Satyr Play 03 Pt. 02

He didn't see the slap coming, but DJ felt it strike the left side of his face in an explosion of pain, then the world went dark.

-=-

Henry was fighting to live. The doctor found a method to not only keep him unconscious but unable to leave his body.

She poisoned him.

Dr. Bitch discovered that if she gave him tiny doses of Strychnine, his body went through the terrible symptoms, intense muscle spasms in his head and neck which spread to every muscle in his body, with nearly continuous convulsions. The pain was severe, and his body would strain against his bindings. Then he would gradually come out of it. She'd test him and discover the poison was no longer in his blood. A brief interval later, the monitor device would automatically administer another small dose.

Under the harsh fluorescent lighting, the doctor was unaware of the pale green glow that would bathe Henry each time he reacted to the poison. He'd created another program that was running independently of his consciousness. It pulled the magic to him and ran a filter over his blood to neutralize the Strychnine. In the brief intervals of semi-coherence, he would work on another program. He needed to stop this insane woman. He could tell his filter spell would eventually fail as, after each cycle, he was a little more physically weakened.

He desperately needed help, but he couldn't get more than a few feet from the property line before his body's physical state yanked him back.

He was surprised to see the shocked expression on a lovely face with one blue and one yellow eye on his last attempt.

"Help me, please. She's killing me," Henry managed to gasp before he was sucked back into the cycle of agony.

-=-

Minkah should have left three days ago, but once Rand left with the car the administrator had arranged, she was told they wouldn't be able to get another for two days. It arrived late in the evening the day before, but she chose to stay overnight one more time for... reasons.

It certainly wasn't for the cafeteria food. It was dull and flavorless.

There was no intelligent company to converse with. The administrator and the doctor ignored her, and the two Ogre orderlies had no personalities at all. Minkah wasn't allowed to see the inmates.

Two days earlier, Minkah arrived at breakfast to see the doctor and the administrator screaming at each other. She caught the word escaped. Her ears perked up as she enjoyed a good hunt.

Before they noticed her arrival, Minkah heard the doctor suggest Henry had somehow assisted the other to escape. The two spotted her then and quickly left the room.

So, the escapee wasn't Henry, but he was responsible for freeing another.

How was that possible? Didn't they say he was strapped down? Drugged? The file said he wasn't a wielder, so he couldn't bend magic to his will.

Today, she wanted to grab a quick breakfast and leave. She had to get her life back on track. She had a car waiting for her and missions to complete. Yet, she found herself lingering through her meal. Finally, she forced herself to her feet and dumped her tray on the way out.

As she passed through a dim hallway on the way to the farmhouse, she suddenly stopped as a large horned being with furry legs and hooves was standing before her. She could see the lights down the hall through him, so this was some kind of astral projection. Then he turned to face her, and there was no question, it was Henry. She'd never seen him in his natural state before. He froze with recognition as he looked into her eyes.

"Help me, please. She's killing me," he said softly, then vanished.

Minkah cursed.

-=-

"Where the fuck are Sam and Jeannie?"

Jake paced nervously amongst pine trees at the edge of the forest behind a farmhouse in western New Jersey. A few nights ago, they'd all had another shared dream with the ancient-sounding voice. This time the voice told them to look for the Aurora Borealis somewhere in this state.

So, for some reason, they did.

Sam was the one who spotted the green glow on the horizon and guided them to this farm that wasn't really a farm. It was pretty apparent to their experienced eyes that there wasn't any kind of farming activity happening here.

Then Jeannie was the first to feel it. Tingling energy, like a tickle of purest electricity. They compared impressions, and they all agreed that it felt like the lightning strike zone back on the Washington Mall, but without the sharp edges and intensity. It was warm and smooth, and they wanted more! They got closer to what looked like the garage and found if they hid in the woods behind it, they could pick up a trickle charge just by proximity. That meant the source had to be underground. They shared their concerns about that. None wanted to try storming an underground facility.

When the green sheets of light reappeared, they seemed to be concentrated directly above them. This seemed to confirm their energy source's location, though how they were connected was still a mystery.

