Chapter 6- Violation

The front doors had been blown open. Glass was scattered over the ground.

"Haven't these fiends ever heard of knocking?!?" Keith said.

"Doubtful." Drake said, crunching through the glass on the ground.

"Well, they could have at least walked through. The door is automatic." Julie said.

"Great…one more thing I'll have to repair after this ordeal is over…" Bentz said. "This is going to be costly."

"Got that right." Matt said. He was barely straining under Bentz's weight. "But don't think in the future until we get out of the present."

"Yeah, first we've got to find Flynn." Drake said. "Where are the docks?"

"They're this way." Matt said, pointing down a paved path. "I had to come in past it. Oh, and by the way, it's loaded with fiends."

"Why didn't you kill them?" Julie asked.

"Couldn't. I had to find you guys first."

"Oh, yeah. How did you get past them?"

"I jumped through the trees. But obviously we can't do that, or at least you guys can't." Matt slipped his hand into his cloak and withdrew one of his kunai. "No…" He stuck his hand in again and came out with a few shurikens. "That's better. Now, here's the plan-" Three of the dog-things interrupted him. "Never mind! Kill those things! Aim for the necks!" He dropped Bentz off and jumped so high into the air that Drake lost sight of him. Drake whipped out his rifle and began to fire at the dog-things. They pulled their necks in and concealed their vulnerable necks.

"We can't kill them!" Keith said. "They're invulnerable as long as their necks are pulled in!" Matt landed next to him.

"That is true." He said. "But as long as their necks are in, they cannot attack." Matt stopped a dog with his foot. The dog growled but did little more. "See? They can't get their jaws open." He kicked the dog in its closed jaw and knocked it back to its comrades. "All too easy."

"Yeah. But we can't kill them, can we?" Drake said. "That's the problem, we can't get past them."

"We can… we just have to lure them out." Keith said.

"How?" Julie asked. Keith looked pointedly at her. "Oh, no, I know what's on your mind."

"I don't like it." Drake said. "And I haven't even heard the plan."

"No time to talk!" Matt said. "They're coming!" The three dogs charged at them. Drake began to fire at one. The bullets reflected off of its skin as they connected. As it grew close, its neck shot out and its jaw opened. Drake leveled his gun on its neck and fired at it. The dog howled in pain and fell to the ground, one of its teeth almost taking a piece of Drake's leg with it. Drake checked on Keith. He had shot the dog much sooner and it was now laying dead at its feet.

A scream came from behind him. Drake spun around. Julie hadn't been fast enough, and the dog had clamped its jaw on her leg. Blood was leaking out from under the dog's teeth. Julie had dropped her rifle and was trying to pull the dog's mouth off her leg.

Not again! Drake thought. Matt was instantly crouched on the back of the dog. He buried about thirteen kunai into its neck. He swung off of it as it died and caught Julie as she collapsed.

"Damn it!" he said, and laid her on the ground. He pulled a roll of bandages out of the pouch on his belt. "Julie, how much does it hurt?"

"Bad… ow…agh!" she convulsed impulsively, clutching her leg. Matt put his hand on her shoulder and pressed her to the ground.

"Calm down." He said. "Drake, keep her calm. I'm going to treat this." Drake sat down next to Julie.

"Are you okay?" He asked.

"Ahaha… this is nothing." She said. "I've had… gah!" She tried to convulse again, but Drake held her down.

"Keep still. Matt's trying to do something about it." He said.

"I know… but… it hurts… so… aaaaah!"

"Come on! What's wrong?" Drake said. And idea came to him. Is it possible that there was something in that beast's fangs?

"Crud." Matt said. "Those shadow hounds aren't just vicious, they've got a special kind of venom in their fangs. It's really strong stuff. Stronger than arsenic, stronger than iocane, stronger than anything I've ever seen. It'll slowly make its way to her heart, constrict its movement, and eventually make it slow down so much that it'll stop."

"No!" Drake said.

"What are you going to do?" Keith said.

"Yeah, don't you have some knowledge of medicine?" Bentz asked.

"I do, but I don't have anything with me strong enough to counteract this. At least, I think I don't… the only thing I can do is bleed the vein that runs from the wounds back to her heart and hope." Matt said.

"You can't do that! That could be fatal!" Drake said.

"So could this." Matt said. Julie screamed in pain again. "And there isn't much time. Soon the poison will reach her heart, and then there is nothing I can do. Hm?" Matt looked over his shoulder. "What are you saying?"

"What…?" Drake was confused, and by the looks on their faces, he thought that neither Keith nor Bentz knew what was going on either. Matt folded his arms and closed his eyes in thought.

"You know that won't work, and that violates the laws of nature! I know that I could survive it! I'm surprised you would suggest that!"

"Who are you talking to…?" Drake asked.

"What the heck is going on here?" Bentz asked. Matt ignored both questions.

"Grr… stop it! I can't make that decision! It's an atrocity against the order of things!" Matt clutched at his head. Drake had never seen him so agitated, and he didn't even know what it was about. "It's the only way? You think so?!? No, really?!? I couldn't have guessed! It's the same as what I did last year?!? Not even close! You know I won't let you do something like that! Hell, you're me! Oh blast, shut him up! He's screwing with my judgement!" Julie cried out again and convulsed again, clutching at her heart now. "Oh, damn it, you win! Go!" He grabbed Julie's arm.

A blue aura passed down Matt's arm and came to rest around Julie's entire body. Her body instantly relaxed. The blue aura ran back up Matt's arm. He grimaced and clutched at his heart. "It worked…"

"What did you do? What was that all about?" Keith asked.

"I've extracted the poison from her body. But, ow… it hurts…" He wrapped a bandage around the bite on Julie's leg.

"How? What? We thought you had gone mad, you were talking to yourself." Drake said.

"Well, I was talking to myself, sort of. I was talking to my other souls."

"Oh, yeah! I forgot about that. But how did you get the poison out?" Drake asked. Julie had fallen unconscious. Drake picked her body up and put it over his shoulder. Back to hauling Julie all over the place, I suppose. He thought.

"Though it's a violation of natural law, my good side convinced me to inject him into her body and let him take the poison out. Now it's in me…"

"Wait! Won't that kill you?" Keith asked.

"No. I'm partially immune to all poison. Don't ask why. It's too hard to explain. It'll hurt me but it won't kill me."

"What do you mean, it's a violation of natural law?" Drake asked.

"Well, removing a soul from the body is against natural law in itself. But injecting one's soul into another's body, no matter the reason, is just plain wrong. It goes against the very laws of nature. Souls are supposed to remain tied to their bodies. But…" Matt faltered. "…I don't know."

"So it's that bad?" Keith said.

"Yeah. I shouldn't have done it, but… it was the only way." Matt admitted. "Come on, we need to get moving toward the docks if we want to stop them before they get to the boat that Flynn is on." He ripped his kunai out of the dead dog's neck and put them inside his cloak, then proceeded down the path. The others followed.