FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Sorry for the cliffhanger, but I had to do that. Otherwise this would've been a bit too long. Besides, I managed to keep ya'll in suspense for a day or two, hmm? (I hope. If not, just dodge the ego) This is a long chapter too, so do your best to enjoy ^_^

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I woke up, screaming in the wind. I was falling through the clouds, wings sprouting from my back, as they had in my dream. I rolled to my side and banked to the left, hard. The wind caught me off guard, since I woke up about two seconds ago.

I angled myself backwards and tried to climb up, higher. I managed to pull up and made a rough, two point landing on the flight deck. I heard muffled sounds of rushing from behind the steel door.

Dragging myself to the door, I managed to look at my back. My fleece had been torn up from two parts in the back. I flipped myself around and felt a pop. I turned around for a second time and got up on my knees.

"Ryu?" I heard Shin shouting from behind the door. "Are you okay there?"

I couldn't move properly. I couldn't tell how long had gone, since I had passed out. My back was killing me, and I had no idea what had happened.

The door opened. I didn't know how. I didn't care.

The tiger rushed out and Raven followed behind shortly. I felt myself slipping back to unconsciousness.

I woke up a short time later, finding myself in the sickbay, surrounded by Iris, Raven, Shin and Shay.

"Are you oka-" Shay-Lee started, before being cut off by Raven.

"Who cares?! How'd ya get wings?!"

"I... I don't... I don't know..." My response wasn't too fast, but not as weak as I had anticipated.

"You should be fine, just a little fatigued." Shin spoke from behind some sort of medical apparatus.

He was right. I didn't feel bad, not at all. Besides the strain of lying on my back, my wings, I felt perfect. The wings were huge but if I folded them against my back, they were quite tolerable.

I rolled over on my belly and stretched out my wings. It caused the others to jump back a bit. About ten meters all in all, about five per each wing. They were huge! I wondered if I could ever return my body to normal. Then again, 'normal' had been a human form for me about a month ago. Besides, if I could fly, that'd only be a plus, right?

Iris was silent for the whole time. I didn't understand why. Even if she didn't want others to know about us, wouldn't she care at all?

She turned her back and walked off, muttering about something not working. I didn't follow, and none of the others paid any mind to her.

I waited for a good half an hour, before Shin allowed me to get up and leave sickbay. Shay had already left, in preparation for departure.

"I have no idea what happened, but it looks like these aren't magical." He scratched his head. Raven was behind the tiger, holding him close to himself. The raptor seemed to be worried about me, but also curious, and he also stuck very close to his 'friend'.

Raven spoke up, before giving a quick peck on Shin's shoulder. "Body morphing could be what happened." He smiled proudly. "It literally alters the body into something new. I wouldn't be surprised, since he kept himself human for sixteen years. Whipping out a pair of wings would be nothing, compared to that."

I grinned as I got up. I was sitting on the edge of the bed, before I folded my wings against my body and climbed off of the white hospital bed.

"So. How are things going with that Zero-D facility?" I asked, fully rejuvenated.

Raven started towards the door, followed by Shin. "By the looks of it, Jack's going, River and I decided to go too. But there's always room for one more ugly face." He laughed. Shin poked Raven playfully on the shoulder.

I grinned and followed them. "I'd be happy to join up. When do we leave?"

"We should be landing just about now. If you want to go gear up, that'd be great." Raven spoke up before he vanished into the corridors with Shin.

I glanced into a mirror and couldn't help but chuckle. I was a mess. My fleece was torn up, although that wasn't really all too important. Iris had bought be two pairs, just in case something would happen. Same for the tank tops. I had five sets of the jet black kind.

I dropped into a shadow, as I felt the Centaur heading for a landing. Sounded like a rough one, based on the sounds of trees falling over. I leapt from shadow to shadow, corner to corner, towards my room at the bottom of the ship. As I did, I wondered about the clothes. If I had wings sprouting from my back now, then how on earth will I be able to put clothes on? I decided to cut them carefully, so that I could still wear them. It wouldn't make sense to head out in a forest, completely topless, after all.

