The Republic
Liverpool, England
NOB: 5.5%
Jon Loryne felt his head ring as he opened his eyes to see he was still in one of the Nightclub's party rooms from last night, leaning against a wooden support beam, he lifted his head from the wooden wall to look around to see beer bottles, red cups, party items, and, of course, passed out party goers all across the floor, two were on the couch hugging each other, and another was drooling on his shirt.
After the Nemean Lion collected himself, he started to search amongst the bodies to find his DJ friend, after avoiding stepping on the guests on the smooth wooden floor, he found his friend, Bhadraksh, in the corridor on a wooden chair, twisting a paperclip into all different shapes. He was wearing his usual night black and shiny white hoodie with a skull on his face*, which obscured his true form.
Bhadraksh was what the Avalon called 'The Noseless Ones', they were insect-like people, with multiple arms, large red eyes, and had a 'robot' like personality to them, with them usually dropping simple words and adopting a more verbose or 'smart people' talk. If a Human saw a noseless one, they would surely die from a Entomophobic* heart attack, so that's why Bhadraksh and his fellow noseless wore things like hoodies.
"Hey, Mate."
His friend looked at him "Yes? Jon?".
"We need to pack up, It will be about 20 minutes until these youngsters start waking up."
"Agreed."
The hooded figure then sat up from the wooden chair, making a big creak while doing so, the two stood still in suspense to see if they woke anybody up, luckily they didn't so they managed to pack their things and started heading down the hallway to the front room, when they did, Bhadraksh stopped his friend by putting his arm infront of him
"It seems that your calculation was wrong Loryne."
"What are you talking abou-"
The grouchy lion stopped talking as soon as he saw a ginger haired and black haired pair of teens sitting at the bar, one had white skin and orange spiky hair, and the other had black combed hair and dark skin, they were having some soda when they noticed the two older men in the room.
"Oh hello!" The ginger-haired one greeted in an American accent "Are you those DJ guys?".
"Uhmm…" Jon groaned, not sure on what to say "Yes?...".
"Well, I'm Jonathan Collins, I'm a tourist from America, my friend here brought me here so we could party and get to know the music here, and i must say, your stuff was excellent last night!" he explained, getting up from his seat and approaching the two with his hand stretched out.
Jon and Bhadraksh looked at each other before shaking the man's hand.
"Hey, just before me and my friend head out, can I get your names? I want to look up your band on the internet so I can listen to it later!"
"Uhm...were kinda a local band, and we don't really have a name so…"
"Oh." Jonathan simply said, a small frown spreading across his face "Well...maybe i can come again sometime?".
"Sure, I guess?" Jon replied, wanting the conversation to be over.
"Great! Come on Ahmed, why don't you take us to that local charity shop down on Lord Street?"
Jonathan, Ahmed, Jon and Bhadraksh exited the Nightclub, two pairs going in two separate ways, one to the car park, the other to Stanley Dock. Jon and Bhadraksh walked down the street, which seemed to be unusably busy today, with there being around 10 more people than usual rather than the average 1 or 2.
However, that wasn't the only strange thing about the city, when they entered a street more nearer to the downtown area, there was something off about the residents as the two walked down the street. People seemed to be more...aware or something like that, if they found out about something really surprising, or had stumbled upon something surreal, they heard people gossiping to each other, but never that loudly to catch any words, and people actually seemed to be gathering around newsagents and television displays, as if they were awaiting for an update on some big important event.
"Wot the hell is going on?"
The two decided that they would investigate what was going on, they stopped outside one of the stores with television displays, where they made their way through the small crowd that had gathered around, trying not to look suspicious at all. They managed to reach their way to the window, where there was an anchorman giving updates on something, a face of confusion and uncertainty as his expression, the two looked at each other confused but intrigued to see what all the fuss was about.
"Recent updates on the current situation have been reported, as the U.S Army have fully managed to cut the state of Missouri, after the mysterious and unhoax-like 'Sphinx of Missouri' footage as its come to be called has shocked hundreds of millions across the world."
Jon and Bhadraksh were shocked to the core when they heard what the news anchorman had just said, one, SPHINXES WERE SUPPOSED TO BE EXTINCT, and two, THE HUMANS WERE FINDing OUT ABOUT THEM, the two looked at each other nervously, unsure what to do.
"Bhadraksh! What should we do!?" Jon whispered to his obscured friend.
"I am unsure." He said, with actual terror in his verbose voice "Maybe we should continue walking ahead?".
The two then noticed something across the street to their right. There was a police car parked outside the local Delhi, with two police officers talking to the owners, an old man and woman, the couple had worried faces, while the police had an expression as if they found out something shocking not too long ago, but we're trying to keep their calm and tried to do their jobs.
Jon had never noticed the couple before, always looking down or focusing n getting to the Republic rather than observe the city around him, he would have ignored them if it weren't for the current situation, and that they couple were wearing something shiny around their necks. Jon knew in his head what it was, but just to be sure, he focused on the two objects and confirmed what he had feared.
The couple was wearing medallions.
Jon knew what was happening, he knew the face of a human who witnessed the Avalon, or anything fantastical in general, restrained shock, contemplation, and nervousness, He could see it on the policemen' s situation, trying to reassure the couple as they led them into their car. Jon had a terrible feeling on where they were going, what if the humans weren't going to see the mythicals as people? And that the couple were just one of many being rounded up and sent to places they would never leave?
That's when an idea popped into his head "Bhadraksh!".
Bhadraksh looked at his friend "Yes? Jon?", he was soon lead away from the television display, with them running back to the way of the Republic.
"May I ask you a question? Where are we heading towards Jon?" the Beetle man asked, as they passed the Republic.
"I know the car park is just behind here! I just know it" the grouchy lion answered.
They turned a corner and saw the exit of the car park infront of them, and just in time as a car with Jonathan and Ahmed exited out, the driver saw the two and stopped his car, with Jonathan poking his head out of the car window with slight confusion in his face.
"Jon? Is there a problem? I thought that you two were just heading home on your own?"
Jon quickly thought up an excuse "Oh yeah, about that, ye see that my friend's car stopped working, so we need a ride."
"Oh! Well! We can give you a ride!" Jonathan offered as a small but noticeable smile made its way across his face.
"Where are you going exactly?" Ahmed asked, not looking at the two men directly.
Jon answered "Can you drop us off at Stanley Dock?".
"Stanley Dock? Why do you need to go to the docks?" Jonathan inquired, an eyebrow raised.
"Well…" Jon stuttered, trying to make up another excuse "...my Father works there as a mechanic, I need to inform him that my friend's car is broken down!" he replied in full detail.
"Well, okay, hop in the back" Jonathan said, getting out of the car to let the two in, the two smiled at each other, this was probably the best convenit luck they had in months, and from the humans of all places!
HM Prison Liverpool
NOB: 5.5%
Belen and Mr. Pather sat in the blue office chairs in the small warden's office, with blue walls and a wooden floor, and several awards and decorations hanging on the wall, such as a grandfather clock, an award for 'Best Prison in Britain' and a old winchester rifle.
The Warden, a man with several wrinkles on his forehead, a mole on his right cheek, and puffy white hair and mustache, walked into the office, tiredness and contemplation on his face, he sat down at his office desk and started talking to the two men in his office.
"Greetings gentlemen." he said, a tone of grogginess in his throat.
"Hello Mr. Green. We were here to discuss the boy and the lady we brought in yes?"
"Yes." The warden replied, rubbing his eyes."So...What can you tell me 'bout de harpy?"
Mr. Pather explained "Well, Misses Gills used to live on an island filled with what people would claim were 'Mythical Creatures', she had fallen in love with a human and managed to transform herself into a human and escape to Liverpool, where they had a short marriage, and were they had their son Anthony Gills, or as he calls himself, Tony."
