chapter 15
unlikely allies and an offer extended
“Zeke im sorry for my deception but if you can trust us we can help you get out of here. Are there more of you that feel this way can you have them meet us outside the city?”
Zeke looked at me and nodded “I will get the word out just promise me that you were worth it.” I looked at Baker who nodded and I looked back at Zeke
“I promise.” I extend my hand to help him up. A large explosion rocks the building that forms the alley. I look back out onto the street and the leader in his hybrid demon form was advancing on our location ignoring any spell shot at him. In minutes he would have us . Baker got hit with the recoil of a blast his shields were getting weaker, he was running out of energy. I go to help him up and notice the 2nd key had fallen out of his pack and had come out of the wrappings. I bent down to pick it up and when I touch it I feel a surge of power course through my body. The energy was raw and super powerful. I could feel all of my energy channels growing and becoming able to hold more energy. A glowing glyph appeared on my forearm. It looked like a casting circle but more ornate. I gathered my energy and aimed it for the end of the alleyway. A blast of cold and a flash of green then a wall several feet thick of reinforced ice blocked the entrance of the alley. The hybrid leader launched a few strikes at the ice wall but it held firm. Zeke and the others looked at the ice wall then at me.
Zeke yelled “What do we do there is no way out and he will be on us soon.” Another strike sounded off my ice wall and small cracks started to show. I take cover behind a dumpster just as a huge blast from all the other Enclavists and their leader shattered my wall.
“Do you really think your tricks can stand up to the power of the demons?” he raised his hand gathering energy for another blast. A shadow moved on the wall of the alley towards the Enclavists. As the gathered energy of the hybrid left his hands a disk of shadow shot from the wall and intercepted it and disappeared. Then almost immediately reappeared above the leader causing its own spell to hit it and the other Enclavists. The aggressors were knocked down and some were out for the count. The leader was the only one to get back up already gathering for another strike when the shadow moved down the alley toward us. The hyrid let loose a dark lightning blast that sped toward us. The shadow on the floor got to us and formed a disk underneath us. I was over taken by the feeling of falling and I glanced upward to see the dark electricity beam sail right overhead. The falling feeling was short and when the darkness disappeared we were standing in the woods next to our truck.
“What the hell was that? Did you do that?” Zeke looked at me questioningly and slightly afraid.
“No, that was not us. We don’t have that kind of ability.” I said also confused by the situation. A few seconds later another dark disk opened in the air and Shyft fell through landing on his feet.
“What the fuck was that? Wingless, what the hell was that? What the hell is going on?” a chuckle came from up in the canopy of the trees. Baker, Shyft, and I all raised our hands preparing to attack.
“Is that anyway to treat the one that saved you? I thought I meant more to you than that.” The voice was familiar then it dawned on me. “Shade?” I asked to the voice no really believing it. The shadows in the canopy seemed to coalesce and then sitting in the more brightly lit canopy was Shade in all his glory. “Indeed, it is.” He said bowing in his phoenix form. His body was bigger than last time about the size of a parrot and his tail feathers had small flairs of shadow coming off of them. He then leaped off the branch he was on to glide down to my shoulder. “How……What…….How are you alive?” I asked. He looked into my eyes and then down at the glyph glowing on my forearm.
“Well I am a phoenix so it just takes time and energy for me to rebirth. That however is what gave me the boost I needed to come back so quickly and with as much power as I have.” I looked at my forearm. Baker and Shyft both walk closer to see my forearm.
“Where did that come from?” Baker asked.
“It happened when I touched the second Key.” I hold out the book for my brothers to see. They both reach out cautiously to touch the book. Both of them stiffen as a glyph glows to life on their forearms and they get filled with the same raw energy that I had felt.
“Whoa, what a rush. What do you think these glyphs mean?” I shook my head,
“I have no idea but we need to find what these are.” I look over at Shade.
“Do you know what these are?” he inspected the glyph closely
“I know it is powerful, I know that you have ascended because of it, but I don’t know where they are from and I have no idea what the symbol is sorry.” Shade said with a cooing noice.
Zeke walked up to us. “Sorry to ruin this moment but we need to get out of here.”
I nod “Right where are the others that are sympathetic to humans going to meet us Zeke?” I pull out the map of the area and he points to a small town several miles to the north.
