Hedgehog could feel herself floating through time and space in a haze of distorted colors and white noise. At first, she couldn't remember a thing about herself, what she did to land in her current situation, or even where she was going.
Her mind was in pieces, but it didn't take long for it to all come back together and a sudden reminder of recent events only serves to sore her already dower mood. If she could see, or even feel her face then, she's sure there would have been an unpleasant frown.
Hedgehog could remember everything from the past few hours, her falling out with Oscar, what'd happened to the Island not shortly after he disappeared on them, and Ramona barging into the mess hall with a plan to put a stop to the madness. All of it came flooding back again. The fresh memories stuck to her like glue, replaying in her mind, or what was left of it, over and over again like a scratched record.
The images show themselves before her as clearly as a framed photograph, jumping back and forth between events that had been picking at her subconscious. Her self-esteem, Max's rejection and coming out, her barely passing magic lessons, Oscar, Susie's disappearance, Oscar, Oliver asking her out, not being good enough for anything or anyone, Oscar. Oscar. Oscar...
They continue to jump until they land permanently on her time with Oscar over the summer. The images fly by faster and more frequent. They fill her with joy and sadness all in a matter of seconds and they keep coming and coming, bleeding over into her memories with him before the island until she was on the verge of tears.
Hedgehog feels like she'd let him down. This whole time she was doing her best not to lose her best friend, in the end, she was the one who drove him away and she fears she may never see him again. She wouldn't get the chance to tell him how sorry she was and how much the guilt she felt ate away at her.
She just wanted to give up at that moment. All her instincts were telling her that this endeavor of theirs was a waste of time and that they should just stop trying, huddle up together and wait for the end to pass them all by.
That was her idea of a good plan but there was something else stirring within her that disagreed. Something at the back of her mind and deep within her soul that was more persistent, courageous, and admittedly stubborn. It couldn't admit that she wanted to call it quits so easily, that just wasn't her.
It was the part of her that wasn't willing to sit by while everything fall apart. The half of herself she'd been guided by her whole life. She may have wanted to give in, but she knew that surrender was never a possibility for her. Not while she can still take control of the situation.
"AH!" She finally came to, leading on wiled blades of overgrown grass as she pops back into reality. "Uhhh..." She groans, leaning herself up on the semi-soft ground, taking some time to soak up the existence around her.
That'd been her first time ever teleporting. The experience was unlike anything she'd imagen it would be. Her head was pounding, and her vision was still in a mass of unrecognizable shapes and colors. What kind of spell was that anyway? She thinks to herself. It feels like they've been traveling for hours through a narrow hole in space-time only after spending a few more hours squeezing into it, to begin with.
"Oh." Speaking of they. Hedgehog is reminded of her travel body. She props herself up on the ground and looks around the dark forest she had been cast into. She doesn't see anyone at first. She squints her eyes at the darkness, predictably failing to see anything past darkness and wilderness.
Her first thought was that maybe Oliver had come to before Hedgehog and was out looking for her. Where was she actually? Hedgehog looks around a bit more and comes to a stop once she sees a faint light at the end of a dirt path.
She began to walk, stepping out past the brush and onto a hill overlooking a familiar sight. She was in Heartford. The town looks like it'd seen better days but there was no doubt of where the girl was now. "Oh, man." She narrows her eyes. From what she could see, things were not looking great.
bonfires blazed in the streets on every other block with people, dancing and jumping around them. Ritualistic totems sat at every corner of every neighborhood and hooded figures roamed the streets, patrolling with lanterns in one hand and weapons in the other.
Her attention is taken away from the town when she hears a noise from behind her. It was a sparking sound, a sort of crackling that was similar to electricity hitting water. She turns to see the air before her sparking, a green flash of light cracking across the empty space before her. Eventually, the spark would spit out a boy and not the one she was hoping to see.
"Oww." The recently conjured boy lands roughly on the ground below, falling on his back and hitting his head slightly. "That was rough bro?" Aubrey winced, groaning through gritted teeth and holding a hand to the back of his head.
Hedgehog couldn't believe her eyes, couldn't believe her luck then either. "No!" She spoke up, getting the boy's attention.
"Ohhh... what?" Aubrey scoffs. He was just as confused as Hedgehog had been. "Wait, what's happing? Where-..." He looks around, hurriedly crawling to his hands and knees as his eye's dirt about. "Is this a joke? It's not exactly funny."
"No, no." Hedgehog murmurs. "This can't be happening. What kind of spell was that, Ramona?" She couldn't understand how a witch as powerful as her could botch a simple transportation spall. "That's just perfect." Hedgehog turns with a groan and begins making her way down the small hill away from the wolf boy.
"Hey... Hey, wait." Aubrey rises to his feet to follow behind the irritated girl. "Hold up. Could you hold up Hedgehog?" He catches up to her quickly. When she doesn't acknowledge him, he reaches out at her arm.
