Not the Groundhog/Not So Eloquent-Glad to know you're still reading despite having finished it already! Although it must be interesting knowing what's going to happen, and the evil laughter in appropriate.
Although, since you know about Lupine, I suggest paying attention to the moon stages that are mentioned in the story. You may find something interesting.
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN THEY ESCAPED!?"
I shot up from my sleep at the sound of yelling, feeling my neck crack slightly from the uncomfortable position and the sudden movement.
"Well, more they were rescued." I heard Lupine say.
I quickly realised what they talking about and slowly got to my feet as Pitch said.
"By whom?"
"This human, called itself Jacqueline Davies."
Oh snap.
"Well, where did they go?"
"I don't know, the human froze my brain!"
I slowly pulled on my bag to creep away, when my hunger betrayed me and my stomach let out a gurgle.
Pitch and Lupine fell silent and I could almost imagine them looking up at my position in unison.
There was a snarl and a rushing noise as both Lupine and Pitch rushed up the tower towards me. I jumped to my feet and started to move, only to get halted by the sudden pain in my chest and leg.
I gasped and doubled over in pain, my eyes watering. At the same time I kicked my helmet, sending it skittering towards the edge of the platform.
Behind me I heard a small thud as Pitch landed on the platform. I spun around and put on a fake smile, trying to make it look as though I was in perfect health and not scared out of my mind.
"Ah, you must be Pitch Black, fancy seeing you here."
"You must be this Jacqueline Davies I've been hearing about. I must say that you look familiar, in an irritating way."
"One of those faces I guess." I said, unsure if he meant the last time I saw him or whatever resemblance I have to Jack.
There was louder thud behind me as Lupine landed behind me. I spun around to see his maw in my face.
"You have a lot to answer for human!" Lupine snarled, stepped forward, having somehow lost the ice shards between now and the battle. Was it me or did he seem larger than before?
I took a few steps back until I felt myself being lifted off the ground. Looking over my shoulder I saw that Pitch was holding me up by the armour and bag straps, his face twisted into a sneer.
I drew my feet up and slammed my boots into Lupine's face, causing his face twist away and his fur to crisp with frost.
He turned back and snarled as I lifted up by my hands to grasp Pitch's hands, sending a cold blast through them.
He yelled in pain and dropped me, sending me staggering towards and over the edge. An ice pillar caught me and I rose up above them.
"A Descendant of Frost..." I heard Pitch say softly, his face twisting into a scowl.
"I'd love to stay and chat." I said, "But I have places to be!"
I sent a pillar of ice underneath my helmet, sending it flying up into the air.
I caught it and jumped from the pillar and into the air. Below me an ice bridge formed and I landed on it with my skates. I was off in a flash, heading straight for the entrance to the Tunnels.
All of a sudden something slammed into my back and I was shoved off the bridge with a yell. I fell on my face in the ground, still somehow holding on to my helmet. I pushed myself up onto my arms and looked up and behind me to see Pitch float down, a cloud of black sand hovering above his hand.
"Actually, I think you should stick around."
"Sorry, but I'm running late."
"Oh." He said with mock worry, "we can't have that now, can we?"
He sent another blast of sand my way which I blocked with a wall of ice without blinking.
"Thinking about it." Said Pitch, as Lupine formed out of shadows on the ground and charged at my wall, shattering it, "I do believe we have met, how long ago was it, five years?"
"Hard to tell, I try to block out what happened" I replied as Lupine got an ice pillar to the face his trouble, sending him backwards with a snarl.
"I remember you gave my Descendants some trouble."
"Well, when you're taken prisoner, you're not going to react well."
"You killed a few of them if I remember correctly."
"Do you? Because that's not something I remember." I bluffed, getting to my feet. Lupine took the opportunity to charge, but got a slash across the nose before he got too close.
As I attacked him, Pitch sent a blast of black sand my way, causing me to duck underneath it.
"I suggest that you give up." Said Pitch, surprisingly calm, but the threat clear in his voice. "You can't take both of us."
Pitch formed an enormous sickle out of black sand while Lupine stood next to him, ready to attack.
"I can sure as hell try!" I got to my feet and got an ice pillar to rise beneath me. Pitch swung his sickle and knocked out a chunk, causing the pillar to become unsteady beneath me.
