Chase calm down!" Dad exclaimed and tried to calm me down. I jumped to my feet and pointed out the window.
"How the fuck am I supposed to calm down? The factory is under attack by hundreds of evos, the warehouse I was just in is now a pile of rubble, and people I know are dying!" I snapped.
Before I had a chance to react dad slapped me so hard I saw stars then he grabbed me by my shoulders and looked me in the eye.
"One: watch your damn mouth! Two: if you start to panic right now we will die here!" Dad said sternly. I took a slow calming breath and rubbed the cheek that he slapped.
"What…can we do?" I asked slowly.
"Look at the situation and decide the best course of action." Dad said then turned to look out the window. "The grounds are overrun with thrads, the main gate into the complex is destroyed, and we can assume that any and all steeds on grounds are probably dead or ran off. What is our next step?"
I scratched my head and then looked out the window. I knew Dad already knew what he wanted me to say. He had a plan but he was waiting to see if I could figure it out. He did that all the time, especially once I started working at the factory during my summers.
'Wait…this isn't normal thrad behavior…' I thought then studied the thrad's movements more closely. At a glance it looked like their movements were random and uncoordinated but they actually weren't. The swarm of thrads were moving in tightly knit packs within the swarm, each pack moving in a counter clockwise formation coving the blind spots of the pack in front and behind them. This formation was defensive and offensive at the same time.
"We can't make it to one of the stables, there is no way that we'll be able to sneak past all of those thrads in one piece. Unless there is a secret underground tunnel the only way we'll get out of here is by flying." I observed.
"Those are the only options I came up with as well, there is a emergency evacuation tunnel in the basement by the way in. Your mother went to the basement to check if it's been compromise not too long ago." Dad informed me. I frowned at him.
"By herself?!" I exclaimed.
"You're mother can handle herself, she was the one that killed that Lyon that got out years ago. Don't forget she was raised by your grandma Lulu."
"Yeah she was…." I admitted then I had another thought "We also need to inform the town, hell the army…That many evos suddenly attacking at once, this could be a invasion."
Dad glanced out the window and his eyes widened and he took a double take. I scowled and looked out the window to see what he was staring and felt my blood run cold. All the thrads that had been running amok and randomly attacking people had stopped in their tracks and were now looking off into the distance somewhere past the western warehouse rubble.
In the distance I could see thrads suddenly parting and dropping to all fours as if they were bowing. I adopted the same look as dad when the reason for the thrads bowing came into view.
It was a thrad larger than anything I had seen before. It towered over the other thrads, who were around six feet tall, by at least four feet. There were barely any trace of the gorilla facial features that wer typical for a thrad to have. Instead it's mouth was wider and more rounded like a alligators snout, its eyes more reptilian, its body covered from the neck down in thick black scales save it's tail which had a long patch of fur down the center of it.
"What the is that?" I breathed. Dad swallowed audibly and I saw his hand shake slightly. He clenched his fist to stop them shaking.
"That's…that's a ascended Thrad.:" He breathed.
"Ascended!" I exclaimed, jerking my head to look at my father. The sheer panic on his face aged him considerably. Instead of the forty-two year old he was, he looked almost sixty at that moment.
"I heard that a techno-splicing company managed to make one up in New York but it escaped. I never heard anything else so I thought it had been captured and just kept quiet…this is bad…so very, very bad!"
Dad turned rushed over to the large safe he kept in the corner of the office. I watched as he put in the combination and opened the safe. Inside were a bunch of files and a few small boxes, but what caught my eye immediately was the two rifles inside. He grabbed one rifle and quickly looked it over before slinging it over his shoulder and then grabbing the other one to inspect it.
"Dad why do you have guns in the office?!" I asked.
"Situations like this. After that failed Lyon got out and attacked a bunch of staff years ago I kept a few guns close by just in case." Dad said. He nodded to himself then walked over and handed me the second gun. It was a Jasko 994, a hunting rifle that has gain popularity in the last few years. Mostly because of the fact that its one of the few rifles that can fire shatter-lock rounds, rounds specially developed to be able to pierce the hides of armored eveos and then shatter once they're past the armor.
The rifle dad had was his old Skazzas. The rifle originally belong to his father but after he passeed it was given to dad. There was a lot of history in that gun.
"Dad we can't shoot that many evos. They'll overrun us in seconds." I said. Dad nodded in agreement then motioned for me to check my gun. Years of conditioning and muscle memory took over as I quickly looked over the gun like dad taught both me and Logan.
Once my gun was checked he motioned for me to follow him then lead me out of the office and onto the main floor of the warehouse in the incubation ward. We passed dozens more panicked and frazzled workers and scientist trying to secure their work, everyone that Dad passed he told them to head to the basement and spread the word.
The incubation ward was rows and rows of glass tubes willed with incubation fluids. Evos were placed into these tubes to help them grow to full size at a accelerated rate. The need for these tubes were one of the main differences between techno and traditional splicing, since when a splicer splices a evo they are already fully grown at creation.
Dad eventually came to a stop in front of a couple of tubes. There were a couple of scientists standing in front of the control consoles frantically working.
"Andy, Louie, are the prototypes ready for transport?" Dad asked the scientists. I frowned and crossed my arms.
'Why is he worrying about evos now?' I thought then looked up at the evos resting in the tanks. It's suddenly dawned on me why dad made checking on these two scientists a priority. They were the ones in charge of his experimental evo projects.
"They are but given the situation outside sir how are we going to transport them?" Andy Metzfield, dad's right hand man, replied.
"Yeah its not like we have any transports to put them on anyway." Louis Gents, head of logistics and transportation, added.
"I guess it's lucky we have a special employee that is great at handling evos then." Dad said clapping me on the back. Andy and Louie both looked at me and smiled with relief.
"Of course! Chase! With his powers we can easily move the prototypes!" Andy exclaimed. Louie nodded emphatically while I shook my head and took a step back.
"Wait are you telling me to use my powers outside of the factory?" I asked dad, a hint of panic in my voice. I might use my powers a lot when I'm at work but I never used my powers outside of the complex. If anyone saw me or suspected me of using them I would be arrested or worse. Dad turned to me and grabbed my shoulders and looked me in the eye.
"Chase, the factory is lost. Even if we all survive this, the company won't. These two evos can could be what saves the company after all this is over." Dad said.
"And using my powers outside could land me in prison or worse!" I exclaimed then held my hands up. "No, I can't do it!"
"Chase, I need you to do this for me. When have I ever asked you to do something for me?" He asked.
"Never! You always just tell me to do things, like working here!" I exclaimed. Dad groaned then his expression turned stern.
"Then I am telling you to use your powers to help us transport these evos!" He ordered.
"Dad did you not hear me?!" I exclaimed.
"Chase nothing is going to happen! Everyone here relies on your powers! No one is going to sell you out or say anything if you use your powers outside the facility!" He snapped, his grip on my shoulders getting tighter. I winced at the feeling of his fingers digging into skin then shook my head in defeat.
"Fine…" I muttered softly. Dad smiled and let go of me.
"Good! Andy, Louie, drain the tanks then head down to the basement. There's a escape tunnel out of the facility down there. My wife is checking it out right now." Dad said then turned and started walking away.
"Where are you going?" I asked.
"Directors office. There should be a line to the local military base there or at the very least a Fey-fey to run a message." He explained. "I'll be right back!"
I watched dad run off back to wards the office then sighed and turned back to Andy and Louie. They both were looking at me with sympathetic looks but quickly turned back to the consoles and started working to drain the two incubation tubes.
'Don't cry, keep your face blank…' I thought as I watched as the tubes murky fluids were drained. 'Keep your face blank…'