ATM Rewrite: B2 — 9. Spirited Away!

PoV:

1. Sora Moore (Our Fox Girl Has A New, New Problem!)

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A short yawn exited Sora’s mouth as she flipped from her side to her back, her dull mind rousing from her deep sleep.  She was half hoping she’d subconsciously drift into her dad’s dreams, but that obviously hadn’t happened, which was a little disappointing.

Plucking hair out of her mouth with mild agitation, she stretched out and saw the sun shining through her blinds, remembering that her alarm wasn’t set.  At least The Foundation had been kind enough to set her bedside clock to the proper time: it was 7:43 a.m., Sunday morning.

Today was the day Sela said she would be killed, and the demon’s warnings last night floated to the surface of her mind as she lay in bed, listening to movement throughout their expanded suite.  It was time for their first group meeting to let people know what was happening; they had to devise a plan.

She had two more days until her mother arrived, sometime on Tuesday, and she wanted everything to be perfect.  And that meant kicking the tail off all the potential problems that might rear their ugly head in that time.

The Lady in Black Thorns had subdued the moon creature that united with Pynerius’ brother, so that was on the back burner.

Eric was contained.

HAREM still felt like a credible threat, and some organization was behind its near containment break, flooding the moon with Black-Alpha threats, but the Grand Moon Wizard had tied that up for the time being.  That still left the organization lurking in the shadows.

Diane was still on Sora’s ‘watch list,’ but she’d practically fallen off the face of the earth since getting Morgen la Fée’s books or whatever she’d been after.  And the more she thought about it, the woman’s actions didn’t sit right with Sora.

The Lemegeton hellish alliance had sent Ar’goth to tell her they were worried about a fae uprising, and here was Diane, delving into a fae Founder that had passed through her mother’s territory.  There was something off about the information she had.

Getting up and pondering on what she knew, Sora found a nice salmon-pink summer dress with flowers on it, selecting a few accessories to go with it before going to the bathroom to get ready.  She could just magic herself up and bypass the routine, but it felt right to do something as simple as showering and doing morning prep while thinking.

Her father’s door was open down the hall, and she saw his bed in a spot where she could see him when exiting her room, which was a nice touch.  The nursing staff would probably be coming in and out, doing their own checks throughout the day.

Jin was also recovering in the other room, and she heard Eyia watching some kind of knitting tutorial video; Wendy had shown her the magic of the internet on her phone the previous day.  Sora didn’t know when the girl slept because she was up when she went to bed.

Poking her head through the doorway after dropping off her clothes, she saw the blonde in a black nightgown, trying to learn how to make a blanket.

“Morning, Sister,” the Valkyrie absently greeted, absorbed by the rather complex tutorial for a beginner.

“Morning!  Picking up knitting, huh?”

“It is good to keep one’s mind busy and learn new skills.  You appeared to have slept well.  No suspicious activity to report through the night, but I did notice you were keeping a visit from a demon private from us yesterday, and you were bothered by it.”

Sora forced a chuckle and scratched her cheek.  “Can’t keep anything from you.  I’ll talk about it later when I call everyone together.  I just need to think a bit more about it.  See you for breakfast—is that?”

Eyia nodded, still focusing still on her craft.  “Zen and Hinote are in the kitchen preparing our morning sustenance.  The wizard wishes to learn more about Earth… home-making?  He learned the word from a video Wendy showed him last night.  I am unsure how cooking food translates to making homes, but I suppose it is a process taken in a home.  Strange.  This house is already built.”

Laughing at her rambles and how literal Eyia was with things, she waved the warrior off and went back to her room to snatch her phone.  Her vision lingered on the black rose flower Stephanie had made her, sitting in a nice vase she’d repurposed to house it, with  the couple’s letter leaning against it.  On impulse, she took the black ice hairpin Stephanie had made her.

Returning to the bathroom to get ready, she sent a text off to all the interested parties, including Fen, Aiden, Vondoom, and Devlin.  Technically, Miami had become a sort of containment zone itself for her, and the Moon Director was temporarily overseeing the site.

While taking in the pattering of the cold water striking the tile, Sora reflected on the oddities that had crept up and her part in them.  Obviously, she wasn’t going to dive right into this fae conflict; her only objective right now was Sela and figuring out what to do with her.

