Somebody Stop Him [A Progression Fantasy Epic]

I tried to think of a solution to this dire situation but nothing was coming up, my thoughts colliding against each other, inconsistent memories fluttering about like colorful butterflies too quick for me to latch onto.

How had the Frontenachii Scruts found me? Wasn't Infinity supposed to conceal my Astral imprint? Did they manage to overcome the Nazarite Church's Witness Protection Program or did my concealment contract dissolve away just like my foxkin disguise when Archangel Zadkiel tore a hole right through reality with her departure?

A lot of my prior work seemed to be in a state of unclear disarray.

Did the Thunder & Rainbow Omnicorp still exist in Omnithornia or would I have to wait till Friday to get back to Shandria to withdraw more finances for my currently destitute self?

I desperately scrambled for a plan, but my mind remained a tangled mess of half-formed ideas and panicked thoughts. The Wendigo's chilling countdown began, each number a hammer blow against my fraying nerves.

"Fifteen…" The Wendigo's voice was a low growl, laced with blade-sharp confidence.

Escape routes, distractions, anything… my brain stubbornly offered nothing but fuzzy static, my fingers searching my pockets for Zee Captain's magic lighter.

Even if I were to somehow locate the lighter there was only a few millimeters of magic juice left in it, enough for a couple of trips to Arx at best. I had burned through a lot of its power, organizing my Arx Citadel. Arx. If I could only get to Shandria, I would have a hundred mages at my call!

Ember snarled, dragonfire licking around her like a hungry beast straining at its leash. At least she was nice enough not purposefully to direct it my way but standing next to her still felt like I was being boiled alive.

Vespera's wings crackled with barely contained energy, the air around her shimmering with nascent lightning as she built up the charge in her Fractal Engine heart. Magdaline had shifted her stance, subtle tension radiating from her sharky frame. Even Cinder seemed to have registered the gravity of the situation, her blue eyes narrowed as she clung to me.

"Fourteen…"

I glanced around frantically. The bustling Skyfall station, moments ago filled with the noise of arriving Mystagogues, seemed to have emptied quickly. The other students, Omnid and mixed-blood alike, were giving us a wide berth, sensing the volatile energy crackling in the air, not wishing to deal with the dangerous-looking Scruts. Basalt columns loomed around us like silent titanic witnesses, offering no cover and no escape.

"Thirteen…"

Vespera's hand clamped onto my waist.

[Hold onto me!] Her voice static-hissed in my head, rushing up my spine like electric current.

Before I could even process her words, she yanked me even closer, pulling me flush against her body. Her silver feathers bristled, buzzing with static.

"We will not give! One for all," Vespera barked, raising her fist up in the air. "All for one!"

Magdaline must have deduced what Vespera was planning through her Scrut sense. In her unnervingly swift way, she positioned herself behind Vespera, her long, grey-blue arm snaking around our entire group, anchoring everyone together like a living cable. We were a chaotic, desperate cluster, clinging to the Thunderbird like shipwrecked sailors to a flotsam plank.

"Wuht?" Ember hissed as she was squeezed by Magdaline's hands.

"Turn off your dragonfire, NOW," Magdaline ordered and my sister obeyed, suffocating in sharky embrace.

The Wendigo woman chuckled, a dry, rasping sound that amplified the cold dread clutching at my heart. "Foolish children."

"Twelve… Eleven… Ten…" The head-Scrut counted down again, his voice dripping with amusement. The two Wendigo women flanking him mirrored his chilling grin, their yellow eyes gleaming with predatory anticipation as they surrounded our group from all three sides, the Skyfall train behind us.

Panic clawed at my throat. Vespera's wings shifted, spreading wide, eclipsing the faint rays of light breaking through the rain clouds overhead. I could feel the raw power thrumming beneath her feathers, a wild, untamed energy that vibrated against my skin. It bounced off me and grew in power with each beat of her heart.

Then, another Thunder-thought, sharp and clear, sliced through the panic in my mind. [Shut your eyes, Lexy!]

Instinctively, I obeyed, clamping my eyelids shut. Vespera's wings detonated, releasing the current she's been building up. Even through the thick barrier of my lids, pure, white-hot light like a flashbang leaked through my shut eyes, painting them red.

