Verboten
Chapter 41

Friday, April 9, 2010

Disclaimer: I do not own the Winx Club.

"If these wolves are the wolves that I think they are, they're not like your ordinary ones. They're smart, they have magic and they know it," Sybarite had warned the specialists.

Sybarite, Honey, Edric and Dante rode on their silent levabikes through the forest, their hearts racing. Quinn had reported from the Redbird that Jared and Raido were trapped inside their snitch Wolf's house. A pack of wolves were circling the house for some mysterious reason. Night was falling on them and the waxing gibbous moon was a terrifying reminder of how limited their timing was. They needed to find Wolf fast before the full moon.

They came to a stop at the top of the hill that overlooked Wolf's cottage. They had turned off the headlights on their bikes. The lights, most likely candles, in the house were lit and the light filtered through the iron-barred windows to outlining the wolves that were jumping at the windows. The problem was that the wolves were easily as tall as the windows when they stood on their hind legs. They pawed at the door and the windows, barking madly.

"Crap, they're bigger than I thought," Sybarite said. "I knew Wolf was friends with them but…"

"Let me just shoot them with a tranq," Dante suggested.

"No, don't—"

There was a cacophony of growling and barking from behind them that shook Edric's bones. They turned and saw three pairs of luminous eyes. One dark wolf stepped forward and started barking loudly to warn the rest of his park. The wolf was tall as their levabikes and its jaw could have easily swallowed his head. The irritating wolf had long lithe legs and short hair with bright gold eyes.

"Redbird to Alpha team, Wolf's communicator is on the move at 40 km/h approaching you!"

Suddenly, another smaller wolf came dashing from the side and biting the barking wolf's ruff. The smaller dainty wolf growled angrily. The trio of wolves disappeared into the forest with tails between their legs.

Edric observed the behavior in confusion. The dainty wolf disappeared into the darkness for a moment and returned with something in its mouth. It approached Edric wearily and jumped up to place its paws on the front of the specialist's bike.

"Whoa, whoa, good doggy!" The bike shifted under the wolf's weight and he saw that something was in the dog's mouth. The wild dog gave him an earnest look. Unfortunately, all Edric could do was focus on the long shiny canine teeth. The huge jaws opened and he jumped back in his seat. Something small fell into his lap and the wolf jumped off. Edric examined the small black object: it was a cell phone.

"That's the phone we gave Wolf to call us," Honey said.

"The wolf is telling us to follow it?" Dante said incredulously. Indeed, the dainty dark wolf was looking back at them expectantly.

"Then we follow it," Edric said. "This wolf has to be smarter than we think." He looked around to see the wolves that had been circling the house were surrounding them, urging them to follow.

Edric radioed to Jared and Raido who were exiting the house. "Follow the wolves, Bravo team."

It was twenty minutes later after speeding after the as fast as wind wolves that the six them found themselves staring at the dim outline of the illegally constructed bungalow just beside the river that spilled into Lake Crystal. They were hidden in a part of the forest that was riding the ridge of a crag.

The bungalow was simply that. It was one-level building with several sheds outside of it and a large stack of crates. The bungalow was oblong facing the lake, had a slanted roof and the walls were made of corrugated metal sheets. There was a glass roof door that was open with yellow light spilling out of it. It looks like there had been some attempts to clear the land with tractors parked not far off and a large pit to lay the foundations of some building.

Everyone disembarked from their bikes and the wolves howled to the sky in unison.

"Shut them up or else it'll give us away!" Dante said.

"Leave it, Dante. They're only animals," Jared countered. "They won't think anything of it."

The leading wolf stilled for a moment, listening with its twitching ears.

"These wolves…" Raido started, "Are they Wolf's…'pack?'"

"They must be," Honey rationalized. "They're smart enough to keep Wolf's communicator and bring it to us, so that must mean something."

"Then this is a rescue mission, if Wolf is down there," Sybarite pointed to the building.

"There are only two people outside," Jared said, putting down a pair of binoculars. "Guards?"

"Most likely," Edric said.

"It's a rescue mission then. First, get to the roof and see what's with the light. Then we neutralize all threats and arrest them."

Suddenly, there were several cracks of lightning from the bungalow, the light flickering white and yellow. One wolf ran down towards it and the rest of the wolves sped down the precipice after their leader.

The specialists covered the short distance to the building and came to a tall chain-link fence with barbed wire at the top.

"Honey, EMP grenade, one minute. Guys, the roof by the crates. Watch for cameras."

