Kenji had been lying down on his cheap metal bed for what seemed like the longest time. It was almost the middle of the night, and he was wide awake. Soon, he would make his move. The guards outside would be bored to death and ready to go to bed, and incompetent in terms of guarding. The new guards would be fully alert. Kenji had no sense of time, but he knew they would be switching soon. Kenji quietly got out of his metal bed and dug around one of the legs. The sand was quickly pushed away to reveal something resembling a dagger. He couldn't steal the tough crystal he was mining, so every day he had stolen small shards of rock. Last night he had welded them together by using his powers and melted one end into a very sharp spike. Tonight he didn't want to kill anyone, for it might blow his cover of escaping. But it reassured him to just know he had a weapon and could use it. Kenji crept to the bars of his cell. He had already planned for what he was going to do. He had stored so much thermal energy from work in the mines, he always felt like he was burning. But it was worth it. He raised his hands to the bars and carefully let loose a little energy on two bars close to the wall. The bars glowed red hot, and Kenji quickly stopped, or else he could melt the bars completely. That would be bad, very bad. Instead, he grabbed the half-molten steel and pried them apart. The metal burned his skin, and Kenji almost gagged at the smell of burning flesh. In less than a minute, there was finally a wide enough opening to slip through. He stared at it. For a week, he had been tortured, burned, electrocuted, bruised, and almost killed multiple times. Now, he could get out. Possibly steal a spaceship and get off this hellish planet. Kenji slowly crawled through the hole in the bars. Once he was out, he reached back in and took his dagger. He couldn't see them, but he knew two aliens were standing guard at the small cave's entrance. They were always the same guards. A Protokin and some unknown alien on the first shift, and a Galaxior and Posvya on the second shift. Kenji slowly crept a few feet from his cell to the cave entrance and peeked around. He could see the silhouette of the Protokin. He was slouched against the rock wall several meters in front of the cave. The Protokin's gun was leaning against the rock right behind him, but Kenji didn't dare get that close. He looked around the darkness, trying to find the other alien. He couldn't see it. The darkness was too thick.
Kenji stepped out of the cave and onto solid rock. There wasn't sand here to mask his footsteps. He would be killed instantly if he was found out of his cell, so he acted fast. He grabbed a small outcropping on the rock wall and pulled himself up. He began to climb the wall that formed the pathway to the cave. He climbed as carefully as he could, paranoid that he might make a loose rock fall to the ground. If that happened, he might as well consider himself dead. The guards had night vision goggles for god's sake. Every climb brought him more pain. The palms of his hands were burned to a crisp, and he was still sore from the day's work. He didn't even have shoes. Kenji suddenly froze when he heard voices. They were in an alien language, and he didn't understand them. But he didn't have to. He recognized the voices of the two second shift guards. He climbed faster when he felt a strong sense of fear, and scrambled to the top of the rock wall. The top was very thin, and he almost tumbled down the other side of the wall where there was probably a cave much like his own.
Kenji balanced himself along the wall, and walked away from the caves. He knew the wall would slant downward and into the ground soon, but he couldn't see worth a crap. He felt around with his feet. It didn't take long for him to reach the slope. It took much less time to climb down than it did going up. He had a growing sense of satisfaction within himself. He had just evaded the idiot guards, and now he was free. Ahead of him was now a few buildings, illuminated by electricity. Sometimes prisoners were forced to assemble there to watch executions. Kenji walked past those, getting farther and farther from from his hell. It seemed like he walked about a half mile before he came upon what looked like a run-down city. A few windows had light coming out of them. He had always wondered where the guards had lived, and it seemed this was the place. For the first time in a week, Kenji smiled. Past the city loomed a huge cliff, which had metal platforms extending out of it. Resting on the platforms would be his shot to freedom...spaceships.
He dashed through the city as fast as he could. Few guards would be here, but they would probably be guarding every angle at the spaceport. The dirt paths of the small, crappy city were deserted. He ran straight for the landing pads, vaulting over ledges and jumping over gaps, only turning because of the occaisonal wall. The smell of spaceship exhaust grew overwhelming as he neared the landing pads. It stank terribly and stung his eyes. Kenji ran around the corner of a wall and out onto one of the pads. To his dismay, the pads were completely empty except for one cruiser-sized vessel. Goddammit, he couldn't fly one of those. Kenij felt rising panic. He didn't know the time, and the guards might be going to wake up the prisoners ssoon. He needed a Plan B, and now. He stood still for several seconds, marvelling at the idiocy of zero guards being here. Kenji thought frantically. He had to get the hell off this planet, somehow. Frowing, he thought of sending a message and getting help. Asking for help was like accepting defeat. Frustrated, Kenji realized that yes, he had been defeated. Goddamn kidnapping robot. And all of this happened because something was wrong with his food on his date. It seemed like that had happened ages ago. It was all the chef's fault, Kenji decided. Once he got back to Sigma and back to his love, he would beat the crap out of that stupid chef.
Kenji turned away from the spaceport and walked to the nearest building. It was small and only about two stories tall. All the lights were off and the door was magnetically locked. He put his theivery skills to some use, searching for anything that could get him inside without breaking anything. He spotted a poorly sealed vent, but it was too small to be crawled through. Kenji circled the small building several times, not seeing anything good. Determind to break in, Kenji grabbed onto a crag in the wall of the building and pulled himself up. He scaled the wall, everntually being able to pull himself onto the roof. Kenji smiled when he saw a small portion of the roof made of glass. Who would notice something like that being gone? He raised his hand to one of the glass panes and released a small blast of thermal energy. The glass melted and formed a small pool on the floor below. Dammit, who wouldn't notice that? He should've released more energy...but what was done, was done. He jumped down at an angle, careful not to jump in the molten glass. A motion sensor automatically turned the lights on. Kenji snickered and walked over to a computer. It seemed ancient, but it would be fine. He jabbed at the power button, urging the computer to go faster. Soon the computer's screen illumiated itself, showing some kind of control panel. All the words were somehow automatically translated into English, and Kenji quickly searched for a way to send a message to Sigma. Finding one, he quickly typed up a message and addressed it to Room...oh damn, what room did Lobo live in? 203...or 205? He frowned at how stupid he was being. First the plan screwup, then the molten glass, and now he couldn't remember something as simple was which room Lobo lived in? Kenji sent it to Room 203. It felt crappy accepting defeat and asking for help, but he would do anything to be with Lobo again.
Kenji turned the computer off and unlocked the door. He sprinted back outside and back to his prison cell. Right back to hell.