"Hey!" She turns slapping his hand off of her arm and continues to slap at him. His arms his chest and even his face.
"Wow, Hedgehog chill." He said, doing his best to guard against her furious flurry of slaps.
"Don't touch me, Aubrey, I swear." She turns back around to be on her way toward the town. He let out a puzzled chuckle, looking around bewildered before moving to follow behind the angry girl again.
"What? What's that about?" He caught up again, though this time refraining from touching her, offering yet another question that would go unanswered. Hedgehog wasn't going to make this so easy for him. It was bad enough that she was stuck out in the open, but she also had to put with him and by herself. It was her worst nightmare. "HH please give me something to work with at least."
She stops. "HH?" She sneers. "You know what-" She spins around, lowering her voice due to their proximity to Heartford. "You know exactly what that was about." She hissed though he still doesn't understand the reason for her reluctance around him. So, she would make herself clear. "Aubrey, you are a pervert."
He recoils, his head jolting slightly in shock. "Woah, woah what!" The wolf nearly shouts but brings his voice down when Hedgehog holds a finger to her lips and breaths a harsh shush at him. "What? What do you mean by that?" He asks, arms outstretched to the sides.
"You know exactly what I mean." She bit back at him, keeping her distance from the boy.
"Well, could you tell me?" Now he was starting to get upset with her. He grits his teeth and twists up a snarling sneer. One brow cocks up on his head questingly as he keeps one eye squinted at her like she was the stupidest girl in the world. "I ain't no perv dude."
"You literally put your hand up my skirt." She accused and the boy goes silent. His eyes narrowed in thought, back to a moment he couldn't even be bothered to remember. She sneered at him.
"O-oh." He returns with a brief bit of realization. B-but that..." He begins to chuckle. "That was just jokes. Tha-that wasn't actually for real. That's not who I am." He rubs his neck, conceiving excuses and reasoning with past actions. He was embarrassed but even then, refused to admit any wrongdoing.
Hedgehog just sighs and throws her head back to the sky. Her sight lands on, what used to be, the moon. Once something so beautiful and kind, now just a terrifying sight. "Moons still screaming his head off." She remarks and Aubrey looks up as well.
"Yeah, poor guy." He offered some condolences. Hedgehog was sort of taken aback by his words. She would have never thought Aubrey was capable of such a feat. He was usually always looking out for himself first and foremost. "I know you really-y-y-y-y-y-y-" He franticly Jitters out the words, his body locking up and convulsing violently before goes falling over.
"Aubrey?" Hedgehog rushes over to the fallen boy and places a hand around his jaw. "Aubrey?" She turns his face to hers as foam begins spewing from the corners of his mouth. He was unconscious.
"Hands up miss." Hedgehog freezes up once the voice comes around to her. She doesn't see who it is, but she could tell they were right behind her. Judging by where the voice comes from. "I said hands up." They repeat and she compiles. "Who are you? Speak now." The voice holds something up to the side of her head.
"I-I..." She was nervous, the combination of Aubrey lying nearly lifeless on the ground combined with whatever sharp object was being held to her hand wasn't doing her confidence any favors. "I'm Hedgehog. I was sent here to help put a stop to all this. The sky and the m-monsters" She sputters in a nervous heap.
"Yeah right." The figure pushes the object closer to her temple. "And why should I believe that?"
Hedgehog chokes down a heavy swallow. How could she prove she wasn't lying? "Wait." Turns out, she had just the thing. "A witch, Ramona told us you could help find something and that I should go to whose ever in charge. That they could help us find it." She let out in a hurry.
"Hmmm, Ramona huh?" The voice halts.
"Yes. We have a picture of the object, it's in his hoodie pocket." Hedgehog admits pointing a finger over to the passed-out boy. She would have rather gotten the illustration herself, but she also didn't want to die then and there.
"Okay..." The figure huffs at her. "Head that way." They tell her to turn away from Aubrey. Hedgehog didn't want to, though she had no other choice but to listen. She could hear the person rummaging through the boy's pockets before the sounds come to a stop. "Oh...why in the world would you need this?" The voice asked.
"Ramona said with all three pieces, we can get into Elizabeths castle. It's the only way to get to her." The voice hums again. Feeling that they didn't see her or Aubrey as a threat anymore, she sighs more relieved.
"Okay." They say simply. Hedgehog slowly turns her head around to the parson that'd been holding her up. When her eyes eventually come around, she sees that it was an elf. A teen, going by elf standers at least. He was wearing a long black sweater with a hood pulled over his head. He held her slip of paper in one hand and a crossbow in the other. "I know who knows where this thing is, but it's not safe to discuss here." He lets out a brooding grunt, pushing past her.
"Right... wait." Hedgehog stops and turns her worried expression back to Aubrey. "What about my friend? What happened to him?" She goes over to him, putting one of his arms over her shoulder to carry his surprisingly light, limp body.