"Yes, ma'am." Honey unclipped a small sphere from her belt and set the timer for one minute. She gave it a good toss over the fence into one of the foundation pits. An EMP grenade was an electromagnetic pulse grenade that emitted a radius of energy that nullified all technology in an area for a certain amount of time. "One minute now!"

They easily jumped higher than the fence, being far stronger than normal people. They kept to the shadows and were silent as snow falling. They crossed the short distance and hopped onto a stack crates that piled beside the bungalow. The entire event passed like a blur to Edric as he had done it so many times before.

A year ago, his heartbeat would have been deafening in his ears but practice and control had eliminated that problem. The wolves had followed them through the compound like shadows, evidently using some type of magic to walk through the fence.

They stood on a roof balcony and the glass roof door was open to let in the cool breeze. They easily dealt with any cameras which were by the way, almost nonexistent because who wanted to watch their own roof where nothing happened? They huddled all around the roof door which led down a set of stairs. Outside below them, they could hear a couple of guys talk and smoke about the boringness of nightshift and a resilient prisoner that they had captured.

There was another crackle of thunder from inside the structure and—

A piercing inhuman "Roaaaarrrrr!" that resounded throughout the forest.

It shook Edric's bones and he felt his heart pickup. He could not imagine what kind of animal made that sound and he was not sure if he wanted to. Passing through the entire compound had been easy but this? For a moment, he cursed himself as he wondered if lycanism was viral or genetic.

The same dainty wolf pawed at the edge of the door, unsure. There was another crackle of lightning and another roar.

"How many more are there of you?!" someone, a man, screamed. A man was thrown onto the floor within the door's range. The man was beat and his clothes were stained with blood. He trembled as he tried to prop himself on his knees and hands to get up. He had blue flared hair. He wore a flannel shirt, blue jeans and boots.

"I told you, no one. I was just wonderin' what was going on here with all the building," Wolf said haltingly, acting stupid.

"Fucking liar," a man stood over Wolf and kicked him in the stomach. "You're going to give at some point. You're lucky the electrolaser ran out of juice and all the spare batteries are dead."

They watched for a minute longer. Edric signaled to Sybarite using a well-memorized military sign language. They were too close to risk speaking aloud.

"We must intervene," he signaled. "I saw only two people inside. Four in total here."

"Wait a minute."

Everyone ducked down as the crack of rifle rang through the air below. Then there was the sound of dogs whimpering.

"Stupid mutts!" someone roared angrily and began open firing on the wolves on the ground level. "How the fuck do they get pass the electric fence?! What the fuck?! All my shots are going through them?!"

"They're shadows, don't—" a second man's voice turned to screaming as several wolves tried to maul the two guards.

"Get moving!" Edric shouted.

Honey stood up and threw another small sphere at the man who had kicked Wolf. "Fire in the hole! Wolf, hold your breath!" She put on a face mask and went down the stairs, closing the glass door behind her. The dainty wolf pawed at the glass angrily.

The little bomb hit the ground and there was an explosion of yellow brown sleeping gas in the bungalow. One whiff of the sleeping gas could usually knocked out a man within twenty seconds. One. While that was happening, Raido and Jared had jumped off the roof to the front where the two guards were. Five. The dark wolves scattered from the two moaning men. Raido quickly knocked out both men with a simple touch behind their neck. Twelve.

Inside, Honey quickly knocked the man off his legs and cuffed him. Fourteen. She was counting the seconds. She quickly forced a mask on Wolf. She was relieved when she felt him gasp against the mask. Eighteen. She found the other man in the bungalow quickly, having already memorized where he was. Despite being blind from the yellow gas, she snuck up behind the man. She saw his silhouette in the gas and he crumpled into a heap of limbs. Twenty.

Edric radioed for Quinn to come with the ship. Minutes later, everyone arranged the bodies in the Redbird's holding cell. Honey and Jared carried Wolf into the ship's sickbed.

"Quinn, leave for Red Fountain now," Edric ordered. "Wolf needs advance medical attention now. We'll clean up the rest here. I wish missions were this simple."

"It would be nice if we could plan them a little more," Sybarite criticized. "But no, we just go with the flow, knowing that we're more than your average human and jump in without any plan."

"We got it already, Sybby!"

-

Jared and Honey rushed out the back of the standard Red Fountain transport, Quinn following them. They guided several gurneys towards the medical wing, yelling for students and staff alike to get out of the way despite the hour.

Jared was twenty-one, lithe, tall with short black blue hair and angled golden hawk-like eyes.

