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Silence.
Deafening, ringing, reverberating silence echoed throughout the cave. Insects, birds and animals all shunned it for its silence drove even the loneliest wolves insane. The lake was stiller than its frozen counterpart above. The trees wouldn’t sway in a hurricane. The waterfalls touched down softly, afraid of waking the sleeping nature.
So much silence all round. Silence above. Silence in front. Silence behind. Silence.
Silence was the only thing Cal could utter.
Checking all round the entrance and the depths of the cave, he turned and-
BAMF
The purple smoke lingered for a few seconds in the air, then dissipated almost decisively, until only the memory of the rocks gave evidence to its existence.
BAMF
Cal placed Ethrael softly onto the ground, then turned to watch the wall of rock at the furthest part of the cave, waiting for the others to get through.
It began to glow with a red aura, followed by a thin beam of bright red light. The light cut through the rock cleanly. It moved right a little, then straight down. It retraced its path and came down on the other side. Scuffling was heard on the other side and Cal’s eyes widened.
“Schei-“
A door-shaped, 5-foot thick chunk of rock flew out from the rock wall. Cal managed to duck just as it skimmed his head and flung himself on Ethrael.
Kael walked out, and stood, surveying the scene, delicate, soft hands on perfectly shaped hips. “Cal?”
“Mein Gott, Kael! Couldn’t you have been a bit more careful?!” he coughed, getting up from Ethrael’s body. “She’s incapacitated and you threw a rock at us!” Through the settling dust, Cal could see Randy walking through the door. His blond hair casually swept back even in this most dire of situations, he walked purposefully and yet carefully, unsure of any other insecurities in the cave system.
“Nightcrawler, report!”
“Vere’s Fan? Vy didn’t she just phase you through?”
“She’s bringing the others now. Nightcrawler, what’s Storm’s status?”
“Vat do you think? She still has come back from the panic attack.”
“Crap. Kael, detecting anything?”
“No living beings for three miles. We seem to have outrun them-“
She was interrupted by four bodies rising out of the ground. One, tall elegant, with enormous wings folded behind: Archangel; One stout, hulking body, blue even in the dark of the cave: Beast; One stooped, stout, overly built up body with claws already out: Wolverine; and in the middle, the shortest of them all. A delicate girl, barely over twenty, clasping the shoulders of her two neighbours desperately: Shadowcat. They stopped rising, and she began falling. Retracting his claws just in time, Lykan caught her as she dropped.
“You made it. Good.” Kael said, her voice darker than ever now that the situation had become more ominous. “Storm’s still out.”
“Damn.” growled Lykan. “I thought she was stronger than that.”
“So did I, about her,” said Warkun, nodding towards Fan.
“We have no time to chat,” announced Randy loudly, “We may have escaped the mansion safely, but we don’t know what else they’ve got. They got the whole support of the people and probably the government by now. We can’t rely on the Professor to change its mind. Getting to the sub-base is first priority, ok?”
Cal was about to nod an affirmative when from all around, the great silence was smashed on the floor and trampled on a dozen times over. The air vibrated with their presence, the roar of humanities great weapons deafened the trees, rocks and water. Planes.
“****”
“Crap”
“Damn”
“****”
“Oh, God”
“Scheiße”
Silence in the cave. Uproar in the skies.
“We have to leave. Split up, whatever, we have to get out of here.”
“How did they find us?”
“There are a few possible ways. None that I thought they’d have access to.” answered Dak wisely, bending down to stand on all fours and looking up at the rocky roof, calculating, thinking, determining constantly.
“Like what? We need to know what they could have had access to.”
“Telepaths, for one. Advanced heat sensing or other tracking wouldn’t fit on planes capable of reaching these speeds…”
“But I put up shields, so did the Professor.”
“I know, which leads me to believe in the possibility of magic. Scrying possibly. I’m a scientist, not a wizard, my knowledge leaves me here.
“I agree with Archangel, we have to leave. We’ll split up into pairs, traveling together would be too hard. The lake is the main obstacle, but there are ways round.”
“I vill go vith Fan, we’ll go through the forest on the left.” said Cal, scuttling over to her lying body and starting to try and wake her.
“Lykan and I should take the cliffs on the right, we’ll climb more easily. Agreed, Lykan?”
Lykan growled, then mumbled as he made for the entrance after Dak McCoy “Wolverines weren’t made to climb but I guess it beats the forest…”
Purple smoke once again filled the cave as Nightcrawler began to make it through the forest with Shadowcat. Once again, it dissipated. When it did, Warkun spoke up.“I’ll carry Ethrael, we’ll take the skies.”
“That’s too dangerous, you’ll have to go over the lake.”
“I won’t feel comfortable there, it’s too exposed. We’ll go into the cloud cover. Eth will wake up soon anyway.”
“All right then, good luck.” Kael smiled sadly as she watched him pick up Storm and walk towards the entrance, bend, then kick off and soar upwards. She sighed, turned to her husband and offered him her arm. “Shall we?”
“We shall.” He smiled weakly. Grasping her arm firmly he began walking towards the entrance to take on the lake.