Ambushed
I watched as Koyu ripped the intestines out of one of the Corrupted. I turned to check to see if Charlie was alright. A Corrupted had grabbed the chipmunk's attention and Charlie freaked out, sending sparks from all over his body to electrocute the hostile freak-of-nature. He was just as shocked as I. "Hey kid, think you could do that intentionally?" I yelled over. He looked at me and shrugged. I sighed and turned my attention back to the herd of Corrupted limping toward us. I started throwing a flurry of frost knives that decapitated its target on impact. I had effectively taken out only a few, and most of them kept coming. I felt a little dizzy from using that much energy to generate the knives, so I decided to try something a little more efficient. I concentrated my energy to my palms, creating shards of ice in my hand. I felt a bit more dizzy from this, but I kept going. I forced the shards to grow in size, shaping them as they grew until I was holding two sharp one-handed swords. They were overly simplified, and only one side was sharp. They were each about three feet in length, and were super lightweight. I waited a second for the dizziness to cease before I charged at the nearest Corrupted, effectively decapitating it in one swift move. I then threw one of the swords into the chest of a Corrupted and willed it to return to me. I uppercutted another and followed it into the air, slicing it up then throwing my sword into another Corrupted, landing on top of him with my hand on the hilt, and kicked off his chest, flying back a few feet, performing a backflip and taking the sword with me. The Corrupted flew backward into a tree and fell to the ground, lifeless. "Koyu! We need to run, decapitation doesn't seem to work on these guys every time!" I yelled. "Fine! Grab Charlie and hurry, I'll be there in a sec!" He responded. He dismantled a few more Corrupted before running to grab his backpack and taking off. I got ahead of him with Charlie on my back. I ran around corners, not choosing any definite direction until I saw another Altered huddling in an alley I glanced in as we ran by. Koyu almost ran into me when I abruptly stopped. I let Charlie down and told him to stay close. I crept back to the alley to check on the Altered. He seemed to be crying, but what about, I didn't know. "Geeze, are we the only ones that responded positively to our Alteration?" I asked Koyu. He shrugged as I walked carefully to the huddled used-to-be-human. I eventually got close enough to see the species he was. He was a jet black fox with arrow-like designs all along his right arm. He definitely was crying, and didn't seem to hear us approach. He nearly jumped out of his skin when I spoke. "Hey, you alright?" "Not really." He said. his arrow markings were cyan and glowing like a candle. He sniffled and continued. "I just woke up this morning like this and my parents were dead, impaled by multiple arrows that look like the ones on my arms. Then something burst through my door, screaming bloody murder and trying to scratch me to bits. Next thing I knew, here I am." "Have you done anything...interesting since then?" I asked. "I learned how to do this:" He said. He held his arm up towards the entrance of the alley and his markings grew brighter. He then made a motion like throwing a baseball and a cyan arrow flew from his arm and went straight through the window of the shop across the street. I whistled. "Not bad." I marveled. "How old are you, anyway?" I asked. "Seven." He replied. "Damn that's young." Koyu said. I elbowed him in the chest. "Watch your language, Husky Butt." I snapped. "I'll say what I want. It's the apocalypse, after all." Koyu countered. I rolled my eyes, getting a shove from Koyu as a response. "What's your name?" Koyu asked the fox. "Meritt" He answered. "Well you seem rather skillful with that ability of yours." I commented. I tried to do something similar and ended up shooting an ice spike through a brick wall. "Well...that's interesting..." "Don't ever aim that thing at me." Koyu said. "Well, we should get going, see if we can find somewhere that'll work as a base of operations." I suggested. I started to walk out of the alley when Charlie jumped on my back, nearly knocking me over and effectively startling me. "Dude, warn a guy." I said. "Sorry." He responded. "I'll get off..." "Nah, it's okay. Just warn me next time." I said with a slight laugh. Meritt decided to jump on Koyu's back. "What the?" Questioned Koyu. "What? It's fun." Meritt responded innocently. "We are a really weird bunch." I commented. I took off on a jog, and Koyu kept up with me. We ran for a few minutes, looking for a decent house when I
