by Liandra Jake
"What are we going to do about our children?" King asked. Gliese sat up. "What?" King rolled onto his back, swatting her with a paw. "I know you well enough Gliese. I know what it is you yearn for in your life. Children are the biggest thing you want." King replied. "King…" Gliese backed up slightly. King flipped her over, sitting on her stomach and pinning her shoulders with his paws. He lowered his nose to hers. "It's okay Gliese. I'm not feeling so guilty as to let this just happen. It was my feelings for you that made me feel guilty in the first place."
Gliese swatted him like he had her. "I know that you idiot. I just didn't expect you to be so forward." King laughed. "You'll find you didn't expect a lot of things from me." King replied as he licked her face.
- - - - Axis City - - - -
Dran was a town away from Axis' headquarters. The company was so huge they were the capital city. Dran was at the edge of the town, drinking in a bar across the street from a cheap motel. Getting in was easy enough, but the local bikers had a few remarks about Dran's ride. "I'm going to see a 'friend.' I just needed something cheap to get me there, and most likely to hit him upside the head with." Dran replied.
The group of young men laughed. "And with a clunker like that, it might run better afterwards!" One of them called as they filed into a corner booth. Dran took his usual place at the bar and ordered two drinks. He was surprised at who had joined him shortly after. The dark skinned man flashed Dran a smile. "Justice J.P." Dran said quietly. "Dran." Justice replied. The bartender brought Dran's drinks, giving one to Justice. "Hmm. Going light I see." Justice said, looking down into his glass. Dran grunted. "Who sent you here?"
"Daniel." Justice replied, elbow now on the counter with his drink held loose. "You find what you needed?" Dran asked. Justice nodded, taking a long drink. "You?" He asked eventually. "Well, Teneo still has a head…" Dran replied. Justice arched an eyebrow. "I didn't take you for a hardcore Guildmaster. You really plan on storming Axis?" "I'm no longer a Guildmaster." Dran replied immediately. He took a drink himself. "And it's not really for that kid." "Bullshit." Justice said with a grin. Dran laughed. "Yeah, can't shit you on that." "How long has it been anyway?" Justice asked softly. Dran finished his drink, motioning to the bartender for another. "He would have been twenty-six."
Justice nudged Dran. "Sorry man. I forgot his birthday was only a little while ago." It's fine." Dran replied with a wave. "Especially considering that kid ended that for me." Justice finished his drink. "Well…" He let out a short huff. "You can't just walk into Axis. I can get you in if you want." Dran nodded. "For that huh?" "Yep." Justice replied, standing up. "I want to repay that before you kill yourself." Dran started on his second drink. "I'll see you at dawn then."
One of the bikers quietly approached Dran, hands shaking in leather gloves. He curled two fists before leaning against the wall behind Dran. "Just who are you old man?" Dran glanced back. The man was white, his arms tightly crossed and hugging himself. "No one." Dran replied. "Just and old man with a history." "But!" The biker stopped himself, the exclamation drawing attention. "You gotta be touch to live this long kid." Dran said. "I suggest you keep in touch with your friends."
The biker turned around and returned to his booth. Dran finished his drink and paid the bartender. He walked across the street lit by a setting sun. He paused at his door to watch it disappear.
Dran woke up before dawn. He had time to shower before meeting the waiting Justice outside Axis City. "It has a rather unimaginative name don't you think?" Justice asked he looked at the looming skyscrapers bordered by a high fence behind him. Dran let his bike lean against the wall of the visitor's center. "It's not like it could be anything else." Dran replied.
"You can leave that here." Justice said, pointing at the bags in Dran's hands. "I won't be going in myself."Dran dropped the bags back onto his bike. "So what is this plan of yours?" Justice flicked Dran a card. By all standards, it was a simple keycard with a magnetic strip and a serial number.
"That'll get you in the building quietly. They're so damn confident they forgot to seal their loopholes." Justice revealed a circular hatch under a dumpster. Justice held up a fake padlock. Dran frowned. "You're kidding." Justice shook his head. "It's part of an escape route for the scientists. This particular hole will lead you straight to an unused lab right across from Teneo's. I saw the blueprints myself. Doesn't their arrogance make you sick?"
