Dela

Dela felt Alexander fall to his knees in the real world. She couldn't blame him, sobs wracked her imaginary body, they shouldn't be here, they couldn't be here.

The Oubliette was a prison for the worst super powered villains in the world, the ones who tried to overthrow nations, slaughtered hundreds or thousands for their goals and crazy whims, created massive cults of brainwashed followers, or spread chaos for their beliefs or profit. It had taken the G20 a decade to build, using cutting edge theories combined with unreal tech, creating it had made the space race look cheap.

Why were they here?

Sending people to the Oubliette wasn't easy, the Wardens, who controlled the Oubliette, had to break the dimensional barrier to reach the artificial sub-dimension. Each country that accepted the Warden's, had at least one gate that would open a one way portal to the prison, it took a life sentence without the possibility of parole to be sent through the portal. If the supervillain couldn't be arrested, due to being too powerful, controlling an army, or some other reason, there were weapons that could do the same, but they were the size of a tank and only used as a last resort.

They didn't fit any of those. She and Alexander hadn't done anything wrong. Alexander had never even gotten into a real fight after he gained his super strength. The worst things she'd done was using his money without permission. Who had sent them here?

Alexander got to his feet.

She wiped the tears from her eyes, which wasn't actually necessary since she was just a mental construct at the moment, but it helped make her feel more real. Focusing on Alexander, she began looking through his eyes, using his ears to hear, trying to sense something he might miss.

There wasn't much to see. It looked like the area was an old war zone, with massive holes in the road and sidewalk, wrecked buildings, and shattered glass. Considering who lived in the prison, calling it a warzone was likely very accurate.

The Oubliette had been created by creating duplicates of random areas in the real world, and putting them in a sub-dimension, creating an enormous maze of urban and rural areas, buildings, rooms, sewers, caves and more, with absolutely no rhyme or reason. An urban area like this would be prime territory for the inmates.

Sometimes the Wardens released videos from inside, as a warning to people who would use super powers or unreal tech to commit crime. It usually showed the fights in all their bloody glory, as would be dictators, gods, serial killers, mass murderers, master criminals, and the insane, using powers that could crush a dreadnought tank like a paper cup, fought each other for resources, living space, power, boredom and old grudges. With no one to rebuild, the Oubliette was slowly being turned into a wasteland. Alexander liked watching that kind of stuff, she hated it.

“Get out of the street, we don't want to be seen,” she said.

'I don't know what's in the buildings, and they don't look very safe,' he thought back at her.

“Yeah but right now you're pretty freaking obvious. Can you at least get out of the middle of the street?”

'Shut up, I'm trying to get my bearings.'

“Let me out. I can get to the top of a building easy, and look around.”

Alexander clenched his fists, his teeth ground together, probably unconsciously. Dela bit her lip wondering if he'd be smart or stubborn.

'Fine,' he said.

She couldn't help but smile as she gained a body. It tingled pleasantly for a moment and then she was in the real world. Being inside Alexander's mind wasn't bad, she'd been created there and spent most of her life in it, but physically interacting with the world in her own body was so much more intense.

Still, she couldn't waste any time revelling in the sensations. She slipped out of the now too large shoes, let the pants fall to her ankles and yanked off his shirt and backpack, now she was just in the black jumpsuit that had altered to fit her body. Throwing the clothes into Alexanders backpack, she put the bag back on and tightened the straps so it wouldn't bounce around. Now that she could move freely, she bolted for the nearest building that looked somewhat stable and jumped upwards, landing on a window ledge. Her foot barely touched the pockmarked brick when she leapt higher, her strong, sensitive fingers finding cracks and grips that any non-powered human would have missed, unbreakable nails slipped into the cracks, letting her cling to even seemingly impossible spots. Hopping and climbing, she made it to the roof of the five story building in a matter of seconds, barely breathing hard.

Crouching down, she peered over the cityscape. None of the buildings looked to be above seven stories, but there were enormous piles of rubble that could be the remains of larger ones. Peering into the distance, her eyes started to water at the impossible sight.

The sky stopped. She couldn't tell how far away it was, but somewhere in the distance the sky and buildings ended in pure white. There wasn't a wall. There was nothing. It was almost like looking at a childs drawing where there was the sky and clouds above, the land below and nothing in between.

'That's the edge of this section of prison,' Alexander said.

'If we get there, we'll just be in another part of the prison right?' she asked.

'We'll have to find a doorway, the Oubliette is full of them, some are really big, some are so small only a rat could crawl through them. You should know this stuff, you watched the same documentary that I did.'

Dela scowled, he was right. 'I thought it was boring, so I was doing other things.'

'How can you do other stuff? You're in my mind, and this is not only freaky but boring. How haven't you gone insane yet?'

'If you would listen to me once in a while, you'd have learned how to use your imagination so it doesn't get all boring and stuff,' she thought.

'Maybe that works for you since you were created for it, but my brain doesn't work that way.'

She snorted. 'Sometimes I wonder if your brain works at all.'

'Says the girl who nearly burned down the house making a bag of popcorn,' Alexander said, she could practically see him rolling his eyes.

'I'd never used a microwave before and I was asked to make some. I didn't know I was supposed to take the plastic off.'

“Look sister, another newcomer,” a man said from behind her.

“We are getting so many of them, brother,” a woman said.

Dela spun around, her gasping in fear at the sight of two black clad figures wearing crows masks. She remembered them from the news, Huginn and Muninn, psychic twins who had taken the name of Odin's ravens due to their powers. They could see and hear anything within ten miles, they could even read someones mind just by seeing them. They'd blackmailed thousands of people, forcing them to commit crimes, up to and including murder, before they were finally captured and sent to the Oubliette.

“Good we don't need to introduce ourselves,” Huginn, the brother, said.

“It does save time,” Muninn said.

“Did you bring me here?” Dela asked.

The twin supervillains looked at each other, then turned back to her, there pale blue eyes seemed to stare into her soul. “No,” they said in unison.

“But now that you're here, you need to come with us,” Huginn said.

“The Grenadier insists that all visitors see him,” Muninn said.

“He is holding court now.”

“To welcome the newcomers.”

Looking over her shoulder, Dela wondered if she could jump down to the street and run away. In her mind she could feel Alexander biting his lip and crouching down, as if he could hide.

“If you jump, you will be shot.”

“We set our soldiers up to cover all your escape routes.”

“Come peacefully, and the Grenadier will be happier.”

“A happy Grenadier is less likely to kill you.”

“If you are useful, he will hire you.”

“He's a fair and powerful ruler.”

Alexander wasn't saying anything, Dela was on her own. “OK. I'll come peacefully,” she said.

The twins tilted their heads in unison, then they leaned in, their eerie movements and masks made her skin crawl. “What's wrong? I'm not going to try anything.”

“Who is Alexander?” Muninn asked

“You are wondering why he isn't speaking,” Huninn said.

“He's my brother,” she admitted, knowing they'd be able to tell if she was lying. “He should be talking to me, but he isn't.”

“Where is he?”

“If he is hiding from us, it will go poorly for him.”

“He's not here. I haven't seen him in hours,” Dela said. Technically it was truthful.

The moved closer to her, mirroring each others movements, their heads twisting and twitching like birds. She hunched down, wishing she was somewhere else, trying no to look into their weird pale blue eyes.

Finally they backed away. “Come with us,” Huninn said.

“You must meet Grenadier,” Muniin said.

“He will decide if you're useful.”

“Or if you're entertainment.”

Trying not to cry from fear, Dela followed the supervillains out of the building and onto the street where ten armed men were waiting for them. As they surrounded her and forced her to march down the street, they leered, licking their lips, and adjusting their pants.

___
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Alexander

Watching through Dela's eyes, Alexander kept his metaphorical mouth shut, and tried to stay calm. The situation should have been impossible, but it was happening, so he had to deal with it.

Dela was looking all around, first at Huginn and Muninn, then the guards, and then the surrounding area. 'Think of something,' she thought to him.

“You shouldn't think of anything,” Huginn said.

“Just speak the truth,” Muginn said.

Alexander allowed himself a small smile. The supervillains were creepy and powerful, but somehow they couldn't read his mind. He didn't know what would happen if he tried to speak to Dela, but at least he could counter their best ability, that gave him, and Dela, an advantage. Now if only he could figure out how to escape.

As they walked, the ruined city began to show signs of life, the buildings were patched up, the streets were cleared of debris, murals were painted haphazardly on the walls, and laundry was hung up to dry. Individuals, pairs, and small groups of men and women were doing various tasks. A woman handed out bread from a backpack to a group of ragged labourers in a vacant lot had been turned into a vegetable garden. Five men pushed makeshift wagons full of old bricks through the street. A woman in a patchwork dress was cooking over a barrel fire, doling out bowls of soup to a group of children. Several people were playing some kind of dice game, they seemed to be betting cigarettes, food, clothes and jewellery, with plenty of bickering over what something was worth.

“See,” Muginn said, waving her arm at the sights, “Grenadier is a good ruler.”

“Obey him, and he will treat you well,” Huginn said.

“Where did all of these people come from?” Dela asked.

“When the Wardens use their weapons to send us here, they don't always hit their target,” Huginn said.

“And they'll often, accidentally, hit underlings and partners when firing,” Muginn said, sarcasm practically dripping from her words.

“So they end up here, lost and alone.”

“The lucky ones find places like this.”

Alexander felt Dela hug herself. “And the unlucky ones?” she asked.

Muginn began laughing, sounding almost like a cawing crow. “They die.”

“Or worse,” Huninn said.

Sitting unseen and unnoticed, Alexander thought about their situation. Maybe the supervillains were right, maybe this was one of the better places in The Oubliette. From the videos he'd seen, many other parts were a warzone between gangs of super powered inmates. He'd seen one recording of an unreal scientist who had created a gang of Frankenstein like monsters, that cried and moaned in pain as they moved.

Should they stay here and offer their services to someone who at least seemed sane?

Maybe they should try to make a break for it now, before they met Grenadier. But if they were being closely watched, he was pretty sure he was bulletproof, but testing it out was not high on his list of things to try in a dangerous situation. And if they did get away from this group, where would they go? And if they tried to escape but failed, Grenadier wouldn't trust them, which could be deadly, and would make escaping in the future a lot harder.

He wished there was someone he could talk to. Even talking to Dela might help him come up with a plan. But if he opened his mind to her, Huninn and Muninn would probably hear him. He was the ace up their sleeve, he couldn't give up their one advantage until it was the right moment or there was no other choice.

'I'm getting tired,' Dela thought to him.

He groaned to himself. Dela had spent over an hour talking to their therapist, and with everything going on the stress was wearing her out faster than normal. She was gaining strength, able to come out for longer periods each time, but she was still very limited in how long she could keep her body.

“Don't worry child,” Huninn said.

