Chapter twenty

I spun around on the spot like a top, trying to see what new torture was awaiting me. On my third dizzying circle I got a sudden bad feeling; nothing was happening but the sound had stopped. I felt a something cold run down my back, an ice cube down my spine. I looked upwards, holes in the roof dripped cold water down onto my still hot body. I was shaking in seconds, from burning under a desert sun to being dunked into the Arctic Ocean.
“I... I gotta keep moving” I stuttered, starting to dash around the room as fast as I could. The water and the cold weighed me down like lead, my legs didn’t want to cooperate and my arms were getting heavy. The water was up to my waist now; I couldn’t remember seeing it rise. I was losing time, the world flashing past in chucks. I closed my eyes tight; I had to get out of this freezing cold chest high water. Whiteness washed over me, it was so cold it burnt. I couldn’t remember how I did it but I found myself clinging to the roof, upside down and just out of the water. I began to move around the ceiling, heating up quickly now I was out of the freezing water.

It began to drain slowly from the room, a large drain cover with small holes in it clearing the room in no time. I collapsed like a ton of bricks, only much less accurately. The door burst open and three heavily armed men came in, gun barrels found their mark; me.
“Where did you disappear just then?” the front one asked, cocking his gun at me.
“Y-your momma” I croaked, trying to get up and thankfully not falling flat on my face. I was kneeling in front of them now as I heard a cock of a gun “Go on, those just bounce right off me” I chuckled. With a horrible growling the door slammed back, I was going to pay now I could tell. I only hoped that they wouldn’t try too hard to kill me. I was doing alright at this; I wasn’t fried, drowned or frozen.
“Stage three will initiate in thirty seconds. Get ready lizard boy.” The crackling voice called out from around me, a definite feeling of malice and glee. I hated whoever was talking; they loved their jobs too much. I just had to wait now, standing there in the middle of the room and holding my arms to try and get warm blood back into them. I couldn’t stop my mind from straying to the thoughts of what fresh horror they had in stall for me; images that weren’t possible in the current laws of physics sprang up. I just wished I’d stop thinking whether I’d slow the motors before they crunched my exoskeleton into pieces and made me a stain on the wall.

Those thoughts were why I freaked when I heard the slightest grind of metal on metal, spinning around on the spot and staring at the walls. I could see it plainly now, each wall had a piece rolled away to leave ten holes as big as tennis balls on every side. Gun barrels pointed through the holes and I knew what was coming before it happened. Almost half a second before the bang I covered my eyes with my arms, trying to defend myself any way possible. There was a thud. A tiny thud. If felt like a fly bouncing off me. I opened my eyes slightly and peeked down at my chest, a small black mark on my thigh. I bent down and felt another small impact on my leg, another gun had fired. I hardly felt the shots; they must be using weaker bullets than the ones in the gun. The others were getting into it now, several firing at once and spraying black coating bullets. I frowned, wondering if they’d start using harder stuff if I acted like they didn’t hurt. Shrugging slightly I sat on the floor with my legs crossed, little thuds starting to hit me all over. One smacked me in the forehead and I put my hands over my face at once, I didn’t want any of them up my nose or eyes. I gasped as I felt something like a bee sting on my back. They were getting more painful with the bullets, several more smashed into my back. I heard grumbles behind the firing guns; the stings were coming harder and faster. I rolled away suddenly, the bullets smashed into the floor where I’d been. There was a second of readjustment and they began to fire at me again.

I kept rolling and dodging, at once point clinging to a wall for half a second before diving away. I was half way through the leap when something large and heavy smashed me in the chest, it hurt like hell and a flower of pain blossomed over my back. They were using the heavy stuff now. I kept trying to dodge and roll but with every tiny impact I was stunned for several seconds and I couldn’t do that. I tried to get an idea formed but it kept being pushed back every time I was hit by what felt like a tank. I couldn’t make it complicated; it hurt too much to carry out anything complicated so I went with damn stupid. I dashed forward, gripped a wall and dove outwards across the room. Half way across the room I slammed my hands into the floor and rolled down, the bullets whizzing over my body.
“HA!” I yelled, slamming into the floor and rolling away. I left a dark stain at the floor when I rolled; I was totally covered by black by now and left stains everywhere. I was laughing because it had worked somehow; the bullets had gone right over me and past the holes in the other side to smash into whoever was shooting at me. I’d only taken four out, the ones on either side of me, but it was better than nothing.

The shots stopped, the holes closed and sealed with a hiss. I knew what was coming but I knew how to escape it as well if it got out of hand. Wincing and closing my eyes tight a stream of ice cold water dropped on me, washing the blackness from my exoskeleton and leaving me spotless but slightly stinging. I sat on the floor, staring at the door and waiting for it to open. That’s why I yelped and dodged as the heat lamps flipped over again, evaporating the water clean off me in half a second. I sat there, panting in the now steam filled room. The door opened and some of my steam whooshed out in a frantic bid to escape its own heat.
“Five more minutes” I groaned “I’ve got a nice little sauna going in here. When’s the Turkish massage?” I was grabbed by my armpits and dragged out of the room, my feet not able to get a good grip. “Oh so you’ve given a Turkish Massage then?” I asked the man to my left, grinning up at him. If he tried to smack me I swear I’d rip his arm off and beat him with it. In fact there were four standing over by the side holding their arms and whimpering in pain; the shots must have broken their arms. I looked towards the room TNT had disappeared through; sure enough there were wafts of black smoke coming from beneath it. I was dragged through the outer door just in time to see TNT stumble through his and the fire beyond. One person grabbed TNT; six others ran in with fire extinguishers to put out the fire beyond.

Five minutes later on constant dragging and yelling I was tossed back into my cell, sighing in relief as I curled up on my bed. Charred and blackened TNT was tossed in after me, skidding on his backside and ending up leaning against the back wall like it was nothing. I yawned as he giggled insanely, curling up on the bed. That was a hard first day on the job...

Disclaimer: I'm getting GOOD at torture here, steal from me or Lavalamp studios and you'll end up in the same situation as Ivory was.
Ebony and Ivory Collection
Ebony and Ivory chapter twentyone