Feros and the Underworld Prince

by A. L. Bridges

  “Come in, Cole.” Sara says and I walk inside while remembering the question that had slipped my mind so far.

  “Were we able to get any information from the surviving enemies from last night?” I ask.

  “No, they appear to have ingested cyanide before we could question them.” Sara replies.

  “How were they able to capture Tia? Those guns shouldn’t have been able to do shit against a god.” I inquire.

  “They captured me first and threatened to kill me if Tia didn’t give up… Here, try this on.” Sara demands as she hands me a fully armored, one piece leather riding suit that is black with silver accents; there is also a matching pair of black boots. “This is the project I was working on over a year ago.”

  I think back and remember making a large quantity of discs after I made rings for Natasha and Cheza. I also remember the leather suit that Cheza was wearing when she fought Apep. I try it on and it fits perfectly, except for my left sleeve.

  “This is nice Sara, but can we do something about my left sleeve? It seems my plates don’t behave in the same way with my new arm. Can we just cut it off?” I ask, wondering if it will somehow compromise the suit’s coverage in other areas… also wondering if this suit makes me look a little bit gay.

  “Well, you probably could with the Mu-cutter, but it would be much easier if I just cut off the sleeve instead.” Sara jokes slightly while smiling.

  “Thanks! By the way, do you happen to have something armored that will fit Natasha?” I ask as I strip off the suit and hand it to her. Sara takes it over to her work desk and pulls out a sewing kit.

  “Well a Dragon Skin vest would be just as effective for her.” Sara says as she starts to cut the sleeve.

  “I don’t think so. There’s a decent chance that my silicon carbide will give her better coverage now.” I tell her before realizing that I’ve slipped up.

  “What do you mean now?” Sara asks inquisitively as she stops what she’s doing.

  “It seems that Natasha and I are connected now after I transplanted about a liter of my blood into her bleeding neck last night. You can’t tell Cheza about this Sara! She’s pissed off at me as it is and she doesn’t even know that I killed Jarrett ye—” I say.

  “YOU WHAT!? Fuck Cole! I thought something like this might happen but… okay, what did you do with the body? Regardless of what the Mafia claims, you can’t completely dissolve a body in acid; there will always be remains that can be identified!” Sara panics.

  “Relax Sara, it was in self-defense. He was shooting at me in the park last night when I stepped in to stop him from executing a kitsune woman. I think he might’ve been a part of the same group that attacked the house last night… regardless, I don’t think Cheza will believe my reason.” I explain with a calm tone.

  “Well, alright. The only thing I have armored is a second inlay for your jacket.” Sara tells me.

  “Which she would be swimming in. She’s also too tall and her breasts are too big to borrow Cheza’s suit without things becoming uncomfortable… well, while we are gone, could you work on solving this problem?” I ask.

  “Sure. Why don’t you go take a shower while I finish this?” Sara suggests.

  I take her suggestion and head to my gore-splattered room for a quick shower while noticing that the master bathroom shower is running as well. After drying off, I wrap a new bandage around my arm and then I dress in jeans and a white t-shirt. I also decide to wear the boots, just to get a feel for them, and not because I want to justify all of my ‘boot-cut’ jeans purchases by wearing boots for the first time in my life. After clasping the boots shut, I discover that these boots are really comfortable and I’m not at all discouraged when I discover why: the entire inside of the boots are covered in my armored discs, including the soles.

  Ha! Take that Dr. Scholls! Last I checked you don’t have a line of bulletproof soles!

  (Are you Gellin’?)

  I start laughing when I get a text from Katie saying that she’s ready. I port to her room and find her waiting, dressed in business-esque attire with a large purse hanging from her shoulder.

  “Uh, Katie? Where’s your bag? I did say to pack an overnight bag didn’t I?” I ask, honestly unable to remember if I did, and not being a condescending asshole.

  “Yeah, it’s right here.” She says while flashing me the contents of her purse.

  I almost break down and cry at the glorious sight; finally, a girl that is actually using one of those ridiculously oversized handbags for a practical application… I think I may be in love!