The Warden had seen the boy and his mother, they were brought in due to 'high secret' reasons, and not long after the MI5 was attacked, and that weird piece of footage featuring the cryptid was released onto the news and internet, both looked shaken when they came into the station.
The boy had been wearing a heavy amount of clothing, including a trenchcoat, scarf, boots and everything. Some men were with them, who confirmed themselves to be members of the Greek Government, they needed to police to keep them in custody so they could sort out something.
The Warden couldn't understand why the Greek government of all people would need to rely on them to keep two people, a seemingly random mother and her son in their custody for 'highly secret' reasons, that was until he and the five newcomers went into a secret room, and the boy took of his heavy amounts of clothing.
Belen could tell that the Warden was still recovering from his discovery that Harpies, half-bird half-human creatures, existed, along with some other things, that wasn't all however. The leader of the MI5 herself had called him, along with the Liverpool Police Chief, the MI5 informed him that they, along with Interpol and the Liverpool police, would start inquiring and helping the hidden mythical population not only within Liverpool, but the entire world, knowing that it would be almost impossible to cover up the mass exposure of the Mythical World. A pretty stressful evening to say the least.
Mr. Pather cleared his throat "Mr. Green, I know what you have just learned was very...stressful, but, do you think that you could hold them here for a couple of days, so the government can handle the situation?".
"Well of course!" He said, trying to smile in order to lighten up the mood a-bit "This is one of the most secure prisons in Merseyside! We have guards patrolling the cells at all times! You have my word."
As the prison guard went on their routine, Sam looked through the bars of his cell, where he saw him, along with the grumpy prisoners, probably due to the prison's often poor conditions, he knew what he was going to was ambitious, but he had always been the kind of person to do crazy things, that's why he had a long scar run down the left side of his pale face.
Sam then looked at the sharp little piece of metal under his bed, somebody who walked by would of thought it was just another piece of rubbish that was found in the cells, but they wouldn't of noticed the artificial edge that was purposely made to do only do things; fly, and kill.
He looked at his buddy, who was in the cell across from him, he made a hand sign with two of his fingers, and with a single smile, his friend started distracting the guard with the keys, who started shouting angrily at him.
Sam bent down and picked up his weapon, he then went over back to the bars, and with one throw, landed a perfect shot at the guard's head, the piece of metal pierced so hard it broke his skull, the guard fell down to his knees against the bars, his friend then grabbed the keys, where he immediately threw them at the man on the other side.
The prisoner caught it perfectly, he enjoyed the rattling of the keys like physicists and his Newton's Cradle, after getting the right key, and inserted it into the lock, after a few clicks, one big switch filled the cell.
Sam's grin spread ear to ear as the large jail door swung open, he walked over to his friend's cell, unlocked his door, to which he ran out, and pick up a batten; it was time to have some fun.
In the Custody Room, The Gills sat on a leather bench,awaiting for what the police were going to do with them, they were nice enough to let Tony bring his disguise to the police station, and the Officers were mostly nice, so other than a bit of an atmosphere of worriedness, it wasn't too much of a bother.
Ophelia sighed and looked at her son, who had a face that of worried thoughts "Are you feeling alright honey?".
"Not good." Tony replied in a voice filled with that of worry,
"I know it's hard Tony. But the Police aren't going to harm us, I won't le-"
"That's not what worries me mum" The boy said, . "What if about the Avalon? What if they get in a fight? Or what if they do something stupid or-!"
"Don 't worry about it, Anthony" Ophelia said, in a attempted comforting voice "They'll think how to sort it out eventually."
Suddenly, the two could hear something happening somewhere else in the building, they couldn't make it out, but it sounded like shattering or slamming, that was when they could hear shouting and talking, people were arguing and being attacked, there was even the sound of a gunshot, which made the made the two jump, but whoever had the gun was subdued soon after.
"Oh no. Please no!" Ophelia held her son tightly as the sounds got closer and closer to the door "Please not now, anything but now!".
The door then busted open, Ophelia and Anthony jumped and screamed as the door crashed against the floor, glass shattering, and the slumped body of a bloody guard on top of it, wincing and groaning in pain and fear.
A man entered the room, a taser in one hand and a SMG rifle in the other, he had pale skin, grey eyes, and spiky light brown hair, Tony cringed as he saw that the man's left eye was scarred, where he glared at the Gills with a face that of cunningness, an idea just popping in his head. He pointed his taser gun at Ophelia and fired.
"MOM, NO!"
Ophelia screamed as she was electrocuted by the taser, her body twitched as she slipped and fell to the floor unconscious, her son glared at the man with anger in his eyes.
"STAY BACK! YOU WON'T HURT HER!"
"I only shot her with a taser." He said in an uncaring voice "She won't die."
"I need a hostage" He said his feet suddenly moving towards Tony "And I see that the Police have placed you in the 'Special Custody' Room, which means they need you for something, something important" His grin widening even bigger as he extended his taser towards Tony.
Tony screamed as the taser fired, pierced and electrocuted him.
During their conversation, suddenly within seconds, the undeniable sounds of shouting, fighting, and commotion were heard down the hall.
"What the hell was that!?" Mr. Pather asked, hearing the commotion.
"I think there's a prison riot!" Mr. Green shouted in worry.
"But you just said the prison was safe!" Mr. Pather said ducking infront of the desk.
"I know!" The Warden quickly replied in a panic.
Belen looked at the Warden with a stern face with a little confidence in there somewhere "Your glad then that i'm a soldier Green.", his eyes then laid on the Winchester rifle hanging on the wall.
"Am I allowed to use that rifle Green?" He asked.
"Um, well" The Warden stuttered, hearing a gun blast somewhere in the building "I don't think it actually works."
Belen walked up to the rifle and lifted it out of its case, he then placed some displayed bullets in and walked outside, worrying Mr. Pather and Green. Belen saw some guards attempting to control a group of prisoners throwing bottles and chairs at them, Belen shot the gun in the air, successfully managing to destroy a luminescent light, causing some of the prisoners to cower in fear.
"Well then."
The still rioting prisoners brought out knives and even tasers, to which Belen ran full speed ahead, kicking one in the chest, while firing the rifle at the other, he then felt a sharp pain in his soldier, he shrieked as one of the prisoners stuck a knife into his shoulder, he pushed the person away, pulled out the blade, and shot the person in the leg, his screams stopping after the guards managed to cuff him.
Belen continued down the hallway, until he came across a terrible sight, the special custody room was broken into, the door was barged into, with one unfortunate bloody guard on top of it, he ran over to him and told him it was okay and medical services were on their way. He looked around the room to see Ophelia sprawled on the floor unconscious, where Anthony was nowhere to be seen.
"Oh no, no, no!"
Belen rushed out the room, ordering two guards to help Ophelia and the guard who was on top of the busted down door. He quickly tried to observe his surroundings, where he saw the bloody footprints of someone leading down towards the reception, he ran down the hallway towards the exit, where he saw the receptionist quivering in fear.
"Miss? Have you seen anybody with a boy?" Belen asked.
"He took the Boy! He took the Boy!" The woman simply answered in hysterics.
He quickly looked outside to see someone carrying the unmistakable body of the teenaged mythical, his black coat obscuring most of his body, he was thrown into the back of the car, the escapee who had carried him then looked at Belen, he smiled a terrifying smile and lifted a pistol he was carrying and shot at him.
Belen jumped out of the way, he grabbed his rifle and shot at the car, which didn't do much as it backed out of the parking lot and sped down the street, soon enough, the Warden charged into the reception, a face of worry on his face.
"Anthony Blair is gone! And his Mother is unconscious! What do we do!?" Mr. Green stuttered to the Soldier.