"If you think you can try that again, you're sadly mistaken!"
I leapt from the pillar before it could collapse and zoomed away on an ice bridge. Lupine growled and leapt up onto it behind me, his claws giving him a good grip on the ice.
He bounded after me and I severed the bridge, leaving him stranded in the air.
I went up high, dodging blasts of sand coming my way with alternating and hopefully random movements.
I then dived straight down, more or less going completely vertical as the wind pushed against my face, making my eyes stream behind my glasses as gravity did most of the work. I held my hand out in front of me as I slammed into the ground, passing into the Tunnel and having it close above me.
My ice followed the path of the Tunnel for who knows how far, eventually depositing me in the old war base.
"Davies!"
I looked over to the centre of the cavern to see the Heads sitting in a circle together.
"Come and join us!" Called Jason.
I made my way over, my body feeling the repercussions of the fight already.
I sat down heavily and let my bag fall off my back. I dropped my helmet and straightened out my glasses.
With that I fell back onto the moss and sighed, lying back completely and ignoring the twinge of pain from my chest and back.
"That's better." I sighed happily.
"Didn't you just wake up?" asked an unfamiliar male voice, I'm assuming the Head of the Descendants of Sandman, as he didn't often speak. His voice was interesting; it had a European flare to it, Italian perhaps?
"No, got woken up by Pitch and Lupine arguing. Had a scuffle before I could get away."
"Your ability to get into impossible fights and out of them again never ceases to amaze me." Said Jason, a smile in his voice.
"I don't tend to get out of them unscathed. I dread to think what my skin looks like under the armour."
To illustrate my point I sat up, unbuckled my chest plate and set it down, wincing at the deep grooves in the metal.
"We'll need you fighting fit as soon as possible." Said Alexander. "You still have a snow globe, right?"
"Right."
"We can use it to get to where HOG is being held." Explained Jason, "but you're the only one who's used to combat."
"I haven't properly fought in a four years." I had sparred though, the Heads had introduced compulsory combat training to the Branch's meetings. I had of course fought against the Descendants of Pitch on the way, but I hadn't done well there in my mind. I suppressed a shudder as the image of those flamethrowers entered my mind.
"We haven't done it for most of our lives." Said the Head for Toothiana, bringing me back to reality.
"Why, you're the most powerful, right?"
"Yes, but we never really took to battlefield, we never even needed to send others until recently. And if we died they'd be a sudden power vacuum, which in difficult situations that's the last thing we need."
"Alright, but surely you're not expecting me to do this alone?"
The looks on their faces told me yes.
"Are you insane? I'm not a one man army!"
"And you're also tired, hungry and injured." Added Jason, "and your armour no longer fits properly."
"Not much of a one man army then." Said Alexander.
"You can't be serious? There's at least two hundred of them!"
"You've taken them out before."
"I'm not going to be able to replicate that! I don't want to replicate that!"
"That's enough!" cried Alfred.
We looked over in surprise as he said.
"I know we're asking a lot of ye, but you're not a wee bairn lassie. You're strong, young and healthy. Out of all of us, you have the best chance. Besides, if you can free some of them without being spotted, you won't be fighting alone, will ye?"
I looked at my feet, contemplating.
"You don't have to agree right now." Said Jason, "you're injured, it's best if you get some food and rest, so you can heal."
"What are you going to do?"
"Personally" He asked, reaching for my chest plate, "I'm going to fix up your armour."
"You can do that?" I asked, looking up.
"Of course I can. Let's get the rest of it, then you can go to the Sleeping Quarters and
I can head to the forgeries."
I unbuckled the rest of the armour and handed it to him. He looked at it and me in a critical manner, before nodding to himself and wandering off.
I stood up and lifted up my bag.
"Well then, if it's all the same to you. Good night."
"Oh no you don't."
I looked over at the Head of the Descendants of Toothiana in surprise.
"What?"
"Don't think I haven't noticed you favouring your left wrist, or your torn jeans. You didn't get those fighting today, did you?"
"...No." I admitted, wondering where she was going with this.
"Then follow me."
She stood up and walked off without making sure I was following. It was very tempting just to go to the Sleeping Quarters and crash, but my body chose that moment to remind me of the state it was in. Maybe it wouldn't hurt to follow her.