"Don't worry." The elf giggles. "Electro bolts hurt but they don't kill. He should come to in an hour or so." The elf motions for her to follow him through another section of forest, far from where she and Aubrey had started.
She does so, carrying the unconscious boy every step of the way. She still couldn't believe how little he weighed. Either that or she was starting to grow a bit of muscle. As amusing as she found the thought, it couldn't possibly healthy thing for the wolf boy was nearly so weightless.
The elf keeps pushing on ahead of them, looking back every other second to make sure they had been keeping up. After some time of walking and carrying the passed-out boy, they finally come up to an old house in an open clearing deep within the woods.
"Quickly." The elf hissed, holding the door open for the two kids. The place was barren, say for a few oddly placed sofas. It wasn't an idle location to regroup in Hedgehog's mind. "Follow me." He ordered, shutting the door behind him once the two are inside. He walks ahead of them, stopping at a bookshelf at the other end of the cabin.
He pulled at one of the books and the dormant bookshelf begins to crackle to life and move slowly out of the way, reviling a dark staircase leading downward. To where? Hedgehog has no clue.
The elf looks back and nods as he disperses into the recently opened passageway. Hedgehog wasn't completely sure if she should follow or not. If it were a trap then the odds wouldn't be in her favor, given that her partner was out for the count. But what other choice does she have?
She steps in, keeping a tight grip on Aubrey. She never thought she'd be so worried for the wolf in her entire life, yet there she was. Stressing over his safety.
She carefully descends the dimly lit stairs. She didn't want to rush for fear of dropping Aubrey and subsequently going down the steep stairs along with him. She didn't care where they were heading anymore, she just needed a bed for the boy to rest in and recover.
When Hedgehog reaches the bottom, she had been expecting to step out into a dingy basement of some sort. Instead, what she found was something on a much larger scale than that.
What had been there wasn't some dank dark basement but a vast underground community. A base that was almost cavernous with elves upon elves working around the clock to keep it all up and running smoothly.
"This way." The elf waves her over and she waste no time, adjusting the wolf on her shoulder. She speeds over to the elf, and he guides her deeper into the underground base.
The place was missive, and so close to endless. It looked to be the main base for something much bigger. She could ask the elf what it was, but she'd have to do it later. Right now, all she wanted was to help Aubrey.
"Here." He said, leading her to a spot in the cavern that looked to be used to treat any injured. "This is the medical bay. He can rest up here for the time being." The elf turns to leave but not before looking at Hedgehog once more. "Come and find me when you're done here." He whispers, leaving the two behind.
Hedgehog pears around for any kind of assistance for her friend. "Hello? Can I get some help here?" She calls out, the place wasn't too busy with only two or three elves laid out on emergency cots. "Where the- ah!"
She's startled when an elf, a nurse at that, pulls at her sock. "Over her dear." The little nurse waves her over. "Bring him this way." Hedgehog obliges after calming herself down. "Put him here." The nurse points to an open cot suitable for the boy his size. Hedgehog was surprised they even had full-sized cots, or full-sized anything, down there.
She nods and gently lies Aubrey on the cot. Hedgehog breathes out a delicate sigh as she looks him over. More nerves begin to build up when she sees his not moving but a slight, shift and moan from him eases her oncoming panic attack.
She shook her head. "Oh god..." She brings a hand over her eyes. Hedgehog doesn't know why she was so worried. It's not like he didn't deserve some kind of punishment. Though probably not to the extent of being electrified.
She knelt beside him. Hedgehog never much liked him, but she didn't want to see him hurt in such a way. She didn't want to see him die.
"...I'm not a pervert..." She looks at him with furrowed brows. He had started talking, shifting his body on the cot and humming out slight moans as he did. "...I didn't mean anything by it, Hedgehog..." He mutters again in his unconscious condition. Was he dreaming about her just then? "... I'm sorry Hedgehog..." She let out another, more empathizing sigh when she leans over him. "...you have a nice ass though..." He mumbles again and she rolls her eyes, getting up from beside the cot and making her way to the entrance of the makeshift hospital. "...I'm sorry Hedgehog, that was rude..." She hears another whisper and stops.
She lowers her head and breathes out a conflicted puff. She'll come by to check up on him later. He should be awake by then.
-/-/-/-/-/-/-/
That elf told Hedgehog, to come find him once she was done helping Aubrey. A Simple enough request, she could do that. The only problem she was having was that the teen never made mention of where to meet him at. The underground base was so big and bustling, it was almost like a city.
People in a rush to be places she could only guess were important, pushing past her with supplies, objects, and other miscellaneous things lying around that she struggled to make out the uses for. She could be searching for hours without help.
Her best bet was the ask around for the elf since she wouldn't be able to find him herself, but the place had been so busy any attempt she made to talk to anyone was basically useless. However, lack of direction wasn't enough to deter Hedgehog from her pursuits. Once she was up and going, not much could. So, she did the only thing she knew how to do best.