Belen simply looked at him with a stern face saying "I'm going after him", without another word, Belen rushed over to his car, and chased after Sam.
Bootle, Liverpool
NOB: 5.5%
Sam turned his head to see that one of the police cars was following him, knowing this would happen, he pressed on the pedal and started speeding even faster than he was before.
The two cars raced down the city blocks, both of them gaining speed while doing so, the cars sped across corners and just barely missed people walking across the street, cars, and buses swerved out the way, trying not to crash into the lunatic driving down the street in a stolen police car.
The lunatic and soldier finally entered Stanley Dock, where the chase would end very shortly after they entered, in the most unexpected way possible.
Elder Hall
Liverpool Avalon
The Elder Hall had not seen such arguing in its run, the usual chatter consisted on how to deal with troublemakers or where to build the new statue or something like that, but this was full blown arguing, faces became red from frustration on what to do, some said give up, while others demanded to continue on trying to hide.
"Come on Delma! We cannot go on like this! It will lead us down a path of destruction!"
"No! Have you seen what humans do to each other alone? Blood type, Sexuality, Religion, Ethnicity. Do you think we will be an exception!?".
As most of the council argued, Gwyn and Hobbles were the only quiet ones, as Gwyn internally begged for his son's sorrow to end and for Anthony to be safely returned to them, and Hobbles due to the existential thoughts and worries racing throughout his mind, hoping for either a return to secrecy, or just for the humans to find out, as to end the painful suspense plaguing everyone. James, also, had recently joined them, after comforting his family the recent news, being one of the ones who wished to stop trying to get the humans to not find out about them.
"Hold on a second!" shouted suddenly Oreville Hyde, having to detect something on her radar.
"What is it!?"
"I can detect a harpy!" Oreville shouted.
Gwyn shot up, relief and strong hope on his face "Oh my god, I think that might just be him!"
"I can also detect a whole lot of humans entering the area, My radar is going crazy!" Mrs. Hyde said, looking like she was actually going to get dizzy and overwhelmed from the amount of notification she was receiving from her radar.
"I can also detect a Nemean Lion and a Noseless! That's gotta be Jon and Bhadarask!"
"Oh thank god!" Hobbles sighed in relief "I thought those two boys would never come back from their nightclub."
After hours of horrible suspense and controversy, It seemed that things were going their way mostly.
As the police raced after the car, the Escapee's hostage was waking up.
Tony woke after a full 5 or 6 minutes of sleep, he groaned as he lifted his head from a soft fabric surface, feeling like he was going really fast, despite him not moving , his head was killing him, he couldn't see clearly due to his eyes being half-opened, but he could make out that he was in some sort of automobile - a police car - and that it was speeding quite fast.
Anthony then remembered everything when he saw who was driving the car, at first, he didn't know who was driving the car, but when he saw the pale man's scar, he remembered how he was in his room, how his friend called him to say something ig and worrying had just happened, how he had the living hell scared out of him when police came into his room and started shrieking their bloody heads of like banshees when they saw him, he remembered being (peacefully) taken to the local jail with his mum, and how a man broke into their room and…how he teased them.
Tony looked at the man with silent panic, he made sure didn't move to fast, fearing that he would get his attention, he didn't know what he was going to do, he feared that he would need to act, but he feared what would happen if he didn't, was this man going to escape the police, and if he did, or didn't, what was he going to do to him? The teenaged boy didn't want to think what would happen. Deciding that the anxiety was worth it, he slowly and reluctantly lifted his body so he was kneeling, he saw that they were passing Stanley Dock! They were close to the Avalon, so, Tony decided to risk it, he reached out his arm and slashed at his captor's face.
"What the-!?"
The criminal screamed as a claw scratched his face, he was blinded as he felt his hands thrusted off the steering wheel and someone attempting to take control of the wheel, he managed to open his eyes to see it was the Boy he had kidnapped was trying to stop the vehicle, but before he could try to stop him, Sam noticed something that made him stare with bewilderment; The boy didn't have hands, he had bird-like claws that looked like human hands instead, they were light brown, and had sharp, darker brown fingernails.
Sam's tranced gazing then broke as he released what his captive was doing, he then grabbed the boy's arms and tried to take them off the wheel "What the hell is wrong with your hand's kid!?".
The boy didn't bother to answer his psychopathic kidnapper demands as he tried to stop the car trying to get his leg across to press on the pedal, where his boot almost completely off now, Sam shrieked when he saw the bird-like foot in place of a normal human foot, the two could hear the blazing of police sirens behind them.
"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU KID!?"
Again, not answering, Tony battled the psychopath as he tried to stop the car, as it swerved and sped through the dock's streets, baffled dock workers looking on as the two fought for control of the car,
Anthony managed to take the wheel once again, but was soon kicked back by Sam, who kicked him back so hard that Anthony smashed open the window, causing most of the glass to pour out onto the street.
Anthony was dizzy for a few seconds, but he feared for his life, not waiting for 10 seconds to pass, he made one last lunge at the criminal, who was actually reaching for his pistol, punches and scratching resumed, as Anthony managed to get the car to steer right into the gates of one of the docks.
The police car raced down the harbour, scaring off the few shipyard workers and random civilians who were there, Tony and Sam then looked on with horror as they saw the end of the harbour approaching much quicker than expected, they both yelled as the car crashed into the various trash cans and the chain metal fence and plunged into the water.
"This is Officer Tedford, the suspect has just exited out of 5 Walter Stand has just drove down Regent Rd, Officer Walker and Carl are by his side right now."
Belen focused on nothing else but the car that was driven by the Psychopath that had kidnapped an innocent teenaged boy and was driving around like a crazy person, possibly going to kill them both any second now.
"This is officer Walker, the Suspect is speeding across Bascule Bridge, next to the Stanley Dock Tobacco Warehouse, they have just swerved to the right towards right into the Trafalgar Dock Shipyard, over."
The cars swerved to get through the busted down gates and into the Shipyard, where Belen then heard the screeching of tires behind them.
Belen only had a few seconds to see what was going before focusing his eyes back onto the docks in order not to crash and incredibly injury or kill himself. One of the police cars had skidded on some of the broken glass from Sam's car, causing it skid and crash.
"Carl! No!" one of the officers crackled on the radio.
"Send some officers over to help Carl, over."
Scared workers and civilians were running away, causing some of the police cars to slow down, meanwhile, their target was uncomfortably speeding towards the water, not slowing down by even a meter/.
"They are getting dangerously close to-!"
To their already skyrocket worry, the thing they feared had happened, the car didn't stop, instead, the Psychopathic kidnapper driving it decided to let the car through the fence at the end of the dock and dive into the river to drown, taking the young hostage with him,
"Oh my god!"
The police cars screeched to a halt, the police officers jumped out as they argued and shouted at each other, with sentences like "Call reinforcements!" and "Call an Ambulance!".
While the Police panicked on how to rescue the boy, Belen was sprinting to the where the car had just crashed into, the Greek could only stare with horror and nervousness as he ran towards the end of the dock.
Belen couldn't let this happen. The boy's mother was probably the most kind and nicest person he had met, even in a situation that involved her former race being exposed to the world, he had seen her unconscious body, and he didn't want her to wake up to a world were her son was gone.
"Belen! what are you doing? come back here!"
Belen ran down the dock, preparing to follow the two into the river, he ignored the calls of the officers as he reached the end of the dock, with some quick preparation with him stretching out his arms and taking a long deep breath, jumped into the river, hitting the cold, brownish water within 5 seconds.
"Belen, No!"
Elder Hall
Liverpool Avalon
"Wait…!" After a few seconds of silence and concentration, the Bugbear's eyes suddenly widen with horror "NO!".
"What!?" James demanded with deep worry in his eyes.