“That is where I told them to meet us.” He stepped back. Baker and Shyft got into the truck and started it up. I look at Shade, “Can you teleport them to that location we don’t have enough room for all of them. Zeke will you come with us? We are going to stay on the outskirts of the city making sure to help your others get away safely.” Zeke nodded and then walked over to the other Enclavists. He talked to them for a minute and Shade lifted off of my shoulder and shot a disk of shadow on to the ground next to them. Zeke finished talking to them and they walked into the middle of the shadow disk then disappeared out of sight with Shade. Zeke got into the bed of the truck with me and we headed to the road to go around to one of the main entrances of the city.
When we came around the corner there was a full-blown battle raging between Enclavists. Zeke called out to his compatriots and he informed us which ones were for and against us. We pulled between the two groups and with a combination of ice and metal energy we created a barrier to keep the retreating sympathists safe. ournew power boost was unreal.. Zeke seemed to zone out for a minute and then he snapped back and said,
“There is one more group of us being pinned down on the other side of town by a group of the Enclavists.” We sped our way over to the eastern side of the city and found a group of 10 Enclavists being surrounded by about 15 or 16 guards who were attacking relentlessly.
“Shyft they are too close for us to raise a wall do you think you can take some of them out quickly while Baker and I focus on getting the others out?” Shyft smiled and said,
“Just get me close don’t even slow down.” He put the truck into cruise control, climbed out if the drivers seat with Baker was holding the wheel and then out the back window into rhe bed. We got within a few feet of the attacking Enclavists and Shyft jumped out of the bed hitting one of the Enclavists with his warriors chain knocking him out and landed on the ground at full run. Baker quickly slid over into the driver seat so seamlessly it was like we had practiced the maneuver thousands of times.
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Shyft ran through the group knocking several of them out in a blur of movement. He was faster than before that is for sure. His ascension had increased his speed. He also let loose a few blasts of fire energy that took down a few more of the attackers. I stood in the back of the truck and let a few arrows loose charged with my energy. Green vapor trails followed behind my arrows as they hit at the feet of a pair of the attacking guards. Green ice formed around their feet and grew up around their bodies completely locking them down so only their heads were exposed. Shyft took out the rest of the attacking guard with quick knockout blows.
Zeke yelled to the sympathists to run for the woods and head to the meeting point. They all took off running when a familiar shadow appeared underneath them and they fell out of sight. Zeke activated his glyph quickly and then turned to me,
“That’s all of them that weren’t directly killed or already captured. Unfortunately, it would be suicide to try to go back in to get them.” Shyft jumped back into the bed of the truck.
“Holy shit, ascending is no joke I can actually emit my fire a short distance now.”
Zeke spoke up and said, “You are also extremely fast. I could barely follow your movements.” I laughed a little and I leaned over so Zeke could hear me over the engine without me yelling.
“Actually, we are all faster than a human would be but he definitely did get another speed boost from his glyph.” I pointed at the glyph on my arm to signify what I was referring to. It was still glowing brightly against the light color of my skin. For the remainder of the ride to the small town the ex-Enclavists were escaping to, I talked with Zeke about the true nature of magick. He was surprised to learn that the ability to use magick is in each of us we just have to awaken it. I explained that a person’s body takes in the ambient energy from the surrounding environment and then converts it into a specific energy that is paired with the person who made it. i did explain thisonly happens in people with a supernatural lineage. Zeke looked like he was about to say something. i held up my hand to stop him.
"Apparently alot of people have some supernatural blood, plus im guessing with the ex-Enclavists, having injected, ingested, or altered thenselves with demon parts, thats should be the catalyst too."
I explained that each person had an elemental alignment or several in the cases of the more advanced awakened. I explained how the level of power changes and the purposes of the energy channels in the body. He asked a few pointed questions that showed his understanding and his openness to the concept. Baker and Shyft inserted a few things here and there to fill in the blanks as well but left most of the questions to me to answer since I studied more than they did.
We got to the abandoned town an hour after leaving the Enclavist city. The buildings were dark and dilapidated. The area looked empty but with one ping of my radar returned evidence to the exact opposite. There were close to 200 people hiding in the buildings. Zeke activated the comm glyph to let everyone know that it was safe to come out. As we pulled into the center of the town large groups of people of varying ages. Some were families with small children following close behind them. As soon as everyone was gathered all looking scared or confused as to why they had fled the safety of the city. I stood up on the back of the truck and addressed the group.
