Ventus looks at Echo, tilting her head a bit in confusion, her ears tilted with her head. “You’re going to help me out? Surprising, but absolutely welcome. Thank you.”
Echo laughs, “No problem Ori, now then, we’d better head down so we can take them on. Only condition, no killing. It will disrupt your thoughts due to guilt, leading to capture.”
Ventus nods, stretching as her tails pop. “First thing is rescue Lamu, then we work our way around the crevice, dealing with anyone that attempts to stop us. Anything to add Echo?”
Shaking her head, ears tight to her skull, Echo responds, “No Ori, that’s a decent enough plan. Let’s go.”
As one, they both jump off of the roof, Ventus landing hard before springing up while Echo walked down the air, akin to a stairway. Quickly heading towards Lamu’s office, they pass Todd who raises a hand, fire conjured. “You’re not getting through Ventus, orders are to capture you. I hate it, but what can I do?”
Echo hisses, which drops to a growl. “You’ll leave us alone Todd. We saved your life. Or would you prefer being knocked out? I’d prefer not to, but it is your choice.”
Todd frowns. “Sure you stopped the bird, but who’s to say I would have died? I had it handled.”
Ventus barks a laugh, short and harsh. “Todd, you would have died within a few seconds if I hadn’t stepped in. The large bird would have surged mana to fly up, and then send you shooting towards the ground like a cannon ball. Splat.”
Todd shivers, some part of him instinctively knowing that Ventus wasn’t lying. “How?”
Echo chuckles. “Don’t know why, but our eyes can see the fabric of reality. Ori can only see within a few seconds. To be more precise, whatever we look at, we can see the flow of time over the fabric of space.”
Loud thunder is heard, a warning as Echo shuts up, paling.
Ventus blinks, before walking up the stairs. Yelling back, she asks “You got him handled Echo?”
Todd lets his hand fall to his side, fire flickering out. “I won’t stop you. I had a feeling you knew something, since that rage didn’t come from nothing. But I never would have expected this. Every second you see this? Also, who is Ori?”
Echo nods, “Yeah, it is brutal at times, but I much prefer it to the alternative of not knowing. As for who Ori is, it’s Ventus. Ori is short for original --------. Oh guess I can’t say that. Probably for the best, since I’ve already been warned this call.”
Todd frowns, before conjuring fire again, this time heading over to the door. “I’ll guard your rear for now, rescue our CO. Oh and Echo, since that seems to be your nickname right now. Keep an eye on Ventus, she’s a sweet girl.”
Echo chuckles before heading up the stairs, “You know she’ll never go out with you right? We swing the other way.”
Nodding, Todd says, “Oh I know, but that doesn’t mean I can’t have feelings, just means they’ll never be returned.”
They both hear a booming, as Ventus slams her tails against the golden door, buckling it on the first hit. Rage blooming within her.
Echo sighs, traveling along the threads to reach Ventus, reversing the damage to the door. “Oi, Ori. Don’t be dumb, just travel through.”
Blinking to clear her thoughts, her tails curling, Ventus responds. “I can’t see in there. They did something.”
Echo frowns, muttering, “They’ve recovered that already. No matter, it has a weakness.”
Mana pours off of Echo, and the fabric stabilizes, threads rapidly reappearing. “Go quick Ori, you haven’t given me enough reserve to do this more than a few seconds… and she’s through.” She draws her mana back in, smiling as her tails wave slowly behind her.
Ventus gets through only to see a device smoking on the table, while Lamu is bound, surrounded by those suited men. They are all staring at the device, not yet noticing Ventus.
Looking around rapidly, Ventus travels over to Lamu, her tails lashing out at the suited men near her, making sure to not strike with full force. “You’re not dying on my watch Lamu. Give me a moment and you’ll be fine.”
Chuckling, Lamu answers, “About time you came back. These are unawoken, but they do know martial arts, so be ready.”
Tilting her head, Ventus shrugs. She gets on all fours and starts darting around, easily dodging the unenhanced strikes before lashing out at the men’s knees, causing massive cracks with each strike followed by groans as the men collapse.
In under a minute, the room is cleared, and Ventus walks over to Lamu, tails straight with barely contained fury. Calling forth her claws, she swipes, severing the binds trapping Lamu. “So Lamu, I’ve been acting on my own. Your orders?”
Lamu stands, rolling his shoulders as he rubs his wrists. “I don’t know where they got mana suppressing binds, but your orders are to clear house. Priority is capturing Senta. If you must, then kill her, but according to the suits, she’s responsible for all of this mess. Even roped in the President.
Ventus nods, turning to leave before looking back. “How did you avoid being controlled?”