“We are almost at the Court,” Muninn said.

Alexander realized that the street was getting busier and noisier. Turning the corner they came a large square, a few dozen people stood near the center, looking up at a pedestal that had probably once held a statue. Now it held a throne of brick and metal, a grey haired man, wearing an immaculate black suit sat on it, his presence turning the crude construct into a brutal sign of strength. he was old, but there was no weakness in his appearance, his scarred and heavily lined face made granite look soft.

Making their way up to the throne, Dela's eyes turned to see five young people kneeling on the ground, guards watched them closely, guns raised ready to shoot if they stepped out of line. One of the youths, a teen girl wearing a shiny green and white suit, had clearly been badly beaten, her right eye was practically shut from a bruise, her nose was crooked and swollen, blood dripped from her chin, and she was breathing very shallowly. A teen boy knelt by her side, gently leaning against her, he was handcuffed and had a black bag over his head.

The other three were also teens, they weren't injured or bound, they just looked scared and confused. Only the beaten girl was in a costume, the rest were wearing civilian clothes. They didn't look like they belonged in the Oubliette. Alexander wondered if they had fallen into the Oubliette the same why he and Dela had.

“Grenadier,” Huninn said, bowing as he did, “we have the last of the newcomers.”

“She is confused and scared, but came willingly,” Muninn said, also bowing as she spoke.

Grenadier nodded, his lips twitching in what might have been a smile. “Very good Huninn and Muninn. As always you have done your job perfectly, tell me what you would like as a reward this evening.”

The brother and sister bowed again, then leaving Dela behind, went to the throne and knelt on either side of it, watching the teens through their creepy bird masks.

One of the guards gave Dela a shove hard enough to make Alexander wince in sympathy. “Get in line and kneel down,” the man said.

He could feel Dela gratefully get into position, breathing a sigh of relief to be off her feet. There was a mental tug as her grip on the body loosened. He resisted, digging his mental fingers into the weird nothingness that surrounded him. He couldn't come out yet. The tugging stopped, he felt Dela breathing deeply, regaining control of herself.

“What is your name, girl?” Grenadier asked in heavily accented English, his dark eyes staring down at Dela.

“Dela,” she replied.

A guard kicked her in the back, it wasn't hard, but it made her yelp in pain. “You will call him sir, when you speak to him,” the guard said.

Alexander ground his teeth in impotent fury, he didn't like Dela, but he didn't want her hurt.

“I'm Dela, sir,” she said.

“How did you get here?” Grenadier asked.

“I don't know, sir. I was walking with my brother and we fell. Then we were here.”

“where is your brother?”

“I don't know, he isn't answering me.”

He had to give her credit for her answer, it was truthful enough that Huginn and Muginn couldn't detect the lie. No one could really say where he or Dela went when they weren't in the body.

Grenadier rubbed his chin in thought. “You can telepathically talk to your brother?”

“Kind of. It's hard to explain,” she said.

Alexander nodded to himself, that was very true.

“So he is in the Oubliette, and is just choosing to be silent?”

“Maybe.”

“Do you have any other powers?”

Alexander listened to the questions and answers with half an ear, he had more important things to worry about. The Grenadier was one of the oldest prisoners in the Oubliette, being sent there in 2001, two years after it opened. He was one of the superpowered dictators that the prison had initially been created for.

The mercenary turned warlord, had taken control of a chunk of territory along the Black Sea after the Soviet Civil War in 1992. He'd stabilized the area, so most countries had been willing to live and let live, but then he'd started invading neighbouring countries. He was smart enough to wait until there was some unrest, and then he moved in with his 'peacekeepers'. If the country in question tried to fight, the Grenadier would lead his army from the front, using his explosive powers to blast a hole in the enemy defences or bringing the enemy offensive to a halt, allowing his army to sweep in and destroy them. Against a properly led, modern military, he could have been dealt with, but against the poor and poorly trained armies of the area, he was unstoppable.

Then he'd invaded the Reformed Soviet States, and the Wardens had been waiting for him. In a battle that saw thousands of soldiers on both sides die, the Wardens had led him into a trap and opened a portal under his feet.

From what little Alexander had read of the man, he was a competent leader, his country, the Black Sea Republic, had been well run, but dissidents were harshly punished, often by public execution. If Grenadier hadn't invaded his neighbours so often, he likely would have been ignored.

So the man was sane and competent, but he wanted power and demanded absolute loyalty. That was something he and Dela could deal with, at least for the short term.

His attention snapped back to the real world, the questions and answers were over with. Grenadier leaned forward on his throne, eyeing all of them.

“Lucas,” the man said, pointing at the boy beside Dela, “stand up.”

The boy did. He looked to be about fourteen and he was shaking in his boots. “Yes, sir?” the boy asked, in an Australian accent.

“Your fire powers are useful. You may join my community as a skilled worker. You will follow instructions from the guards and the work leaders, but you may command all those beneath you. You will have private quarters and good food, so long as you do your tasks quickly and correctly. If you do well and follow instructions, you can become a work leader in time and gain unlimited access to the entertainment. Will you swear loyalty to me?” Grenadier asked.

“Yes, sir!” the boy said. “Thank you!”

A guard patted Lucas on the back and led him to the far side of the square.

“Tobias,” Grenadier said.

A young man who seemed to be around twenty jumped up, he was grinning. “Yes, sir,” he said, sounding like a soldier.

“As you can see, we don't have many animals here, just rats, a few cats and mangy dogs. Controlling them is not very useful. Still there is potential. You can work in the farm as a labourer.”

The grin turned into a grimace of disappointment. “But-”

“SILENCE!” a guard shouted.

“As I was saying,” Grenadier said, frowning at Tobias. “You will be a labourer, but you will also be trained as a guard. It can give you some privileges, if you learn to hold your tongue, you may be able to enjoy those privileges in the future. If you do well, you could be put in charge of the farm in due time. Will you swear loyalty to me?”

“Yes, sir,” Tobias said, not nearly as enthusiastic as he had been. He went to stand beside Lucas, glaring at the younger boy.

“Now, Ivy, stand up.”

“Yes, sir,” a sixteen year old girl whispered.

“I enjoy music,” Grenadier said, “it's been far too long since I've heard good music. As a siren, you can help inspire the people here and entertain us after a long day. You can have a position as chief entertainer, you'll be just below my commanders, and what few luxuries we have here will be yours. Will you swear loyalty to me?”

“Yes, sir. I will,” she said, more loudly than before, allowing Alexander to hear a faint English accent.

“Liar,” Huninn and Muninn said in unison.

“No!” Ivy shouted. “I'm not lying! I was just thinking about getting back home, but I know I can't. I don't want to be here. Who would?”

Grenadier watched impassively as the girl cried. Then he looked at the twins, raising an eyebrow.

“She wants to escape,” Muninn said.

“She will wait for a chance to escape and take it,” Huninn told him.

He nodded, sighing loudly. “Very well. Ivy, I understand you want to escape. I will keep most of my offer, but you will be closely guarded until you realize that your best hope for a long and comfortable life is here. You will also obey the guards and are not allowed to leave the living area without an armed escort. If you try to escape or break these rules, you will join the other entertainers. Do you agree?”

The girl nodded, still crying she moved to join the other two volunteers.

“Very good. Dela I will have an offer for you soon. For now, I need to deal with the two trainee Wardens,” he said, turning to the hooded boy and the beaten girl,” his voice as cold as ice.

Despite her fear, Dela was finding it hard to stay upright. Even kneeling was getting difficult and she desperately wanted to lay down, only willpower kept her from shaking like a leaf from exhaustion. Worse yet, she felt her grip loosening on her body. She didn't know what would happen if she switched before she could explain her condition to Grenadier, but it probably wouldn't be good.

Alexander wasn't talking to her either. She could feel him watching everything through her eyes, hopefully he was thinking of a plan. At least Huginn and Muninn were focusing on the others and not reading her mind.

'I can't stay awake much longer. What should I do?' she thought as quietly as she could.

There was no answer from him. Biting her tongue until she tasted blood, she tried to focus on Grenadier and the two Wardens.

The black haired girl looked to be about seventeen or eighteen. Guessing from her broken nose, battered face, and how her armoured green and white cadet uniform was torn and bloodied, she'd put up a fight before going down. Despite her injuries she was glaring at the former dictator and his supervillain minions. The hooded teen beside the Warden was wearing regular clothes, but from the way he was leaning against her, plus how he was bound, made it clear they were close and he had powers as well.

Grenadier leaned forward in his chair, his deep voice was almost a growl as he spoke. “Warden, what are your names?”

“Cadet Warden Flamer, ID 983776. Cadet Warden trainee Hole, ID 439133,” the girl said.

Huginn looked up at Grenadier. “Her name is Samantha Holmes.”

Muninn pointed at the hooded boy. “His name is Dwayne Washington.”

Flamer glared at the mind readers, spitting in their direction. A guard kicked her, sending her face first to the ground. The girl managed to turn her head protecting her broken nose, but she groaned and began sobbing a little in pain, even as she was wrenched back up into a kneeling position.

Ignoring the abuse, Grenadier asked, “How did you get here?”

Neither of the cadets answered.

“Like the rest, they don't know how they came here,” Muninn said.

“They both think it should be impossible,” Huginn said.

The former dictator sighed, saying something to himself in his native tongue. “Samantha, even though you are a Warden, yours and Dwayne's powers are too useful to waste. You see the community I have built, it's as close to civilization as you will find in The Oubliette. I will give you a chance to work with me, keeping the people safe from the insane and the savage who wander this prison. With you both at my side, we may even be able to expand, bringing order to more of The Oubliette.”

“Fuck you!” Flamer said. A tiny gout of flame leapt from her hands.

“Then you'll be the newest entertainment for the week. Strip her, lets see what she looks like” he said.

Dela could only watch in horror and disgust as a guard pointed a shotgun at the hooded boys head, his finger on the trigger. Two others yanked Flamer to her feet, making her shout in pain, and a third started taking off her uniform. The teen turned to look at her friend and the gunman. With a look of pure hatred she glared at Grenadier as she was stripped, refusing to speak or cover herself. She was left standing there in a sports bra and panties, her muscular body on full display for everyone.

As the guards reached for her underwear Grenadier raised his hand, stopping them. “Dwayne” he said, turning his attention to the hooded boy, “you have a chance at saving your friend. You're portal powers could be the most useful tool in The Oubliette. If you work for me, willingly and without complaint, Samantha will merely be a prisoner. She will be well cared for, with food, water and clothes, and as long as she doesn't try to escape or harm a guard, she will be unharmed. If you refuse, we will drug her so she can't use her powers and she'll be sent to the guards barracks for a week.”

