Chapter 4: "Kidnapped!"
"Let's gettum!" Shouted Ace as he and the team rush forward, eyes glowing each in their respective colours. Mairi, naturally being terrified of the villains, quickly dashed behind the sofa.
Ace unsheathed his sword, shouting: "GAURDIAN STRIKE SWORD, ATTACK!" The sword glowed brightly, the luminance extending towards three of the cloaked men. The beam picked them up off the ground and tossed them like rag dolls into four others. To Ace's dismay, however, they quickly regained their composure and got to their feet.
"Heads up!" Lexi called out as her back flip landed her on top of one of the attackers, forcing him to the floor. With a quick, agile round-house kick, she took out a second.
"Gargulahgah!!!" Slam growled, trying to rid himself of three men who were on top of him, pinning him down. Quick, true to her name, used her powers of levitation to hurl a lamp and small table at the men, sending them flying across the room.
Seth soon found himself staring down the barrel of a gun. The villain holding it backed Seth into a wall. With almost dead-on timing, Seth swiftly kicked the guy in the upper leg, just before he was about to fire. A brief second later, his hands began to glow, engulfing the gun in a similar light. The metal streteched and bent until it was no longer recognizable. Two other bad guys came up to back up the first, but Seth quickly had them out with just a couple of punches.
"Seth! Get outta my way!" Icy shouted, trying to keep her balance after having nearly collided with her best friend's younger brother. Seth ducked as the fox fired a blast of ice above his head, only to realize that she had frozen an opponent's laser blast, obviously aimed for his skull. "Ace!" Icy yelled.
Their leader was quick to respond, swiftly kicking the man responsible for the shot in the back and sending him into the couch. Exactly where Mairi was hiding. She squeaked and backed away from him, desperately trying to keep her head low.
"Hey! What happened to my gun?" one of the cloaked baddies asked, confused.
Rev laughed as he continued to run in circles around each of the attackers, snatching their weapons as he went along. However, he stumbled forward upon realizing that the ground in front of him was being fired at, missing his feet by inches.
"Oh no you don't.." Tech growled under his breath as part of the wall behind him glowed light green, separating from the rest of the structure. With a small grunt from the effort, Tech threw the thick section of wall at Rev's attackers.
"WAAAHHH!!!"
Both Tech and Cassidy froze when they heard their daughter crying. Cassidy attempted to block any of the men from getting to the room but another of the villains had blocked her instead. This particular opponent was different from the others; his towering, dark figure severely intimidated Cassidy. Something about his face seemed so familiar. She quickly took note of the fact that he was an anthro. A coyote, to be exact. His eyes were dark, almost black...
It wasn't long before she realised why she recognized him.
'He looks like Andrew...' But he wasn't and she knew it. 'Andew's gone... there's nothing I can do to change that..' With that, her hands glowed blue, the light growing until it covered her whole body. Keeping her hands close together, strengthening the blast, she fired at the cloaked man. He blocked it with the edge of his sword - Rev must've missed grabbing it. They both watched as her blast of fire was deflected from the blade, rebounded off of a hanging light connected to the little ceiling that was left and headed straight for Tech.
"TECH!" She screamed. Finding the coyote distracted for a few seconds, the cloaked villain lept at her, pinning her to the ground.
Tech spun around and gasped when he saw the blaze coming for him. He ducked and rolled, easily escaping the blast. He then picked up a metal rod laying on the ground and sprang at the opposing coyote anthro, who appeared to be leading the attack. Although before he managed to reach him, Tech's assail was interrupted as Quick was suddenly thrown against him. The two went tumbling head over heels several times before coming to a stop at a wall. A hard wall. Made of metal. And other hard stuff.
Mairi was still behind the couch. Half of her wanted to run to Cale (who was still wailing) but the other half her told her to stay where she was. She could still hear her little niece's sobs from her where she huddled and it was beginning to be too much for her. She had to go to Cale. Now. Paternal instinct was overriding basic survival needs. With a determined expression plastered on her beak, she jumped out from behind the sofa and ran as fast as her long legs would carry her.
"MAZZ! Get down! This isn't the place for you!!!" Seth called out to her.