felt someone hit me in the head really hard. I heard Charlie scream as I blacked out. I woke up probably about an hour later. "Frost, c'mon. Frost! Wake up!" The husky Koyu was slapping me in the snout, and hard. "Ugh... I'm up! Stop hitting me! What happened?" "We were ambushed. Some other Altered ran into us and one of them shot something from their arm. It must've hit you hard, you were knocked out cold for a few hours."Ambushed? What? Well, did they take anything?" I asked as my vision finally stopped blurring. I wished the room would stop spinning, though. I looked at Koyu who was now holding his trusty katana, but it was different this time. "Woah, Koyu what the-" "Yeah... I figured out that if all three of you were getting these
awesome powers, I had to have something." The darker blade, firmly planted in his paw, evaporated into thin air. "Figured it out, I can control darkness itself! I've been able to 'copy' any weapon I've touched so far, and I can destroy and bring it back whenever I want." "Awesome, but still, were the other Altered able to grab any of our stuff?" "Quite the opposite, after I shot one of them in the leg with an arrow, the other two ran off, leaving their buddy, the savages. They also dropped one of their bags, which contained some weird marked papers or something, and a few other things. The one they left is in the next room of this building I found unlocked, tied up. I managed to bandage him up with the medical supplies found in the bag they dropped, but they are only temporary. From what I got, his name is Jack. You can talk to him if you'd like, but he doesn't talk much." Koyu explained. "I might be able to get a few words out of him..." I commented, sitting up and rubbing my head in pain. I followed Koyu as he showed me our little prisoner in the room he was talking about. The rabbit looked pretty beat up, and his left leg had a bandage around it, just as Koyu had said...I felt a little sorry for him, me and my stupid sympathetic nature. "I'll be in the other room with Charlie and Merrit, they seemed to get a little riled up when the others attacked." Said Koyu as he shut the door behind himself. I knelt in front of Jack. He was asleep, but woke up promptly after I roared in his face. He started repeatedly muttering a plea for me not to hurt him. I sighed out of pure sympathy for the poor hare. "Don't worry, I don't like hurting people who still have some form of morals left." I mentioned as I sat beside him. "If you promise not to run, and you give me a good reason, I might untie you. Sound good?" He nodded furiously. "Alright." I said with a smile. I stood up again. and started pacing in front of him. "First, what's your full name? "Jack Rabbit." He said, blushing. I giggled. "Suiting." I commented. "Is that your real name or a nickname?" "Nickname, but I'd rather not tell you my real one. No point really." Jack replied. "Is your first name actually Jack, though?" I asked. "As I said, I'd rather not reveal my true name." He mentioned. "Why did that husky guy tie me up anyway?""Koyu probably has trust issues." I smirked. "So what happened again? Koyu was pretty vague on the details. "Well, me and my 'pack' as we call ourselves were wandering around the town after the radioactivity mutated us. Archie told us to stop and hide when we saw the four of you walking around out there. We noticed that you guys had a lot of gear that we could've used for days, so Archie insisted that we ambush the lot of you, and take your stuff. I didn't want to, but they made me. They threatened to kill me." Jack explained. "We didn't know that you guys had these amazing abilities. We knew it was possible since Archie did. Anyway, we tried to ambush you guys and Koyu in there immediately sent one of those dark arrows into my leg." "How old are you, anyway?" I continued. "I turned fourteen last week. Some day this has been..." He answered. "I'm glad Archie volunteered to behead my parents. I couldn't even if I had the capability." Jack looked down at the floor, and I saw a tear fall from his face. "Hey, it's okay. I didn't want to kill mine either. It was that or leave them to be controlled by this radioactive plague." I assured him. "Let me go ask Koyu if he's okay with untying you. Then I'll see about that wound." "I heard that from the other room, and yes it's okay to untie him. Its not like he can go anywhere with that hole in his leg anyway." Koyu said behind us, scaring the life out of Jack. I extended my claws and sliced the rope. "Well now I have to find another rope." Koyu mumbled. I just playfully shoved and smiled at him. "Hey
