FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Chapter 8: Escape From The Den Of Betrayal

"Stop them!" Roared Norton suddenly, my magical knickknacks just barely back in my hands. "This letter is a forgery! The Icewulf crest isn't stamped upon the paper!"

Alan halted and casually turned around. He eyed Norton one more time, before shouting in return, "Lies! The crest is clearly stamped just above Lady Agatha's signature!"

Norton smirked as he held the letter up for all to see, with the crest emblem stamped above the signature just as Alan had said. Norton then proceeded to laugh for several seconds, an extremely creepy act that only made me wonder just how many other psychopaths held positions of power in the Conclave.

"Are you sure, because I still don't see the crest." He cackled maliciously.

"...I didn't want to believe it, but somehow I knew you'd try to pull something like this!" Alan said in an enraged tone, though still maintaining composure. "Would you really betray the entire Conclave just to keep the Christophers and the mimic here?!"

Norton smiled wickedly as he withdrew a cigarette lighter from his pocket and proceeded to burn the letter.

"Oh really? You've no proof against me now." He laughed. "You gave me the letter, true, but I'll just inform the greater magi that the young upstart messenger from Icewulf delivered a falsified document devoid of the crest stamp and tried to use it to free suspected necromancers. Then, as the letter's suspicious lack of authenticity came into question, your only remaining option was to try to free the prisoners by force, a pitiful attempt that ended in your untimely death. And to top it all off, the document was destroyed in the process!"

"My, my, you sure pumped that scenario out fast, didn't you?" Dominique growled bitterly. "You sure you weren't born to be a bad guy or play the role of a clichéd comic book villain?"

He just looked at her and smirked, not even trying to hide the insanity in his eyes anymore.

"Hell, I don't even have to mention you, do I?" He chuckled. "What's one less elf whore anyway? No one will even ask."

"...Norton, you son of a bitch." I said silently to myself.

And then came the insanity.

"Men, stop them! They can‘t leave here alive!" Norton ordered. "Not only have they learned too much, but the Christopher boy still has the 'parcel' in his possession! We cannot take those risks; they must be dealt with!"

With a puzzled expression and lack of understanding, I looked directly into Norton's crazed eyes and asked, "Parcel? What did you say I have?"

He just laughed at me and said, "Sorry, runt, but I've already said too much..."

All of the agents in the room unsheathed their guns, ready and willing to turn us into bloody confetti, but not even a split second later, Forte blinked opened his eyes and sprang into action. Stomping his foot and raising his staff, the sprite causing the ground beneath our feet to shake violently. One of the men leveled his gun and tried to put a hole in the tiny wizard's head, but shockingly found that his once trusty weapon wouldn't fire. The room suddenly filled with panicked confusion as all of Norton's men tried to fire their weapons again and again and again, all of which refused to work in the slightest. That was when the reason behind the mass mechanical failure became evident; tiny vines, leaves, and blades of grass steadily extending from within the firearms' small crevices, nooks, and crannies. A miniature forest had somehow taken root inside of the small army's ordinance and the one responsible was on my side of the checkerboard.

Ha ha; king me.

"Whoa..." I said, shocked at the level of skill that must have gone into a spell of that magnitude. "Yeah, I'd venture to say that a gun clogged with tree limbs and bark would be a little hard to shoot..."

Forte just looked at me and smiled innocently; an adorable expression that just kind of fit the little sage.

"You will find that such brutal methods will not work against the likes of me." Announced the miniature warlock. "You and your machines of war will not win this battle. Now let us pass."

Though I didn't voice it, I did breathe a heavy sigh of relief. If there was going to be a fight, then I was glad that it wouldn't end up being fought with guns. After all, no matter how skilled you are at sorcery, your jets of wind and licks of flame aren't going to outrun a barrage of bullets.

"Never!" Trumpeted Norton angrily; tossing his pistol aside. "If I can't shoot you, I'll use other methods! And trust me when I say that I have MANY other methods!"