The lyrebird paid him no heed and continued to run to her neice. Ace and Lexi tried to protect her as she ran, standing at either side of her and firing brain blasts and lasers.
The leader's head suddenly snapped up and he glared at Mairi. "She's after the girl, men! Get her!!!"
'What girl? Who?' Cassidy wondered, trying to twist her head around to see what was going on. When she saw Mairi heading for Cale's room, she gasped. "No! Guys! They're after Cale!"
"AAAAIIIIEEEEEEEHHHHHHHHHHHHAAAA!!!" Mairi screamed as she continued to run as fast as she could to her neice.
"Comin' for ya, Mazz!!!" Duck shouted before quacking away and reappearing beside the frantic lyre bird.
"Bubby!!! We need to get to Cale! She's scared to death and those scary guys are trying to get her and we can't let that happen!!"
"Relax, Mazz!!" Duck cut her off. "There's Tech and Cass's room. Cale's in there. Stay with her."
Mairi nodded before opening the door and running into the room, immediately scooping up Cale into her arms and snuggling her. It was hard to tell if she was trying to calm the little girl down, or herself.
When the door closed, Duck turned and ran back to the others. His hands lighting up with a bright orange aura, he fired several sticky orbs at several of the attackers' feet. Icy who was only a few feet away, quickly blasted the orbs with her powers, freezing them solid. The now solid orbs rolled under the men's feet, tripping them up.
Rev yelped. "Guys! I need some help!" On his tail were three of the baddies who were quickly gaining on him.
Ace spun around in the roadrunner's direction and blasted at the men with his laser vision, but the attackers were not discouraged. "Slam! Spin cycle! Now!"
Slam nodded, smirking. He twisted himself around, starting his tornado and scooped up the men. He then tossed them out, sending them through the hole they came in.
Cassidy, meanwhile, was still struggling underneath the leader, trying desperately to free herself. She finally managed to flip over so she was on top, pinning the man down. She grabbed the collar of his shirt, snarling. "Why are you here?! What do you want?!"
The man only smirked...evil-like. "You're a smart girl.... you'll figure it out..."
Before Cassidy could reply, a huge explosion knocked the team off of their feet, sending them into various objects of furniture, as well as walls. Hard ones.
BOOM!
The thundering of feet could be heard as the team struggled to stand up, dizzy and uncoordinated from the force of the blast.
"They fought and they fought, but they soon found themselves cornered.... The bad guys took Zoey and her Aunty Mary.."
"BUBBYYYY!!! HEEEELLPP!" Mairi screamed as she was dragged out of the hallway and past the Loonatics, clutching Cale in her arms, who was crying as well.
"CALE!" Cassidy screamed, jumping to her feet as her motherly instinct took over.
"Cass! Kick his ass!" Icy cheered her freind on, also getting to her feet.
Just as Cassidy reached the man holding Mairi and Cale captive, an unknown object came out of nowhere and sideblinded her in the head. She tumbled to the ground, slipping into darkness...
.GREEN TRIANGLE.
"Cass! Cass! Can you hear me?!"
Cassidy slowly opened her eyes, only to be nearly blinded by a small light shinning in. She moaned and rolled on to her stomach. "Tech.. Where's Cale?"
Tech's hands were on her sides, trying to keep her still. "Lie still, honey... I don't want you to hurt yourself..."
Cassidy felt sick. Her head was spinning and she felt like throwing up. She tried to sit up using her arms to lift herself, but she only wobbled, nearly falling over. Thankfully, Tech had his arms around her and kept her from injuring herself from falling. He gently laid her down on her back. "Easy, Cass." His soft voice calmed her.
"Tech." She repeated. "Where is Cale?"
Tech hesitated. He did not want to tell her what had happened. He wanted to tell her anything but that. "..The... the Starzians... they.... took her."
Cassidy just stare with wide, unblinking eyes. "...They.. they have my baby?"
"I'm sorry, Cass... We tried..."
She seemed to be in a state of shock, unable to fully realize what was happening. After a few minutes, she remembered how to speak, and asked. "Where's Mairi?"
The gang only exchanged worried looks, giving Cassidy all the information she needed.
.BLUE TRIANGLE.
