A Hero In The Dark

Chapter 102: Extraction

As Phiri Dun-Ra rips the piece of shrapnel out, she stumbles to her feet. I can see the desperate look in her eyes as she tries to summon another one of our legacies in her palm and therefore, getting frustrated when nothing shows.

Crayton fires a single shell.

Phiri Dun-Ra isn't hit but it steers her focus away from the sudden disappearance of her stolen legacies to the one and only threat she has left to face.

A warning shot, I realize.

"Stand down!" Crayton shouts. "Release them or I aim for the head next!"

The trueborn does not move. She does not stand down or push farther, her movements suddenly much more careful and holding her ground firm.

John jerks, the tendril of ooze in his back causing some sense of harm. I wince at his pain more so than my own and take a sharp breath.

"Ta- take the shot," I urge.

Crayton adjusts his shotgun in hand, raising it up to face level. "I'm warning you; last chance mog," he says.

Ella does nothing to dissuade him, only standing at his side with her glowing projectile.

"Extraction," Phiri shouts in a low tone into an earpiece I have yet to notice earlier. "I need extraction."

Though just as she finishes, Agatha appears abruptly from nowhere and stabs Phiri Dun-Ra in the back with a glistening steel blade, in turn slicing through the thick oily tendrils of hardened black ooze.

Phiri Dun-Ra screams and collapses.

"That's for locking me up all those years," says A rather coldly before cutting through the tendrils of ooze connecting John and I to the trueborn.

As soon as he is free, he hurries to my side. John holding me in his arms. I can feel a warm sense of energy rush through my body and spreading to my wounds. My spine, my midsection, my neck. Until a sickly dark liquid flows outward from my wounds, and I am able to sit straight.

"That is seriously nasty," says Sam who I find approaching from afar.

With Phiri Dun-Ra on her knees and Crayton's shotgun aimed at her bald head, I force myself to stand.

"Don't," I start, nearly collapsing if it weren't for John holding me up. "Don't get near her. She'll pierce you too with her augmentations."

"Her what?" Ella asks before she is interrupted by Agatha's scream.

"Watch out!"

John and I are just able to turn in time to see another Mogadorian, dark as the night, barreling toward us.

One arm around my waist and the other arched back with a fireball in hand, John flings it to him. However, just before it engulfs the shadowy mog, he merely blinks out of thin air.

"What the hell?" is all John can think to say. "Where did he-"

"There!" I shout, pointing ahead of me and behind Crayton where the Shadow Mog makes an eager leap for Phiri Dun-Ra.

Crayton dives out of the way. And just as the Shadow Mog grabs hold of the trueborn's hand, they both disappear.

The six of us wait a solid minute without moving; expecting them both to reappear and make a counterstrike. But they do not return. Even Pixie, who has kept her Komodo dragon snout in the air up until now, has given up on finding our attackers.

"They're gone," I say, almost disappointedly, watching the Chimæra shapeshift back into her less threatening rabbit form.

"Come on. Let's go find the others," John insists, leading me and the others to the exit of the house we came through.

When we reach the outside, we find BK flying up in circles in the sky not far away from our position. We head in his direction, expecting more Mogadorians to jump us along the way. But none do.

At the roundabout in the center of Ashwood Estates do we see Lexa's ship surrounded by the rest of our allies. Well, all but one.

Once the initial relief of their safety wears off, it takes me a moment to notice it.

Five watching the skies. Six seemingly comforting Eight. Nine talking with Agatha – likely about the mogs they killed judging by their expressions. Henri attempting to calm a restless Adelina. Adam and Rex separated from the others, chatting amongst each other. Lexa eyeing all the Chimærae.

Some of them are still beat and need John to heal the wounds they received during their fighting to get here; Adelina requiring the most.

"Where is Marina?" I ask worriedly to anyone that hears.

Adelina's gaze lowers, not very keen on answering. Eight steps in, "It wasn't your fault Adelina. I tried to stop him too. We both did everything we could."

She says nothing.

"What happened?" I urge.

"They got her," Six replies, welcoming herself into our conversation. "A mog – we think he had some kind of advancement that allowed him to teleport – just showed up behind her and took her. One minute, I saw her with a knife to the throat. The next, she was gone."

Adelina shakes her head, still refusing to meet anyone's gaze. "I couldn't get to her in time. I've been a horrible Cêpan to her over our years on the run and now I got her kidnapped, possibly killed. I couldn't protect her-"

I put a hand on her shoulder; interrupt, "Stop Adelina. We'll get her back. Chances are, they only took her to use as leverage. Otherwise they would've killed her on sight. I give you my word; we will find her."

"Did you say a mog that could teleport took her?" Sam asks then, in thought.

"Yeah," Six responds. "I don't even know if that really happened. It seems so absurd."

"I think we ran into that same teleporter," Sam says, now glancing at something in the distance. "Is it that guy right there?"

Sam points and we all turn to view what it is he is looking at.

And there, in the middle of the access road from our position to the front gate of the estate, is the Shadow Mog standing over what appears to be a girl lying unconscious at his feet. Phiri Dun-Ra joins him at his side a second later, staring daggers at me with a sleek smirk.

Marina.