Koyu, watch what I learned." I put my palms on either side of the hole in Jack's leg and concentrated until my paws started to glow yellow. I waited a little as the light grew bright enough to force Koyu and Jack to shield their eyes. When the light faded, I removed my paws to show Jack's leg fully mended and looking perfectly healed. I felt extremely dizzy, but tried not to show it. "Woah, nice going Frost." Koyu commented. "I probably shouldn't do that too often." I noted, failing to hide my dizziness. "Or at least not on wounds that severe." I put a paw to my face, but felt no cold. I sighed. "Th-thanks, um...Mr. Tiger Guy." Jack said. "Name's Subzern, Frostbite Subzern." I introduced myself. "Oh, thanks Frostbite." He got up and walked around a bit, but still had a limp. "So what now?" I asked Koyu. "Well Meritt had a little accident in there..." Koyu mentioned. "What kind of accident?" I continued. "The type that requires a change of pants." Koyu explained. "How old is he again?" "Seven to the day." Koyu said. "He kept complaining about his horrible birthday." I looked at the room we were in. It just occured to me. "Are we in a daycare?" I asked. "Yeah. It just happened to be the nearest building." Koyu explained. I walked around the room, rummaging through the various cabinets. Not finding what I was looking for, I exited the room, first fetching Meritt, depositing Jack in the main room, then continuing my search of the daycare. After the fifth room, I found what I was looking for. "Hey Merrit." I called. "Yeah?" He asked. He sounded extremely embarrassed. "How often do these accidents happen?" I asked him. "More often than I would like. I'm seven! Why do I have these problems?" He complained. He began to cry, and I couldn't help having to hug him to calm him down. "Hey, it's okay. These things happen. However, since you said they happened rather often, why don't you consider wearing these?" I showed him the package of diapers I had behind my back. "What?! Why?!" He yipped. "Well think about it. Don't you think it would annoying to have to keep finding a clean change of clothes for you?" I reasoned "Plus, I'll make sure no one makes fun of you." I smiled to emphasize my reasoning. "Fine..." He said after a minute. I gave him one of the diapers. "I'll even trust you to do it yourself." I said. "If you need any help, I'll be right outside." "One thing, though. Where are we gonna keep those?" He asked. "My ender backpack." I showed him the backpack from my room. "It doesn't appear to have any discernible bottom to it, and I've already stuffed about five backpacks-worth of cans in it." I put the package in as well to show him what I meant. "Must be a pain getting anything out." He commented. "It actually isn't. Whatever I want out of it is what appears at the top." I explained. I left the room so he could take
care of diapering himself and waited for him to come out. When he came out, he was wearing only the diaper, holding his wet clothes in his paws. "Could you make sure I put it on right?" He asked sheepishly, kicking the ground with his paws. I checked and confirmed he did correctly apart from the fact that it appeared to not be tightened correctly. I fixed that quickly, and we headed downstairs. "Hey Meritt, you okay? You look like you've been crying." I heard Charlie ask when Meritt got downstairs before me. "I'm fine." Meritt responded shyly. I saw him smile at the fact that Charlie appeared to be ignoring his new attire. "See? Told you they wouldn't care." I commented as I caught up with the fox kit. "I guess you were right." Meritt replied, then to Charlie, "You really don't
