“Looks like they are handling their end of things fairly well,” Sage commented as she looked towards the center of the Skinwalker town. The Conductor’s group made their way toward the northeast side of town when Shango blew the walls by the entrance apart.

  “Siren has impressive control. I didn’t think she could cut off the sound of such a large area. This makes things much easier.” The Conductor praised.

  Where they stood was eerily quiet, considering the carnage Shango's group was causing. It could only be Siren taking extra care to muffle their sound waves. Mirage also did his job well, as the smoke and damage that should have been visible, even from the mines, were not seen. Only the tranquil appearance that the town always seems to have. The group remained just inside this illusion to freely scope out the mine.

  “There have been no movements that suggest they suspect anything out of the ordinary,” Mirage informed the others over comms.

  Mirage had found a nice perch on one of the watchtowers that had been cleared out. He had a clear view of the mines and enslaved humans from his position.

  “You’ve been observing them; what’s the best way to do this?” The Conductor asked.

  “They rotate every 15 minutes. The next rotation should be happening in about 3 minutes. During every rotation, three guards escort the enslaved humans in and out of the cave. About 15 slaves come out of the mines at a time, and I’ve been able to pick out 11 different guards. I’d suggest taking out the two guards at the entrance. I’ll set up an illusion to make everything seem fine. Then we ambush the first group. The next rotation will follow. We should be able to get the second rotation to safety as well. After that, I’m not sure.” Mirage suggested.

  “Hmm. There are a couple of problems. Skinwalkers have a relatively strong sense of smell. They may not be able to pick up on the scent of blood this far away from Shango’s group, but they’d be able to pick it up from the mine entrance. Also, we don’t know if there are extra guards inside. We also have to check for Skinwalkers hidden within the humans.” Sage responded.

  “Ergh, you’re right; things were crapped in there. I couldn't go too deep.” Mirage confirmed.

  “No worries there, aye? I can get in as deep as you need. It’s a mine shaft.” Bumi chided.

  “Even with that hood covering your face, I can see your gears turning, Sage. What are you thinking?” The Conductor smiled.

  If Sage were cooking up a plan, he would let her call the play. A good leader knows when to follow. Sage looked over at The Conductor and then towards the mine shaft. She opened her palms, and a handful of golden seeds released from her bangles into her open palms. She tightened her fist and then said,

  “Alright, this is what we’re going to do.” Sage began to lay out her plan for the others.

  At the mine entrance, two Skinwalkers taking the form of Dragonkin complained,

  “It’s so boring. I thought Chasers were supposed to be coming?”

  “We don’t know when they’ll be here, and what, are you in that much of a hurry to die?”

  “Chasers don’t seem all that scary to me, just squishy humans who got a little power.”

  “Well, those squishy humans almost drove us to extinction.”

  “Because they’re afraid of us. We’re everything they’re not. Look at them! They can’t go a century without killing each other by the masses. They have no unity; they don’t even know what that means. The Chasers even fight among themselves; they’re hopeless. That’s why they try to destroy us whenever we come together; they're scared.”

  “Hate to admit it, but he’s right.” A voice sounded in front of the two of them.

  “See? Even they agree with me. Wait, what?”

  Before either of the two could process what was happening, roots sprang out of the cliff behind them and bound them to the cliff wall. The roots bound their mouths and tightly gripped their throats before their necks were snapped.

  “Alright, you’re good to go, Bumi,” Sage commented as the illusion surrounding her and Bumi vanished.

  “Already on it, bonnie lass.” Bumi chuckled as he dived into the side of the cliff wall like a fish into the water.

  The two Skinwalkers' bodies remained stapled to the wall as an illusion covered them, leaving their visage standing in their place.

  “You have 1 minute Bumi.” Mirage reminded him.

  “Plenty of time, lad.” Bumi chuckled.

  Bumi, of the three tasks, the first two needed to be done within that 1-minute time frame. He first needs to plant the seeds given to him by Sage through the mine shaft. The second task was to scope out the exact number of guards within the mine. His last task was to find exactly what they were digging up here. They could easily steal resources that they needed; there was no reason to mine iron or any other types of ore themselves or even while using slave labor. Sage concluded they must be looking for something. While Hachiman said figuring out their motives was secondary, there was no reason to miss this opportunity to gather data.

