The Frosted Files:Open Eyes

//Chapter 6\\

    "Inside! Back in-" I started to shout at the two beside me, before being interrupted by a whip-like vine shooting out from the hedges and wrapping around my ankle, pulling my feet out from under me. Rude. I fell hard, the air getting knocked from my lungs, and I felt myself being dragged towards the plants, the chloro-fiends.
    The beam blue-white wizard flame barely missed my entangled ankle, slicing the vine cleanly. I scrambled up, the vine on my ankle writhing like a snake that lost its head, and ran towards the door. Vlad was already inside, and Adrian stood beside the door, fire dancing across his fingers.
    Rushing into the building with Adrian following me in, I flicked on my glasses and tapped the side to get them up and running, going through the building's security measures.
    "Now, we should be fine inside, as magic has to be invited in, like Adrian said. If we can figure out-" I was interrupted, again, by a tentacle-vine, only this time it came crashing through the glass that led to the patio, instead of targeting me. It was severed by the wizard flame before it could retreat, however, and an alarm started to sound through the building.
    I turned to Adrian, putting on my best 'what the fuck, man?' face.
    "They're plants, Frost. The fae themselves can't come in, but their constructs can in some cases."
    I rolled my eyes, and continued to look over the building plans. The sound of rapid footfall grew closer, and Apollo rounded the corner, a little boxy semi-automatic in his hands.
    Vlad held his gun with professional composure, keeping calm - Apollo's hands were shaking, and I could see a few tears building in his eyes as he ran over to me.
    Everyone at The Compound had some level of training with firearms and martial arts, for simple safety - Apollo had never taken well to guns, however, and usually relied on his staff. The staff was kept downstairs in the training room, however, so he had his choice of backup weaponry that was stored in various places, such as the kitchen. The smudge of flour on the gunmetal indicated this was, in fact, the kitchen gun.
    As he came closer, finger off the trigger and barrel down, I flipped my glasses up. A few more vines crashed through, causing Apollo to flinch, and which Adrian dealt with.
    Before he could talk, I hugged him briefly, and I felt a little bit of tension ease out of his shoulders. He doesn't take stress well.
    "Fate, what's happening? What-" he flinched at another vine, "-are those?"
    I held him out at arms length, and looked him in the face, careful to avoid his sky blue eyes. "Bad guys. Get upstairs, Sunshine, I'll be up soon." He nodded, and hurried away. I hated to send him out of my immediate reach, but this was likely safer - our room had reinforced walls and a thick metal door that would make bank vaults envious.
    I turned back to Vlad and Adrian.
    They looked at me expectantly.
    When it comes to plans, I'm usually pretty good at forming them fast.
    This was new, though. New enemies, new things to account for - like the fact my nanotech couldn't do shit to them, apparently.
    Nevertheless, some semblance of a plan was formed during my brief thinking session.
    "The actual things can't come in unless invited in, right Adrian?"
    He nodded.
    "Okay. Okay, great."
    And I told them my plan. Adrian raised an eyebrow at first, and by the end he was rubbing his chin, obviously thinking hard. Vlad had nodded along the whole time, following each step with the attention that only came from an ex-general thinking over a battle plan.
    "Y'know, Frost, this may just work. Let's do it."
    We set things up, me and Vlad, while Adrian kept searing the vine tentacles. While my tech couldn't hurt the chloro-fiends, I could still use it to my advantage. Why run with normal, human speed when I could speed faster than your average Olympian sprinter?
    Downstairs, in the training room (which was larger than two school gyms), we have a boxing ring set ten feet below floor level - we call this the Pit. The Pit is where you would go if you wanted to settle a dispute the old fashioned way, with knuckles and muscle. My coworkers slash goons were down there nearly every day, happily drawing blood, and they were not too happy when we told them to clear out.
    After everything was set up, we met Adrian back at the now destroyed patio door, nodding to confirm we were ready. Vlad and Adrian swiftly left, going to their designated positions. I trusted Vlad to show Adrian where he was to be.
    I held up the hand that wore the chain bound rings, and more vines rushed through the door.
    "Hey, you plant fuckers! You want this shield?"
    The subsonic growls rose in volume, and my vision blurred for a second. Subsonics do funny things to the human brain.
    So, I turned and ran.
    "Then come in and get them, you chloro-fiends!"
    The growls became a roar, and I heard the door frame get torn from the wall at the same time my tech flowed over my body. I didn't look back, I didn't need to. I could feel the heavy beasts coming towards me as I ran and weaved through halls and doors. Vines whipped towards me, but skimmed off my tech, leaving me with just a few bruises instead of in a few pieces.