"Okay, Cass, I believe some explainations are in order." Icy demanded as she and the others followed Tech and Cassidy into the lab.
"Si! Like, who teh heck were those guys and what do they want with our neice and Mazz??!" Quick was right on the coyotes' tails, and wasn't about to back down until they found out what was going on.
"It's a long story guys... but I guess I should tell you now..." Cassidy replied, a hint of sadness in her voice.
"About time." Seth muttered, equally upset.
"You see guys... Sari is a large planet, but only 1/3 of the land area is actually used. The original Sarians came from Earth, hence why we're so similar to you guys... but the strange gases in the atmosphere changed our genetics a bit, giving us powers, as well."
"So your powers....didn't come from the meteor like ours?" Icy asked.
Cassidy shook her head. "No. I was born with them, but wasn't able to use them until then. Now, planet Sari has a neghbor, the planet Garbulatar. The planet was beginning to get a little overpopulated, and the people decided that they would soon expand to my homeplanet. However, my people moved into and claimed Sari before the Garbulatarians could. Ever since then the two worlds have been at war."
"...but that doesn't make sense... what does this have to do with Cale?" Quick folded her arms across her chest.
"The Sarians are generally peaceful people and do not like fighting. The Starzians, however, are a rebel group within Sari, a group bent on taking over the kingdom and riding Sari of the ruling family."
"Your family." Seth replied, catching on.
"We believe that they are receiving help from the Garbulatarians, but we cannot prove it. The Starzians have been a major cause of trouble on my planet. They... they are actually the reason why I grew up here instead of Sari. But they're also the reason why my father and brother were killed three years ago. My brother was caught up in the group and wasn't able to get out without endangering our lives...... Ever since he died we haven't heard anything of the Starzians..."
"Until now..." Ace added. "And we've obviously done sometin' to get 'em mad."
"Uh... I have a question...." Dusk perked up. The angel was Seth's best freind and was recently added to the team. "...H-how did your brother die? I've heard of it, but nothing much has been mentioned.
Cassidy's face stiffened. She honestly felt uncomfortable talking about Andrew's death. "Well... we went to talk to him, try and figure out what was going on... he was acting strange, he was afraid.. he only let me near him..... Just when we thought we had convinced him to come with us, a building nearby exploded."
Seth, Quick, Icy, Ozzie, and Dusk all wore looks of shock.
"Andrew and I were the closest ones to the building when it blew up. He lept on top of me to protect me... He died saving my life. Because of him, I only ended up with a busted right arm."
Dusk looked ackward. "Oh......I...."
Cassidy smiled. "Don't worry, I'm okay with it. All that matters now is that we get to Cale and Mairi!"
Ace nodded. "Let's jet!" He shouted as he, followed by the rest of the gang.
Just as Cassidy was about to follow the others, Tech grabbed her arm and pulled her back.
"Tech, I know what you're gonna say-"
Tech gently placed his finger against her lips. "No you don't. I know that you're mad at Mazz."
"Yes I am. She practically led the Starzians to Cale! She should have stayed out of this! Because of her, they have Cale!"
"No Cass..... no.... Because of Mazz, Cale has someone to protect her. You know that."
Cassidy stared at the ground. "Tech... I..."
"I know.." He said, pulling her into a hug. "I'm scared for them too.." His fingers played gently with her hair, stroking her head softly. Tech just wanted her to relax. He hated seeing her so upset. He sighed and kissed her forehead. "Come on, let's catch up with the others before they wonder where we are...." With that, he took her hand in his and guided her out of the lab.
.LAVENDER TRIANGLE.
Mairi was huddled in a corner of the cage she had been thrown in, as far away from the men as possible. Ever since she had entered Tech and Cassidy's bedroom, her grip on her little neice had not loosened. She clung to the three-week-old coyote for dear life. The lyre bird jumped when she heard the sound of footsteps coming closer, then the creaking of the door opening.
The leader stepped forth, his dark and broad figure a stark contrast to Mairi's small, anthro frame. He leaned in, his breath reeking of some unknown, butter scent, and grinned. "Give her here."
Mairi's brow drew downward and her bottom lip puckered outward - an expression of utter defiance.
"I said, give her here." He ordered, becoming angry.
