Why ?

Painful rules

3rd person POV

Carmen is thrown to the floor of the cell. Four heavy dragging chains are welded to the wall furthest from the door. Boris holds Carmen in place and begins to undo the bonds holding her ankles and wrists while Vlad unlocks the handcuffs and secures them to Carmen. They leave the room, closing the thick steel door behind them.

With difficulty, she straightens up into a sitting position, her back to the wall. Finally alone, she takes the time to observe the room in which she is kept, no windows, no light, total darkness. Trembling, she touches her right shoulder, suppressing a groan of pain. Given the way it is positioned and the pain that comes out, Carmen is willing to bet that it is dislocated. Sighing, she pulls on her chains in a desperate attempt to see if she can remove them. Tracing the outline of the cuffs with her fingers to locate any lock she can pick, but no, she can't find one.

She wonders vaguely if Gray has managed to get to safety and join her team. Carmen begins to imagine the reaction of her friends. Zack would surely be overexcited to finally meet the "Gray" she's told them so much about, Ivy would be wary but would definitely want to study her Crackle Rod. Player, protective of her, would have his doubts, especially with the capture of Carmen during this mission. Shadowsan, on the other hand, would be hostile to Gray. But even with the best defense Graham could come up with, Shadowsan would still find an excuse to be on his back, even blaming him for her capture. The siblings would call him a "Dadowsan", receiving a glare from the said person. This thought caused her to smile and chuckle, which sounded so unearthly knowing who she is trapped with right now. She stayed for a while, losing herself in her memories of those she had come to see and love as family, doing her best to ignore the hunger and thirst that was becoming more present.

Suddenly the door opened bringing with it a light so sudden that it forced Carmen to put her hands in front of her eyes to protect them. Two people entered the room and approached her.

"Stand up, Black Sheep and follow me." says the smaller person who Carmen recognizes as Bellum.

"Why?"

Bellum only raises an eyebrow and puts a hand in her pocket. Carmen tenses up knowing what's coming. Electricity hits her for half a second, making her stand up immediately. Carmen manages to hold back the groan of pain easily enough, the tension being significantly lower than either Cleo or Malestrom had sent her.

"This is not your concern. Have you forgotten the rules already?" she replies annoyed as she releases her from her chains with a click on her tablet. "Come with me now".

The accompanying guard pushes Carmen out of the cell while holding her left arm firmly. On the way, she tries to memorize the direction for a possible future escape. Dr. Bellum did not look up from her tablet until they reached the door of her laboratory, holding it open for the guard to let Carmen in before he left, as ordered by the faculty member. Despite the relocation of their base, her quarters did not seem to have changed. Inventions in progress are scattered across the various workstations, with many blueprints and incomplete research near her mainframe. She sees a metal chair with restraints towards the back of the room, it's not hard to guess who it's for.

"Go sit down and put your wrists and ankles on the cuffs." Bellum orders her as she approaches the computer. However, Carmen doesn't move, her eyes locked on the device sitting on the table closest to the chair. She's seen it before but where...

The scientist notices Carmen's immobility, follows her gaze and sees what is causing their little lamb to panic. She chuckles as she presses her remote. The young thief lets out a small moan of pain as she falls to her knees.

"I seem to have given you an order, Black Sheep."

Slowly, she gets up and moves to the chair under Bellum's watchful eye. Once she is seated, all the handcuffs lock except the one on her right wrist. Curious, Carmen watches as the scientist approaches her with a roll of gauze. Whatever she had planned, the need for the bandages worried her. It was going to hurt.