Lyn reacted without thinking, throwing their empty hand directly above their head, while energizing the conductive coils that twisted around and through their bones. The force of the swing almost lifted them off the ground, as the sword caught in the eddy current that extended beyond Lyn's visible reach, and the sword's cutting swing changed to a leisurely wave through the air.

  Their wide field of vision required no turning of their head to see that the Clackaw had frozen in place at the sudden attack. Without any visible glance at the Clackaw, they shouted, “Fly!” and moved to close with the first guard, who had let go of his sword and was reaching for a pistol holstered on his hip. The gun, like his sword, had caught in the air like it was submerged in molasses as he tried to aim it.

  The second guard hadn't bothered with a sword, but had quickly taken aim at Moira and fired, at almost the same time that crossbow bolts had passed through the aetheric fire unhindered.

  There was no sound of impact or deflection — Nat had likely stepped outside of Moira's shell of light to dodge the shot. Lyn didn't bother trying to locate him, but focused entirely on protecting themselves, now that he was out of harm's way.

  Moira, unlike Lyn, did not need to concentrate. That's an interesting reaction to have.

  “Projection only! Focus on the Ber!”

  No, no I think not.

  The soldier giving instructions suddenly had his head encased in a ball of aetheric fire. He reached for it, but was not screaming in pain, so clearly this was merely meant to blind and disable, not harm.

  His number two was suddenly wearing opaque glasses made of aetheric fire — with a comically oversized aetheric nose and a mustache?

  And the two crossbowmen vanished inside body-sized spheres of fire — Moira likely couldn't get perfect positioning on them and had gone with the simple route.

  Okay, now everyone calm down and explain exactly what is going on.

  The commander, as Lyn had decided to think of him, did not sound panicked or all that concerned, but answered Moira's statement with a condescending tone, “Temporary blinding and non-lethal measures? Who are you representing, that moronic clod? This isn't your jurisdiction. I am instructing you to leave.”

  Oh, now that's interesting phrasing. I think that maybe you should be quiet, before you say something that we'll all regret.

  Trying to speak again, only half of a word escaped the commander's before he was overwhelmed by a sudden coughing fit — dust and dirt were visibly spewing out of the bubble around his head. Nat had gone the easy route with the materials at hand, apparently.

  Nat had not anticipated the second in command, however, who managed to say, “What— It's the Ber!” before he too, was suddenly trying to talk through a mouthful of dirt.

  Lyn's eyes caught sight of motion in the doorway as it began to open, and they energized their arms to maximum and threw theirself to the ground — not a moment too soon, as bullets whizzed overhead and bolts whistled through where they had been standing a moment before.

  A second, third, and fourth Moira appeared between them and the doorway, and Lyn's view of the door became obscured by a wall of aetheric fire. There was a brief sensation of a hand on their shoulder, and then they were in the darkness of Nat's Talent.

  “Hey, Lyn. We need to go.”

  Are you alright, Lyn?

  Lyn took hold of Nat's offered hand, and dusted themselves off, “I'm fine, but what in all of the worlds, is going on?”

  I don't know, myself, but there are grenades in flight and I don't have a defense against those, unless you do.

  “From shrapnel, maybe, but not against force. Nat can't redirect them?”

  They were lobbed out of his reach. So, the question now is — inside or outside?

  Nat indicated towards the door. “It's no question at all, to me. Novek and Tanner are inside.”

  Shall we ask Rezzan the same question? They're at the treeline, if you wouldn't mind, Nat.

  “Sure. But I think we should inform Ellie, and maybe ask her the same question — whatever this is, it is way more than she bargained for.”

  Lyn nodded, “Agreed. So, does anyone else get the feeling we've stepped into the middle of someone else's fight?”

  Novek's train of thought was narrowing to a razor-thin set of potential actions, as he prepared to drop any pretense of subterfuge and resort to sudden, overwhelming violence. Once inside, two additional teams of Humans had become apparent — one on either side of the doorway, previously invisible as the Brin walked in. One group of six, holding heavy batons, had quickly moved to take hold of the Brin, manacles at the ready — sized for Brin and Ber, if the thickness of the iron was any indicator. They issued no commands, but merely moved to grab hold of arms and paws.

  These were no thugs for hire — their movements were coordinated, practiced, and strangely silent. Across the room, another team of six wielded a mix of crossbows and guns, which they kept ready even as they stayed at a distance against the opposite wall, out of sight of the outside, as the door closed.