I made it to my room, found my clothes, formed a little blade of my pinky and cut two large holes. Iris is gonna kill me for this... These were expensive... I only cut one of the black fleeces, but I didn't spare two of the tank tops. I pulled them over and eased the wings out from the holes I had cut. It was a little tight but I could manage. Moving the wings around was a bit awkward at first, but I decided to try that out properly, once I got out and had proper time to practice.

I heard the engines powering down and Jack announced on the loudspeakers: "Good landing, all in all." He held a small pause. "Raven, River and Ryu. You all head down to the cargo-bay, so that you leave through there. I'll meet you all downstairs, on the way. Shin is left in charge of the Centaur, so if anything happens, you take it out the range of any threats, kay?" I could hear some shuffling sounds, before the loudspeakers were turned off.

I dropped into the shadow again and headed down to the designated area. It wasn't too far from where I was - only down the corridor - but I was doing my best to get used to travelling in the shadow. Gluttony had noticed me, and pulled me out. None of the others had even seen me, let alone be capable of yanking me out of it. I tried to understand the logic behind the feat but couldn't.

I met up with Jack and Raven. The lion told me that River had already left to survey the area, before we even landed.

"The facility is old. It's before my time, and there are no records to tell how many people are in there. I tried to scan for bio-signs but the walls of the installation are blocking they Centaur's scan-system. We're going in blind." Jack's quick speech wasn't quite reassuring, but we've had worse, right?

We got off of the ship and I was immediately surrounded by the sounds of a massive forest. I would've called it a jungle, but Raven assured me that it was just a huge forest.

I saw trees. And not just a few trees, surrounded by some undergrowth. I saw tons of trees. No matter where I looked, there was enough trees to fill my whole field of vision. They all had leaves, autumn red. I tried to remember the time of the year, but my memory failed me. I remembered the cold winter breeze, before I had met Raven, so I imagined that snowfall wasn't too far off, by now.

In the distance, I could see the shark. He didn't seem too happy with the climate. I couldn't blame him. My scales weren't exactly as warm as was comfortable.

"I found the door. Wasn't too terribly well hidden, either." He huffed. I saw a trail of white coming from his mouth as he spoke. I was jumpy with that color of smoke, after meeting Graverobber. "I couldn't hear anyone in there, and I took a peek." He seemed concerned. "I would say it's abandoned. A long time ago, by the looks of it."

"Doesn't that only make this easier?" I asked, giving Jack a hopeful look.

"Nope. It makes it worse, in fact." He sighed. "If they took this place apart, that means that they also stripped down any electronics..." Jack looked at me. "Including the generator cores."

I sighed and watched as the white trailed out of my mouth, along my breath. "We'll still try, right?"

Jack nodded. He checked his belt quickly. He had armed himself with two pistols and one large assault-rifle.

River checked his strap on his ridiculously large blade. It didn't budge. That was good.

Raven only stroked his chain, wrapped around his torso. His new chain was almost exactly the same as his old one. Long knives at both ends. The only difference was the length. The new chain wrapped around his torso, also managed to snake its way down his tail.

I checked my blade. I had a habit of inverting the way I was supposed to hold it. It was against my back, yes. But instead of drawing the sword from my left shoulder, I had placed the hilt down on my right hip. That way, when I drew the blade, I could quickly draw it into a block in a reverse stance. I found it easier to use, and nobody could complain.

River lead us to the door. It looked very plain. A medium-sized metal door. Kind of like what could be found on boats. Air tight, if I wasn't mistaken. It opened with a creak, and I stepped in first.

I pressed my hand against the shadows. The dark corridor was full of them. Iris had taught me how to 'seek with shadows'. Each elementalist could see through their own element. It just took practice. I scanned all of the shadows I could find, and didn't come across a single life-form. 'Life' being the key-word.

"Fifty dead men, twenty three dead women, one dead child." I spoke in monotone. I was used to death. Only the magnitude of it, varied.

River looked at me suspiciously, then nodded. "Nobody alive?"