Dela wanted to vomit. Hugging herself, she tried to keep control. That's what he meant by entertainment. No matter what Grenadier wanted her to do, she'd agree to it, just to avoid that fate. Ducking her head to hide her tears, she prayed that this was all a nightmare.

She felt Alexander looking through her eyes, trying to move them. Unsure what he wanted to do, she looked up, straight at Grenadier.

'JUMP!' he shouted.

Alexander had to hold back his rage as he watched the girl get stripped. If he tried anything it would just get him and Dela killed. He couldn't even really plan anything, the twin mind readers would be able to read his mind as soon as he switched with Dela, and that would happen any minute now.

Uselessly he clenched his insubstantial hands, wanting to break something. Through his anger he heard Grenadier talking to Dwayne.

Portal powers?

It would explain why they had him hooded.

While Dela cried, he heard Dwayne's reply to Grenadier. “You son of a bitch! I'll do it, but if you break your word, I'll do whatever it takes to kill you.”

He had to act now. It was their only chance.

Alexander thought about looking up. He couldn't risk saying it, he had to hope Dela would feel his desire and look at Grenadier.

She raised her head.

“Jump!” he shouted.

Dela threw herself at Grenadier as hard as she could. As they flew through the air, he forcefully took control, her body fading as his larger and much stronger body replaced hers. There wasn't time for the twins or the guards to react. He slammed his shoulder into Grenadiers chest with enough force to flip over a car.

The old man fell backwards, his throne toppling with him. The blow hadn't killed him, he was too strong for that, but he was at least stunned. Alexander couldn't worry about what would happen once Grenadier recovered, he had to act fast and without thinking or he and the two Wardens were dead.

Scrambling to his feet, he ran at the twins. Muninn reacted quickly, punching him in the face. There was a crunch and she grabbed her broken hand screaming in pain. Grabbing her arm with one hand, he swung her at Huginn as hard as he could, they collided and flew backwards, landing in a broken heap. The three most dangerous people were taken care of, now there were only the guards.

The guards reacted quickly, aiming their guns and firing, peppering him with bullets. He winced in pain. It seemed like he was bulletproof, but he was going to be bruised if he survived this.

The unarmed onlookers scattered, while the guards tried to regain control.

Flamer, taking advantage of the distraction, grabbed the two closest guards by their faces, her hands lighting up with a brilliant blue flame. Their lungs were flash fried as they tried to scream. She spit a fireball from her mouth, setting fire to the guard holding a shotgun at Dwayne. He dropped and rolled, trying to put the fire out, forgetting about his gun and the prisoners.

From the group of teens who had agreed to work with Grenadier, Ivy screamed, making everyone close by drop to the ground clutching their ears. She stopped to catch her breath, and Tobias tackled her, driving her head into the pavement, knocking her out.

Lucas ran towards Flamer and Alexander. “Take me with you!” he shouted.

A guard swung around and fired. The young boy kept running for a few feet before falling face first to the ground. He wheezed, feebly moving his legs, trying to push himself forwards, before going limp.

Alexander threw a guard out of his way, and jumped through a wall of fire, reaching Flamer and Dwayne. Spreading out his arms, he grimaced in pain as bullets pelted him. “If you can, get us out of here,” he said.

Flamer struggled for a moment with the hood covering her friends face. Once it was off, Dwayne blinked a few times, then his eyes flashed and a hole appeared beside them.

“GO!” Flamer shrieked, looking over his shoulder. She grabbed Dwayne and jumped through the portal.

Alexander turned and saw Grenadier was on his feet, a ball of white light hung over his head. Screaming, he followed the pair through the portal as the ball was released.

There was an explosion, and Alexander felt himself being thrown through the air. He hit a wall and everything went black.

Flamer

The portal closed just in time, protecting them from the worst of the explosion. She still yelled out in pain as her battered body was flung along the ground.

Aching, barely able to breathe, and almost naked, she slowly got to her feet. Dwayne was lying on the ground, still cuffed. He was groaning and bruised, but seemed to be in decent shape. Limping over to him, she knelt down taking the chain linking the cuffs in her fingers.

“Hold still, I don't want to burn you,” she said. Channelling some of the heat that filled her veins, fire appeared on her fingers. The chain turned a brilliant yellow as it melted, some of it fell on her hands. Keeping the heat on, she wiped the molten metal off on the ground, when it was all gone she allowed her skin to cool down.

“Thanks,” Dwayne said. He looked up at her, then turned away. “I'm sorry I couldn't help you.”

“Not your fault. You never wanted to be a Warden and you suck at fighting. Going along with them was smarter than what I did.” She frowned as she said it.

Her instructors would have chewed her out for not being more cooperative, getting beaten and then threatened with gang rape just to have the satisfaction of telling a supervillain off, wasn't very smart. But in the heat of the moment she hadn't been able to help herself.

“Let's check out our rescuer,” she said.

The boy didn't seem to be in too bad of shape. He had left a nice little crater in the wall, but he was already sitting up. He looked like shit, with his weird black clothes all shot up, and his face had definitely been prettier a few minutes ago, but he was conscious which was a good sign.

“How are you feeling?” she asked.

“Like I got shot and blown up,” he said.

She grinned. “Glad you have a sense of humour. Thanks for the rescue, but what happened to the girl? Delia was it?”

“I'm Alexander, she's Dela. She's kind of my sister.” He shook his head. “It's hard to explain. Where are we?”

Turning to Dwayne, she raised an eyebrow, which turned into a wince as her many bruises made themselves known.

“Not sure,” Dwayne said. “I just made a hole without really thinking about it, all I know is it's somewhere near where we first showed up.”

“At least that means we're a few blocks from their base. Can you walk?” she asked Alexander.

“Yeah, but,” he stopped talking. It looked like he was listening to someone.

He suddenly seemed to fade away and shrink down, becoming thinner and smaller, his clothes shrank with him. In a second the girl was standing in his place, she looked tired, but wasn't bruised or dirty.

“Oh thank god you're OK,” the new girl said, throwing her arms around Flamer, making her yelp in pain. “I wanted to help, but I didn't know what to do, and I'm not bulletproof like Alexander is. I'm Dela by the way, I'm going to need to go to sleep soon, my time out wasn't nearly long enough. But I can keep going for at least an hour and Alexander is in no shape to walk far. So we should find a way out of here before the creepy twins wake up.”

Flamer looked at Dwayne, they had both seen some weird things, but this was definitely in the top ten. Still questions could wait, the girl was right, they needed to find a safe place to hide, preferably out of this part of The Oubliette. The twins were far to dangerous to risk sticking around.

“Good idea,” she said, making Dela beam with delight. “Let's head for the edge, we should be able to find a crack to a new section without too much trouble.”

Slowly, wishing she still had her uniform, or at least her boots, they started walking.

__

This story, along with Doom Valley Prep School, and Necromancer Unmanned, will be updated every two weeks without fail.

If you would like to support my work, get a sneak peek at future chapters for all of these stories, see snippets of potential stories, and have a chance to choose what I write next, you can support me on my Patreon page.

Dela

Walking beside the two trainee Wardens, Dela kept scanning the abandoned and damaged buildings. Fear was helping her stay alert despite how tired she was. Getting a few minutes of rest had also helped, hopefully it would be enough to let them get somewhere they could sleep in safety for a few hours. Alexander was gently snoring in the back of her head, and she didn't want to wake him up unless she had absolutely no other choice. He had taken a big hit in the fight, and she felt how badly his back hurt.

At least he was safely tucked away with a chance to recover.

“I've gotta ask, what is up with you and your powers?” Dwayne asked.

“They're pretty easy to explain,” she said, happy to have something to distract from her exhaustion. “I've got superhuman agility and can jump and climb really, really well. And Alexander is super strong and durable.”

“No,” the boy said. “I mean how can you switch bodies like that and why do you act like you're two different people?”

“Because we're two different people. It's kind of annoying when one of us wants to do something but the other one has the body, but I've only been able to really come out in the last year, so I'm used to it.”

“Multiple personality disorder,” Flamer said.

“I am not a delusion!” Dela shouted, exhaustion causing her anger to flare up. She'd spent years being thought of as a delusion when she'd first shown up, she wasn't about to put up with it now that she could appear in her own body. Without thinking she said, “I'm a biological artificial intelligence.”

The two teens stopped dead in their tracks, their surroundings forgotten as they focused on her. She didn't like the looks in their eyes. Dwayne stepped back, looking ready to run, and Flamer's good eye narrowed, flame flickering in her hand.

“What?” Dela asked, backing up, getting ready to jump if they attacked her.

“You're Project Gemini,” Flamer said.

“Yes,” she whispered, suddenly self-conscious at hearing her formal designation.

“GOD DAMMIT!” the girl shouted. “I should have realized anyone we met here was going to be a criminal.”

“I am not a criminal! I didn't ask to be created, and I am not to blame for what my father did to Alexander.”

Flamer started walking away, not taking her eyes off of Dela. “Come on Dwayne, lets get out of here.”

Dwayne looked nervously at her, then turned to Flamer. Slowly he started walking away.

Panic rose in her chest. She and Alexander needed help if they were going to survive in The Oubliette. She was too tired to protect Alexander and he was too hurt, and neither of them really knew how to fight. She had to do something.

“Is this how you thank us for saving you?” she demanded. “We could have stayed quiet and let you get raped and beaten. Grenadier would have loved to have Alexander and I acting as a scout and guard, but we threw it all away to help you. And now you're going to just abandon us because of my father?”

“You're not even human,” Flamer said, watching her as if she was a dangerous beast. “They use you as an example of the dangers of unreal science in our training class.”

Tears welled up in Dela's eyes as the pair turned and walked away. She bit her lip hard enough to taste blood, fighting the urge to run away. Andrea had been trying to teach her to face her problems, if there was ever a time to listen to her therapist it was now.

“I'm a legal citizen of the US, and my body is all real. Just because I wasn't born in the normal way doesn't make me a monster or a criminal. And what about Alexander? Are you just going to leave him behind after he got shot protecting you? He's bulletproof, but getting shot still hurt him.”

The pair stopped and looked at each other. She couldn't see their faces, but a small glimmer of hope formed. She saw Flamer nod once and Dwayne turned to face her. “Come on,” he said.

Forcing herself to give them a little smile, Dela walked over to them. Now would be the time to say something nice, she thought about what her therapist would want her to say. “Thank you. I know this seems weird, but I'll do my best to help out and make sure you can trust me.”

“Whatever,” Flamer said. “You take point.”

“Uh... Point what?”

The girl massaged her forehead, wincing as she pressed on a bruise. “Walk in front, keep an eye out for danger, we'll watch your back.”

“OK!” she said. She really wasn't excited about taking point, but if it meant she got to stay with them, she'd act like it was the best thing in the world.

**

“This is what the edge of The Oubliette looks like?” Dela asked, staring at a misty greyish cloud, that quickly turned an impenetrable gun metal grey.

