Chapter 47 – Stained Hands.

“So, what exactly have you been up to?” Clocky looked questioningly at Saylin, smears still present on his face from where he had wiped the tears away.

Saylin looked at him with an exasperated expression, her face still sporting a green tinge. She was sitting hunched up on the seat, legs pulled close, one of two that ran the full length of each side of the van. Crystal was surprised that she hadn’t rolled off onto the floor and the mess that she’d made every time the van made a turn.

“Really?” Saylin finally managed, her voice not much better.

“Well we do need a rough idea of what we can expect, and I doubt your girl there is in much of a state to answer at the moment.”

“Sofght kitty,” Abigail mumbled in confirmation as she buried her face in the Grazeye’s fur that she was currently leaning on.

“What... exactly... did you give her to drink?” Saylin carefully asked Myne.

“My blood.” Myne’s answer was very matter of fact.

“That’s it?” Saylin didn’t look like she believed her.

“That’s it. Blood is special, it carries the aspect of your nature, your magic and a little of its power.”

Which was of course why Bowser was using Touched. But there was more to what Myne had just said as well. Her blood would also reflect her vampiric nature, and given the potency of her magic, it was no wonder that Abigail was drunk on it. Crystal was pretty sure if any of the rest of them had tried drinking it however they would have just been violently ill.

“Thank you anyway, for saving her life,” Saylin said quietly, looking at Abigail.

“She’s not out of the woods yet.”

“It’s a start. I really want her to live... We’ve only just begun...”

“So...” Clocky gave Saylin that look again.

Saylin sighed, closing her eyes. Arcs of purple energy coursed over her, before she opened them again.

“Me and Vorsce found ourselves at the wreck in the Narrows after we were all separated from you. We ran into Abigail there, and formed a deal. She wants the same as us, for Bowser to be dealt with. There was little point in waiting so we headed back here.”

“With one of the engines?” Clocky asked.

“Yeah. They didn’t need it. There was no one else there when we arrived. You know how traumatizing it is to run one of those things?” Saylin’s expression did indeed reinforce how that experience had been for her.

“We all know what life has been like for the Touched here, especially if you don’t have powerful backing, say like yourself. I’m surprised that we’ve tolerated this status quo for so long to be honest, but perhaps because we’ve been blind to what’d really be going on in the shadows. Bowser’s been kidnapping or buying Touched, experimenting on them. I’m not sure exactly what or where, but many lives have been stolen by him.”

“Then there was the ‘site’. It was just a ruse to draw in more Touched, as many work freelance to avoid the hate. Not that that really works of course. Of course they shipped some kidnapped Touched there as well, but it’s kinda hard to mass move people there without someone noticing, so they didn’t, and lured instead.”

“Abigail is from the streets. Her friends and family, all got taken by Bowser’s men. Not the public ones, but his shadow arm. She was lucky enough to be one of the last ones taken from the city, in that she got shipped off to Cannonsgate. They had started to experiment on her, in the bowels of the ruins, something about her meaning that she didn’t just die in the first instance like most of the others.”

“She was rescued, along with a couple of others, by Maxis, the old man with the scar on his cheek. He’d sneaked in to rescue his daughter, but he was too late, her body now just a bloodless husk. Sean wasn’t there at the time, and he’d been wounded in the incursion, so he wasn’t willing to risk a full out battle at that point.”

“Puurhapss he should have,” Abigail lazily chimed in. “Then he wouldn’tsh have been consumed by the rage and darkness that ate away at him ever sinche. We might have wonche at that point too.”

“From what I’ve been told,” Saylin continued “they hid out in Cannonsgate, and plotted their revenge on Sean and Bowser. Sean was meant to be the easy and straight forward one, giving him a taste of his own medicine, and then with Bowser’s guard down, they’d make him pay too. Their plan for Bowser was a fools errand. I’m not sure how they ever thought it was going to work, especially with what we know now.”

“Wesche had hope. Maxis was a good leader, we all broughtse into what he said.”

“Perhaps that was part of his touched ability?” Saylin shook her head. She was sweating a little with the effort of talking, but didn’t look ready to give up now that she had started. “Perhaps there was more to it than that as well. The train operation went well, at least until they confronted Sean. They fed him the very taint that he had been producing at the site, and then everything went pear shaped after that. Abigail got badly wounded, Sean went feral, the taint seeped into a Longhair, and the rest you all are quite aware of. They managed to leave the train before it crashed, and pursued Sean, but he always managed to keep ahead of them. They really should have just given up, but Maxis would not relent, and his drive influenced the rest of them.”

“I don’ts really remember muchse of that journey at all. I should have died. I awoke to his summonsche and gifts at the crash site, and then she showed up. Her kiss was definitely somethingsce.” Abigail smiled happily as she recounted the last part. Saylin blushed.