"Can't find anyone. I wouldn't trust my seeking abilities yet, so I can't say for sure, though."

"Then we move in." Jack replied, repeating my monotone.

We walked around for a while. Nothing seemed to be broken. None of the electronics were missing, either. Jack seemed puzzled, as were the rest of us. River seemed to be on his toes, constantly brushing his sword's hilt. Raven was quite relaxed. The raptor was content with just staring at walls. I stared at the maps for a moment. The facility seemed out of place, especially for technicians.

Everything looked out-dated. Compared to what technology I had seen on the ship, I would say that these machines were at least a decade old. Jack agreed with me, giving me the full info on most of the equipment. They were about thirty years old, from the time when technicians had more conflicts with the mages.

I pointed out a strange chamber on the map to Jack, to which he simply replied: "That's a test-chamber. Probably just some embryo-tests." He sighed. "They grow a fetus to almost five months, then try to force magic into the body." The lion's head hung low. "This usually resulted in death."

"Usually?" I asked, not really all too curious about the subject.

"The survivors were either transported for further testing, or - if live enough - subjected to military training."

River cut in. "The mages referred to these abominations, as Chimeras. Strong magic, dead within weeks of using it." He seemed disgusted by the thought. "I was there, watching as the Chimeras fell. I knocked down a few. They couldn't speak, so we just called them animals, dumb enough to be persuaded to-"

"Enough." Jack interrupted. "I found the cores." He tapped the map, pointing towards the generators next to 'test chamber XIII', the big chamber I had pointed out earlier. "We head here."

River nodded and we followed.

Moving in the dark was difficult to the rest, so I had to take point at some turns, just to make sure that there wasn't anyone. I had my shoulder pocket of knives, from which I took one out at every turn to make a scratch on the wall, marking our path, as the place seemed like a labyrinth.

Along the way, we saw a few of the chambers. On the map, only one had been a big one. The rest fourteen were smaller ones. I peeked in them, as we walked past them. As soon as I had looked into one, I had been completely discouraged of checking out the rest. I saw a man - if one could call that... Thing, a man. His lower jaw was hanging somewhere around his collar bones, his eyes were far apart, almost at the temples of his oval-shaped skull. His left arm was shriveled and his right was just a cluster of muscle. The liquid that contained the Chimera-failure was bloody green, the test-tube-man was missing his legs, as he only had two bloody stumps where his legs should've been. I almost threw up at the sight, and Jack told me not to look in the rest of the chambers, as they were likely to be just as bad - or worse. River and Jack checked out the rest, making sure none of them had been missing.

I heard a few strange sounds from the ventilation shafts, as if someone had been crawling in the space between, but Jack assured me that it wasn't anything to worry about. I tried to stay as far away from the lion, as I possibly could. He still reeked of alcohol, and he really should've showered.

Then again, the stench of the corpses covered his beer-tang. We counted all of the dead, repeating the numbers I gave. The dead child was one of the Chimeras in the test-tubes. Raven checked number IV, confirming the child dead, before he threw up at the sight. I didn't want to look in there.

We got to the chamber marked as thirteen. I took the liberty of breaking off from the group, as they proceeded to remove the cores. Jack seemed to be happy enough with them, saying that there would be five extra cores that they could take, just in case.

Jack shouted out, before vanishing into the generator-room. "Hey, Ryu! If you're gonna check XIII over there, make sure he's in the tube! With this amount of power going into one experiment, it's likely that he's been scavenged away, before this place was run down.

I nodded and found the chamber door. On the top of it, it simply said: Subject XIII. Caution, extreme violent behavior.

I gulped and opened the bulky iron door. I was surprised to find two of them. One five-inch metal door, followed by a near ten-inch metal door. I swallowed almost audibly and peeked in.

The chamber was massive. The whole room seemed to be a huge sphere. There was nothing in there, apart from a single test-tube. I counted five large tubes, leading from the ceiling to the top of the test-tube. I walked up to it and took a silent gasp.