“That's it,” Dwayne said, “the edge of reality.”

Slowly and cautiously, she put her hand into the cloud. At first it felt like a cold mist, then her limb was enveloped in the thick fog and it was like she was pushing into rubbery jello. “So to get to another part of The Oubliette, do we just walk through?” she asked, shuddering at the thought of walking into the icky feeling space.

Flamer sneered at her. “No. We'd just get stuck and have to work our way back out. We need to find a crack. Come on,” she said, walking along the cut off street while watching the fog.

“And what does a crack look like?” she asked, pointedly not looking at the girl. She forced herself to start walking again despite her aching legs and feet. .

“It's a blurry spot. Like looking through old, dirty glass, sometimes its moving, sometimes it isn't,” Dwayne said.

She smiled at him. “Thank you. Grenadier will know where these cracks are, right? So he'll probably have guards around them.”

“Nah. The smaller ones appear and disappear at random, only the big ones are permanent.”

“What if we're moving through a crack when it disappears? I don't want to be cut in half.”

Flamer snorted. Dela bit her tongue to keep from snapping at the trainee hero, like she so desperately wanted to. She silently told herself that she and Alexander needed their help, for now, if they wanted to survive.

Dwayne gave her a sympathetic look. “Don't worry, they don't close if anything is inside of them. The science is strange, but if you're in the middle of one, your reality is making it stable. It can't collapse until you're out. When we go through, we'll want to be holding hands so there is no chance of it cutting us off.”

“OK, that makes sense.”

“Uh,” Dwayne started to speak, stopped, then said, “You said you have to sleep soon. How much longer can you go before you, switch?”

Yawning, Dela gave him a little glare, before turning it into a smile. “I wish you hadn't reminded me. I feel like I haven't slept in days. Alexander is still hurting, so I'll keep going as long as I can, but I'm going to need to at least sit down soon.”

“How do you know Alexander is hurting? Can you... feel him?”

She nodded. “Kind of. We can always feel each other, but I'm not feeling the pain. It's like I can tell he is really sore, with a sharp pain on his left side and a dull, throbbing ache all over the rest of his back, but it's over there. So I only know if I focus on it.”

Dwayne gave her an odd look, tilting his head back and forth. “That's weird.”

Shrugging, Dela said, “We've been told that, a lot. But it's what I've always lived with and Alexander can't really remember a time without me. So not having someone with you, seems really weird to us.”

“What about your thoughts? Can you read each others minds?”

“Nope. We can talk to each other without speaking out loud, and if we concentrate really hard we can kind of let each other know what we want to do, but our thoughts are our own. When I told them Alexander wasn't talking to me, I meant it. He didn't want the twins knowing what we were thinking, so he just shut up as soon as they appeared.”

He nodded in understanding. “So what about when you attacked Grenadier, did he tell you what to do?”

“Alexander didn't tell me anything except to jump, once he got me looking at Grenadier. So I did.”

“You just trusted him, with no idea what he was going to do?”

“Yeah,” she said, looking at him like he was crazy. “I didn't know what he was going to do, but I knew he wouldn't want to hurt me or him. So he had to have a plan and I didn't want to be there, so I trusted him. We don't always get along, but I know he's not suicidal or anything.”

“So you guys don't argue very much?”

Looking at her feet, Dela let herself frown as she remembered what they'd been doing before they ended up in The Oubliette. “We didn't use to argue much. When we were kids, we got along great. I was the friendly voice in his head and he always wanted to show off for me. Then as we became teenagers, and I started being able to use his body, and then I got my own body, we started arguing more and more. It doesn't help that I'm a girl and he's a boy.”

“What does- Oh,” he said, his eyes going wide. “Yeah, I see how that could be a problem.”

“If you two are done chatting, we've got a crack,” Flamer said.

Up ahead, lying flat on the road was a gently swirling blur. She could see the pavement underneath, but it was rippling in an odd way, almost like it was CGI. “So this will get us out of here?”

“Out of this part of The Oubliette. There's no way to get out of The Oubliette from inside,” Flamer said.

“Do you know where we'll end up?”

“Nope.”

Dwayne sighed, shaking his head. “These are random tears. The Oubliette isn't a natural construct and it's not in a 3D shape. Picture a lot of rooms of all different sizes crammed together into one big, constantly moving ball. As it moves, the walls crack and reform. One minute a crack will open up to Room 10, then it will close as the whole place moves, and another crack will open nearby but go to room 500.”

Dela nodded, kind of picturing it. “If we end up somewhere bad, can you open a portal away from there?”

“I wouldn't want to try. Opening a portal in the same area isn't too tough, but going from one area to another in The Oubliette could be dangerous.”

“Why?”

“I'm opening a hole in reality. On Earth, everything is stable, going from my home to my favourite pizza place, easy, like jumping over a narrow creek. Going from my home to Paris, that's like swimming across a public pool, a little tiring, but nothing too tough. That little portal I did to get away from Grenadier, it was like swimming in a stiff current, I could do it safely, but it wasn't easy. Going between regions, would probably be like swimming on a big lake during a storm,” he explained.

“So going from here to Earth is impossible?”

“Yeah. That would be like me swimming across the Gulf of Mexico during a category 5 hurricane. If I could even open a portal, it wouldn't be survivable.”

“That sucks,” she said.

They reached the edge of the crack, looking down at it, nausea made Dela turn away, covering her mouth to keep from vomiting. Asphalt shouldn't move like rippling water.

“Dela, you're agile, and the least beat up, hold onto my hand and I'll lower you into the hole,” Flamer said.

“I want Dwayne to hold me,” she said, not trusting the girl.

“Why?”

“Because he won't drop me to get rid of me,” she replied, too tired to think of a nicer way to say it.

Flamer scowled. “I wouldn't drop you!”

“You think I'm a criminal, and were going to leave me behind!" she shouted. Even with Alexander asleep, she could picture him scowling at her, as she screwed up again. "I'll go first but only if Dwayne holds my hand, I trust him.”

Dwayne stepped up, holding out his hand. “It's OK, Samantha. You're hurt, I'm not. I'll hold her hand, you hold mine. If anyone comes by before we're through you can hurl a fireball at them.”

“Fine,” Flamer said, “let's just get out of here.”

Taking Dwayne's hand, Dela gingerly put her foot into the crack. She gasped as the asphalt proved to be about as solid as water. Her leg slipped down, and she couldn't feel the ground. Moving around, her shin hit something solid, but it seemed to just be a thin ledge, her toes only touched air.

Pulling her leg back up, she got to her knees. “I need to see what's there, hold onto my ankle,” she said.

Pushing her hands through, she took a deep breath and closed her eyes as her head followed. She hoped no one was waiting on the other side.

The watery sensation faded, and she opened her eyes. She was coming out of the floor in what looked like an apartment. Her black hair sat normally on top of her head, but the ends, which were on the other side of the crack hung upside down. It was the weirdest sensation, she was kneeling down, and her upper body was upside down, but her head was right side up.

Pulling back, her nausea came back as gravity flipped around. Pushing her gorge down, she turned to her companions. “It's an apartment and it looks deserted. But we're in the floor so gravity gets really strange.”

“Good enough. Let's go, but be careful,” Flamer said.

The two got down on their knees. Dela had to hide her smirk as Flamer winced when her bare legs hit the road. The three of them crawled into the crack, one after the other holding tight to the leg in front of them.

The came out in the living room of a dusty apartment. A balcony was cut in half by the steel grey cloud that marked the edge of area. Looking around, Dela saw family photo's lining the wall, and what looked like a little shrine sat in a corner of the room.

The two trainee wardens were on there feet moving around the apartment, they came back less than two minutes later.

“Is it safe?” she asked.

“Looks it. No one has been here for years, and it's only the single apartment,” Flamer said.

“That's good,” she said. Lying down beside the crack, she put her head on her arm and closed her eyes. The adrenaline and fear that had kept her going began to fade away.

She felt Alexander rising, replacing her body.

For a moment she was surrounded by blackness. She pictured a comfortable bed and soft classical music playing in the background. Her imaginary body slipped into the bed and under covers. The soft mattress felt wonderful after her long and terrifying day.

Seconds later she fell asleep.

___

The Oubliette will be updated every second Friday. My other story Necromancer Unmanned, will be updated every second Monday, and Doom Valley Prep School will be updated once a week alternating between Monday and Friday.

If you would like to support my work, get a sneak peek at future chapters for all of these stories, look at background info, see snippets of potential stories, and have a chance to choose what I write next, you can support me on my Patreon page.

Opening his eyes, Alexander gingerly sat up on the sofa. His back didn't hurt nearly as much as it had, but he still winced as his bruised and battered muscles let him know they weren't healed. He saw the teen named Dwayne, asleep in a large armchair, his head drooped forward. Muffled snoring came through the wall, that was probably Samantha. He felt Dela deeply asleep in his head.

Hissing in pain, he got to his feet and went to a small alter in the corner of the room. There were several statues on the dusty alter, one of them was probably the Virgin Mary, with an Asiatic look. He didn't know who the other statues represented, but the way they were all holding crosses, made it clear the people who'd set it up had been Roman Catholic.

Going to the kitchen, cans of food and bottles of water were set out on the table, alongside a pile of silverware, a can opener, and a pack of ancient looking wet wipes. The labels were a mix of English, Spanish and a language he couldn't read. The curved looping symbols could be something from Southeast Asia, it definitely wasn't Chinese or Japanese.

A note read, 'TAKE ONLY 1 WATER, 1 CAN. NEED TO MAKE IT LAST.'

Wiping his hands off as best he could, Alexander got a can of sardines in tomato sauce since it was the biggest, and a water bottle. Taking a bite of the fish, he grimaced in disgust. He liked sardines, the cold tomato sauce left a lot to be desired. Swallowing the bite, he forced himself to take another. The note was right, they couldn't waste food, and his growling stomach demanded food.

Quickly finishing his meal, hoping that by eating it faster, it would somehow not taste as bad, he set the can aside and wondered what to do next.

A hallway door opened and Samantha came out. She looked terrible, her bruises had swollen up, distorting her face, and bits of dried blood still covered her face. The hero had managed to find clothes, a pink dress that looked too small, hugging her hips and thighs, with a mans white t-shirt thrown over top that was stretched tight over her breasts. She was only average height, but she was very solidly built. Overall she looked more like a homeless girl who had gone dumpster diving at a thrift store than a Cadet Warden.

“Glad you're awake,” she said. “You took a big hit there.”

“I'd rather be asleep,” he replied.

“How's your back?”

“Sore, but getting better.”

She walked up to him. “Turn around. I want to check it out, I have training in first aid. There's not much to work with, but I need to see if you have broken ribs or internal injuries.”

Turning to lean on a counter, he jerked at her gentle touch.

