Gareth and Purrcy watched the other two men run until they'd gone through the fence and were out of sight, then Gareth turned to Purrcy. "You're too trusting, you know." She smiled a little. "You let me touch you."
Purrcy turned to face Gareth full on. "Gareth. We need you just a little longer. I'm sorry. You'll be released soon, I promise."
He scowled at her. "Do you not care!?" He tried to not let his voice get too loud. "Do you not care, that I could have just placed some kind of spell or physical attachment on you?"
Gently, Purrcy answered, "I care, Gareth. But does it really make you feel better for me to say that I don't trust you? I do, you know."
"Even if I killed you, you'd say that?" he hissed.
"Gareth, your anger is still talking. Go talk to the heart below that. What will the integrity of Gareth say when your anger is gone and that mirror is all you have left to look into? Wasn't it all of you who helped me remember what the consequence would be if I remained separated from my integrity?
"Your own anger has separated you from caring in the same way. You won't have anyone else to blame when you have to look into that mirror. Stop and carefully consider it, Gareth. I trust you because I know what that Gareth will feel and say to himself when the anger is gone."
Gareth was suddenly more angry than he'd ever been before. He had Purrcy in his arms, holding her so she couldn't escape, the back of her neck in one hand placed just right to break it. He scowled into her eyes. "And now you die." It was cold words said by someone not him. A someone he didn't know and he wondered where it had come from as his heart sank.
Purrcy only looked into his eyes, then she leaned forward just slightly and kissed him on the lips. He was so surprised he went into stunned shock. He barely registered that her lips were moving just beyond his, saying something his ears couldn't hear and a mist was moving between their mouths that entered him as he breathed.
He tried to let her go and flee, but he couldn't move. The fear in his brain woke it up a bit. If he was close enough to touch her, she was close enough to touch him ...and she was the superior mage.
As Gareth slumped to his knees, his arms releasing Purrcy and falling as if lifeless to hang at his sides, tears sprang into the corners of his eyes. "Why?" he asked, but he didn't hear his own word.
-:-:-:-:-
Purrcy watched as the kneeling Gareth slumped back on his heels and his head fell back, his face to the sky. A thin stream of mist rose from his mouth. She began her second chant. It was a long one and again was one she only knew in the moment.
The foxes around her were already encircling Gareth, waiting to spring. He'd grabbed her faster than they could react to, but they'd been ready to attack. She'd held them back. Now she left them in ready to attack mode and they all watched as the thin mist gathered above him.
She wove a spell as she chanted. The spell filtered out what was the real Gareth from the poisoned Gareth, who'd been brainwashed by the pain and the fear of the torture he'd been under at the base and in the States. They'd kept him not because he'd been afraid, not to heal him, but to turn him into their weapon against her.
He'd been the Eagle closest to Purrcy before, and the one closest to Michael. They couldn't brainwash Michael who needed her too much, but they could break Gareth who had already been broken many times by Izanami looking like her. It was easy to make him turn his anger at Izanami into anger at Purrcy herself.
Probably some of it was deserved, even. She couldn't fault him for that. But she also couldn't die, and she couldn't leave him a husk of a man once his deed was done, left as a dirty rag to crawl into a corner and die unloved by even himself, hating and cursing his existence more than he already did now.
And now that Purrcy knew they understood magic just enough, understood that they knew how to put demons into the bodies of others, she understood why Gareth had such troubles fighting himself and walking the path to healing. She was calling out the demon that had been put into him during the torture and brainwashing months and maybe even years since that's how long they'd had. But she wanted the man Gareth to survive. So she was carefully separating the two.
She knew Gareth. Down to his core. She also knew how to correct and heal at the bit level the psyche, memories, emotions, and body. It was long, complex, and wearying and she had to do it in the time they had before the other truck arrived - and fight off a greater demon before then as well. This was going to take delicate precision.
Purrcy's dakiniten form worked feverishly in the highest level it could on the repair, completely focused on Gareth and making him right again. It was the aspect Michael had created for her when he'd made her take goddess status on Theldesia - the Caretaker. Right at this moment, she was grateful she had that additional aspect.