There was a little bit of blood on the inner walls of the test-tube, but the glass had been smashed. The glass was shattered on the outside, meaning that whoever broke it, must've done it from the inside. I whipped my head around, as I suddenly felt a new presence. A strong one. Stronger than River, for sure. I heard two loud bangs, as the iron doors were slammed closed. I sprinted towards them and hammered at them, panic brewing inside my mind.

I did my best to calm down, then bright lights flashed on. I heard the generators hum into action, and saw a window opening to my left. The sudden brightness of the lights caused me to pinch my eyes closed a bit. I saw Jack waving at me from behind the window, apologizing for the scare. I tried to scream that there was something out, but he couldn't seem to hear me. I pointed at the tube, then at the closed doors, then at the lights.

I couldn't slip into a shadow, if there wasn't any! These lights were bright! So much so, that I couldn't find a single shadow in the even walls. I saw one though, but in the wrong place. From behind Jack, I could see a feline shadow, creeping up from behind him. I trashed my right arm at him, pointing at the shadow, and he reacted just in time. I saw a cat, a lynx, most likely, pouncing on Jack, then it seemed to pin him down. I didn't understand where River and Raven were, since they were supposed to be there with him.

I looked at the doors desperately. I started to think back. What had I learned? What did I know, that could let me out of here? I glanced behind me and saw the test-tube, smashed glass. Nothing new.

I looked again.

The liquid!

I ran up to a puddle, right below the tube. I looked into the tubes leading up, but even they had lights in them. I couldn't slip in there. But all I needed was this. I looked down at the puddle.

I placed my palm in the vile-green liquid and froze it. Then I unfroze it, enough to be mobile. I pulled it around my right arm. Besides the coldness of ice around my arm, I was comfortable. I ran back up to the door and placed my palm against the hinges. I glanced quickly towards the window, but only saw a bloody stain on it. I decided to move faster.

I unfroze the green ice and 'injected' it between the doors. Then I simply froze it quickly and heard a loud bang. The hinges nearly exploded and the ten-inch door nearly fell on me. I managed to dodge it though, and repeated the same steps on the five-inch door, making sure that I would kick it out, before it fell on me.

I kept the half-frozen liquid wrapped around my right arm, as I ran up to the generator-room. I found both Raven and River on the ground. They weren't dead, but both seemed to be unconscious. I heard gunfire in the room next to the one I was in, and I went up to the door, opened it and leapt upon the lynx.

I couldn't.

I was blasted off by some kind of shockwave, and the feline stood up to stare at me. Jack was lying on the ground, motionless. I could sense that he wasn't dead. But he definitely needed medical attention.

The lynx was holding two knives. Strangely curved. From where the hilt ended, the blade curved down along the knuckles, creating a brilliant blade for defense and offense.

I raised my arms, letting the liquid splash down on the ground, as I looked at the lynx. Obviously female, judging from the feminine hips and chest curves. She was dressed in some kind of military uniform, not really covering any parts that shouldn't be seen. The only thing covering her chest was medical wraps, wrapped around her torso. Her pants were wide at the bottom, tight at the hips. The muscles in her arms weren't as 'gunned' as Jack's, but she wasn't too far off. Her tail was twitching a bit, in anticipation of a fight, I guessed. I glanced at her eyes. She had very bright blue eyes, nearly sapphires, in contrast. Around her left shoulder, a metal guard was protecting her. It only read the letters, XIII. Thirteen. This was the lethal test-subject? Well. She did take down both River and Raven. Not forgetting Jack.

Her haircut was cut military-style. Very tomboyish. She looked at me, staring at my face, as if disbelieving.

"...Thane...?" She spoke. Very softly, as if those were her first words she'd ever spoken.

"Excuse me?" I asked, lowering my arms. I inched closer and observed her every move.

She shrugged her head quickly, snapping it from side to side. I heard her neck-joints pop, as she quickly whipped her knives into her belt from behind, hiding them from my sight. I almost threw myself at her, but she didn't give me any reason to, so I restrained myself.

"You... Thane?" She spoke again, repeating her question. I started to wonder if she could speak properly at all.

