The New Zodiac: Arisen Anew

Chapter 16: Attack of the killer rhinos

(Heyo, it's Sergio! It's my turn to write the book, so strap yourselves in folks :) )
More horns burst out of the warehouse floor. Leo immediately clicks her fingers, and the furniture reappears.
"Why'd you do that? These horned whatever's are gonna wreck the furniture now!" Flint yells.
"It puts too much stress on us having to carry it all around. Maintaining a pocket dimension is hard work," she explains.
"Uh, guys, we should probably start running now!" Charlie points out, as a giant, round foot appears out of the ground.
"Go! We'll hold them off!" Sagittarius shouts, pulling out his bow and nocking an arrow to it. Claws extend out of Leo's fingers. One of the creatures finally pulls itself out of the ground, and I immediately stop dead in my tracks. A giant rhinoceros-like creature with a rocket launcher grafted to its back stands about 50 metres away from Leo and Sagittarius. It paws the ground, grunts and charges head-on at them. Sagittarius lets an arrow fly. The arrow shoots through the air and lands right between the rhino-thing's eyes. It roars and staggers before continuing to charge. I can't seem to tear myself away from the scene.
"Sergio, come on!" April takes my arm and pulls me away. I snap to my senses and bolt, easily catching up to the others. Flint hurls open a back door and we dash outside, on the run. Yet again.

"We've been doing a lot of this, haven't we?" I yell at the others.
"It's not our fault! Trouble just seems to follow us!" Terran yells back. "First the flooded school, then Ms Marlon on the bus, then April and Meg's fight at Tori's house, and now here!"
"Two of those were caused by us, you know," Flint points out.
"Oh."
I shake my head and keep running, my mind whirling with thoughts. What are those things? Did those Bengan brothers and their freaky prosthetics company create them? What can they gain from stealing our powers? And more importantly, will we ever stop running? I dispel these thoughts and focus on running, making sure I don't run into any poles like I usually end up doing. We round another corner and sprint past a row of abandoned  factories.
"In here!" Arus yells, and we all veer right and run inside the nearest one. Flint and Meg push the doors shut behind us, and we wait.

