Wishing to be Anywhere but Here ((planned))

[Electricfox]

Within Sector 4, was not only filled with the various cages with the experiments in them but it was also a workplace, for one particular mutant. A small teen was sitting at table attempting to work on the schematic that was just given to her by the scientists. She looked bedraggled at tired, with her hair hanging in her face and a thin layer of sweat coating her skin.

The girl was none other than Ruby Lupin, being forced to work on some sick invention from the scientists again. She had no idea what it was, to her it looked like some sort of freeze gun, but none the less she was sick and tired of working on the thing. Ruby lifted up her leg weakly, hearing the chain attached to it make a series of chinking noises. The Chain allowed her to move freely around the room but it did not allow her to leave. Ruby was distressed to say the least and the only thing that was keeping her calm was the stuffed rabbit that she kept cradled in her lap.

The childhood toy she had kept was the only thing that gave her hope and it was the one of the only thing s that reminded her of her family. She hugged it close to her, pushing all the parts and equipment aside and held the stuffed toy to her chest. Despite the fact that Ruby was thirteen years old and the fact that she was extremely intelligent, she was still a child at heart. The fox girl was a child who just wanted to go home or take a small nap, just a small one and then she would perhaps wake up from this horrible nightmare.

"I want to go home, I want my family back." Ruby stated to herself softly, nuzzling the rabbits soft fur.

[Xelious]

Xelious came out of the brief sleep he'd dozed into at the rattle of the chains. He craned his neck to see Ruby, out of her cage and chained to the work area. He was at once jealous and frightened for the girl; Jealous because it had been days since he'd really been able to stretch his legs, and frightened because if she was out of the cage, that meant that she was being tested or experimented on... probably both.

Her single spoken statement, though, broke his heart again. She was a child. True, he had been a lab experiment at her age, but that didn't make it right either. And he'd been able to escape. She didn't seem to have the means to do that.

"I know, Ruby. We all do," he said quietly, not wanting to wake any of the other experiments or draw the guards' attention.

[Electricfox]

Ruby's fox ears perked up when she heard a voice, which made her turn over to where the cages where. The small fox girl realized that it was Xelious who had spoken to her so kindly once again. She wondered if he had family outside of this place and he wanted to get back to them as much as she did. The Vulpine hybrid gazed around the room for a moment, checking to see if anyone else was around before she walked over to Xelious's cage and sat down in front of it.

The Chain clinked and clanged as she tried to shift her position so she would be sitting Indian style on the floor, the loud noises caused Ruby's ears to flatten to her head nervously, trembling a little as if believing that she would be punished for moving. Ruby had become accustomed to a scientists standing behind her with some type of weapon in hand, hitting her with it whenever she made to much noise or whimpered, so it was no surprise that she reacted in such a manner.

"I'm sorry sir I won't do it again." She muttered softly, hugging he toy rabbit close to her body.

Ruby stopped and then looked in the cage at the person she had been talking to. He had blonde hair that was scruffily thrown on his face over his blue eyes making him look look almost like a homeless person. Ruby wondered what was the point of him being in this cage without any means of stretching or anything of that nature, with his long limbs filled with muscle the fox girl was surprised he wasn't in a great deal of pain now. The fox girl could not help but have concern fill her eyes as if he was the only person in the world at that moment who was in pain now.

"You have family outside of here too," Ruby finally asked curiously " Is it your parents or is that friend you were telling me about earlier?" Ruby asked curiously.

Ruby had the rabbit safely secured in her lap, holding it to her chest protectively. It would seem that the Fox girl was very attached to the worn stuffed bunny , for reasons no one knew but Ruby.

[Xelious]

Xelious smiled reassuringly at the girl. He shifted onto his side, moving around so that he could stretch his legs out. Xelious's means o ealing with the enclosed quarters seemed to be toarange himself so that he could stretch a few sets of muscles at a time, so that all of his muscles got even attention, even though he could never stretch them all at once in this cage.