  “Cole, are you alright?” Katie asks at my teary-eyed-ness.

  “Yeah, I think I might be in love, that’s all.” I sniffle. Katie gives me a perplexed expression before looking at the contents of her purse.

  “I know, these panties are like super cute aren’t they!?” Katie says with a slightly excited tone.

  I blink at her a few times before I grab her hand and port us back to the house. I walk back to Sara’s room while Katie takes a seat on the couch.

  “Just a moment… there, it’s all finished.” Sara says as she finishes hemming the newly shortened sleeve on the suit. The left sleeve is now the length of a t-shirt sleeve, which would look really stupid because it’s no longer symmetrical, but the color matches with my arm so it should work.

  “Thanks Sara!” I say as I take the suit. I head back to my room and hang the suit up in my closet.

  “Why is Katie going too?” I hear Cheza ask as I walk into the living room.

  “I got a job with research for The Agency and the boss wants to meet me.” Katie explains.

  “Hey Cole, I can’t find a good spot and I can’t get a picture of the inside because of security reasons.” Natasha says.

  “Pull up satellite images of the roof and I’ll see what I can do.” I tell her to distract the other two from the next part.

  “Have you been there before?” I think to Natasha. She jumps slightly and stops typing on her phone for a second, but quickly recovers.

  “Yes.” Natasha responds.

  “Clearly picture it in your mind and hold the image.” I think. A few moments later, an image of an office pops up in my mind. “Got it.”

  “Alright, here’s the picture.” Natasha says while showing me her phone to make it seem natural.

  “Alright ladies, you know the drill.” I say to Natasha and Katie.

  “Be careful Katie, you too Natasha. Cole…” Cheza says and then walks away. That’s cold… I guess she just doesn’t care about me anymore.

  ‘I wonder if I can step in front of a bullet and make it look like an accident…’ I think as I touch my triskele.

  Chapter 15: Feros

  I find myself in an office as Natasha grabs my hand.

  “Carla, this is Katie. Katie, this is the director of The Agency, Carla. Excuse us for a moment please.” Natasha says to a redhead that appears to be in her late thirties and looks slightly startled, but mostly amused, by our presence.

  This woman reminds me of the redhead from Roger Rabbit… what was her name… Jessica? Natasha pulls me out of the office and into the empty reception room. She turns around and softly closes the door before she bitch slaps me back into last week.

  “Cole, if you ever do something like that, I swear to the gods that I will kill Chezarei before I kill myself.” Natasha says in a furious monotone that tells me that she’s too angry to scream.

  Heh, great; now I can’t even off myself without taking two innocent people with me.

  “Cole…” Natasha gently says and moves closer to embrace me. “Tell me what’s going on…”

  I don’t know if it’s because her actions are out of character for her, or if it’s the fact that I just realized that the engagement ring I gave her is on a chain around her neck, or maybe it’s the fact that I probably can’t lie to her right now because of our connection, but I decide to tell her the truth.

  “I’ve started having dreams about Kita. In the dr
eams… Kita has a bullet hole in her head and two glowing orbs where her eyes are… she blames me for her death and reminds me of all the people that are dead because of me. She confronted me about how I nearly got you killed… she says I should join them before someone else dies and sometimes… I agree with her…”

  “Cole, that’s all in your head… you can’t possibly believe that Kita would blame you for her death and want you to kill yourself. Besides, you’ve done a lot of good too; just think where Cheza or Lila would be without you. In case you forgot, the answers are dead, and in a rape dungeon.” Natasha replies from my chest.

  “Yeah… I suppose so.” I quietly say.

  “Not to interrupt or anything, but we need to go to the briefing.” Carla says from the door that I didn’t hear open.

  Natasha breaks away and follows Carla as she and Katie pass by. We walk to the elevator and take it to a floor marked -2. Carla leads us down two hallways and into a large room that resembles a lecture hall. Natasha and Katie take a seat in the last row, closest to the door; I take the aisle seat next to them. Carla reaches the stage and a remote is handed to her.

