Ester panted from exhaustion while Cadence groaned from having a large fish hook stuck in her shoulder. However amidst the immense pain she was able to take some accountability for at least one thing tonight.
"ssS! Ah! Okay, note to self: next time ease up on the C4." She stated as she struggled to sit up.
The cat bled profusely all over her clothes and the pavement.
"Damn it!" She cursed as she took a tentative look at the damage. The metal hook was embedded deep in her left collar bone and the tip poked out through the shoulder blade. The pull might've even dislocated it.
"FUCK! This'll take forever to heal." She complained.
"AAAARGH!" She yowlled.
Suddenly the hook was violently dislodged from the grey cat's wound by someone.
"Nice to see you little biters still breathing!" Said a distinct Australian accent from the left of Cadence. The cat looked in shock.
"Sheila?" She questioned in disbelief as the bluish-grey tiger shark nonchalantly cleaned the blood from her hook.
"In the flesh, litter-shit." She answered giving an exaggerated open-armed shrug, with a mischievous glint in her shiny light blue eyes.
She was Cadence and Ester's height but just a bit more muscular with a black anchor tattoo on her left upper arm. She wore a white sleeveless shirt and green army pants, a purple belt, black boots and she had purple markings on her hairless head. The only other thing on her head than that was her clipped fin.
Ester's surprised eyes darted from the playful fish then glared toward the presence behind her. She instantly removed the hook from her hoodie, got up and turned toward the large coywolf who stood leaning on a nearby building.
"Brunt, why did you two follow me? I said I could handle it." She fussed.
"Sorry pup captain's orders." He answered in a gruff voice. The hybrid had light brown fur with amber eyes and black lining under his bottom lids and a torn right ear. He wore a black jacket with the sleeves ripped off, no shirt, a yellow belt, ripped brown cargo pants and black combat boots. He also had on a pair of dogtags around his neck.
"Why? This isn't even Void's territory!" The dog argued but the coywolf pointed a claw toward another building where an green alien head was graffitied onto it. Beyond that Ester noticed that they were in an alley and beyond that even further, they were in a large lit up city full of flashing lights and people dressed in punk-like asthetics and sporting mechanical and cybernetic limbs, anatomic enhancements, etc.
They were in Neon City. Far outside of Gravestone. The Labyrinth was so vast and so far below the surface neither of the two were aware of how far they'd gone.
Ester sighed in defeat. Sheila tapped away on her phone while Cadence got up holding her wound, which was slowly healing. She moved herself over to sit on a crate.
"Man. Those fuckers traveled out far. You'd think they'd have stayed closer to a place with more spiritual energy." She said as she took out a box of cigarettes and a zippo lighter. Ester however was pissed at her comrade. She turned to the cat, looking livid.
"You don't get an opinion, after the mess you created!– you stole a– FUCKING DEMON STONE! FROM A DEMON QUEEN!" She yelled. Cadence just shrugged nonchalantly as she lit the cigarette and took a drag from it.
"Stole is a pretty strong word Essie. I more of, borrowed it...
withoutanyintentionofgivingitback." She said. She continued smoking silently while her comrade seethed.
Ester growled like she was going to pounce on the idiot feline. She had been wanting to strangle this insufferable reprobate since the moment she found that stone in her jacket.
"Do you not have any shame for what you've done?" She questioned, her bark laced with conviction.
"Uhg! Please save me you're sanctimonious bull Ester. I'm already bleeding out over here and I can only focus on one annoying thing at a time." Cadence half mocked.
"You unruly Godless heathen! I knew it was a mistake to bring you with us. You're pure madness incarnate!" The dog went on ranting while the two members of Void watched on in amusement next to the healing cat, who was happily ignoring her teammate's rant while taking a selfie of her injury, before posting it on ShareSpat with the caption: Got Cult-napped and lived bitch!