  Tanner had been shocked into silence himself, and had moved to cover his pup as the troops had used the batons to ungently herd him, Khe, and Novek, away from the door which closed behind them. One of Tanner's wrists had a manacle locked in place, as their assailants tried to pry the pup, who had begun to howl, from his grasp.

  With no audible indicator as to why, the teams suddenly stopped trying to wrangle Tanner — who they'd clearly prioritized taking captive before focusing on Novek, in his guise as Davon. They turned, almost as one to the door, and two of them moved forward to re-open it.

  Tanner took the opportunity to yank his manacled arm away and retreated back towards Novek, pup in paw. Novek's eyes glanced past Tanner at motion in the hallway beyond, and he could see a small group of mixed races — Ber, Brin, and Human alike, engaged in some frantic activity.

  The baton wielders barely registered the presence of the two Brin they'd been so focused on before and, like the other troops, moved with bizarre silent synchronicity, pulling grenades from their belts and bandoliers. Novek wasn't sure what was more concerning — the sudden threat of multiple explosives in the enclosed space, or the unnatural coordination. This sort of behavior was unlike anything in his experience with Humans — they were almost always talkative and loud, even during combat engagements.

  This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

  With a quick motion to pull a pick from his tool belt, Novek moved to help Tanner remove the manacle. Of the limited options available, his preferred plan was retreating down one of the hallways while the aggressors were distracted — to that end, he spared the time to assess the hallway as an escape route. Whatever activity had been ongoing down the hall had partially resolved, and now half of the people were watching intently from behind crates and — occupied cages — that seemed to have been hastily abandoned mid-activity, down the dark stone hall. Those not watching the events unfolding at the door were trying to quietly open cage doors, to release the Ber and Brin within.

  A moment later, Novek's conscious mind caught up with what he'd seen, and his train of thought came to a screeching halt. His ears filled with the pounding of his pulse, and his vision blanked out, filled entirely with red.

  Novek came back to himself a few heartbeats later, to see that Tanner had taken matters into his own paws during the seconds that Novek had gone blank and immobile. The wolfen brought his arm up to his mouth, and with a yellow flash of light, bit clean through the iron cuff — which dropped to the ground in pieces. The noise was unfortunately sufficient to attract the attention of two baton-wielders, who turned and advanced to finish subduing the obviously re-prioritized threat.

  Dropping to all fours, Novek growled to Tanner, “Non-combatants down that hall. Take the pup and move!” Without waiting for an acknowledgment, he leapt towards the mixed-height columns of smooth black stone that formed the outer wall. Landing softly, he twisted his entire torso in a single motion and kicked off the wall, passing well over the heads of the men rushing them. He flexed the muscles in his paws, intending to bring his claws out, only to realize that they had been fully extended since he'd dropped the pick.

  The ranged group had gathered to either side of the door, weapons pointed out the small but growing opening that led to his friends. Novek gathered his paws under him, then launched himself forcefully past the rushing group — who tried but failed to turn to intercept him. The shooters had in that short time already begun firing outward with guns and crossbows, at least until Novek arrived at their backs, and began to rip and tear.

  Nat jogged down the road in the darkness of his Talent to catch Ellie's coach — she'd kicked the horses into motion at the gunfire. He didn't specifically need to show up to ask, but he did want to make a quick stop to retrieve something potentially important.

  The door to the coach had closed, so he hoped he wasn't visible for the second or two he'd be a dark blur on the door runner. He left his Talent, then opened it and stepped within, before speaking loud enough to be heard from inside the cabin, “Hey, Ellie? We're going inside. You want to come, or you okay out here?”

  “I'm going to take the horses down the road a bit, okay?”

  Nat picked up Novek's crossbow from the seat where he'd left it, but kept it in hand, as his pack was full of food and kit. “Probably for the best. We'll let you know what we can, but you may want to wait on the pack arrival before coming back, just in case.”

  “Good luck.”

  “You too. Thanks again, and be safe.” Then he quickly stepped back outside, closed the door, and jumped down before rebuilding a tunnel back towards the creche.

  [Slip]

  “You know, Novek told me that combat could get monotonous, but I didn't quite understand at the time. There's only so much panic I can muster. Any luck with the vision?”

  That's the problem with your Talent — to everyone else, it's nigh instantaneous, but at least it's giving me time to practice.