"Anything else?" Dran asked as he opened the hatch and settled on a ladder. "Don't expect anyone to try and stop you inside, but don't be careless either. They think that if you're already inside, you should be." "Damn these people need a wakeup call." Dran replied before sliding down the ladder. With a salute, Justice kicked the hatch closed.
Dran dropped down into a dimly lit tunnel; eight feet tall, and four feet wide, it was a straight shot into the city. Two shock absorbers were attached to the wall and were aligned with a pair of rails set into the stone floor. Across from the ladder's platform was a small alcove with a bicycle hung on a rack, labeled "MAINTENECE ONLY" in large, bright letters.
Dran shifted a blank look from down the tunnel to the bike before pulling it off the wall. His only judgment on how far he had gone was the sparsely placed Korvan lights overhead. At 875, Dran entered a small underground station. He had gone a little over one and a half miles and managed to work up a sweat. The small station had three small carts, all powered by individual engines, for the scientists to use to quickly evacuate. Dran left his bike by an identical one and checked the carts. Dran judged the electric engine to be in fair condition, and started up the ladder in the far corner of the small station.
After close to ten minutes, Dran found the underside of a second, square hatch. After pressing his ear against the cold metal, he slowly lifted it. Feeling something shift on top of it, he stopped. He noticed the room was dark and dusty, so he reached out a cautious hand to feel around above him. He felt the plastic of some barrel. Pushing it farther back, he managed to squeeze out from the hatch. Not wanting the hatch to lock behind him, Dran looked around for something to put in it.
He found the plastic barrel was filled with loose wire. Dran fished out a thick bundle and placed it between the hatch and the floor. He made his way through the maze of boxes and high counters towards the faint glow that came from a pair of doors at the far side of the room. Dran ducked when he heard passing footsteps. As they faded down the unseen hall, he pulled on his coat. He slunk to the wall next to one of the doors. He took a peek through the window.
The hall was an eerie off-white completely lacking any sort of decoration. The floor was smooth and uninterrupted by any kind of smudge or line of tilework. There was the occasional flicker from an outdated florescent light, and the slight hum from the Korvan lamps that were pushing to replace them. As he prepared to push through the door, he noticed an old map on the wall next to him. It was an evacuation map that included room numbers. Without a second thought, Dran pulled it off the wall and stuffed it into his pocket.
Putting confidence in the creator of his custom Perception Cloak, Dran stepped out into the empty hallway. He looked down the hall to his right. A camera was positioned to watch the corner. A glance to the left showed Dran the same result. A second glance back and forth made him frown. Justice had told him Teneo's lab was directly across from his entry point, but the only break in the wall was where it met another at the corners.
With an irritated grunt, Dran started towards right corner with a light jog. He slowly pulled towards the wall as he heard someone approach from around the corner. "-hoot! If the system was that easy to maintain, we wouldn't need a Myshcell!" Two young men rounded the corner, a short blonde and a lanky redhead. "I'm just saying that he's fully capable of making it easier to understand! It's the biggest thing here and he's the only one who can work with it!" The redhead replied.
"Well, don't forget he was the one who developed, tested, and rebuilt it. You should have seen the prototype! The thing broke the first time it was used!" Th
e blonde said enthusiastically. "The first time Axis said it was used." The redhead said quietly. Dran slipped around them. He heard part of the blonde's reply as he shuffled around the corner. "I doubt Teneo would hide his first success with..."
After some time wandering the maze of passages, Dran found himself in the entrance lobby of the facility. Accessing a receptionist's empty computer, he quickly looked up "Teneo Myshcell." He read "β-Lab 636" before he had to quickly exit as the receptionists returned. Dran grimaced at the amount of makeup on her face as she passed nearby. "I heard Teneo shot down Maria again." She said to the plump woman who sat next to her. "What do you expect? You know everyone says he's got a kid somewhere." Dran hurried away from the gossiping women once he oriented himself of the map.
