Hybridization

"It was like the space was designed as it was filled. There wasn't much logic to where things were put. I imagine someone just deciding 'oh, this would be the perfect place for a storeroom.' And not considering a hallway needs to be walked through and not filled with boxes." – Val, lamenting about the interior design of the enchanters guild prison.

Kurt and Val rushed to the hole in the wall that Kristi had tackled the other ogre through. He was still amazed at how much strength she possessed in her relatively tiny body. But, having become intimately familiar with said body, he knew that those muscles were hard as iron, and she was much denser than a normal person.

When they reached the hole, Kurt poked his head through, rifle leading the way as he took in what was once either an alchemy lab or the work room for chemical enchanters. The room was equally massive to the previous, over a hundred yards long and nearly sixty wide. The ceilings in this room were even higher, over two stories with a lot of ventilation and filtration equipment hanging above. There were several work areas that had been destroyed, their tubs and tanks completely crushed as the fighting duo rolled over them. The workers in that area had at least managed to mostly get out of the way and were huddling around the edges of the room, in the corners nearest Kurt.

Amidst that pile of broken work ware was Kristi in full mount, sitting astride the ogre's chest. She seemed to be in the process of rearranging the creature's bones into something more to her liking while the creature was still alive.

They watched for a moment, dumbstruck by the sight of Kristi grabbing an arm, folding it in several places, then tucking it under the ogre before moving to a leg. She rotated, now sitting backward on the thrashing creature. With both hands, she grabbed at its thigh and then punched downward. There was a sharp snapping noise and the ogre roared, rocking side to side, desperate to throw Kristi off him.

Movement beyond the one-sided fist fight drew Kurt's attention and he looked over to see an orc wearing deep purple robes. The burly green man was wearing a head-dress and waving a staff in a short looping pattern. A hypnotic blue glow emanated from the top of the staff before condensing into a single point of light that shot toward Kristi.

"Kri…!" Kurt began but the dragoness had seen the attack and rolled backward, dragging the Ogre upright just in time for a bolt of blue lightning to strike him in the back of the head.

Flesh, blood and bone exploded outward as the attack connected with the ogre's head. The destruction created a momentary, red-tinted corona of gore under the powerful overhead lights. Kristi dropped the creature and rolled backward, using its still falling body as cover while she summoned her machinegun.

Kurt had already fired a short burst toward the mage and Val waved a hand in the air before sprinting off to the left. Kristi peeked over top of the giant corpse in the middle of the room and fired a long burst in the direction of the mage who had ducked behind cover at the far end of the room.

"Frag out." Kurt yelled and threw a M67 fastball into the hallway the orc was taking cover in. It left a sizeable dent in the concrete wall as it hit and bounced around the corner. There was a startled shout just before the grenade detonated. The overhead lights shattered, causing glass and masonry to rain down in the now dark corner.

"Shield!" Val called, having seen the orc make a barrier just in time to ward off the explosion. "He's casting again."

Kurt pulled out and prepped another grenade only to see the robbed orc pop up above the workstations on the far side of the room, hovering in the air for a moment while ice began to condense over him. Kurt threw the grenade, aiming for the now floating target.

The frag struck the orc in the side of the head but didn't seem to have any effect as the ice continued to form around him in a diamond shape. The steel ball fell harmlessly below him after bouncing off the wall. It then detonated quite harmfully, the fragmentation and shockwave launching the floating orc upward to smack into the ceiling.

With a scream, the spell broke and the orc fell with flailing arms toward the floor. Kristi poked her head out of cover just after the grenade detonated and sprinted to the end of the room. She slid to a stop, bumping against the wall with her weapon raised and aimed at a slight downward angle.

BRRRRRRRRRRRTT. She held the trigger down for over five Mississippi's, pelting the downed mage with ten armor piercing rounds every second. Kurt had rushed up along another of the aisles between workstations, ready to close in as soon as she let up.

When Kristi finally let off the trigger, he rounded the corner to see a rather indistinguishable pile of cloth and what looked like the garbage bin of a butcher shop at closing time.

Val rushed up and got a look just as Kurt began moving past the dead mage. "Ewww. Fuck, that's gross." She said, wrinkling her nose. She looked back the way they had come and waved her arm. "Let's go, we got more to clear out!" She shouted at the soldiers streaming in behind them.

Kurt glanced back to see Penny with five of the Order soldiers starting to corral the captives and move them back toward the entrance. He then refocused his attention on the hallway in front of them. It was a short hall, only ten yards long and splitting into three separate doors at various points.