With that loud inspiration backing their efforts, the agents all dropped their guns and began pulling various artifacts and magical weapons out from their shirts and coats. Spells started flying haphazardly around the room; streams of fire shooting from random directions and piercing jets of water blasting up from forcibly ruptured pipes in the floor. An agent sidestepped behind me and tried to hit me with a electrical spell, but was knocked unconscious as Beck struck him in the back of the head with a chair. Kris nimbly jumped, ran, and weaved through the crowd, striking quickly with his knife anybody that was foolish enough to attack him. Forte continued to display his wide variety of skills that he'd earned over the many years by summoning a horde of sentient Venus flytraps from the ceiling whilst also shielding himself from enemy spells with walls of rushing wind. Alan and Dominique, however, struggled to fend off the greatest threat in the room; Norton himself.

"You can't win this fight or run from it!" He shouted, thrusting his fist forward and launching a spiraling helix of fire from his newly donned opal ring.

"We'll see, old man, we'll see!" Dominique retorted in a high, angry pitch; spreading her arms through the air and releasing a small swarm of wasps from her sleeves. "And my friends will see as well!"

As time progressed, our enemies began redoubling their efforts and continued to fortify their defenses around the building's front entrance. Norton lashed out with his other hand, clad in several rings and charms, and shot forth another spiraling stream of white-hot fire. Forte's shield of wind, being assaulted from all sides, struggled to absorb the blazing impact. We were being pushed back against a wall and were desperately in need of an escape route.

"Zeke!" I shouted crazily. "Can't you turn into a rhinoceros or a fucking dinosaur or something?!"

"You know the rules, dammit!" He replied angrily whilst burying his fist into an agent's face. "Do I look like I've ever touched a rhino?! Or a damn dinosaur?! Don't be an idiot!"

With a scowl the size of a European compact car, the mimic raised a single finger and waved it vaguely in my direction. He then turned back to the battle, fell to the ground, assumed the form of a red-skinned orc, and nearly broke an attacker in half with the swing of one lumbering arm. His ugly, orcish head then pivoted around to face me and smirked smugly; his jagged, gravel-like teeth only fortifying his grin.

Turning away from the changeling in time to see an assailant of my very own, I decided to unsheathe my dagger key and give the black business suit wearing bastard the worst shanking in the world. Ducking down below the swing of a medieval broadsword, taking the time to admire how cleanly the swipe would have severed my head from my neck, I sidestepped the the left and stuck the unsuspecting fool in the upper arm with my chiseled blade, immediately detonating the whole of his arm and much of his shoulder into a disgustingly brutal cloud of blood, flesh confetti, and bone debris. Howling inhumanly, the enemy magi dropped to the floor and flailed wildly. Instantly, more than half of the room simultaneously backed several steps away from our cluster, halting the battle for a microsecond or two.

At the very least, this gave me a few more microseconds with which I could think.

"Fuck this shit!" Beck exclaimed, slamming her fist against a wall. "We're going nowhere with this! Force momentanee!"

Having been taught magic by the ghost of a French sorcerer, I use the French language as the base language for my incantations. Beck, often having ended up as my hapless assistant, picked up a few spells over the years as well, though I do believe that she specializes only in spells that augment and increase her already frightening physical abilities. For example, the one she'd just used was a little number of a spell that multiplies the endurance and output of the caster's muscles, thereby giving them the strength to do truly unearthly things. With a thunderous crash, Beck knocked down one of the walls behind us and proceeded to make further more holes beyond that hole. Might I add that she did this with her fists alone...

"C'mon, guys, I made us an exit!" She shouted from several rooms over.

"Now that's what I'm talking about!" Kris laughed, flicking his cigarette behind him and somehow causing a small explosion. "Let's get out while we still can!"

With Forte and I on the defensive, the rest of our team made their escape down Beck's rubble and ruin strewn path. Once the two of us were through as well, we prepared to close the holes and make better our odds of survival.

"Are you ready?" Asked Forte.

