Earth Calendar: 2117
Equestrian Calendar: 15 AC (After Contact)
March 31st, Gregorian Calendar
Fyrenn caught sight of the flame the moment the Bureau was in sight. Focusing his eyes, he swiftly realized that the conflagration was actually a small contained blaze within a ring of concrete blocks situated on a flat part of the building's roof.
Neyla and April were busy preparing some sort of bread product, while Kephic and Varan fried skewers of meat and fruit over the open flame. Skye sat to the side, warming her hooves against the unseasonably cool night, and Carradan was busy preparing immense tankards for drinks.
Fyrenn tilted his wings slightly, and diverted from his original destination at the front of the Bureau, alighting in a spray of gravel at the opposite end of the roof. He liked to stick fast landings occasionally, to test his leg tolerances.
The red Gryphon took a few halting steps towards the group, then paused, enamored with the chance to simply watch them in their preparations.
His musings were swiftly interrupted by the sound of Stan's hooves crunching their way through the gravel towards him.
The Pegasus flopped down onto his haunches beside Fyrenn, and allowed the silence to continue for a moment before speaking.
"April's idea. She said she has a list of things she and Sonya planned to do after they got free. 'Picnic' was pretty easy to fulfill, so we obliged. Comforting sight yeah?"
Fyrenn nodded, and smiled.
"Yeah. Sometimes I have to just stop, and take it in. I'm not..."
He paused, momentarily at a loss for words.
"I'm just struck by it all sometimes. I like to make sure I never reach a point where it becomes routine. Where I take it for granted."
Stan nodded, and snorted.
"I know exactly whatcha mean. My past family life probably takes more craptacular awards than even yours. Mom was never there, and I don't entirely blame her. Dad was... Well no tears were shed when he shuffled off, that's for sure."
Fyrenn decided not to press the issue, and ruin the moment. He simply let the conversation lapse, keeping his eyes fixed on April as Neyla showed her how to slice into a loaf of bread without slicing open her fingers.
Carradan broke the silence again, gesturing with a hoof towards the pair.
"Puttin' aside the fact that you're lettin' a good thing languish there with Neyla..."
Fyrenn offered the Pegasus a mock death glare, to which Carradan responded with a sly smile as he continued.
"...Why are you holdin' April at arm's length?"
There was an uncomfortable pause, before Stan forged ahead.
"I mean, I know you're lookin' out for her, and I know you love her... But you put her up in a separate room. You make her spend more time with the others, on purpose, when out of the whole group she's most attached to you and Neyla."
The Pegasus locked eyes with the red Gryphon, piercing him with a surprisingly tenacious and angry glower.
"That girl hasn't got anyone anymore except us, and you in particular. You think that's about to change at the drop of a hat? Everyone else out there either doesn't give a scat, or wants to slit her throat. She won't stop talking about you. Won't stop asking questions about being a Gryphon. She'd have taken that Potion on day one if you offered it to her."
Fyrenn shook his head, and sighed.
"Stan. Stop. You know what its like to grow up with only one parent. In a way, I do too. No kid should have to live with that disadvantage if they have other options."
Carradan grunted, and shook his head.
"Laying aside the fact that she's practically got a mother already..."
The Pegasus gestured towards Neyla once more as he finished the statement.
"No. She doesn't have other options featherbrain. No Human parent is gonna adopt a war-torn battle-hardened child soldier with metal in her spine and weird powers. She'll never make it as one of us pretty pastel Ponies either. She's not that type. I've seen the same fire in her eyes as yours. And I've seen the love, when both of you look at each other."
Fyrenn snorted, the sound almost metamorphosing into a subdued sob.
"Stan... I am not ready to be a father. Not even close."
Carradan exhaled sharply, and rolled his eyes as he rose.
"Puh-leeze. No one ever is. No one can be. But I'll tell you something... She needs you. And knowing you? You need her too. You're up to scratch as far as I'm concerned."
Fyrenn chuckled, and winced.
"Says the guy who's madly in love with a Changeling."
Carradan reached out and rammed his hoof gently into Fyrenn's side as the pair began moving towards the impromptu campfire. As he delivered his response, Fyrenn retaliated with a brief crushing hug from his right wing.
"I ain't the one snubbin' cupid at every turn. *Oof!* It takes all types, featherduster."