  I look around the room and start to wonder how many different types of beings there are in here. I focus and the first aura I notice is Carla’s; she has a sparkling black center aura that is quite reminiscent of a whirlpool galaxy. I spot a few others that are the same thing as Carla, a few werewolves, a couple fairies, a couple vampires, quite a few humans, and several beings that I can’t identify.

  I see a guy sitting behind the computer desk on the stage that gets me excited… wait, that came out wrong… he has dragon wings like Naia so I get excited that he might be a jinni so I can ask about Naia. He looks Chinese (but I’m not positive on that) and has a milky-white and bronze swirled central aura.

  “Alright, some of you may already be aware of this, but for everyone who isn’t, here is the situation.” Carla starts and then clicks a button on the remote. The PowerPoint on screen changes to a satellite map of Seattle’s warehouse district.

  “A local gang of supernaturals is holed up in Warehouse 17. They’ve been selling crack that has been giving humans ‘super’ strength and speed. Our analysts believe that this is related to the ‘enhanced vampires’ incidents. Our objective is to go in and seize the lab—” Carla says until

  SO WEZ CAN HAZ ALL DA SCRUMPTIOUS CRACKZ TO OURSELZES!

  Pops up on screen, accompanied by a fluffy white kitten that looks cracked out. I start laughing while no one else does, which only makes me laugh harder for some reason.

  “Hey new guy, what’s so funny to you? Do you not realize that there’s probably a good chance that you’ll die during this raid, or do you think that you’re just so much of a badass that you don’t need to know any of this and can afford to laugh at that dumbass’s jokes at a time like this!?” a werewolf that is somewhere around thirty years old snarls at me.

  “Short answer? Yes; I mean, just look at that cat! I might start dying from laughter just remembering that face but other than that, I’m not going to be doing any dying tonight.” I reply.

  “SMARTASS!” the werewolf angrily shouts as he gets out of his seat and storms over to me at full speed.

  “Ugh… I swear, sometimes it feels like I’m running a frat house full jocks instead of a secret government organization. Anyway, I know he’s playing stupid dominance games and that you need to demonstrate that you aren’t a pansy, but don’t kill him; he’s a squad leader and it will hinder the operation if he dies.” Carla says inside my mind, sounding slightly more echoic than when I’ve conversed with Natasha or Cheza.

  “Alright; how fast do werewolves heal broken bones?” I think.

  “Go ahead and break a few; he should definitely be able to have them healed up by tonight.” Carla responds. I watch as the werewolf storms up the stairs before stopping in front of me.

  “Anything else you’d like to say before I teach you some manners, smartass?” he asks with an angry tone.

  “Yeah, know your place, mongrel.” I calmly reply.

  I hear a series of sickening pops and watch as just the werewolf’s arms transform into giant paws; he must be pretty good because I’ve never seen this before. I feel Katie grab my right knee, obviously nervous by this whole thing.

  The werewolf takes a 1-2 swipe at my face. I use my left hand to smack his right wrist and then his left as his swipes come in. Each smack snaps a wrist and the werewolf howls in pain as I reach up and flick his sternum as hard as I can with my left hand; by the way he kneels at my feet, I’d say I just broke it, which isn’t all that surprising when consideration is given to the hardness of my arm paired with the force that a flick can generate. With my left index finger against his forehead, I push the werewolf backwards gently… down the stairs. He tumbles head-over-heels until he lands sprawled out on his back, on the ground near Carla’s feet.

  I’m greeted with a menagerie of stunned expressions. I start feeling awkward so I do something stupid and try to make it funny.

  “Hello; my name is Cole and I might have an anger problem.” I address the crowd.

  “HI COLE!” the jinni guy shouts back in the exact reply I was hoping for. Thankfully Carla and Natasha laugh because everyone else is a sea of crickets… dead ones… they’re quiet.

  “Anyway, that’s Cole; he will be assisting us with the mission. The mission starts at 2350 local time. I don’t need to remind everyone about the dangers of fighting the enhanced vampires or weres so you are all dismissed.” Carla says and everyone files out of the room while two people carry the werewolf out.

  “Come on, I want to introduce you to someone.” Natasha says.

