Final Hunt
The sun was high in the sky as the Magi assembled in the alley behind the Hunter's headquarters.
"When this day has ended, the Hunters will be no more," Independent Bear began.
"Soon a symphony of magic will put an end to their genocidal crusade and all creatures of magic shall live without fear," Calm Heart continued.
"For we have been given an opportunity that we shan't squander, all their leaders assembled in one place," Confidence Heart added.
"And today, is their final hunt," Love Heart finished.
Anger Heart and Guidance Heart just turned and stared at them, the two of them were still jsut wearing the same casual t-shirts and jeans and skirt respectivelly while the other four were wearing the same clothes they had been wearing when the two members first met them, which they referred to as their "Battle Outfits."
"That was kinda cool, but why are you guys monologuing right now?" Anger Heart asked.
"Well it's more of unified speech but I do agree it seems to be the wrong time," Guidance Heart nodded.
"Well, mostly cause it's cool," Confidence laughed a bit.
"She insists on it, and insists on the more, and I quote 'badass' attire we now wear. She says it helps focus our minds and makes our enemies take us seriously," Independent replied.
"But mostly it's because she watches too much anime," Calm Heart said.
"That's true, but these outfits never get in our way," Love Heart nodded, "Now Guidance, I know it's hard but can you try the invisibility magic again?"
"Al-alright," Guidance Heart took a deep breath.
Brief shimmers of life appeared around Guidance Heart and she began to fade from view.
"You can do it," Anger Heart encouraged her, "You spent all yesterday working on it."
Finally Guidance vanished from view and she opened her eyes, looking down to see nothing. "I did it," she said.
"Good, now remember the plan, get in there and try to find the security office. While you do that we'll find our own way in. Once you initiate the lockdown we'll come find you then spread out and sanitize the building," Calm Heart said.
"But, what if there is no lockdown," Guidance suddenly reappeared, trembling a bit.
"Then we'll create a back-up plan," Love Heart reassured her, "We're trying to avoid drawing attention to the building, let the massacre be a mystery until we're long gone."
"Massacre?" Anger Heart turned to Love Heart.
"It's cruel to put it that way, but there's no other honest way to put it," Love Heart admitted.
"We must acknowledge what we are doing, despite our justifications or we risk becoming as monstrous as the hunters," Calm Heart replied.
"If you two want to back out and return home, now is the time," Independent added.
"No, we're staying!" Anger Heart raised he hands, now balled into fists.
Guidance Heart nodded then concentrated, once again turning invisible before running off to the front of the building.
As Guidance left, Calm Heart touched the side of the building. "There's a small closet about fifteen feet in that way," she pointed down the wall to her right.
"How do you do that?" Anger Heart asked.
"Seismic senses through earth magic. This building is still made of earth, well bricks but brick still comes from the earth so it works just as well," Calm Heart explained, walking in the direction she had indicated with her hand still on the wall.
"This is the best way in, no one's inside and we can enter without raising an alarm." Calm Heart stopped and turned to the wall. She touched the wall and cracks formed along the mortar and pulled a section out like a doorway. Wordlessly the other four filed into the closet, followed by Calm Heart, who closed the wall behind her.
"It won't be a perfect seal, but it's the least likely way anyone will think we came in," Calm Heart said, "Now we just wait for a text or an alarm."
Guidance Heart was happy that no one could see her sweating. She waited for five minutes as the last of the Hunters filed in, quickly darting in before the door closed behind the last one. The lobby was empty, save for three doors on the back wall and an unattended receptionist desk. Guidance Heart watched the hunters move into the middle of the three doors.
Guidance Heart waited a couple minutes before moving to the same door they had entered and carefully pushing it open, breathing a sigh of relief when nothing bad happened. She slipped in quietly and looked up, gulping at the security camera. She carefully closed the door, praying that the one on the other end of the camera didn't notice the door opening and closing.
Guidance moved fast, thankful that she couldn't be seen, checking each door as she went down the corridors. Finally she found a door with a plate on the door that read "security" with the door slightly ajar. She peered in and breathed a sigh of relief as she saw that the room was empty. Stepping inside she relaxed and let her invisibility spell drop. The security room looked fairly typical: a pair of chairs both facing a desk, each with a computer and microphone in front of it, with the wall above the computers covered in television monitors that each showed a different area of the building.
Guidance checked to make sure there was absolutely no one in the room before shutting the door behind her and pushing the lock button on the knob. She sat down in one of the chair and checked the computer screen, opening a program named "Security systems".