Upon graduation from Red Fountain, Jared had been promoted to the rank of sergeant and was required to fulfill seven long years of obligatory service to Magix since he was a resident of the realm and had gotten into Red Fountain with by military scholarship. That was the case for most graduating students. It was very rare that one paid his way into the school because of the insane amount of insurance needed for all the various and dangerous aspects of study that was in the school's curriculum. Red Fountain was one of the best military schools for several galaxies with only the cream of the crop making it into this school. It served as both an intergalactic neutral body and a defense for the city of Magix considering the city's recent history.

Jared had decided to fulfill his service by choosing a post at Red Fountain as a drill instructor and an undercover mission supervisor. The missions in Red Fountain were usually commissioned missions by various third parties or political bodies that could afford to pay the high fees. Despite being acknowledged as great school, it was at its foundation a mercenary factory. Not all the students who graduated from were enlisted in their respective militaries.

It had only been a year and half since he had graduated and his service had started. Seven years seemed like such a long time to him when he first read his contract but in retrospect, if the peace stayed and no major bodies of evil sprung up, those seven years would pass by him like a flash. Plus, he did not think anyone would dare to since the revival of Sparks.

His role as an undercover mission supervisor was simple enough. He worked as a role model for the specialists and often delegated the leadership tasks to them since it was them who were working towards graduation and not him. His role was to be mainly an observer and an extra hand at his own discretion. Only in emergencies would he take on the mantle of responsibility. Basically, he was faking being a specialist in training despite having already graduated. It was supposed to give the boys a sense of being independent without being independent.

Right now, their snitch and ex-specialist Wolf needed immediate medical attention. Wolf's body was bruised and cut in so many places. There some burn wounds as if he had been subjected to an electrolaser gun.

A team of nightshift nurses relieved Honey and Jared and took Wolf's gurney. They were already inside the medical wing's main corridor. The duo fell down onto a bench to the side, tired. It was extremely late or extremely early. They could see the beginning of the sun rise over the horizon in the window across them.

"Jared, did that wolf follow us in the Redbird?" Honey leaned her head on Jared's shoulder and pointed at the same dainty wolf from Lake Crystal that was now hunched over on the floor. His heart jumped at the sight. It had dark reddish fur and looked down the hallway expectantly. It was big as a levabike alright.

Jared whistled to it, offering a friendly hand to get the wolf out of the way.

"I think it's a 'she,'" Jared yawned. "Come here, girl."

The huge wolf came to him giving him an intelligent stare before lying at their feet. Jared closed his eyes, ready to sleep on the bench.

"Jared?"

"Yeah?" His brows knitted themselves together in irritation. He wanted to sleep! It was as if once he entered Red Fountain, it was a signal for his body to sleep.

"Jared, is that you?"

He opened his eyes. Who would be asking him that question at this hour? Quinn was supposed to be wrapping up the mission. It was like freaking five or something. "Musa?"

-

Musa waved at Jared nervously. He smiled and waved back. She looked warily at the giant wolf at his feet. There was a blond uniformed woman who had apparently decided that he made a perfectly good pillow on his shoulder.

"Hey, how's it going?"

"I'm sorry. I'm too tired to talk."

"Oh, sorry. I'll leave you then," the music fairy awkwardly. "Maybe you should find a real bed?" she suggested.

"Right…what time is it?"

"Almost six."

"Looks like I won't be getting sleep 'til…" Jared stood straight up as Cordatorta approached him with an angry face. They began to whisper quickly. "Wait…how is that possible? Are you sure?" Jared's face was suddenly alit with energy. "Yessir, I'll start working on it. As soon as my squad is in, send them to me."

Musa turned to return to Tecna's room but stopped when she saw Cordatorta hand Jared Tecna's computer. Cordatorta marched off in a hurry and Jared looked at the device in his hand, flustered. He shook the blond woman's shoulder and she woke up as well.

"Specialist Rider, get your ass in gear. We have another assignment. Together."

The blond woman mumbled a curse.

"Musa!" Bloom came stiding down the hall. "Where were you? The people who are going to work on Tecna's laptop just arrived from their mission early and they're going to work on it now—"

Musa signaled for her to be silent. The music fairy guided the redhead down a corner.

"Was that Jared?" Bloom asked. "Didn't he graduate already?"

"He was supposed to," Musa said just as confused. "I don't get it, Cordatorta gave him Tecna's laptop. Does he mean them?"

"I guess so."

Latter Note: It's that Jared.

Back to your regular scheduled programming: chasing the Trix across the universe and learning about magic on Earth with Roxy.

I also have a drawing test and portfolio evaluation to go to tomorrow for 3D Animation at the cegep. I hope I get in. *crosses fingers*