A chorus of startled yelps and curses erupted from the Wendigos, their laughter and sneers cut short, replaced by howls of momentary disorientation.

"Argh!" one of the Wendigo women howled. "Electrofractal flashbang! I can't see shit!"

"Grab them! Rely on your Astral sense!" The Wendigo man growled.

"Barrier shield on!" Vespera barked. "Max cascade, two meters out!"

I opened my eyes slightly to discover that a silver barrier flashed from a diamond chain on her neck. The shield flared around us, sending the Wendigos careening away from us.

In the chaos, a new sound pierced through–a powerful, descending whine, like a plane diving from the heavens. Looking up through slitted eyes, I glimpsed a sleek, obsidian shape plummeting from the sky. It was a glider, its wings catching the reflected glare of Vespera's fading barrier shield.

Vespera's raised fist opened up, reaching up towards the descending craft.

The overpriced living glider swooped down across the basalt valley with deadly speed, its sleek lines blurring against the gray, wet column backdrop. Vespera, with a powerful surge of her wings, released an anti-gravity pulse and launched all of us upwards, her outstretched hand grasping onto a magisteel bar extending from the glider's base.

Magdaline seemed to assist her in this, kicking up from the ground with her entire muscular Megalodon frame.

The Frontenachii trio tried to grab at us with their claws, but the shield detonation had pushed them too far away for them to reach us in time.

The glider bucked, momentarily struggling against the sudden weight, then righted itself, pulling us all sideways and upwards with a dizzying lurch. The ground dropped away beneath our feet. I felt a surge of pure, exhilarating terror as we ascended, the basalt columns shrinking below, the howls of angry Wendigos fading into the roar of the wind.

The hooks of Wendigo Scrutimancy that had dug into my head tore away, letting me think more clearly.

We were airborne! We got away!

"Fuuuuuuckinnnn waaaaaahhhtttt?!" Ember screamed beside me, clinging to me. She didn't close her eyes and was now rapidly blinking to clear her vision.

"Don't burn me," Mags growled at her, holding onto me and my dragon sister.

"Ff-fine you fucks," Ember growled back.

The escape was far from smooth. The wind screamed in my ears as we climbed, the glider rocking violently, raindrops slapping into my face. I clung to Vespera for dear life, my knuckles white, my heart hammering against my ribs.

Then, a strong hand, rough and cool, clamped onto us, yanking all of us upwards, pulling me bodily into the glider's open cockpit. I stumbled, landing hard against something solid.

A hexamesh seat. Semi-clear wings of the Strand-Glider folded up, covering the howling wind and rain.

"Already collecting trouble, daughter?" Red shark eyes flashed at us from the driver's seat.

"Oh thank the All-Dragon," Ember mewled, her entire body trembling. "Good job on getting us out of that mess, Satosh."

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"Wasn't my fault, daddy," Mags fired back, releasing us from her arms. "Blame the human!"

"I will," Scrutimancer Satosh stared at me. "What have you done, boy?"

"Yeah, what the shit have you done, you fucking knobfold?!" Ember snarled beside me, rubbing her red and tear-stained eyes. "Why are Frontenachii Scruts after you, Martin?!"

"Not exactly sure," I shrugged. "I might have accidentally released Archangel Zadkiel which might have destabilised reality."

"YOU DID FUCKING WHAT?!" Ember yelled, nearly deafening me.

"Thought that this was the case," Satosh nodded. "Things didn't feel right today. The Astralnet is practically boiling with Corpo Scruts freaking out about a worldwide dimensional shift."

"So those Wendigo fucks weren't screwing with me?" the dragon-girl's head snapped to Satosh. "There really was a major shift?"

"A minor worldwide shift, my Lady," Satosh clarified.

"How much stuff?" Ember gritted her teeth. "Is this why my brother is suddenly a wanted criminal mastermind? Did he steal shit from the Frontenachii before the shift or did the shift make him into a criminal?"

Satosh stared at me with sharp, glowing, red eyes, inhaling wide. My heartbeat intensified.

Was the Scrutimancer still on my side, could the Astral tell him exactly how things went during our last round together?

"Hard to tell," he answered finally after a deep pause.

"Come on, what the shit am I paying you for Satosh?" Ember snarled.

"I will have your answer, in a few days time," Satosh replied. "The shift scrambled all of you quite a bit."