When she tried to open it she got a username and password screen. "Oh no," she checked over her shoulder to make sure no one was behind her, "How am I supposed to turn on the security lockdown?" She shook her head and just guessed. She typed in the one name she had heard a hunter used, Styles, and tried "die magic" as the password, only to be greeted with a box that said: "Username and password are incorrect. Please try again."
Guidance Heart slumped back in the chair, "Now what do I do? I could try making this thing lock down." She was about to try and type in the password again when she heard a click at the door behind her. Panicking she was forced to make herself invisible and darted across the room as the door opened and two hunters entered.
"I thought the door wasn't locked," One asked.
"It's supposed to be locked all the time," The older one retorted.
"I wish we could be in that meeting, I'm sick of nothing happening around here," The first hunter sighed as he dropped into one of the chairs.
Guidance watched them log in and took a deep breath, 'this better work' she thought to herself. The invisible raccoon crept across the room, careful not to make any noise, until she was right behind the two hunters who were now basically zoned out, watching nothing happening on the monitors. 'At least the others haven't been spotted. I really hope they're inside.' Guidance Heart checked the two hunters and saw that each of them had a handgun on a belt holster. She gulped and reached forwards, undoing the button that held one of the guns in place. The hunter grunted and swatted as if at a mosquito, forcing Guidance to jump back to avoid being hit and giving herself away. She waited an moment before doing the same to the other hunter's holster, causing him to look over at the younger hunter, glare, and then go back to staring at the monitor.
Guidance nearly lost her invisibility but took a minute to ready herself. Her heart was racing as she approached the two hunters and carefully reached forwards, tensing as one of the hunters scratched an itch on his ear, and made sure she could grab both guns at once.
Throwing all subtlety to the wind, Guidance grabbed both guns and jumped back, her invisibility fading as she dropped one of the guns and it clattered across the floor. Both guards spun around only to be faced with a light and dark blue raccoon girl, holding them both at gunpoint.
"What the!? Who or what?" the younger one sputtered.
"How did you get in here!" the older one demanded, reaching for his gun, only to find it missing.
"Don't make me do this," Guidance pleaded. Both of her hands were on the gun's grip as she backed up against the wall.
He laughed at here, clearly seeing she was afraid. "You're not gonna use it. So why don't you just hand it over and I'll make sure you go down nice and swift." He walked towards her, arm reaching for the knife on his leg.
Guidance Heart panicked and fired the gun. The shot went wide but hit one of the televisions on the wall.
The younger Hunter snickered, "little shaky aren't we?" Already feet were could be heard running, coming to investigate the shot.
Guidance Hert closed her eyes and began firing wildly, the shots were too close and caused the two hunters to dive to the ground; the sounds of shattering glass indicated the shots wer still hitting the televisions.
Finally the gunfire stopped and Guidance Heart had vanished. Cursing the two got to their feet. By then the backup had arrived. "We have an intruder. Sound the alarm!" The older man shouted before running off.
"Uhh right," the younger of the hunters turned to the computer, "can let her get away, better lock down." He said.
A moment later, alarms began blaring and metal shutters dropped down on all doors that led from the outside decoy rooms. Still in the closet, Love Heart nodded and drew one of his swords. "This is it, let's finish this."
A group of Hunters went running into Love Hearts hallway, "That freak couldn't have gotten far."
Love Heart burst out into the corridor and ran right into the hunters. He wasted no time and running one of them through and shooting a lightning bolt at another.
"So much for subtlety!" Confidence Heart shouted as she dove at another and threw a punch, knocking him back against the wall. The remaining Hunters all scrabbled for their weapons. Only a few managed to get shots off.
Independent Bear appeared in the hallway and sliced one of the hunters in half in an instant before annihilating one with a blast of spirit energy. Anger Heart stumbled into the hall right as the last hunter fell and shook his head.
"Are you alright?" Calm Heart asked.
"Yeah, I guess," Anger Heart shook his head again, "So now what?"
"Split up. Calm Heart and Confidence, you go with Anger Heart and try to find Guidance Heart," Love Heart pointed one way down the hall with his sword, "Indy and I will go the other way. Clear this place out." Love Heart drew his other sword as he and Independent bear dashed off down the hallway.
A bunch of Hunters were milling about in the hallway Anger Heart and the girls went down. They seemed confused by the lockdown. "I heard it's not a pegasus, one of those weird stuffed animal things."
Her comrade scowled, "Well then what's the deal? I can't imagine this is so serious."
Anger Heart darted ahead of Calm Heart and Confidence and ran right into one of the hunters. "Crap!" He jumped back and raised his hands, shooting of a stream of fire that unfortunately went too high, blazing over the hunters' heads.
