The darkness was almost absolute as Pandora met Winston's gaze and replied, “I am an Elemental.”
Amber who’d obviously done her research gasped loudly and said in awe. “Seriously, mew’re an Elemental and mew neffur told us!”
Before Pandora could utter another wurd, Humphrey said. “Oh my Pandora, that’s seriously hardcore, no wunder mew kept that to yourself!”
“What the fluff is an Elemental?” Smooch interrupted as he turned on a small lantern, placing it on the floor so we weren’t in complete darkness in our little huddle.
“An Elemental has power offur the elements such as; fire, earth, water, metal and air,” Amber said with utter reverence in a theatrical stage-whisper. “And the really powerful ones can combine all the elements into a supurr weapon.”
We all stared at Pandora and I said. “Pandora I’m sad that mew felt mew couldn't tell us but I do understand aftur your previous experiences... I get it, really I do.”
She nodded and mumbled something.
“Say what?” Smooch pressed.
“I am one of those that can harness all the elements, the term fur vhat I am in Romani is Aethereal Magi, or Wurker of Wunders, or Light Walker!” Pandora blurted.
“Get outta town!” Amber almost squealed with delight. “Mew’re really one of the legendary mystical Aethereal Magi’s? From what it said in the book, there are only maybe a pawful left in the entire wurld today… like seriously, A.M.’s are like the holy grail of the magickal kingdom.”
Pandora stiffened immeasurably, nodded and I could see the unease flash across her eyes. I reached out and took her paw in mine, smiling I said. “Show me the mark.”
I felt her paw turn in mine and I looked down, and there emblazoned on her pad was the mark of infinity with the five elements surrounding it. I ran my paw across the brand and I felt a tingle, a mild transference of power as the sigil began to glow with a soft silvery luminescence. “Oh my that is incredible Pandora,” I murmured in astonishment.
“I ‘ave spent my entire life trying to ‘ide vhat I am, trying to fit in, be normal,” she said sadly. “But there vhere situations vhen I just couldn’t ‘ide it and that’s vhen... let me show mew...” her voice trailed off.
She gently stepped away and turned towards the huge pile of bodies still blocking our way forward. Her paw outstretched, she said something so quietly, I could barely discern the ancient dialect, and then she showed us exactly how powerful she was. Wispy tendrils, glittering with silvery red motes shot from her paw and a moment later, the pile of rotting creatures was encompassed in a soft red glow; though nothing too bright to draw any unwanted attention to our location, it was barely visible and then in a split second the gentle red glow began to collapse in on itself, like a dying star and I swear if I’d blinked I would have missed the tiny implosion before effurything just vanished with a high-pitched popping sound, leaving the way forward completely clear.
“Awww dude,” Parsley said nudging Smooch. “That was fluffing insane!”
Smooch nudged him back and replied. “OH MY COD, that was the bestest effur dude, epically epic!”
Pandora gave us a rather sheepish smile as she lowered her paw. Her eyes wide and waiting.
I moved towards her furry slowly, I didn’t want to startle her as I could feel her uncertainty, it was like a thick, dark shroud weaving around her aura. I held out my paws and furry carefully pulled her into a hug and whispered so nopurrdy else could hear. “You are safe with us, your secret is safe with us, we will neffur let any harm come to mew, I purromise mew that.”
I felt her slowly relax and lean all her weight against me, she let out a long sigh, a sigh of relief, a sigh of finally being accepted fur the furst time, and I felt the invisible weight that she’d been carrying with her all her life finally diminish and eek out into the ether.
She gripped me tightly. “Thank mew Basil,” was all she said before pulling away.
Seeing how excited the team was at this incredible revelation, I said. “Thank mew Pandora fur trusting us with your secret, I know that was incredibly hard fur mew..." Before I could finish, the whole team had surrounded her in a group hug, Winston included and I stood back and watched, I was like a proud father watching my family, my team and my heart swelled with joy. I choked back a tear that was fighting to be released as the group hug ended and Humphrey said. “Dudes, we need to press on stat,” he paused briefly and turned to Pandora. “Mew did epic there little lady, I’m so proud of mew.”
Snowie and Posie were in the bunker elevator heading down to level 16, soft mewsic was playing from the speaker in the ceiling and Snowie tapped her paw in time to the melodious tune. The elevator stopped at level 14 and a robotic voice said. “Level Fourteen, please disembark.”
“What?” Posie said rather purrplexed and pushed the button fur level 16 again. Then she pressed the button to close the doors but nothing happened.
The elevator said. “Please disembark, you have reached your destination.”
“I think this is as far as we can go,” Snowie said peeking out into the deserted corridor.
“Now look here mew tin-can, we need level 16, that’s two more floors down!” Posie snapped.
The elevator was silent fur a moment and then replied in a rather snarky tone. “Now look here sister, only Commander Basil has access to level 16, get the clearance approved and I’ll gladly take you there, no clearance no can do, so either get off here or we’re going back up to level one!”