She explored the underground base, going from station to station, looking for information, learning about the community, and asking any elf who didn't seem too busy at the time for a clue on where to find the teen. The information wasn't always so clear however or even useful.
She'd managed to get a lead on one potential spot during her investigation. One elf told her to check the armory and that he liked hanging out there most days. It makes sense, the teen came off as the type to constantly be looking for a fight.
When she goes to check she finds nothing, a few more busy-looking elves but not the teen specifically. When she manages to get the attention of the armory requisitions to ask about the teen's whereabouts, the elf informs her of the observatory, telling her to check there.
An observatory wasn't something that came to mind when she thought of the angsty-looking teen, nor did it come to mind that there would even be one in the underground setting like that.
When she reaches the area, she's a bit surprised to find an actual observatory down in the cavernous hideout. The inside looks exactly how it should have, with computers on the ground floor and a large dome ceiling above. One significant difference she does see however was the many screens plastered on the walls around them, all with images of many in and around Heartford. They were keeping tabs on the surface. The place reminds her more of a surveillance room than an observatory.
Taking her attention off of the marvel that was the surveillance center, Hedgehog begins to look around for the teen, again with no luck to be had. One of the elves working the ground floor tells her that he might have been back at the medical bay and that he liked looking over some of the injured.
Hedgehog groans inwardly, not letting irritation show in front of the elves. She had just come from there, so why would he be? She thinks there were no better leads to go off of, so to the medical bay it was.
The medical bay would also turn out to be a bust, though she already knew it would be. Once she arrives, she doesn't see the elf. Just Aubrey. He was still unconscious, though his sleep talking had come to a stop and a nurse had been by his side, holding a wet cloth to his head.
"Excuse me." Hedgehog turns her head to the sudden voice. She looks down to see a shy-looking elf girl beside her. "You side you're looking for Dylan?" She spoke in a hushed tone. So that was his name. Hedgehog nods to the little elf. Any information she could give would be a big help. "He's in the strategy room. He's always there come nightfall." She whispered. Not out of fear but mostly likely due to her shyness.
The shy elf asks Hedgehog to follow, and the girl does so without question. Luckily, they don't have to walk for long. She had been running around the base just following thin threads, so she was happy to have a definitive location for the elf teenager.
"Over there." The elf said as the door to the strategy room glided open. She points to a figure, standing on top of a table in the dimly lit room. It was him alright.
"Thanks," Hedgehog whispers to the small girl but she had been long gone, already halfway back to the medical bay. The little shy girl was faster than she looked.
Turning back to the semi-dark room, Hedgehog steps in and slowly makes her way over to the table. When she comes up, she notices that Dylan's hood was down, reviling long black hair that had sloped down over one of his eyes.
She wasn't even sure he knew she entered. The teen was too concentrated on a map, nervously biting at his thumb as he looks over the urban plan of the town above. "Uh." The elf snaps out of his nervous brooding when he finally notices the girl in the room with him. "You made it."
"Yeah. I actually got help from this little shy girl."
"Ah, Mena..." He chuckles or makes a sound that slightly resembles a chuckle. "My sister can be a little too curious for her own good, but her hearts in the right place." He sighs to himself. "Is your friend okay by the way?"
"Oh, yeah." Hedgehog nods quickly. "I think he's gonna be fine, for now at least." She says, looking at the map he'd been pining over. "What's going on here?"
He shrugged. "I'm just trying to figure out a way to get into this cathedral here." He taps a finger on one portion of the map. "I've tried thinking of so many ways, but they all come up sort. Too many holes and flaws. We'd be dead before we could get to it."
"Peachey..." Hedgehog takes a gander at the position of the chapel. She couldn't remember seeing the building when she came in. "Why's it so important?" She pounders down at the open map. " I didn't even realize it was there. I doubt it would help much."
"It's important because that's your ticket to the artifact." Hedgehog goes silent. "That's where they're keeping Barb and She's the only one who knows where it is."
"Barbs there?" The girl perks up, snapping her desperate eyes to the elf. "Wha- for how long?" She demanded an answer. The news struck her like a lightning bolt. The thought of the elder in trouble doesn't sit well in her mind. This entire time she'd assumed Barb was safe and sound, that if anyone was going to figure out the missive problem the world had found itself in, it'd be her. It never even crossed Hedgehog's mind that the elf could be hurt. "How did all this happen?"
The teen grimaces, holding one finger up to his mouth as his eyes drift away in thought. "You know it's strange. We noticed something was weird. The town felt different, but we didn't suspect anything was wrong... you know?" The elf looks at her, regret washing over the one eye she could see. "Then suddenly, some elves started to change. Nothing too noticeable but you could see it in their eyes. It was almost like they were in a trance."
Hedgehog's brows rise. "Oh?" She thinks back to Barb Junior, the eyes stick out the most in her mind. They were hazy, absent, far gone. She thought it seemed weird at the time, yet she didn't say anything, didn't question her behavior. "Oh, man."
