The sounds of people screaming woke Raymond up with a start. He was lying on a cold metal surface. On his right, there was a bleeding man in tactical gear who was painfully screaming in his comms before his focus shifted to Ray. The bleeding man immediately reached for his sidearm by reflex but found it gone.
Raymond now more aware of his situation, groggily reached with his hand and a blast of strong wind hit him, smashing his head on Van's side knocking him out cold.
Outside, Ray could still hear screams and then multiple gunshots some even hitting the van he was in. His strength began to return to him slowly. Going out blindly was no longer an option. Closing his eyes, he spread out his conscious once again and advanced out of the van into the open parking lot of the warehouse.
What Ray found was a trail of bodies littered everywhere. Following the sound of gunfire, he was directed inside the warehouse where he saw Charles feverously dropping bodies while more soldiers closed in on him firing. Charles' whole torso was covered in blood Raymond wasn't sure whose.
Two dozen more soldiers stormed into the warehouse and began enclosing Charles, and from a far distance, he could hear the sound of a helicopter approaching. Ray knew he had to do something and fast.
While returning to his body, he saw another dozen or so soldiers forming a perimeter around the van as they slowly advanced towards it, weapons pointed and fingers already on the triggers.
Ray had two options, teleport out of there and take Charles with him or blast his way out of the van and into the warehouse. Option one was sound, but he immediately realized he couldn't jump in the moment he tried. He was confused at first and tried again, but nothing worked.
The sound of the soldiers getting closer grew louder.
'Plan b.'
Narrowing his eyes, Ray focused on the air currents around him and began pooling it together, slowly building pressure. By the time one of the soldiers cautiously pried open the van's back door, Ray's eyes were almost popping out of their sockets from the amount of pressure he had to hold in.
The vehicle's structure was slowly but visibly crumbling inwardly. The poor soldier had a brief moment of locking eyes with Raymond before he was forcefully blown back as a sizeable shock-wave hit his body together with the rest of his team. The rest of the soldiers were also sent flying over several meters away before some of the unlucky ones crushed into walls while the lucky ones just fell farther off. But none got up.
A small smile of satisfaction plastered on Ray's face as he got out to admire his handiwork. The van he was in had a blown roof together with sides. Several SUVs were pushed back, and you could see skid marks on top of dust that saturated the air.
'Not bad.'
The helicopter was now more visible and appeared to be military.
'Perfect, the last thing Ray wanted was more enemies.'
Turning, he sprinted into the warehouse. Inside he found Charles carving a path towards the entrance using two bodies as meat shields against a hail of bullets. One of the enemies saw him and quickly switched targets, two others followed suit.
Raymond immediately reached for the air currents and sent three mildly powerful blasts that knocked off their guns. The two enemies both looked at their hands in surprise before looking at each other. That however didn't stop them as they now began closing in on him.
The three of them whipped out different weapons as they got closer. These new weapons looked like gauntlets. When they were switched on, a bright blue hue illuminated their arms. They then strategically advanced towards him with one in the middle and the other two flanking him. If that's how they wanted to play it, then he was game.
Smiling Ray wiggled his index and middle fingers, and a few sparks began to crackle around his fingers.
"Your move." He hissed through his gritted teeth.
The Middle One raised his right hand and a ball of blue energy was shot at Raymond; nearly hitting Raymond on the head. Ray would have counted himself lucky were it not for the intense heat that pretty much smoldered his entire left cheek.
Ray cursed and did a double take on the gauntlets once more with an increased degree of dread. Guided by his pain, he decided to amp his power, and now his entire hands were covered in sparks.
He was definitely going to return the favor. The two flankers also both raised their gauntlets, and fired two blasts. Raymond was more prepared this time and he dove into the ground to dodge them.
An idea formed in his mind and he didn't think twice before he slammed his two open palms on the floor. Immediately, three tendrils of electricity zipped across the floor and struck the three soldiers before they violently shook and dropped on the floor.
"Nice, but keep it on the low."
He heard Charles say as he somehow reached him without his knowledge. He really needed to work on his spatial awareness. Once Charles was close enough, Ray had a really good look at his friend. He was covered in blood and gore, but he showed no signs of being hurt.
"When did you get here?"
"They triggered a boundary spell I had Jane set up around the warehouse. I arrived as soon as they were loading you into the van. Took out the ones in the van and went into the warehouse to take care of the ones that were on cover-up duty. We should probably leave now; the longer this fight lasts, the worse it will get."
"I don't think that's possible. I tried teleporting, but it didn't work."
"Yeah, they set up a containment measure the moment they came in. It's a standard tactic for M.A.R.S."
"What's M.A.R.S."
"A story for another day, now we need to get going."
Charles had just finished uttering the words when an invisible blast knocked them both back. Charles dropped down on all fours with his fists closed tightly and held against the floor. Ray wasn't spared either as the blast pushed him further than Charles. He felt himself lose something within him. It was like a part of him just ceased to be.
"What happened?" He asked before gasping inwardly after he glanced at Charles. His friend's face was beginning to change. His smooth human skin started turning into a slightly darker tan of brown. His eyes shifted from green to golden brown. But he didn't stop there.
The transformation seemed to move further down his body as his torso grew in size, ripping through his shirt, thick muscles rippled all over his chest as they hardened like marble. The sound of Charles' pants tearing pulled Ray's gaze towards Charles' lower body and his jaw almost hit the floor when he saw Charles' back elongate and two hind legs with actual freaking hooves develop. His frontal legs also appeared to grow and another pair of black hooves emerged. His trunk began to thicken; thin brown fur grew to replace his pale skin.
However, what embarrassingly caught his attention was Charles' pecker. Even though Ray wasn't an expert in dick sizes, there was no doubt his buddy had nothing short of a ten-inch meat-flaps-pounder.
Charles then stood on his four legs, Raymond didn't fail to notice the extra inches on his height and was now a proud six-foot-six Centaur package of marvel.
"Dude, you're creeping me out" Charles frowned.
"Damn! you look awesome."
"Focus, your magic is also gone too."
"Yeah, I felt something," Raymond said before raising his hands and showing Charles his sparks. "But I still got this."
"No, don't use it, these guys got body cams, you're lucky the ones you killed didn't." Just as he was done explaining the large warehouse doors slowly opened, and two dozen enemies entered. This time, however, they wore different gear.
Their armor, unlike the first assault team's black tactical gear, these guys were dressed in a mixture of a red and black exosuits. There was also a bit of an eerie aura in the way that they carried themselves. They were with no doubt a lot more confident and calmer.
One of the men in stood in the middle and appeared to be their leader stopped. The rest flanked him, each a successive step in front of the other. The Leader also had a distinctive helmet with a red visor compared to the others who donned black visors. Both the Leader and his team had the same blue gauntlet though theirs looked a little bit more sophisticated with added size that reached all the way up to their elbows compared the mid-wrist of the previous soldiers.
A small shudder ran through Raymond's body as he recalled his unpleasant encounter.