by T Hearts
“I’m Fae.”
He gave her a hard look, unsure if he should believe her or not. The diamond pupil narrowed.
It was difficult to not panic and betray herself by thinking the worst right in range of a muser, but she hadn’t put up with all of Nico’s years of prying for nothing.
“What?”
“You sure look like a Fae.” He snickered, taking the bike by the handles, and helping to push it along. “Except for the bike and leather. And the hair.”
“Hey, what can I say, trying to break out of the cutesy-cheerleader phase is a rough road.”
“I’d say try your hand at something different like ranch work for a while, but it gets boring out here.” Xavier sighed, “Same old faces day in day out.”
“You could always leave.”
Xavier gave her another look. For a moment she thought that he had seen right through her, but with a small laugh he shook his head and carried on.
As they approached, passing through a secondary gate, Griffin grew tense. She had seen the entire ranch from a distance and mapped it out as best as she could, but she hadn’t even considered escape routes for if things went wrong.
“Xavi. What is this?” A man in overalls shouted from where he was busy erecting a fence with several others. “No guests allowed unless by appointment. Do you want Darryl to chew you out again?”
Xavier rolled his eyes. “Chill out, she just needs some gas to get going.”
Griffin smiled innocently at him, all the while behind her sunglasses, her eyes darted everywhere, taking in the surroundings, and listening to the muffled sounds within one of the two huge barns.
It was heavily guarded, and far more structurally sound than she had anticipated. Reinforced walls, a security lock on the side doors operated by key cards that the workers wore on lanyards, and windows that were metal slats that needed more than a pair of bolt cutters to cut through. Then there were the mercenaries.
They watched her suspiciously as she walked with Xavier, their fingers on the triggers of their weapons. All of them armed and vicious looking, though all plainly human and stood down when Xavier gave them a wave.
Breaking in was going to be more difficult than she had first planned. Breaking out would be a whole other problem entirely.
Out in the yard between wide stables that housed the horses, there were several farmhands all hastily clearing the area up under the angry hollering of a man in a leather ten-gallon hat who had them leading over the most fantastic horse that Griffin had ever seen.
A beautiful black blanket appaloosa, with a mane and tail whiter than moonlight, with white speckles radiating from the blanket like stars. It walked proudly and acknowledged her with a strange intelligence that made her almost uncomfortable, ears up and forward in her direction, before snorting and moving on with the stable hand at its reins towards a grooming station where a small army of workers were ready and waiting to begin brushing and tacking the horse.
The man in the hat turned, noticing the horse take an interest with her. By the way his hand was wrapped and from the tiny cuts she could make out on his weathered face, she concluded that this must have been the man she had shot.
“Pretty pony.” She said aloud to Xavier as he cleared his throat to get her attention.
“It’s a horse.”
“Well it looks like a horse I wish I had when I was six.”
They wheeled the bike round to the maintenance lodge, and she pretended to not acknowledge the large livestock carriers and the more armoured than usual vehicles that were parked in neat rows. She counted fifteen vehicles all together, with a few cannibalised frames that suggested that they had been upgrading their wheels with whatever they could scavenge.
“Here we are. Our own fuel pumps.” Said Xavier cheerfully, kicking the bike stand out so that they were no longer holding it up. Griffin gave him a thankful smile and taking the nozzle, she idly began filling up the tank again, still scanning the area and mapping it out.
A loud and hissing honk came from the large barn, followed by a deep guttural growl that half-shook the ground and made Griffin’s hair stand on end at the familiarity of it. Xavier looked up, worry all too obvious on his face.
“You got geese and cows out here too?” She gave Xavier a confused look, trying to look as unaware as possible to the fact that there was a bull-sized synth on the other side of the door with horns and teeth and a killing instinct, “Is this a farm? I thought it was a pony ranch.”
“Ooh, don’t let the big boss hear you say that.” Xavier laughed, then stopped. His head snapped up and he scowled slightly. A man in business wear was approaching them with quick steps.