"No. I" I pointed at my chest. "I am Ryu." I extended my arm towards her, pointing my finger at her. "You?"

"No. You... Are Thane." She insisted. Ignoring my question completely, she pulled a crumbled up piece of paper from a desk behind her. I saw a little nest behind it. She must've lived here for quite a long time...

"Here." She offered me the paper, after straightening it out for me. Her voice was starting to sound more clear, so I assumed that she just hadn't spoken for a long time.

I looked at the paper. Seemed like official documents. I shifted through the first lines, declaring these documents as 'highly classified'. Screw that. I was curious.

The lynx sat down on the floor, crossing her legs and observing me like a curious stray cat.

I paused. I held the pause for quite a while. The picture in the paper. It was me. I looked at the caption under it. 'Thane Kordus, unknown dreichoon relation'.

I couldn't help but stare. Thane? I tasted the name on my forked tongue a few times. It did ring a bell. It sounded familiar. Very much so, actually.

I took another look at the file. According to this, I was a blood-type o-negative. Wonderful. Powerful Shadowcaster, as if I didn't know that already... Hybrid, unknown class. Okay. River would have to explain that... I noticed some psychiatrist's notes on the last row.

'Highly aggressive, refers to himself as Prothero. Recommending termination, due to unbalanced and extremely dangerous levels of insanity.'

I stopped. I was crazy? I didn't feel crazy. I could be, I guess, but I didn't feel crazy.

The lynx got up and stood opposite from me. "Thane?"

I snapped my eyes to lock with her's, automatically responding to that name I didn't know I had. "Yes?"

She smiled thinly. "I can teach."

I wasn't quite sure what to make of it, but it seemed that I had a teacher now. I didn't really know how to take it though. She had knocked out Raven, River and Jack. They wouldn't want her onboard.

"What about them? I am with these people." I looked at her, carefully picking my words not to anger her.

"Then I follow them." Her face was drawn into a neutral gaze.

"Why did you attack them? We never did you any harm, did we?" I pressed on, seeing that she meant no harm, for now.

"They drink. I don't like drinkers." She looked at Jack.

I don't- Of course! No. It still didn't make sense. "You don't like alcohol?"

"People here drink. People here hurt me, and the others." She locked eyes with me. "Would you like it?"

"No... I guess I wouldn't. Do you know what happened here?" I asked, as she obviously did.

"Yes."

Okay... Maybe she didn't understand. "Can you tell me?"

"Take me with you." She insisted.

"We are going to have to ask Jack. But for now, help me haul them back into the ship. We'll discuss this later, okay?"

"Yes."

We pulled the unconscious bodies back into the ship. I half-expected XIII to jump at the sight of the Zero-D insignia, as it was everywhere in the facility. She didn't even flinch. Not even when she saw the massive aerial ship.

She carried Jack and Raven on each of her shoulders, and Shin was surprised to see the lynx hauling two patients onto his beds. I pulled Raven onto one, as well, and he took priority, naturally. I smiled. Shin ran up to the raptor and began treating, muttering out loud, as he worked.

"Why him? Why is it always you, Rave?" He smiled awkwardly and pecked the scaly forehead.

I escorted XIII to my room, where we remained seated. I made sure that Shin wouldn't speak of her being onboard, and that nobody had noticed us. Iris wanted to see me, but I had more pressing matters to attend to.

We sat in my room for a good half an hour, before I broke the silence.

"Did you kill all those people?"

It didn't take her long to answer. As if she had seen the question coming, she immediately answered. "No."

"Do you know who did?" I asked softly, believing her every word, even though there weren't many.

"Yes."

I sighed. Precise questions. "Who killed the people at the research-facility?"

"The Seven."

"And why didn't they kill you?" I asked, not sure where this was leading.

"I killed them."

Wait. What?

"How many did you kill?"

"Two. The rest left before I found them." She didn't even flinch, as she spoke words that meant gold to us, who were fleeing from the Seven.

"When was this?" My whole body was in tremors, as I asked.

"Fourteen days ago."