“Take a deep breath, and let it out slowly,” she said.

He breathed in deeply, held it for a moment and then slowly breathed out. It hurt a little, but compared to the haze of pain that covered his entire body, it was more than bearable.

“Any pain?”

“Nothing major.”

“What's your name?”

“Alexander Pechman.”

“When were you born?”

“March 3rd, 2006.”

“Hometown?”

“Woodpine, Michigan.”

As she questioned him, her fingers ran over his back. Tracing out the bruises, gently pressing a few points, making him hiss or grunt in pain.

“Do you feel light headed or dizzy?”

“No, just a headache from slamming into a wall.”

He heard her back off, and turned around to face her. “So what's the verdict, will I live?”

She nodded. “You'll want to avoid fighting for a while, or using your back, but there doesn't seem to be a concussion, broken bones or internal bleeding. Do you have any regeneration?”

“Kind of,” he admitted. “When Dela or I are not using our body, we heal a little faster than normal, and recover more quickly. The doctors think it's because our body has nothing else to do except fix itself.”

“Interesting. So, you're project Gemini, I've read about you in some of my training classes. Never thought I'd meet you.”

He shuddered, instinctively closing his eyes. Forcing himself to breath normally, he opened his eyes looking around the room. There was a beige clock, a brown chair, a blue cupboard, black hair, and a white fridge. The feeling of terror faded away.

“Yeah. Dela told you?”

Samantha nodded. “Not directly, but no one else would refer to themselves as a biological AI.”

His hand curled into a fist as he ground his teeth. “God, she's an idiot.”

“She does stuff like this a lot?”

“She's like a little kid. Ever since she was able to manifest she's does whatever she wants without thinking and I have to clean up the mess. It's all about having fun with her.”

“Is she dangerous?”

Alexander shook his head. “No. She'll do things without thinking, or to piss me off if she thinks I deserve it, but she wouldn't hurt anyone. At least not intentionally, and the worst thing that would happen are some hurt feelings. She's harmless, preferring to run away when things get tough.”

Sitting down Samantha closed her good eye, clearly thinking about what he'd said. “She put up a pretty good fight to stay with us.”

“What?”

“When we found out, I was ready to leave her, and you, behind. She guilt tripped Dwayne and I into keeping you both with us.”

Taking a seat across from her, he rested his elbows on the table, looking her in the eyes. “That's... interesting,” he finally said.

She didn't look away, her green eye stayed on his. “I wanted you to hear it from me first. Dwayne and I ended up here somehow, and we still don't know how. We didn't know you, and those other kids, came here the same way. I overreacted when I found out who she was, thinking you had both done something to deserve ending up here. While you were asleep, Dwayne and I talked things over, and it's clear the Wardens wouldn't send kids with basic powers to The Oubliette.”

“So you want us to stick around?”

“Yes. You both have powers that could be useful, you personally saved my dumb ass, and Dwayne talked with Dela while we looked around. He thinks she's a good kid, and she was willing to help out. If we want to survive here, we will need every advantage we have. The more of us there are, the more options we have, and you and Dela are an interesting mix that no one will expect.” She sighed deeply, and gave him a lopsided smile. “Of course I'm going to have to apologize to Dela. I hate apologizing, especially when it's because I've been an idiot.”

He returned the smile. “Yeah, that's going to suck. When I said she's like a child, I meant it. She might forgive you right away or hold a grudge for a long time.”

“Great. If I can find her some chocolate it will help?”

“Probably. So partner, what's the plan?” he asked.

“Sit here for a while and recover. You and I are both too beat up to risk heading out. We've got enough water and food to last a week. That will give my nanites time to get rid of the worst injuries, and your own healing trick should have you moving around nicely by then. Then we can head out with two water bottles each and a few cans of food.”

“Shouldn't we stay here? The Wardens will be looking for you, if we stay in one spot it will be easier for them to rescue us.”

Shaking her head, Samantha waved her arm at the room. “The tracking system in The Oubliette isn't as stable as the PR side claims. It works great in larger areas where we regularly watch the prisoners, the tunnel has been created and stabilized over time. But in smaller, more desolate areas, there's no need to watch them closely. So it requires a lot of energy to push a camera feed through, and the image is crap. No one has ever been here, or they passed through without grabbing anything, even if they get a camera in here they'll barely make out anything.”

“So when the food and water is gone, we're screwed?”

“Yep,” she confirmed. “The Wardens regularly provide food, water and some supplies to areas with a population, but tiny places like this, it would be a waste of resources.”

“At least you don't have your Warden uniform anymore. We'll be a little safer,” he said, trying to look on the bright side.

Her hand tugged on her collar. “Yeah,” she said softly. “We'll need to make some new clothes. There really isn't anything here that will fit us.”

Alexander allowed himself to genuinely smile. “We're in luck. Dela's a wannabe fashionista.”

**

Dela was sitting at the table, a pile of clothes spread out before her, happily clipping away while humming to herself. Dwayne was at the counter measuring out pieces of fabric, marking them with a marker.

“You really like this?” Flamer asked. She was sitting off to the side carefully sewing some denim together that would hopefully become a pair of jeans that actually fit her.

“Yeah,” the girl chirped. “Alexander doesn't like wearing interesting clothing, and I don't have much of a wardrobe, since I only got a body recently. The most I could do for the longest time was watch clothes video on the net and practice sewing doll clothes, when it was my turn to come out. And even then Alexander would complain about it being girly. I'm actually a little surprised you both know how to sew so well.”

She bit back a laugh. “Dwayne and I aren't very good at sewing. We just learned enough to replace buttons, sew on new tags, and mend holes in our training uniforms.”

“Well it's really helpful now. If I had to do all of this by myself, we'd need more than a week. I just wish I could fix up my outfit better,” the girl said, holding up the black suit she and Alexander wore. The back of it had been stitched up with some fishing line, and a lot of spandex. It was baggy on Dela, and a little tight on Alexander, but it meant they didn't have to change clothes when they switched bodies.

“I you've done the best you can. Without the special fabric, there isn't much else you can do,” Dwayne said.

“Yeah, I know. It still sucks.” Her eyes went wide. “Oh Alexander is awake.”

Flamer happily put down her sewing. “OK, time to train,” she said, heading for the living room.

They'd pushed most of the furniture to the side, leaving plenty of room to exercise and spar. If they were going to survive, they needed Dela and Alexander to be capable fighters. Since Alexander was still recovering from his injuries, Dela was learning the moves, while he watched and felt how her body move.

Taking a basic fighting stance, she watched as Dela did the same. “Bend your knees more. You don't want to stand like a tree,” she said.

The smaller girl did as she was told.

“Give me a jab.”

Dela punched her hand with surprising force, making her smile. The girl was a quick learner, and really fast.

“Good. Now try to hit me.”

“But you're hurt,” Dela said.

The girl was right. She was still bruised up, but the worst had healed up nicely, even her left eye was back to it's normal size, just a horrible greenish colour remained. The nanites the Wardens had pumped her full of had done their job nicely.

“Doesn't matter. Punching a hand is one thing, punching a person is another. I need you to learn if we're going to survive out there.”

Biting her lip, Dela ground her toe into the floor, then threw a slow punch at Flamers stomach.

Stepping to the side, Flamer easily dodged the punch. Her own hand lashed out, lightly slapping the girls cheek. “Come on, I'd expect a punch like that from my six year old sister. Punch me.”

The next jab was faster, but still weak and just thrown in her general direction. Again she reached out and slapped the girls other cheek, grinning evilly as she did.

Dela's cheeks were red, mostly from embarrassment.

“You can jump and climb like a monkey, girl. You should be able to hit me and make me feel it. Stop pissing around and hit me.”

The next punch, going for her head this time, wasn't any better.

Ducking under the blow, she flicked Dela's nose, and began laughing at her. She had to make the girl stop being afraid of hurting someone. There were plenty of ways to do it, but one of the faster methods was to get her angry.

The next minute went much the same, Dela tried to hit her, and Flamer easily avoided it, gently striking back in embarrassing ways. The girl was getting angrier, clenching her jaw, getting more focused and starting to strike back with increasing speed.

Flamer dodged another punch, far too easily, and moved in to slap the girls ear. She saw Dela shift, and tried to move, but there was no time. A knee hammered into her hip like a sledgehammer. Already off balance, the heavy blow knocked her feet out from under her. She hit the floor hard, protecting her head with her arm.

“OH GOD! I'm sorry!” Dela cried.

Grinning, she looked up at the girl. “Don't apologize, I want you to try that again,” Flamer said, standing up and getting back into position. The girl was finally showing her potential.

___

The Oubliette will be updated every second Friday. My other story Necromancer Unmanned, will be updated every second Monday, and Doom Valley Prep School will be updated once a week alternating between Monday and Friday.

If you would like to support my work, get a sneak peek at future chapters for all of these stories, look at background info, see snippets of potential stories, and have a chance to choose what I write next, you can support me on my Patreon page.

“So this is it?” Dela said, looking anywhere but the crack in the wall.

“Unless you want to start drinking your own pee, yeah,” Flamer replied. The cadet was tying the last loop in their makeshift rope, it would keep the crack in reality from vanishing and separating them when they went through.

The week of rest had done wonders for all of them. Flamer only had some faded bruises left from her beating, and Alexander was able to move without too much pain. They hadn't been idle either. They each had two sets of clothes to wear, blankets, rain gear, a makeshift first aid kit, and a few survival items, like matches and knives. It wasn't much, but the apartment hadn't exactly been well stocked.

Dwayne smiled encouragingly at her. “It'll be OK. We're rested, mostly healed, and while we're going in blind, we're as ready as we can be.”

'Just check out the other side of the crack, and if it looks OK to go through I can take over if you want. If it isn't jump back and Flamer and I can fight it off,' Alexander thought in her mind.

Nodding to herself, she shifted the small backpack to sit more comfortably on her back. It had hers and Alexander's portion of the rations, two bottles of water, three cans of food and a pack of crackers. Taking the rope from Flamer, she took one last look around the tiny apartment they'd called home for a week. She'd tidied it up a little the day before, it hadn't felt right to take all the food and water, and leave it dirty.

Everyone had called her silly for doing it, but it had made her feel better.

Putting the loop over her wrist, she rolled her shoulders trying to loosen them up. “Everyone ready?” she asked.

Her companions nodded. It was now or never, if the whirling crack in reality disappeared it could be days before another one appeared. Closing her eyes to avoid getting sick as the paint moved unnaturally, she shoved her hand through, quickly followed by her head.

Cold, wet rain fell on her.

Opening her eyes, she saw a dark pine forest. For a moment, she could almost imagine she was back home, hiking or camping with Alexander's family. Keeping her hand in the crack, she ducked her head back. “It's a forest. It's cold and raining, but there's no one right there.”

“Is it big?” Flamer asked.