  “I’ve only seen 15 in total, and I’ve planted enough seed to cover the entirety of this mine shaft.”

  “Good, see if you can find what they were up to. Hoarder and I will take it from here.” The Conductor responded.

  “Aye, aye,” Bumi said as he explored deeper into the mine shaft.

  “Get ready,” Sage said.

  She looked into the mine and saw two “Dragonkin” walking before a group of humans. The third was towards the back. When the two guards in front saw Sage standing there, they both stopped in their tracks, but before they could say anything, large five-petaled flowers started to bloom throughout the walls of the mine shaft. These flowers had a light red coloring with golden dots. Pollen shot out of the opened petals and filled the air. As soon as this pollen was breathed in, every Skinwalker began to crumble into the ground in pain. The three guards fell over, unable to maintain their forms. Within the group of humans, they were gauding, two crumpled over in pain as well, unable to retain their human forms.

  “We’re here to rescue you, hurry!” Sage shouted out to the humans.

  The 13 remaining looked at the Skinwalkers writhing in pain and quickly ran towards the exit. As they ran out, The Conductor and Hoarder ran in. The Conductor pulled out two daggers and sliced the necks of the down Skinwalkers that he crossed paths with. On the other hand, Hoarder ran over the downed bodies, pulverizing them with a single empowered stomp, never breaking his stride.

  “Whatever she cooked up, it sure is nasty,” Hoarder spoke as he looked at the falling golden pollen that had spread throughout the mine by Sage’s flowers.

  She had used the small blood sample, the bangles Zac had even her, and her powers to cultivate a plant that released pollen that had a painful paralyzing effect once it entered the bloodstream of Skinwalkers. She was sure she could cultivate enough to cover the entire town with more lethal pollen if she had more time and resources. However, she was satisfied with the preliminary effects.

  “Yes, she made this mission a lot easier. I’ll focus on getting the captives out of here, and you focus on cleaning up. Let’s get this done before the pollen wears off.” The Conductor instructed.

  “Will do.” Hoarder chuckled as his body glowed, and he sped through the caves with speed and agility that didn’t match his large body.

  “What are you standing around for? Let’s move!” The Conductor shouted at the remaining enslaved people.

  They were all in shock, looking at several individuals on the ground who they believed were their friends turning into the creatures that had captured them. The Conductor quickly guided them out of the mines where Sage awaited them. She used her bangle to scan each person who walked out to check for abnormalities. Mostly Sage was worried about the pollen harming the humans. She hadn’t had the time to test it properly.

  Stolen novel; please report.

  “Good, everything seems fine,” Sage commented.

  “Who are you, people?” One of the freed humans asked.

  “No one important. Just people doing their jobs.” Sage responded.

  “Ah, lads and lassie, I’ve got something here but don’t know what the hell it means,” Bumi said over comms as he sent a visual feed of what he saw.

  Inside everyone’s hood, a visual feed showed etching on a wall, strange markings, and images similar to Native American cave paintings. Both The Conductor and Sage spent plenty of time going through the culture and rituals of the creatures they could encounter. Still, neither of them quite understood what these markings meant.

  “I can make out some of it, but I’m missing some crucial details,” Sage said,

  “Same.” The Conductor responded in kind.

  “Excuse me, but do you have any information or may have overheard anything these creatures were talking about?” Sage turned towards the humans, still standing there in confusion.

  “They said a lot of things. Most of it was about waking the Great Mother.” A young lady responded.

  “I overheard a couple of them talking about using us as slave labor to dig something out of there.” Others responded.

  “That mean anything to you, Sage?” The Conductor asked.

  “Not a single clue. But I can infer the general meaning of the paintings from this information. The Skinwalkers believe that some powerful ancestor sleeps somewhere deep in these mountains. They don’t know where and are just blindly searching.”