"No... I don't have any parents. At least, I don't think I do. I sure don't remember any."

"The most I have is my... girlfriend," he said, narrowly avoiding saying 'mate' out of habit. "The wolf girl that they were talking about earlier. We escaped here a few years ago...had it going good until I got myself caught again."````````

[Electricfox]

Ruby shifted with her rabbit tightly in hand, listening for any sign of a noise. She was curious as to wether or not a guard would come in and trying to ruin this moment of rest she was getting. When she heard the Bird man mention his girlfriend her eyes widened as if she heard a special secret. He had someone that loved him outside of the labs, and that someone was his girlfriend, Ruby could not help but smile.

"Your girlfriend? So if you two are together does that mean you are sort of like the Knight In shinning armour in the fairy tales I read all the time- *ahem* I mean for research purposes only of course" Ruby didn't like to admit to the fact she still read fairy tales, she just found it nice to think of somewhere besides this lab she could go to. "So, when you escape its going to be really romantic with her isn't it? "

Ruby couldn't help but get lost in a brief fantasy story about Xelious in a Knights armour ridding off to save to princess. But now it would seem that the roles are switched and the princess would save the Knight.

"So, Your princess is going to save you? What does she look like Mr Xelly?" Ruby asked, now wanting to hear the story about the two love birds. "Can you tel me a story about you two?"

[Xelious]

Xelious smiled at the girl. "There only is one story to tell," he admitted. "We grew up in labs... like this one. Same blasted doctor, different godforsaken building. I was in the cell next to hers, but we managed to dig the mortar out of one of the bricks between our cells so that we could move between them when the guards weren't in there." He sighed, looking up at the ceiling. "Until one day we got too comfortable... I fell asleep in her cell, and the guards found me. They pulled me out, the doctor had a... 'session' with me, then sold me."

He sighed. "They tried training me to be like... well, like the panther-man. They said that if I did well enough, they'd send me to kill the doctor that made us, and that they'd let me keep her for myself. They were lying, of course... and I found that out when the doctor showed up one day with her to try ot sell his techniques to the company."

"I remember the guard who came to give me my food that day. I... I 'll never forget his face. I grabbed him through the window of my cell door, pulled him into it, then made him unlock my door." Xelious paused in his story at this point. That part of the story always haunted him. How the man had begged him, pleaded him not to hurt him. But how did Xelious have a choice? The company was the monster, as well as most of those who worke in it. If he helped the monster, then he was part of the monster, and Xelious couldn't risk Emerald's safety on it. He'd made the man's death mercifully fast... but it still made him feel a little numb every time he thought about it.

[Electricfox]

The Small fox girl waited with bated breath as he began to tell his tale. Her mind filled with the images the bird boy described, causing her to grip tighter on her stuffed bunny. However, these thoughts only made Ruby wonder if this wolf girl that they had been talking about was possibly Emerald. Ruby's thoughts of her sister were happy and hopeful to say the least, hoping that Em was indeed the one who was on the outside.

When she heard the pause in Xelious speech, she recognized it because the look on his face showed a guilty face one that she knew almost to well from the scientists. The ones that felt bad about what they where doing to the helpless people trapped in these cages.

"Mr Xelly, you did something bad to that scientist didn't you?" Ruby asked with a quirk of a brow. "But if you think about it, that man would have hurt you or your girlfriend in a second. What you did, however bad it may have been it is possible it could have been in self defense or the defense of someone else,"

This was a time that Ruby's knowledge showed brightly through her young appearance. Despite her innocence Ruby knew many things about this massive world around her, giving her a slight advantage when it came to comforting people.

"Besides, the Knight can't save the Princess without a few sacrifices now can he? You needed to save your princess Mr Xelly there was nothing else you could do." Ruby paused for a moment, curling her fluffy tail around her. With her eyes lit up like it was the best story ever told and her arms clutching around the stuffed bunny, Ruby looked like a little kid. "Please finish the story."