"Ma'am! You need to see this!"
Councilor Loryss steepled her fingers as her secretary dashed into the office without knocking.
"Alice... Has no one taught you that it's rude to enter an office without permission?"
The woman shook her head, and gestured to the wall screen opposite the door, fumbling awkwardly with the control panel.
"You know how your guard, Mike, failed to report in today? We know why."
At last, the screen came to life, displaying a gruesome sight. Behind a grimacing reporter a pair of coroners were trying to separate Mike's body from an immense titanium javelin, which had skewered him to the wall of a building, like a bug in a display case.
Alice held a hand to her mouth, and shook her head slowly.
"What in the world *is* that?!"
Loryss turned dispassionately back to her desk, and sighed.
"It's called a statement Alice. Cancel my evening appointments."
Fyrenn turned directly into his room as he reached the door, allowing April to fall behind slightly as she riveted his back with a confused stare.
He gestured to a small pallet of pillows and blankets beside his bed.
"You won't be needing your own room anymore."
In an instant, the little girl was practically on Fyrenn's back, scooping up part of one wing, and his neck in a bear hug.
He smiled, and did his best to conceal his wince. April had latched onto his sore wing. She dropped to the floor, and giggled sheepishly.
"Sorry."
Fyrenn's smile widened, and he shrugged.
"Believe me. I've had worse."
April narrowed her eyes, suppressing a mischievous grin.
"Prove it. Tell me one of your stories."
Fyrenn gestured with a claw, rolling his eyes slightly.
"Neyla put your nightclothes in the bathroom. Get changed, *brush,* and I don't mean just ten seconds of swirling the handle idly, and then we'll talk about stories."
As April skipped across the room, around the corner, and into the bathroom, Neyla peeked her head around the door frame, smiling.
"I think that was the best leave day I've ever had. She's amazingly resilient for a Human raised in a constant state of pain, and fear."
Fyrenn shrugged, and sighed.
"Well... When you're in a crucible, you either toughen up, or you flake apart. There is no middle ground. Only time will tell if the optimism sticks though. Bitterness can be very subtle, and very insidious."
Neyla flashed Fyrenn a small, sad smile.
"Humans are full of wonderful idioms, and proverbs. One of my favorites is; Practice what you preach."
Earth Calendar: 2117
Equestrian Calendar: 15 AC (After Contact)
April 1st, Gregorian Calendar
Though the room was a black as velvet to unaided Human eyes, its occupants found it easy to discern its features.
The four men were clad in highly flexible, thin, biophobic fabric that was nearly as black as the darkness itself, and designed to produce no sound whatsoever when its wearer moved.
Each carried a full sized bullpup laser carbine. An efficient, guaranteed, traceless way to eliminate someone unarmored, at close range. Each wore a slim, matte black lightweight helmet, with built in LADAR-based night vision.
The four men had even opened the door soundlessly, disabling the pneumatic actuators from the outside, and manually inching the panels into their open positions.
There was no verbal communication. Only the occasional hand signal to confirm orders and observations.
The four operatives knew their target. And it seemed as if their objective would be simpler than they could have ever imagined.
One prone form, large and visibly moving with the pressure of its own breath, was distinctively red and feathered. The other, nestled on a nearby pallet, was decidedly smaller and Human.
One man moved to the window, the other to cover the door. The third moved to place the barrel of his weapon against Fyrenn's temple, the other to place his bedside April's head.
The man beside the red Gryphon held up all five fingers on his right hand, and began to count down.
Five.
Four.
Three.
Two.
One.
As his left index finger moved onto the trigger, his world radically reshaped itself.
Before the man could draw his next breath, Fyrenn's right claw was twisting his rifle in the direction of his comrade, and his left had perforated the man's brain stem in four places.
As the first man dropped dead soundlessly, Fyrenn squeezed the trigger, placing a perfect cauterized circular hole through the second assailant's throat, thus severing his spine before he could do April harm.
The other two men sprang into action, but by then it was far too late for them. The first was dead before Fyrenn could turn his weapon on him. Neyla stood behind him, her RAC's muzzle still steaming, as he dropped to the floor missing half of his left chest cavity.
April came bolt upright, reflexively extending both hands and shouting in anger and fear as the final assailant closed on her.