Lamu chuckles, “Simple, after finding out about Avery I avoided the rest of the researchers. I didn’t know who was responsible until Avery told me, but I knew it had to be one of them. Call it a gut feeling if you will.”
Ventus nods, quickly traveling out of the room and moving towards the path she encountered the awoken that were controlled, only to find them already unconscious. Chuckling, Ventus nods and through her connection, travels to Echo.
“Lamu’s free Echo. I’ll go capture Senta, and you keep cleaning up out here. Sound good?”
Nodding, Echo rushes forward, “Sure thing Ori.”
Running towards the lab to save her mana, she shifts her outfit to be a tight pair of jogging pants, and a long sleeved shirt.
Minutes pass before Ventus arrives at the lab. Crashing through the locked glass doors, Ventus looks around before lunging to the side as various abilities crash into where she had been a second before.
Glaring at the gathered awoken, all with glazed eyes, her tail’s fur starts to stand up, power rushing into them before returning to her body. “I don’t know why you’re all like this, but I’m not going to let you stop me.”
As one, the awoken answer, “Glory to Senta. She has ordered your capture, dead or alive. Comply if you want to live.”
Ventus growls, going onto all fours as her tails spread wider, power racing faster and faster into them before some barrier breaks, causing Ventus to howl in a mix of pain and glee.
Light floods from her as her bones shift and morph. Fur grows across her entire body, and her mana outfit shifts without Ventus’ consent, covering everything that shouldn’t be seen.
Once the light fades, an enormous fox covered with snow white fur with nine long red tipped white tails stands in the hallway.
Howling, Ventus rushes towards the group of awoken, easily jumping around each blast before spinning, her tails striking most of the awoken in the chest, causing them to be launched into the wall, cracks forming in the stone.
The remaining awoken seem to come to for a moment, and upon seeing the giant fox, they run away.
Echo teleports in, holding her head as she’s nearly out of mana. Looking towards Ventus she chuckles. “Option one it was then. Good good. I’ll go make sure Senta is still in her lab, be careful Ori.”
Ventus turns towards Echo before responding with a yip. She races towards Senta’s lab as Echo teleports there.
Senta turns as alarms blare. Turning towards a nearby shelf, she pulls down a glass vial containing a bluish green substance. Turning back, she sees Echo. “Good to see you came back, Ventus. Time for you to be still.”
Throwing the vial at Echo, Senta looks triumphant. Her expression quickly morphs to disbelief as Echo catches the vial with one of her tails.
“You know something Senta? You made many mistakes. The biggest is you assumed we were weak.”
Senta backs back towards the shelf, a glare in her eyes. “You only just awoke. Of course you’re weak.”
Echo chuckles, shaking her head before whistling.
Loud thuds and crashes are heard, rapidly getting closer before Ventus slams into the room.
Senta gulps, reaching into her pocket for a clump of hair, using her ability to try and control the giant fox by consuming all of them. However, instead of controlling Ventus, all that mana does is sink into her, invigorating.
“How? You’re right here Ventus, how could this fox beast shake off your ability?”
Echo chuckles, before responding. “Oh that secret isn’t mine to tell, isn’t that right Ventus?”
Ventus looks between Senta and Echo, before swiping a paw at Senta, sending her crashing into the shelf of vials. She moves to strike again before Echo stands in front of Senta. “Calm down Ori. You need to focus on your mana, and flow it away from your tails. Trust me on this, it’s better to capture Senta than kill her..”
Growling, Ventus closes her eyes. She guides the flow away from her tails and back to her mind, yelping as the light glows once more, bones shifting as her fur retracts. As the light fades, Ventus is back in her humanoid form. The only difference is one of her tails now has a faint golden image of a fox in the hollow red circle.
Echo approaches, quickly tracing a formation around Senta, stagnating her mana, before walking over to Ventus. Reaching over, she scratches behind Ventus’ ears. “Good job Orii. My time’s about to be up, most of the reserved mana spent.”
Starting to fade, Echo adds, “Empty Senta’s pockets before taking her to Lamu. Then go eat. You may not feel it yet, but that form needs a lot of energy to shift to and from it.
Groaning, Senta glares at the two. “You’ll regret this. You’re not going to have anywhere safe to go after I’m done.”
Echo chuckles at that. “Oh you won’t have much to do aside from answering questions. Talk to you soon Ori.”
As Echo fades, Ventus feels her reserves free up, but no return of mana. Every bit had been squeezed out.
Ventus rips off the pockets of Senta's lab coat before taking her to Lamu.
cassandr4· Jan 1, 2026