"Yeah..." I replied.

With another stomp of his adorably tiny fox foot, Forte caused yet another tremor, causing the ground to rumble chaotically and rupturing even more water pipes than before. I braced myself, held my footing, and maintained my focus as the ground shook and split.

"Lances de glacon!" I roared, calling upon all of my strength.

I outstretched my hand and summoned forth multiple jets of frozen air, instantly crystallizing all of the water that had erupted from the underground pipes. Norton's men, unaware of what we had done, ran haphazardly into the hallway and began falling like poorly place dominoes, slipping and sliding on the frozen floor.

"And to better conceal our escape, how about an enormous wall of ice?" I snidely laughed, signaling for my small friend's help once again.

"Absolutely." Forte replied. "I would be honored to assist."

With such great mystical strength as to leave me entirely speechless, Forte snapped his petite fingers and then thrust his hands into the air above him, calling forth the hideously evil sounds of twisting metal and hemorrhaging welds. I watched as the flooring in front of us peeled away and revealed several large pipes, some housing pure water, some containing what was presumably sewage, all of which were erupting fountains of gushing liquid. Without hesitation, I focused myself and pictured in my mind the coldest place in existence, then released my chilling spell for the second time.

"Lances de glacon!" I bellowed, once again shooting numerous blasts of sub-zero temperature air from the palms of my hands.

The water, both pure and disgusting, instantly froze and formed several interlocking columns that blocked the path.

"Enjoy, you assholes!" I gleefully shouted as Forte and I turned down a separate corridor and rejoined the others.

Beck, still punching holes in the walls, was beginning to show signs of fatigue, though she certainly wasn't going to say so herself. If we still planned on getting out of here alive, we needed to elaborate on her plan just a little. Forte maintained a defensive perimeter several yards away, using his advanced and masterful spells to smite any of Norton's men that made it that far. I was about to suggest something similar to a "Plan B" when a loud noise started ringing in my ears, entirely destroying my concentration. I held my forehead with both hands for a moment, thinking that I'd been struck in the skull during the fray and had suffered some sort of concussion. However, when a tiny voice started calling out to me in a crystal clear tone and pitch, speaking in near complete sentences, it became obvious that an injury wasn't the cause; though I could have just gone insane.

"...To your left..." The voice whispered. "...Have the titan destroy the door to your left..."

"Titan." I chuckled. "That describes her well."

"Did you say something?" Dominique asked as she sent another swarm of wasps down the hall; eliciting frantic screams as they turned the corner and encountered our pursuers.

"No, nothing important." I lied as I walked over to Beck and put a hand on her shoulder.

"What?" She questioned, wiping some sweat from her forehead.

"Could you take down that door over there?" I requested, pointing towards the reinforced metal door that the mysterious voice had asked me to open.

"Why?" Beck asked, slightly confused. "And don't you have your dagger on you anyway?"

"I just have a hunch that our freedom is on the other side." I answered with my best optimistic smile. "A little birdie told me so."

"And about the dagger?" She asked again.

"Well, though the blade itself is involved, it's mainly a spell and it works by flooding the surface it impacts against with explosive energies. I've another hunch that this door is well warded and enchanted to nullify such magic, just as supernaturally armored as it is bulletproof and blast resistant." I replied bluntly and honestly. "Your spell, however, is a modifier that acts upon you rather than acting upon the door itself."

I REALLY didn't feel like telling her that I'd messed up bad by using it in the fight and that it had a recharge time of just slightly over an hour; that I hadn't been skilled enough at the time to forge one capable of continuous usage.

"Good enough for me!" Zeke interrupted, saving my ass. "Because those bastards are still coming! Don't argue with him, just knock the damn thing down!"

"One ruined door, coming up!" She smirked as she flexed her arms. "Force momentanee!"