With a whine, and a visible distortion, the air around him rippled. His body abruptly shot backwards, as if it had been hit by a train, passing effortlessly through the safety glass of the room's window as though it were mere cobwebs.
Fyrenn listened for his long scream, and then the distant crunch as the man lost a momentary argument with gravity, inertia, the density of duracrete, and the Earth's mass.
Almost as quickly as it had begun, it was over.
Before Fyrenn could even fully rise, April had buried herself under one of his wings, and was clutching at his side.
Neyla dashed to the window, and glanced down at the carnage below, confirming that the final assailant was, in fact dead.
She made her way over to Fyrenn as Kephic and Varan dashed in, nuzzling her beak under his wing until she found April. She offered the girl the Gryphic equivalent of a motherly kiss, before pulling away, and glowering down at the remaining dead bodies.
No one needed to speak, but Fyrenn did so, nonetheless.
"This is going to stop. And I will not rest until it does."
"What are you up to?"
Carradan nosed his way into Fyrenn's room, and winced as he saw the impromptu tarp covering over the window. The sight conjured up bad memories of Skye's past injuries.
Fyrenn glanced up from his DaTab, and sighed. He forced the object into a small plastic sleeve, and tossed it onto his desk.
"You've heard about our two-AM visitors?"
Stan nodded, and exhaled sharply.
"These assclowns just don't know when to quit."
Fyrenn nodded, and sighed. He glanced at his packed bag and snorted. Most of it consisted of a first aid kit, April's clothing, and his Sword and scabbard.
"Stan... April and I are taking a trip, of sorts. We need to travel fast, and low profile. So it's really just a trip for two."
Carradan nodded, and smiled.
"Slim chances are better than no chances, right?"
Fyrenn smiled, and nodded slowly.
"Right."
He paused, and glanced down at the DaTab in its storage sleeve.
"Will you do me a favor? Take this to the officer on duty and tell him to file it with his daily reports for auto-processing."
Stan raised an eyebrow, and took the object on one wing.
"Do I wanna know?"
Fyrenn shook his head as he hefted his bag, and made his way out the door.
"No. But if you want to look, you have my permission. I trust you. In fact, I'd feel better if you knew."
Carradan nodded, and smiled.
"Hey feathers? Good luck."
Fyrenn snorted as he rapped once on Neyla's door with his right claw.
"I don't really buy into the idea of luck. But I certainly appreciate the sentiment."
The door hissed open, and Fyrenn tossed the Pegasus a final grin as the latter made his way down the hall to the lift.
As the door closed once more, the red Gryphon inclined his head towards the inner part of the room.
"Is she still sleeping?"
Neyla shook her head, and sighed.
"No, but she hasn't been very energetic. I think the events of the night drained her. Physically, mentally, and emotionally."
Fyrenn nodded, and made his way quietly to April's side. She was seated cross-legged in the center of Neyla's bed, staring blankly at the wall screen as morning news and weather scrolled by.
Her face brightened slightly as Fyrenn flopped down beside her.
"Morning."
The red Gryphon chuckled, and crooked his neck briefly around April in an approximation of a hug.
"Morning. Get any sleep?"
April shook her head, yawning reflexively.
"Not really. You?"
Fyrenn chuckled again, and shook his head.
"Not even close."
A moment of silence passed. April remained vacantly fixated on the morning weather, and Neyla stood in the doorway, content to observe in silence. Fyrenn extended one wing, and placed it around April like a protective canopy. The gesture got her attention, and Fyrenn spoke as soon as he was sure she was fully attentive.
"Someone recently told me that I needed to think very carefully about your future. He was right. After all you've been through, and considering all the options... And after what happened last night..."
April remained dutifully silent, fixated on Fyrenn's eyes as he did his best to frame his thoughts well.
"April... The law is not going to save you. The government is complicit in everything that's happened to you... And no one else in the world is willing to do anything but turn a blind eye."
The girl's face fell, and tears began to well up in the corners of her eyes.
"So... What are you saying? I can't... I can't..."
Fyrenn pulled April close with his wing, and shook his head.
"I'm saying you can't afford to wait until the legal Ponification age. They will throw everything they have at us, and then some, and eventually that will amount to more than we can handle. But I have an alternative."