care?" "I'm sure you can't help it, so there's no point in making fun of you about it." Charlie half laughed. He walked over to window. "By the way," He called over his shoulder, "The number of Corrupted have increased substantially since that ambush." "So basically, like traditional zombie myths--" I started. "These things are attracted to sound. Extremely." Charlie finished. "As long as they don't know we're in here, we should be fine." I pondered. I wasn't exactly worried about hiding, but there was something that was bugging me. "Charlie, could you keep an eye out for any young Corrupted? Tell me if you find one." "Will do, Frost!" Charlie said, jokingly giving me a salute. "What do we do 'til then?" Meritt asked. I smiled. "That part's easy, try to retain what's left of our sanity." I tousled his head fur and walked towards the others. "Hey Frost." Koyu greeted. He didn't even look up from a notebook he was scribbling in to address me. "Well don't let me get in between you and your Death Note." I smirked. Koyu smiled back, "I wish I had the Death Note, but that's not what this is." "Then what is it, Oh Mysterious One?" I asked, mockingly. I noticed him going through a stack of papers simultaneously. "It's a journal of sorts. Documenting useful information, jotting down notes on suspicious things, even little biographical entries could be useful in the long run." The husky anthro explained. He closed the book and set it aside. "So where's that backpack of food I gave you?" "According to the time, probably in a Corrupted's stomach." I thought aloud. Koyu growled, "WHAT?! You've got to be joking!" "No, I'm serious. The backpack is gone, but the food's in here." I indicated the enderpack I was carrying on my back. "Don't mess with me like that." Koyu growled. "Why? Cuz you don't wanna lose your precious food?" I ask with a smile. Koyu crossed his arms. "You know food is essential to survival." "I also know that I have a bottomless backpack." "Whatever." The husky muttered. "Oh calm down, Husky Butt." I said. I searched through the backpack. "Um, Frostbite? I know this sounds ironic, but do you have any carrots in there?" Jack asked. "Actually, I do." I answered, ignoring the obvious embarrassment in his voice. Why is everyone but Koyu and me so shy? I tossed him the bag of carrots I found. Koyu eyed the bag suspiciously. "I don't remember putting that in either of the bags." "I more or less found some at the Walmart. It's amazing how fast I can run." I said nonchalantly. Koyu sighed and laid his head back. "I'm
getting tired from all this running. I'm not even going to question you anymore. At least not tonight." "Would a can of spaghetti be enough to cheer you up, Mr. Husky Man?" I offered the can. "It would be a start." The husky said with a sigh, sitting up. "Surely you have the silverware." "I might...hmmm...nope, but there might be some somewhere here." I said. I activated my light speed without warning and quickly searched the place. I came back with some plastic forks and spoons. "Um..." Koyu stammered. "Told you." I said, regarding the silverware and my speed. Koyu blinked a few times. "Since when can you...how did you..." "I can heal with light and you're wondering how I can run at the speed of it?" I asked with a smile, crossing my arms. "SINCE WHEN CAN YOU DO ANYTHING WITH LIGHT?!" Koyu asked with an amazing amount of volume. "Koyu! The Corrupted almost found us, try to keep it
down." Charlie accused. I laughed at this. "I'm the oldest one here, I'll do what I want." Koyu said with a mock tone of boasting, crossing his arms and sticking out his tongue. "Fine, but try not to get yourself killed when you howl like that again." Charlie countered, sticking out his tongue as well. "Charlie, you're twelve, right?" I asked. "Yeah, why?""You're acting like you're five." I accused. "That's because I was never taught how to act, considering my parents abandoned me when I was five." Charlie muttered, looking down. "To be honest, you finding me was the best day of my life." A tear formed in his eyes, and Meritt ran over to comfort him. "Im... Im sorry, Charlie, I didn't know." Koyu sympathized. "It's okay, I didn't expect you to." Charlie sobbed, he then began full on crying about it. "They didn't even hint that they were leaving, I just woke up and they weren't there." His sorrow was slowly being replaced with anger. "They're probably Corrupted by now. If they are, that's as good enough revenge to me as if I got my paws on them." He turned back to the window. "Oh, and Frost, there aren't any Corrupted that looked to be any younger than twentyfive in human years." "Interesting..." I mused. Maybe the radiation turns relatively young people into Altered, and anyone twentyfive or older into the Corrupted. I wanted to somehow test this, but no one alive is human anymore that I've seen. "Regardless," I continued, not looking up from the spot on
