Aroura woke up when every one started yelling. She felt better. At
least she could fight if needed. "Locklear? What's happening?
What's wrong?"
She sat up, testing her body to make sure it wouldn't fail her.
"The Lux are here," John shouted. That got her attention.
Opal's wings seemed to lock at the scene before her. She
plummetted, barely catching herself before landing with a stumble
to the ground. In her mind's tumble of confusion she shifted, her
slight animal side on defense. Bear, squirrel, coyote, wolf. Wolf,
right. She stopped shifting.
The lean wolf had slightly darker sandy fur than Opal's own human
hair. Opal's golden eyes reflected her internal confusion, gaze
stopping on Synthia.
"This is wonderful Slendy!" Synthia cried twirling, "are the others
in there?" Slender chuckled 'Not yet child. You will have to bring
them here eventually. But for now go inside and rest. You've done a
very good job' Synthia skipped inside quickly going to her room.
She was pleased to find everything in its place, just as she left
it.
Slender moved directly in front of the wolf. 'Did you think I
didn't notice you?' He pulled out a beautifully colored orchid from
his pocket. 'Fear not Opal. I am a friend to all children.'
Reaching down to the ground, he held out the flower to her
"What's our plan?" Aroura asked. "Are we just going to go out there
and fighting them? Should we try to reason with them?"
She pulled out her fans anyway. She felt more relaxed with them in
her hands.
Gabriel landed on the roof. He signaled to Terminus that he was
ready.
All of Opal's animal instincts screamed not to trust this strange
man. She disregarded them all. She shifted back to her human form,
still crouching in an animal-like manner. I don't trust you,
was what she wanted to say, but instead she mentally hit herself at
her response.
She took the flower and said a single word. "Okay."
Ethan and Crystal had left the room the
others were in as soon as they were aware of Terminus' presence.
They both had to find a way out of this mansion, but it was huge,
and completely different from the Lux mansion. They ran through the
hallways, trying to reach an exit.
While running, they came face to face with a member of the Nox. His
orders were to defend against the Lux, so he shot a bolt of
lightning towards them. Crystal quickly formed a wall of ice to
block the attack. The lightning struck the wall, it protected them,
but the wall shattered almost instantly. The Nox was about to send
another bolt flying. Ethan concentrated, he disappeared in a puff
of smoke, leaving behind the dust residue, and appeared behind the
Nox. Ethan lifted his staff, and swung it, hitting the Nox across
the head, knocking him out cold.
"You're finally starting to control your abilities at will now. But
I'll congratulate you later, we need to get out of here." Crystal
said as they both began to run through the corridors
again.
Evander peeked out of the window. At least a dozen people stood on
this side of the house. "John how many people live here?" He asked
stepping away. "Five other than myself, but one of them is gone
currently." He said worriedly. "not nearly enough to defend against
a force this size." Evander tried to think of a plan, but nothing
came to him. With only 10 people, two of which were injured, they
stood no chance in a direct assault. Mabye some kind of surprise
attack... Aroura do you have any ideas? Toby suddenly stiffened.
"The master is nearby! We must find him. He could help us." Wait,
what? Evander thought. How could Slender be hear?
Slender looked down at the girl. 'If you would like, their is a
girl inside about your age. You could go inside and meet her. I
have to leave for now, but I will return shortly with your friends
from Nox.' He looked towards the horizon. 'I have a feeling they
are in trouble.'
"If I had my powers, I'd be of more use!" Aroura vented, punching
the cot. She remembered her vision. Afraid it could come true, she
grabbed Evander's hand. "Locklear! I need you to promise me
something. It's going to sound weird, but promise me you won't kill
Gabriel. I can't explain now but I will as soon as this is
over."
When he saw Aroura and Evander inside a room, Gabriel moved in. He
burst through a window on the second floor. Only Aroura and Evander
where inside.
"Aroura! Are you okay? Did he hurt you?" Gabriel asked, playing the
concerned hero.
"If thats what you want, then I'll trust you. But I wont sacrifice
someone elses life for his. I will protect the innocent." He gave
her hand a gentle squeeze. Gabriel crashed through the window. When
Evander heard his heroic spiel, his blood boiled. How dare he
commit such awful things, then act as if he's the hero. He took a
deep breath, calming himself. He had made a promise, and he
intended to keep it. "Not another step Pigeon. Unless you want to
be eaton alive by microbes." He hoped his bluff would work. In
reality he was pretty sure that he did not have the strength to
pull that move off. Judging by the slightly worried look on
Gabriel's face it had worked. Leading Aroura to the door, he kept
his eyes on the man. "Follow us and I will kill you." Evander
slammed the door shut.
"That's all I can ask. I would never expect you to put his life
over yours and Synthia's." Aroura relaxed slightly.
The loud crash of glass breaking startled Aroura. Gabriel climbed
through the window and Aroura just about through up listening to
him sound concerned.
When Evander grabbed her hand, her pulsed raced.
"I don't buy his hero complex," Aroura shook her head, still
holding Evander's hand. "He got Terminus and the Lux to the park
way too fast."
A scream from outside split the air.
"Locklear, can you get us outside?" Aroura asked, she had a bad
feeling about that scream.