The Hunter kicked Anger in the gut. "Get off of me you freak." He said as he did so. His female friend took a gold tipped whip off her belt and cracked it at the other two.
Anger Heart struggled to stand as Calm Heart stomped the ground, sending a rock spire crashing into the hunter with the whip. Confdence shit forwards on a blast of wind and kicked one of the hunter's heads into the wall, crushing it under her foot and sending another flying with a blast of wind.
"OK I can imagine this is serious!" The hunter grabbed his gun and fired, rewarded with a cry of pain from Anger Heart as the shot hit his left forearm. His eurphoria was short lived when the fox's retliatory fire blast consumed the hunter's hands causing him to scream until Calm Heart's mace crushed his skull.
Conifdence checked Anger's arm, "Looks like ti went right through, can you move your arm?"
"Yeah," Anger Heart nodded.
"We'll have to get you treatment later, we're far from done," Calm Heart said as she helped the fox to his feet.
In the control room Styles, the young Hunter who had taken an interest in "Faye" watched as his brothers and sisters were slaughtered. He felt his blood boiling as one by one they fell. Getting on his radio he called "Green leader. Meet me in the armory with your team. These invaders will not live another hour."
A woman's voice came over, "Roger that Styles." Spinning on his heels he stormed from the room just missing Indy chopping some man's arm off.
Independent Bear once again incinerated the hunter he was facing as Love Heart finished off one with a surge of electricity.
"This would be a lot faster with a map," Independent said, wiping the blood off his sword.
"Well we don't have one and as long as we're in here we just have to be thorough and not draw any unwanted attention," Love Heart replied.
"Unwanted attention? Are you joking?" Bullets flew all around the two Magi as the clearly pissed Hunter advanced on them. "You are killing our brethren in the one place we are safe. How exactly do you describe unwanted attention?"
"The actual authorities and the humans who aren't corrupted by your genocidal ideals," Independent said as he dashed forwards, a shield of blue energy forming in front of him as he ran. The Hunters bullets ricocheted off the shield and a few flew back at him, hitting him in various places. He yelled out and stumbled back.
"We don't enjoy this," Indy said as he stepped to the now crippled hunter, "But we can't let you corrupt humanity. If you hadn't killed our father when he wasn't even trying to fight back, then perhaps we could have resolved this peacefully." Indy plunged the sword into the hunter's skull, killing him instantly.
As Indy did so, two walls dropped down in front of and behind Love Heart. A mechanical voice echoed around them, "Hallway 7 effectively sealed."
"Well that's pathetic," Love Heart deadpanned, "Indy can you?"
"Gladly," Indy raised his empty left hand and gathered spirit energy that he used to blast a massive hole in the metal wall. "Now let's keep moving."
Styles and his Green team were waiting for them in an atrium. They were armed with fancy looking guns and Styles himself was brandishing a sword of foreign material. His armour seemed to be made of the same stuff, it almost looked like overlapping metal feathers. Pointing the sword at the two, Styles said, "This ends here."
"You're right about one thing then!" Love Heart charged his sword with Lightning and swung them in Styles direction, sending two crescent shaped waves of lightning, crossed like an X, at him. Styles was hit dead on but the lightning just dissipated off his armor. "What the!" Love Heart stepped back.
Chuckling he twirled his sword around his hand, "Ahh so you have no idea what these useful things are. Everheard of Stormwings? Well their feathers deflect all magic. They've been passed down through my family for generations.
"Well these swords aren't just for show, en-garde!" Love Heart charged and swung down hard with his right sword, striking Styles' sword with his own as it was raised to deflect his blow.
He caught it on the blade above his hilt. "Neither are mine. Foul creatures, stormwings,, but their feathers cut through steel like its warm butter." With a flick of his wrist he freed his blade and came back at Love Heart. "I'm no slouch either. I'm bred for killing you things!"
"Well it's a good thing these swords can't be broken that easily!" Love Heart blocked withhis left sword.
"Take aim at the bear," The green leader ordered her team, only to have her gun's barrel sliced off.
"No one will interfere with their duel," Indy pointed his katana at the green team, "If you think you can contend myself and Soot, then come at me." Independent bear's eyes were steeled as he faced down the team.
The woman smirked and pulled a small bladed baton from her belt. "It's not as fun as cutting off pegasus' wings but I suppose I can add your fur to my trophy case." To emphasis her point she lifted her hair, showing off a long line of many different colored feathers concealed beneath, "One for each."