There was something deeper happening here, though, and the Unseelie said something that nagged at her when she started flipping out; her entire network was being dismantled.  She’d assumed it was The Foundation, yet she hadn’t heard any confirming evidence that was the case thus far.  Could there be something else happening nearby that they were unaware of?

Sela operated out of the Everglades National Park, which was close enough to Miami to be of concern.  Also, why would normal fae want to bring the Unseelie Court here?  If Sela wanted to do it, then sure, she could see that, but your average fae?  Was it a coincidence that this was happening when someone as powerful as a fae Founder had visited this particular fragment in this universe, out of all the other possible strings in the multiverse?  It couldn’t be.  Right?

Dressing and trying a few hairstyles with the hairpin, she willed her copper locks into a French bun variant, and a cool rush of reassurance embraced her as she put it in.

Doing one last check on her father and Eyia, she used the gravity pad to get to the 1st level and went to the kitchen.  To Sora’s mild surprise and interest, Zen and Hinote were just finishing up some Japanese fish-shaped waffles mixed with custard cream instead of the red beans she’d seen on J-dramas.  In addition, there were Japanese street crepes and Japanese fruit sandwiches.  For beverages, there was green tea, bubble tea, and Yakult, but Sora instead went with option four—which wasn’t an option—the orange juice in the fridge.

Sora sat back in her chair with a smirk as Wendy came skipping into the dining room at 8:39 a.m., dressed to impress, all dolled up and beaming.  Of course, it was for herself and not the moon prince she’d been doting on.

Making small talk, she heard a little about the beginning moon magic the pair had been going through.  Wendy was primarily learning how to tap into her internal mana sense to channel it.  Namely because if you couldn’t handle your own mana, you couldn’t pull in or focus on any external source.  It was a work in progress.

Faia slunk in, fully dressed in polka-dot pajamas with his two tails lazily weaving behind him.  He got in on the conversation about mana sense; it was interesting to hear the debate about learned magical sense versus vulpes’ natural aptitude.  Eyia joined shortly into it, and that threw a hard wrench in the conversation as she talked about things that none of them could give input on regarding minute differences in base mana typing.

At around 10 a.m., everyone else arrived, joining them in one of their large living rooms, turned strategic gathering place.

Surprisingly, Aiden was the first to make it, somehow managing to convince an annoyed Kari to join him, but she probably didn’t have anything better to do.  Apparently, she had a meeting with Mary in several hours as she wound down her practice, helping her patients to find a replacement to meet their specific needs; the space-loving woman would set her affairs in order before taking a short time on the lunar sites.

Devlin and Vondoom came promptly on time through a dark portal that punched through space in her living room; they even brought a housewarming gift involving some kind of alien fruit tree that bloomed twice a year.  Sora tentatively placed it on one of the decks, hoping it wouldn’t die in their climate.

As she’d expected, Fen was fashionably late, as in 30 minutes late, and grumpy as ever, but she wasn’t alone, which seemed to be the problem.  Sora was a tad impressed as a giant of a man came out of the elevator after being notified they were coming up by the desk staff, now having a few Foundation members on the payroll.

Fen’s narrowed eyes were daggers as she glared at her from behind the tiger man; his long white tail and ears were cute, and he gave a welcoming smile while holding out his hand to greet her.

“Sora, it’s nice to finally meet you; I’m Jian, Fen’s guardian.”

“A pleasure,” she said, sensing the jealous vibes leaking out of the three-tailed Chinese woman; she was very insecure about bringing Jian here, but he likely insisted.

“Yes, yes,” she hissed, coming between them to break them up and guide the tiger man further into the building; Sora was careful to keep away from her agitated white tail.  “I’m sure we all have places to be today.  Let’s get this over with.”

“No need to be rude, Fen,” Jian sighed.  “We owe our freedom to Sora.  We’re here to help if we can.”

“The Princess has enough help,” Fen grumbled, seemingly continuing a conversation they’d had before.  “I would rather keep searching for a way to get back to Inari’s territory before the dragon wakes up and kills me since, evidently, that’s a concern,” she said, shooting another backward glare at her.