    In the halls, the beasts couldn't effectively travel, as only two could run side by side, a quick glance showed me. All the better for me. I nearly slipped a few times turning corners when the vines would hit me hard, threatening my balance.
    I got to the stairs and leapt, not slowing down at all, pinwheeling my arms as I flew through the air to the bottom. Rolling upon landing, I came back up running, hearing the thuds of the chloro-fiends following me down and slamming into the wall in front of the stairs. Seems the things didn't have as good traction or dexterity as me. One point for Fate. I started to chuckle, but it quickly died when another vine slammed into me, almost knocking the air out of me.
    Finally, I got to the training room. The chloro-fiends had gained a little ground on me, so I slowed down a little, running straight towards the Pit. They followed, and a few let out some form of howl of victory. I bet they thought they finally had me, since I was slowing down and running straight towards a hole in the floor. The tricks on them, though, because when I got to the edge of the Pit, I leapt, barely clearing the 20 foot jump, and rolled onto the ground. I looked back as the group went to follow, leaping over the Pit. they would have made it, too, if they hadn't slammed into an invisible barrier.
    Adrian stood to the side, a white mist swirling around his hand, which was extended towards the invisible wall the beasts had hit.
    "Nice running, Frost. You managed to not get eaten."
    I rolled my eyes and got up, a little out of breath.
    "Just do your thing, wizard."
    Vlad stood to the side, his rifle in hand, but came to the edge of the Pit, looking down. I did the same, looking at the beasts as vines lashed out against the invisible barriers that now surrounded the hole.
    Adrian raised his other hand. Snapping a few times, sparks flew, and the blue-white flame grew into existence in his palm. He pushed that palm towards the Pit, and flame roared down, better than any military standard flamethrower available on the market. The beasts roared in pain and fear, and writhed on the ground.
    Adrian's eyes glazed over with a bluish tint, and he began muttering in some language I didn't know, nor could really comprehend, and closed his flame wreathed hand into a fist. The flames grew brighter, now pure white, and the chloro-fiends roars grew in pitch, vines hitting the barrier more rapidly.
    Soon, one by one, they stopped fighting, and the flames died down. In the Pit lay the chloro-fiends as I had seen the one before, after Adrian had done his work - small, leafy creatures that looked like standard housecats. They didn't seem burned, and all eleven looked to be breathing.
    Eleven.
    As I began to realize that something had gone wrong, I was thrown off my feet as the last big nasty plant beast crashed into me. Adrian turned towards me, his eyes wide, and I heard the tap of his shoes on the stone as he started towards me.
    His shoes are on stone. He wasn't floating.
    Vlad raised his gun, and a vine whipped and grabbed my wrist. Another shot for my mouth as I tried to shout at Vlad to not shoot, and I got my dinner salad a bit early.
    I saw him pull the trigger, heard the report of the gun, and saw where the bullet bounced off the chloro-fiend.
    And I saw Adrian fall, a hole right above his eye, purple blood leaking.
    Vlad looked stunned as he lowered his rifle, and another vine whipped out at him. The rifle flew into the Pit, and Vlad hit a wall hard enough for me to hear the crack of bone. He fell and did not rise, but I heard him groan as he slumped over.
    Panic set in, and my mind went into overdrive.
    I stared into the angry blood red eyes of the beast.
    The pull that came with these soul stares came on a lot faster, and I fell into the chloro-fiend.
    I stood in a nice little garden, overgrown with weeds, but they just made it even more beautiful. A single tree stood in the area, black chains wound up and around the trunk. I stepped closer, and saw an inky black substance dripping from the chain, which seemed to be embedded into the tree itself. I followed the chain up, and in the branches I saw the house-cat sized plant creature, also bound in chains. This one looked different - the others had all green features, green eyes, leaf-fur, et cetera, but this one has a strip of purple that covered part of its face and back, giving it one purple eye and ear, and one green. It mewed at me, pain clear in its little voice.
    "Don't look at me for help, you're trying to kill me."
    It mewed at me again, its ears drooping a little.
    On one hand, this thing was actively trying to kill me. I had to hope it had stopped, due to the soul stare, but I couldn't really confirm.
    On the other hand, this thing was in pain. Adrian had briefly explained that the curse - these chains, probably - had made these beings act against their nature, drawing on their life energy to grow these big, viney forms.