"I don't… feel scrambled," Ember crossed her arms. Her exploded capillaries were rapidly healing themselves due to her draconic nature.

"Only a Scrut can tell when a planet-wide Celestorm rearranges the physical, my Lady," Satosh replied. "It will take me time to compile a full report on this… unfortunate shift."

"Okay, but like… are my finances worse or better now?" Ember asked with a sour face. "The shift didn't make our family poorer, right?"

"Hmmm," Satosh inhaled deeply, staring at my sister. "Better."

"Better how?" Ember pressed on.

"As far as I can tell, the connection between you and your brother is deeper and you are both less in trouble with your parents now," Satosh said. "Some things have mended. This is good."

"Oh," Ember deflated. "Did I do some stupid shit before the shift?"

"Yes," Satosh nodded.

"Ugh," Ember retreated onto the hexamesh seat, looking somewhat scared and concerned. "Mind not telling my parents about it?"

"Your order is my command," Satosh smiled. "I will paint you in a good light in my report, my Lady. It is generally Scrut policy to keep the random positive events and to try to correct the negative occurrences after a shift."

"See that you do," the dragon girl crossed her legs, leaning back in a somewhat relaxed posture.

Magdaline sat on the front seat next to her father as Satosh directed the glider to spin around across the clouds, the transparent beast-control tentacle flashing on the side of his head.

Cinder, Vespera and I occupied the middle seat aisle. The Quetzi girl stared at me with worried and confused eyes. Vespera hummed to herself, sparkling ever so slightly and smiling as she pawed at my head and chest with her talons, making me twitch as Electrofractal currents rushed across my body.

Ember's gold eyes shot open again. "Wait… Satosh, is my brother a Kobold of these fucks?"

"Yes. He is," Satosh said. "I smell the connection between them."

"Arghhhh," Ember groaned. "Why?!"

"Soul bonds are non physical, existing almost entirely within the deepest Astral," Satosh answered. "A dimensional shift cannot break them."

"So these beerches really claimed my brother?!" Ember snarled, her head igniting once again. "How dare you two claim what belongs to MY Clan?!"

"First of all, I don't feel a chain of the Stratos on him," Vespera replied, glaring back at my sister. "Second, what's your problem, Miss fire-beerch? You don't want an alliance between the Stratos and a genuine Princess of Thunder of SimmiTech and a Quetzi of the Nova Estate?"

"He's MY responsibility!" Ember punctuated, slamming a fist into her seat. "It's my job to protect him from handsy fucks like you!"

"The soul-bond says otherwise, dragon-bae," Vespera clicked. "Unfortunately, I'm not a Scrut, so I cannot explain exactly WHY he is our kobold, but he is irrefutably our kobold and I will NOT have a Psychopomp screw around with any of our souls to carve this connection away. So, I'm stuck with him."

Ember's growl deepened.

"N'ways, what do you want for him?" Vespera tilted her head at the extra-irate-looking Ember. "Money? Concessions? Artifacts?"

Ember pursed her lips.

"Take your time and decide his overall value," Vespera said. "My lawyer will contact your lawyer and we'll have this sorted out properly, Prima-style. No need to bark at each other like wild dogs over a smol, Level Four human nullie, right? Surely, it is better for you to hand him over to me, so that I can deal with whatever illegal bullshit the Frontenachii were on about, yes?"

Ember's head-flames flickered, mirroring her internal conflict.

"Value?" she repeated, dark claws digging into her elbows as if the concept was utterly foreign. "He's not… a freaking artifact. I… didn't freaking plan to sell him today! He's my little brother! My responsibility!" She looked at me, her gold eyes narrowed in suspicion.

"He was your responsibility," Vespera said, nodding with a regal air. "Now he's our responsibility too. Das' is Omnithean human-ownership law! Soul-bonds are forever. Unless, you know, one of the bond-partners dies. Or gets dimensionally skewered to the point of non-existence. But let's not get bogged down in edge cases, 'kay? Mkay."

"Forever?" Ember's voice was a strangled whisper. She looked from Vespera to Cinder and then back to me, her expression shifting from anger to something akin to horrified disbelief. "You're… stuck with them? Forever?"

"Seems like it," I confirmed with a shrug.

"But… but he's a Stratos!" Ember sputtered. "He belongs to our family!"