"I don't know why! But, Tony's signal is now in the river!" Gwyn's face of hope fell to grave shock and worry. "And two, Jon has turned into his Midform! And there are Humans looking at him!"
"What!?" The council all shouted at once, with the exception of Gwyn.
"Why the bloody hell would he do that!?" Aeolus asked the Bugbear.
Oreville gave him a face of bewilderment "You expect me to know?!"
"Gwyn! We-!"
What the others didn't notice however, the council member, who was now in his human form, had stood up from his chair and was running up to the coat hanger, he was going to go out there and see what was going on out there on his own, he looked like if he didn't do so, he would have a nervous breakdown.
"Gwyn! Where in the bloody hell are you going!?" James asked him, running up to him.
"I need to see what's going on James!" he answered in a shout, with his voice filled with attempted sternness.
His friend glared at him like he just offered to sacrifice his life "Are ye Crazy!? You'll be caught! The Humans have become more ...aware, they will notice yer outfit or yer white hair, anything strange er abnormal!"
"I just need to at least see what's happening, I won't say anything, i can't stay in here and leave one of my sons to die! And my other son to be left guilty for the rest of his life!"
"How about I go out for you sir?" Samuels asked, walking up to both of them "I could see if i can help out the Tony lad and see what the hell Jon has done."
"Well, okay, but you better get Tony back, I don't know what my son will do he doesn't see his friend again," Gwyn said a hint of guilt in his voice.
"And bring Hobbles with you, He can come in handy if you need to help someone" James added, looking at the Nemean Doctor/Vet while doing so.
"Yes sir." Samuels said, rushing out of the room with Hobbles following behind.
Tony screamed as the car became fully engulfed in the water, the psychopath who drove the car meanwhile punched him back, the window that Tony had smashed was flooding the front half of car with water, with the fabric flooring becoming completely soaked as the water reached ankle deep inside the car,
"I don't know what you are but one thing I do know is that your a devilspawn…" He grumbled under his breath, looking at Tony with absolute revile "I might not escape, but i will be glad you will soon be dead." he then opened the left-top door, increasing the flooding by 2x, looking at him with a bitter-sweet sinister grin.
"NO!"
Sam swam out of the car and up to the surface, Tony tried to follow but before he had his foot over the car seat, the water was at his hip, and his Harpy-half was making things difficult for him.
Tony panicked, he felt like he was going to die a horrible death, and the world was taunting him while his uninvestable death slowly approached, the water started rushing and pouring in as Sam swam up and up out the water to the safety of the surface.
"Gills!"
At first, Tony thought that one of God's angels were talking to him, he heard that they were real according to one Avalon resident after all, that was until he saw a familiar face against the car window next to him, a man with dark skin and messy black hair, wearing a military vest.
"A-Andreas!" Tony shouted, his shout being gargled by the rising water reaching his chin, seeing the soldier that he had only known for a day, and a man who revealed to him that the world was going to change.
"Tony! Take my hand!" the soldier shouted, managing to shout before his voice was engulfed by water, the car was finally almost being completely filled with water, so with one big breath, Tony ducked his head under the water and leaped towards Belen and grabbed onto him tightly with his claws.
The soldier made sure he held onto the Teenaged boy and began to swim upwards, he had trouble due to the fact that Anthony was heavier than a normal teenager, with the excess of his wings heaving his arms, the Soldier actually thought that they were sinking rather than swimming upwards sometimes. This worried him as Anthony got more and more purple-faced.
After a full half-a-minute of swimming, the boy finally lost it and breathed in, the water rushed down his mouth as he panicked, waving his arms around like a scared pigeon taking flight, Belen only tighten his grip on him as he continued to try swimming up, his heart beating faster and faster, while also trying to make sure not to take a single breath.
Eventually, a few seconds after the Liverpudlian let go and started inhaling, he managed to feel the salvation of air on his fingers, he began to frantically swim up he and Anthony's heads poking out the water finally after their minute of horror, but it wasn't the end.
Anthony had taken a few large gulps of water in his panic, his body was unconscious and was clinging onto the man as his face showed a bluish-palish colour, that of sickness and near-death, panicking Belen quickly observed his surroundings, he saw that he was just a arm's length away from a metal ladder that led up to the harbour, not taking a second thought, he started climbing.
"Stay with me Anthony!" he said, grabbing onto the ladder "I'll get you back to Ophelia!".
It had been a strange, and boring, existence for the sea creature known as Stanley.
He remember around 18 years ago when he first appeared to the residents of the 'Liverpool Avalon', he was born by a mother and father he never got to know, where he was orphaned and left to explore the world on her own, eventually somehow ending up in a weird place called 'Liverpool', where some equally strange people in a large building in the 'docks', took him in and hid him from other people they called the 'Humans'.
Stanley would swim around in the deep dark bottom of the river, exploring the surface with his friend, Zeke, a man who would look like one of the 'Humans' one moment, while the next he was a creature he heard was called a 'seal', they would swim around before Stanley would be led back into a small space next to the Mythical's home, where they would then serve his breakfast through small metal round things.
Today, Stanley was once again exploring the vast beauty of the underwater world with his pal Zeke, they had actually went on a special trip, where on a few occasions if he was a good boy, the seal man would lead him out into the ocean, so he could explore the amazing world of the sea, seeing fish and a even a few exotic-looking plants, these trips were usually rare, and would only last between 12 hours or 2 days.
The two were just heading back from one of these trips when Stanley noticed something peculiar, he swam a little bit closer and realized what it was; it was the metal things!
But it wasn't the small portions as usual, it was like 10x than usual! Was it a gift or a reward for being an especially good girl this month? She couldn't resist and swam towards the feast. Zeke noticed this and swam over to the pile, but confused.
"Where the hell did all of this come from?" Stanley heard him grumble.
Stanley wasted no time chowing down on his meal, consuming the goodness that came from them, Zeke looked around nervously, like if this was something that was totally unplanned to happen, and that something wrong was going on. Stanley then noticed that some of the trashy goodness had started to float away to the surface, the hunger still in his mind, he began to swim up,
"STANLEY! NO!"
The Police Officers were arguing at each other, heads turning red with frustration and attempted concentration, having seen a man follow a sinking car into the river, soon stopped their rabble by the sound of someone climbing a ladder case. Belen appearing as he struggled to carry Tony's wet unconscious body up the metal ladder, almost slipping at times.
Belen kneeled onto the wet concrete surface of the harbor as he layed down the teenager peacefully onto the ground and tried to catch his breath, water dripping from every part of his body.
He looked at the unconscious harpy, both filled with relief that he wasn't in danger, and great concern as though he was safe from the water, it didn't mean that he hadn't suffered from water inhalation, he almost drowned once while playing at a pool in his small hometown, so he could imagine the shock and terror that filled the poor boy's body.
"Belen! Jesus Christ, we thought that you had died!" One of the officers said, running up to the soldier as he still kneeled on the pavement.
Belen knew what would happen next as the officers approached and got a good look at Anthony, seeing as most of his disguise had been lost during the situation, with everything bird-like being exposed, he stood corrected as he looked up to see the emotions of confusion, fear, and bewilderment spread across the faces of the police officers.
"Uh...Belen? Wot the hell is wrong with the de kid?"
Before Belen could answer, a giant SPLASH! And WOOSH! Could be heard behind them, they all looked at where the noise had come from, shock filling them all as soon as they laid eyes on what caused the suddenly loud sounds.
A large, green, slimy, and sharp-toothed dinosaur-like creature was now in the River Mersey, the creature had large yellow eyes that of a cat or goat, and it seemed to stretch for at least 100 meters, so while it wasn't humongous, it could be seen by anybody who was walking near the river or was on a boat.