April's face immediately went taught with anticipation, though tears continued to build up sporadically in her eyes as Fyrenn continued.
"You remember I said that I wasn't always a Gryphon. I'm sure you saw the news when the Gryphon Conversion program began..."
April nodded meekly, jamming a hand into one eye to remove the moisture. Fyrenn canted the edge of one wing inward, and used the softest part of his outer primaries to finish the job in a more delicate fashion.
"What I'm about to suggest is completely illegal. It involves essentially kidnapping you in the eyes of the law. Stealing classified and protected government substances. We will probably get into a great deal of trouble over it, and we may even lose our citizenships here. They might kick us off the planet outright. If we live to get that far. I understand that it's not a decision you should have to make under pressure, but we don't really have time for you to give it a lot of consideration."
Fyrenn paused, inhaled, and pulled April close once again as he steeled himself.
"I won't lie to you. Excluding all the other risks, there's also a solid chance you could die, or that the process simply won't function on you... But I want to offer you the same gift they offered me. A pair of wings, a new life, and a family."
There was a long, tense, still moment. April seemed to have frozen entirely, as she began to try and process the words. Fyrenn felt as if his chest were compressing under an immense load.
All at once, April cannoned into his chest and side, squeezing him as tightly as her little arms could, and sobbing hysterically with joy, and relief.
"Yes! Yes, yes, yes, yes!"
Fyrenn wrapped both wings tightly around the young girl, and shot a melancholy smile up at Neyla.
The Gryphoness stepped into the center of the room, and began pulling pieces of armor from her storage crate.
"When do we leave?"
The red Gryphon chuckled and held up a claw.
"Hang on. 'We?' No. I am not asking you to place yourself in this position."
Neyla shrugged as she began to cinch on her wing guards.
"I know. And I'm not asking for your permission. I don't need or want it."
She gestured with one claw to the crate.
"I checked you out a set. Best you get that adjusted, while I inform the others. We'll need a distraction if we expect to have the requisite time to force our way into the Potion Vault. And you know how badly Varan's been looking for an excuse to make use of the latest tactical canister launcher."
Fyrenn smiled sadly as Neyla seated her helmet with one claw, and her crossbow with the other.
"You really do defy description sometimes. And I'm very grateful."
The Gryphoness snorted as she made her way to the door.
"You defy description most of the time, so I suppose Stan would say we deserve each other. I will see you at the lower access door in twelve minutes."
To Fyrenn's surprise, the lift doors opened onto Hutch's frowning visage.
"General."
Hutch crossed his arms, and raised an eyebrow, noting that April was sheltering under Fyrenn's partially extended right wing.
"You don't get to cross this line Fyrenn. You have your motivations, and I respect them. But you have absolutely no right...
To walk out of here without saying goodbye to me."
Fyrenn sighed in relief, and shook his head slowly as he stepped out of the lift with April.
"It's not that I don't trust you. It's more that I wanted to give you the wonderful gift of plausible deniability."
Hutch snorted, and rolled his eyes.
"I've already burnt that bridge to a toasty crisp. I don't need that sort of protection. People have a problem with me, they can take it up with my nine millimeter. You just do what you have to do, and I'll keep the porch light on for your return."
Fyrenn smiled, and wrapped Hutch in a brief hug with both forelegs.
"Thank you."
As Hutch pulled away, his smile fell to something more melancholy. The tone of his words matched. Fyrenn couldn't quite lay claw to it, but it gave him pause.
"You were right, you know. The questions you're asking? The lines you're crossing? I think we've both spent too long using our orders, our flags, and our oaths as excuses for the things they've asked us to do. To accept. You're doing the right thing. I'll see you again soon."
Neyla's voice accompanied the sound of her paws and claws on the tiling of the floor.
"I wouldn't 'hold my breath' if I were you Hutch. If things don't go according to plan, we may have to stay hidden for a more protracted period."
As Varan and Kephic made their way in from the corridor, the former grunted in a low tone.
"Mmmm. Well nothing ever goes precisely according to plan with you two, so there is no need for speculation here."
Fyrenn took a moment to indulge an embrace with both Kephic, and Varan, noting that they were each garbed in their armor, and heavily armed.
"Try not to burn the place down in the process of causing a distraction."