    Adrian. The poor wizard.
    During the planning, he had made it a point that we should pacify, not kill, these things. Hell, it looked like he had exhausted himself breaking those curses.
    I hadn't known him all that long, but I think he would have helped this creature instead of killing it.
    I was out of my realm here, so I didn't exactly have anything to base a moral judgement off of.
    I groaned, and grabbed the chains.
    Fun fact, the nerves in your tongue that react to spicy foods, and the nerves that react to cold foods (like menthol in mint gum), are different sets of nerves, and do not cancel each other out. I found that out after doing a stupid ghost pepper challenge with my medic, Zane. He had theorized that if we ate ghost chili peppers, then downed a handful of breath mints, they would cancel out.
    They don't. It tasted like hellfire, both too hot and too cold, and very much brought tears to our eyes.
    That's what these chains felt like, only against my skin and flesh. I yanked my hand back, the black fluid sticking to my palm, burning/freezing.
    Except it wasn't my hand. Not exactly. It looked how mine would, except it was a pale blue.
    It's probably just how the plant cat sees me, I told myself.
    Yeah. Totally that.
    I grit my teeth and grabbed onto the chain again, wedging my fingers between the metal and the tree, and pulled. It didn't budge much, but I traced it down to the base of the truck, and found a spike embedded in the tree.
    Setting my boot against the tree, I pulled until the spike came out, falling on my ass in the process. I got up and dusted myself off, ignoring the off-putting blue tint to my skin, and continued to unwind the chain, biting my tongue to get the attention of some other pain receptors so I could try to ignore the pain in my hands. The scarred wood beneath the chain dripped with a green fluid the viscosity of blood. It got on my hands in the process, too, and made some of the black stuff fall off, sizzling against the grass.
    Eventually, I had to climb up into the tree, and the chain ended at the cat.
    A spike was embedded in its chest, and looked like the same three inch design that was in the base of the tree.
    The cat looked up at me, and sat up a little, mewing at me once.
    I hesitantly grabbed the spike, and tried to carefully pull it out, but no dice.
    "Don't scratch me, this'll hurt," I told the cat, as if it wasn't already coated in the black fluid. I yanked the chain, and the spike flew out of the cat's chest, and it fell over. I scooped it up, and jumped off the tree, cupping some of the green tree blood into my hand and splashing it over the cat to get rid of the black stuff.
    It looked up at me and meowed, it's voice stronger now, and I was pushed back into my body.
    My hand was inside what used to be the chloro-fiend's head, the shield bracelet active. I saw that it had nearly fully decapitated the beast, the magical shield slicing through the plant material from the inside.
    Deactivating the shield, I pulled my hand out, fearing that all that work had been for nothing.
    Ectoplasm began to form as the beast melted away, leaving behind the little leafy cat I had met in the soul stare, seemingly asleep.
    I got up, wincing at my sore throat from the vine, as well as my hand, and saw Vlad near where Adrian had fallen.
    Walking over to them, I prepared myself for the worst.
    But when I got to them, Adrian was sitting up, and the hole above his eye was gone, no more than a bruise.
    "That was a very dumbass move with the cat, Frost. Could have gotten the curse on yourself."
    I crossed my arms now that I knew he was alive, and crouched next to Vlad.
    "Could you tell everyone it's safe to come back out?" I looked at the Pit.
    "And that we may need new rope for the boxing ring."
    Vlad nodded and rose, heading towards the stairs.
    Turning my attention towards Adrian, I saw that even the bruise was beginning to fade.
    "You really are something else, Adrian. Purple blood, hyper-fast healing. What can't you do?"
    He let out a single chuckle.
    "Sarcasm, very funny Frost."
    My nanotech started to flow back into its hiding places, and the pain in my hand increased. Adrian looked down to said hand, my left, which held the rings, and his eyes widened ever so slightly.
    "So we're on that timeline. Okay, then." He said.
    Confused, I looked down to my hand.
    I had no hand.
    Where my hand had been was a small pile of crushed bone, flesh, and blood. The rings had been put on outside my nanotech, so the chloro-fiends could see them, and those sat in the pile too.
    I slowly raised my arm, and saw the tooth marks along my wrist, the snapped bone.
    "Adrenaline is one hell of a drug. I'll fetch a medic." Adrian got up, and started towards the stairs.
    I wanted to protest, but something in my brain decided that we had been at maximum capacity, beyond our limit, for too long, and my vision went dark. I felt the leafy cat sniffing at me before I lost all consciousness.