Her dakini form was casting the chant, being the aspect of the High Priestess and Oracle that Inari was using to pass the words to her. Her kitsune aspect was holding onto the foxes and preparing for battle. On Theldesia, it was the aspect of the misaki cat, here it was a proper fox messenger of Inari, thus she could communicate with and control the foxes with her.
Her ikiryō form, her spirit aspect, was desperately setting up protections and casting HP and MP gathering spells so that she didn't kill anything around her in any desperate need for more than she had on her own. Just because she was a goddess on Theldesia, that didn't make her one on Earth (thank goodness), but that meant she wasn't able to receive strength and power from anyone else except by magic spell.
Purrcy's physical aspect was trying to stay alive for Michael's sake, resting, healing, crying for her beloved Gareth who had been so used and abused.
The mist finished coalescing before the chant ended, but it was close enough. Her protection was already up around herself and Gareth. Her kitsune form gave the order: "Kill."
The foxes leaped into the air and tore through the greater demon as it tried to take physical shape, keeping it distracted as she finished the chant. She had to purify them as they went through it. It had a lasting Cursed side effect when touched. She finished the chant just before she ran out of the ability to continue to purify the foxes.
As the kitsune fox, she leaped high into the air and snapped at the "heart" of the demon. Demons didn't have hearts, really, but they did have centers that connected them to life - what life they had. Her teeth bit down on it and because of her chant it shattered. Her shields protected her from the side effect of entering the demon's form.
Purrcy's ikiryō form cast a full-on area affect purification, exploding the spirit realm into a radiant white in their area. It thin-lined out in a horizontal radius, then the last of the greater demon's material flew into a black ball of compressed material. The radius of light returned to slam into that small sphere of a black hole and a thin pillar of light flashed down into Gareth and up high into the sky, then disappeared.
Kitsune and ikiryō forms recombined and sniffed at Gareth. He was still living, thank goodness, and the pillar of purification had done what it was supposed to do to his physical form, to get it properly fixed and ready to receive the rest of him. She checked on all the foxes in the area next, healing a few up a little better from the attacks, then told them to stand down, watch, and wait.
Those two aspects of Purrcy merged with the dakini form, the chant and intent now completed. That made her weary. The kitsune form went from two tails to three and stood watch on her physical form. Calculating, she left the kitsune form by itself (it went back to one tail) and the dakini form took the memories and the ikiryō form took the emotions. They were going to have to work at AI speeds up in the nano layer, and not use her preferred method of recombination that was more gentle.
Purrcy removed the memories of the brainwashing, the abuse, the false things that had built the anger up over the two years. She removed the emotions of them at the same time, working synchronously to keep the memories and the emotions equal. She removed the excessive fear he'd been given to have over magic and it's use again, leaving in only the healthy fear he'd learned while on Theldesia.
That level of fear gave the reason he was in the hospital in the first place, after all, so she couldn't remove it in total. Anyone who had full memory loss always tried to get it back and felt less of a whole person without them. Any smaller hole that was left by the removal of the excessive fear or anger would be filled by whatever emotion he would have had there before the abuse happened. Purrcy trusted that Gareth, the one who had left Theldesia.
The psyche was ready, so Purrcy's dakiniten form fed in the early memories and emotions all together at once, since those weren't ones the other two forms were working on and didn't need to. She allowed that combination to properly settle in Gareth's psyche, while her dakini and ikiryō forms continued to surgically work on the span of Earth memories and emotions from re-arrival on Earth after Theldesia. When Gareth's psyche was ready, her dakiniten form fed in the next set of combined memories and emotions up to the catastrophe.
The emotional and memory repairs were to the most complex combination from her re-arrival on Earth to the present time, when Gareth's psyche was ready to receive those from the time of the catastrophe. As dakiniten, she held him and comforted him through the most difficult parts of having to relive the catastrophe all over again at high speed. As when she'd repaired Crusty, she left interwoven into those times the additional warmth of her own love and caring for Gareth, healing the rushed merge faster that way.
The emotion and memory repairs slowed down, and finally paused before the final most recent moments. Her three forms watched as they put into Gareth's psyche the time from his return from Theldesia until just before her return from Theldesia. There were things she didn't know, memories that might be changed based on the changes she'd just made.