The officers screamed and backed away, looking at the dinosaur-like creature that just appeared in the City River, but Belen stared at the creature a couple of meters with a less powerful shocked expression.
"...You got to be kidding me…"
"Thanks again fer de lift mate."
"Your welcome!"
Jonathan was giving Bhadraksh the last of the boxes carrying record discs, as Ahmed closed the back car door, Jon and Bhadraksh finally collected all their stuff, with them being parked outside the Liverpool Avalon, ready to inform(if they didn't know already) about what they had just seen on the television, the thing that would probably change their live forever.
"So, Is that everything?" Ahmed asked the two men, who seemed to be in a hurry.
"Yeah lah, that's everything" Jon said, trying to end the conversation while not trying to raise any suspicions.
"Well okay then! See you later!" Jonathan sent off, ready to get back into his car with his pal.
That was when the sound of sirens came from the distance, the four turned around to see across from the bridge the unmistakable sight of police lights flashing between a equally bright red and blue light, it soon speeded across the bridge in an unnatural manner, as if it wasn't driven by a policemen, while one of the windows smashed, causing broken shards and spikes of glass the spread across the road.
"What the bloody hell?" Jonathan muttered under his breath as the four men watched the bizarre scene a few meters away from them.
The police car then served to the side and rammed into the gates to one of the many docks, surprising the four, the police cars followed the rogue one, they had all managed to stay clear if the shattered glass on the road, with the exception of one unfortunate car, who swerved and spun, the driver must of been panicking as the car was going at a high speed and was losing control at the same time. Before they released it, within 10 seconds, the car was swerving towards them.
The four froze, somehow they had been so fixated at the strange situation, that they didn't notice the first few seconds of the police car swerving towards them, the few bizarre events from earlier still processing in their heads, the car was so close now, that it would be impossible for them to jump out the way without suffering a serious injury or worse.
"AHH!" The four screamed in unison, they didn't have time to react as the car smashed into Jon.
*BANG!*
*CRASH!*
Jonathan, Bhadarsk, and Ahmed cowered in fear and shock at what just happened, they shielded themselves with their arms, eyes unable to see what had just happened, all they processed that there was a car chase involving multiple police cars. With one of them losing control due to them running over broken scattered glass at top speed, causing them to swerve into their direction.
"Oh no, Jon! "
The three boys looked at each other, Jon and Ahmed fearing one of the men they had just dropped off at the Docks had just been killed, and Bhadraksh for the fact that his friend could be dead or worse, terrified at what they would see, the three stopped shielding themselves and looked at the scene before them.
The police car that swerved out of control had stopped infront of their friend, and by stopped, they meant that it had crashed into their friend, but he was fine and still, like the police car had crashed into a support beam instead of a person, but despite the sight before them, that wasn't what made them scared however, it was Jon himself.
For Bhadraksh, he was just seeing how he usually saw Jon inside the Liverpool Avalon, but for the two young human men next to him, they saw something they had never seen before in their entire lives, something completely out of this world.
Instead of the brown-haired man they had seen standing there only seconds before, was a humanoid that looked like the man, but with blonde fur and a tail that of a lion, he was standing still, in the position of reaching out his arms in an act of shielding someone. When he turned his face, it too was that of a lion, but it looked in a way that it was able to show human emotion, more specifically, the emotion of shock and great embarrassment.
Jonathan and Ahmed gazed at the beast before them with shocked eyes as the former nearly choked on his words as he stuttered out;
"W-what the. fuck?"
"Oh! Um! I know it looks bad, but-"
Ahmed released a feminine scream of terror, he soon went dizzy and collapsed onto the ground with a slump.
"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU!?" The Tourist demanded, pointing at the Lion man.
"Sssh!" the
"E'llo? Is anyone there?"
Before Jon could say anything else two human security officers from one of the local factories walked around the car that had just crashed into Jon, one was a woman, the other a man.
"Oh thank god, that was one hell of a car crash, Are you men are-"
The two then froze in their place with horrific expressions on their faces, as they saw the Lion man that stood before them, his face was filled with terror as well, knowing what was going to happen.
"AHH! WHAT THE HELL IS THAT!?" one of them screamed with terror, jumping back in a reflex, eyes bulging with absolute terror, along with his fellow two humans gazing at the being before them with shock.
The other officer was so afraid that he started pointing his gun at Jon, who looked more terrified, he changed back to human form and started kneeling, the security officer, along with his coworker and the young man that was with his knocked out friend, was so amazed, that he accidentally pulled the trigger of his gun, firing a 9×19mm Parabellum bullet straight at Jon's chest.
"BANG!"
"Jon! No!" Jonathan screamed seeing the bullet hit Jon in the chest, but what they aw next was just as confusing as what they had seen previously.
The bullet had impacted Jon's chest in a light second, but instead of sinking in, it bounced off, leaving not a scratch on neither the back or the shirt of the young man, it was like if the officer shot at a large piece of titanium instead of a person, everybody's eyes stared with amazement and awe looking back and forth at where the bullet bounced off and the bullet itself.
"Di-...-Did you just shoot me!?"
"B-b-but, how?" The officer stuttered, dropping his gun "Oh God- What!?" the security mumbled, whimpered and stuttered, unable to process that he had just shot at a bulletproof shapeshifting lion man.
"I'm...bulletproof."
"Wot do you mean!?" The other police officer said while he shook.
The Nemean lion cringed, rubbing the back of his head "My fur is resistant ter bullets and blades and other such weapons, you ain't gonna hurt me with yer guns n' stuff." he awkwardly explained.
"R-...Really?" The officer asked, stunned at the man's explanation, the Nemean Lion nodded as an answer.
"Wait a minute Jon, How did you change back into a human?" Jonathan butted in "You were some sort of Lion thing not a minute ago!"
"Well, that's a long explanation, And-!"
"JON! IM GONNA MURDER YOU!" bellowed an unfamiliar voice to Jon and Bhadraksh.
The group turned instantly to the sound of the angry voice, two men, one wearing what seemed to be a blue doctor's gown with multiple scratches upon his face, and a man wearing a beige trench coat with black hair and a angry expression on his face, as if whoever he was angry at just did something incredibly stupid and frustrating, he marched up to Jon.
"Why the hell did you transform into your Mid-form!? In front of humans of all people!?"
"Who the hell are you!?" Jon asked, not liking how this man who he never met just randomly walked up to him and started shouting at him.
"Yeah! who the hell are you?" The security officer questioned the strange rude man.
The sorcerer simply store at the two security officers in response, viewing them with slight annoyance, he lifted his hand up to them, the two security guards felt like that, even though the man was unarmed, he was a danger, they just seen a man use magic to transform from anthro lion to human and to be bulletproof after all. They then saw that a green flame was growing around his hand, they weren't able to think as instantly, the flame shot out of his hand and hit both of them, stunning them and making them very dizzy.
"Oh my god!" Jonathan shouted, having just witnessed Samuel's magic spell.
Samuel then turned to him, he was about to do it again until he started to hear something, he couldn't put it what it was until he could hear it clearly;Groaning. The group started looking at the police car that had crashed into Jon, and slowly, a bloody and bruised police officer poked his head out the car looking like he was all confused, tired, and in pain at the same time.
"Bloody hell…" Hobbles muttered in pity, looking at the man's pained face covered in blood.
Before Samuels could do anything, despite his condition, the Police officer suddenly lifted up his hand almost instantly, and showed a Glock 17 in it, and shot him, Samuels screamed as he fell to the ground, a sharp piercing pain in his leg.
"Samuels!" Hobbles shouted, he ran over and tended to the sorcerer, who was shouting expletives in pain, Jon looked at the police officer with great anger,
"Wot the hell was that for!?" He demanded.
