From that point, he took us deep into the building--deeper than the building should be, judging from the outside.
The long, dingy greige hallway with its multitude of brown doors and intermittent corridors on either side, extended far into the side of the mountain.
Just when I thought we were in the clear, three black suited mages glowing with strange blue-white phosphorescent intensity stepped out in front of us from a side corridor. Their eyes widened in surprise as they saw us.
They never had a chance.
Corwin twisted his body and leaped up into a perfect high roundhouse, kicking the first mage in the face.
At the same moment, Connor slid under Corwin's kick, snapping the second mage's shins out from under him.
In a split second, the twins had landed on their hapless victims' necks with a silent but deadly crunch.
Meanwhile, Max had jumped the third mage knocking him to the ground.
Tarzan finished him off by slapping his head into the pavement with a powerful blow of his large hand.
There was a quick grunt.
A pool of blood spewed from the mage that had his head smashed into the ground.
Tarzan and Max were not as clean with their kills as the twins were but at this point, dead was dead.
The twins stepped away from the fallen mages and tossed their heads in a silent motion to indicate that we needed to keep moving.
Tarzan sniffed the air once to reorient himself. He indicated the hallway to his left and ambled with all limbs on the floor, sure of his footing.
We followed him as quickly as we could, all the while fully expecting another group of mages to assail us from all sides.
We were not disappointed.
A shout ensued from behind us. Someone had found the three dead Mage Elites.
I heard footprints behind me and turned back to look. There were at least half a dozen black suited mages running towards us.
Corwin pushed me forward. "Stay behind me."
He began an incantation that sounded seriously complicated.
"Dianfengbao!"
With a single Power Command, he threw a huge greenish-blue electric fireball through the tunnel at the oncoming mages.
At the moment the electric fireball left his hand, Connor shouted another command.
"Baohuwuomen!"
The timing was perfect.
A shield of protection came up around all of us at the moment Corwin's glowing green-blue electric fireball slammed into the reddish-purple miasma haze that the Mage Elites had thrown at us.
The noxious red-purple miasma passed through the electric fireball harmlessly and enveloped the bubble of protection Connor had just thrown over us. It blanketed our view of the hallway.
I could hear screams and shouts, but there was no way to see what was going on.
We did not hear any thundering feet coming our way, but that could just be the Mage Elites waiting for the fumes to dissipate before attacking us.
The twins had their hands full maintaining the integrity of the protection bubble.
Meanwhile Simon stood at the center of our group, muttering furiously several reinforcement spells to keep fresh air flowing within our dome.
Even Tarzan pitched in, keeping a tight reign on Max.
Everyone was doing their part to keep us safe except for me.
All I could do was stand there and pray we would all get through this in one safe piece.
I prayed super hard.
What seemed like ages was in reality only a few minutes.
The noxious reddish purple miasma began to lift and we could see a little of the hallway behind us.
As the veil of smoke cleared up further, I saw dark shapes on the ground. Suddenly, Connor's hands came up and covered my eyes.
"Let's not look at that direction, shall we." He muttered cheerfully, even as Simon gagged.
I could hear Corwin calling out to us. "Is everyone ok?"
Simon gasped. "What in heck did you hit them with? It was a greenish-blueish glowing orb. That's not your normal thunder bolt, is it?"
"No. I added something to spice it up a bit."
Simon whistled. "I have never seen anything like this! Holy dog poop!"
Connor laughed. "This is high end stuff Corwin and I have been working on for years. It's what got us our First Class Wizard status."
"Is this the first time you've used it?" Simon ogled at the hallway.
"Of course not, but it is the first time we've used it on living humans." Corwin grimaced.
I reached up to pull Connor's hands away from my eyes only to have Corwin insert his body in front of me, blocking my line of sight.
"Simon, what happened? What's going on?" I tried to look around his body but Corwin had grabbed my body and pushed my face into his chest.
Simon gasped. "I'm gonna have nightmares for the rest of my life Nana! Holy Mother of Goddess! All those people got fused to the walls and the floor!!!"
"What? Did they melt?" I asked into Corwin's chest.
"No! Their bodies BECAME PART OF the walls and floors! Parts of their bodies are merged within the walls and floors."
"Are they still alive?"
Simon shook his head. "Thankfully no. That reddish purple smoke they threw at us was a nerve agent. It was supposed to cause our lungs to become paralyzed and cause asphyxiation but our double-reinforced shield plus my fresh air kept us from breathing in those fumes."
He jabbed a thumb in the direction of the Mage Elites.
"They got lucky too. Their own noxious fumes killed them right after Corwin's ball of electric fusion hit them or they'd still be alive and stuck to the…"
He shuddered and gagged once again. "Oh man, I think I'm gonna be sick. I need to unsee what I just saw. How in hell do you extract those people halfway integrated into the floors and the walls???"
I squeezed my eyes shut. This, I did not want to see.
Corwin kept my face hidden within his chest.