"The more the days went on the more people started to notice their family members starting to disappear. They were all flocking to this new idea that Barb Junior had been pushing, and day by day, more and more ran off to her and just disappear. Then when they turn back up again, they had changed. Then they go on to convince more elves to follow behind Junior, and so on and so forth." A low, unsteady groan rumbles from within his throat. "We thought we could ignore it, that it was just some new fade. Until Barb wound up missing. Then just a few days ago the sky turned red." Hedgehog squints slightly at what the teen had said. "And a lot of the monsters and elves around town started to change, But in a different kind of way this time around. They were warped, like imitations, corrupted versions of themselves." He stops, the dim war room falling silent in his wake.
"Wait..." Hedgehog spoke. She'd been deep in her thoughts, still pondering his words. "What do you mean the sky turned red a few days ago?" She said, a genuine look of fear watering her eyes. "This only started a few hours ago... right?"
A strange look passes over his expression. From his one eye, the girl could tell it was his turn to be confused. "How did you say you got here again?" He steps closer to her, apprehensively peering deep into her eyes.
"Uhmm... Ramona used a spell to teleport us. Me, Aubrey, and four others." She quickly explains. Her eyes dart around the room for answers that weren't there.
"Ohh... I see." The elf steps back. "There must have been some interference or a disturbance. Light magic doesn't work so well during these times." He stops. "If you were there when it started, that means you've been traveling for the past six days.
Hedgehog holds out a hand to keep herself propped on the table. She nearly fainted once the news reaches her ears. "Six days?" She mutters. "Six days?" She repeated, a bit more audible this time. Had it really been that long?
"Hmmm..." The elf hums to her, stepping closer again. "Time is and always will be an elusive thing. You turn your back for just one second and she's gone like the wind." Hedgehog looks at him. The frown she wore on her lips slowly start to creep into a small, comforting smile.
"You know that sounds like something Ramona would say." She laughs and shakes her head.
"But don't worry." The teen lightly touches his small hand to hers. "That lost time won't be for nothing. I have a plane to spring Barb. If you're looking for her artifact it's gotta be for a reason. You must know how to stop that witch in the black tower." He said walking back to his position on the map. "I've been thinking this one over for a while but not a lot of elves are willing to risk their lives, fewer still have something the cloaked ones really want." He stops and brings his raved gaze back to her. "Until now that is."
"What?" The girl wonders. Besides getting her hands on the artifact, she was eager to help Barb.
"Don't worry, it's a simple diversion tactic. You just get everyone in the chapel's attention then lead them into an ambush we'll have set up on one of the streets. All the while I'll sneak into free Barb." Dylan sounded so sure of his plane. Then again, he had been the one fighting for six straight days.
"That's..." Hedgehog begins but a sound from the other side of the room surprises them both. The door opens and Dylan takes aim with his crossbow. Before he could shoot, however, he makes out that his potential target was the boy from earlier. "Aubrey?"
"Heyyyy, Hedgehog..." His voice sounded a little drowsy and his walking pattern was too off-balance. He looked like he had just woken up or was intoxicated.
"Aubrey." Hedgehog was overcome with emotion as she raced toward the boy, wrapping him up in a tight hug. He groans though she wasn't sure if it was out of pain or if he just couldn't process what had been going on.
"Woahhh, what's goin on..." He mumbles.
Her eyes snap open when she realizes what she'd been doing. "Oh." She parts from him with the speed of an in-flight raven. She doesn't know what came over her then, though she was glad to see the wolf upright. As out of it as he may have been. "I-im uh..." She blushes slightly. "I'm glad you're okay."
"Oh, yeah. I'm a real deal hitter, you know what I mean." He laughs off his inebriation the best he could. "It does feel like I took a bath with a toaster though."
"Wow, your friend's tougher than I thought." The elf smirks at them. "I'm impressed." Hedgehog turns around to him and an idea springs to mind.
"Yeah... he is." She whispers with a newly branded smile on her face. She rushes back over to the table with Aubrey in tow. "Dylan, may I suggest a slight change of plan."
-/-/-/-/-/-/-/
Aubrey walks up, standing in front of the jagged wall that surrounds the church that was supposed to get them out of this mess. The place looked like a nightmare from what little he could see. Torches burn at the top of the wooden wall, strange banners with goat skull insignias flowed through a bizarre breeze and to top it off, there hadn't been a soul in sight.
He stood in place with vials of his own blood that had been drawn earlier for this occasion. They were all nestled neatly into a bandolier striped around his chest.
Maybe he thinks it's a good thing that no one was around. Now that he was wide awake with his wits about him, Aubrey wouldn't deny that maybe this was a bad idea. He'd never been used as bait before, but how could he have said no to Hedgehog. The boy thinks of ditching the plan altogether and running, though thoughts of Hedgehog would keep him in place.
Well either way he was there now, out in the open. There was no squirming his way out of this one. Dylan had given him the best route through town to take once he was being pursued. The elf's plan to sneak into town had been working so far, so the boy would put his trust in the rest of it.
