Magic within the city of beasts
Here's chapter nine of the crossover story. Sorry for the long wait everyone, I was having a little bit of a writer's block and I was distracted with other things. I hope you all enjoy and leave a comment.
"Talk" Normal speech
'Think' thoughts
{Think} Telepathic mind-link
Chapter nine
It didn't take long for the duo to find an open window and sneak into the warehouse. Shirou went in first and checked around to see if the coast was clear before signaling for Kagami to follow him. Kagami quietly trailed behind the wolf beastman for a while before Shirou signaled for her to stop, and they quickly hid behind some crates. They watched as one of the guards within the warehouse walked by their hiding place. Kagami sensed Shirou tensing up as an intense aura of anger flared up around his body. She looked at him in confusion before using her canine nose to take in the guard's scent. Kagami caught the smell of human lingering on the man, but she stiffened in disgust when the strong smell of cologne reached her nostrils. She quickly shifted back to her human form before slapping her hand over her nose and mouth as she fought a gag reflex. Shirou turned when he heard a quiet groan come from Kagami and arched an eyebrow at her.
{What's wrong?} questioned Shirou in annoyance.
{That guy who walked passed us just a moment ago was wearing too much cologne on his body,} replied Kagami with a groan as she held her nose in the process. {I'm surprised that you're able to smell he was a human under that disgusting perfume of his without gagging.}
Shirou only rolled his eyes before he got straight to the point: {This is where we'll split up. I'll be heading up to the top floor of the warehouse where Nakamura is hiding in. You'll head towards the back of the warehouse and see what you can find there. Do not engage any of the guards within this building, got it?}
{Got it,} replied Kagami with a nod of her head.
Shirou turned away from Kagami, stood up and quickly made his way down the hallway towards the stairs that will lead him to his target. Kagami waited for a second before she got up from behind the crates, and began to head towards the back of the warehouse. She silently made her way through the warehouse, while making sure not to bump into any of the security guards along the way. It took about three minutes before she came to her destination. Kagami hid behind a metal pillar and looked ahead of her to see a large door a few feet in front of her. She watched as a man in a white lab coat opened the door and walked out before closing it behind him. Kagami frowned as she watched the man walk away before looking towards the door again.
'Alright, let's see what's behind that door,' thought Kagami as she silently made her way towards her objective.
On the top floor of the warehouse, Nakamura was sitting at his desk with a calm expression upon his face. His office was slightly dark with only a few lights shinning within the room. He was looking over some papers before he heard a knock on his office door.
"Enter," said Nakamura in a casual voice.
The door opened and a female scientist walked into the room with a clipboard held in her right hand. She left the door open as she walked up to Nakamura's desk before coming to stand at least two feet in front of it.
"So, how are the tests doing?" questioned Nakamaru with a smirk on his face.
"We're making progress so far," answered the scientist as she looked down at her clipboard. "But we're still having problems with stabilizing the serum samples from the blood we've collected from the beastmen children and teenagers we have captured."
"I see," said Nakamaru in a relaxed voice. "Well, we'll just have to continue on with our slow progress. I'm counting on you and the rest of your team to finish this project of ours, Mrs. Takahashi."
"Yes sir," said the scientist, now known as Takahashi, with a bow.
"Good. You're dismissed," spoke Nakamaru as he waved a hand at the scientist.
Takahashi nodded her head before she turned and headed back out the door. Nakamaru went back to looking through his papers just as Takahashi walked out of his office, while closing the door behind her. Nakamaru went over the papers as his smirk grew larger and his face took on a maniacal look.
"Soon...very soon...we will have achieved our goal. All we need is more young beastmen, and then we'll finally have a way to extend the life of humans."
Nakamaru continued to look down at the paper's within his hands, unaware that he was not alone within his office.
Back down stairs, Kagami had snuck closer to the door and waited until one of the scientists opened it before she quickly snuck in, just as the door almost closed behind her. Kagami hid behind a couple of crates and quietly watched as a few scientists walked around, while the rest of the scientists sat in front of the screens of their respective computers. Kagami observed them for a moment before looking down at her right hand. She frowned when she saw that her invisibility spell was wearing off when her hand flickered into view for a moment.
