Raven Wolf - 05 - The Abandoned - Chapter 12 by Kurapika < Submission

Keywords male 1170581, female 1060770, fox 243445, wolf 190170, skunk 33653, fantasy 26328, coyote 11845, sci-fi 4643, series 4571, book 4359, science fiction 1890, falcon 1611, novel 1246, raven wolf 329

Chapter Twelve

General Bourne steps in front of the room filled with foxes. “Alright everyone get up, this is the breakfast bell, you sleep through this and you’ll go hungry till lunch.”

The foxes let out tired groans as they get to their feet to respond to the announcement, they begin to line up to get their meal.

Jovina approaches the shark. “This isn’t a drill camp Bourne, you can’t treat them like that.”

“Don’t forget, your father’s murder is hiding somewhere among them. No need to worry about giving them a hard time.”

Jovina looks out towards the foxes. “Yes, one of them is, but that doesn’t mean the rest of them have to be treated like criminals as well.”

Bourne cracks the muscles in his neck. “So what do you have planned for today? More interviews to see if one of them might slip up and admit they’re the source?”

Jovina doesn’t look amused by the comment. “Don’t patronize me.”

“Let me interview a few of them, I have a very good reputation when it comes to interrogations.”

Jovina smirks at the reminder. “Yes I know, and that is exactly why you’re not allowed to interrogate harmless citizens.”

Bourne lets out a laugh as he grins, baring his large mouth of sharp razor like teeth. “We’d be through this much quicker if you would let me lend a hand.”

“You can do your thing once we have the target we’re looking for.” She looks from him when she notices one of the foxes trips over a sleeping figure, the swift fox does not move or wake like one normally would when being walked on, General Jovina looks from the shark and to a fox that is still fast asleep on the ground, he is only one to not get up for food yet. “Why is he still sleeping?”

“Maybe he’s not hungry, or maybe he died.”

Jovina sighs as she walks over toward Aither. “That’s just what we need, for someone to go and die under our care.” She kneels down next to him placing her fingers upon his neck and checking for a pulse, he is still alive much to her relief, she then shakes him to see if he is awake, Aither does not respond at all. “He’s out like a rock.”

She looks back to General Bourne as she begins to question him about this. “Does he normally sleep through breakfast like this?”

Bourne shrugs his shoulders. “Usually they all manage to get themselves up to eat by the time breakfast is done being served.”

Jovina pushes Aither onto his back, patting him on the face to see if he will wake up, he still gives her no response, the falcon now tries to slap him, the blow still does not wake him. “He won’t wake up at all…”

Jovina gets to her feet motioning for two guards to come over to her. “Quarantine him and get a doctor here, anything contagious is going to spread extremely fast under these circumstances, I want to make sure that he’s just extremely lazy and not extremely sick.”

*******

Aither holds the side of his face in pain it suddenly starts hurting him for no reason at all. “What is going on!?”

Teddy watches Aither confused, having been standing across from him as Aither has been trying to teach him how to use his abilities as a source, Aither has suddenly flinched and starts holding his face in pain. “What are you doing?”

Yula speaks up as he watches Aither. “Maybe someone hit you while you were sleeping? My sister poured a bucket of water on me the last time I did this whole spiritual guidance thing, and then I was wet in my dream for no reason at all.”

Aither chuckles at the comment. “Oh that’s funny in more ways than one.” Yula stares at him not getting it, Aither trying to explain. “You know… you were dreaming, then you were wet while- ah never mind I don’t have time for this.”

He looks back to Teddy getting back to business, they’re not progressing as quickly as he’d like to be. “It’s been hours, and this sad excuse for a source isn’t catching onto the concepts I’m trying to teach him very easily.”

Teddy frowns at the comment, Yula speaks up also surprised by this turn of events. “Usually Teddy is a really fast learner. I don’t get why it’s taking him so long to learn this.”

Aither looks back to Teddy with a sigh. “I sense it’s because he’s got a terribly poor spiritual links and overall understanding.”

“Is that because he’s a Domestic?”

Teddy gives an aggravated groan. “Oh come on! I’ve already been through all that spirit junk!”