"And part of me was starting to second guess our attack here," Indy took his katana in both hands, "If your team will not interfere in this fight then I will fight you without my magic."
"Your funeral," she charged at him, aiming her baton for his stomach. Behind her the Green team was lining up for shots.
Seeing the team readying their guns, Indy threw up a spirit energy barrier in front of them and blocked the green leader's bladed baton with his katana's blade. "I hate to sound like a cliche, but I won't let them break the agreement to an honorable duel."
She didn't look away, "They are readying in case I loose. Then you will not make it another step. Still feeling brave teddy bear?"
"I'd be lying if I said I wasn't afraid but that won't stop me," Indy replied, dropping and swinging out at the leader's legs.
"The sight of Sage Heart being murdered while not lifting a finger to fight back will push us onwards!" Love Heart struck at and hit Styles' armor, making a shallow cut but not penetrating the armor.
Styles frowned at the scratch in his armor. Taking his blade he hit Love Heart in the head with the flat of the blade. "Just as my family has been driven on since my ancestor was killed by those damn creatures."
Love Heart staggered backwards, stars filling his vision as Styles' next attack cut a bloody line across his chest. "What right does one death give you to condemn every race of magic to death!" Love Heart shook his head to clear it and struck out with both swords at once, catching Styles' sword in the crevice where they crossed, "If you had left us alone then we would not be here. We wanted no part in your war but you dragged us in against our will!"
"Magic has no place in this world!" Styles snarled and shoved with all his might to dislodge Love Heart.
"What right do you have to decide what has a right to exist in this world!?" Love Heart swung his swords with full strength, causing Styles to stumble backwards allow Love Heart to cut two more gashes in his armor.
Recovering he shot back, "Things that kill innocent humans for no reason are not allowed to live. Being the predominate species gives is that right!"
"And the rest of the Care Bear Family wanted to negotiate with you!" Love Heart spat back, "If only True Heart and Noble Heart could hear you now!" Their swords clashed once again.
Guidance Heart was pressed up against a wall as she heard footsteps comign her way, struggling to maintain her invisibility and praying that whoever found her couldn't see through it. She turned to see who was coming and breathed a sigh of relief when she saw Anger Heart, Calm Heart and Confidence Heart.
The blue raccoon dropped her invisibility and dashed towards them, grabbing Anger Heart in a tight hug, "I'm sorry, I panicked and I had to run!" She shot out while holding the fox close.
Anger hugged her back with his right arm, still not wanting to move his left arm wit the bullet hole in it. "It's alright, you're alive at least."
"As long as the security lockdown is on then they can't get away, so it's fine," Calm Heart reassured her.
Guidance Heart nodded then looked down at the blood on Anger's arm. "You're bleeding!"
"Got shot, but the bullet went through," Anger Heart said.
"I saw some first aid two rooms back, this way," Guidance grabbed Anger's good arm and began pulling him in the direction, with Confidence and Calm Heart following.
Five Hunters stood between them and the first aid supplies. As the group came into the room a Hunter threw a net over them, bringing them down to the floor. "Got them."
"Damnit!" Anger Heart shouted as fire gathered in his hands.
"Wait, don't-" Calm Heart warned but it was too late. Anger Heart shot out a blast of fire towards the hunters, burning the net.
"AAAH!" Guidance screamed as the burnt ends of the net hit her skin, the heated melting gold burning her as it touched her. Confidence reacted quickly, grabbing the net and throwing it away, before blasting the still liquefied gold off of Guidance with wind, which sent the remains of the net at the hunters.
A few managed to get out of the room before the net hit them, the rest did not escape without some serious burns. The cowards fled however. Like everyone else they had underestimated the Magi.
"I'll take care of them," Confidence said, taking off after the fleeing hunters while Calm Heart grabbed the first aid supplies.
"I'm so sorry," Anger Heart apologized, trying to help Guidance up but tried to pull with his injured arm and flinched back.
"It's alright, Anger Heart," Guidance Heart reassured him, "you freed us."
Calm Heart set a first aid kit down next to them, "The burns aren't severe and there won't be any lasting damage. Let me treat both of you."
One of the burned Hunters saw Confidence taking off after them and began firing back at her. Confidence jumped up, using bursts of wind to help dodge, but getting two bullets in her chest but not dropping. She kicked the gun out of his hand and grabbed it, using the butt of the gun to smash his head in then darting after the others, not giving them a chance to retaliate, stunned that she hadn't been killed.
Another Hunter had the same thought. He had seen the bullets go into her chest and yet she was still coming after them. "What are you demon?"