With the swiftness of a cobra striking, the bird spat into his wicked face.
The man felt his face heating up. "You........ you and the girl are going to pay for that." He snapped. "Now... if you want to see your freinds again... hand me the girl...... I plan on taking very good care of her."
Mairi shifted herself so Cale was out of the man's reach, still scowling at him.
"Fine." He huffed. "You asked for it..." With that, he left, pausing only to instruct his minions. "Keep trying to get the girl away from her. I will be back." He glanced down at his wrist, inspecting the watch attached to it, before strutting off, doors whooshing closed behind him.
Mairi leaned back against the bars and tried to relax. But she COULDN'T. She was freakin' captured by some weird people who wanted to take her neice away from her and had been transported miles away from Duck in a very strange spaceship before being shoved into this cage. How the heck was she supposed to relax?
Just then, little Cale's lime-green eyes opened slowly. She smiled at Mairi, but then when she realized she was in strange surroundings, she whimpered.
Mairi snuggled her. "You want your mummy, don't you?" The lyre bird saw tears forming in her neice's eyes. "Shhh... It's okay..." She cleared her throat, then, in a perfect replica of Cassidy's sweet, soft singing voice, she began to sing a song she had heard Cassidy sing many times to the infant. "All the world is but a child screaming over all your words...No one hears your pain ..they're way to busy for concern... And the days become weeks... and the months turn to years...You gotta know by now that only God sees all those tears...When you cry cause it hurts dosn't mean that your not heard.....Because aloud in heaven the Angels cry with you....Ohh..."
Cale gazed up at Mairi with wide eyes. "Mahah...." She mumbled, becoming sleepy from the song's soft, smooth melody.
Mairi smiled. "Don't worry, Cale.... they'll come get us... I know it."
(Pause Flashback..)
.PINK TRIANGLE.
"Does it feel good to be home!!!" Cassidy sighed as she flaked out on her bed.
Tech chuckled, coming out of the attached bathroom. He layed down beside her and stroked her hair. "Great to be out, isn't it?"
"Pfft, what are you talking about? It's been ten years since you were stuck in the hosptial." Cassidy giggled, shoving his arm.
Tech only smiled and put his arm around her. "True, but I spent almost the entire week with you in there."
"Also true, but you were able to leave whenever you wanted. I didn't have that freedom."
"Okay, I give in." Tech put his hands up in defeat.
Cassidy smiled and gave him a kiss. "I'm tired..... Goodnight."
Tech returned the kiss. "Night Cass.."
Just as the two coyotes had gotten comfortable, Cassidy suddenly jumped up, knocking Tech in the nose on accident.
"Ouch! Cass! What the heck was that for?!" Tech yelped.
"Sorry, Tech, but I just realized that I didn't say goodnight to Cale! She'll be upset if I don't.."
"She's probably asleep by now, Cass..."
"Well, I'm going to check on her anyway..." Cassidy walked out of the room and down the hallway to her daughter's room. She slowly and carefully opened the door, not wanting to wake up Cale if she was asleep. The coyote's face turned into a wide smile when she saw what was going on. Cale was laying on her tummy, facing her pillow. Ozzie was sitting on top of her pillow, telling her a story. When Tech came up behind her, Cassidy motioned for him to come quietly. "Look at this.." She whispered, gesturing through the small crack in the door. Tech smiled.
"What happened next, Mr. Magic Ferret?" Cale asked.
"Now, Zoey and her Aunty Mary were taken far, far away, to a completely different planet. Kayleigh and her freinds had to hurry and get there to rescue Zoey and Mary...."
(Continue Flashback.....)
The deck of the ship was silent, the only sounds heard were those of the computer consoles beeping and the hum of the engine. The seriousness of the situation was almost saddening to all of them. Not only was Mairi, who lived upon avoiding getting involved in the team's missions, kidnapped, but also Cale, a tiny, defencless infant.
One thing was for sure, when Cassidy got her hands on the guy that set this up.... things could get violent.
Seth glanced at Duck. He had been unusually quiet during their trip. Duck caught his glance and frowned. "Yes? Do you need something?"
Seth shrugged. "No..........." He paused. "You're just........ quiet...... I've never seen you keep that bill of yours still for more than two minutes..."