"I saw what he did to those men!" The man realized, trying to open the door while doing so "And I saw that he was going to do the same thing to those two young boys!".
"It's a memory-erasing spell! It's not going to hurt anybody!" Hobbles explained to the man, as Jon peacefully pulled open the car door and lifted the man out, sitting him up against the door.
"Memory-erasing? So you mean that he was going to get rid of my Memories? Because i saw Jon without his disguise?" Jonathan inquired, standing up after spending some time on his backside.
Samuels looked at him "What do you think!?".
By this time some of the police officers who rounded the corner in the chase had started to come for their partner, who was now being tended to by Hobbes as well, along with some factory workers or random civilians who were just happening to walk by when they saw several men in one spot, two of them severely injured.
"What happened?" a teenager in a green duffle coat gossiped in a soft Irish accent.
"I dunno." an Overweight man in a black suit and blue tie gossiped back in a Surrey accent.
The police officers finally reached their coworker who was thankfully feeling better due to Hobbes's help, with him banding his wounded forehead.
"Carl! Are you alright?"
The officer managed to groan out a "Yes…", looking like he would fall asleep any second now.
"Who are you, sirs?" One of the officers asked Hobbles and the others.
Hobbles attempted to hold back his agitation and made up some excuse"Oh! Um! I'm a local doctor, and We are just helping your friend, he crashed his car and we thought we could help!"
"Well, If you-"
"I know you're lying." Interrupted one of the more important-looking officers, a man with combed grey hair and green eyes interrupted, walking over to the group, who looked stunned by his presence.
"Chief? What are ye doing here, and what are yer talking about?" One of the officers asked, looking confused over the man's sudden appearance.
Robert came closer as if only they could know about it "I know what they really are."
"Excuse me?" Another officer said, their faces filled with confusion, while Hobbles, Jon, and an incapacitated Samuels looked on with panic.
"I know you are confused, it's because you weren't at the police HQ when we got the call." He said, the officer's confusion only growing "Gentlemen, You know that 'hoax' from the news from a couple of days ago with the Sphinx in it?"
"Yes?" One of the officers said, their eyebrow raised in even further confusion.
"Well, It ain't fake." The statement made the police even more dumbfounded.
The officers were taken aback "Pardon?" one of them asked.
"You see, I, the Warden, the Chief and a bunch of other high-ranking members of the police force were informed by none other than Miss. Buller herself." The officer's faces dropped when he said that.
"She said that we needed to arrest some people who were wearing medallions, I didn't believe it myself, until she showed us how the footage from yesterday was not faked. The man who is tending ter Officer Carl, along with the other man standing next ter the two teenagers are not human."
The Officers couldn't believe what they had heard out of their chief's mouth, it would have been more believable to hear him say that he met a man in a blue telephone box who could travel across time and space than what they were just informed of.
"Wot utter rubbish!" One man said in anger, looking like his boss had insulted his intelligence. "yer can't 'honestly expect us ter believe dat one, dat piece o' utter shite news broadcast about some fly'n lion in America to be real and two, ay am not believ'n evun fe a second dat those two men infront o' me are-"
"It's true."
The officers turned to see very agitated looking Hobbles slowly walking towards them, Samuel's and Jon's faces turned to shock as they saw their friend spill the beans.
"Wot!?" The angry officer said, once again bewildered by what was being said to him.
Hobbles had never really been the person to become agitated, concerned or worried, as he was mostly a grouchy person, but he couldn't take it anymore, deciding to let it all out.
He stuttered, "We were just doing our thing, when me and my friend were called by some of our peers, we went to see what they wanted and we were told that our society was suffering a breach. We tried to suppress it avoid a storm from the humans, but we weren't ready for their defense and we just made it worse, then we tried-"
"Okay, Okay." The stubborn officer interrupted quite rudely, his face returning to anger "I don't want te hear anymore of this rubbish, I want you te actually explain te me what happened here, this isn't a joke, and you won't convince me with yer stupid excuses bout a Secret Society or whatnot, if you don't we will are-!"
*SPLASH!*
*WOOSH!*
The Officer stopped his raging as the woosh of a huge splash soon erupted from the River behind everybody, sounding like something big had just emerged from the water, They all turned around to the river to see probably the most shocking thing in their lives.
For the Humans, they saw the most terrifying, horrifying, unnatural, and surreal creature they had ever seen, something even Lovecraft could conjure up, it looked like a mix between a dinosaur and a seal, the being looked it was about 150 feet long! with large sharp yellow teeth and yellow eyes.
For the Mythicals, Stanley was out of his pen again...at a very, VERY Bad time!
"NO!" Samuels screamed in a groan, looking at the large sea monster in the river, for everybody in the city to see.
From all across the area, ear-piercing screams filled the air, with multiple civilians and factory workers running for their lives into buildings or out of the area like if it was a Godzilla movie, the police, including the angry stubborn officer and Oscar, stared at the unusual sea creature stunned.
The red-headed officer slowly turned to Jon with a face of indescribable bewilderment, unable to deny or explain away what had just happened.
"N-nevermind…"
Meanwhile with the sea creature, Stanley was doing no harm to anyone, it was simply looking around, interested in its surroundings, so many new people were looking at him, with him staring back in a friendly manner, hundreds of small but bright flashes were coming from where many people had gathered, and some large metal things were passing him by, many of the small people onboard looking at him, Stanley could see clearly that they were looking at him with amazement or fear.
"It's a bloody sea monster!"
"I didn't know we had our own Loch Ness Monster!"
"Take a photo!"
"Faster! Faster!"
Stanley then felt something hit his back, he didn't know what it was, but it made him feel cold...and sleepy, he soon felt himself slowly sink back into the water, snoring until he fell unconscious.
Jon stared at Stanley, the very small hope of all of the chaos being controlled and stopped being squashed "Bloody hell. I don't know what we are gonna do Samuels...Samuels?".
Hobbles saw the look on Jon's face and realized what he was seeing, he turned to his side to see Samuels no longer on the ground next to Officer Carl, he turned around quickly, where he saw the Sorcerer slowly walking in pain towards the docks, somehow already by the battered gates, he opened them with a single pull and walked into the Liverpudlian harbour.
"Samuels!"
Samuels, despite his current state, managed to drag himself over to the river, where he shot a green sleeping spell at Stanley and knocked him out so that he could go back into the water out of prying human eyes, but the damage had already been done.
Possibly 400,000 people had seen Stanley, and that was Liverpool alone, there were probably at least two TV crews somewhere in the city filming for some TV show or the news, so that also meant the people outside the city would've caught a glimpse of the creature as well.
Samuels now knew for sure that, probably for good, that there was no way they were going to stop the breach.
"Hey!"
Samuels turned to his right, were he saw multiple police officers approaching him, apparently being stunned by Samuel's magical powers.
"Are you? A-"
"Sorcerer. Yes, I know."
One of the officers got ready to get out his gun "We saw what you did to the MI5! If you try to attack us, we won't attack you back!"
Samuels looked at the ground, defeated "I ain't gonna try anything, there's no point now."
Suddenly, Hobbles ran into the Shipyard, looking to see what was going on.
"Jesus Hitchens!" The Doctor puffed "You scared me, You've got a bullet in your leg."
"Not anymore." A blue flame suddenly enlightened the wound, the bullet being quickly pulled out, and the bloody wound being quickly covered up with undamaged flesh, stunning the police officers.
Suddenly, everybody's attention was directed towards the sound of someone heavily breathing and blowing, they all glared to see Belen performing CPR on Tony, water exiting his mouth and nose as he did so.
"TONY!"
Hobbles ran up to the soldier, kneeling next to him as he looked at horror at the boy.
"Wot happened!?"
