I've been thinking of creating a side story for the world of The Perfected taking place in the west. It'll be about a rising empire that has become heavily militaristic conquering lands far and wide. This will be canon and tie into the storyline of The Perfected though. So, keep an eye out?

Chapter 7: Scour…

Andratas

The sun was high and bright, but before I could storm the prison, Melody insisted we formulate a plan first.

"It would be unwise to die before you get her out, no?"

We were all sitting around the low table, Emilia had woken up and had gotten the same treatment I had received, flustering up, turning red as a ripe Catenfruit at the mention of our… sleeping arrangement. Coughing, she glared at me through her heated paws and I cowered in fear.

"So what do you suggest we do, smarty cat?" I retorted, staring at my paws and my new stignium claws. Schion had insisted we reinforce our claws with stignium, bringing out a secret cache of stignium claw reinforcements. It was weird to see my claws glimmer so brilliantly against the sun-high rays but it was for the best. The stignium claws also dug into my flesh and felt uncomfortable but it was a small price to pay for a better chance at fighting.

Melody just smiled, "I'll take that as a compliment, anyways," She continued, placing a paw on the city centre map, "This here is the…"

Emilia's eyes widened at the sight of the map, "How did you get the documents of the city centre detailed planned?"

Melody cocked her head, confused at her reaction, "Well I am the daughter of a prominent…"

A screech shattered across the room as Emilia's weapons were unlocked, pointing everywhere randomly as her eyes glared directly at Melody's analysing thoroughly, "You are Melody Vynce. daughter of Goerin Vynce, head of mission control for the Perfected!"

Melody's eyes widened and she cowered beneath Emilia's analysing glare. Schion quick to action, grasped onto Emilia's paw brought her down to her knees as she switched her attention to him, prepared to blast a hole into him.

Time slowed as I let out a scream, "Emilia!"

Her eyes flickered back onto me, a flurry of emotions rushing through her eyes, anger, doubt and something else, something unreadable…

But before I could put a paw on it, she collapsed to the ground, wheezing, her body going into a spasm. Schion was about to strike her but I intervened, blocking his claws from reaching her, "Emilia? Are you ok? Calm down!"

For a few seconds, she violently struggled against Schion's grip, but she slowly calmed down, relaxing against the floor, her eyes, turning from white back to her original yellow state.

"What, what happened? What did I do?" She whimpered against me, her nose in my fur.

All three of us exchanged glances while Schion released his paw on her. Her chest heaved with the relief of the pressure.

Schion scoffed, "You freaked out, that's what happened threatening Melody for whatever reason."

Her eyes flashed for a moment before relaxing as she sighed, one filled with relief, relaxed. Her eyes scanned her surroundings and she got up from her paws, hunched and remorseful.

"I'm sorry, it's just… Well, I should tell you outright I guess. We have had a long-held mission of recovering the daughter of Goerin Vynce. He… he used his power over mission control to give us all commands to find his daughter and retrieve her," She inhaled lightly, placing a paw on her chest, "I guess I couldn't control the direct orders and struck, I'm sorry."

Melody, slowly lifting herself up from behind the table, gave a gentle smile, "It's ok, no harm was done. Let's just get back to the plan..."

We were scouring the city centre, clothed in rich, silk clothes Melody had funded us with. The city was more vibrant than I expected, with hordes of merchants and everyday civilians just roaming around, bartering for goods and overall getting along with their nice lives. Posh. They were oblivious to the suffering just near them, but I didn't care, they didn't need to care about us. Apart from the everyday civilians, there were international travellers. Cats from other lands wandered about, taking in the lively city or here for business. I had never really seen these foreign cats before, speaking many different languages and selling many unique goods that I have yet to encounter. However, needless to say, it was quite crowded.