[Xelious]

Xelious nodded. "Yeah, I did. And no, I don't think I had much of a choice, but... well, I don't know who he was. He was someone's son, someone's brother, possibly someone's husband or father. He probably had people who will miss him, all because he was the one who happened to come to my cell that time. And... well, I can't regret what I did. I didn't have a choice. But I can regret what happened because of what I did. Everyone should. It's one of the ways we know that we're more human than animal."

He shook his head, then went on with the story. "I took his clothes and managed to slip into the labs where the experiments he was showing were. The had her... chained to a table," he said, a bitter note creeping into his voice. "I cut her free as soon as no one was looking, and we made a break for it. I'd found my sword before I found her... I don't think they ever thought I'd be escaping when they taught me to use it. They... well, they didn't stand a chance," he said, a little proud smile on his face, though still with a hint of regret.

"We made our way out... hid in the woods for a while. I managed to find a tent that someone had left tangled in their back yard, so we slept in that for a while as we ran. When we figured that we'd gone far enough, we built a cabin, tucked away where it would be hard for prying eyes to find." He smiled. "That was a few years ago. Then... well, she wanted to find her family. Never gave me any details about who they were or what she expected to find, but it was important to her, so we tried to break back in here to get her records." He gave a sad smile at this one. "She got away, and I made sure that she got away."

[Electricfox]

"that's...that's so sweet, you really do love her." Ruby sniffled, tail swishing back and forth slowly.

Ruby couldn 't help but tear up at the story, hugging the stuffed rabbit tighter. To think that he did all that just to save someone he cared about was so, romanitc and so touching. Ruby had come to the conclusion that he really must love this girl, he sacraficed his freedom for her, a very noble thing to do. She listened to him tell about how the girl he loved wanted to find out about her family and her heart soared, it was very possible that it was Emmy he was talking about.

The Fox girl thought for a moment, ears flattening to her head. If this girl Xelious was talking about was truly Emerald ,Ruby would be able to recognize anything about her immediately, but since the bird man was being so vague it was too hard for her to be able to tell anything just yet.

Ruby brushed her short brown hair our of her face, tucking it neatly behind her ear. It was something she normally did when she was trying to think of something to say. However, when the idea hit her, it hit her like a flash, she knew exactly how to get Mr Xelly to spill the beans.

The fox girl rummaged in her pocket for a second and pulled out a slightly crumpled up picture, it was that of Emerald when she was around thirteen, apparently before she had left the labs due to the raggedy clothes she was wearing as well as the exhausted look upon her smiling Lupine features.

"Mr Xelly? Is this your girlfriend...because I think, I think she is my sister." Ruby told him, handing him the picture between the bars.

All Ruby could do now, was to hope her assumption was correct.

[Xelious]

Xelious's mouth went dry as he looked at the picture. He looked at the picture, then at Ruby, then back at the picture. "Oh my God," he said, quietly. "Why didn't she ever tell me..."

Things were making a slight bit of sense now. Xelious was a firm believer that everything happened for a reason. He'd been sold when he was younger so that he could learn how to fight well enough to escape with Emerald. That had worked out perfectly. Now, he had the answer to why he'd been captured again. If he hadn't been, his mate's sister would have been here, all alone, with neither of them knowing it.

He looked back up at Ruby, the answer evident in his eyes. "If anyone doesn't already know this," he said quietly, "Don't tell them. Don't tell any of the doctors, for certain don't tell Crone... I'm not sure that it'd be a good idea for Mariel to know this, either." He bit his lower lip, feeling even more urgency to find a way to escape now. "Sooner or later, I'm going to break out of here," he said, even more quietly. "And when I do, I'll take you with me. And all three of us can get as far away from these people as we can."

[Electricfox]

Ruby could not help but lite up with extreme Joy when her thoughts where confirmed. Her sister was alive! She was okay! She was safe and sound, far away from this horrible place! The fox girl wiggled with excitement at the thought of seeing her older sister again, trying hard to calm herself down. Little Ruby listened to Xelious, knowing that he knew best so she nodded in agreement to his request. As much as she hated to keep secrets from miss Mariel, she figured she would have to in order for her to see her big sister again.