"Possessive much?" Vespera commented.

Ember's dragonfire sputtered again, dimming to a sulky ember. "But… but there has to be something! Some loophole! Some… way out of this!"

"Divorce is always an option," Vespera offered helpfully. "But it's messy. And expensive. And usually involves screaming matches and property division and Psychopomp soul-cutting which leaves all parties vulnerable to an Astral Phantom infection or worse. Are you sure you want your little brother to go down that route, dragon-bae? We haven't even had our honeymoon yet!"

"Honeymoon?!" Ember shrieked, her voice cracking. "Are you mocking me?! This isn't a joke! This is my brother's life we're talking about!"

"And your family's reputation," Cinder added dryly. "Don't forget about that. Stratos family honor and all that, right?" She mimicked Ember's earlier tone perfectly, a cruel smirk playing on her lips.

Ember deflated again, her shoulders slumping. "Oh, shut up, Cinder," she muttered, rubbing her temples with a clawed hand. "I bet this is all your fault, somehow. You and your… dragon-claim tendencies."

"My tendencies are perfectly justified," Cinder retorted, silver feathers bristling defensively. "Quit your bitching, Emmy. I'm saving him from a life of nullie mediocrity. He'll be far better off as my kobold."

"Mediocrity?!" Ember's head ignited again, but this time it was directed at Cinder. "He's not mediocre! He's… he's… potentially… less mediocre than you think!"

I laughed at that. For the first time in my current life, Ember was actually actively defending me. The dragon-girl sent me a glare that promised broken bones or a terrible vengeance. It shut me up quickly.

Satosh, still piloting the glider with practiced ease, cleared his throat. "Ladies, with all due respect, while this… spirited discussion regarding the status of the human is fascinating, we are rapidly approaching Skyfall Academy. Perhaps we should focus on… more pressing matters?"

"Like what?" Ember grumbled, crossing her arms again, her dragonfire finally subsiding completely.

"Like… the Frontenachii, for instance," Satosh suggested. "They are not likely to simply… forget about this incident. While they will not be able to breach the Academy's Wards, they might be able to pay other students to kidnap him."

A fresh wave of unease washed over me. The escape had been exhilarating, but it was only a temporary reprieve. The Wendigos were still out there, and they were clearly not ones to give up easily.

"Shit," Ember muttered, finally grasping the gravity of the situation.

"Precisely," Satosh nodded. "Which is why we need a plan."

"Plan?" Vespera perked up. "I love plans! Especially plans involving explosions!"

"No explosions," Satosh said firmly. "This requires subtlety, not… flashy displays of Thunderbird enthusiasm."

Vespera pouted. "Spoilsport."

"I vote for concealment," I said. "Before the worldwide dimensional shift, I paid the Nazarite church to hide my Astral imprint."

"I'll look into restoring that," Satosh said. "All of you will require concealment. The Frontenachii will likely target all of you now."

"Friiighhh," Ember rubbed her face. "I didn't sign up to be harassed by effing North Acadian Wendigo bone-knobs."

"Not just them," Satosh said. "If it is indeed the case that your brother is responsible for the Celestorm shift and Archangel departure, then many will target him."

"Effin' Abyss," Ember's fists opened and closed. "What do we do about this?!"

"Arcanarium Undermaster Graves is an old friend of mine," Satosh said. "I'll take you straight to him and explain the situation. He will assist in protecting you in Skyfall while I will handle the legal legwork outside of school in Omnithornia and Saxtland."

"Thanks," Ember exhaled, closing her eyes.

"I'll take us around and straight to the Undermaster's tower," the Megalodon Scrutimancer said.

Satosh made the glider tilt towards the ocean. Blue-gray waves sparkled beneath us, visible through the crystalline semi-transparent floor. Rays of light slashed through the storm clouds overhead, a curtain of rain moving across the horizon.

Vespera resumed pawing me. Cinder bit her lower lip staring at me.

"Sup?" I asked her.

"I'm trying to remember you," she said. "But I cannot. It is annoying."

"We'll catch up," I said. "Don't worry."

"Is your name Martin or Alex?" She demanded.

"I prefer to go by Alex," I said softly. "Emmy calls me Martin since that's my legal birth-name. You can call me Alex at school for concealment purposes."

"Okay," Cinder nodded.