  She grabs my hand and drags me down the steps, before pulling me on stage and over to the jinni guy with black wings sticking out of his back.

  “Ryuji, I want you to meet Cole Treyfair. Cole, this is my friend Ryuji and one of The Agency’s best analysts and tech experts. We went to college and joined The Agency together.” Natasha introduces us. Ryuji is a few inches shorter than me with spiky black hair and copper-brown eyes.

  “So you’re Feros!” Ryuji excitedly announces.

  “Feros?” I inquire.

  “Faction’s Executioner Run On Sight. It also means wild animal in Latin and is the plural of the Latin word ferus which means fierce or cruel.” Natasha explains. I actually kind of like the sound of that…

  “I thought you died in your battle against Fenrir when you destroyed half of Greenland!” Ryuji exclaims.

  “I got better… and it was only half of a Greenlandic town, not half of Greenland.” I clarify.

  “Wait a second, you said that you and Ryuji became friends in college, but how did Ryuji go to college with his wings?” I ask Natasha.

  “Oh, I went to a college for supernaturals. Have I never told you that?” Natasha explains.

  “They have supernatural colleges!?” I incredulously inquire.

  “Yeah, Fogquartz University.” Natasha answers.

  “Your fucking with me, aren’t you? That sounds just like—” I start to say.

  “Yeah, I know; J.K. Rowling is actually an alumnus.” Natasha interrupts.

  “So, I take it from your name that you’re Japanese, not Chinese. How do you spell Ryuji?” I ask.

  “No, you were right, I am Chinese.” Ryuji says.

  “Then why…?” I inquire.

  “For the same reason that my birth parents only wrote my name in English and didn’t specify the characters when they dropped me off at the orphanage: to piss me off. My adoptive parents are great though; they’re imps and they adopted me because they thought I was one too, but they were still really supportive of me when we discovered I was actually a dragon. Being raised by them in San Francisco was a great time and I was able to get in touch with my roots… you know, because Chinatown San Francisco is the best in the country.” Ryuji jokes; I guess that’s a no on him being a jinni.

  “Oh, so I guess we have a similar upbringing…�
� I absentmindedly say, which results in a few moments of awkward silence.

  “Do you really have your own harem?” Ryuji asks in awe.

  “HE SURE DOES!” Natasha interrupts before I can say anything. “He even has a loli peri!”

  “Lowly peri…? What are you talking about? peri’s are awesome!” Ryuji exclaims with a slightly questioning look.

  “No, Japanese loli.” Natasha clarifies. Ryuji’s eyes go wide in shock and his jaw drops to the floor.

  “Thanks a lot Natasha; now he thinks I’m a pedophile!” I angrily think after establishing our connection.

  “Cole, how do you think I even know the term loli?” Natasha replies.

  “Can I just hang around you in the hopes that some of your swagtastic ways rub off on me!?” Ryuji pleads.

  “See? Ryuji and I have been friends for a while. Just don’t find a loli catgirl while you are out or he will probably bow down at the mere sight of you.” Natasha thinks.

  “Did I mention that he had a threesome with a maid and a catgirl? Oh, and that the catgirl was his little sister? Oh, and that I was the maid?” Natasha adds as Ryuji looks like he’s about to have a stroke caused by too much awesome.

  “Hey Natasha, Cole, I’m not sure if I can handle this job. I’m still shaking from earlier and I can’t even imagine going through that day after day. I’m not like you, Natasha; I can’t remain calm after seeing something like that… how do you do it?” Katie asks, freaking out slightly; most likely a delayed response from the buildup of the last few days.

  “Katie, you will be fine; things like this almost never happen and are even rarer in research and development.” Natasha reassures her.

  “As for how I do it? Experience. I’ve seen Cole beat a werewolf into ground meat using the werewolf’s own leg. I’ve seen him laugh while he cracked open a god’s ribcage for an anatomy lesson while the god was still alive. I’ve seen him get an erection whilst torturing my ex-arranged-fiancé to death. I’ve seen what happens to those that hurt his friends and I’ve seen how hard he is on himself if he fails to save them.” Natasha says rather passionately.