Travelling through the centre square of the city flanked by sandstone residencies of the elites where the market was held, we infiltrated a crowd of civilians looking for goods to buy, making our way down the square to the other side of it. There the city prison stood, tall and mighty, but yet still overshadowed by the colossal Siren Centre, where apparently the Sirens lived and governed from. Where the Perfected were housed. Emilia's home…

We split up from here, Melody would take Emilia around a longer way, presumably to get her away from the Siren Centre so she would not be spotted. She instructed Schion and I to go directly to the prison and scout around, Schion was a better fighter and I was a greater hider after all. But I sensed that there may be another reason she split us up…

Despite the great crowds, I was used to it. The crowds weren't as much as the underground's used to be, giving us ways to squeeze past shoppers and stalls, making our way quite rapidly through the centre square. Once we made our way past the square, we stumbled upon a great statue in front of us and a gigantic hole, being patched up, to the side of us. Behind the statue lay the great Siren Centre, a block of few complexes, massive and modern compared to its surrounding, giving off uncomfortable vibes. I padded up close to the statue, intrigued. I had never seen this before and the etchings below it spiked my curiosity while Schion looked at the hole, trembling in anger at it.

This here statue commemorates the 500th anniversary of the Great Merge. Above is the Great Merger, Sirenstar…

What?

The confusion lingered within me as I slowly stared up at the agnium statue of the cat. Whoever he was, I may not know. But Sirenstar… Sirens…

"Let's go!"

A growl voiced in my ears. Schion was basically death glaring me, red glow radiating from his body. The hole, the way they got into the underground market. His parents…

"Alright, you're right. Let's go."

My sense of direction around the city centre was extremely vague. The memory of the map long gone, however. Down a row of sandstone housing blocks, apartment buildings rising three or four stories high, lay a great tower, spiralling upwards, with a courtyard, dark, with rotting, dead trees, and blackened grass.

I grimaced at the sight, was this what my sister was living in? I prayed she wasn't suffering too badly. Nevertheless, we made our way to the complex. It was surrounded with guards, and the courtyard was fenced in. Apparently, according to Emilia, they always had this national 'emptying' of their prisons. It was called order 13. Unfortunately, that meant everyone would be killed. Or worse, become an Axxolite. My claws instinctively unsheathed at the thought of my sister becoming a slave to the Sirens.

We hid behind a few crates, the contents inside? Ammunition? Food? Weapons? It did not concern me, there would be no use for it once we get everybody out.

Out in front of us, a few Dynamics and Sirens began padding up towards the prison. I was fearful that they would spot us but luckily, they seemed quite focused on their mission objective. Schion on the other hand, was not as concerned by them. His eyes followed the group as they made their way inside the complex, possibly taking down all of the details.

I was quite impressed by his bravery, he showed no hint of terror as he made his way to the fenced off prison. However, he was not unseen as a guard made his way towards him, eyes glinting with warning.

"Oi! You there, stay away from this facility! It's a guarded place!" He called out, prepared to alarm his fellow guards.

But Schion just tilted his head, with a cocky smile and a wink at me.

"Hey didn't you hear me! You'll get persecuted and taken in! Potentially killed!" The guard cried out.

"Oh I realise, but I didn't know what was going on." Schion smiled towards the guard behind the fence, "But since I'll be taken in, why not you arrest me now?"

I was confused, quite alarmed by the audacity he had to call out to a guard to take him in. But his winks and smiles… It betrayed a plan of his, one that he did not share to us.

The guard was quick to be provoked, cocky even. He marched around to the gate and stormed out to me Schion. His eyes flared with anger behind the stignium helmet of his.

"Listen here young tom, if you…" His threat was cut off instantly, as Schion flung him over his back, knocking him out in an instant, "I hope he doesn't remember a thing." He murmured.

My eyes widened at his incredible feat, even an insane cat wouldn't tackle down a guard in front of a highly secure complex with tons of surveillance. I was about to call out to him when he silenced me by signalling a paw on his mouth.

Quickly, he pulled something from the guard's armour with his mouth and leapt back over to where I was behind the crates.