"Mr Xelly, Emmy....Emmy was told I was dead three years ago." Ruby told Xelious sadly trying to stay happy but failing miserably. The fox girl blinked back tears in her eyes and hugged the stuffed bunny closer to her. "Fusionist made Emmy do whatever he said because he said he would kill me if she didn't. One day she didn't do exactly what he said and he gave her a picture that was doctored of me mutilated horribly. Even though Emerald still resisted Fusionist with all he being the only reason why she ended up doing what he said was because of me."

Ruby looked guiltily at the ground, ears flat to her head., she looked absolutely guiltly of a crime she didn't even know she committed.

[Xelious]

"That's what he does," Xelious said gently. "Either use what you care about to get you to do what he wants... or make you stop caring about anything so that you'll do what he wants. He isn't human. He's... I don't know what he is, but he's evil."

He shook his head. "Don't worry about what he did to Emmy. He doesn't have her anymore, and this'll be a nice surprise for her once we get out of here." He looked at the girl, then up at what she was doing. "Is... is there anything you can do to the locks? I know Emmy's trying to find a way to get me out of here, but finding someone to help her will probably give her trouble."

He thought about it, a plan starting to form in his head. He could explore the base when he projected, learn the ways out that would serve them best. He could figure out what they needed... "If I tell you what we'll need to get out of here... can you get it ready while they have you... working?" he asked quietly.

[Electricfox]

Upon the question about the locks Ruby looked down almost immediately. She had a feeling he would ask that soon and unfortunately she would have to tell him why she couldn't undo the locks. It wasn't that she didn't want to oh no, that wasn't it at all, it was because she could not.

"I...can't." Ruby told him, ears drooping, "I tried to escape a few months ago so I unlocked all the locks with my Electric powers so I could escape but then they figured out what I was doing so they changed the locks so I couldn't get out."

Ruby knew she could have probably escaped easily but with the horrible Men that wouldn't let her escape. All she wanted to do was to be with her family was that to much to ask? However, upon the mention of Xelious getting things for her while she is working to help them escape, her eyes widened with curiosity.

“I will do whatever it takes to get out of here Mr Xelly…as long as when we get to your house I get to have chicken Stir Fry as my first meal and Gingersnaps for dessert.” Ruby told him with a small grin on her face. “If that’s alright with you.”

[Xelious]

"One step at a time, Ruby," he said, smiling. "So electrocuting the locks is out. Do you know how they work?" He hadn't actually tried to smash open his cage from the inside, since he figured it was wasted effort. There had to be some way of breaking them, though. There was no such thing as a foolproof lock, after all.

I need to try to let Emmy know about this, he thought, making a mental note to make the strenuous projection to their cabin to try to let Emmy know that Ruby was with him.

[Electricfox]

Ruby nodded when she was asked if she knew how the things worked. The fox girl had been studying the locks for quite some time, so it should have been easy for her to decode the locks. Ruby knew what she needed to open them and they could be cracked if she really concentrated on it. It was absolutely exciting for the Fox girl now that she was apart of a grand escape plan. For Ruby it was like a new movie or a new book, a excellent heart pounding adventure that she would participate in. Unfortunately though, Ruby was scared of the villains in this infamous story and knew what they could do to her if she disobeyed.

"Yes I memorized how to break it, "Ruby told Xelious and relayed to him about the items she would need to break it, certain tools like screwdriver and a blowtorch would be needed, she just couldn't get it. "Mr Xelly, do you think you will be able to get any of these items? Also....the Scientists are going to punish us if we get caught. Are'nt you scared of what they can do to you Mr Xelly?"

Ruby was now officially curious to see whether or not her sisters boyfriend was scared of anything. If he wasn't Ruby was surprised to say the least, Ruby was scared of the Geneticists and what they could do to her, why wouldn't someone else be scared as well?