Belen knew that this person knew Tony, so he didn't ask questions and explained "We were holding him in custody when a prison riot broke out, one of the prisoners kidnapped him and tried to escape with him as a hostage, we managed to chase him here where he crashed his car into the river."
"Why were yer holding him in custody?" the doctor asked, helping push his hands onto Tony's chest as both men attempted to help the poor boy.
Belen answered, "We were ordered to, by the government."
"So, are you just going to arrest us?" the Doctor asked.
The soldier answered again "No, but we are ordered to take any mythical into police custody for their own safety, however."
Oscar interrupted "Well, what are we going to do about the Boy!? He's out cold, we need him get him to the hospital!"
Belen turned to Hobbles and asked, "Is your Avalon nearby anywhere?".
Hobbles looked taken aback a bit, but it was no time for questioning "Yes, it's in the Warehouse just up there."
"Wot's an Avalon?" One of the police officers inquired, who started to approach the three men.
"A secret hiding spot, place, thingy for these people," Oscar explained.
After getting the last of the water vomited out of Anthony's mouth, Hobbles picked up the Harpy.
"Come on!" Hobbles said, carrying Tony with him "We need to get him to the Avalon, immediately!"
"Oscar, wait outside with your men, I think we'll need to explain to the people who run this place about why and what's been happening."
"I'm right behind you!" The chief obliged, he ordered his men to follow them, where they would guard the entrance in order to prevent the panicking Liverpudlian public to possibly enter and start killing mythicals, to which they did so.
Samuels suddenly became engulfed in a green fire, shocking the police, who thought that they were witnessing someone burning alive, until the fire suddenly dissipated with no sign of a dead body anywhere.
"What the bloody hell happened to him!?" An officer asked.
"He teleported." Hobbles answered, "He's probably going to his employers."
They two rushed past Jon, Bhadaharsk, Jonathan, and Ahmed, to which Johnathan saw Tony and froze with surprise.
Jon and Bhadaharsk looked at each other and followed them, leaving Johnathan with a still unconscious Ahmed, but Jonathan simply looked on at the boy in Hobble's arms "Tony?"
The five men, along with the police, approached a metal door with black graffiti that read 'DO NOT ENTER' scribbled across it, a wooden chair sitting next to it, with a newspaper left next to it as if the reader left in a hurry. Hobbles opened the door and let the four other men in, with the police and Oscar standing outside, preparing to call for reinforcements and to guard the large, seemingly-abandoned warehouse from anybody with bad intentions.
The four rushed down the darkened hallways, turning corners and nearly bumping into small objects, but the managed to finally find another metal door, to which Hobbles almost busted it down when he opened it.
Belen was floored when he laid his eyes on the inside "Woah…"
Breathlessness hit the Human in an instant when he observed the town, most of the buildings were made with brick, stone, and similar materials and were mostly all narrow and multileveled, creating an indescribably beautiful and surreal atmosphere for the soldier, as Jon and Bhadarask ran in a different direction.
The buildings also seemed to be in a weird modern-fantasy mix style, as some of the buildings were designed from time periods ranging everything from the middle ages to the 90's, with some of the buildings having statues of mysterious looking creatures, while others had vines growing from cracks.
Belen stuttered "I...I thought that this-s was s-supposed t-to be a warehouse!".
"Its magic, Belen!" Hobbles responded, has since turned into his midform.
The residents who were walking around soon stopped and looked at the two-man, fear and uncertainty in their eyes.A human was in the Avalon! But they weren't charging in with gun blazing or tanks charging or anything like that, they were just following Mr. Hobbles to his clinic, was he a good human? Belen had no time to look or observe them as they finally reached the clinic and rushed inside.
The clinic had yellow walls, with small red horizontal lines at the bottom and top, with whitish-grayish telling and a ceiling. They ran down the hallway and picked a random unoccupied room, where they placed the knocked out Tony in the bed.
"Poor lad" Hobbes sighed under his breath "Let's hope he recovers soon."
"Green." Belen said over the Walkie-talkie "We got the bastard along with Tony, Is Ophelia okay?".
"Yes, Andreas" Green responded, "She is just waking up, we will get her over to you within a couple of minutes, were are you by the way?"
"Stanley Dock. But, Green, can I make a suggestion?"
"Sure thing Belen, what is it?"
Belen looked at Hobble's midform "Make sure that you don't go...crazy, easily."
WSG Headquarters
NOB: 11%
"Holy shite!"
The sorcerers looked up at the map to see the British Isles as it burst into red, mouths all over the room gaped as within 5 seconds, the two islands of Britain and Ireland were engulfed in a shade of red with a few polka dots of dark yellow across the Midlands and Cork, while Europe saw a big swarm of red and dark yellow spread like a burst boil.
Patrick teleported into the middle of the room, Rudolf turned to him and demanded: "What the Hell happened in Europe!?".
The sorcerer explained "Rudolf, sir! Liverpool in England has been exposed to some sort of a magical creature! it was some sort of seal-like creature, who appeared abruptly on a live broadcast that was shown across the UK and some other European countries."
"What broadcast?"
"It was the news! There was some sort of car chase, and then one of the cars fell into the river, where the creature emerged from the river."
Rudolf looked like his eyes were going to start popping out of his sockets like balls flying out of a ball machine "Did anybody manage to contain it!?".
"Yes, sir, Samuels has just reported that he managed to put the creature to sleep not long after it popped its head out the water sir."
Rudolf said nothing, he only looked at the floor and simply said four things "Head to your Avalons…"
Everybody looked at Rudolf"...Sir?"
Rudolf exploded "GO!".
Everybody jumped back at Rudolf's outburst, without trying to speak back, everybody in the room started teleporting back to their respective Avalons, the room being emptied within seconds.
Rudolf gave one last look around before teleporting out of the room as well.
Yorkshire, England
NOB: 14%
Marcus stared at his drawing of a green-eyed dragon on his notepad, frowning. His life wasn't very planned out like others, and he had never really been a social kid, always obsessing over sci-fi and fantasy, worlds that didn't exist, and couldn't exist.
His parents were disappointed in his going on and constant scribbling, instead of on focusing on homework and what he had prepared for in the future.
While he was staring at his creature, on the Television was some news report about another car chase, this time in Liverpool, apparently the thug had stolen a police car and had just crashed it into the Docks, he didn't care what was going on in the world, it was the same news cycle of crime, scares of possible world-ending scenarios and general stupidity, like always.
He was about to turn off the TV and go upstairs to be too somber himself to sleep when "WHAT THE HELL IS THAT!?" blasted through the speakers.
The teen looked up from his notepad and dropped it in shock at what he was seeing on the television screen. A large, green, seal-like being was sticking its head out of the waters of the Stanley Dock, observing around to see a bunch screaming hysterical police looking at it, while nearby civilians, who had seen what was going on, started ululating and running away.
Then, suddenly, two people exited from a warehouse that was in the shot, due to them being so small, Marcus couldn't see them in perfect detail, but he could see that one of the men had grayish-brownish hair and was wearing something blue and the other with a trench coat with brown hair. The man with the brown hair then did something that would shock even him, he lifted up his hand, which started to glow, he then did something to the sealed monster that made it slide back into the water without any trouble.
"LADIES AND GENTLEMEN! I HAVE NO F**KING IDEA WHAT WE ARE WITNESSING HERE, BUT ALL I CAN SAY IS THAT I CANNOT BELIEVE WHAT MY EYES ARE SEEING!"
Marcus stepped back onto the couch as he looked at the TV screen as it cut to a 'Please Stand By' message, he then once again glanced at his drawing of the green-eyed dragon on his notepad, this time, smiling.