Sam decided the situation warranted bringing in the assistance of their new friends who had specialized training for this. He volunteered to run back to Washington, and Jeannie insisted on going with him. Jake paced as he knew they should have returned by now. He was worried his friends had been captured for experimentation instead. He had no great love for the government. Shady characters!

The green curtains started their dance once more as Jake and Brenda watched in fascination. Did they seem a little dimmer?

He looked to the road, hoping Sam would hurry.

-=-

Raymond drove the rental car smoothly along the curvy country road. From the passenger seat, Eleanor was scanning the skies for what Meixiu assured them would be there, a visible sign of Henry's presence. The highly excited young woman had burst into the coffee shop they'd planned to meet at after work. On her way there, she'd found some images posted on an atmospheric phenomenon subpage of a social media site she followed. Meixiu was excited about posts from a restaurant waitress at a small airport in Blairstown, New Jersey. The woman recently reported seeing the Aurora Borealis multiple times in the skies just west of the airfield.

Meixiu dragged her new friends out of the café and had Raymond rent a car at a nearby rental agency. In a short time, they were on the New Jersey Turnpike heading towards the Blairstown Airport. They'd been driving for over an hour, and the skies had gone dark when they turned off Interstate 80, and Eleanor made a squeak of surprise. She'd spotted a tell-tale green glow beginning in the skies ahead of them.

"It's him!" Meixiu cried out from the back seat.

"When will Roy be arriving with his team?" Raymond asked.

When Meixiu didn't respond, Raymond glanced over his shoulder at her then looked to Eleanor in concern. His wife turned in her seat to see a guilty look on Meixiu's face. "You didn't call Mr. Duncan?"

"I was too excited," she moaned.

Raymond pulled into the dark parking lot next to a veterinarian hospital and stopped the engine. He looked over his shoulder as he watched Meixiu's anxious expression. She was looking out the side window at the glow in the sky.

"This is a top-secret Hidden Races Council facility you're talking about. We aren't supposed to know it exists, much less visit it. They aren't just going to release him into our custody," he said reasonably.

"I will make them," Meixiu said with a fierce expression.

Raymond shared another look with his wife then looked back to Meixiu. "They might have an army in there. Why don't we do a little scouting and report what we've found to Roy? Maybe he has resources in the area he could call in."

Meixiu pouted but finally nodded. They got out of the car and looked up at the sky. "How far away do you estimate the focus of that light show is?" Eleanor asked her husband.

He frowned as he watched the wispy curtains of green light move and twist. There seemed to be a slight funneling as if the light was being pulled down.

"I think we should drive up that side road a little way and take another look," he suggested. "I think we need to get closer." Meixiu smiled at him. He gestured to her cell. "Call Roy now and let him know where we are."

They got back into the car as Meixiu dialed.

Almost immediately, she sighed. "It went to voice mail," Meixiu said, then left a message with their location. "I will try Sigrid," she said as Raymond drove them across the street and up the smaller side lane. She frowned when she got Sigrid's voice mail. She left her the information as well.

Eleanor kept watch on the light as they climbed higher along the curving country lane until she saw it begin to fade.

"We're losing the light. Pull over," she said quickly.

The moment the car was stopped, Meixiu was out the door and scaling the tallest nearby tree. Seconds later, she returned to the ground and pointed to the property across the road. Illuminated by the headlights, they saw a gravel laneway between two stone gateposts. The gates were open. On the gateposts and nailed to little sticks stuck in the ground were no trespassing signs, at least half a dozen.

"Go beyond the gate, and we're trespassing. Not the friendliest greeting," Eleanor said.

Raymond sighed. "And we've been parked in front of the driveway. If they have cameras aimed at this spot, we've made a poor attempt at stealth. Let's drive up the road a bit and come back on foot."

Eleanor watched her husband's face as they entered the car. "Are we seriously going to break into this place?"

"We'll reconnoiter and let Roy's team do the actual breaking in. They're better suited for the rough and tumble duties. We can get them the intelligence they'll need to get in safely," Raymond suggested as he watched Meixiu.

She nodded. "Roy has not responded to my call, and neither has Sigrid."

Raymond winced. "Well, we'll take a look around and come back to the car to try again."