“You all probably have a lot of questions but let me explain everything first and then my brothers and I will try to address any other questions after. Ok, so first you all have been lied to by the leadership of the Enclave. The way that they had you all getting magickal abilities was a perverse and unnecessary way of going about it. There is a more natural way that my brothers and I and our society can teach you. We are Sanctuary a collective that focuses on survival, awakening your true potential, and rebuilding proper society. We will be a family and we only have the good of Sanctuary members at heart. We are always there for each other for no other reason than to help them out. Our society is separated into three categories and a forth which is for children under the age of 15. Each group has a military and non-military focus.
There is my group the Spectres; we are the hunters, ranchers, farmers, and the gatherers for sanctuary in non combat situations and we are the long range, stealth, infiltration, and intel division in combat situations. There is Baker’s group which is the Ironhides; they are the police force, the smiths and the builders of the group in non-combat situations. They are the phalanx, the brute forcers, and the first on the line of skirmish in combat situations. Then there is Shyft’s group Skyteam; they are the transport, inventory, and sciences side of Sanctuary in non-combat situation. They are the support, medical, and supply group in combat situations. They use traps and non-lethal alternatives in their fighting.
Any child under the age of 15 will be schooled and trained basic survival techniques and will do apprenticeships in each of the divisions to find out where they will hold jobs until they turn 15 and then will be tested to see what group they are best aligned to. Families will not be broken apart and if both parents are in any of the factions at least one of them will be required to be put into non-combat duty while the other is deployed. Anyone that has experience in certain fields will be allowed to stay in that field. And of course everyone will be trained in energy use and hopefully become awakened.” The people in the crowd were murmuring and seemed a little reluctant to believe what I was saying. Shyft stood up and lit his hands on fire which elicited some screams, some ohhhhs, and a large handful of the kids got bright eyed and seemed impressed. Shyft stood there with his flaming hands for all to see.
“This is but one of the many abilities we have gained access to. With our training you will become faster, stronger, and more agile than you are now depending on the size of your energy capacity. We are not here to scare you or force you into this. It is your choice.” He extinguished his hands and sat back down on the edge of the truck bed. Baker stood up and cleared his throat.
“As my brothers have said we are only trying to help people and even if someone doesn’t fit into any of the groups and only wants to do non-combat jobs is more than welcome to stay. We will never kick anyone out for stuff like that. As long as someone doesn’t cause trouble or bring trouble to us everyone is welcome to Sanctuary.” He sat back down and patted my leg twice.
“Now if anyone has any more questions please come up and we will try to answer all questions as quickly and as fully as possible.” I said finishing my speech. For the next two hours, we took shifts keeping guard on the outskirts of town and answering questions to the refugees. It was well into dark when there weren’t any more people asking questions and we decided to rest for the night before continuing with the conversation with the Onclavist abandonees. Shyft, Baker, Zeke, Shade, and I help the perimeter to the town the rest of the night my brothers and I used the druids sleep to rest and still keep guard. When dawn broke, the 5 of us headed back into the town. The center of town was slowly filling with people who were worried that if we didn’t leave soon we would be found.
As soon as all the refugees were present I addressed the group again. “So, who here is willing to give Sanctuary a try and who just wants to come to get back on their feet and then move on to their own futures?” Almost everyone raised their hands to the former choice and a few raised their hands to the latter.
“Ok once we make it to the permanent residence of Sanctuary we will go through an initial training regime and then get everyone separated into their groups.” I turned back to my brothers and through the link I said,
“Yes? What can I do for you Wingless?” his voice held a groggy tone to it.
“Can you use your shadow teleport to get to Doran, Jasper, Paige, and Swift to find out if they have a place for Sanctuary?” he blinked a few times either thinking or trying to wake up then said,
“Sure I can do that. Do you want me to bring them here or just create a shadow portal to that location here for you?”
I looked at my brothers and before I asked they both answered through the link
I looked back at Shade and said, “If they have a place make the portal, if they don’t just come back.” Shade nodded and then a small pop sounded and he was gone in a puff of smoke.
For the next few hours we helped get everyone ready to move if we could. Everyone ate a hasty lunch of chicken made over a fire and some vegetables we had found in the forest surrounding the town. A large disk of shadow opened on the ground about an hour after we finished eating. Knowing that was a sign that he was opening a portal we called everyone to gather around. With a lurch of the feeling of falling and a small bout of darkness and then our feet touched solid ground.