Duck huffed and crossed his arm. "Harhar! Very funny, Mr. Alchemy."
Seth was silent for a moment, thinking. Then he gave Duck and soft punch in the arm. "Hey, don't worry. Mazz will be fine."
"Who said I was worried?"
"You did." Seth replied simply, trying to not let the mallard's sharp answers get to him. "I'd feel the same way if Quick were captured."
Duck turned away, not wanting to continue this conversation. Seth sighed and glanced at Quick, who had secretly been watching the scene with interest. The two shrugged, unsure of how to react.
When they finally landed on Sari, Ace turned to Rev. "Can you get a lock on Mazz and Cale?"
"You bet Ace I can find them!!" Rev replied cheerfully, his eyes shining as his GPS scanned the surrounding area. A few moments passed, then his eyes snapped back to their usual green colour. "Found them! Follow me!" With that, he took off at a blinding speed. The others just stood there, waiting for him to realize that he had left them behind in his excitement. After a few minutes, he reappeared, rubbing the back of his neck, laughing nervously. "Hehe, sorry guys!"
"Whatever.." Icy replied, rolling her ice-blue eyes. "Let's go.."
In a couple of minutes, the team was hiding behind an abandoned building in Sari's large downtown. The area was large and nearly deserted, people having begun to spread out. Nearby was a building, where Rev could find Mairi and Cale on his GPS. Lexi's ears had pink rings running up them as she listening intently. Every several minutes, a cloaked person would come up to the door of the building they were watching. They were hoping Lexi could hear the password being said.
"...Got it guys....it's.....Hal-uuuuu-....uh.....Hal-u-gim?" Lexi tried her best to repeat the unfamiliar word.
"Sarian. Halugim." Cassidy nodded. "Good job."
"But only one of them could get in to where the bad men were holding Zoey and Mary..."
"Who, Mr. Magic Ferret?"
"Kayleigh.."
"Okay, so, what we now need is a crash-course in Sarian so we can get in dere without gettin' caught." Ace said, glancing at Cassidy.
"I may be able to teach you guys how to pronounce it, and I have no doubt you'd all be able to catch it fast. But there's a problem...."
"...Are you waiting for me to say 'please?'"
"The accent. It takes forever to get a Sarian accent so that it's convincable. And since the Starzians know Sarian so well, it'll be almost impossible to get through without a completely flawless accent. The moment they sense a fake one it's game over for us." Cassidy explained.
"Accent?"
"Yeah..... you guys haven't noticed the change in my voice recently?" Cassidy asked, blinking at her friends.
All of the boys except for Tech looked at each other and shrugged.
Cassidy sighed. "Either way, it would be dangerous for you guys to go....."
"What you're sayin' is that you're the only one who could get through the gaurds?"
"Well...... yes..." Cassidy bit her lip ackwardly.
Ace rubbed his forehead. "If you're positive..."
"Are you KIDDING? It's way too peligroso to go alone!" Quick spat out.
"But I have to... it's the only way we can get Mazz and Cale out of there." Cassidy reached down tp her belt, pressing one of the buttons. Her outfit changed from her black and blue uniform to a black jumpsuit with a large cape and hood, similar to the outfits worn by the Starzians.
"Here, at least take Ozzie with you..." Icy said, holding out the fuzzy ferret.
Ozzie raised his paw to his forehead in salute. "On it!!" He said, jumping to Cassidy's shoulder.
Tech pulled something out of his backpack. "Here.. take this.." He said, holding out a earwig. Not the gross insect kind, but the thing made of metal and electrical stuff so you can talk to people without other people knowing. "That way we can keep contact."
"Got it.." Cassidy replied, placing the device carefully in her ear.
"And Cass.." He added.
"Yes, Tech?"
Tech gazed at her for a moment. "Be careful..." He said, placing his hand on her arm.
"I will, Tech... I promise..." Cassidy gave him a smile....and then leaned forward to kiss his nose.
(END CHAPTER)
I would like to dedicate this chapter to Xtream Crazy, who both coreographed and beta-read my fight scene, plus helped me so much with the basic planning of this story. I love you, Em! 3