the floor my eyes suddenly found very interesting, "We should all probably eat. It's getting late." I walked over to the little lounging area that Koyu had created with various furniture and started offering what was in my backpack of a pantry. After much arguing, we finally all had something to eat. Koyu kept complaining about not being able to cook his spaghetti when I decided to shut him up. "Go find a microwave, then." "You don't think I've tried?" Koyu countered, getting annoyed. The wrapper on the can started catching fire, but the fire was black as night. "Um...Koyu?" Meritt started. "What?" Koyu snapped, a little more than annoyed at this point. Meritt pointed at the can, which was beginning to steam with heat as the black flame grew around it. Koyu looked at it with a rather puzzled expression, which went quickly from realization, to excitement. "Well would you look at that!" Mentioned Koyu as he ripped the top of the can off with his claws. "Is it edible? I don't think I've ever seen something cooked with black flames." I commented with worry in my tone. Koyu didn't acknowledge me and started dumping the pasta into his maw. "Fine, ignore me." I mumbled, turning my attention to my tomato soup. I wish I had some grilled cheese with this. "That was satisfying." Koyu announced as he finished his dinner. He licked his lips and threw the can across the room into the nearest trashcan. "You guys need help with that?" He asked, looking especially at Meritt who was trying to eat the can to get it open. After helping them with that, Koyu started wondering random things aloud. "I wonder if there are any frozen pizzas left at the Walmarts." "I didn't really check." I replied. Koyu didn't hear me however, he just continued rambling on about
ways to cook foods for future meals. I swear he was never this annoying before. I thought grumpily. I decided to summon a few frost knives in an attempt to juggle them. Good thing I control cold with my mind, or I would've been a headless tiger. "That's why we don't juggle knives, Frost." Koyu said without looking down from the ceiling tile he was so intent on studying. "That's why I need to practice with spheres before sharp objects." I grumbled. In another attempt to occupy my time, I tried sculpting with frozen atmosphere. I managed to make a pretty good saxophone, which surprised even me. I fabricated a reed out of ice as well and attempt to play. After a few sour notes, it began to play like the one I had at home. I then proceeded to play the saxophone line to "Thrift Shop", much to Koyu's horror. "Could you please not play that at a time like this? How do you even know how to play that?" Koyu grumbled. "You'd be surprised what band directors will have you play. Like, for example, this:" I explained, then continued playing, but this time it was "Radioactive" by Imagine Dragons. "You know, the name of that band gets me wondering. Do you think anyone turned into a dragon?" Koyu asked. "I mean, you seem to turn into your inner self, so why wouldn't a dragon be possible?"I stopped playing and dissipated the saxophone, committing the structure of the woodwind to memory. "Maybe. I don't see why not. The real question is how many with dragon fursonas are still alive by this point." I looked down, not wanting to think of all the people dying at the hands of the Corrupted: humans who fell victim to a hostile mutation. "Wanna go recruit huntin' for a little?" Jack asked. "Who all's coming along if we do?" I countered. "If it's fine with everyone else, I'd prefer just us two." Jack explained. "Fine, but don't try anything." I replied. I got up and put my enderpack on. I made sure to leave some food and diapers with the others should they need them, then headed off. ~~~ "So where should we look?" Jack asked as we walked down the streets. "Maybe the supermarket." I replied. "Why?" Jack asked stupidly. "Well for one, I wanna see what other things I can find. Two, where else do you
think people would accumulate? Three, Koyu practically complained about not being able to eat anything but canned food." I explained. Jack sighed. "Want me to make a list?" "That would be a marvelous idea. If only I had brought my notebooks in my backpack." I replied sarcastically. "Oh, I have something else." Jack countered deviously. He waved his hand in front of him and a screen appeared, ready to be typed on as keyboards materialized in front of us. "When did you learn that?" I asked with genuine shock. Jack thought for a moment. "I had a little more time on my hands than I would've thought."