Aither lets outs a long tired sigh, holding his ears back in annoyance as he looks away from Teddy. “Spirit junk… is that what you call it? Lovely… just lovely… you’re worse than I thought…” He looks back to Teddy. “About what you call ‘spirit junk’ you do know that’s what you are not right? A spirit, a powerful spirit, a spirit that’s been around since the beginning of this planet’s time, one of the six that govern the creation, life and destruction of this earth and everyone on it until the planet’s last day!”

Teddy stares at him as Aither continues to talk. “Ever wonder how the world is going to end? I mean, really end, not the ending all life on the planet and starting it anew work we do. I mean, the real end. My bets are on the sun exploding and killing us all in a big burning fiery explosion of death which may or may not be quite agonizing to endure, depending on if it kills us instantly, or if we’ll feel ourselves burning to death.”

Teddy raises his voice interrupting Aither before he can continue. “What are you talking about?”

Aither looks back to Teddy. “The end of the world clearly! Though I suppose that would be a bit off topic.”

Teddy crosses his arm, he has been at this for a long time with absolutely no progress at all. “You know maybe I’m not learning this because you’re a bad teacher.”

Aither lets out a laugh hardly thinking that to be the case. “I’ll have you know I’ve taught myself and every single Source before you how to use their powers! I’m the best teacher you’re going to ever run into.”

“You’re pretty cocky to think that.”

“Doubt me all you want but you can’t argue with results. I’m the source with the most control over their powers, if you hope to have even an ounce of control over your abilities then I’m the only one you have to turn to!”

Teddy shakes his head rolling his eyes.

Aither clears his throat returning to his lesson. “Since you’re so slow lets go back to the beginning and take it from the top again…”

“Oh come on! Again!?”

Aither begins over again. “Alright then, tell me what it is you are.”

Teddy sighs crossing his arms and looking to the side, having been through this a couple of times already. “The Lightning Source.”

Aither is about to speak up but is interrupted when Teddy speaks up before him, the wolf attempts to mimic Aither’s voice and answers for himself before the fox has a chance to respond. “Yes, and you must come to accept this fact if you want to be able to control your powers.”

Aither frowns at him. “I do not sound like that!” He rolls his eyes. “It’s the absolute worst when you Americans try to pull off any accent that doesn’t originate from your country.”

Teddy continues to mimic Aither’s voice. “Oh hush up you bloody yank! You got my accent all wrong and it’s bothering me!”

Aither growls at him. “Well if that’s the way you’re going to be about it.” He clears his throat trying his best at an American accent. “Oh but being a source sucks, I want to live a normal life sitting around drinking my coffee and eating my donuts at all hours of the day.”

Yula lets out a heavy sigh, raising his voice and speaking up before this can escalate any further. “Alright you two this is not getting us anywhere!!” He gets to his feet as he walks over to Teddy. “Look you can be mad at Aither all you want for calling you a source, that’s what you are so deal with it! You’ve got come to terms with it and harness your power so that you can defend and protect yourself! Because now that you’re a source the amount of enemies you have has probably more than quadrupled!”

Teddy is about to speak up but is stopped short when Yula pokes him in the chest. “Do you want this kidnapping streak you’re stuck in to continue for the rest of your life!! Do you WANT to be a damsel in distress waiting around for someone to rescue you?!”

Teddy frowns at Yula. “Did you just call me a damsel in distress!?”

Aither nods his head. “Yes, a little princess waiting for their handsome prince to come.”

Yula now turns towards Aither. “And you!” Aither takes several steps back as Yula now begins to approach him. “I know he’s difficult to teach when it comes to stuff like this but you’ve got to stop getting so frustrated with him, because neither of you are leaving this place until Teddy knows how to be the Lightning Source! Also it wouldn’t help if you stepped down off of your high horse and stopped being such a cocky gloat when it comes to your abilities!”

Both Aither and Teddy stare at Yula in silence, Teddy eventually speaks up. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you this angry before.”

Yula looks back to Teddy. “Come on Teddy I know that you can do this! You’re a fast learner when you want to be, and you’re great at the things you know how to do.”

Aither speaks up, this is something that Teddy is indeed better off knowing how to do. “It’s not just yourself you will be able to defend when you learn how to use your abilities, you can protect the people close to you as well.”

