The Breed Chapter 24
The Breed
By Dream Janus
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This story is a work of fiction and contains scenes of gay sex between consenting individuals. If you find this offensive, are under the age of 18, it is illegal wherever you are to read this, stop reading now. Leave this site. If you are offended by harsh language, please exit this page immediately. You have been warned. This work of fiction is property of myself and may not be copied or used in any way without my express consent.
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Chapter 24 "Chaos"
Antino walked slowly away from the growling but unconscious form hidden in the shadows. "I will be right back," he said with a whisper. Elzabeth and Charlett did not flinch from their positions and their minds remained focused on the prone form. Antino felt the tension in the room increase as their probing increased in a desperate attempt to find the personality within the body.
Antino made his way to the office of his house in Italy. The house was only two stories not including the sound proof basement. It appeared to be an ancient house but in reality Antino had the inside updated every decade or so and had the outside worked on when the need arose. When Antino arrived at his office he touched a combination of buttons on his desk. From the desk, walls and ceiling appeared a total of eight flat screen monitors.
Antino turned a small crocked picture on the far wall until it was straight and he heard several large heavy locks slide into place. He then turned both decorative pens sets a quarter turn, creating an electromagnetic jamming field around the room. Antino then sat down in his high back black leather chair and sighed. He then expanded the keyboard from under the top of the desk and pressed a few more buttons on top of the desk itself.
All eight monitors came to life at the same time. The top left monitor displayed an icon for "Conclave Communications" and a phone dialing pad, the middle left monitor showed a continuously changing outside scene from outside the house, the lower left monitor showed the Breed Internet homepage, The center two monitors remained blank for the time being, The top right monitor displayed an icon for "Telecom Italia" and a phone dialing pad, the middle right monitor showed a continuous scene of the basement, the lower right monitor showed Antino's favorite Human Internet homepage.
Antino spoke directly to the room. "Dial Conclave Communications *23-8726-975#"
The Monitor dialed the numbers and the dialing pad was replaced by a screen that said, "Please wait".
After a brief moment the monitor was filled with the scene of the main recreation room at the Conclave complex. With a wave of his hand Antino caused the bottom center monitor to take over playing the scene instead of the top left.
"We are here Ancient," Marie said with a slight bow.
"Where are you Antino?" Toban said anxiously.
Antino laughed at Toban's impulsiveness. "I cannot say my young heir, but I can say that I, Elzabeth and Charlett are all working on a project that will benefit all of the Breed."
"How long are you expecting to be gone, Antino?" George asked.
"I do not know," Antino explained. "I expect it to be a few months at least."
"What are we expected to do?" Simon asked.
"I want the counsel to rule in my stead with Toban to act in Marcus' position."
"If you are sure?" Simon nodded.
"Of course," Antino said with a cold smile. "I do have a couple final orders though."
Antino stretched then said softly, "I want three to five teams active 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and George to continue with everything times two."
George picked up the reference that Antino want him to send out twice as many assassins as usual. He knew that he would also have to increase training with Kar after school and on weekends. Antino had given them a way to do that by giving Toban more duties with the Conclave counsel.
Antino sighed as he realized that he had to get back to work downstairs so he brought the meeting to a close. He closed the connection, stood up, stretched and popped his back. Antino then returned downstairs.
Over the next six months Antino contacted the Conclave counsel only once a month to not only hear a report on what was going on but also give a cryptic report on what he was doing, his response was always "It is coming along" or "It is slightly better".
The twice monthly counsel meeting became old hack for Toban. Though the occasional scheduling conflicted with a concert or marching band functions, the counsel knew they just had to wait for the following day, or reschedule altogether. School was not difficult but the administration still did not like the fact that Toban and Kar were open about their relationship and there was nothing that they could do to stop it.
The first interesting thing that happened was when Davey's 1st grade had their annual Parent / Teacher Night at School and George, Toban and Kar all went with Davey as his parents. At first the teacher a Mrs. North did not know what was going on until Davey proudly announced to the class. "This is my pop George, poppa Kar and daddy Toban, they is all my new fathers."
The rest of the class was silent except for a few students, Mrs. North and a lesbian couple that appeared to be attempting to blend into the woodwork instead of being seen. The children all were surprised that Davey had three daddies and felt he was so lucky. Mrs. North attempted to verify that each of them indeed had parental rights over the boy and when they revealed that they were given equal custody of Davey by Ruth and David's will, she welcomed them warmly to her classroom. The lesbian couple waited until after very one else was leaving to walk up the Zoméa and revealed that they were the mothers of Steven, one of Davey's classmates. The biological father was a gay man who had agreed to father him and later contracted AIDS and recently died after giving custody to the non-biological mother.