"So you figured out what your 'ability' is?" I asked him, pretty much knowing the answer. "I call it technomancy. Not sure what it actually is. I can conjure up screens and stuff and store objects in a sort of cyber storage." He explained. "Interesting..." I typed up a list of what we would need. The list included: food and/or water, new clothes for Merrit, more diapers if I can find them (after all, we'll eventually run out), more recruits (their on a item list, but still...), and finally just anything else that could be of use or we could have to occupy our time when we aren't doing anything. We continued our walk to the Walmart when we saw a group of Corrupted limping about. I giggled a little, "Watch this." I summoned a frost sword. I sliced through the Corrupted so quickly and was back at Jack's side in such short time, that the Corrupted just stood there for a second before falling apart. I flipped my sword around, sheathing it in an invisible scabbard at my left side. I disappeared the moment I let go. "I'm gonna have to echo Koyu in asking, 'When did you learn to and how the hell can you control light?'" Jack asked in minor shock. I summoned a small ball of light as I thought about it. "I had a weird vision of me doing these things while I was out. I tried and it worked. I can't even begin to describe the physical, mental, and emotional control it requires." I explained, staring at the light. "As a passive ability, it appears I can stare straight at intense light without getting blinded." "Anything else?" Jack pressed. I shook my head. "Not much. Visions of nine other furries that I've never seen before...but other than that not much..." I moved my hands away from the light and it turned off and disappeared. I suddenly got a weird feeling as we approached the superstore. "Do you get the feeling we're being watched, Jack?" I asked. "Now that you mention it, yes." He replied, shifting around uncomfortably. I looked around. I caught a glimpse of eyes, and something clicked. Suddenly, I was looking out of two different sets of eyes, controlling both bodies independently. Through one pair, I saw me: Frostbite Subzern, stripes glowing cyan with energy. Through my eyes, I saw an arctic fox with two golden bands on each arm and leg and two golden bands on his tail. His eyes were a golden yellow and his fur was so white that light glowed off of it. Something in my head told me this was a part of me. Beacon Solaira, I think his name is. The fox's eyes spoke a sufficient message. Give me control. I gave up my hold on that pair of eyes, and my vision returned to normal as Beacon's soul took over his body. "Thank you, Frostbite." The fox said, stretching his arms and
legs. I looked at the other pair of eyes, and they walked toward us, splitting into four eyes as they walked out of the shadows. One pair was fiery red, the other a dark purple. "Heatstroke and Nightshade, how nice of you to join us." "I'm so confused..." I said. "We'll explain back at the base." Heatstroke offered. His voice was no different than mine. He was kitsune with six tails and flames on his arms and legs, ears and tail-tips, all actually dancing as if the wind was effecting them. The other one, Nightshade, I guessed, was a wolf anthro. He had midnight black fur and purple tribal patterns on his arms. He had a twisted, scar-like pattern on his left eye and his eyes were dark purple in color. He had a look on his face that radiated pure terror. I felt a strange sense of both hatred and sympathy towards him. Something in my mind was telling me that he had a sad past. Regardless, we walked back to the base, Jack and I taking out some Corrupted while the other three just watched. If these guys are part of me, why are they acting like such assholes? After we got to the base, they just looked at each other and nodded. "Once again, I'm confused as hell right now." I said. If they heard me, they ignored me. I opened the door to the daycare we were staying at and the scene inside was chaos. The place was in shambles, with couches overturned, walls slightly shredded, containers emptied...and Koyu, Meritt, and Charlie hanging upside from energy ropes attached to the ceiling. "What the hell happened in here?" I demanded. Koyu shushed me. I repeated the question in a low whispering, but still angry, tone. "Uhm...long story. Jack's involved in it. Cut us down and I'll explain. I think they're still here." Koyu hastily explained in a whisper as well. Beacon summoned a bow out of light and loaded three light arrows at the same time, effectively cutting everyone down in one shot. "Ow." Koyu said. I shot Beacon a warning look. "What?" Beacon asked innocently. "You have a lot of explaining to do." I snapped. "Who, in the hell, are they?" Koyu asked as he brushed off the ropes. "They look like those alternate forms of your fursona you've told me about before. At least three of them. Where's the other six?" "Your guess is as good as mine." I explained, "These guys came from nowhere, and I haven't the slightest clue where the others might be." "What exactly do we have to explain?" Beacon countered, finally recovering from his confusion. "Everything." I answered simply. "But until you can, you can start by actually helping." I turned to Koyu. "What happened here?""Well that Archie asshole showed up, asking about Jack." Koyu explained, gesturing to the torn up daycare lobby. "You can see what the results were." "And you think they're still here?" Nightshade
asked, speaking for the first time. His voice, as assumed, sounded identical to mine. The only difference was that it had a background sorrow to it. "Uh, yeah." Koyu confirmed, hesitating after hearing Nightshade's voice. "They went upstairs, and, judging by the sound of carnage, are on the third floor.""Maybe I should..." I started. "Nah, that's a last resort." I dismissed, summoning a Frost Knife. Using my ice controlling skills, I threw the knife throughout the maze of this daycare, being rewarded with a scream from the third floor. "Let's go teach these guys a lesson." I concluded as the eight of us charged up the stairs...