Rafer could actually see the fear in his fellow soldiers' eyes, however Longblade had entrusted him with the Cursed faction's safety while in their base. No one had expected Pure to value the humanoid Demi-god tier beast to the point they had sent out their second strongest fighter. Without the Cursed faction's help, Longblade and all of them would have perished, instead of only sustaining a few injuries.
"I understand all your worries, but Colonel Longblade is still the highest ranked soldier and leader of this base! The injuries he received were not from anyone of the Cursed faction. In fact, all of us owe our lives to them!" Rafer explained to Sergeant Till, as he looked back at the Demi-god tier beast and Sil, wishing the young boy had kept his mouth shut.
He was still unsure what exactly had happened to the Demi-god tier beast for it to cooperate with them, as not much had been explained to the Earthborn group. From what little they had told him, it appeared that after subduing it, that Boy named Shiro had tamed it with an ability similar to Mona's.
On top of that, he was more worried about the soldiers pointing their weapons at Sil and Raten. If they had seen how easily the boy had subdued the beast, they wouldn't be so brazen.
"If you are truly afraid about their intentions, I shall accompany the members of the Cursed faction to a safe house for the time being. They have bravely fought against not only the Demi-god tier beast, but have also defeated Pure. The least we can do is thank them by allowing them to rest! Me and my team will keep a watch on them until the Colonel has recovered. Any objections, SERGEANT Till?"
Till looked at Rafer for a few seconds, and at those from the Cursed faction. As someone who had been very loyal to Innu, he had shared his idol's suspicions in regards to the Cursed faction. After learning they had broken into the lab he had actually been worried that something had happened below as well.
However, as he hadn't been there, he had to take Rafer's word for it. At least it was true that the Colonel had come back alive. "...fine, but the Demi-god tier beast has to be returned to the facility until we get to the bottom of this whole mess!"
"No!" Sil immediately stood in front of the still tied humanoid beast. "He stays with us. If any of you try to take him away, I will make you pay!"
Some of the soldiers smirked at his threat. How could one person possibly stop them all, but the concerned look on Rafters and Jay's face that had seen what happened said it all.
"The first Mech squad will also guard the safe house. If the Demi-gods tier beast stays with them, you will have my men ready to protect the place. This should be enough, right?" Avion intervened, also on the behalf of Quinn and the others.
With a few high ranking members vouching for the Cursed faction it was getting harder and harder for Till to refuse, without turning this into a personal matter. He thought at least one of the men that had gone down with them would be on his side, especially Jay who didn't trust the Cursed as much as he did.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇt'Just what happened down there for them to put so much trust in this group?' He wondered.
"... take them all to the safe house. They will be on watch at all times until Longblade is ready." Till ordered, not hiding his frustration about the outcome of this situation.
The group was safely being escorted to the safe house, and Rafer and the others made sure to surround the exhausted members of the Cursed faction, acting as a sort of buffer to prevent anyone from doing anything stupid.
Many of the guards on duty didn't exactly trust them and Rafer wanted to prevent anyone from escalating this entire situation. Whatever Quinn and the others might be, it was clear to him that they were on the same side as them. Instead of the infighting the soldiers should focus on the war against the Dalki in his opinion.
Although it was referred to as a safe house, that place had originally been designed to detain soldiers who had gone too far. As such, it was more like a report prison, although it could also be used to capture any members of Pure.
Entering the place wasn't as bad as they had initially thought. There was a large room that would have been able to fit around thirty or so people inside. There was also a kitchen with working water inside and several rooms for them to sleep in. The only thing was, the place didn't have any form of entertainment, or windows for that matter.
The entrance was the only way in and out, a really secure and sturdy door with several guards placed in front.
"Do they really think this place can hold us if the whole thing isn't made for glathrieum? I mean even if we couldn't destroy the door, we could just break some of the walls instead." Fex said, still frustrated at the kind of welcome they had received after saving everyone's butt. ="Let's just wait things out. Logan must have had his reasons for doing what he did, no need to add fuel to the fire."
However, Till had left twenty of his own foot soldiers as guards. The soldiers had the whole building complex surrounded on all ends. As for Avion's Mech team, other than their leader, everyone else got replaced so his guys could get some rest, but only after collecting their missing teammate that was found safely in the hanger.
Not wanting to do anything else, Quinn decided they would wait for Longblade to wake up. In the meantime they would discuss what exactly would happen between them.
"Come on get me out of these damn things!" Raten demanded, as he was swinging his body around. Currently he was in his mud like form, since they had learnt that the mud was actually what the beast powers allowed him to control. His real body would avoid being hurt and he could constantly replace the mud, while his true body was his weak point underneath.
"Oh please, we all know you could break out of it yourself!" Fex argued, but he undid the strong binding, knowing full well how strong the beast was from when he had fought it for a few seconds.