I followed her into the Medical Cavern, which I'd never had to go into before.
It was arranged similarly to the Sleeping Quarters, only with the beds spaced more widely apart and large cabinets hanging on the walls.
The Head got me to sit down on one of the beds so she could take a proper look at my injuries. Underneath my shirt I saw that there were red welts where Lupine had back handed me, he hadn't broken the skin, but no doubt they'd bruise badly.
After a thorough examination by who I now knew to be Dr Claire Evans, she declared my wrist to be sprained and that I had some nasty bruising across the majority of my torso, with some few day old bruises along my left side. I already knew the state of my leg, which she told me I was lucky wasn't infected. However, other than a bit dehydrated, I was okay.
So, I wasn't in the best shape, but I could be worse. I could be dead.
After that diagnosis she disappeared into one of the cabinets, pulling out a bottle of something and a needle and syringe.
"What on earth do you need a needle for?" I asked, my voice going higher than I would like.
"A Descendant of North and a Descendant of Toothiana came up with this a few years ago." Claire explained as she read the label on the bottle. "It helps with the pain and speeds healing, so unless you want to have a sprained wrist for a minimum of two weeks..."
"If it does that then why isn't it commercially available?"
"Because it's impossible to re-produce without magic." She replied, "And the world isn't ready for something like that. Can you imagine what this would do to drugs companies?"
She'd drawn up the amount she needed and approached me with the needle. Almost unconsciously I pulled back, eyeing the needle warily.
"You're not afraid of needles, are you?" Asked Claire, an eyebrow raised.
"I don't know."
"How can you not know, surely you've had injections before." She said, as she wiped my arm with cotton wool.
"Haven't been to the doctors before; I don't get ill."
Claire eyed me critically. "I've heard similar stories from other Descendants of Jack Frost, must be your lowered body temperature."
"Hmm." I said, thinking and looking upward as I did so. "I think it's to do with the fact that micro-organisms harmful to humans have an optimum temperature that's the same as a normal person's core temperature. And I don't have a normal core temperature."
"That's sounds about right. Did you take biochemistry?"
"No, I just got really bored during PE."
Claire's silence seemed to convey her confusion.
"I didn't do PE because my parents were worried that a competitive atmosphere would cause my powers to show. So I faked asthma."
"...How do you fake asthma?"
"With practice and a well forged doctor's note." I said. I looked over at Claire, who was still prepping the needle and gave a grin. "I can probably still fake an asthma attack."
"Let's not test that."
"Suit yourself." I said with a shrug and looked away. The minute I looked away I felt a scratch on my arm.
I yelped in surprise and looked over to see Claire pulling the needle out of my arm.
"Y-you could have warned me!"
"It's a little easier to deliver if the patient is distracted." A small smile appeared on her face. "Now, that wasn't so bad, was it?"
"I'm not five years old." I grumbled as she stuck a plaster on the entry area.
"Most five year olds make less of a fuss than you." She said matter-of-factly. "Now, it takes a few hours for it to fully kick in, so I suggest getting some sleep."
"As the doctor orders." I said, a smile appearing on my face as I got off the bed.
"I've heard that one plenty of times Davies." She said as I left, but there was the ghost of a smile there.
"Oh, and before you disappear."
I stopped and spun around to see her holding out a bottle of water.
"Does this have some magical properties too?"
Claire rolled her eyes. "No, it's just water. Drink and go to bed. That's an order."
"Sir yes sir." I said a little sarcastically before taking the bottle and downing it. It tasted incredible to my parched mouth, which in all the excitement I hadn't realised that it felt like sandpaper.
Once I was done I handed the bottle back to Claire and wiped my mouth with the back of my good hand.
"Thanks."
"Not a problem. Good night."
I lay back on the bed, looking at where I thought the moon might be and sighed, the talk in the Main Cavern coming back to me. This whole thing was turning into a suicide mission, and the others were too scared to actually help me!
What about my Branch? I remembered, none of them had been at their homes for over a week. Their friends and family must be freaking out. I know I was.
Tears tried to make themselves fall as I thought about them. They had to be okay, please let them be okay.
I sniffed and rolled over, wincing from the pain my stomach and, well, everywhere else. There's no point getting upset about it now, let's give it time.