"No demon. I just spent a little extra on some kevlar," Confidence darted forwards and pummeled the man to the ground finishing with a kick that sent his head into the wall. Once she was certain she was alone, Confidence let herself falla gainst teh wall. "Owowowowow!" she opened the front of her white gi and pulled the two bullets taht had stuck half their length into the kevlar vest on the front, "Definately worth the price, ow!" she winced as the last bullet pulled out. The spots were bloody but she knew it could have been a lot worse, "Would have gotten the thicker stuff if it wasn't so restrictive."
A female Hunter nearby pressed some buttons in the security consul. It activated some or defences in the hallway, lasers, auto guns, and even a few trap doors that deposited people into cells in the basement.
Confidence ran back the way she came, out of sight of the traps. "You've got to be kidding me, I can't do this alone," she said, before taking off back to the first aid room.
Calm Heart had just finish cleaning and dressing Anger Heart and Guidance Heart's injuries when Confidence returned.
"We've got some traps to deal with," the fennec said.
"You've been hurt!" Guidance said, spotting the two blood spots on her chest.
"Yeah, got shot twice but it just hit the vest," Confidence said, "Think I need to get treated?"
"Just a little bandaging," Calm Heart said, motioning for Confidence to sit down.
A short time later, Calm Heart had finished and closed up the first aid kit, "We should keep this, this isn't going to get any cleaner," she passed it to Guidance, who accepted it as Calm Heart picked up her mace again. "What kind of traps did you see, Confidence?"
"Guns from the walls and ceiling mostly, and the floor looked less stable," Confidence replied.
"Automatic trap weapons and floor traps. Who knows what they are." Calm Heart thought for a moment then turned to Anger Heart. "Anger Heart, can you fill that hallway with fire, or at least hit all the guns with fire?" she asked.
"Sure, but why?" Anger Heart asked as he stood up.
"Their ammunition is made of or mixed with gold, just like that net. If you provide enough heat to melt it then the ammunition will melt and it could easily jam the guns, since gold has such a high melting point," Calm Heart explained.
"I could do that, sure," Anger Heart nodded.
"Good, then let's take care of this," Confidence Heart pulled ehr kevlar vest back on and re-did her gi up, "Follow me."
Confidence stopped her three friends a the last corner then peer around, pulling back before any of teh guns could get a bead on them, "There's about a dozen guns pointed this way, as soon as I looked around the corner they started aiming at me."
"This presents a risk," Calm Heart said.
"I could try to blind them," Guidance offered, "A bright flash of light to confuse their cameras long enough to let Anger Heart try and destroy them."
"That could work, but be careful, and don't just do one flash, do a few while Anger Heart burns them," Calm Heart suggested.
"Alright," Guidance Heart said. She stood still for a moment, an prb of light forming in her hand. Not wasting any time she shot it out and created a bright flash, stepping out slightly and sending out another flash three seconds later. Anger Heart took his chance and dove out, shooting streams of flame at each of the dozen guns on the ceiling and walls, holding the streams for about 10 seconds amid more flashes. Finally the streams left off and Guidance stopped shooting the flashes. The guns tried to fire and half of them just sputtered as some molten gold leaked out the barrels, the others just made loud pulsing noises as heat spots appeared on the walls behind Anger Heart and Guidance, who dove back around the corner.
"What the hell were those?!" Anger Heart demanded.
"Possibly lasers set to fire in a pulse," Calm Heart said.
"Where I didn't see any lasers!" Anger Heart shot back.
"You can't see lasers, or at least not the beams. They're only visible in dusty areas or darkness. They shouldn't even be making noise," Guidance Heart explained.
"They probably made the lasers go 'pewpewpew' so they would know when they were being fired," Confidence added.
"So how do we get past them?" Anger Heart asked.
"That could pose a problem. There's a basement below here so reaching the earth below this part will be difficult," Calm Heart said.
Meanwhile the Green leader had her hand pressed to her neck. Blood was seeping through her fingers from a lucky shot Indy had gotten in. She needed to end this and end it now, her temper was starting to make her decisions rash.
"You're slipping," Indy stood out of range, his sword no in one hand, holding spirit magic with his left hand to heal a wound on his chest. She all but hissed at the display of magic and darted forward to attack him. Her baton was aimed right for the crevice of Indy's neck. Her team was getting twitchy, wanting to intervene and aid their leader.
Time seemed to slow down as Indy took his sword in both hands and held it up, he dodged aside and jumped back, "This ends now."
Whipping her baton around she tried once more to hit Indy. "Your pelt will be on my wall!" she screeched at him.