Brunt then darted his eyes over to the cat. "So...what happened?" He asked as Cadence took one last long drag from her cigarette. The smoke escaped from her lips like a swirl of mist. The more she smoked the more her wound healed.
"I almost got sacrificed to a firey cat demoness." Cadence said lazily as she put out the bud on the crate.
"Killer! Was she hot?" Sheila asked with intrigue. Cadence shrugged in thought. "Eh I'd give 'er a 7 out of 10. Totally a scopaphobe's worst nightmare but the tentacles did win her some points." She said casually.
"Nice." Brunt commented.
Ester snarled in disdain that no one was even listening to her. "Bloody, degenerates!" She spat.
Cadence laughed in amusement.
"Hey come on! We got out didn't we?" Cadence said.
"Barely! And we were only in that predicament because you STOLE from a demon." Ester stressed. "Lara is going to kill you for this!" She stated with her hands firmly on her hips as she glared at her comrade.
"Nah! Lara don't gotta know shit." Cadence retorted not noticing the figures moving a top the building behind them.
*BOOOOM!*
Suddenly the ground shot open causing the animals to be thrown out of the alley. While everyone else was disoriented from the impact Ester looked up into the shadowed alley. People scurried away quickly as a great many, familiar, glowing, double colored eyes watched them in hungry anticipation.
The demoness crawled out from the dark veil with a hateful grin. Her neck flared with hellfire as her roared at the small group and fleeing citizens. It was a low, ungodly, bellow with an underline, high-pitched keen that almost busted the three mammals' eardrums. While the anthromorphs staggered to find their footing again four of the demoness's tendrils shot up from the ground and wrapped around each of them.
She lifted them all up high into the air, bringing them closer to her face. She grinned at the helpless creatures, satisfied with the look of alarm in their eyes.
"Aw man. I've got a bad feeling about where this is going." Cadence said as the tendril tightened around her slender frame, constricting her.
Ester did her best to wriggle out of the tightening hold but to no avail. Sheila tried to bite her way out and Brunt attempted the same method as Ester. It didn't pan out for either of them.
"Damn it, this is why we left Belladame. This ghost and ghouls shit is not our thing." Brunt stated.
The demoness continued constricting the other three animals but Cadence...she wanted to make her suffer. For the first time tonight Cadence looked afraid. Felitasni brought up a claw to the trembling cat's fear stricken face. Ready to do God knows what to her but before she could carry out her cruel punishment, a blade was suddenly launched into one of the demoness's right eyes. It actually hurt her. Enough so that she dropped the four animals to the ground. Sheila and Brunt did a tumble-and-roll landing with no injuries before Brunt caught Ester in his arms. Cadence however fell to the hard unforgiving pavement with a sickening *THUD!*
She yowlled as she hit the ground. "Thanks for the FUCKING save!" She yelled. Now she had another injury tacked on to the first one. 'Fan-fucking-tastic!' She thought as she struggled to sit up and assess the added damage. The dislocation of her already injured shoulder was made worse by the fall and her right leg was bent in an unnatural angle with a bit of her shin bone poking out.
"Yep that's bad." She said to herself. Just as she was about to wonder what had happened to make Felitasni drop them, footsteps were heard approaching. The cat looked up then gasped at the figure above her wearing an open short black blazer with a popped up collar, a crop tee with a one-eyed skull on the front, a matching skirt and boots and pink and black emo striped leggings and long sleeves. The tan and white furred rabbit's blonde hair was also put up into two pigtails.
She glared down at the helpless cat sporting a stern unamused stance over her. "So Cadence, what 'shit' don't I need to know?" Lara growled out.
Cadence gave a weak broken smile at her leader until she walked over her mangled body then suddenly pulled at her bloody injured fishnet-clad limb and forced the bone back into alignment. *Crack* "OW!" *CRACK!* "Ah! Shit!". Cadence yowlled as Lara repeated the same method on her shoulder. The holes in her flesh still needed to heal but other than that Lara had gotten her to where she could stand again.
