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The group didn't move an inch as they saw the first police officer get out of their car and walk past the truck bed, not even looking in the peepholes direction, yet it felt like there were a million eyes watching.
"We need a plan, fast. The moment they get his ID and verify he didn't steal it, they'll still ask to check the back."
"I don't see a way out genius! All the cars are behind us, and there is no door we can escape out of," Aph looked around, fidgeting with her hand. Ein went over to the other peepholes on the opposite side and took in a breath.
"They aren't going to Annika's side yet. We could figure something out that involves all of them going to one side as we go out the other."
"That's never going to work! Police officers have guns and electric tasers and worse! There are at least five of them outside, and more will be requested for backup the moment they start talking to Aiden."
"We can cut our way out to the bottom of the truck and stay down there? They won't look under the truck, and if we are quiet, then we stay down there until they put up the back again and we go in."
"I'm a giant, non-scavenger shapeshifting dragon! I can't hide anywhere. Our only solution is to run and make our getaway before whoever is out there can shoot or attack us."
Mae snapped her fingers at the whisper-yelling, arguing group and widened her eyes at them. She shrugged and held her arms out, "you all are being stupid! The more we argue, the less time we can actually get out of here and get home."
"Then what is your plan, oh genius leader?" Elvadoer nearly spat on the ground as they all turned to Mae.
Hey god when I meant 'that'll never happen that's a one in a million chance, I'd didn't expect you to pull a sneaky one on me. Very clever, thanks. "Me and Perri can shapeshift into dragonoid forms, right? Am I right, can I actually do that?"
Perri nodded, "yeah I'm a solid 99% sure you can."
"Well, if we become a distraction, then Aiden can get you all back home without getting caught. He has his ID and his certification, and they will most certainly know his job. If he plays it off right and acts shocked and scared out of his mind and says he doesn't know anything, then they will chase us and make sure that he gets back to the warehouse safely with the vehicle. I can carry Annika on my back, Perri can carry whoever else wants to come, and then PM will carry Ein. We need to make sure we have enough room to pick up anyone who spawns in thanks to Portal bringing people here to help us. We can outrun the cops, and those two can fly to avoid them. Helicopters would take a while to respond as long as we are not by the airport, and the streets by my home have no cameras, so we can run a specific way, hide in the backyards, until it is safe to run to my place and take shelter. Then, Aiden will be able to take his car to my place and drop everyone else off, since he has a huge van."
Dante nodded, "that's a solid plan. Everyone will be so focussed on the dragons that they won't finish searching the truck for us. If you three exit and one closes the truck bed on the way out, they won't reopen it. And if they do, we can hide behind the fake wall."
"There's a what in here?" Aaron snapped, mostly out of confusion.
"Few box trucks like these have fake walls to keep spare boxes in, though they blend in perfectly and are hard to check for. Since this is an older truck, there would never be a fake wall, but since there is thanks to sheer luck it seems, we can duck behind it and stay tight until we are on our way again," Dante clapped his hands together. "I like that plan. It seems like the only thing that can, and will work right now."
PM nodded and bent down his neck as Ein swung his leg around, settling between two patches of back spines and wrapping a blanket around his neck as if they were reins of a horse. As soon as he was securely on, Mae was handed the walkie talkie from Perri as she went to the back of the truck, focusing on shifting.
"Annika, I need you to unbuckle your seatbelt right now. We have a plan."
"Alright thank god what's the plan."
"Perri, PM and I are going to turn into our draconic forms- well scratch that, me and Perri are going to shift and PM just stays the same but regardless! We are going to storm out the back of the truck and then I will come around the passenger side and you will hop on my back with a blanket it will be carrying in my mouth acting as reins. You'll have that around my neck to hold onto as we all run to distract the police from the truck and start a chase."
It was silent as she could hear her best friend of almost two decades smacking her face. "That is the stupidest best idea I have ever heard of. I'm in."
"Ok. Where are the police right now?"
"There are two of them on Aiden's side right now checking ID, three are at the back of the truck. We aren't killing anyone right?"
Mae scoffed at her friend thinking that and nearly threw the walkie talkie. "I have a moral code asshole, it's just no one knows what it is! But I won't stoop as low as to murdering people that are just doing their job!"
Annika laughed and the voice of one of the police officers echoed over the device. "Well, quit talking and shapeshift or whatever. If you actually can I might just go ahead and eat my own socks or something."
"Then start eating them," She turned off the walkie-talked and gave it over to Julian, huddling him briefly as the now transformed Perri walked past them and to the door. "Take this. Activate this and speak into it when you have reached the complex and are on your way back to us."