The fourth month after Antino's disappearance was marked with several strange disappearances at the local middle and high schools. The police asked for the Breed's help because there were several clues that led them to believe that the Regia'an were to blame, though neither the police nor the Breed could figure out why the Regia'an would want human teens and pre-teens. Finally George and the Conclave counsel came to an agreement and Toban made the announcement to the human police as well as the local breed leaders.
"This is a Conclave counsel directive," Toban began. "Until further notice all Breed students in human schools and human friends in the same schools should be on the look out for Regia'an activity in and around the school grounds." He then fidgeted. "All activities shall be reported to the nearest Breed Conclave location, Haven or other known location, to any known counsel member, member of breed intelligence or warrior caste, unless said activities are expected to directly affect the life of a human or other breed member." Toban paused for dramatic effect. "In that case, Protocol Three goes into action."
Protocol Three was known to the breed and human helpers as the "When all else fails" Protocol. It states:
When the life of a child or other innocent is in jeopardy due to situations created by Para-humans, Sub-humans or Non-humans, this protocol can be enforced allowing any observer to save that same said child or innocent's life even to the extent of revealing self and or the existence of things beyond humanity.
It is not the purpose of this Protocol to release our kind from maintaining its self maintained secrets, but to allow small moments of revelation when pausing would cause death and destruction to those who otherwise would remain innocent.
Over the next week there were three different incidents where Breed teens and adults stepped in and saved friends and friends of their children from being abducted. In each case the saviors were able to hide who and what they were from the children who were the attempted abductees. The incidents gained the attention of the news media, even though the police attempted to say that incidents were not related and were isolated at best. Unfortunately not all of the news reporters believed the police and kept digging into the stories and waiting for another incident. They did not have long to wait.
The last week of the month Toban was preparing for Kar's surprise birthday party with Steve, Tammy the Talmar'marn shape shifter, a freshman boy Ghoul named Sam and several human friends one of which Toban suspected came from a family of helpers, but who was too young to be involved directly. They were enjoying what remained of their lunch hour when a loud explosion rocked the school.
Kar sprinted across the school courtyard with a look of distress on his face. [Regia'an half breeds are attacking the school!] He openly transmitted in all directions. When he reached Toban he grabbed him for dear life. "What do we do?"
"Protocol Three is now in effect," Toban said loud enough that all the Breed in the area heard him. He then turned to the whole group and spoke with authority. "There are some very bad individuals that have attacked the school and are planning on hurting anyone and everyone that they come across. This is not a hostage situation. They plan on killing or kidnapping everyone they come across."
"What can we do?" asked a freshman named Tim that had just begun hanging with them early in the year.
"We need traps and small personal bombs, dry ice and acid type stuff," Kar interjected. "Stuff that we know the labs have."
"Plus anything we might get if we get toward the wood or metal shops." Toban added. "Mike, Steve, Tammy and I can fight a lot more than that as well, but we don't want anyone else to get hurt trying to be a hero."
"I can fight too," Sam argued, his face beginning to contort into the ghoulish features that belayed his true nature.
"We know that Sammy," Tammy soothed "But we need you to make sure that everyone else is guarded and taken care of in the labs as they work."
Sam nodded with frown. He did not like the idea of be out of the fight but he realized that someone needed to help those who were weaker. Quickly he led everyone that heard Toban's call to arms toward the labs to build the sneaky bombs. In all he led twelve students into the lab building across from the band rooms.
The few students that remained were determined to run or fight and Toban did not take the time to find out which. With a flick of his hand all the shadow tendrils on his arms came to life and began to grow, they flowed down to the ground and formed robes around Toban's body replacing his clothes with shadows. His eyes gleamed with the dark depthless of blackness and his hands were replaced by blackened claws. Toban's skin color drained until there was no mistaking he was at least part vampire. His medium dark brown hair lengthened and darkened until it was the color of pitch and halfway down his back. Toban's fangs lowered from their upper home and began to disgorge reddish black saliva. No one would recognize him as he was now. Finally he extended his hand and shoved it forcefully into the Shadow Realm and withdrew the Sword of Infinity from its secret hiding place.