Kephic smirked, and waggled a claw.
"Results may vary. But we'll try not to go entirely overboard."
Varan nodded sagely.
"Indeed. We will need this building intact if we are to protect General Hutchinson, Commander Aston, Skye, and Stanley from reprisal."
There was a long pause, broken only by a soft giggle from April. Fyrenn sighed, and chuckled dryly. Varan nodded, and inclined his head.
"I see. I have missed the 'punchline' again."
Hutch folded his hands behind his back, and stepped into the lift, whistling innocently.
"And I am about to miss all the warning signs that there's about to be a massive breach of building security that results in surprisingly little damage, or casualties."
As the doors irised closed, the General waved at April, and winked.
"Stay safe kiddo."
As the lift thrummed away up the clear glass tube and into the upper floors, Neyla gestured to one of the stairwell access doors on the far side of the atrium.
"We don't have an abundance of time. It won't be long before either the staff notice us behaving suspiciously, or our enemies make another attempt to rectify their mistake."
Fyrenn nodded, and smiled as Kephic and Varan traded goodbye hugs with April.
The group split in silence, with Neyla, April and Fyrenn hurrying into the stairwell, while Kephic and Varan made their way back to the elevator bank. As the stairwell door closed, Fyrenn caught a faint glimpse of Varan unslinging his launcher, and loading in a diluted tear gas canister.
"He enjoys testing that thing on live targets just a little too much."
As the trio descended the stairs as quickly as April could manage, Neyla snorted.
"You're one to talk. What is his kill-count for the past week, as compared to yours?"
Fyrenn inclined his head as he pulled open the maintenance door at the foot of the steps.
"Touché."
A familiar tan and cobalt shape stood at the end of the hardened access corridor. Skye's horn was alight, and the access panel housing for the door was strewn across the ground in thirty different pieces.
Fyrenn chuckled and sized up the immense steel and titanium portal.
"I wondered where you had gotten off to. I also wondered how I was going to bring down this door, and the half-dozen countermeasure systems on the other side, given that my access codes are invalid these days."
Skye cracked a wry smile as she flicked through a series of holographic controls with one hoof, while simultaneously adjusting the thaumatic strands of her spell.
"I wasn't about to feel left out. I've always wanted to see what it would take to break into the systems I helped retrofit... Turns out it's simpler than I figured it would be. We didn't build it to defeat my particular brand of magical 'tweaking.' "
The Unicorn spared a momentary glance, and a smile, for April.
"Just one sec. Auntie Skye needs to finish committing this teeny tiny felony cybercrime, and then you'll be on your way."
A few moments passed, filled with the soft burbling noise of Skye's magic, and punctuated with the trills of the panel's responses. Abruptly, the holographic interface fizzled away, and the door unlatched with a variety of whines, clanks, and hissing sounds indicating the deactivation of both magnetic and pneumatic clamps.
The tan Unicorn stood back, nuzzled April, and grinned.
"See? Piece of cake."
Fyrenn smiled, and scooped Skye into a hug with one wing.
"I really appreciate it. I was afraid I'd have to resort to a plasma cutter."
Skye snorted, pressed her head into the crook of Fyrenn's neck, then shook it emphatically as she stepped away.
"Nothing so boorish big-red. Ya know you keep me around for *something* after all."
The red Gryphon nodded towards the stairwell.
"For a lot of things, Skye. Much more important things even than that spectacular brain of yours. And I'd like you to stick around in one piece going forward, same as the rest of the family. You better make tracks before the alarm system resets."
Skye smirked as she dashed across to the door, and pushed it inwards with one hoof.
"Waaaay ahead of you feathers. Good luck."
Fyrenn turned and made his way down the center aisle of the Potion Vault, Neyla herding April along behind with one outstretched wing.
The space was intimately familiar to the red Gryphon. Angular ceiling trusses held up a one and a half story concrete vault as long as a football field, and almost half as wide. Potion canisters lined tall, sturdy shelves bolted to the floor.
Canisters were sealed, in groups of four, by clear plexiglass cubes bordered with gray carbon fiber shock protection material. The vast majority of the potion cylinders glowed with a faint purple luminescence, but a few near the end of the space glowed red, blue, and telltale gold.