Teddy sighs as he looks back to Aither. “Alright fine… I guess I can try and put up with you long enough to learn how to do that.”

Aither returns to his lessons. “Do you believe that you can control the powers of electricity and lightning?”

Teddy shakes his head no. “I don’t know… I know that I’m capable of it, I caused the True Bloods a lot of trouble when I first became a source and was out of control. Once I went back to being me though I couldn’t do anything, not even a small static electric shock.”

Aither nods his head that’s how it had played out for all of the other sources as well. “That is the next step you must take, you know you are capable of great power when you are not in control, now you must realize that you are capable of that same power when you are in control. This isn’t something latent that is hidden somewhere deep inside you. It is everything that you are, because you are the Lightning Source.”

Teddy nods his head. “Yes… you told me all of this before.”

“And I can’t teach you anymore until you start to actually believe that controlling the power of the Source is something that is within your grasp! If you doubt yourself and what it is you are capable of you will never come to control it.”

He holds his hands out to the empty sky above them. “Now, concentrate, and show me what it is you know you are capable of.”

Teddy thinks over what Aither has said, taking a deep breath and closing his eyes as he begins speaking lowly to him. “The Lightning Source… I’m the Lightning Source… I’m one of the six powerful spirits that govern all life and decide the fate of everything on this planet.”

“Yes. Unless of course the sun explodes.”

“You’re ruining my concentration.”

“Sorry.”

Teddy stares up at the sky. “The Lightning Source… I can do this…”

Aither nods his head. “Accept what it is you have become and play out your roll. If you don’t you will be taken by the Source and consumed by it. Everything you knew in your life will be gone, if you want to keep your life and memories you must show that you can and will take control of the power that resides in you.”

Teddy nods his head understanding that. “I can do this…” He closes his eyes and concentrates, knowing that he had been able to use such power before when first becoming the host of the Lightning Source. “I can do this because I could always do this… long before becoming mortal, since the beginning of time on this planet!”

A loud clap of thunder sounds as the sky above them starts to grow dark with grey clouds. Aither grins as he looks back to Teddy. “There we go, now he’s starting to get it.”

Yula smiles as he looks up towards the sky above as a bolt of lightning flashes through the dark clouds that have formed. “Wow.”

Teddy opens his eyes staring above him. “Did… I do that?”

The clouds begin to part and disappear as the loud claps of thunder come to an end, Aither sighs to himself as he claps his hands to get Teddy’s attention back on him. “Any hint of doubt and you will lose control! You’re belief in what you can do must be strong or else the source will overtake you and you will lose yourself!”

“I’m sorry, but you have to admit that this is all really unbelievable for me. I mean… me being able to control something like one of the six sources, it’s just not something I ever thought would happen, not even in my wildest dreams.”

“Well, though unbelievable at one point it is your reality now. Now pull yourself together and try again.”

“But this is only a dream? What if I can’t do what I can here in real life once I’m awake?”

Aither thinks the question over, it’s actually being a rather legitimate concern. “I think that if you pull it off here you’ll be able to do it again when you wake up. After all, this is not a strength that derives from your body, it is one that comes from your spirit, and lessons you learn from dreams are just as capable at strengthening one’s spirit as a lesson learned in the physical world.”

Teddy nods his head understanding what Aither is trying to tell him, he takes a deep breath as he begins trying to focus again, determined to get this right.

*******

“Naida! Naida dear where are you? There’s a meeting with your networker that’s been moved up to lunch, you need to start getting ready to go in a half hour! Naida where are you?!” Naida’s manager frantically searches through the set that Naida has just finished her performance on, she’s not able to find the star anywhere.

The doe spots Mort sitting at a table in wait, she lets out a sigh of relief as she quickly approaches him. “Oh Captain Mort, if you’re here than Naida can’t be far behind.” She looks around him hoping to spot Naida near. “Where’s Naida?”

Mort looks towards the trailer that he is waiting outside of. “Ms. Kelpy has been in there since her show ended.”

“Still? That always girl takes so long to pretty herself up.”

Mort frowns at the comment, he is well aware of that by now. “I noticed.”

