Garmen gasped in badly concealed agony as Jack shifted behind him, doing something that I couldn't see from my position in the giant Supervisor's hand.
Damn it.
My hands balled with frustration as I searched desperately around for something that I could do.
Anything.
But there wasn't anything a five-inch tall girl could do to help in this situation.
Hell, I didn't even know what Jack had done to Garmen.
But if Havoc's cold expression was anything to go by, I knew that it wasn't anything forgivable.
"Fight you?" Havoc asked, his furious grey eyes suddenly shifting to a glowing blue.
"Why would I do that?"
In a blur of supernatural speed Havoc leapt back, planting his feet on the wall and jumping off the vertical surface to flip over our heads.
Landing behind Jack.
"When all I have to do..."
The world suddenly tilted as, with a grunt of pain, Garmen stumbled forward.
"... is stop you from moving?"
"Hey!" I cried out in alarm, terrified that the giant man was about to fall over on top of me.
Coming to a stop against the wall where Havoc had stood only a second earlier, Garmen steadied himself with the hand that wasn't holding me.
"What happened!" I exclaimed, yanking on one of Garmen's fingers to draw his attention down to me. "What did he do?"
Breathing heavily, Garmen refused to answer me, turning his gaze to Havoc instead.
The slight man knelt on top of the unresisting Jack, pinning the boy to the floor with obvious ease.
Completely unperturbed, Jack watched us from where he lay face down on the floor, a knowing smile on his lips.
I felt a chill, quickly covering up my unease with a rude hand signal in Jack's direction.
... It wasn't as triumphant as I would have liked.
Holding the calm boy's wrists to the floor, Havoc lifted his gaze to stare at his wounded friend, some of the friendly Havoc returning to his eyes in the form of worry.
"Garmen....?"
"I'm fine," Garmen muttered, shifting so that he leant against the wall with his shoulder, freeing his hand to dump me into it.
With very little warning, I was tumbled into his other hand, swearing as I went. Of course, I would have protested more... if I didn't know that the man had a very good reason for the manhandling.
Using his liberated hand, Garmen reached around his back. "Just let me..."
Cutting off with a painful hiss, Garmen went rigid. A second later, something metallic clattered to the floor, and Garmen's hand returned, wet with blood.
Had Jack....?
"If this is fine, I don't want to see you on a bad day." I breathed, too shocked to put what I knew had happened into words, or even thought.
Aren't you supposed to leave that sort of thing in your body... So you don't bleed out...
"Don't worry. I'll get you all out of here safely." Garmen reassured me, shoving himself away from the wall.
... Also, going to the hospital is another sensible thing you're supposed to do...
"Like I care about that, idiot...!" I snarled, desperately wanting to express my worry properly by wrapping my hands around his throat and strangling some sense into him.
"This is nothing to worry about." Garmen glanced down at me as he truly acknowledged the injury for the first time. "It's healing as we speak."
That's... Not how the human body works...seriously starting to doubt you legitimately have PhD here...
"Garmen." Havoc began urgently, his blue eyes wide with alarm. "You have to hurry...I think its coming...."
"I'd say." Jack piped up, his voice pleasant as if he were merely speculating the weather. "It should hit you any second now..."
With a strangled gasp, Havoc's back bowed and his body begun to tremble, spasming as if a thousand volts had been shot through his body.
... The reason why they had disconnected from the System was suddenly all too obvious.
"What's going on!" I cried out in alarm, scrambling forward on Garmen's palm.
"Go!" Havoc screamed, his voice desperate as he continued to writhe.
Movement's jerky, he wrapped his arms around Jack, hunching into himself so as not to fall over.
I was frozen in horror, but Garmen didn't wait a moment longer, listening to his friend and moving shakily towards the door.
"Wait!" I exclaimed as my sight of spasming Supervisor was blocked. "He's ...!"