“Getting back into the city was easy enough. No one paid any attention to the train’s return, and we were lucky enough that by the time we did return night had fallen. So no one noticed the Grazeye’s. The carriage drivers didn’t even notice that one the cats had jumped on top of it when we finally managed to get a ride. I really didn’t want to, but walking wasn’t going to be a feasible option.” Saylin screwed her face up at the memory, not that she was having any better luck at the moment. “We did need to move to a more secluded area first though due to our obvious nature. Enough coin and they didn’t really care. The other two cats had to sneak their way through the city.”

“We managed to find somewhere to hide in the ruins outside Old City before dawn, spent the day resting, and then spent the next week casing Old City. While there is the main gatehouse which all ‘visitors’ have to go to, there are also a number of well disguised maintenance and workman entrances. There are also some secret entrances, which aren’t above ground, and are used for his shadier dealings I’d gather. They all seem to get frequent use, though they don’t have any physical guards on them. Just his resurrected technology. It really is like a fortress though.”

“Saylin’s funsch...” Abigail murmured happily. “We’ve been doing all sorts of thingsce.”

Saylin went beet red, and stared at the floor for a few moments. Myne just chuckled.

“During that time we also started our operation against him. Mostly just the shady stuff, and they deserved what they got. The secrecy he has around himself and his area works to his disadvantage, and I suspect that we pissed him off at that stage. He started to send out some of his men to hunt for us in the ruins, not that they really posed us much issue. We did have to relocate a few times, but we always spotted them first. Mostly it seemed like a token gesture.”

“So you’ve been killing those who’ve been working with him?” Clocky asked.

Saylin looked at the ground again.

“Catsch gotta eat at some point,” Abigail unhelpfully added.

“Some of them are just as guilty as Bowser,” Saylin eventually said. “I really don’t want to recall some of what we found.”

“There was only so much that we can do from the outside though. We ended up breaking into Old City twice. The first time we sneaked in through one of the maintenance gates, a simple override trick opening the gate for us. The inside of Old City is amazing. It almost looks like it would have done when it was originally built, apart from being mostly empty. However there are flying boxes everywhere and a few strange walking robots, plenty of traps, as well as some soldiers. The people though, they didn’t look right.”

“The first incursion didn’t last long. We didn’t think he’d spotted us directly, as we’d been pretty sure to cloak our passage or deal with the cameras. But we weren’t properly equipped for dealing with a lot of that stuff. We made a trip back home to collect all of the additional gear that we needed and returned. The second incursion was last night. Bowser obviously learnt from our first break in, and the maintenance entrances were undergoing upgrades and a lot more heavily guarded. Didn’t stop us from using the same method, just on a different gate, a smaller one. He was toying with us the second time though. Everything was the same for the first block or so, and then chaos erupted. We already knew about the gas, so that didn’t do much, but an entire block was laced with spikes, poison, mounted weapons, and a robot. He waited till we were right in the middle of it all. I’d hazard to say that he actually let us in through the gate in the first place.”

“We were fools. We underestimated him, let him lure us in. Vorsce helped us escape, throwing us both clear of the field of death, but he then got captured by the flying boxes, and there was nothing that we could do to help. Abigail had got badly wounded, and I wasn’t doing much better myself. It was all I could do to get her back to the house, and one of the cats died en route as well, taking out our pursuers. If we hadn’t jammed open the door open when we went in I don’t know if we would have escaped at all.”

“I thought we were all going to die. That it was all over. Bowser knew who we were, and it wouldn’t take him long to find us if he wanted to. Which it didn’t it appears. The only spark of hope was that apparently Abigail’s master said something about it not being over yet. And then you all showed up.”

“What’s to say that Vorsce hasn’t already been killed?” Crystal pondered, worried. There was really no reason for someone such as Bowser to keep him alive, especially since he knew or had found out where to find the rest of them. She was really hoping that that wasn’t the case though. Vorsce was a nice man, and the guilt for his death would be heavy.

“If Bowser was sensible, he would have already. But he hasn’t,” Clocky answered. “He doesn’t have long though.”

“So we’re going straight in then?” Crystal asked.

Clocky nodded. “We have to. We don’t have a lot of choice, not if we wish to save him. My sense is pretty clear on that one. We delay, he dies. We move fast enough, we might have a chance. The choice is ours, and I’d rather not lose any one else to Bowser.”

“We’re here,” Rachael piped up from the front, as the van pulled to a smooth halt. “Well, close enough. We’re just outside of the ruins. We should make a plan before we go any further. Kitsune and Spectre as reconnaissance models. Surely they’ll be able to help with the traps?”

‘In some way at least we should.’ Spectre confirmed. ‘Won’t know for certain until we’re closer to them though.’

"Is there any point in trying to stealth our way in at all?" Crystal asked.

"No, I don't think so," Clocky mused. "He knows where coming. Expecting us even. The attack on our house was an open invitation. While he might not know that more of us have returned, we would certainly be doing so once we'd seen what had been done. It's pretty much a declaration of hostilities as it is. He never did like my mother."

"Not to mention he knows we know about his experiments," Rachael added. "Our previous visit cemented that."