Aiden lifted an eyebrow as they passed, and Sora moved to join him by the door.  “Well, she’s charming as ever.  Personally, I don’t think they’re getting back to Inari’s territory.”

Fen’s tails froze at his casual comment, flipping around for Jian to guide her toward a seat before marching back to them.  “And… heh, why would that be a problem, hmm?”

“I’d think it’s obvious,” Aiden sighed, ruffling his blond hair and glancing toward the heat Kari and Eyia were sending at each other; it was a powder keg waiting to explode.  “To me, it appears Mia doesn’t want her sister to learn about Sora, and that means you’re not going anywhere.  You can look all you want, but if Mia doesn’t want you gone, you’re stuck here.”

“If she doesn’t want me gone,” Fen huffed, dropping into a sofa next to Jian, who was holding her hand to keep her from confronting the firebird.  “Such a stupid, baseless argument.  Where is your proof?”

Devlin cleared his throat, taking a stand and gesturing to everyone present.  “Let’s try to keep this civil.  Sora, you called us here to discuss something vital involving the security of the planet?”

Fen snorted, tails beating against the armrest.  “Which doesn’t matter to me because I’ll be gone soon enough.”

“Fen…”  Jian asked with a pleading smile that made the woman’s dark ears pull back and look away.

“Fine, I’ll shut up…”

“Hehe.  Not forever; I do like to hear your voice.”

A low growl came from the Huli Jing, but her cheeks went pink as she snuggled closer to his side.

“Everyone good?”  Sora asked.  “Eyia, Kari?”

Kari’s teeth clamped down on her signature floss stick while looking at her; it made her wonder if all fenris wolves had to have something in their mouths, considering Ylva had a galaxy.  “I’m not the one with the problem.”

Eyia’s cold blue eyes drifted away from the wolf.  “I will hold my tongue.”

Not exactly what she was going for, but Sora would take what she could get at this point between the two.  “Right…  Well, let me start.”

Building up to her concerns, Sora began at Sela’s supposed death that was supposed to happen today; the Unseelie had been transferred to Florida Site-106 for safe-keeping, which was a relatively low-risk area meant for the regions Department of Procurement and Liquidation Headquarters.

On the outside, it appeared to be a hotel that was always booked; on the inside and underground, all the business happened.  It was only Security Level 1, so Sora’s VIP squad showing up would be big news to the local employees, and Vondoom wanted her to maintain an invisibility cloak to prevent leaks or the super-squad-rolls-up-and-disrupts-work scenario from happening.

The Senior Site Direction checked the Foundation’s records to confirm that no operation had been made against Sela’s factions.  In fact, a few of their own assets had gone missing in the field, and Florida Operations—who were in the dark regarding Sora—were looking into it.

Bringing up her concerns involving Diane, Vondoom’s sharp eyes fixated on her, listening intently to what she’d learned about the deceptively young woman’s past with the Grand Moon Wizard and fae Founder.  It didn’t mean she was involved with this new fae uprising, but it did make her a subject of question.

Unfortunately, Diane’s location was a mystery, meaning she was on another mission for the ECC, meaning Vondoom would need to go through the proper channels to see if they could get her here at some point; bureaucracy took time.

All of that was put on hold when she got into her meeting with the demon the previous night.  The name Ar’goth didn’t mean anything to Aiden, Fen, or Eyia, but Vondoom and Devlin sat straighter as she brought it up.

“Ar’goth,”  Devlin repeated, throat going dry.  “Ar’goth was here in Miami, and he even gave you a demonic calling card…”

Sora slowly nodded, using her magic to lift the unholy black item into the air for them to see.  “He said to call him if I have further questions.  Who is he?”

Vondoom’s hands tightened against each other on his crossed legs, everyone looking at him as he described the demon.

“As far as our Hell Division has been able to determine, the demon known as Ar’goth is from an ancient American Indian culture, dating somewhere between 3,000 to 2,000 years ago.  Due to his corruption in Hell, or perhaps a deal with his master Bathin, the fallen angel, he became a powerful Wendigo.  He serves as a sergeant in one of Bathin’s 37 legions.”

Aiden leaned against the wall, playing with his phone as he looked up some information on the internet.  “A Wendigo, huh?  Can we assume he doesn’t have enough time to bring the Ars Goetia to this world before the Unseelie Court makes their arrival?”