Purrcy had watched this part be done before, but the AI's already understood how to calculate what those changes would be and modify everything properly. It was her first time to work like this alone and she didn't have a computer brain in the same way. Guesswork, experimentation, and past experience were still her only ways to work.
She learned as he assimilated until she could slowly piece together a basic framework for the final waiting memories and emotions. Then she did what she'd never seen the AIs do. She left holes for him to fill in where she herself didn't have answers. When the two tasks were done, she said a quick prayer, bit her tongue, and slipped the last of the memories and emotions in.
She watched very carefully as the combined memories and emotions were sorted and placed in their proper locations. Where there were holes, she held her breath. Slowly they began to be written as if he were living those moments again.
Purrcy held Gareth's psyche closely to her warmth, then, knowing receiving this part of himself might be very painful. "I've got you. It's okay. You'll get through this, too," she said softly. "Hahaue's here for you." As difficult memory after difficult memory was replaced, she could finally breathe a sigh of relief. It looked like the combined form would properly be Gareth.
The hardest memory was the final one. She'd had no idea what the culmination would be. Her best answer if it didn't work properly would be to erase it altogether, like they erased the memories of people who shouldn't know about magic. When he filled in that hole, too, she slumped in relief, humbled. She rested while the three parts of him settled and knit together properly. Then she moved the ready psyche over his body and helped it to enter that, holding him warmly in her physical arms as she did so.
As Gareth's eyes opened to look up at her, Purrcy combined completely again, hiding her fox aspects. She smiled at him. "I'm here, Gareth. Please, help save the foxes and the other people being experimented on. They will be arriving soon. The foxes will confuse the driver and make him stop on the side of the road. Talk him into helping you fix the truck. The foxes will help with that, too. Keep him distracted and helping you all you can, but we can erase what we must as necessary. ...I love you, my son."
As Gareth's hand reached up to touch Purrcy's face, her eyes rolled up into her head and she slumped over, then fell into the grass. Gareth was immediately up, on his hands and knees above her, calling to her over and over. He grabbed her hand in his and cast his healing spell on her, then a purification, and finally in desperation, a Spirit Heal which was what she needed most.
The cool down was rather excruciating for both of them. He cast another healing spell, then a moment later a Spirit Heal. That was enough she wasn't going to die soon, so she passed out there. Michael was going to kill her for working so hard just after recovering from near-death, but she'd had to do the same the last time, working hard as soon as she'd entered the Gate of Time while fully pregnant and with nearly no health then, too.
-:-:-:-:-
Gareth was frantic. "What happened? Why is Purrcy like this?"
"She fought off a greater demon that had been inhabiting you," one of the foxes said to him. "Then she healed you."
"Ah...what?" he couldn't quite grasp that. "She healed me? But she's the one that needs the healing. She could have waited."
"No, young one, she couldn't. It was necessary to be immediately. The greater demon took complete possession of you the moment you were alone with her."
Gareth's eyes filled with tears. "I don't understand how it could have gotten into me, and I certainly wouldn't have wanted to hurt her, ever. I'm sorry it had to be now. I'm feeling so weak though, I can't do more than I have, for all I'm supposed to be her healer."
"Then stop there. She lives and you live. Heal her more later." That was rather practical and wise advice, really. Particularly if Purrcy was going to live.
Still, Gareth shuddered. "Well, I hope she's not worse when Michael gets back than when he left or he'll take the price out of my hide."
"It wasn't your doing, young one," the fox soothed him.
It didn't really help. "I know, but he'll still freak out. She's still too close to her own death return."
"True." Three foxes came up next to him and lay down close to Purrcy to help keep her warm. He wondered if any of them new how to purr healing. He didn't know how to ask.
"Warn me when you see the truck coming. And then watch her for me, please," he requested and the foxes nodded.
Gareth rested, leaning back against the ditch slope, letting Purrcy's head rest on his chest. That sort of healing was going to have to be good enough for now, he supposed. He pet her hair every now and again, when he thought of it.