'Looks like the time limit is almost up,' thought Kagami quietly to herself. 'I wonder if Shirou was able to get up to the top floor okay?'
Kagami opened up her mind-link before she quietly called out to him: {Shirou? Are you already at your destination?}
{Yeah,} replied Shirou through the mind-link. {I'm in Nakamaru's office right now.}
{Alright. My spell is reaching its limit, so get ready to grab him.}
{I never miss. Just make sure that you find out what they're hiding within this building, and try not to get caught.}
{I'll make sure that I won't.}
Kagami then cut off the mind-link as she quietly let out a sigh before thinking to herself : 'Alright then. Time to do a little reconnaissance within this room.'
Kagami made sure to stick to the shadows as she watched the scientists closely within the room. She then noticed one of the scientists walking towards another door that was in the far corner of the room. Kagami frowned as the scientist opened the door and walked into the next room. She summoned her magic and dashed across the room to slip into the next room before the door closed.
Back in Nakamaru's office, he continued to look over his papers with a satisfied expression upon his face. But his smile soon turned into a frown when he suddenly felt like he was being watched. He quickly turned to look behind him, and for a moment he saw nothing out of the ordinary. Yet the man knew that someone was in the room with him.
"I know you're there," spoke Nakamura in a hard edged voice. "So you'd best come out or else I'll call the guards on you."
He was met with silence for a moment, before he froze in fear when a deep voice spoke out from within the shadows of the room.
"You might want to rethink that decision, human."
A cold sweat broke out on Nakamura's face as Shirou, now in his human form, walked out from the shadows inside his office. Shirou's eyes were narrowed as he glared at Nakamura, who was paralyzed with fear at seeing the white haired man in front of him.
"S-Shirou Ogami," spoke Nakamura in a trembling voice. "H-how did you g-get here?"
"You should know by now that nothing in this city goes unnoticed for long," replied Shirou as he stared Nakamura down with his intense glare. "You should also know that humans are not allowed in Anima City."
Nakamura glared at the wolf as a smirk appeared on his face: "Well...how else am I supposed to continue my experiment on extending human life if I don't have any test subjects to help me in my research?"
A low growl emerged from deep within Shirou's throat as he silently glared at the man before him. Nakamura's posture soon relaxed as he straightened himself before he continued to speak in a casual voice.
"You beastmen interest me. You all have such a unique gene that makes you stronger and you have more endurance than we humans do. Your kind has skills that we do not posses, and it has me wondering if you beasts might have longer lifespans than us."
Back with Kagami, she had hidden herself amongst a few crates after her invisibility spell had faded. Kagami watched from the shadows as two scientists left the room she had snuck into. Once they had left, it was only Kagami and once she saw that the coast was clear, she walked out from her hiding place. She began to take in her surroundings and Kagami saw a few computers within the room. There were also medical tables within the room as well, but when Kagami turned her gaze away from the computers and the medical tables, her eyes widened in horror at the sight before her.
Shirou tried to keep his temper in check as he glared at the human in front of him. Nakamura had sat back down at his desk as he gave Shirou a smirk before continuing on with his speech.
"So for us to really understand, we scientists had to go straight to the root of what we really need to accomplish our goal. And that...is to gather up young subjects who can help us with our research."
Kagami was horrified by the scene that was displayed in front of her. All around the lab were bodies of young beastmen lying on top of metal tables...all of them still and not breathing. Many of the young beastmen's body parts were cut off, and were replaced with different body parts of other beastmen. There were some with no body parts with bandages wrapped around the place where the limbs had been cut off. Kagami's body shook as she raised her hand up to her mouth, while tears started to form within her eyes.
'How horrible,' thought Kagami as she stared at all the young beastmen laying on the tables. 'Those poor children. Is this what the humans of this planet do to innocent beastmen?'