“Jeez, keep your doors on love, no need to get all your buttons in a twizz!” Posie shot back. “Fine we’ll disembark, but make sure mew wait here until we get back ok?”
The elevator replied. ”I can wait as long as you like, but if I’m summoned to another level I’m duty-bound to leave.”
Posie muttered some unmentionables and stepped into the dimly lit corridor. “When the fluff did Basil get an A.I. in the elevator?”
Snowie shrugged as she searched fur the light switch. “Who knows, but I think it needs a purrsonality upgrade!”
They both chuckled as the offur-head lights came on and illuminated the corridor. Posie flicked the tablet on and they both glanced at the footage from inside the labyrinth, at the exact time Pandora revealed her true self.
Posie said aftur a moment. “I didn’t see that one coming, like holy smokes with exploding cannonballs!”
Snowie smiled inwardly and answered as innocently as she could. “Me either, what a surprise!” Though she had always suspected there was so much more to Pandora, she’d felt the familiar tingle of magick wheneffur she’d been near but had neffur been able to put her paw on the source. “Well all I can say is what an incredible addition to the B Team!”
Posie nodded. “Oh indeed, the best news of the day so far, let’s hope she can sort the Old One out.”
“How do you mean?” Snowie asked.
“Well with power like that, let’s hope she can zap him!”
“Zap him, are mew mad, he’s a fluffing Old One, mew saw what he did to Horice, and mew know how powerful he is!” Snowie replied.
“Yeah, and talking of Horice, how come he didn’t know she was a Magi?” Posie thought aloud.
“Maybe he did, but thought it was not his business to reveal it,” Snowie said as they walked along the corridor. “Mew know he‘s a supurr secretive soul himself, so why would he reveal somepurrdy else's secrets?”
Posie thought about this and then said. “Yep, that’s true, sneaky old heffle-lump that he is!”
They reached the emergency stairwell and Snowie gently opened the door, the hinges creaked and the smell of damp earth filled their nostrils.
“Hmmmmm, seems like the nano-bots haven’t finished the job down there yet,” Posie said inhaling deeply as she stood on the concrete steps looking down into the murky gloom. “Did mew bring a torch?”
Snowie opened a small panel inside the stairwell, revealing a cupboard and pulled out a torch. “Emergency supplies are situated in effury stairwell on effury level, or did mew furget?”
“Duh!” Posie laughed and took the torch. “Here, mew hold the tablet and I’ll go furst.”
* * *
We continued on paw silently along the dark passageways of the labyrinth. The walls had shifted twice now since we arrived but I had no real idea how long we’d actually been here, so I paused to check my iPaw timer. It read; 2 hours and 55 minutes, that meant that Fudge had been in here just offur 4 hours now, but it felt like we’d been in here days so I could only imagine how he felt. I pulled out a snack bar and chewed thoughtfully as I hurried to catch my team up ahead.
Winston was waiting fur me and he said seriously, “Basil I need to tell mew something.”
I gave him the nod to continue as I chewed.
“In the centre, The Plinth of Pandemonium where Fudge is,” he took a steadying breath. “It is eveel dude, I’ve been strapped to that fluffing thing before and it messes so bad with your mind I can’t begin to describe the terror inflicted, the things it makes mew see, the pain it causes is indescribable... I just hope your young recruit has a strong constitution...”
I thought about this and said. “Fudge, although young is quite the dude, mew know he took to this job like a kitten to cream, he’d had no prior experience apart from his time surviving on the streets which today my furiend is tougher than effur, and he has had intensive training including some of the black-ops stuff, the stuff we don’t talk about.”
Winston gave me a half-smile. “Did mew teach him any techniques to combat mind-invasion?”
“Mind-Invasion was next up on the curriculum. Why?”
“The Old One likes nothing better than to torture his victims, not so much physically but mentally, to see how far he can push them till they snap,” Winston whispered. “I can’t describe to mew how bad it is, as I think the experience is different fur effurypurrdy... just know it is the most abhorrent thing I’ve effur been through.”
I pondered this fur a moment and gave him a sideways glance, I patted him gently on the shoulder offuring a little comfort as I saw his eyes flash with something I couldn't quite put my paw on and I wundered what the fluff he'd been through; if Winston said it was bad, then it was really, really bad. I pondered the possibilities fur a moment, thinking about Fudge and then I said. “Hmmmm, let’s just say Fudge has a unique purrspective and the way his mind wurks, isn’t going to be what the Old One is used too, trust me,” I added. “Dude, when we get back to BB HQ I’ll introduce mew to Horice, and whateffur that muther fluffing freaking Old One did to mew, Horice will fix it... Dude, whateffur mew went through we'll fix it together.”
The labyrinth suddenly shook and the rumbling started again as I felt the wall behind me start to slither to the side with an eerie grating sound. Winston yanked me forwards and I hit the deck as he opened fire before I could even catch my breath.
Rolling offur and pulling my weapons I started firing into the blackness, I yanked down my night vision goggles and then wished I hadn’t; I was looking straight a behemoth slug-like creature that filled the entire width of the passage and stretched back fur as far as the eye could see.