“It's bigger than here.”

Flamer looked at Dwayne, who shrugged. “The rain will suck, but we should be able to find a way out before too long,” he said.

“Alright,” Flamer said, “let's go.”

Stepping through the crack, she stumbled when her toe hit the dirt. The crack in reality wasn't quite at the same level between the apartment and the forest. Keeping her eyes and ears open, Dela stepped to the side, watching for any potential danger. Other than the rain, the only sounds she heard were a few birds calling to each other in the trees. Despite the cold rain she had to smile. The smell of pine and rain, it swept away the mustiness of the apartment. She could almost imagine that if she closed her eyes she'd wake up back home.

Flamer and Dwayne stepped through the crack. The way they moved reminded her of hawks, no wasted movement, alert, and looking for prey. Would she become like them if they stayed in The Oubliette long enough.

'Go look in the trees,' Alexander thought to her.

She started running towards a tall tree, but came to a sudden halt after three steps. “I'm going to get up high and look around,” she said. Her cheeks burned in embarrassment that she'd forgotten she was now part of a group and had to let them know what she was doing.

Her feet barely touched the ground as she ran lightly through the forest, hopping over branches, nimbly placing her foot on roots and rocks, avoiding the slick mud and tree litter that covered the ground. Leaping up, she grabbed some branches halfway up the tree. Scrambling like a squirrel she reached the top, her hand and toes clutching the thin branches.

Peering around her, there were only trees in every direction, no sign of a clearing, houses, roads or even a path. “At least we'll be able to fill our water bottles,” she said.

'If we don't get hypothermia first,' Alexander thought.

Sliding down the tree, she walked back to their companions. “I can't see anything except trees,” she said.

“All right, lets put on our rain gear and start walking. We'll follow the border and look for a crack,” Flamer said.

Pushing wet hair out of her eyes, Dela noticed something odd about Flamer. “How come you aren't wet?”

“Fire powers,” the cadet said with a big smile. “Keeps me warm and dries the rain before it has a chance to settle.”

“Can you do that for me?”

“I'd rather not, it's a little hard to control when I try it on others. If we have to camp out here, I'll dry a spot and start a fire for us. For now, its safer to cover up and walk to keep warm.”

Pouting, she dug into her pack, taking out what been a child's rain poncho. They'd had to cut off the hood and widen the neck to fit her, but the pink poncho now fit neatly over her head, keeping most of her body dry. She put the hood on her head, the string of braided dental floss attached to the hood went under her chin to hold it in place.

Flamer was wearing a black raincoat that just barely fit over her chest, and Dwayne had a heavily altered trench coat that looked ridiculously small on him along with a rain hat. As ready as they'd ever be, they started hiking through the woods.

They'd been walking for an hour through the rain and Dela hated it. She was cold, damp and it didn't look like it was going to stop raining anytime soon. Moving through the forest wasn't exactly easy, even for her. In a lot of places the trees were so close together they had to push through the branches, getting covered in pine sap, slapped by branches and poked by the needles. She really wished that they could find a crack and get somewhere warm and dry.

She was about to tell Alexander she wanted to switch, when something large and brown moved through the trees.

“Oh look, a deer!” she exclaimed, pointing at the animal.

“What?!” Dwayne and Flamer asked at the same time.

She pointed at the deer that was bounding away. “Right there.”

“Crap,” Flamer snarled.

“We've gotta go now,” Dwayne said, pushing through the branches.

She followed along as they picked up the pace. “What's wrong, it's just a deer?”

“If there's an animal here, it's only because it got sent here with a prisoner. And there's no reason a deer would be caught in a fight. It was created by someone, using unreal science,” Dwayne explained.

“Who would want to create a deer? Wouldn't they want a guard animal or something?”

Flamer cursed and started jogging, her head twisting as she moved, looking for something, or someone. Dwayne rested his hand on the knife at his belt, becoming even more grim faced.

“What is it?” she demanded.

“Lycaon,” he said.

“Who?” She could tell Alexander was as confused as she was.

“A genetically altered animal. Someone mixed human and dog DNA together to create a super intelligent and very violent werewolf. He broke free and used the same unreal tech to make more chimeras, including a pack of werewolves. This territory would be his perfect hunting ground, and he could create prey animals to hunt using rats, dogs and anything else that he got his claws on.”

“What will he do if he catches us?”

“If we're lucky, kill us quickly. If not, we'll be experimented on and turned into whatever type of creature he wants.”

'Let me out. If we need to fight I need to be ready. If we need to run, you need to rest,' Alexander told her.

Slowing down a little, Dela let herself go.

 

They were sitting at the base of a large tree, the branches providing some protection from the incessant rain. They'd been moving for what felt like hours, and there hadn't been any sign of a way out, so they'd stopped to rest. Instead of lighting a fire, they were huddled together with blankets to provide some warmth. It wasn't ideal, but no one wanted to risk a pack of werewolves getting their scent.

“How big is this forest?” Alexander asked.

“Huge, one of the largest parts of The Oubliette,” Dwayn said. “It makes sense that The Hound would claim it for himself. Except for the wood, there isn't much here most prisoners would want.”

“What type of animals does Lycaon have here? Like what can we expect to fight?”

He felt Samantha shrug. She was sitting between him and Dwayne, helping warm them up with her flame powers.

“No idea,” she said.

“I thought you guys studied this stuff.”

She snorted. “I was training to be a superhero. Dwayne was support. We learned the basics of The Oubliette, and studied past supervillains to get an idea of what to expect. The gritty details were for the techies and PR people.”

“For all we know,” Dwayne said, “Lycaon has had a change of heart and is creating cute fluffy animals. Or he's become completely feral and doesn't create his chimeras anymore.”

“Not with our luck,” Samantha said.

They sat in silence for a while, sipping from their water bottles, listening for anything that might warn them of an attack. When the silence became too much for Alexander, he asked, “Why aren't there many animals here?”

“Do you know anything about old fashioned photography?” Dwayne asked.

“Not really,” he admitted.

“The oldest cameras would take hours to take a picture. People and animals wouldn't be in them because they moved too quickly to be captured. Only plants, buildings and statues would show up in the picture. Everything in The Oubliette comes from a real place on Earth, chosen at random by the supercomputer that helped design it. It copied every aspect of the area, creating a near perfect copy here, but it took a few days. Animals, people, most vehicles, they didn't stay in one place long enough to be copied. Some eggs, bugs, bacteria and things like that came along because they didn't move enough to throw off the computer. And a few animals had the same thing happen to them if they were in hibernation or sick and not moving.”

“What about a really lazy or sick person, could they have been recreated to?”

Dwayne snorted. “If that happened it's way above my pay grade.”

Samantha crawled out of the blanket. “It's getting dark. We should stay here for the night, if we try to move at night we'll break an ankle. Go to the bathroom, then we'll eat. I'll take first shift, Alexander you'll be second, then Dela, and finally Dwayne.”

“No fire. Rain. And worrying about werewolves. This is going to suck,” Dwayne said.

“I've been in worse,” Alexander said.

“When?”

“I'll tell you about Camp Chippewa while we eat. I refused to go to summer camp after that.”

“This I've gotta hear.”

“Wake up!” Samantha hissed.

Rubbing his eyes, Alexander groaned in pain. His back and butt ached from lying on the hard ground with only some pine branches to soften it. “What's wrong?”

“Lycaon is hunting,” she said.

In the distance he heard the howling of wolves.

__

The Oubliette will be updated every Saturday. My other story Necromancer Unmanned, will be updated every Sunday, and Doom Valley Prep School will be updated every Monday.

If you would like to support my work, get a sneak peek at future chapters for all of these stories, look at background info, see snippets of potential stories, and have a chance to choose what I write next, you can support me on my Patreon page.

*Sorry about being a day late, had some computer problems when I tried to post last night.

Alexander shivered uncomfortably under the tree where they'd set up camp. It had stopped raining, but everything was damp and the cold air seemed to have set up permanent residence in his bones. The howling of the wolves didn't make things any better. They seemed to be a ways off, but it was hard to tell in the pitch black forest.

'Do you want me to come out?' Dela asked.

'No. When we run I want you to be fresh,' he thought back.

Samantha who was looking out into the forest for all the good it would do, turned back to face him and Dwayne. “Ok,” she said, “I don't think they know where we are yet. And if they do they're still a ways off.”

“So what's the plan?” Dwayne asked.

“Stay here for now. If we try to move through the dark, we'll probably twist an ankle or fall and spear ourselves on a branch. Dwayne, if Lycaon or his pack gets close, make a portal back to where we came through. It will buy us time to find a way out.”

“What if we get separated?” Alexander asked.

'Don't say that! You'll jinx us!' Dela snapped.

“Try to back track to the rest of us. However if you're being chased and see a crack, get through it. I'd like us to stick together, but don't get yourself killed if you don't have to,” Samantha said.

“Just how tough is Lycaon and his wolves?” he asked. He didn't really want to know, but the howling was setting him on edge and he needed to hear human voices.

The two Wardens looked at each other. Samantha motioned at Dwayne, “You're the one who likes studying.”

“I don't really know, I've just read the basics,” Dwayne said. “He was from the Canadian Arctic, and raised a huge pack of werewolves and other chimeras around ten years ago. After he slaughtered a few villages, the Canadian military and the Wardens went after him. It took a few months to pin him down and between Lycaon and his creations. Over a few hundred soldiers, along with a dozen or so Wardens were killed. They finally cornered him by setting a forest fire all around his known location and directed it inwards. He still almost escaped by running through the flames with his strongest werewolves. Without the cover of the forest, they were able to send him and what was left of his pack here.

“He has super intelligence, possibly from having a computer implanted in his head. He's half machine, which regenerates. Super strength, endurance, metallic fangs and claws that can rip open a tank, and senses that are unbelievably powerful.”

“So if we get into a fight with him, we're dead,” Alexander said.

“Yep.”

The howling seemed to be coming closer.

Samantha put on her backpack. “On that cheerful note, lets get ready to leave. We'll wait another minute or two, then go. That should should buy us some extra time on the other end without cutting things too close.”

A tree branch moved above them, sending drops of water onto their heads. He heard a bird fly off into the night. Alexander peered into the night trying to find it. Most birds didn't fly at night, so why had that one taken off? Maybe it was afraid of the wolves.

A minute or two later the howls were still a ways off, but it was clear the werewolves were getting closer. Dwayne opened a portal, and they made their way through it.

Looking around, Alexander sighed in disgust and tiredness. The woods looked identical to where they'd just been, nearly pitch black, wet, and trees pressing in all around them. At least the howling was farther away. If Dwayne could keep making portals, they could probably survive until morning and have a chance of finding a crack.

“What no-” Dwayne started to ask, only to stop. “Is it getting brighter?”

