Charm 2023 - Part 6

My new form allowed for an escape from the contraption they had locked me in, but now I was having a tough time. I didn’t have experience in this form that seemed to be somewhere between teleportation, sliding through the air and through the nearby table.

A gasp escaped from Naya, her companion Reyen lunging for me but hands going right through. Both went into lockdown mode, but I continued to float without control. My mind was like a cloud, barely able to process my next move and entirely focused on simply maintaining some semblance of form—for all I knew, my escape would be my downfall, resulting in the particles that made up my being to continue to separate until I was no more.

With a deep breath, I refocused barely aware of the wall I was passing through or the chanting from Naya. She had taken tubes from the tank that had been my prison and plugged them into her suit, purple mist rising up around her.

Then I was in another section of the cave, or maybe it was a storage room—I couldn’t be sure, my vision nearly overtaken by bright light.

“It’s only you,” a voice said. I tried to turn, but was too non-existent to do so. Another forced breath helped me to regain my focus and realize that the words hadn’t been spoken by anyone, but were merely my thoughts. “You are doing this… and it’s time to pull yourself together.”

More breaths, focusing on my inner core, I imagined a ball of light forming. As it spun, energy formed around it until that energy took shape and was me again.

“How the hell did she do that?” a muffled voice resonated through the walls.

I felt cold stone beneath my fingertips and looked down to see the light fading. My hands were solid, but a glance back showed my tails moving through the air with light flowing, still not taking their normal form. Again I focused on my internal ball of energy, envisioning myself whole, and finally the tails too took shape. My body was complete.

A brief glance around revealed that I was in a narrow tunnel with metal boxes to one side. Weapons, most likely. Each had an orange symbol that reminded me of those fox masks. I rose to approach one, then pulled back the lid to see it wasn’t only weapons, but metallic bits of fox armor like those I had seen in the fortress. Someone—Naya by my bet—was trying to create an army of these things. And considering that the fortress had been producing the tech, I had a feeling Naya and her fox cult were working with them.

Destiny’s betrayal made sense, but I couldn’t wrap my head around why she had pretended to befriend me and shown me the enemy fortress in the first place. Had that been part of the trap all along, or was there more to this picture?

Clanking of doors sounded, followed by shouting in the distance. Still a bit uneasy from my latest experiment with my powers, I staggered to the back of the hall and crouched, thinking I would hide and wait them out. Except, from this angle I could make out a narrow crawl space. Judging by the sound of water, this led to an underground river that I figured connected to the river I’d traversed alongside Destiny before.

A quick roll brought me into the darkness below, but I managed a glow of my eyes to see better. Even that took a lot out of me in my exhausted state. I told myself to be careful when to use that spirit power in the future.

I was able to find the river and then follow it upstream. The walk was tough with the low ceiling, to the extent that I had to move on all fours at some points, tails pressed down behind me. Rocks blocked my path so that more than once I had to move along the slick rocks bordering the river.

At a bend in the river, I came upon a line of light shining down from above. Seeing the light gave me hope, so I quickened my pace toward it. A rock crunched beneath my feet.

My mind didn’t comprehend why the rock would crunch like that until I looked down to see the “rocks” in my path. They weren’t rocks at all, but bones. And beneath me, a broken skull. I would have ignored this, except that I noticed the pointy teeth. Kneeling to investigate, I found other signs, including long claws and tail bones, that indicated these weren’t normal skeletons, but those of kitsune like myself.

Someone had been luring kitsune here and draining them of their powers!

Rage built up inside of me and I felt my energy returning, light swirling through this chamber and lighting it entirely.

“Down there,” a voice said from above.

Instead of being worried that they had found me, I was filled with excitement and a thirst for blood. These motherfuckers deserved what they were about to get.

I charged forward and leaped up, tails waving behind me and giving me the extra burst to clear the opening and land directly in the path of a woman with a half-mask of the fox and black robe. She struck me as a lower-level guard, but an alarm blared behind her and more were incoming.

“Did you kill my sisters and brothers?” I asked, claws unfurled and ready to exact justice.

“I did as ordered,” the woman said, voice breaking as she took a step back.

“Then you made a horrible mistake…” I took a step toward her, but the figure who came running in from a side tunnel gave her pause. It was Destiny, hands up in surrender.

“Charm, wait… please,” Destiny said. “It wasn’t her fault.”

“So it was yours?” I turned on her, rising into the air.

“I—I didn’t want them to get to you. I’m sorry!”

“Sorry won’t cut it.”

“I know.” Destiny knelt, hands out at her side. “I tried to lead you to the enemy, truly hoping you would be able to put a stop to it. But they found out and then got to you.”

“‘They’ meaning the enemy?”

“‘They’ meaning us,” another voice said, and there was Naya with Reyen behind her, more guards with them with their black cloaks. “The Order of the Fox has a new mission—when the Kitsune Planet abandoned us, a sect of our group decided it was time to take power for ourselves, to be able to stand with the Nihilists and Supreme Leader to be powerful in our own right. You and your people now serve us—not in the traditional sense, but in the sense that we feed upon your powers, create technology that will propel us into the future and help our Order to stand on our own.”

The woman stepped forward so that my light glistened on her armor. Naya was tall and imposing, metal tails thrust up behind her. Her suit began to whir and hum, metal plates shifting and rearranging to reveal long claws, each like a dagger. Her tails elongated and more blades emerged, becoming powerful metal appendages that could slice through even the most rigid materials.

With a fierce cry, Naya launched herself into action, her metal tails whipping through the air with her sights set on me. Pushing through my lingering exhaustion, I charged forward to meet this woman in battle. Metal tails sliced, Naya’s attacks coming quicker than seemed natural. I found myself more on the defensive than I would have liked.

This was the power of her kitsune people used against her. Not only others, but my own energy stolen and used against her. As one tail missed, another came from the left, so I had to use a burst of my remaining energy to teleport back and away. My next move was strained, energy nearly spent. Worse, when panels opened at Naya’s shoulders and two blasts of purple energy shot out.

I threw herself sideways, arms up in defense, but one of the blasts hit! I felt instantly drained, and I collapsed to the floor. A line of white light escaped my mouth, floating up and around my head like smoke.

“Take her,” Naya commanded.

Guards strolled forward, but as soon as the closest bent over to lift me to my feet, I spun and grabbed, pulling him close to sink my teeth into his neck. He screamed and pulled back, blood gushing. The others hesitated, eyeing me with concern.

“You all have a choice,” I said, pushing herself to stand despite my lack of strength. “I stand before you, a true kitsune and member of Breaker’s Berserkers. My name is Charm, and I can and will bring the power of my people to attack our enemy. Don’t let that enemy be you.”

Naya scoffed, but the guards weren’t advancing. Instead, they looked between her and me, waiting.

“Fine,” Naya said with a growl, “I’ll finish this myself.”