Welcome to
Tuesday Tales
this is going to be one crazy-insane rescue oppurration!!!
The Clockwurk Labyrinth
If mew missed the thrilling start of our latest adventure, here are the catch up links...
Chapters 1 ~ 3
Chapters 1 ~ 3
We are only posting one chapter today as since last Tuesdays post, our RSS feed and Email subscription has been on the fritz again and no emails are being sent out.
We've noticed that this happens when we post our Summer Blockbusters, probably because they're huge posts and that was the main reason we stopped making the pictures to go with the story as we thought that their inclusion didn't help, but now it seems it's just the length of the post the causes the fluff up. Anyhoo, we're going to post a second chapter on Thursday so don't wurry, we're not leaving mew empty pawed, mew'll just have to sit on the edge of your seats a bit longer! MOL
And now here's this weeks chapter...
~ Chapter 12 ~
OH MY COD, We’ve Got A Magi on The B Team
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.
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 Vurker of Vunders, or Light Valker!” 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!”
The 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 cannon balls!”
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 it what an incredible addition to the B Team!”
Posie nodded. “Oh indeed, 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 furriend 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
side-ways 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.
**AND CUT**
OH MY COD!
Join us Again on Thursday fur the next thrilling chapter
in
The Clockwurk Labyrinth
This is
Commander Basil and The B Team
Offur and Out Until Next time