"They are real…"
Pywll House
NOB: 19.5%
Blanche sat on the window sill as he looked out of the locked shut window, the mostly empty streets below carrying dust and nothing else, they were filled with happy-go-lucky mythicals a few days ago, going along doing their things, but now there was only 1 or five mythicals left, and their expressions didn't tell any sign of happiness, only sadden and paranoid expressions that weren't far away from full-on despair.
He was still in his human form, refusing to be in that waste of a midform or full form after he started to worry that he would never see his friend again. He had heard nothing about what happened to Tony, the people who started shouting at him in shock and bewilderment might have shot him on the spot, or taken him away so they can perform sick, twisted experiments on him.
His parents were out, they had tried to comfort him, along with his friends that Tony was going to be fine, and that everything was going to go back to normal soon, like they always did, but Blanche would of only believe that when he was a kid, he now knew that it wasn't all sunshine and rainbows nowadays. His parents knew that he was depressed, and did everything they could to make sure that Tony would be back, all forms of exit out of his room were completely locked so he couldn't escape.
Suddenly, the front door swung open downstairs, causing Blanche to slightly jump, how did whoever was barging in manage to unlock the door? But it didn't matter because, by the sounds of the way the person ran up the stairs, he knew who it was, the Bandersnatch named Eleanor. She banged on Blanche's door until it opened, the lock flying off the hinges.
"Blanche! Blanche!" The Bandersnatch said, excitement in her voice.
Blanche moaned "Go away…"
"It's Anthony! He's back!"
"I-!" The Stag's eyes shot up as he processed what she said, he lifted himself up and looked at his friend with a shocked awe "What!?".
The Bandersnatch almost started to dance "He's back! He's going to be okay!".
Blanche's mind raced as massive relief and happiness rained upon him, he felt like his heart was as warm and soft as pudding, in an instant, he jumped off his desk and onto the floor, he scraped his knees on the wooden floorboards, but he didn't care, he got to his knees and ran to his friend "Where is he!?".
"I just saw him outside, he's just been brought into the Clinic!"
Blanche's eyes turned to panic in an instant "The Clinic?".
The two looked at each other before they both started running down the stairs, dashing out the house, sprinting in the streets, and hurrying towards the center of the L.A, where a small crowd had gathered to gossip about what they just saw. Seeing the Clinic down the street, they ran as fast as they could towards it, they rushed through the door and down the hallway.
"Dr. Hobbles! Dr. Hobbles!" Eleanor called out in hurry.
The Nemean doctor came out of one of the rooms, a-bit of surprise added to his already stressed face "Blanche? Eleanor? What are-!" the doctor, didn't have time to question why the two were in his clinic all of a sudden as Blanche barged his way into the room he just exited.
To his horror, Tony was in a state of unconscious, with a nauseous look to his pale face, and he looked like that he was ready to pass on any second now. There was a human man looking over him, he seemed in what seemed to be a soaked military attire(with the exception of the helmet), with black spiky hair and darkened skin, But the boy didn't care if they were in the Avalon at this point.
"TONY!" Blanche cried out, ignoring the man looking at him and rushed over to his critically hurt friend, hugging and crying into his shoulder.
"Hobbles? Who is this?"
"That's Blanche, Tony's friend, I tried to stop him!"
"I'm so sorry Tony! I-i-i!" Blanche choked, struggling to say anything as tears traveled down his face.
Belen put his hand on him, this boy was a friend of his, he could sympathize his pain and worry that his friend was in a bad state, so he would try to comfort him in the best way he could while Tony recovered.
Belen turned to the Nemean lion in the room with them "Hey, Hobbles, Oscar, can you leave the room? I need to speak with this kid."
"If we must Andreas" Stoneman said, turning with Hobbles and exited out of the room.
After the two men left the room, the teenager lifted his head and looked at the man "Who are you?" The teen asked.
He answered "I'm Belen Andreas, a soldier for the Greek Army. I'm...a sorta friend of your friend."
"What? He never said anything about you." He inquired, while trying to raise an eyebrow, the boy's face turned back to sadness as he choked "What happened to him?".
Belen took a breath before explaining "Well. It's a long story, but;"
A/N: This chapter is long enough, and you heard what happened already, so let's skip this part!
The two had finished exchanging their stories, with Blanche explaining how he and Tony were friends and why Tony became what he was now, and Belen explaining how he accidentally found Spiti island and why he was in Liverpool.
"Blanche, I'm sorry about that, I know what it's like to get into fights with your friends"
"It's okay I guess," The stag said, looking at the ground "I shouldn't have shown him it all in a day anyways."
"Well, He's told me how he worried about you too you know."
"Really?"
"Of course! He talked about how he feared that you and the Avalon were going to do something that'd get you into trouble, he really does care about you."
The young stag felt more relieved when he heard that "Well...that's good. It's strange really, only a few months ago he was very irritable, which I have always feel guilty for since I brought him into this world, and trapped him in it. But now he seems to be a bit more selfless or kind or something like that."
"People change Noir, I should know that" Belen simply replied, smiling.
The two sat in a awkward silence for a couple of seconds.
Belen looked at Blanche "So, do you want to leave your friend so he can rest?"
"...Yeah."
The two sat up, with Belen putting back on his military coat, they walked out of the room.
Immediately, Eleanor jumped up from her seat and rushed over to Blanche, nearly hugging him "Oh Blanche! Is Tony alright?".
"Yeah, he's alright, just knocked out. That's all" the Stag reassured his friend.
"Who's that?" She asked, pointing a claw at Belen.
"He's a guy who knows Tony, he's the reason why he's alive in the first place."
The Bandersnatch looked at the human man, she smiled a bg grin and thanked the stranger by shaking his hand "Thank you, sir!".
"No problem" Belen said, smiling at the red-eyed, white and orange furred being.
"Blanche!" Blanche and Eleanor turned to their right to see Adelle and Gwyn rushing up to them, with the three hugging each other tightly like they hadn't seen each other in 10 years "Oh thank god you're okay! We heard what happened! Is Tony alright?".
"I think, he's knocked out but he's okay!" He then pointed at Belen "That guy saved him!".
Adelle spent no time to thank the man, shaking his hand, almost hugging him in fact "Oh thank you, thank you!".
"It's fine Mrs. Noir" The Flattered Soldier thanked, nearly being overwhelmed by the number of people showing kindness to him.
Blanche's Dad looked at Belen "Sir, I'm a council member of this Avalon, are you a Human?"
Belen was interested in what he had just said, Council Member? He continued "Yes. Sir." He responded, "My name's Mr. Andreas, I work for the Greek Military, but we mean no harm towards your people."
Gwyn looked a-bit taken aback "Really?"
"Yes, you didn't know?" Belen asked.
"Well...No offense Mr. Andreas. But, you Humans have had a history of prejudice and discrimination, We feared that if you acted bigoted towards each other, you would have seen us as monsters or worse." Gwyn answered honestly.
"Gwyn!" Adelle gritted her teeth, nudging her arm into her husband's shoulder, which he grabbed in slight pain.
"Oh, Sir. We are mostly not like that across most of the World nowadays." Belen said.
Gwyn sighed and said "I know, but sill. We are something way different Andreas".
Belen suddenly heard his walkie-talkie crack, with Oscar's voice asking "Mr. Belen?".
He picked it up and answered "Yes?".
"Ophelia is here, She wants to see her son. Now."
"Bring her in Oscar." He said, tuning around and wandering around "I have great news, by the way, Oscar."
Oscar asked, "What is it?"
Belen answered, "I told a person who runs the place that we mean no harm, they seem pretty relieved about it, I think we might be able to establish relations with them!".
"Brilliant!" Oscar exploded with happiness "Continue talking to them, we need diplomacy more than ever at this time."
Belen put the walkie-talkie back in his pocket and went back to talk to the Noirs and Eleanor.
1. Entomophobia is a fear of insects.