A few punches later and the massive door, though much larger than any of the others we'd seen thus far, went flying off of its hinges and buried itself several feet into the adjacent wall. Beyond the cavernous hole that Beck had so proudly made was a very different building than the one that we had been navigating thus far. Everything was white: ceiling, floor, and walls. Men and women dressed in white lab coats dropped what they were doing the moment they spotted us and ran. Several doors had warnings printed in bold lettering upon them and many others had electronic locks on them that required digital passwords.

"Well, this place looks suspicious." Kris said with a shrug. "It's probably their testing facility, the place where they develop their newest weapons and magics. Not that it matters right now."

"Hmmm..., a place of human technology and experimentations; that has the ring of a place that I would rather not linger in." Forte muttered quietly.

"Where to now, Mike?" Alan asked as he placed his palm against the ground and proceeded to dissolve it into finely grained sand. "It's your hunch, so you lead the way."

"Let me think." I sighed, just seconds before another powerful headache hit me.

"...Go down the hallway and turn right at the first intersection..." The voice murmured, barely loud enough for me to hear. "...You will find a metal door with the name ‘Lilith' inscribed upon it... I am trapped behind that door... Please free me..."

"Whoa." I muttered, shocked at what I'd just heard.

Here I was, trying to escape a building infested with my newest enemies, being ordered around by a mysterious disembodied voice, and my next task was to go and seek out said voice. For all I knew, it could be a trap set by one of Norton's goons somehow. A bunch of boys in black could be waiting on the other side of this aforementioned door, all with brand new guns in their hands, and I'll just waltz right in on them like an idiot and get shredded into Swiss cheese. Of course, it could also be the miracle that we needed; some other unlucky victim captured and detained by Section 2, somebody with the power to get us the Hell out of here once freed from their own prison. It was a long shot, but one that needed to be made at the time. I made my decision and shouted for everyone to follow me as I ran down the hall.

"Beck!" I yelled as I ran. "The door right in front of us, the one that says Lilith on it, needs to be taken down! Do it!"

"I'm on it!" She replied, running ahead.

"If you're really on the other side, then I'd recommend moving out of the way!" I warned.

Two or three punches dented the door's shiny metal, which I could only assume was some freakishly stronger form of titanium, while the next four launched it into the next room. A cloud of dust filled the air as I entered, bravely calling out into the distance for my friend (or enemy as the case may be). When the dust settled and my eyes readjusted to the lack of light, I found that the room was occupied by only one person. It was indeed a prison cell and the prisoner was a small, very frail looking little girl resting quietly in a wheelchair. With brown eyes, a light peppering of freckles, and a veil of long brown hair obscuring some of her face, this tiny thing couldn't have been any older than eight years old, so what was she doing here?

"...Thank you..." The voice said quietly. "...Now please, please take me away from this place... Take me far, far away..."

"That's why." I whispered to myself, finally understanding the situation. "You're telepathic. This place is a testing facility and your a test subject. That's horrible."

"...Yes..." She replied without so much as moving her lips. "...They are still coming... We must go..."

"Agreed." I stated firmly as I glanced around the room, spotting a bag of supplies and a clipboard with her medical charts and information. "Let's go."

Grabbing the clipboard and throwing it in with the bag of supplies, medical supplies if I had to guess, I plucked the girl up from her wheelchair and carried her out of the cell. Alan and Kris both stared with perplexed faces as I approached, but must have decided that the timing wasn't quite right to question my methods. Beck, looking entirely too exhausted to be blasting her way out of an enemy stronghold by hand, didn't bother to ask either. Interestingly, Dominique didn't even give the child a second look, and proceeded to command even more insects down the hall and towards our zealous pursuers. Forte, still defending our position from afar, wasn't even aware of the new addition to our group at all. Zeke, however, being the kind of guy that he is, just had to know what was going on.

"Isn't anybody going to ask where the Hell that little girl came from?!" He exclaimed in confusion.

"Not really." Beck huffed and puffed as she caught her breath while resting on the floor. "The kid could have come from the fucking sky and it wouldn't have mattered. Through divine intervention, a twist of fate, or whatever, Mike went straight to her room and saved her, so I'm guessing that she deserves to be saved."