"Uh... Excuse me!? Anyone home!?" He raises his voice, stepping closer to the walled-off church. After some time of waiting, a figure would emerge, popping their head out from over the top of the wall and even more would do the same, slowly peaking their heads out to see what the ruckus was. "Oh boy," Aubrey whispered to himself. "I, uhh, have a special delivery, for one weird cult!" He shouts, motioning his hands up and down his own body.
They don't do much besides watch him make a fool of himself as more and more come to throw their eyes over the wall. Aubrey thought it was strange, and their idleness wasn't the only weird thing either. Dylan and Hedgehog said he'd be dealing with elves, but these guys seem a bit taller than the average elf. They were about as tall as himself.
"Okay?" It was obvious that they weren't going to chase him willingly, so he'd have to move to plan B. He takes one of the many dark vials out from his bandolier and throws it at the wooden wall. He crashes against the surface, splashing a viscous liquid along the wall that slowly trickles downward.
He thinks the trick works as something begins to happen to the supposed elves. They pear down at the wall and back to him, each quickly retreating back behind the unpleasant wooden structure unlike how they had entered.
"What?" Aubrey mumbles. He thinks that it was just another fluke, until the gates open, and the elves come pouring out in a mad frenzy. Seeing them up close definitely confirms that they were taller than the average elf.
He turns to run in the opposite direction of the chapel. "Oh, you really like that huh!?" He said as he ran, unloosening another vile of blood and tossing it on the ground behind him to keep the elves on his trail.
Aubrey rushes through town using the route Dylan had mapped out for him, accumulating more hooded elves as he went. Aubrey has a few close calls with the chase and was almost grabbed a few times, but the wolf always managed to worm his way out of trouble. He was always good at running. It almost came naturally to him.
"That all came out of me, that's crazy!" He yells back, tossing another vail at the frenzied elves. That was his last one, but it was alright. He was making perfect timing. "Okay..." He looks at the address and thanks back to what Dylan told him. He was most certainly at the right spot.
The wolf ducks into the ally and the rampaging elves follow without a second thought. They walk right into Dylan's trap, and they didn't even realize it. Not when they stepped into environmental hazards and lied out traps, not when elves started raining bolts and arrows down from the rooftops above, and not when they started falling by the dozens. They were too frenzied to think straight.
Hedgehog and Dylan lunge themselves over the missive wall after seeing Aubrey take off with a hoard of corrupted elves hot on his heels.
"Woah, that actually worked," Hedgehog spoke quietly, kneeling down beside the elf. The place had nearly cleared out say for a few corrupted. Though Dylan would easily dispatch them with a few well place crossbow bolts.
"Yeah, blood from your kind is irresistible to creatures created by dark magic. They can't get enough of the stuff." Dylan broods as he keeps watch over the cathedral. Her kind. That was something Hedgehog still didn't understand, though she figured she'd ask Ramona about it and magical identities. Once the world wasn't in grave parrel of course. "Follow me." He waves to her.
The chapel grounds don't really remind the girl of a holy site. Even though the elves put all their stock into ideas and science. That way of thinking for them was religious in its own right. But with the walls, torches, and cages around, the church felt more like a stronghold, or fort. It's no wonder why she didn't recognize it coming into town. Church back home doesn't tend to look so barbaric.
"Up here." Dylen fires a zipline into an open chapel window. He tugs on the rope that comes down and begins to climb up. Hedgehog follows once he was up and past the opening, landing on a balcony that overlooks the chapel's ground floor.
The inside was no better outside. If anything, it was much worst by comparison. The floor was coated in a large pool of blood. There was also a mass of pulsating tendrils that had seem to spring out of the ground and line the walls. It was truly an upsetting sight for the girl.
"Over there." Dylan brings her attention over to the far end of the chapel to a wall above the church's pedestal. It was more of the unpleasant tentacles along Barb wrapped up and unconscious in the unsettling mass of tendrils.
"Oh, man..." The good news was that they knew where she was and had a straight shot to her. The bad news was that there was still corruption in the building and along with them was Barb Junior, shouting orders and demanding answers on what could have happened to the guards outside. Unlike the other elves, she'd retained her original size. "What are we gonna do?"
The elf next to her hums, bobbing his head. "Okay." He spoke after some consideration. "I'm gonna handle the cultist and junior. You focus on getting Barb free."
"What?" Her eyes snap down to the teen instantly. "No, Dylan that's way too dangerous."
"Don't worry, I may be smaller, but I'm gonna show those pretenders what a real elf can do." Hedgehog was still unsure, and it showed. "Don't worry about me. Just focus on getting Barb out."
"Are you sure?" She asks one last time.
He nods, readying his crossbow. "I am." He shrugged, a little unsure himself. "You move when I do. Got it?"