Alexander was about to say it was as dark as ever, but tiny spots of yellow light were forming all around them. The spots moved along the tree branches, some of them seemed to jump between the branches, forming small groups that grew brighter the larger they became.

“They look like beetles,” Samantha said, looking at one of the nearest lights.

“I don't like this,” Alexander said. “These don't look natural.”

“Could they be fireflies?” Dwayne asked.

“They don't get this bright,” he replied, pointing at a group that was about a foot in diameter and glowing bright enough to let them see each other from several feet away.

There was now enough light to see all around them as if it were late twilight. The distant howling changed, becoming louder, longer and deeper.

“They're a searchlight for Lycaon,” Samantha said. “They're pointing us out to his pack.”

“HERE!” something cawed above them.

Looking up, they saw a horribly mutated animal. It was the size of a turkey, with brilliant blue and red feathers that sparkled in the light of the bugs. The thing would have been pretty, but the feathered body became bald and greyish near the head, instead of a graceful bird neck it had a thick human neck. A twisted, childlike head with oversized black eyes, peered down at them. Red feathers rose from its scalp.

It opened its mockery of a beak, made by stretching the lower half of the human face, and cawed, “HERE!”

“What do we do?” Alexander asked.

“We've got light, run and look for a crack,” Samantha said, heading away from the rapidly approaching howls. “Dwayne be ready to create a portal. We've got to wait until they're close or we could end up right beside them.”

'Switch?' Dela asked.

“Switch,” he agreed.

 

Dela ran alongside the two Wardens, helping both of them when they stumbled on the slippery ground. The light bugs lit up the area all around them, helping them see, but making it so they couldn't get away as well. Up above a whole flock of the horrible harpies were shrieking. Their cries made it hard to hear the howling.

“They're catching up,” Dwayne shouted, trying to be heard over the shrieks.

“I know!” Flamer shouted. “Get ahead of me. It's about to get hot.”

Flame erupted from the girls hands, turning the freezing, damp air into a warm sauna almost instantly. The wet wood resisted the flames for a few seconds, then lit up into a bonfire. The sap covered, spindly branches of the pine trees popped and crackled, spreading the flames to their neighbours.

The bugs nearest the flames popped and turned black from the heat. The rest hopped away trying to escape the flames, breaking up the groups that had been lighting the way. The harpies screeched in fear, flying high into the sky, where they formed a flock that circled above them.

Behind them, the howling grew louder. It sounded angry, and it was coming closer very quickly.

“Dwayne! Make a hole.” Flamer said.

A portal appeared and they jumped through it.

“Where are we now?” Dela asked. Off in the distance she saw a reddish glow on the low clouds.

“Back where we set up camp,” Dwayne said. “It was the first place I could think of.”

A twig snapped.

Dela didn't have time to think, she reacted on pure instinct, launching herself at Dwayne with all of her strength. Her shoulder hit his waist, and they went flying through the tree branches, landing on the moss covered forest floor over ten feet away.

A werewolf leapt from the bushes and tore at the ground where Dwayne had been half a second before, snarling from its misshapen muzzle. Raising its oversized head, it howled, slapping its broad, fur covered chest as it did.

Flamer raised her hand, sending a wave of flame over the monster. It roared in pain, and leapt at the Warden, swinging its long gorilla like arm at her.

Jumping to the side, Flamer barely dodged the three-inch long claws. She hit the ground and rolled to her feet, sending out another gout of flame at the werewolf. The flames washed over it, burning away its thick fur and blistering its skin.

Dela was about to jump in to help when another werewolf came charging out of woods heading right for her. She wanted to switch with Alexander but there was no time. She ducked under its claws, feeling them brush against her back. Then she had to jump straight up to avoid a slash that would have taken off her leg.

Grabbing hold of a tree branch she saw the werewolf twenty feet below turn on Dwayne who was only just getting to his feet.

“Alexander get ready,” she said, launching herself at the werewolf.

She and Alexander switched. Watching through his eyes, she saw his fist rise up, ready to take the monsters head off.

Then a portal opened up directly under the werewolf.

The werewolf fell through it, and they followed.

She and Alexander both screamed as they found themselves high above the forest and falling fast.

__

The Oubliette will be updated every Saturday. My other story Necromancer Unmanned, will be updated every Sunday, and Doom Valley Prep School will be updated every Monday.

If you would like to support my work, get a sneak peek at future chapters for all of these stories, look at background info, see snippets of potential stories, and have a chance to choose what I write next, you can support me on my Patreon page.

With the roar of flames from her hands and the dying howls of the werewolf, Flamer almost didn't hear Alexander scream. Looking away, she saw him fall through a portal that closed a split second later.

“What did you do?!” she shouted at Dwayne.

Her friend and partner turned to her, eyes wide with shock and guilt. “A werewolf. It- it was attacking. I got rid of it. I-I-I didn't know they were going to jump. Dela, she pushed me out of the way. Saved my life.”

“Where did you send them?”

“I don't know. I opened it up in the sky.” He shut his eyes, raking his fingers through his thick hair. A moment later he pointed into the woods away from the edge of the forest. “It was over that way, I think.”

The howls from the main pack of werewolves was getting louder.

Dwayne stared at her, terror and shame written on his face. “We need to get away.”

Flamer looked at the mist marking the dimensional wall. If they went looking for Alexander and Dela they wouldn't be able to find a crack. There was no telling if they were even alive. The werewolves were built for the woods, and knew every inch of it. Worse Lycaon had filled the area with his creations. The chimeras hadn't done anything except give away their location so far, but now that they were burning the forest and fighting back would the creations stay so peaceful?

Running away made the most sense. What good would come if they all died. Wardens were trained to make the hard choices, this was one of them.

Looking into the woods, she said, “I'm sorry.”

Dela and Alexander plunged through the portal and came out high in the sky. It looked like they were a thousand feet above the ground and they were plummeting towards the forest. The werewolf they'd been about to hit howled in fear, clawing at the air as if it could find something to hold onto.

“SWITCH!” she shouted at Alexander, hoping he would hear her over his screams.

He let go of their body and she took control. She was terrified, but heights didn't scare her, she'd been made for them. The thought of wandering the dark forest and the monsters in it were terrifying. She just had to stay calm and she could deal with the fall.

Spreading out her arms and legs, she focused on the ground below.

If they were a thousand feet up it would take ten seconds to hit the ground. She guessed they'd been falling for five seconds at that point. Her body instinctively tried to tense up, she forced it to go limp. Taking a breath was difficult, the freezing, damp air hurt her lungs and the wind pushed painfully against her face.

The howling of the werewolf abruptly stopped.

Squeezing her legs together, she twisted her body so she was diving headfirst into the trees, arms straight ahead of her. She passed the tallest treetops. Her fingers brushed against a branch. With superhuman speed, she grabbed it.

The needles and bark bite into her hand. The branch bent and snapped. Dela's other hand had already grabbed another one, it snapped as well. But between the two she was able to alter her drop a little. Instead of going almost straight down she was going at more of an angle.

Branches scratched and tore at her face and body. She grabbed more of them, just for a fraction of a second, using them to slow herself, twisting to avoid tree trunks and thicker branches. She yelped in pain. To avoid hitting a tree head on, her shin slammed into another one.

Instinctively she knew she wasn't at terminal velocity anymore. Hitting the ground at this speed would still break bones, but it was survivable. The branches were getting thicker slowing her down even more, but she was getting bruised and she couldn't control her fall as much.

“Switch!”

Alexander took over. He wasn't nearly as nimble as she was, but it didn't matter. He curled up into a ball, protecting his head and stomach, and crashed through the trees like a cannonball. Trees that would have broken Dela's back shattered as he went straight through them.

He hit the ground and through their link she felt him bounce to a stop on the hard ground.

Groaning. he laid on the ground, giving his body a chance to stop hurting. His racing heart began to slow down.

'I never want to do that again,' he said. 'Getting blown up was less scary.'

“Yeah. I always wanted to go skydiving but I wanted to do it with a parachute,” she said.

'You OK?'

“Lot of scratches and bruises but I'll survive,” she said. “Let me take over.”

'You sure? We'll probably be in a fight soon.”

“We need to find Dwayne and Flamer before they reach a crack. I can move faster than you.”

She felt herself drawn to the real world as Alexander let go. Instantly she began shivering, and hugged herself trying to get warm. Looking around, she realized they were utterly lost. Travelling on the ground wasn't going to work.

Wincing from the bruise on her shin, she jumped up into a tree, and scrambled like a monkey to the top. The narrow trunk swayed wildly from her weight, forcing her to hold on tight with her fingers and toes. She leaned backwards making the tree dip down, then lunged forward to a taller tree. A few more jumps and she was clinging to the tallest tree in the area.

Peering into the dark night, she saw some flames flickering off in the distance. She couldn't tell how far away they were, but they weren't close.

'Looks like a long way,' Alexander said.

“Yeah. Let's get started.” Putting her words into action, she jumped to a nearby tree.

Scrambling around the pine tree wasn't easy. She wasn't a squirrel, and the spindly, tightly knit branches were soaking wet. She had to cling to them, getting poked by needles and branches, crawling along the outside of the tree, never keeping one grip for too long, until she could jump to the next one. She was travelling faster than most people could walk through the forest at night, but it felt like a crawl.

“Hey Alexander,” she said.

'What?'

“I just realized we haven't argued all week.”

'We've kind of had other things to worry about,' he replied.

She didn't answer for a minute, trying to judge a tricky jump. “When has that stopped us before?” she asked as she flew through the air.

Dela felt him mentally shrug. 'Point.'

“When did we start arguing so much?”

'Probably when you were utterly disgusted the first time I tried to masturbate.'

“Well it was pretty weird,” she said.

'You were asleep when I started.'

“And I woke up to see that. I was surprised. I didn't mean to sound so grossed out.”

Climbing to the top of another tall tree, she tried to get her bearings. Judging by the howls, they were going in the right direction, but it was best to be certain. It had started lightly raining again, and she had to hold her hand up to keep the drops out of her eyes, making her perch even more precarious.

“See anything?”

'To the right. I thought I saw a flash of flame.'

Turning to see better, there was a flash of reddish light. It was definitely Flamer, and she was well off from where they'd first seen her.

'They ported again,” Alexander said.

Groaning, she said, “I think they're farther away.”

'Well lets get going. They'll probably port again, but we're at least going in their general direction.'

“Yeah, yeah. I just wi-”

Her words were cut off as a bird dove out of the sky hitting her head. She felt herself falling as the world faded away.

“DELA!” Alexander shouted, feeling her consciousness fade away.

The sensation of falling forced him to act, pushing himself into their body. A moment later he hit the ground hard. A little stunned but otherwise unharmed, he jumped to his feet, fists raised wondering what had attacked them.