"Don't get shot or hurt. I know you're strong, but you did just endure a week's worth of torment and just recovered blindness. Don't push yourself."
"I'll have to push myself if I want to survive Ilya. I have to push myself to be a leader and save my own world and save yours. I have to push myself if I want to make Asra's, Katelyn's and Sif's deaths worth it. To make them proud."
He nodded and went over to the fake wall, pushing it until he found the latch and swung open the very well hidden panel. Him and Aaron bent over and grabbed the pillows and blankets, swinging them behind the fake wall as the rest of the people who weren't going clambered in. Mae walked over to the far side of the wall and closed her eyes.
Shift.
Shift.
Shift. Do it for my family. Do it for my friends. Do it for victory.
Please do it so I can save them.
Pain had overridden her body suddenly and she bit her tongue, closing her eyes as she felt her bones stretch. Claws erupted from her nails and curled out, her fingerprints forming into protective paw pads, and her tailbone growing out into a full fledged tail. Her human form practically shrunk away, all clothes and anything else staying on the person underneath the beast. Finally, she opened her eyes, and for the first time in her life she was actually tall.
She looked down at her front arms and hands and saw that they were partially teal, the same color as the greenish-teal markings and spots around her body and face. Her tail was long and sturdy with similar markings that were on her wrists winding their way all around her tail, switching from teal to green. She had no visible wings, but felt like some were there... somewhere that is. She had a dark brown underbelly and a stripe of an even darker chocolate brown that went down her back and stopped near the tip of her tail. The same teal markings that were on her face still remained the same now as a dragonoid... creature, and her eye color was the same purple as before.
"Where are y-"
"Holy shit I'm a dragon. I'm actually, 100% a dragon this is inSANE."
"I was going to ask where your wings are, but freaking out about actually being a dragon and that not being a dream from before is cool too," Perri shrugged and saw as Mae walked over without a problem and beamed at her. Her teeth were clean, but their natural color wasn't a white, but rather a dark grey.
"Well, I'm surprised I actually am one! It's weird, I thought that being blind down there in the memory cave was all a dream with strangely realistic pain, like I was in limbo or purgatory trying to escape before my judgement began. But then I realized I could climb with these paws, slice up fish that... kinda tasted like paper with them, and scream a lot louder than usual with my increased vocal capacity."
Everyone stared and just didn't move. Perri, now Flower (she decided she liked the nickname for when she looked like her dragonoid self), shrugged. "I don't know what you just said but I think we have to start our distraction."
"I wish we had some music for our daring escape and chase, it'd make it a lot more exciting," Mae sighed and stood by the back door, one of her hands on the hatch as she looked back at the three others cramped in the space. "Wouldn't that be cool? Having chase and battle music play as we book it out of here?"
"Maybe we can get some for the fight against the demon," PM joked and Ein laughed. The three dragons stood there, waiting to hear if anymore cars showed up, and she undid the hatch.
The light of day and the louder sounds of the cars racing by on any side hit them like a truck as they ran out, standing in front of the now four police cars that were back there, two of the policemen jumping back as they stood there now, Mae grabbed the back and shutting it again before they could react. PM lunged forward and roared, making one of the policemen fall to the ground and reach for the gun in their pocket. "Backup! B-Backup!"
"You idiot! Ugh, cmon!" Flower snapped and took off around the right side of the truck, Aiden playing his part on being scared and falling out of the truck. Yikes, that has to hurt. PM followed Flower around that side, and Mae went around the other, leaning for Annika to hop on. The policeman that had fallen had gotten up, coming around that side with his gun drawn.
"Get on!"
"Where's the blanket!"
"THAT'S THE LEAST OF MY WORRIES HE HAS A GUN-"
Annika hopped out of the truck and onto her back, landing in a spot clear of back spines and... a patch that felt like felt? She held on around her neck and Mae took off, sprinting to catch up with her two allies. They had slowed down and waited for her, but didn't stop completely. It felt weird to run on all fours, but it also felt easier too. Her weight was balanced, and with all the climbing and running she had done in the memory cave, her body was well trained for this. PM was naturally a dragon, so this couldn't be hard, and Flower had decent practice and also was a natural too.
"I cannot believe you can actually turn into a dragon."
"Why on God's Green Earth would I be kidding about that?" Mae responded, now running at top speed as soon as she had caught up to the other two. They were running along traffic, going fifty, maybe sixty miles an hour due to their larger size and fast running speed. She looked to her right as she was running alongside a white truck, the driver glancing over at her and then back to the road. She suddenly saw his mouth "what the-" as he then swiveled his head back over and stared her right in the face. The truck slowed and suddenly it disappeared from beside her.
