Numbered and Factions

Chapter 5

The days go by pretty damn quick. I find myself next to my brother in the cafeteria with a bag of what I needed. Spark messes with one of his light spirits as it swirls around his hand. The girls were already there and talking with one another quietly. Spark sits back as the spirit slinks away into his bracelet gem. One of the shadow spirits rises itself from my necklace and stares at me.

"You look bored Bearer," the spirit squeaks in its spiritual tongue,

"That I am little guy" I respond,

"Are you going somewhere with us?"

"You all are stuck with me till I die so yes."

"Are the light ones coming with?"

"If Spark is going they're going so I'd assume so"

The spirit huffs and shifts to mimic the form of a small cat, it lays on my lap with a cold sensation. It nuzzles into my pant leg to get comfortable even though it can't feel anything. They're weird little things really. Beings linked to the creation of our world, only able to come here through my necklace. While their light counterparts can only come here through my brother's bracelets. We can communicate with them in a language like Latin to them and English to us, yet they can't be heard by others. They're powerful, yet act like little kids and puppies when we don't control them. They also tend to be a bit annoying, but that's manageable.

A few minutes pass as the others show up, Cerbi walks in as the hellhound. The hound lays down by the window outside waiting. Kit walks up to me,

"Are you ready for this one Pixy?"

"Always am, hopefully we aren't fighting all that much."

"Yeah, I don't think Lav would be too happy if we came back in pieces"

I laugh, "She'd break us into more pieces if we came back missing a limb."

Anbu drops from the ceiling behind Kit, scaring her. She turns and goes to strike the masked fox, yet misses as the fox moves away. They raspily chuckle and sign,

"Jumpy as always Kit,"

"One of these days I'm going to knock that mask off your face."

One of Anbu's eyes goes dark, staring Kit down,

"You better hope that doesn't happen"

"You never know Little Fox"

"Don't call me that"

I've been left as a spectator to them. I stretch my arm and step back as they continue to go back and forth. Storm walks over to stop the two foxes from fighting any further. Rabi hops in and up to the girls. We all stand as Piper whistles,

"Alright, let's get a move on." Piper's voice is commanding yet calm. The gaggle of us walked out and over to the waiting hellhound. The three heads look at us as the wolf head yawns. One by one we get on Cerbi's back. The hound stands as me and Spark create lap belts in preparation for the rough ride ahead. Piper sits up on the wolf's head, Cerbi was used to her sitting there. After a couple minutes we're off through the grassy plain. Cerbi's run is smooth at times and like a mechanical bull at others. There's a reason we didn't put saddles on wolf, fox, dragon hybrids.

***

Cerbi slows to a trot as we approach an old beat up warehouse. Here we go. Kit shifts to a nine tailed red fox and sniffs around. The fox and dragon heads of the hellhound sniff around as the hound itself lays down. We hop off the hound one by one. The warehouse had seen better days, vines grow up the walls like a painting, the windows are broken and boarded up, the door's been long since kicked off its hinges, and there's graffiti all over the walls. As we approach a computer screen lights up, I walk a bit faster at that sight. The lights turn on in the warehouse as more screens of all sorts light up.

"Well we must have either stumbled into the right or the wrong place eh." Piper smiles as she draws her knife,

"Easy for you to say," Storm shifts to his wolf form with a cackle of electricity.

The screens display a glitched image as spectral hands of all colors reach from them. I hold my ground with a ring of shadows surrounding my feet. Spark does the same with a ring of light. Rabi hops up into a rafter with Anbu following her. Piper and Harmoninea stand back to back with the witch cheating a magenta ring of fire around them. Kit and Storm stay at each other's side, both bear their respective sets of teeth.

The hands strike, Spark disappears from my vision in a flash. I can hear Rabi scream for Anbu as the ring of their bell clips from our ears. Storm has disappeared as well, Kit yowls and creates a ball of flame around herself. Our guards drop in that moment, the shadows retreat and the flames die down. All I can do is call out to my brother wherever he went.

***

Spark, Anbu, and Storm find themselves in a winding digital-like plain. Anbu gets up and looks around with their posture loose and flowing in a way. Spark helps Storm up on his paws as Storm had hit the ground harder than the other two. Anbu looks around and uses their paw pads to feel the ground for anything beneath them. Storm stretches out and sniffs the ground, nothing.

"Where the hell are we?" Spark states, his ears twitch and turn like satellites.

"I don't know. I got grabbed by one of those hand things." Anbu signs, their eyes still darting around.

"Well I did aswell Teach. You think this may be another Numbered ability?"

"Likely, maybe that Glitch person the girls were talking about?"

"That'd make sense to me at least, you smelling anything Storm?" Spark turns to the wolf. Storm raises his head to the right, he bears teeth and growls. Anbu holds Spark behind them as they growl as well, someone was approaching.

***

We gather in the center of the warehouse, careful of the monitors. Kit is on edge about everything, Rabi holds her shoulder to comfort her. Cerbi, Piper, and Harmoninea stand next to me as they mutter to each other.

"We have to find a way to get them out. What if they get hurt in there!?" Kit declares, her eyes showing fear.

"We'll get them out Kit, just calm down so we can think this through alright." Harmoninea assures,

"I shouldve never come on this.." Kit balls her fists, looking back at the door. I put my hand on her shoulder.

"The guys and Anbu are strong. Remember what those three have done even just by themselves. Storm fought off that wind spewing dachshund from WolfSong all by himself. You saw that first hand." Cerbi looks at Kit with a world of words behind those yellow eyes.

"First things first, we ought to figure out what type of ability we're dealing with." Piper turns her gaze to one of the monitors as it lights up again, displaying a logo of a woman with two pigtails.