Frieda walked up next to Lara looking balefully at the staggering demoness who had successfully pulled Lara's machete out of her eye and threw it a few feet away. The two leaders trained their gazes toward the clang of the fallen weapon.
"So, what have you done this time Scratch?" Frieda asked.
"Nothing!" Cadence denied sharply. Ester stepped in, however.
"She stole from a Demon Queen and now it wants to kill her."
"Hey!" The feline protested.
Lara watched as the giant cat demoness turned to the now group of six with a vicious snarl. Her damaged eye was now a bloody creator flowing with ichor.
The rabbit thought for a brief minute before grabbing Cadence by the shirt and saying, "I've got an idea. Cadence, You're the bait!"
"WHAT?" The cat was then thrown toward the giant malevolent creature who immediately lunged at her. Cadence dodged and tumbled before transmutating down the opposite street. The demoness didn't hesitate to give chase. It was almost comical to watch.
"Fuck!– Fuck!– FUCK!– Damn it!– Lara!– This is!– Not!– Cool!" She yelled in alarm and frustration as she scampered around and disappeared/reappeared continuously, to avoid every swipe of the demoness's claws and tentacles.
Felitasni [and by extension Cadence] caused a good deal of destruction to the roads and a few nearby buildings as the cat teleported quickly through the lit up streets. Her injuries were still not fully healed so she couldn't run. However the chant would likely take a bit out of her thus slowing the healing process. She wouldn't be able to keep this up forever. She began using people as shields and temporary divergents while she escaped but the demoness would always be close behind. Buildings, bars and clubs in Felitasni's path were smashed through and wrecked. Her tendrils flailed about crashing through the various establishments and vehicles as she crawled after her prey.
The group watched the scene in confusion hardly concerned about the screaming and destruction. "Sooo...do you actually have a plan or...?" Sheila asked.
"Yeah but Cadence also needs the lesson." She said before pulling out some steel thread.
"Alright, here's what we're going to do..." She she said while walking over to pick up her machete.
...
Cadence had transmutated around many corners and skidded down a few blocks. She managed to finally put some distance between her and Felitasni before hiding behind some cybertronic electroncycles. All the while the demoness prowled around looking for her. The cat slinked around the bikes silently, taking a glance around the last one to see where the unholy creature was. People were struggling to get out of her way as she stalked through the streets disregarding the screaming pests beneath her. Cadence stayed hidden as the creature skulked the street for her. The cat sighed in relief.
She looked around realizing she was in the high battery district. She wasn't too far out from where she started. She liked to go to raves and kitty-grass parties around this area often. She turned to see the miraculously untouched building the bikes were parked in front of. It was a strip club called The HotWire. It wasn't her usual haunt but there was still a gaping hole her shoulder and her knees were still bloody and skinned down to the bone. She really needed a drink.
...
Frieda finished setting up the last piece of the trap with Ester's guidance. They and Lara had trekked back through the sewers with Frieda as the lead, until they found themselves in an abandoned slum on the other side of Neon City. It lacked any civilians other than the occasional squatters that tried to scare them off. The girls swiftly sent the vagrants running with just a glare and a flick of a blade at their feet. Once Lara had paced the parameters and assessed the area she deemed it serviceable then the three got to work on their tasks.
Lara had set up wires while Frieda finished carving the cat eye symbol into the dirt with a holy knife. Ester was busy imprinting chants onto a few buildings and abandoned vehicles. She had carved an angelic rune into her palm, similar to the ones she placed on the walls, where Felitasni was summoned in the Labyrinth.
The dog had just placed the last symbol on a building. She then took out a clean gauze and put pressure on her wound. The pain barely effected her anymore. It was a small price to pay for send evil back to where it belonged. She bandaged her hand then turned to the quiet rabbit, who was swinging back and forth between two buildings, on the steel thread.