It's dead silent inside, except for the creaking of old machinery and us trying to catch our breath. The room is almost pitch black, the only light coming in through the windows. We all huddle in a corner, listening out hard for any sign of the rhinos. A low rumble builds in the distance, and I feel someone grasp onto my arm tightly, their nails digging into my skin. I look over my shoulder and see April clutching my arm, a worried expression on her face.
"It's okay," I say reassuringly, "the rhinos hopefully won't find us in here."
"It's not the rhinos I'm scared of," she mutters, her voice trembling. "It's the dark."
My eyes widen a little in surprise, and I place my hand on top of hers.
"It'll be fine, you big scaredy-cat. We'll be out soon."
That last comment earns me a punch in the arm from April.
"Be quiet!" Serena hisses, glaring at us. The rumbling sound outside grows louder.
"Uh, guys...." Zephyr says nervously. "We should probably move. All of us being in this one corner is making me nervous."
Just as he finishes his sentence, a jagged horn, followed by a very angry rhino, bursts into the building. Fern screams, and it turns to face her, paws the ground and then charges. Immediately, Meg throws herself in its path. A blue glow envelopes her body and she charges head-on at the rhino, tackling it. The two end up locked in a stalemate, pushing against each other.
"A little help here!" Meg yells as the rhino pushes her back a few metres. I rush forward to help her, lighting up my palms. The rhino lowers its head, and a glow builds in the back of the rocket launcher.
What are you doing? A part of my brain screams. This is a rhinoceros, for god's sake!
I hesitate, and the rocket launcher fires, sending an explosive rocketing towards me at high speed. I throw myself out of the way and hit the ground, rolling a few metres, then get back up again.
Concentrate, another voice in my mind whispers. Remember what Sagittarius taught you.
I grit my teeth, concentrating hard. All of a sudden, a hot, prickly feeling goes racing up my body from the soles of my feet. I look down at my hands and only see a faint, watery outline. I'm invisible.
"Right," I mutter to myself," time to send this thing back to wherever it came from."
I creep towards the rhino, who is still wrestling with Meg, then light up my palms and send a large blast in its direction. It roars in pain as its body catches fire. Meg takes this opportunity to knock the rhino off balance with a well-timed Palm heel strike to the jaw. It topples over, crashes to the ground and lies still. Flames still cover the corpse, making short work of it as it begins to disintegrate.
"Well, that's one down," I say, materialising next to Nia, and scaring the crap out of her again.
"Jeez, Sergio, you need to stop that," she grumbles, punching me in the arm.
"Hey! What was that for?" I ask, annoyed.
"Guys.... We've got company," Flint points out. I turn around and about 24 rhinos are standing at the warehouse entrance, glaring at us. They lower their heads and prepare to fire.
"Dodge!" I yell and throw myself to the ground as the rhinos open fire on us. The others follow suit. The explosives hit the wall behind, blowing a bunch of new holes into the wall and showering us with debris.
"These things are pretty strong!" Charlie yells. "They managed to get through Leo and Sagittarius, so what chance do we stand?"
"Probably none," I admit. "But that doesn't mean we don't go down without a fight."
I concentrate again, and feel myself begin to morph. My legs become a horse's lower body, and a crossbow-like growth pushes its way out of my left arm. Feeling new energy coursing through my body, I charge forwards, instinctively firing shots from my arm. Bony arrow-like growths fly through the air, embedding themselves into one of the beasts. It roars and collapses.
"Sergio, you idiot," April grumbles, and quickly morphs into her own hybrid form. The others grit their teeth, and soon we have a fearsome line-up of freaky human-animal hybrids. The only ones that haven't shifted yet are Tori, Arus and Fern.
"What're you guys doing?" I cry out in frustration.
"A fish isn't exactly very useful on land!" Fern yells back. "Plus these two don't know what theirs are yet!"
"We'll keep trying," Tori reassures. "Fern, you go help the others."
She nods and runs to join us, begrudgingly shifting into her own form. We line up and face the rhinos, who impatiently paw the ground and begin charging. I rush at another one and quickly fire two arrows at it. It staggers, and I deliver a swift kick with two of my hind legs, which sends it crashing down, unable to get up again. Out of my peripheral vision, I see Terran lock horns with one rhino, and a bunch of Zephyr clones harassing another. I turn and gallop over to Serena, who, despite the aerial advantage given by her wings, has been backed into a corner with Flint, who's trying to fight them off. I fire two arrows from my arm. One hits its target, and down goes another rhino. The other goes wide and embeds itself into the wall, narrowly missing Serena.
"Watch where you're shooting those things!" she yells in indignation.
"Sorry!" I say and grin sheepishly, then begin picking off the beasts surrounding her. Flint manages to take a few of them out, and soon the floor is littered with their corpses. I look around, and the others are making short work of the remaining beasts. Nia rakes one to bits with her claws before setting it on fire, Tori and Arus buffet another one with wind continuously, and Fern manages to hold one off with Charlie's assistance. April and Meg are fighting back to back, pincers, stingers and hooves clashing with horns and explosives. They take out the last two, and April promptly begins to set fire to the corpses, erasing any evidence of their existence. The rest of us shift back and stand there, bruised and out of breath.
"Let's head back to the warehouse, see if Leo and Sagittarius are okay," Nia says.
"No. It's too dangerous to go back there yet," Flint replies. "There might be another attack, now that the enemy knows of our location."
"I could send a clone back, see if there's anything there," Zephyr suggests.
"Sounds good," I say. He nods and concentrates. In a split second, a clone of Zephyr appears out of thin air next to him.
"You know what to do," the original  Zephyr says. The clone nods and dashes off. The rest of us sit down on the floor amidst the burning rhino corpses and wait for the clone to return.

Ten minutes pass, and the clone reappears at the factory entrance.
"Nothing's there," it reports. Zephyr nods and the clone vanishes, having fulfilled its purpose. We all get up, and begin the long trek back to the warehouse, tired, bruised and covered in a mixture of sweat and ash. God, we really need a shower right now.