Memories swirled around in his head as he lay there. It wasn't often Purrcy was vulnerable like this. There was an echo in his mind: "You're too trusting, you know. You let me touch you."
Purrcy saying, "Gareth. We need you just a little longer. I'm sorry. You'll be released soon, I promise."
Then him scolding her, "Do you not care? Don't you care, that I could have just placed some kind of spell or physical attachment on you?"
"I care, Gareth. But does it really make you feel better for me to say that I don't trust you? I do, you know."
He smiled at the memory of his tease. "Even if I kissed you, you'd say that?"
"Gareth, I trust you because I know what Gareth will feel and say to himself when the frustration is gone. If you did that, you would blush so hard every time you looked in the mirror - even if you were secretly happy to have stolen one just for yourself."
He smiled as he pet her hair gently. She did know him very well. Someday he'd have to surprise her with a stolen kiss, just so he could say he'd gotten one of his own. As that made him start to believe he might have already gotten one somewhere, a soft breeze came on his soul and that part of any memory that might have been once upon a time was gently erased.
-:-:-:-:-
Michael left one fox hidden near the corner of the hospital where it could watch the door and keep any electronics confused about their presence. The truck they were headed for was parked with others along a row of vehicles. As the guards with guard dog, he and Stiletto walked along the backs of all the vehicles, on the parking lot side. The other two foxes slunk along the front of the vehicles where they faced the field that they had crossed.
The first guard they came to slumped unconscious and was immediately replaced with a fox that looked just like him. Michael looked into the covered bed of the truck without looking. It was just over half-full of dead or unconscious foxes. They passed the second guard on the other side of the truck and he received the same treatment as the first.
When the security guards reached a corner and turned it, they were gone. With the illusion of invisibility and the confusion of the fox with them, they turned back and ran back along the front of the military vehicles until they were back to the target truck. They pulled the unconscious soldiers into hiding and Stiletto took the second guard's place so they had eyes on the truck.
Two soldiers came out of the hospital with a double level medical cart. On it were two foxes per level. The two men put the four foxes into the truck but when they returned to the building, the junior in the back was Michael.
He was careful to make it a real illusion, particularly taking the real identification that was likely to be needed to access secure areas. He hoped his magic would work and not be negated. If they had the facilities to keep Purrcy down they just might have suppression fields of some kind.
The other soldier walked them down the hall and into the elevator. Since Michael was the junior, he didn't have to say anything unless directly spoken to and the senior would have been given the orders. They went down - three floors. Specials level. No surprise there.
Outside the elevator was a small empty cold tile lobby area and a heavy steel door with a lock of the sort he expected. He was relieved it was just badge driven, not ciphered as well. He'd not have passed that. The senior put his tag on the identifier. Michael found his and put it there as well. The door unlocked the first time, but he was well aware that it read for each person regardless.
They walked in and the senior motioned for him to put the cart into the little alcove for such things. As Michael did that, the other soldier pulled out a collapsible gurney and set it up. He glanced at the gurneys and Michael followed to do the same.
They carted out people two-by-two and put them in the back of the truck as well. There was an old man, a young boy, and a pre-teen girl. The two women looked far too peaceful, and the last man maybe should have been taken off the magical streets, if looks could determine evil and good.
Michael obediently took his gurney back inside after the last person was loaded into the truck. After they'd returned the gurneys, the soldier he was with returned to the first floor and stopped at a desk with computers near the elevator door.
Michael stood guard and watched over his shoulder as he called up files and began to delete them. He turned to Michael and impatiently ordered him to begin working on the physical files, waving at the cabinets behind them.
Michael bowed in apology and turned to them. To make sure, he said, "To confirm, I'm to see they are fully destroyed." He got a positive. He pulled the files, then shredded the documents into one of two large shredders set next to the cabinets, tucking away into his list the first and last documents from each folder. This was going to take a while, to clear out three filing cabinets.
"Sir, I've been given the orders to go."
Michael sent back to Stiletto the clicks to let him know he wasn't able to get away, using the shredder to hide the sounds from his companion.
"I'll head on out and meet you there, then. I'll leave foxes as your rearguard."