"Fex, what exactly were you doing down there in the first place, weren't you meant to stay with this guy?" Shiro asked, pointing at Agent 11 who was in the corner still wriggling about.
Unless there had been any stragglers, Agent 11 was now the sole survivor after Agent 2 had consumed the rest. Due to him being wrapped up like the Demi-god beast they had just assumed he was part of the Cursed faction along with them.
The one perplexed by everything going on was Nathan. He wasn't a true member of the Cursed faction but for the time being was being treated as one, and he found it odd how all of these people acted with each other. So he just stood at the back on his own and let the situation play out.
'How, how do these people get along with each other and get things done?' Nathan wondered.
Fex went on to tell his tale of how he had stolen a Mech from the others in order to go down underground, and then went on to explain his battle with the beasts. Although Fex had been unable to get any information out from the double digit Agent, at least they still had a hold of him which was the good thing about this story.
"It was a good thing you saved Avion's life. After what Logan did, we are going to need all the people we can on our side to solve this diplomatically." Layla said.
"Layla, I wanted to ask, what the hell happened to you back then? I never knew you were so strong. If I hadn't seen it myself I would have never believed you could fight the second strongest Pure Agent toe to toe. Heck, I doubt I could do that even with a puppet. Has your subclass always been this strong?" Fex excitedly spoke.
Quinn was also inclined to learn more about what exactly had happened to her. Layla started to explain, nervously rubbing her arm up and down as if she didn't really want to recall such a situation.
"Quinn told me that my body has a lot more Qi than is usual. I just haven't figured out how to access and use most of it. However, when I was in that form, it had come to me naturally. But… I don't know if I can do it again. I'm not even sure I want to use it again. I-I wasn't really myself and I'm afraid I could hurt any of you, if I lose control again."
Fex assured her that it surely just was something she had to get used to. The vampire then went on to describe in great detail to Quinn just how amazing and crucial Layla had been in the fight against Pure, since she seemed to have downplayed her importance. Hearing it all Quinn was quite surprised, this new form was able to match Agent 2 when he hadn't been able to before his boost.
It seems like her mother really had pulled through at the end. After the discussion between them had died down and they had shared all of their experiences, Quinn decided to get in contact with the one person that could shed some light on why they were in this mess in the first place, Logan.
Through the mask it didn't take long for them to get an answer either.
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏm"Logan, what happened and where are you currently?" Quinn asked.
"Don't worry, I'm safe. It looks like the soldiers have stopped actively looking for us, and have started to just patroll around the facility. Quinn, I apologise for all the trouble I have caused you. However I think I can fix this, I have already contacted Sam about the situation, and he is currently doing everything he can to get you out of the situation." Logan explained.
Honestly, Quinn wasn't too worried about their situation. From what he had gathered Longblade was a good person, so Quinn thought they would be understanding about a few things.
"I need to tell you some matters that have happened though, at the moment, we are observing your location."
Paying attention, Quinn focused on the word 'We', the only person that wasn't here was Logan, so who could be the other one?
Logan then went on to recount his experience from the moment they had split up, and how the humanoid King tier beast, who had wished to save his comrade was currently trapped with him. It certainly was a strange and difficult position to be in, but not the worst one.
"I think we can do something about it. Make sure to remain hidden and we will meet up with you guys at midnight. Let's meet outside the Shelter west from here, I will contact you later for more details.' Quinn said having come up with a plan.
He didn't quite want to tell the others what he had planned to do yet, but just explained to Raten. Shiro, and Sil that they would be leaving this place, around midnight and for them to get ready.
During this time, the group was so relaxed that they decided to get some nice shut eye for the rest of the night. All of them had worked hard, however, Shiro had approached Quinn who was up against the wall in the corner of the room looking at everyone.
"Quinn, I need to talk to you. I know we're going to have a meeting with Longblade and the others but I think it's important for you to know this before then." Shiro said with a concerned look on his face. He stared in the direction of where Raten was in his beast form, talking to Sil as the two of them caught up.
Quinn didn't really have much in common with Raten, he hardly even knew who he was, the one he was more concerned about bringing back had always been Vorden. Now knowing that Logan was with another humanoid beast, although a weaker one they could bring him back as well.
"Go ahead." Quinn asked.
Shiro gulped before replying.
"Raten isn't alone in the body. The situation is similar to how it had been with Sil, only that the beast is still active in its body right now. It can take over Raten whenever it wants to. The only reason why it hasn't so far, is because I struck a deal with It. I'm sorry, I didn't ask you beforehand, but I kinda promised the beast we would do something for it." Shiro smiled nervously.
Judging by the look on Shiro's face, this deal wasn't anything simple.
*****