Kagami's horror turned to rage as she lowered her hand from her mouth and clenched it into a fist. She was disgusted by what was going on within the lab, and furious that humans would do such horrid experiments. Kagami was about to stomp out of the lab and make those scientist regret what they had done to these innocent beast-children. But before she could, a sound from within the lab made her pause in her steps. Kagami frowned as she slowly looked around the room for a moment before she shifted into her wolf form. She stood very quiet as she listened hard for the sound that she had heard a moment ago. After a moment, Kagami's sharp hearing caught the sound, and she realized that it was the sound of someone crying. Kagami was able to pin-point where the sound was coming from and turned towards a large curtain that stood off to the side. The she-wolf slowly walked towards the curtain before coming to a stop in front of it. Kagami stretched her hand right hand forward before she slowly pulled the curtain aside. What she saw behind the curtain had her gasping in quietly in shock.
On the ground before her was a cage, and in that cage was a child that looked to be around seven years old. The child was a young girl with long dark golden blonde hair, which grew down to her shoulders and pale skin. She wore a ragged blue dress with the skirt tattered at the edges, while her feet were bare of any footwear. The girl was curled up into a small ball and had her back turned towards Kagami.
Kagami stared down at the little girl silently for a moment before taking a step towards the cage. She only got about a couple of steps before the girl shouted as her form tensed up in fear.
"Stay away from me!"
Kagami paused for a moment before she spoke in a soft voice: "It's alright. I'm not one of those scientists. I'm not going to hurt you little one."
After hearing Kagami's voice, the little girl slowly turned to look over over her shoulder. When she did, Kagami saw that the girl's eyes were a beautiful crystal blue, but they were filled with fear and uncertainty. As for the girl's face, Kagami saw that it was a sickly pale as if the girl hadn't seen the sun in days. The girl's eyes widened in surprise when she saw Kagami in her beastman form.
"You're...you're a beastman," spoke the child in a small voice.
"Yes I am," replied Kagami gently as she walked towards the cage before kneeling down. "My name is Kagami Kage, and I came here with another beastman to find out what's been happening here within this building."
"You saw the bodies in the room right?" asked the child quietly.
A sad expression appeared on Kagami's face before she nodded her head: "Yes...I did."
"Then you know what they do to us," said the little girl as she looked at Kagami. "Those people hurt us and hook us up to those machines. They also use sharp tools to cut off our limbs and replace them with another beastman's limb. They said they're experimenting on us so that they can find a way to extend their own lives or something."
Kagami's frowned at what the girl had just said before speaking: "Are there other beast-children still alive here?"
The little girl's eyes turned to the floor before she slowly shook her head: "I'm the only one left alive."
Kagami's face took on a dark expression as anger and sadness welled up inside of her. At first, she was tempted to continue on with her plan on stomping out of the lab, and attacking those scientists to punish them for what they were doing to the beastmen. But she quickly cast that thought aside when she remembered what Shirou had said. She was to not engage the guards that were stalking around within the building. Kagami slowly took in a deep breath to calm herself and started to think about what she should do.
'Alright, I already know what they're doing here. So I need to get out of here as fast as possible,' thought Kagami quietly to herself before glancing back at the little girl in the cage. 'I also need to get this kid out of here too. There's no telling what these scientists will do to her, and she's already suffered enough in this place already.'
Kagami then spoke to the child in a gentle voice: "Do you have a name little one?"
The little girl looked up in surprise before answering shyly to Kagami's question: "Biyori."
"Biyori," repeated Kagami gently as a smile graced her lips. "That's a cute name."
The little girl, now known as Biyori, smiled at what Kagami had just said. Kagami smiled back at Biyori before a determined expression appeared on her face.
"Now, let's get you out of here," spoke Kagami as she turned her attention to the lock on the cage door.
Kagami examined the lock on the cage and saw that it was a simple lock with a keyhole.
She frowned slightly at the keyhole: 'I can't risk going outside to search for the keys to this lock. And even if I did find them, it'll take forever to figure out which key can unlock this cage. I guess I'll just have to unlock it with the use of my magic.'
Kagami lifted up her right hand and curled all, but her index finger into her palm. The claw on her index finger extended slightly before Kagami inserted it into the keyhole. Biyori watched with a curious expression upon her face, which also held a look of worry as well. Kagami looked down at Biyori and gave her a reassuring smile.