“Possibly,” Devlin said, sounding tired as he reported the details to what Sora guessed was the Hell Division.  “His presence indicates there is a small Hell Gate open somewhere on Earth, and that it is close enough to Florida for him not to trigger any detection fields.”

Wendy played with her phone in her lap.  “Okay, so what is this guy on your what-do-you-call it scale; is he as strong as Sora?”

Sora’s arms tightened under her bust at the question; it made sense that she was used as the bar for Wendy.  “I felt we were kind of equal, but I can’t say I was reading him correctly.”

“Probably not,” Fen flatly stated, making Sora’s ears twitch.  “You’re so naive in your approach to things, relying on your desire magic, that it is fairly simple to fool your surface-level sens—”  Jian squeezed her hand.  “What?  I’m being honest…”

“It’s not what you say, Fen,” he chuckled.  “It’s how you say it.”

Sora pointed at the man.  “See, Jian gets it.  Would it kill you to be less pouty and glum?  Maybe a smile will make you prettier!”

Fen’s mouth dropped open as if saying she couldn’t believe she had gone there.  “Are you saying I am not pretty unless I smile?”

Kari’s chest shook with laughter.  “It may take a bit more than that; maybe spin those illusions Huli Jing are so good at?”

Damn, Sora internally hissed.  Kari woke up today and chose violence!

She edged away from the back and forth the wolf and fox threw at each other, Kari seemingly wanting to let off steam somehow.  Devlin answered Wendy’s question.

“He is a Black-Gamma: Baron.  In essence, he could destroy a large town fairly quickly, and without much effort; that’s roughly 5,000 people, and in a short timeframe.  Any demon or devil of this rank on a planet is a red flag that something else is happening below the surface,” Vondoom clarified as Aiden and Jian calmed down Kari and Fen.  Meanwhile, the two vulpes twins seemed to be enjoying the charged energy in the room.

“An officer of Hell on Earth indicates they have an organized command structure established and operating without our notice, or else the officer wouldn’t be here.  If they are concerned about the fae, it is for a good reason, and the fact they are warning us that there will be a multi-staged attack against our facilities further shows we have leaks in our organization.”

Eyia spoke up for the first time, providing insight that silenced everyone present to ponder her words.

“If that is the case, then it is a diversion.  It is a classic tactic taken by one that requires secrecy and subtly.  The Ars Goetia and Unseelie Court are at odds, and The Foundation has a massive breach on the moon—a highly secret zone.  All of these threats accompany my sister’s appearance, yet also predate them.  It is not new, but there is improvisation evidently done in the wake of her discovery.  Only someone that knows of my sister’s presence would act in such a way.  Who has that access?”

Devlin sat back uncomfortably, speaking in the ensuing silence after a moment’s thought.  “Diane, the EC Council, the Executive Director, the head of the Ethics Bureau, or… one of us.”

Vondoom shook his head.  “Not one of us; there wasn’t enough time to make those alterations.  It has to be someone very high on the information chain…  The EC Council, Executive Director, or Ethics Bureau…  Which means we need to sow disinformation and slowly whittle down who reacts to it.”

A lump dropped down Devlin’s throat.  “That’s… dangerous, Senior Director.  What kind of disinformation are you proposing?”

“We can discuss that in private,” he whispered, observing the listening crowd around the room.  “Right now, we must report that a credible source has it that a coordinated fae attack will happen sometime today.  It doesn’t give us a lot of time to act,” he sighed, looking toward her.

His stare made Sora feel a little guilty about not telling them last night; she could have sent a text or something, but she’d been so overwhelmed by everything recently.  She just wanted a chill end of the night that didn’t involve world-ending stakes.

“If we are going to get ahead of this, we need the fae division to look into it… I suspect a part of it has been compromised, though.  So, I will save my call until Sora goes and picks up Sela; her destination would be known to the fae division, which possibly means the assassination hasn’t been thwarted yet.”

Sora tried not to let the stress sink into her chest as she nodded and got to her feet.  “Can we warp there with the space tunnels?”

Vondoom shook his head, getting on his phone to call someone.  “No, I’ll have a ride be here in a few minutes; it takes too long to calibrate a destination.  Plus, one has to travel to the moon base before redirecting it to a new location.”