Naida’s manager walks up to the trailer, she knocks against the door to try and get Naida’s attention. “Naida dear, I need to go over your schedule with you. There’s been a few changes.” The deer is met with silence. “Naida?”

She frowns, this is very peculiar, she takes a ring of keys from her pocket and finds the key to unlock the door with, opening it and going inside, it does not take her long to realize that the trailer is empty.

Naida’s manager lets out a horrified shriek, Mort quickly gets up and runs to her side looking the trailer over for an explanation as to why she’s be screaming, the doe grabs onto the front of his uniform and yells at him frantically. “Naida’s not here!! Where is she!? She should be here!!”

Mort pushes the frantic woman off of him. “Relax. I’ll find her for you.” He walks up to an open window looking it over. “She probably needed a break from her schedule and me watching over her twenty four seven and took off to have some time for herself.”

“Of all the times for her to disappear why now!?”

Mort looks back to her with a sigh. “It’s just a meeting she’ll be missing. Reschedule it.”

“You’re supposed to be keeping an eye on her to make sure that this doesn’t happen!”

Mort shakes his head no, that’s not really why he is here. “I’m here to keep her safe from terrorists and kidnapers, and though her running off on her own makes that task more difficult it’s not my job to lock her up and keep her from doing whatever she may want.”

He makes his way out of the trailer looking in the direction she would have had to have gone in without him noticing. “I’ll find her and get her back here as soon as I can.”

*******

Professor Geneses sits at the table his laptop is set up on, he looks to be in a conference call with several others, including the Commander General of the True Bloods, the topic of conversation is Zephyr’s son Fenrir, having just been informed of the missing files. “You are lucky that I took the time during my mission to look into this for you.”

“I would not have bothered you if Adrian could deal with the problem, but because of his father’s involvement in the matter he can’t.”

The Professor lets out a yawn, having been working on this long into the night. “Professor Masters went insane after what happened to that cat he was so infatuated with. It’s no surprise that he meddled in those files too. What you should concern yourself with is why he wants those files. Masters may have been mad and he targeted specific projects for a reason, if he intends to attack the military knowledge base without a plan he will have hit the whole thing instead of just specific files. There is a reason he wants information on that specific subject and project gone.”

He continues explaining having gone through his files himself. “Because he was specific in the projects he attacked though I can tell you this, a lot of what Masters targeted had to do with either the Super Solider project, or the Sources, with that in mind we can safely assume that Seven dash Z, the subject Fenrir descended from, was from one of those projects. Seeing as we have the files on the Sources in their entirety still it’s safe to assume that he was involved with the Super Soldier project, as there are plenty of files on that we happen to be missing.”

He opens another file, this one is recent and belongs to Fenrir. “Seeing your son’s file leads me to assume that Seven dash Z was from the regenerative studies associated with the Super Soldier project.”

Another scientist that is in the conversation speaks up. “If that’s true then we should keep him under study. The regenerative qualities the Super Soldiers held are exactly the reason we’ve been studying 1342-26 before he was stolen during that resistance fiasco.”

The Commander General Zephyr is displeased with this idea. “You will do no such thing.”

Professor Genesis laughs in reaction to this. “Though I would normally argue with the Commander on this subject he does have a point. The reason we were studying 1342-26 was because of an extremely rare genetic mutation the Super Soldiers had in their regenerative DNA. It’s highly unlikely that Fenrir would possess that.”

Zephyr speaks up again. “Back to the missing files, why were they targeted by Masters?”

Professor Geneses crosses his arms. “I suspect the Super Soldier’s inventory database was stolen by him because it listed the Super Soldiers that had gone missing after their execution. If the files on this subject went missing then there’s a possibility that Seven dash Z must have gone missing and is still alive as well without Masters wanting us to know about it.”

“Why would he do that? What’s so important about Seven dash Z?”

“At this time only Masters knows the answer to that.”

Zephyr speaks to the other scientists that are on the line with him. “Keep looking into it, see if you can find out what is so interesting about this test subject.” The others within the conference leave to do just that, while Zephyr stays on the line to speak with Geneses further. “Do you have anything to report regarding your missions there?”