Eleanor gave Raymond a nervous look as this was far more daring than they'd been in a long time. She was a little rusty when it came to being adventurous. She'd become downright risk-averse.

Raymond parked the car on a small patch of grass next to the road a few hundred feet up the hill then they all got out.

It was adventure time. Meixiu seemed to fade into the darkness and was gone.

"Meixiu?" Eleanor called out but heard only the breeze in return.

"I'm getting too old for this shit," Raymond grumbled as he set off down the hill with Eleanor smirking at his side.

"You and me both!" she said. "Maybe we should leave this to the youngsters."

"I believe Meixiu may be older than us," he whispered as they got closer to the gate.

"That doesn't make me feel any better, you know," Eleanor grumbled, equally quiet. They leapt over the fence and kept to the shadows as they rushed towards the forest at the back of the property. She shot an annoyed look at her husband.

Dammit, she was a doctor, not a commando!

-=-

Roy knew he was driving into a trap, but he really didn't have a choice. He'd received a call from one of Carl's lieutenants stating they had one of his people who'd stepped out of thin air into an alley a block away from VRL.

The only one he knew with that ability was Henry. Somehow the boy had escaped the detainment center and had immediately fallen into the hands of Carl's men. That also sounded like Henry's luck.

He glanced over at Mary, who was fidgeting due to the stored energy in her body. She'd sparred with the team, not striking any blows of her own, so she'd built up quite the charge.

In the backseat, Sigrid was calmly taking in the view of the dockyards they were driving into. She claimed to be almost fully charged as well.

Roy's team was deployed around the neighborhood to contain the invaders. They wouldn't come any closer unless Roy ordered them to. The packs from the neighboring territories were on standby as well, as he'd informed their leaders of this move.

He was feeling pretty good himself, so he hoped between the three of them in this car, they were a sufficient force to deal with whatever this Lieutenant had cooked up for them. Carl might have been the one who was setting up the ambush, but it really wasn't the man's style to let others do his talking.

They pulled up to the warehouse he'd been directed to and saw it was pretty run down. Carl had apparently purchased the property in preparation for his incursion into Roy's territory. It wasn't much, but it was a toe in the door.

They got out of the car, and Roy scented the air. It was foul from the water and the garbage left on the property, and this covered most of the invaders' scents, but he still detected the pong of an alpha radiating his dominance. So, he was here. Carl was such a tool.

He looked to the others. "Carl is on site. He's mine. Don't interfere with our fight. His pack needs to see their leader defeated to restore order."

"I can't promise I won't kill him if it doesn't go your way," Sigrid stated bluntly.

"I'll help her do it," Mary stated.

Roy snorted. "Let's hope for the best then," he said with a scowl and caught the little smirk on Sigrid's lips.

"A million laughs," he sighed under his breath as he pulled the door open.

They walked through the outer offices, which were all empty with debris scattered on the floor. The building hadn't been used for a long time. There was a scent of dust and decay, and there was a feeling of despair about the office area. It didn't strike any of them as ever having been a happy place.

Pushing through the double doors at the end of the hallway, they entered the cavernous space of the warehouse itself. The ceiling was lost to the darkness, as were the far walls. Ahead, in the middle of that dark open area, was a small figure taped to a chair. A spotlight on a stand was set up to shine on the chair from behind, leaving the man in silhouette from the backlighting. They could see his head was slumped forward.

Roy relaxed slightly as he saw the man's shoulders weren't as broad as Henry's, so it wasn't him. Still, the comment about him stepping out of thin air was curiously specific to something Henry could do.

Two larger men stepped forward to flank the man in the chair. They were heavily muscled, so Roy assumed these were two of Carl's goons. A third stepped forward and walked to stand before the three. He was slimmer but tall. He addressed Roy.

"Mr. Duncan. I'm Keith le Brère, Mr. De Bellisle's personal secretary. Thank you for joining us in this humble location." He gestured to the warehouse. "We intercepted this one on his way to you. He had a message for you, one he said you would be very keen to get. The location of your pet Satyr."

"I'm here. I'll take that message," Roy said stiffly.

A second spot turned on, finally illuminating the man tied to the chair. He was a bloody mess. He had bandages over his ears, one eye, and his nose. His hands were both wrapped in bloody rags.