"Shut up Simon," he snarled. His deep voice rumbled from his chest and reverberated through my body.
"Can someone check to see if the air is cleared enough for us to get out of this hell hole?"
It only took a few minutes for Connor to do a quick magik scan to test the air for safety.
We were in luck. The same air system that had kept the air moving so efficiently above us was also responsible for clearing out the noxious fumes.
Once the protection bubble dissipated, we were once again on the move.
Tarzan knew exactly where to go. He kept shunting us from one hallway to another until we eventually found ourselves staring at a set of steel double doors with no handles and no levers.
Judging from the lack of hinges on the door jambs, the only way to open those doors had to be either via a remote, mechanized system, or magikally controlled Command.
Tarzan pointed to the doors and sent to me an image of the hidden terminal.
"Train station," I whispered to the mages as I inspected the doors. There was no way to muscle through these doors, as heavy and sealed as they seemed to be.
"Stand back." Connor said and threw out his hands.
"Mashangjiehsuo!"
He uttered, yanking back the air.
I heard a POP!
The doors fell open as if they were made of cardboard, releasing a rush of stale cold air into our faces. It was rank in there, but it was breathable.
We slipped through the opening and found ourselves immersed within the huge dark expanse of the train station.
The ambient air was at least ten degrees cooler inside the depot and it was rushing right at us. I shivered despite the fact that I was panting from the exertion of our headlong race through the Academy.
My hair tumbled and whipped from the force of the chilled air blasting through a series of boxy vents which ran above the exposed reinforced steel beams of the terminal's stark bare metal girders.
I barely had time to marvel at that thought when Tarzan sniffed the air. Finding finding no obvious sign of danger, he waved us forward.
We followed him toward the center of the depot, moving in careful measured steps.
My eyes scanned the area as I set my alerts on high, scouring the place for signs of life. Other than the usual tiny critters around the periphery of my senses, I could feel no mage presence except the guys around me.
Still, I did not let down my guard.
It was unfamiliar territory and there was a chance that we would meet up with more of the black-clad mages. Even though I could not sense any life forms larger than a rat inside the station, the mages could port in from anywhere.
Once my eyes grew used to the dimness, I was able to see more clearly, the structural architecture of the place.
There were no windows in this dark behemoth industrial terminus. The only illumination came from the naked bulbs protruding from each junction where the beams criss-crossed as they joined above to form an impenetrable fortress.
Bare riveted steel columns rose high above us, bowing at the crest of the darkened dome ceiling only to plunge in a perfect arch into the opposite wall of the depot.
The darkened interior did much to hide the grimness of the exposed structural beams and ductwork running the length of the depot's interior.
It did nothing, however, to hide the fact that aside from one set of shiny tracks running down the center of the terminal, there was no sign of a train of any sort.
Since the tracks terminated at this end where we were standing, there was only one direction to go.
Forward.
We began walking along the sidewalk which followed the rail on either side and hope it would lead us to where the rail cars had gone.
As we made our way along the walkway, my eyes took in all the revealing details that the depot could not hide.
This was not a new structure. Time and the harsh industrial environment had ground the grime and the greasy gunk into the very pores and crevices of the depot.
The mottled, grey concrete floors and walls were pitted, their surfaces cracked and fractured in long jagged dark lines running the length of the train station.
There was even a sour funk of ancient machine oil which permeated the air and clung onto everything that passed through its hallowed grounds.
After a short time, my eyes began to glaze over with the overwhelming monotony of grey and black. The monochromatic color scheme however, made the few touches of color pop out like a beacon.
There were the sporadic sunflower-yellow spray-painted stencils of ancient mage symbols which designated mundane things such as bathrooms and storage facilities, and of course, the red neon signs that denoted the mage symbol for DANGER.
Why would a modern train station sport ancient mage symbols? This was beyond my comprehension but at the moment, I had more important things to think about.
I was trying to stay alive.
As we continued our hurried gait, I could hear a dull roar coming from the underside of the station as well as a high pitched whine coming from some piece of machinery beyond our immediate surroundings.
It sounded as if the station had underground shafts and tunnels which led elsewhere, which meant we could easily get lost in this mammoth complex if we didn't have the tracks to follow.
We stuck to the tracks until we finally reached the end of the station, where the tunnel began.
Tarzan pointed into the darkened passageway and indicated for us to follow. I grimaced as I stared into the rock-hewn maw. A shiver of trepidation ran up my spine.
The tunnel looked like a huge hole that went on forever. The few intermittent flickering lights set into recesses along the ceiling illuminated enough of the chasm for me to confirm that the darkness at the end of the tunnel was incessant.
Beside me, I could feel Connor and Corwin both reaching out to hold my hand.
Ahead of us by a few steps was Max and Simon walking side by side.
And in the lead was our fearless Primate Warrior, Tarzan.
Without a word, we slipped through the maw and began our silent journey into the darkness.