  “Hmm, I suppose some Skinwalker got themselves a general location and used that to band all of the Skinwalkers they could find together.” The Conductor reasoned after hearing Sage’s take.

  “Ah, I think we found the leader! He’s a big one!” Bumi said as the inside of the mine shaft started to shake.

  Moments later, Bumi’s body sprang out of the mountainside and landed before Sage and the Conductor.

  “Where’s Hoarder?!” Sage shouted.

  “Oh trust, he’ll be here in a hurry. I suggest we move a bit, aye?!” The panic in Bumi’s voice was evident as the quaking became more prominent.

  The Conductor instructed the humans to move as they trailed behind the hightailing Bumi. The mine shaft entrance exploded, and a massive Skinwalker roared out of the rumble,

  “Ergh, your breath smells like ass, you ugly bastard!” Hoarder shouted as he was trapped between the massive Skinwalker's jaws, prying its mouth open with his kinetic energy-infused body.

  The Skinwalker crashed head-first into the ground, hoping to crush Hoarder. When it pulled back, it saw Hoarder lying comfortably in the crater formed from the impact. The creature swiped its giant claws down at Hoarder, who punched to meet its claws. There was an explosion of power, and the Skinwalker was hurled through the air, crashing into the side of the mountain again.

  “Is that the Great Mother?” Mirage asked, still observing from his perch.

  “Ain’t no Mother here, aye? Not with that bawbag the size of Glasgow?” Bumi bellowed. As he pointed at the creature's genitals.

  “No, it must be an Alpha. Although it’s larger than most confirmed Alpha Skinwalkers.” Sage responded.

  “Chasers!!!!!” The creepy voice of the Alpha bellowed out as it pulled itself out of the rumble.

  “Is it not enough?! Is it not enough that you drive my species to extinction? When we decide to make for ourselves and finally get news of the Great Mother, you choose to attack us, still?! WHY!?!” The Skinwalker shouted as it transformed into aa ashened pale, long gray-haired man.

  “Why?! You stole us from our homes and enslaved us!! What do you mean why?!” One of the freed humans responded in rage.

  “Heheheheh! You’ve been enslaving your own kind since your inception, and you continue to enslave each other even to this day. We didn’t think you’d mind!” The Alpha responded.

  “Well, shite… he’s got a point.” Bumi rubbed his head in defeat at the Alpha’s reasoning.

  “I’m not here to defend the actions of humanity or have philosophical debates with you about our collective karmas. I’m here to complete a mission. From the reports I’m getting from the other team, there’s not much of your pack left.” The Conductor spoke.

  “So you have two choices. You leave with what’s left of your pack, move back further north, and try again, WITHOUT slaves. Or this pack ceases to exist.” The Conductor gave the Alpha his ultimatum.

  The Conductor would attack the Alpha if the freed humans were not here. He saw that blow that it took from Hoarder. It would have reduced anything else into a bloody mist. However, this Alpha Skinwalker barely seemed phased. Just from its endurance alone, it was clear that even if the 10 of them worked together, it would be a hard-fought battle; adding the protection of the civilians on top of that made things dicey.

  “Can you even make such a decision? I can smell the youth on you, and Chasers aren’t known for showing mercy.” The Alpha responded.

  “Our mission parameters were to find the missing humans and eliminate the Skinwalker threat. Complete annihilation of your pack was never specified.” Sage responded.

  “I see…” The Alpha stared at The Conductor, Sage, Bumi, and Hoarder and glared towards where Mirage was hiding.”

  “That bastard can see me!” Mirage panicked internally.

  “I see. Very well. Can I have your word that as long as we don’t bother the humans, you won’t interfere with our search for the Great Mother?” The Alpha asked.

  “I can promise that you’ll have nothing to fear from our Chasers as long as you and this Great Mother of yours aren’t a threat to humanity.” The Conductor responded.

  “YOUR Chasers?” The Alpha sighed.

  “After so long, there is still so much dysfunction among your people. You pose the most danger to yourselves. We Skinwalkers, as you call us, were never concerned with you, just curious.”