"Ok, so where do we run to?" Ein leaned back as PM continued running ahead of Mae. He had his head down so the wind didn't hurt his eyes.
"Keep going along the freeway, and then when the road divots, we will take the overpass and continue that way!" Annika yelled back at him and he nodded, narrowing his eyes past her. She turned around and hit Mae's neck multiple times in urgency. "Mae how much longer can you run?"
"Long time, my stamina is pretty good now. Why?"
She turned back around and stared forward again, cupping her hands around her face. "We got six police cars coming up on our left! One of the six is on our right!"
PM turned his head around and yelped at the sight of the flashing reds and blues, and continued forward. He urgently changed where he was running, cutting off a small beige colored car as the person in it swerved out of his way. Luckily, they were running along traffic, making everything loads easier. If they were going against traffic, who knows what would happen. "We should split up!"
"Are you crazy! If we split up, then they'll be able to target us faster!"
"I CAN'T FLY GENIUS!" Mae yelled across the road as they continued to run. One of the cars was getting closer and closer to her as she continued at her top speeds, going past multiple cars quicker than before as her feet seemed to fly across the ground. "You two need to get the majority away from me until I figure out how to use my nonexistent wings!"
Flower nodded and slowed down slightly, now level with her. "Where should we go? The overpass is coming up."
Annika leaned across the side of Mae's neck and pointed forward. "Keep going straight and then jump down to the surface streets. You can run along there and then go into the crowded areas and then fly into backyards by the street so you cannot be found. We'll go the shorter way so we don't run out of stamina before we get to the house."
"You guys have to fly to get them off of us!" Mae responded back as one of the cars was now nearly behind her tail, and the split between the overpass and the continuous freeway was approaching.
"Alright we'll keep going ahead! Don't get hurt!" PM spoke the last part, making it hard to hear. He then extended his wings out and continued forward as Flower ran beside him, preparing to take flight when their overpass came and they could cut down. Mae watched them go and then turned her head, seeing the police car having it's window down, and then swerving to go beside her and speed past her. She was shocked, but her plan was working, it was going after the other two.
"Overpass ahead!"
"Got it!"
"Two cars coming up on our right now! One civilian car in the mix going up the overpass!"
"Annika I have eyes, I can see the cars in-front of me," She got a small laugh out of her friend as she noticed how the overhang sloped gently at first with a small wall on the sides as it got bigger going up. She narrowed her eyes at it, and slowed down to where the two police cars that were to her left were now beside her. The male driving the police car directly leveled with her face rolled down the window, but didn't say a word. With her last brain cell intact as the split approached, she leaned her head down to the window, "good morning officer!"
He screamed and slammed on his brakes, and Annika nearly fell off Mae's back from laughing as she jumped the split and landed on the overpass road in-front of the civilian car that would've slowed her down.. The driver could only stare in awe as she sprinted past him, continuing her run.
"See, wouldn't chase music be so good right now!?" She could only shout into the air as she laughed wholeheartedly as she looked back, not seeing a single police car following her due to the two trailing having missed the overpass. The other one went after Flower and PM right then and there, and there were the other two farther behind that most likely would go get the two now. She continued along the road and looked out to her right at the hotel she would always pass by when on this path to home from her family trips to California, and the few she took herself when attended Anime Impulse those years and for her college programs field trip.
"Uh Mae?"
"Yes?"
"Look ahead."
She turned her head and saw three police cars with their lights on, waiting at the sides of the freeway for her to pass down there. Her plan didn't work. "Alright new plan. Outspeed and out maneuver them."
"Cars like THOSE can go one hundred miles an hour. I don't think you can if you want to run for longer."
"Eh true, let's just continue along the freeway and manipulate some cars to get in their way and extend out time," she hopped off the overpass early and onto the road, sprinting alongside a green jeep. The car didn't stop, but simply the teenager in the back went wide eyed and made eye contact with Mae and slowly pulled out their phone. "No no put that down right now! No phone! No!" She urgently spoke to the girl and she flinched back and put it down, hands in the air as the police cars that had been waiting for her began their chase. "I'm not here to hurt you or anyone else in this car I swear! No one here, I'm not here to hurt anyone, I promise. I need this car to get in the way of the police."
The poor girl, scared out of her mind could only whisper, "t-the police?"