Indy didn't retort but his face hardened as he raised his sword over his head which began to glow with blue energy. As soon as green leader was in range he swung down with his full strength.
The force of the blow was awesome. The shockwave created by the infused spirit energy sliced her in half, vaporising most the area around where he struck. Indy winced as he felt the baton stick in his shoulder, carried on the momentum of the Green leader's running. "I may have used magic, but I still beat you with my skill," Independent Bear said aloud.
"Karen!" A man from her unit yelled before charging Indy attempting to tackle him. "I'll rip your throat out with my bare hands!" Styles heard the commotion but didn't turn from his fight. He stayed focused on Love Heart.
Indy just barely had time to pull the bladed baton from his shoulder before he was tackled. Before the hunter could draw his weapon, Indy kicked out, sending him back towards the rest of his unit.
"Fire! Kill the furry Bastard!" The man yelled at the unit.
Indy threw up a shield, blocking the volley of bullets from the green team. "You leader was skilled, but the rest of you are pathetic." He sheathed his sword and held out his right hand, charging up an orb of spirit energy in his palm.
"Should we use a grenade?" Before someone could respond another Hunter hurled a smoke bomb at Indy. It exploded sending out clouds of black. Indy didn't bother to try and see through the smoke and instead fired a massive blast of spirit energy at the team. Screams were heard as it made contact and by the time the smoke had cleared green team was no more.
Love Heart had several cuts across his body and he was panting as he and Styles circled each other. Style was tired as well but thanks to his armor his hadn't been actually injured yet.
"You aren't walking out of the base alive. Die with some dignity." Styles taunted.
"I will walk out alive, but you won't," Love Heart retorted. He took a deep breath and yellow lightning began to crackle across his body.
For the first time during the fight Styles looked slightly afraid. "Magical attacks are pointless. They won't get through my armor."
"I know," Love Heart raised his swords, "But this isn't an attack as much as it is a boost." The bear winced in pain as the stimulation of the electricity coursed across his body, "I call it, electric stimulation."
"Unless that boost makes you invincible it won't stop my sword," He attempted to stab Love Heart.
Love Heart dodged aside so suddenly that for an instant he appeared to vanish. "No, it makes me faster," he pulled his arms across his chest with his swords pointing upwards, "And stronger!" With that last declaration he swung both swords at once, aiming for Style's neck. Styles' head thumped to the floor and Love Heart landed behind his body, which fell forwards. An instant later, the lightning covering Love Heart's body dissipated and he clinched, gritting his teeth as pain shot through his body.
"That hurts, doesn't it," Independent said, holding a hand over the injury in his shoulder.
"Yeah, I still can't release the lightning without getting hurt by it, but it worked at least. How are you?" Love Heart asked back.
"I'm using up more mana than I thought I would but I'll survive," he removed his righ hand from the wound on his left shoulder, which had mostly closed, "Better save some just in case there's more of them."
"Right," Love Heart nodded, "let's keep moving!" Love Heart and Indy took back off down the hall.
Guidance Heart jumped back around the corner and turned visible again, painting, "They could see me, must have infrafred sights," she winced at the light burn where she had nearly been hit by one of the invisible beams.
"Infrared?" Anger Heart asked.
"Heat detectors, basically," Calm Heart said.
"Heat huh?" Anger Heart grinned. The fox conjured three small balls of fire in his hand. Taking a deep breath he jumped out and shot the three fireballs across the room. Guidance covered her eyes as the sounds of the lasers firing reached her ears.
"YES!" Anger Heart jumped, looking at the smouldering remains of the laser guns. "They follow heat so I just used the fireballs to make them shoot each other."
"Pretty smart," Confidence nodded.
"Well I can be smart at times, except when I'm taking tests," Anger Heart grumbled the last part of his sentence.
"Well let's get going," Calm Heart concentrated and a small rock appeared in her hand then tossed it forwards. The rock landed on a tile, which collapsed into a trap door, "Don't step on the floor."
"That I can handle, hold on!" Confidence grabbed Calm Heart and Guidance, who grabbed onto Anger Heart. Confidence pulled them forwards and jumped, boosting their jump with wind magic allowing them to sail across the entire hall way, unfortunately smacking into the wall.
"A bit too much," Anger Heart grumbled as he dropped to the floor, massaging his nose.
"Well we're over the traps aren't we?" Confidence said.
"Yes we are, now let's try to find the control room," Calm Heart said
Two hunters waited in the control room, weapons pointed at the door. They were not field agents and as such were already shaking from the attack on the base. On the monitors Styles had been viewing before, they had watched almost all their friends be killed by these invaders. "Just shoot as soon as you see movement. Maybe we'll take them by surprise," The other one nodded.