Michael sent the one click of confirmation back. While he was happy to help with doing exactly what he wanted to see accomplished, it was still making him dance a little on the inside to get out faster.
The other soldier finally arrived to help and in just over fifteen minutes they managed to get all the documents cleaned up. Michael pulled the trash bag from his shredder and replaced it with an empty, echoing his companion's efforts. They carried the full trash bags out of the building and dropped them in the dumpster. Then they walked to report and be relieved of duty for the evening.
Michael disappeared when he properly could and returned to where the truck had been. He returned the identification to the soldier he was impersonating, the fox waiting for him rearranged that man's memories, and they sent him on home. The fox let him know they were all that were left inside the base and they could leave. They turned and ran back across the field, shielded by illusion and confusion.
-:-:-:-:-
Stiletto rubbed his head. He was fortunate his orders took him off the base; however, it wasn't going to work to just drive away. With the help of the foxes, and his own illusions, they got the two guards caught up and back to work. He hid in the back of the truck with one of the foxes while the guards were being worked on by the other foxes so he didn't make the truck wiggle after the fact and draw attention to himself.
Since both he and the healthy fox were invisible, he'd interlaced his fingers into its fur. He could feel the dismay coming from it as it looked at its fellows. With a quiet whisper, he asked it if they were dead or alive. It was relieving they still all had life to some degree.
They went silent as the second guard climbed into the back of the truck with them and the first guard climbed into the cab to start the truck. The truck backed out of its place and got going. When it was stopped at the gate, the gate guard came around the back.
Stiletto pushed the fox down and got as low as he could. He didn't know if the illusion was good enough or if they'd throw shadows. The light from the flashlight passed over them and moved on. When the gate guard left, Stiletto could breathe again, although he kept even breathing quiet so as to not catch the attention of the guard in the back with them.
They got moving again and he breathed just a little easier when they turned towards the direction they needed to go on the main road. He'd only gotten enough of a vision to know where they needed to go and the sense that it was future, so he was hoping the rest played out in their favor. At about the right moment, the truck was slowing down then stopping.
Stiletto felt suddenly confused, his mind beginning to wander unfocused and his eyes couldn't see right. He rubbed his head at the same time as the other guard did. The fox under his hand lifted its nose and touched his with it and he could think and see clearly again.
"Thanks," he chanced a whisper. The soldier didn't react so he carefully dropped his invisibility. It was relieving to watch the soldier's eyes close instead of have to fight him.
A fox head poked up over the tailgate, then the front paws were hanging over it. "It's just you, son of man. We are using illusion to get the other to help repair the truck, as planned."
Stiletto moved to leave the truck quickly, feeling chilled. Where are Gareth and Hahaue? He dropped the tailgate before leaving the back of the truck and dropped the one on the old truck on his way past it. He was down the hill next, looking for the two who were supposed to have stopped the military truck.
A warm fox body leaned on the side of his leg and he put his hand down to touch its back. The fox led him to the two dark lumps on the side of the hill that he'd not been able to distinguish. Purrcy's head was resting on Gareth's chest and they were both breathing slowly.
Stiletto looked at the fox with him and quietly asked how long they'd been sleeping. He was unhappy it wasn't very long at all. Any rest he could let them have after a healing session might be important later. He sighed and asked the foxes to have the other soldier help him with the unloading. It was going to take a long time with just one of them.
When they were done moving people into the back of the old truck and about half of the foxes, the soldier helping with repairs sounded like he was about done. Stiletto had managed to get in a look and was pleased the fox illusion was of an older Japanese woman, granny-style, who had needed the help. That meant the truck would be repaired as good as it could get given the circumstances.
"We will need his help also," he let the foxes know, then went to wake up Gareth. Regardless of how much sleep he'd had, they needed to get moving faster. The additional delay would be an unfillable hole so needed to be kept as short as possible. With four of them it went a lot faster.
As they reached the end, Stiletto went to the front of the truck and pulled out the delivery orders, making a copy of the original to keep. Then he went into conference with the four-tail and they worked out a sufficiently plausible story for why this truck was going where it was going empty.