'629… 631… 63-' Dran stopped at β-Lab 633 briefly. He had caught something in the window as he passed that called for a pause. The lab was filled wall-to-wall with caged Monsters, many so neglected they lacked the ability to talk. The chorus of lonely cries made Dran shiver. 'Damn you all.' Dran cursed in his head as he forced himself to walk away. The next pair of doors was the room he was looking for. He noted that Justice's information was in fact correct, but the door to the lab was on the other side of the giant room.
The sound of nonchalant whistling could be heard from beyond the doors. Dran pulled off his coat and tied it around his waist before pushing the doors open. A man in a trimmed white lab coat was poking around in a mess of tubes near the floor. His bright blue hair stood out against the white, grey, and black of the machinery. It fell smoothly past his ears, almost tickling his shoulders. "I see you grew your hair out." Dran said.
The whistling died off. The man slowly slid out from under his machine, turning a pair of light blue eyes to Dran. His familiar jaw line was cocked slightly as he blinked. "Dran!" He exclaimed. "What are you doing here? Still looking for the Black Monster?" Dran shook his head. "Some rookie Guildie killed him a while ago." "Oh! A rookie? What kind of Guildies do you have over there?" Teneo asked.
"Crazy ones." Dran replied with a laugh. "The kid fought alongside a member of the Shadow Clan." "Hmm! Must've had a harsh life." Teneo said as he returned to his fidgeting. "Forgive me if I work while we talk; I got a job to do you know?" "Speaking of…" Dran looked at the large locking chamber in front of him. "How exactly do Monsters fit into all this?" Dran asked as he looked to the human-sized chambers lining the walls.
"Ah!" Teneo exclaimed, hopping to his feet. "That's what's so brilliant! The Monsters only serve as a key to our own potential! They remove the natural limitations the human body has! Not just Orenth either! Size, strength, intelligence, I've even helped someone change genders! The biggest problem I've faced is maximizing efficiency." Teneo explained feverously. "How exactly does it 'unlock potential?'" Dran asked as he traced the tubes around the room.
"Well, it's something like a Terma, if you believe something like that existed. 'a stimulation of one's Natural Orenth Conversion.'" Teneo replied, mocking the voice of someone Dran didn't know. "What would something like a Leviathan do?" Dran asked, trying his best to memorize the layout of the machines. "Well… First I'd need something large enough to contain it." Teneo said with a loose gesture at the large chamber. "But experience sums it up to simply: 'the stronger the Orenth, the stronger the unlock!'"
"Orenth huh? Why not just use Korvan?" Dran asked. "Ah well…" Teneo scratched his chin thoughtfully. "It needs a 'special touch' to work right." "What Monsters work best?" Dran asked. Teneo produced a notebook, shoving it into Dran's hands. Many of the Monsters listed Dran couldn't identify. "'Size' and 'total Orenth' are calculated into 'Orenth density' to achieve a basic average. It's contrasted against the person getting unlocked for compatibility before processing to protect against…" Teneo continued to explain in detail the process of applying for human and Monster combination as he adjusted the tubes. Dran stopped him with one word. "Pendragon?"
Teneo slowly turned to Dran. Dran could see the fear on his face and guilt in his eyes. "Yeah, I know your boy Teneo. And he knows about you." Dran produced a rolled issue of Guild Ruled. He tossed it to Teneo's feet. A picture of Arend with a wide grin looked up at Teneo. "Your kid's got a conscious Pendragon in him. And I think we both know what the cause was." Dran said with a nod at the machine behind Teneo. Teneo frowned. "How'd you get in here?"
The sound of shearing metal made both men turn to the eastern wall. A man surrounded by a chaos of dripping Orenth was forcing his way further out of one of the human-sized chambers. "Fuck!" Teneo exclaimed, running to retrieve his weapon. He had time to turn and fire his specialized rifle before the Possessed man could go on a rampage. Teneo groaned as he hefted his weapon onto his shoulder. He looked at the splatter of blood that covered the entire eastern wall. "No one was supposed to be in there…" He said to no one.
