After everything was quiet, Calico peaked out of the shell and sniffed around.
No sign of Lex or any of his lackies.
Cali scurried out of the shell only to find himself in a large metal room. The walls and floor and the ceiling where all made of steel. Calico gazed about the room, waiting for his eyes to adjust to the dim light.
With a small catish noise, he stared up at Tina in a cage.
She was slumped over with her back against the wall, and was covered in bite marks and dried blood. Next to her, clinging to her arm with bruises all over her body, was Aussa. She was shivering and holding on tight to Tina's right arm.
Calico waddled up to the cage and stuck his head in between the bars to see if they were ok. Tina was alive, just knocked out. Aussa was too scared to even notice him there.
He glanced around the room and saw koopling sleeping in what looked like a thick glass bubble.
Wolven was chained to the wall above Koopling, hanging upside down.
In the corner, was a metal box, the same size of Calico, with a red button on the side.
Calico sprinted across the room to the box and slowed as he got near. Sniffing at the box, he picked up a familiar scent and pressed the button on it's side with his nose.
The box opened up from the top and Whiplash's head popped up, startling Calico into running back to the cage with the neko girls and jumping onto Aussa's lap.
Whiplash slithered out of the cage, up the wall to where wolving was hanging, and started to pick at his chains.
Aussa jumped when Cali landed on her lap, then snuggled. Calico broke away from her embrace, bit through the rope that held Koopling's sphere to the floor, and rolled Koopling over to the cage and squealed at Aussa. Koopling woke up and attempted to shoot fire out toward Cali for disturbing her sleep, but the flames didn't even singe the glass ball.
Understanding Calico for probably the first time, Aussa reached through the bars and free Koopling from the bubble. In return, Koopling melted the lock of the cage and Aussa was able to drag Tina out.
At this time, Whiplash had liberated Wolven from the chains and was carring him over to the rest of the group.
Calico clawed at the steal door, and Aussa unlocked it and pushed it open, then put one of Tina's arms over her own shoulders and carried Tina as best as she could. Whiplash was still holding Wolven. Koopling's anger showed by how brightly her tail and ears burned, but she remained calm as she pushed Koopa's shell outside, following Calico who led the entire group.
They were able to get away from the wolves and mosters that lurked around the building and camped out nearby, hoping Koopa would join them soon. Calico got comfortable in Aussa's hair, but stared at the building, listening to Lex-Forb and Zee's fight, whimpering in worry.