Eyia’s shoulders drooped as she got to her feet to hug her, still dressed in her nightgown.  “I would love nothing more than to be by your side, Sister, yet I fear it would not be wise to leave the keep unguarded with your father and Jin in such a vulnerable state.”

“No, I agree,” Sora said, embracing her.  “Wendy and Zen have a lot of, ahem, magic studying to do, as well,” she mused, catching a bullet from Wendy’s leering eyes.  “Fen, I’m guessing—thought so.”

The woman’s tails swayed behind her as she got up and walked back to the elevator.  “If you wish to talk vulpes customs and the like, I’m all for a chat, given the right environment.  But danger and stakes?  Not my thing.  Have fun, kids.”

Waving backward, she exited with Jian giving them a helpless shrug.

“Kari?”  Sora asked, actually seeing the wolf as being pretty useful in such a scenario.

The girl’s puffy back tail straightened out to its full length as she rose to her feet and stretched left and right, ears tilting with her movements.  “If I had nothing else going on, I might, actually.  Seeing Sela spooked would brighten my day; the cocky Unseelie was always so smug.”

Sora streamed out a long breath.  “Right, an appointment with Mary.  Hope you have a good time.  Aiden?”

The bird’s smile became strained.  “I kind of… promised to take Kari to a steakhouse after as a reward.”

“What am I, a dog?”  Kari snarled, storming past him with an annoyed flick of her tail.

“Oh, c’mon!  You know I don’t mean it like that—Kari…  Kari?  Heh.  Sorry, Sora.  Call me later?”

“Sure…”

She was starting to feel a little left out as Wendy forced a grin, waved, and pulled Zen off to keep training; Faia joined them, enjoying the moon magic topic, or maybe the radial emotional energy he could feed off of from the girl-crushing brunette.

Hands finding her hips, she looked at Hinote, who shifted his weight to the side and looked away, rubbing his arm.  “You, uh, see… I have this date…”

Great.  I’m alone, huh?  Great teamwork, crew.

“No!  No.  It’s fine,” she laughed, waving her hands as Devlin and Vondoom went about their important work.  “Totally fine!  What’s her name?”

Hinote reached down to pick up a hat with ear holes cut out.  “You probably don’t know her.  Copper hair, dense, has a nervous tick with her tail—anyway, we going now?”  he asked expectantly, showing a sly grin that made Sora laugh.

“That was so stupid!”

He walked over to hold up his fist, probably learning it from Aiden or Wendy.  “How can it be stupid if it made you laugh?  I’d call that a win.”

Sora bumped it and went back to her suite to grab her purse and hat since you never knew when you might need something; for instance, yesterday, it came in handy playing fetch with a wolf.  “Touché.  What’s our ETA for our ride?”

“Three minutes,” Vondoom responded.  “A second car is coming for us, Devlin.”

“Got it.”

Hinote followed her into her front living room to sit on a couch and stare out of the window as she went upstairs, selecting a straw hat and magically creating her own ear holes.  Once downstairs, one of her many purses floating behind her, and wearing sandals, she smiled at the casually dressed fox, wearing a tank and shorts.  It was nice not going alone.

“Thanks for coming.”

“Heh.  I’m sure my brother is devastated I’ve missed divination hour, where I’d poke fun at him the entire time.  That our ride?”  he asked, pointing at a sleek-looking car that hovered down beside the balcony.

“Wow.  Fancy.”

She opened the sliding glass door as the car’s back door slid up, revealing a platform that extended to the railing.  Walking forward, she hopped up on the ramp first, scaling it in a single bound.  She ducked under and noticed a rather comfortable interior, built for luxury.

“Huh.  I guess if you’re going to have a cool flying car, you’d better make it ritzy.  Right?”

“I suppose ya be right, Ms.  I only just got snatched up on the recent, I’m afraid, so when it be comin’ ta the details, I can’ say much,” the female driver chuckled, a slightly mystical aura leaking a nervous edge as the woman spoke in an Irish accent she was accustomed to with her father.  “I suppose I be takin’ ya ta Site-106 is what I’ve been told, ma’am.  Correct?”