"Yes the police! Get whoever is driving this thing since THEY aren't saying a word to slow down in-front of one of the cars to buy us some time!" Annika threw her hand on and still had one around Mae's neck, wide-eyed and staring at the girl. "We are here to save this world from potential doom and if you don't do this we might not be able to save anyone."
Coming from a dragon and someone riding a dragon with three police officers behind them, there was no reason for the driver and the girl to ignore what they were asking. The girl nodded and the driver could only stay wide eyed as they slowed down abruptly and one of the police cars swerved to a stop, a tire squealing out of place. One down, two to go, and many more possibly along the way.
Mae felt her front arm begin to cramp around her left shoulder, but she tried to ignore it, pressing on as her stamina continued to remain above half-full. She glanced towards the sides of the road occasionally, the blaring of sirens behind her sounding like the calls of a murder of crows.
"Someone's on the side of the road! Look!"
Mae whipped her head around and looked at the other side of the freeway and through the passing cars and the turned heads, she did see someone looking around urgently, backing farther and farther away from the cars.
I have sent help for you. He is one. A voice rang in her head as she felt something pull her towards the man that she had passed now. Without much thinking, Mae jumped over the barrier wall between both sides and nearly slammed into an S.U.V. but narrowly avoided it as she sprinted straight across.
"Hold out your hands and grab on!" She yelled and leaned her neck to the side. The man reached out both of his arms, one holding a spear-like object (though it just looked like a blur of colors from Mae's perspective) and swung himself over her body as she didn't stop moving. She let out a wheeze as she tried to straighten herself out from the disproportionate weight.
Annika turned her head around to look at who was now riding right behind her and went wide-eyed. "Dima?!"
The man moved his hair out of his face and also went wide-eyed with the one eye he had and looked all at Annika. "Annika?!"
Mae turned her head around as well and shook her head. "Dimitri??"
He too looked at her and tilted his head to the side like a confused dog, "Mae??!"
You're welcome.
"You- You're alive!! What did I expect of course you're alive why wouldn't you be alive! I mean if Julian and Ein and Aph and Aaron are alive I don't see why you aren't-"
Dimitri wrapped his arms around Annika and hugged her from behind as she kept hold on Mae and Mae, well, kept running, though slower. "You both died... how are you two alive? You both died! You died... you died months ago."
Annika didn't speak as the sirens blared up again and Mae turned to see the cars now coming onto the freeway off the other ramp, readying to begin the chase once again. "I don't know but we can figure that out later! First let's escape the cops!"
He stayed quiet and then patted his sides and went wide-eyed, turning his head around. "I dropped Areadbhar."
Mae stopped running in the middle of the road and looked back at him. "You WHAT."
"I dropped it! I dropped it getting on I was so caught up in trying to understand what I was seeing and where I was that I must've-"
Mae groaned and turned around, running against the flow of traffic as she continued along, running straight at the police cars. They didn't slow down, and instead she saw one of the windows open and a camera poke out to stare at her. Ah, so this is when they decided to bring back Live PD for our state and city. Fantastic. I couldn't have asked for a better time. "Tell me when you see it!"
Annika pointed ahead at the ground on the side of the road, a little ways away from one car that had stopped. Mae stooped her head down with her mouth open as she got closer, aiming to grab it in her jaws and hand it to him before it did whatever relic-thing it was meant to do.
"Stop! Stop right there!" Four policemen got out of one car (which meant they were in the back seats where people sat when going to jail), and held up guns. Mae didn't, but looked nervously at them.
"We literally mean ZERO harm please DO NOT SHOOT!" Annika yelled at them with one hand out.
"I don't know what weapons you have, but if you force us to fight then I will, and I'm very good at fighting people!" Dimitri also yelled, shrugging his shoulders. He had no clue what was happening, so they all would have to fill him in on it later, but for now he had to remain clueless if it meant their survival.
As soon as Mae reached the spear, she grabbed it in her mouth and stopped in her tracks before she slammed into one of the police cars, dropping the spear into her hand and reaching it back to hand to Dimitri. His hands grabbed the long pole of it and gripped it, holding it defensively. The four policemen stayed in their spots as Mae didn't move, but stood there, head down as she was trying to catch her breath. Standing still, her left shoulder throbbed and her paws hurt from running along the concrete.
"You two, hands up, now!" One of the men shouted at them, pointing his gun at a point-blank spot at Dimitri's head. He did so, not dropping his spear, but holding it at the hilt now. It was impossible to use based on how he was holding it. Annika put hers up too and watched as the other police car opened, the camera man getting out and one other officer getting out as well. The last two cars had one policeman get out each.
