FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

We moved at a steady pace. Jack was taking a side-route and Raven decided to take up to the roofs. We stayed in visual range of one another, apart from me. I had 'slipped' into a shadow and moved on from there. It seemed, as if nobody could see me this way. That was perfect for this. It also didn't strain me as much as it did the first time. Raven would stop periodically, to check on Jack's speed and didn't bother checking for mine. I was moving faster than Raven, so I had time to check up on guards.

As I saw the facility, I could only let my jaw drop. It was huge! A giant box, more like! There were no windows and only one door. The trademark zero was painted on each side and on the sides of the armored guards. There were five on each side, each armed to their teeth. I let myself drift up along a flag pole's shadow and found myself at the roof. There were fifteen snipers, each handling a beast of a gun. I slunk back down, beaten by the odds. I know that there are more guards inside, so how is this going to work?!

It took us almost half an hour to group up and the moon was already settling high in the sky. Jack signaled Raven to stop and I slipped out of a shadow next to them. It served both of them to a quick fright. Jack whispered to us.

"Okay. Does either one of you have a plan, as to how we're going to get in?"

Raven and I dropped our heads. We hadn't had time to form a decent plan. All we had was my shadow-slipping. And I wasn't sure if I could take others into the shadows.

"Thought as much... So we're going to go along with the initial plan?" Jack sighed, unhappy of the turn of events.

"I could go first. Search the area and tell you any cracks in the defense" I suggested. I could move undetected and faster than the raptor.

"No use. That'll take too much time, which we don't have" Raven slammed my idea down quickly.

"Okay. Ryu, go ahead" Jack spoke, offering his mechanical arm to me. Raven did the same, unsure of what we should do.

I thought for a moment. I couldn't see why it shouldn't work, so I gave it a shot. I grabbed both of their hands strongly and dropped into a shadow under me.

A huge surge of power. Like lightning running through my veins. I dashed into the building and didn't stop for anything. I knew the basic layout but didn't have much to go on. From what I could gather while running in the shadows of the storage facility, the ship was being kept in the far-right side of the massive complex. I could see my companions but they didn't seem to be able to see me. I just thought that that's how this works. Sucking someone into a shadow could impair vision, how would I know? I hope that it isn't permanent though...

Two seconds. That's how long it took me to appear at the dry-dock. There was a huge, beast-of-a-ship there. It didn't look real! It had the faint appearance of a regular air-craft carrier, only it was a massive version of one. The flat part of the ship's deck was wider but seemed collapsible, judging from the small grooves on the sides of the bulky craft. It wasn't painted, from as far as I could tell. The hull was a plain, metallic grey and it was missing the 'zeros' on the sides. I slipped into a shadow inside the ship, hoping to land at the command-deck.

As I stepped out of the shadow, my two friends were launched out. Both were gasping for air and Raven was barely capable of standing up. I ran up to them and noticed my own unnatural speed. I looked down to my hands and noticed a trickle of electricity jumping across my fingers. I jumped at the sight and suddenly felt a large surge of power, trying to break free. I held it in, to the best of my efforts, and moved to Raven.

"Hey! Are you okay?" I helped him up.

"No... That... That's not..." He gasped for air, clutching to his chest. "That's... Definitely... Not... Awesome..."

I cracked a small smile, then immediately felt bad for grinning at such a bad time. I saw Jack getting up and moving to the command console. "Ryu. Get over here"

I dashed to him and listened.

"Okay. He doesn't seem to good but he needs to try charging this baby up" Jack tapped the console. "I started the charging sequence and disabled the sensors in the area. That buys us about five minutes, so use it wisely. I'll be taking off, as soon as we can" He sat down on the bright blue chair and started pressing buttons that seemed random to me.

"Yeah" I ran up to Raven, feeling the sudden urge to get out alive. "Here. Let me help you. We've got to go now"

"Yeah, yeah... I'll... Try..." He got up and I slung his arm around my shoulder to support him, as we walked.

Jack hollered from behind the console. "Charging station is two decks down, room 32. Got that?"

"Got it" I responded, already heading down the stairs in a rush.