"Unfortunately, the effort to extract this information became a little too aggressive as the interrogator's friends were murdered in their attempt to capture the Satyr." He gestured to the bloody man in the chair. "He's no longer able to deliver the information, but not to worry, we got it. Our team should be arriving at any moment to extract him."

Sigrid's cell vibrated in her pocket. She pulled it out and glanced at the screen. "A message from Meixiu," she explained to Roy casually.

"Can it wait?" Roy asked.

"I should probably listen to it," Sigrid sighed.

The tall slim secretary was annoyed by their disregarding him. When Roy turned his face back to him, he saw he was being glared at. He looked to the damaged man. Henry had likely been involved in opening the tear. Roy needed to get this young man to safety. "Are we done with the theatrics?" he said wearily.

"FUCK, you're so god damned ARROGANT!"

The voice was loud and rasping, and its source stomped out of the shadows behind the spotlight.

Roy controlled his reaction when Carl stepped forward and became visible. The man wasn't using a glamor. Gone were his chiseled good looks and trim, muscular form. In their place was a blunt face with a prominent brow ridge, sunken eyes, a broad, flattened nose, a jutting jaw with jagged, crooked teeth, and a thick stocky body. He looked like a primitive and violent brute, not the polished businessman image he'd developed over the decades. He was wrapped in a rough robe as his body was visibly larger as well. His voice matched his new visage.

"Roy, it's time for you to realize you were never meant to lead. You don't have the drive. You don't have the ambition. You don't have the strength!" Carl laughed at what he took for a confused look on Roy's face.

Roy shook his head in disgust. "You still don't have a clue about what it takes to be a pack leader these days. Your mind is trapped in the past. You're unable to change with the times. You don't care about your pack mates. You use them as tools and discard them when you no longer have use for them. Carl, you're a shit leader."

"You think you're pretty tough because you amped up your Were powers with a little blood from your Satyr. You don't know power-AAAIIIEEEEEEE!"

For races that physically transformed between forms, glamors made that agonizing transition obsolete. They stayed in their beast form and simply hid it with a Human glamor. Carl's disguise had been burned out by the Wild Magic in Henry's blood. He had to fall back on the old method. Both transitions were intensely painful.

Carl threw back the robe as he screamed in agony, exposing his naked and warping body. Bones stretched, snapped, and reformed in new shapes. Muscles swelled and tore free from their anchor points to relocate and bind to new locations. Skin stretched, ripped, and stitched back together as fur sprouted and grew to cover. The process took less than a minute typically, but Carl was larger than a standard Lycanthrope and slightly larger than Roy's evolved form, as well. Longer limbs, longer and sharper teeth and claws, and wider jaws. He had a crazed, feral look in his eyes as he changed.

Finally in his evolved state, the massive monster Carl had become panted, his muscles trembling from the remembered pain. He glared down at Roy and curled up the corner of his lip to display a deadly sharp fang. The pong of dominance radiated from the huge creature.

Roy felt his instinctual reaction to the bigger Were kick in, but the difference between a beast and a thinking being is the ability to choose to defy instinct and act based on reason. Instead of cowering and showing his throat, Roy dropped his glamor and growled low in his chest. He wasn't as big as Carl, but there was no question, he was equally deadly.

Sigrid quickly texted a warning to Meixiu that Carl's people may be on their way. Then she whispered to Mary. "Meixiu and her new friends found where Henry is being kept. I warned her about Carl's men." Mary nodded without looking away from Carl.

Sigrid looked between the two alpha Weres and did her best to hide her concern for Roy. Carl seemed to have the edge as he gave off the impression of crazed violence and the mass to back it up. The question was, how long could Roy go toe to toe with such a beast.

-=-

Waves of unending pain swept through DJ as he heard the muffled sounds of growling.

It wasn't supposed to be like this. He wasn't supposed to end up a chew toy for a bunch of wild dogs. He was a fucking Djinn! An all-powerful being of magic! He was the one who should be inflicting terror and pain upon those that defied him!

Another spark of agony stabbed through him, but he didn't even have the strength to moan.

He didn't open his remaining eye as there was nothing to see. He just let his mind sink into the darkness.