~ This time Jaden led the way back up to Andrew's cell door. He placed himself to one side of it, and Takyle stood opposite of him. They paused for a moment and Jaden drew a deep breath. He could hear Andrew's voice faintly inside. He lifted the knife in his right hand and placed his left on the door handle. Takyle nodded as he met her eye and without further pause he flung the door inward.
As he burst into the room, time slowed for Jaden and he used that split second to take stock of his surroundings. In the center of the room Andrew sat bound to a chair. A cot was pushed against one wall and there was Thomas, perched on the edge of it, hands on knees. Jaden saw him look up, surprise sweeping over his features. His right hand began to drop, down the outside of his leg, toward the top of his boot.
By the time Takyle and Jaden had taken the two strides to reach him, he was rising to his feet, unsheathing his small dagger as he straightened. With his fist wrapped around the hilt of his knife, Jaden threw a punch into Thomas' stomach, twisting to the left as he did to place his body between Andrew and Thomas. Before Thomas could make another move Takyle delivered a kick aimed at his wrist, flinging his knife from his hand and across the room with a clatter. He recovered more quickly than they would have hoped and knocked Jaden away with two hard punches. As Takyle leapt at him, he caught her in the air, slamming his elbow into her chin and throwing her to the ground.
Jaden had scrambled to his feet and flew at Thomas again, knife poised to end this, when something happened that took them all by surprise. As Thomas came around to finish Jaden, so he thought, Andrew somehow managed to stand halfway, still bound to the chair, and whip it around, smashing its legs into the side of Thomas' knees. Thomas cried out in pain, his legs collapsing beneath him.
Andrew stumbled and fell to the ground as Thomas pitched backwards against the cot, smacking his head on the rail at the foot. Jaden jumped over Andrew and dove at Thomas, putting all of his weight behind a punch that crashed into Thomas' face. Jaden scrambled back, shoving himself off of Thomas, fist raised for another go, only to stop himself when he realized that his last punch had already put Thomas out cold. The large man lay half on the cot, half off, blood pouring from his nose, his head cocked over at a weird angle.
Jaden looked immediately to his right to locate Takyle, finding her just getting back to her feet, a hand on her jaw. Jaden fell to his knees beside Andrew on the floor.
"Andy, did he hurt you?" he gasped, only now noticing that he was out of breath.
"No, I'm ok, but I can't get up with this chair strapped to me."
"Hold still," Jaden told him, running his hands over the straps binding Andrew and finding them to be fastened with locks. Takyle knelt beside him and Jaden noticed a line of blood dripping from her mouth.
"I think I might have the keys for these locks," she said, pulling the rings from her pocket and sorting through them. In short order she had found the correct one and had managed to release Andrew. He pulled himself free of the broken chair and sat up, rubbing the shoulder he'd landed on.
"You look awful Jay, you ok there?"
"Yes."
Andrew gently tilted Takyle's chin up to look at her face and she quickly wiped the blood from her lips.
"And what about you, Ta?" Andrew asked softly.
"I'm fine."
"He hit you pretty hard; did you bite your lip?"
Takyle nodded. "Yeah, jaw's a little numb."
"Well thanks for saving me, guys. I was beginning to think that I might be in some real trouble there."
"You were," Takyle informed him with a smile, getting to her feet. Her teammates stood with her and Andrew turned back to Jaden.
"Thomas told me that you got out briefly and that he beat you up. Sure you're alright?"
Jaden nodded. "Yeah, still hurts like hell, but I'm getting used to that." He almost said something then about Ms. Scarlet, but stopped himself. He'd tell Andrew about that later. Maybe.
Andrew stepped over to where Thomas' knife had landed and picked it up.
"Ok, well let's get the friggin' hell outta here while we still can. Oh, and by the way, I'm very glad that both of you are still alive." ~
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