Third Person POV
Avory and Dan ran in alarm up to the conference room where the other committee members were. Damian had cut the call right after threatening them.
They arrived at the room through the back door just in time to meet a bunch of level two shapeshifters pouring into the room through the main door and Avory quickly grabbed the nearest thing to her, a pole she had no idea why it was there.
The people approached and Veronica along with the rests jumped out of their seats, Lee grabbing Jacob before he could attack and vanishing only to appear behind a group of black clothed level twos just in time for Jacob to swing a club he suddenly had at them, bashing all four of them's heads in.
Out of all of them, Jacob was the strongest albeit not the fastest. So he relied on Lee, the fastest to move him around, both making a deadly pair.
Another level two approached them from behind and Lee bent backwards so Jacob could bash the person's face with the club. He was also the most flexible.
Veronica's brown eyes swirled and glowed taking on a more golden shade and her complexion became paler as she ran forward at high speed round house kicking an approaching level two. They were all masked and covered from head to toe in black so they couldn't determine the genders of any of their attackers.
Dan's eyes also glowed as he held out his hand. All the level twos in front of him and Avory turned red dropping like dead fishes one by one. Avory huffed, being the one with the most technique and fighting skills, she didn't shy away from the fight running and jumping into the table as she engaged five of the level twos at once.
The more they fought, the more the person's kept pouring in and eventually they were getting tired. Before they could be completely subdued, a hologram video suddenly popped up over all of them's heads and Finral's voice sounded.
"Stop!" He called and every single person froze except Avory who punched the person she had in a hold before letting them fall to the ground.
Finral sighed rubbing his temple. "Young Masters and Young Misses, you should stop this. You know that no matter how much you resist you can't get away" he muttered, a sad look taking over his features for a moment before he hardened his expression.
All the committee members knew about Finral's story and drooped their heads in response to his words. They were well aware that he spoke from experience.
"Despite how determined you are, you aren't strong enough to protect yourselves let alone do anything" he added. Avory clenched her jaw tightening her fistsbin frustration. They all felt that way. They all definitely felt that way 90 percent of the time. Especially Avory whose body and mind had been tampered with just to ensure the prevalence of a shitty and very racist system.
"Yeah? And whose fault do you think that is?!" Jacob yelled in anger and frustration. He was still being held in Lee's arms completely fine while Lee was covered in cuts and bruises. The entire conference room was a mess, the table in the middle broken, the curtains torn, the walls slashed and broken. At some point after Finral stopped the fight, all the level two persons withdrew to the hallway leaving just the five of them in the room.
Finral smiled ruefully as he stared at them not saying anything. He saw his past self in the kids, eager, determined, defying. Look where that got him.
"Just cooperate and go home. Being forcefully taken and jeopardizing your future is not a good option" he answered shaking his head as he chose not to answer Jacob's question. He knew what the elders did to promising young'uns to ensure their superiority.
Damn geezers with stupid inferiority complexes. If you feel that bad about yourself, why don't you commit suicide, that'll do the clan some good. He couldn't help thinking with a smack of his lips as he turned around.
"Don't fight about kids. Withdraw" he muttered and the hologram closed right after. They all stood there, their anger, frustration, helplessness bubbling over. The person's outside the room arranged themselves into rows leaving a path between them for the kids to pass through.
With grit teeth, Jacob tugged at Lee's clothes signalling for him to go. Lee stared down at him silently for a while before slowly turning and walking out of the room. Dan pursed his lips frowning and turned to look at Avory.
"It's best we withdraw" he muttered quietly before stomping out of the room Veronica hot on his heel.
Avory stood in the silent room alone unmoving. A creaky beam in the ceiling that had been hit during the fight swung down from one side before completely falling off with a loud thud and gust of wind. As if on cue, a bunch of other beams in the ceiling started falling out covering the room in dust.
Once the dust had settled, the room became visible again. Avory was nowhere to be seen.
* * * * *
Dan's POV
I was so fucking upset. So upset I felt like strangling someone and yet a sense of helplessness kept on gnawing at me whispering how even if given the chance, I would never be strong enough to strangle the person.
I was well aware what I felt couldn't compare to what Avory was feeling though and when she was feeling very not-fine, she goes haywire. That brings us back to forty minutes ago when we were informed that Avory was gone.
...40 minutes ago....
"Gone?!! What the hell do you mean she's gone?!" I yelled out in frustration and anger my eyes shifting and glowing as I tried to pounce on the bastard informing us of Avory's situation while staring straight at us. I couldn't see his face through the black mask but I could tell he was greatly unaffected and this pissed me off.
Jacob held me by the arm so I couldn't move and I turned to glare at the kid who was too strong for his size.
"What?!" I growled transferring all my aggression to him. Lee squinted at me as he stood right behind the shorter boy probably annoyed that I was yelling at his master. Yeah, master! No one but me knew that Lee and Jacob were in a slave-master contract. An explanation for all their weird gay-ish behavior. Definitely not homophobic though.
"Leave the puppet be. It probably knows just as much as it was programmed" he said eyeing the masked person and I noticed the person flinching slightly from the corner of my eye.
Jacob can really stab a needle when he wants to huh, I thought my focus going back to the younger guy as I relaxed. He was right, attacking the thing would get me nowhere.
Jacob let go of my arm when he noticed I was no longer trying to pounce. "in any case, like Master Myas said, we must withdraw. Causing a scene will do no good" he added before turning around and getting into the car with Lee who held the door open for him. The car drove off right after and I watched as the dirt from the road kicked up, the car driving farther into the horizon.
I looked back at the tall orange brick building that had once been the clan's hall. It was abandoned due to some dispute that happened centuries ago and was isolated from the rest of the clan's buildings thereby making it an optimal hideout for us. Especially with the underground rooms and all.
We unexpectedly made a lot of memories there, we laughed, we talked, we made plans for our future. Plans that seemed all too far off more so now than in the beginning.
I sighed once more, tears threatening to fall from my eyes and grit my teeth trying to hold them back. Veronica walked up to me and pat me on the shoulder before walking into her own car, a tall bodyguard following right after before the car zoomed off. I watched the process my eyes also not leaving the car until it was passed my view point.
Now it was just me left.
"Master Sol" the thing from before called out making me frown as I turned to watch it open the door to my car for me. I clenched my teeth glaring at this person then at the driver before surveying my surroundings from the corners of my eyes. The numerous person's from before still surrounded me, even the injured ones were there. Even without counting the injured ones, I could tell that nearly a whole battle unit had been dispatched to subdue us. I realized with great bitterness that we really were outnumbered and if they had been serious about taking us out by force, we would have all most likely required a visit to the clan healer.
I huffed as I stomped forward getting into the car. The annoying person shut the door then went round to the other side and also got in sitting right beside me. I noticed a faint smell emanate from it and scrunched up my nose in irritation turning to stare out the window, watching how the rest of the person's dispersed.
My mind went back to Avory who was missing and a wave of worry hit me.
Where was she? Why'd she disappear? Is she alright? Was she going insane again? Was she actually kidnapped? There were so many possible explanations, none of them good leaving me stumped.
I bit my lip hard as I tried to cope with the despair and helplessness of it all.
I'm still too weak.