Huddling up with the girls, Kurt voiced the only real option open to them. "We split, each take half a squad and clear a hall. First one done joins the other." He said.

Val nodded in agreement. "Stay in touch. If anyone gets bogged down, we can bail and reinforce them."

With that, they each grabbed a team of soldiers and picked a hall. Val went straight through the tall double doors while Kristi went right, doubling back along the work areas. That meant Kurt had to take the leftmost door.

He stacked up on the heavy metal door with the six soldiers behind him. He recognized Jade from the previous raid and gave her a nod in recognition as they stacked up. He thought he heard a muffled banging as all three teams got ready. Then as one, they all breached, pushing or kicking open their doors.

Kurt would admit, he might have been a little overzealous as he planted his booted foot against the steel door. It offered barely any resistance as it banged open with enough force to bend the hinges and hang open at an awkward angle.

There was an elf standing in the middle of the hallway, staring straight at him as he pointed a hand cannon of a revolver at a prison cell. Kurt didn't hesitate as he centered his dot on the elf's chest and pulled the trigger half a dozen times.

The elf unfortunately squeezed the trigger as the rounds hit him, the gun barking as it fired into the cell. Kurt followed his target to the ground, putting in a few more rounds into the dying elf as he crumpled on the floor. "Secure the cells, get two on the door at the end." Kurt said as he ran to the first cell and saw a woman laying on the floor, a large pool of blood forming beneath her.

"Go-go-go." Jade yelled as she ran past Kurt with her squad.

"Shit." Kurt swore as he grabbed the cell door and yanked hard, breaking the lock as he pulled the door open with some lycan reinforced strength. He wanted to at least stabilize the person inside before moving on. If they were still alive.

He rushed forward to the downed woman. "Hang on. I got you. Everything is going to be alright." He said while rolling her to see the exit wound. "Shit, this might hurt." He muttered and summoned his talismans for dealing with bleeding. Kurt wasn't sure if she was even conscious still, but he said the words anyway, hoping that it would help. He stuck one over each wound, not bothering to make skin contact as he activated them. A moment later the woman jerked slightly, a muffled scream escaping her mouth. Replacing the talismans were two small green barriers, one over the entry and one on the exit wound.

Kurt noted that woman was some sort of fey, judging by the tiny horns poking through her short hair and the peach fuzz like nature of her… skin? fur? There was also her catlike ears and even a short, furry tail that reminded him of a bob cat or lynx. He wasn't sure of her species and didn't have time to debate it. He just wished he had time to do more than seal the wounds, but this would at least keep her stable until…

"Back-back-back!" Jade yelled as she and her squad all retreated back down the hall, backing up past the cell he was in while spraying a hail of bullets toward the far end. Kurt even saw one of her team contemplating the grenade launcher on his rifle, his finger resting almost on the trigger. Incoming enemy fire impacted a semi translucent barrier that seemed to end just under shoulder height, the rounds being slowed enough that they didn't do any damage when hitting the Order soldiers.

Along with the mundane gunfire, they fired their wands, and one elf slashed at the air in front of him with a pointed finger, sending a rippling wave of fire racing down the hall. Apparently, it wasn't enough to completely suppress the enemy and Kurt was about to get a taste of his own medicine.

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A grenade, about the size of a golf ball, clattered over the concrete floor, stopping right on the other side of the open cell door. It frankly didn't matter if it stopped there or anywhere else along the bars of the cell, but he felt particularly insulted that it came to rest in the doorway.

"OH Fuck." Kurt dove over the woman he had just treated, trying to cover as much of her body with his before…BANG!

Pain. Unimaginable pain coursed through Kurt as his back, legs and side were all hit with super-heated fragments, and he was blasted toward the back wall of the cell. He barely had the wherewithal to shield the woman from the blast and impact but managed to keep her mostly protected and without any more holes.

Spinning as he stood, Kurt snarled and began stalking toward the now bent door, shifting into his werewolf form as Jade started advancing her team down the hall again. "Oh shit." She said and halted her team short of Kurt's door in time for the massive werewolf to step through and into the hall.

The opposing forces must have rallied at that point because a few took shots down the hall, peppering Kurt with small arms fire and an ice lance. In a rage, He grabbed the cell door, ripping the few hundred-pound panel of iron bars off its hinges and throwing it like a discus toward the guild troops emerging from the far door.

There was a shrill scream just as the cell door hit the wall at the far end with enough force to blow right through the cinder blocks on that side. Rebar and bodies broke as the mess of material blasted into the room at the far end of the hall, revealing half a dozen people trying to reload rifles and pull more grenades from a wooden crate with V- 40 stenciled on the side.