Plopping into her seat, she saw their driver was a somewhat tall woman, perhaps a few centimeters shorter than Kari.  Hinote joined her, and the ramp swiftly retracted.

“It does look nice—Sora?”

Sora leaned further right to get a better look at their driver’s side profile as the door closed, and they sped into the sky, cloaked from the general public.  She wasn’t fully human, which was whatever, and Sora definitely didn’t want to discriminate, but her slightly pointed ears made her a bit anxious.

“Umm.  Not to be rude, but… are you a fae—it’s just, the ears and aura?”

The woman’s frame stiffened, anxiety leaking out of her pores that Sora could smell, much less her nearly totally unguarded aura.  “Eh-heh.  Sharp eyes ya ‘ave there, ma’am.  Uh, aye, I be a Half-Elf; it be troublesome findin’ proper work when among the half-breeds, ya see.  Do ya… not be likin’ those with muddled blood?”

“No!  No!  No!”  Sora hastily replied with a short chuckle, spotting Hinote’s suspicious eyes scanning the interior as sensory pulses gently eased out of him to search for any kind of trap.  “I can’t say I’ve seen a Half-Elf before.  Umm.  What’s your name?  Is it… common for elves to discriminate against non-full-blooded elves?”

“Eh… it’s a cultural thing,” she mumbled.  “And it’s Corila, ma’am.  Uh-mmgm.  We have a much weaker presence to… The Weave, which makes it hard to… assimilate and communicate.  Ahem.  And, heh, you don’t know what The Weave is,” she hissed, nervously scratching her neck while glancing in the rearview mirror.   “It’s an uncomfortable topic, ma’am.”

“No, yeah—sorry…”

Hinote’s tails flipped in front of Sora’s face, making her lean back a little as he twisted around to look through the back window, staring at the hotel they’d left.  “Wasn’t there supposed to be a second car for Devlin and…”

Sora’s gut sank as Corila’s body became lax, and a spiritual pulse spontaneously aligned with the Half-Elf’s aura; in that split second, the woman’s eyes flashed green.  And suddenly, Sora’s mind started to slip, yet no magic had been cast other than the strange spiritual synchronization that had just happened, and Hinote swayed before falling onto her lap.

Unable to form a cohesive thought, Sora drifted into a blissful state, the world swaying like she was on a spinning tea cup, yet she hadn’t fallen unconscious, as Hinote had, and not half a second later, Corila slumped to the side.

She giggled as the doors opened, and long-eared men and women with long faces reached in to pull her into what looked to be another car.

“How is she still awake?”

“The Pixie dust doesn’t seem to affect her like most creatures.”

“There was enough in here to knock out a god; we dumped our whole supply!”

Sora reached up to stroke one of the men’s pretty faces.  “Did you know that I drink water—a lot… but I haven’t for a long time…  You’ve got pretty eyes…”

“Yeah… she’s gone.”

“Heh.  It’s lucky it’s not lethal at any dose,” another laughed.  “Hurry, before someone notices something’s wrong.  Dump the car in a Veil-Line; it should buy us some time before they find it.  Let’s go!”

Sora floated on clouds before wiggling to the left and wagging a finger at the surprised elves.  “Are you… kidnapping me?  I’m not a kid!  That’s not nice—my dad… eats pancakes—kidnapping is b-bad!”

“No, yeah…” one hesitantly said, guiding her out as she bounced over the seat.  “We’re not kidnapping you—we’re… saving you?”

“Oh!  That’s nice…  I like saving people.  Doesn’t it feel good?”  she cooed, almost slipping off the second car’s extended platform and falling out into the open sky.  “Whoops!  Careful, hehehe.”

“How is she this conscious?!”

“Just keep her distracted…”

Sora sat on the seat and grabbed a frightened Elf woman’s face that helped her down, staring into her eyes.  “You know what you’d look good in?”

“W-What?”

“A braid!  I like braids…  Here, just a little magic here, and fire hair!”

“Ahh!  She changed my hair to be red?!  W-Wha—”

“Fire!”

She looked out of the window as they situated her against it, returning to visions of her childhood on planes, imagining bouncing to each puffy plume on a unicorn.  She grasped everything they said, but couldn’t properly connect it with anything; it was the most surreal, disconnected, joyful experience she’d had, and she was here for it!

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