Geneses nods his head. “Indeed, both myself and General Levi have made significant progress in our assignments. I put the signal to effect the Super Soldiers as soon as we reached our base within the city, within sixteen hours I was given something rather unexpected and interesting in the form of another signal appeared, one that cancelled out mine. The only individuals within this city capable of doing that would be Master’s Daughter Lumia or the Intelligence Model Super Soldier. Whichever of the two it was would only do such a thing if they were trying to protect one of the Combat Model Super Soldiers, so we should have at the least two targets in one place.”

“Is General Levi there?”

Geneses nods his head as he turns from the monitor looking back to the other True Blood within the room with him. “The Commander General would like to speak to you.”

Levi flicks a toothpick he has been chewing on onto the ground before getting up and making his way to the computer, he motions for Geneses to take his place. “Keep an eye on the kid.”

The Professor walks past him now looking down at the child that Levi has been keeping an eye on, the young wolverine has shoved himself in the corner of the room where he sits there with his arms and tail wrapped around his legs, trembling the entire time.

Levi sits down at the computer. “Is there anything I can do for you Commander General?”

“Do you have anything to report?”

Levi nods his head as he looks over towards the child that he has snatched away and brought here. “I’ve obtained the Earth Source’s son. The information should have reached him by now but there have so far been no signs of activity on his end.”

“What if he doesn’t come after the boy?”

“Of course I have a backup plan for that, if in the event the Earth Source does not come after the child then I will kill its current host.”

“You can’t do that! It would cause an imbalance in nature that would destroy this planet and everyone on it.”

Levi shrugs his shoulders. “This wouldn’t be the first time the Earth Source’s host died. In regards to what happened to the original Earth source it is a fact that once the source is confined to a host is will forever be trapped to having some kind of physical form, the sources are weak, clinging onto life, they can no longer survive without a host and they are well aware of it, if the source’s current host should lose their life the source will have no choice but to seek another host if it wishes to continue surviving.”

“When the first host died the Earth Source took refuge with her son. That leads me and many others to believe that the source is now tied to the host’s bloodline.” He motions over towards the child they now had. “The source will move on to the boy we already have captured, and the source will not only be ours, but in a host that would not be able to use its powers.”

“And if your assumption on the host is wrong?”

“Well, let’s just hope that it’s not, because aside from starting a war we literally have no other ways of obtaining him when he’s in the Domestic Military’s hands like that.”

“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that, the last thing we want to find out is that you were wrong and have the Earth Source die with its host.”

“It’s not me that came up with this hypothesis, it’s what the scientists that worked on the Source projects lead to believe.

“While you wait for the Earth Source to act check out the quadrants the signal that is blocking the Professor’s transmission is coming from. Confirm the target then bring them in, be aware though that it’s very likely a Super Soldier will be in the area, one that will not be effected by the Professor’s signal.”

Levi nods his head getting the idea. “I won’t engage in combat with him don’t worry. I know how good those things are at fighting, I used to be a control officer on that project before making my way up to General so I’ve seen what they can do.”

*******

Zack has been making his rounds about the underground True Blood fortress, he’s gathering as much information as he can of his surroundings from the people within it that he can, he questions as many wilds as he can while keeping away from the suspicions of the True Bloods that might see him, all of them think he is nothing more than a typical errand pet.

Zack stands alongside a fence that holds the entrance to the mines and several wilds used to mine materials from it within it.

Zack speaks to a wolf that has the marking of Raven Wolf upon his chest, the wolf shakes his head no to the question that he has asked him. “I am sorry. Though several of my tribesmen are confined in this area Teddy is not one of them. I wish you luck in finding him though, Shiya needs him, Iuana needs him even more so.”

Zack crosses his arms. “You’re not just saying this because I am a member of the Domestic Military and you’re afraid that I might be after or hurt him do you?”

The wolf shakes his head no. “Neither of us hold any titles now that we have been thrown into this prison, we are both slaves just as everyone else here, as long as this place is our reality the conflict between us is pointless. If we ever one day get out of here then we can resuming being enemies, until then it is better for both our sides if we work with one another. So what I have told you about Teddy is the truth, I do not know where he is nor have I seen him since arriving here.”