The four-tail went to put that into the minds of the soldiers while Stiletto modified the orders properly and dropped them back on the seat where he'd picked them up from.
They closed up the trucks and scattered. The "granny" stayed to wave and bow in gratitude one more time as the military truck started back up and left to continue its required passage. "Michael how much longer?" Stiletto asked via chat.
"I'm on my way."
Stiletto looked through the field, but didn't see anything. He shrugged. He probably wouldn't see anything if they were under illusion. He and Gareth picked up Purrcy and put her into the back of the truck. Stiletto put one more illusion down, that of invisibility on her. They didn't need any last minute nosy people to see her there.
They had to wait a few more minutes in the cab of the truck before they felt Michael climb aboard the back of the truck. "Go. Under the overpass, then the first right. Maybe a bit more than a mile on the left is a small area to park. Look for three white flags." Stiletto got going.
Gareth suddenly stiffened next to him. "No, Sir. Just sleeping. I gave her everything I had and it still wasn't enough. I'm sorry."
Stiletto added, "I'm tanked out as well. Not more than a few minors left after all those illusions. Thought you should know, Sir."
A bit later, the overpass going overhead, and Michael reported, "The four-tail says the foxes aren't dead, but they're close. Under some artificial restraint, most likely drug is my guess. The people look the same."
As Stiletto prepared to turn right onto the next road there were three deep concussive retorts from the military base. He and Gareth looked at each other in concern. "Was that something you set up, Sir?" Stiletto asked.
"No, and if Purrcy did it she's in even more trouble," Michael said darkly.
"I doubt it was her," Gareth said. "She didn't have enough to do anything, really. Is it a third party?"
"I don't know and I don't care to get involved enough to find out." They firmly agreed with him on that.
It was farther down the road than he wanted it to be, but Stiletto did eventually see the three small white flags on the left and slowed down to turn and park. "Hang out a bit," Michael said and they relaxed, resting while they could like military did, keeping a sharp eye on their surroundings at the same time.
When foxes started arriving around the truck, they got out. The tailgate dropped, likely by Michael. He was putting one of the unconscious foxes on the back of another fox when they got around to the back.
Gareth climbed in and passed the foxes out while the other two of them placed the burdens until the foxes were all gone save the four-tail. It bowed to Michael, who returned the bow and then it was gone.
Michael looked back into the truck and sighed. "I need Purrcy for this next bit. I'd rather not babysit any longer than we have to, but first is getting farther away.
"Gareth you stay back here and get her tanked up a little more if you can. Knock anyone out that looks like they might try to wake up. Stiletto, you'll sleep up front. I'll drive." Stiletto was just as happy to have his turn to rest. He'd used up a lot more than he'd expected and it had been a long day.
-:-:-:-:-
Michael drove until he couldn't any more, then woke Stiletto back up. "I'm going up to see if I can find us a camping spot. Keep going this way." He opened the door and stretched, then walked to the back. Looking inside, he raised an eyebrow at Gareth. Gareth shook his head.
"Just a little farther," Michael said and took off for the sky, resisting the urge to check on Purrcy again personally. She needed sleep and he didn't need to be that overprotective. The faster they could hide, the sooner he could hold her again, which was all that he really needed anyway.
His demon form could see better than his human one and he was only ahead of them by a little when he didn't like what he saw. "Immediate left." He knew there was a small gravel lane back about where they were. He counted enemies, then silently turned to check the mountain below him.
"All stop. Get Purrcy out of the truck and hide. Piggyback." He didn't see military weapons on the people in the woods. "I think we've got some folks looking for our passengers. One negotiator." He could see Gareth step out just a little.
"I've got the address of the delivery location if that would help," Stiletto said from inside the spirit realm. Any negotiation power they could have would be useful.
"I've got basic data on them all," Michael said.
"Are we sure we want to give up the evil dude?" Gareth asked, worried.
"Not necessarily. I only want to give them the ones they really should take. I don't think everyone is theirs. Get Purrcy up if you can. This is what we need her for." Michael cast the shield he was building over the three on the ground.
He wanted to be there, on the ground, but he was already by default the hidden back-up, and damn glad he'd gotten tired and flew instead. "They're moving in." He gave the detailed formation, then at the right time gave Gareth the cue.
