It was as if I had already been awake for a long time when I finally became lucid enough to be aware of my surroundings. Awareness, however, did not mean I understood why or how I had come to be in the all-too-familiar place.

  I was floating, suspended within a mostly clear liquid that was as thick as syrup. I felt neither hot or cold, and despite being totally enveloped, I found no comfort in the almost womb-like embrace of my immediate surroundings.

  Sound, also, was almost non-existent with the exception of the continual hum of being submerged in some liquid substance.

  I've been here before, I thought.

  Like with the absence of any sense of hot or cold, I also noticed I felt detached from my surroundings. I couldn't find it within me to even begin to be concerned by the lack of my own concern about where I had found myself, and the circumstances of my current entrapment.

  Because I was trapped. No doubt about that. Not a single part of me responded to my listless attempts to stretch, or recoil, or do anything except bob like a jellyfish in the large cylindrical tank which surrounded me.

  Beyond the transparent tank was a man, with glasses, and a beard, sat in a chair writing notes onto a clipboard.

  It was Doctor Abdullah.

  The last I remembered seeing him was when the Adam-George-Amalgamation had broken out of its tank, and had started to tear Doctor Abdullah limb-from-limb.

  But this Doctor Abdullah was in one piece, with no wounds of any kind.

  Oh, I thought.

  I never escaped the Wedder Gorge Facility after all.

  This thought broke through the malaise. I could feel my heart beating faster, and harder. And, peering down, I could see my heart floating within the tank.

  And I finally understood why I could hardly move.

  I had been torn apart, as if by a swarm of piranhas, and what was left of me was enough just to stay alive.

  I tried for a scream, only to find I had no mouth. Or, at least, I had my upper jaw, but no lower jaw, and no tongue.

  And how strange it was to realise that I couldn't even blink, because I no longer had any eyelids. The clear blue-ish hued liquid within the tank was at least stopping my lidless eyes from drying out.

  No, I realised, make that just one eye.

  I began to wonder if I was really hearing anything at all, or if it was just what was left of my brain absorbing some of the humming coming from the tank.

  After some trial and error, I managed enough influence over what remained of my body to peer to my left.

  And there, in the tank besides mine, was Sophie's floating head.

  Her eyes were open, and she was screaming a silent scream. And there were at least a dozen tanks beyond hers.

  ***

  I woke again to an entirely different sensation.

  My body felt incredibly heavy, and cold, and all around me there was a smell as if I were surrounded by dirt.

  For a single, horrible instant I imagined my circumstances somehow being even worse than being stuck in that tank.

  What if I had died, up there, on the East-Building, on the rooftop of my old secondary school?

  What if I had been laid to rest in a coffin, buried six feet under, and I was trapped?

  "It's okay, it's okay," came a familiar, panicked voice.

  It was Xandra's.

  Or, as I quickly realised with my two fully working eyes, it was Xandra in the form of Snap.

  Her skin had regained its colour, and her eyes were no longer shiny-black.

  She was dimly lit by what I noticed were portable electric lanterns hanging from a very low ceiling.

  "You're safe," said Snap, "We're in one of Bramble and Emulsion-Man's hideouts."

  I lifted my head, and noted the ache which riddled my body, and spine in particular. My arms, also, were still without their forearms and encrusted at the stump with hard-resin.

  Before I could begin to question what had happened to Clang, and the out-of-control cold-storm which had resulted from him receiving what looked like fatal wounds from Sweet-Face, I saw that Snap and I weren't alone.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  Beyond Snap, who was crouched, was Clang and the marble-skinned Marbelle.

  Clang was, much to my surprise and relief, very much alive and in one piece, and sat with his back against the dirt wall with his legs stretched out before him. His golden chest armour was gone, and his exposed, leanly muscled chest which had been stabbed through before looked completely healed, as if no harm had been done to him whatsoever.

  "Clang?" I said, in a dry rasp.

  "Yo," said Clang.

  He could see the confusion on my face. And it was then I also noticed that at some point whilst I was unconscious my resin-visor must have been ripped away.

  Wait, I thought, is this another dream too?

  "How are you–?" I said.

  "--okay?" said Clang, still grinning, "That cold-storm? I was healing inside it."

  "On purpose?" came another voice.

  It was the extremely posh sounding voice belonging to Marbelle.

  She was sitting against the same dirt wall as Clang, with her very long legs and big feet spread out before her. She looked very much the same as I had last seen her – tall to the point of Amazonian proportions, all-marble, with a long-sleeved body-suit-and-skirt which had a distinct red-rose pattern over black. Her hair was tied back into a ponytail, and looked as statuesque and smooth as the rest of her.

  "Nah," said Clang, to Marbelle's question, "The power did it without me even asking it to."

  "I'm glad you're okay, mate," I said.

  Clang's grin widened and winked one eye shut and gave a thumbs-up.

  "And the school?" I said.

  "Fine," said Snap.

  I felt the tips of her fingers at my chin, easing my gaze back to face her away from Clang and Marbelle.

  "How are you feeling?" said Snap.