She relented, letting him go as he lifts his crossbow and jumps onto the railing of the balcony. He takes one last hopeful look at Hedgehog and jumps down into the fray of tall elves. He introduced himself the best he knew how. With a bolt to one of their heads.
"Well, well, well." Junior snickers as Dylan lands. "Finally come to join the winning time I see Dylan."
"Try again junior." He raises his weapon to the other. "I'm here to make you pay for everything you've done. To your people. To your own family."
His words don't get to her as much as he was hoping. "Well... to make an omelet..." She brings her right hand up reviling a slim black gauntlet that resonated with a sort of red energy. "You have to break a few eggs... Come on then cousin... come break your eggs." She ushers him forward and he doesn't hesitate to accept the offer.
The sudden quickness of the teen fury rattles the corrupted as he hops into the small crowd. His first goal was to go after Junior, but her servants had kept her guarded closely. He saw it as no issue, he'd just have to carve his way through to her.
Once they were passed the formalities they rush at him, unsheathing swords and swinging wildly at the small elf though they would miss as the teen swiftly dodged each consecutive slice.
His small stature had its advantages. The taller elves were having a hard time even pining down where the teen was going to be. By the time any of the found out, a bolt to the skull would interrupt those realizations. All the while Junior sets back to observe her cousin fight. Each time he gets close to her, one of her servants would interrupt him and she'd move to another spot in the room.
He jumps around like a manic pixie nightmare, soothing every bolt at his disposal. Acid blots eat away at flesh and bone, electro bolts lock bodies up and send them to the ground, inferno blots set their targets ablaze as they run around like chickens with their heads cut off, and iron bolts, though nothing special, do their job perfectly.
Once most of Junior's servants are either dead or incapacitated, she feels it's the perfect time to get involved. She steps up, raises her gauntlet to him, and fires out a beam of red-hot energy. The beam just barely manages to hit him as he ducks out of the way.
He couldn't afford to be reckless with her, his aggressive maneuvering would only end up with him touched. He notices that the gauntlet would seem to overheat the more she used it, so he would hang back. Egg her own and get her to fire off her gauntlet recklessly while looking for the perfect opportunity to strike.
That opportunity would arise when he causes a distraction that gets Junior to fire her gauntlet. Once it was overheated, he reviles himself, running toward her and loading his crossbow. She shakes the heat away from the gauntlet and points it at him, but he fires a bolt, knocking her off balance and delivering a keen to her face that knocks the elf clean out.
Dylan would have celebrated but some of the incapacitated corrupted were starting to come too. He'd have to postpone.
Hedgehog was enamored by the elf's movement, so much so that she had almost forgotten the part she had to play in the chapel. She takes her eyes off the spectacle that was the teen elf and rushes over to where Barb was being held.
Dylan's distraction was working at least. There was no one left to guard the elder elf and no one to stop Hedgehog from freeing her either. She hastily takes hold of one of the moving tendrils and uses it to scale the walls.
"Barb." She whispers, reaching the toned-out elf with some trouble. "Barb, can you hear me." Hedgehog rises her tone a little.
The elf's eyes flutter open. "Hedgehog?" She said, a weak smile slowly stretching over her pale face. "How'd you get here?" Hedgehog smirked and bobbed her head over to the fighting.
Dylan had still been going at it even without his crossbow in hand, but by the time he ran out of bolts, there had been very few corrupted left in the chapel. Now he was fighting with a zip, a wire similar to a string Hedgehog could find inside a piano.
It was more of a defense tool for him, not using it to actually fight the taller elves but to get them to unintentionally dispatch themselves instead. When one lunges at him, the teen throws out the zip out, warping it around the edge of the sword and redirecting the corrupted into one of his own buddies.
"Ay... that's my nephew..." She mutters out a weak cheer for the teen.
"Don't worry about that now. Let's get you free first." Hedgehog said. She begins to tug at the black tendrils with no success. Her persistent pulling at the fleshy roots was never going to work, she needed another way. She's stumped until that solution comes to her in an instant. Her wand was still in her waistband. "Right." She pulls it out and aims it at the tendrils. "Uhhh... right..." She braces herself. "Incendo, reicio." She whispers as the tip of her wand sparks up, setting the tentacles ablaze.
The heat from the relatively weak spall begins to cause the black tendrils to unravel and recede as both the girl and elf fall down into the pool of blood below.
Hedgehog stands up quickly with her wand in hand, ready to help Dylan deal with the rest of the corrupted. Though by the time she managed to bring her eyes around to the teen he had already been in the middle of taking care of the last cultist. He had used his zip to grab onto the taller elves' sword, jumping behind them and bringing the blade up to the neck. After a moment, Dylan swiftly pulls the zip, decapitating the corrupted elf and sending them slumping to the blood-covered floor.
Hedgehog was astonished. The way he fought was otherworldly. Even if he was a skilled fighter, taking on ten people who were way bigger than him pulsed their dark magician-infused leader was no small feat.