At the exact same time Kar was going through a similar transformation. With a wave across his eyes he removed the contacts and exposed his completely black eyes. A moment of concentration and his clothing began to fade and reform. His tennis shoes were replaced with black armored jack boots. Kar's pants and shirt were replaced by a black single piece armored chain mail singlet. His right arm possessed a black bracer that matched the Joining Bracelet on his left arm. A black duster style coat covered the remainder of his body. A shadow hood covered Kar's head and eyes hiding who he was from unsuspecting eyes.
Tammy also prepared by replacing her school clothing with armor, her face melted and reformed until you could only tell that she had a mouth, nose and eyes no other features, the eyes were nothing more than large iris'. She then formed her hands and feet into claws that were stronger than steel.
Steve adjusted the cellular consistency in his body and the pigment makeup faded to reveal his new natural blue skin color. He then merged with his symbiote and allowed his eyes to also change color as they began to communicate as one mind. Steve did not have the ability to change his clothing to hide his identity further so he stripped his shirt from his finely chiseled torso.
Those few humans that remained around them were momentarily stunned until Brad Thomas the varsity football tailback exclaimed "HELL YEAH, WE HAVE OUR OWN X-MEN!"
From that moment on the remaining humans were ready to help their Breed friends fight the unknown enemy regardless of the cost. The crowd moved in mass toward the center of the explosions and the continuous yelling and screams.
Toban was stopped momentarily when Brad asked in a loud voice "What do we call you?"
"Call me the Bridge, him Shadow and her Shifter," Toban answered without even thinking. "We can't let them hurt anyone else."
At that moment the group came across the first group of the wounded and began to see the destruction of the school's main building. The first floor was destroyed and revealed part of the second floor, the main office and Cafeteria were totally destroyed and several of the classrooms had walls partly and totally destroyed as well. Bodies and body parts littered the ruins of the front of the school. Teachers and staff were attempting to help the wounded and the dead while at the same time avoiding the small units of attackers.
Immediately Toban fell into the leader mode and told several of the human students to help the teachers and staff move the wounded out of the way and attempt to get them out of the building and either out to the annex or into one of the parking lots so that the police, fire and ambulance could help when they arrived. He then told the remaining humans to act as guards for the others so that they could make their escape. Toban then directed the Breed to advance to find out what they could do to bring the situation to a quick end.
Toban and Kar found that the remaining hall was filled with Regia'an half breed teens all dressed in military style uniforms. Kar fired off a couple shadow darts at the nearest Regia'an teen absorbing about twenty years of his life force. The teen felt the darts hit and felt the pain of being hit but given that the darts faded into his body on contact, he did not say or do anything.
Toban fired several shadow darts at several other targets a moment later. The speed of the darts and the fact that they were made of shadow energy made them easy to over look by the partially trained Regia'an half breeds. Toban absorbed approximately one hundred years with the darts he threw. Once the tests and the recharging were completed both of them nodded and smiled at Tammy and Steve.
Steve stood up and revealed himself just a brief moment before releasing a telekinetic wave of energy at the Regia'an. The energy was both mental and physical in nature and acted as both a mental concussive to their minds and as a physical explosive to their bodies. The area that they were shook with the force generated by the energy blast and more plaster and concrete fell around the enemy's heads.
Tammy was next in her attack but it was more sneaky and subtle. She reformed her lower body into a liquid and spread out under the feet of the Regia'an. Just as they began to recover from Steve's attack, she began her attack. With a single thought the liquid that had been Tammy body began to solidify again, just as quicksand, then as mud and finally as a rapidly hardening cement. Within moments the Regia'an attackers were almost totally unable to move.
Unknown to the Breed fighters, at the same time a small contingent of Regia'an half breeds were making their way toward the annex through the teachers' parking lot. They killed one female student that accidentally crossed their path without even a word. Her screams alerted the Ghoul Sam and the humans he was guarding of the approach of the enemy.
"Are the acid bombs ready?" Sam hissed between his clinched teeth, his attempt to control the change in his face not totally working. He was wearing a heavy apron and an open splash guard on his head
"Yeah and the Dry Ice Splashes are about ready," a tall nerd named Larry whispered back barely hiding the awe in his voice. He was attracted and intrigued by the changes in the younger, but forceful Sam.
"Dry Ice Splashes to the doors," Sam directed, "Acid behind." He then flipped the splash guard down to protect his face.