Confidence Heart charged ahead, stopping at the closed door marked, "control room" and squinting at it.
"This is a bit to obvious," she said.
"Well they never anticipated an invasion," Calm Heart said, "They probably didn't want new arrivals getting confused."
"Yeah OW!" the Confidence was shot in the front again through the door and she jumped to the side, muttering something as she pulled a third bullet out of the kevlar undershirt.
"Stay back and we won't shoot you. Our orders were to defend this room and we will." ONe of the Hunters called.
"Oh I'll do this," Anger Heart was about to step to the door when Guidance Heart stopped him.
"Let me try something," she said before calling to the door, "Do you know everything that's going on here?"
"We know you are invaders. You are here to kill us all," The Hunter called back.
"Only to preserve our lives; your organization has declared that all magical creatures need to be destroyed. Do you really believe that's true?" Calm Heart called, seeing if Guidance Heart's method would work.
The two exchanged a look. "We were just called in to work the mechanical stuff. We didn't ask questions because the pay was good."
"Then I will say this, the Hunters are genocidal poachers. They are trying to wipe our race out because they don't think we should be allowed to exist. I watched them kill my father simply because he was a practitioner of magic even though he never fought back," Calm Heart said.
"Do you two have families?" Guidance Heart asked through the door.
"Yes." The one man lowered his weapon slightly, "And we knew what these guys did. But we don't participate in it. But we need the paycheck."
His companion chimed in, "It's hard finding good contracts outside the government."
"If you put your weapons down we promise not to hurt you, we'll even help you out of here. If this place is a secret from the world government then there should be no questions," Guidance Heart said.
"If you help us get into their controls then we might be able to help you out some," Calm Heart offered.
The Hunters didn't drop their weapons however. "Come around where we can see you. We promise not to shoot but we will not go unarmed until we know you aren't trying to trick us." The louder of the two called to the magi.
"Alright," Guidance stepped forwards, the first aid kit tucked under her arm as she pushed the door open. Calm Heart Lynx followed to stand next to her, her mace left at her side. Anger Heart and Guidance Heart both tensed, waiting to see what would happen.
True to their word the hunters lowered their weapons to their sides. "Come in and close the door. If anyone sees this we're all dead."
"Thank you," Guidance said, motioning for Anger Heart and Confidence to follow her and Calm Heart into the room, with Confidence Heart shutting the door behind her.
"Alright, we'll help you get out at the end, but could you please help us get into the system," Calm Heart asked, pointing to the computer on the desk.
Nodding the man on the right sat in the console chair and quickly typed in the passwords necessary to access the computer. "It's pretty straight forward. We had to make it simple for this crowd."
"We should just need to access the files and communications," Guidance Heart said.
"And since this place is coming down anyways you might want to add to your last paycheck," Confidence Heart suggested. Giving a nervous chuckle the other Hunter went to do just that on another monitor.
"Looks like Love Heart and Indy alright," Anger Heart said, turning to watch their actions on the screen.
"They look a bit beat up but they'll survive," Confidence Heart said, nodding at the screens.
"Thanks for helping us," Guidance Heart said to the two men.
They nodded at them. "If it's all the same, we will be staying in here until you ummm, finish. If they see us fleeing we'll be killed for mutiny."
"Alright, once we've finished we can sneak you out. You don't want to get caught when someone finally comes to investigate," Calm Heart said, "We just need to send a message to all the current bases and get a list of them to take with us."
The quieter of the two cleared his throat, "All do respect ma'am. There are some fellas on those bases like us who are only here for a job, not for the cause. If you could give them a chance to get out I'd be much obliged."
"We'll do our best, hopefully the long period of silence from headquarters and the lack of the largest fanatics will convince most of them to clear out. I'm guessing most of the younger recruits and tech personnel have never even seen a creature of magic before," Guidance Heart said.
He nodded, "I hadn't even until now. Well no, that's not true. I've seen a dead one once." His face fell, "It's why I don't leave this room."
"Because you saw a dead Pegasus?" Anger Heart asked, his eyes still focused on the television screens.
"Because I saw somethin beautiful reduced to a joke," he affirmed.
"Most of our species want to help humanity to survive," Guidance Heart said, "but our deity knew that there would be dangers our kind would not be able to face without resorting to violence, so our small group was created to deal with that and let the rest of the family simply help those in need."
"Honestly we really didn't want to do this, but we got pulled in and we've never even been given a chance to negotiate," Confidence sighed.