"...I can vouch for that." Kris smirked as he placed another unlit cigarette between his teeth.

With the little girl's room having been at the end of a long, long hallway, we were now trapped between the approaching enemy regiment and a solid cement wall. Our only exit option was to blast through it just like we had done with all of the other unfortunate walls. My sis, however, was looking just about out of steam, so this would probably be her last smash-'n-go.

"Beck, do you have it in you to tear down another wall?" I questioned.

She looked up at me and smiled, spouting the words, "If you need it gone, then I'll make it gone."

"...Do not worry..." Quietly chimed the little girl's voice. "...Beyond this wall is a staircase... If we go down as far as we can go, it should lead us to a parking garage... We can escape through there..."

"Are you sure?" I asked, staring at the innocent little kid in my arms; eliciting stares from everyone else around me.

"...Yes..." She replied. "...I can see it from here so very clearly..."

"Alright then." I uttered in response. "Beck, this'll be the last one, I promise. Make us an exit."

Like a weathered, beaten boxing champ that had fallen to his knees from exhaustion, but still refused to admit defeat, Beck stood triumphantly back up and put her fist through the wall, once again defending her well earned championship title. It cracked and fell to pieces, revealing the office building type staircase that the little girl in my arms had mentioned. Alan stepped forward and helped my sister up, putting her arm around his neck in order to help share her weight. He could have carried her, but Beck's just too proud to let somebody do something like that and Alan knew this.

"Okay, everybody, let's go!" I announced. "We're almost out of here!"

Forte, still holding down the fort from afar with his powerful spells, lowered his wall of air and shot it forward, sending hurricane force winds throughout the building in that direction. Screams and shouts were heard from far away, evidence that his attack had had the desired effect. He then grabbed his staff and proceeded to rejoin the rest of us as we descended the winding stairwell towards the garage. And let me tell you, once we were inside, we weren't picky about which car we were going to steal. Kris just smashed the driver's side window on the first large van he laid eyes on, then unlocked it and ordered everyone else inside. As Zeke scouted out ahead for any possible exits, an agent suddenly appeared from around a corner and began opening fire. Zeke replied by transforming into a leopard, swiftly dodging the volley of shots, then pouncing on the fool and tearing out his throat. He immediately morphed back into his human form, carefully scanning the area around him, then took the form of a black winged crow and quickly flew back to our location.

"According to the signs, if we go down one more level we should be able to leave through the toll booth entrances!" He said hastily as he regained his human shape. "Let's go!"

Tugging on his shoulder, I gave Zeke an irritated look and asked, "What the Hell?! You can do a cheetah, but you can't do a rhino?!"

He replied with an equally irritated look before saying, "First of all, that was a leopard, not a cheetah! Second of all, you never bothered to ask if I could do anything other than your original two ridiculous options!"

Dominique called shotgun and jumped into the passenger's seat, slamming the door shut as Kris crossed and crisscrossed the wires below the steering wheel; the engine suddenly rumbling to life. I carried my new friend and her luggage into one of the rear seats, then helped Forte pull Beck in as well. Alan and Zeke kicked open the van's back doors and began unleashing Hell upon the unfortunate men that had just now finished sprinting down the stairs. Our massive vice captain chanted something obscure in Latin, then made several strange signs with his hands; a complicated process that resulted in a dizzying lightshow of lightning bolts flying from his outstretched palms. Zeke, however, was more straightforward with his attack; opening fire on the agents with a pistol that he had just recently confiscated from a corpse, presumable the corpse of the man that he had mauled as a big cat.

"We're gone!" Kris trumpeted triumphantly as the vehicle slowly lurched from its parked position.

"Good, ‘cuz I'm out of bullets, man!" Zeke laughed, tossing the gun at the massacred crowd of men in the dust behind us.

Things were looking good. Things were looking up. We were all optimistic and certain that freedom would be just around the next bend... Well, something was around that bend..., just not something that we had hoped to see...