"Don't worry. My claw's are a lot tougher than they look," said Kagami in a gentle voice.
Kagami caught a brief glimpse of doubt upon Biyori's face before she turned her attention on the lock. She frowned slightly as she focused upon the keyhole. As she did, the world around Kagami grew quiet as she focused all of her attention on what she needed to do. Calling upon her magic, a silver aura appeared and glowed faintly around Kagami's claw. Kagami concentrated for a moment as she let the power of her magic flow into the lock, before the faint sound of a click was heard. She pulled her claw out of the keyhole before giving the cage a gentle tug. Biyori blinked in amazement when Kagami easily pulled open the cage door. The young she-wolf smiled at Biyori, while giving her a wink in the process.
"Told you," said Kagami playfully. "Now let's get you out of here and some place safe."
A large and hopeful smile appeared on Biyori's face before nodding her head. With that, Kagami gently lifted Biyori out of the cage and held the child in her arms. Kagami slowly stood up and turned towards the curtain that hid Biyori's cage. She was about to walk out into the lab, but quickly stopped when she caught the scent of people coming into the room.
'Damn it!' thought Kagami as she quickly ducked into the shadows of the curtain.
Biyori tensed within Kagami's arms and clung to her in fear when the both of them caught sight of the two male scientists. Kagami quietly shushed Biyori and glared out through the slit of the curtain at the two scientists. The memories of what had happened to her long ago rose up within her mind, but Kagami kept her anger suppressed and stayed calm. She thought about opening up the mind-link and telling Shirou the situation.
'No,' thought Kagami with a light frown. 'Shirou is already occupied with his own mission. I'll just have to figure things out on my own and hopefully get this child to some place safe.'
Kagami stood quietly as she and Biyori silently watched from the shadows as the two scientists walked around. After a moment, one of the scientists spoke up.
"Hopefully we'll get more subjects for our project. All the other beastmen that we have experimented on have all failed and died during the procedures. Now we only have one subject left that we haven't yet experimented on."
"Yeah, I know the one that you're talking about," spoke the first scientists. "That one is a handful if you ask me. The kid just doesn't stop crying, ugh! Her wailing is getting to the point where its giving me a bloody headache."
"Not to mention she tends to bite anyone that tries to pull her out of her cage," added the second scientist. "But that's what you expect from a beastman. They may have evolved to walk and talk like us. Yet no matter how much they change, they'll always be nothing but empty headed beasts."
Kagami gritted her teeth at what the man had just said. How dare those two men talk about the beastmen as if they knew them already. Kagami had been living amongst the beastmen for a few days, and she had seen them as something more than beasts. They had emotions and personalities like humans do, and they were also intelligent. Maybe even more intelligent than humans make the beastmen out to be. She would love nothing more than to march out there and pound those two men to a pulp.
'Calm down,' thought Kagami firmly to herself. 'Don't let your anger get the better of you. The most important thing that you need to do right now is to get Biyori out of here.'
Just as she calmed herself down, the two scientists began to talk with each other again.
"So what's to be done with the beast-child we have left?" asked the first scientist.
"Well...the boss said that if the subject continues to fight us, then we are to get rid of the kid as soon as possible," answered the second scientist with a smirk. "And he said we can do it anyway we want as long as it's quick, and that we leave no evidence behind."
Kagami's eyes narrow dangerously, while Biyori clung even tighter to her in fear. Then the scientists turned and started walking towards the curtain that hid the cages, Biyori and Kagami.
"Well, I think it's about time that we put the kid through another one of our tests," spoke the second scientist.
Kagami tensed as she glared the two approaching scientists: 'Damn it! How the hell do I get out this mess?'
To be continued
And there you go. I've also been working on other BNA crossover stories as well so feel free to look them. They are called 'Three Worlds Intertwine' and 'Power Rangers: Beast Fusors'. I hope you all take a look at them and leave a review to tell me what you think of them.
White Hunter, howling out to you and creativity!