"Hang on!" Evander replied. They flew down the hallway towards a
window. Passing through the opening, he set them down behind a
clump of bushes. Peering out, he saw a group Lux surrounding three
teenagers, two boys and a girl. The younger of the two boys was
lying on the ground with the girl kneeling next to him. She was
attempting to stem the flow of blood from a wound in his head. The
older boy, Probably Evanders age, was trying to hold back the Lux
with somekind of force field.
Feeling much stronger, Aroura tried to put up a force field of her
own, using the ground to block the Lux from the teenagers.
"It work!" She exclaimed, "Locklear, you must have filtered out the
drug when you transported us!"
Standing up, Aroura rolled her shoulders, getting ready to fight.
"Hey! Why don't you pick on someone more your speed!"
The Lux turned to her and Aroura attacked. Using the blunt, heavy
metal of her fans, she knocked two of the Lux unconscious before
another Lux fell from the sky.
Evander leaped out, knocking the Lux out of the air with the blunt
end of his scythe. Standing back to back with Aroura, he fought off
attackers. The oldest boy helped as well, putting up energy fields
to block attacks that would hit them. Evander felt a rush of joy.
For some reason, fighting side by side with Aroura just felt right.
His joy quickly faded when he heard a low buzz of static. "Get
down!" He cried, throwing himself and Aroura towards the boy.
Instinctively, he put up a force field around the group. Something
hit the ground a few yards away at high speed, leaving a crater.
Slender stood their, towering over the surrounding people. Several
tentacles reached out from his back like spider legs. He looked
down at the stunned Lux. Then his face seemed to tear open,
revealing a wide fang filled mouth. He screamed at the Lux. The
noise sounded like some unholy mix of children screaming and animal
roars. Several Lux bolted.
Synthia turned to see a girl about her age standing just inside the
doorway. "What? Ohh I sang it here." She cocked her head confused.
"How did you get here anyway?"
Fighting with Evander was just natural, like she had grown up
fighting with him by her side. She ducked and weaved, slashed and
kicked, fending of the Lux who wanted to take the teens. When she
saw Slendy, Aroura felt relieved. He could help them scare off the
Lux. Then he screamed and Aroura realized scaring the Lux off
wasn't quite what he had in mind.
"Locklear! He can't hurt the Lux, it'll only add fuel to the fire.
Terminus will use it as another twisted example as to why he thinks
Synthia is dangerous!" Aroura reasoned. "Can you try to get him to
not hurt them? I don't know if he'll listen to me."
Speaking of Synthia, where was the girl? Aroura had a sinking
feeling she could be out in the fray. She hoped Toby, Hoodie,
Masky, or Kate was with her.
Ethan and Crystal has finally found an
exit; a window. Ethan walked over a tried to lift the window up,
but it wouldn't budge. He noticed that were was a small lock on it.
"There's a lock on it." Ethan said to Crystal.
"Let me help." Crystal said as she placed her hand over the lock.
It suddenly began to freeze, becoming coated with ice. "Hit the
lock with your staff." Ethan lifted the staff and jabbed the lock
with it. The lock shattered. He tried the window again, and it
opened.
They both carefully climbed through the window, landing on a patch
of grass. They were going to trying find Terminus. As they turned
the corner, in front of them stood Aroura and Locklear. Bodies
lying on the ground around them. That wasn't the only thing they
saw. The monster from earlier, the one with tentacles, was standing
right next to Aroura and Locklear.
Evander froze not sure what to do. Aroura wanted him to stop
Slender from killing them, but how? Did he really want to? He shook
himself free of the panic. He had to do something. He had an idea.
"Slender! Do the static thing!" The man glanced at him, as much as
something without a face can glance, before shrugging. Turning back
it closed its mouth, staring into the crowd. Evander had seen it
before. Each person would see Slender staring directly at them.
Their vision would fill with static and... Well let's just say that
it's pretty horrible. Some of the Lux might need trauma therapy. He
turned around, moving Aroura with him. "Don't look." He told the
other two.
"Thank you," Aroura smiled at him, squeezing his hand. Then she
shut her eyes, and clamped her hands over her ears, blocking out
the sight and sound of the Lux screaming. Whatever they where
seeing was clearly terrifying. But at least they weren't dead. Now
Terminus had no fuel to feed his hate for Synthia. "Locklear, have
you seen Synthia? I haven't seen her since she left the room."
Aroura lead the teenage Nox and Locklear away from Slendy and the
Lux. She hoped to get the teens safe then scare off the rest of the
Lux.
"Hey! Angel Face!" Aroura heard the shout and knew exactly who is
was. She sighed, turning around to face Gabriel. She put herself
between the teens, Locklear and Gabriel.
"What do you want, Wings?" Aroura demanded.
"You!" He told her, "And I'm not leaving her without you!"
Evander stepped up beside Aroura. "Take the hint Pigeon! She still
doesn't want to go with you, so get lost." Gabriels face turned
bright red. He open his mouth to speak, but a light blue bubble
appeared over his head, blocking out the sound. He clawed at it for
a moment, before passing out from lack of air. Evander turned to
the teenager as teh bubble faded. "Thanks." he said. The boy
nodded, before turning back to the other two. Evander looked back
at Aroura, saying, "What were you saying about Synthia?"