"What did you think you were doing!" I angrily whispered, "This wasn't part of the plan!"

He stared me directly in the eye, flashing exasperation, "Damn you really are stiff aren't you. I see why Emilia and you are quite compatible." He grumbled.

"What?!" My fur flared up with embarrassing memories, coughing as the heat reached my throat.

"Anyways," Schion continued, rolling his eyes at me, "If it wasn't for my quick eye and quick thinking, this plan would be over before it was executed."

He flashed a card, the one he had taken from the guard. Suddenly it all made sense.

"I am quite the master planner, any small detail catches my eye and despite my rush-like attitude, I take my time observing everything I full view before openly exposing myself," He explained, head lifted in pride.

I looked at the card in his jaws, sure enough, an ID bar ran along the ridge of the card. I sighed, relieved, fortunately for us, his eyes had caught something of value.

"Hey! What about stealthily don't you get!" Melody screamed throwing her paws exasperatedly into the air, completely ignoring her own advice, "We're not meant to be yelling at each other!"

Melody and Emilia had rounded the street, close by our hiding place, apparently hearing the commotion and us arguing, they had quickly ran over preparing for the worst. Apparently the worst at least, since Emilia had her weapons already activated ready to blow a hole right into any enemy target.

"That's ironic..." Schion grumbled, "Anyways, we got this ID card from a… Neutralised target to put it."

Melody glared, squinting in anger, "And that was so important why?"

Emilia gasped all of a sudden and smacked a paw on her mechanical forehead, "Of course! The IDs! Completely forgot to warn you about them."

"IDs?" Melody cocked her head, staring confused at the android.

"They were implemented after your defection, my lady," She used this term to the utter surprise of me, when had she started using it? "They were given among the elites only for them to access secretive locations."

"Well good thing we got one of these things," Schion smiled proudly, demonstrating the ID up into the air.

Emilia scratched her head with her paws though, "Not really, I have one inbuilt. So we really didn't need one but it was nice for you to consider it."

I failed to hide my chuckle as Melody stuck out a tongue at Schion.

Schion looked defeated for once, turning away his head from us in shame and embarrassment, "So much for that…" He grumbled further.

"Well, what else did you find apart from the ID?" Melody cut everybody off and back on topic.

"Well the guard for the front gate is down but they still have the gate guards, which kind of control if the gate is opened or not," I pointed out, Melody looked at me, however, as if I was simple-minded.

"You can see that right there," She stabbed a paw in their direction, "Tell me something else that apart from something that only a blind kit doesn't know."

Schion stared up, pride restored rapidly from the previous shatter, "There was a small an escort of Sirens and Dynamics into the complex, though I don't know how that affects our plan very much."

"Hmmm…" Melody wondered.

Emilia, on the other hand, was stamping her paws into the ground, "It does you dolt! That means they're early! At any moment they could start the execution!"

Start the execution…

Those words echoed through the silenced grouped.

"We…" Melody began.

"We have to save them now," I finished. My eyes were filled with resolve and determination. This would be our fight. Whether it would be our first or our last, only the future knows. But we knew this at the current moment. This was our last chance to save everyone.

And we will grasp it within our paws with all our strength, from the sharpness of our claws…

"Let's break them out."

A/N: Action sequence time! It's about time you know. I've already delayed the upcoming chapter for two WHOLE chapters! Wow! I've added a lot of cuts into the story and that'll probably be the case for the upcoming chapters as well. Also another Siren has been seen! If you didn't already figure out that Vuella was a Siren that is. Anyways, I'll let you in on a secret. A lot of the plots been developed, or at least all the important parts. But I haven't a clue how to put them all together. So I'm basically making up stuff on the go. And it's kinda working. So yeah. There you have it! Chapter 7 added. Lots of small things in there to notice. One to truly notice, was Emilia's behaviour change. Soon you'll find out! Soon! Well till then toodles! And don't forget to submit OCs if you want them in the story! Bye!