Serendipity (Karlnapity Fantasy AU)

Chapter 10

The explosion had woken Sapnap and Karl from their sleep. Immediately the sky above their building turned gray and dark smoke rose into the air outside the window.
Sapnap jumped out of his bed and grabbed the hand of the confused and frightened Karl. Without thinking, Sapnap grabbed his equipment and ran out into the hallway with Karl's hand firmly in his.

Complete chaos broke out in the hallway. Students fled their rooms, fear, confusion and anger written on their faces. Most of them had tears in their eyes. Even though this academy mainly trained soldiers, a real attack was nerve-wracking..

Sapnap stood indecisively with Karl in the hallway while students bustled past them, taking no notice of him. Frantically, he looked around. Sapnap knew that in case of an emergency, he should meet up with his combat group on campus, but with one look at Karl, he realized that he could not leave him alone. At that moment, he wished Quackity were here.

As if he heard him, suddenly two outstretched white wings fought their way through the crowd. Behind Wilbur ran Quackity, whose path was thus cleared. The taller of them stretched out over the heads of the students, while Quackity strained and fluffed his wings. Recognizing Sapnap and Karl in the tummult, wilbur waved at the two and said something to Quackity that Sapnap did not understand. Just before the two reached the pair the sirens went off. Karl cried out in surprise, his eyes narrowed and his hands over his ears.

Fuck, sapnap thought, and turned to Karl, putting both hands on his shoulders and trying to soothe him, but due to the volume, his talk didn't reach the brunette boy. Quackity, who had rushed past Wilbur, ran straight to Sapnap. Shocked, Sapnap watched as Quackity wrapped an arm around Karl's shoulder, took both hands from his ears and hummed something in his ear. He couldn't understand what he was doing, but it helped calm Karl down.

Even though small tears left Karl's eyes, he had opened them again and turned to the astonished Sapnap with a serious expression. When Wilbur arrived at the others, he took them slightly aside from the center of the hallway so that the rush of students could flow past them unimpeded.

"The angels are here for Karl," Wilbur yelled against the commotion. Snapnap gulped, tightening his grip on Karl's hand a little more. He didn't want to believe Wilbur at first, but even if he wasn't a nice classmate, Wilbur was usually honest. Sometimes maybe even too honest. For a moment he looked around the room frantically, searching for an answer as if it were floating somewhere in the air. Then he turned to Quackity, placing a hand on the black-haired man's shoulder.
"You take Karl and run away with him. The best thing is to hide in the forest and wait. I will find you again when all this is over, but I have to fight urgently. The others need me."

He was not surprised that Quackity did not contradict him. He knew how important this task was for Sapnap. Not only because he was one of the strongest fighters. Quackity just nodded and smiled. This time it was an honest smile and full of pride towards his friend. Quackity turned to Karl, took him by the hand and was ready to leave, when Karl broke away. He hugged Sapnap.

"I love you. Please take care of yourself," he whispered in his ear. Sapnap smiled, stepped back a bit from Karl, and gave him a quick kiss. Wilbur and Quackity's eyes widened at the sight and they both exchanged questioning glances with each other.

"We really have to go, Sapnap," Wilbur now urged, and the two broke away from each other. Karl took Quackity's hand, and Sapnap nodded to Wilbur. Thus the four parted ways and while Quackity raced down the stairs with Karl, pushing past the students, Sapnap and Wilbur prepared for battle.

~~~

With Karl beside him, hands intertwined, the black-haired man with golden wings ran down the stairs. Even though his wings were small, when spread out they were large enough to symbolize other students making way for them. He ignored the angry shouts and animal noises most of them made in response.

Quackity's ears were ringing and Karl was feeling the same way, he suspected. Even though he had pulled himself together, he still looked around in panic. Quackity had been able to calm him down with his singing. It was the song his parents used to sing to him when he was younger and it always had a calming effect. He was glad that Karl could be calmed by it as well.
From outside, gunshots could be heard and shouting. All his hybrid instincts begged him to flee. After all, he was a duck, not a bird of prey like Wilbur was.

"Don't let go of my hand!," Quackity yelled as the two raced through the building. With momentum, Quackity jumped down the last few steps taking the brunette with him, who yelped. They had to get out of here, but with Karl by his side, Quackity couldn't just jump out the window because he couldn't carry him. So they had to go to the first floor and take one of the emergency exits. He had never felt so useless and hoped he could eroflgently hide with Karl. He didn't want to disappoint Sapnap.

Quackity guessed that the place must be crawling with angels. They sprinted around the corner into the first available hallway. The main entrance was blown apart. The only way out was the emergency exit in the dining room or the basement. Quackity chose the hallway that led to the basement. Karl was behind him, his eyes wide open in panic and his breathing hectic and uneven.

Quackity ran past the rooms and could already see the stairs ahead of him, when he heard an angry yelp and unfamiliar voices.
Of course, the hallway already seemed too quiet, he thought. The two boys froze in the middle of the hallway. In the hallway in front of them was a branch to the meeting rooms and from there came the voices unknown to him. Hectically he looked for a place to hide and rattled the doors. Karl did the same.

The voices were shouting now, and the last thing the two heard was a thud and a loud rumble. For a moment, Quackity hoped the attackers had disappeared, then heavy footsteps approached.

Karl behind him whimpered and hugged his body with his arms. Just before he gave up hope, a door opened and Quackity pulled Karl into the room with him, closing the door behind them. The small dark storage room was teeming with dust. Quackity spread his wings, put them protectively over Karl's shoulder and took a deep breath. Karl's breath shook and he grasped Quackity's arm with trembling hands. To make sure they didn't make any noise, he put his hands over his mouth and Karl's, who flinched.

The voices came closer.
"I could have sworn I heard someone."
"You sure? Maybe in one of the rooms.", a door opened just a few rooms away. Karl next to him winced.
More doors were rattled next to them and Quackity squinted. He weighed which option was better and finally he preferred to be captured with a fight than without.

Slowly, Quackity’s hand slipped to the door handle while the other hand moved to Karls.  With his wings drawn, Quackity took a deep breath and when Karl noticed what Quackity was up to he said nothing, but only tightened the grip around the other’s hand even more. Then everything went very fast.  Quackity slammed the door that hit one of the men.  The two boys ran down the hallway hand in hand, while confused and angry screams sounded behind them.

Behind him, the men began to sprinkle after them, Karl screamed behind him as they started shooting at them. Quackity stretched out his wings as far as he could to protect Karl. Lightning shot past them, Karl screamed and Quackity squawked at every lightning that came near him. In a zigzag he pushed Karl in front of him, his wings spread out, as they reached the stairs.

Suddenly, Quackity felt a lightning strike his back and twitch through his body. With a trill he tilted forward and lost his balance. With twitching arms, he tried to find a stop while he fell down the steps. His body was screaming in pain, black dots danced in front of his eyes. As he fell down the stairs, he could see how the men were grabbing Karl.

He wanted to fight the unconsciousness, get on his feet. He felt his stomach twist as he stood on his knees, next to him he heard two men coming down the stairs.  A wobbling Karl was laid screaming over one’s shoulder. The smaller of the two men stopped in front of Quackity, who was struggling to keep his balance.  By a lateral blow to the head, Quackity fell over at the front, the blackness had now completely taken over his body.  Karl’s screams became quieter and quieter, until he could finally hear nothing.