"I know it sounds a bit cliche, but why not the same door that we've used before?" Saylin looked a bit better now that the van had stopped. "We have a rough idea of what to expect, and we can drive right up to it. As to if he’s actually expecting that, I don’t know. Flying over the walls would be even better, but I for one don't have wings."

"Don't look at me," Myne said with an amused smile as Saylin glanced her way. "I'm just a spectator."

"Our problem, we deal with it," Crystal said with a sigh in response to Saylin’s confusion. "A test, amongst everything else. There is more to it than that, though I'm sure she'll still help with getting Abigail fully healed. We just have to get through this first."

‘Then the real fun begins...’

"Okay..."

“Do we have any idea what entrance the squad actually came out of?” Crystal queried. “It’d make the most sense if we went back that way, though the presence of additional squad members could complicate things.”

Saylin shook her head. “We never saw them leave during the time that we were there. I doubt that they even have access to the main sections of Old City. Likely just part of a building like the gatehouse.”

"I think we should just go with the first door that we see,” Clocky said after a moments thought. “As soon as we are past the gatehouse someone will suspect that something is up. The sooner we occupy their attention, the better it will be for Vorsce.”

“Locate door, blow it open and go in guns blazing, so to speak. Sounds like a plan." Rachael grinned, starting the van up again.

'Worst plan ever.' Spectre mentally grimaced. 'But I do agree that it is your best course of action given the circumstances and who you have available.'

They had already attracted a bit of attention it seemed. Apparently the squad’s vans just didn’t stop at the side of the road, especially with a broken window, a number of people openly staring at it from the opposite side of the road. A carriage had just pulled out from the road leading to the gatehouse, turning towards them, the horses trotting past. Crystal caught the glimpse of a rather disgruntled nobleman sitting in the carriage. She guessed that his visit to Bowser hadn’t gone well. A box like car then turned into the road, heading down, followed by another carriage. Rachael pulled in behind them.

“It’s suddenly busy,” Rachael muttered, their pace quite a bit slower than previously.

They passed by the three guard towers without an issues, the carriage stopping at the gatehouse while the car peeled off to the left. A rather stuffy and round looking man in a suit got out of the carriage, followed by a younger woman in an elegant silk dress. The dress was very nice, Crystal reminded that she really wanted to try some on at some point, though the one the woman had on did not fit or suit her at all. It just looked entirely out of place. Rachael turned to the right, following Saylin’s directions as they travelled alongside Old City’s wall. Tall and imposing, they were stuck inside its shadow. Mice in the shadow of a cat. Except these mice had fangs and claws.

It didn’t take them long to reach the first of the maintenance gates. While the walls were made of predominately of a dark grey stone, the gate was fashioned from steel, Bowsers coat of arms emblazoned across the middle of it. Inset into the wall, it was designed to slide in and out rather than swing open, which would make blowing them open rather difficult. Four guards were posted outside the gate, all dressed like the squad members that they had just fought. A look of confusion crossed their faces as the van pulled to a halt beside them.

“What are you guys doing here?” one asked as he approached the drivers door. “Wait, who are you?” The man raised his crossbow in confusion as Rachael slammed the van’s door into him, sending him tumbling back.

Rachael jumped out of the door, sending the second one careening into the rubble as Fairweather joined her, the two quickly dispatching the remaining guards before Crystal was even able to get out of the back of the van.

“Don’t mind if I do,” Fairweather said as she collected up the crossbows and bolts.

Crystal and Saylin joined Rachael by the door.

“How did you open it last time?” Rachael queried.

“Shorting the circuit the first time,” Saylin replied, motioning to the covered panel to the left hand side of the door. “I expect he’s switched them over this time, so the same method will just keep them closed.”

“Channellers use technology by feeding the magic of the leylines into it, don’t they?” Rachael asked.

“Yes,” Fairweather replied.

“Well then...” Rachael walked up to the panel. The cover plate was of course locked. Shrugging, Rachael formed a pair of claws, tearing the cover off, Crystal blinking in surprise. She wasn’t aware that they could do that, though it made sense for what they were.

“Here goes.” Rachael laid her hand against the panel, a brief glow ensuing before the door clicked and started to slide open.

“We’re coming for you, you bastard.” Saylin declared, giving the camera above the door her middle finger before she grabbed one of the crossbows off Fairweather and shot a bolt straight through its lens.

‘Bowser’s domain. Take three...’

mogust

Slightly shorter chapter this time, finally filling in some of the gaps of what's been going on. The next chapter on the other hand is a lot longer (double the size in fact).

Saylin managed rather well, after her initially upset. However she and vehicles still don't mix.

It's finally here though. The confrontation of the Channeller Bowser. Well, in the next chapter anyways ^^

Thanks for reading as always. Comments are welcome, it's always good to hear peoples thought, or even just a 'Thanks for the chapter' :)

Next chapter (48 - Lair of the Beast) will be out early next week. Writing wise, I am just about to start on (53 - Delegation). Chapter 49 ended up being a slog to write, taking about a week and a half (though it is also a large chapter), but the next few have been flowing easily which is good :)