've gotten us into."
"Shut up, Hal," said Danny Hearn to his second brain.
"No."
"Bastard." I'm trapped in a cell... again, thought Danny. To my left, although the sound is muffled, I can hear Tobias in the cell next to me.
"Still trying, Danny?" he yelled out.
"Yup," Danny answered.
"Your optimism would be refreshing if it wasn't so pointless."
Always the pessimist, that Tobias. Or always the voice of reason. Sometimes it's easy to mistake the two. Even so, I'm still trying to make my powers work.
"Tiger claws," Danny said under his breath. He knew Hal was sending a signal to his hands. He knew that his altered bloodstream was trying to morph his fingers into claws. But nothing happened. These damn handcuffs...
Tobias Christopher punched the stone wall, his knuckles red, almost bloodied.
Pete Glover sat in the corner, Indian style, not worried at all. He scratched his underarm, then smelled his hand. He looked a little dumbfounded.
"MMMPHHHHHH! MYYYYYYYPPPPPHHHHHH!" Mick Harrison tried to shout at the top of his lungs but couldn't get a word out.
"This really sucks," Lance Lorenzo began. "It seems like every bad guy we meet captures us and negates our powers. We don't even know our powers that well. Did we miss a memo or somethin'?"
"They don't know all that much," Sam Dawson said, finally coming out from the shadows. "Every metagene is different."
Sam put both of his hands up, and suddenly they morphed in the opposite direction. He waved toward Shirley Francis in a cell across the prison. Suddenly, his hands seemed to melt, morphing around the handcuffs, and he was free. He tossed the cuffs toward Lance.
"How'd ya do that, b'y?" Pete asked, thinking that his luck must be the real cause of the boy's escape.
"My DNA is always shifting, never a normal strand. They need somethin' very different to contain me."
"You mind, buddy?" Lance asked, lifting his cuffed hands toward Sam. "DNA always shifting?"
"Just like me appearance," Sam said, turning his head toward Lance and now looking like General Colton D'goon. "That's why they call me Shift," he said, winking.
He lifted his hands in the air, morphing them into sharp blades that he brought down, busting through Lance's chains. Lance smiled and turned intangible. Lance made Tobias and Pete intangible, and their cuffs fell to the ground.
Sam shifted into the appearance of a guard and shifted his mass to fit through the bars. "I'll see what I can find out!"
Sam ran off into the shadows as Lance reached out, saying, "Wait! Don't--!"
"Dat boy gonna get 'imself dead," Pete said, laughter in his voice.
"That's what I'm afraid of."
"MMMMMMPPPPPPHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" shouted Mick, still muffled.
"I'm coming, Mick," said Naecken, who walked over to Mick to remove his muzzle and restraints.
Freeing him, Naecken asked, "What is a metagene?" He smashed the strange-looking handcuffs against the wall.
"Oh, that's right. You're not a metahuman, you're a... a... what exactly?" asked Tobias.
"I'm not sure. I get glimpses of confusing and contradictory images. And I feel something else, too." He bent a few bars and did the same for everyone else. "Now we wait for Sam to tell us what's on the other side of that cellar door."
The gang prepared themselves, happy to be free from their restraints, when suddenly the bars opened by themselves.
"How...?" began Mick, free of his muffle.
Marv Velo cut him off, explaining, "It seems a shortage of power has made the cells open. Quick, we must stop Shift before he runs into the guards. We must go to the lower levels. Up there will be sure death for us!"
Pete smiled, knowing that the cells had opened thanks to his luck.
Many levels above, in Mandelov Palace, General D'goon smiled in front of his big plasma monitor, looking at the heroes escaping their cages.
"Perfect. They are going just in the right direction. Nemo! Send someone to the cells to collect the handcuffs, and release the beast."
Naecken said, "Maybe this is a trap. We should make our own rules here and make a exit of our own."
And so he started to smash through the walls of the dungeon until he reached the stone wall of the ground. He looked at the others and asked, "Anyone have a way of creating a chute up to the surface, or do I have to dig all the way?"
Lance shrugged his shoulders and mumbled, "Where's Matter-Eater Lad when you really need him?"
Naecken looked puzzled. "Who?"
Just then, everyone turns in the direction from which they had just come. A low growling could be heard very distinctly.
"I don't think that's Matter-Eater Lad's stomach growling!" Lance noted.
"Who in the hell is Matter-Eater Lad?" Naecken yelled as he began to dig upward.
"He's not going to be able to dig fast enough before whatever that thing is catches up to us," Lance said. "Everybody... be ready!"