"Don't worry, the pain is tolerable," Garmen explained, making his hazardous way to the box where Artemis and Nigel were still trapped. "It just makes it.... difficult to move."
"What is happening to him?" I asked, hands clenching fretfully.
"... Someone has hacked into the System."
"System...?" One sentence into the explanation and I was already at a complete loss.
"I'll explain later."
Falling to his knees beside the box, Garmen lent forward to peer into the small doorway.
"Are you two, alright?"
"We're fine!" Artemis called, but anything else he intended to say went unheard under Nigel's desperate questions.
"Where's Maddison?! I heard screaming! Is she hurt?!"
I sighed, relieved that nothing had happened to them in the commotion.
"She's here. Be careful, I'm going to turn the box over so that you can climb out."
Gently, moving as slowly as the current circumstances would allow, Garmen tilted the box over onto its side, so that the doorway was now horizontal with the floor.
Before the box could even be laid flat Nigel jumped out of the doorway, searching around until his eyes landed on me.
"You idiot!" He shouted, pointing up at me in uncharacteristic outrage. "What were you thinking!"
Shocked, I instantly bristled up in anger. "Who the hell are you to call me an idiot, you idiot?!"
"I may be an idiot, but the stunt you just pulled makes you the biggest idiot of all time!" Nigel ranted, hands clutching at his hair like he wanted to pull it out.
My anger only intensified when he didn't back down. Nigel must have been driven insane with worry, for him to be challenging me like this.
No matter... I would crush this rebellion with my bare hands
"You cocky little... !" I shot angrily to my feet as Garmen lowered me to the floor. "I dare you to say that one more..."
Before I could finish, I was tackled in an air crushing hug.
"Hey!" I shouted, my voice muffed into Nigel's shoulder.
Furious, I struggled against the hold, complaining loudly as I fought to be free.
"Don't hug me, dumb ass! I'm not done getting angry at you yet!"
It was amazing that anything could be protesting louder than my ribs as the tall boy clutched me, but I somehow managed
"If you think you can call me an idiot and get away with it...!"
"Idiot," Nigel muttered into my hair quietly, the vulnerability in his voice making my tirade come to a stuttering halt. "Idiot. Idiot. Idiot Idiot idiot idiot idiot idiot idiot. Idiot."
As Nigel continued to mutter the insult over and over, it started to sound like something else entirely.
Thank you.
"You know Nigel." I sighed, patting him softly on the back. "I think that I could appreciate your touching concern if you weren't crushing me to death in front of everybody right now."
He let me go, instantly self-conscious of his strength, and I wrapped an arm around my sides, taking a moment to relearn how to breathe.
God, I hope hugging me doesn't become a regular habit of his. I won't survive it...
"We need to go." Garmen urged us, his patience with our reunion finally running out.
"Right. Let's get this show on the road." I agreed, pulling Nigel by the arm so that we both stood firmly on Garmen's palm.
Artemis stepped into Garmen's other waiting hand, not at all disturbed by the drying blood as he sent me a concerned look. "Are you really alright, Love?"
I just shrugged.
"Well, I'm not dead.... so that's something."
Garmen lifted his hands up, letting Nigel and I sit on one of his shoulders and Artemis the other.
Then the tall Supervisor stood back up stiffly, pain obvious in his movements.
As he made his way to the door, Artemis finally caught sight of the two other people in the room.
"What's wrong with Mr Havoc?" He asked urgently, and I sent a glance back to see the smaller Supervisor curled into himself as he shook violently, arms around Jack like a vice.
"The System that controls the Nanotech in the facility has been hacked, and at the moment, it is sending out a signal that makes the nanotech in our bodies attack the nervous System. Anyone who is connected has become like Havoc is now." Garmen explained to Artemis as he pushed open the doors.
"Almost every Supervisor in the facility has been rendered immobile."
My gaze still frozen on the writhing Havoc, the last thing I saw before the door swung shut behind us was Jack watching us.
Watching our escape.
With a satisfied smile on his face.