The teens quickly moved two large tubs of water and dry ice near the two doors of the lab. Each tub was held by two teens, one on each side. They took up positions on either side of the door in preparations to splash the first person though the doors. A third teen took up a position slightly behind them with two water balloons filled with acid.
"They are about to open the door," whispered Sam who then moved quickly out of the way and in doing so moved so that he was actually also protecting Larry.
Each of the lab doors opened at the same time, a fraction of a second later both tubs of the dry ice mixture and the acid were launched without the students looking. In both cases the Splashes and the bombs were true on target. The amount of damage done surprised everyone, Regia'an and student alike.
The splashes hit the first and second Regia'an to attempt to enter each door causing everything that it came in contact with to freeze to just above absolute freezing. Skin and clothing became brittle and shattered like glass. Eye tissue was also struck freezing the eyes and blinding them. The acid bombs had an even greater splatter effect hitting the first four Regia'an at each door. The acid burned skin on contact and when mixed with the dry ice mixture made that process even more painful to go though as well as watch. The frozen skin melted in slow motion, with the occasional piece shattering off as it went.
Before the Regia'an had a moment to recover, a second wave of students threw three more acid bombs and another Dry Ice Splash on them, hitting other Regia'an as well as the ones already hit before. The Regia'an ran from the area screaming and in great pain. The students decided that they needed to expand out from the labs but that they needed to use the weapons that they knew worked. They made more acid bombs as quickly as possible.
Back in the main building, Kar was tossing shadow darts at every one of the Regia'an he could reach as Toban walked forward to the first of the stuck teens.
"I am the Bridge of us all," he began slowly and softly. "I was born to bring the Breed back together as a whole and bring us into the light with our human brethren," he continued with louder voice. "You were created to act as wedge between us and our human brethren." His voice grew even louder. "I give you each but one chance to change and gather with us and help bridge the gap that separates us." Toban was now yelling.
The police and fire department began to arrive and attempt to assess the situation. Once the police detective on the scene and the fire chief heard that there were monsters in the building beating on other monsters, the ones that had attacked the school, both pulled their men back to help the wounded and watch for fires. The police began acting as crowd control, keeping everyone back and out of harms way, including the news media. The firemen helped the wounded and watched for fires and other explosions.
Toban did not know that a reporter and camera man for the local new station had snuck into the school after the damage and they were recording his every word. The reporter was actually an alumnus of the school itself, Shelly Temple-Chase. His every action and word was being recorded on camera live.
Toban walk up and looked at the nearest teen directly in the eyes, "Shall you change?" he yelled at the top of human lungs.
"Never," spat the teen.
Without even blinking and with inhuman speed, Toban brought his sword into action and beheaded the teen. The blade slid though the teens neck without resistance and without making any sound beyond a quick slicing noise. The body dropped and Tammy transferred herself away from the forming blood pool.
"Any who accept change will be allowed to live, those who don't will be dispatched with the same concern you gave your human victims," Toban roared. The hatred in his eyes was evident to everyone and showed on the camera as it did to those who witnessed it live.
Toban walked toward the Regia'an half breed teen closest to him with the look of death in his eyes. "Shall you change?" Toban said with cold fury.
"I cannot," the teen said softly and then he dropped to the ground silently dead. A moment later each teen that was trapped in the cement that was Tammy likewise dropped to the ground dead without being touched.
Kar and Toban both looked at each of the teens with pale faces. While the need to kill was nothing new to either of them, mass suicide of this magnitude was beyond them to understand. Tammy flowed back into herself, returning to the battle form she had chosen, her face drawn and sad.
"I would have let you live!" roared Toban at the prone body of the first suicidal Regia'an half breed teen.
Mr. Salvar immerged from one of the classroom at the end of the hall with a bloody and torn shirt. His eyes were glazed over with loosely controlled battle rage. "There were four others in the gym," He began with a ragged breath. "They had collected a few of the boys and were preparing to take them somewhere else."
Mr. Salvar smiled a cold smile, "They are safe and those four aren't going anywhere." He then walked up to the body of the first suspected suicide victim and ran his finger across the boy's skin. The skin turned a deep shade of purple along the line of the finger mark.
"They were programmed to self destruct if their mission failed" Mr. Salvar said almost sadly. "They didn't have a choice."