  “What about all the Human towns you’ve destroyed,” Hoarder asked.

  “Just as there seem to be good Chasers. There too can be those of us who stray from Mother’s embrace.”

  “Fair enough, aye?” Bumi nodded his head.

  “I will leave with what is left of my people. Our actions indeed caused this incident. I will take full responsibility.” The Alpha spoke as he stepped forward, transforming his body into a massive bird. With a flap of its wings, the sound of thunder echoed, and it settled down in the middle of the Skinwalker town.

  “Holy hell!! There’s a massive bird here! Do we kill it?!” Manic’s voice shouted over communications.

  “No, stand down. That’s the Skinwalker’s Alpha. He agreed to take the remaining Skinwalkers and head further north.” The Conductor commanded.

  “You’re just going to let them go?! After everything they put us through? You’re just letting them leave!!!” One of the humans shouted.

  “Shut up.” Sage calmly told the individual.

  “Do you know what that was? That was a Thunderbird. It’s supposed to be a myth, even by our standards, but he just transformed into one. If he can turn into that, that means one of two things. Thunderbirds are real, and he’s seen one, or he can turn into anything he imagines that breathes. Neither of those is a favorable circumstance.”

  Sage walked up to the man and poked him in the chest.

  “So, tell me. Should we fight something that could turn into a fire-breathing dragon while simultaneously protecting you? Or let the reasonable supernatural being go on his way; while he purposely doesn’t push his obvious advantage?” Sage asked.

  “T-the second one.” The man shyly responded.

  A large group of maroon and dark green cloaked figures looked up into the sky as they watched the Thunderbird carrying at least three dozen Skinwalkers, disguised as small woodland animals, fly overhead. One of the maroon cloaked figures held a Rose Gold crest representing the Orlenaders spoke,

  “So They manage to deal with the Alpha? That’s impressive.”

  “What’s so impressive about it? They just talked their way out of things.” One of the Adders spoke from behind his dark green hood.

  “The fact that the Alpha even considered their proposition speaks volumes for their skill. We should approach with caution.” The Rose Gold Oleander spoke.

  “I think you’re just scared, Whiskey. Although I’d be scared too if The Anomaly had lopped off my right arm.” The same green-hooded man laughed.

  At the sound of his laughter, the woman with the Rose Gold crest, called Whiskey, reached out her right hand and grabbed the man by the throat. She lifted him into the air.

  “As you can see, my arm is back where it belongs, and I am very willing to snap your neck with it.” Whiskey threatened.

  “That’s enough. We should cooperate to kill Suzuki Kenji, not each other. I apologize for my colleagues' rude remarks.” A man in a dark green cloak with a Blood Red Weaving Adder crest on his right shoulder spoke.

  “Very well. Keep your people in check, Pike ” Whiskey accepted the apology, releasing the rude Chaser from her grip.

  “When should we make our move?” Someone within the group asked.

  “After they evacuate the missing humans.” Whiskey spoke.

  “Is that the best option?” Someone asked.

  “Admittedly, no. The best option would be to attack them while they are protecting those humans. However, we are Chasers, not monsters.” Whiskey responded.

  “I agree. Also, separating him from his teammates will be easier if they aren’t crowded together to protect the humans. We only want to kill Kenji. Those other 9 are extraordinary talents; it will be a waste if they die. So if possible, avoid inflicting fatal injuries if they interfere.” Pike spoke.

  “We also need time to spot their babysitters. There’s no way they sent those kids on a first mission like this without supervision.” Whiskey added.

  “They arrived in a single aircraft; it won’t be enough to carry those humans and the kids back. Since civilians take priority, we’ll have an hour and a half minimum to separate him from the group and kill him.” Pike spoke.

  “Looks like they are beginning to group up. Spread out in groups of three. Find the babysitters, and get ready to move in when the transport has taken the civilians away.” Whiskey gave the command.

  At her word, 30 cloaked figures dispersed, leaving Whiskey and Pike and one Maroon cloaked individual looking down from the cliffside that overlooked the destroyed Skinwalker town.