Zack lets out a sigh as he turns away from him. “He must be hidden away somewhere Wilds are not permitted to enter… which will make my search for him much more difficult. I kind of stand out in a city of True Bloods, even errand pets have limitations on where they can go.”

Another wild approaches the fence, getting the attention of both Zack and the wild that he is talking to, he motions toward the supervisor behind the fence that is beginning to gather everyone up. “It’s almost time for curfew.” He looks over to Zack after the wolf he has been talking to leaves. “You should get back to your owner as quickly as possible. Once curfew hits the guards come out, and any Wild not in their designated areas will be severally punished, sometimes even shot on sight.”

Zack nods his head as he turns away from the fence starting to head back towards the scrap yard Ember and her family lives in, retreating there every time curfew falls.”

Though Zack knows that finding Teddy is not going to be easy he didn’t expect to run into a dead end so soon.

The overhead lights within the iron fortress begin to dim down to give the people that live within it the atmosphere of night, the True Bloods are starting to head into their homes for the day.

Zack comes to a stop when he sees several soldiers ahead of him. Although the general population of True Bloods did not seem to give him a second glace or acknowledge his existence, he may not be so lucky with actual military soldiers, they most likely have been given orders to keep an eye out for both him and Teddy.

He turns a corner deciding to take another route back home, soon being forced to change direction again when he sees another set of soldiers ahead in his path.

Zack quickly turns a corner onto another road before being spotted he lets out a sighs as he continues on his way while trying to get a hold on his location once again. “Alright the last thing I want to do us get myself lost after their stupid curfew and got shot at by True Bloods frightened by the fact that I’m out of my cage at night.”

He focuses on his surroundings to figure out his location and is about to go on his way when he spots yet another set of guards, Zack quickly hides out of the way before they turn the corner, walking along the street he has been on.

Zack watches the two silently as they make their way past him, the two conversing with one another as they go about their control. “I wonder how the General has been doing with his assignment, the Commander General practically sent him out there alone.”

The other soldier responds to his comrade. “I hear he asked the Commander General to send him in alone.”

“Into the middle of a domestic city that hosts a military base? That’s just crazy.”

“I’m sure the General knows what he’s doing.”

Zack watches the two of them leave, the information he has just heard is of course not good, Zack knows exactly the city they are talking about. The True Blood are making or have already made their way into Cordella where the other Super Soldiers are, the last thing he wants isfor any of his comrades to end up back in the labs here. There though is not much that he can do to help them out from in here.

*******

Alistair is back at the military base, sitting down at a computer and going through several security photos from the gated entrances of Cordella city.

Zero, the young coyote from Alistair’s batch that lives only within his head, is sitting on the desk that he worked at. Zero stares at Alistair as he works. “Do you really expect to find anything? You’re not an intelligence model you know.”

Alistair doesn’t look towards the figure. “It doesn’t take a genius to look at pictures.”

Zero laughs at the comment. “You’re such a hard worker, too bad you were not like this back at the labs, if you were then maybe we all wouldn’t have gotten killed.”

Alistair lets out a angry growl as he slams his hands against the desk he is working at, pushing his chair back and getting to his feet, holding onto his head as he beings to pace around the room.

“You and I were one of the top six, it was our job to look after the rest of them, our job to represent them, but instead of taking care of everyone you ruined us and sent us all to our deaths!”

“It wasn’t my fault.”

“It was because you were so angry all the time! Because you were mean and violent! The Super Soldier batches acted like a hive mind, the others picked up those traits from you! Those traits became out defects, and we were put down because of it, it was all your fault!”

“Why couldn’t you have been stronger? Why couldn’t you be dependable?”

Alistair shakes his head as he turns away from the figure. “No, no, no. You would never say things like this to me. You tried to help me, you tried to protect me.”

“I was trying to protect myself because you were going to drag us to our deaths!”

Alistair turns back to face Zero. “That’s not true!!” He stops yelling when he finds no one there, the boy is once again gone. Alistair shakes his head as he makes his way back to the computer he has been looking at the photo’s though, he needs to find the True Bloods that are in the city before his confrontations with Zero become even worse.