"Are you alright?" The teen runs over to them. His breathing was heavy, but he still stood as if he hadn't just fought, and killed, a bunch of monsters. "Aunt Barb?" He reaches out for her and takes her hand.
"I'm fine Dylan." She sighs. The elder sounded much better than she did before though still fairly weak. Hedgehog thinks it must have something to do with those tendrils that had kept her tied to the wall. "I just need some food... and a long nap." They all chuckle and slowly make their way out of the chapel. No doubt if she ever saw the place again, it would be too soon.
When they step out into the open, they see that the fort's gates had been opened. Aubrey had returned with a bunch of rebel elves by his side.
"Hedgehog." The excited boy struts up to her. "You should have seen me run it was crazy, and the ambush." He chuckles. "It was a bloodbath; man, I wish I could have gotten it on video dude."
Hedgehog giggles at his eagerness. "I'm sure it was." She looks over his shoulder, noticing Dylan handing Barb off to some of the other elves and telling a few more to go detain the unconscious Junior inside the chapel. "On sec." She steps past the wolf and quickly over to the group of elves. "Wait, Barb. I still need your help." She pulls out the illustration given to her by Ramona. "With this."
Two of the elves turn the elder around to face Hedgehog. Barb observes the drawing the best she could. "Oh... yes, I know where that is... Dylan can take you to it." She nods to the boy. "You remember where it is right...? It was your uncle's favorite place..." She meekly remarked shortly before reaching for her neckless and handing it over to the teen.
"Right." He takes the neckless, a key she always kept close but never shared what it was for. He clutches the key in his hand, a thought repeating in his mind. His uncle's favorite place.
If he could remember, Barb's husband always had a spot he liked to frequently visit to clear his thoughts, it's the same spot he proposed to Barb and the same place where their children were conceived. It was a special place for them.
Even after he died, Barb liked to visit that old spot every now and then.
It was a small hill overlooking the ocean at the edge of town. "There it is." Dylan points at the ground where Barb's chest was buried. He made sure to keep his distance. His heart could barely take the sight of the area. Barb was never said about her husband passing but Dylan never liked to think his uncle was gone.
"Alright." Hedgehog takes the shovel she was holding and buries it into the grass. The picks up a clump of dirt and tosses it over her shoulder. She digs for minutes, tossing dirt out of the way until the shovel hits something solid.
She knelt down, using her hands to swap more dirt out of the way. Once she sees the chest, she digs her hands into the ground, grabs onto the ends, and begins to tug. She does so three, four, and five times until she manages to bring it up and out of the ground.
It was a simple thing, small and wooden with butterflies carved on the top. She brings up the key and places it into the heart-shaped keyhole on the beautiful box. She turns the key and opens it. "Oh... my..." She reaches in and pulls out the golden, glowing orb. They had gotten it, but she knows without the other two shapes it was as good as useless.
"Hey, Hedgehog?" Aubrey spoke. He had brought a hand up to her shoulder but apprehensively lowers it back down to his side. "I wanted to say... you know, I just wanted to say that... come on Aubrey." He stammers. He was troubled, and his eyes refuse to meet hers. "Uhmm... Hedgehog..."
"Hey, Aubrey." She stops him and throws her arms over the boy's shoulders, pulling him into a hug. "I think I understand." He wanted to say it so badly, but he didn't have to.
"Right..." An anxious laugh passes them by as he rubs at the scruff of his neck. "Hey, If Oliver ever gets to acting shiesty, just call me and I'll set him straight."
She covers up her chuckle with one hand. "You got it, Aubrey."
-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/
Elizabeth sat slouched on her throne, keeping her head tilted in one hand. She was bored, to say the least, and her extraction of Oscar's gift was taking longer than she liked for it to have. She grabs at the staff with the orb inlaid in it and brings it up to her eyes.
"Oh, Susia. Why must I be cursed ta dwell in idle boredom?" The witch frowns when she gets no answer. "Nah fallin talkative today, ah?" Her chamber door opens up and she takes her eyes off the staff to see the intruder.
Barb Junior had marched in with a displeased grimace across her face. "Lady Elizabeth." She spoke, kneeling before the witch.
"What' tis it?"
The elf was apprehensive to speak at first but pushes her fears aside. "There has been an incident at Heartford. A sudden spark of rebellion." She kept her head lower and her body still, waiting for the witch to lash out.
"Rebellion ye say?" Elizabeth chuckles. "Do they not want to partake in the glory of liberation? First the alien kingdom, naow dis." She spoke. The witch doesn't sound agree with the news. She was more excited if anything. "Herea." She manifests an item around Junior's right hand, a gantlet infused with a fraction of the power that was to come. "Go back ta Heartford and deal with this little heretical matta."
Junior stands. "Yes, my lady." She gave a quick bow before leaving the throne room, looking at the gauntlet around her hand the entire time.
Elizabeth brings the staff back up and smiles. "Well, looks like things are about ta get interestin ay Susia?"