She was focused as always. She eventually landed on the ground before pulling the thread taut. She then flicked the switch on the zippo setting the metal thread a blaze with holy fire. As the flames dissipated the steel glowed orange with heat before it faded. Lara tied the end of the line to a hydrant then walked out to see their work. The circle was set up a good few inches from the thread, the seals were in place right where they needed to be and from where Lara stood in front of the thread, you could barely see it strung up like a makeshift spider's web. Now all they needed was for Cadence to lead Felitasni toward them.
As she typed out a message on her phone Ester watched her intently. She couldn't help but notice the rabbit looked so...distant almost. She had been like that for several nights now. She'd sit on the roof of the cabin looking out upon the vast expanse beyond Belladame, her gaze a million miles away. Like she was waiting for something.
Despite being a group for several months, Ester didn't really know anything about their stoic leader. All she knew was that Lara was strong, resilient, calculative, brave and fairly skilled with melee weapons. Not to mention she was exceedingly competent. However the rabbit didn't seem like the most open or tender person. She had a tendency to be cruel but fair especially when dealing with Cadence. Tonight, she didn't seem any different from usual yet somehow she couldn't help but feel something was... off with the young rabbit.
As Ester watched the blonde tan-furred rabbit she addressed the Void leader. "Do you feel like something's off about Lara?" She asked.
"No. Why? Do you think she's been body snatched or possessed?" She asked a bit seriously. Ester was almost shocked by the iguana's brash deduction however, she shook her head. "No. It's just...she seems a bit despondent." She surmised.
"Oh." The reptile calmed down. "That's pretty normal for her. She's always kept herself distant, even while we were a team together." Frieda said.
Ester gave the iguana a surprised look. She always thought the two were close, otherwise they would've killed each other by now.
"I see." Ester says solemnly as she looked downward. Lara was so mysterious. She knew so little about her. What was her past like? Where did she come from? How did she know Frieda? It was baffling. Ester could be a bit brash sometimes but she did have empathy for those with personal demons to fight. God knows she had her own.
"I can hear you." Lara said. The two looked up to the pink and black clad rodent as she waited for her message to be read. When it wasn't she switched to making a call.
"Now if you don't mind, we have a demon to banish." She said with a dark tone in her voice as she side eyed her comrades. Ester and Frieda were not perturbed by the sharp glance. Rather they were concerned.
The phone rang thrice before Cadence finally answered with an enthusiastic, "Yo!"
"Where are you?" Lara demanded.
On the other end Cadence was at the bar of the HotWire drinking a bubbly purple concoction. It was dark with colorful lights and noisy, full of people yelling vulgarities to the half clothed dancers in cylindrical glass tubes. The cat was sitting with some bikers. She and the group were happily drinking and conversing with each other.
"Taking a booooze brrEak! I needed it after be'n hunted down like a rat on the run." The cat said sounding a bit bitter and slightly tipsy.
Lara could hear the loud beat of the music and people jeering in the background. She pinched the bridge of her nose with a sigh.
"Well get back out there. We've finished setting up the seal. Bring the demon to the dead battery district." Lara said. Cadence however just had to be difficult.
"Sooorry Lara! I can't hear you over all this noise and shit! I'll talk to ya when I'm sober, Kay? Byyyyye!~♡"
Lara was more peeved than she was pissed but she had prepared for that.
"Frieda." She said. The iguana was already typing away on her phone. "I'm on it." She said before hitting the send button. Then she instantly got a thumbs up emoji in response.
...
Cadence laughed with her companions while drinking her cares and injuries away, literally. As she finished another shot of lushlixer her shoulder wound healed up more and more until the hole was fully closed up. Her knee had completely healed by now as well.
The burly red Axolotl with magenta gills, who Cadence sitting on, gave a hearty laugh as they poured another shot into the cat's glass.
"Ha-ha! Shit your leader sounds like a real hard-ass!" They yelled over the music. A female crocodile wearing a torn top with ripped sleeves spoke up.