Just then Sam and the group of human teens that were following him made it to the main hall. When he saw Toban, he and the other teens ran over to him and began talking all at once. Sam attempted to report what had happened three times, each time being interrupted by one of the other teens. Finally Sam got fed up and did what he knew would silence the others: he got down on his knees and bowed his head toward Toban and Kar.
"Your Highness," Sam said in loud voice.
The other teens all quickly froze and became instantly silent upon hearing Sam's words. They then looked at Toban with new respect and awe. A few of them felt the need to also get on their knees while others bowed their head in respect.
"The other teams of Regia'an warriors have been killed," Sam said with respect.
"Great," Toban said with a smile. He then turned to the other teens and spoke quietly, "I hope everything that you have seen and learned today remains a secret and only between us."
Tommy one of the teens looked at Toban and nodded, "I don't know nothing about nothing." A glimmer of fear passed his eyes until he saw Toban smile.
"We have been going to this school just like you and we love it just like you," Kar said with a sad voice. "We only revealed who and what we were when death was brought here. We would never harm any of the students." He paused and then continued, "or even the teachers."
That got the students and Mr. Salvar to all laugh and relax. "Well if we are going to keep this secret, they need to know who you are," Karen, another of the teens, said pointing at the partly hidden camera crew.
"Call me the Bridge, him Shadow and her Shifter." Toban said loudly pointing at himself, Kar and Tammy. He then pointed at Steve and said "That is Chaos." He made sure the camera and reporter heard his declaration. "We are Breed. We are the brothers of man, have no fear"
"We know you are hiding there, Miss," Kar said cocking his head to the side dramatically. His eyes showed mirth behind his shadow mask.
The reporter Shelly Temple-Chase and her camera man Earl stood up from the rubble and slowly moved toward the Breed teens. With each step she went from being a scared woman and returned to a confident Television reporter. Earl was not as easy to return to his normal outlook; it took all of his concentration to keep the camera steady. "So Bridge, can you tell everyone what happened and why?"
Sam's eyes flared and he charged at the reporter. "It was not his fault or anyone's here. He and the others came to help after they heard and felt the explosion. Sam's eyes were turning dark as he spoke. "They could have just as easy walked away as everyone else was running away and you would have never been the wiser, but instead he revealed their existence for all to see." Sam then glared at the camera man, "even doing it for your stupid camera," Sam's facial features were now hardened and angled.
"It looks like you aren't hiding very well yourself young man," the reporter sneered.
Toban walked up to the reporter and stared directly into the camera, ignoring the reporter except to answer questions. "I am the shade prince and heir apparent to the Ancient of us all." His stare intensified. "I am the bridge of us all, the connection between the world of the Breed and the human world. I was born part human and partly of a mixture of other Breeds. I can see the needs of both." Toban then looked away for moment and looked at his friends, both human and breed. "We are Breed. We are the brothers of man. Have no fear of us."
"Who attacked the school then?" Shelly Temple-Chase asked clearly confused.
They are Regia'an half breeds, part Regia'an and part human," Kar explained.
"They are half breeds grown to be soldiers in a war that the Regia'an has declared against humanity and all of Breed kind," Toban responded. "We could not stand around and watch our friends and our school destroyed."
"Who is WE?" the camera man Earl asked, breaking rules for him to remain silent and allow the reporter to do all the talking.
"W... W..,. WE are the friends of the BRIDGE," answered Larry as he walked up to Sam and silently grasped his hand in his own. The camera swung to focus on the Larry.
"Some of us are human and others Breed," continued Connie, one of the students who were still carrying acid balloons. "We are protecting what is ours and double fucking dare any dumb ass to try and do something about it." Toban, Kar and the other Breed took the distraction as a way to slip away and disappear.
"But they are not even human," The reporter said in shock.
"Maybe not but they have proven what they are made of and are just as much a part of this school as any human child might be," responded a slightly bruised up and bloody principle Billings as he entered the building. He had returned to the building after a narrow escape from the office. The principle was not happy to see all the additional death and destruction, but was happy that it was over.
"Once this school is repaired and is able to have students again," Principle Billings continued. "Any other Breed children are welcome in my school."
Suddenly Shelly Temple-Chase noticed that the easily identified Breed students had all disappeared. "Where did they go?" she asked to everyone and no one at the same time.
Editor's Comments: Another amazing chapter--the Regia'an certainly aren't pulling any punches. But then, neither are the Breed or their human friends.