He tries to refocus his thoughts, he’s having a hard time doing that on his own, the things that Zero has said play through his mind. He sits back down in the chair he has been sitting in and stares down at his trembling hands, at this rate he isn’t going to be able to find the True Bloods he is looking for.

He reaches into his pocket taking out his phone and dialling Mort’s number, holding it up to his ear as he waits for him to pick up, Mort’s voice soon answers the call. “What do you want now Quincy? I have my own job to do you know.”

Alistair closes his eyes as he steps back from the computer he is standing in front of leaning back against the wall. “Tell me I’m a strong, or dependable… heck I’ll settle with you telling me that I’m pretty right about now.”

“Are you feeling alright?”

Alistair sighs to himself, even if those things are said it wouldn’t be true. “Who am I kidding, I haven’t completed a successful mission for the domestic military since I started getting tasks… I’m not dependable in any way.”

Mort sighs in response. “Alistair you’ve only been given one task so far, capture Raven Wolf’s leader, and that is a difficult one that the Domestic Military has not been able to accomplish for years you can’t beat yourself up over that. As for the mission you’ve been handed recently you’ve only been on it for a few hours, you’ll handle it soon enough.”

Alistair glances over to the monitor, something on it catches his eye, he walks back to it and enlarges one of the thumbnails, a splashing puddle of water with a footprint within it is in the corner of the picture. “This is the entrance they got in through.”

Mort seems confused. “What?”

Alistair begins looking through several photos taken from that entrance. “Even if they are cloaked there are too many guards for a large group to have come in unnoticed, that means there only one or two of them, three at the most.”

He turns away, that’s the next area he would have to search in for clues. “Thanks for talk, you are the second best boyfriend I’ve ever had, keep climbing the ladder at this rate you’ll reach best boyfriend I ever had in no time.”

Mort gives a long annoyed sigh. “Quincy…”

“It’s okay to be jealous I understand, I mean I’m such a great catch and all.” Alistair frowns when he once again sees Zero standing in the room with him. “Anyway I would love to keep talking with you but unlike you I actually have work to do.” He hangs up the phone looking away from Zero as he walks out of the room. He knows that Zero isn’t there, and that he isn’t real… yet still, he is impossible for Alistair to ignore.

*******

Jovina walks into a room filled with hospital equipment, she stares down at the fox they have separated from the others, he is still sound asleep, the falcon turns to the doctor that is in the room beginning to question him about Aither. “He’s still sleeping?”

The doctor nods his head holding up a clipboard with the fox’s file on it. “His name is Aither Youko and he’s not from around here. From what I can see and from what I have read in his files there’s no reason for him to be unconscious like this. He’s perfectly healthy, there’s no signs of trauma, and no prior records of health problems, he just went to sleep and didn’t wake up with the cause being unknown.”

Jovina sighs to herself. “Great… this is going to look well on my progress report wither or not his condition was related to his stay under my military’s watch and care.”

“He doesn’t have any next of kin, but he does have a girlfriend as a contact. Would you like me to contact her and inform her of Mr. Youko’s condition?”

“Don’t worry about it. I’ll contact them myself. He and the others that are here are my responsibility after all.”

She turns and is about to leave but stops when she spots something of interest, she looks towards a table that holds Aither’s clothes and belongings, having been changed into a hospital gown upon coming here, a light green crystal rests upon his belongings. General Jovina walks up to the items and grabs onto the crystal, holding it up close to get a better look at it.

The doctor upon noticing what she is doing begins to question her. “Those are the belongings that were taken off of him upon admitting him here.”

Jovina stares at the crystal, a curious look fills her face when she sees what looks like some kind of image begins to form within it.

A look of recognition fills her face as she clenches the crystal within her hands, quickly turning to a soldier that is outside of the room. “Have General Bourne release the citizens we’re holding here, and have a team brought up here immediately.” She looks to the doctor. “Have him ready for transport.”

The doctor seems a little confused with the order. “I don’t understand.”

Jovina stares at the crystal she is holding, the image within it being that of the fox that is lying on the bed fighting her father. We’ve found who we’re looking for.”

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Raven Wolf - 05 - The Abandoned - Chapter 12

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