Finishing up with the fuel pump, she handed the nozzle back to Xavier as the man strode across to speak to them.
Remaining calm, she kept her demeanour relaxed and posture small, hoping that the leathers could hide her muscles and true strength so that she appeared nothing more than an unassuming girl who had gotten lost and into trouble.
He drew in a deep breath, but before he could speak, he looked to Xavier with a sudden flinch. The muser must have spoken to him, or warned him of something, Griffin knew that reaction very well.
Every muscle in her back strained with tension. What was the muser telling him?
A critical eye gave her the once over, a small glint of confusion present, but his arrogance and posturing overwhelming his sense. He looked average, no bionics or any hints of being a Preternatural from what she could tell. The man was just an average arrogant human. That was until she noted the symbol of Hasekura embroidered onto the lapels of his shirt. Two crescent horns crossed over each other with a flower in the centre. He had no other regalia that she had seen on more important members of Hasekura, he was just a representative.
“Sam Harper. I’m the manager here.” He said with a relaxed smile.
“Fae Griffiths.” She threw on her sweetest and most charmingly innocent voice. “Sorry for trespassing, I needed gas, and this was the first place I came across.”
“You’re very far away from civilisation.”
“Road trip that put me on the wrong road. I’m trying to go to as many national parks as I can before winter.”
“You should visit Yellowstone in October. The colours there are beautiful.”
“I would if I didn’t keep running out of gas.”
“Sam!” Someone roared from behind them over the sound of a thunder of hooves.
“D-”
“The hell are you playin’ at?
The man skidded to a stop on the horse. His posture and expression was so aggressive that Griffin’s hand reactively twitched to go for her gun, but found herself elbowing Xavier who had taken a step closer to her.
The bossman spat on the ground angrily.
“I thought I told you, and you,” -he said with a spiteful jab at Xavier- “and everyone here. No visitors unless by appointment. I thought you told me your men ran a tight ship, what do you call this mess!”
“Not shooting everything that moves is what I call it.” Xavier pointedly sniped back with a coy smile. The bossman’s eyes widened and he immediately began hollering.
As the two men bickered Griffin found the horse staring her down intently again. There was something off about its eyes and the way it was watching them. Then it clicked.
The horse was genetically modified. Not fully synthetic like she was, but instead changed to improve what the species already was. This was definitely something designed by Hasekura.
“I see you have your eye on Pegasus.” Harper said with smile, blissfully ignoring the others man’s yelling. Griffin nodded.
“He’s beautiful.”
“And our most prestigious racer, at two-hundred-and-fifty thousand.”
“Really? That much?” She raised an eyebrow and smiled warmly with an engaged look. “He must be something special if he costs more than I could make in ten years. What is it then? Can he fly?” She said jokingly. Harper seemed to enjoy
the quip and laughed heartily.
“Unfortunately not. We breed only the best non-flying horses here.”
“Aww.”
“Do you ride then?”
“Not anymore. Nowadays,” she patted the full tank of the motorbike with a clank, “this is the only thing I ride.”
“Sam!” The bossman spat, spinning the horse around in the dust. “Enough flirtin’, get back to workin’ on the pronto!”
“Sorry Darryl.” The representative apologised sourly, then turned to Griffin once more full of bravado. “Duty calls.”
“Thank you so much, let me pay you.”
“No need. It’s on the house.”
A feral screech erupted from the barn. The noise was so sudden that everyone flinched. Raptor was Griffin’s first thought, and then when the screech continued with a howling note, she knew that that was no raptor. That was a rage scream of an Avio.
Harper looked pale. Time was up.
“Xavi, could you escort her to the road please. Immediately.”
Chapter 15
“And IO?”
San hadn’t stopped pacing ever since she had returned.
They were camped out in one of the ranger outposts in an area named Paint Gap, Peyton having driven Turtle over whilst Griffin used his bike.