Dran could hear Teneo curse from down the hall. Dran clutched Teneo's notebook tightly as Teneo set off the alarm. Dran saw Teneo run out of his lab in a blur of blue hair as he dashed around the corner. The halls were flooded by curious Axis scientists. By the time Dran reached his escape route, the doors of every lab were locked tightly shut. With little pause, he ran for the lobby. Steel shutters were falling in front of the guarded doors. Dran easily slipped by before they were locked into place.
A loud siren filled the air of Axis City. 'Damn it! The whole damned city will be locked down. I should have thought this through.' Dran's thoughts stopped as someone touched his arm. He shook his head, staring at empty space. "Perception Cloak." A voice said softly. "Put this on." Dran watched an eye patch appear in his right hand. He cautiously put it over his left eye. The city lit up in purple, blue, yellow, orange, and red. "Infrared." Dran said with a slow nod. He looked back to where the voice came from. The outline of a narrow form stood out with bright colors, where Dran's eyes had only seen nothing before.
"Follow me if you want to stay out of their experiments." The figure sprinted down the street. Dran followed it across streets and through alleys. It led him to the edge of the city, pausing at the high fence. It hummed with energy. A few birds that were unfortunate enough to be roosting on it were dead on the ground in a pile of burnt feathers. Dran watched the figure glance back at him before clearing the fence with a single leap. It landed with little effort, motioning for Dran to follow.
Dran looked around, pausing on an old fire escape. Stacking trashcans perilously on a dumpster, Dran managed to climb onto the fire escape. 'I'm older than I thought…' Dran thought as he climbed up a three stories until the top the fence was below him. With a short dash and a jump from the railing, Dran cleared the fence with a comfortable distance. He landed with a well-practiced commando roll. The figure nodded at Dran before disappearing onto a patch of trees. With a huff, Dran followed.
Dran remained silent as he trailed the figure. He was fully aware that Axis security was looking with dogs, Monsters, and Changed who could single him out from a crowd of thousands with smell alone. The path the figure took was long and twisting. It gave Dran time to think. 'It's not human, but can't be Monster or Changed. That jump was too much for it to have left zero trace. The only option would be something like Arend; human and Monster.'
The figure stopped at the edge of the woods. He turned to Dran. "Where do you hail from?" "Not here." Dran replied with a grunt. "Have you had any pets?" Dran frowned. "A curious question…" "Answer me." The figure growled. "I've had some as a child, but nothing they weren't any kind of animal that live that long. Mostly fish." Dran said with a shrug. The figure tilted its head. "Animals?" "Yes, that general classification 'pets' falls into?" Dran said slowly. "Were do you hail from, specifically?"
Dran crossed his arms. "Not from this continent." "But you're so…" Dran waved a hand. "I've traveled for a long time. I know how to blend in when I can." The figure waved him forward. "Come. Not safe out here." Dran was lead down a stream and into a marshland another mile away from the city. A ramshackle cabin was built on the soggy ground. The figu
re knocked three times before inviting Dran inside. "Please remove your coat."
Dran obliged, tying it around his waist as he shut the door with a kick. He looked up to a room filled with Monsters and animals. Dran nodded, now understanding the figure's odd questions. His shoulder was tapped. He turned to face a young Changed with the head of a wolf. Dran chuckled at his purple fur. "Eye patch." He said as he held out a hand. Dran returned it. He laughed as the purple Changed man hung his cloak on the wall and was immediately surrounded. "What's so funny?" He asked Dran as he scratched a Wullf's ears. "They're hungry."
"Sorry, I'm just not used to purple Wullf Changed." Dran replied. "Lavender. And not Wullf." He replied, standing. Dran arched an eyebrow. "Pendragon." Dran's smile vanished. The man continued. "Used to be just my hair." He looked at a long strand of hair resting on his muzzle. "Failed 'Combination?'" Dran asked. The man shook his head. "Just happened. A long time ago." "So what's your name?" Dran asked as he leaned against the door.
"Blain." He replied. He gestured to the group of animals and Monsters. "And you owe these guys a meal." Blain returned his attention to them, grooming them with great care. His worn claws helped pick parasites from their fur. "I can repay you with more than just food." Dran replied as he messaged Justice that he was out of the city.