  Not yet — I can detect high contrast light and dark shapes, but that's about it. I think I should ask Lyn if I try with their eyes.

  “Well, in the meantime, let's get back to tactics — any thoughts on what to do with grenades?”

  I don't think a paddle is going to work — we can't be sure when they'll detonate. I can make them fly further, or closer, but my concern is that they're statistical killers — deflecting them is no guarantee of safety.

  “Yeah, without detonating them early being viable, I'm hard-pressed to come up with a reliable solution other than quickly digging holes.”

  Well, we'll keep that in our pocket as an option, and I'll keep thinking about it. But I agree, they were quick to use them. I think that bolsters the argument that they're familiar with the limitations of theronic fields — there's just not enough mass to work with.

  “Okay, back into the woods while we're still out of sight. What did Rezzan say?”

  They're coming in on their own — apparently we're dangerous to stand next to.

  “You know, that's fair.”

  []

  [Slip]

  “Anything else happen of note?”

  The explosions are finished. Also, the shots have stopped. I detect a fair number of aetheric signatures inside the doors, but can't distinguish anything precisely without line of sight.

  “Okay, I'll head towards Lyn and then we'll go in. We're leaving these guys outside alone still?”

  If we can close the doors and lock them, yes. Else, Lyn's going to risk tazing them.

  Nat looked to the mini-Moira sitting on his shoulder, “Tazing?”

  Low power electrocution. Enough to disable them for a while — it's low risk, but certainly not no risk. Hopefully none of them have a heart condition.

  “I still find it strange you're expressing empathy for people who specifically tried to kill you.”

  Well, look at it this way — they absolutely cannot hurt me directly. So, it doesn't seem fair that I hurt them.

  “Well, just keep in mind that they can hurt us.”

  It would be entirely accurate to state that that is literally the second most prominent thing on my mind. Besides, you voted for non-lethal as well, are you changing your mind?

  “No, but that doesn't mean I don't find it strange. I feel similarly to you — what is it you said? With great power…”

  Comes a significant likelihood of electrical burns, yes. Speaking of, let's get Lyn.

  A few more minutes of walking in the dark and Nat was standing next to Lyn, hiding beneath a bush, frozen like the rest of the world. With a nod to Moira, who nodded back, he left his Talent.

  []

  He came to with Lyn already holding his hand — so he didn't wait at all before throwing them back into his own personal reference frame. This was really getting a workout today — he kept expecting to get tired or for the Talent itself to become harder to invoke, but for whatever reason, he hadn't yet found a limit to his invocation of it. A mystery for later, for sure.

  [Slip]

  Lyn seemed a bit shaken, which Nat realized was an absolutely novel thought — for as small as they were, they were absolutely tough as nails. They did, however, become less prone to using big words when they were upset, however.

  “Who throws grenades without provocation? Who exactly are these people — and who do they think we are that they're willing to immediately resort to explosive ordnance to eliminate us?”

  Nat amended his thought to be ‘slightly less prone’. “Sorry we took so long, I had to talk to Ellie, briefly. Can you hold this?” He held out the crossbow, which on further consideration was almost as wide as Lyn was tall.

  Still okay? You still want to go in?

  Still obviously disturbed, Lyn nevertheless took firm hold of the crossbow, “Yes, I'm intensely curious, now, and I want answers. Also, lest we forget, they've got an injured broodmother in there, somewhere.”

  The odds of that being a coincidence feel very slim at this point. Do we think the entire facility is hostile?

  “Unlikely. Creches are famously non-political — if you discount their association with agents.”

  “Well, there's only one way to find out, right? I'll build a tunnel straight into the door as soon as you're ready.”

  A minute later, they were slipping into the main room, through the still only partially open front doors — they were too massive to move quickly, apparently.

  The darkness of the Talent obscured the details of the room beyond, until Nat walked into the room and Moira's aetheric light revealed a scene of absolute carnage in progress. Multiple uniformed soldiers were on the ground, clutching at wounds that could barely be seen in the darkness. Others were aiming wildly — Nat saw Tanner's silhouette, clutching Khe like a ball, in a full sprint towards a hallway.

  And then there was Novek, mid-leap, blood trailing behind his claws, which led back towards the neck of a Human gunman, whose face was frozen in a grimace of pain and shock — their gun had clearly not been sufficient to protect them.