Asher had met them there, and like Peyton had been given a shock by his first meeting with Griffin. Even as they set up camp, he couldn’t stop staring with terrified fascination at her. Every time she moved he flinched and froze, struggling to comprehend what he was seeing. Bizarre, Griffin thought, since he knew IO and she was far more unhuman looking than she felt she was.
Griffin shook her head. “I didn’t see her, but the barn was big enough to have her inside, and I’m pretty sure that I heard her in there.”
San hissed under her breath and rolled her wings once more. Griffin had relayed everything she had seen to the others and scribbled out a rough layout of the ranch onto the sand.
Humming thoughtfully, Turtle tapped the large rectangle that she had designated as the big barn with a twig. The firelight made it hard to fully see Griffins drawing but he studied it intently.
Turtle had continued to impress Griffin with his calm and authoritative attitude. Perhaps he was a soldier many years ago, maybe even a police officer, she wasn’t yet sure. Despite everything she had explained, he had remained unphased and took everything in his stride.
“You’re saying,” Turtle said steadily, “you heard other…creatures. Other than horses.”
“What sounded like Raptors and something a lot bigger, like a Xiezhi Lin or even a Gattan. I doubt that they’ve made lower levels beneath the barn to house more, but I’d have to get in there to find that out.”
“I have no idea what either of those are.”
She scratched at the feathers on her neck. How best to explain them in relative terms he could put together a picture in his head.
“Well the Xiezhi Lin is like…a beautiful dragon-dog-horse, and Gattans…uhh. Imagine a mountain lion but one that has horns, bigger teeth, and a tail like a monkey.”
“Right.”
“Now imagine it changing its fur colour and climbing upside down on a ceiling before dropping onto your head to rip it off.”
“Oh.”
“Gattans are bad kitties. I’m just hoping that we don’t get inside there and find a fully-grown Quetzal.”
“They wouldn’t have a Quetzal.” San laughed dismissively, still pacing anxiously. Griffin frowned. IO had shown no signs of knowing what a Quetzal was, but San clearly knew.
Peyton frowned. “Quetzal? Like the bird, the dinosaur, or the god?”
“All of them together in a big snaky bird shape with an appetite for all kinds of Volant Synths.” San explained, tailfeathers flicking in and out anxiously.
‘Interesting,’ noted Griffin. San was aware of what Quetzals looked like. Where did she come from to have seen one when IO had only ever heard of Raptors and called the Febris by its old name.
The sisters didn’t tell each other everything it seemed, and had their own things going on outside of each other’s lives.
“Whatever is in the barn, they’ve made it hard to break out for even big critters. That’s if you can even break in first.” Griffin sighed. That part she hadn’t quite figured out. She hadn’t brought the right gear for a single handed break in; her jacket and basic light armour, a single kit of medical patches, and her two guns. No maglock handcuffs, no mace-grenades, no EMI bullets of her own. Between the Fénix and the sniper rifle, she only had two cartridges for each weapon. Not nearly enough to take on the hundred or so men on the ranch.
Her stomach growled angrily, and her head ached from the heat of the sun. She hadn’t seen any food supplies with any of the humans and doubted that San had the feralness to eat a jackrabbit raw. They must have all been starving, she certainly was.
“We’re not going to get anything done at the moment.” She put on her best and most firm voice. “We’ll eat, sleep, and reconfigure a plan in the morning.”
“IO might not have a few hours!”
Asher shook his head, his quietness breaking for the first time in a long hour. “I doubt they’ll kill her, San.” He said hoarsely.
“What makes you so sure?”
“I’m not, but we need a plan. From what Griffin saw, if we rush in there with no idea where she is and open up every stable – that’s even if we don’t get shot first – we don’t know what we might let out.”
San hissed louder, half-Raptor in harshness, causing Asher to throw his hands up over his ears.
“You’re a Diamond though!” She spat at Griffin. “Just call in reinforcements! Call the rest of your team!”