It took me almost three minutes to ascend one stair case, so I decided to 'use my time wisely' and slipped into a shadow, while lifting Raven to ride piggy-back. Three seconds was all that was needed to get in front of room 32 but as I stepped out, Raven's condition worsened and I started second-guessing my earlier judgment.

I opened the door and scanned the room. There was a near-three meter tall ball in the middle, connected to a load of pipes. They seemed to lead all over the ship. I could hear Jack's voice on the inter-com. "That sphere in the center is capable of charging via a simple cord or a direct energy source. Raven can blast the sphere directly with his biggest charge. That should do the trick" He cut off, obviously busy making some adjustments of his own.

Raven stood up and raised his hands in fists, to point the ball. He was focusing very hard but as soon as he opened his palms, only a tiny trickle -barely even static - shot at the sphere. The raptor collapsed on the ground, as if exhausted. I didn't have time to think. I could only start begging for the inner voices.

Please... I need help...

Ha! I knew he'd come back crawling! Prothero lashed out first.

Please... I'm begging you... I persisted.

Can't you even think for yourself? Moron. He continued egging me. I didn't see his point, until I looked down at my hands again.

Maybe... No. That can't be... Fine.

I did the same as Raven had done. I raised both my hands in fists, to point at the metallic sphere. I took a moment to find the power, I had pushed back earlier and closed my eyes.

I opened my palms and lightning shot out.

There was a loud sound, of air being pushed out. All the shadows around me disappeared, as a jet-black stream of electricity homed in on the energy-collector from my arms.

After a few seconds of 'charging' it up. Jack's voice - which could be barely heard from over the thunderclaps emanating from my hands - telling us to stop. "Hey! Raven! That's enough! Stop it, or we'll go 'boom'!"

I closed my hands immediately. The dark lightning seized to exist and the room returned to normal. I could hear the engines hum into action, as Jack was firing the ship up. I hoisted Raven up on my shoulder and settled on walking up the stairs.

As we got up to the deck, I could hear the alarms going off. They had noticed that we were here. Jack was practically smashing every single button on the console, as he checked everything, over and over again. Finally, he just let his hand dart to a lever on his left, and pulled.

The whole ship jerked up and I fell on the ground. I could feel the struggle that the carrier was having with gravity but eventually, the ship won. We took off. Jack exclaimed happily and pulled another lever. This time, it opened the doors and let us blast out at a huge speed. In a moment's notice, we had already ascended above the city. I laughed a little at the thought of people waking up to the massive, flying carrier, crossing the sky.

I got up, as we started moving, towards the place River had shown us. We were quite high. The technicians sent a few drones but they didn't manage to follow long. Jack had armed the ship with quite a lot of weapons and dispatched the small, flying gunships with a precise laser.

In two minutes, we were already leaving the city-perimeter and overlooked the forest. Then it hit us. How would we land, while still in pursuit?! Jack had thought of that and gave me a quick rundown to see, if it could work. I nodded, not sure myself but it did sound valid.

I ran up to a door, leading to the deck of the ship and breathed deeply, while taking a cord of rope with me and wrapping it around my chest. Then I opened it and stepped out. I had taken off my shoes, so my talons dug into the metal, keeping me on the deck, instead of flying off. I ran as fast as I could to the front and tried to find our friends. It took a while but I managed to spot out the gaping jaws of the rest of the group. I tied the rope to a pole sticking out from the deck. (Note to self: Random things in the right place are completely normal)

Then I jumped.

It took almost five seconds for me to meet the ground. But luckily, it was night. And night meant shadows. I slammed into one and managed to pull my friends into it as well. It must've been dumb luck, for me to get all six in the same shadow. I looked for the shadow of the rope and used that to dart back up. When I got up, I slipped back behind the door, through the cracks between steel on the deck. Again, everyone - apart from me - were thrown out of the shadows. River, Lulu, Shay, Draco, Shin and Iris weren't affected the same way, as Raven had been but they were shocked from the quick, unexplained horror-trip.

I only cracked a smile and chuckled, as I felt the last bit of strength being depleted from my body. I could hear the startled screams of Iris and Shay, as Shin moved in to examine me - as he was a medic, he was trusted to do this.

I couldn't make any sense out of it, after that. I only drifted to unconsciousness, feeling satisfied that my friends were safe and we were out of the city.