He could feel Dela in his mind. She was in pain, but seemed to be waking up. That was one less worry for him.

A bird cawed. It sounded like a crow. The caw was answered by a dozen more. Birds took to the air, their flapping seemed to be all around him.

Talons tore at his scalp. They hurt, but couldn't break through his skin. Swiping at the bird, he missed it by a mile. Another one flew past pecking at his back. It's beak felt as sharp as a knife. Again it couldn't do more than make him wince.

They cawed in frustration and attacked as a group, pecking and clawing at him. Lowering his head, he covered his face to protect his eyes and flailed at them with his free hand. The few he hit didn't seem too bothered by the glancing blows.

He took off, running blindly through the forest. The murder of crows hounding him as he ran.

The slippery ground, thick trees and the crows made moving difficult. Even though the sky was slowly getting lighter, he couldn't tell where he was going.

The ground gave out under his feet and he tumbled down a cliff, bouncing off saplings and rocks. Hitting the bottom, he got to his hands and knees, taking a moment to get his bearings.

A pale green hand with impossibly long fingers grabbed his arm.

Screaming, he wrenched his arm away, the hand held on, revealing an arm that seemed to be made of thorny vines. More hands came out out of the bushes and dirt, wrapping themselves around his arms and legs. Thorns dug into his clothes, a few pierced his skin.

The crows cawed all around him, seeming to laugh as he was dragged towards an enormous thorn bush that shook and moved unnaturally.

___
The Oubliette will be updated every Saturday. My other story Necromancer Unmanned, will be updated every Sunday, and Doom Valley Prep School will be updated every Monday.

If you would like to support my work, get a sneak peek at future chapters for all of these stories, look at background info, see snippets of potential stories, and have a chance to choose what I write next, you can support me on my Patreon page.

Dozens of hands were grabbing Alexander, long nails claws at his hair and clothes trying to get a grip. The vines attached to the hand encircled him like snakes, their thorns scraping along his skin, drawing blood.

As they pulled him along the ground, the crows that had led him into the trap landed on trees and the ground. Their cawing sounded like laughter. Their human-like eyes glittered in the early dawn light.

The thorn bush was spreading open, revealing thick muscular hands growing out of ground. More vines were creeping towards him, the fingers crawling along the ground like insects. The monstrous thing was going to rip him apart.

Fighting against the hands, Alexander managed to grab one of the vines holding his arm. With all his strength he crushed the fibrous thing, coating his hand in a blood red sap. Catching hold of another one, he did the same. Freeing his arm.

With both his arms free, he grabbed onto a nearby tree, holding on for dear life. Gritting his teeth against the pain of thorns digging into his skin, he crushed more of the vines. The crows hopped over to him, pecking at his hand, trying to make him let go.

The beaks hurt, but they wouldn't kill him. Ignoring them, he kept working at freeing himself. Only swinging at the birds if they got too close to his eyes.

The vines started to loosen and slither away. Over a dozen of the hands were limp and being dragged along the ground, too damaged to work. Taking the opening, Alexander grabbed one of the crows that wasn't quite as fast as the others and snapped its neck, tossing the body at another crow.

The birds took flight, crowing fearfully.

Wrenching himself free of the last of the vines, he got to his feet. His clothes were shredded, he was bleeding from dozens of cuts, but he was mostly all right.

“Dela, you OK?” he asked.

'Ow. My head hurts,' she thought.

“Can you take over again? I have no idea where we're supposed to go.” He really didn't. The trees weren't quite as thick in the ravine as they were in the rest of the forest, but that wasn't saying much. He couldn't really see clearly more than ten or twenty yards in any direction, and while he could hear the howling of the werewolves, he didn't want to head straight for them.

'I think so. I know to watch out for birds now.'

He felt her rise up, and then he was watching through her eyes.

Jumping, she took to the trees.

The crows were annoying.

They kept trying to dive bomb her, making it hard to go in a straight line. Jumping to the ground to avoid another attack, she yelped in fear and had to dive to the side as an ant the size of a chihuahua tried to bite her ankle. It's jaws clicked menacingly together, and it lunged at her again.

Leaping upwards, she climbed up a tree, wary of the crows and tried to get her bearings again. Smoke was rising up all along one side of the forest, which wasn't very helpful. Flamer and Dwayne could be anywhere around there, or they could have already escaped through a crack.

Without thinking, her hand lashed out catching a crow by the neck. It croaked, beating its wings on her arm, and trying to claw her with its talons.

'Kill it!' Alexander thought.

She knew he was right. It wanted to kill her, but she couldn't bring herself to crush it's neck. Frowning she gave it a hard shake and threw it at the ground. The bird spread its wings, and nearly hit a tree before it got control of its fall. Cawing unhappily, it landed on a branch just out of sight.

The crows seemed to get the idea that she wasn't helpless and stopped flying quite so close.

'Why didn't you kill it?' Alexander asked.

“I don't know. It's not that easy,” she said, while jumping to another tree.

Flames erupted a mile or two ahead of them, well away from the edge of the forest. From up above something howled. Turning to look, she saw a fiery werewolf plummeting towards the ground. A moment later another portal opened up in the sky, Flamer and Dwayne fell out of it. Flames lit up the sky as the Warden unleashed fiery hell behind her. Another portal opened up beneath them and they disappeared from sight.

Alexander started cursing, while Dela looked all around hoping to get some idea of where the two had gone. There was a raging inferno back in the smokey area. Off to her left, she thought she saw a flicker of flame and smoke.

With no other ideas, she turned towards the flames and started jumping. She tried to go faster, taking riskier jumps, getting a bit more cut up from the branches as she pushed past them rather than trying to work her way around.

The crows were still following her, but they were mostly staying back.

“Do you think they're still there?” she asked.

'I don't know,' Alexander said. 'I hope they are.'

“What do we do if they're gone?”

'Survive and keep going. There has to be someplace safe, even here. And the Wardens have to be doing everything they can to get us out of here.'

“How do you know that? Maybe they can't, or they can't do it without everyone getting out. Maybe they'll just leave us here forever.”

'Look, we don't know what's going on out there. Worrying about it right now will get us killed. We need to deal with one problem at a- BEES!' he shouted.

Dela saw the swarm emerge from the trees at the same moment. The black cloud buzzed impossibly loudly, coming straight for her. She jumped blindly away, crashing into a tree top. Jumping again, she tried to gain some distance.

Something stung her ankle, making her shriek. It felt like she'd been shot. Liquid fire spread up her leg. She hit the next tree and found her leg didn't want to work. She could barely feel her foot through the pain.

'Switch!' Alexander shouted.

She let him take control as they flew through the air.

Hitting the ground, Alexander covered his face with his hands, hoping his skin was tough enough to protect him.

The bees circled him, their buzzing seemed to echo in his skull. He felt them land on him, searching for a place to sting. Their feet made his skin itch and twitch. He desperately wanted to brush them away, but he didn't dare let them get in his eyes, nose or mouth. Their stingers rose and fell, futilely trying to pierce his flesh, his eyes weren't as tough, and he wouldn't be able to breathe if they flew into his sinuses or throat.

A few found the cuts he'd gotten from the bush earlier. They stung him as hard as they could, but even there they couldn't do any real damage. The wounds burned, but it wasn't the extreme pain Dela had felt.

'Are you OK?' Dela asked. Her 'voice' was tight from pain, but she sounded better.

'I can handle this,' he thought back.

'We need to get moving. Any ideas?'

'No.' They both knew they couldn't just walk blindly through the forest. They'd eventually run into something that could seriously hurt him. But if they stayed here, they'd be easy prey for the werewolves.

The buzzing began to fade.

He couldn't see what was happening, but the bees started to fly away. His skin still itched and burned it places, still the reprieve was heavenly.

Peering through his fingers, he saw why the bees had flown away.

The forest floor and trees were hidden under a carpet of thumb sized ants. They moved as one, making it look like the ground itself was rippling, their dark carapace shimmered in the dim light. The crows which had been their constant companions, were flying well above the trees.

'RUN!' Dela shouted.

Getting to his feet, Alexander tried to find somewhere he could run. The only clear bit of ground he could see was the three foot circle he was standing in. He wasn't sure if he dared step on the ants, there was no telling what they could do.

The ants stopped moving, raising their abdomens.

Alexander jumped out of the circle, his bare feet crushed dozens of the ants. Their carapace crunched, sounding a lot of like croutons being chewed. His feet burned, and he smelled cooked meat.

Streams of liquid erupted from the ants, coating his legs in acid.

His pants started to melt. His skin blistered, turning a brilliant red. He jumped again, biting back the pain. More acid splashed onto his legs. His skin tightened and burst open, exposing his muscles.

'Switch!'

Dela felt her feet burn. She jumped into the nearest tree, leaving the ants far below. Biting her lip, trying to ignore the pain in her feet, she leapt through the trees, not caring where she was going, just trying to reach the edge of the forest where they had a chance to get away.

Alexander's moans of pain filled her mind. She tried to block out the waves of agony coming off of him. Usually she had to concentrate to feel him when she controlled their body. Now the sensations threatened to overwhelm her.

Her leg still ached from the bee sting. Between her injured leg, the acid on her pants, and the acid burns on her feet she was clumsy and slower than usual. Instead of landing lightly on the tree branches, she slammed into them. Every jolt made her want to scream.

The buzzing of the bees rose in her ears.

She tried to go faster.

A branch tore free as she grabbed it. Tumbling through the sharp branches, she managed to catch herself before she hit the ground.

The swarm of bees surrounded her.

They began to sting.

Pain overcame her. She couldn't move, she couldn't think, there was only agony.

She couldn't tell when they stopped stinging. Their venom ran through her body, overwhelming her nerves with pain. She twitched and moaned, feebly trying to protect herself.

Slowly, ever so slowly, the pain faded.

Regaining her senses, Dela looked up into the face of an enormous wolf.

“You had best hope you're important girl,” the werewolf said in a raspy, digital voice.

A massive clawed hand encircled her, lifting her into the air. She whimpered at the pressure, her skin and flesh felt raw and open.

“COME HERE HEPHAESTUS!” the werewolf bellowed. “You have invaded my territory! Broken our treaty! Stolen my prey! Lycaon demand payment!”

Dela managed to look around. There were dozens of werewolves, many of them burned, they were surrounded by a flock of birds, dozens of insect swarms and the clearing crawled with insects. It looked like an army.

A whining sound filled the air. From the sky a silver vehicle slowly came into view, electricity arced along its surface. A hatch opened up and a man in shining, silver armour stepped out. He looked like a fantasy knight. Walking to the edge of the craft, he looked down at Lycaon and removed his helmet.

“Daddy!” Dela shouted.

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The Oubliette will be updated every Saturday. My other story Necromancer Unmanned, will be updated every Sunday, and Doom Valley Prep School will be updated every Monday.

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