“I still don’t know why I have to come!” Said Ezra. It was a day later and Tori had dragged Ezra out of school to go and save Asterisk. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to save her. No, he still planned to find a way to save all of the lost gods, but he did not like spending time with Tori.
“Shut up. I can’t do this myself, and it’s not like I can bring Katherine.” Tori was pretty much dragging Ezra by the sleeve towards the looming blue square of the Guard House.“Why can’t you? Hey, just ask if you can borrow John’s services. He probably could do this. But not me.”
“Kat needs John for her safety when I’m not around. I can’t take her protection away. Now come on, let’s go.”
They approached the entrance, which was guarded by two guards. They seemed to glare as Tori walked up beside one of them, and in explicitly one of the guards was on fire. Ezra didn’t see what had happened, but the flaming guard was certainly freaking out. The other guard backed away with fear, but it was soon blazing as well. They both fled into the building.
“Was that a good idea? Honestly, they’re just going to tell everyone else about our arrival.” Ezra said.
“They’re mute. I’d have thought you’d have known that.” Said Tori, pulling Ezra inside the gate.
“How could I have known that? It’s not like anyone has ever seen one without their armor.” Said Ezra. Tori lead him down several maze-like hallways, but Tori seemed to know where she was. They suddenly ducked to the left, as a small party of guards passed by.
“I can name plenty of people who have seen them. Hundreds, maybe thousands. The whole Hub pretty much.” Tori took a small rusted doorway that was hidden in the shadows and pulled Ezra up up a catwalk.
“I can’t name one person- besides you, of course, but you’re probably lying anyways- who has seen one.”
“I’d like to say I hate making you eat your own words, but that would be lying. Take a look down, will you?”
Ezra did as she said, and was shocked at what he saw. Right below him were hundreds of creatures, all marching on two legs. They did indeed have fur, it was a silky looking shade of brown, that covered their whole body. The had a long tail, one that arched upwards to show off an impressive collection of spikes. Their head was small and pointed like a fox, but their ears were more feline. They all had huge eyes, that would dart around as they marched. A few off-duty guard-creatures seemed to be brushing their fur.
Tori pointed them out. “The squad are all genetically engineered animals. They are all programmed with an excessive love of themselves and their fur- it’s like a backup mechanism to prevent revolt. They never think of more then themselves and their orders. If you mess up their fur, they will stop to fix it, no matter what.”
“That’s just... impractical.”
“It’s just science. And it works great for us, as we can use it to our advantage if we’re caught. I’m pretty sure there aren’t many humans in this complex, so we might not run into any at all. I’m not sure where they’re keeping mom, but it’s bound to be somewhere special. Certainly one of the smaller buildings. Or underground.” Tori ranted on and on. All of her rather obsessive ideas about where Asterisk was and what sort of guards might be there (aside from the obvious) and how precisely they were going to make their escape. Ezra was surprised they hadn’t been noticed yet, as she was making a bit of a racket.
Tori continued on, “...We also should be on the look out for any cameras. They might be connected to a giant, sentient robot that could potentially-”
“Tori... Maybe we should just... scout around a bit? Then maybe make plans? I don’t think either of us knows what’s here.” Ezra just had to cut in. Sure, he didn’t want to have to rescue Asterisk now, but that didn’t mean he didn’t want to play it safe.
“Right... whatever.” Tori said curtly.
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