They were cornered. Traffic was stopped. And now they were stuck. If they ran, Dimitri would get shot, everyone would get shot, and the story would be over. There would be no way to save the world.
"We. Are not. A threat," Mae spoke quietly and took in deep breaths, trying to regain her composure quicker. The men gasped and one of them took steps forward and placed one of the guns directly on the front of her head.
"Who are you and what is your purpose here?"
"My name is Mae... you know me as K. I am one of the missing adults who disappeared last month without a trace to be found. My friends and I went to explore our old highschool at night and found a portal behind a secret panel in the girls bathroom. We all entered it, and became who we are. I am Mae."
"What are you talking about."
"Yellow flames will begin to crack open the sky in the next day and even hours. In a day and a half, maybe more, maybe less, a being as strong as a, well, partial god will emerge and try to destroy the entire world. There will be nothing left and no survivors if he gets his way."
The man took away the gun and peered at her face as she leaned her head up. The other men kept their guns up, but didn't look as aggravated as before. Like they were listening.
"Please, you need to let us go," Annika spoke from her back, getting their attention, like they didn't realize that the two of them were still there. "I'm one of her lifelong friends... She's telling the truth. If she dies here and now, or is taken into custody, or if any of us are, then we will all die and there is nothing we could do to stop it. Nothing."
"I don't want to see this world die, and I know mines in danger," Dimtri commented, "I'm not from this world. I'm from a different one many may recognize, and many may hate, or maybe no one knows who I am. But I know that I can't let this one fall. I was briefed that others have."
"Has anyone died? Like, confirmed deaths?" One of the policemen asked.
"I... wish I could confirm if they are to stay dead, but I can say that three people have died. Along with that," I can't worry them too much. If I tell them that he's destroyed so many heroes people look up to, they will panic. "He has destroyed one world, but we don't know which it was yet for sure."
"But!" Annika interjected, slapping Mae's head at her rude and very ominous comment, "If we kill this demon trying to kill us, then those worlds are all automatically saved. Everyone is alive again, except for those directly killed at his hands, for a world being destroyed can be reversed... right?"
"That's what I was told, but then again any outcome is possible. Trust me, we know as little as you."
"So please, let us go home. Call off the police forces. Stop the chase with all three of us. We are all here for the same reason, to stop this threat," she paused and looked at the men as one of them reupholstered his gun and shook his head. Without moving, she nudged his shoulder. "Don't let any police forces, armed forces, FBI forces or anything else try to fight our fight. I cannot let any civilian casualties happen, even if they are there to fight a battle we are trying to win."
"This is the weirdest shit I've ever seen."
"You're one to talk, I don't even know what all these metal things on wheels are."
"They're cars Dima, they use oil to go. It's like wagons and carriages but quicker and more effective and pollutes the environment more."
"Ah, makes sense."
"No it doesn't Dima."
"Yeah you're right it doesn't," he shook his head.
Most of the police officers still had their guns drawn and two more pushed forward towards them. "We can't trust you. You need to be detained."
Mae stayed still until they got within ten feet of her and she backed up one step, her neck curled back as she looked down at the approachers. They didn't stop. She took another step back. "Stop advancing! Did you two hear anything that I said?"
"Subject appears now stressed," one of them spoke into a microphone on his cheek and kept his gun drawn.
"Are you kidding me! We literally spilled our motivations out to your dumb brains; quit advancing!" Annika yelled at them and ducked her head as soon as they directed their attention to her. Dimtri got the edge of his cap and wrapped it around his left, encompassing her and protecting her from view.
The remaining forces had their guns down now, but if these two shot right then and there, it's over. They looked confused, and when the officer that had approached her first saw that two of his men were making her corner into a wall of the freeway and an overpass, he drew his taser.
Mae leaned back onto her back two feet and held out her arms, making Dimitri now have his arm around her neck to keep himself on, and Annika was still partially in his cape with her head poking out. "I said stop. Don't make me start this chase up again. Don't make me hurt men just trying to do their jobs."
"Subject cornered, requesting permission to detain."
Their eyes! They're yellow!
"Don't you dare shoot that gun or I'll have to fight back."
"Stop!" The main officer shouted and walked up behind them, taser at his side. Two others were walking up behind him as well. "Stop this now, that's an order!"
"Permission has been granted. Fire."
YOU ARE READING
Portals & Realms
Adventure"Save the world, and join the fight, or else the entire world will die tonight. Take up arms, protect your neck, or else it'll be you who is another body in the wreck." - - All that the five friends wanted to do was explore their old school in the d...