Fyrenn made his way purposefully to a box containing cylinders of the latter color, and removed it gingerly from its place.
He sized up the plexiglass siding, before carefully depressing one index talon into the material, and making a series of forceful circular motions. The paneling had been designed primarily to prevent accidental spillage if the casing was dropped. It had never been intended as a serious security measure.
With the tiny, soft 'thud' of a broken airtight seal, the piece of glass fell away, leaving a hole large enough to extract one of the potion cylinders.
Fyrenn paused as he held the golden object up to the light. The material was viscous, like a milkshake. Semitransparent and gold colored, it glistened and sparkled faintly as light interacted with the thaumatic energies, and programmable nanoparticles contained within.
April stared up at the cylinder in awe as Fyrenn carefully wrapped it in several of her spare shirts, and secreted it in his bag. He slung the object between his wings, and nodded to the door.
"I'm betting we'll have alarms inside ten seconds, and there will be an armed response before we exit the building. We have no way to tell the difference between people just doing their jobs, and more aggressive elements. So we use appropriate force. No hesitations."
Fyrenn glanced down at April, and mustered a comforting half-smile
"Stay between us. Don't overexert yourself trying to protect us, or to help in any other way. You just stay close and be ready to hold on to Neyla tightly when the time comes."
As the trio reached the stairwell, the first set of alarms began to blare piercingly from behind every wall. Fyrenn gestured up the many flights of stairs, into the gloom of the upper stories.
"Standard procedure involves a total building lockdown, but most of those procedures were written by Humans, to stop Humans. If we take this stairwell halfway up, we can breach the low-security door on one of the interim levels, and find an opportune window."
Neyla sighed, and pulled April up onto her back as she began to take the stairs seven at a time.
"I hate stairs. Complete and total waste of space for something with a perfectly good set of wings."
Fyrenn nodded as he bounded from landing to landing, counting the floors and the seconds since the alarm had been raised.
As he reached the fifteenth floor, the red Gryphon paused, and held up a fisted claw. Neyla let April slide gently off her back, then guided her to a position of relative safety in one corner of the stairwell.
Fyrenn pointed to the door, and drew his sword.
"I'd expect to see one guard. Two if they were unusually fast on the uptake."
The two Gryphons extended their forelegs in tandem, and slammed them into the door with as much force as they could muster.
The entryway caved in and flew several feet into the corridor, striking something with a thud, and a groan of pain. Fyrenn pivoted around the door, and found himself face to face with a ConSec guard, flat on his back, with his left leg crushed under the stairwell door.
The man's pistol was raised, and his face was grim. Fyrenn leveled his sword, and glared.
"Drop the weapon, and we'll be on our way. Refuse, and you'll be treated as complicit with our enemies. We both know I'll have you where I want you, long before your trigger finger even begins to move, so let's not play pointless games."
The soldier winced, and shook his head.
"I have strict orders. Detain anyone who passes. No exceptions."
Fyrenn shrugged, and took a step into the corridor.
"That's a shame. In advance? I am sorry for the stitches."
The Gryphon watched as a thousand tiny cues in the man's skin and eyes told him he was preparing to move his trigger finger. Fyrenn struck first.
By the time the neurons in the man's hand were ready to send commands to the appropriate muscles, his brain's normal functions had already been interrupted by the force of a carefully calibrated blow from the pommel of Fyrenn's weapon.
As Neyla brought April in from the stairwell, Fyrenn reached down and shifted the crumpled doorway, covering the unconscious soldier's vision in order to prolong his dazed somnolence.
He gestured to the window, and stiffened, as the sound of perturbed voices and heavy boots on carpet issued from around the curve of the corridor.
"Exit stage left."
Neyla snatched up April, and retreated to the far wall with Fyrenn. The red Gryphon went first, extending his sword outwards perpendicular to the plate glass of the window as he broke into the fastest lope he could manage in such confined space.
The blade made short work of the plexiglass, providing more than enough of a structural breakage to allow Fyrenn to shatter the entire massive pane.
As he broke free of the structure, and pulled into a steep climb, he heard Neyla directly behind him. He would have volunteered to carry April, but he still harbored concerns about his sore wing.
By the time the responding guards finished aiding their bruised comrade, Fyrenn, April, and Neyla had long since vanished into a low hanging strand of cloud.