"Tch! Like you Kint?" She laughed earning her a rough nooggie from that tattooed amphibian.
"But seriously, what's her deal? Was she born with a stick up her ass?" Asked a little female piranha. Cadence downed another glass before sighing.
"I dunno. She's been like that for as long as I've known her." She said as she felt herself getting a good buzz going. She looked at the group of four with slight envy. Seeing the two anthromorphs rough housing while the trans-peahen who was also part of their group laugh good naturedly at their antics. She sometimes longed for something similar in her current group. Both of her relatively new comrades were total kill joys. Ester was some self righteous religious nut and their leader was broody psycho that neither of them knew anything about. It wasn't exactly fun to be around them. That's why she liked partying. It gave her something to do to take her mind off things.
All the while a gangly looking bird guy walked through the crowd clutching a black case to his chest. He had blue feathers a green and yellow crest and a non discript green shirt and pair of black jeans.
Cadence and her group were enjoying their time until eventually the fun was cut short.
"Hey!" A bouncer yelled out. He was a black panther spiked blue hair, yellow sclera and green irises. He wore a dark blue shirt with glow-in-the-dark letters on the back spelling Security.
Cadence turned toward the panther looking flirtatious as she pulled up her shirt.
"Hey big guy wanna fool around?" She said flashing her perky B-cup sized breasts and other six pink nipples below them.
The male was not amused as he questioned the cat. "You Cadence?" The bouncer asked. The cat put down her shirt curiously. "Yeah, why?"
"Yo Brunt, she's over here!" The guard yelled out. The coywolf thanked his friend with fifty bucks then sent him off before approaching the cat. "Come on K, leaders' orders." He said while wearing a smug smirk. "Yeeeah, no. I'm good." She said. Then the gang got up to block the hybrid from their new friend. The bird guy had stumbled a bit behind the group.
"Aye, back off she's with us!" The axolotl leader said.
The rest of the gang began crowding the canis, making him drop his smirk. He stared down the group as he pulled something from his back pocket.
"Alright, let's just... chill for a minute. Cadence's eyes widened as she noticed the metal device. She immediately ducked for cover when Brunt pressed the button accidentally crashing into the bird guy, knocking his briefcase out of his claws. The device beeped three times as Brunt dropped it to the floor before it released a small explosion that created a large cloud of smoke. It was thick and heavy making it hard to see as a huge commotion was caused. Brunt easily flipped over and slipped through the surly gang as the blue bird humanoid searched frantically for his case. To his horror it was empty. What ever was in it was missing. He looked around until he saw a vaguely shaped blue gem on the ground amidst the scambling crowd of people. He dove in, grabbed the gem then ran toward a safe area away from the fray.
All the while, Cadence was desperately crawling through the crowd of stiletto heels and swishing tails that swarmed around during the panic she almost didn't notice her new demon stone had fallen out of her jacket. She instantly scooped it up as she zipped pass the drunk terrified patrons until she stumbled her way into one of the private rooms. After closing the door behind her, she stuffed the gem back into her jacket before looking up to see a couple going at it on the bed.
"Oh don't stop on my account." She said as the pair scrabbled to their feet and ran out the door pass her. Cadence looked around the room, finding the couple's clothes and digging through the pockets. She hit the jackpot when she found a set of electroncycle keys. She jump out the window then used the key to find the cycle, which was parked in the nearby alley beside the club building.
"Ooh! Fi-re!" She commented as she admired the ride. It was deep purple with blue flames on it. Just her style.
As she mounted the bike she glanced up and noticed Brunt's silhouette watching her with glowing reflective eyes. He hung from the window that she escaped from. It made her ears flatten as she growled.
Just then Felitasni crashed into the alley. She looked up noticing the cat before letting out a enraged keen.
Cadence deflated as she started the vehicle. "Guess break time's over." She said.
She then reved up the cycle then took off down the alley and into the city with the demoness, once again, on her tail.
To be continued...