"That's far enough," Gareth said calmly and just loud enough to be heard. "What are you looking for specifically?"
There was a pause as the group Michael could see that was mostly on the opposite side of the truck from Gareth and at the front to keep the truck from moving, sent for a proper negotiator. They were trying to come up from the road side as well, which wasn't sitting well with him, but there wasn't likely much to do about it. He definitely was going to prevent anyone from coming up the back, though.
"We arrived at the base to find things a mess and the people we'd thought were getting our people out had been intercepted."
"You weren't allowed to take the foxes. They got first dibs," Gareth said. "Who do you need specifically? They're not all yours and we're not allowing hostages this round."
That got a pause for rearrangement of thinking. "There's only three of you. Why do you think you can prevent it?"
"Why do you want to bother having to heal up and feed those not of your clan?" Gareth asked, amused.
"Okay. I can see that point," the other negotiator answered after a bit of thought. "What payment do you want?"
"Freedom to drive back out of here with the lot of you going the other way. I don't need to see your faces now or ever."
Michael's eyes swept over the field. There were two moving on either end towards the back. "Two pincer-clipping you, Stil," he said softly, staying out of range of things to be thrown up at him and low enough to be in the mountain shadows instead of blocking stars.
"What do you need from me, Michael?" Purrcy asked quietly. He was relieved to hear from her.
"I want the clan identified and to know the right people go with them. When you can, we need to have the rest identified and their clans informed. We don't need to keep babysitting.
"One of them looks like he should have been locked up. I'd hate to let a criminal escape, particularly if we'd have to go hunting him back down." She gave a quietly murmured sound of understanding and he let her work. Michael went to giving a foot-by-foot countdown of arrival to Stiletto as Gareth continued the negotiation.
"Fine. As long as we can have our people we'll let you go. What payment?"
"What's the going rate for rescue and recovery right now?" Gareth asked.
"...How did you manage it if you don't already know?"
"New kid on the block? Humor me."
"They're headed for Gareth, not you, Stil," Michael interrupted. "I've already covered you, if you want to hold your ground."
Gareth dropped to the ground and moved three steps left. He'd left a shadow Gareth behind. He crawled backwards until he was under a bush then threw his voice ventriloquism-style. He'd been given a figure per person and he dickered it up, knowing they'd have low-balled him.
"Why not just let them have them?" Purrcy asked.
"Because none of us have cash right now," Stiletto answered her.
"Oh. I guess I'd like to eat." The rest of them smiled. "I've got their clan info and in about a minute or less should have the clans of the people inside. You're talking to Arikawa-san."
The dickering done, Gareth casually said, "So, as I asked before, who are you looking for specifically, Arikawa-san?" That got the desired re-up of caution from the enemy. Even the two about to pounce on the shadow-Gareth paused. "Description and age included please."
The pre-teen girl and old man were asked for. "Truth," Purrcy said.
"You may collect them, but only them," Gareth said. His actual position was now behind the two that just then pounced on his shadow self. It disappeared into ash and mist. The other side waited to see if that allowance was going to be rescinded. When it wasn't, Arikawa-san motioned to the two and they went to the back of the truck.
"Stil, illusion on the man you guys don't like. They may take him otherwise," Purrcy ordered.
"One at a time," Gareth warned the two so that they paused to give Stiletto time to cast, then only one went to the back of the truck. The girl was brought out first and given to the waiting man. The one inside the truck went back in and brought out the old man, climbing out of the truck before getting him on his back with Arikawa's help.
"Let's see you leave the payment on the tailgate, then," Gareth ordered.
When the man went to turn away without paying, he was suddenly frozen in place. "Naw, naw. Can't ask what the payment is and run. You've got enough people behind you to stop the Navy, there's enough pocket change among you all to pay. Let's have it. At a five percent increase for that sly attempt."
When the money was finally on the back of the tailgate, it needed to be counted. Gareth slipped out of his hiding place, Michael giving him the clear to do so, and walked up to actually face Arikawa.