"Figures. You all get what you need? Looks like your friends are pretty much done," one of the techs said.
"I'll take over," Guidance scootched into the seat, "I should be able send a message to all the bases from here right?"
"Yeah, just use the address book to send to all contacts," One said.
"Alright," Guidance began typing a message into the email.
Attention all bases. Due to extreme circumstances we are issuing a standing order for the staff of every base to remain on base until further notice.
"How does that look?" she turned to ask all those present.
"It's called a code purple. Put that in there somewhere so they think it's legit," The chatty communicator said.
"Alright," Guidance went back and redid her text.
Attention all hunter bases Due to extreme circumstances we are issuing a code purple until further notice
"Is that better?" She asked.
The two nodded, "That should do it."
"Alright," Guidance hit send and waited a minute for the message to be sent to all the bases on the list.
"Good. Now we just need a flash drive or something similar so we can save all the base locations," Calm Heart said. One of the men handed her one.
"Thanks," Calm Heart passed the drive to Guidance Heart.
It took about five minutes for Guidance Heart to find and copy all the appropriate files from the computer. "That should be all, there aren't as many as I thought. Thanks for all you're help."
The men nodded at her. One went to open the door for them, "Remember, this never happened and we never helped you."
"And the hunters never existed so you never worked for them. This was all off-the-record work," Calm Heart winked as she left.
"When the place is cleared out head up to the roof and down the fire escape, that's the way we're heading when we finish," Confidence replied as they she dashed after the others. The man locked the door behind them. Resuming their posts at the monitors they watched to see if the Magi would finish their mission.
Love Heart pulled out his buzzing cell phone as he and Indy paused near a door, "Looks like the others finished locking down the other bases and getting the info we needed." Another text came in, "Also we should leave the two guys in the control room alone."
"Good, we're almost done," Indy said. His wounds had visibly closed by now but blood was still sticking to the fur near the cuts.
As the group of four reached the lower levels they began to look for any remaining Hunters. Spreading out slightly they began to check rooms.
"It seems quiet here, maybe we got them all?" Calm Heart voiced after checking a room. Guidance Heart's gasp of surprise however changed her mind. Turning the group saw a man holding a gun to Guidance's temple. His arm was around her throat.
"Nobody move."
Anger Heart growled and bared his teeth. "Let her go!" he demanded.
The man pressed the gun deeper into her temple. "Only if you let me go." He replied. His voice remained smooth and cold, he was very confident.
Calm Heart gave the man's outfit a once over, "Can I assume that you're the one in charge here?"
"Assume whatever you want it won't change anything."
Confidence Heart watched him carefully, "If you do anything to hurt her."
His laugh was cruel, "If I was who you think I am then do you think I got to this position by acting stupid?" Looking them over he added, "Or by not knowing how to protect myself."
Guidance struggled in his grip, managing to get an arm free. The man tightened his grip around her throat cutting off her air supply. "Stop struggling!"
Smoke seemed to be coming out of Anger Heart's eyes but he held himself back, just in case he pulled the trigger. The lack of air was starting to cloud Guidance's vision and she could barely force herself to stay awake, but she mustered one last bit of strength and created a bright flash of light with her free hand, throwing it backwards right into the man's face.
Crying out he turned his face away from guidance. His arm loosened enough to allow her to breathe however she underestimated his reflexes. Angling the gun down he shot her through the leg. Guidance's cry of pain was too much for Anger Heat and he shot forwards, using the man's moment of blindness to tackle him, knocking Guidance out of his grip as he fell to the floor Calm Heart immediately dashed over to the raccoon to make sure she was still breathing. On his back the man had his gun pointed at Anger Heart and fired a shot before fleeing.
The rage clouding Anger Heart's vision was such that he didn't even flinch when the gun went off and fired began building in his hands. "DIE!" Anger Heart shot his hands forwards and sent a massive wave of fire forwards. The hunter barely had time to turn and no time to raise his gun before the flames consumed him.
Anger Heart didn't stop pouring the fire on for a full minute finally collapsing back onto his butt, leaving the man as a charred mess where he had once stood.
The men in the control room saw the fire engulf the head Hunter before the camera was knocked out. Looking at each other they grabbed what they needed and headed for the roof.
"Wow, now that was fire," Confidence Heart whistled as she moved to help Anger Heart stand up.
"Guidance's alright, the bullet didn't hit anything vital," Calm Heart reassured Anger Heart as she used the first aid kit's contents to pull the bullet out and dress the wound.
"Good, then let's get out of here," Confidence said, pulling out her cell phone to text Love Heart and Independent Bear before they headed up to the roof.