They all looked up at the sudden appearance of a hole in the wall and disappearance of their two comrades. Then they saw Kurt, down on all fours and charging full tilt toward the opening. The blood drained from their faces, and they froze with fear, none of them even able to react in the split second it took Kurt to reach them.

Landing amidst the enemy troops, Kurt lashed out with his claws and fangs. Two of their number, both variant humans, were outright crushed while he disemboweled an orc. One elf tried to run, after snapping out of his stupor, only for Kurts jaws to snap closed over his shoulder. That elf was shaken to death, his limp body slapping against the floor and his comrades as Kurt shook the life from him in a snapping, jerking motion.

The remaining dwarf and hob goblin were saturated with gunfire as Jade brought her team up to support Kurt. Neither of them had a chance to point their rifles at the wolf in their midst before they were riddled with bullets and fell to bleed out on the floor.

Kurt's blood was surging, pounding in his ears as he turned in place, looking for his next victim but only saw the familiar uniforms of his team and the determined expressions they wore as they pushed into the room to secure the next doorway.

"Hold here. I need to check for survivors." Kurt said after he shifted back to his human form and put on new pants. It took more mental effort than he liked to shift back so soon after takin on his werewolf form.

Jade nodded and directed her team to secure the dead and cover the only other door in the room. "Got it. Do I need to call for Penny?"

Kurt was about to say no but then realized he couldn't feel his earpiece. "Shit, I lost my coms. Yes, tell her we have wounded captives that are critical." He said before rushing back out the now much wider doorway.

The first cell he looked in turned out to be hopeless, the man was missing his head. Cells two, three and four were also lost causes with the poor prisoners already dead from either blood loss or their heart having a giant hole in it. Then he returned to the fifth cell, finding one of Jade's people standing guard over the still unconscious woman.

"Go, Jade is waiting." Kurt dismissed the guard and approached the cell. The door they had entered banged open moments later and Kristi came in with her squad. He waved her over after she spotted him.

"Kurt, what happened?" She asked, seeing the state of his uniform and complete lack of weapons.

Pulling out a ration bar from his ring, Kurt opened it as he explained. "Grenade landed a few feet away and I tried to shield her." He pointed to the woman still breathing shallowly on the ground. "Go link up with Jade while I get some calories going and regen a little."

Kristi nodded once and took her squad down the hall. She wasn't gone for more than a few seconds when the door banged open again and Val streaked through with Penny hot on her heels. They immediately beelined for him, and he forced himself to swallow the bite of ration bar.

"Kurt…" Val began and rushed over to him, but he waived her off.

"I'm fine, babe." He choked out after swallowing a bit of water. "Kristi is down there with Jade."

Penny stepped in after waiving her soldiers to follow after Jade. "Kristi had empty holding cells leading back along the work areas. Val had a kitchen, medical bay and a few other support rooms with only a few support personnel."

Sighing, Kurt shook his head. "Of course, I end up with the barracks and high security wing." His next thought was choked off by a muffled explosion and a lot of gunfire. The gunfire was cut off by a lot of screaming and the sound of crashing and breaking things before another handful of bursts sounded out.

"My medics are dealing with some severely wounded back in the other rooms." Penny explained. "Can you keep her stable?" She gestured to the woman lying on the floor, reminding Kurt of why he was in there.

"Uhh, yeah. I got it." He finished off his snack and summoned his full aid bag. "You guys go, see if Kristi needs help not murdering people that we want to question."

Kurt knelt down and began tending to the woman, noting that Val left her two werewolf soldiers to guard his back. He appreciated the gesture but had to focus now that he could think clearly again.

Scooping up the small woman, Kurt moved her out of the pool of blood and onto the concrete 'bed' after clearing the mattress off. He summoned and opened his aid bag, then put on a pair of gloves. It was a mostly useless gesture at this point, but it wouldn't hurt anything.

He could see the faint glowing trace of the talisman he had placed on the entry wound. It was still doing its job of preventing bleeding but was quickly running out of energy from his quick activation. Kurt reached down and ripped open her tunic to fully expose the wound and winced.

The gun had been one of those large bore hunting revolvers and the damage it did to a small, humanoid figure was immense. The wound in her stomach was about the size of his thumb and he knew it went all the way though. He tried to brush off what he thought was debris but was just dried bits of blood in her fur.