  Her gaze was strangely intense, and I didn't feel at all recuperated enough to linger on it with my own. Instead, I looked down, and saw my body was fine, except for my wounded arms. The worst I felt from them was a dull throb where the stumps met the resin.

  The medical-knowledge node of the power spat out a series of word-salad explanations of my current physical state. It came as a small relief to be told the extent of my injuries, but I didn't feel the need to parrot all of it back to Snap.

  Instead, I simply said, "Shattered. But I'll be alright once I heal."

  Snap tucked a lock of hair behind her ear, and then set something wrapped in foil on my lap. She unwrapped it, and I could see it was a bagel, with what I could only guess was cream cheese and pastrami. Seeing the food made me realise that I was ravenously hungry – so much so I felt my fully intact mouth fill with saliva which I had to gulp down.

  "Feel up to eating?" said Snap.

  "Yeah," I rasped out.

  "Oh," said Snap, and she reached down to my right side where there was a flask.

  "It's black coffee," she said, "It's still hot."

  I grinned tiredly.

  "Sounds amazing," I said.

  I then raised my arms a little, "I'll have to figure something out first though."

  "Uh-huh," Snap hummed.

  She took the top of the flask off, which itself was a plastic cup, and then unscrewed the top of the flask. After pouring the cup up to halfway with the steaming black coffee, she gestured that she was willing to bring the cup to my mouth to drink.

  I hesitated, looking beyond Snap to Clang and Marbelle, who had bagels of their own.

  "Did they happen to mention what meat this is?" said Marbelle.

  "Beef," said Clang, before he took a big bite.

  "Are you sure of that?" said Marbelle.

  "Yeah," said Clang, and he took another bite until his mouth was entirely filled with a good amount of his bagel.

  "Why?" said Snap.

  "Allergies," said Marbelle, and she then took a tentative bite of her bagel. It must have tasted good, because she visibly relaxed and rolled her eyes.

  "You still get allergies?" said Clang with his mouth full.

  "I shouldn't think so," said Marbelle, "But having had allergies does make one have a residual aversion, you see. A friend of mine swore off eating fruit because of a prank his siblings had done to him as a child, to the degree that he would retch if he saw so much as an apple slice."

  "Slip," Snap whispered, drawing my attention back to her again.

  She brought the cup of coffee to my mouth, and I sipped. The relief it brought was immense. I drank until the cup was empty.

  "Any more?" said Snap.

  I shook my head, and instead looked down to the bagel.

  Snap settled into a cross-legged sitting position in front of me, and patiently brought the bagel to my mouth. It tasted incredible, perhaps more so than it normally would given I was so hungry.

  "So," said Snap, who was still facing me and feeding me the bagel, "Why were Sweet-Face's men chasing you?"

  There was a hint of an accusation in Snap's question.

  Marbelle finished swallowing, then said, "Oh, that was because I stole their toy."

  Whilst I chewed my own mouthful of bagel, I could just about see beyond Snap to Marbelle. She picked up that strange fish-tank-like cylindrical device by its small handle.

  I finished swallowing and then said, "Sweet-Face called it a 'Mousetrap'."

  "Yes," said Marbelle, "I heard some of his men call it that too."

  Marbelle set the device down again, and had a look on her face that she thought the Mousetrap was something that might also irritate her allergies.

  "Why did you steal it then?" said Clang.

  He had finished his bagel already.

  "Because it looked like something quite villainous," said Marbelle, "And it's my mission to put a stop to villainy wherever I see it. Though I didn't seek out the Mousetrap, mind you. I was merely scouting out Sweet-Face's base of operations, and saw his men arrive with the Mousetrap, along with a rather substantial supply of more conventional weaponry."

  "So you're a vigilante?" I said.

  I had finished half of the bagel, and had gestured to Snap that I had eaten enough for the time being.

  "I prefer to think of myself as a superhero-in-training," said Marbelle, "Though saying it out loud does sound rather American, doesn't it?"

  Marbelle smiled, and I found myself smiling too.

  "But what is this Mousetrap-thing?" said Clang.

  "Haven't the foggiest," said Marbelle, "But thanks to you lovely chaps we now have one in our possession, so it shan't be too long before we get to the bottom of it."

  I looked to Snap, and said in a whisper, "Did anyone get hurt?"

  "No," said Snap, "Thanks to Marbelle, Clang's cold-storm didn't get further than the school before it stopped."

  "And Bramble and Emulsion-Man?" I said.

  "They had to go," said Snap, "They pretty much had to admit they've got civilian lives they need to be there for. I think it's going to cause them some grief for showing up to help us when they did."

  "Bravo to them," said Marbelle, "I wish I had crossed paths with all of you sooner. Have you three been in Stowchester for very long?"

  "Nah," said Clang, "Just two days-ish."

  "How long has it been?" I said, "Since I blacked out, I mean."

  "A few hours," said Snap, "Don't worry. Everything's okay. Rest up."

  Snap pressed her palm against my exposed shoulder and eased me into a more relaxed sitting position against the wall, which was soft, because one of her jumpers was placed by the wall to prevent my back from getting scratched up.

  "Thanks," I said.

  "Don't mention it," said Snap.