"Is that all of them?" Cook looked at the small, shivering no-furs.He'd taken the time to get all of them out of their cages. Most of them required coaxing to come out but because he was a larger and older one of them, it went easier than he anticipated. Having Lexi as a green-skinned no-fur helped a little too. He was something new and different but was still enough like them that they trusted him.There were ten no-furs besides Cook and Lexi. All of them were so young, some just a few months past their majority. They'd come of age here, in these cages, indoctrinated to the strange service the Hares asked of them. Having not gone to the ritual room himself, Cook could only guess what actually happened. What he did know was that the young ones who went to the ritual came back tired and drained. None of them could tell him what happened to the others who had been there before but were gone now. Only vague statements of being "sent home."It all sounded very ominous to Cook. He couldn'
Doll had drifted off into a peaceful slumber. After having his time with Hades through Spitfire as well as Hades's unexpectedly good reaction to him carrying kits, he breathed a little easier. At least enough to doze off in a strange but trustworthy relative safety. He awoke nestled in Spitfire's arms and, even in their predicament, found himself in a dreamy happy place. He stretched his limbs and nuzzled and kissed Spitfire's neck. The awful Hare could come back but Doll sensed he wouldn't. He couldn't say why but he felt it in his bones. Having never been pregnant, he did worry that his calm was some kind of instinctive euphoria brought on by hormones he didn't begin to understand. Maybe he could ask Spitfire about it. "Hey, Spitfire, beloved, are you awake?" He gave the red-headed no-fur a little jostle. He wasn't really asking so much as trying to make sure Spitfire was getting up. "Mostly, I think," Spitfire muttered, turning his face enough to kiss the top of Doll's head. "Th
After several attempts at rowing the lifeboat, Liam and Hades finally figured out how to get it to go the way they wanted. The pair of toms made it to the side of the large central ship with minimal drenching and not capsizing the small boat even once.Using the rope that had been attached to the pulleys used to lower the boat into the water, Hades tied it to the first rung of the metal ladder leading up the side of the ship. He tested the knots on both ends by pulling as hard as he could. Satisfied that the lifeboat wasn't going anywhere, he turned to Liam."Ready to get out of this floating trash can and onto the bigger floating trash can?"Liam's reluctance was in his every word. So was his irritation. "I'd like to avoid the floating trash cans altogether and get my paws on dry land, but that's not happening anytime soon. However, the toms and Hares on that trash can hurt my Cook, so it's time to pay them a visit. Unless we are all going to link paws and sing happy songs like you s
Doll waited for Hades's reaction. Not taking a breath. Not taking a step back. His faith in his Innehavre was unwavering. And if he hadn't gotten through to the tom who he loved with all his heart and whose kits he carried, his trust in Spitfire was just as strong."Do you hear me, Soot-walker?"Hades's eyes were dark with Hex power. He stared at Doll in heavy silence before he finally nodded with the barest movement of his head. "Do it, pretty baby. Take what you need from me."The power around Hades swelled, his aura filled with more than just his connection to Doll. It was the full bloom of his Hex powers and then more, a darkness that went beyond anything Doll had felt outside of his brief trip through the Underworld. The Demons rampaging around the ships started to stumble and flicker. It was as if Hades were sucking in all of their auras, causing them to slowly fade and disappear.The Hares Hades had been holding with his Hex chains were released, dropped where they were and the
Trying to catch the Orangelo wasn't going the way that Agent had imagined it would.Somehow the little pest had managed to get himself an airplane and he was whizzing about faster than Agent's glorious new tentacles could grab him. The missiles and bullets Jinx was firing at him were mostly annoying. Agent still hoped he would run out of ammunition soon. The only good thing about the constant barrage was Agent always knew where the damned plane was.He needed to regroup, to come up with another idea. This one was not working and the longer they were in this standoff, the longer the Chaos power in both of them was separated. Agent didn't know if the Orangelo could feel it, but he was practically overwhelmed with the instability of the power.Which wasn't the nature of any god power, not even that of Chaos. The power was not meant to be split and shared. It was trying to draw its two halves back together and Agent did not want to find out what would happen if it finally succeeded while
The glaring light burned his eyes. Jinx couldn't see anything but the white nothingness that had sprung up in front of him.But it wasn't the intense glare that was the problem. It was the overwhelming urge to fly his manifested plane right into the center of it. The restless power inside of him pulled his paws, steering the plane towards inevitable death.It took everything Jinx had to pull the plane to the side, skidding through the sky away from the supernatural pull out to get him. He couldn't see anything at all with the white light still blinding him. But he heard the ripping sound of metal and felt the plane rock out of control.The wing was gone and he was fucked.He might have been blind, but Jinx could feel the plane tumbling through the air. It had to be plunging towards the ocean because that was what planes did when they crashed. They went down. Even planes made of Chaos magick.His eyesight was clearing, but Jinx wasn't sure if that was a blessing or a curse. Now he coul
Walking away from the mangled body of Nickel was the last thing Ink wanted to do. He was full of impotent rage and the Hare had been the only outlet available. Not that the nasty little bastard didn't deserve every last inch of it.But now, Ink needed to find his captain and lover. Priest was out there somewhere, injured or worse. Nickel seemed to think he had managed to kill the captain. Ink wasn't so sure. Priest was tough. He'd come close to death more than once but always managed to slip through its grasp. This would be no different. It couldn't. Not now that Ink was ready to stop being a fucking idiot.He wasn't able to use any of his magic to find Priest. They didn't have the Innehavre connection and the Mark Ink had put on him to track the damned fool wasn't responding. That meant it was damaged or Priest was dead. There was only one of those options Ink was OK with.Going out the same way that the escaping no-furs had taken, Ink was surprised to find the
"I can barely believe what I'm seeing, but yes, I see it."Bright was barely able to channel Doll's magick. It was made of so many warring energies. His Hare body - the most adept at aura work because he was a Bunny-type Hare - was glowing with pain as well as one... two... three... No, even more vastly different auric signatures. The question Doll had asked about the vision the no-fur was clearly seeing was an easy one to answer, not that Bright understood exactly what he was seeing.The form was huge and made of cosmic power but to the small yellow Hare, it had no discerniblefeature that made it one species or another.Was it coming from the Black-fur currently holding a swirling cage of chains and void at his command? No, this being was here for someone else. Bright would have scratched his ear in frustration but he had to settle for twitching it wildly because he dared not take his paws from Priest. He could feel the healing still trying to escape his