Griffin stared flatly at her. The girl was demanding all of her patience. Newly ranked up Quartzes weren’t even this obnoxious. She did have a point however. Where was the rest of her team? She cursed inwardly. If this was an official mission she would have had at least two other Amethysts to work with.
“Why don’t you? Don’t you have eight other sisters?”
“They’re too far away and I don’t want them getting hurt in this.”
“But you’re happy for me to go get shot to hell?”
“Well I don’t know you, so I don’t care.”
“San!” Turtle snapped. San’s wings drooped, hurt that Turtle would raise his voice to her. “I’m sorry about her Miss Griffin, she’s not the kindest with strangers.”
“It’s fine. She’s a feral.”
“I am not a feral!” Her wings flicked back up immediately, whipping the fire up into a sudden blaze.
“Oh really? If you aren’t then what are you and IO even doing out here on your own if you aren’t with the renegade synths or Rioteers and you aren’t feral? What are you supposed to be?”
“We’re Sirocco.”
“What?”
Regret immediately clouded San’s face and she shrunk back, wings tucking up tight around her.
Griffin rose to her feet and paced about in front of San. Each time she got into San’s line of sight, she looked away and curled up tighter and tighter into a cocoon. The muscles in her back trembled and tightened as they tried to flex limbs that were no longer there into a furious display of authority. How much easier would it have been to have had a way of communicating with this half-feral girl in a way that she could understand. Her tiny hens-tail of feathers just weren’t enough, and she was beginning to regret having plucked them out.
When this was all done, she was going to have to get her plucking habit back under control.
“What is Sirocco?” Griffin asked again, a firmer more commanding voice this time.
San squirmed as the humans watched them both.
“San.” Turtle softly said, getting her attention. The girl looked sadly up at him. “It’s alright. Miss Griffin is helping us. You can tell her.”
San swallowed. Wings pulled tightly around her, she anxiously gripped the soft sunset-orange
feathers that lined the undersides of her wings.
“The project.” She said slowly. “It’s…hard to explain.”
“Try me.”
San shook out her wings and rose to her feet, staring Griffin down for a moment before conceding and beginning to pace once again. A deep growl was barely contained in her chest, but she took one look to Turtle who held his hand out in assurance. Taking a deep breath and Turtle’s hand, she centred herself before she began to talk, arching a wing around him in a cloak of feathers.
“Sirocco is…a side project. It got started back when all the G-generation of Avios were being born, just as they decided to have a standard across the board for Core-made Avios. It was made to be a mix of basic standard Avio type-four and the variety of Risio made Avios. Four-and-a-half really. A showcase for what is possible outside of the basic varieties they had. You should know the ones. Bases that mimic birds of prey mostly. Hawks, eagles, owls, seabirds. Them lot.”
Griffin nodded.
Predatory based Avios were in the majority amongst Core’s population. Fancy more exotic looking Type-fives such as herself were only there if they were damaged beyond repair. Risio still liked to make a profit even off damaged goods.
The three humans looked wildly lost in San’s explanation, but Griffin gave a small gesture for San to continue.
She would explain the semantics to them later if she needed to.
“Well…the project brief, as best I can remember, was to take the best elements of different bases and put them all into one. We were made to be the perfect all-rounder Avio, fast, agile, strong, intelligent, highly empathetic and sociable, able to fly long distances and endure extreme weathers and situations. And in many ways, we are, but only to a point.”
She sighed and let go of Turtle’s hand. “As we were being showcased when we were five or six, Aura announced that they had already been trialling these Type-Seven Avios that they had been making somewhere in Europe. They were meant to be better than what we were. More adaptive and pushing the limits of what we could do, and all made in a new system. When that memo got around, we got pushed to train in combat and survival so that we could show Core what we were capable of. That they didn’t need to waste money on untested prototypes.” She gave a dry laugh and rolled her shoulders. “We were actually some of the original Ruby-Sapphire ranks, believe it or not.”