Gareth's fox muzzle grinned at the man and his two tails waved and flipped in the air lazily. "Fox clan!" Arikawa breathed. The fully fox face was sufficient to hide Gareth's identity and the rest of his body had slimmed up to look foxtail in form.
"I told you, foxes had dibs, but we don't really want to babysit the rest." Gareth was still casual in tone. He reached out and counted the payment, made the man cough up the rest, then said, "Pleasure doing business with you. I do hope you weren't hoping on beginning clan wars tonight. We'd like the rest to return to their clans in peace."
Arikawa glanced into the woods. "You were collecting one of your own then."
"More than one," Gareth agreed. "Bye." He pointedly looked at Arikawa until the man turned and left, giving the order to the rest of the clan to pull out. Only when it was quiet and there were no other persons in the woods around the three and the truck did Michael settle to the ground.
"Shall we just call the other clans to us here?" he asked. "While I'm not sure I want to be found here once we're done off-loading, it seems a quiet and out of the way enough place for that much."
"Different spots would be safer you know," scowled Stiletto.
"I know, but we're about out of night." Stiletto looked away. Gareth did, too, when looked at.
Purrcy was still lying on the ground where Stiletto had laid her out as they waited for the others to finish leaving. She reached up to Gareth. He crouched down next to her. She rubbed his muzzle with both hands, then rubbed his head. "You did such an excellent job. It sounded like you had fun, even." She smiled at him.
His ears and whiskers blushed. "I did. That sort of thing is fun. To know that with only three and four we can blow one hundred away with ease. Teasing those kinds of numbers is fun."
She papped him on the head. "That was enough to take into enemy lines and do damage. Don't call it nothing, even if your and our skills are sufficient."
"It's hard to not, though, Hahaue."
She sighed at him since he was both being serious and teasing her. "Special ops," she whispered, but with more pride than resignation. They all smiled at that. Michael decided to hum God Bless America, until she shushed him. They softly laughed at her, happy to see her in good spirits for all the worry she'd put them through.
"Okay. I've sent the messages to the clans, and I've gotten the information from the top desk. He is wanted and they're going to send, but he needs to be locked up. He's going to wake up soon."
Michael and Stiletto immediately walked to the back of the truck, pulled the man out of it, and put him closer to them. Purrcy was working on her spell for now, so they just tied him up. He might still be able to disappear, but that was a start.
Gareth negotiated the rest of the retrieval's returns home. He stayed foxtail until the negotiations were done. Most of the rest of the clans came by magical means, likely having to travel long distances and that being the fastest way to do it. Purrcy made him take off the foxtail for the transfer of the last mage with an illusion for Gareth's face that she put on him. Likely they would be sending a high-level mage to pick the man up.
There could have been a lot of excitement at that point in time, but there somewhat surprisingly wasn't. They were even handed a money envelope of the kind the Japanese used to surreptitiously pay with before the man left with his prisoner. Gareth counted it. "That's more for one man than we got in total for the rest of them." He was pleased.
"Bounty reward, I think," Purrcy said, a bit distracted. They left her alone until she came back. "He's been properly deposited and I've erased any of our signatures in case he gets back out again. He'll hopefully remember it as just a transfer from the Naval base to the prison via negotiations." She went quiet again. "Top office wants to know if we set off the ordinance."
"No," they all three said at once. "That was after we were already on the road," Stiletto said. "Far enough back it wasn't even in the rear-view mirror. Only the sound wave got to us." Purrcy was patient a little longer then gave a nod and returned to them with a soft sigh.
"Stil, you're driver. Gareth you're co-pilot. We're going to sleep in the back," Michael ordered. "Get us somewhere else and hidden. Shrine of Inari is fine if you have to sleep and we've hit civilization. Dirt road works, too." With nods, they got back into the truck.
Michael carried Purrcy up towards the cab end of the back of the truck, then lay down with her, putting her on the cab side, his back to the road. He curled up with her, his wings protecting her again. He put an illusion over them of a tattered black tarp.
As the wheels sang to asphalt again, he let himself slip into sleep, scolding her back into her own sleep on the way. That had been too much magic casting without enough sleep again on her part as far as he was concerned.