Reaching into his bag, he found the three talismans he wanted to use on this side. The first was a sterilization spell. It mostly functioned in removing things from a small area that didn't belong. In this case, he was hoping to remove the contaminants like hair, cloth and bits of bullet. It activated with a dull blue glow that sank into the wound before coming back out in a bubble with bits floating in it.

The second one he used was another sealing talisman to reinforce the first one. It would not only keep the blood in but also keep other physical things out. He winced as the talisman took effect and drew off more of his mana. These were not only expensive to make but also costly to use in the mana department.

Finally, he slapped on the third talisman. The final one for this side was actually going to be the most invasive and most uncomfortable. It was a talisman that stimulated natural regeneration at a highly elevated rate. It not only forcibly regrew the tissue but also stimulated the production of blood cells. The idea was that new tissue would need to have its cells nourished immediately to prevent them from dying off again and becoming necrotic.

Kurt took a few deep breaths and observed the talismans go to work for several moments before rolling the fey woman over. He propped her on her good side before tearing open the hole in the back of her dress. As he feared, the wound here was much larger, nearly the size of his fist and he could see some bone from a rib through the weakly pulsing sealing rune.

He thankfully couldn't see light through the wound thanks to his previous talismans, but he pulled out another regeneration and sealing talisman to finish the job. Each activation took more mana from him and drew deeper on his already depleted reserves.

Normally when Kurt reached a point of mana exhaustion, he got a migraine like headache and his limbs got a little numb. Now, the closer he was to zero, the more he could feel a strange tightness in his chest. It was like he was leaning into a resistance band that was pulling on him while compressing him.

After seeing the talismans begin to take effect, he laid the fey back down and took off his gloves. A slight grunt from behind made him turn to look at the two guards Val had left. Both looked to be uncomfortable, expressions of mild pain on both their faces. But that wasn't the strange part.

The strange part was, as Kurt turned to look at them, the pressure and tugging he felt also moved. It now felt like he was leaning backward on that invisible resistance band with the anchor point being the two werewolves in front of him.

"Huh." Kurt said as he sat heavily on the concrete slab of a bed next to his patient. He summoned another protine bar and began munching on it as he realized just what was happening with his mana. Eventually his head began to clear, and the compression eased as he ate, causing the pained looks on the soldiers to also lessen.

"Everything ok, sir?" One of them asked.

"Yeah, just some strange things going on lately." Kurt answered, not wanting to voice his suspicion.

The two shared a look with each other before the second one spoke up in a thick accent that likely came from eastern Europe. Kurt thought his name was Gus. "We have also noticed some… ah… strangeness." He began. "Around you, that is…Sir."

Kurt snorted and rolled his eyes. "Yeah, let me guess, every wolf on that raid experienced this 'strangeness'." Gus just nodded in confirmation. "Ooookaaaayyy. I guess I will talk to Jay, and we can have a little meeting about this… let's call it 'the incident'."

There was a sudden constriction on Kurt's left wrist, the one that was propping him up as he leaned slightly. He looked down just in time to see the fey woman suddenly start coughing as her grip on his wrist tightened.

"Well good morning." Kurt said around a bite of food. "Welcome back to the land of the living."

He waited patiently for her coughing to subside and summoned a bottle of water. Her eyes suddenly snapped open and she focused on him. "S-sa- Achahk" She coughed again, this time with a little blood starting to speckle her face.

"Hang on." Kurt said and pried his hand free to help her sit up in a reclined position against the rolled up mattress. "Here, little sip." He helped her get a drink from the water bottle. While he might have fixed a lot of her wounds, it was still a traumatic and exhausting experience.

After a few more coughs and sips of water she was finally able to look at him. "Am I s-saved?"

Kurt thought her voice was very pleasant, having a musical quality despite her strange accent and the rasping from the wounds. He thought she must have grown up in one of the fey lands to have acquired it. "Safe from the enchanters guild." Kurt confirmed. "We came to put an end to their operations here."

"W-where i-i- achk." She coughed a little again and her eyes rolled. "Where is h-hereeeee….?"

She passed out before Kurt could answer. He looked down to see that she had once more wrapped her hand around his wrist in a vice-like grip. He was surprised at her strength despite her wounds and sudden relapse into unconsciousness.

Before Kurt could even begin to unwrap her hand, Val and Kristi both trooped into the room. His kitsune lover took one look at the uncensored hand holding and raised an eyebrow. "Who's your new friend?"

Kurt glanced down at the unconscious fey before looking back up and shrugging. "Hell, if I know. She only asked if she was safe and where she was before passing out again." He wasn't sure who she was or why she and the others were in these cells but was almost certain he would not like the answer.